From Fox News:

Leon Panetta Tapped to Head CIA

Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff Leon Panetta has been tapped to head the CIA in President-elect Barack Obama’s administration, causing surprise and a bit of consternation by several individuals involved in the intelligence community.

Two Democratic sources close to the transition process said Monday that Panetta, who was a congressman and one-time head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, is Obama’s pick to replace Michael Hayden at the CIA…

Panetta is a surprise pick since he has no experience in the intelligence world. However, as chief of staff he had considerable access to intelligence information and knows how the community operates.

Panetta was a longtime congressman from California who also served on the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that released a report at the end of 2006 with dozens of recommendations for reversing course in the Iraq war.

Taken by surprise was Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., incoming chairwoman of the Select Senate Intelligence Committee.

"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read. My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time," Feinstein said in a written statement.

Based on a handful of conversations among those linked to the intelligence community, Panetta’s name was not on any of the watch lists circulating in Washington…

They also noted that since Panetta served as chief of staff for Clinton, he will surely face questions about the Clinton administration terror policy and what critics saw as "dropping the ball" in the 1990s…

We held off on posting this because we were hoping it was some kind of a hoax. But it has been confirmed.

This is easily one of the most bizarre cabinet picks in our Republic’s long history. And certainly one of its most dangerous.

Mr. Panetta would be better suited to head Code Pink than the CIA.

God help us all.

From a suddenly anxious Associated Press:

Analysis: Can Uncle Sam spend cash fast enough?

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 5

WASHINGTON – Washington bureaucrats have a reputation for being able to spend taxpayer money real fast. But, believe it or not, spending it fast enough is one of the biggest tasks President-elect Barack Obama’s economic team faces in putting together an economic recovery measure.

Obama’s economic recovery plan depends on swiftly pumping hundreds of billions of federal dollars into the economy to create jobs. The focus is on tax cuts and government spending that can provide an immediate lift to the economy.

However, the $675 billion-$775 billion plan emerging in talks between Obama’s team and Democratic allies in Congress also appears to contain lots of money that won’t be spent for years — like for water projects, rebuilding the electric grid and buying billions of dollars of computers and software for the health care sector. Much of that money won’t get spent until the economy starts growing again.

Some GOP critics say Democrats are simply using the current economic crisis to put money into long-term projects now, rather than in a few years when concerns about record budget deficits might threaten the spending.

"We must … make distinctions between what is ’stimulus’ … and what is merely more government spending on favored projects we don’t need with money we don’t have," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

One example is a plan to spend billions of dollars on a new health care information technology system that would make the delivery of health care safer, more effective and more efficient.

During the campaign, Obama promised $50 billion over five years for the initiative. The upcoming economic recovery bill will provide less.

Even so, little of the program can get underway quickly and building the system is years away…

Obama officials promise a "use it or lose it" rule to force states and localities to spend new federal money quickly to stimulate jobs. Such an approach could prompt officials to choose more wasteful projects that can be built soon over better ideas that might take a while…

Many parts of Obama’s plan would infuse money quickly into the economy, according to budget experts. These include $200 billion for recession-hit state governments to avoid layoffs, cutbacks in services and raising their own taxes. Federal tax cuts delivered by withholding less from paychecks can take effect almost immediately. Expanded food stamp and unemployment benefits would arrive mostly in 2009.

All of those ideas are poised to get funding — lots of it. But many economists say even more must be pumped into the economy to jolt it out of its doldrums.

That means massive spending on infrastructure projects such as road and bridge repairs, flood control and sewer systems, upgrading schools and public housing, and new runways and other airport improvements. Those projects typically take years. Depending on the length of the recession, much of the spending may not occur until after the economy is expanding. That could result in inflation, economists warn.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of a $61 billion economic stimulus measure that passed the House in September — only to fail in the Senate — shows that just 27 percent of the plan’s $37 billion in infrastructure spending would have occurred as the economy struggles through 2009. Another third would have been spent in 2010 and the final third wouldn’t have been spent until 2011 and after.

And those were projects that lawmakers say are ready to go right now…

Obama and allies like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stress that much of the economic recovery plan will have a longer-term focus. Such elements include delivering broadband communications to underserved areas, developing and improving energy efficiency technologies, updating the nation’s electrical grid and modernizing schools.

"This is not a 1930s public works project," Pelosi says…

Is it possible even the Associated Press is noticing that the Democrats are using the current economic downturn as an excuse to enact their long sought socialist agenda?

Or is the AP just worried the Democrats will be too slow in ramming this through before the great unwashed wake from their slumbers?

We are leaning towards the latter explanation.

From the UK’s Telegraph:

Traditional fairytales ‘not PC enough’

Parents have stopped reading traditional fairytales to their children because they are too scary and not politically correct, according to research.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Jan 2009

Favourites such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and Rapunzel are being dropped by some families who fear children are being emotionally damaged.

A third of parents refused to read Little Red Riding Hood because she walks through woods alone and finds her grandmother eaten by a wolf.

One in 10 said Snow White should be re-named because "the dwarf reference is not PC".

Rapunzel was considered "too dark" and Cinderella has been dumped amid fears she is treated like a slave and forced to do all the housework.

The poll of 3,000 British parents - by TheBabyWebsite.com - revealed a quarter of mothers now rejected some classic fairy tales…

Two-thirds of parents said traditional fairytales had stronger morality messages than many modern children’s stories.

But many said they were no longer appropriate to soothe youngsters before bed.

Almost 20 per cent of adults said they refused to read Hansel and Gretel because the children were abandoned in a forest - and it may give their own sons and daughters nightmares.

A fifth did not like to read The Gingerbread Man as he gets eaten by a fox.

The most popular book read at bedtime is now The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

The simple tale, which features a greedy caterpillar eating too much food, was written in 1969.

It also emerged 65 per cent of parents preferred to read their children happier tales at bedtime, such as the Mr Men, The Gruffalo and Winnie the Pooh.

Three quarters of mothers and fathers try to avoid stories which might give their children nightmares and half of all parents would not consider reading a single fairy tale to their child until they reached the age of five.

Top bedtime stories of 2008:

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle (1969)

2. Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves (1971)

3. The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson (1999)

4. Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne (1926)

5. Aliens Love Underpants, Claire Freedman & Ben Cort (2007)

6. Thomas and Friends from The Railway Series, Rev.W.Awdry (1945)

7. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame (1908)

8. What a Noisy Pinky Ponk!, Andrew Davenport (2008)

9. Charlie and Lola, Lauren Child (2001)

10. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Robert Southey (1837)

Top 10 fairy tales we no longer read:

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

2. Hansel and Gretel

3. Cinderella

4. Little Red Riding Hood

5. The Gingerbread Man

6. Jack and the Beanstalk

7. Sleeping Beauty

8. Beauty and the Beast

9. Goldilocks and the Three Bears

10. The Emperor’s New Clothes

Well, we can sure see how ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ would not be considered politically correct.

And note that ‘The Three Little Pigs’ didn’t even make the list. (Don’t want to offend the Religion Of Peace, you know.)

Come to think of it, how do they even get away with calling them “fairytales”?

From the Agence France-Presse:

US President Elect Barack Obama walks down the steps of an Air Force jet January 4 at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Obama will meet Monday with key congressional leaders to discuss a multi-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan Democrats hope to pass shortly after Obama takes office.

We thought we only had one President at a time. Or is that only when Mr. Obama is asked hard questions?

Still, the printing is so small. Maybe it’s just the seal of the President Select.

By the way, in case anyone is confused. The airplane here is not Air Force One.

From the Associated Press:

Obama arrives in Washington area

By PHILIP ELLIOTT

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama has landed in the Washington area, setting up a final march toward his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Obama landed Sunday evening at Andrews Air Force Base before heading for his temporary home at the Hay-Adams Hotel across from the White House. His wife and two young daughters made the same trip from Chicago on Saturday.

Obama landed at the military base aboard a government 757 typically used by vice presidents, first ladies and congressional leaders…

So the Presidential seal had to have been put up on this plane.

From the night of the January 3, 2008 Iowa caucus via YouTube and Obama’s monument to himself website:

Obama: …I’ll never forget that my journey began on the streets of Chicago doing what so many of you have done for this campaign and all the campaigns here in Iowa: Organizing and working and fighting to make people’s lives just a little bit better. I know how hard it is. It comes with little sleep, little pay, and a lot of sacrifices. There are days of disappointment but sometimes, just sometimes, there are nights like this…

You’ll be able to look back at this night and say that this was the moment when it all began… This was the moment when we finally beat back the politics of fear and doubt and cynicism, the politics where we tear each other down instead of lifting this country up. This was the moment.

Years from now, you’ll look back and you’ll say that this was the moment, this was the place where America remembered what it means to hope. For many months we’ve been teased, even derided, for talking about hope. We always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It’s not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, to work for it, and to fight for it…

Just think, only a year ago (and a day or two) most of the country had no idea who or what Barack Hussein Obama was.

Alas, thanks largely to our watchdog media and an obdurate citizenry, that is still true today.

But if you have the time and the cast iron stomach, listen to the full clip. This is what delusion of grandeur sounds like. What hubris looks like.

It’s quite creepy. And probably quite dangerous.

We shall soon see.

From a highly disappointed New York Times:

Activist Unmasks Himself as Federal Informant in G.O.P. Convention Case

By COLIN MOYNIHAN
January 4, 2009

When the scheduled federal trial begins this month for two Texas men who were arrested during the Republican National Convention on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails, one of the major witnesses against them will be a community activist who acted as a government informant.

Brandon Darby, an organizer from Austin, Tex., made the news public himself, announcing in an open letter posted on Dec. 30 on Indymedia.org that he had worked as an informant, most recently at last year’s Republican convention in St. Paul.

“The simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” wrote Mr. Darby, who gained prominence as a member of Common Ground Relief, a group that helped victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

He added, “I strongly stand behind my choices in this matter.”

Mr. Darby’s revelations caused shock and indignation in the activist community, with people in various groups and causes accusing him of betrayal.

“The emerging truth about Darby’s malicious involvement in our communities is heart-breaking and utterly ground-shattering,” said the Austin Informant Working Group, a collection of activists from the city who worked with Mr. Darby. “Through the history of our struggles for a better world, infiltrators and informants have acted as tools for the forces of misery in disrupting and derailing our movements.”

Mr. Darby’s letter answered lingering questions in the case of the two Texas men, David McKay and Bradley Crowder, both also from Austin. They are scheduled to go on trial in Minnesota on Jan. 26, and if convicted on all counts, each faces a prison sentence of up to 30 years…

Mr. Darby said that he had provided information leading to the arrest of Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay, and that he planned to testify at their trial.

Mr. Darby would not provide details about his undercover activities, but said he had also worked as an informant in cases not involving the convention. He defended his decision to work with the F.B.I. as “a good moral way to use my time,” saying he wanted to prevent violence during the convention at the Xcel Energy Center.

Documents that activists said were given to defense lawyers by the prosecution and printed on F.B.I. letterhead indicated that an informant — now identified as Mr. Darby — carried out a thorough surveillance operation that dated back to at least 18 months before the Republican gathering. He first met Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay in Austin six months before the convention.

Mr. Darby provided descriptions of meetings with the defendants and dozens of other people in Austin, Minneapolis and St. Paul. He wore recording devices at times, including a transmitter embedded in his belt during the convention. He also went to Minnesota with Mr. Crowder four months before the Republican gathering and gave detailed narratives to law enforcement authorities of several meetings they had with activists from New York, San Francisco, Montana and other places.

One of his last conversations with Mr. McKay ended in an alley in Minneapolis, according to court documents, with Mr. Darby recording Mr. McKay talking about plans to use Molotov cocktails.

The F.B.I. reports mentioned dozens of people, most of whom have not been accused of any crime. In addition to listing biographical and physical particulars, Mr. Darby frequently offered observations on the motives, attitudes and states of mind of activists with whom he dealt.

“Part of what intrigues me is not only how he operates but what is the role of the F.B.I. in how he operates,” said Lisa Fithian, an organizer who is named in the reports. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”

Some former friends of Mr. Darby have denounced him as a provocateur and said he might have enabled or encouraged Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay to break the law. Mr. Darby denied that.

An F.B.I. agent swore in an affidavit that at one point Mr. McKay acknowledged that he intended to use firebombs. Such devices were never used, and both defendants have pleaded not guilty.

“The claim that the case is solely based on the testimony of informants is simply a wanton and willful untruth,” Mr. Darby said in the interview. “It omits the physical evidence, the confession and possibly the testimony of many others.”

In 2005, Mr. Darby went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, joining Common Ground Relief as it provided medical attention and helped repair homes. He became a visible member of the group, sometimes acting as a spokesman and appearing on “The Tavis Smiley Show” on PBS.

When The St. Paul Pioneer Press published an article in October that cited an unidentified source who named Mr. Darby as an informant in the case against Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay, a co-founder of Common Ground, Scott Crow, defended Mr. Darby publicly and warned against “rumors, conjecture and innuendo.”

“I put it all on the line to defend him when accusations first came out,” Mr. Crow said. “Brandon Darby is somebody I had entrusted with my life in New Orleans, and now I feel endangered by him.”

Mr. Darby acknowledged that many people he spied on might not accept his explanation that he was motivated by conscience.

“I am well aware,” he said, “that I’ve stepped outside of accepted behaviors and that I’ve committed a sin in the eyes of many activists.”

Regular readers should recognize the name of the Katrina relief scam known as ‘Common Ground,’ and as well as the name of the domestic terrorist Lisa Fithian.

And kudos to Mr. Darby, for having the courage to actually practices what the left preaches –  peace, non-violence.

Unlike so many of these hooligan America-haters, such as the odious Ms. Fithian.

Here is our posting of the arrest of Messrs McKay and Crowder.

From the (great) American Spectator:

Beyond Bill Richardson

By The Prowler on 1.5.09

The Obama transition team was aware of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s relationship with the firm currently being investigated, CDR Financial Products, because Richardson had introduced the firm’s founder, David Rubin, to Obama fundraisers during the Democrat convention in Denver last August.

Richardson withdrew his name from nomination for Commerce Secretary due to a grand jury investigation into possible financial dealings between his New Mexico administration and Rubin’s firm, CDR Financial.

But it isn’t just Obama and Richardson that Rubin has ties to. According to federal law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, federal officials are also looking into CDR’s political and financial ties to Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, as well as to Democrat state and local officials in Illinois, California, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

Rendell placed Rubin on a political patronage commission in Pennsylvania, and Rubin was also given a seat on a Los Angeles City commission back in 2002, both seemingly as the result of political contributions to political action committees. Rubin has also been a financial supporter of Rev. Al Sharpton.

CDR also had close business ties to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, marketing and selling financial instruments created through low-income housing "lease to own" programs across the country. "If someone wants to understand just how deep Democrats are into the housing bubble and the economic crisis, they should look at some of the financial wheeling and dealing around some of those ‘lease to own’ programs," says a former Freddie Mac lobbyist based in Washington. "It’s a veritable ‘who’s who’ of Democratic state and local politics from New York to Los Angeles."

Rubin, founded the firm known for many years as Chambers, Dunhill, Rubin & Co, though there is no Chambers or Dunhill associated with the firm. It appears that after a number of embarrassing investigations into alleged IRS investigations into back-door deals related to municipal bond financing in Atlanta and other localities in the late 1990s, the firm’s name was changed to CDR Financial.

Richardson’s relationship to Rubin goes back to the early 2000s, in which time Rubin has given Richardson and his PACs more than $100,000. In October 2003, Rubin gave $25,000 to Richardson’s Moving America Forward. In 2004, Rubin cut another check for another Richardson PAC, "¡Si Se Puede! Boston 2004." Translated, from the Spanish, the PAC is called Yes, We Can, and it financed Richardson’s political activities for the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

According to a Bloomberg News report and New Mexico records, between 2003 and 2004, CDR made $951,566 advising the New Mexico Finance Authority on $420 million of interest rate swaps. By comparison, when New York City offered $900 million in derivatives, it paid its adviser about $400,000.

"Long before Bill Richardson was governor, New Mexico was known to be one of the most corrupt states in the country," says a current Federal Bureau of Investigations official who has overseen criminal investigations related to drug-trafficking and organized crime in the state. "If there is anything to this investigation, it appears that it’s just politics as usual for New Mexico."

Just another Democrat ‘distraction.’

From a distraught Associated Press:

Richardson Withdraws Bid To Be Commerce Sec.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has withdrawn his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama’s commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation.

Obama’s transition office said Sunday that Obama has accepted Richardson’s withdrawal.

A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson’s political activities won a lucrative New Mexico state contract.

A person familiar with the proceedings has told The Associated Press that the grand jury is looking into possible "pay-to-play" dealings between CDR Financial Products and someone in a position to push the contract through with the state of New Mexico…

How hilarious.

They are dropping already and we don’t even have the Anointed One sworn in.

Still, think how dirty Mr. Richardson must be if he was shamed into doing this. Democrats never resign.

Though it may be that Richardson is afraid he would have to answer embarrassing question during his confirmation hearing.

So why risk that when he can stay fat and happy in his fiefdom in New Mexico?

(Not to brag, but we were one of the very few sites to even note Mr. Richardson’s “pay to play” scandal — which was conveniently announced Christmas night.)

From those defenders of the faith at the Associated Press:

A man holds the hand of a victim while waiting for assistance after a suicide bomber blew himself [sic] up among Iranian pilgrims in front of the holy Shiite shrine of Imam Mousa al-Kazim in Baghdad January 4, 2009.

Female bomber at Shiite shrine in Baghdad kills 38

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – A woman hiding among Iranian pilgrims with a bomb strapped under her black robe killed more than three dozen people on Sunday outside a Baghdad mosque during ceremonies commemorating the death of one of Shiite Islam’s most revered saints.

The suicide attack, the most recent in a series that has killed more than 60 people in less that a week, was the latest to mar the transfer of many security responsibilities from the U.S. military to Iraqi forces.

Iraqi security forces have deployed thousands of troops in Baghdad and in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, just south of the capital, to safeguard against attacks during the ceremonies. Attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq, Sunni insurgents and even a Shiite cult have killed hundreds of people in recent years.

The attack in Baghdad’s northern Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah comes two days after a suicide bomber slipped into a luncheon at a tribal leader’s home south of Baghdad and killed at least 23 people. More than a dozen other people have died in other attacks since New Year’s Day…

The woman was among a group of Iranian pilgrims and she blew herself up just outside the gates of the mosque, a large building graced by four minarets. The office of Iraqi army spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi confirmed a woman wearing an explosives vest was responsible…

At least one report from the Health Ministry said the dead included 17 Iranian pilgrims, seven of which were women. There were also seven Iraqi women killed by the blast, which sent shrapnel hurtling across the crowded square.

"I saw many dead pilgrims on the ground after the explosion all covered in blood, some of them Iranians," one unidentified witness told Associated Press Television News.

Thousands of pilgrims from predominantly Shiite Iran visit during Ashura, celebrated on Jan. 7 this year. The evening before the explosion, thousands of men marched through the streets of Kazimiyah rhythmically beating their chests with bare hands and slashing their shoulders with iron chains, part of ceremonies leading up to the anniversary of 7th-century death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein…

Another glorious achievement by the religion of peace.

Of course on ‘holy days’ they get extra points for killing each other.

From those Constitutional scholars at Reuters:

Reid cites "legal authority" to bar Illinois pick

Sun Jan 4

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Sunday that "legal authority" exists under the Constitution to bar embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pick to fill President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, but added there is also room to negotiate.

Under the Constitution, Reid said, "We determine who sits in the Senate. And the House (of Representatives) determines who sits in the House. So there’s clearly legal authority for us to do whatever we want to do. This goes back for generations."

Speaking on NBC’s "Meet the Press," Reid said he plans to meet on Wednesday with Blagojevich’s choice for the Senate, Roland Burris, 71, the former Illinois attorney general, a fellow Democrat.

Asked if there was room for a possible settlement, Reid said, "I’m an old trial lawyer. There is always room to negotiate."

New members will be sworn in on Tuesday with the opening of the new Congress…

Asked if Burris will become a U.S. senator, Reid said, "It will be very difficult for that to occur." But he added, "Anything can happen."

Hmmm.

It looks like a matter for Article I Section 5 of the Constitution:

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members…

Versus the 17th Amendment:

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

And the precedent is muddled, to say the least.

But the Democrat leadership will probably get their way. They always do.

After all, neither the Constitution nor any other laws of man or God mean a damn thing to them.

Power is all.

From an elated Associated Press:

Franken Is Ahead as Recount For Minn. Senate Seat Ends

By Brian Bakst
Sunday, January 4, 2009

ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 3 — Victory in Minnesota’s drawn-out Senate race moved within Democrat Al Franken’s grasp Saturday when he increased his lead over Republican  Norm Coleman as the statewide recount drew to a close.

The state Canvassing Board will reconvene Monday to declare which candidate received the most votes in the election. Barring court intervention, it will be Franken.

Franken’s lead stands at 225 votes after Saturday’s review of formerly sealed absentee ballots. The new total was reached the day that Coleman’s term as senator expired.

The 933 absentee ballots were among those rejected by poll workers but later found to have been excluded in error. The campaigns eventually agreed that those ballots be added to the recount.

Unless Coleman wins a pending court petition that seeks to add hundreds more ballots to the recount, the counting is done and the Canvassing Board can sign off on the result on Monday or Tuesday. The result cannot be certified for at least a week under state law. In that time, the loser of the recount can challenge the result in court…

Senate Republican leaders have said the chamber should not seat Franken until all legal matters are settled, even if they drag on for months.

But of course Franken will be seated.

We all know by now that Democrats only have to get close in any election anywhere and the recounting will make up the difference.

Just like in the third world countries they so admire.

We have noted for some time that it is all too believable that the Democrats helped to precipitate our current financial crisis for political gain.

After all, once it was clear that the surge in Iraq was working and that the war there would not be a good campaign issue for them, they began to talk down the economy.

And of course their minions in the media everywhere followed suit.

It was bruited across every newspaper and television news program for months that we were in a deep recession. Even though the actual GDP showed no such thing.

In the interim, energy prices mysteriously rose to an historic high. And Congressional Democrats made it clear that they would do nothing to help roll them back.

On the contrary, they stiffened their resolve against more drilling and other viable alternatives – and suggested piling on further taxes. All of which only served to drive up prices further.

Then, around the time Mr. McCain pulled ahead in the national polls, top Democrats started a run on a bank (IndyMac, a bridge bank to Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac) and undermined a major insurance company (AIG, a major insurer for the financial markets).

With investor confidence now severely eroded, the stock market took an historic dive – giving us unprecedented bad economic news in the weeks just prior to the November elections.

Meanwhile, the bailouts the Democrats have pushed through have done little but ballooned the national debt and exacerbated the problem.

It is all just a little too convenient.

There certainly would be no risk for the Democrats to try such a thing. Our media would never hold them accountable. Indeed, thus far they have (falsely) blamed the mortgage crisis and everything else on the Republicans.

On the other hand, the benefits from a manufactured economic crisis for the Democrats are manifold.

So far it has:

Taken the focus off the US victory in Iraq and the war against terrorism in general.

Gotten Barack Obama and more Democrats elected. Whereas they were lagging in the polls before this crisis.

Gotten investment money out of the capitalist system (stock market) and into to the government (Treasury bonds).

Made more people dependent on government, through unemployment insurance and other ‘safety net’ programs.

Moreover, the economic crisis will in the immediate future:

Provide an opportunity to ram through their socialist agenda under the cover of an emergency. (Just like what happened for FDR.)

Be used as an excuse to expand the social welfare programs.

Provide an excuse to create government make work projects that further socialist and environmentalist “social justice” goals and make more people dependent on a government paycheck.

Be used as an excuse to cut the military and other national security programs. We will be told we can’t afford to continue the war against terrorism.

Help the environment. (Mr. Clinton even said that we needed to slow down the economy to defeat global warming.)

In the longer run all of this additional government spending and government make work projects and environmental safeguards and income redistribution will probably damage the economy so thoroughly that the crisis will be prolonged.

If so, more and larger government programs will be required, and more socialist policies will be enacted – never to be undone.

We really could be on the brink of reliving the glorious 1930s all over again.

What is worse, we know that is really what the Democrats want. The Great Depression, after all, was their heyday. And it was truly the start of the new Democrat Party — the party of unapologetic socialism.

We also know that it is exactly what Barack Obama has dreamt about for years. He told us so in his book, “The Audacity Of Hope – Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream.”

For Mr. Obama the American dream is a second bill of rights, a new New Deal.

What’s more Mr. Obama even suggested that it would take an economic crisis like what President Roosevelt faced to make all this possible.

So is it really all that far-fetched that the Democrats would have helped it along?

What did they have to lose?

From of all places, the New York Times:

A Donor’s Gift Soon Followed Clinton’s Help

January 4, 2008

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

WASHINGTON — An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.

Mrs. Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert J. Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse.

Mrs. Clinton also helped secure a provision in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.

The bill with the tax-free bonds provision became law in October 2004, weeks before the donation, and the highway bill with the set-aside became law in August 2005, about nine months after the donation…

A Destiny USA spokesman said Mr. Congel made a $100,000 donation in November 2004…

Mr. Congel had been a prime force behind Congress’s passage of tax-exempt “green bonds,” a program to lower the financing costs of some $2 billion in environmentally friendly projects by exempting lenders from paying federal taxes on their income from the private bonds. By some estimates, the program could cost the Treasury about $200 million.

The way the legislation was written, Mr. Congel’s Syracuse development, which he agreed to build and run in a way that promotes renewable energy and recycling, was one of just a handful of projects that would qualify…

In April 2006, she took partial credit for enacting the program in an interview with The Post-Standard of Syracuse.

“I’ve been a big supporter of Destiny,” Mrs. Clinton told the newspaper. “I worked successfully to get the green bonds passed. I think it would be a big shot in the arm. It would be a destination site for the area.”

And in July 2005, when the highway bill cleared the Senate, Mrs. Clinton’s office put out a news release announcing the “$5 million that Senators Schumer and Clinton secured” for Destiny-related “design, research, construction and improvements.” …

Mr. Congel has also given campaign donations to Mrs. Clinton and other New York Democrats, including Mr. Schumer.

According to the Federal Election Commission Web site, Mr. Congel gave $2,000 to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in October 1999 and gave her political action committee a total of $12,500 from March 2002 to January 2005. He has continued to donate to Mrs. Clinton’s campaigns in the years since the two bills helping Destiny USA passed.

Mr. Congel’s campaign contributions to Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Schumer were the subject of news media reports around the time that the “green bonds” measure passed. But his $100,000 donation to Mr. Clinton’s foundation in November 2004 was not known at the time…

The Destiny USA project has attracted criticism. Stephanie Miner, a member of the Syracuse City Council, called it a “boondoggle” that won tax breaks with dubious economic and environmental promises…

This is pretty shocking stuff.

Not that the Clintons are involved in their own ‘pay to play’ shakedown schemes.

Or that they would use a phony “environmental” project as a cover for their kickback schemes.

No, the shock is that the New York Times would deign to notice, let alone report it.

This coupled with their earlier piece on Charlie Rangel’s very similar shakedown operation make us wonder if things aren’t getting so desperate at The Times that they are resorting to reporting the news.

(Just kidding, of course.)

From an outraged Associated Press:

Israeli ground forces enter Gaza in escalation

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and JASON KEYSER

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli tanks and troops launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip Saturday night with officials saying they expected a lengthy fight with Hamas militants in the densely populated territory after eight days of punishing airstrikes failed to halt rocket attacks on Israel.

Hamas vowed that Gaza would be a "graveyard" for Israelis forces.

"This will not be easy and it will not be short," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said soon after the ground invasion began.

The incursion was preceded by several hours of heavy artillery fire after dark, igniting flames in the night sky. Machine gun fire rattled as bright tracer rounds flashed through the darkness and the crash of hundreds of shells sent up streaks of fire.

Artillery fired illuminating rounds, sending streaks of bright light drifting down over Gaza’s densely packed neighborhoods. Gunbattles could be heard, as troops crossed the border into Gaza, marching single file. They were backed by helicopter gunships and tanks.

Israeli security officials said the objective is not to reoccupy Gaza. The depth and intensity of the ground operation will depend on parallel diplomatic efforts, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media…

Before the ground incursion began, heavy Israeli artillery fire hit east of Gaza City in locations were Hamas fighters were deployed. The artillery shells were apparently intended to detonate Hamas explosive devices and mines planted along the border area before troops marched in.

"Gaza will not be paved with flowers for you, it will be paved with fire and hell," Hamas warned Israeli forces. Spokesman Ismail Radwan said in a televised speech Gaza will "become a graveyard" for Israeli soldiers.

A text message sent by Hamas’ military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, said "the Zionists started approaching the trap which our fighters prepared for them." Hamas said it also broadcast a Hebrew message on Israeli military radio frequencies promising to kill and kidnap the Israeli soldiers.

"Be prepared for a unique surprise, you will be either killed or kidnapped and will suffer mental illness from the horrors we will show you," the message said.

Hamas has also threatened to resume suicide attacks inside Israel.

Hamas has long prepared for Israel’s invasion, digging tunnels and rigging some areas with explosives. At the start of the offensive, Israeli artillery hit some of the border areas, apparently to detonate hidden explosives.

The Israeli government said tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being mobilized as the offensive in Gaza widens. Before the ground incursion began, defense officials said about 10,000 Israeli soldiers had massed along the border in recent days…

Good luck to them.

Look who is now writing for Zsa Zsa Huffington’s execrable site:

President Select Obama’s education guru, the domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

Isn’t that so naughty. (And so predictable.)

Mind you, only yesterday the Politico was just saying how the HuffPo was scooping the mainstream media.

How soon will it be before Mr. Ayers is working for the Washington Post or the New York Times?

(Thanks to David for the heads up.)