Democrats win Seat held by Rep. Dennis Hastert

Read about it here.

There is quite a bit that could be said about this. Many other Bloggers have already written much of it.

The writing is simply on the wall. I do not place the blame squarely on Bush himself. Because I am keenly aware of how things operate in Washington D.C., I know that the blame does not all go to him.

I blame the advisers who went to him, the ones who were the dye-in-the-wool Neo-Conservatives, who went to him and said, "We can change the shape of the middle east, by invading Iraq." He, of course, bought into that foolish mindset and the scramble for intelligence began and when they found a piece of questionable intelligence, they proceeded to cherry pick it, to suit their needs.

What followed was the quagmire that we are involved with now. This will end up costing this Nation for many years to come. Current cost estimates are at 3 trillion dollars.

Of course, this all did happen and it is not a nightmare, and at what cost? Conservatism is now in it’s death throws, Republicans are now the scourge of American, Obama is the new messiah for America and the Democrats will, most likely, hold the majority in the both houses of Congress.

America wants change and Obama and, somewhat, Hillary are offering that. But what kind of a change are they really going to bring?   What will we see? An end to a war, ended so fast that Iraq descends into chaos? Will we see Churches being closed because they dare to speak out against the Homosexual lifestyle? America’s tax system changed to force churches to pay income tax? Our civil liberties being taken away, the ability to set up a blog and criticize the government, taken away as a threat to national security?

Some of us have not forgotten the tragedy, which happened in Waco, Texas.  I often ask myself, if the liberals take the White House again, will there be more Waco’s? Will they be more Ruby Ridges? Will they be more out of control Government Police action?

I have always believed in balance in Government, the balance of two political parties, both checking one another and each preventing the other gaining total power in the houses of Government. However, what we are seeing now, with the Conservatives being chased to the fox holes, is possible throwing of our Government into a total liberal state, and quite frankly, that scares me to death. I believe in freedom, in all it’s forms, whether it be Speech, Religion, Expression, Press, or whatever else, and I am quite afraid that the Liberals do not believe in total freedom, oh they believe in freedom of speech, as long as it fits their political ideologies.

There are those who say that the Iraq War will bankrupt this Nation. I disagree, I believe that National Healthcare plan will bankrupt this Nation or at worst, place a bigger demand of foreign currency from China and other countries. This is totally eroding our Nation’s sovereignty, with each deposit that we take. 

It is going to be an interesting four years, after the liberals win Congress and the White House. I just have a sinking feeling that the United States is going to be stuck with buyers remorse, because many people are, to coin a phrase, "Betting the farm", on this new messiah, and I have sinking feeling that there is going to be this massive let down, when he gets in office and absolutely nothing changes. It is a grim outlook, but I am afraid it is the reality of the situation at hand.

Not everyone in the Obama camp agrees with him on FISA and Telecoms

Interesting… 

Check it out

Quote:

In a new interview with National Journal magazine, an intelligence adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign broke with his candidate’s position opposing retroactive legal protection for telecommunications companies being sued for cooperating with a dubious U.S. government domestic surveillance program.

"I do believe strongly that [telecoms] should be granted that immunity," former CIA official John Brennan told National Journal reporter Shane Harris in the interview.  "They were told to [cooperate] by the appropriate authorities that were operating in a legal context."

"I know people are concerned about that, but I do believe that’s the right thing to do," added Brennan, who is an intelligence and foreign policy adviser to Obama.

That wasn’t just a personal opinion, Brennan made clear to Harris. "My advice, to whoever is coming in [to the White House], is they need to spend some time learning, understanding what’s out there, identifying those key issues," including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, he said — the law at the heart of the immunity debate.

"They need to make sure they do their homework, and it’s not just going to be knee-jerk responses," Brennan said of the presidential hopefuls.

On one hand, this is good thing, he’s taking opinions from other people. On the other, what if he decides to agree with this guy and the President gets away with breaking the law?

Should be interesting.

Others: The Newshoggers, American Street, Weekly Standard, The American Mind and The Campaign Spot

Related Articles and such @ Memeorandum

The stupidity of the Obama/Clinton flap.

You know, I’ve always said this idiotic crap between Obama and Clinton was quite stupid.

Josh Marshall agrees:

Let me stipulate to one thing: if this were two Republicans squabbling, I’d be laughing my head off at the moment. And I can assure you a lot of them are.

The Clinton campaign has gotten so deep inside the Obama campaign’s collective head it just ain’t funny — or, depending on your political persuasion, it’s very funny.

Late Tuesday night I wrote that the upshot of the March 4th contests was that Clinton had beaten Obama up a bit and he hadn’t responded. She’d not only bloodied up his poll numbers a bit by throwing all sorts of stuff at him. She also showed that it wasn’t at all clear that Obama was enough of a fighter to stand up to this stuff or get back in her face. More than the delegate numbers, that was the challenge March 4th had left him with.

But since then she’s just been slapping this guy around like crazy. She’s on the offense every day, dictating the terms of the discussion and getting results.

This "monster" thing is a good case in point. That’s a pretty over-the-top thing for a key campaign advisor to say. But what it tells me more than that is that the Clinton campaign has these guys rattled really bad. Some of this is no doubt due to the fact that Power is a bit out of her element. She’s more from the academic/policy world than the political/policy world. But, again, rattled. The Clinton folks have been bashing Obama like crazy. Now they follow up by explicitly demanding that Obama fire one of his key foreign policy advisors and … how, long did it take? An hour? And she’s gone.

If boxing is our metaphor she’s got him cornered on the ropes on one side of the ring and she’s just landing punch after punch. And all he can manage are the defensive moves that her constant attacks dictate.

Well said.  I believe before it’s over with, whomever comes out on top, there’s going to be bad blood on either side. That’s not a good thing. It could hurt the Democrats in November.

Others on this: Comments from Left Field, Cogitamus and TalkLeft

Related Discussions via Memeorandum

Temper Temper….

Seems old McBush lost his cool today.

Eh, He’s 71 years old, He’s got permission to be cranky. Tongue

A will say this, the press can be such jerks at times. Especially the "Liberal" press towards the Republicans.

Hopefully, This will blow over and they won’t keep harping on it.

Others: Riehl World View, Salon, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Macsmind, Sister Toldjah, Jonathan Martin’s Blogs, The Swamp and No More Mister Nice Blog

(via Memeorandum)

Will someone please tell Hart Coulter to shut up?

Um…. Didn’t Karl Rove say NOT to do this?

The Video:

Transcript:

From the 3 p.m. ET hour of the March 6 edition of MSNBC Live:

COULTER: I don’t think — I must say, I tend not to think that the Democrats are gonna need my help. I mean, it looks to me as if it’s going to be Bob Dole redux. I mean, terrorism does throw things off this year, but if you assume, as I tend to, that this is going to be a Democrat year, the choice is between B. Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton. And I do think Hillary Clinton would be tougher with the terrorists. I think she’d probably be worse on domestic policy, but right now, the war on terrorism has me more concerned.

ROBACH: And you say, "B. Hussein Obama."

COULTER: Yes.

ROBACH: Why don’t you like to say "Barack Obama"?

COULTER: Because I think it’s funny. I mean, it wouldn’t be — this hysteria from the Democrats about how you can’t call him by his middle name. Well, we’re calling him by his middle name precisely because it makes Democrats hysterical. Of course there’s a reason we call him that.

ROBACH: All right. And it’s interesting you bring up obviously the war on terror, because I was just actually reviewing your YouTube moment with Sean Hannity.

I included this clip because, I want you to see the mentality of the far right. They think this is funny. I will say this, as a Right of Center type of a person, that this sort of thing. Will do absolutely nothing, but alienate the majority of Americans.

Of course, people like Ann Coulter aren’t exactly known for their overreaching brilliance. Rolling Eyes

Employment Situation

This is a interesting report.

Nonfarm payroll employment edged down in February (-63,000), and the
unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.8 percent, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment
fell in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade. Job growth continued
in health care and in food services. Average hourly earnings rose by 5 cents,
or 0.3 percent, over the month.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The number of unemployed persons (7.4 million) and the unemployment rate
(4.8 percent) were essentially unchanged in February. Over the month, the
unemployment rates for adult men (4.3 percent), adult women (4.2 percent),
teenagers (16.6 percent), whites (4.3 percent), and Hispanics (6.2 percent)
showed little or no change. The jobless rate for blacks fell to 8.3 percent,
in line with the average rate for 2007. The unemployment rate for Asians was
3.0 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

Both the civilian labor force, at 153.4 million, and the labor force par-
ticipation rate, at 65.9 percent, declined in February. Total employment
(146.0 million) and the employment-population ratio (62.7 percent) were little
changed over the month.

Of course, the conservatives are saying that the AP misreported the story. I will admit, the wording did leave a bit to be desired. But I will say this, I am in Michigan, and we’re in a one State recession. 

This does mean, that I am unemployed. The good thing is, I don’t have any serious debt, as I did file for bankruptcy in 2004. Before they changed the laws. However, it does kind of stink, I enjoy writing, I would like to get a job doing this professionally. But that would require college degrees and such, none of which I have, of course. So, I’m stuck to blogging. I just wish I could get this blog, some serious traffic. 

I don’t pity myself, at all. I made my mistakes when I was younger, I was born with a learning disability, that I inherited from my Father. I don’t want people to pity me, I’ve been blessed beyond measure, I’ve had a good life, It could be better, but everyone could say that. There are many people out there that have it much worse than I.

Others: NewsBusters.org, The Swamp, Calculated Risk, Angry Bear and The Big Picture (H/T Memeorandum)

Ron Paul calls it quits.

Read about it Here

Of course there are some that are still living in denial.

To be honest, I kind of liked the old guy. I didn’t agree with everything that he said, But he was an interesting person.

His old school Conservatism appealed to me. Unlike the Neo-Con crap we’ve got now.

Anyhow, I feel for the many who gave to his campaign and didn’t get anything out of it.

I wish Rep. Ron Paul all the best in any future endeavors.

Others on this: Hot Air, Political Machine, The News Buckit, Liberal Values and Salon (via Memeorandum)

Bush endorses John McCain

On one hand this endorsement will be a good thing, amongst hardcore Republicans. However, amongst the Independent voters and those who are not pleased with the Bush Administration, this is basically a death sentence.

The Story: Bush endorses John McCain for president (via MSNBC.COM)

President Bush endorsed Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain on Wednesday, two bitter rivals from the 2000 presidential race joining together now in hopes of preventing Democrats from winning the White House this fall.

"John showed incredible courage, strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment and that’s exactly what we need in a president — somebody who can handle the tough decisions, somebody who won’t flinch in the face of danger," Bush said, appearing with McCain in the Rose Garden.

The Video:

Again, while this may seem to be a great thing for John McCain and his campaign. To the Democrats, this is just fresh bait. For John McCain to say, "Yeah, I’ll let George W. Bush campaign for me!" is a death sentence amongst the Independent voters.

Because quite frankly, the President has like a 19% approval rating. You think Bush will be a helpmate to his Campaign? I highly doubt it. More like a paperweight!

I look for him to lose and lose hard, sorry to say it, But if the majority of America sees him as an extension of the current President, he doesn’t stand a chance in the general election.

The snort worth comment was the "I will tell him to be careful in who he has choose his running mate". A very funny reference to Dick Cheney. Bush’s dancing before the conference was quite funny too.

Before anyone calls me an Anti-Republican, please, hold your fire, I’m just a realist. I also have issues with the Democrats as well, especially Hillary.

Updated: So far….

On the Republicans side:

Ohio: McCain is the Projected winner

Vermont: McCain is the Projected Winner

Texas and R.I. are not reporting yet — Update: McCain takes Ohio, Vermont, Texas and Rhode Island and is the G.O.P Nominee

On the Democrat Side:

Ohio: Clinton in the lead, no winner Projected

Vermont: Obama in the lead no winner projected yet.

Texas and R.I not reporting…

Update: Obama Takes Vermont, Clinton takes Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island

Update: This is going to be one interesting fight for Democrats. I will be Blogging about it. I look for this fight to go all the way to the convention. I also look for there to be redo for the Michigan Primary. Either way, it’s going to a wild ride.

Radio News Anchor quits job after News Director pulls her story.

Via f-brilliant:

KKOB Radio afternoon drive time news anchor Laura MacCallum quit her job last Thursday after the station’s news director pulled her stories about alleged vote-buying efforts at the recent Bernalillo County Republican Party delegate nominating conventions.

MacCallum, a 32-year radio and TV news veteran who has worked in Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, said the station caved to complaints from Congresswoman Heather Wilson’s Senate campaign about the stories. Wilson campaign spokeswoman Whitney Cheshire called the station to argue the unfairness of stories alleging that many delegates to the ward conventions were paid by Wilson’s and other campaigns to show up and cast their votes for certain delegates. – Read the Rest

Hmmmmm… Interesting story. Thinking

Should be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Others: Crooks and Liars and The BRAD BLOG