The Nigh Seen Creeder

When it comes to Dick Morris, I know all about his prostitute-lovin' past. He's a former cad, I know, but that don't mean he can't do some truth-telling ... like this:

When the Obama administration crashes and burns, with approval ratings that fall through the floor, political scientists can trace its demise to its first hundred days. While Americans are careful not to consign a presidency they desperately need to succeed to the dustbin of history, the fact is that this president has moved — on issue after issue — in precisely the opposite direction of what the people want him to do.

Read the rest here.

B. Hussein Obama said ...

"Those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I'm not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around ... let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we are going to stabilize Social Security."

The tea bag-wavers said ...

"The National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition ... accepted President Obama's invitation 'to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we are going to stabilize Social Security.'"

We'll see if the Prez accepts. My guess -- and I'll put money on it -- is that he'll puss-out.

I'm just an Ordinary Joe. I work 40+ hours a week, I pay my taxes, and, as Bill Clinton once said of Joes like moi, I play by the rules. I also have an an academic advanced degree, unlike the president's professional advanced degree, and I'll wager that I've read more books 'bout economics than Saint, er, President B. Hussein Obama. Thus, I'll meet his ass to have a "serious conversation" about health care, Social Security, taxes, federalism, and any other f-in' thing he'd like to get his ass schooled in.

Come see me, B.

The Tennessean's Dwight Lewis likes to report on "objective" polls dealing with one President B. Hussein Obama.

Time will tell if ol' Dwight is willing to talk about this, objectively ...

For just the second time in more than five years of daily or weekly tracking, Republicans now lead Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41% would vote for their district’s Republican candidate while 38% would choose the Democrat. Thirty-one percent (31%) of conservative Democrats said they would vote for their district’s Republican candidate.

Overall, the GOP gained two points this week, while the Democrats lost a point in support.

Regular Creeder Readers will recall that I was an early supporter of Michael Steele for RNC chairman. He ran an über-clever and principled campaign against a milquetoast Democrat for U.S. Senate in 2006 -- losing only 'cause Maryland is chock full o' liberals who don't know, well, fuckin' nothing.

Steele's had some rocky moments since he became RNC chair; however, I'll not regret my decison to endorse him so long as he keeps sayin' stuff like this ...

I believe President Obama’s first 100 days in office is more than simply an opportunity to provide a report card on his term thus far. I believe his first 100 days offer us a frightening glimpse of what a "changed America" could look like: trillions in debt, suffocated free markets, diluted forms of capitalism, and individual liberties sacrificed at the altar of collectivism.

Led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, liberal Democrats have demonstrated an arrogance of power that uses the fear and concerns Americans have about the economic recession as justification to enact their policies designed to unravel the very fabric of our way of life. In addition to their irresponsible spending and dangerous borrowing, the Democrats have already taken steps to nationalize our banking and automotive industries and have their sights set on America’s health care system and energy industry. While they hope the American people won’t notice, they have. And their response has been nothing short of a resounding "No More!" However, such concerns have fallen on deaf ears by the White House and Democratic leadership on the Hill. In fact, what passes as a response has been dismissive at best or just plain rude. Their arrogance toward those who dare to dissent illustrates that there clearly is another side to the high-minded rhetoric and feel good sentiment.

My question at day 100 is: Is this the “change” America voted for?

I’ve already touched upon some examples of the Democrats’ arrogance of power during the past 100 days. Let’s recap:

First came the Democrats’ $787 billion economic stimulus package. It was intended, first and foremost, to help create much-needed jobs. What it became was a bill larded up with billions of dollars in pork-barrel spending -- including a $30 million earmark from Pelosi herself to protect San Francisco mice -- that offered American families little hope in terms of direct job creation (unless that job was to protect the mice). And let’s not forget, the Democrats’ stimulus bill also contained the loophole allowing millions of dollars in bonuses to be paid to executives at American International Group.

Then came Nancy Pelosi’s $410 billion in spending on a fiscal year 2009 omnibus package that contained 8,000 earmarks. President Obama signed it, even though he promised voters during the campaign that he would “go line by line through every item in the federal budget and eliminate programs that don’t work and make sure that those that do work, work better and cheaper.”

Next came the President’s jaw-dropping $3.6 trillion budget that would raise taxes on the very job-producing small businesses our economy needs right now. It will leave a $9 trillion deficit hanging over the heads of our children and grandchildren and leave them indebted to China and countries in the Middle East for generations to come.

Statism, ahoy! To wit:

The symbiotic relationship between President Barack Obama and General Electric is not just about a liberal minded media helping a like mind, but increasingly it is being revealed about how one of the largest corporations in the world bought the Presidency of the United States. The late President Eisenhower, a Republican, warned America about the influence of the military-industrial complex as he recognized that large corporations ability to wield decisive influence on government had become a reality more than fifty years ago. President Obama received more corporate contributions from Wall Street and other major corporations than any candidate in history but for one of them he is especially beholding.

Obama's statist policies are quickly making Bill Clinton look like Milton Friedman. That scares me ... it really, really scares me.

Tennessean columnist Dwight Lewis recently proclaimed this: "[President B. Hussein] Obama is in firm control." Given that Obama has convinced himself that it is within his constitutional purview to arbitrarily fire corporate CEOs, him being in firm control of anything should scare the bejesus out of all liberty-loving individuals ... and then some.

Not to be outdone with his "in control" assertion, Lewis has proclaimed Obama's genius by relating news of a recent AP-GfK poll which shows that Americans, by a 48-44 margin, believe that America is headed in the right direction.

That said, I have a bit of news for one Dwight Lewis: Polls are like 49-year-old women in a singles bar. Look around for a bit and you'll find one who's willing to go home with you.

The most recent Real Clear Politics poll reveals a Right Track/Wrong Track spread of -8.1 (RT 43.2/WT 51.3). Furthermore, the Democrat-controlled Congress has a -24.7 approve/disapprove spread (Approve 34.3/Disapprove 59.0) according to RCP. Funny how Dwight Lewis didn't mention that.

About the same time that Sunday's Tennessean -- with Dwight Lewis' pro-Obama sycophantic screeding -- hit my doorstep, Obama staffer Layne Anderson was appearing on NewsChannel 5's Inside Politics program. Ms. Anderson said this 'bout her boss:

"He could read the phonebook and have it work well for him."

If Mr. Obama ever gives a major speech in which he reads from a phone book, Dwight Lewis will no doubt sing his praises: "Another 'first' for our historic president!" he'll say. And when I ask why the Prez of the U.S.A. was crazy enough to incorporate passages from the phone book in a major speech, I'll be branded as a "racist" ... and Lewis will produce a poll to prove it!

Of all the professors I had when I was an undergraduate student, Dr. Moses Tesi was the worst. That is just the plain truth. Not only was Dr. Tesi quite inarticulate, he would almost become completely unhinged whenever a student dared express a contrary opinion. (Not good qualities for someone who never tired of stating that famed political scientist Hans Morgenthau was his "mentor.")

In this morning's Tennessean, Dr. Tesi has this to say about President B. Hussein Obama's foreign policy:

"The Obama administration's performance in foreign affairs has been brilliant and masterful. He has so far shown a keen understanding of the complex issues involved in a complex world characterized by self-interests. I say that the "soft power" approach that he is employing is not only the appropriate approach, it is an approach whose results do not come instantaneously."

When has there ever been a president who expected his "soft power" diplomacy to produce instant results? Again, can you say "inarticulate" ...?!

Unfortunately for Dr. Tesi, The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger exposed some ugly truths about President B. Hussein's MoveOn.org-inspired foreign policy. Henninger cogently explains that Obama might just be the most naïve president ever when it comes to foreign policy. To wit:

When Barack Obama was a candidate for president, the main plank of his foreign policy, other than withdrawing from Iraq, was agreeing to "talk to our enemies," notably Iran and Syria. The intellectual rationale for this policy, as far as one can make out, is that because George W. Bush wouldn't commit the office of the presidency itself to direct negotiations with the leaders of these regimes, and because everything George W. Bush did was wrong, reversing that policy would bear fruit.

Iran just sentenced Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi to eight years in prison. Syria's leading pro-democracy dissident, Riad Seif, has spent the last year in Adra prison and is reportedly dying of prostate cancer. Syrian "president" Bashar Assad won't let him leave the country to get treatment.

In Cuba, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is serving a 25-year prison sentence. In China, the whereabouts is unknown of Liu Xiaobo, co-author of a new, online pro-democracy petition. His wife has written to Mr. Obama for help. Tens of thousands of North Koreans are hiding in China.

The Obama people seem to believe that talking top guy to top guy is the yellow brick road to progress. Why do they think that? They say Ronald Reagan negotiated over nuclear arsenals at Reykjavik. But virtually all desirable regime change in our time -- Soviet Communism, South Africa, the Philippines -- has come mainly from below, from the West protecting and supporting people in opposition to autocrats.

The origin of the change-from-below movement was the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which ratified the legitimacy of self-determination. There was no stronger supporter of this liberal turn than AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. Where is his like today in the Democratic Party or its unions? Where is the left-wing blogosphere when the pro-democracy prisoners of Cuba, Iran and Syria need them? It's ranting about Bush "war criminals."

It is early in the Obama foreign policy. They say the right thing on political rights. But there appears to be no coherent strategy beyond "talk to our enemies." So far, what do we see? Hugo Chávez is smiling. His fellow prison wardens around the world are smiling. The joke must be on someone else.

Indeed.

Dennis Avery, best-selling author of Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, spent the better part of a year publicly challenging (in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times) Al Gore to a public debate vis-à-vis "climate change." Gore, big shock, didn't have the balls to accept.

Gore's sycophantic supporters in the U.S. House of Representatives seem to be similarly testicularly-challenged. To wit:

UK's Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at a high profile global warming hearing on Friday April 24, 2009 at 10am in Washington. Monckton told Climate Depot that the Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance at the House Energy and Commerce hearing on Friday. Monckton said he was informed that he would not be allowed to testify alongside Gore when his plane landed from England Thursday afternoon.

"The House Democrats don't want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face," Monckton told Climate Depot in an exclusive interview. "They are cowards."

According to Monckton, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), Ranking Member on the Energy & Commerce Committee, had invited him to go head to head with Gore and testify at the hearing on Capitol Hill Friday. But Monckton now says that when his airplane from London landed in the U.S. on Thursday, he was informed that the former Vice-President had “chickened out” and there would be no joint appearance. Gore is scheduled to testify on Friday to the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment's fourth day of hearings on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The hearing will be held in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building.

According to Monckton, House Democrats told the Republican committee staff earlier this week that they would be putting forward an unnamed 'celebrity' as their star witness Friday at a multi-panel climate hearing examining the House global warming bill. The "celebrity" witness turned out to be Gore. Monckton said the GOP replied they would respond to the Democrats' "celebrity" with an unnamed "celebrity" of their own. But Monckton claims that when the Democrats were told who the GOP witness would be, they refused to allow him to testify alongside Gore.

"The Democrats have a lot to learn about the right of free speech under the US Constitution. Congress Henry Waxman's (D-CA) refusal to expose Al Gore's sci-fi comedy-horror testimony to proper, independent scrutiny by the House minority reeks of naked fear," Monckton said from the airport Thursday evening.

I know why Al "Big Daddy" Gore don't want to debate a British Lord. He's no doubt afraid that he'll be on the receiving end of something like this.

DirecTV has been showing highlights -- if you can call 'em that -- of last year's Farm Aid concert. Last night, I tuned in just in time to catch The Pretenders' set.

I don't particularly care for The Pretenders these days. First of all, they ain't been worth listening to since James Honeyman Scott died. And second, Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde is an idiot. To wit:

During her band's set at Farm Aid 2008, an organization which purports to help farmers, Ms. Hynde was wearing a T-shirt with this slogan plastered across the front: "TAX MEAT!"

Ms. Hynde has probably never spent any constructive time on a farm -- except for publicity purposes, of course. Thus, she's probably unaware that most folks who raise hogs, cattle, and chickens refer to themselves as "farmers." Indeed, my grandfather, who literally died while he was tending to his cows, always referred to himself as a "farmer." And he wasn't a rich man ... he would've been ruined if a PETA-inspired arbitrary meat tax had ever been implemented.

The problem with folks like Chrissie Hynde is the fact that they never think whenever they decide to embark on one of their ridiculously idealistic crusades. The fact that she was stupid enough to wear a "Tax Meat!" shirt at a benefit concert for farmers proves that she and others who think like her are, well, stupid.

So there.

Pity poor Thomas Franks. The ink on his latest lemme-copy-and-paste-some-left-wing-talking-points screed was barely dry today when his, ahem, argument was dispatched faster than a SEAL can dispatch a bobbing pirate.

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Franks laments the failure of "card check," aka the Employee Free Choice Act. (EFCA, you'll recall, is the attempt by Big Labor to allow workers to organize by signing cards instead of holding secret-ballot elections.) What he didn't mention was anything like this -- which shows what kind of fraud would happen (on a grand, grand scale) if card check ever became the law of the land:

"One of the more objectionable features of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature wherein a union can simply gather publicly signed cards by employees agreeing to become unionized, thereby eliminating the secret vote for the workers. Opponents say this process is ripe for union abuse leaving workers open to any sort of intimidation and quashing their vote of conscience.

"If any more evidence of how corrupt the card check system could be were needed, one need only look at a recent union organizer in Ohio to see the abuse that will happen with card check.

"An Ohio union organizer has been fired after he was caught forging documents to deduct money from public employees’ wages to pay for political activity, the Service Employees International Union said yesterday.

"The organizer, whom Williams declined to identify, had forged about 40 'PAC cards,' which are documents that allow the union to deduct about $14 per month from employee wages to pay for the union’s political activity.

"If union bosses are so readily prone to forging these donor cards, what will they do when it comes time to use similar signed cards to get their foot in the door of a business in which they have not previously been able to gain access?

"If union chiefs and organizers have in their control all the signed cards to present to the employer to “prove” that 50% + 1 of the employees wanted the union to come in, how does anyone know that the employees really signed any of those cards?

"This is the sort of mess we are asking for as a nation if the EFCA passes."

The Campaign for Working Families PAC tells all we need to know about Obama and his CIA document dump:

My friends, when the next terrorist attack occurs, remember this report. I say "when," and not "if," because Al Qaeda has a pattern of testing new American leaders. There is no reason to believe that President Obama, as charming as he may be, will get a pass from Osama bin Laden. But forty-eight hours ago, the president went to CIA headquarters to defend the public release of the interrogation memos. There he declared, "I have put an end to the interrogation techniques described in those OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] memos …" That may turn out to be the biggest mistake of his presidency.

The New York Times reports today that President Obama’s own Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, wrote in a private memo last week that, "the harsh interrogation techniques now banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation." Blair also wrote, "Those methods, read on a bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009, appear graphic and disturbing." I believe it is a tribute to the Bush Administration that we can have the luxury of this debate on a "bright, sunny and safe' April day. Sadly, Washington today seems more interested in "appearances," rather than effectiveness.

The CIA also reaffirmed Admiral Blair’s admission that the now banned techniques worked. Terry Jeffrey of CNSNews wrote yesterday, "The Central Intelligence Agency … stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of ‘enhanced techniques’ of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) – including the use of waterboarding – caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles." The memo also states," … the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees … without these enhanced techniques."

Waterboarding helped save thousands of American lives in Los Angeles. We know that. And we also know that President Barack Obama has now banned it.

Indeed.

I dont know why I feel the need to lie
And cause you so much pain
Maybe its something inside
Maybe its something I cant explain
Cause all I do
Is mess you up and lie to you
Im a liar

-- Henry Rollins, "Liar"

When it comes to our president, he uncorks, like, a lie a day. Like this ...

During the Obama Administration's April 14, 2009 press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had an exchange with Helen Thomas -- the so-called "dean" of the DC press corps -- about terrorists being held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. During the exchange, Gibbs denied that Obama "taught on constitutional law."

Q: Why is the President blocking habeas corpus from prisoners at Bagram? I thought he taught constitutional law. And these prisoners have been there –

MR. GIBBS: You’re incorrect that he taught on constitutional law.

Q: — for many years with no due process.

From RedState.com ...

In a December 2007 KJFK radio interview with Christiane Brown, the same interview during which Obama promised to have his Attorney General to investigate the Bush administration — a promise he has now kept, Obama stated that he "taught constitutional law for ten years."

Wow. Any day now I expect our president to tell us that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east ... and he'll no doubt be serious when he says such.

The current American Conservative's cover depicts President B. Hussein Obama as an octopus who wishes to be "the president of everything." Like this ...

Business and the economy: Here Obama’s grip is far less subtle. He’s clear and decisive: the financial and industrial economy is his, and he’ll do with it as he pleases. What’s decided for the U.S. is what’s decided for General Motors, as presidential pressure pushes out GM chief Rick Wagoner. Obama and his man at Treasury, Timothy Geithner, want the power to confiscate any company whose failure they claim threatens the larger economy.

Now that he occupies the White House, the new president—who justly pilloried Bush for asserting that national security excused any executive ukase—seems to believe that his own vision of economic security empowers him to take whatever he wants and make any decision he deems necessary, from curtailing CEO compensation to renegotiating mortgage terms. What private sector? This is economic war!

And lest one think this is all about being faithful stewards of the public wealth, as Obama and Geithner like to play it, the Wall Street Journal reported that an unnamed bank was not allowed to return money the Feds had stuck it with in the first bailout wave. The strings attached to those bailout funds gave the federal government effective ownership over the bank; evidently the Obama administration values an excuse for control more than it values taxpayer money.

It also seems primed to use more traditional means of throwing weight around the national economy. The president’s pick for antitrust chief, Christine Varney, has already cast a stink eye at Google, expressing concern at a conference last year about the company’s “monopoly in Internet online advertising.” And Obama’s pick to head the Department of Agriculture, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, is an enthusiastic supporter of one of the most foolish and damaging federal economic manipulations around, endless ethanol subsidies. Any noises about damping down agricultural subsidies in general, supposedly part of the “fiscally responsible” Obama agenda, are dying in Congress.

You know ... President B. Hussein dismissed the CEO of a private company (GM) making him an offer he couldn't refuse. If that fact don't scare the bejesus out of any and all liberty-loving Americans, nothing will. Indeed.

Fair Warning will always be my favorite Van Halen LP. OU812, with Sammy Hagar on vocals, is a close second. (I'll 'splain all that one of these days.)

One-half of the Sammy-era Van Halen is now touring under the moniker Chickenfoot -- guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith are also in tow.

After seeing this ...



... I'm praying Chickenfoot will make an appearance in Nashville.

I've never had any use for Janeane Garofalo. First of all, she strikes me as a young lady who, if you touched her, would be quite sticky. And second, she's one of them leftists who tags anyone who disagrees with her, politically speaking, as an "idiot," a "redneck," etc. To wit:

Liberal actress and political activist Janeane Garofalo, in all seriousness, said activists who attended tea parties are racists with dysfunctional brains in a recent prime-time television appearance.

"Let's be very honest about what this is about. This is not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about. They don't know their history at all. It's about hating a black man in the White House," she said on MSNBC's "The Countdown" with Keith Olbermann Thursday evening. "This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. There is no way around that."

You know, if Ms. Garofalo had the first fucking inkling about basic economics, I could take her halfway seriously. But since she's even more clueless about such than the unlearned anonymous souls who regularly post comments on The Nigh Seen Creeder, well, why am I even talking about that dumb bitch ...?!

From the April 6, 2009 National Review):

Obama’s budget director, Peter Orszag, said the administration might be open to taxing employer-provided health benefits. When John McCain proposed the idea last year, Obama denounced it in a series of ads as a middle-class tax increase. But neither Orszag nor anyone else in the administration is talking, as McCain did, about coupling the tax hike with a new tax break for individually purchased health insurance. This plan thus really would increase taxes on the middle class, and disrupt people’s health-care arrangements to boot. Moving away from a subsidized employer-based health-care system to something more market-friendly would be terrific. Moving away from employer coverage to a more government-centered system, as Obama appears to want to do, is a mistake.

So much for our current president being beyond reproach ...!

Obama "soul-shakin'" and rubbing elbows with the socialist dictator of Venezuela ...


... that's all you need to know 'bout our Prez, indeed!

(HT: Mr. Mordecai)

When I was a kid, my next-door neighbor, Keith, was sorta like my surrogate brother. I didn't have any brothers or sisters, and he had three sisters. Even though he was four years older than me, Keith and I were inseparable from the time I was eight ... until he went off to college.

Keith gave me the "Joe Montana" helmet that I used for the first year I played youth football. Keith taught me how to swat home runs left-handed. Keith showed me my first Playboy. And everything Keith "outgrew," he gave to me: baseball, football, and hockey cards, cassette tapes (AC/DC, Van Halen, Kiss), and virtually all of his toys.

Two of the "toys" I got from Keith were Mattel Electronics football and hockey games. To this day, I still have the football game he gave me -- it still works and it's in perfect condition. Somewhere along the way, however, my Mom sold my Mattel hockey game in a yard sale. (Why she chose to sell the hockey and NOT the football game is still a mystery.)

Several months ago, I got a wild hair and decided to look for a Mattel hockey game on eBay. I found one just minutes before the auction closed. Needless to say, I lost out. I got another wild hair about two weeks ago, and this time I was determined to not be denied.

I wasn't denied, of course ... the picture above is a dead give away. My hockey game is in pristine condition, and it works perfectly. Unfortunately, it didn't come with instructions. And I don't remember how to play the freakin' thing. The only thing I've been able to do so far is incur penalties! (And that ain't too cool -- no pun intended.)

If you know how to play this freakin' game, drop me a line.

Former U.S. Representative, and failed U.S. Senate candidate, Harold Ford, Jr., aka Junior, recently announced that he won't be running for Tennessee governor next year:

Harold Ford Jr. ... has decided against running for Tennessee governor in 2010. He just put out a press release saying: "After long thought, consultation and prayer with my wife, Emily, I've decided now is not the right time to re-enter elected politics."

Not the right time, indeed. Given what happened in Tennessee '08 -- John McCain bested George W. Bush's '04 statewide performance, and Republicans gained complete control of the state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction -- tain't no way Junior could repeat his Senate-race performance. Indeed.

Something for Obamaniacs to consider ...

"The intrusion of politics into economics is simply an evidence of human ignorance or arrogance. Since the beginning of political institutions, there have been attempts to fix wages, control prices, and create capital, all resulting in failure. Such undertakings must fail because the only competence of politics is in compelling men to do what they do not want to do or to refrain from doing what they are inclined to do, and the laws of economics do not come within that scope."

-- Frank Chodorov, The Rise and Fall of Society

According to today's lead headline in the Tennessean, the economy has "sputtered," even though we have President HOPEANDCHANGE in charge.

Keepin' that in mind, this from National Journal ain't no surprise ...

Three recent polls show the GOP gaining ground on the generic ballot question, starting with an NPR survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies (R) and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (D) that put the two parties exactly square: 42 percent for each. Independents, however, preferred the GOP, 39-30. [Emphasis mine]

And if that ain't enough to send shivers through the boots of the most-moving MoveOn.org mover, this should:

● Simmons 50 - Dodd 34

● According to a poll ... U.S. Rep. Mike Castle has more support today than Attorney General Beau Biden, should the two run in 2010 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Beau’s father, Joe. ...

The survey, conducted by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, of 782 Delawareans found 44 percent support Castle while 36 percent favor the younger Biden.

● A new Quinnipiac poll finds Gov. Jon Corzine (D) trailing former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R) by 9 points in a potential November matchup. Christie led by 6 points in a poll last month.

Some random ruminations from the past couple o' weeks when I was ailin' ...

President B. Hussein Obama told a room full o' Frenchmen -- er, French men and French women -- that America is an "arrogant" nation. How come he had to wait 'til he was overseas to make such a bold pronouncement? Did he learn nothing from the Dixie Chicks fiasco? Oh, and Obama calling anyone or any group of individuals "arrogant" is indeed a case of the pot calling the kettle black (I certainly hope I don't get in trouble with the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton for that analogy). Furthermore, I find it titillatingly ironic that Obama chose to apologize for American arrogance in a nation full of stinky, snobbish fools. Jesus, does Obama even think before he speaks?!

Whilst on the campaign trail, ol' B. Hussein promised that folks making less than 250 grand wouldn't be subjected to higher taxes if'n he became president. In September, he told a gathered crowd in New Hampshire this:

"I can make a firm pledge ... no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes." [Emphasis mine]

Well ... what a difference an election and a couple of months makes. On April 1, tobacco consumers saw their taxes go up 156 percent. Last time I checked, most smokers don't make more than $250,000 a year. According to Americans for Tax Reform 55 percent of tobacco users are "working poor," and one in four cigarette smokers live below the poverty line.

In addition, Obama cannot hope to make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half by only taxing those who make more than $250,000. Indeed, as economist Michael Boskin, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisors under President George H.W. Bush, recently opined in the Wall Street Journal, folks making a grand less than Obama's 250K Rich Crew will soon be socked with a larger tax bill. "Families well below the president's 'no-tax' threshold will get a six-figure bill," says Boskin. So much for that "pledge," huh?!

And while I'm on the subject of who's going to have to pay for our president's crazy-ass schemes, folks in all income brackets should be prepared to open their wallets and purses if Obama's "cap and trade" proposal, which purports to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, passes into law. According to the American Council for Capital Formation and the National Association of Manufacturers, cap-'n'-trade will reduce average household income by between $739 and $2,927 when prices for electricity, gasoline, and other forms of energy spike 'cause of Obama's crazy-ass cap-'n'-trade scheme. (That's what'll happen when you have a president who spent more time suffering over his NCAA b-ball bracket than he did reading up on his Adam Smith, Frédéric Bastiat, Jean-Baptiste Say, Friedrich August von Hayek, etc.)