Owning It

Among the many challenges our administration inherited was the slow but steady decline in support for our nuclear stockpile and infrastructure, and for our highly trained nuclear work force. (VP Biden, WSJ, 1/29)

RedStateVT asks the following question: At what point does a new President take ownership of the country, its issues and challenges? A full quarter of the Obama term has now passed and as the quote above shows –along with comments made during the State of the Union speech – this Administration is continuing to look backward, blame Bush and otherwise fail to take ownership. Well news flash, Mr. President. You own it. You may or may not be responsible for the “challenges” this country faces, but we suspect the American people are getting just a little tired of hearing you push off the responsibility to others.

Yet, this seems to be in keeping with the new Obama strategy. In the face of a growing populist revolt, Obama now seeks to position himself as a Washington outsider, fighting the good fight against the entrenched political machine. It just has no credibility whatsoever. Obama is a Chicago politician who has surrounded himself with Democrat Party stalwarts and who had filibuster-proof majorities. People are mad at Congress and polls supposedly show that Obama is still personally popular. However, his party has now lost three important elections. And, if we were him, we would not continue to count on charisma.

Time to own it, Mr. President.

Precious Moments

Tony Blair’s Margaret Thatcher Moment
Star witness Tony Blair took the stand today in Britain's ongoing inquiry into why Britain joined the U.S.-led war in Iraq….A crowd of some 300 protesters had gathered at the front of the building, waving placards declaring "B-Liar" and shouted "Blair lied, thousands died."…. Their drumming and shouts for justice could be heard inside the chamber. But if they were hoping for a mea culpa moment, they were bound for disappointment…..Blair stubbornly defended his decision to back the U.S. invasion. "The decision I took -- and frankly would take again -- was: if there was any possibility that [Saddam Hussein] could develop weapons of mass destruction, we would stop him. It was my view then and that is my view now." (AOLNEWS.COM, 1/29/10)

Blair again proves himself to be a stand-up guy!


Osama Bin Laden’s Al Gore Moment
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the dollar, blaming the U.S. and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday. (AP, 1/29/10)

If we are down to global warming, it seems to RedStateVT that Bin Laden is running out of things to complain about!


Barack Obama’s Bill Clinton Moment
"The notion that this (the stimulus bill) was a radical package is just not true," Mr. Obama said. "I am not an ideologue." (WSJ, 1/29/10)

That depends upon what the definition of “ideologue” is!

Three Strikes, Part Three

Sobering Up
The Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday that shutters roughly 80 percent of the nearly 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city and makes the use of marijuana in the remaining outlets illegal. While medical marijuana use and sale have enjoyed general support throughout the city and among lawmakers, the aggressive proliferation of dispensaries in recent years has tried the patience of even the most liberal of groups. (NYT, 1/26/10)

Even the lefties realize that things had gotten out-of-hand……..

Karma
It seems either a cruel or fitting twist. Senator Arlen Specter left the Republican Party last year and became a Democrat to save his political career. Now, at 79, he suddenly finds that the party he switched into may not provide a safe haven. (NYT, 1/26/10)

RedStateVT says: it is both “cruel” and a “fitting twist”…..and richly deserved!

How Dumb Do We Look?
On Saturday, he endorsed legislation in the Senate to create a bipartisan commission to tackle the budget deficit, with an up-or-down vote in Congress on its recommendations at the end of the year. A vote on creating that commission is scheduled in the Senate for Tuesday, and it is not expected to pass. White House officials hope the president's endorsement of the bill will soften Republican opposition to his plan to create a similar commission by executive order. That commission will need GOP cooperation to fill eight of the 18 seats on the panel with Republicans. (WSJ, 1/26/10)

So let’s see if we’ve got this right. Obama wants to create a bipartisan committee to “tackle the budget deficit” which gives him cover for the mess which he created through his irresponsible spending spree. As predicted, the idea was voted down.

MisSTATEment

With the occasion of his first State of the Union speech, President Obama had an enormous opportunity to redefine and reshape his presidency in light of the political setbacks his party has faced, driven by the increasingly restive American public. The speech last night was just horrible. One begins to wonder about the basis for Obama’s reputation as a gifted orator.

Obama’s hour plus opus elicited the usual jack-in-the-box response from Democrats (usually) when he mentioned some pet program or some populist measure. Clearly, the message that Obama took from the most recent Democrat loss in Massachusetts was: it’s the economy, stupid. And so he reflexively talked about jobs and struggling Americans. OK, he feels our pain. But the effect was lost when he cycled back to his real agenda of health care, global warming and maligning the business community. Obama ranted on about the insurance industry, the banks and lobbyists. RedStateVT says: If these entities are breaking the law, then they should be prosecuted. If not, then stop making them the whipping boys for everything you don’t like about capitalism.

Other lowlights:

--Obama talked about the success that has been achieved in fighting Al Qaeda during his first year, compared to 2008. Really Mr. President, you want to compare yourself to George Bush on the national security issue?

--Obama wants all earmarks to be published so the American people can see them. What does this remind us of? Oh yeah, health care “transparency.” Sorry, but you just have no credibility on that.

--Also laughable was the President’s attempt to alibi on the issue of spending and deficits. He tried to get away with saying, in effect, it was bad when I took over and I only made it a little worse.

And finally, Obama talked as he often does about bipartisanship and how the American public wants and deserves more cooperation and better results from its elected officials. However, the approach he always takes in dealing with Republicans is akin to the old Russian style of negotiating: everything you have is negotiable, nothing I have is negotiable. Hence, he tells Republicans to bring forth their ideas and then soundly ignores them.

Score this speech as yet another missed opportunity. Did we mention that it was too long? Even Harry Reid was caught yawning!

Who Said It?

“Mr. Obama may be personally very appealing, but he has positioned himself all over the political map: the anti-Iraq war candidate who escalated the war in Afghanistan; the opponent of health insurance mandates who made a mandate to buy insurance the centerpiece of his plan; the president who stocked his administration with Wall Street insiders and went to the mat for the banks and big corporations, but who is now trying to present himself as a born-again populist. Mr. Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose rhetoric, however skillful, cannot always be trusted. He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won’t be able to close it.”

A) Liberal New York Times columnist Bob Herbert
B) Conservative Talk Radio Host Rush Limbaugh
C) Newly Elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown
D) RedStateVT
E) Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin


If you guessed A) you’re today’s winner!!!

Three Strikes, Part 2

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, speaks to the media after a discussion with 6th grade students at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Va., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The Imperial Presidency

A friend sent us this picture of the President standing behind the Presidential podium using a teleprompter at an elementary school! Does this strike anyone as just a bit....odd?

Softies
The Taliban have embarked on a sophisticated information war, using modern media tools as well as some old fashioned ones, to soften their image and win favor with local Afghans….The Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, issued a lengthy directive late last spring outlining a new code of conduct for the Taliban. The dictates include bans on suicide bombings against civilians, burning down schools, or cutting off ears, lips and tongues. (NYT, 1/21/2010)

RedStateVT says it’s always good to be reminded of who we are fighting!

Bad Economics
The fact is that the Senate bill is a centrist document, which moderate Republicans should find entirely acceptable. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 1/22/2010)

Krugman has a BA from Yale, a PhD from MIT and is an Economics professor at Princeton. How could someone so educated be so clueless?

Three Strikes

Barack Obama: Populist
Stocks took a hit in the previous session, dropping to new lows for the year after President Barack Obama proposed the most extensive curbs on market speculation by banks since the outbreak of the recent financial crisis, sending bank shares tumbling. (WSJ.com, 1/22/10)

After a stinging defeat in Massachusetts in which President Obama derided Republican Scott Brown’s pick-up truck, the President’s advisers have decided to make him over….as a populist. First target: the American public, by way of the banks. Upset at losses in your 401(k) plan over the past three days? Blame Obama.

The Man Who Would Be President
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has finally come forward to admit that he fathered a child with a videographer he hired before his second White House bid. "It was wrong for me to ever deny she was my daughter," he said Thursday. (AP 1/21/10)

Edwards, a multimillionaire trial lawyer who made his fortune suing obstetricians, was about as sanctimonious a politician as could be found. Nonetheless, it is truly sad to see someone fall so far, so fast.

Grounded
Liberal talk radio network Air America is planning to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the company said Thursday. "The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America's business," according to a statement on the network's Web site. It cited a "perfect storm" in the media industry and plummeting advertising revenues. (CNNMoney.com, 1/22/10)

Somehow, radio talk show titan Rush Limbaugh has managed to avoid that “perfect storm.” Reminds us of Ann Coulter’s line about why conservative radio is so popular: it is listened to by people driving in cars to jobs.

Exploiting Children

Last month, advocates and opponents of same-sex marriage packed the New Jersey State House in Trenton, supporters in blue, opponents in red. Near the end of the day, Kasey Nicholson-McFadden took the microphone. “It doesn’t bother me to tell kids my parents are gay,” he said in a clear voice. “It does bother me to say they aren’t married. It makes me feel that our family is less than their family.”

Kasey is 10 years old. (Our emphasis) When the New Jersey State Senate voted against same-sex marriage on Jan. 7, he was devastated. “We tried to buoy him and say, ‘It’s another step in the process and it’s not over yet,’ ” said Karen Nicholson-McFadden, one of Kasey’s mothers. (NYT, 1/21/2010)

RedStateVT says: Let’s let adults argue the pros and cons of these social issues. By dragging a 10 year old child into the middle of the same-sex marriage debate, Kasey’s “mothers” prove they are unfit.

A Great Country

This partial list of donations to Haitian relief proves once again why America is a great country (from FoxNews.com) .

USA - $114.5 million

Japan - $5.3 million

Botswana - $1.1 million

Russia - $.7 million

Saudi Arabia – zilch

Iran – nada

Al Qaeda – squat


USA…USA…USA!

AFTERSHOCKS

A Sensible Democrat?
Bottom line: We liberals need to reclaim the Democratic Party with the New Democrat positions of Bill Clinton and the New Politics/bipartisan aspirations of Barack Obama—a party that is willing to meet half-way with conservatives and Republicans even if that means only step-by-step reforms on health care and other issues that do not necessarily involve big-government solutions. (Lanny Davis, WSJ, 1/20/2010)

A Nonsensical Democrat
After a year of being knifed by the GOP at every turn, isn't it time to give up on faith in genteel post-partisanship? (Katrina vanden Heuvel, NYT, 1/21/2010)

There are probably many ways to describe Democrat behavior over the past twelve months. However, the words "genteel post-partisanship" don't immediately come to mind!

We Love Brown!
The Senate seat held for nearly half a century by Mr. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, will now be held for the next two years by a Republican who has said he supports waterboarding as an interrogation technique for terrorism suspects, opposes a federal cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions and opposes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants unless they leave the country. (NYT, 1/20/2010)

Delusional
While some Democrats were saying slow down, others said speed up, and that the reason Coakley lost is because voters were frustrated by the legislative inertia in Washington. "The reason Ted Kennedy's seat is no longer controlled by a Democrat is clear: Washington's inability to deliver the change voters demanded in November 2008," Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern said. "Make no mistake, political paralysis resulted in electoral failure." (FoxNews.com 1/20/2010)

Andy Stern needs to get out of the house more, the White House that is. Stern’s frequent guest privileges should be revoked.

Blame Bush
“Here’s my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts but the mood around the country — the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office,” Mr. Obama said. “People are angry and they are frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.” (NYT, 1/21/2010)

So, if we understand Obama correctly, Brown's win is the fault of George Bush!

Grade Change
With Obama’s health care plans now up in the air, RedStateVT wonders whether his self-reported B+ grade now needs to be lowered……

What Just Happened?

Not the anniversary present that President Obama wanted, that’s for sure. Just one short year after joyful Democrats took to lecturing Republicans about everything they were supposedly doing wrong, we get the Massachusetts miracle. Now the question is what Dems will learn from Scott Brown’s election. So far, it remains to be seen.

Here’s a cross-section of Dem suggestions on how to proceed:

Damn the Torpedoes!
“Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, said Wednesday that the Senate health care bill still looked good to him. And he said Mr. Obama should press the House to adopt it.” (NYT, 1/20/2010)

It’s the Messenger, Not the Message
“Ms. Coakley’s defeat, in a state that Mr. Obama won in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote, led to a round of finger-pointing among Democrats. Some criticized her tendency for gaffes…….while others criticized a lackluster, low-key campaign.” (NYT, 1/20/2010)

We Need to Pass This Stupid Bill
“I only have one thought, which is that the Democrats should pass the health care bill now. If that means having the House pass the Senate version, fine. Even the stupid parts. Even the part about how Nebraska doesn’t have to pay its share of the Medicaid bills, which is so ridiculous that even Nebraskans are embarrassed.” (Gail Collins, NYT, 1/19/2010)

Don’t Those Idiots Know We’re Trying to Help Them?
“If the Democrats act like the country hasn’t voiced a judgment, if they try to ram this through, there will be an explosion the likes of which we haven’t seen. It will be a supreme act of insularity. Sometimes you can get away with running directly against public opinion, but it is a very risky maneuver. Show humility, Democrats, there is some chance that American voters may not be complete idiots.” (David Brooks, NYT, 1/19/2010)

Voice of Reason
"We shouldn't show the arrogance of not getting the message here," said liberal Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, contending independents had turned against the bill and the Democratic base had lost its enthusiasm. "I don't think it would be the worst thing to take a step back" and turn the focus to jobs, in conjunction with scaled-back health care goals. (WSJ, 1/20/2010)

Well, it looks to RedStateVT like the Dem party hasn’t yet fully processed the message being sent by the American voter. Not to worry, we can try this again come November!

GOP Unleashes Secret Weapon: Obama

Where to start? One year into the Obama revolution the bottom has fallen out. Called in to save Dems in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts and to bring the Olympics home to his Chicago cronies, the Hope and Change guy has struck out plus one. Honest journalists will call this what it is: the most stunning political reversal in our time. The simple loss of one Senate seat has the potential to render Obama a lame duck after one year. Unless the Dems get smart fast – and there is no evidence that they will – this will be just the start. Say goodbye to Harry.

Comparisons to Fast Will Clinton will be inevitable. Dragged down by his wife’s disastrous attempt to screw-up health care, the Fast One tacked to the center. He may have been guileful, but he could read the political tea leaves. Obama, however, is a true believer and true believers often end up using their heads to try and open a stuck door. Not gonna work. The people who thought it might be a good idea to give this seemingly articulate and smart, mixed-race guy a chance are onto him. Perhaps they didn’t hear or didn’t believe it when Obama called for a “fundamental transformation of America.” They have heard it now, and they don’t want it.

More to follow from RedStateVT in coming days on this game-changing outcome.

Fight to the Finish

Like the rest of the country, RedStateVT is following the battle the outcome of which will have profound consequences for our nation. The combatants are locked in a bitter struggle from which only one can emerge victorious. The gloves are off, blows have been landed and bitter accusations made. Only time will tell who the victor will be.....Conan or Jay.

Also of note, there's a little contest going on in Massachusetts. It's a toss-up at this point, but RedStateVT can report that we know of four Mass Dems who are picking Brown over Coakley!

Fun With Numbers!

RedStateVT was channel-surfing last night and caught the end of a Bill Moyers PBS show. Moyers formerly held himself out as a journalist, before being revealed as a partisan left winger. This puts him in the same camp as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, whose man-crush on Obama has now gotten creepy. Anyway, Moyers was talking about something called the National Priorities Project. RedStateVT checked it out and here’s how the NPP describes its mission:

National Priorities Project analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. (National Priorities Project website)

Included on their website is a handy-dandy calculator that shows what your tax dollars could have gone to had they not been spent on - you pick it: total defense spending, spending in Afghanistan, spending in Iraq, spending in Afghanistan and Iraq, etc. By plugging in a few boxes, we learned, for example, that $287.7 million in taxes collected from Chittenden County for total fiscal year 2010 defense spending could have instead purchased 25,405 scholarships for one year for college students.

Well, that sure clarifies things for us!

RedStateVT has said it before, but let’s do it again:

The first priority of any country is national defense. If you can’t protect your borders from your enemies nothing else matters. We can quibble about the dollars, but when the bad guys fly planes into your buildings, try to blow up airplanes, open fire on American soldiers, or attack your embassies, we would rather err on the side of conservatism and spend more. As a result, some of our kids may end up having to work to put themselves through college, but you know what? That’s not such a bad thing either!

Clippings

The Trouble with Harry
The cheers for Reid in Washington are not being heard back home: a poll conducted this month on behalf of The Las Vegas Review-Journal found that Nevadans disapproved of the health care bill. Reid’s attempt to slip in financing to offset Nevada’s Medicaid costs, precisely the kind of vote-getting sweetener that could display his worth to Nevadans, came under fire in Washington, so he withdrew it rather than risk having the bill unravel. (New York Times 1/13/2010)

Harry Reid is the poster boy for health care reform, but "Nevadans disapproved of the health care bill." RedStateVT misses the days when politicians represented the people they served. Also, looks like Harry was trying to get the same deal he gave Ben Nelson of Nebraska.....what a slimeball!

Mr. Reid, 70 years old, is faring worse than most of his colleagues. Besides taking flak from some over health care, he hails from a relatively conservative state with a tough economy. Its unemployment rate, 12.3%, ties for third highest in the nation. Nevada ranks second in mortgages that are in foreclosure. (Wall Street Journal, 1/13/2010)

Reid fiddles while Nevada burns.

Democrat Has A-ha Moment
Under the Senate bill, the federal government would impose a 40 percent tax on the value of employer-sponsored health coverage exceeding $8,500 a year for an individual and $23,000 for a family........But Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, said: “The view of many progressives is that the tax is unacceptable. It would affect a lot of middle-income people.” Mr. Nadler said the politics of the tax should worry Democrats. In effect, he said, “the tax tells blue-collar workers that you should pay higher taxes and get lower benefits to help finance coverage for the uninsured.” (New York Times, 1/13/2010)

Nadler must have thought that the health care fairy was going to pay for insuring the uninsured!

Sub-Standards
(Massachusetts Senate race - Democrat Coakley versus Republican Brown)
And Democrats are clearly unnerved by other recent polls that found the two neck and neck. Some of those polls do not meet the standards of The New York Times and other news organizations because they relied on automated telephone calls. (New York Times, 1/14/2010)

RedStateVT guesses that any poll that shows a Democrat losing in Massachusetts fails to "meet the standards of The New York Times."

In Other Words
With a growing sense of urgency, President Obama and top Congressional Democrats held a marathon negotiating session on Wednesday in an effort to thrash out agreements on sweeping health care legislation that could provide insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans. (New York Times, 1/13/2010)

With a growing sense of urgency, President Obama and top Congressional Democrats held a marathon negotiating session on Wednesday in an effort to thrash out agreements on sweeping health care legislation notwithstanding serious concerns among large numbers of Americans that the reforms were too costly and would reduce benefits. (RedStateVT, 1/14/2010)

Health Care Apocalypse
“If we do nothing, if, God forbid, this bill crashes and burns, we could have 60 or 80 or 100 million people without insurance,” said Representative Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York. (New York Times, 1/13/2010)

Engel also noted that failure to pass the bill would result in plagues of locusts, the darkening of the sun, and worldwide famine.

New Material for Letterman
Mr. Biden was also consistently disgruntled with Mr. Obama's campaign strategy, apparently even more so than Sarah Palin was by John McCain's. Before a "Meet the Press" appearance in August, Mr. Biden told Mr. Obama's aides: "Well, it's your campaign. I'll say what you want me to say. But after Election Day, all bets are off." Evidently, Mr. Biden went rogue long before Ms. Palin did. (Wall Street Journal, 1/13/2010)

In between harassing female subordinates, David Letterman continues to tell tired Sarah Palin jokes. Note to Dave: Biden offers much better material!

Quote Unquote

Democrat Harry Reid makes an insensitive racial remark regarding then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama. He apologizes and Obama accepts the apology. If that were the end of the story, RedStateVT would have no problems. Politicians tend to speak a lot and they are going to say something stupid occasionally. (Note the one exception here. Vice President Joe Biden speaks a lot and says something stupid most of the time. This explains why he has not been spotted in public for months.) However, let’s look just a little further at the issue of verbal gaffes.

When a Republican says something dumb, Democrats have two immediate reactions. The first is to infer that the remark masks a hidden prejudice and that the speaker is a closet bigot. Note that no one has made such an accusation against Reid. This continues the familiar script that Republicans are racist/sexist/fill-in-the-blank-ist while Democrats are open-minded and warmly embracing of diversity.

The second Democrat response is to call for the resignation of the offender. No Dem calls for Reid to resign, of course, even though he does not deny making the remark. We juxtapose this with the fury and outrage several months ago when Rush Limbaugh was reported to be among a group of investors looking to buy a pro football team. A host of the most scandalous racial utterances attributed to Limbaugh were endlessly circulated and he dropped out of the group. Only guess what? He never said any of the things they said that he said!

A couple of other Democrat responses are worthy of mention. Some Dems have attempted to justify Reid’s miscue by saying that Reid was actually only verbalizing what most people really think. And they call us bigots!

And lastly, during this event Dems have also rolled out an old chestnut that goes like this. Yes, he said something bad, but we can’t get rid of him because he is too important to fill-in-the-blank again. In this instance, Reid gets a pass because he is crucial to Obama’s health care agenda. This kind of situational ethics reminds us of the story of the feminist who reportedly forgave Bill Clinton his womanizing (and offered sexual favors to him) so long as he continued to support abortion rights.

WHO SAID IT?

RedStateVT is back again with our popular new feature WHO SAID IT?

Who said the following in 2008?

Barack Obama is a "light skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one" and this will help rather than hurt his bid for president.*

Was it......

A) Rush Limbaugh
B) Sean Hannity
C) Newt Gingrich
D) RedStateVT
E) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid



If you guess Harry Reid, Democrat, you are a winner!


*From"Game Change" by Mark Halperin (Time magazine) and John Heilemann (New York magazine) as reported on www.politico.com (1/10/2010)

New Feature -- Who Said It?

RedStateVT is pleased to introduce a new feature where readers are asked to guess who made the comments that we quote. Here we go!

Who said the following?

--The attitude of the Obama administration is not that of a war.
--They (Islamic terrorists) want to kill every Christian, every Jew, every Hindu who won’t convert.
--The President missed the boat when he didn’t interrupt his Hawaii vacation. He should have flown home immediately.
--I believe the pending election could be a tsunami for Democrats.
--I don’t see anything wrong with profiling.

Was it?

A) Karl Rove
B) Dick Cheney
C) Glen Beck
D) RedStateVT
E) Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch

If you guessed Ed Koch, Democrat, you are a winner!

True Story in Vermont

A pregnant mother driving a minivan is hit by a DUI driver. Her twin fetuses die in the accident. In response, a Republican Senator sponsors a bill “that would establish the concept of 'fetal homicide -- adding stiff penalties for killing a fetus during a car accident.” The Senator, Vince Illuzzi notes that “the federal government and at least 30 states have virtually identical penalties on the books, and the state Supreme Court long ago signaled the Legislature to clarify its intention on the question of liability for an accident that claims a viable, unborn child.”

In response:
The ACLU calls the legislation a "slippery slope."

Representative Rachel Weston, a Burlington Democrat says that "violent crimes against pregnant women are a real problem, but I don't think fetal personhood put forth in this bill is the answer. There can be unintended consequences both for women's health and fetal health."

The ACLU is the organization that supports the right of neo-Nazi groups to march in Jewish neighborhoods, but won’t stand up for an unborn child.

And Weston? One has to marvel at the twisted thinking that results in the nonsense that she spews.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to this mother and her children. They deserve to be called more than “fetal personhoods.”

(Information and quotes from www.wptz.com)

The Guantanamo Bay Resort and Spa

President Obama again said on Tuesday that Gitmo (a.k.a. the Guantanamo Bay Resort and Spa or GBRS) was a “recruiting tool” for Al Qaeda. RedStateVT’s usual reaction to this type of talk is: “SO WHAT!” The Obama crowd continues to bend U.S. foreign policy through the lens of what the rest of the world thinks. On further reflection, however, we now wonder whether there is really some truth to the statement. Perhaps Al Qaeda is using the prospect of a trip to Gitmo as an incentive for potential jihadists. Let’s consider the following comparison:

Afghanistan: brutal winters and oppressively hot summers.
GBRS: tropical breezes.

Afghanistan: sleep on cave floor.
GBRS: sleep on fluffy mattress.

Afghanistan: one meal of leftover goat per day, maybe.
GBRS: three squares per day.

Afghanistan: no health care.
GBRS: first class American health care.

Afghanistan: high chance you are going to die.
GBRS: almost no chance you are going to die.

To paraphrase Rush Limbaugh: “Gitmo is your tropical oasis from the rigors of jihad!”

California Dreamin'

Nancy Pelosi on health care legislation:

"There has never been a more open process for any legislation in anyone who’s served here’s experience." (sic)

Nancy Pelosi says that the health care bill was developed openly and transparently. RedStateVT believes that there are two possible explanations for her apparent detachment from reality. The first is that the speaker is experiencing a “contact high” from constant exposure to the plume of medical marijuana smoke which engulfs the state of California. The second is that she is just a liar. Of course, there is precedent in the Democrat party for the latter. One need only recall Liar-in-Chief Bill Clinton. Recall in 1996 that Clinton was described by fellow Democrat Bob Kerrey as “an unusually good liar.”

Triple Threat

With mid-term elections looming in 2010, it will be interesting to see how Obama and the Democrats adjust, if at all. At present, RedStateVT believes that they are on a collision course with the American voter. The issues are not hard to figure out: national security, the economy (namely unemployment) and spending. So how do the Obamacrats fare on these matters? The country has now been attacked by Islamic extremists twice and after both the Ft. Hood and Detroit airliner attacks, the responses from the Obama administration have lacked the punch that Americans demand. We were urged not to jump to conclusions after Ft. Hood and told that the system worked after Detroit. Say what you want, but Bush/Cheney would not have minced words.

Issue Two is the economy. If unemployment does not halve by November, Obama and his party are in serious trouble. Republicans will take glee in throwing James Carville’s words (It’s the economy, stupid) back in the faces of the opposition. You can write the talking points today: "while 10% of Americans were out of work, Democrats focused on advancing their ideological agenda of national health care and global warming."

And finally, Democrats will face relentless criticism for profligate spending. Americans do not see what the massive stimulus bill has accomplished other than burden future generations. Democrats will play defense throughout the election cycle.

All of which leads to the very possible outcome of Democrats losing their majority. If that happens, look for Obama to renew his calls for bi-partisanship….and for Republicans to laugh loudly.

Charles in Charge
Charles Krauthammer: "The logic is perverse. If we find Abdulmutallab in an al-Qaeda training camp in Yemen, where he is merely preparing for a terror attack, we snuff him out with a Predator -- no judge, no jury, no qualms. But if we catch him in the United States in the very act of mass murder, he instantly acquires protection not just from execution by drone but even from interrogation."

Viewed in Profile

Newt Gingrich is among those who are calling for profiling of airline passengers in the wake of the recent attempted airline bombing in Detroit. (To her credit, Ann Coulter has never stopped calling for profiling). The rationale for profiling is obvious. The group most likely to try to blow up an airplane has consistently been found to be young male Muslims. Needless to say the Political Correctness crowd finds the singling out of any racial group or minority group such as young male Muslims to be offensive, unnecessary, ineffective, etc.

All of which got RedStateVT thinking. It seems that the PC cartel doesn’t want any minority group singled out UNLESS a member of that group is a victim! In that case, they want the group to have special rights. Which is why they want so-called hate crimes laws for an offense against every possible aggrieved minority.

So we cannot protect the general public from the dangers posed by a minority group criminal, but we can enact special protections for the minority group victim. Something doesn’t seem quite right about this.

Local Yokels

After an exhaustive review, the Burlington Free Press announced this week the top local news story for 2009 and the Vermonter of the Year recipient.

Top story? The passage of the gay marriage bill. Just for the information of readers, here are some other stories which did not win:

• Vermont unemployment hits a 15 year high (3rd).
• National Guard deployment (4th).
• Rescue of Captain Phillips (5th).

Notwithstanding, the Not-So-Free Press picks the gay marriage story. But wait, it gets better! Who is the Vermonter of the Year? Beth Robinson. RedStateVT must admit that we had no idea who Beth Robinson was until we read the story. It turns out Robinson is the lawyer who led the fight for......you guessed it: gay marriage! The editors over at the Free Press must be high-fiving each other over the incredible symmetry of these events.

Just so you know, Captain Phillips and philanthropist Lois McClure were nominated, but did not win. Welcome to Vermont.