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  I have a special assignment for you today: It’s a must read from Clarice on our newest lame duck president, “I Know Why the Lame Ducks Squawks.” Watch for the new season, beginning soon Butt first, a little housekeeping and catch-up: It was a very messy week for the Wons. First, the bitter defeat of Big Guy’s plan to blame the Republicans for blocking common sense gun control:  Joey seemed to take it hardest Or maybe he’s just practicing his pout for when he’s Commander in Chief (SNIP) And the weather didn’t really help out much either. Following the...

WAVERLY (KWWL) - The message from Saint Paul's Lutheran School in Waverly has gotten through to the White House. This week, President Barack Obama said he is working with the Secret Service to restore some tours for students visiting Washington, D.C. The Saint Paul students spoke out about the suspension of the tours after automatic budget cuts canceled their tour. Obama says he is working with the Secret Service to try and restore some tours for students traveling to the nation's capital during their upcoming spring break.

With no time to recover from a thorough election day whooping, Republicans in a lame duck Congress are facing an even worse budgetary nightmare than last year. And they only have two months to negotiate a solution with President Obama. Last time, as the Chair the Balanced Budget Amendment campaign, fellow conservatives and I were urging Republicans to tie the unavoidable increase in the debt ceiling to a balanced budget amendment. Because it also prohibited tax increases, the amendment would have required balance to be achieved through necessary cuts throughout the federal government. But in the end, politicians did what...

The current Congress hasn't finished its mischief. It still has the opportunity to do bad things in the upcoming lame-duck session, a period when members of Congress who are already defeated will have the opportunity to vote without concern for voter approval. The globalists have been plotting to use the volatility of this lame-duck session to achieve some of their internationalist goals that they couldn't get passed during the last four years. In particular, they would like to lock us into treaties that slice out various parts of our national sovereignty, a concept that they have been trying to promote...

Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election, Barack Obama will immediately become a lame duck. That is not to say he will be powerless, but he will never again have to face the wrath of American voters. Even if Mitt Romney prevails tomorrow (which I think he will), President Obama will have 75 days to ram through any number of economically destructive regulations and executive orders. Make no mistake, an aggressive administration can push things across the finish line in the waning days regardless of their popularity; and that is especially true of this administration. Prior to the election,...

Most of us remember witnessing a kind of pathetically humorous example of sour grapes when George W. Bush won the White House in 2000, in the juvenile criminal mischief perpetrated by the outgoing Democratic administration - "W" keys removed from keyboards, phone cords ripped from walls, obscene messages left on answering machines, items stolen; the usual occupoop fare. The Los Angeles Times reported on June 12, 2002: The GAO concluded that ''damage, theft, vandalism, and pranks did occur in the White House during the 2001 presidential transition.'' The report stated that some incidents, such as removing keyboard keys, placing glue...

The Obama administration is creating an advisory committee on climate change to advise the federal government on future operations. The Interior Department announced the new bureaucracy in a recent federal registry notice along with a call for nominations by Nov. 19 to seat the 25-member board. The notice specifically states membership will be comprised of state and local government employees, non-governmental organizations, Native American tribes, academia, individual landowners and business interests. “In addition, the committee may include scientific experts, and will include rotating representation from one or more of the institutions that host the (Interior Department) Climate Science Centers,” the...

According to the Washington Post and administration officials, President Obama is willing to take the country right off the fiscal cliff for short term political gain - with or without reelection. Freed from the political and economic constraints that have tied his hands in the past, Obama is ready to play hardball with Republicans, who have so far successfully resisted a deal to tame the debt that includes higher taxes, Obama’s allies say. In the days after the November election, the tables will be turned: Taxes are scheduled to rise dramatically in January for people at all income levels, and...

What will he pull between the Election(after he Loses BIG) and the Inaugeration.

UNITED NATIONS – The arms trade treaty being hammered out by the United Nations is nearing completion, and the current draft shows it could lead to perpetual attacks on the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and American foreign policy, critics say. The document, which critics say has been framed by countries hostile to U.S. interests, allows for future amendments to be approved by just two-thirds of states showing up at an amendment conference. That means it could be agreed to by the U.S., put into effect and then changed over Washington's objections. And even if the U.S. Senate refuses to ratify...

If Republicans want to win big in November, we must do more than show voters how we plan to govern in 2013. We must also demonstrate how we're working right now to stop the last-minute spending spree the Democrats have planned for December. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wants to force a postelection lame-duck session of Congress, in which defeated politicians will no longer be accountable to voters. In that context, he will have more leverage to raise taxes and increase spending against the threat of yet another government shutdown, leaving taxpayers on the hook for more borrowing, debts...

Perry to End Bid for Presidency By JEFF ZELENY 9:51 a.m. | Updated CHARLESTON, S.C. — Gov. Rick Perry of Texas will end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich, two campaign officials confirmed, a decision that could influence the South Carolina primary on Saturday

For a president who campaigned on the fact that he would be the great unifier of America, he has proven to be the exact opposite. Besides the fact that he has pitted political parties against each other in the most intense, ferocious ways since the American Revolution, he has also inflicted policies and programs that are fiscally murdering our country. He instigates social, economic and class warfare at every turn and his administration constantly and unjustly accuses Conservatives of racism. The only way our states have been united lately was when 27 of them filed lawsuits against Obamacare. Here are...

John Boehner’s (momentary) dismissal of Barack Obama as a partner in deficit-reduction talks has the effect of making him a “lame duck president,” Sarah Palin wrote last night on her SarahPAC website — and she’s pretty happy about it, too. Palin praises the leadership of the Republican caucus for sticking to their promises, and then reminds readers about the history of this President and the deficit: This is the same president who proposed an absurdly irresponsible budget that would increase our debt by trillions of dollars, and whose party failed to even put forward a budget in over 800 days!...

After listening to the President’s press conference today, let’s keep in mind the following: This is the same president who proposed an absurdly irresponsible budget that would increase our debt by trillions of dollars, and whose party failed to even put forward a budget in over 800 days! This is the same president who is pushing our country to the brink because of his reckless spending on things like the nearly trillion dollar “stimulus” boondoggle. This is the same president who ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations and demonized the voices of fiscal sanity who proposed responsible plans to reform...

It seems everyone has something to say about the debt crisis / Boehner / President Obama. I was just emailed by an FNC colleague Gov Palin’s Facebook posting ..so here it is: —– Lame Duck President by Sarah Palin on Friday, July 22, 2011 at 7:11pm After listening to the President’s press conference today, let’s keep in mind the following: This is the same president who proposed an absurdly irresponsible budget that would increase our debt by trillions of dollars, and whose party failed to even put forward a budget in over 800 days! This is the same president who...

Now the President is outraged because the GOP House leadership called his bluff and ended discussions with him because they deemed him an obstruction to any real solution to the debt crisis. He has been deemed a lame duck president. And he is angry now because he is being treated as such. His foreign policy strategy has been described as “leading from behind.” Well, that’s his domestic policy strategy as well. Why should he be surprised that he’s been left behind in the negotiations when he’s been leading from behind on this debt crisis? Thank you, GOP House leaders. Please...

After extended wrangling among lawmakers in both countries, the new START treaty between the U.S. and Russia went into effect Saturday at the global security conference in Munich. "The principles of equality, parity, equal and undivided security lay a solid foundation for the modern Russian-American cooperation in various spheres," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, appearing with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to exchange the treaty documents, said, according to RIA Novosti.

Like former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Johnson before him, in 1980 and 1968 respectively, Barack Obama will not be reelected in 2012.[2] The twin pincers of a domestic economy in the throes of the “Great Depression II”[3]—which economic historians will describe as such, or by using similar terms 20-40 years from now—and his failed Vietnam-like Afghan war[4] will seal his political fate. Other factors will contribute mightily too, such as the perception that he is “out of touch” just as Jimmy Carter was; and that Obama is a silver-tongued, narcissistic “foreign born” demagogue who is un-American.[5] Perceptions often become...

President Barack Obama’s “shellacking” in the midterm elections and the flurry of legislation he passed afterward hasn’t changed public perceptions about the job he’s done in the Oval Office. The latest poll from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows 46% of Americans approve of the job he’s doing, a two-point drop from a similar poll taken last June, while 44% disapprove. The numbers are similarly static when it comes to his handling of specific issues, from health care to Iraq to the budget deficit. [Snip] The Pew poll of 1,503 adults was conducted largely before...

As attention turns to the 112th Congress -- and the 2012 cycle -- the political ramifications of the sprint to close the 111th Congress are becoming clear. Several members of the 111th Congress may find themselves in competitive Senate races in 2012 and an analysis of their voting decisions during the lame duck session offers a few clues about what is in store for some of 2012's marquee contests. The debate over Pres. Obama's compromise on the extension of the Bush tax cuts, a central focus of the session, shed some light on the 2012 Nevada Senate race. Sen. John...

Ending 2010 with a bang, the unlikable 111th Congress (13% approval ratings) told its citizens that deal making and idea trumpeting carries more weight than the voters, who spoke in the November election, in favor of Republican control. Republicans, being accused by Democrats of being the party of “No” are absolutely correct in saying “No” to bad ideas, and their ascendancy to power come January 1 is proof. By our vote, we have rejected a federal government that disregards the fundamentals of the U.S. Constitution, and is dedicated to creating a nation that is served by a universal, powerful entity,...

Barack Obama is down but not out. You could tell as much from the contrast between his petulant post- election press conference and his peppy pre-Christmas press conference. In the former, he was crabby about accepting Republicans' demands that income-tax rates on all taxpayers not be raised. In the latter, he was celebrating the lame-duck Congress' acceptance of his stands on the New START treaty, repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and even the previously reviled tax deal. Obama has obviously figured out that Americans prefer to see their president describe the glass as half full rather than half empty....

So the year ends with the media pushing the notion that Barack Obama -- having had one of the worst years in presidential history -- has salvaged both his presidency and his re-election chances with his stunning "comeback" in the dwindling hours of the lame-duck session. Don't believe a word of it. If generals are always fighting the last war, then the pundits are always reaching for the last cliché. Did Bill Clinton face a similar dilemma back in 1994, after Newt Gingrich and the Republicans ate his lunch? Did he not come back to marginalize Gingrich and -- that...

Russian lawmakers gave preliminary approval Friday to an arms agreement with the United States, but signaled they would slow progress on the so-called New START treaty to a crawl after it was rushed through Congress earlier this week with some 11th-hour arm-twisting by President Obama.

Riding the lamest of ducks, President Obama just won the Triple Crown. He fulfilled (1) his most important economic priority, passage of Stimulus II, a.k.a. the tax cut deal (the perfect pre-re-election fiscal sugar high - the piper gets paid in 2013 and beyond); (2) his most important social policy objective, repeal of "don't ask, don't tell"; and (3) his most cherished (achievable) foreign policy goal, ratification of the New START treaty with Russia. Politically, these are all synergistic. The bipartisan nature of the tax deal instantly repositioned Obama back to the center. And just when conventional wisdom decided the...

Well. We've just seen, the fruits of our corrupt, lame, spineless and wimpy "Republicans" idea of how to deal with democrats: Surrender. Abject surrender. How deeply disappointing this month has been.

Politics: As the President crows about his accomplishments, a key Republican senator says the GOP has once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a Congress the voters repudiated. Before jetting off to a family vacation in Hawaii, President Obama took time at a year-end news conference to hail what he called a "season of progress" capped off by "the most productive post-election period we've had in decades" after "the most productive two years that we've had in generations." So much for getting "shellacked" in the midterm elections. ObamaCare is still a nightmare that has to be dealt...

The media are eager to dub President Obama the "come back kid." Too eager, probably. He's had a very good month, without question -- but he really would've had no excuse for a bad month. This was a brief and politically peculiar reprieve from the new political reality th new political reality that came upon him and Washington in November. The question going forward will be how he governs when he's living in that political reality. The first peculiarity was that federal taxes were set to rise automatically on Jan. 1 unless Congress acted. Federal unemployment benefits were also due...

At the beginning of 2009, the choice before Democrats who controlled the 111th Congress was whether they would enact historic legislation, even at the risk of their majority, or whether they would play it safe. They gave the safe option a pass, with two results: This will go down as the most productive Congress since the 89th, which was even more Democratic because of Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide. And 52 Democratic House incumbents, most elected in 2006 or 2008, lost their seats. The departing Democrats are, as one in their ranks put it, "Obama's Orphans." So many of them cast...

Senate Republican Lame Duck Session Voting Pattern Senate Republican Voting Yea in Lame Duck Session S.510 FDA Food DADT Repeal START Treaty HR3082 Budget 11-30-10 12-18-10 12-22-10 12-21-10 Alexander (R-TN) Yea Yea Barrasso (R-WY) Yea Bennett (R-UT) Yea Yea Brown (R-MA) Yea Yea Yea Yea Bunning (R-KY) Yea Burr (R-NC) Yea Yea Cochran (R-MS) Yea Yea Collins (R-ME) Yea Yea Yea Yea Corker (R-TN) Yea Yea Ensign (R-NV) Yea Yea Enzi (R-WY) Yea Yea Grassley (R-IA) Yea Yea Gregg (R-NH) Yea Yea Hutchison (R-TX) Yea Isakson (R-GA) Yea Johanns (R-NE) Yea Yea Yea Kirk (R-IL) Yea Yea Yea Kyl...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lashed out at fellow Republicans Tuesday for a "capitulation ... of dramatic proportions" to Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in the lame-duck Congress. Graham said Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for allowing ratification of the New START Treaty and other legislation in the period before new lawmakers are sworn in in January. "When it's all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch," Graham said on Fox News radio. "This has been a capitulation in two weeks of dramatic proportions of policies that wouldn't have passed...

Republican Rep. Tom McClintock offered the House a history lesson today as he urged members to wrap up their business and get out of town. "This lame duck session is rapidly descending into farce," McClintock, of Elk Grove, said in a speech on the House floor. "I believe this House is now in danger of becoming a caricature of everything the American people rejected in November: incompetence, arrogance, and a complete detachment from reality. "Nearly two months ago, the American people said very clearly they don't want this Congress legislating for them any longer. And instead of graciously and humbly...

Instead of pressuring reluctant Republican senators for rapid ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, the Obama administration should just drop it, says Richard Perle, a key architect of President Ronald Reagan’s strategy to end the Cold War. “It’s a seriously flawed treaty,” Perle, now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, says during an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV. “It’s certainly not the kind of treaty Ronald Reagan fought for and accomplished.” The pact is very weak on verification, he says. “For example, our right to inspections is limited to sites the Russians declare . . ....

ICYMI: Lame-Duck Session Churns Out Surprising Successes Key point: "I think actually you could make the case that this is the most productive lame duck even without START," said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "If you get food safety through and I think there's a pretty strong chance they'll get some version of the 9/11 bill through, so if you put that together with the tax agreement and "don't ask, don't tell", it's a smashing set of achievements, whether you like them or don't like them." _________________________________________________________ I was beyond angry when I read this...

Last week, on the vote to begin debate on the New START treaty, the White House got the nine Republican votes they will need to ratify it...So now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has filed for cloture, is Tuesday’s vote a foregone conclusion? No. This Sunday, Senator Graham told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he will vote against the treaty. Graham explained his mostly procedural objections to New START: “If you want to have a chance of passing START, you better start over and do it in the next Congress, because this lame duck has been poisoned.” And Graham...

I am sending the following to my new congressional representative and, if you agree, please do likewise. This country is in ENOUGH trouble without defeated and often embittered officials vindictively getting in a few licks at the folks who sent them packing -- not to mention the REST of us! Representative XXXX, The recent "lame duck" activity in the House and Senate makes clear the need for legislation to prevent ousted incumbents from introducing or voting on legislation prior to the seating of the new member. When an incumbent elected public official is not returned to office, it is the...

Governance: It is an anachronism a constitutional amendment tried to kill. It lets defeated legislators wreak political and economic havoc without consequence. Like the dodo, the lame duck should be extinct. Elections are supposed to have consequences, one of them being occasionally throwing the rascals out. Yet here the rascals we threw out on Nov. 2 are still running the roost and deciding the fate of our republic in ways we have already rejected. Enter the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Ratified on Jan. 23, 1933, it was designed to end forever the excesses of lame duck sessions, but...

Joy Tiz ©2010 It was to be expected that the worst congress in the history of the republic would give us the worst lame duck session, an event which has devolved into a lengthy infomercial in support of repealing the 20th Amendment. Mercifully, the Ominous spending bill died quickly as did the nightmarish Dream Act which survived long enough for the nation to get a glimpse into the mind of a liberal. In the dangerous and delusional world of modern liberalism, spending two years partying at San Diego State is the moral and functional equivalent of fighting for your country...

It's the season of good cheer and if you want a really good belly laugh then check out David Weigel's August prediction in Slate that the Democrats in the lame duck session of Congress would NOT attempt to ram through legislation in the final days as their term winds down. Here is Weigel proving he is something less than another Nostradamus with his August assertion that the conservative suspicion at the time that Congress would attempt such a maneuver was really nothing but silly political paranoia: ...The latest attack comes from Republicans who demand that Democrats promise not to 1)...

H.R.5281 Latest Title: Removal Clarification Act of 2010 Sponsor: Rep Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [GA-4] (introduced 5/12/2010) Cosponsors (3) Related Bills: H.RES.1756 Latest Major Action: 12/8/2010 Resolving differences -- House actions. Status: On motion to to agree to the Senate amendments numbered 1 and 2, and that the House agree to the Senate amendment numbered 3 with an amendment Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 216 - 198 (Roll no. 625). Latest Action: 12/16/2010 Motion by Senator Reid to refer to Senate Committee on the Judiciary the House message to accompany the bill (HR 5281) with instructions to...

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The US Senate will take a vote on Saturday morning to begin repeal the 1993 law that bans homosexuals from serving in the armed forces. The law is commonly referred by the name of an accompanying Pentagon enforcement policy called “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). The Senate will take up the stand-alone bill passed by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 250 in favor to 175 against. The bill passed by the House is a “privileged motion”, which means the US Senate cannot add amendments and the time...

Republicans in Missouri already have embarked on planning to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2012. Several potential candidates are testing the waters in hopes of defeating the first-term legislator, The Hill reports. [Snip] Possible GOP candidates include former Sen. Jim Talent, whom McCaskill defeated in 2006; former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who already has decided to run; Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder; and Ann Wagner, a former ambassador to Luxembourg. © Newsmax.

With the election a lifetime away (23 months to be exact), Public Policy Polling released the first, post-mid-term snapshot of how Ohio views Senator Sherrod Brown and some possible opponents for his re-election in 2012. The poll, taken over the last week, shows some troubling, but very, very early warning signs for the man who will become Ohio's Senior Senator following the retirement of George Voinovich next month. In the first head-to-head match-ups, Brown does rather poorly against a number of would-be challengers. He and Attorney General-elect Mike DeWine are tied at 43% in what would be a rematch of...

After liberals in the Democratic Caucus forced a several-hour delay on tax-cut legislation, the House approved the rules for debate on the legislation this evening and have now begun three hours of general debate. A final vote on the legislation is expected after midnight. Yesterday, the Senate approved the $858 billion tax plan, by a vote of 81 to 19. The measure (HR 4853), negotiated by President Obama and Senate Republicans, would allow tax cuts for all income levels to continue for two years and extend unemployment insurance benefits for jobless Americans for 13 months.

After stalling earlier in the day when liberal members balked at voting to allow the Obama-GOP tax cut deal to advance, the pact survived an important test vote Thursday evening. The 214-201 vote allowed House members to begin debating the actual legislation that would extend for two years the Bush-era tax cuts as well as an extension of unemployment insurance benefits for the long-term jobless. The House action cleared the way for a vote as early Thursday evening on the $858 billion package of tax cuts, jobless benefits and other measures that President Obama said will be an important stimulus...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has cleared the way for final action in Congress on legislation to avoid a Jan. 1 increase in income taxes for millions and renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. Liberals oppose the bill because of a generous estate tax provision, but even some of the measure's critics concede it will pass without changes.

RUSH: Massive spending. Let's just review where we are here. Massive spending under the so-called tax deal. Massive new food regulations. Spends more on school lunches -- remember, now, school lunches, this is school breakfast, school brunch, school lunch, school snack, school dinner, and then everything else. They want to be in charge of what kids are eating here. This bill even regulates bake sales. Openly gay individuals in the military, against the advice of the Marines and the Air Force. The START treaty, massive omnibus spending bills that fund Obamacare and over 6,000 earmarks. It goes on and on...

“After my annual physical in late November, I was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer. After reviewing all the options with multiple physicians, I decided to take a proactive approach and have surgery, which will be performed December 20 at Johns Hopkins Hospital by Dr. Alan Partin. Thanks to routine screening, this was diagnosed very early and I expect a full and speedy recovery. I scheduled the surgery for the Monday before Christmas anticipating that the Senate would have recessed by that time and that there would be no disruption to my work in Oregon or Washington. However, it now...

This is a re-post of a column from last April. Am I psychic or what? Joy Tiz ©2010 Cults have been traditionally studied in the context of religious movements. Thus, some of the more apologetic cult experts have refused to label the Obama Movement as a true cult, but they readily concede that the situation is “cult-like.” Lenore Skenazy refers to Obama as the Magic Man; as people feel unable to take control over their own lives, they look to the Magic Man to do it for them. His ambiguity then is intentional allowing his fans to project their own...