But this should be interesting. We learned (a) that there is an ongoing John Doe probe that could involve political corruption or campaign law violations, and (b) that one of our most arrogant local pols, Senator Don-t-you-know-who-I-am Lena Taylor took the Fifth and refused to answer some questions from the DA because they might tend to incriminate her, (c) she has been granted immunity to compel her testimony.
As always, Taylor entertains:
Taylor later issued a statement that said, "As a lawyer bound to the Constitution and the law, as an officer of the court, as an elected state senator and as a citizen, I am bound to participate in any matter I am called into and cannot comment any further."
Well, that certainly explains why she didn't have to give a truthful answer under oath, doesn't it?
Huge and enthusiastic turnout last night at the Wisconsin Right to Life event for Sarah Palin. Standing rooming only -- and very fired up -- audience.
I haven't see a crowd that energized since the Ament recall rallies.
And, yes, Sarah Palin is as attractive in person as she is on TV...
She has been out of the public limelight for some time, but is about to re-emerge with the publication of her new book "Going Rogue." Listening to her last night I was reminded of how powerfully she presents herself when she is not being filtered by the MSM. Remember her acceptance speech? Her handling of Joe Biden in the debate?
Take away the snarky anchors and condescending pundits and Sarah Palin reminds one of the most interesting figures on the pilitical stage today.
I suspect the media sneer campaign has set expectations quite low so people are going to be surprised when they reintroduced to a sharp, funny, principled, and passionate woman. She will bear no resemblance to the media's caricature.
Last night, she spoke quite movingly about her experience learning that her youngest child Trig might have Down syndrome and her embrace of his perfect imperfection. Clearly, she has undergone a transition, from the woman who "dreaded" even telling people she was pregnant; to her surprise at the media's willingness to go after her family life; to a rather combative and open determination to tell her own story and stand her ground. It's going to be very interesting.
<Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, tells NRO that if the Democrats do pass the Pelosi bill today, it will only be because the party strong-armed its members, not because it’s good policy. “They’re putting every bit of party pressure” on the Democrats still sitting on the fence, he says. “They’re having people meet with the president one-on-one and doing everything they can to push their Blue Dogs to vote for the party and against the people.”
“The Democratic party leadership here in Washington is so committed to their ideology that they are more than willing to throw 20 to 30 of their members overboard — to lose 20 seats if they can get this done. Those 20 seats are a pain in their side where they also do not have enthusiastic support on things like cap-and-trade,” says Ryan.
“The way I see it is that these Blue Dogs will have to decide whether or not they will succumb to this party pressure,” says Ryan. “That’s why they’re keeping us in town. That’s why they’re not letting people go home. They’re not going to let this bill sit over the Veterans Day recess, because they know if they let people go home to talk their constituents then they’ll lose votes. It’s basically ‘start the pressure cooker and bring it home.’”
“The Democratic leaders here have been waiting their entire adult lives for a moment like this,” says Ryan. “This is a ‘destiny moment’ for them. This is a chance to fulfill their ideological ambitions. In a strange way, I respect it. I respect the fact that they had the courage of their convictions. The big problem I have with it is that their convictions are completely antithetical to the principles that built this country. They’re completely antithetical to the whole notion of free-market democracy that has made America the greatest, most exceptional country in the world. They’re determined to do this. It’s all about ideology. This is not about the best health policy, it’s about ideological conflicts.”
Mr. Obama and the House leadership may be too deep into health care to make a shift now and get in line with the American people's concerns. But they should start paying attention to what the people are saying. What happened Tuesday isn't a death knell, but it is a fire alarm: Something's wrong, fix it, change course. Show humility. Bow to the public. "Public opinion is everything," Lincoln is said to have said. It is. It can be changed and it can be shaped, but it always has to be listened to. This White House has gotten bad at listening. It paid the price for that on Tuesday.
Today, BLS released its monthly jobs report and the numbers speak for themselves. The economy shed another 190,000 jobs in October, bringing the number of jobs lost since Obama was sworn in to 3.8 million. Worse still, the unemployment rate rose from 9.8% to 10.2% percent. With only 130.8 million jobs in the U.S. economy, President Obama is now 7.8 million jobs short of what he promised the American people. That makes President Obama’s stimulus an objective failure.
What happened yesterday at Ft. Hood? Was this massive human tragedy the result of a single unhinged gunman? Was his shooting an act of terrorism? Simply an aberration? Was it a one man jihad?
WASHINGTON -- Sure, Election Day 2009 will scare moderate Democrats and make passage of Obamacare more difficult. Sure, it makes it easier for resurgent Republicans to raise money and recruit candidates for 2010. But the most important effect of Tuesday's elections is historical. It demolishes the great realignment myth of 2008.
In the aftermath of last year's Obama sweep, we heard endlessly about its fundamental, revolutionary, transformational nature. How it was ushering in an FDR-like realignment for the 21st century in which new demographics -- most prominently, rising minorities and the young -- would bury the GOP far into the future. One book proclaimed "The Death of Conservatism," while the more modest merely predicted the terminal decline of the Republican Party into a regional party of the Deep South or a rump party of marginalized angry white men.
This was all ridiculous from the beginning. 2008 was a historical anomaly. A uniquely charismatic candidate was running at a time of deep war weariness, with an intensely unpopular Republican president, against a politically incompetent opponent, amid the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. And still he won by only seven points.
Anti-Israel activists bully student newspaper over story on hatefest.
Bottomline: The reporter's account seems to be accurate and is supported by the editor of another paper that covered the same event. The editor's excuse for caving in to the pressure by pro-islamist activists is beyond weak; the "sourcing" issue is merely a pretext for surrendering to the campus PC bullies.
**
Hello Mr. Sykes,
My name is Savannah Hunnicutt and I am a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I recently wrote an article for the UWM Post, a student-run newspaper, about an "End the Occupation," event held on campus. After the Post published my article, negative response from the Muslim Student association and from other students quickly arose. I was asked to stop writing for the news section because of accusations of biased and in-accurate reporting. I was shocked that a university publication would bow to a select group of clearly-biased students, rather than stand behind me, and what was honest reporting. I thought you might appreciate this story, and understand the magnitude of this issue: that across the country, not just at UWM I'm sure, the anti-Israel voices are heard loud and strong, where any event or story that is remotely pro-Israel is swept under the rug.
Thank you for your time and YOUR commitment to honest reporting.
Best Regards,
Savannah Hunnicutt
**
This morning, I received this note from the author of the Jewish Chronicle account of the same event::
I heard your piece this morning so this is likely too late but here are my two cents:
I think that Savannah accurately captured the tenor of the event.
Also, please note that my piece was an opinion piece. FYI.
Elana
Elana Kahn-Oren Editor
Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle
**
The editor of the UWM Post says that he "retracted" the story even though he had no evidence that it was at all inaccurate.
Dear Mr. Sykes,
The story was retracted because the quotes were not verifiable. The reporter was asked if she had audio of the story and didn't respond to messages asking if a recording existed. I allowed the story to run without hearing from her and without being able to verify the existence of an audio recording.
This is inconsistent with The UWM Post's usual standard of having sources that can be fact-checked for news story. In the past, especially in the case of a controversial topic, the Post has required audio recording of these kinds of discussions and forums. I take complete responsibility for not making sure that audio of the Middle East forum existed.
It's my opinion that the story shouldn't have run in the first place. The retraction did not claim inaccuracies in the story. It simply claimed that the story did not have adequate sourcing....
How is it that Walmart- or any other retailer for that matter--can offer a turkey for 86 cents a pound in Wisconsin, but drive over the border, and you can get it for just 40 cents a pound in Illinois? That would be Wisconsin's minimum markup law at work--the law that bans selling things below cost. (They can sell below cost to match competitors' prices.) Part of commerce in the new millenium is "loss leaders"-the things so insanely cheap that customers are drawn into a store to buy those... and then they leave with a bunch more stuff. The loss leader may be sold at a loss, but the other stuff makes up for it---plus. It's marketing, it's a way to drive profit and it's part of the way business works now. How is it that Wisconsin is one of only a handful of states that has a problem with this type of business competition?
Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will be told that no young man can be as bad as Joe Sullivan, not even Joe Sullivan.
Sullivan was 13 when he broke into a house in Florida to rob it and, as long as he was at it, rape the 72-year-old woman living there. This came after 17 prior convictions for burglary, assault and such. A judge decided Sullivan was impervious to rehabilitation and, to protect Florida, sentenced him to life without parole.
This, justices will hear, was unconstitutional. Sullivan's lawyer will argue that it's cruel to decide a 13-year-old must be locked up forever. Groups that campaign on behalf of young criminals hope the court will rule such sentences impermissible. "You can never make that kind of judgment about a juvenile," wrote Sullivan's lawyer.
Never? Not even after 17 prior convictions? One seldom hears so pure an expression of the viewpoint. Rather, those advocating for the worst young criminals rest their arguments on the premise that an unduly harsh America is willy-nilly discarding children....
Big Hollywood has already posted a couple disturbing videos of young school children singing/speaking praises to President Obama, but when eleven more dropped in our email box it came as quite a shock. What seemed like an aberration now appears to be a troubling pattern.
Maybe “epidemic” is a better word.
Each one of the videos below is creepier than the last because the further down you go, the younger the children — brace yourself for kindergartners – except for the last and most disturbing video, which you have to see to believe....
Or at least the Al Gore enviro rich. VDH via Instapundit.:
The Discreet Charm Of The Left-Wing Plutocracy.“To distill Gorism is to live in a 1,000 sq. ft. solar house, bike to work, and take the train on long distances; but to promote Gorism, one lives in a mansion, jets on private planes, and is chauffeured from airport to conference center—a rather heavy carbon footprint indeed. I mention that because this week he has insisted that he only invested in what he believes in and is thus not a hypocrite—sort of like a 1990s Fannie or Freddie director saying he is only taking mega-bonuses because he believes in public support for housing.”
- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.
- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
- $800,000 for the JohnMurthaAirport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.
- $219,000 for SyracuseUniversity to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
- $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.
- $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.
- $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.
- $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
- $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.
- $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.
- $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota.
- $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan.
- $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.
- $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-AmericanBridge in Akron, Ohio.
- $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago.
- $356,000 for IndianaUniversity to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech.
- $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths.
- $148,438 for WashingtonStateUniversity to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine.
- $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the MarkTwainNational Forest in Missouri
- $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state.
- $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.
- $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency.
- $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles.
As you head off for your photo op with The One today, you might consider several things.
We all know the president is putting on a full court press to get you to jumnp into the race for governor. And, he or his folks, are likely, in their not so subtle Chicago way, making a variety of promises.
Of money. Of support.
Maybe even promises that The One Himself would come here to campaign for you.
Obama campaigned heavily in both states and went all in in Jersey, where Democrat John Corzine spent more money than God on his re-election campaign in a state that is about as blue as they come. Would you be able to raise and spend more than Corzine? Would The One make as many campaign appearances as he did for Democrats in Virginia and Jersey?
Perhaps most striking were economic views: A vast 89 percent in New Jersey and 85 percent in Virginia said they were worried about the direction of the nation's economy in the next year; 56 percent and 53 percent, respectively, said they were "very" worried about it.
Voters who expressed the highest levels of economic discontent heavily favored the Republican candidates in both states – underscoring the challenge Obama and his party may face in 2010 if economic attitudes don't improve. The analogy is to 1994, when nearly six in 10 voters said the economy was in bad shape, and they favored the out-of-power Republicans by 26 points, helping the GOP to a 52-seat gain and control of Congress for the first time in 42 years.
Jobs. Taxes. The Economy.
How's that going to play in Wisconsin next year? And what what you run on? The Obama record? Your record as mayor?
In any case remember to smile and make sure to get that shot of you and the president together.
Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.
The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."
So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?
Welcome to ABC's "V," the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season...
On the same day that Ford -- the one member of Detroit’s Big Three that did not receive a taxpayer bailout -- reported a quarterly profit of nearly $1 billion, a government watchdog warned that taxpayers are unlikely to recoup all of the $81 billion the Treasury Department has invested in General Motors and Chrysler.
CIT group, America’s leading specialist lender to small business, filed for Chapter 11 late last night in the fifth biggest bankruptcy in US history.
The collapse of the 101-year-old Utah-based lender, which trails behind only those of Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Worldcom and General Motors in size, will leave US taxpayers with a $2.3 billion (£1.4 billion) bill.
Should Barrett simultaneously pursue the takeover of MPS and the governor's office, he will have to keep one eye on the campaign, one eye on running the city and one eye on MPS. At the critical moment in the life of MPS, would he be able to give it the attention it needs? Doubtful.
And what type of attention would it be? He will be the one approving the next contract with the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association. How tough would he be, and how hard a bargain would he drive? I wouldn't expect him to sign a bare-bones deal. After all, Barrett was the fellow who dropped his original idea for mayoral takeover when the union turned up the heat the first time he ran for mayor.
Education reform requires breaking more than a few eggs, taking people out of their comfort zone. I cannot conceive that a gubernatorial candidate would deliver the dose of strong medicine that's needed to the union, parents, teachers, principals and politicians alike. Campaigns aren't about hard messages. Campaigns involve painting with broad strokes about concepts like hope and change.
The bottom line is that Barrett cannot take over MPS and run for governor at the same time. It might sound harsh, but he has to choose between furthering his own aspirations or the aspirations of Milwaukee's children.
New York Republicans got a rock in their trick-or-treat bags over the Halloween weekend, as Dede Scozzafava ripped off her million-dollar Republican mask and revealed herself to be a Democrat. It was never a very good disguise, but every previous attempt to peer beneath it was punished with stern lectures from Newt Gingrich and the rest of the party establishment. The bags of contributor money Republicans handed to the Scozzafava campaign would have been more usefully spent hiring detectives to trail ACORN operatives, and keep Democrat voter fraud down to manageable levels.
The Scozzafava campaign is the latest dreadful mistake from a party establishment enchanted by the mirage of the perfect moderate candidate. For Republican voters, it seems like every winter is the winter of their discontent. Many of the GOP’s boneheaded mistakes come from exactly the same source as the Democrats’ boneheaded mistakes: the tendency to believe the media action line about themselves. This produces arrogance in the Democrats, while the Republicans are like awkward, lovestruck teenagers – terrified the slightest bit of confident self-expression will blow their chances with the cute moderate in the pink sweater seated beside them in homeroom class. They suffer beneath the same irony that crushes every awkward teenager, since confident self-expression is exactly what is needed to connect with the object of their affections… assuming they’re not obsessing over someone they never had a chance with anyway.
The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, a native of Wauwatosa, will join me this morning during the 9 o'clock hour to talk politics, Packers, and Afghanistan.
Leadership: What are we to make of a White House visitors list that includes 22 swiftly scheduled appointments with a union boss at a time when Gen. Stanley McChrystal can't get face time with the commander in chief?
Late Friday during the idle hours of the news cycle, the administration released the names of 100 White House visitors in 481 visits. It wasn't exactly the transparency the president promised. It was simply in compliance with two court rulings that ordered the names to be made public record. Unable to admit misconduct, the White House insisted its disclosure was voluntary....
The list reveals visits from activists, left-wing foundations, the feminist lobby, union bosses and noted anti-capitalists whose ideas would put the U.S. economy into the ground. The list also shows the White House had little exposure to policymakers on the frontlines of some of the most important decisions the president must make.
In the former category, there's Service Employees International Union boss Andy Stern, who told the Wall Street Journal that if the power of persuasion didn't work, then the persuasion of power would have to do. The records show Stern had 22 meetings, many face-to-face with the president, more than anyone else known so far. Stern might as well borrow a White House bedroom.
And that may be why the president has been so solicitous of union demands at the expense of the economy. As the jobless rate hits 9.8%, unions have managed to persuade the president to impose tire tariffs, violate the NAFTA treaty with Mexican truck restrictions, place protectionist "Buy American" limitations on federal contracts, and ice Colombian, Panamanian and Korean free trade treaties. Stern's union has also harassed banks that took bailouts, making one wonder if a sort of Cuban or Venezuelan revolutionary mob activity against business has the White House imprimatur.
Planned Parenthood has been a part of Abby Johnson's life for the past eight years; that is until last month, when Abby resigned. Johnson said she realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure.
"I just thought I can't do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that's it," said Jonhson.
She handed in her resignation October 6. Johnson worked as the Bryan Planned Parenthood Director for two years.
According to Johnson, the non-profit was struggling under the weight of a tough economy, and changing it's business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion.
"It seemed like maybe that's not what a lot of people were believing any more because that's not where the money was. The money wasn't in family planning, the money wasn't in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that," said Johnson.
Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian church goer recently became convicted about.
"I feel so pure in heart (since leaving). I don't have this guilt, I don't have this burden on me anymore that's how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion."
Congressman Mike Pence released the following video, urging all Americans to rise up and let their voices be heard in regard to the Pelosi health care plan.
