10.) You take a week off to protest in Wisconsin and your office runs better.

9.) On a snow day when they say “non-essential” people should stay home you know who they mean.

8.) You get paid twice as much as a private sector person doing the same job but make up the difference by doing half as much work.

7.) It takes longer to fire you than the average killer spends on death row.

6.) The worse you do your job, the more your boss avoids you.

5.) You think the French are working themselves to death.

4.) You know by having a copy of the Holy Koran on your desk your job is 100% safe.

3.) You spend more time at protest marches than at church.

2.) You have a Democratic congressman’s lips permanently attached to your butt.

1.) You pay more in union dues than you do for your healthcare insurance.

This was also featured in Lucianne.com

and the Indepeendent Womens’ Forum

The theory is when seeking re-election, if an incumbent is below 50% in the polls on Labor Day they are in serious, serious trouble.  The logic is since you’re already well-known by your constituents and if more than half of them don’t like you it is time to start cleaning out your desk and filling out the form to get your mail forwarded.

With President Obama and Congressional Democrats looking more and more each day like they are in way over their heads, this is shaping up as a November to remember for the Republicans. Nearly every senate seat current held by a Democrat is in play this year and many Senator Seats considered “safe” for the Democrats on Memorial Day are now tossups or worse.

Here is a list of the “Under 50%” club for incumbent Democratic senators based on the average polling data compiled by RealClearPolitics.com.

Dead Man Walking

• Sen. Blanche Lincoln 30.8% and trails by 28%
• Sen. Barbara Boxer 43.5% +3.5 but within the margin of error
• Sen. Michael Bennet 43.5% -2.5 but within the margin of error
• Sen. Russ Feingold 45.3 +1.0 but within the margin of error
• Sen. Harry Reid 47.3 + 1.3 but within the margin of error
• Sen. Patty Murray 47.8 + 1.8 but within the margin of error

If this turns into a “wave” election like we had in 2006 or 1994 all of these senators could lose. Being a protest election, the late deciders will likely break heavily for their opponents.

Open Seats with no Incumbent in the Race

The Good News for Democrats

Conn. D- Richard Blumenthal 48.5% is +8.5% on WWE executive Linda McMahon.

In a stunner D-Gov. Joe Manchin in a recent poll is under 50% and only leads R-John Raese by +6.0%. With Manchin enjoying a 70% approval rating for his job as West Wirginia’s governor, this poll is a real eye opening. If Raese were to win this would be an upset on par with Sen. Scott Brown taking Sen. Ted Kennedy’s old seat. For this to happen, the wave would have to be a tsunami. But this year anything is possible.

The Bad News

Every Other Open Seat Could Go to the GOP

• Florida: R-Marco Rubio +2.4%
• Illinois R-Mark Kirk +1.4%
• Ohio R-Rob Portman +3.7%
• Delaware R-Mike Castle +13.0%
• Kentucky R-Rand Paul +5.5%
• Missouri R-Roy Blunt +6.7%
• New Hampshire R-Kelly Ayotte +8.0%
• Pennsylvania R-Pat Toomey +8.5%
• Alaska R-Joe Miller +8.0%
• Indiana R-Dan Coats +21%
• N. Dakota R-John Hoeven +44%

The thing to watch for in the next few weeks will be which senatorial candidates the Democrats start throwing overboard.  With limited funds, any candidate who is trailing outside the margin of error will be at risk of being orphaned.

Labor Day traditionally marks the point where politics in an election year starts to get serious. Now is time when trends begin to harden and the pool of undecided voters starts to shrink.

For the Democrats, there is almost nothing to cheer about this time around.  The economy is floundering, unemployment is off the charts, the war in Afghanistan is not going very well and Iran is about to become a nuclear power.

Everything points toward a huge wipeout by the Democrats this November and they have no one to blame but themselves.

America doesn’t like the new laws the Democrats have passed.

While they may be swooning in San Francisco and the Upper West Side, a majority of American’s, 58%, wants to repeal the Democrats signature bill, health care reform.   While it may have been an “f**king big deal” to VP Joe Biden; to the rest of the country not so much.

The huge stimulus bill has not turned the economy around and the Obama Administration’s “Summer of Recovery” has turned into a late night talk show punch line.  The Democrats promised if the $800 billion dollar plus “stimulus” bill was passed unemployment would stay under 8%. Instead it soared to over 10% until the Department of Labor started “cooking the books” and arbitrarily dropping people from the count.

The Democrats haven’t followed the sage advice of former Pres. Bill Clinton, “It’s the Economy, Stupid.”

Other than the pork laden “Stimulus” bill, Democrats have not only ignored the economy they have actually made it worse.  The “finance reform” bill may make big government liberal’s hearts go pitty pat but for now it is a job killer. There is too much uncertainty about this new law and its evil twin, the heath care reform bill. In this environment, no business person in their right mind would be hiring unless they had to. Until the dust settles on these massive pieces of legislation and business people figure out how it impacts them, a 9.5% unemployment rate will be the norm.

The Democrats, with their default “soak the rich” mentality”, are actually agonizing over letting the Bush era tax cuts expire.  The idea of raising taxes during a recession has everyone other than frothing at the mouth liberals scratching their heads.  New jobs are created by cutting taxes to encourage businesses to take more risks. Raising taxes and piling on new regulations is the perfect formula only if your goal is to kill job growth in the private sector.

The Democrats have fought hard for the extension of unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks. This is only 5 weeks short of the maximum lifetime limit a person is allowed to remain on the welfare rolls. The Wall Street Journal and Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) have been highly critical of this approach.

On jobs, the only ones the Democrats seem to worry about are those of their biggest supporters. See: Why a Teacher’s Job is More Important to Democrats than Yours. A full one third of the “stimulus” money went to the Democrats largest donors – teachers and public employee unions. People have started to notice.

President Obama isn’t helping.

Mr. Obama’s wadding into the “Mosque” controversy in New York City was a political blunder of Biblical proportions.  A simple, “it is a local issue” was all that was needed to be said. By the leader of their party taking such a forceful stand in favor of building a Mosque so close to “Ground Zero”, this means every Democratic candidate can expect to be asked their position. With 70% of the people disagreeing with Mr. Obama they will have will an uncomfortable choice. Disagree with your sitting president or alienate a good portion of your voters.

Next was the ill advised contesting of the Arizona immigration law. In this case, a clear majority of Americans support Arizona’s right to defend its own borders if the federal government refuses to. Not only was this an embarrassing unforced error, now a growing list of  states – including Virginia, Michigan, Florida, Utah, Oklahoma, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, Arkansas, South Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Maryland and Tennessee – are considering or already have passed laws similar to Arizona’s.

If the Arizona immigration issue wasn’t bad enough for vulnerable Democrats, this week the Obama administration bad-mouthed Arizona to, of all people, the United Nations.  The London Telegraph summed it up perfectly. Barack Obama has bowed before the UN over Arizona immigration law. There are 47 incumbent House Democrats running in districts which were won by Sen. John McCain in 2008. They must all be banging their heads on their desks right about now.

Holding the House of Representative appears to be a lost cause for Democrats and with each passing day it looks more likely they may lose the Senate as well. The Democrats will troop out the only thing they have left. The tired old excuse about how terrible the economy they inherited from President Bush is. The problem, the Democrats have had the Congress for the past four years and the White house for two. The expiration date on “blame Bush” has run out.

For More Information see: Democrats Labor Day Senate Race Poll Numbers Blues

Voters fired another shot across the bow of entrenched “business as usual” Washington elites. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has conceded to insurgent candidate Joe Miller in the Alaskan Republican Senatorial primary.  Where political connects are usually an asset, in this race it may have been a liability. Murkowski inherited her senate seat from her daddy who appointed her to complete his term after he was elected governor. This created such a furor in Alaska voters passed a referendum striping the governor of the power to appoint a senatorial replacement.

Murkowski should have seen this coming. She was elected to a full term in 2004 but with less than 50% of the vote. Some of her votes in Washington and big spending ways did not sit well with her constituents. After high profile primary loses by Sen. Arlen Specter (R/D –PA) and Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT), this is not the year to be seen as “Washington Insider.” Confident that the great unwashed masses when be grateful for the opportunity to cast their ballots for someone with her connections and lineage, Murkowski sat on several million dollars in campaign cash during the primary.  Big Mistake.

About a week before the primary, Sarah Palin unloaded on her old rival Murkowski with both barrels. Not only did the wildly popular former governor endorse unknown Yale educated lawyer Joe Miller, she also cut a “robo-call” ad for him.  There has never been any love loss between Palin and Sen. Murkowski. Palin had swatted aside her father, Frank Murkowski, in the Republican governor’s primary in 2004.  The sitting Governor mustered only a pitiful 19% of the vote against Palin.

Palin, the belle of the ball for the “Tea Party” movement, has another surprise marquee win for a candidate she has endorsed. Much like Ronald Reagan before her, she is despised and denigrated by the mainstream media. Despite this, or maybe because of it, Sarah Palin has become a force in American Politics. Her endorsement turned governor’s primaries in South Carolina and Florida. Unlike Pres. Obama where Democrats are running for cover whenever he is in their town, Palin draws crowds, cash and enthusiasm.

To Sen. Murkowski’s credit, unlike other huge ego politicians with an ingrained sense of entitlement who have lost primaries, she decided not to fight the will of the people. Still young at only 53, this touch of class will keep her options open for a possible 2014 challenge to Alaska’s other senator, Democrat Mark Begich. Riding the “Obama wave” and running against Sen. Ted Stevens who had recent been convicted on corruption charges, Begich won by less than 4,000 votes.  He will easily be the Democratic Senator with the biggest bull’s eye on his back in four years.

Miller will face Democrat Scott McAdams, who is the mayor of Sitka, in November.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Tuesday ten states and the District of Columbia will be getting part of $3.4 billion in cash in President Obama’s “Race to the Top”. Ten of the eleven just happened to go for the president in the last election. What are the odds?

With the application process so skewed toward big eastern states many states didn’t even bother to submit applications. Vermont, despite being surrounded by other states with their snouts in the federal cash trough, didn’t bother to send in an application. “This whole effort had more of an urban than a rural flavor,” said Armando Vilaseca, commissioner of education of Vermont.

The reliable Democratic state of Hawaii was the only one to receive funding outside of the Eastern Time zone. The only “Red State” to get a grant was Georgia. New Jersey, which went for Obama in 2008 but has since elected a Republican governor, was the only Northeastern state to appy and not receive money.

The results are hardly surprising. Pres. Obama and his administration have routinely granted favors to their financial supporters. Reining in personal injury lawyers was never mention during the health care reform debate. Trial lawyers are the Democrats number 1 source of campaign cash.

Over one third of the over $800 billion in “Stimulus” spending went directly into the pockets of teachers and public employees – number 2 & number 3 on the list of biggest Democratic donors.

That the mainstream media will not report this obvious quid pro quo by the Democrats is embarrassing.

Friday night President Barack Obama made an unforced error.  At a Ramadan dinner at the White House, Mr. Obama came out in support of the building of a 13 story mosque within eyeshot of ground zero for the 9-11 attack. This is the equivalent of President Harry Truman endorsing in 1950 Japan’s plan to build a Shinto Temple in a spot with a view of the USS Arizona at the bottom of Pearl Harbor.

This blunder, which couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Democrats who are already on their heels with an election just 75 days away, will take the focus off of the issues they want to discuss. By this being mentioned by the president and the head of their party it will be impossible for them to ignore. This means they will all have to answer the following question: “Do you agree with President Obama that it is a good idea to build a mosque next to the site where 3,000 innocent people were murdered at the hands of Islamic extremism?”

What is baffling is why Mr. Obama even ventured into this area? There is nothing to be gained by coming out in support of something this divisive. The question is will this inflict long term damage or die down in a few days?  Obama and his spokesmen seem be doing everything within their power to keep the story alive.

On Saturday, Obama tried to explain what he meant. “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about. And I think it’s very important as difficult as some of these issues are that we stay focused on who we are as a people and what our values are all about.”

When that mushy comment only made the situation worse, White House Spokesman Bill Burton, attempted to clarify the conflicting statements. “Just to be clear, the president is not backing off in any way from the comments he made last night (Friday),” Burton said. “It is not his role as president to pass judgment on every local project. But it is his responsibility to stand up for the Constitutional principle of religious freedom and equal treatment for all Americans. What he said last night, and reaffirmed today, is that if a church, a synagogue or a Hindu temple can be built on a site, you simply cannot deny that right to those who want to build a mosque.”

While this is primarily a local issue it will have national implications. In November both of New York’s Democratic senators are facing the voters. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is running for another term and Sen. Kristen Gillibrand is facing a special election for the balance of Hillary Clinton’s term. According to recent polling both candidates were well ahead in their races, but this will cause them a few uncomfortable moments in the debates. You can bet their speechwriters are drafting language that wrap them in the flag while eating apple pie and watching a baseball game.

A place where this may make a difference is the U.S. Senate race in Florida. Gov. Charlie Crist who switched to an independent when it was clear he had no chance in the Republican primary, has come out in support of Mr. Obama. “I know there are sensitivities and I understand them,” he said “This is a place where you’re supposed to be able to practice your religion without the government telling you you can’t.”

Jeff Greene, who is running in the Democratic primary. disagreed with Crist. “President Obama has this all wrong. Freedom of religion might provide the right to build the mosque in the shadow of ground zero, but common sense and respect for those who lost their lives and loved ones gives sensible reason to build the mosque someplace else.”

Republican Marco Rubio whose insurgent campaign sent Crist scurrying away from the GOP said, “It is divisive and disrespectful to build a mosque next to the site where 3,000 innocent people were murdered at the hands of Islamic extremism.”

If this turns into a weeklong story and doesn’t die out after the Sunday talk shows, it is very bad for every Democrat on a ballot this year.

Being married to a microbiologist, for years I’ve heard the warnings. We are only a year or two ahead of a new drug resistant bacterium. According to The Lancet a well-respected British infectious disease publication, time has just run out.

In their rather clinical and understated analysis of the problem, The Lancet reports, “The potential of NDM-1 to be a worldwide public health problem is great, and co-ordinated international surveillance is needed.”

Be afraid, be very afraid. During the American Civil War and World War 1, more men died from infections than from combat. In those days it wasn’t just the enlisted men who were at risk. In 1901, President William McKinley died from a gangrene infection eight days after being shot. The same wound could have been easily treated with penicillin if he had been shot 3 decades later.

This morning, a report from the French news service, AFP, “Belgian man dies of South Asian superbug.” Unlike overhyped pending disasters such as global warming or over population, this could likely be the first of millions and millions of  people who will die.

There are many villains in this story and no heroes. The list includes doctors who have over prescribed antibiotics for years. Next are people who have gotten a prescription but failed to complete their treatment which allowed the bugs to survive and be immune to the same drug the next time. And, then there is the combination of bad government policy and drug companies making bloodless business decisions.

The government’s approval process can take years and forces pharmaceutical companies to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new drug. The problem, a drug resistant strain of bacteria may emerge during the approval process making the drug in development worthless. Plus, even if the drug manages to come out of clinical trials while it is still worthwhile, between the doctors over prescribing and the patients not following directions, the clock immediately starts ticking on obsolescence.

The drug companies are unwilling to spend millions of dollars on a new antibiotic since they are unlike to ever recoup their expenses before the new drug is worthless. Changes need to be made in the new drug approval process, and soon.

Learn More:
Are you ready for a world without antibiotics?
New superbug spreads to UK hospitals
Was the superbug imported into India?

Federal revenues for July totaled $155.55 billion while those wild and crazy guys in Washington spent $320.59 billion.  The deficit for the first 10 months of the government’s fiscal year is $1,169,000,000,000. This means the Democrats have added more to the deficit in 10 months then President Ronald Reagan did in either of his two terms.
To prove the Democrats are serious about spending, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called an emergency session to deal with the issue. Wanting to keep the streak alive of 22 straight months where spending exceeded revenues, the House authorize an additional $26,000,000,000 in cash to protect the jobs of the Democrats most loyal and generous political donor; teachers and public employees. (SEE: Why a Teacher’s Job is More Important to Democrats than Your’s)

The Democrats, led by Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are spending money like there is no tomorrow. If the recent polls are to be believed, for many Democrats that will likely be true. Come November, many of them will be looking for new jobs.

For years folks on the right side of the political spectrum have complained about what they perceive as a clear liberal bias in the mainstream media (MSM). The MSM has sloughed this all off as the ranting of Limbaugh “Ditto Heads”, brainwashed Fox News viewers and Tea Party racists. Recently Tucker Carlson and The Daily Caller (of which I am an investor) began releasing some of the postings from the “JournoList” – an online invitation only newsgroup of over 400 liberal journalists, academics and other media decision makers.

Foster Friess

When the curtain was pulled back, it was worse than anyone had imagined. The way the MSM conspires to shape the news to protect their preferred politicians while trying to destroy anyone who disagrees with them was Orwellian. After reading some of the postings, anyone who still claims the MSM is playing it straight with the American people can only be described as a “Liberal Bias Denier.”

When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story first broke, as a group they discussed how best to protect then presidential candidate Barack Obama. Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent suggested they pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

Fred Barnes responded in the Wall Street Journal:

Now, after learning I’d been targeted for a smear attack by a member of an online clique of liberal journalists, I’m inclined to amend my response. Not to say there’s a media conspiracy, but at least to note that hundreds of journalists have gotten together, on an online listserv called JournoList, to promote liberalism and liberal politicians at the expense of traditional journalism.

My guess is that this and other revelations about JournoList will deepen the distrust of the national press.

On the flip side, The Daily Caller noted this reaction to McCain’s selection of Palin as a running mate:

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story.

But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. The tone was more campaign headquarters than newsroom.

The Daily Caller also noted Sarah Spitz, a National Public Radio Producer, gloated she would enjoy watching Rush Limbaugh die:

In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed in torment.

In boasting that she would gleefully watch a man die in front of her eyes, Spitz seemed to shock even herself. “I never knew I had this much hate in me,” she wrote. “But he deserves it.”

Spitz’s hatred for Limbaugh seems intemperate, even imbalanced. On Journolist, where conservatives are regarded not as opponents but as enemies, it barely raised an eyebrow.

Using their own words to expose the venom and shameless political cheerleading of the liberal MSM has been devastation. Freely admitting, when they thought no one is watching, what they truly believe has opened many eyes and shredded their invisibility cloak of “professional journalism.”

Anyone who, with a straight face, still claims the mainstream media isn’t dominated by hard, agenda driven leftists is obviously a “Liberal Bias Denier.”

Business people hate uncertainty. With everyday something new being discovered about the implications of the sweeping health care reform and financial reforms rammed through by the Democrats, the private sector is not hiring. In fact, they are still trimming. This week, new applications for unemployment insurance rose to their highest level since February.

While analysts had expected a drop; first-time claims for jobless benefits edged up to a seasonally adjusted 484,000 for the week.
This, along with a series of other bad economic reports, has many on Wall Street concerned about a dreaded “Double Dip” recession. There is also grumblings about the way the Obama Administration’s policies may have actually prolonged the down turn. Recently a Washington Examiner article: Time to admit Obamanomics has failed has the blogosphere buzzing.

Unlike previous administrations which used cut taxes and suspended regulations to encourage job creation, Obama has done the exact opposite. The results have been predicable to everyone except a liberal Democrat.  By focusing on health care reform and new financial regulations instead of boosting the economy we are now in the longest recession since World War II and there is no end in sight.

With an election only 80 days away, this is very bad news for any incumbent and particularly bad for the Democrats. The voters will likely be in a “throw the bums out” mood.