God bless our battling ballerina! - News article comment

When you're as powerful as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, it's easy to end criticism over some stupid remark you made -- just erase the mistake.

After being caught using what is now called "the R-word", the former ballet dancer wants to eliminate it from the English language.  And he can Côté de Derrière using all the Federal government's powers, including passing a new law, to dictate the self-serving correction to 300 million uninformed Americans.  

But first, Emanuel has to keep his job -- and he may be worried.  When his gaffe was reported on Jan. 26 by the Wall Street Journal, political oracles wondered whether he would be the first administration figure to exit following Obama's recent political and legislative defeats.  After all, a single word, "Macaca", had toppled former Sen. George Allen (R-VA), a possible Presidential candidate, when repeatedly employed by media.

To forestall such concerns, the normally offense-minded "Rahmbo" engaged in the usual, if overdone, apologies and pledges that follow a high politician's fall from grace -- until Feb. 1, when Dem nemesis Sarah Palin unholstered her Facebook page and demanded his resignation.  With blood in the water the issue now was self-preservation.  Someone must have leaked Emanuel's August 2009 remark, at a strategy session of liberal groups and White House aides, to the media.  Time to go on the attack, but who was the culprit?

Suspicion turned to Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, who was hiding in the tall grass after (1) his controversial decision to try top terrorists in a New York civil court had been reversed by the White House, and (2) critics were blasting his FBI's talk-ending Mirandizing of the Christmas Panty-bomber.  Was Holder trying to save his skin by setting up Emanuel, who might have engineered the trial switch, as an alternative media target?  

Holder's surge continued on Feb. 2, when national intelligence director Dennis Blair told a Senate panel the Bomber still was talking.  "We got good intelligence. We're getting more," Blair bragged.  Although GOP hackles were raised by the political release of info helpful to terrorists, Holder got his groove back.  By Feb. 3 he boasted, in a letter to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), that he personally made the decision to handle the attempted airliner downing merely as a criminal act, not terrorism.    

But Chicago-trained Emanuel isn't know for playing patsy.  A New Yorker article, available on-line Feb. 4, quoted an "informed source" as disclosing he had fought hard against Holder's proposed New York trial, as a matter of practical politics -- a revelation that boosted the staff honcho's status.  Stay tuned for in-fighting results.
As reports of the government's dictionary industry takeover filtered to the masses, on-line responders struggled to find words to express their contempt for Emanuel.  "He is a foul-mouthed manipulative jerk. . .a fascist and an egomaniac". . ."I'll go with charming.  Like a leopard, sleek, silent and dangerous" (doing a pas de chat?). . ."A rotting dead fish."  (He is said to have mailed a rotten fish to a former coworker after the two parted ways.)  

"Cold, calculating and looks like a Chicago mobster," sniffed another. "I see no charm, just steely coldness, much like Barry himself."  (Emanuel does bear a resemblance to George Raft, an old-time movie actor who enjoyed much success playing gangster roles, perhaps because, reputedly, he was one.  If Raft was the first method actor, Rhambo could be a prototype method politician, acting mean because he is mean.)

Emanuel also had defenders: "You all seem so worried that the Dems are going to screw up the good things the Bushies left this country.  I, for one, am glad we have a ball buster in this role."  Hey, Rahm could try out for "The Nutcracker" this fall if he needs work.

A "Liberal", seemingly in the know, put it this way -- "Republicans just have not figured this guy out and continue to underestimate him.  R.E. is the best behind the scene politician on either side of the aisle.  He keeps under the radar with a very prissy public persona; making it tough for his political foes to engage him as a man.  For the same reason that we can't take a full swing at Palin, they can't swing at him.  His throat cutting gestures, foul language, and physical threats which have garnered him notoriety have not hindered his reputation.  If he looked like John Murtha or Jim Webb, he would have been run out of town.  But when it's delivered by a slight individual with over-the-top effeminate mannerisms, he (can) get away with it. . ."

So, who's the real Emanuel?  One little-known fact:  his mom once was a community organizer in Chicago, not an auspicious heritage item given the current failings of Emanuel's boss, who had a similar background.  (What Chicago exile in D.C. wasn't a community organizer?)  Anyway, it must be difficult doing the requisite dirty work of politics if people keep wondering whether you can prance better than, say, Tom Delay.  Making a show of nasty, ill-mannered churlishness could help, but it's habit-forming.
 
A peek at Wikipedia discloses Rahm's mother encouraged him to take ballet lessons as a boy.  He graduated from the Evanston School of Ballet and won a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet, but turned it down to attend Sarah Lawrence College, which had a strong dance program.  There, he gained an introduction to politics by joining the congressional campaign of David Robinson of Chicago.  He graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts, and received an M.A. in speech from Northwestern U. in 1985.  

After college, Emanuel apparently felt he'd be better at spinning gold than pirouettes.  He embarked on a political career, delivering what candidates need most -- knowledge of where the money is.  After fundraising jobs for Democrats in Illinois campaigns and then nationally, he showed he could picked a real winner by enlisting as finance director in Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton's presidential primary campaign.  When the man from Hope won, Rahm became a senior adviser at the White House from 1993 to 1998.  As a leading strategist for the rejected Hillarycare, he learned the pitfalls of socialized medicine schemes -- a lesson re-learned when adding Change to Hope fared no better in 2009.     
Emanuel consoled himself by resigning from government in 1998 to go where the real money is -- investment banking.  He joined a firm now know as Dresdner Kleinwort, and raked-in $16.2 million in just two and a half years, so he knows whereof Obama speaks when he blasts the bloated pay of bankers.  With cash in hand, the refueled Rahm was named by Clinton to the Board of Freddie Mac, a favorite nesting ground for deserving Democrats.  Although paying only $320,000, it was a pretty good gig.  The board met no more than six times per year, leaving plenty of time to explore political opportunities.   

Says Wikipedia:  "During his time on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities.  The Obama Administration rejected a request under the Freedom of Information Act to review Freddie Mac board minutes and correspondence during Emanuel's time as a director.

"The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) later accused the board of having 'failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention.'  Emanuel resigned from the board in 2001 when he ran for Congress," the on-line informer said.  In the House, Rahm didn't have to worry about ethics quibbling.  Admiring Democrats soon elected him chairman of their caucus, the fourth-ranking spot behind Speaker Pelosi.  

But now, Emanuel's down to becoming this year's Comeback Kid.  He's on a quest to expunge the admittedly pejorative R-word from all government laws, regulations, and discourse.  An army of lawyers will be hired to re-write more pages of legalese than in Obama's health care takeover bill.  But the effort could stimulate Federal employment, thereby bringing into play the "D(ebt)-word" which may be next in-line for extinction.

The question is, how do you pass a new law abolishing the R-word without using it in said law, so enforcers will know what word to punish?  Why not just add it to the unofficial list of frowned-on words, instead of aiming the government gun?  Even that's too potent for 1st Amendment rightsers, but it beats prison.  

It's getting dangerous even to speak other than as directed by Washington's trash-mouth champ, let alone fail to spend your money as he demands.  Under the President's health care takeover, a citizen could be tossed in jail for not purchasing health insurance.  Now you'll be targeted for using a disfavored term.  And you can't CYA by issuing a diktat.     

In January 2003, Emanuel he was named to the House Financial Services Committee, and sat on the subcommittee that oversaw Freddie Mac.  He skipped sensitive hearings, allegedly to avoid any appearance of favoritism, impropriety, or conflict of interest.  Open Secrets reported Rahm "was the top House recipient in the 2008 election cycle of contributions from hedge funds, private equity firms and the larger securities/investment industry", Wikipedia said.  Meanwhile, the housing industry collapsed, as the White House pursued what's really important, ObamaScare.  And, America burns.

                                                                                                     -- President Obama

Rickety Harry Reid woke up, but other Democrats may have groaned when they heard the preacher-in-chief's state of the union command.  They'd expected a re-direction toward jobs, not a call to arms for more healthcare martyrdom.

"Hard"?  How about, "I know you gotta vote your guts out, against the overwhelming wishes of the people you represent, and you'll probably be defeated for re-election."  The President's admission voting for health care takeover is "hard" indicates Democratic lawgivers know what they're doing is morally wrong and politically toxic.

But all 60 Senate Dems/Indies and nearly all Houseboys have already voted for the disastrous legislation, and face voter retaliation this year or later.  The question is, will they continue following their Messiah over the ObamaScare cliff, if he so demands?  The President's frantic scurrying in the wake of Sen. Scott Brown's Mass. Miracle sent contradictory clues as to his intentions.

At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Obama drew attention for lamenting the "erosion of civility" in the nation's political debate.  A news article comment recalled the President "Attack(ed) the Supreme Court Justices for their correct decision and did so during the State of the Union address while they were sitting there showing respect for the office. . .Hypocrite!"  Another chided Obama's chief of staff: "Take Rahm Emanuel, and wash his 'F---ing Retarded' mouth out with soap."

But Obama's most important remark indicated he still wants Congress to take a dive: "We may disagree about the best way to reform our health care system, but surely we can agree that no one ought to go broke when they get sick in the richest nation on Earth."  Reports of ObamaScare's demise may be exaggerated.  Sooner or later, Congressional Democrats likely will resume battling for their true faith, that government should control medical care.

Actually, warriors on both sides of the trench see another year of warfare over the ill-fated issue as a possible benefit.  Bill Clinton told Democrats they'll be re-elected if they pass the health seduction, and Loose-Zipper Bill never lies.  Republicans figure while Congress is stuck on ObamaScare it won't launch other legislative skirmishes in Obama's war on America, such as new job-destroying energy and environmental taxes.  

A hidden trend: to the extent any rational Dems lurk in the Senate, some may secretly assist a "committee filibuster" ostensibly to perfect the health takeover, but actually aimed at tying-up legislative advancement of their President's jobs- and votes-destroying agenda, thus saving their own skin.  Simply repeating the "Bush caused it" mantra explaining the nation's downturn, when Dems controlled Congress, won't fly.     

Logically, panchyderms should tramp their way to victory on health care, provided the Frankenstein bill isn't passed.  Donk superstars wasted 2009 wrangling over packing more socialism into their 2,400-page testament, and their poll numbers plummeted.  A repeat  performance this year could seal a November Great Awakening by voters, in favor of the GOP.

In his long-winded emergence before Congress, the secrecy-craving President didn't mention the nation's actual state -- jobless, broke and terrified by skyrocketing spending, taxes and debt.  He made a few perfunctory remarks about jobs, but the proposed illegal transfer of $30 million in repaid TARP funds for small business loans won't stimulate hiring.  

The problem isn't lack of credit, but tangible fear of Obama's mindless plans for government expansion.  Everyone's waiting to see how awful it gets when Congress acts, and it looks like another ice age.  Meanwhile, the President's planning new foreign junket sightings so he can look like he's doing something other than hide and talk.  Canada, anyone?

The President wants more jobs, but only in Federal agencies, where civilian employment now is over 2,000,000 and rising.  Under ObamaScare, 20,000 bumbling new bureaucrats would be in charge of the nation's health system, an expense somehow omitted from budget projections.  If you like the way thousands of daydreaming Obamacrats at multiple agencies run airline security, with passengers required to provide their own defense, you'll love the way a hundred-plus bureaus, panels and agencies contemplated by the health care takeover mire your treatment in more tape than King Tut.

Of course, all those new government shirkers will be unionized, and that's the point.  With their monthly dues adding to Democratic campaign coffers, the party of the little guy won't have to rely on minor contributions from pickup-driving dupes.  Ready for a doctor strike?

If health Federalization happens, all pols will have to travel to Ottawa for heart surgery, rather than the other way around.  On the plane, they'll get lots of glares from other care-seeking passengers who're suspicious of more sabotage.  Maybe Tehran Nan Pelosi will rent her fleet of tax-paid airliners to privileged lawmakers wishing to dodge public contact.

We the People have become We the Subjects, watching helplessly as an out-of-control Congress saddles future generations with ruinous financial burdens.  When the Hoover/Obama Depression arrives, our children and grandchildren may suffer on a scale comparable to the earthquake devastation of Haiti, and there won't be any functioning military to prevent invasion.  Pockets of Taliban rule could emerge, with their own sharia law solution to health needs -- cutting off hands or arms.

It's a frightening scenario, but with leaders as outrageously ideological, duplicitous and reckless as those running the administration, no calamity is impossible.  Democrats chide Congressional Republicans for "always voting No", but it's a political dodge.  "Always voting No" is exactly what's needed now, and never more urgently.  And, America burns.

Seat my Senator now! -- "Liberal-Bostonian" comment on news article.

Add "swear-in fraud" to the bag of dirty and illicit tricks Democrats use to defraud voters and get elected.  

After promising not to delay the seating of Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-MA), Senate majority leader Reid is taking a lethargic 23 days to oust non-elected Democratic hack Paul Kirk, so Brown can be sworn-in.  So far, the delay has allowed another 60-40 partisan Senate vote, to increase the national debt by $1.9 trillion.  More could be in store.

The Jan. 29 debt ram-through, executed just two days after President Obama's frugality-promising "state of the union" performance, enables Democrats to continue massive spending until after this year's elections.  Four days later, the President showed the kind of thrift he really had in mind by handing Congress his incredible $3.8 Trillion "partial spending freeze" budget for next year.  All the spending duplicity followed Brown's Jan. 19 election, which showed overwhelming public desire for a halt to the spending outpour.   

Despite the "freeze", Obama wants to increase National Science Foundation payoffs to "global warming"-fighting Climate-Gate scientists, possibly in hopes of preventing a  financial meltdown caused by his rising sea of debt.  His greenhouse gas-exhaling oration was billed as emphasizing jobs, but small businesses which could create them will be frozen in place.  This year's $1.6 Trillion Federal deficit will soak-up all available money, leaving loan-starved employers in the cold.  So if you're looking for a job, forget it.

With their constant up-and-down bobbing at Obama's gabathon, Rickety Reid and House speaker Pinky Pelosi may not have noticed his mention of jobs.  After it was over, they retreated to a secret Capitol bunker to plot further wrangling on Federal healthcare takeover, their main lust.  Apparently, Reid's pledge not to take up the ObamaScare bill until after Brown is seated applies only to the full 2,400-page version.  

The new plan is to completely nuke Senate rules by enacting health takeover a few pages at a time, with only 51 votes required.  All the upper-house nabobs need do is pass a few tattered scraps, plus a crowing title, send it to the White house for signing, and declare victory.  Remaining elements of the scheme can be added later by executive order, when nobody's watching.  

Also, there's lots of time before Feb. 11, when the Senate plans to validate Brown's passport and visa from the unrecognized territory of Massachusetts, to enact all manner of  other liberal bills he wouldn't vote for.  Appointee Kirk has his rubber-stamp at the ready.  There's energy tax-and-trade, climate change taxation, and other new taxes that joyously could be taken up before filibuster-proof hubris is humbled by the Bay State spoiler.

Who cares if Brown has paperwork, a Jan. 20 letter sent by Mass. secretary of state William Galvin to the Senate clerk declaring him unofficial winner of the rightful Kennedy seat.  The chamber's commissars don't recognize it.  Apparently, Reid's hopeful a few thousand late absentee ballots will throw victory to the Democrats.  After all, Brown only won by some 130,000 votes, so Dems can continue with business as usual.

It all seems like a bad movie, but what's the title?  "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", as re-written by Michael Moore?  Nah, it's not weird enough.  "Escape From Wrentham" lacks zest.  "BO Does DC"?  Too cheesy.  Maybe a truncated version of "Batman", with Reid as "Prune-Face", Pelosi as "Cat-Lady" and Obama as the "Joker".  Caped Brown could swoop down in the chamber's next session, capture Prune-Face and transport him to Gotham for trial in recently-opened court time, if he's not inked-in.

While Dem senators celebrate their self-extended power in Washington, Brown's been taking victory tours of the state, signing posters and photos of himself in his famous 2005 GMC Canyon, which just passed 201,000 miles.  Someone wrote "Go Scott!" in the dust on the side of the vehicle, which Brown plans to take with him to the capital some day as the first Republican senator from Mass. in 32 years.  He'll resign his state senate seat, finish Ted Kennedy's unexpired term as a commuter, and face re-election in 2012.  

Despite the Brownamania, some Mass. natives are growing restless.   "PAUL KIRK IS STILL VOTING IN THE SENATE!" thundered a commenter on the newspaper report.  "He will vote on anything Harry Reid tells him to". . .HE SHOULD NOT BE VOTING - THIS IS ANOTHER DEMOCRAT SLEAZE-FEST!" said another.  "Paul Kirk has no business being in office - he never received a SINGLE VOTE" echoed a third.

If outraged voters don't see their guy accepted soon in the Senate, they may take it out on other Democratic members of Congress from the state, in this year's elections.  Rep. Barney Frank is a likely ouster target.  Since 2007, he's been chairman of the House Financial Services Committee which oversees the nation's securities, banking, insurance and housing industries.  Critics have said he's largely responsible for the sub-prime mortgage lending spree which led to the current recession, but he denies this.

None of the voter unrest seems to bother Congressional bosses, who're as determined as ever to enact the President's ruinous program.  They've jammed the spending pedal to the floor so hard it's stuck tighter than a speeding Toyota.  It's up to passengers to save themselves from government-run airline security, and we-the-people must do the same on government-run government.  Unfortunately, the nation may already be past the point of no return on a headlong flight into bankruptcy and Obama/Hoover Depression.  And, America burns.

President Obama looks at the world through rose-colored teleprompters.  It showed in his address on the State of the Labor Unions, the only union he seems to care about.

  *  He saw a freeze on government spending that would halt escalating Federal deficits.  Others saw mandated high-level money squandering for the next three years, in recognition of the likelihood Republicans will gain control of the U.S. House, and possibly the Senate too, in this year's elections.  The goal is to make the GOP Congress unable to actually cut semi-permanent budget-busting funding cherished by Democrats.

  *  He saw increased spending on Federal support for education, notably former President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program.  Others saw a major push to indoctrinate the nation's school children in the Global Lying hoax, the moral need for Washington-run health care, and other Democratic/Socialist schemes.  To receive more Federal education funds, could schools be pressured into teaching such glorious advances?  By indirectly linking the spending hike to NCLF, the hope was Republicans would be tricked into supporting it.

*  He saw doling funds to small banks, tax breaks for small businesses that hire new workers or raise wages, subsidies for "green" jobs, and adoption of his energy taxation and "climate change" bills as the way to boost employment.  Others saw more Obama-claimed phantom workers, counter-productive government industrial planning, and realization of employers' worst nightmares of new taxation programs -- making true the very dreadnoughts that have iced private sector hiring for the past year.  So far, the only thing the President has frozen is jobs.    

In some ways, his rambling speech seemed like a clumsy sequel to "Avatar", a cash-spewing space-epic about a clash between evil human capitalists and noble mythological greenies.  Fantasy may sell, but the President's pink-tinted version isn't likely to draw well in Peoria.  The 3-D flick delivers the goods, but Obama's jobs plan is akin to a master tossing table scraps to hungry pups, while prospective U.S. employers are starved for red meat.  Such as, miraculous liberation from his tax and regulation assaults, credit-hogging, forced unionization, and enviro-nonsense.  Left alone, with the Federal meddlers vanquished, private business could save its own world.

Overall, the address was good news for Republicans.  Its combative bombast signaled the President plans to continue shoving his politically-suicidal Big Government agenda down the throat of a voter majority dead-set against it.  Whether Congressional Democrats will vote for their own election defeat is an open question.  If they resume working on the abysmal healthcare takeover legislation, a major counter-revolution is likely.  That 2,000-page monstrosity creates 1,000 new Federal bureaucrats per page, not the kind of jobs growth weary taxpayers have in mind.

When they elected President Obama, voters had no idea he would attempt to implement a socialist Utopia, as taught in many colleges.  For professors, though, socialism is just an academic game, a way to vent jealous rage at the faculty senate over lowly business execs reaping more cash than the campus elite, and maybe to sell a few socialist textbooks on the side.  Many probably laugh that politicians would take such tweaking seriously, but for the President and his vainglorious Democratic majority, pushing a failed economic theology apparently is more important than winning re-election.  And, America burns.

    

President Obama may emphasize jobs in his state of the union address, but there's one statistic he probably won't mention -- more than 29 million Americans lost jobs during his first year in office.

That's the grand total of initial unemployment claims filed nationwide during the weeks of Jan. 24, 2009, through Jan. 16, 2010.  It's the real, actual number of claims, not "seasonally adjusted", 29,003,159 to be precise, compiled by adding all the weekly figures reported by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Initial claims are widely covered in the media as a proxy for the number of jobs lost during a particular week, as newly fired or laid-off  workers apply for unemployment compensation.  But the huge number of employees swept out of work in the Year of Obama suggests the cumulative jobs problem is far worse than conveyed by small dribs of "official" data.

While some of the 29 million may have found new or part-time positions, others could have become discouraged and quit looking, at least temporarily.  Estimates of the number actually unemployed vary widely, from 15- to as high as 30-million.  If Obama wants to help these struggling Americans, it's getting late:

"THINGS ARE NOT LOOKING GOOD". . ."Obama should have concentrated on creating jobs in the first day that he took office.  This economy disaster is his failure as being a president." -- Jan. 22 comments on ABC-TV news website.

The 650,728 claims filed during the week ending Jan. 16 added to what many saw as a "bad week" for the President.  There were worries Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke would not be reconfirmed.  The apparent demise of ObamaScare and loss of the Democrats' filibuster-proof Senate majority with the victory of Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-MA) couldn't have added to presidential cheer.  Nor could mutterings that the President's endorsement now was the "kiss of death" for Democratic candidates, as previously exemplified by gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey.

Unless there's a dramatic reversal of the giant jobs drain, the current "Great Recession" could result in lasting comparisons of President Obama with former GOP President Herbert Hoover, who's often blamed by Democrats with causing the "Great Depression".

The President's jobs efforts to date have been failures at best and destructive at worst.  Early in his administration he rammed a $787 billion "stimulus" package through Congress, with the stated goal of creating employment.  Most of the money turned out to be pork and slush-funding for political pandering.  By December, only $159 billion had been spent, with questionable results.  The White House said more than 640,000 jobs had been "created or saved", but on close examination the claim was smoke and mirrors.  Clintonesque re-definitions of "job" ensued, the most recent so self-serving it drew more laughs than Rodney Dangerfield, for whom lack of respect was a comic shtick.

To appear concerned, Obama showcased a December Jobs Summit featuring more than 100 hand-picked business leaders, union chiefs, academics, mayor and officials from nonprofit groups.  This followed a health care pinnacle at which doctor suits were handed out to attendees, for benefit of news cameras.  Maybe "Obama Creates Jobs" T-shirts were needed at the staged employment event.  "Nobody buys it anymore," said a viewer.

A lot of wind circulated in the White House but in the end, few new jobs were evident.  Most recent hiring has been in the public sector, or make-work created by borrowing enormous amounts of money.  It's been a fun ride in the Washington, D.C., area, but the rest of the nation has to pay.  Congress recently increased the national debt limit by trillions of dollars -- a jobs killer in the hinterlands, where suffering taxpayers dwell.

Last year's maneuverings were mostly for show, but when Democrats started losing elections big-time in liberal bastions, Obama got serious -- in his own way.  He hitched-up his teleprompters and ventured into fly-over territory, where he made a speech.  No more Mister Nice Guy, a new sheriff was in town.  He was all fired-up with newfound determination to make jobs.  Again, mere talk didn't seem to work.  Said one poster on the TV website, "Why doesn't Jimmy Obama stay in DC and try to be President instead of going on the road and campaigning!"

One problem: Obama's verbal thunder was delivered in Lorain, Ohio, which he last visited two years ago.   Then, he toured the National Gypsum Co., a drywall factory that was operating seven days a week, supposedly as a result of his wise economic policies.  Unfortunately, within two months the factory closed indefinitely.  "WOW, I sure hope Obama does not come and tour my business," one viewer responded.  

But for Obama, no failure is his own fault.  In his election-year swing, he resurrected traditional Bush-bashing:  the economic mess he inherited was too severe to be solved in one year, the former President was responsible for virtually all the nation's ills, etc.  And, by the way, Congress must re-appoint the Fed's Bernanke, a Bush holdover whose unique expertise is desperately needed to solve the financial crisis.  (Translation: he's been a good partner for Obama, and can be relied-on to take the President's marching orders.)   

After escaping the unemployment-ridden provinces, Obama crept back into his friendlier White House cave, where he dismissed a new threat bin Laden issued from his.  The lawyers would handle it.  He also noted Scott Brown voters of Massachusetts actually hadn't rejected his health takeover plan, a fact that escaped nearly everyone else.  Thank goodness we have such a sage President to point out our follies.  Don't think, just follow.  Tomorrow is another day, and another speech.  And, America burns.

"Is it just me or does anyone else get goose bumps reading blogs from other states wishing Scott Brown luck?" -- Post on Boston Herald blog, days before Brown's election.

Yes, Massachusetts, there's a new, brighter day.  But not in Washington.  It's midnight in the House and Senate chambers of doom and evil, an eerie lull before Democrats take a final plunge over the healthcare cliff, into the void.  Or, they could listen to the voters.

Abandoned, disillusioned, and frustrated, the People finally have a voice -- U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA).  Huh?  Yes, unlikely as it may seem, it's true.  Deal with it.   

He's "the 41st Senator", de-fanger of Al Franken, terminator of the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority.  He's also the "218th Representative" in the House, his feat inspiring enough backbone there hopefully to thwart Speaker Pelosi's late-night hair-curling.

And, he's turned President Obama into a lame-duck before he even made his first state-of-the-union address.  You don't win favor by retreating to a healthcare-bunker or legislating in secret, after promising C-SPAN.  Lately, Obama's hid in more caves than Osama.

By contrast, Brown worked tirelessly to meet the people, the old-fashioned way.  Little-known outside his home town Wrentham area, he criss-crossed the state in his old pickup, shaking hands and talking with voters.  He also won the online fundraising war from his Brown Brigade website, dominating Facebook -- where many conservatives changed their pics to the Scott Brown for Senate sign -- Twitter, and the blogosphere.  

So, how did Scott win?  By making the people of Mass feel good about themselves, for a change.  The strategy easily could work in other states where the GOP and conservatives have been intimidated by ugly media Political Correctness.  You know it's bad when people become "Independents" rather than admit party affiliation.  In the Bay State, no less than 51% sought this refuge.  Only 15% are die-hard Republicans, though that could change.

Think of the movie "The Wizard of Oz".  In that classic, young Dorothy and her three trembling allies confront the supposedly all-powerful wizard.   His image towers above them, and his formidable voice booms threateningly.  But Dorothy goes behind the screen and sees he's actually a tiny, frail old man yelling into a mike.  

That, folks, is the PC media -- the hoary Boston Globe and TV accomplices -- which have bullied Mass for decades into accepting liberal dominance as natural law.  It's the correct way to do things, as determined by the all-knowing elite.  Just as similar journalistic phalanxes have projected big authority from small minds all across the country.

Now imagine you're a Mass conservative or moderate.  You've been reviled and loathed all your life outside the commonwealth, for inflicting Barney Frank, John Kerry and a host of other leftist loonies on an unappreciative nation.  Then one day you read a blog in a more balanced rag, the Boston Herald, and see respect pouring in from dozens of other states --    

"I live in CT and wish I lived in Mass so I could vote for Scott!" . . ."Dittos from California, we are watching and excited for the people of Mass". . ."You go Scott Brown, the Northwest is all a-buzz with what is happening there". . .We got your back in Idaho". . ."THRILLED in Pa. . .let's make it a landslide!!". . ."The eyes of Texas are upon YOU, Massachusetts!". . ."Georgia supports Scott Brown! Go, Scott, go!!!". . ."Greetings from OHIO.  The whole country is watching and praying!"

Many downcast Bay Staters must have felt goose bumps.   "Finally," one responded, "MA people can redeem ourselves and show the rest of the country that we all don't fall in line with Kennedy/Kerry/Frank". . ."I live in the heart of inner city Boston. . .on January 20th I hope and pray to be able to wake up and say 'for the first time in my adult life -- I'm proud to be from Massachusetts!'"

Nascent state pride also surfaces in the posts:  "Boston is the very cradle of our freedom and liberty.  Our grandfathers fired the first shots of that struggle right here, and they were victorious. How fitting that it should be Massachusetts who steps up to protect that hard won freedom when it counts the very most, when anyone, anywhere in the country, including us, never believed it would happen again here". . ."In 1775 Massachusetts sent John Adams and Sam Adams to Congress and our nation was born.  Now we can send Scott Brown to Washington to reclaim our Government by the People". . ."2010 the 1st shot of a new REVOLUTION will be fired in Massachusetts.  GO SCOTT BROWN!!!!"

On the other hand, the Brown campaign may have created a new problem, candidate sign theft -- by supporters.  "On Scott Brown's website, he admits because of the huge demand for Brown signs, some Brown supporters are stealing lawn signs from other Brown supporters under the defense they live in a higher traffic neighborhood". . ."I signed up to volunteer for Scott Brown. Heck, all the bumper stickers are gone.  I want to hold a 'Brown for Senate' sign and be a part of the biggest upset in the history of politics". . . "Make your own signs if you can't get one, put his fliers in your car windows.  I haven't seen one Coakley sign in my city, it's all Brown". . ."Print up your own signs. Better than nothing. Save them after because they will be collector's items.". . ."I wrote Scott's name on my dirty car. . .in big letters".

There's lots of anxious soul-searching going on in Washington's midnight, the fateful interlude before decisions are handed down by Democratic bosses -- but it's probably dwarfed by the political awakening and realignment now going on across the nation.  For the first time in years, inspired by the example of Sen.-elect Brown, people are throwing off the binds of media-generated political correctness and realizing they've been conned.  

We'll probably find out before long whether enough Dems want to be re-elected to the chamber of doom to refute their Speaker.  And whether GOP challengers will come out in states where Dem Senate seats are available for the taking, just as Brown did in Mass.  And, America burns.

Democrats have agreed on a final version of their healthcare takeover bill, but they won't reveal what's in it until after Tuesday's special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts.  Apparently, they're afraid voters there will turn against Dem candidate Martha Coakley, if they learn the sickening details.

A few specifics -- notably the exclusion of union members from a new tax on "Cadillac" health insurance plans -- were leaked.  With that political bribe in the headlines, President Obama boarded tax-paid U.S. One Sunday and headed for the Bay State, where he hoped to persuade divided unionists not to help elect GOP candidate Scott Brown to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) unexpired term.

That could be tough, since the commonwealth's electorate doesn't respond well to political endorsements.  A Suffolk University poll found only 10% of key Independent voters "more likely" to vote for Coakley after her backing by Kennedy's widow and nephew, versus 31% who were actually "less likely".  Only 37% of Independents approved of the job Obama is doing.  We'll know Tuesday evening if the President failed on yet another fly-in selling job, after flubbing in Virginia and New Jersey.

Obama's rescue flight, maybe to the wrong place, marked a daunting week.  The poll showed Brown surging to a four-point lead in a race that could end the party's filibuster-proof Senate majority and jeopardize its socialist program.  And, with life-saving supplies rotting on fields at the airport instead of being delivered to the needy, there was growing concern the Haiti disaster had taken a Katrina-like turn.  Perhaps Obama should have jetted there, instead of handing the recovery job to two former Presidents.

But the President's forte is words, not deeds, and he's more fond of politicians than people.  On Wednesday, as the Haiti calamity unfolded, he was closeted in secret White House bargaining with Democratic congressional bosses on a problem he deemed really important, re-shuffling the 2,400-page Senate-House health "reform" bills into something resembling legitimate medicine.  It was a community organizer's dream.

Obama took his accustomed imperial position at a table's center, flanked by House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and majority leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD).  Senate majority boss Harry Reid (D-NV) and other senators set across from them.  White House don Rahm Emanuel and other aides took remaining seats.  Obama rarely left his chair, except to break away for an occasional phone call.  

The deciders of Americans' health fate pretty much went over the bulky documents page-by-page, or at least chunk-by-chunk, possibly hoping to fulfill Obama's "line-by-line" campaign pledge -- though that was to cut budget waste, not to add trillions in government spending.  Wednesday's talkfest lasted eight hours, followed by another on Thursday that ran well past midnight, and a Friday afternoon session.  

In the 2008 presidential election, Democrats blistered President George Bush over a film clip of him talking to a school class several minutes after being informed of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.  A horrendous lack of concern!  Actually, Bush wanted to avoid scaring the children.  With thousands of Haitians likely to die unless help arrived, Obama moved effectively to avoid such clips coming back to haunt him.  He banned cameras from his meetings.  Secrecy has its benefits for a cold, public-be-damned politician.

Still, as discussions dragged on, even the complaisant liberal media must have wondered about Obama's lack of direct Haiti involvement.  We may never know if Spinmeisters were dispatched to push favorable comparisons of the administration's wondrous performance with George Bush's mythological Katrina failure.  But that would have been the Chicago way.

By Friday, as lesser officials wrestled with delivering aid to those dying with every passing minute, lawmakers congratulated themselves on being near an accord.  Surely, many U.S. lives would be saved by nuking the world's best health care system in favor of one ruled by tens of thousands of Federal bureaucrats running around in the streets of Washington.  With massive defections, few  doctors would be available for future foreign rescues, seemingly a minor concern.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) only would say negotiators were "pretty close."  But no further meetings were scheduled, indicating major conflicts had been resolved.  The White House refused to release details on the secret Final Solution, except to say there were "no final agreements and no overall package."  That meant Dems could make any changes they felt advantageous after the crucial Mass. voting, and claim the leaks had been incorrect.

If they lose in Mass., Democrats will face a challenge.  Should they hurriedly ram the healthcare mess through to adoption before Brown is sworn-in?  Nose-counts are probably underway to see if any Senate majority members might suddenly developed a conscience in such trauma.  In the House, a lot of Democrats likely are calculating what their career is worth, compared to giving Obama something to brag about in his state of the union address.  Pelosi doesn't worry, she's got her big bird to fly home in -- at least this year.  And, America burns.

 

Brown For President !! -- Boston blog post.

First, the Republican comeback tide hit New Jersey and Virginia.  Liberals and pundits dismissed the election of GOP governors as an off-year blip in swing states.  On Thursday, however, according to a Suffolk University/7News poll, the crimson wave swept over the bluest of all blue states, Massachusetts --

"Likely voters in the Bay State have turned expectations upside down as Republican State Sen. Scott Brown (50 percent) now leads Democrat Attorney General Martha Coakley (46 percent) in the race to be the next U.S. senator from Massachusetts," said the university's Political Research Center.  “He is attracting independent support by a wide margin and even winning some Democrats who won’t vote the party line this time.”

The news generated nearly a thousand comments on the Boston Herald blog:  "There is definitely electricity in MA for Scott Brown". . ."Once again America will hear the shot that started a revolution". . ."I'm not shocked by this.  I'm voting for Brown and so are all my friends, most of whom are Democrats". . ."Let's cover up all the Massachusetts blue with BROWN!". . ."The people are rising against the oppressor". . ."United we stand.  One for all and All for one". . ."I'm so happy I got nothing to post!"

Amid the jubilation was introspection:  "As a Democrat, I am pleased with this story. Coakley has turned her back on the working class consumers". . ."Brown is basically what a moderate Democrat was like in the 70's and 80's.  If he does win it will be a clear message that Democrats and Independents are tired of business as usual". . ."As a long time democrat, I'm making the switch for this election.  Let's be clear - I'm not a Republican in a political sense - but I want to send a clear message to the Democratic machine that we're not taking this c--p any longer". . ."I will vote for Scott Brown, which is probably uncharacteristic because I am a white, gay, Catholic man who doesn't believe in abortion, is very fiscally conservative and socially liberal."

The statewide survey of 500 Mass. registered voters was conducted Jan. 11-13, with an error margin of +/- 4.38 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence.  Some findings:

    * Among men, Brown led Coakley 55 percent to 41 percent but trailed among women 50 percent to 45 percent.

    * Seventy-eight percent of registered Democrats preferred Coakley, while 91 percent of registered Republicans and 65 percent of independents favored Brown.

    * Brown led in most areas of the state, except Suffolk County, where Coakley crushed Brown 69 percent to 31 percent.

    * Brown (57 percent favorable to 19 percent unfavorable) was viewed more positively than Coakley (49 percent favorable to 41 percent unfavorable).  

But is the stunning poll accurate?  Said a poster on the newspaper blog: "Suffolk University is full of marginal hacks that have been working for Coakley.  So if (its) poll says that Brown is ahead, then that is news."  Another pointed out, "Suffolk was the only poll in the country that called NH correctly last year."

Significantly, only 1% of those polled were Undecided, so the longtime Democratic pol may have a difficult time adding voters, even with near-saturation negative TV ads.  One viewer of the WHDS-TV news at 4 pm counted 15 political ads.  Ten were attacks from Coakley, all about Cheney, Bush and Palin.  "I thought she was running against Brown," the viewer complained.  "Meanwhile the five ads Brown ran talked about the issues."

The attacks on Brown could have a reverse impact:  "If Coakley runs her negative ads tonight as many times as she did last night, I'm going to spend the weekend going door to door for Scott Brown and I'm a union man," said a post.

New support for Coakley could come from backers of Joseph L. Kennedy, a Libertarian-leaning independent who gained 3% endorsement among those polled.  But at least one commenter had a different view:  "I think Joe Kennedy will hurt Martha more then Brown. . .There will be a percentage of democrats that will show up at the poll and see the name Kennedy on the ballot and vote for him thinking he's a relative. . .I bet at least 5% of potential Martha voters will make that mistake and vote for Kennedy."

An independent poster added, "I consider myself to be a libertarian.  I would love it if Joe Kennedy won the election -- but let's face it, it's just not going to happen.  Let's be real and vote for the lesser evil -- Scott Brown."

Overall, the outpouring of posts supported the poll's finding of a new Bay State coalition that's shucking traditional partisanship to halt the Obama big-spending, jobs-destroying agenda.  If the President "can't wait" to enact his program, Brown backers are even more eager to strike a massive blow against it on Tuesday.  

Their enthusiasm was evident:  "Brown! Brown! Brown! Brown! WHOOPEE!!!"; "Beam me up, Scotty!"; "OMG I just peed my pants in happiness";  "We are saying no to power and corruption, and I'm on cloud nine!"; "This news calls for a group Snoopy dance!"  But some cautioned: "I'm not prepared to do a happy dance just yet but I do have my dancing shoes dusted off."; "Free at last, free at last, good God almighty, free at last - I hope."

So, the surge rolls on.  "Martha, that rumble you are now hearing is the distant and rapidly approaching Voice of the People. . .rising to a great crescendo. . .a Tsunami.  The people shouting that We Are Coming to take back our Senate Seat."  Another: "I hope it's a tidal wave that lasts right through November of this year!"  

Others worry about Democrats deploying SEIU thugs to steal the election.  "If this were any other place I'd be ecstatic," warned a poster.  "But this is Massachusetts and, as we all know, all the cemeteries vote Democratic."  And, "There is now talk of some shenanigans going on like robo calls to registered dems indicating based on their registration they MUST vote dem, and also some hassling going on to get an absentee ballot. Both appear to be targeting the elderly. . ."  And, "The Democrats are already stuffing the absentee ballots so we have to not only win but get ahead of the total absentee ballots."

President John F. Kennedy once said, "A rising tide lifts all boats."  It's good economic advice, but watery depths ended the Presidential ambitions of his late brother, Sen. Ted Kennedy.  The ghost of Chappaquiddick may linger still, as the rising GOP wave threatens to drown the hopes of Ted's would-be Democratic successor.

Perhaps Shakespeare said it best, in Julius Caesar: "There is a tide in the affairs of men./Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;. . .On such a full sea are we now afloat,/And we must take the current when it serves,/Or lose our ventures."  And, America burns. 

On July 24, 2008, during a CNN/YouTube debate, Presidential candidate Barack Obama was asked, "Would you be willing to meet separately, WITHOUT PRECONDITION, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?"  

Obama replied, "I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this [Bush] administration -- is ridiculous."

On Jan. 12, 2010, North Korea proposed that peace talks be started to formally end the Korean War, which waged between North Korea and South Korea (and foreign interveners) during 1950-53.  Hostilities ended in a cease-fire, but a technical state of war still exists.  The North's peace initiative seemed like an ideal opportunity for President Obama to implement his campaign promise, and show that his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 was not mere idolatry.  Ending sixty years of conflict would be a significant accomplishment.

But Obama declined the opportunity.  Though normally a headline-hog, he sent a State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, before the microphones in Washington to brush off the North's call.  That way there couldn't be future news-clips of the President's switch. Crowley urged North Korea to return to six-nation disarmament talks that it abandoned last year "and then we can begin to march down the list of issues that we have."  That sounded embarrassingly like Bush administration "punishment", which the peace hero had pledged to end.

Unfortunately, the North wouldn't go for it.  Returning to those negotiations would hinge on building better relations with the United States, including signing a peace treaty.  Plus, international sanctions against the maverick nuclear nation must be lifted.  The "you-first" standoff left both sides demanding preconditions before they'd even talk about peace.

When Obama accepted his peace prize on Dec. 10 last year at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, he acknowledged "my accomplishments are slight" compared with some past recipients, and that unrecognized millions who have fought for peace and justice are "far more deserving of this honor than I."  He also conceded lacking "a definitive solution to the problems of war."  But, "What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require. . .vision, hard work, and persistence. . .And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace."  

Where's the Vision in instant, robotic rejection of the North's first offer of peace in the 60 years since the war began?  What New Ways of thinking are shown in a glowering stand-off, with both sides waiting to see who flinches first?  If peace is Imperative, why refuse to even talk about it?  The President took months deciding on a plan for war, but can't spend as much as a day preparing a plan for peace?

Admittedly, North Korea is a closed, secretive dictatorship that's developing nuclear weapons and delivery systems that could be used to attack the U.S.  When he rejected the peace initiative, President Obama was engaged in closed, secretive meetings with Democratic congressional dictators over their plan to nuke the nation's health care system.  

Perhaps it was a wise allocation of Presidential time to what he feels is the greater concern.  But it says something about Obamacare if it's viewed as a worse threat than nuclear attack by a foreign nation on, say, San Francisco.  Isn't saving that city more important than coddling Nancy Pelosi, who's only thinking of her ill-reputed plan?

President Obama should re-think his reflexive "No!" response to peace on the Korean peninsula.  At least make an attempt to earn the Nobel prize by talking with this dangerous adversary.  Maybe they would agree to separate but simultaneous talks on peace and disarmament.  What's to lose?  Bragging rights to not "caving-in" on their peace offer?  Wouldn't a disarmament pact be easier to achieve if there's no state of war?

Maybe the Nobel guys should ask for a refund of the $1 million cash award they bestowed on Obama, in addition to his prize.  What happened to it, anyway?  Did he just add it to his stash?  Or did his spouse, Michelle, have other plans?  She bought a $6,000 black alligator clutch-purse by Italian fashion designer VBH last July.  Just the thing for carrying money on a shopping excursion.  

Oh, wait, the White House says the clutch was merely an $875 patent leather version.  And the President pledged the entire award to charity.  Doesn't it make you feel good to know our messianic President and spouse are so kind to the common folk?  And so, America burns.

        

Well, lookee here!  We've finally learned what the mysterious "H" in Barack Obama's name stands for -- HOOVER.  As in, Herbert Hoover, the president Democrats wrongly have blamed for 75 years as responsible for the Great Depression.  

Actually, Republican Hoover presided only over its start.  It was Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt who took over in 1932 and turned severe financial hardship into a decade-long Great Depression with his disastrous "big government solution".   

Now, it appears, Obama and his political party will be held culpable for the next 75 years for turning a mild recession into today's jobs-gobbling, economy-destroying monster which roars on with no end in sight.  The word "Democrat" is being tarred with an indelible "fraud-incompetent-radicalized" stigma that could plague the party's luckless candidates for decades.

And it's for the same reason as FDR's bumbling meander to chaos -- a dogged, myopic insistence that vast government spending and economic planning can solve any problem.  Actually, it's half-vast Democratic mythology.  History shows such foolishness prolongs and exacerbates a downturn.  World War II finally ended FDR's havoc, which was enabled by a well-stroked media so complicit it even hid his terminal illness.  

Private industry's production of ships and planes put America back to work then, and it could rescue us now, if gov't got out of the way.  But today's crack/pot Democratic "base" doesn't study antiquity.  Anything old is boring.  The constitution's too long for texting and doesn't even have pictures.  They want action now, with their guy Obama whipping Bush-era outcasts.  Hooray, we win!  Maybe a "Constitution Comics" series would help?
During the Messiah's 2008 media love-in laughably called a campaign, he loftily instructed journalists not to use his middle name, just "H".  With a wink and a nod, they agreed.  Rumors it stood for "Hussein" were angrily quashed.  That indirectly could have linked the chosen one with unskilled thieves who stole airplanes on 9/11/01, not a happy connection considering how they landed them.

So Obama floated into office on a cloud of murky hopes and expectations.  There was near-religious rejoicing.  The new President acknowledged the divination with his brand of modesty: epic TV saturation.  Later he would draw scorn for bowing to kings and tyrants on his world tours of redemption, but it merely showed recognition of royalty.  The same as when he bows before his own mirror image each morning, maybe bumping his noggin on the vanity.

As the Redeemer surveyed the landscape from a newly-liberated White House, he saw the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.  And he proclaimed: those who were tired would receive health care; the poor would become the rich; those losing homes would receive subsidies for their substandard mortgages; and breathing would be taxed as a dangerous greenhouse gas.  Miracles were in the air.

But first, there were annoying remnants of the Bush administration to deal with.  A wise tribunal known as the International Commission of Jurists had found Obama, and asked him to end the horrendous "War on Terror".  There were no terrorists, only idealists using inappropriate means to publicize U.S. misdeeds.  And so, it was done.  Henceforth, a proper term for their mischief would be used: "Man-Caused Disasters".  

After repealing the War on Terror, thus creating worldwide peace and happiness forevermore, Obama launched a War On America as ordained by his mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in an influential "G_d-D__n America" discourse.  Obama's crusade would anoint domestic multitudes with the savior's grace.  Soon, biblical-sized spending programs rushed through Congress, and executive manifestos hurtled like thunderbolts from Olympus.  Canons had replaced cannons.
On the sixth month, Obama paused in his creation and saw what he had done was good.  There were slight concerns: nearly all his benevolent legislation was stalled in the lethargic Senate, and closing the Gitmo water-board torture chambers needed almost as many deadlines as proof of Global Warming.  His poll numbers were in the tank, and it seemed nobody appreciated him, much as Illinois SEIUers -- whom BCon believed were bussed to the party's Iowa caucuses in 08 -- didn't like Hillary Clinton.  And, endless non-captive press cycling of his eight vows for C-SPANed health care talks suggested Obama's promises were worth as much as a Sen. Barb. Mikulski beauty tip.

But persistence, not veracity, is Obama's trademark.  As his first year drew to a close, he increased efforts to enact "health reform", the Holy Grail of Democratic Party politics.  Suggestive of the cup used by his Predecessor at the Last Supper, the coveted prize would give Obama "life or death" power over all Americans.  Democrats could inflict political crucifixion on opponents.  What other authority was needed?

And so, it came to pass.  House Democrats shoved 1,000 pages of ObamaScare papyrus down GOP throats, and the Senate added another thousand, plus a 400-page kicker drafted in secret by boss-Disciple Harry "Kare" Reid (D-NV).  Heretics were converted by fraudulent cost estimates and public-funds bribes.  Ignored in the frenzy was public sticker-shock over the size, cost, and gross stupidity of the unholy mess.

As outrage turned to talk of massive political crucifixion, Democrats realized there'd be a whole lot of perp-purging going on at the polls this year.  No problem -- they'd simply replace tarred incumbents with fresh faces who could disclaim responsibility for their elders' last-supper binge.  Vulnerable Sens. Dorgan (D-SD) and Dodd (D-CN) promptly stepped aside, amid speculation over reverse-bribes they may have received.  It's likely more will follow, since there's poison left from the Democratic health-takeover cup.  

For President Obama, the voters' transformation portends not only loss of, or serious damage to, his Congressional majority, but a permanent shift in public attitude toward the Democratic party.  It's akin to the media-aided distrust of Republicans that lingered in the Depression's aftermath.  Now the GOP will benefit from deep animosity toward Dems, who are in charge of the jobs-destroying Socialist outrages being inflicted on the nation.  It's already there, in the dramatic shift of independents to Republicans and steep plunge in the number willing to call themselves Democrats.  No media mythology can stop the perfect storm of correction now gathering across the U.S.

The reality of an interminable Jobs Depression, and Democratic failure to do anything effective about it despite an exploded national debt, will keep sinking into the public's mind.  Not only is the current generation being shafted by Washington's fiasco, the future of their children and grandchildren seems likely to be smothered by the burden of paying the bills for the mistake of entrusting one party with too much power.  Welcome to the New World of Democratic collapse.   And, America burns.

QUICK, what's more important  -- (1) you staying alive, or (2) President Obama having something to boast about in his state of the union message.

If you said (1), you're wrong.  At least, according to the Democratic/Government/Media Establishment in Washington, D.C.  To them, nothing's more vital than perpetuating the myth of the Messiah's majesty and glory.  And lecturing the nation is an ideal means.

Democratic Congressional schemers, exhorted by Obama, have set a speech-day deadline to enact his health care takeover.  Just as instant adoption of his giant "stimulus" stinker was demanded, or Heaven would fall.  But this make-haste boondoggle doesn't just pour billions down a rat-hole, it threatens the lives of all Americans, notably the elderly.

The likelihood of millions of premature deaths has created enormous opposition, but Democrats figure there will be little retaliation at the polls.  Reason: Dead seniors don't vote.  So ObamaScare marches on, like a Frankenstein monster created by the Pelosi/Reid axis as a grand experiment, which suddenly veers on an out-of-control rampage of destruction.  If you hear heavy foot-thumps outside your door, the creature wants you.

Doors are closed as Capitol Hill's monstrosity-makers haggle in the dark of night under a full moon, creating an army of 20,000 new Federal bureaucrats -- almost as many as the troops Obama sent to Afghanistan after six months of pondering -- and there's no time to even think about it.  Hurry, hurry!  Or you'll realize how stupid it is to entrust everyone's health care to faceless, regulation-ridden, forms-stamping unionized drones laboring in the bowels of Washington, whose job is to tell doctors what medical treatment can be given to anyone in the U.S.A. who's sick!  With enforcement provided by a vastly-expanded Internal Revenue Service, ordered to send everyone's tax returns to the health meddlers as ammunition against cowered citizens!  As they said after WWII, Who knew?

Someone should look at the Bureaucrat Solution's (BS) track-record, ripped from today's headlines.  (1) A panty-bomber who was a poster-boy for terrorist potential strolled through the cracks in the air travel security system and almost killed 300 passengers plus uncounted Detroit residents.  (2)  Famed U.S. war correspondent Michael Yon was detained by security personnel at the Seattle-Takoma airport after refusing to answer a free-lanced question about how much money he earns.  (3)  Celebrity comedienne Joan Rivers, well-known to millions of Americans, was stopped by a gate agent from boarding a flight at Newark's Liberty airport because both her married and professional names were on her passport.  Too much I.D. is a security risk?

Connect the dolts: all these incidents of bungling involved government bureaucrats and the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), one of 22 Federal bureaus combined to form the new Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) after the 9/11 attacks.  At the time, 16,500 private workers screened airline passengers, but they were deemed less competent than "pro" Feds.  Now, says Rep. John Mica (R-FL), the TSA hosts 60,000 employees.  "It has become an agency that is ineptly led from Washington, DC by a top heavy, well paid headquarters staff of 3,200 with an average annual salary of $103,000.  TSA also has 8,700 administrative and managerial staff in the field.”  

So much for the expertise of Federal administrators.  Yet President Obama, who promised to go over "every line" of the budget once his miraculously efficient staff took over, fiddled for a year and failed to find anything wrong with the air security system.  Only when a terrorist attack was nearly successful did he react.  He sternly issued new rules to officials who'd failed to follow old rules, then assaulted passengers rather than confront bombers.  Trips to the bathroom won't be allowed during the last hour of a flight.  Apparently, the goal is to soak everyone's panties and disarm any hidden explosive.

Unfortunately, more burdens heaped on the traveling public won't stop determined jihadists.  Rationality suggests targeting the attackers, rather than war reporters, celebrities and wheelchair-bound grandmoms, with increased screening.  We know the profile, but Obama cripples our defense with self-serving political correctness.  We can expect the same damaging results when he assumes control over our health care.

His spaghetti-bowl of more than 100 confused and conflicting new agencies, boards and bureaus will be slopped into the Dept. of Health & Human Services, already the world's biggest red-tape factory with some 67,403 "full-time equivalents", aka bureaucrats.  It's government gone wild.  Nobody's explained how dumping this mess, which doesn't exist now, into the health care system will save money, much less decide better than your doctor how to keep you healthy.  The FTE's will know how to make you dead: simply withdraw care, the easy way to save a half-trillion bucks as mandated by the bill.        

In the Never-Safe Land of ObamaScare, staying alive may depend on who you know, or can bribe.  Vote kickbacks to Senators set the pattern for a cornucopia of corruption that may erupt when millions of desperate endangered citizens throw money at their health-deciders, hoping for a favorable decision.  Maybe campaign contributions to a favorite Democratic politician would help.  Your "representatives" can afford to be gracious.  Along with other high officials, they'll still have their separate, privileged health insurance.  Republican amendments to put them under ObamaScare were rejected.      

Did formation of the Dept. of Housing and Human Resources solve the nation's housing problems?  No, its bureaucrats dithered while millions of sub-prime home mortgages were issued and wreaked havoc on the economy.  Did creation of the Dept. of Education solve the nation's education problems?  No, its bureaucrats have spent billions on themselves, while fighting against non-government schools which offer actual hope to disadvantaged minorities.  In fact, no government program has ever worked efficiently.

The flaws of bureaucracy must be well-known to the President and Congress.  Back to the TSA, which, Rep. Mica says, "has failed to compile a reliable watch list after eight years, or put in place a biometric identification protocol after multiple directives in law. These failures are not only exasperating, they are mind-boggling.

"We could reduce the managerial and administrative staff in Washington and in the field by 25 percent, transferring these positions overseas and to high-risk locations, more in line with the Israeli model of aviation security.  DHS officials have been made aware of classified reports of record levels of poor detection performance by Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) since early 2009 and have failed to institute necessary reforms."

Nobody should hold their breath.  Democrats have floated legislation to unionize TSA screeners, now prohibited by law as detrimental to national security.  "No, I didn't check names against the No-Fly list.  That's stealing work from another union."  Resulting compulsory dues will shower millions in campaign contributions into Democratic coffers.  Expect the same partisan bonanza from health care.  Plus, ObamaScare's BS tangle will spawn countless "life or death" lawsuits by Democratic trial lawyers, resulting in additional political largesse.  

It's not health care.  It's tax-and-spend, socialism, and permanent political power, all rolled into one massive partisan stealth automaton.  And, America burns.

It's big.  It's mean.  It weighs 24 pounds.  And it's coming to a home near you.  Actually, your home.  

It's the misnamed "PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT", the latest monster rising from Congress' Big Houses of Horrors.  If anything, you need protection from this massive assault on your freedom.  And it's likely to be anything but "affordable."  The Internal Revenue Service will hire 9,000 new agents to see to that.

Yes, the friendly, lovable IRS, everyone's favorite agency.  The one that requires you to fill out endless pages of tax returns every spring, just when you want to enjoy life.  The one with regulations so bewildering you have to hire people to help you pay it money.

Citizen, soon to be Subject, you ain't seen nothing yet.  Under "health care reform" you'll be targeted by the IRS, even if you don't pay any taxes.  That's right, you'll be their new client, thanks to our President and Congress, who want to pamper you, take care of you, and attend to your every health need -- just as soon as they finish mummifying you in red-tape, and emptying your wallet or purse.  And sending you to jail if you don't cooperate.

Don't even think you can hide-out from the Revenuers by having a measly income so small they won't bother with it.  If you're broke or near it, you're exactly the type they're looking for.  Someone who really needs their help.  Someone who hallucinates the government can provide it.  Someone who'll show appreciation on voting day.

In other words, you -- the guy or gal who voted for President Obama and his Democratic Congressional henchmen in 2008, believing it was the morally right thing to do.  Their vague promises sounded so warm and nice, just like the health bill title.  You didn't know what they meant was, they "hope" to "change" our free country to indentured socialism.

So, the government's been devouring private industry like a giant Pac-Man gobbler.  Now  with ObamaScare, it's closing-in on insurance companies, hospitals, and doctor's offices across the nation, one-sixth of the economy, guided by faceless manipulators in Washington who're on a mission to "serve" you whether you want them to or not.  Big Daddy Government knows best.

But, dammit, what's health care got to do with tax collection?  Quite a lot, it turns out, though you won't see it detailed in the major media.  Just as they played hooky on reporting the truth in the last elections, they're playing health care legislation as a mere "horse race".  Will Houdini Harry Reid pull 60 votes from the hat?  Yep.  Which bill version will prevail in conference committee, the Senate's or House's?  Duh.  Who cares what's in it, the ailing media needs a simplistic scrap and Dem lawmakers want to "make history".

With "free health care" seemingly in the offing, who notices that the bill being debated is primarily a government tax feast, with medical care dumplings on the side.  In the Senate, Boss Reid met behind closed doors with a select few pals to pick from a dirty wash-list of potential new taxes.  The taxathon's orgasmic exuberance must have evoked ambiance of the old El Rey Bordello in Reid's boyhood home town, Searchlight, NV, except in that enterprise the payers got to choose the tricks (taxees don't).  When the party was over, dozens of new tax levies, totaling $500 billion, had been crammed into the health bill to pay its initial ten-year cost, variously estimated at up to $2.5 trillion.

Part of the bill's expense will be to enforce the mandate that nearly every American must have health insurance.  If you don't get it from your employer, you have to buy it yourself, and the price may rise significantly from today's levels once greatly increased "demand" is dictated by the Feds.  To show their benevolence, Dems included subsidies, in the form of tax credits, for people who earn 100-400% of the poverty level, but they'll still have to shell out 2% to 9.8% of their income for health insurance many don't need or want.  

There will also be "play or pay" tax penalties on firms that don't provide coverage for employees, which ultimately will be paid by American workers in the form of reduced wages and lost jobs.  A new excise tax will be imposed on high-cost insurance policies, and could later be applied to almost all plans.  Congress' Budget Office (CBO) expects revenues from the Cadillac plan tax to grow at 10-15% per year after the bill's 10-year estimate.
 
Collection of these and other taxes on health will be handled by the ever-helpful IRS, which is accustomed to taking the heat from outraged customers.  In a letter to Sen. Reid, the CBO estimated it will cost as much as $10 billion to enforce the mandate for insurance and dole out tax subsidies for its purchase.  After analysis of the budgeteers' assumptions, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) calculated the health bill will increase the IRS size by at least 9,000 enforcement bureaucrats, which isn't included in the cost projection.  Nor is a new building (at 60-39 Penn. Ave. in D.C.?), that could be required, possibly to be named "The Harry Reid/Nancy Pelosi IRS Expansion Annex of America".   

So, if the health "reform" bill is enacted, the 20-million-plus folks who've lost jobs since President Obama took office, as well as nearly everyone else, may receive a new incomprehensible IRS form in the mail demanding they prove whether they have health insurance.  Welcome to the brave new world of Federalized health care, be sure to peruse the jail provisions on page 10.  When Democrats talk, taxes walk.  And, America burns.
            

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!  As cameras rolled, Democratic bosses didn't bother to hide the spit-eating grins on their faces.  Triumphant, dominant, omnipotent.  Victors of the legislative StuporBowl, now headed for a safer ride with lesser peons at DisneyWorld.

These were the masters of the Senate, if not all humanity.  Three committee chairmen  who, with Houdini Harry Reid (NV), had fought and bought their way from a deadlocked chamber to a magical win for the Gyper, aka President Obama.  The illustrious trio --

DURTY OLD ROMEO Max Baucus, czar of tax-writing Finance, who recommended his live-in girl friend for a job as Montana's U.S. attorney but withdrew her nomination in the face of bad publicity.    In response to a posting in the Billings Gazette, a voter wrote: "His 'residence' (in Montana) is his name on his mom's house deed.  He has a big beautiful home in D.C. . .the only time we ever saw ol' Max out and about is during his election cycles.  He has ignored Montana. . ."  Said another: "Baucus doesn't care if he commits political suicide, he can always become a lobbyist."

THE BEE KING, Tom Harkin (IA), who finally ascended to the Health throne with the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy (MA).  The problem: his therapeutic knowledge is limited to a zealous pursuit of "alternative medicine", launched when a "guy from Arizona" told him bee-pollen capsules could cure the lawmaker's allergies (to humility and truth?).  Harkin gulped 250 pills over the next five days, and buzzed the ailment was gone.  Since then, according to a U.S. News report, he's diverted several million dollars out of the NIH research hive each year to study unconventional therapies -- a worthy field, but not when recklessly shoved down health professionals' throats with Harkin's usual red pepper.

SUBPRIME SOLON, Tom Dodd (CT), an enabler of the junk mortgage boom which caused the current recession, who then profited from his Banking, Labor & Pensions honcho clout by securing favorable mortgage loans on his own real estate properties.  A voter favorite (Not!), he tried to patch his reputation by designating $100 million for a Connecticut hospital in the health takeover bill.  The general reaction was, that's all?

FOURTH PLACE went to campaign-meister Chuck Schumer, New Jersey mouth, who was caught cursing a flight attendant for not allowing him more time on his cell-phone than common passengers.  Apparently he showed up due to a Pavlovian response to TV cameras.  He even shoved aside Sen. Richard Durbin (IL), Reid's parrot-like deputy.   

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who bragged of bagging $300 million instead of a measly $100 million and then insisted she couldn't be bought, must have stirred glee from Huey Long's ghost, fluttering in some deserted Capitol corridor.  Neither she, nor Ben Nelson (D-NE), who plucked billions, were invited to the celebratory soiree.  In today's Senate, power goes to vote buyers, not sellers.   
HOUDINI HARRY spoke the usual falsehoods at his jubilation jamboree: people with health insurance will be able to keep it, and those without will be able to afford it under the nine-pound Immaculate Legislation, born on the Senate floor without open hearings or other visible gestation.  He appeared confident Nevadans won't retaliate in 2010 just because he labored day and night to deliver a dreadful, budget-nuking death-bomb, over their passionate opposition.  Yet the winning 60-39 vote may seal his political fate.  Why would he risk his career on one lousy bill among hundreds?

Perhaps Reid reminisced about his own modest roots.  A miner's son, he was born in Searchlight, Nev., a former gold-camp about 50 miles southeast of Las Vegas, perhaps best-known as home to the El Rey Bordello, which burned down in the early 1950's.  In 2000, the town had a population of 576 and per capita income of $19,606 -- a far cry from Reid's current goldmine, a near-$200,000 Senate paycheck, not counting any income from his murky real estate interests.  How high can he parlay his chips before losing?

As a boy, in the state that's now the U.S. gambling capital, Reid hitchhiked 40 miles each week to the nearest high school, where he played football and was an amateur boxer.  Today, he shuffles a few steps from his office to the Senate floor, plays footsie with lobbyists and contends as a pugilist for Socialist schemers.  He could be bluffing, or playing perhaps the biggest losing hand in gaming history.  What's in it for him?  An answer is suggested by the experience of previous Democratic Senate majority leaders.

A recent Rasmussen poll found the GOP ahead by an astonishing 8 points in the generic 2010 Congressional balloting.  By comparison, the party was ahead by only 1 percent just before the 1994 elections when it wrested control of Congress from surprised Dems.  If the Republicans' commanding lead holds or increases before the balloting, Donks could be in for an historic trouncing next year.  Hence, Harry's "in your face" crusade for a highly-controversial health revolution is seen by many as virtually suicidal.  

Comparisons are made to Japan's "Kamikaze", air attackers who dove suicide bombers at American warships in World War II.  According to one Japanese historian, "Hara-kiri was a social class bound privilege given only to samurai (warriors) in order to protect them from being killed by executioners."  Reid's bully-boys, of course, see themselves as America's royalty, with swords ready for Dem defectors.  Reportedly, holdout Sen. Ben Nelson was warned to vote right on health care, or he'd never get a bill passed again.  Apparently, he feared that more than voter retaliation for taking a dive.

Legislative historians may debate why Dems would follow their "win at any cost" samurai like lemmings going over a cliff.  Self-styled moderates like Virginia's Jim Webb meekly obeyed orders.  Florida's Bill Nelson, who's gotten away with his "sensible" act until now, eagerly joined the senior lynch-mob because the bill was needed.  If it's so great, why did he amend it to grandfather elders in his state and four others into existing Medicare?  Then vote to stick-it to those in all other states?  Where's honor among thieves?
Unless there's a drastic, unlikely change in voter sentiment, Reid seems destined to follow in the ill-fated footsteps of other small state tricksters who got elected as moderates and morphed into fanatical liberals upon being selected as Majority Leader, only to lose re-election as a result.  Reid's predecessor, ex-Sen. Tom Daschle,  for example, wore a soft "moderate" shirt while in South Dakota and ripped it off on returning to Washington, revealing his snarling Super-liberal self underneath.  Then voters caught onto his game.  In 2004, GOP Rep. John Thune beat Daschle by a 50.5%-49.4% margin, of 4,508 votes.  

But old liberals never die, they just blaze away.  After his defeat, Daschle got a consulting job with the lobbying arm of K Street law firm Alston & Bird, which represented many health industry clients.  He also wrote a book advocating universal health care, and thereupon was nominated by President Obama as Health and Human Services secretary, where he could put his plan into effect.  Unfortunately, an honest Democrat is hard to find, and the South Dakotan was forced to withdraw when it was disclosed he had evaded Federal income taxes big-time.  

Still, Daschle's ideas lingered.  His treatise proposed what some might call a "death panel", a new federal board which would specify who could receive health care based on cost-effective analysis.  Theoretically, a senior with only a few more quality years left, as projected by actuarial data, might be rejected for expensive cancer surgery, in favor of giving it to a young alien with many years ahead voting for Democrats.  Daschle conceded doctors and patients often view such decisions as "matters of life and death" and therefore "might resent" them.  Huh?  People don't like being killed?  You jest!  But funds for the plan were tucked in Obama's massive stimulus bill.

Also, panels to implement Daschle's life-devaluing scheme are included in the health takeover bills passed by the Senate and House, vaguely-worded to mask the deadly intent.  How else could $500 billion be slashed from Medicare, except by withholding care?  

So dogged Daschle is doing well in finances and influence.  What about the Dem ML before him?  That would be George Mitchell, plucked from a judgeship to fill the term balance of Sen. Edmund Muskie (ME), who resigned to become Bill Clinton's Secretary of State.  Mild Mitchell worked his way to the ML position and became a notorious liberal partisan.  In 1994 he turned down appointment to the Supreme Court, so he could continue Senate efforts to pass major health care legislation, thereby serving as a role model for Reid on the importance of Democrats' never-ending health care quest.  

When "Hillarycare" failed, Mitchell retired from the Senate in 1995, but predictably joined a big Washington, D.C., law firm, Verner, Liipfert etc., representing big tobacco among other clients befitting a liberal war dove.  This year he became Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, where he can keep a toe in the political waters.  All further encouragement to Houdini Harry to carry on the fight.
Okay, so a lot of Dem leaders have been flawed.  What about Mike Mansfield (MT), who was ML from 1961 to 1977, longest of anybody.  He retired unscathed by scandal and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as Ambassador to Japan, where he served with distinction for ten years (including retention by the Reagan administration.)  The Japanese loved Mansfield, and awarded him the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, the nation's highest honor for someone who is not a head of state.

While in office, Mansfield also fostered relations between his home state of Montana and Japan. The sister city of Helena, capital of the state, is Kumamoto-shi on Kyushu.  In the newspaper postings mentioned above someone wrote, "Remember how proud we were of Mike Mansfield? He would show up at in Montana and he was surrounded by fans. Quite a difference with Baucus; except for Montanans' habit of reelecting its politicians."  The esteemed solon died in 2001 at age 98.  Heck, the guy was practically a saint!  Why didn't some of the luster rub off on Reid?

Actually, it may.  It's often overlooked, but after his retirement as ambassador, Mansfield became an advisor on East Asian affairs to well-paying Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs.  So he wasn't adverse to earning cash as well as praise -- and who doubts that Reid is similarly inclined.  In his recent behind-the-scenes mentoring on Obamacare, the ever-helpful Dasche slyly could have mentioned to Reid the salary -- said to be $2 million in 2008 -- bestowed on him by the Alston & Bird law firm for his consulting role.  What might Golden Sacks pay?  Do visions of sugar plums dance in Reid's balding head?

Combine this with the fact that ex-Sen. Mansfield was a student of Japanese culture and doubtless was familiar with Hara-kiri.  Some of this could have been imparted to Sen. Reid in casual conversations, shaping his future actions.  If it's honorable for patricians to die for a cause, why not sacrifice your Senate career for a combo of Democratic Party sainthood and personal wealth?  That, plus the esteem of going down swinging, would be nearly irresistible to an ex-boxer from Searchlight who now wants the spotlight on him.

In the end, Reid's "Hara-kiri" is a double-game, much like the double-counting of ObamaScare income to make it appear financially solvent.  If he wins re-election he returns to the Senate as a conquering hero.  If he loses, he cashes in on Wall Street, K Street, or anywhere else where the price is right.  Besides being wealthy, he's adored as a man of principle who fought for health care for all Americans.  What a guy!  

But remember Thomas Jefferson's words:  ". . .God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. . .The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is its natural manure."

Democrats could rake-in up to $2 Billion in campaign cash from ObamaScare.

Greedy Senators are scrambling to enact the public-hated health takeover as fast as possible, so the money will start rolling in.  They don't know or care what Boss Reid dumped into his 2,400-page cornucopia of  circumlocution -- the recipe for Senate bean soup, dart-pocked pages ripped from the parliamentary rules book, a treasury of Teddy Kennedy morality orations, bat guano from the Dirksen SOB attic -- as long as it gives the Feds enough authority to threaten the health care industry.  ChicagoOutfit/ACORN /SEIU-trained Barack Obama will take it from there.

Donks are shoving the lucrative bill down the throats of Republican lawmakers and voters, expecting a flood of campaign contributions from aligned interests like unions, trial lawyers, drug companies and the AARP will follow.  Doctors, health insurance providers, and medical goods makers are among targets for "go along or else" payments.

The huge campaign war-chest may help Democrats overcome a massive voter rebellion in next year's congressional elections.  But money advantage didn't help their candidates win November's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.  And citizens' belated perusal of the "reform" bill's disastrous contents won't help Dems in the next voting.  

In the ravenous race for gold, Helpful Harry, the Senate's cadaverous health expert, hid in a closed room and wove his Dem colleagues' various goofy ideas into a nut-job tapestry creating over 100 competitive new bureaucracies in the Dept. of Health and Human Services.  Each was endowed with vaguely-described but nearly limitless powers to launch regulatory attacks on the existing health industry.  New czars, anyone?     

Bewildered Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who sometimes wanders her agency's halls asking where's the powder room, is tasked to clean-up the epic disorder.  A search of the wildly-rambling measure turned up some 2,500 mentions of "secretary", and nearly 1,700 times when she is given final power -- as queen of the bureaucrat empire -- to create, determine, or define ways the gov't will use its sweeping new authority.  Beware, ObamaScare's coming!

An army of new bureaucrats, including lawyers, will be needed to draft regulations developed under the disarrayed ObamaScare dominatrix.  That's one reason it will take several years for the wheelbarrows of stultifying directives to be trundled down.  But money-raising can begin immediately, as lobbyists and pressure groups seek "inside" influence.  The White House's men will be at the door, ringing-up the cash register.

Serious campaign wealth is expected from union dues on the ObamaScare workers and the more than two million "public servants" already on the gov't payroll.  Those raking in $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% during the recession's first 18 months, even as 7.3 million jobs were lost in the private sector, according to USA Today.  For example, the Transportation Dept. had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more when the downturn started, but now has 1,690 such employees.

The explosion in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in private industry.  Helpfully, Obama has ordered another pay increase on Jan. 1, 2010.  Most or all the high-paid help is expected to join the AFSCME or other Federal unions, with political deductions aiding Dems.   

If each of some 2.25 million gov't drones is persuaded or required to contribute just $10 monthly to Democratic coffers, as part of union dues, the party's annual take could exceed $270 million -- $2.7 Billion over the ten-years by which ObamaScare's effects are usually computed.  Okay, to be conservative, let's say Dems only get half that, $1.35 Billion.  The first year's share is still enough to inundate hundreds of highway and other Stimulus projects across the nation with "THIS PROJECT BROUGHT TO YOU BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AND SEN. JOE SMITH (D)" signs timed to next year's elections.       

But total partisan yield could increase dramatically, if provisions are included in the final health "reform" bill to transform hundreds of thousands of privately-employed home health care workers into Federal employees.  Half their pay already comes from the Federal government, and some are unionized, like the United Domestic Workers in California.  By becoming Feds, they'll be promised sick leave, holidays, vacations and pensions -- with political contributions (to Democrats) part of the quid-pro-quo.        

And don't overlook the largesse anticipated from trial lawyers under the bill.  As death panels (actually H&HS bureaucracies which dictate payment eligibility standards for health insurers, many intended to halt expensive care for the elderly) crank up, there'll be legal challenges galore.  Dems are expected to write regulations in a sloppy manner, to deliberately make-work for their attorney base.  Since Congress shunned tort reform, which could save up to $200 Billion in Medicare costs, lawyers will have a field-day with suits by doomed seniors and others caught in the newly-strung web of Federal controls.

Since Jan. 3, 2009, according to the Washington Examiner, 581 contributions worth $1,261,023 have been made by donors identifying themselves as employees of the top 15 class-action plaintiffs' law firms (contributions by employees who did not identify their employer are not reflected in this data). Democratic candidates and committees received $1,241,978, or 98 percent of the total.

"The most generous of these lucrative sources of Democratic campaign cash was the Dallas-based Baron & Budd, best known for the late Fred Baron, who was finance chairman for former Sen. John Edwards' 2008 presidential run. Thus far in 2009, Baron & Budd employees have contributed $212,958 to 21 Democrats, and not a cent to Republicans. Second on the list is the New York-based Grant Eisenhofer firm, with employees contributing $184,078 to seven Democrats and no Republicans. Of the 138 total recipients from employees of all 15 of the firms, 122 were Democrats and just 16 were Republicans. The Democrats received contributions averaging more than $4,700, while the GOPers averaged $646," the paper reported.

Senior claimants will have plenty of time to sue, with their attorneys collecting multi-million-dollar shares of court awards.  Under the Ledbetter bill signed by President Obama, class-action attacks can be filed years after the damage supposedly occurred.  Another bill, pending in Congress, would allow "guilt-by-association" class-actions suits against firms doing business with a defendant company.  There's no place to hide when legal bees swarm, nor any source of campaign cash overlooked by Dems.  Lawyer donations should easily bring the party's Obonanza to $2 Billion in 10 years.  

In their relentless, witless drive for political and personal wealth from ObamaScare, Democrats literally bought-off themselves with government money.  They'll step-up the profit orgy in 2010, an election year.  There's immigration "reform", climate-change payoffs for Earthers, and many other liberal/Socialist fantasies to be taken-up.  And, America burns.

The great thing about passing legislation by the pound is, foes don't have time to find the bad meat hidden inside.

Take the Obamacare 2000-page turkey, and its 400-page Reid amendment, now being rammed through the Senate with a Christmas eve deadline.  Democrats promised to eliminate the part that sets up a "public option", and they did.  But they left in other language, supposedly intended to help people pay for health insurance, that would lead to the same socialist option result.

Here's how it works --

All the Democrats' various "health reform" bills would require nearly all Americans to have health insurance.  If their employer doesn't provide it, they have to buy insurance -- and pay a lot more than it cost before Obamacare (because they'll be subsidizing millions of the previously uninsured.)  A couple earning a total $40,000 would have to shell out $2,000, and a pair making $80,000 cough up $8,000 a year.  Government subsidies would kick in after that, but health insurance still would be a major burden on young families.

And don't even think about not paying.  You could get hit with a hefty fine, and if you still don't play ball, it could be jail time.

Fortunately, the kindly Democrats pushing these punitive measures have provided a way out.  Just pay the Feds a $750 fine, and you don't have to buy health insurance.  And don't worry about getting sick.  Remember, the bill prohibits insurance companies from turning you away, even for pre-conditions, and they can't charge you more than if you were healthy.  Just sign-up when you get the sniffles.  Or need a $100,000 cancer operation.

Wow!  Why would anyone pay thousands for health insurance, when you can get the same protection for just 63 bucks a month?  That's just the point -- hardly anybody will.  They'll go for the $63 option.  Soon, even employers will "get it".  They'll scrap insurance for workers, increase their pay by $63, and everyone's home free.  Thank, Democrats!

Except for one thing -- the insurance companies were counting on those whopping new monthly premium payments to stay in business.  As people opt out by the millions, insurers will have to increase premiums dramatically.  But that will only force the last holdouts to drop policies.  Eventually, the private insurance companies will have to fold.  Carrying the full cost, Obamacare will go bankrupt and stop paying for health care.

Knowing all this, why would Democrats set up a choice of a $63 monthly fine, versus up to $660 monthly insurance premiums?  That's where the secret kicker comes in.  With insurance dried-up and the government busted, everyone would be paying 100% for their own medical care and angrily demanding a fix.  Fortuitously, Democrats would have the perfect solution, drafted and ready -- a "public (Socialist) option"!  

So, as the voters clamor for financial protection, the Obama Administration will push its long-delayed but fervently-desired plan through an enthusiastic Congress.  The near-instant approval will make previous legislative rush-jobs seem glacial.  Voila!  The government will have its "single option" socialized medicine program, and the folks will have their health care back, with just a few blemishes such as long lines, treatment delays, rationing and death-panels.  And, of course, higher taxes.  There may be a few murmurs of concern, but when did the Feds ever repeal an existing "benefit" like Obamacare?

Who knows what other holes are in the Christmas stocking Democratic lawmakers are so anxious to fill for us?  That's their plan -- we won't find out until it's too late, and a grinning Obama stages a health reform bill signing as blossoms peek in the White House rose garden.  But even roses have thorns.  And, America burns.