Promise is only a margarine

This headline caught my eye...

Pelosi Risks Losing Support by Funding Pet Projects

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last year that she would be happy to ``do away with'' the practice of funding members' pet projects, though she knew it wasn't ``realistic.''...

Thousands of so-called earmarks still adorn spending bills, including 15 from Pelosi in a defense measure...

Democrats, who never promised to abolish the practice altogether, say they have cut the number of earmarks ...

Never promised to abolish the practice altogether?

You judge if that's the case from this December 11, 2006 article...

Dems to Wipe Out Pet Projects in Bills

"There will be no congressional earmarks," Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said Monday in a statement announcing their plans, which were quickly endorsed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev.

Sounds like they've been listening to CommieTommie Harkin and the scientific community is united in that fact...

“I happen to be a supporter of earmarks, unabashedly. But I don’t call them earmarks. It is ‘Congressional directed funding.’ ”

Per a little document called The Constitution of the United States of America, all funding is directed by Congress.

This Little Piggy

CommieTommie Harkin is doing a crappy job of defending his $1.8 Million in studying hog manure.

"I know that you're going to hear it on the Jay Leno show and on David Letterman — a lot of yuck yuck yuck about money for manure and all that. And that everybody knows hog manure smells and yet we're going to research it."

Yuck, Yuck, Yuck works on so many levels for this issue and the scientific community is united in that fact.

I said in December 2007 that the Iowa Pork Center should be named after him and Leonard BOZO-well.

Taxpayers for Common Sense lists CommieTommie as 8th among senators in the value of earmarks he won in the 2009 omnibus spending bill, 56 earmarks totaling nearly $67 million.

When he teams up with other big spenders, Harkin jumps to 5th on the list, with 177 earmarks totaling $292 million.

He can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and never, never, never let you forget he should be canned.

Fox to guard chicken coop

I can't believe anyone is actually falling for this!

Dems to Wipe Out Pet Projects in Bills

"There will be no congressional earmarks," Representative David Obey (D-WI) and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) said Monday in a statement announcing their plans, which were quickly endorsed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi,(D-CA) and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid(D-NV).

Robert Byrd!?!

"They call me 'The Pork King,' they don't know how much I enjoy it." - Sen. Robert Byrd

I think there's a bill in the West Virginia statehouse changing their name to BYRDLAND!

Last month the New York Times had an article that stated....

Dozens of West Virginia bridges, roads and public buildings bear his name. Among his recent appropriations feats was putting the Coast Guard’s Operations System Center, its National Vessel Movement Center and, next summer, its National Maritime Center in his landlocked state, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Go here to see the projects named for the onetime Kleagle of The Ku Klux Klan.

Has our own CommieTommie Harkin heard of this?

Here's Harkin in the same New York Times article....

“I happen to be a supporter of earmarks, unabashedly. But I don’t call them earmarks. It is ‘Congressional directed funding.’ ”

There's the rub!

You may recall CommieTommie helped Ramona Cunningham(pictured), of CIETC fame, obtain $1.4 Million in 'Congressional directed funding' for a center that bears his name.

The more things change

After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress' pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

(I'm shocked)

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify "earmarks" - lawmakers' requests for specific projects and contracts for their states.

(I'm stunned)

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman(David Obey) to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them.

... Such requests total billions of dollars.

...Obey insists he is reluctantly taking the step because Appropriations Committee members and staff have not had enough time to fully review the 36,000 earmark requests that have flooded the committee.

I'm nauseous and the scientific community is united in that fact.

What Obey is doing runs counter to new rules that Democrats promised would make such spending decisions more open.

Do as I say, not as I do-do.

Chewing the fat

CommieTommie Harkin is criticizing the President's veto
of a Human Services bill the he authored.

President Bush said...

"This bill is 44 days late and nearly $10 billion over budget, and filled with more than 2,000 earmarks. "Some of its wasteful projects include a prison museum, a sailing school taught aboard a catamaran, and a "Portuguese as a second language" program."

He also said those earmarks totaled more than $1 Billion.

Harkin harps...

"...there is nothing frivolous about providing job retraining to workers laid off at Maytag..."

The Ragister reports...

Aides to Harkin said that there was not a specific amount of money in the vetoed bill for laid-off Maytag workers.

That certainly lacked a bit of truthiness and the scientific community is united in that fact!

Also...

A separate federal job retraining grant for Maytag workers, announced Tuesday by Harkin and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia., would not be affected by the veto.

Here's what really makes CommieTommie cringe, $23 Million was coming to Iowa that included...

* $5 million for the Harkin School Grants-- you should only get to put your name on it if it comes directly from your pocket.

* $100,000 to educate parents about teen drug use-- it's nearly 2008 and parents should know drugs are bad, unless they're stoned.

* $300,000 for exhibits at the Des Moines Art Center--Why? Do they need more shop vacs?

* $150,000 for exhibits, multimedia collections and displays at the Italian-American Cultural Center of Iowa--I'm Italian and even I think that's fottuto.

* $100,000 for outreach to at-risk youth by Creative Visions in Des Moines--No money, I repeat NO MONEY should ever go to Creative Visions!

* $1.5 million statewide for wellness programs in communities that would promote walking trails, fruit and vegetable programs and physical fitness programs--like the ones supported by the Big Lug & Fatty Judge?

Who's Delusional?

No surprise that the Ragister is calling for higher taxes in the wake of the I-35W bridge collapse.

Their editorial specifically called for an increase in the gasoline tax.

If I recall correctly 39 cents is the current tax per gallon, with the feds taking 18 cents and the state 21.

The Ragister resorts to name calling with...

Anyone who says we can shift a few dollars around here and there to pay for all that without raising significant new revenues is delusional.

You may be right, I may be crazy.

However there is a one word solution...

Earmarks!

Earmarks in the House have increased from 3,000 in 1996 to 15,000 in 2005 to 36,000 in spending bills for this fiscal year.

The Ragister asks...

If current state and federal gas taxes won't cover all the roads and bridges needing attention, where will the money come from for the rest of it?

Per the Sunlight Foundation they found $503 Million earmarked in one appropriations bill and $132.3 Million in another.

That's just $632.3 Million in just two spending bills!

Clean up wasteful spending before you come to me for higher taxes.

The infamous "bridge to nowhere" in a remote part of Alaska received over $200 Million.

To paraphrase Everett Dirksen, you're almost talking real money and the scientific community is united in that fact.

If a bridge to nowhere falls, does it make a noise or even matter?

Point/Counterpoint

The Presumptive President has been in Indiana and the GAFFE-ted One is making news with...

“People ask me, they say what are your impressions of America. What have you learned since being President? Er, since being a candidate for President?”

He then tried to take on Sarah Palin...

"When you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something. You can't just make stuff up."

Palin fired back...

saying she was surprised he had brought it up since he is responsible for "nearly $1 billion in earmarks in just three years ... that's about a million dollars a day.

Just wait until President John McCain puts a stop to that."

That's what's known as Tit for Tat and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Its A Start

As a candidate Barack Obama scoffed at the savings John McCain offered by controlling earmarks.

Per Obama, earmark savings amount to $18 Billion.

Stating...

"it's not going to solve the problem".

In the final debate, when pressed by Bob Schieffer, Obama's big budget cut was a $15 Billion dollar subsidy.

As President he orders his Cabinet to slice spending by $100 million.

Did I miss that $15 Billion subsidy cut?

Amazingly there were those in the press who called them out on it...

JENNIFER LOVEN, AP: The $100 million target figure that the president talked about today with the Cabinet, can you explain why so small?...Why not target a bigger number?

TAPPER: You were talking about an appropriations bill a few weeks ago about $8 billion being minuscule -- $8 billion in earmarks. We were talking about that and you said that that...$100 million is a lot but $8 billion is small?

The New York Post put it this way...

Obama's not asking for cuts of $100 mil from each department -- which would also be negligible. He's looking at a cumulative $100 million -- across the entire federal budget.

And this, after he signed one piece of legislation for $787 billion and another for $410 billion -- and then introduced a record $3.6 trillion federal budget.

Click for the visual of $100 Million vs. $1 Trillion.

The "unhealthy" reaction by those "right-wing extremists" to all that spending had something to do with the ordered cuts and the scientific community is united in that fact.

The President knows it too...

"We also have a deficit _ a confidence gap _ when it comes to the American people," he told reporters. "And we've got to earn their trust."

Here piggy, piggy, piggy

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has named CommieTommie Harkin its "Porker of the Month".

I'm sure the junior Senator must be as proud as when he supported Dean 'The Scream' in '04 (pictured).

As I shared on Tuesday, CommieTommie says....

“I happen to be a supporter of earmarks, unabashedly. But I don’t call them earmarks. It is ‘Congressional directed spending.’ ”

CAGW replies....This is a prime example of Washington doublespeak because all federal spending is directed by Congress.

...earmarking is a secretive, corrupting, and wasteful practice that bypasses normal budget procedures.

As proof CAGW cites the Senator himself as they noted his earmarking millions of dollars in defense spending for breast cancer research....

“Now, was that bad? If you left it to the Defense Department, they never would have done it.”

The reason the Defense of Department does not conduct cancer research on its own accord is that such spending...falls outside its national security mission.

In fiscal 2005, the federal government spent $560.1 million on breast cancer research through the National Cancer Institute.

If Sen. Harkin wants more funding for breast cancer research, his proposal should be debated, authorized, and integrated into the federal government’s existing research framework; not snuck into an unrelated bill. The duplication of efforts across different departments and agencies weakens the government’s overall approach to all research.

CAGW says since 2000 CommieTommie Harkin has brought home the bacon to the tune of $276 Million.

Hoo-O-O-O-Ey!

There is a Culure of Corruption

But, it's the DUMMYCRATS! First William Jefferson and now John Murtha(pictured beginning surrender monkey move).

SanFranNancy Pelosi must have been looking in the mirror when she came up with that slogan. She should have remembered...When you point a finger, there's always four pointing back at YOU!

Here's The Washington Times...

Rep. John Murtha is thinking big thoughts. Since coming out for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq last year, he has accused Marines of murder "in cold blood" before a preliminary investigation is even complete; accused the military of a cover up over the same incident; declared his candidacy for the House majority leadership post; and, most recently, refined his cut-and-run strategy in Iraq to mean "redeployment" to Okinawa, Japan.
That's quite a splash for such a veteran congressman, who a year ago had zero name recognition outside Washington. That he's made a name for himself now by slandering our troops and their mission deserves a brief recital of some other activities associated with Mr. Murtha.
Last June, the Los Angeles Times reported how the ranking member on the defense appropriations subcommittee has a brother, Robert Murtha, whose lobbying firm represents 10 companies that received more than $20 million from last year's defense spending bill. "Clients of the lobbying firm KSA Consulting -- whose top officials also include former congressional aide Carmen V. Scialabba, who worked for Rep. Murtha as a congressional aide for 27 years -- received a total of $20.8 million from the bill," the L.A. Times reported.
In early 2004, according to Roll Call, Mr. Murtha "reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco." Laurence Pelosi, nephew of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, at the time was an executive of the company which owned the rights to the land. The same article also reported how Mr. Murtha has been behind millions of dollars worth of earmarks in defense appropriations bills that went to companies owned by the children of fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, Rep. Paul Kanjorski. Meanwhile, the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign-finance watchdog group, lists Mr. Murtha as the top recipient of defense industry dollars in the current 2006 election cycle.
As Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican, has said, "If there is a potential pattern where Congressman Murtha has helped other Democrats secure appropriations that also benefited relatives of those members, I believe this would be something that merits further review by the ethics committee."
It's odd that the media, which has been fairly unbiased in going after corrupt politicians recently, has gone silent on Mr. Murtha's questionable actions. Or maybe it isn't. Since December, Mr. Murtha has become the darling of the antiwar crowd, and, as we've seen with other such darlings, scrutinizing their behavior is considered disrespectful. But as we're on the subject, few might recall that after the massive 1980 Abscam scandal, Mr. Murtha was named by the FBI as an "unindicted co-conspirator."
Maybe the next time the new Jack Murtha thinks up another big idea someone can ask him about the old Jack Murtha.

Here's Robert Novak...

I had forgotten that federal prosecutors designated him an unindicted co-conspirator in the Abscam investigation 26 years ago. I was reminded of it after Murtha became a candidate for majority leader, not by a Republican hit man but a Democratic former colleague in the House. In a long political career, Murtha has made bitter enemies inside his party who are alarmed by his new stature. . . .

In 1980, the FBI named him as one of eight members of Congress videotaped being offered bribes by a phony Arab sheik.

The other seven targets took cash and were convicted in federal court. The videotape showed Murtha declining to take cash but expressing interest in further negotiations, while bragging about his political influence. Murtha testified against the popular Rep. Frank Thompson, which created lifelong enemies in the Democratic cloakroom. The House Ethics Committee exonerated Murtha of misconduct charges by a largely party-line vote, after which the committee's special counsel resigned in protest.

That salvaged Murtha's political career but limited his public exposure. The current Almanac of American Politics says: ''He speaks for attribution to few national or local reporters, hardly ever appears on television and rarely speaks in the House chamber.'' That reticence has disappeared the last seven months.

Finally the guys at Powerline weigh in...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi hopes to became Speaker of the House by pushing the "culture of corruption" theme in this fall's election. Unfortunately, instances of corruption among House Democrats keep conspiring against her. The latest instance hits particularly close to home. This Washington Times editorial notes that her point man on defeatism in Iraq, Rep. John Murtha, appears to be part of the culture Pelosi purports to condemn.

The Times collects a number of tidbits. The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Murtha's brother, Robert, runs a lobbying firm that represents 10 companies that received more than $20 million from last year's defense spending bill. Another official of the lobbying firm is a former Murtha congressional aide. Murtha is the ranking member of the House subcommittee that appropriates this money.

Murtha's role in the culture of corruption also implicates Pelosi herself. Roll Call reported last year that Murtha "reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco." Pelosi's nephew, Laurence Pelosi, was an executive of the company that owned the rights to the land. Roll Call also reported that Murtha has been behind millions of dollars worth of earmarks in defense appropriations bills that went to companies owned by the children of his fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, Rep. Paul Kanjorski. And the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group, lists Murtha as the top recipient of defense industry dollars in the current 2006 election cycle.

Nor is Murtha a newcomer to the culture of corruption. The Times recalls that after the 1980 Abscam scandal, the FBI named him an "unindicted co-conspirator."

Just to be clear, I'm not questioning John Murtha's patriotism. I'm quesioning his ethics.

Some Kind Of Friend

Either Barry Manilow is experimenting with marijuana again, or the facelift cut to deep into his hairline.

Those are the only reasons I could come up with as to why Manilow would support Ron Paul.

And the scientific community is united in that fact.

“I like him. I like what he says, I do. I like what he says. I think he’s solid”

“I agree with just about everything he says. What can I tell you?”

Writing of facelifts, it's a small stretch to mention that the man who gets high marks for his principles is a downright fraud when it comes to big-government spending. While representing himself for decades as the sworn enemy of overspending, the good doctor has had his snout deep in the earmark trough.

In 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported, "The Congressman disclosed his requests this year for about $400 million worth of federal funding for no fewer than 65 earmarks. They include such urgent national wartime priorities as an $8 million request for the marketing of wild American shrimp and $2.3 million to fund shrimp-fishing research."

That doesn't sound like a man who will champion sound money, responsible spending, lower taxes, and free market enterprise.

Jet Boy?

President Obama's thrust, over the holiday weekend, continued to be ending tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, hedge fund managers, oil companies and corporate jet owners.

Never mind that it was part of the economic-stimulus bill signed by Obama and the scientific community is united in that fact.

In total $3 billion might be raised over 10 years in ending this tax break.

No telling how many jobs in that industry would come crashing down or how much more it would cost taxpayers to stimulate more jobs.

Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job

In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the “stimulus,” and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead.

My April Fool's Recession Buster joke of 2009 still made more sense, isn't that Stranger Than Fiction?

Here's a take on taxing the oil companies more, once again the revenues will be piffling compared to the problem, and the impact on a crucial American industry unhelpful at an especially important moment.

It all fits hand in hand with a leader(?) who said $18 Billion in savings by controlling earmarks were not going to solve the problem and only ordered his Cabinet to slice spending by $100 million.

Stimulated?

On the same day the President celebrated the $787 Billion stimulus, the Congressional Budget Office said the cost is now up to $862 billion.

Obama believes the stimulus has saved or created 2 million jobs thus far and is on track to save or create another 1.5 million jobs in 2010.

As usual, they're making this shit up and there's no way to measure or verify it and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Are they still including the Jobs 'Saved or Created' in Congressional Districts That Don't Exist?

That's how I became CONgressman of the 00 District.

I love how Obama praised Congress for agreeing to my request that the bill include no earmarks.

Frankly, a quick check shows that he appears to be incorrect.

He and his Vice President also believe none of the money has ended up being misspent.

That's not what Biden said last summer.

Again a quick search shows, The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (called the RAT Board within federal Government circles), in charge of Recovery Act oversight, counts 470 audits, 106 active investigations and 25 cases accepted for prosecutorial review, as of November 30, the latest available data. And government monitors say they're only just beginning.

Nikita?

I don't usually watch the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, but I wasn't in a place where I could control the TV last night.

They had a story on earmarks that included a request for $400,000 to commemorate the 1959 visit of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to Iowa.

The money would be used to build the Khrushchev in Iowa trail for bikers and hikers.

My first thought was that had to be the work of CommieTommie Harkin, our own Prince of Pork.

It looks like it's the work of Iowa's Senior Senator, Chuck Grassley, who had requested $1,291,500.

"Khrushchev in Iowa" Trail?

It's bad enough they waste tax dollars on these things that only a few people use, but American tax dollars should not be spent on anything commemorating this Communist bastard.

And the scientific community is united in that fact.

He threatened the west with, "...We will bury you!" and had the world at the edge of the nuclear abyss over the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Talk about "sucking the tit of the taxpayer".

Its Bacon

From The Washington Times Inside the Beltway.

No more flowers, no more bike paths, no more highway-beautification projects will be paid for with federally earmarked transportation funds until those states with structurally deficient bridges make needed repairs.

Such is the language of legislation Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, says he will introduce when Congress reconvenes in early September. He says "many" of the more than 6,000 recent transportation earmarks went to such beautification projects.

He may be a Flake, but he's not delusional and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Tom Thrifty

Here's CommieTommie Harkin on the projection the public debt will reach 62 percent of gross domestic product by the end of the year - the highest percentage since the end of World War II.

"This is very concerning. We've got to start reducing the deficit, but we need economic activity in this country."

Last month the Senate's reigning Prince of Pork said, it's too early to cut spending, given that the economy is still fragile, but "that time is coming".

In April the Earl of Earmarks said, "People are right, we are too far in debt. That is why I have crafted this bill only to go to education, nothing else."

He's sounding like an alcoholic who wants to empty the bar before he goes for treatment and the scientific community is united in that fact.

For my money (and some of it is) if the feds are going to be running debt, I'd rather have tax cuts than runaway spending.

$enator Please

As Des Moines school teachers were reading their layoff notices Friday, CommieTommie Harkin said he'd introduce the "Keep Our Educators Working Act" in the next few weeks (what's the rush?).

"People are right, we are too far in debt. That is why I have crafted this bill only to go to education, nothing else."

The Earl of Earmarks is proposing adding $23 Billion to the debt, because we're too far in debt AND we're to believe it'll go for nothing else.

Harkin and Joe Biden must have sat close to each other for all those years in the Senate and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Biden stated last summer --

"...You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’”

“The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.”

Slow and stupid, your government at work!


Hard Knocks S05E01 - Chad Ochocinco: "Child Please"

Paper Doll

There's also this BS...

I’m grateful that Congress agreed to my request that the bill include no earmarks, that all projects receive funding based solely on their merits. And despite that, I was still concerned -- Joe and I were just talking in the back -- when this thing passed we said $787 billion -- somewhere there’s going to be some story of some money that ended up being misspent; $787 billion spent out over 18 months, that's a lot -- that's a lot of money. And it is a testimony to Vice President Biden and his team that, as Joe puts it, the dog, so far at least, hasn't barked.

That dog must be a Basenji, and the scientific community is united in that fact, because...

In his one-year report last month, Mr. Biden said the incidence of fraud was lower than expected and lower than what is typical in both private and government spending.

We posted on the errant statement last month (Stimulated?) and there's more...

Federal investigators have received more than 730 allegations of waste or fraud in stimulus act funding so far, have canceled the contracts of some bad actors and have sent a couple of dozen cases to the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and prosecutors.

Thanks to our friend Uncle Fuzzy for the funny.

Take three

I thought the third debate started out boring, but got interesting later.

I'm amused that when pressed by Bob Schieffer, Obama's big budget cut was a $15 Billion dollar subsidy.

In all three debates Obama scoffed at the savings McCain pushed on earmarks because "it's not going to solve the problem".

Per Obama, earmark savings amount to $18 Billion.

McCain finally had an excellent comeback to Obama comparing him to President Bush...

"I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy in this country".

McCain scored when he painted Obama as the big spender that he is...

"Sen. Obama talks about the budgets I voted for. He voted for the last two budgets that had that $24 billion more in spending than the budget that the Bush administration proposed.
He voted for the energy bill that was full of goodies for the oil companies that I opposed. So the fact is, let's look at our records, Sen. Obama. Let's look at it as graded by the National Taxpayers Union and the Citizens Against Government Waste and the other watchdog organizations".
Obama had a couple of gaffes when he tried to tie McCain, again, to Bush policies...

"But when it comes to economic policies, essentially what you're proposing is eight more years of the same thing. And it hasn't worked".

Presidential terms are four years, with a maximum of eight.

It's not the first time Obama, a Constitutional Scholar?, made a mistake in front of Bob Schieffer regarding the length of a Presidential term and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Obama also erred when he said...

"And 100 percent, John, of your ads -- 100 percent of them have been negative".

Obama was not completely truthful about his association with ACORN...

"The only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law..."

Obama served as general counsel for ACORN in Illinois, channeled millions to the organization from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (whose funds he distributed), and has lately spent $800,000 of his campaign money to subsidize the group's activities.

Digging deeper you'll find that during Obama's organizing years he taught future leaders identified by ACORN and was a part of their Project Vote.

ACORN and his connections may be Obama's downfall, as the voter fraud ACORN has perpatrated has reached 11 states so far.

Back to the debate.

Some may consider it a gaffe, but I thought John McCain was right on when he referred to Obama as "Senator Government".

Obama scared the hell out of me when he proposed his less than strict judicial litmus test...

"the most important thing in any judge is their capacity to provide fairness and justice to the American people".

Obama as a lawyer knows the law isn't always fair, it's not a judges role to make it so.

As a Senator, Obama should realize the role of the legislative branch of our government is to write laws.

I was less than moved by Obama's argument regarding equal pay for equal work, namely because Obama and Biden pay the women on their Senate staff's less than John McCain pays his.

Per Scripps-Howard columnist Deroy Murdock...

Obama’s 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama’s average male employee earned $54,397. Obama’s 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average … on average, Obama’s female staffers earn just 83 cents for every dollar his male staffers make …

As for Biden, his 14 male staffers split a total payroll outlay of $1,077,128.40. So, Biden’s average male employee earned $76,937.74 per annum.

Biden’s 27 female employees divided $1,517,874.47, or $56,217.57, on average.

Among Biden’s top five highest-paid aides, one was a woman. Among the top 20, 11 were women.

All told, for every dollar that Biden paid his average male staffer, his female equivalent made only 73 cents.

McCain’s payment patterns are the stuff of feminist dreams. McCain’s 17 male staffers split $916,914, thus averaging $53,936. His 25 female employees divided $1,396,958 and averaged $55,878. On average, according to these data, women in McCain’s office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes.

The Liter continues with the debate...

I loved how McCain accurately portrayed the left's "Pro Abortion Movement", because that's what pro choice really is.

Don't believe Obama on his Born-Alive Infants Protection Act stance or Partial Birth Abortion, his own campaign has had to correct him on that.

Watch out when Obama talks about preventing "unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth".

Last month Byron York discovered what an Illinois sex-education bill, supported by Obama, was really about.

When Schieffer stated the U.S. spends more per capita than any other country on education. Yet, by every international measurement, in math and science competence, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, we trail most of the countries of the world.

Obama's response was to throw more money at the education system.

McCain was correct when he stated...

"throwing money at the problem is not the answer. You will find that some of the worst school systems in America get the most money per student".

McCain has used this solution several times...

we take good teachers and we reward them and promote them and we find bad teachers another line of work.

Obama on bad teachers...

And we also agree on the need for making sure that if we have bad teachers that they are swiftly -- after given an opportunity to prove themselves, if they can't hack it, then we need to move on...

If you know they're bad teachers they've already proven they cant hack it.

McCain ended with which candidate you can trust...

to be careful stewards of your tax dollar, to make sure America is safe and secure and prosperous, to make sure we reform the institutions of government.
That's why I've asked you not only to examine my record, but my proposals for the future of this country.
I've spent my entire life in the service of this nation and putting my country first. As a long line of McCains that have served our country for a long time in war and in peace, it's been the great honor of my life, and I've been proud to serve.
And I hope you'll give me an opportunity to serve again. I'd be honored and humbled.

CIETC

I've heard people say that Ramona Cunningham was the highest paid hooker in the state. It seems to begin at the low end of the Democrat totem pole and go up. I wouldn't be surprised if our own CommieTommie Harkin wasn't deeply involved in THAT quagmire, in more ways than one. In the words of Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, "Earmarks are used for the gateway drug to overspending. Everywhere you see an earmark, you'll see a connection to a campaign contribution". CommieTommie earmarked at least $2 Million in addition to what the Department of Labor budgeted. Why does it seem that when Republicans are involved in scandal, Big Business gets cheated. When it's a Democrat, the taxpayer gets screwed?!