Author: Papa Giorgio
Michael Medved (after talking to President Bush) Talks About Bush Being Redeemed By the Two Most Unlikely People
BREAKING NEWS!! Health Care Fails Smell Test (awesome news!)
CNN has a breaking alert on a ruling by a federal judge in Virginia that rejects ObamaCare as unconstitutional:
A federal judge in Virginia has ruled parts of the sweeping health care reform effort led by President Obama to be unconstitutional. This is the first federal court to strike down the law, contradicting other recent rulings the law was permissible. The key issue of contention was the “individual mandate” requirement that most Americans purchase health insurance by 2014.
This case (Virginia v Sebelius) was the lawsuit brought by the states against ObamaCare. This is the test case that had the best chance of overturning the law, and the states have apparently won an important finding in the district court.
According to Dan Foster at NRO, the judge ruled that Congress “exceeded its authority” by imposing an individual mandate to purchase insurance.
Update: Actually, this suit was brought by Virginia alone. The other case brought by 20 other states in one suit is still pending.
The Wall Street Journal has some info on this as well:
….Judge Hudson, of the Eastern District of Virginia, said the individual mandate “would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers.”
He added: “At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance—or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage—it’s about an individual’s right to choose to participate.”
Separately, federal Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola, Fla., will hear arguments Thursday in a challenge brought by officials in 20 states, and he could offer the clearest indication yet of how he will rule.
If Gas Prices Were W`s Fault When He Was Pres-Does That Mean Obama Is To Blame Now?
Here is a great story from BigJournalism on the hypocrisy in the media about the blame game:
Take those pesky little ol gas prices that have now skyrocketed to more than $3.00 a gallon. For months the media had just omitted the story altogether like they hadn’t even noticed, while during the Bush administration they couldn’t stop doing stories on “Pain At The Pump” and they worked overtime to point the nozzle directly at the White House.
Here are a couple of examples, there are many others.
This story from 2006 on MSNBC blasts Bush for doing little to stop the rising gas prices.
This story from 2008 talks about how Bush and Evil Big Oil were conspiring against us all to raise prices and how Dear Leader Obama was going to come in and save us all from high gas prices and our dependence on foreign oil.
Whoops.
The media has finally figured out that gas prices are going up, but most stories in 2010 that deal with Pain At The Pump ignore Obama like they don’t even know he’s president. Mr. Teflon can’t be touched by this messy little inflation thing going on right now (of course, it’s not just gas prices either.)
When Obama entered the White House gas prices averaged $1.81 per gallon. Evil Bush/Oil must’ve done something to make those prices fall – but there’s no time in the 10 hours a day that local TV stations do in their newscasts to mention this little fact. They’re out of space in the New York Times to provide context for this story.
Of course, Obama’s reaction has been to close off-shore drilling and restrict more US land to drilling. The Bush actions of allowing more drilling and increasing US independence led to those low prices of 2008. Yes, policies in the White House can make a difference and are making a difference today to the rising prices.
Gas prices have nearly doubled under Barack Obama, meanwhile the media watches from the sidelines and complains without pointing out where this problem lies.
I had to explain to people so often that gas prices are based on the dollar, policies in opening or closing up areas to drill our own resources, taxes, and environmental mixes of gasoline. I finally would link to an article in all these kinds of stories. In fact, this topic made me join and upload my first video at YouTube. The point is is that when President Bush was in office, all my Democrat friends would incessantly bitch about gas prices as being Bush’s fault somehow. I think I will bitch about Obama and the gas prices… even though I know he really has nothing to do with it… except the Democrats typically do not want to use our own resources but would rather strip other countries of theirs (← turning the tables on their thinking).
I Love Our Men and Women in Uniform-Merry Christmas
Ernest Istook Dices Up Ed Schultz and Joe Madisons Bumper Sticker Mantras
George Bush Has Won
Media makes an ass of itself AGAIN!
Gateway Pundit has this example of media bias, Marooned in Marin likewise reports on how the AP reported Sarah Palin’s Haiti visit this weekend, bringing her hair stylist:
As reported by Kristinn at FreeRepublic.
The Associated Press transmitted a photo from Haiti of Palin captioned, “Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, has her hair done during a visit to a cholera treatment center set up by the NGO Samaritan’s Purse in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived Saturday in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission. Dieu Nalio Chery / AP”
That photo and caption set off rabid attacks on Palin from the Huffington Post, the U.K.’s Daily Mail and, of course, Palingates.
The photo does indeed show Sarah Palin standing with her husband Todd as a woman whose face is obscured uses two hands to fix the hair on the right side of Palin’s head.
However, one can observe that the woman is white, with her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing a white shirt with a bulky scarf and dark pants.
In other photos from Saturday, Todd and Sarah Palin’s white, brunette, eldest daughter Bristol, who accompanied her parents on the trip to Haiti, is wearing the exact same clothing and ponytail as the “hair stylist” in the AP photo.
That’s right, what the Palin-hating AP and others fail to report is that the “hair stylist” is Bristol Palin.
The AP photographer who sent the caption would have known that it was Bristol Palin, but by not mentioning her the AP was able to do a media hit on Palin but still be able to claim they told the “truth” with the caption.
…To reiterate, a daughter helps fix a loose strand of her mother’s hair, and it becomes an international scandal. Amazing.
12 Days of Winter
HotAir h/t:
Bill Kristol on Barill Clarack
Democrats Jumping Ship-Again (Updated)
This is a growing phenomenon! Previously I posted a story about 11 defections to the GOP.
In the past couple of weeks, at least 11 Democratic state legislators have switched sides — one in South Dakota, one in Maine, , one in Louisiana, two in Georgia, and four in Alabama. In Louisiana, the switch gives Republicans control of one house of the government for the first time since Reconstruction; in Alabama, the Republicans control both houses for the first time since 1874.
Read more: RPT Gains and Defections
Now this. Here is the first recent story from Libertarian Republican:
And then there’s this breaking news from the Statesman:
Democratic Rep. Aaron Peña of Edinburg hinted Saturday about making the switch to the GOP.
Reading between the lines, or more accurately the Tweats, leads one to the conclusion that it’s much more than a “hint.” From Peña who is on vacation outside of the State:
“Hard not to notice the stir back in Texas. Change is always difficult.”
The south Texas Rep. is described as one of the last remaining “conservative” Democrats, and is a close ally of Republican Speaker Joe Strauss.
Gateway Pundit has news on more Dem-to-GOP switches:
Texas Democrat Allan Ritter told associates he is switching parties next week. The move will give Republicans a super-majority in the Texas chamber.
Texas Tribune reported, via Free Republic:
State Rep. Allan Ritter, D-Nederland, is telling associates he will switch to the Republican Party next week. Ritter was not immediately available for comment.
That would give the GOP a 100-member supermajority in the Legislature’s lower chamber — a number that allows them to pass constitutional amendments and other matters without seeking support from the Democrats.
…(read more)…
This news comes from Libertarian Republican:
….From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Two black Democrats bolt party for GOP”
Two African-American Democrats [Actually three] on Thursday announced that they were joining the Republican Party.
Hall County Commissioner Ashley Bell and former state executive committee member Andre Walker said the Democratic Party had grown too liberal and they are finding a new home with the Republicans.
Bell was introduced as a Republican at a news conference Thursday at party headquarters.
“My district is pretty Republican as it is,” Bell told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “My wife and I have been thinking about this for six months.”
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[….]
Walker is publisher of the highly popular Georgia politica blog Georgia Unfiltered. The blog reports:
His wife, Lauren, who is also politically active, will join Ashley in the Republican Party.
Significantly, as the Gainseville Times points out, Lauren Bell was a Barack Obama delegate to the 2008 Democrat National Convention.
Christians have the Christmas tree~Muslims have the burning cars!
Merry Christmas multicultural Sweden…
you have been warned previously
Some new info from Gateway Pundit:
The Swedish suicide bomber was a trained jihadist who was recently looking for a second wife. He was a father of two young children. The Local reported:
In a message to his family contained in an audio file sent to news agency TT on Saturday, the man referred to an earlier trip to the Middle East:
“I never went to the Middle East to work or earn money. I went there for Jihad,” he said.
A Facebook page believed to belong to the man indicated that he studied Sports Therapy at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton, England, graduating in 2004. He had also posted numerous videos relating to the Iraq war, the war in Chechnya and the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.
His favourite pages on Facebook included ‘Yawm al-Qiyaamah’, the Islamic ‘Day of Ressurection’. The page’s signature image features London’s Tower Bridge being engulfed in flames and floods. Another favourite page was ‘Islamic Caliphate State’.
The man is also thought to have been active on Muslim contact sites, where he claimed to be looking for a second wife. In one message on the site Muslima.com, he says that he was born in Iraq and moved to Sweden in 1992. He said he had two daughters, one aged 3 and one under the age of 2. He said he wanted to marry again and that his first wife had agreed to this.
“In the future, am looking for to move to an arabic [sic] country and settle down there,” he wrote.