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Meanwhile, one Amy Wilkinson holds hope for the left that this disillusionment is a mirage in "Will Santa Obama Deliver?" 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the land We hoped Santa Obama would bring fortune in hand... Small businesses hung stockings by the chimney with care, In hopes that stimulus funding soon would be there. With unemployment at 10 percent, we're awake in our beds While visions of sugar-jobs dance in our heads. And, lately we wonder if Santa Obama is real Will he deliver on promises; hold up his end of the deal? Svelte and skinny we...

Leaflets mailed to homes in heavily Jewish districts of Canada's major cities last November struck with uncharacteristic ferocity at the political party that Canadian Jews have long favored. Canada's Liberal Party, the Conservative Party broadsides charged, had "opposed defunding Hamas and asked that Hezbollah be delisted as a terrorist organization." The Liberals had "willingly participated" in the 2001 "overtly antiSemitic" Durban international conference on racism. And Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff had "accused Israel of committing war crimes," the leaflets charged. Only the last charge was incontestably accurate and free of distortion. But the mass mailing reflected a new facet...

On this glorious brisk Christmas morning, Loud Lion so graciously pounded this installment of the (quasi-)Weekly Roar. (He kind of had to; we’re at the sitting at the same table right across from each other.) What I want this Holiday Season‘Tis the season to make lists, lists of the best, lists of the worst, lists of lists. Speaking of which, I happen to be reading my local newspaper, the New York Daily News, and they had a list of the years worst parents, and in this list was the liberals’ newest and favorite punching bag, Sarah Palin. Now, how did...

Dear Friends And Far-Flung Family, What a year of “hope and change” it has been. Just one year ago we had a president whose approval rating was below 50 percent, health care reform was politically unpopular and it looked like the war in Afghanistan would go on forever. Just look how far we’ve come! Sasha and Malia love living in the White House. It’s even better now that they have their new friend in the White House, too. He’s cute, he’s dopey, he’s always making messes for us to clean up, but what can you say? He’s the vice president,...

Each November and December, the presence of Christmas-specific decorations and signs in the malls and other shopping venues in this part of the country seems to diminish just a bit. It’s some consolation that at least we’re not to the point where we call the Christmas tree a “Unity tree,” which incredibly has been the case in Pittsburgh for a while. Less than benign neglect of Christmas describes the way the supposedly open-minded and progressive establishment press covers the season’s retail trade. I’ll have more on that later, but let’s first look at how the Christmas shopping season is going,...

In his year-end interviews with friendly news outlets like The Washington Post and National Public Radio, President Obama had a curious choice for his biggest accomplishment of the year: the bailout of the financial sector. It seems odd that a president whose mantra is change, change, change would pick a program initiated by his predecessor. While the Troubled Asset Relief Program is surely the least popular initiative of President George W. Bush among conservatives, it is also widely reviled by many liberals and moderates. Obama's choice says a great deal about the state of things in Washington at the end...

The greatest gifts you can give your children can’t be boxed and bowed. Consider the timeless gift of self-sufficiency — a stubborn thirst to leave the nest, make it on your own and live as a free-willed adult. It’s a concept that Big Nanny Democrats are sabotaging at every legislative turn. Several times during the sneaky debate on the government health care takeover bill this past Sunday, Democrats hailed a provision.....

The left is starting to believe President Obama is a “poser,” Glenn Beck said on his TV show. In their view, he has failed to achieve many of his campaign promises. He dropped the so-called public option from his healthcare legislation which is “the progressives’ ultimate prize.” Said Beck: "As the concessions are being made and this bill gets stripped down, the only thing left is a mandate to buy insurance, a giant boon, they’ll say, to those evil big insurance companies. That’s not exactly what the left had in mind, not Democrats — the left, and they are coming...

A little more than a year ago, Dave Clifton, president and co-owner of Rational Radio (1360 on Your AM Dial), told Sam that his left-leaning station would be a success, no doubt about it: "More than half of the people who vote are on my side of the political fence, and they have very little to support their views on the radio." But that was before what Clifton now calls "The Great Bank Heist" of 2008 and '09 -- before, as he puts it this morning, "radio stations lost a lot of their value because the advertisers quit advertising." Clifton,...

If you're keeping a list of who's been naughty or nice, you might want to sharpen your pencil for Chrysler and GM. In a special message of holiday cheer, Chrysler announced through filings last week that its pre-bankruptcy self doesn't appear to want to make good on its $3.7 billion loan from U.S. taxpayers. The money went to the old Chrysler (now called, officially, the "OldCar Co") through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in April of 2009 when the company announced its "fast track" Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Counter that against the letter

Christmas approaches. Families gather. For some, there is a whirl of presents to wrap, cards to address, meals to cook. For many on this Christmas, times are hard, and it's worth recalling what the real story is about. The real story is not about Santa Claus, it's about Jesus the Christ. His birth is the real reason for the season. The real story is about two parents, ethnic minorities in the Roman Empire, fleeing for their lives, later to become immigrants in Egypt, traveling to make the census count or be punished. They had no place to stay. The innkeeper...

The Newest Tax in Our Brand New Lineup! Get yours today! "Consider the so-called Wall Street Tax. The label is a misnomer, because it is a tax on anyone who buys and sells securities rather than on Wall Street brokers. Obama very much wants to implement this tax, and he has the support of his liberal economists and many congressional Democrats."

Senate Democrats appear to have come up with a deal that holds their fragile caucus together in the face of a promised Republican filibuster of health care reform, but a top Democratic backer said Sunday that the fight for more progressive principles in the bill is not over. Appearing Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, walked a fine line between continuing to express support for President Obama and threatening liberal grassroots action in the final stages of the year-long fight over health care reform or even ultimately withholding his influential...

A young married couple, Paul and Nancy, were neighbors of mine back in the seventies. Nancy was extremely excited because an unexpected opportunity arose for her to attend college. This would broaden her horizons and enable her to pursue opportunities beyond her then-current minimum-wage jobs. Paul was dead set against it. He confided in me, "I'm afraid if she gets educated, she may not want me anymore." I thought, So rather than allowing Nancy, whom you profess to love, to be all she can be, you would prefer to keep her down. In the eighties, I was a member of...

A quick search of the Interwebs for the term “political suicide” will return a significant number of stories on the pending Democrat-pushed healthcare “reform” legislation and their seemingly inexplicable political death spiral. Virtually every poll says that the public rejects the bills in the Senate and House, Barack Obama’s popularity is tanking, and virtually no one on the Right OR the Left is happy with them. So the natural question is: Why are the Democrats pushing this? The characterization of the Democrats’ actions as “political suicide” is somewhat inaccurate. It would be more apt to call it “political hari-kari”, as...

Something's not right here. One year after the great collapse of our financial system, Wall Street is back on top while our politicians dither. As for health care reform, you're about to be forced to buy insurance from companies whose stock is soaring, and that's just dandy with the White House. Truth is, our capitol's being looted, republicans are acting like the town rowdies, the sheriff is firing blanks, and powerful Democrats in Congress are in cahoots with the gang that's pulling the heist. This is not capitalism at work. It's capital. Raw money, mounds of it, buying politicians and...

Rep. Frank Wolf, R.-Va., issued a public statement Thursday saying that President Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, has instructed staff attorneys to ignore legal subpoenas by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (CRC) requesting information about the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case. This is in stark contrast to Mr. Obama’s pledge for transparency in government. “We understand that the attorney general has instructed his department to ignore these subpoenas,” Mr. Wolf said. “The nation’s chief law enforcement officer is forcing these career attorneys...

More and more signs of discontent on the Left with President Obama continue to surface. Here is audio of a liberal caller to the Ed Schultz Show saying that he voted for Obama and been willing to work for him, but now says, "I can't even stand to see his mug." . . . . (VIDEO)

SALEM — The number of Oregon residents caught committing fraud to get Medicaid and unemployment benefits has increased since the state plunged into a severe recession last year. Investigators confirmed 1,459 cases of unemployment fraud in October — a 122 percent increase from a year earlier, the Oregonian newspaper reported Friday. Medicaid fraud, meanwhile, increased 23 percent in the past two years, with 386 confirmed cases in the first 10 months of 2009. Investigators give cheaters a chance to confess and pay back the money — with interest. There’s also the possibility of prosecution, but it’s uncommon. State officials say...

25 December [1991] Gorbachev resigns; Russian flag replaces Soviet over Kremlin.

The outrage among some of America’s most vocal liberals at President Barack Obama’s failure to expand government-run health care caps a year of disappointments for Obama’s allies on the left and raises worrying questions for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. The revolt led by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean comes after a series of more contained disappointments among traditional Democratic constituencies that invested heavily in Obama — unions, gays, civil libertarians, Hispanics, and anti-war Democrats, among others — who have seen specific promises deferred and grand hopes of systematic change denied by an administration that has found itself severely...

Do you live in the happiest state in America? Well if you live in New York, you're in the least happy state according to the Huffington Post article. The top thing on the list that made the Empire State the least happy was the government. One resident described the government as “…corrupt, self-dealing and too quick to increase taxes.” It is no secret that New York has had a troubled government for sometime now. Constantly cutting well needed programs for children and the elderly. Not being able to pass a budget in a timely fashion or one that works for...

With the announcement today by Government Motors (GM) that it's closing the books, the last chapters of which are written in red ink, on the cult-car Saab brand, the delightfully irreverent car blog Jalopnik asks, "What Will Latté-Swilling Liberal Northeasterners Drive Now?" Actually, now that Saab has gone the way of Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Plymouth, one of Jalopnik's readers asked the question, and blogger Matt Hardigree recommended a used Saab, a Volvo Wagon or a Subaru Legacy. Apologies, but that just won't do. That won't do at all. A used Saab is simply out of the question. Used cars are...

So now Howard Dean and Markos, at the Daily Kos, want to kill Obamacare. [As does, Keith Olbergirlyman.] It seems that, without a public option, they no longer are concerned with helping all those poor folks dying because of a lack of insurance. I never believed they gave a damn about those people, but I’m glad they could confirm it for me. For the far left, it was never about reform and improving access. Instead, it was all about bigger government and more control over people’s lives

War is a very grave affair. Instead of just money, it involves risking the lives of men and women with our policy decisions. On the battlefield, people will be killed without trial. Lives will be ruined. Cities will be decimated. It is an intensely serious matter — the most serious matter a country can engage in — which begs an obvious question. Why do we involve liberals in it at all? There’s an old expression I just made up: There’s no liberal in a bear attack. In matters of life and death, like a bear ripping apart your house, there...

With today's news of Saab's death and Volvo's impending sale to China, what brand is left to fill "English Dept. Faculty Only" parking spaces at liberal institutions of higher ed? More bluntly, what will latté-swilling liberal Northeasterners drive now? This question comes via Robert, appropriately of Boston, MA, who asks "I am another east coast, liberal, soy latte sipping Saab owner. On my second one now, bought the first one in 1995. What will I drive now? " Our answer? If can't get a used Saab or don't want to live through that experience and you're older and don't care...

If the consequences for this great nation of ours weren't so serious and the policies preferred by the left weren't so dangerous, one would really laugh, almost uncontrollably, at the beliefs and (il)logic of American liberals. Based on things they have actually said or done, here are some of the things they really, truly seem to believe.

I'm wondering whether there's anyone out there with the guts to pretend that it's insignificant that President Barack Obama keeps appointing radical after radical to his czar positions. Can anyone honestly say Obama's appointments don't tell us a great deal about Obama himself -- as if we needed any further proof he is a left-wing extremist? I don't need to make a list of his radical appointees and detail proof of their extremism. Anyone paying attention knows it's irrefutably true that this has become a deliberate pattern. Statistically, Obama couldn't accidentally appoint this many radicals in two political lifetimes. Is...

President Barack Obama is on a path to becoming the greatest con man in history. He conned the Nobel Committee into awarding him the Peace Prize, even as he continues military occupations and escalates and expands his wars. He conned many peace advocates into voting for him, but now he continues President George W. Bush's military policies. He conned many environmental activists into voting for him, but now his administration promotes nuclear power, persecutes endangered species such as wolves, and promotes an ineffectual, loophole-filled "cap and trade" carbon scheme. He conned many health reform advocates into voting for him, but...

Here is video of liberal Markos Moulitsas, of The Daily Kos, telling Keith Olbermann that Democrats are in a "lose-lose situation" for the 2010 mid-term elections. Moulitsas said that if Democrats don't pass a Health Care Plan, they will "rightly be accused" of not being able to govern. If they do pass a bad bill, he said every item in the bill will be hung on them during the campaign next year. On President Obama, Moulitsas said the danger for Obama if Democrats lose big in 2010, is that he may not have enough of a majority in Congress to...

Liberal Democrats in and out of Congress are expressing mounting frustration with President Obama and what they say are decisions by the president discarding major elements of their agenda. The political left provided Mr. Obama's base of support during last year's election but has been disappointed repeatedly during his first year in office. The Democratic president has agreed to a series of compromises on health care reform, ordered an escalation of the war in Afghanistan and failed to lift the ban on gays serving openly in the military. When Mr. Obama this week gave tacit approval as Senate Democrats dropped...

Firedoglake, a prominent liberal blog has posted an article calling Barack Obama a homosexual rapist straight out of the classic 1972 movie Deliverance who has forced himself on Democrats, violently raping them with his policies.Writing at the aptly titled "Seminal" blog at Firedoglake, Alabamagunn vents in a sometimes incorehent rant that he/she was seduced by Obama, and then horridly violated:I admit I kinda began to believe the hype–another bad omen; should’ve listend to Flav. When promises to end a senseless war, revive the middle class, combat and prosecute war crimes, meaningfully reform healthcare, curtail Wall Street’s abuse of power and...

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has just signed a bill into law that forces schools to teach the glories of organized labor and collective bargaining. Doyle has received significant campaign contributions from labor unions over the years prior to forcing their special interest agenda into the classroom. Ever since unions have been involved in teaching, our system has spiraled into laughable mediocrity. It is what happens when you abandon actual education to turn children into racially-sensitive little environmentalists. Teachers' unions even tried to have the fact that 9/11 was committed by Muslim extremists scrubbed from the history books. Their effect on...

There are so many to choose from, but what three liberals would you consider the most contemptible to you?

Despite its good intentions, San Francisco is not leading the country in gay marriage. Despite its good intentions, it is not stopping wars. Despite its spending more money per capita on homelessness than any comparable city, its homeless problem is worse than any comparable city's. Despite its spending more money per capita, period, than almost any city in the nation, San Francisco has poorly managed, budget-busting capital projects, overlapping social programs no one is certain are working, and a transportation system where the only thing running ahead of schedule is the size of its deficit. It's time to face facts:...

But the coup de grâce may happen very soon and may be coming from the left, not the right. Howard Dean will be dropping this bombshell today. In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me. Dean said the removal of the Medicare buy-in made the bill not worth supporting, and urged Dem leaders to start over...

The thirteen US soldiers murdered at Fort Hood were killed by the bullets fired by Malik Nidal Hassan, but there were those who helped Nassan fire his bullets, who did everything but hold his gun and pull the trigger for him. The initial FBI review has found that the Justice Department guidelines for opening a criminal investigation were too high, in turn investigators have said that it now requires a very high standard of evidence in order to convict a terrorist plotter. Pursuing charges before all the evidence is in hand can backfire – suspects have sued authorities before, claiming...

Guilt Quiz & Guilt Level Chart: Tools for the Guilted Age Now that the properly conditioned guilt-ridden voters have elected the first Certified-Oppressed-Minority™ president, America has officially entered a new Guilted Age. The Guilted Age is similar to the Gilded Age, only instead of being motivated by the acquisition of gold, the nation is motivated by the distribution of Guilt™. A guilty electorate is a less demanding electorate: beggars are not choosers. Collective remorse makes the masses more malleable. Workers toil harder for less pay and donate surpluses to progressive causes within the hope that it would offset their culpability...

One of the most extraordinary features of Barack Obama's victory over John McCain was his capture of 78% of the Jewish vote. To be sure, there was nothing extraordinary about the number itself. Since 1928, the average Jewish vote for the Democrat in presidential elections has been an amazing 75%—far higher than that of any other ethno-religious group. Yet there were reasons to think that it would be different in 2008. The main one was Israel. Despite some slippage in concern for Israel among American Jews, most of them were still telling pollsters that their votes would be strongly influenced...

A liberal Web site is trying to enlist celebrities to persuade a top breast cancer research group to dump Sen. Joe Lieberman's wife as its "global ambassador," saying Hadassah Lieberman's health care lobbying work and her husband's opposition to the so-called public option make her unfit for the role.

Liberal Columnist Bestows the Virtues of the Ninth Amendment and credits it with allowing for Abortion and Gay Rights - and therefore says it is his "favorite" Amendment

Barack Obama was the Political Pied Piper of 2008. His campaign motivated millions of young people to finally come to the polls and pull the levers -- and not just for Obama but other party members down the ticket, yielding sweeping power for the Democrats in Congress. A year of Obama has come and gone and so have many of his youthful supporters. This does not bode well for 2010 and beyond. Obama owes his presidency to the ranks of 18-24 year olds who overwhelmingly supported him over John McCain (66-32 percent). He tapped into their idealistic yearnings with promises...

This is startling. Progressives arrogantly grant themselves a monopoly on tolerance and respect for dissent. That is why moments like the one just released on Big Government are a devastating display of Progressive hypocrisy. Progressives, like many other movements, cannot live up to their own rules. If Progressives don’t like your line of questioning, they try to shut you down and call the police.

With the loss of the filibuster, Congressional Republicans have only ONE play left to stop the coming train wreck, when Obamunism runs head-on into millions of increasingly angry American patriots in the streets. Only Congressional Republicans can stop that clash! Congressional Republicans MUST WALK OUT immediately! You must pack your bags, close your offices, refuse to enter the congressional chambers for one more pretend vote in which the Democrats will hand you your hat once again.If Republicans want to harness the power of the Tea Party - 912 - and Town Hall patriots across this land, you can do it...

Today I have read a piece of "journalism" by a freelance writer whose Slate article shows me why the profession has fallen on such hard times. The piece on fast food drive thru windows is not only pretentious but it is filled with enough fluff to stuff a mattress and leaves the impression that the writer thinks it all resembles wit. It simply amazes for its vacuous nature. And, worse, it doesn't even pay off fulfilling the premise of its headline. In fact, it is so ridiculous for its assumptions and its presumption of surety that one wonders if the...

I just received a breathless e-mail from Erin Neff and Brian Fadie of the very liberal ProgressNowNevada, bragging about how their group stood up to Sarah Palin at her book signing in Reno. Dear Friend, There were eight inches of snow. It was 10 degrees. But that didn't stop us from shining the light of truth on Sarah Palin when she came to Reno on Wednesday night.Our members braved the elements because the truth matters. And, thanks to our stalwarts in Reno, we helped make sure the good people of northern Nevada got to see the real Palin. http://rgj.com/article/20091209/NEWS/91209016&OAS_sitepage=news.rgj.com%2FbreakingnewsWe even...

Protesters are arrested outside US Senator Chuck Schumer's office in New York. Angry constituents of Schumer staged the sit-in at his Manhattan office, dissatisfied that the influential senator hasn’t done enough to push for universal, national health care.

At the Heart of the Anti-Obama Protests Is the Scared White Man Overwhelmed by Change By Robert James Taylor Writing about the wave of anti-President Obama protests by white middle class Americans in recent weeks, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan attributed what was taking place to the rise of “the angry white man.” Buchanan is only partially right. What we are actually witnessing is the near lunatic backlash of white conservatives who have been overwhelmed and frightened by change. Yes, there is definite anger at those anti-health care reform town hall meetings. But if you listen closely to what is being...

Here is video of Rev. Franklin Graham talking to CNN's Campbell Brown about the War in Afghanistan and President Obama's speech in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. Franklin Graham said "true Islam cannot be practiced in this country (America). You cannot beat your wife, you cannot murder your children if you think they commit adultery, as they do in these other countries." He pointed to Saudi Arabia as an example of a whole nation devoted to Islam that lives this way. Graham said wherever Islamic Sharia Law is practiced, this is how people are treated. Campbell Brown was disbelieving. Graham...

Michelle Obama is more than just the First Lady; she's also Barbara Walters' "Most Fascinating Person of 2009." During the broadcaster's TV special on Wednesday night, Obama was given the top honor over people such as Sarah Palin, Kate Gosselin, Lady Gaga, and Brett Favre. In addition to appearing on Wednesday night's TV special, Walters saved part of the interview for Thursday's episode of "The View." During the previously-unaired footage, the First Lady talked about attempting to raise humble and gracious children while they continued to live in the White House. In terms of responsibility, Obama told Walters that "they...