They Just Won’t Go Away!

Sen. Bill Clinton? Don’t completely rule it out.
The former president is among several boldface names being touted as possible “caretakers” for New York’s Senate seat — people who would serve until the 2010 elections but wouldn’t be interested in running to keep the job.
As the process of picking Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s replacement gets messier, [...]

The Joys of Government-Run Healthcare: Hurry Up and Wait… to Die

Just another example of the big problems with putting government bureaucrats in charge of health care: the rules are more important than the patient.
A FATHER of two died after a six-hour wait at A&E despite having a letter from his GP saying he must be treated immediately.
Stewart Fleming, 37, arrived at his local hospital with [...]

Those Evil Corporations

…never do anything nice for kids at Christmas, do they?

Egypt And Israel Agree On Hamas?

That’s apparently what’s going on in the current Gaza fighting:
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Israeli offensive in Gaza is that, for the moment at least, Israel and Egypt seem to be allied. Haaretz reports that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni traveled to Cairo to inform Hosni Mubarak [...]

Why Aren’t The Greens Happy?

Victor Davis Hanson (whom I think is a good candidate for a replacement for the wit and wisdom of the late William F. Buckley) has a good point:
I’m very puzzled by the nexus between the current downturn and concern about global warming. Given that we were told we had to immediately cut back on carbon [...]

Merry Christmas!

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do [...]

Tracking A Real VIP

No, not His Oneness, Barack Obama… it’s time to track Santa!
As they have for over 50 years, NORAD will be tracking Santa on his whirlwind worldwide trip tomorrow (as I write this, we have about 12 hours left on the countdown to tracking). Go ahead and check out the site now, there’s interesting stuff there [...]

Hypocrisy In The Obama Administration

Here it comes… the folks responsible for lecturing us poor peons about “sustainability” and “carbon footprints” will, themselves, have carbon footprints bigger than a whole herd of Bigfoots (Bigfeet?):
National Review Online has obtained an e-mail from [proposed NOAA Administrator Jane] Lubchenco’s husband, Oregon State University professor Bruce Menge, suggesting that the couple will contribute mightily [...]

Can We Declare Victory In Iraq Yet?

The murder rate for Iraq as of November was 0.9 per 100,000 people.
The murder rate for the United States of America for 2007 was 5.6 per 100,000 people.
In other words, Iraq is now safer for the average citizen than America is.
Can we please declare the Iraq War a victory?

Now There’s a Snow-Loving Dog

See for yourself.
h/t the one and only Jonah Goldberg at NRO.

Palin Says “No Thanks” To a Mid-Term Raise

In strong contrast to the story below is the strong stance of the much-maligned Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin:
Gov. Sarah Palin didn’t ask for a pay raise and won’t accept one during her current term, a spokesman said Wednesday.
A new state commission appointed by Palin recommends boosting the governor’s pay from $125,000 to $150,000. The [...]

With Unemployment Rising, Congress Gets A Raise

File this under “out of touch with common people.”
A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.
Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that [...]

The Shattering of the Obama Illusion

The destruction of illusions is always painful, and many on the left are now figuring that out:
Millions of us stood up and shouted, handed out fliers, talked to our neighbors, donated hard-earned money, and drove people to the polls for Change. We screamed, hugged, kissed, and cried when we learned Change had come to America. [...]

Where Your Tax Dollars Go

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has released a report highlighting some of the worst pork barrel spending from 2008.
Lowlights include:
• $188,000 for Lobster Institute in Maine, home of the “LobsterCam”
• $1 million for bike paths on Louisiana levees while levees await basic repairs
• $2.4 million for a retractable shade canopy at a park in West Virginia
• [...]

Bush’s Shoe Tosser

I have only one thing to say about the Iraqi who tossed his shoes at President Bush.
Ain’t it wonderful that Iraqis are now free enough to express themselves as they see fit?
Imagine someone doing that to Saddam Hussein, or another dictator, like, say, Ahmadinnerjacket, Kim Jong-il, Hugo Chavez, or even Bush’s buddy Vlad Putin. And [...]

Double-Standard Alert! Sarah Palin vs. Caroline Kennedy

Ain’t it a delicious irony that the folks that thought that Sarah Palin, who has participated in three actual elections and won two of them, was unqualified for the Vice Presidency–which, by the way, is President of the Senate–are the exact same folks who think that Caroline Kennedy, who has never stood for election to [...]

What Keeps GM From Being Competitive?

The ever-wise Michael Barone gives some historical background:
The plight of the Detroit Three auto companies raises the question of why people ever thought this was a good idea. The answer, I think, is that unionism was seen as the necessary antidote to Taylorism. That’s not a familiar term today, but it was when the Wagner [...]

Rahm Emanuel’s Calls Reportedly On Fitzgerald’s Blagojevich Tapes

Uh-oh… here’s the Chicago Way heading right into the middle of the Obama transition team:
Sneed hears rumbles President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is reportedly on 21 different taped conversations by the feds — dealing with his boss’ vacant Senate seat!
A lot of chit-chat?
Hot air?
Or trouble?
So, that raises the question… when Obama says [...]

A Big Part Of Why The Big Three Are Failing

Just go look at the picture here.
That’s the 2007 UAW contract with Ford, all 2,215 pages and 22 pounds of it.
Now, tell me how any company, even one managed by the best of the best of CEOs (which none of the Big Three can be said to have right now) can be competitive under enough [...]

Democrats Turning Against Obama In Blago-Gate

Obama is in deep trouble when even members of his own party start criticizing his responses:
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell [Democrat--somehow the Politico missed pointing that out] today criticized Barack Obama for not being more upfront about the Illinois corruption scandal.
Now, he said, the story will continue to dominate the media’s attention.
“They have never been in [...]