Nancy Pelosi asserts that unemployment benefits are great for the economy. “It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name,” she says.

In other news:

• Candy bars are good for weight loss
• Never saying no to your children makes them well-behaved
• The best way to help an addict is to enable him or her

Good or bad, stimulating or not, how in the world does welfare help the economy? Make no mistake, unemployment checks are welfare. It’s money that you get for not working. I have friends that refer to their unemployment as a paid vacation, and are annoyed when they actually have to go find a job when their benefits run out.

How does requiring employers to pay former employees for NOT WORKING free up more cash for them to hire new people? Someone please explain this to me.

H/T Breitbart TV

From The Hill:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday acknowledged the “anti-incumbent mood” that’s swept through U.S. politics.

“There’s no question there is, at this moment, an anti-incumbent mood,” the Speaker said at her weekly press conference.

That’s quite a rationalization, Ms. Pelosi. Let me set you straight, because you obviously haven’t been listening to a single word that Americans have been saying.

We are not anti-incumbent. We like Coburn, Thune, DeMint, Bachmann, Smith, and many others, and want them to continue representing us in D.C.

What we don’t like is the attitude that you know better than us. We don’t like you sticking your bony fingers into our pockets so that you may be perceived as generous. We don’t like you robbing our children so that you and your cronies can live the life of Riley while telling us that we’re the greedy selfish ones. We don’t like you voting for legislation that stifles growth and suffocates business.

In other words, Ms. Pelosi, we don’t like you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go contribute a few bucks to John Dennis, because you’re one incumbent that we’d like to see gone.

Senator Tom Coburn joins to talk about health care and the possibility of “repeal & replace” in the near future, Health Care Jeopardy with Thomas LaDuke, Molly Teichman, and Michelle Moore, and cocktail time with Mike G.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I seriously think the media is punking us. Here are some of today’s news stories:

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) is worried that the tiny island nation of Guam is going to tip over into the sea if the population becomes too dense.

In a discussion regarding a planned military buildup on the Pacific island, Johnson expressed some concerns about the plans to Adm. Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific fleet.

“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize,” Johnson said. Willard paused and replied, “We don’t anticipate that.”

The President of the United States is selling t-shirts, which is sort of weird on it’s own, but I could totally see if it were to raise money for Haiti or something. The money’s not going to Haiti though. It’s going to Barack Obama. Oh yeah, the shirts say “BFD” in big bold letters. Yup. Ladies and gents, the leaders of the free world are selling t-shirts that glamorize swearing. To me, that’s a Big F***ing Deal.

Meredith Vierra tried to stretch a story so far that I think she may have pulled a hamstring. On today’s Today show, she asked Senator Jim DeMint if he would condemn the atrocious language of the tea partiers that want to burn Nancy Pelosi at the stake. Huh? Ok, here’s the thinking. Someone at a tea party waved a broom at Ms. Pelosi and said, “Sweep the bums out of Washington!” So obviously he’s calling Nancy Pelosi a witch. And witches must be burned at the stake.

A woman got evicted from her apartment over some peeps.

The Enron scandal has been made into a Broadway musical.

Ronald McDonald has been called upon to retire, because “he is no friend to our children our their health.”

I don’t know about you, but I keep hoping to see Ashton Kutcher. Because if all the above stories are accurate, then we’ve got bigger problems than being punked.

The answer is unmistakably and resoundingly NO.  Americans do not want a health care system resembling that of Canada or the U.K.  We the people are saying no every way we know how to; in polls, at rallies, with elections.

The time for talk is over.  It is clear that the vast majority of Americans do not want this health care legislation passed.

Any sane and logical congress would say, “Ok, thanks for letting us know.  We represent you the people, and you have made your voices clear.  Let’s toss out this 2000 plus stack of paper and get started on something else.”  But nope, not our congress.  Our congress says, “We know you don’t want it, and we don’t care.  We’re going to find every loophole we can so we can slam you with the largest most unconstitutional tax ever created, all in the name of ‘helping the poor.’”

The poor will not be helped by this bill.  Just look at any other country with government run health care.  It’s the poor that suffer.  Only the rich can afford timely and reliable care.  Why does anyone think it will be different in the US?

I’m absolutely going to go bonkers if I keep hearing, “health care is a right.”  It is not a right.  It isn’t a privilege either.  It’s a service.  You are not entitled to the labor of a doctor.  Just like they are not entitled to free oil changes from the mechanic.  We all work for a living, some of us harder than others.  Call me crazy, but I believe that the people that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on education, work 90 hour weeks, and make life and death decisions on a daily hourly basis deserve to be paid more than my mechanic, and I’m happy to pay it.  I am not happy to pay for other people to see that doctor because they spent their money elsewhere.  We all have to make sacrifices.  Deal with it.  And here’s the thing about Americans- for the most part, we are an extremely charitable group.  If someone really was in a bad situation, I bet there would be a doctor somewhere willing to treat them, or benefactors willing to pay for the treatment.

I have faith in the American people.  I have faith in every single person who wants to better their life.  I have faith in the single mom struggling to make ends meet, the newly graduated college student looking for a job, the father of two teens that just got laid off after 20 years.  I have faith in those people to do what it takes to get through these rough patches of life, and I have faith in their friends and neighbors to help them as they’re able.  I do what I can to help those in need.  I’m grateful for all the times others have been there for me.

But oh this congress.  This congress does not have faith in us.  This congress does not want us to feel the triumph of overcoming adversity, the joy of accomplishment.  This congress wants to enable us with the most massive entitlement program our country has ever seen.  We are better than that.

I want this congress to stop taking my money and giving me back a paltry sum and expecting me to jump for joy.  I know what  you took.  Don’t tell me to be grateful for the $10 check when you snuck $100 out of my back pocket.  I’m wise to your tricks.  A lot of us are.  Which is why you will be voted out this November.  This health care bill and any other crap you manage to sneak through in closed-door deals will be repealed.

Who knew that it would take a violation of Constitutional principles by our leaders for America to stand united in a way we haven’t for generations?  Wonders never cease.

Last weekend Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) stated his intention to resign his post amid allegations that he sexually harassed a male co-worker.  But then he said this:

“Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill,And this administration and this House leadership have said, quote-unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. And now they’ve gotten rid of me, and it will pass. You connect the dots.”

Hmmm… I wouldn’t put it past the Democrats to do that, but this story is already a little bit fishy.  His story keeps changing.  He already hadn’t been planning to run for another term due to recurring cancer.  But then it was due to his “salty language.”  But then it was because he was going to be a no vote on the current health care bill.

Fishy, right?

But wait!  There’s more!

Massa made some pretty interesting remarks about the President’s Chief of Staff:

“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn… He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.”

Rep. Massa describes a confrontation with Emanuel in a shower: “I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me.”

That’s probably true about Rahm, actually.  But this whole situation is wack-a-delic.  Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck even got into a scuttle about it on his radio program.  She didn’t think we should be giving Massa any air time, and chided Beck for inviting him onto his show on the Fox News Network.  They have since then made up and sent each other virtual hugs and kisses.

And in why-am-I-not-surprised news- it turns out that Nancy Pelosi had known for months about Massa’s inappropriate behavior which included touching and groping of male staff members.  One might hope that the leader of the House could keep her own house in order, but apparently not.

In a related story about coo-coo-crazy-pants liberals in the House, Patrick Kennedy went absolutely bonkers on the house floor yesterday.  It was quite the spectacular melt-down, if I do say so myself.  And I speak with some authority on that, as I live with a toddler.  So what was he so upset about? Massa.  Specifically the media attention being given to him over the war in Afghanistan.  Whether or not he had a valid point, his tantrum poked holes in any arguments he may have had.

As a conservative, I gotta say… it’s pretty fun to kick back and watch the show.  The liberals are imploding like a house of cards.  And the best part is they’re doing it to themselves.  I can’t wait for November 2nd, even if it means I’ll have less entertainment on C-SPAN.  This is politics, not a circus freak show.

Remember this chart?  It was from the 2008 Presidential campaign.  I can’t tell you how many Obama supporters calmly and patiently explained to me that I would be silly to vote for McCain over Obama because I would get a bigger tax cut under Obama.  And I calmly and patiently explained to them that by taxing top earners so significantly, they’d have to cut jobs at their companies.  I also pointed out that in order to fund all of Obama’s socialist pie-in-the-sky ideas, the money would have to come from somewhere, and that I was 100% certain that we’d see that $250k bar drop.

Within a couple of weeks of the inauguration, Obama raised taxes on the poorest people in our country, those who have the highest majority of smokers in their demographic. The cost increase on a pack of nicotine sticks was the highest in US history.

But lots of people don’t see that as a *real* tax, because smokers can choose to quit and probably should for their health.

But even those tobacco-taxes-aren’t-real-taxes people should be worried now.  In an interview out today, President Obama said:

The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table… So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.

What I can’t do is to set the thing up where a whole bunch of things are off the table…Some would say we can’t look at entitlements. There are going to be some that say we can’t look at taxes, and pretty soon, you just can’t solve the problem.

The real problem has to do with the fact that there is a just a mismatch between the amount of money coming in and the amount of money going out. And that is going to require some big, tough choices that, so far, the political system has been unable to deal with.

I have a suggestion Mr. President.  How about we spend less money?  Why does Nancy Pelosi need $1000 per week for booze and delicacies on her private cross-country jet rides?  That’s $1000 per week for food and booze, mind you, not the cost of the travel itself. And I’m sure the turtles didn’t really need a $3,400,000 tunnel to cross the road.  What about the $800,000 for repaving a back-up runway at an unused airport?

President Obama, please don’t raise my taxes to fund those ridiculous projects.  I don’t know how much more of your “help” I can afford.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

One of our founding fathers is credited with penning those prophetic words over 200 years ago.  Tonight, the Pelosi health care bill passed the House of Representative.  If this “health care reform” passes the senate and is signed by the president, American citizens will be under even more government oppression than they already are.  We will have lost the freedom to choose for ourselves what we feel is best for our own lives regarding health care.

The democrats say they want freedom of choice- the freedom for same sex couples to marry, the freedom for a woman to end the life of the child in her womb… yet they deny Americans the choice of health care?  They increase my taxes to pay for the health care of others that may not even want it?  They take my hard earned money and apply it as they see fit, denying me the opportunity to spend it on a little poor child’s Christmas presents?  I love Angel tree programs.  I always do what I can to help.  This year might be the last year, as my taxes sky rocket to support massive government entitlement programs.

Please tell the children that I’m sorry.

From the Ways and Means Republicans-

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.  Who do these people think they are?  I am not a recalcitrant child; I’m a real live grown-up, capable of making my own decisions on whether or not I want to pay for health care for myself and my family.  I happen to think that it’s beneficial to my family to carry health insurance, so I choose to do so.  But I don’t assume that that’s the best choice for everyone.  Healthy, single people fresh out of school at introductory level jobs, struggling to pay rent and student loans probably don’t need health insurance.  I’m not so arrogant that I assume that my decisions are the right ones for everyone else.  Every person and every situation is unique.

The House of Representatives will be voting today on health care legislation.  In defiance of President Obama and Speaker Pelosi’s promise that the legislation would be available to the public for 72 hours prior to a vote.

There is still time to call the Representatives leaning yes on a bill that will severely limit our freedom and liberty and tell them to vote no.  Refuse to be silent.  Make a stand.  It’s more important now than ever.

I think it’s safe to say that I’ve been completely enthralled with watching what’s been happening in Upstate New York.  The 23rd district of New York has no one representing it in the US House of Representatives.  Which is why there’s going to be a special election on Tuesday, November 3rd.  As is usual with any election, there is a Democrat and a Republican running for the seat.  Only this time, both of those candidates were liberals.  Enter Doug Hoffman, a lifelong Republican who was sick of the closet liberals hiding in the GOP closet.  He entered the race as an Independent, for the Conservative Party.

Everyone knows that third party candidates don’t stand a chance of winning elections, right?  Right?  Maybe not.  Mr. Hoffman picked up steam quickly, even though the odds were stacked against him.  He was operating on a shoestring budget, and the Republican machine (specifically Newt Gingrich and the National Republican Congressional Committee) endorsed Ms. Scozzafava, the Republican candidate.

This has been fascinating to watch, because it’s the first time that we’re seeing Tea Party Principles being put into practice.  MSNBC can dismiss us with crude name-calling comments.  The Speaker of the House, the 2nd in line for the Presidency, can call the movement AstroTurf, not real grassroots activism.  The President himself can tell us to get out of his way.  The media can completely ignore a 9/12 March on Washington, which was attended by at least 8 people.  Or maybe over a million.  Counting is hard!

The race in New York is proof that us liberty loving Americans are not in the minority.  We are not Democrat haters who only care about having Republicans in office.  We are simply sick of our elected officials trying to run our lives for us.  They do not give us our rights, God does that.  The government can only protect those rights.  Doug Hoffman is an ordinary man, but he understands that the Constitutional principles of limited government.  After all, a government that can give you everything can also take it all away.  When Doug Hoffman began getting substantial numbers in the polls, it showed Washington that Conservatism is not a fringe movement.  It is a snowball, and baby, it has just begun to roll down the hill.

The Washington Elite are getting scared.  I think the liberals hiding in our GOP closet are the most terrified, and they should be.  Dede Scozzafava has certainly been acting like a scared mess of a person.  She called the cops on a reporter that had the audacity to ask her about some of her liberal positions.  She set up a ridiculous press conference in front of one of Hoffman’s campaign offices, which ended up as a horrendous photo-op that did her no favors.

Yesterday, October 31st, she finally picked up her toys and went home. She officially withdrew herself from the election, saying,

It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my Party will emerge stronger and our District and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for generations.

You know, I actually grew a little bit of respect for the lady.  She seemed to understand that due to some of her liberal positions, many of the Republicans voting in the election would be forced to choose between her or the more conservative Doug Hoffman.  She took one for the team when her numbers kept slipping, removing herself from the race and almost ensuring a win for Hoffman.

That respect lasted almost 24 hours, right up until  she endorsed the Democratic candidate Bill Owens.

Halloween is over.  I guess Dede Scozzafava has finally taken off her Republican costume.