Pop Quiz....

In honor of Al Gore's Hippie Jamfest...

here is a little quiz:

Did Al Gore say it? or did the Unabomber?

I scored 58%.

Hat Tip: IMAO (Harvey at IMAO scored 33%) and American Digest

Single digit Congress, anyone?

I am offering the following prediction:
By Election Day 2008, the Democrats will have ousted Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. Right now, they are blazing a trail to see exactly how low approval ratings can go.

This morning, the White House astutely pointed out that Queen Nancy and Prince Harry have spent this entire year trying to sully a lame duck President rather than focusing on real legislative issues or Iraq.

This is a fight that President Bush should be willing to start. The President is facing approval ratings in the low 30's, while the Democrats are mired in the low 20's, and Harry Reid has even polled into the teens.

Bill Clinton's presidency survived the storm after impeachment by his famous "I am busy trying to do what is right for America" line while impeachment managers were trying to argue legalities about Bubba's perjury.

Red-district Democrats are somewhat hesitant to allow the Reid/Clinton/Kennedy/Pelosi agenda of more taxes, more welfare, and socialized medicine to move forward, and many small state Democrats astutely observe that surrender in Iraq will cost the party dearly, so they are stuck trying to pander to their base by trying to hold hearings that amount to no more than an echo chamber to the Daily Kos or MoveOn.org's crackpot theory of the hour. Judging by the polls, these little bones do not satiate this George Soros inspired beast.

Bush is a serious President dealing with serious issues. He can steal back a few of those in the disapproval column if he keeps on calling out the Dems in Congress on their foolishness.

From the "Where are the Parents?" section...

How many 4 year olds do you know have the attention span to do something like this?

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. (AP) - Authorities tracked down a 4-year-old girl who called 911 nearly 300 times last month by offering to deliver McDonald's to her suburban Chicago apartment.

Unbeknownst to her mother, the girl used a deactivated cell phone to call dispatchers 287 times in June—sometimes as often as 20 times a shift. Dispatchers heard the child's voice but could only track the phone's signal to the apartment complex.

Hat Tip: Neal's Nuze (radio talkmaster Neal Boortz)

President Bush grants Scooter Libby clemoncy

You can read the President's statement here.

Of course, Fred fans will know that he served on the Advisory Committee for the Libby Legal Defense Trust .

From NBC's Joel Seidman, Fred released this statement:

"I am very happy for Scooter Libby. I know that this is a great relief to him, his wife and children. While for a long time I have urged a pardon for Scooter, I respect the President's decision. This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life."

You should read Fred Thompson's brilliant article defending Scooter here.

Just another Democrat...

Joe Manchin has long been viewed as "Republican lite" dating back to his time in the State Senate and his during his divisive 1996 Primary where Charlotte Pritt upended him by locking up the unions and the liberal wing of the party (which is far bigger than you might think - WV Dems are pro-choice by a margin of 49% to 43% as compared to all adults, which are pro-life by a margin of 53% to 39%)

Before failed one-term Democrat Governor Bob Wise announced that he would not be running for re-election in 2003, there were rumors abound that Joe Manchin would someday switch parties. During his victorious 2004 campaign, Joe apparently downloaded the West Virginia Republican Party Platform, and adopted it as his own issues.

He ran on many Republican issues: pro-life, smaller government, tax reform, civil justice reform, and even workers' compensation reform. The Chambercrat crowd, which had helped Cecil Underwood upend Charlotte Pritt , backed Manchin with a vengeance, even though he was endorsed by virtually there entire left-wing of the Democrat Party.

But as Governor, we have seen a different Joe Manchin than we were promised in the 2004 campaign. Aside from workers' compensation, we have seen him govern from the left, which culminated into control of the House of Delegates by the labor/trial lawyer factions of the Democrat party, with a great assist from Joe Manchin's close allies in the gambling industry.

Manchin has even managed ignore the pro-life movement's important legislative priorities as not to upset Speaker Thompson and House Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Carrie Webster, a militant abortion rights supporter. Even though he doesn't lift a finger fighting for pro-life legislation as Governor, he gladly accepts a seat at the head table of pro-life dinners, and will eagerly seek their endorsement in 2008.

The most glaring example of incumbent Joe versus candidate Joe is on the issue of taxes. Rather than simply reducing or abolishing the unpopular food tax, Governor Manchin has decided to use it to control behavior. The Charleston Daily Mail chimes in on the new 4% sales tax which took effect July 1st.

Shoppers are advised to bring a thermometer to the grocery store. The temperature of the product could change its price.

For example, nuts (including salted nuts) are taxed at the 4 percent rate. But warmed nuts are taxed at 6 percent. The discrimination against peanut shops continues.

Pumpkins are taxed at 4 percent, except for pumpkins that are decorated, which are taxed at 6 percent. The state wants to continue to cash in on the Halloween shopping season.

The taxation of salads is particularly vexing to the state. Salad dressings and mixes are taxed at 4 percent. Salads purchased for resale and repackaged in smaller containers are also safe. Their tax dropped to 4 percent.

Unless they are heated. Or sold with utensils. Or both

With Governor Manchin, we won't receive full-scale tax reform that will bring in better jobs, we will continue to see timid decrementalism that is predicated on conditions concocted by the Governor's planned-economy gurus. He wants public acclaimt for reducing a tax, while at the same time getting credit for solving a problem through the use of incentives.

Essentially, Manchin likes to use Government to control citizens' behavior. He does not just want to enforce the laws, he wants control - over your life and mine. Every reform he passes will have a bureaucrat behind your back wielding a stick - making sure that you are behaving in his prescribed manner or no tax cuts. Did you know that your sales tax on soft drinks just went up?

It's all part of Governor Joe's War on Obesity.

Listen to two hours of Talkline on WVMetroNews and listen to how many times you hear PSA's with the Governor or one of his cabinet secretaries telling you how to live, and you will see that Joe Manchin is just another liberal who worships at the altar of big government.

Rethinking FDR

Based on my amateur armchair analysis, I have always considered Franklin D. Roosevelt a great President, but not for the reasons my grandparents' generation would think...

I thought given the circumstances and the unique challenge he had to encounter fighting World War II alongside an ally whom we really could not trust in Stalin, he did as well as could be expected, and he used the bully pulpit to its maximum potential, in spite of dealing with polio.

However based on my knowledge of history and economics, I do not buy into the popular belief that FDR ended the Great Depression through Keynesian economic policies, nor do I buy into the belief that Hoover got us into the Great Depression by relying on "supply-side economics"

(In fact, Hoover's protectionist economic policies and reliance on big government made the depression worse, and many great economists argue the New Deal PROLONGED the Great Depression)

As Amity Shlaes points out in this article at OpinionJournal.com, the time may have come for a serious debate about the nation's economic policies and their effect on the Great Depression.

Here is an excerpt:

Roosevelt did famously well by one measure, the political poll. He flunked by two other meters that we today know are critically important: the unemployment rate and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In his first inaugural address, Roosevelt spoke of a primary goal: "to put people to work." Unemployment stood at 20% in 1937, five years into the New Deal. As for the Dow, it did not come back to its 1929 level until the 1950s. International factors and monetary errors cannot entirely account for these abysmal showings.