Icy Springberry Tree

Healthcare Summit: Heartland Reaction

We’ll have to beat Obama’s “fall-back” position, too. The TrogloPundit

Reagan speaks against socialized medicine in 1961 Coralville Courier

Health care summit: We're calling it a draw (although they're still talking on and on and on...) Prime Buzz

The Obama Death Stare Open Thread. RedState

We don't think the answers lie in Washington. BackyardConservative (that's me) Bonus: Dead Sister's Teeth.

On Wisconsin

Dem Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, a former trial lawyer, was a surrogate for Barack Obama on the air more than once during that campaign. The One won Wisconsin's primary and the general election.

Now his friend Doyle's numbers are in the tank, he's not running for reelection, and the GOP challengers lead in the polls over the Dem heir apparent, the mayor of Milwaukee. Rasmussen.

Can Dem Sen. Russ Feingold's numbers be far behind?

On Wisconsin!

--crossposted at BackyardConservative

Smoking Ban Opponents have Unlikely Ally

Kansas Watchdog. Gee, where have we heard exaggerated scientific claims before?

And the lefties are pushing for a statewide ban, but are willing to exempt state-owned casinos!

Liberals' selective science, selective vice.

Even their friends don't like their words twisted and their credibility damaged.

Why do liberals always have to lie to win?

HT NRO the corner.

Retire at 50?

These stories are touching:

In the early dawn, after another week building cars, Michael Hanley leaves his job in Kansas. He quickly zips into Missouri, then heads up a ribbon of highway past grain silos and grazing deer, across the frozen fields of Iowa, over the Mississippi River and into the rolling hills of Wisconsin. Finally, he pulls into his driveway — 530 miles later.

But come on--retire at 50?

After the aging General Motors plant where he worked for 23 years was idled about a year ago, Hanley faced a Hobson's choice: Stay with his family and search for an autoworker's salary ($28 an hour) in a county where more than 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs disappeared from 2006 to 2009. Or hang on to his GM paycheck and health insurance and follow the job, no matter where it leads.

Remember, we the taxpayers are paying for these kind of packages. We bailed out GM to pay the generous union benefits GM couldn't afford to pay its workers itself.

Americans can see the disparity.

Those of us in bankrupt states have a closer view--this time we're talking about the public employee unions.

Retire at 50? At this rate we'll all being working until we're old. Because some of these benefits won't be paid--the money is not there.

And think about this. The plant that closed made SUVs. Which became less popular because gas prices rose because Democrats are blocking drill here, drill now. Based on hysteria about global warming. Which pushed for those smaller cars fewer people want to buy.

What are we doing to ourselves? The government needs to get out of the way. We are breaking up families with these profoundly foolish policies and making promises we can't keep.

What's a Weber to Do?

Stranded in the snow, the sun sliding your snow cap halfway off.

Dream of blue skies and BBQ.

What will Claire do?

Will she join her fellow Dems in shoving through a healthcare bill America has overwhelmingly rejected? Will she make a mockery of bipartisanship before the supposed bipartisan summit next week? Prime Buzz:

As Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill wings her way back to the U.S. today after a week in southwest Asia, a letter sits on her desk, awaiting her signature.

The letter, to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, calls on him to bring the public health insurance option back up for a vote.

This time, through, the Senate Democrats who signed the letter want a vote on the measure through reconciliation, a process by which it could pass with limited debate and require only a simple majority – 51 votes.

If the Senate flouts democracy this way by using a measure meant for budgets, not a takeover of 20% of the U.S. economy, Democrats will reap hell once again at the polls, this time in the fall. No excuses any more. It's a failure of leadership. What will you do, Claire? Will you be a leader?

About Those Billboards

Bumper stickers aren't enough any more. Americans are so outraged by what's going on in Washington they're resorting to billboards to get their message out. A miss me yet Bush billboard sprouted up north of the Twin Cities. True North reports two small businessman have owned up to the deed.

Over in Iowa the theme is NObama.

And in Illinois, who can forget the excessive over the highway signs of our recently impeached governor Blago. Folks shudder at sightings of the supposed recovery.gov project signs, a reminder of the waste and corruption the state is noted for, gone to Washington. As my friend Marathon Pundit notes, Illinois unemployment is in double digits.

Still, I can find something to be cheerful about, recalling an old song sung by my dad who lived through the Depression, though he was a kid then.

I love a billboard, I always will, because a billboard gives me such a thrill.
When I was a little child, a circus billboard drove me wiiiiiiild.

Americans are still expressing themselves through billboards. They're not all government ones yet.

Call Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota!

60Plus.org ad. Watch.

Kristi for Congress

The South Dakota Assistant Majority Leader and a family farmer-rancher, Republican Kristi Moen challenging Dem Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, running on the fundamental issue this year--not spending more than we earn. And she's heading out around the state in a winning vehicle:

If I am elected to serve as South Dakota’s Congresswoman, I promise that I’ll make our voice heard. Over the next nine months, I am going to get in my truck and hit the roads of South Dakota. I will make my case directly to the citizens of this great state.

Another quality candidate rising up to represent the people.

HT South Dakota War College. Could Kristi's decision have anything to do with this?

Previous post: Herseth Sandlin Vulnerable

Something Lacy

Happy Valentine's Day.

P.S. Something else to celebrate--Lincoln's birthday. And Kansas proclaims its sovereignty.

...North Dakota welfare queens? Questioning The Economist. NRO.

Perhaps we should allow nude scenes in school plays

Caffeinated Thoughts on an Iowa court ruling.

Frozen Wasteland

(Video)‘Minnesotans For Global Warming’ Call Out Gore Over Harsh Winter in ‘Frozen Wasteland’

Tangible Results--What a Concept

The premise of government shouldn't be to tax citizens for the same programs to be funded year after year, but to provide tangible results for the programs citizens want and need. Government's role is to create the best environment to allow citizens to succeed and enjoy their lives. In many cases, that means getting out of their way.

Sweet Joins the Sexual Slurs Crowd

She puts it in quotes but it's still there and elicited what she expected.

Who would have thought that political correctness would have evolved from those smiley-faced inanities in the 70's to excusing gross sexual slurs against Americans the left doesn't agree with.

Perhaps it was Palin that tipped her over the edge.

Perhaps we should ask Sweet's usual subject the First Lady if she thinks this is appropriate language for the public discourse. But then her husband has already used that term.

P.S. Will this kind of smutty talk play in Iowa? Poll: 33% of Iowans across the political spectrum support tea partiers

P.P.S. Wake up and smell the coffee, lefties.

More. Critical Narrative:Left Attacks Sarah Palin with Junior High Level Sexual Jokes

Previous post: Smell the coffee, lefties

--crossposted at BackyardConservative

Rubber Stamp Carnahan

Into the fall campaign, challenging the Carnahan political dynasty. New Ed Martin for Congress ad. It's a good one:

Foul-Smelling, Foul-Talking Illinois Dems

Rumors abound that the incompetent Gov. Pat Quinn is cooking up a deal with Dem House Speaker Iron Mike Madigan to push out the duly-elected but scandalous Dem Lt. Governor pick--latest, he stiffed his ex for child support while spending millions on his campaign-- and replace him with someone more air-freshened, and Chicago machine. (Like Quinn's losing Dem gubernatorial opponent Dan Hynes. Good luck with that.) And this surfaces--Blago's estranged father-in-law alderman Dick Mell backed Scott Lee Cohen in the primary. He sure knows how to pick 'em.

Ditto on the Illinois Senate race, where the Dems (and our president Barack Obama) are fouled by the stench of current Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias' ties to mobsters , Tony Rezko, and Blago, and his mismanagement of a state college fund, among other things. The pressure will be on Alexi to withdraw in favor of someone else. Perhaps Rahmbo, who is clearly looking around for a new job though he has lately had to profusely apologize for especially offensive language.

Of course all this unsavory maneuvering reminds Illinois voters of the Blago Bleepin' Golden Senate pick, the selling of the seat, the angling for a new job and plush benefits--which is why Sen. Roland Tombstone Burris is not running for reelection.

Then there's the timing of Blago's trial, starting this June and leading smack up to the November election.

Underlying all of this the state is essentially bankrupt. Unemployment stinks at 11%, above the national average--that's what we're left with--above average in failure.

And with the early primary (done to game the presidential primaries for then candidate Barack Obama) we're stuck with this smelly Dem hell for months more.

P.S. Oh, and the latest hilarity is Alexi's opening shot against independent Republican Mark Kirk in the Senate race, suggesting Kirk is a Washington insider--and he's an outsider!!!--when the Dems run everything there (and manage nothing). Well, go ahead, rerun that old playbook. I don't think it will work in Illinois this time.

We can smell a rat from a mile away. We have been living here.

More. Illinois governor race moved from Dem to toss up. Rothenberg.

--crossposted at BackyardConservative

Dem Lt. Gov Primary Winner Shocker: Pawnbroker & Hooker

Major media asleep at the wheel or looks the other way until after the election. And how about the Dem machine? Falling down on the job. Sun Times front page:

Election Winners Shocking Past: Pawnbroker who won Democratic nod for lieutenant governor was arrested several years ago for allegedly holding a knife to prostitute ex-girlfriend's neck.

Story. He told the Sun Times columnist Mark Brown about it months ago but Brown didn't take him seriously. Cohen says he fell in with the wrong crowd. Well. How about now. Tribune online this morning. These paragraphs from the print edition which somehow disappeared online:

Candidates for Illinois governor and lieutenant governor run separately in the primary but as a team in the general election--a quirk in state law that has led to some strange political marriages in the past and one notable disaster for Democrats. In 1986 , Democratic governor candidate Adlai Stevenson III bolted the party after primary voters paired him with a lieutenant governor candidate who was an acolyte of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche. Stevenson lost the general election.

The job has been described as the most boring office in state government and its occupants rarely have a meaningful role in policymaking. But the post took on new importance last year when Democrat Pat Quinn ascended to the top job after Rod Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges, impeached and ousted from office in January.

John Kass: A pawnbroker and a hooker story make Illinois elections into a political tearjerker.

This is Democrat Illinois, America.

More. RedState.

--crossposted at BackyardConservative

Conservatives did well in Illinois

In three suburban Chicago congressional races, the 8th, the 10th and the 14th a conservative candidate won over their GOP primary challenger. In the case of the 10th, the open Mark Kirk seat, conservatives had three candidates and still managed to beat the RINO.

The Republican establishment candidate for governor Andy McKenna is a sure loser, while conservative Bill Brady is in the lead, albeit a slim one over moderate Kirk Dillard.

GOP Senate primary winner Mark Kirk is not a conservative, but assuming he prevails in the fall, which is a good bet given the incompetence and corruption of the Dem candidate, this would be a Republican pick-up--and that of the old Obama seat to boot:)

Illinois' results continue the conservative/independent narrative begun in upstate New York, New Jersey and Virginia, and most spectacularly in Massachusetts.

Engage. Full speed ahead.

More. Interesting piece on Palin and the Tea Parties. As far as the suburban mention by Continetti, I would just make mention of the landslide loss for a big ticket tax increase in a district that has been trending Dem and went for Obama last time. It's the 10th.

P.S. Kirk's earlier outreach to Palin.

Tea Party Impact in Illinois?

It's a crowded GOP field for the governor's race.

Right now all I am prepared to say is that I will consider it a conservative success if the establishment candidate Andy McKenna loses in today's primary.

P.S. And maybe a sleeper--backlash to the SEIU/Coulson anti-tea party dirty tricks propels Dr. Arie Friedman to victory in the 10th. I notice the beltway Politico doesn't even mention Friedman in their take.

More. I just wonder how many Chicagoans feel comfortable taking a Republican primary ballot. I would think that would impact Adam Andrzejewski's numbers, despite the Walesa hype.