Why The Feds Rushed to Arrest Blagojevich

The Chicago Tribune blew their cover.

The precise timing of Tuesday’s dramatic, pre-dawn arrest was not dictated by Fitzgerald, nor was it dictated by the pace of Blagojevich’s alleged “crime spree.” It was dictated by the Chicago Tribune, according to people close to the investigation and a careful reading of the FBI’s affidavit in the case.

At Fitzgerald’s request, the paper had been holding back a story since October detailing how a confidante of Blagojevich was cooperating with his office.

Gerould Kern, the Tribune’s editor, said in a statement last week that these requests are granted in what he called isolated instances. “In each case, we strive to make the right decision as reporters and as citizens,” he said.

But editors decided to publish the story on Friday, Dec. 5, ending the Tribune’s own cooperation deal with the prosecutor...

The next morning, on Friday, Dec. 5, it all came crashing down for the FBI agents underneath the headphones.

The Tribune’s front page screamed: “Feds taped Blagojevich; TRIBUNE EXCLUSIVE: Adviser cooperated with corruption probe, sources say.”

Blagojevich read the same headline. “Undo” that “thing,” the governor allegedly told his brother, according to the FBI. And just like that, the meeting was off, only one day after it had been put back into play.

There appear to have been fears in Fitzgerald’s office that those caught on tape might now seek to “undo” other “things.” Hours were logged over the weekend. Paperwork was pounded out. And before sunrise Tuesday, Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested simultaneously. At that same moment, FBI agents also knocked on the doors of witnesses. These were just a few of the people agents wanted to interview before cellphones started ringing across the city and others who had been caught on tape had a chance to get their stories straight.

Had it not been for the Tribune’s Dec. 5 story, the meeting Blagojevich’s brother was arranging might have proceeded. Mr. Blagojevich is quoted as citing the story, in the affidavit, then calling off the meeting. At a minimum, the FBI’s recorders would have been rolling when he reported back. The feds also probably would have tried to bug the session live, or at least to tail the participants and secretly film or photograph them. That’s what feds do. Jurors love video.

You have to wonder what made the Trib decide it needed to run the story. Were there rumors of other media outlets on the case? Were rumors swirling through the newsroom and the top brass didn't think they could hold the story any longer? Or, more politically, were they afraid of the fallout the story was going to have on Democrats locally and nationally?

We probably aren't going to hear the real story. What we will get is an explanation about how the Tribune isn't responsible for cooperating with law enforcement and that they should be cheered for holding the story a month. But their desire to get the scoop means the Feds lost half their case. Self-interest trumps all in the MSM.

" It looks like Team Obama has learned the art of stonewalling already, and he hasn’t even taken the oath of office yet".

That's the last line from Ed Morrissey's post on why the Obama administration is taking so long to release information on Teh One's contacts with crooked Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

Obama promised several days ago to release the information, but since then, he's been mum on the subject and tried to distract the press with boring announcements for positions we don't care about atm.

I'm hoping the press shows the deference to the Obama administration that has been shown President Bush (that is, none) and dogs Teh One while he attends gym instead of church or checks in at the Washington, D.C. Holiday Inn.

Obama's contacts with Blagojevich may be innocent (and probably are), but dodging the question gives the appearance of wrongdoing and, regardless of what Media Matters tries to say, the appearance of wrongdoing gets scrutiny, too.

An Example of How Well Socialized Medicine Works

Since President-Elect Barack Obama seems hellbent on nationalizing healthcare in this country, it's always good to see how it works in other places. Of course, I've covered women giving birth at home because the hospital was full, the new fad of health tourism, where people travel halfway around the world to have procedures done that they can't get at home, ambulances idling in hospital parking lots because of overcrowded emergency rooms, and the inability to get life-saving medications but encouragement to off oneself. Because socialized medicine is great...if you don't get sick.

Now comes news of NHS dentists who don't want to work. (H/T Brothers Judd)

I can save Alan Johnson some time. The Health Secretary announced that he was setting up an inquiry into why 1.2 million people have “lost” their NHS dentist. I know why. It all went wrong in 2005, when the Government’s time and motion people devised a whizzy “New Dental Contract”. Barry Cockcroft, the chief dental officer, endorsed it as “carefully considered, fully consulted and rigorously trialled”.

Oh yes? Dentists’ NHS pay was henceforth rebranded as their annual contract value (ACV), based on their income in the year before the contract was introduced. For this ACV, they were to provide a set quota of units of dental activity (UDA) for NHS patients.

Dentists call these “udders”. The system is so tightly micromanaged that it’s as impossible to explain as a Budget book. But two things were immediately clear: if a dentist didn’t do enough udders in the given year, his money would be cut. But if he did extra udders, he would earn no extra pay. Two thousand dentists immediately left the NHS.

People don't work harder if there's no reward for it. That's just human nature. And when your system is rigged to encourage you to work just as much as last year--but no more--that's exactly what you get.

But wait. The story gets better.

The other thing is that “a filling” counted as three udders, whether it was actually one filling or five, and dentists had to charge accordingly. Patients started saving up their cavities and coming in, high on codeine, with their mouths full of holes. If I need three fillings, my (private) dentist makes three appointments. Afterwards, he chucks away such of his endodontic burs and Gates Glidden drills that can’t be sterilised for reuse, and bills me for it all. But NHS dentists can’t add any “extras” to an udder.

Dentists quickly noted the disconnect between the cost of filling a multiplicity of historic cavities for the chap with the problem, and the gross remuneration to the chap with the Gates Glidden. A very nice dentist wrote to me ruefully in 2007, pointing out that no dentists would want to stay in the NHS. So it goes.

In other words, it's more cost-effective to make someone wait until he or she has many cavities rather than filling them as they occur. Obama has promised this brand f healthcare for all. Is dentistry far behind?

Political Posturing and the Auto Bailout

Demagoguery is going to be standard practice for the next two years, if Nancy Pelosi has anything to say about it.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi got the job done in the House on the bailout, and now she's pointing fingers at Senate Republicans.

Here's her statement, released around midnight:

"The House-passed bipartisan legislation protects taxpayers, preserves environmental standards and places tough accountability measures on the auto companies to help ensure their long term viability and competitiveness. The House-passed bill demanded deep concessions from all parties -- the executives, shareholders and the union.

“Senate Republicans’ refusal to support the bipartisan legislation passed by the House and negotiated in good faith with the White House, the Senate and the automakers is irresponsible, especially at a time of economic hardship. The consequences of the Senate Republicans’ failure to act could be devastating to our economy, detrimental to workers, and destructive to the American automobile industry unless the President immediately directs Secretary Paulson to explore other short-term financial assistance options, including TARP and those available to the Federal Reserve. That is the only viable option available at this time."

Except that, as John McCormack notes, 10 Senate Republicans voted for the bailout. The problem was that eight Democrats did not vote for the bailout.

Shouldn't Pelosi be ripping her Senate colleagues for being "irresponsible"? Democrats have to take responsibility for running the country now. There's no place left to hide. If they can't get legislation passed, the blame rests with them.

Abortion Support Is Impervious to Logic

I recently got into a scrap at Pandagon for mentioning the sting on an Indiana Planned Parenthood where a college student posed as a 13-year-old seeking an abortion for her pregnancy by a 31-year-old boyfriend. I can't link to that site because Amanda threw a temper tantrum and banned me, but just go to www.pandagon.net and you'll find it.

The interesting part of the discussion was how many people were more concerned with ensuring that a seventh grader kill her baby than with the fact that the child had been abused. The argument was that it was ok for the man to take the child across state lines to avoid Indiana's parental notification law because it was her choice.

Had I continued commenting, I would have asked about this interesting logic, that a 13-year-old gets to make her own medical decisions without parental involvement. The notion was absolutely shocking to me, and made me wonder if these people had children.

But the more important thing about that discussion is that it shows how people who support abortion are simply impervious to logic. It doesn't matter to them how illogical the situation is, a woman should always be able to get an abortion.

This view is even more extreme than that bestowed upon us by Roe v. Wade. Roe recognized that there was a time during pregnancy when a baby's right to live superceded the right of a woman to bodily integrity (the final trimester). The trimester system is gone, but concern for the baby's right to life remains. But don't tell that to any of the Pandagonistas, because their extremist view will cause them to bring out the long knives quickly.

It looks like Alan Colmes and Amanda Marcotte operate from the same playbook with regards to abortion. Amanda's extremist view justifies lying about crisis pregnancy centers, pro-lifers, Christians, and anyone who has actually had children. And when none of that doesn't work, she'll change the subject. Alan Colmes works the same way:

Alan Colmes didn't like my commentary about his rope-a-dope during Hannity & Colmes last week of Kristan Hawkins and Sarah Hardin of Students for Life for their undercover sting of a NC Planned Parenthood.

Sarah posed as a 15-year-old requesting birth control to sleep with her 30 something-year-old "boy"friend. PP should have reported this to authorities but didn't.

Colmes always tries to derail interviews with adversaries one of 2 ways, by accusing them of hypocrisy or putting them on the defensive about something off-point. Cheap and intellectually void....

Colmes tried but failed to take Kristan and Sarah off-topic by questioning their choice of sting. But they were on to Colmes and kept reorienting the conversation: Multiple PPs in many states now have a well-documented video history of demonstrating intent to cover up minor rapes.

Abortion supporters have to use obfuscation and demagoguery because the truth isn't on their side. When faced with the facts that Planned Parenthood lies to avoid parental notification laws and encourages rapists to take their minor victims across state lines for illegal abortions, they will argue that the greater good of abortion makes lying permissible or that the parents are so evil and brutal that avoiding them is most important.

For abortion supporters, there are no loving parents whose primary concern is the well-being of their children. There are only incestuous molesters and woman-haters. Such stereotyping allows them not to consider how such subterfuge affects the parent-child relationship or that the trauma can be lifelong. Talk about short-sighted.

No One in Obama's Team Met with Blago?

Another myth bites the dust.

Sources within the investigation say that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, spoke with Governor Rod Blagojevich on “multiple occasions” about the Senate succession that Blagojevich had wanted to sell to the highest bidder — and that Emanuel will likely be on the FBI wiretaps.

This doesn't mean that Emanuel was selling Obama's Senate seat in conjunction with Blagojevich. But as Ed Morrissey points out, it lets the air out of the trial balloon that Emanuel was the guy that blew the whistle.

I have to wonder what it's like to be an Obama supporter these days. The read I get from the blogosphere is that a sense of unease and Clintonian deja vu is falling over the HopeNChange brigade.

Auto Bailout Dies

The $15 billion auto bailout died yesterday in the Senate.

Republicans, breaking sharply with President George W. Bush as his term draws to a close, refused to back federal aid for Detroit's beleaguered Big Three without a guarantee that the United Auto Workers would agree by the end of next year to wage cuts to bring their pay into line with U.S. plants of Japanese carmakers. The UAW refused to do so before its current contract with the automakers expires in 2011.

Some people are gleeful. Others are worried about potential fallout for Republicans. Still others are beginning to sour on bailouts and Barack.

The problem with the auto industry bailout is that it comes after the huge financial industry bailout, which hasn't stabilized Wall Street and has irritated taxpayers (what with fatcats thinking they still deserve bonuses and whatnot). As usual, John and Jane Doe will take it on the chin, either in lost jobs or reduced wages.

I hate to sound like a cynic, but this is the way it goes. CEOs keep their ginormous salaries and employees are asked to cut theirs. It happened in the airlines, when pilots and others were asked to take 50% paycuts but the bigwigs still got their bonuses. As one woman has said, it depends on if you want 50% of your pay or no percent.

Most Americans look at the U.S. auto industry and shrug. I have no loyalty to any particular brand of car, unlike my father or other men I've known. The first new car I bought was a 1989 Hyundai Excel and, unlike other people, I had no problems with it. In fact, I loved that car so much that we've bought several others. But I've also owned an assortment of American cars during the same time period, including a 1995 Buick LeSabre and the Ford Focus I now drive. I suspect most people drive the biggest car they can afford that performs the way they want. And when taxpayers hear that union workers for the Big 3 make far more money tightening bolts on cars than do their counterparts at the foreign car plants in the South, they have a hard time working up sympathy.

The United Auto Workers doesn't want to give up its advantage in compensation. But just like with the airlines, half is better than none.

UPDATE: I promised Mike at Iowa Liberal that I would denounce President Bush for supporting a bailout of the Big 3, just as I have Democrats. We have had an interesting discussion about what should happen with the auto industry on this thread at CSPT.

I reluctantly went along with the $700 billion financial bailout, largely because I wasn't sure what else we could/should do. Now, weeks later, it seems that we're going to have a breadline of industries wanting the taxpayers to bail them out of their bad business decisions.



But as Mike and I discussed, why is bankruptcy not on the table for the auto makers? Bankruptcy allows the business to restructure debt, renegotiate contracts and reexamine the business model to make it profitable, something that bailout after handout hasn't done for the car builders. I disagree with the hysteria that if the Big 3 go belly up, you aren't going to be able to get parts for your Chevy pick-up. There will be suppliers that pick up that business. That's not to say some people won't be hurt, but some of the writing is a Scream.

Is This Watergate?

Some people think so.

Christmas Blues

This blog post really says it all.

A Christmas spent, not alone, but with less people. Or I should say with one less person.

Yesterday I put up the Christmas decorations. The Tree, nativity scene, stockings, etc. And it was all done without my mom. She is usually the one who puts up the tree and tells us which ornaments go where, to make it look good. But this year, there was silence. No "move that ornament" or "we are NOT putting that decoration up" (Usually referring to some old dinky thing we made as kids). I didn't get to hear her laughing, or saying "I love you". It was different. And it's going to continue to be different. I know that the one thing I am going to miss this Christmas the MOST is sleeping in the living room on Christmas eve, with my mom walking out and me waking up to see her. But I would have missed that anyway. Maybe it's her telling me Merry Christmas and giving me a hug. I think I am going to miss everything about her. She was the one who made Christmas special. She always made sure we had plans and she always assured us that it is going to be a good Christmas every year, and every year she was right.

I guess it's inevitable. I am going to miss her no matter what. Everyone has that ONE Christmas wish, whether it be a phone, car, book, or whatever. Well, my ONE Christmas wish is to be able to spend it with my mom, and since I know it won't come true, then I just want to be happy. On Thanksgiving I spent the day with my family because I wanted them to be happy. But this one Christmas is more important. It means starting whole new traditions and changing everything. There is a time for everything under the sun. A time to end and a time to start over... It's time to start over.

Via The Other McCain.

This year, in a word, sucked. My father died in March. My best friend's mother (the woman I called my second mother) died over the summer. My husband's grandmother died last month. And my ex-mother-in-law died last week. I've been to more funerals this year than any year of my life, and by the time I was trying to comfort both my daughter and her father last week, I felt like an expert in the grief department.

For me, today marks the slow, sad march to the anniversary of my father's death. This was the day he went into the hospital, and he never went home again. It was a scary and devastating Christmas spent split between my husband and children at home and my father at the hospital. I was torn emotionally for months, fearful of what was to come, tired from long commutes from work to the hospital to home late at night, and nearly numb to the end I knew was coming.

I can identify with April McLean, author of that post. Christmas doesn't seem like Christmas this year. We haven't decorated because we are going away this year for the first time ever. And for the first time in my life, I have no parents.

But I have my family, even if it has been reduced. And I have my health, my home, my friends. I have all my children home again and we are stronger than before. I'll miss my parents this season as I do every day. But I am still thankful for the blessings God has given me in all the people still here.

"I don't know personally a single Democrat who is a dope-smoking hippie that wants to turn us into Soviet Russia."

I say, Thank God to that! I actually have known dope-smoking hippies who were card-carrying communists (back when I worked at the newspaper). I have no idea if these people are still the same. Last time I saw one of them, he was coaching kids' soccer for the YMCA. But Glenn Beck says something interesting about Democrats and Republicans.

The day after the election, I frankly pissed off a lot of my real die-hard Republicans when I said, 'He is my president. He is your president.' We must have him succeed. If he fails, we all fail.

I really think that these parties have done a very good job of dividing us. I don't know personally a single Democrat who is a dope-smoking hippie that wants to turn us into Soviet Russia. I don't know a single Republican who wants to steal your children's school books, take the food away and give all it to Big Oil. Those are cartoon characters. We are Americans. We've got to pull together because we are facing dark, dark times. I don't trust a single weasel in Washington; I don't care what party they're from. But unless we trust each other, we're not going to make it.

One of the things I've discovered since I started blogging is that there are a lot of people out there who would rather believe in their cartoon versions of opponents rather than try to understand and debate those same people. I suppose we can trace that back to Crossfire or maybe Rush Limbaugh, but the shrillness of most blogs make them nearly unreadable. Go check out Pandagon for a good dose of unbelievable vitriol.

Back when Amanda Marcotte was doing her "book tour" (I dunno if discussions in your own town qualify as a book tour), I nearly made the day trip to Austin to shake her hand and force her to see me as a person, not her cartoon projection of what a conservative woman is. I may still do it some day. My thought is that if all the people who call conservatives "mouth-breathing troglodytes" actually had to talk to those people face-to-face, they'd either be ashamed of themselves or would be forced to maintain a certain level of civility. That doesn't seem like a bad idea, really.

I'm enjoying watching Democrats writhing and contorting themselves, trying to distiguish Rod Blagojevich from the average Democrat politician or Teh One, but at the end of the day, I hope when Barack Obama says neither he nor his staff were involved in Blagogate that he's telling the truth. Unfortunately, I don't know that I believe any politician who claims to be innocent. It's a sad reflection on modern politics.

I Just Discovered the Reason This Year Has Been So Sucky

I didn't forward every one of those e-mails with the dire predictions about bad luck if you didn't send them to 10 of your friends.

Pro-Choice Is Pro-Abortion

Pandagonistas never fail to entertain, particularly where the subject of abortion comes up. Take this thread for example, where their dark abortion-at-any-price roots are showing (need to get those touched up, I think).

I brought up the case of the pro-lifer who posed as a 13-year-old at a Planned Parenthood clinic. The "girl" said she was pregnant by her 31-year-old boyfriend. The PP nurse not only didn't want to report the man for child sexual abuse (a felony), she supported the rapist taking the "girl" for an abortion across state lines to avoid the parental notification law of her state.

You'd think even the most ardent abortion supporter would blush at such audacity. But then, if you thought that, you've never read their stuff.

The site appears to be down right now (maybe Amanda is finally getting around to that Blagojevich post), but the comments do make good reading. The upshot is that there's never a bad reason to have an abortion and there's absolutely no good reason to avoid one. It doesn't matter if it's a 13-year-old or a 30-year-old. There's no emotional trauma from abortion and seventh graders make wonderful choices (not counting the one that got them pregnant in the first place), so we shouldn't discourage them from having the "20-minute procedure." All parents are evil monsters who have sex with their children then torture them and want them to have lots of children before reaching 18.

Most of the time, I just leave a well-pointed barb and go. I don't really have a lot of time to read 12 comments that amount to "Shut up! We don't want to hear that!" And if you genuinely don't understand why parents should be involved in major medical decisions of their children, then there isn't enough blogspace on the internet for me to explain it to you. But it's always good for a laugh to watch them twist around to defend the indefensible. I'm just thankful that these hardliners are a tiny percentage of the American populace.

Breaking: Pandagon Still Hasn't Posted on Blagojevich

La la la la. If they stick their fingers in their ears and ignore it, maybe Democrat corruption will go away.

UPDATED: I got a rise out of the Planned Parenthood flack by asking why she wasn't writing about Blagojevich, the biggest story over the past two days, but, instead, was writing more apologies for that supporter of illegal abortions for girls:

Sharon, the choice of what to blog about for those of us who do actually know how to think usually involves knowing if we have anything useful to say. And I’ve got nothing besides, “He fucked up. What a moron.” Now, I know this is hard for you to understand, since I doubt you’ve said a useful thing in your life. But for those of us who are capable of it, it is important not to be spouting off for no reason whatsoever.

Shorter Amanda: I can't defend the fact that I'm a lunatic Democrat shill without principles, so I'll just try to say you're stupid for calling me on it.

Culture of Corruption?

Michelle Malkin has a great column today on the Democrat Culture of Corruption.

For the last three years, Democratic leaders cheered GOP ethics woes. Dean accused Republicans of making “their culture of corruption the norm.” Pelosi touted cleanliness as a liberal virtue. But with the eye-popping pay-for-play and bribery case against Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich topping a year of nationwide Democratic scandals, the corruption chickens are coming home to roost.

It's enjoyable watching Democrats defend then denounce their officials. After years of hearing that corruption is, somehow, only found among Republicans, I have to admit to a tiny smidge of smugness at the Democrat criminals making news these days.

2008 was the year of Democratic Reps. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, Charlie “Sweetheart Deals” Rangel, and former Detroit Mayor Kwame “Text Me” Kilpatrick. It was the year Democratic Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson got caught stuffing bribes from an FBI informant down her shirt. It was the year 12 Democratic leaders and staffers in Pennsylvania’s state Capitol were stung in a massive corruption scandal involving cash, sex and abuse of public office. And it was the year of multimillion-dollar embezzlement scandals at Democratic satellite offices of ACORN and the SEIU.

Ahh, schadenfreude. Will there be any Democrats left to govern in a year?

Woot! The Obama Soap Opera Begins

Wow, we're still 42 days away from Obama's swearing in and the intrigue has already begun.

As Secretary of State-pick Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.N. envoy-choice Susan Rice separately visited the diplomatic agency's headquarters in Washington's Foggy Bottom neighborhood, persons familiar with the transition said that Rice wants to install her own transition team inside the department.

Such a move by an incoming U.N. ambassador is rare, if not unprecedented, because the job is based at the United Nations in New York, where Rice already has a small transition staff, the sources familiar with the incoming administration.

The push by Rice, an early Obama supporter whose position the President-elect wants to elevate to a cabinet post, is also a signal that she intends to use her influence with the new president to play a more significant role than previous U.N. envoys, they said. The transition sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

As RedState points out,

This, by the way, is why it is a bad idea to do as Obama has done and elevate the position of UN Ambassador to Cabinet rank. Essentially, Obama now has two Secretaries of State. And each is apparently fighting with the other–sotto voce for the moment, but it will probably get louder later–to exert power and influence in the realm of foreign affairs. This despite the fact that as an Ambassador, Rice should be taking instruction from Clinton.

Just the latest example where Obama's inexperience at leadership creates problems.

FBI Nabs Illinois Governor Blagojevich

The Pandagonistas really twitched and screamed when I talked about Obama's rise to power through the "Chicago Machine." There were even threats of violence against me if I went to Chicago because of it. But the facts are the facts and Chicago specifically and Illinois in general is a corrupt and Democratic cesspool. The arrest of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich just confirms that.

The dirty details:

Blagojevich and Harris were accused of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy that included Blagojevich conspiring to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. The governor was also accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions.

Anyone who has read any of the books out on Barack Obama knows about the shady politics practiced in Illinois (remember, Obama has said that if you can win, you should win). This news is unsurprising, really.

And the reaction from the moonbats is also unsurprising.

One thing’s for sure, the Justice Department moves very quickly and efficiently when members of the opposing party are being investigated. Certainly a lot faster than they nab crooked private contractors in Iraq.

Yes, because it's ok as long as he's a Democrat crook.

Choices and Charity

This Delaware Liberal post (and this follow-up) bring up a number of questions and ironies.

First is a look at choices and consequences. This is a guy who (evidently) is an American citizen and graduated from high school. Yet, for undisclosed reasons, he's only worked at jobs that paid in cash (hence, avoiding taxation), and that industry has been drying up. He cannot afford rent and is relying on the kindness of strangers for subsistence. He has no ID. He wants to stay here because his girlfriend is in the hospital.

So, why would someone not have ID? Or work only for cash? I have a few ideas, and none of them make him a terribly sympathetic character. But even those least sympathetic can tug at the heartstrings when it is 20 degrees outside, so I fully understand the desire to do something for him.

The irony comes in the form of the "something" that was done.

My friend has identified a vacant rental that can be availed to this man for a few weeks. Hopefully that is long enough to sort out some of the other issues.

Through Emmaus House, I got connected to a group that helps the homeless, The Empowerment Center.

For the record, Emmaus House is a private non-profit agency for families in crisis.

I wondered why the self-stylized liberalgeek didn't point the guy to the Delaware State Social Services Division? After all, you only have to look at a couple of posts to recognize that these guys are way out on the fringe. You'd think their first reaction would be to e-mail Barack Obama to do something about this guy living in the woods. Instead, he contacts a private group that, while receiving some government funds, actually gets funding from churches! Isn't that against the Delaware Liberal creed or something?

...And Oldest Daughter Was Born Today

Remember, I said I started labor on the 6th. Sometimes, I even amaze myself! ;)

Liberals Angry With Obama

I've been waiting to see this sentiment in print.

Liberals voice concerns about Obama

Liberals are growing increasingly nervous – and some just flat-out angry – that President-elect Barack Obama seems to be stiffing them on Cabinet jobs and policy choices.

Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He’s hedged his call for a quick drawdown in Iraq. And he’s stocking his White House with anything but stalwarts of the left.

Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the new boss looks like the old boss.

As conservatives have been skeptically approving of many of Obama's picks so far, it has to have had the opposite effect on leftwingers anxious to tear down any and every George W. Bush policy. But it would simply be foolish for Barack Obama to run into the White House and abruptly change every policy on the books, from domestic to foreign to military. And as much as I dislike Obama, he's not that foolish.

Perhaps it's been his seat at the table, so to speak, for the daily security briefings, where he's learned things that the public doesn't know. Perhaps it's recognizing his lack of experience governing and leading, which causes him to pick cabinet staff who have been there and done that...meaning old Clinton era people. Or perhaps it is Obama's way of trying to reassure the populace that he isn't a radical bent on destroying the United States. Regardless, Obama does seem to be cautious in his picks so far.

Still, Teh One hasn't even taken the oath of office yet. It seems to me that embracing him as either Satan or the Lightworker was always a bit foolish, but there's no doubt he will make some disasterous decisions...and some good ones.

The amusing part is watching the moonbats froth at the mouth and sputter about Obama's backsliding. At best, Obama's carefully crafted history reveals an opportunistic shyster with few, if any, guiding principles. When he swung from left to center after winning the Democratic presidential nomination, what were these people thinking? Were they really so stupid that they didn't recognize he was lying either before or after winning the nomination? And what did they think would happen, since they were so willing to accept his flip-flops all summer?

The Myth That Abortion Is Just a 20-Minute Procedure

Feminists often pooh-pooh the idea that abortion can have psychological effects for some women who have them. But two new studies have been added to the body of evidence proving the affect as fact.

The two peer-reviewed papers were published in the British Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of Psychiatric Research. Both had strong methodology and controls for confounding or alternate variables.

"The results of both studies add to the strong body evidence detailing the causal association between abortion and mental health disorders," said Moira Gaul, Family Research Council's Director of Women's and Reproductive Health. "Additionally, these findings continue to reinforce important implications concerning informed consent in health care. Women in this country deserve quality health care which provides accurate information on the associated risks accompanying abortion," added Gaul.

"Women are increasingly coming forward to share about the negative impact abortion has played in their lives. Clinicians treating women for mental health disorders are increasingly stepping forward to tell the truth about the large numbers seeking treatment due to the fallout from abortion. These studies dispel the repeated lies from the pro-abortion community that abortion is a 'non-event' or somehow 'therapeutic' in women's lives. This substantial body of scientific evidence warrants a government longitudinal study," concluded Moira Gaul.

This comes as no surprise to me. I've known a number of women over the years who have had abortions, but no matter how justified they felt the decision to be, there was still guilt, grieving, and sadness. Feminists attribute this to outside pressure, but the truth is that women know the embryo or fetus they carry is a baby human, and that abortion kills him/her.