Hopenchange

H/T: Grouchy Old Cripple

Walker in WSJ

Opinion from February 28, 2008 Wall Street Journal:

Why I'm Not Lining Up for Stimulus Handouts
We've been down the spending road, and the result is a state budget in terrible shape
By Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker

Recently, a firestorm ignited in Wisconsin when I, as Milwaukee County executive, refused to submit a wish list to Gov. Jim Doyle for items in the federal "stimulus" package.

Gov. Doyle -- like other politicians -- had lined up at the federal trough begging for billions in "free money" to cover budget deficits and to fuel new spending. He and others simply couldn't understand and were outraged that I didn't join them, and that I didn't relent even after the president signed the stimulus bill into law.

My explanation is simple. First, this money isn't free. Second, under Gov. Doyle our state has borrowed vast sums of money and avoided making tough budget decisions while expanding government programs. In three biannual budgets since he took office in 2003, new state bonding exceeded new tax revenue collections by $2.1 billion. During good times, the governor had been borrowing money to underwrite expansions of health care, education and environmental programs. If he is bailed out now, the federal stimulus funds will only enable the governor and others to go on spending and even taking on new obligations that will lead to larger deficits down the road. Third, if we grow government rather than private-sector jobs, we will not help the economy. Strong leadership, honest budgeting and tax cuts would do a lot more.

This burst housing bubble that led to the recession was created when millions of people were allowed (or encouraged) to spend borrowed money on homes they couldn't afford and were later forced into foreclosure.

Apparently Washington politicians learned nothing from this process. They rushed to spend $787 billion of borrowed money on new government programs in the name of economic stimulus. But even this loan of taxpayer money -- essentially the largest mortgage in history -- will come due. When it does, our children and grandchildren will pay for this imprudence.

As popular as the federal "stimulus" package is with Washington politicians, it is more popular among state and local politicians who view federal money as a cure for their fiscal woes.

Wisconsin is afflicted with fiscal woes. In every budget he has signed, Gov. Doyle postponed difficult decisions using accounting gimmicks and excessive bonding to pay for ongoing operational costs. The most egregious example is the damage done to the transportation fund over the past six years, which uses state gas taxes and vehicle registration fees to fund road projects. The governor has raided the segregated fund for a total of $1.2 billion to cover ongoing operational costs for government programs. He's partially replaced the raided funds with $865.5 million in bonds.

As a result of borrowing against tomorrow to live for today, the governor left Wisconsin's budget vulnerable. So in the fall of 2008 when recession caused a sharp decline in tax revenue, the state was forced into the red.

Wisconsin now faces an unprecedented $5.75 billion budget deficit, fourth-largest in the nation. Many municipalities also face deficits. My county, however, finished fiscal year 2007 with a $7.9 million surplus and will break even for fiscal year 2008 when the books are closed next month. Why? Because we made tough budget decisions demanded by the taxpayers.

State and local officials who failed to do so are looking to the federal government for a bailout. But what happens when the stimulus money is gone? Is the federal government committed to funding the projects it will now underwrite forever? I'm not willing to bet on it.

The stimulus is a classic bait-and-switch. Once the highways are built and social-service case loads have increased, Wisconsin will be left with the bill to maintain the new roads and services. This will force Wisconsin to raise new taxes. Gov. Doyle and legislative Democrats are already discussing higher taxes on hospitals, retailers, employers and even Internet downloads to feed their spending addiction.

The stimulus is also a bait-and-switch on employment. While the stimulus package might create a few construction jobs, the federal money will run out and those workers will lose their jobs. Even worse, most of the money is actually spent on new government programs and on bailing out failed state and local governments.

For the vast majority of residents of my state, the stimulus funds will not help them pay the mortgage or replenish their depleted retirement savings as they worry about being laid off.

True economic stimulus creates sustainable private-sector jobs. The fastest, most effective way to create them is to reduce taxes and implement regulatory and fiscal policies that encourage job growth and economic investment. History has shown repeatedly from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan that as taxes are cut, consumers spend more and investors put more money in the economy. This, in turn, creates jobs, and grows the economy.

Too many politicians confuse more government spending with economic recovery. I believe that's the wrong approach, and I will not submit a wish list for new government spending. Excessive spending will only lead to higher taxes, and that will drive jobs away when we need them the most.

We need to use these challenging times as an opportunity to streamline government and reduce the tax burden on working families. In 2002, during my first campaign for county executive, I promised to spend taxpayer money as if it were my own. If government -- at all levels -- were to do just that, we could reduce taxes and stimulate the economy. That would put people back to work again. And that is something on my wish list.

Spain, Train and Pain

Spain, Train and Pain

Brought to us by our dear governor, Jim Doyle.

Governor Doyle and his democrat minions in the Assembly and Senate dump a $1.2 billion. They passed this drivel in order to fill a budget hole they created in this year's budget.

Dear Leader governor then dumps a proposed budget with more horrifying tax increases of over $1 billion more.

Next Governor Doyle packs his backs and a bunch of government employees and heads to Spain. Of course, the taxpayers are paying for this trip. Why Spain?

Well, duh? Governor Doyle wants to see a train being built. After all, Governor Doyle expects us, the taxpayers, to fund a multi-billion project to pay for high speed rail. Oh, don't worry about the fact that we cannot afford it during the downturn in the economy! The Governor will just raise taxes to pay for it. See...no problem.

In the meantime, announced just yesterday (as governor Doyle enjoys looking at trains in Spain that we cannot afford), those of us back in the Wisconsin barn found out that our unemployment rate jumped to a whopping 7.6%. This is slightly above the national average.

Yep- you gotta love our dear governor:

Governor Doyle is in Spain to look at a train while the rest of us are in pain!.

Thanks for nothing, Governor Doyle!

Iraq, Obama and Bush-Sound strangely familiar?

I believe the extreme lefties have picked up on it, and now a couple of outsiders are figuring it out...

Some of the words coming out of President Obama's mouth during his big announcement of withdrawing troops sound strangely familiar:

Troop withdrawal beginning in 2010

Majority of troops out by middle of 2010

Residual forces left behind for Iraqi stability

Residual forces out by the end of 2011

Events on the ground will dictate the exact timeline for withdrawal

Sound strangely familiar?

Yep- this does sound familiar. In fact it sounds like the plan laid out in the Status of Forces Agreement signed by President Bush and the Iraqi government in December.

There are plenty of anti-war lefties coming unhinged today because of Obama's big announcement yesterday.

I can understand why the lefties are coming unhinged...

President Barack Obama's plan is President George Bush's plan. There is just a different signature at the bottom of the page.

I will continue to support Governor Sarah Palin and Governor Bobby Jindal

First it was Sarah Palin, now it is Bobby Jindal.

The public lynching of conservative on conservative has taken yet another turn.

I have a question. Will the conservative media elitists ever be happy?

I mean, Governor Sarah Palin was assaulted by the so called “conservative” media elitist due to one bad interview with Katie Couric. Anybody who watched that interview realized that Katie Couric was out to get Governor Palin, and Governor Palin did not react well to her questions.

Still, the media has used that one single interview to define Palin as an idiot without any substance.

Well, we just let the media get away with it again when it came to Governor Bobby Jindal. I have spent the last couple of days thinking about this. Originally I had not seen either the President Obama’s speech or Governor Jindal’s response. After seeing the reaction from the pundits about Jindal’s speech, I went and watched it. I didn’t think it was horrible, but it certainly was not the home run that we needed as conservatives.

That being said, I do not believe that this was the political disaster that many in the “conservative” media are telling you it is.

For weeks, the media has been setting Governor Bobby Jindal up as the Anti-Palin. He is brilliant and she is not. That was until this past Tuesday night when he flopped.

Now they are going after Jindal for not only his boring style but just like Palin, they are going after him in substance too. Now Jindal is a Rhodes Scholar, so it will be tough for the media to convince people that he is an idiot, but you can already see the beginning pages of the dialogue they are writing about Jindal.

NRO- The Corner

But I didn't think that either Jindal's substance or his style was right on Tuesday night, and I make no apologies for considering style important.

Once again, it is these so called “conservative” media elites that are going off on a tangent once about substance. I believe it is the substance that these elitists are having a problem with. These elitists do not like real conservatives. They say they do, but then you see them fawning all over Obama’s programs. This same guy, Ramesh Ponnuru, has gone after Governor Palin also. Of course, he always qualifies his statements with a “I really like them but...”


These media elitists are not conservatives, period. Guys like David Brooks continue to criticize both Palin and Jindal over their conservative principles.(substance).

The idea that these guys continue to be quoted as “conservatives” is really annoying. Worse yet, these guys are allowed to hang out and post at Townhall and the NRO. These elitists are Obama lovers, not conservatives. They believe in Obama’s liberal principles not in limited government.

These elitists got away with this garbage when it came to blasting Sarah Palin. Are we going to allow them to do this to another young promising conservative in Bobby Jindal?

These elitists better think again if they believe the grassroots is going to follow them down the liberal road of big government! Sorry, we plan on following Governor Sarah Palin and Governor Bobby Jindal, no matter what the not so conservative elitists continue to tell us.

I will continue to support Governor Sarah Palin and Governor Bobby Jindal. They are our future.

If this upsets the elitists, well...I could not be more excited about that!

Attention Conservatives and Liberals

No matter which side you lean, tell me this is not funny:

Click on photo to enlarge

Hat tip- Hot Air

Caught Napping-Obama's #1 economic advisor

Caught Napping-Obama's #1 economic advisor.

Ya'll think I am kidding, huh?

Nope.

Larry Summers, Obama Economic Stimulus Guru, and the head of his National Economic Team was caught napping during the big important summit that Obama called together.

No kiddin'




Could someone toss him an elbow next time. Geez... Some of this stuff might be important!

Hat Tip WISGOP blog.
'

Obama's newest spending bill- $410 billion

The $410 billion more dollars is just to finish funding government until the end of September of this year:

WASHINGTON — A $410 billion spending bill unveiled in Congress on Monday includes at least $3.8 billion worth of funding for the kinds of lawmakers' pet projects that President Obama has pledged to trim from future budgets.

The bill is meant to end a budget impasse left over from last year, after President
Bush threatened to veto the Democratic-controlled Congress' plan because of its cost. It would fund most federal agencies through the end of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Those agencies are operating under a congressional extension of last year's budgets that expires next week. Congress approved full-year budgets last fall for only three departments: Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

Of course, it is packed with earmarks, almost another $4 billion is pet projects.

But, but, but... I thought hero Obama was supposed to cut earmarks. That's what he PROMISED!

Happy 153rd Birthday RNC!

Happy Birthday to the Republican National Committee, established on this day in 1856 to coordinate nationwide opposition to the pro-slavery policies of the Democrats.

Republicans from many state parties held their first national organizational meeting in Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856. Presiding over this preliminary session was former U.S. Senator Lawrence Brainerd (VT), a resolute anti-slavery activist.

The next day, delegates chose the first Republican National Committee. New York's Republican state Chairman, Edwin Morgan, was then elected the first Chairman of the RNC. He had the immense responsibility of organizing the first Republican National Convention, to be held just four months later in Philadelphia. Morgan would later be elected Governor of New York and U.S. Senator.

So, today is the 153rd anniversary of the RNC. We honor the patriots, the heroes, the visionaries who gave us our Grand Old Party.

From: Grand Old Partisan

40 Days 4 Life With Sarah Palin

This is not about protesting or marching on Washington, it is simply about saying a prayer each day starting this Wednesday and for the next 40 days after that.

The gift of life is so precious and there still so many willing to discard it and throw it away.

Huh? Obama flip flop?

Oh what a mess.

First, in December, our wise President stated unequivocally he would close Gitmo. The lefties cheered.

In January, our wise President stated that yes, Gitmo would be closed, but not for at least a year. The lefties were not a cheerful.

Now, in February, Obama's Pentagon is now stating that there really are no human rights violations at Gitmo, prisoners are being treated humanly. Now the lefties are upset and plan to challenge the assertion.

More Bumper Stickers

Feingold - Still Toting the Party Line

I e-mailed my "great" U.S. Senator about the porkulus bill a couple of weeks ago. I finally got a response today:

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I appreciate hearing from you.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed by the United States House of Representatives on February 13, 2009, by a vote of 246-183, and passed by the Senate the same day by a vote of 60-38. It was signed into law by the President on February 17, 2009.

I supported the economic recovery package because with unemployment continuing to rise, including the highest levels Wisconsin has seen in twenty years, we need to act quickly and responsibly to create jobs and get our economy moving. Though not perfect, the economic recovery package does take important steps to create or save millions of jobs while addressing our country's energy and infrastructure challenges. It includes funding for highway and bridge construction, individual and business tax breaks, Medicaid, education and many other priorities

For more information on the economic recovery package you can visit www.recovery.gov. I will also have more information about how the recovery affects Wisconsin on my website, www.feingold.senate.gov/recovery.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to do so on this or any other issue.

It's great to see my so-called "maverick" senator toting to liberal party line.

How much funding is in there for highway and bridge construction?

How much individual and business tax breaks are in the bill? I know they cut the tax breaks from $1000 to $800 in the final bill. Thanks, Russ.

How much more is Medicaid getting funded?

How much for Education?

What are your so-called "priorities" that I, as a taxpayer, am being forced to fund?

Abortions in other countries? Yep.

ACORN? Yep.

What else???

Sen. Feingold, how many phone calls/emails did you get against the stimulus package?

How many for it?

It's bad enough we have a do-nothing senator in Herb Kohl, but it's good to know we have another senator that doesn't care what his constituents think, but is only concerned about toting the liberal party line.

Shovel Ready

Hat Tip- Hot Air

Cannot afford my own house, but...

I cannot afford my own house, but apparently Obama and the Democrats believe that I should bailout a bunch of people that should never have purchased the homes they have.

Cost to me, your average taxpayer???

$85,000,000,000

That's all?

I guess that means I will never get a house as long Obama is president.

Bumper Sticker

Who did you vote for?

It is a 2 billion dollar tax increase

As I stated this morning, we had to be getting close to $2 billion in tax increases suggested by our governor in the last week or so.

I was right.

WPRI has the entire break down.

H/T Charlie Sykes

Tax Increase	FY 2010	FY 2011
Adopt Combined Reporting	$75,600,000	$111,700,000
Adopt Main Street Equity Act	30,300,000	31,000,000
Extend Sales Tax to Digital Personal Property	4,200,000	6,700,000
Cigarette Tax Increase	127,400,000	130,300,000
Tobacco Products Tax Increase	15,200,000	18,000,000
Very High Earner Income Tax Bracket	175,563,000	136,194,000
Reduce Capital Gains Exclusion to 40%	85,100,000	95,500,000
Nonresident Pass-Through Withholding	38,500,000	0
Decouple from Federal Qualified Production Activities Deduction	38,200,000	33,500,000
Affiliated Entities Sales Tax Treatment	19,800,000	21,000,000
Fully Recognize Throwback Sales	57,700,000	37,500,000
Air Carrier Definition	4,000,000	4,000,000
Economic Nexus Standard for Internet Businesses	1,500,000	1,500,000
Internal Revenue Code Updates	-40,560,000	-5,490,000
Angel and Early Stage Seed Investment Credits Revisions	0	-7,000,000
Increased Research and Development Investment Credit	0	-5,000,000
Sunset Film Production Services Tax Credit	5,000,000	5,000,000
Delay Credit for Medical Records Technology Investments	4,500,000	10,000,000
Next Generation Farmer Tax Credit (effective 2011)	0	0
Dairy Cooperative Tax Credit	-600,000	-700,000
Meat Processing Facility Tax Credit	-300,000	-700,000
GPR Total Tax Changes	$641,103,000	$623,004,000
Hospital Assessment	$310,021,000	$339,695,800
Oil Company Profits Tax	100,324,900	171,490,300
SEG Total Tax Changes	$410,345,900	$511,186,100
NET TOTAL ALL FUNDS	$1,051,448,900	$1,134,190,100
Total 2010-11		$2,185,639,000

Before you get too upset by this, just wait...The Democrats controlling the state legislature have not lumped in their tax increases for their pet pork projects.

Remember the $15 billion payroll tax increases in health care? Yep, that could be what they are plotting right now!

Okay so every man, woman and child living in this state, about 5.5 million of us will have to shell out about $3973.93 each over the next two years.

Tax increases on steroids

Clearly , Our Democrat governor and his Democrat controlled state senate and state assembly are on the tax increase 'roids again.

Think of the tax increases we have learned about in the last several days. From last night:

The tax increases include: $540 million paid from oil company profits; $318 million by creating a new 7.75% tax rate for the richest 1% of taxpayers; $290 million in higher taxes on cigarette smokers; $215 million in higher corporate income taxes; and more than $85 million paid on capital gains.

Let we forget, just a few days ago, the budget repair bill also increased additional taxes on business, hospital taxes and increased internet taxes:

The bill would:
• Tax parent companies and their subsidies as one entity. The rewrite of the corporate income tax code would cost businesses $215.7 million over three years.
• Tax hospital revenue to bring in more than $900 million in federal dollars, some of which will be used to pay for state health programs.
• Cut state spending by $125 million.
• Change tax laws to require online retailers to charge sales taxes for tangible products as well as Internet downloads of songs, video games and e-books.
• Authorize $300 million of federal stimulus funding for shovel-ready transportation
projects.
• Provide $3.6 million for worker training programs.
• Increase regulations to protect homeowners and tenants during foreclosure proceedings.

We have got to be pushing close to $2 Billion worth of tax increases in the last week handed down to us .

There went your $13 a week given to you by Barack Obama.

No stimulation here people, move along.

Again with the GOP Governors and the stimulus

I cannot help but notice that the main stream media is once again attempting to pull the GOP into the mess of a boondoggle with them.

New York Times

My guess is that the main stream media is desperately attempting to provide cover for President Obama and the Democrats when this plan fails.

Otherwise, who gives a rip if the any GOP elected officials actually support the stimulus? Seriously, if this moment is really the celebration for Obama and the Democrats that the media keep telling us it is, why give any of the GOP governors any props?

Clearly the mainstream media must believe like the majority of Americans believe…either this stimulus will do very little or it will hurt us. Per Rasmussen, 53% believe it does nothing or will hurt us, 38% of voters believe it will help us.

What I do find very interesting about this article is the names that are missing from this wonderful list of GOP governors that supposedly support President Obama’s stimulus?

Names like:

Governor Sarah Palin
Governor Mark Sanford
Governor Bobby Jindal
Governor Haley Barbour
Governor Rick Perry

Obviously the implication is that all GOP governors support a bailout. That is far from the truth.

In fact, the NYT speaks about 14 Democrat governors and 4 “wise” Republicans acknowledging how brilliant and wonderful Obama’s plan is.

Recently, Governors Schwarzenegger, Crist, Douglas and Rell joined 14 Democratic governors in signing a letter to Mr. Obama lauding his economic plan.

I believe that we still have 50 governors(or 57 if you are Obama) and a majority of the governors did not sign on to Obama’s brilliant plan. Not even a majority of Democrats signed on???

Sarah Palin: Obama Should Veto Stimulus

I am with you, Governor Palin...

Obama should veto this piece of garbage

Oh, sorry...forgot to link to the original H/T Conservatives for Palin

The future of the GOP

There have been some exciting changes taking place in the Wisconsin GOP and throughout the country.

First- the GOP elected officials have found their backbone.

Second- On the national level, finally the RNC has some backbone.

On the state level, even though we have had a leader with some backbone, it was tough getting our elected officials attention. The elected officials on both state and the national level had pretty much ignored all conservative principles.

Well, that has ended.

With his new position as the transition team leader for RNC chair for Michael Steele, our state chairman Reince Priebus, has also gotten some attention and a nice write up in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Washington - The unfolding presidency of Barack Obama isn't the only big political drama in the nation's capital these days.

Another is the Republican Party's efforts to right itself after two woeful elections.

Among the more unlikely figures at the center of that process is a 36-year-old lawyer who flies to Washington from Wisconsin once a week to help manage the party's makeover.

Reince Priebus, the boosterish, workaholic chairman of the Wisconsin GOP, admits that even he is a little surprised by his new national role.

"It's a bit crazy," said Priebus last week in the midst of an economic stimulus debate that might go a long way toward defining the post-Bush GOP.

"I have a lot on my plate right now," he said.

Priebus joined the Republican National Committee in 2007. But last fall, he was among the first in the RNC to endorse former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in a wide-open leadership race.

After Steele staged an upset last month to become the GOP's first African-African chairman, he asked Priebus to lead his ambitious transition effort within the party.

"I am going in an entirely different direction . . . new faces, new voices, new people," Steele said last week at RNC headquarters near the U.S. Capitol.

"This is the first time in a long time that the party can truly rebuild and reorganize itself in a way that the party leaders and the grass-roots members want it to be done," Priebus said in a separate interview, calling the party's lack of executive and legislative power in Madison and Washington both devastating and invigorating for Republicans.

"There is no president or governor telling the parties how they think things should be run," said Priebus, a native of Pleasant Prairie who climbed the party ranks in Wisconsin from local activist to congressional district chairman, state party treasurer, vice chairman and finally state chairman two years ago. He lost a bid for the state Senate in 2004.

'Instantaneous click'

The two did not know each other well when Priebus endorsed Steele for RNC chairman last fall. But there was "an instantaneous click," said Steele, who said he saw Priebus as someone who shared an interest in modernizing the party and shared the experience of promoting Republicans in a state where Democrats had the upper hand.

Priebus ended up managing Steele's underdog campaign for the chairmanship.

"It was hand-to-hand combat," Priebus said.

Six candidates were competing for the votes of 168 RNC members, a group that includes the party chairmen from every state. Priebus called it the "most fascinating political experience of my life." He and Steele spent a long weekend on a six-state fly-around, courting the votes of two or three committee members at a time on a circuit that included Topeka, Kan.; Bismarck, N.D.; and Omaha, Neb.

As did Obama, Steele won his campaign as the change candidate. He was seen by supporters as a skilled communicator who could freshen the image of a party increasingly defined by its Southern white male base.

"So many times, we've talked about minority outreach, outreach in the Northeast, the Midwest," Priebus said. "But we just talk about it. At some point, we have to have a person in a leadership post that can do it."

When Steele won, he singled out Priebus for his role in the contest. That relationship "will only bode well for Wisconsin," said Steve King, a former state chairman and current RNC member, referring to resources the national party can steer toward targeted states.

"We need all the help we can get in order to win an election here," said Mary Buestrin, who has served on the RNC from Wisconsin since the 1990s.

Courting the Midwest

"People understand the party is not a viable party with the current hole in the Midwest we have. Reince and others understand that," said Bob Wood, a party insider and D.C. lobbyist who served as a top aide to former Governor and Health Secretary Tommy Thompson.

The state and region were disaster areas for the GOP last year. More counties flipped from Republican to Democratic in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa and Illinois than in any other states. When a reporter called Priebus at the GOP's election-night party one minute after the polls closed to tell him Wisconsin had been called for Obama, he pleaded, "Can you at least let me have one beer?"

Steele said last week that the region is huge for the party's future.

"He knows we were a sliver away from turning the state red in '04 and in 2000," said Priebus, who traces his politics back to his passionately pro-American Greek Grandfather.

"Ronald Reagan, he was the man. He was looked up to and revered by all my relatives in Greece," said Priebus, who said his father, a union electrician, was a fan of Reagan as well.

Activists in the party describe Priebus as tireless and relentlessly upbeat, qualities some say are especially handy in down cycles.

"Reince is a driven man. I'm not sure by what, but he's driven. He's not a type A. He's not a double-A or even triple-A. He's a quadruple-A," King said. "Reince also has that youthful optimistic outlook on things. He inoculates everybody with it."

Looking to expand

Priebus took over the state party between two losing election cycles, but King said he would be re-elected with no trouble this year because activists think he's doing a good job and believe the party's problems in '08 were more national than local.

"It's tough to swim against the tide when your own party is messing up nationally," said Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, a good friend of Priebus'.

"He is a younger conservative who believes in expanding the base and making it more inclusive," said Ryan, a Janesville Republican.

Like Steele, Priebus says "we need to build bridges without compromising our principles."

They say the GOP needs to catch up to Democrats technologically and energize disillusioned conservatives while competing for young and minority voters and expanding a shrinking geographic base.

What that means in practice is not yet clear. Priebus says Republicans have to be a party of ideas, not just opposition. But any big rebound in 2010 will depend on Democratic failures. Pointing to the budget shortfall in Wisconsin, Priebus said Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle is "much more vulnerable than people realize."

"We're going to retake the state Senate" and "it's not going to take much" to flip the state Assembly, he said.

Nationally, the post-Bush Republican Party already has gone a long way toward defining itself with its almost unanimous opposition to the nearly $800 billion stimulus package. Critics say the GOP now has branded itself as the "no" party. Republicans say they are re-establishing themselves as the party of limited government and fiscal restraint after squandering that mantle during the Bush years.

"The elected officials have put us in a situation where we are having to rebuild our party and our credibility at the same time," said Priebus, referring to the GOP's years in power. "And if we can't admit that, we'd be pretty clueless."

PS. I don't believe that I remind Reince enough that I am his county party chairman. I know he is my state chairman, but still...Anytime I can give him a hard time is a good day.

PSS. By the way Reince, thanks for believing in Kenosha County this past election and getting the state to send some help our way. I know we did not let you down.

So what was the panic to get the stimulus slammed through?

Yesterday, the White House was buzzing around all of the talk shows claiming now that the stimulus would not really show any results right away.

So why the panic to slam this through with no Republican support and the American people have no clue what is inside of this thing?

The administration seemed to be laying the groundwork for a double-edged strategy in advance of the president’s trip, talking up the stimulative effects of the new bill while hedging on any promises of immediately noticeable relief.

Obama betrayed his entire campaign by promising change when it came to Washington and all we see is the same ol' stuff out of Washington.

Congress has made a huge mistake- Op Ed by Congressman Paul Ryan

This appeared in yesterday's New York Times.

This is a op ed written by Congressman Paul Ryan. Our Congressman:

CONGRESS has made a terrible mistake. Amid a rhetorical debate centered on words like “crisis,” “emergency” and “catastrophe,” it acted too fast. While arguments were made about the stimulus bill’s specific components — taxpayer money for condoms, new green cars and golf carts for federal bureaucrats, another round of rebate checks — its more dangerous consequences were overlooked. And now the package threatens a return to the kind of stagflation last seen in the 1970s.

To get a sense of the pressures ahead, we must first assess our fiscal health. We started this year with a projected trillion-dollar budget deficit for the 2009 fiscal year. In 2008, we spent $451 billion just to pay the interest on our debt.

With the stimulus bill now becoming law, we’re digging even deeper into debt. The headline price tag of $787 billion doesn’t include the extra $348 billion it will take to finance the new debt, or what it will cost when Congress extends the spending programs in the bill, as is likely — as much as $2 trillion more. Add in the billions that are being used to prop up the financial system, and when the dust settles on 2009, with millions of baby boomers retiring and entitlement spending exploding, taxpayers will face a financial nightmare.

From a global perspective, the picture only looks worse. As we have debated how much money to borrow and spend in hopes of jump-starting our economy, we’ve ignored the worldwide stimulus binge. China, Europe and Japan are all spending hundreds of billions of dollars they don’t have in hopes of speeding up their economies, too. That means the very countries we have relied on to buy our bonds, notably China and Japan, are now putting their own bonds on the global credit markets.

American Treasury bonds have been selling briskly on the global credit markets because they have been the calm in the storm of the global credit crisis. This has allowed advocates of borrow-and-spend to argue that for the United States, borrowing is uniquely cheap. But what happens when there is an excess supply of bonds on the worldwide markets? The cost of borrowing will rise. Today we fear deflation, but eventually our fears will turn to inflation.

It seems that no one in Washington is discussing what happens when the world begins this gargantuan borrowing spree. How high will interest rates rise? And more fundamentally, who will have the money to buy our bonds? It is possible that the Federal Reserve will succumb to pressure to “monetize” our debt — that is, print new money to buy our bonds. In fact, the Fed is already suggesting that it will buy long-term Treasury securities in order to lower borrowing costs. If it does, then our money supply, which has already increased substantially over the past year, will grow even faster.

To American families, inflation is a destroyer of savings, a killer of wealth, a crusher of confidence. It calls into question the value of our money. And while we all share in the pain, the people whom inflation hits hardest are elderly people who live on fixed incomes, those in the middle class who are struggling to save for retirement and college and lower-income people who live paycheck to paycheck.

Combine high inflation and high unemployment and you have stagflation. Hindsight shows how the pain of the late 1970s and early 1980s could have been avoided, yet we’re now again planning to borrow and spend — and raise taxes — as President Jimmy Carter did. Soon we may again find ourselves watching a rising “misery index” of inflation and unemployment together. If that happens, individual earning power will evaporate, and our standard of living will decline.

To prevent stagflation, we should enact fiscal policy reforms that apply the lessons we learned from the 1970s. Keynesian stimuli based on borrowing and spending have not worked and will not work. One-time rebate checks do not increase the incentive to expand business operations and create jobs. But marginal cuts in tax rates do. We also must lower our job-killing corporate income tax rate, the highest in the industrialized world after Japan, and ease business worries by making it clear that there will be no tax increases in 2010.

We should also re-establish the sound dollar. For the past decade, the Federal Reserve has manipulated interest rates and vastly over-expanded the money supply — and in so doing fueled the housing bubble that precipitated our current crisis. To end uncertainty about the economy, to keep interest rates down, and to give Americans the confidence they need to take risks and ensure future growth, we should make price stability a priority, guaranteeing the value of the dollar.

Finally, we should tackle the entitlement crisis, which will be a $56 trillion liability that we have not figured out how to pay for. As members of the baby boom generation retire, and health care costs continue to spiral out of control, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will collapse. By reforming those programs and bringing their costs down to sustainable levels, we will show the world and the credit markets we are serious about reducing our debt. Then our credit will improve, the cost of necessary borrowing will drop, and we can stave off stagflation.

Paul D. Ryan is a Republican representative from Wisconsin.

Early victory???

The media, especially the Washington Post, are all in a twitter talking about the stimulus package and what a wonderful victory this was for Obama.

I have a couple of issues with this way of thinking:

1. The stimulus is not exactly a victory. At least it cannot be declared a victory yet. We have no idea if it will work. In fact, most economists, even the liberal ones are very leary about claiming this as a victory, when it appears to be nothing more than big government spending. There are few signs that this will bring any kind of sustained growth at all in our economy.

2. The world wide markets, even Wall Street, do not see this as a victory at all. Billions upon billions of dollars are supposed to be pumped into the markets in order to create sustained jobs and growth. Wall Streets reaction???? They dropped 100 points on the day this passed Congress. In fact, all of the markets were down. Instead of celebrating billions of dollars worth of new spending, the market have been sliding for the last month. This week alone, after finding out last weekend that the stimulus had the three Republicans it needed to pass this massive spending plan, the markets actually collapsed by 5%. Even though Obama rolled out his wonderful bank bailout this week to continue the rescue of banks, the market took a nosedive.

3 How can these goofs in the media claim this as a historic victory when Obama holds all the cards? Kind of easy to win a game when the Democrats are the only players in the game. When the people playing the game with you let you win and provide no push back whatsoever, well, uh, of course you win. Of course the stimulus passed, the Democrats control everything.

4. There was extremely little to no bipartisianship whatsoever. This would have been a sizeable victory if Obama could have gotten half the Republicans to support his package. After all, this is the change he promised. There are still plenty of wishy-washy Republicans in both the House and the Senate that would have supported this, if they felt even remotley like this would help the economy. There is no way this can be called bipartisian. In fact, Obama lost more Democrats than he gained of Republicans. 7 House Democrats voted no, 1 House Democrat voted present and he picked up 3 Senate Republican yes votes. Picked up 3 votes, lost 8 votes.

Really- how in heaven's name would this be considered a historic victory? Exactly what was expected to happen, did indeed happen.

Not one single person read it

Not a single Republican, not a single Democrat, not even the White House has read the stimulus plan and yet, they voted yes.

306 members of Congress voted yes to the most massive non budgetary spending bill in American history- not one of them actually read it.

303 Democrats
3 Republicans

For all we know, we could have just been sold to China.

Oh, that's right, we probably did sell ourselves to China.

Yep- this is the change we have been waiting for.

Porkulus passes house

The Republicans held firm. Not a single republican voted for this piece of garbage that will not help the average American facing a world of trouble right now.

Keep blazing the phones. Try to stop this in the Senate.

Pelosi is riding high- her $30 million mouse has been saved.

Cool- the mouse gets funding even as millions of Americans are without work.

Yes- I am being sarcastic

The truth about the stimulus

For all the bluster and muster made over the stimulus, the longer this takes, the more the American people lose out financially.

As I mention yesterday, the reason the cost of the stimulus dropped is because some of the tax cuts were eliminated.

This is not a good thing. The man on the street struggling to make his mortgage payment, instead of giving him a tax cut that can affect his paycheck immediately we give his money away to our state government who is using that money to fill the gaps in their own budget. Of course, as we already know, the man on the street just had his state taxes increased to fill that same budget gap.

Journal Sentinel

Changes to tax laws that would result in more online retailers charging sales taxes - for both tangible products and Internet downloads of songs, video games and e-books.

A tax on hospital revenues, expected to bring an additional $900 million in federal funds over three years.

$125 million in cuts to state spending.

$3.6 million for worker training programs.

Increased oversight of child care programs, the administration of which was called into question in the recent Journal Sentinel investigation "Cashing in on Kids."

Increased regulations to protect homeowners and tenants during foreclosure
proceedings.

So we increase the man on the streets taxes and then we eliminate billions in tax cuts on the federal level. I understand the Democrats hate tax cuts, but for heaven's sake, Americans need a break here!

Michelle Malkin observes:

KEY POINTS:
· Tax relief to help middle class families and small businesses was sharply pared back in order to increase government spending. Public opinion over the last 4 weeks has shown that Americans overwhelming believe tax cuts, and not government spending, are a better way to stimulate the economy.
·
Approximately $75 billion in true tax relief was CUT from the Nelson-Collins package. So, while the overall size of the package may have gotten slightly smaller, the spending actually increased.

The end result, tax cuts are eliminated and spending goes up.

Who voted for these Democrats running our state and our country?
$75 billion of tax cuts were eliminated. $1 billion was eliminated from building highways and roads which may have actually helped create jobs.

Great news! The Stimulus has been scaled back, but...

Great news! The Stimulus has been scaled back, but...

Check out what the Democrats are scaling back on:

The likely targets are reducing Obama's "Make Work Pay" tax cut, from $500 a year for most individuals and $1,000 a year for most families, down to $400 and $800 respectively. Other reductions are likely in a $15,000 tax credit for all home purchases in the next year as well as a tax credit for the purchase of new cars, both of which were added to the Senate bill after little debate.

That's right folks. Way too many tax cuts in this stimulus. Gotta cut back on those. Certainly would not want to cut back on useless spending that will do nothing to create jobs or encourage folks to buy new homes, huh?

We are the Dairy State and we are getting milked

I know we are the dairy state but is it necessary to milk the taxpayers like we milk our cows?

Apparently, Governor Doyle and the Democrats controlling both the Assembly and the Senate seem to think that we, the taxpayers, are cows and they plan on milking us for everything we have.

Our Governor, along with our state legislators, created a massive deficit with increased spending as in every single department. Now, this year alone we are $593.8 million in debt. Between 2009 and 2011, the state is $5 billion in debt.

So how does Governor Doyle and the Democrats, who currently control everything in this state, plan on fixing the $593.8 million deficit?

Why, they are going to milk the taxpayers of course!

Once lawmakers solve the shortfall through cuts and tax and fee increases, they will have to begin the even tougher process of addressing a deficit of more than $5 billion that runs from mid-2009 though mid-2011. Doyle will unveil his plan for doing that Tuesday.

You have to love the way that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel just matter of fact states “tax and fee increases” as if it is no big deal.

Inefficient and ineffective governance has been the hallmark of the Doyle administration. Clearly there is no change planned in the near future.

Pints & Politics

Schumer: The American People Don't Care About Pork Projects In Stimulus

The American people do not care about reckless spending

The American people do not care about reckless spending

see above video

At least according to Schumer.

From Michelle Malkin:

The “American people really don’t care” about all those “little tiny, yes,
porky amendments” that the “chattering classes” have exposed.

Just last night-Was Obama was lying to the American people stating there was no pork? Today, Schumer is admitting there is pork.

Really- do you care?

If so, tell them!

The porkulus bill passed the Senate a little while ago. America just doubled its debt with no end in sight for job losses and socialism

No more mortgage payments!

Great news, you can stop making your mortgage payments now, Obama will save you.

The mortgage support would be a major policy shift from the Bush
administration, which relied on voluntary, industry-led measures and did not want to commit taxpayer dollars to foreclosure prevention. The administration was still reviewing various proposals on exactly how the new anti-foreclosure efforts would be implemented.

See...you don't have to make your mortgage payments anymore. Then you can spend your money in other places to help the economy.

Tada!

Economic problems solved!

What a waste of $1,000,000!

As I've posted in the past, the state of Wisconsin spent a cool million bucks of taxpayer dollars on a new campaign finance reporting website.

Guess what?

Today is the deadline for filing spring pre-primary reports. And the campaign finance website is down. It will occasionally come back up, just to go back down again.

These are the people that think they can spend $850,000,000,000 of our taxpayer dollars better than we can ... GOOD GRIEF!

This is why we do not want to give government more money

Here is another perfect example of why Americans do not trust their government with more money.

These same county board members that continue to give this consultant more and more money for doing nothing, while whining and begging at the taxpayer trough for bailout (stimulus)money.

Daniel Bice:

But the biggest job the task force has created so far is a $248,000
consulting gig for a previously unemployed political type.

Under a no-bid contract, Gerard Randall is pulling down $12,000 a month
from the county tax levy to offer advice to the task force headed by Supervisor
Elizabeth Coggs.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who continues to take a beating for not wanting any stimulus money, actually attempted to veto some of the spending for this program. The county board supervisors overrode his veto.

Isn't this game getting old?

Aren't we tired yet of pouring millions upon millions down the drain even as the goofs in Washington and Madison insist that money is desperately needed to create jobs?

TARP is back

While the Democrats and the 3 Republicans are busy selling out our economic future, Americans get to watch the next version of TARP in action.

TARP 2.0 is in the hands of the Democrats and Barack Obama. Yes, we are back to buying bad loans and bailing out the banks.

On Tuesday, Timothy Geithner, the tax cheat heading the IRS, will roll out his plans to spend the remaining $350 billion of the $700 billion rescue plan.

I used to believe that there was no way possible for the Obama administration to spend the remaining $350 billion worse than the Bush administration spent the first $350 billion.

I used to believe that, until Barack Obama picked a known tax cheat, who "accidentally" forgot to pay his taxes, Timothy Geithner. The newly minted Secretary of the Treasure then proceeded to hire a high profile Goldman Sachs lobbyist as his chief of staff.

Men with zero credibility left, will be heading the bank bailout. Most of these guys involved in the Obama adminstration and tapped to fix the banking problems are all former bankers, Wall Street gurus, lobbyist and rich fat cats.

These are the fellows, including Timothy Geithner, that are charged with fixing the bank mess, that they themselves helped create.

TARP 2.0 is on its way. When that does not work, plans for TARP 3.0 are already being made to be rolled out sometime in late spring.

So how much will TARP 3.0 cost us?

Lincoln - Reagan Day Dinner

Urgent- Melt the phones! Stimulus vote tonight?

I am hearing rumors that due to the incredible problems now facing the Obama/Democrat stimulus, the liberals will try and jam in through for a vote tonight!

With each passing day, more and more Americans are coming out against the pork layden sandwich.

Rasmussen polls yesterday have got Obama and the Democrats running scared. More Americans now reject the stimulus!

Support for the economic recovery plan working its way through Congress has
fallen again this week. For the first time, a plurality of voters nationwide oppose the $800-billion-plus plan.

Obama and the Democrats are panicked! Obama promised disaster if the stimulus did not pass.

Citizens Against Government Waste is also hearing the same thing.

The Senate is expected to vote as early as TODAY on S.1, its version of the so-called “economic stimulus” package. I urge you in the strongest terms possible, before you do anything else today, send a powerful message to your U.S. Senators to oppose this bloated, ill-conceived plan!

We are right now locked in a pitched battle with the big-spending, liberal proponents of this massive government giveaway scheme. While CCAGW’s members and supporters like you have sent more than 40,000 e-mails to the Senate, groups like MoveOn.org are countering our efforts by flooding Senate offices with their own messages in support of the “stimulus.” We must not only match them e-mail for e-mail, but overwhelm the Senate with our call to vote against the borrow-and-spend American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

So it is "Melt the phone" time again.

Blast the emails! Blast the calls!

Republicans VOTE NO!!!

Republicans tried to negotiate and the Democrats are holding fast to their pork.

Stop the stimulus!

For those in Wisconsin, call Senator Russ Feingold at (202) 224-5323 and Senator Herb Kohl at (202) 224-5653.

email Senator Kohl from this page (use the link)

http://kohl.senate.gov/gen_contact.html

email Senator Feingold (use the link)

http://feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.html

Melt those phone lines people!

Update:Per Michelle Malkin, we have 4 wobbly Republicans. Why don't we help them make a decision. Let's call them!

I’m told that the Squishy Four are (no surprises
here):

Collins (202) 224-2523
Snowe (202) 224-5344
Voinovich (202) 224-3353
Specter (202) 224-4254

I cannot believe there are only 4 wobblers in the GOP, so if you feel like calling even more of them...go for it!

Democrats: Voters are stupid

Representatives Kessler and A. Williams proposed ASSEMBLY JOINT RESOLUTION 6 and it has been referred to committee on Elections and Campaign Reform. AJR6 proposes a constitutional amendment to how Wisconsin's Supreme Court Justices are elected.

AJR6 changes the constitution to the following:

It also requires the governor to appoint, with the advice and consent of the senate, justices of the supreme court for ten−year terms. At the conclusion of their terms, the terms of justices would be automatically renewed unless they are rejected in a reaffirmation vote by a vote of at least 13 of the members of the senate.
If the senate does not reaffirm, the governor would be required to appoint a new justice. Previously elected justices whose terms expire two or more years after ratification will serve out the terms for which they were elected and may be reaffirmed for additional terms by the senate. Previously elected justices whose terms expire less than two years after ratification may stand for reelection in the final year of their terms.

So Wisconsin's Senate and Assembly Democrats don't want us to vote for our Supreme Court Justices. (Can we consider that voter suppression?) There are only two reasons why they would not want the people electing these officials.

1. They think the voters are too stupid to elect the right person. (As in a liberal Democrat who likes to legislate from the bench.)

2. They are sore losers. They are still crying about Ziegler and Gableman beating their liberal justices.

Would the Democrats support this idea if a conservative like Scott Walker were governor? I doubt it.

Once again liberal Democrats prove they don't care about what the voters think, only about what they think.

Kudos Reince!

Steele Announces RNC Transition Team
Team Will Implement Sweeping Changes; Prepare Party for Upcoming Elections

WASHINGTON – The newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Michael Steele, today announced his transition team to review all party operations and begin preparing for this year’s elections.

Comprised of current RNC members, the transition team will help implement the sweeping changes Steele proposed during his campaign for chairman. Under Chairman Steele’s leadership, the RNC will focus on recruiting a new cadre of top-notch candidates and operatives, build new volunteer networks, and forge new working relationships with state and local parties. The team will also immediately begin preparing for the gubernatorial and local elections later this year in Virginia and New Jersey, and the special Congressional election in New York State.

“We’re going to bring this Party to every corner of the country and ask people to join us and work with us,” Chairman Steele said. “By standing on our principles – we can expand and grow. My transition team will take a fresh look at everything with an eye toward preparing to win the campaigns of the future.”

The Chairman’s transition team will be led by Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, member of the RNC’s Executive Committee, and one of the young leaders who will help expand the Grand Old Party.

“Michael is committed to our conservative cause, has strong leadership skills, and the ability to connect with and energize our grassroots supporters,” Priebus said. “Our core fundamental principles remain strong and mirror those of the majority of Americans. We must improve our outreach efforts in order to grow as a Party. I look forward to continuing my partnership with him and the RNC.”

Co-Chairmen Of The Steele Transition Team Include:

Saul Anuzis is the current Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. Anuzis founded the telecommunications firm Quick Connect USA, is a leader in the use of technology in political campaigns, and an active blogger.

Henry Barbour is the current National Committeeman from Mississippi. Barbour has served as the campaign manager for Chip Pickering and Haley Barbour, the current Governor of Mississippi and former RNC Chairman.

Pat Brady is the current National Committeeman from Illinois. He is an attorney and originally from St. Charles, IL. Brady previously worked as a federal prosecutor in California and in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.

Jim Greer is the current Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. Prior to his expanded work for the Republican Party in Florida, Greer was the Acting President & CEO of Regulatory Compliance Services, Inc. and J. Greer & Associates.

Holly Hughes is the current National Committeewoman from Michigan. Hughes is a small business owner and a former Montague Area Public School Board member.

Bo Palacios is the current National Committeeman from the Northern Mariana Islands. Palacios is currently a Legislative Assistant with the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands Resident Representative.

Shawn Steel is the current National Committeeman from California. From 2001-2003, Steel served the California Republican Party as Chairman. He is also the founding director of the California chapter of the Club for Growth.

Joyce Tehres is the current National Committeewoman from Maryland. From 1989-1998, Tehres served as Chair of the Maryland Republican Party.

Bob Tiernan is the current Chairman of the Republican Party of Oregon. Tiernan is a business consultant from Lake Oswego and a former state representative.

I blame the media

For two years, Obama got a pass. For two years, Obama never had to prove that he had the competence to be President. We know Obama did not have the experience, but never did he have to prove that he could handle the job.

Instead, Obama was hailed as the next great President, like Lincoln or Reagan. Well, the Lincoln and the Reagan talk has disappeared now and even Obama's fawning media elites are beginning to question Obama.

After two weeks of being president, when even the New York Times is writing articles question what is up with the ethical challenges in the Obama administration, you know you have a problem.

This is a horrible start to the Obama presidency. It is hard to see how it can get much worse. Except it can get worse...Obama may actually sign a bill trolling through Congress right now called the "stimulus". Now that the bill is in the Senate, instead of fixing the problems, they are making it worse. The bill has now climbed to $900 billion and counting.

After only two weeks of the Obama presidency, a majority of Americans believe the stimulus will make things worse in the country. See Rasmussen Poll.

Two weeks!

How does that happen? How is it even possible to lose that much support in just two weeks?

Congress, that is how!

I am not even sure if America yet comprehends the mistakes that have been made by the Obama administration, but the day is coming very shortly that we will.

Victor Davis Hanson expounds on the mistakes

The impending Obama meltdown

The Palin Blizzard

The woman was in Washington for 36 hours. That is it!

36 hours and the hysteria was stunning!

The blizzard of inaccurate and false reports made in just a 36 hour period is stunning enough, but the fact that she gave no media interviews during this time, makes you wonder how accurate the reporting was.

In that 36 hours she was accused of all sorts of interesting items. Life was rather entertaining in those 36 hours.

The Associated Press once again misrepresented her position on the stimulus. The AP and others, including Fox News, so badly misrepresented her position on the stimulus that her office had to release a statement on Sunday to once again correct the record. Super Bowl Sunday and she has to send her people into work to clean up the mess.

Governor Palin is still the fiscal conservative we thought she was, despite the media reports:

The governor continues to express concerns first identified in a Jan. 7 letter
to the Alaska congressional delegation about the overall level of spending and
the hugely increased deficit our nation is growing. Under the legislation, the
U.S. would continue sending money to OPEC nations even as it continues to borrow
and miss opportunities to develop domestic supplies of energy.

As if that were not enough, just wait some of the rest of this stuff.

You see, there is a volcano getting ready to blow in the state of Alaska and there was some hysterics on whether or not she should leave the state during this very difficult and trying times. Of course this volcano is pretty active and that it will blow whether or not she was in town or not.

My guess is that some of those folks making hay about her leaving when a volcano was about to blow are probably just wishing Governor Palin would fling herself into the volcano and put them out of their misery. Don’t do it, Governor!

I get so disgusted just reading the ADN, that I have decided I just better not do it. The ADN is the paper of record in Alaska; it is the Anchorage Daily News. Every once in a while, I do pick up on the ridiculous things said by the ADN on the blog, Conservatives for Palin.

Conservatives for Palin are documenting yet more stupidity for Alaska’s paper of record:

DOWN -- Gov. Sarah: How ya gonna keep her down in Juneau after she's seen D.C.?
SarahPAC, Alfalfa Club dinner and rumors she'll appear with Springsteen at the
Super Bowl. The lady was Born to Run.

DOWN -- Gov. Sarah: There's a little grumblin' that the Belle ain't really mindin' the store. And just what is it about the Alfalfa Club dinner that's good for Alaska?

Um, rumors she will appear with Springsteen? Yeah, that is a match made in heaven. Mr. Super lib, a washed up has been from twenty years ago, is not at the top of too many people’s list these days. Anyone who caught his performance yesterday realizes the guy cannot sing, dance or otherwise entertain. And he is considered an icon?

If the ADN didn't notice, Governor Palin announced she was going to Washington, DC. Never did she say she was going to Tampa, where the actually Super Bowl was being held.

On another note, perhaps the ADN should have paid attention when the President of the United States announced that he was going to the Alfalfa Club dinner. Not a bad place for the governor of the state of Alaska to be.

The ADN guys keep getting goofier and goofier. I cannot believe the ADN can be considered a serious news’ organization any longer. For heaven’s sake, these are the folks that still are wondering if Trig Palin is really the governor’s son or if he is Bristol’s son, even though this is not mathematically possible.

Just so the ADN is not standing alone looking foolish, the Alaskan state legislators thought they would get in on the Palin bashing act. Seems they are very upset of the fact that Palin is just not the same Palin they all knew and loved before she became the vice presidential candidate on the GOP ticket. You know how they know she is not the same woman??? Apparently Governor Palin and Piper no longer walk around and pass out bagels to the state legislators.

I am not kidding!

This is what one of the state Democrat legislators is complaining about.

See:

“There were days when she walked around the building with (her daughter) Piper
handing out bagels. I think those days are gone,” he added with a touch of
wistfulness.

Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks

My goodness, no more bagels? Heaven forbid!

Admit it, these goofs are behaving like children.

This is the same type of behavior we see take place all over America on a regular basis. You see a 5 year old standing at the screen door wailing, because his Mom went out of town for the weekend. You then see that child throw himself onto the front porch making sure the entire neighborhood sees his wailing. You, of course, are concerned and run to check on the five year old. You ask him what is wrong.

Apparently his mommy left him and there are no bagels to eat.

You, of course, look up and see the babysitter standing in the window rolling her eyes, wondering how long they will have to deal with this over the weekend.

Mommy Governor Palin was only gone for about 36 hours and the 5 year olds decided to misbehave again.

The good news is Mommy Governor Palin is home and the panicked 5 year olds can go back to sucking their thumbs and pouting. In fact, she was back in Alaska before the Super Bowl even started or the volcano blew. Whew! That was close.