PEW’s most recent poll on “What the Public Knows” is confirming for me but not surprising. Republicans are more informed than Democrats yet on the whole, Americans are uniformed unless it comes to popular culture or ‘Hollyweird’.

Public Knowledge: Senate Legislative Process a Mystery to Many

The public has consistently expressed strong interest in the health care debate, but relatively few Americans can correctly answer two key questions related to the Senate’s consideration of health care legislation.

In the latest installment of the Pew Research Center’s News IQ Quiz, just 32% know that the Senate passed its version of the legislation without a single Republican vote. And, in what proved to be the most difficult question on the quiz, only about a quarter (26%) knows that it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster1 in the Senate and force a vote on a bill. The survey was conducted before Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown won a special election to the Senate on Jan. 19; Brown’s election means Senate Democrats can no longer count on a 60-vote majority once he takes office.

snip…Republicans More Knowledgeable on Many Issues
Republicans, on average, answered one more question correctly than Democrats (5.9 vs. 4.9 correct). These differences are partly a reflection of the demographics of the two groups; Republicans tend to be older, well educated and male, which are characteristics associated with political and economic knowledge. Still, even when these factors are held constant, Republicans do somewhat better than Democrats on the knowledge quiz.

There’s more unsurprising results when looking at the knowledge gap with young vs. older Americans.

Continue reading…..

PEW, American knowledge, American Government

The TN Republican controlled House approved a resolution honoring Michael Jackson yesterday. They should be so proud! Guess they all conveniently have forgotten Jackson’s notorious penchant for young boys and feeding them liquor in soda cans.

HJR773 – A Resolution to honor the memory of Michael Jackson, the undisputed “King of Pop”

Read through the resolution and you won’t see anything about his sexual predator activities with young boys. Nor any of his court cases where Jackson paid off the victims. History has been erased. How nice.

From Tom Humphrey’s blog:

The 51 votes gave the resolution just one vote more than the 50-vote minimum needed for House passage. The resolution now goes to the Senate.
Thirteen Republicans – including Casada and House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower – joined 38 Democrats in voting yes. Nineteen Republicans and three Democrats voted no.

Democrats voting yes:
Armstrong, Bone, Borchert, Brown, Camper, Coleman, Cooper, L. DeBerry, Favors, Ferguson, Fitzhugh, Gilmore, Hackworth, Hardaway, Harmon, S. Jones, U.Jones, Kernell, Litz, Maddox, Marsh, Miller, Moore, Naifeh, Odom, Pitts, Pruitt, Richardson, Shaw, Shepard, Sontany, Tidwell, Tindell, Towns, J. Turner, M. Turner, West, Yokley.

Republicans voting yes:
Casada, Eldridge, Harrison, P. Johnson, Lynn, Matheny, McCord, McCormick, McDaniel, Montgomery, Mumpower, Sargent, Swafford.

Republicans voting no:
Bell, Carr, J.Cobb, Dunn, Faulkner, Floyd, Ford, Haynes, Hensley, C. Johnson, Lollar, Lundberg, Matlock, McManus, Niceley, Roach, Rowland, Shipley, Weaver.

Democrats voting no:
Fincher, McDonald, Stewart

Democrats abstaining:
Barker, Bass, Fraley

Republicans abstaining
H. Brooks, Campfield, Coley, Dennis, Evans, Harwell, Maggart, Ramsey, Rich, Todd, Watson, White, Williams

Not voting (’E’ means excused absence)
Republicans: K.Brooks, Dean, Halford, Hawk (E), Hill
Democrats: T.Cobb, Curtiss, J.DeBerry, Windle (E), Winningham

Can’t tell you how proud I am of the House Republicans! Way to go in support of pedophiles House Republicans.

TN HJR773, Michael Jackson Resolution, Glen Casada, Susan Lynn, Jason Mumpower, Charles Sargent

Airmen from the Kentucky National Guard’s 123rd Contingency Response Group help to offload wounded Haitian refugees and medics from Puerto Rico National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters at the air hub Jan. 25, 2010, in Barahona, Dominican Republic.

Photo Courtesy U.S Air Force Taken By Tech. Sgt. Dennis Flora

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday.

For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Wednesday Hero, KY NG 123rd Contingency Response Group

These ‘insiders’ think they are going to attract tea partiers and the grass roots. What these yahoos fail to realize is that most tea partiers are Conservatives and that’s why they left the GOP. So, here’s a group of RINO’s who think the answer is to be Democrat light or as Glenn Beck likes to call them as the Republican Progressives.

From the WSJ Online – Republican Leaders Forming New Political Group

At least half a dozen leaders of the Republican Party have joined forces to create a new political group with the goal of organizing grass-roots support and raising funds ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to people familiar with the effort.

The organizational details of the group, expected to be called the American Action Network, are still being worked out, but it is expected to contain both a 501(c)3 and a 501(c)4 component. In simpler terms, a 501(c)3 can advocate on policy matters while a 501(c)4 is an election arm.

Republican leaders expected to be affiliated with the group include former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Bush adviser Karl Rove, Republican strategist Ed Gillespie, and Republican donor Fred Malek.

This will also go no where with the grass roots. All this will do is pull the large dollar donors from the RNC, RNSC and RNCC since most of the Tea Partiers and grass roots have stopped donating to any of these groups. These people are so stuck on their own narrative they don’t have a clue what is driving the grass roots.

American Action Network, Norm Coleman, Karl Rove, Haley Barbour, Jeb Bush, Ed Gillespie, Fred Malek

FUBAR – Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.

A story from the WSJ Online tells about the inability for NGO’s to get the food that is IN Haiti delivered to the people who are starving. As I had mentioned in a previous post, Obama put a USAID bureaucrat in the lead for disaster relief in Haiti. Here’s what has happened to distribution efforts when you have bureaucrats in charge instead of the military, especially in a 3rd world country.

Haiti Aid Efforts Go Awry in the ‘Convoy to Nowhere’

By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Scott Lewis hoped to deliver more than one million meals to Haitians on Wednesday via a 15-truck convoy brimming with beans and rice.

Instead, “It was the convoy to nowhere,” Mr. Lewis said. Well after dusk, the 52-year-old founder of a U.S. disaster-relief organization had barely delivered any food, other than some bags left at a missionary hospital, and a few more bags that got looted from the convoy as it crawled along crowded streets.

Trucks conked out. Communication with the U.S. military broke down. Traffic snarled the streets. Hungry crowds made handing out food unsafe.

It’s not typical for so much to go wrong on a major operation like this—in fact, on Thursday, the Army successfully delivered the cargo, in the largest single-day food distribution here. But a diary of Wednesday’s journey reads like an anthology of the obstacles stifling efforts to deliver aid since an earthquake turned the Haitian capital to rubble two weeks ago.

Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos for The Wall Street Journal:A relief worker stared into the night after the failed distribution effort.

Continue reading…..

Now you can to the list of FUBARs – Military Evacuation Flights Suspended

The New York Times reports today that U.S. military flights to evacuate Haitians who need urgent medical care have been stopped. Most of those flights were taking patients to hospitals in Florida for care which have quickly become saturated and overwhelmed. Governor Charlie Crist, in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, has asked the federal government for financial help in providing that care.

Lucianne posted this story today (Jan. 31), one of the commenters confirmed my thoughts on this situation:

Reply 26 – Posted by: mrduc, 1/29/2010 12:55:58 PM (No. 6227404)

No, the problem is that there is no leadership, no direction regarding rescue and relief efforts coming from the White House. I have inside info from a neighbor who was in direct communication with the brass at the Pentagon regarding getting aid to Haiti, that there is nothing coming from obamao to the generals on how to tackle the problems there. 11000 troops were sent in, with no instructions on what to do first, next, where to set up, no relief plans, nothing. This general said the whole thing is a rudderless rescue sham and a farce. So our troops are plunked in the middle of this mess, each outfit pitching in as they can, where they see fit. A joke rescue effort led by a joke of a president. Hopefully things have improved since this neighbor spoke to the Pentagon a little over a week ago. Pray for our brave troops and the Haitians. Pray for obamao, Psalm 109v8. BTW, where’s the presstitutes screaming like they did after Katrina? Sobbing Shemp Smith, Wimpering Whorealdo, anyone???? Why no obamao bashing by the LSM or the Black Caucus or JJ or Al ‘Tawana Brawley’ Sharpton on this travesty?

It’s a rudderless relief effort because the bureaucrats are in charge!

Haiti, disaster relief, fubar, Obama, USAID, US Military

This Weeks Post Was Suggested By Pet

Specialist Brandon K. Steffy
23 years old from Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan
178th Military Police Detachment, 89th Military Police Brigade, III Corps
October 29, 2009

He came into to this world a rather large baby, so big the doctor thought that he’d just walk home with his mother. Brandon was well mannered, polite, and tough with a contagious laugh that lit up those around him. In 2005 he graduated from Brimley High School and in 2006 enlisted in the United States Army, following a tradition of family military service.

He served in Iraq as a gunner from May 2007 until July 2008 and was deployed to Afghanistan in June 2009 where he was a canine tracker handler for Forward operating Base Fenty Kennel in the Laghman Province. He and his K-9 dog Maci were inseparable, working on tracking terrorists; Maci specialized in tracking the scents of IED making materials.

Spc. Brandon Steffy was killed when the vehicle he was riding in was attacked. His decorations and awards include the Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal-Campaign Star, Global War on Terrorism Service, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Spc. Steffy is survived by his wife, daughter, parents and his sister.

Brandon made people laugh and he made them cry. There was not one dry eye at his funeral, from every day townsfolk, to big construction workers to police officers; they all recalled Brandon, this “Gentle Giant.” They want everyone to know that if you never knew Brandon, then you really missed out.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com & Freedom Remembered

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday.

For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Wednesday Hero, Specialist Brandon K Steffy

It warms my heart to see the junk ’scientists’ of manmade Global Warming(AGW) finally getting some exposure to their hoaxes. Now, when will the IPCC and Al Gore return not only their Nobel Prize but also the money they were awarded. They should be prosecuted for the scams they have been perpetuating on the world and their accompanying propaganda. When will the schools stop indoctrinating students with their propaganda? When will the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) stop running their ridiculous ads soliciting donations for the demise of the polar bear? Yeah, don’t hold your breath. There’s too much money to be made by these ‘Big Non Profit’ scammers.

From Vladimir at Redstate – The Leaning Tower of Global Warming

Here’s his handy Recap of the IPCC scandals (attributed to Aussie blogger Jo Nova):

The Four ‘Gates’ of the IPCC

Let’s see. There’s

1. Climate Gate, showing that the peer review process has descended into a criminal farce of scientific malpractice …
2. PachuriGate, showing that the man in charge of the IPCC was chairman of boards of companies that profit handsomely as the scare-factor is ramped up…
3. GlacierGate, about the IPCC “accidentally” using a World Wildlife Fund report instead of peer reviewed science… And now…
4. AmazonGate, The IPCC fabricates disastrous claims about the Amazon forest, and references a document written by activists that doesn’t even support the claim.

Adding insult to injury, not only is that Amazon paper not peer-reviewed, its authors are a PhD forester and fire management expert (not a climatologist), and a journalist. The paper they co-wrote was for the WWF in conjunction with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Continue Reading….

AGW, Global Warming, IPCC, Al Gore, Climategate, Pachurigate, Glaciergate, Amazongate, WWF, IUCN, polar bears, junk science

I found this over at Free Republic and got a laugh.

Ya gotta appreciate the Chicago way.

Obama, SOTU, speech prep

This one has me speechless. This is the man who is President of the United States of America and he can’t even speak before a classroom of 6th graders without having his teleprompter!

Sad. Obama Brings TelePrompter to Speak to 6th Grade Class

If you think this is photoshopped, here are more photos from the speech.

Obama, teleprompter, 6th grade class

This is good from FoxieNews.

Pants on the ground, cartoon, debt