The more things change, the more they stay the same

I was listening to my MP3 player at work yesterday and was looking forward to hearing some classic Joe Cocker when, to my horror, the not so dulcet, to my ears, tones of Celine Dion rattled through my headphones. While Ms. Dion is quite popular with the non-discriminating music listener and gay community, she doesn't do much to float my auditory Titanic. I checked the display and, sure enough, the files were tagged with Joe Cocker's name, album info and song titles but what was contained therein was still digital Ones and Zeros of My Heart Will Go On. The label didn't matter, the song was what it was no matter what it was called.

Talk Radio and the 24 hour news channels are going wall to wall with coverage of Benedict Arlen Specter announcing he is changing parties. The Senator will take his nearly 30 years of seniority along with him as he jumps borders to join the Democratic party where he will be rewarded with Committee positions, flowers and probably rooms full of hookers and booze (he is becoming a Democrat after all) as though he is a returning war hero who charged the Filibuster bunker and blew it all to hell paving the way for an unfettered advance of left leaning programs at the hands of General Harry.

To anyone who bases their vote on the worthiness of the candidate and not the little initial by his or her name, this should be "ho hum" coverage and a big deal being made out of nothing. Mr. Specter has been more Democrat than Republican for some time now. Much of the coverage is quick to point out that his voting record is that of one not beholden to party affiliation. No shit Sherlock, tell us something we didn't know. Specter was one of three Republicans responsible for passing the Stimulus Package. Specter joined with the unions in support of the secret ballot suppressing Card Check initiative until he saw a challenge on the GOP primary front and changed his opinion. Specter was very critical of James Jeffords of Vermont when he switched parties a few years ago. S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is the fictional global terrorist organization featured in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. There is no such thing as coincidence.

As recently as March 17th, the Pennsylvania RINO denied he was switching parties. I guess he wasn't all that serious, huh?
The news angle seems to be that, with the nearly certain victory of never really that funny Al Franken in Minnesota, the Democrats will now have their filibuster proof majority in the Senate. Again, ho hum. There was a posting by my favorite blogger last December regarding this exact issue that is still relevant today. You can review it here.

If Pennsylvania can do the right thing in 2010 and elect the heir apparent to the Republican nomination, Pat Toomey, the GOP might have a real Republican's butt in the seat on their side of the aisle for the first time in 28 years. Maine could do with a changing of the guard as well.

Fear not Republican faithful, don't look at it as losing a Senate seat. Think of it as finally putting that funny uncle where he belongs.

S2

The House stands for something and the Senate falls for anything.

I wrote back in December that the Democrats didn't need to get to 60 votes in the Senate to have their filibuster proof majority. With Al Franken and Norm Coleman still battling for Minnesota's Senate seat in a wrestling match worthy of a pay-per-view airing as the under card to the tag team match of Daschle/Geithner vs. Common Sense/American Taxpayer the party in power has been circling the ring in anticipation of pinning the Republicans to the mat in all matters legislative.

Part of the impetus behind that post were gutless, go along to get along Republicans who have drunk the Obama Kool-Aid. Guys like Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) who was recently nominated to head The ONE's Commerce Department. Gregg's acceptance of this nomination opens the door for New Hampshire's Democratic Governor to replace him with a fellow Democrat. Supposedly there are assurances this will not happen. I almost hope Governor Lynch reneges on this promise just to prove, once again, the current crop of Republican officials in Washington need to be replaced for incompetence and gullibility.

But would putting a Democrat butt in Gregg's seat be that much different from the ass currently occupying it? Michelle Malkin points out, in her usual inimitable style, that Gregg and Barack seem to be twin sons of different mothers in the area of the so-called stimulus porkalooza. Phil Klein over at American Spectator asks simply, "What was Gregg Thinking?"

Republicans in the House, despite standing in unison and voting unanimously against the soon to be One Trillion Dollar bailout of everything under the Sun, couldn't stop the express train to socialism. Republicans in the Senate currently can. But they can only do it if their leadership can ride herd and keep all their members together. (I was hoping for a pork related analogy here but you just don't herd pigs.) Unfortunately, like cattle to the slaughter, the stimulus bill is stampeding its way through the Senate and the strongest words of resistance we hear from Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell are, "“Our goal is not to kill it. Our goal is to make it better.” The GOP, he insisted, “has an open mind... Nobody that I know of is trying to keep a package from passing.” With supposed stalwart conservatives like McConnell capitulating to the death of Capitalism and others like Phil Graham and Orrin Hatch cowing to The ONE's wishes to put the likes of Eric Holder and Timothy Geithner in positions of power what does it matter if the Democrats officially get to 60 votes? They can milk the Republican ranks for every vote they need without need to increase their ranks.

All bitching aside, it is time to get to the meat of the issue. Democrats are feeding the stimulus package with every pork laden idea hatched since the Carter administration. Like Lambs to the slaughter Republican Senators are going along to a future about as promising as a turkey with a guest appearance in a Sarah Palin interview. As a life long vegetarian, small government Capitalist, I find all of this pretty hard to swallow.

Sweet Caroline's good times must really have been so good.

Groucho may not have wanted to be a member of any club that would have him but, considering the den of liars, thieves and miscreants that is our current government, what skeletons must be in Caroline Kennedy's closet for her to pull her name from consideration to replace Hillary Clinton, a woman with a walk in closet worth of body parts herself, for the United States Senate. And to pull her name out under the cover of darkness in a late night announcement only serves to pique the interest of those of us vulture-like enough to want to circle this pile of bones in a death spiral of conjecture and innuendo. And the rumor mill is grinding away full speed.

The New York media is busy fleshing out these skeletons trying to make a body of concrete evidence for why she doesn't want the position. The initial word was it was a combination of taxes and nanny problems. That can't be it. If those were reasons to pull the plug, Timothy Geithner wouldn't be about to become the Secretary of the Treasury. Next we heard there were marital infidelities. That is almost a pre-requisite for running for office. It is the main reason I've not run for Congress. I can't get Mrs. Bald Man to sign off on that part of the deal so I remain unqualified. Tonight we hear the governor just didn't think she was ready or qualified for the job. Hello? Have you seen who is sitting in the Oval Office this week? Since when do qualifications count?

Some in her camp blamed Senator Ted Kennedy's recent illness and collapse but that is just plain pandering and plain wrong. In the ultimate effort to put a better face on this skeleton's skull, George Stephanopoulos says she backed off to "put family first". Isn't that special. I can't tell if the tear in George's eye is from this bit of candor or is left over from the joyous eye watering he and others in the media had during the inauguration.

All of this is an example of how, when the handlers get involved, politicians and politician wannabes end up looking even stupider than, ya know, they, ya know are. Had Mrs. Kennedy simply let the governor nominate the person of his choosing she could have simply walked away and joined her skeletons back in the ole closet. Hopefully Obama will keep her number on his super secure BlackBerry. If not I am sure the Chinese will put it in for him as soon as they hack it.

Had she been the one nominated, these issues might not have made a difference. For Democrats, not much matters. In the midst of a lawsuit over the recount, the Senate is going to try and seat Al "there are more votes in my trunk if you need them" Franken.

We have entered an age where the only thing that matters is the "agenda". More than anything I have heard recently, nothing has scared me as much as this quote from Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. In saying why he was voting to approve Timothy Geithner for his Secretary seat he said that in normal times he would oppose Geithner but "these are not normal times." Not normal times? So that means we can put ethics, justice, truth, and even the constitution aside because these are "not normal times". Unfortunately, in the coming weeks you will hear this reasoning also applied to spending bills, gun control, right to choose bills and other soon to be named restrictions on our liberties and attacks on capitalism.

The only thing not normal in all of this will be if right thinking Americans continue to idly by while the flesh of their freedoms is ripped from their bones.

I am heading to the closet to cry with my skeletons.

S2

First things first!

You can't pick up a newspaper or turn on the news without a headline about the Big Three Auto bailout and the crisis situation screaming out at you louder than a proposition 8 protester walking past a Mormon temple.

I've espoused my opinions on this in earlier posts so you'll have no surprise when I say huzzah and hooray to Senate Republicans and their standing up for limited government in a way they've not had the fortitude to do in a long time. They've been vilified by the unions, the media, true liberal heavy Michael "Canada and Cuba are so much better" Moore and by the Democratic leadership. People like Harry Reid, the senate top dog.


Harry seems to be right on top of this whole crisis situation. After a bill failed to pass today in the Senate, Harry said it was "a loss for the country," adding: "I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It's not going to be a pleasant sight." Then he hopped on a plane back to Nevada for the Christmas holiday confident that George "I don't care that the people's representatives have vote, I'll do what I want" Bush would pick up the slack and use TARP funding to carry the load.

It just seems interesting to me that this huge crisis, the one the Senate has been spending all its time on, can now suddenly wait until January. I'm all for family time but let's talk about priorities here!

Speaking of priorities, I was glad to see in reading this proposal that U.S. District Court Judges were well taken care of. That's right, included in the Auto Bailout bill was a pay raise for judges! It isn't uncommon for completely unrelated items to be included in major bills but that doesn't make it any less aggravating to see it here. Of course the Congress' pay raise of nearly $5,000 was taken care of a long time ago. Remember, priorities. Let's hope poor Harry isn't on his way to Hawaii.

The new Washington/Media math: 1/100 is greater than 1/50

The entire content of this post could be moot if, as is usually the case, the Republicans lose yet another closely contested vote count. Why is it the Democrats always seem to gain votes in these? I guess though it doesn't matter, if the Democrats lose, the votes just get counted again, and again and again until the Democratic candidate wins.

Governor Sarah Palin continues to develop as a leader in the GOP. Some are talking about her as a potential replacement for convicted pork farmer Ted Stevens. They say the Senate would expose her nationally and set her up for a potential Presidential run of her own in 2012.

Why the hell would she want to do that? Why give up the kush job of the babe in charge of one large piece of real estate with excellent views to move to the perennial murder capital of the United States to hang out with the slime of society that represents our nationally elected officials?

Face it, being associated with governors like this guy, this guy or this guy seems like much better company than this circus of self-serving freaks!

As governor she is the chief executive and has direct decision making duties and accountability for her actions. As one of 100 Senators she would be a face in the crowd. Senators are looked down on more than the President!

If she truly is considering a run in 2012, she'd be better coming to the race as a governor. Barack Obama is the first senator to be directly elected to the office of President since JFK. (True, Ford was in Congress but his position immediately prior to President was Vice President. Hence he never ran for President while holding an office in the Congress). Most President's, and the more successful ones were Governors.

If Mrs. Palin goes to Washington, am afraid she'll become infected with the same disease that befalls many in that town: Self-servus porkitis.

S2