And they want to run your health care?

Perhaps "ruin" your health care would have been a better choice of words.

In a story rich with irony the Senate, led by Democrat Dianne Feinstein, has voted to privatize its restaurants and food services. The House privatized twenty years ago. The result? Sort of like East and West Berlin.

In a masterful bit of understatement, Feinstein blamed [millions of dollars in losses] on "noticeably subpar" food and service. Foot traffic bears that out. Come lunchtime, many Senate staffers trudge across the Capitol and down into the basement cafeteria on the House side. On Wednesdays, the lines can be 30 or 40 people long.

House staffers almost never cross the Capitol to eat in the Senate cafeterias.

Naturally some of Feinstein's colleagues were not pleased.

In a closed-door meeting with Democrats in November, she was practically heckled by her peers for suggesting it, senators and aides said.

"I know what happens with privatization. Workers lose jobs, and the next generation of workers make less in wages. These are some of the lowest-paid workers in our country, and I want to help them," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a staunch labor union ally, said recently.

1. So Brown wants to "help them"--those poor unfortunates, by keeping them in a dead-end job, slinging hash in gubmint eatery?

2. The Senate can't even run a two-bit restaurant on their own Capitol grounds. How the hell do they expect to deliver promises on a gubmint' run health care system??

H/T King.

Live blog of Conference call with Michele Bachmann

10:15am I'm currently on a call with one of our very few dependable conservative voices in our U.S. Congress, Michele Bachmann. She's hosting a question/answer session with constituents.

According to Bachmann, despite the fact that we didn't sign Kyoto, we are the only country in the world (including Kyoto signatories) who saw our emissions go down, even though we weren't a signatory in Kyoto.

Lakes & streams are cleaner now than they have been in the last 20 years.

253-5931 (St. Cloud office #).

Service to veterans highest priorities. Supported Wounded Warrior Assistance Act.

A caller got on and complained that Republicans, including Norm Coleman, need to get on board in pursuing our own energy resources. He argued rightly, that the solution to our energy problems consists of drilling and building refineries, and to build nuclear power plants.

According to Michele,

-If ANWR was a football field, the relative area needed for drilling would be the size of a postage stamp.

-ANWR would add more than 1 million barrels of oil per day, which would be a doubling of our national production.

-With the oil find in the Dakotas, Minnesota would do well to build refineries, which would create high paying jobs and would also lessen the cost of fuels.

-Congress has been the problem, and we need to get both Republicans & democrats aboard to make it legal to obtain our own energy sources.

-We are 7% more dependent on OPEC than we were just a year ago.

Caller: What are we going to do about the elderly? Mother and father died in a nursing home, both were victims of neglect; can't get government to respond. Japan honors their elderly; why can't we do the same?

Michele: Nursing home care is more a state issue vs. a federal issue; not all nursing homes are created equal; shouldn't matter whether a person is rich or poor, every0ne deserves respect and care, especially during the most vulnerable stages of life. If you see medicare fraud, 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477), also, her office staff in Waite Park are great case workers who will assist with individual cases.

10:45a

Unfortunately, I need to leave for an appointment, so this live blog is over.

Happy about crumbs (UPDATED & CORRECTED)

I had mixed feelings when I heard about the defeat of the democrat-led attempted confiscation of wealth that was the Senate "windfall profits" tax on "Big Greedy Oil" today.

I was at once relieved at the news, but a feeling of trepidation came over me as I looked at the link to the roll call of Senate votes. Expecting the worst, given Senator Norm Coleman's leanings as of late, I fully (and sadly) expected to see the name Norm Coleman once again aligned with the fever swamp democrats, voting to confiscate the "obscene profits" of the oil robber barons, thus getting even wid da man!

When I went to the site, I put my hands over my eyes, as I peered through parted fingers..afraid of what I might see. When I finally gathered the courage to risk further disappointment in our senior Republican senator, what I did see brought a smile of sweet relief to my face. Norm Coleman actually voted with the Conservatives this time to kill the bill!!!!

While this was a sweet sense of relief, at the same time I couldn't help but feel a continuing sense of frustration. If you actually have to think twice and wince every time your "Republican" Senator casts a vote on a socialist measure to confiscate profits, or to further hamper our nation's attempts toward energy independence, you necessarily have some trust issues.

However, I anxiously await to be similarly surprised in future votes.

C'mon, Norm... surprise me more!

***UPDATE & CORRECTION****

I guess I was wrong about Norm, in a way. The article I read regarding the votes led me to the "cloture" vote, I made the same mistake as did John Hinderaker at Powerline (at least I'm in good company).

Norm did vote with the democrats when it counted on this one. Even Harry Reid had the sense to vote no on this one.

:::Sigh::::

I remain sadly disappointed.

Time to put a nix on this crap.

Two environ-"mental" groups are threatening to sue to halt oil exploration in the Arctic to "protect polar bears."

Anchorage, Alaska (AP) - Two conservation groups plan to sue to protect polar bears from petroleum exploration and drilling off Alaska's coast.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Environment gave the federal government formal notice Monday that they will sue under the Endangered Species Act to protect the bears, which were listed as threatened last month by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

Polar bears are threatened -- likely to become endangered -- because their sea ice habitat has melted dramatically and computer models predict further losses, Kempthorne said. Polar bears use sea ice for mating, denning and hunting.

Kempthorne said the best scientific judgments did not conclude that polar bears were threatened by oil and gas development.

The conservation groups do not agree.

Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!

The dirty little secret is that this has absolutely nothing to do with polar bears, or even the environment. The dirty little secret is that these pseudo-crises are manufactured by a bee-hive of pointy-headed, neosocialist, self-loathing morons who would like nothing better than and will not rest until the United States is reduced to a third world collective hellhole.

To even entertain complaints by these morons is a waste of time and money, not to mention a danger to our environment; and I'm sick and tired of these self-loathing, self-righteous, smarmy morons being given a front-seat to the interests of Americans whose only crime is to live by the rules and to try to provide for their families.

While sitting on their thumbs up to the third knuckles...

The democrat energy policy? Tax the rich! (Oh--cue the music first!!)

Senate Debates Windfall Profits Tax on Oil
By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press
CNSNews.com
June 10, 2008

Washington (AP) - With gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, Senate Democrats want the government to grab some of the billions of dollars in profits being taken in by the major oil companies.

Senators were to vote Tuesday on whether to consider a windfall profits tax against the five largest U.S. oil companies and rescind $17 billion in tax breaks the companies expect to enjoy over the next decade.

"The oil companies need to know that there is a limit on how much profit they can take in this economy," said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 3 Democrat, warning that if energy prices are not reined in "we're going to find ourselves in a deep recession."

And just how the hell is taxing the living hell out of oil companies going to put one more drop of oil or one more BTU into this economy, Senator Durbin?!?

Get off your lazy, good-for-nothing phat backsides and quit blocking domestic energy exploration and access! Address the problem instead of your default position of taxing everything into oblivion!

If brains were gas, you dolts on the democrat side couldn't power a piss-ant's car half way around a bee-bee. Too bad we couldn't convert ignorance into energy; then at least you ne'erdowells would be good for something.

X-Ran Explains High Oil Prices...

Our benevolent other-worldly guardians at Mox Argon have a great primer on the cause of high oil prices, that, given the proper amount of time to digest the information, even a liberal can understand.

Read the whole thing.

Mr. Silvertongue.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the man with the golden dulcitone speeches that inspire us, the articulate one, junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, sans teleprompter.



And in yet another display of his superior wit and command of the facts:



What a guy! You dems have certainly made a wise choice.

Better late than never. Sort of.

President Bush, thanks for speaking out for sanity.

(CNSNews.com) - "The United States has an opportunity to help increase the supply of oil on the market," thereby easing gasoline prices for hard-working Americans," President Bush said on Monday.

He reminded Congress that he has proposed opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Continental Shelf to domestic oil drilling -- something that would "help us through this difficult period."

You almost had, it, Mr. President. If you had pushed harder on what you proposed earlier in your presidency, we would be nearing the end of this mess in which we find ourselves, or at the very least we'd be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. But after the usual suspects of enviro-whackos, along with their willing shills in Congress did their normal routine of wailing and gnashing of teeth, instead of holding your ground on the matter, you backed off. Rather than rallying the American people to the need for harvesting our own domestic energy reserves, you instead took a page from the Eisenhower playbook and played golf with regard to the issue. You even went so far as to play right into the envirowhackos hands, simultaneously increasing the credibility of their argument while weakening yours.

And you almost had it today, Mr. President. You almost had it on the nuts.

But then you went and said this:

"We remind our friends and allies overseas that we're all too dependent on hydrocarbons, and we must work to advance tech that help us become less dependent on hydrocarbons," Bush said on Monday as he headed out to Europe.

One step forward, three steps back.

Mr. President, now's not the time to humor the delusional fancies of the crazy uncles in the attic making life a living hell for the rest of the family. You're damned right we're
"addicted" to oil; in much the same manner as we're "addicted" to air and to food. So what? We've got plenty of it if our legislators would finally quit kowtowing to the crazy uncles in the enviro-whacko movement and act in the interests of the American people for a change.

Screw the enviro-whackos. When the hell were they ever right? About anything?

We have the technology to harvest our own resources in a way that minimally disrupts the surrounding environment; in many cases augmenting it.

Mr. President, you have a nation that's bleeding from the ears economically, and you have it within the scope of your office to issue executive orders to stop that bleeding. May I add that, given that we're in the midst of an economic emergency, and given that our nation's economic security is at risk, it would not be a misuse of your power under executive authority to do so.

And what greater a presidential legacy to leave your fellow Americans, than to decrease their dependence on foreign oil?

On Grad Parties and Motorcycle Rides...

I took a motorcycle ride to a graduation party from St. Cloud, to Chippewa Falls, WI (around 160 miles)...

It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky when I departed...

Even though there were some darker clouds as I moved through Wisconsin, not a drop of rain...(riding through Spring Valley & Dunn County was awesome--strikingly beautiful)...

Anyway, I stayed at the party for an hour and a half, and I began my trek back home.

At first, there were storm clouds to the left of me, and storm clouds to the right of me... (It felt like I was in the middle of the Charge of the Light Brigade)....I thought I was going to ride through the mess with nary a scrape.

Not so fast... When I drove back through Spring Valley, I stopped at a convenience store... I heard a few claps of distant thunder.. but I still held hope that my luck would hold.

I rode on through a winding country road, and finally, I heard little pitter patters hit my helmet...upon looking ahead of me about a mile or so, I saw what from that distance appeared to be a heavy fog, but I knew better that it was a downpour; then I looked above me and saw a greenish tinge to the clouds overhead, and knew the telltale sign of hail...

Just as it started to get heavy, I happened upon a small country store with an overhead canopy, and made it there just in time when a flurry of three-quarter inch hailstones began making their way to the ground. Another biker was there, who made a call ahead to his home in Ellsworth, about ten miles west, who said it had cleared up.

After the storm had let up quite a bit, and there was just a little bit more than a drizzle, I continued on my trek, thinking that Mother Nature just needed a good belch, and that would be that, and that my good fortune in keep out of challenging weather would continue.

Boy, was I wrong.

I rode through deluge after deluge of downpours and pea-sized hail. It felt like I was riding through Niagara Falls with a mixture of pebbles falling down with the water! After riding in and out of a series of six storm cells, I finally thought I was out of it when I crossed the border into Minnesota and stopped to fill up.

Wrong again.

I rode through another three episodes of torrents of rain, thunder and lightning through Anoka, MN on Hwy 10; by that time I didn't care. I was so wet, the only thing I was missing was a bar of soap (I thought about shampoo, but at least my full-face helmet kept my head relatively dry). When I was getting toward Elk River, I saw an awesome sight up ahead in the distance--a clearing sky! And I was riding right toward it. Halleluia!!! But then Highway 10 took a bend right there, and was leading me headlong--you guessed it--into another storm. At this point, I said, what the heck! I was a man on a mission to get home. I screamed defiance as I rode through yet another downpour, screaming, "Is this all you got?!? Come on!!" Finally, I rode through the last of the downpours as I headed into Big Lake, with another 40 miles to go, and I finally headed into the safe harbor of a clearing in the sky. By this time, the cold front had passed, and temps got down into the low 60s. I really thought I would dry out, I mean with driving 65-70 mph, you'd think it would have kind of a blow dryer effect.

Again, I was proven wrong.

By the time I got home, I was stiff, sore, and I couldn't be wetter and colder if I had plunged myself into Lake Superior. I took off my boots, and poured out over a cup of water from each.

All in all a good ride!

BTW--anyone have any suggestions on how to quickly dry out rain-soaked leather boots?

"Joe American" for President!!!

A couple of sticking points (i.e., buying into the global warming meme, universal health care), but in toto a lot of ideas that are head and shoulders above the three stooges that are running for POTUS.

I'd vote for him, or his ideas, in a heartbeat.

Fish in a barrel, folks...

Franken gets endorsed.

This is gonna be fun!

Time to Stop the Energy Insanity!

Sign the petition, now.

Tell your friends.

Time to give Congress a collective bitch-slap upside their pointy heads.

If Today's MSM were around at D-DAY.

H/T Anti-Strib. Make sure to go there to read the comments.

Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944

Casualties after one day of fighting.

NATION / SECTOR	ESTIMATED CASUALTIES
U.S. AIRBORNE	2,499
U.S. / UTAH	197
U.S. / OMAHA	2,000
U.K. / GOLD	413
CAN. / JUNO	1,204
U.K. / SWORD	630
U.K. AIRBORNE	1,500
CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE	8,443
REASONABLE GUESS	9,000 total (of which 3,000 may have been fatalities)

God blessed us with unselfishness on that day, along with a press and politicians that were more interested in reporting the truth and than in advancing an agenda.

Thank GOD for their sacrifices!

Baby survives abortion, lives...

From here:

Finley Crampton really shouldn't be here. Although his parents would have loved another child, they knew their baby could inherit a life-threatening kidney condition – and they couldn't take the risk.

After all, their first son had died of the condition and the second was born with serious kidney damage.

So when Finley's mother, Jodie Percival, became pregnant while on the Pill, she and her fiance Billy Crampton, 35, made the agonising decision to abort this child.

'Deciding to terminate at eight weeks was just utterly horrible but I couldn't cope with the anguish of losing another baby,' said Miss Percival, 25.

However, Finley had other ideas. And some time after the operation, Miss Percival felt a fluttering in her stomach.

Eventually her doctor sent her for a scan – and she discovered she was 19 weeks pregnant.

The child had survived the abortion and thrived in the womb. 'I couldn't believe it,' said Miss Percival. 'This was the baby I thought I'd terminated.

'At first I was angry that this was happening to us, that the procedure had failed.

'I wrote to the hospital, I couldn't believe that they had let me down like this. They wrote back and apologised and said it was very rare.'

But a week later, another scan confirmed that this baby had kidney problems too, like the couple's previous children.

Miss Percival carries a gene which triggers multicystic dysplastic kidney – which causes cysts to grow on the kidneys of an unborn baby.

Her first baby, Thane, had lived for only 20 minutes after she was forced to deliver him prematurely.

Her second son, Lewis, now 20 months, was born with a similar condition. He survives on one kidney.

However, doctors told the couple from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, that this child was likely to survive, so they decided he deserved a chance.

And in November, Finley was born three weeks premature, at 6lb 3oz.

He had minor kidney damage but is expected to lead a normal life.

'I knew if that operation hadn't failed he wouldn't have been there,' said Miss Percival, a hairdresser.

'I just couldn't believe that this child had got through it all and looked so perfect.

Young Finley would have definitely looked "less than perfect" now, had he not escaped the scalpel.