According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, as of Friday, Al Franken now has about a 250 vote lead over Norm Coleman.  According to the article, one of the problems with the recount is:

“the State Canvassing Board sidestepped the Coleman team’s proposal to prevent as many as 150 ballots from being counted twice. Talking about instances when a ballot couldn’t be run through a voting machine, requiring a duplicate to be made, the Coleman camp said that such ballots should be counted only if an original could be matched with its copy.”

It sounds as if Franken is the recipient of duplicate voting.  This sounds like an unbelievable mess.  I just hope more rational heads rule, and the recount is handled evenly.  I would hate to see Al Franken in the Senate.  I think more of our elected officials than that.

According to the J Street website”

“J Street is the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement.

J Street was founded to promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israel conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. We support a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broad public and policy debate about the U.S. role in the region.”

I’m always a little suspicious about people trying to bring peace betwen Palestine and Israel.  I guess my question is this:  Right now, Israel has nukes and Palestine doesn’t, and two countries exist.  If Palestine had nukes and Israel didn’t, how many countries would exist?

According to the American Thinker J Street now has a number of people close to George Soros in key positions.  Morton Haleprin is on the advisory council of J Street.  He is described as a former Director of Policy Planning at the State Department.  His current employment is not mentioned.  He is also George Soros’s top aide and now serves as the Director of US Advocacy at the Open Society Institute: George Soros multi-billion dollar activists group.

The article at American Thinker also mentions other groups that are coming into prominence as the Obama Administration forms.  Much has been made about the ‘wonderful’ middle of the road choices Obama has made to fill various positions in his administration.  My concern is the people in the second and third tier appointments that may be hired under the radar.  I believe that America’s continued support of Israel is an important positive part of our foreign policy.  To undermine that support would be a mistake on multiple levels. 

According to Time Magazine the charge of selling a Senate seat is a very small piece of the evidence against Rod Blagojevich.  According to the article:

“Evidence of misuse of political clout, fixed contracts and illegal campaign fundraising — the basic staples of corruption in Illinois — proved persuasive with the jury at influence peddler Tony Rezko’s fraud trial. He was convicted and awaits sentencing.

That same evidence is now coming back to bite Blagojevich. This time around it could be even stronger because Rezko — the political fundraiser who helped to bankroll the campaigns of both Blagojevich and Obama — may take the stand to point the finger at the governor.

Rezko, for example, was on hand while Blagojevich talked to a campaign donor about putting him on the state payroll with the donor’s $25,000 check on the table, according to testimony at Rezko’s trial.”

The idea of ending political corruption in the circus that is Chicago politics is wonderful, but I’m not sure it is realistic.  I don’t mean to be cynical about this, but the Chicago machine has been in power since the 1960’s or before (I wasn’t around enough ‘before’ to have any idea of what was going on!).  The classic example is Major Daley coming up with the votes to elect John Kennedy president.  Who knows what the alternative reality would have been.  The only way Chicago and Illinois are going to be cleaned up is for the people of Illinois to vote out all parts of the political machine.  That won’t happen unless the people themselves get tired of being ruled by the machine.  Political machines do not remain in power unless someone is benefitting from their presence.  I have no idea who is gaining from this situation, but until that stops, the machine will rule.

I realize that Patrick Fitzgerald went public because a newspaper was threatening to run with the story, but I wonder what the consequences of this will be.  The actual selling of a Senate seat was prevented and any role the incoming Presidential administration might have had in the transaction was stopped.  I do, however, wonder what will be revealed about the contacts between Blagojevich and the incoming White House.

Just a side comment.  The coarsening of the culture is a concern to me.  There is language being used in offices now that would make a sailor blush.  Evidently, the tapes that are going to be used as evidence against Blagojevich have a lot of ‘salty’ language.  How are parents supposed to bring up responsible and respectable children when this is the example set forth by our elected officials?  The morality and the language do not set a good example for anyone aspiring to public office. 

Power Line Blog featured an “ecodriving” contest in a cube ad for a week or so.  The Power Line readers scored very well in the contest, and Power Line received 13,000 pounds of carbon offsets, courtesy of TerraPass!  See the article to decipher exactly what that means, but here is John at Power Line’s interpretation:

1. You give Terrapass a bunch of cash.
2. Terrapass invests in technology companies.
3. Terrapass sends you bumper sticker.
4. Terrapass enjoys dividends and capital gains on your investment.
5. Terrapass uses these to fund the printing of more bumper stickers.
6. Which are purchased by even greater saps that yourself.

Wait a minute?  Doesn’t printing bumper stickers use trees?  Doesn’t manufacturing create greenhouse gases?  Might this be evil capitalism?

This is the bumper sticker:

Unfortunately, this is all coming to us soon.  Actually, it’s already here.

What you are about to read is taken directly from Smart Girl Politics.  I realize it does not seem to reflect the joy of the Christmas season, but it reminds us that reality is not always joyful.  Please read the following carefully and if possible, send a card.

“I would not normally put this story on the front of the site, but this is a true story. It is a friend of one of my friends. Please help SGP make this little girl’s Christmas wish come true.

Many of you may remember my dear friend, Chris Garman, who lost her battle with breast cancer 2 years ago. When she was first diagnosed with breast cancer, she was pregnant with her third child. Her doctors didn’t think
Chris would live through her pregnancy without treatment, so they took a chance & gave her chemo while shewas pregnant. Chris survived her pregnancy & had a beautiful, healthy little girl named Hannah Faith.
Chris died when Hannah was three.

Hannah is now five, and this breaks my heart all over again, but In October, Hannah has been diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a rare and incurable brain tumor.

She was given about 12 weeks to live. She was going to be the flower girl in a wedding in May, but was diagnosed A week after she was asked.

Right now she has lost most of her motor skills. She is confined to bed
And cannot really do anything or play with the gifts she is getting from
people, but she LOVES getting cards – she has gotten so many from people she does not know and jus t loves to have grandma read about the people who send Them and see their pictures and is so proud of all her cards. Her room is just filled with cards.

When asked what she wants for Christmas she said she wants to see how
Many Christmas cards she can get. Many people have passed this wish along to their churches, prayer groups, friends and family. There are school groups
where children are making her cards. People are including pictures so she
can see who it i s that i s sending her the card.

If you would like to help with her wish, please send her a card at:

Hannah Garman
704 Orchard Rd
Lititz, PA 17543

THANKS! Feel free to pass this along to your own prayer group, church,
school, etc. Let’s see if we can have the cards coming in big postal bags
for her this Christmas, since it will be her last holiday.

Please pray for her family. Her older brother & sister watched their mom go through This just two short years ago and now they are watching their baby sister.

P.S. You can also send my email to anyone you forward this to, if they
Have questions. sheripie@hotmail.com read more about Hannah, see pics, & stay updated on her progress at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hannahgarman. 

According to The Hill Congress will be getting a significant pay raise next year–a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries.  Aren’t these the same people who asked the auto execs to cut their salary to $1 a year.  It seems to me that if salary is based on performance, Congress should not be getting a raise.  This represents approximately a $400 a month raise.  How many ordinary people in America are getting a raise like that this year?

According to the article:

“Rep. Harry Mitchell, a first-term Democrat from Arizona, sponsored legislation earlier this year that would have prevented the automatic pay adjustments from kicking in for members next year. But the bill, which attracted 34 cosponsors, failed to make it out of committee.” 

Keeping a bill in committee is a way of avoiding having any congressman actually have to take a stand and actually vote on an issue.  It really is time for term limits.  Representatives should be allowed to serve three terms and Senators one term.

According to Power Line Blog Norm Coleman’s lead in the Minnesota Senate race is down to two votes.  The counting continues, but the prospects for a Coleman victory do not look good.

I tend to think that Al Franken will be able to steal this election.  I do not think he has honestly won it, but I don’t think that will matter.  My only comment to the people of Minnesota is that enough of you voted for Al Franken to make it close.  I don’t think you will be happy with the results if Al Franken claims victory.  The man does not have the demeanor to be a Senator (admittedly the level of that demeanor has reached some serious lows lately).

Power Line Blog is reporting that Credit Suisse announced today that bonuses for its top executives would be made in illiquid, mortgage-backed securities.  These executives are responsible for the acquisition of these things and the company is returning them as bonuses.  If the paper goes up in value, the bonuses will actually be worth something.

John at Power Line Blog adds this comment:

“I’d like to see this idea spread. Maybe Congressmen could be paid in Freddie Mac paper and union officials in GM stock. The possibilities are endless!”

Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal had an article by John Fund on the Caroline Kennedy quest for the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton.  He points out the difference between the way the candidacy of Caroline Kennedy is being treated and the way that Sarah Palin was treated while running for Vice-President.  This is a case of an unelected governor appointing someone to a normally elected position.  John Fund points out that Governor Paterson would be better off appointing New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, as Andrew Cuomo might challenge him in the next New York governor’s race.

Personally, considering the people New York has sent to Washington over past years, Caroline Kennedy would not be an awful appointment.  She is actually a New Yorker.  That’s a plus (she might even be a Yankees fan!).  She is also an intelligent, classy lady (why in the world would she want to go to Washington?).  Admittedly, there are probably people who have paid their dues who would do a good job, but I suspect she will work hard and try to represent the people of state of New York.  There will be an election for that senate seat in 2012, and then the people of New York will be able to judge the performance of whoever is appointed.  Until then, they could do worse than Caroline Kennedy.

As was pointed out in The New York Post yesterday:

“Even if shoe-thrower Muntadar al-Zaidi (who works for an Egypt-based media outfit) walks out in his stocking feet and becomes a hero to dead-enders, he unwittingly showed what a great thing has been accomplished in Iraq.

Other than Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, what Arab head of government holds free-wheeling press conferences? “President” Mubarak of Egypt? Assad of Syria? The Saudi king? Qaddafi? If an Arab reporter had “shoed” any other leading Arab ruler during one of their staged events, he would’ve been fortunate to escape with his life.”

The media have been having a ball with the video of the Great Baghdad Shoe Toss. But they’ve missed the point completely. Our sacrifices let that pathetic reporter muster the courage to hurl his shoes at our president: He knew he could get away with it.”

I have read on the internet that the man who threw the shoe was a Sunni Arab upset at the overthrow of Saddam Hussien who had now associated himself with the al Sadr militias.  The familiy had had run ins with the police in the past, and I suspect will have more in the future.   Anyway, the shoe-throwing incident probably could not happen in the US–the Secret Service would have gone after the man as soon as he raised him arm and asked questions later–but certainly the American press has treated President Bush no less rudely. 

FaceYourStorm.com is a new website started by radio-TV personality Glenn Beck to share responses to his book THE CHRISTMAS SWEATER.  The book is about new beginnings and starting again when the situation is hopeless (due to your own mistakes).  The website allows people to share their stories of how they came through awful storms in their lives and made it out the other side.  The website tells hard honest stories of people who are trying to get to the other side of the storm or who have made it through already.  It’s not an easy website to read, but I strongly recommend it.

Michael Sneed at The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that Rahm Emanuel is on 21 diffferent tapes discussing the vacant Senate seat in Illinois with Governor Blagoyevich.  Now wait a minute.  Wouldn’t it be very natural for a President-elect who was vacating a Senate seat to discuss that Senate seat with the governor of that state who was a member of the same political party.  It would be unusual if some discussions were not held.  The question is not whether the discussions were held–they should have been (other than the slime that is Illinois politics), but whether anything was offered for placing someone in particular in the seat.  I really feel that this is whole discussion is marginal.  Unless you are willing to jump in the swamp and try to clean up Illinois politics (which no one is crazy enough to do), this is just idle chatter.

Just a reminder that according to a The Chicago Sun Times blog focusing on the Tony Rezko case, his sentencing will be January 6, 2009.  There is now a second case against Rezko and his business partner, which will go to trial next year.  Meanwhile, Rezko has been sharing a lot of information with the government.  That may be much more important to Barack Obama than anything Ron Blagojevich has to say. 

The Minnesota Star Tribune has the most up to date information on the Minnesota recount.  Power Line Blog has the best analysis.  The problem with the recount lies in the fact that there are no uniform standards for judging questionable ballots.  Unfortunately, this election could be stolen.  It is also unfortunate that whichever candidate comes out on top, there will be some people who believe the election was stolen–whichever way it goes.  My only message to the people of Minnesota is–if that many of you voted for Al Franken, you deserve what you get.  The man has a mouth that would make a sailor blush (I say that as a former Navy wife), and totally lacks the demeanor one would hope to find in a US Senator (notice I said hope).

This link was forwarded to me by my daughter who just finished her master’s degree in marketing.  It’s a rather long and complex article, but is worth reading, both because of where it is published and what it says.

The New York Times has published an article showing how Charles Schumer blocked regulatory legislation in the financial industry on a number of occasions.   He supported the bank bailout and received at one point $135,000 in campaign donations from financial executives when he promised that the Democrats would guide the country through the financial crises.  During his time in the Senate, he succeeded in limiting efforts to regulate credit-rating agencies, sponsored legislation that cut fees paid by Wall Street firms to finance government oversight, pushed to allow banks to have lower capital reserves and called for the revision of regulations to make corporations’ balance sheets more transparent.

According to the article:

“”He is serving the parochial interest of a very small group of financial people, bankers, investment bankers, fund managers, private equity firms, rather than serving the general public,” said John C. Bogle, the founder and former chairman of the Vanguard Group, the giant mutual fund house. “It has hurt the American investor first and the average American taxpayer.””

It’s a little late to worry about who is to blame for this mess, but we need to remember not to let the people who caused it try to fix it.  They will probably make the same mistakes and make a bigger mess!

There is an article at Power Line Blog posted yesterday with the real scientific data on global warming.  Nevermind the fact that those of us in the Northeastern part of the country are recovering from a major ice storm that has left many people without power for four days so far.  Since 1998, the climate has been cooling.  According to the article, “The world is now colder than in 1940, when the Post-WWII Industrial Revolution started spewing lots of man-made CO 2 in the first place.”  The article goes on to comment on the Associated Press article that we have to solve the problem of global warming immediately if not sooner:

“This displays a remarkable level of ignorance on the part of the Associated Press. Global temperature records are nowhere near accurate enough to rank years, over a period of centuries, with any confidence. For the recent past, though, we have the world’s best data set here in the U.S. And it’s true that at one time, it was widely believed that the 1990s were the warmest recent decade. But that was before it was discovered that NASA’s James Hansen, Al Gore’s chief scientific ally, had been fudging the data, either accidentally or on purpose. NASA was forced to correct its data, with the result that the ten warmest years on record here in the US are as follows: 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938, 1939.”

I’m not sure how many cars were on the road in the 1930’s or how much electricity we were using at the time, but I think the fact that the 1930’s were as warm as the 1990’s tells us that we really don’t understand climate change or its causes.  To cripple to major economies of the world to prevent something that may not actually be happening would be a foolish and dangerous mistake.

The article further states:

“When we talk about “global warming” it is important to ask the right questions. Is the earth continuing to warm up from the “Little Ice Age”? Yes, it has been, at least until recently. Fortunately. Is the earth continuing to warm up from the last real Ice Age, around 10,000 years ago, when the spot where I am now typing was buried under ice a half mile thick? Yes, thankfully! Is the earth warming up compared to where it was five or ten years ago? No.

Many scientists believe that we are entering an era of global cooling. That may or may not be true; climate science is in its infancy and we cannot predict with any confidence what the weather will be 10, 20, or 50 years hence. What we can say for certain is that the way in which the weather “issue” is covered by the Associated Press and other media outlets is a disgrace.”

It’s worth it to read the whole article and see the graph included.  There is one theory that the lack of sunspot activity may lead us into a prolonged period of global cooling.  Meanwhile, I hope everyone gets their power back quickly in the Northeast.

Michael Totten wrote an article in the City Journal chronicling the successful democracy that has arisen in Kosovo.  The Muslims in Kosovo are not only pro-American, pro-democracy, and pro-Israel, they are also free to choose whatever religion they will follow.  In February 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia and became a nation.  No Arab country has recognized this nation, but Saudi Arabia says it is planning to do so.  The article tells the story of the genocide that was directed at the country by Slobodan Milošević during the time he was dictator of Yugoslavia.  The tiny country has survived that and is now a nation.

According to the article:

“There is, however, a small group of radicals inside Kosovo who would like to transform moderate Balkan Islam into the much sterner Wahhabi variety practiced in Saudi Arabia. Several well-funded Saudis and other Gulf Arabs moved to Kosovo after the 1999 war to rebuild destroyed mosques and to impose Wahhabism on the decadent locals. Most ethnic Albanians across the political and religious spectrum in Kosovo resent these intrusions, partly because ornate Ottoman-style mosques destroyed by the Serbian military are being replaced with severe Wahhabi-style monstrosities, but also because hardly any Albanians seek guidance from the backward and authoritarian Arab world. “We don’t call them Wahhabis here,” a well-connected Albanian woman tells me. “We call them Binladensa, the people of bin Laden.” In Kosovo, that isn’t a compliment.”

The above paragraph shows me that education and democracy are the keys to peace in the middle east.  People who are free to choose their religion and who go to work everyday are less likely to become terrorists.  We need to find a way to show the radical Muslims that they can live in peace and follow their religion.

Good Grief!  He’s at it again.  What is the attraction between Jimmy Carter and terrorists?  Doesn’t he remember what the ‘wonderful’ new government of Iran did to the US Diplomats as soon as the mullahs took charge.  Wikipedia defines The Logan Act as follows:

“The Logan Act is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.”

According to Power Line Blog, Jimmy Carter met with Bashar Assad of Syria on Saturday.  He is quoted as saying:

“I don’t have any doubt that the situation will improve between the United States and Syria after we have a new president.  It’s my hope that we can also see full diplomatic relations and friendship restored between Damascus and Washington at an early day in the new year.”

He also stated, “You can’t expect genuine peace between Israel and any of its neighbors until it has peace with all of its neighbors.”

Does this man not realize that many of Israel’s neighbors want to destroy the country and drive its people into the sea?  The prediction at Power Line is that once Jimmy Carter’s stupid statements are embarrassing a Democrat administration rather than a Republican one, the Democrats will find a way to get him off the stage.

The work the Carters have done for Habitat for Humanity is admirable, but Jimmy Carter’s freelance diplomacy since leaving the White House is an embarrassment to himself and his country.  The man is either totally naive or incredibly stupid.  He is also totally blind to his own prejudice against the nation of Israel. 

This is NOT my question.  According to Jim Geraghty at National Review Online the question was asked during a commercial for NBC Nightly News run during Meet The Press.  It’s interesting to me to notice when these questions come up.  I don’t recall hearing anything like that during the past eight years.  The article at National Review lists all the benefits of being first lady, plus a breakdown of presidential expense accounts and salary.  The concept of paying the first lady is an odd idea.  Do corporate executives’ wives get paid?  It almost sounds as if you want to pay the wife for being married to the man.  I realize that being first lady has a lot of responsibility, but I also realize that it comes with a lot of people who help with that responsibility.  It seems as if there are some people in the press and in government who stay up at night just to think of ways to spend more money!

There have been some new developments in the Minnesota Senate race recount that are reported at Power Line Blog.  The events surrounding the 133 missing paper ballots seem to indicate a lot of communication between the Franken campaign and the Minnesota Secretary of State who is in charge of the recount.  The Secretary of State in Minnesota has ties to ACORN, and it is unclear exactly what backdoor antics are going on here.  We should keep in mind that within the last ten years there has been a George Soros funded campaign effort to place Democrats in Secretary of State positions in key states.  The Secretary of State of a state is in charge of the recount process if one occurs.  It seems that some of the events in Minnesota are not taking place according to the legal statutes that are supposed to control recounts.  Hopefully, the people of Minnesota are paying attention.  The two best sources of information on the recount in Minnesota are Power Line Blog (two of its writers are lawyers who live in Minnesota) and the Minnesota Star Tribune which has a link to election recount news on its homepage.

There is an article in today’s New York Post written by Sam Fox, the president of City Cadillac Hummer Saab in Long Island City.  He is frustrated about what he sees as the bias in reporting the plight of the American car companies.  He refers to the fact that GM has been improving its gas mileage standards and is making cars Americans want.  The Toyota Prius and the smart car, according the Mr. Fox, are not practical cars for American families.  It’s interesting that Europe has moved to smaller cars because their gas prices have always been high due to government taxes, but at the same time the birth rate in Europe has dropped below replacement levels.  Generally, the Europeans do not have families that need larger cars.  I personally can relate to what he is saying about the cars Americans buy–I was recently blessed with my eighth grandchild (two of which are local) and there is no way I can fit a second child seat in my car (which is not a compact car).  I will have to drive my husband’s van on days I want to take the grandchildren anywhere.  The problem is not the cars GM is making (although I am willing to bet a ‘Car Czar’ will try to pressure them to make tiny little cars that are unsafe and impractical), but the problem is in the business model and something called ‘legacy costs.’  If you manufacture a product similar to the product a competitor manufactures and you costs are $2,000 per unit higher, your business is eventually going to struggle.  I sincerely hope that the American auto companies are forced into a structured bankruptcy (without Congress telling them what to manufacture) that forces them to deal with their operating costs–not their product.

There is an article posted at Little Green Footballs today about the lack of a clear response from the President-elect Obama team about the selling of Obama’s Senate seat.  This is ugly, but somewhat irrelevant.  If Obama had a fairly close relationship with the Governor of Illinois (which as a Senator of the same party from the state would have been very natural), it would be expected that there would have been some conversation about his open Senate seat.  As long as he (or his representatives) were not engaged in bribery, I don’t see this as a problem.  However, considering the way politics is played in Illinois, I really would not be willing to guess what actually happened.  We’ll have to wait for the transcripts to be released, if they ever are.  To be making a big deal of this at this point may be a strategic mistake on the part of any politician trying to gain from the situation.  An attack now makes anyone look petty because there really is no concrete information.  However, to paraphrase Rush Limbaugh, it does remind me of the situation in the movie Casablanca where the gendarme is “shocked” that gambling is going on at Rick’s Place!

Senator Jim DeMint has asked bloggers to talk about proposed card check legislation today.  There is an article on Power Line Blog explaining the intricacies of the currently proposed legislation.  The people who write Power Line are lawyers, and they give a very clear explanation of what this legislation would do not only to the unionization process, but to the power of government in contract negotiations.  This is a really bad idea.  The bill would pave the way for the successful companies (particularly in the auto industry) to be forced to follow the model of the unsuccessful companies.  The goal here is not to legislate in a way to help the country–but to pay back the major source of funds for the Democrat Party–the unions.

The National Taxpayer’s Union has put out a list of those Congressmen who have been convicted of felonies and continue to collect their congressional pensions.  The list (and some commentary) can be found at the American Thinker.  As you might have suspected, there are 16 Democrats on the list and 4 Republicans.  I think we need some real government reform.

Remember Nancy Pelosi promising that if the Democrat party were elected to a majority in Congress, they would be ‘much more ethical’ than those horrible Republicans.  Michelle Malkin at the New York Post reminds us of that claim, and fills us in on the actual facts.  Corruption (unfortunately) will always be a part of politics–the question is not whether or not it exists, the question is what you do about it.

I’m one of the people who thinks that a controlled Chapter 11 Bankruptcy for the auto industry is what is needed.  It would force them to fix their flawed business plan.  When something is failing, you don’t just pour money into it, you fix it.  For example, during 2007, Toyota and GM sold approximately the same number of cars (9.3 million cars and trucks), but according to Hoovers.com, Toyota made a profit of $17,146 million dollars and GM lost $4,390 million.  It seems to me that the problem is not the recession–it is the business plan.