A Good Start

With 41 points out of a possible 48, the San Jose Sharks are the leading team in the NHL with a little more than a quarter of the regular season complete. SJ had a good season last year but disappointed mightily in the playoffs. Why are they the toast of hockeyworld thus far?

1. Coach Todd McLellan's emphasis on putting the puck on the net-- as opposed to Ron Wilson's more deliberate style. The team plays faster and freer now. McLellan brought a Red Wings approach with him from Detroit and it's made a big difference.

2. The addition of Boyle and Blake have added tremendously to the defense. Boucher has been a reliable backup for Nabokov too, and McLellan has given Evgeni far more time off than Wilson did last season.

3. The emergence of Setoguchi as a scorer, along with the expected great play from Thornton and Marleau.

After last night's defeat of the Coyotes, the Sharks 7th straight victory, the team is at 20-3-1.

Sharks fans are expecting a cup run. But, there's still a very long way to go.

On The Shelf

Reading the Sunday Metrolina Disturber this AM I came across a couple of pages of Holiday Gift Books. I perused the thumbnail reviews. I guess nothing says Merry Christmas quite like: The Dark Side- The Inside Story of How a War On Terror Turned Into a War On American Ideals... 400 pages from Doubleday. Now, of course, this was written by some left-wing ink-stained wretch who swings her anti-American hatchet with a left hand made strong from years of constant use. To each her own, I say. It's still a free country.




But imagine if the shelf space devoted to this crap was taken up this year by books about... the dirty nuke detonation that eliminated the port of Long Beach and forced the evacuation of millions from the LA basin and the deaths of a quarter million US citizens or... the radioactive crater where O'Hare airport used to be and the deaths of 100,000 or... the evacuation of Houston due to that containerized freight ship that detonated in the port and made south Texas uninhabitable-- millions relocated and jobless or... the half dozen suicide bombers who walked into a crowded restaurant just off Capitol Hill in DC and killed six Senators, 11 members of the US House, three dozen Congressional aides, and seven national political reporters known to all Americans-- leading to the cordoning off of DC by the US military or... the simultaneous gunmen attacks on ten assisted-care and nursing home facilities in Florida thereby terrorizing thousands of family and friends of those vulnerable senior citizens or... just imagine...




So, let her write her idiotic thumb-sucker book in her warm, safe, comfortable study. But don't forget what it takes to make Americans so isolated from danger that they can write and read such infantile piffle.


Pictured- The interiors of Nariman House, Mumbai headquarters of the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch movement, are seen after the commando operation in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008. With corpses still being pulled from a once-besieged hotel, India's top security official offered his resignation Sunday as the government struggled under growing accusations of security failures following terror attacks that rocked the nation. (AP)

Sorry, Limit 2 Per Customer

Honestly, I thought this was a MAD TV bit when I was sent the link. Apparently, it's real! Hysterical stuff-- especially the guy writing who looks at his O-plate for inspiration. Yeow!

Please Speak Clearly

40 ships hijacked.

15 ships being held as well as 300 crew members.

The press insists on calling these particular Islamic Terrorists "Somali pirates." There is no functioning country named Somalia so calling someone a "Somali" is pretty empty. Plus, these thugs and terrorists should not be confused with Jack Sparrow or any other romantic notion of "pirates." They're no different in most ways than the terrorist murderers in Bombay-- who never are identified properly by the press in the West either, come to think of it. They just happen to practice their terror on the high seas rather than on trains and in hotel corridors.

The clash of civilizations continues on multiple fronts while the politically correct press promotes the idea that these are just "militants" or "pirates."

Thanksgiving Day and we're...

... giving thanks that this hasn't happened........yet.

I hope your turkey is prettier than these two gobblers today.

The Big Guns

Senator Saxby Chambliss is in a runoff election December 2nd in our neighboring state Georgia.

It looks like he's bringing in the biggest howitzer on the battlefield for campaigning the day before the vote:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will join Saxby for four public rallies across the state on Monday, December 1st:

8:30 am in Augusta

11:00 am in Savannah

1:30 pm in Perry-- (agricultural center)

4:00 pm in north metro Atlanta

All the guys have been in campaigning... Mitt, Huck, Giuliani, McCain, Billy Clinton, Gore-- Lord Obama has even cut a TV ad for the Dem candidate, whoever he is, and so on.

Step aside, boys.

50 States

Forbes sponsored a study of economic freedom in the 50 states. It's a very interesting study and worth a few minutes to look through. But, you really want to know which states have the most economic freedom and which have the least, right?

Well... the 8 best are:

1. South Dakota

2. Idaho

3. Colorado

4. Utah

5. Wyoming

6. Nevada

7. Oklahoma

8. New Hampshire

And the bottom 8 are:

50. New York

49. Rhode Island

48. New Jersey

47. California

46. Pennsylvania

45. Alaska

44. Ohio

43. Michigan

42 of 50 states dominated by Conservative voters

42 of 50 states had more self-described Conservatives than Liberals voting this year. Hmmm, maybe the Republicans should try nominating a Conservative for president in 2012. That's so crazy it just might work! How inept does a Republican presidential candidate have to be to lose the tax-cut vote to a Marxist?

But maybe all is not left?

Change We Can Believe In?

About that pick for Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano... She was Anita Hill's lawyer way back when Ms. Hill was smearing Clarence Thomas with a pack of lies in a left wing effort to make sure there wasn't an African American Conservative voice on the Supreme Court.

Rest easy.

She lost that one.

And... having her at Homeland might be better than having her as AG.

Petrophobia

I always enjoy seeing petrophobes declaring their love for the "electric car" and portraying it as a savior from the great evil: oil. Lord Obama, while campaigning, pledged umpteen zillion electric cars on the roads by whenever... because, you know, Presidents control the means of production and can, by edict, change what consumers buy. Wait. We might be getting closer to that day. Hmmm.

So now the San Francisco Bay Area, where we lived for about 8 years, is declaring that they will be the nation's electric car leader. One of the reasons we fled California is that the state is unable to provide reliable electric power for the needs of the citizenry. Gray Davis has the year of the "Gray-outs" to blame for the ruin of his brilliant political career. You haven't lived until you have your power bill go from $200/ month to $600/ month and the lights are dimming. Good fun in a state run by Democrats.

Petrophobes never seem to know where energy actually comes from, they just know they hate gasoline powered automobiles. But they are often the same people who block building nuclear power plants, damming rivers for hydro power, building coal-fired power plants, and pretty much everything short of a windmill. And they hate windmills too if they're visible from their home or along their daily commute in their Prius.

Good luck California. You'll need it. And you people that flee to the few remaining "Red States"... please don't vote for the same kind of nitwits that ruined the place you're leaving once you get here.

Deal?

Rocket Fueled

People moan every day about the stock market. I make my living there, so I suppose I should be moaning more than a guy who gets paid twice a month like clockwork. But, I'm pretty sanguine about it, maybe because there are things going on in my life these days that make market woes look pretty puny.

However, you'll be pleased to hear that I have a 3 Point Plan (TM) that would make the world equity markets take off, straight up, like a rocket.

1. President-elect Obama pledges to not let any of the 2003 tax rate cuts expire. Not by extending them, but by making them "permanent." (There is no such thing as "permanent" in the tax code but that's the DC shorthand for it.)

2. Mark-to-market accounting rules are waived by the current administration.

3. President-elect Obama pledges to cut capital gains taxes from the current 15% to 10% rather than implementing any of his various promises to raise the rates by anywhere from 33% to 86%.


Will any of this happen? Maybe number 2... possibly. But the first President of the United States to come to power with ZERO executive experience in 40 years (Nixon-1968) won't do #'s 1 & 2.

Sorry. It would be rocket fueled.

Elections matter. Bad policy can be very expensive to the taxpayer.

Media Malpractice

Depressed? That feeling can get worse. Just watch this.

Eric Holder?!?!

Eric Holder is set to be President Obama's attorney general pick. He was Janet "Burn 'Em Out" Reno's last deputy AG-- from 1997 to the end.

He is a down-the-line leftist. Much is made of Obama's intent to include moderates and Republicans in his cabinet. I couldn't care less about much of that. Elections should have meaning. This one will. Obama won in a free election. He's a boilerplate Marxist tarted up in the shimmering robes of hopeful "change", whatever that means. He should do what he wants. But until they take away the 1st Amendment we'll feel free to comment on his far-left radical subordinates. Holder fits that description perfectly.


--Holder has stated that "justice" in America needs to be "established"-- it is the AG's job to enforce the law.

--Holder is a proponent of "hates crime" legislation.

--Holder supports affirmative action rather than following Dr. King's dream for judgement of others based on character not color.

--Holder is in favor of ending the detentions of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay.

--Holder believes that crime can be fought with income redistribution-- that poverty causes crime. Note that. The incoming chief law enforcement officer in the USA believes that crime can be fought through taking money from some Americans and giving it to others through the power and force of the federal government. In other words, armed robbery by the IRS will forestall armed robbery on the streets. Great.

--Republicans might meekly point out during confirmation that Holder played a role in the final Clinton scandal: Pardongate. That won't go anywhere.

--Republicans probably won't even point out Holder's role in the 1999 commutation of the sentences of 16 FALN conspirators. Yes, he was involved in the pardoning of domestic terrorists.

--Holder was involved in the pardons of Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans. Who are they? Surprise! They are Weather Underground terrorist pals of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Rosenberg and Evans were serving sentences for bombing American government facilities.

Maybe the Republican candidate for President could have seen that the Ayers/ Dohrn issue wasn't something distant from Obama but rather something at the core of who he really is. Governor Palin saw it but wasn't supposed to talk about it. Apparently it was a little too "icky" for McCain.


--------
By the way, did you see that Lieberman got on his knees and begged the Dem power structure in the Senate for his committee chairs? They still might need him for 60 votes, of course, so they beat the poor dog and then told him he could stay.

Conservatives were treated to the sight, day after day, of seeing the Republican candidate campaigning with the liberal Lieberman standing behind him. By most poll accounts 25-30% of the Conservative base either voted for Obama or stayed home. So now, McCain has lost because he never could secure the base, and his liberal pol pal from CT crawls on his hands and knees before Harry Reid and repudiates his criticism of Lord Obama. Ever wonder why people have such a low regard for politicians?

Sanford. The best.

Listening to today's congressional hearings with Paulson and Bernanke I had to laugh a bit. One learned questioner couched his entire query about a bailout of "Detroit" in what he called Herbert Hoover's misbegotten desire for a "Return to Normalcy."


Sigh.


"Return to normalcy" comes from the successful 1920 campaign for President of Warren G. Harding. He was tapping into the public's desire to get away from the interventionist policies of the past 20 years, primarily under Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and return to the attitudes of the McKinley era. "Return to Normalcy" had nothing to do with Herbert Hoover. It was about the voter's desire to stay out of Europe's multiple horrors-- like The Great War.


Hoover's transgressions against the world economy were many (and later dwarfed by those of FDR.) Chief among them were Hoover's support for the Smoot-Hawley protectionist tariff that crashed the markets. And then, with the economy faltering, higher taxes on wealth producers and job providers which turned the crash into a worldwide depression. A depression made worse year after year by FDR's interventions. A depression "cured" only by a worldwide war. Any of this sound familiar to the world of 2008?

Return to Normalcy? No wonder our DC leaders are leading us into another worldwide disaster. They don't even seem to know anything about the last one. Of course some think they do and believe fervently that FDR took America out of the Great Depression through federal policies. The exact opposite of what actually happened.

Meanwhile, in our fair state of South Carolina, we are blessed with a Governor who "gets it" completely. While the Granholm's and Ahnuld's rattle the tin cup for taxpayer money, our Governor says, "No. Thank you. No." Who bails-out the bail-outers? Indeed.

It Isn't a Bailout of The Detroit 3...

... it's a bailout of the UAW.

Imagine you are an American citizen working at one of the many plants building Hondas, Toyotas, BMW's, KIA's and more here in the USA. Or say you work for a supplier to those plants. Well, several hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Americans don't have to imagine. They work at places like BMW's expanding, successful plant in Greer, SC or one of the hundreds of smaller companies in the South Carolina Upstate supplying parts, materials, uniforms, and such to the plant and its workers.

Now imagine looking at the news every day and reading about how the grand new majority in Washington DC has promised to take your tax dollars and send them to your competitors in the legacy, union-crushed, moribund US auto industry.

It must feel like the way the people at, say, BB&T felt when they learned that what they got for avoiding sub-prime loans was....... a ringside seat for viewing their competitors receiving huge gifts from the taxpayer.

The auto industry bailout is actually a bailout of the United Auto Workers labor union. And you are paying for it.

When governments get this far into the picking of winners and losers and the rewarding of failure it's little wonder that the markets are plunging. Meanwhile the feds think the markets are in freefall because they need to do even more.

The truth? Do less. Tax less. Regulate less. Get out of the way.

The Rally Is On

Monday morning and it looks like the "Obama Rally" continues in the world equity markets. It's really quite interesting to go back and look at the point where Presidential Futures Trading on Intrade saw the election of Obama as a lock. Let's just say it's been an unabated slaughter from that point on. Now, to stop this slide, the incoming President and his minions are talking about how wonderful the Clinton years were in markets. They are saying, "Hey, don't worry... it'll be swell just like the reign of Billy."

Not so fast, sweetheart. The first two years of the Clinton administration were anything but vibrant for markets. It wasn't until, oh yeah, the Republicans swept to power in Bill's first midterm election, that markets perked up. The next four years were pretty solid until Bill got himself caught up in the scandal that would lead to his impeachment. During those four years he signed a lot of good Republican legislation into law including welfare reform and a cut in the cap gains tax. The elimination of the capital gains tax on the first half million dollars of profit from the sale of a couple's primary residence was jet fuel for the housing boom. Once Bill was in the impeachment wringer he sold his soul to the far left in the House of Representatives to keep his job. So, the last two years saw no good legislation signed by the President.

Now, which part of the eight years of Clinton does the landscape resemble as Obama takes the Presidency with solid Dem majorities in Congress? That's right, the moribund first two years-- with a dash of the far left influence of the Congressional Black Caucus for spice.

Lost in the Obamaites nostalgia for the Clinton years is another little thing: in the last year of Clinton's presidency the NASDAQ started a crash that would be the biggest since 1929. It eventually lost 89% of its value. That crash started the second week of March 2000. When did it end? When the Bush 2003 tax rate cuts were passed by congress. By the way, those start to expire in little more than a year. President-elect Obama has not signaled that he will extend any of them. That would constitute the biggest tax rate hike in US history. On top of his promised capital gains rate hikes and his "tax-the-rich" schemes.

Any wonder why the "Obama Rally" is a race to the bottom?

What About This Fellow "Monkeydarts"?

James Taranto at WSJ's Best of the Web Today writes about the questionnaire for employment in the Obama administration. It sounds like more of that privacy invasion so popular during the dark days under G.W. Bushitler and Darth Cheney:

"Please list and, if readily available, provide a copy of each book, article, column or publication (including but not limited to any posts or comments on blogs or other websites) you have authored, individually or with others. Please list all aliases or "handles" you have used to communicate on the Internet" (page 2, question 10).
"Have you ever had any association with any person, group or business venture that could be used--even unfairly--to impugn or attack your character and qualifications for government service?" (page 7, question 61).
"Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun?" (page 7, question 59).
We wonder if Barack Obama would be able to answer question 61 to the satisfaction of his own vetters. Some questions are so open-ended that, if taken at face value, they strip the applicant of any privacy at all:
"If you have ever sent an electronic communication, including but not limited to an email, text message or instant message, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect if it were made public, please describe."

Read it all here.

The Horror

I'm sure you're as shocked as I am. Not that they're laying people off, but that the thing actually existed.

Conservatives Blew It: P.J. O'Rourke

P.J. O'Rourke:

What will destroy our country and us is not the financial crisis but the fact that liberals think the free market is some kind of sect or cult, which conservatives have asked Americans to take on faith. That's not what the free market is. The free market is just a measurement, a device to tell us what people are willing to pay for any given thing at any given moment. The free market is a bathroom scale. You may hate what you see when you step on the scale. "Jeeze, 230 pounds!" But you can't pass a law making yourself weigh 185. Liberals think you can. And voters--all the voters, right up to the tippy-top corner office of Goldman Sachs--think so too.

We, the conservatives, who do understand the free market, had the responsibility to--as it were--foreclose upon this mess. The market is a measurement, but that measuring does not work to the advantage of a nation or its citizens unless the assessments of volume, circumference, and weight are conducted with transparency and under the rule of law. We've had the rule of law largely in our hands since 1980. Where is the transparency? It's one more job we botched. Although I must say we're doing good work on our final task--attaching the garden hose to our car's exhaust pipe and running it in through a vent window.

Barack and Michelle will be by in a moment with some subsidized ethanol to top up our gas tank. And then we can turn the key.

The article, "We Blew It" is here.

Gosh, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

President-elect Obama plans to bring the most heinous terrorist detainees in the world to the United States so they can be given the due process rights of American citizens in the US Court system. What could possibly go wrong with that?

I have a suggestion though-- house them all in Hyde Park, IL. You know, just while they await trial.

Also, please tell our warriors about the need to now read Miranda rights on the battlefield. That should be an interesting conversation.

Welcome To France

"If you went back to the end of the 19th century and suggested to, say, William McKinley that one day Americans would find themselves choosing between a candidate promising to guarantee your mortgage and a candidate promising to give “tax cuts” to millions of people who pay no taxes he would scoff at you for concocting some patently absurd H G Wells dystopian fantasy. Yet it happened."
-Mark Steyn

Read The Great Steyn's view on election 2008 here. Maybe by 2012 the Republican Party will find a Conservative to nominate for President. Or maybe that's too '80's, man.

Cleaning House

It appears that Eric Cantor of Virginia (pictured above) will challenge Roy Blunt for the Republican Whip role in the US House. Jeb Hensarling, TX (pictured below) will likely try to snag the deputy whip position. Will anyone step forward to challenge John Boehner of Ohio for the Minority Leader job? There are a number of very good candidates for the role and, while Boehner is not bad, Republicans need a clean sweep and new, youthful faces. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin (below right) would be an excellent choice for a leadership job although I could see Cantor and Hensarling going for Boehner's spot as well. Jeff Flake, Mike Pence, John Shadegg... there are many good, solid Reagan Republicans in the House.

Over in the Senate both Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn have called for new leadership but neither have actually called for Mitch McConnell to step aside. Yet. If Mitch decides to give up leadership, which I doubt he would do, I expect Jon Kyl to advance to the job as Senate Minority Leader.

Let the re-tooling begin and let the men and women with solid economic Conservative views lead the Republican caucus on Capitol Hill.

UPDATE: Politico reporting that Blunt will step down and Cantor will likely win the whip job.

Keep A Good Thought

The next US Congress will be without Senator Joe Biden on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee. I believe this will be the first time since January 1973 that America will be deprived of his service on those two powerful committees. Assuming the good health of President Obama, America will be better off with Slow Joe as Veep. Going to funerals, sitting alone in his office wishing Barry would ask him a question, having his hairplugs tuned up and so forth are far better activities for Biden to be engaged in than sitting on those committees or voting on legislation in the US Senate.

Congratulations, Joe! Good luck in your limited future.

What A Win!

A great victory last night. Sharks 3 -- Wild 1.

The San Jose Sharks are now 11-2-0, securing 22 of a possible 26 points. The best record in the NHL. It's great to wake up this morning as a big winner.

Doug Murray laying a big hit on some unfortunate Minnesota player.

$1.89 and Falling

Hey, gasoline is $1.89/ gallon here today. That's supposed to be good for McCain, right? Right?

Misty Watercolor Memories, Of The Dope Joe Is

Seriously... how big of a moron is Slow Joe Biden? He's been in politics since baseball was young and he still can't utter a coherent sentence.

Here's the latest from the Gaffe-O-Matic:

"Hey folks, 37 more hours!"
Joe Biden greeted a crowd primed for the home stretch of this long campaign with as much energy as he's had in the last two months on the trail as well as some typical Bidenese.
Telling voters in this swing state that "change is on the way," the Democratic vice presidential candidate offered one of his now-expected random introductory tangents.
The latest was about his sister, Val, his wife Jill, and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who introduced the Bidens at the rally of 1,100 people in the gym at Longview Community College.
Biden called his sister a "girl-boy," meaning a tomboy, and then explained that girl-boys are softer than "girl-girls."
"You know why I think Jill likes Claire McCaskill so well, Senator McCaskill? Jill is one of five sisters, Claire is one of three sisters. And I tell you what, you women raised with sisters are different than women raised with brothers," Biden said as both women joined him on stage.
"My sister is smart, runs every one of my campaigns; is beautiful; graduated with honors from college; is homecoming queen. But she's a ... she is what I call a 'girl-boy' growing up, you know what I mean?"
"And I tell you what? Girl-girls are tougher than girl-boys," he said. "But there's one important thing I noticed.The great thing about marrying into a family with five sisters, there's always one that loves you. 'Cause you can count on splitting them a bit. You know what I mean?
"I shouldn't be going off like this, but -- hey, folks, 37 more hours, 37 more hours," he then said.

The End of ABSCAM Jack?

Could the disgusting Jack Murtha lose his long-held House seat today? Challenger Bill Russell, an Iraq veteran, is in a flat-footed tie with Automatic Jack. In the closing minutes of the campaign another Iraq vet supporting Russell was quoted as calling the porcine Murtha a "fat little bastard" in a speech.

This is wrong. So very wrong. There is nothing little about Jack Murtha. The correct term is Fat Lying Bastard. Right Jack?

Happy Election Day 2008

by William Warren

$1.94 and Falling Fast

Back in the spring of 2008 many people said that if gasoline prices went down significantly it would help McCain on November 4th. Well, my local station is selling regular at $1.94 today, down from a high of $3.98 in July. Does that mean McCain will win?

News From The Front

For the moment we are on a brief furlough from our "black bag" operations. We were in the field at a location that can't be fully disclosed. However, we were deployed close enough to "Joe The Plumber" that we could see the Media Forces barrage and hear the explosions on his position from our foxhole. On October 29th the operatives in our sector got an uplifting visit from Governor Palin!

Skyrockets In Flight. Election Day Delight.

Electric rates will skyrocket under an Obama presidency. Who says? Barack Obama.

Obama To Coal States: "Drop Dead."

Hey there, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Colorado-- what does Obama really think about coal production (the source for 50% of America's electricity) when talking to Big Media friendlies?

"If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them."

-Barack Obama, January 2008, to SF Chronicle reporter

Listen to Lord Obama on coal here. Not that it matters. After all, Michigan voted for Al Gore even though he called the internal combustion engine a bigger danger to the world than nuclear warfare.