I have to tell you, this Burris pick is absolutely made of awesome. Just watch:

More fun stuff here, and here for more race-baiting goodness - and, really, by this point the entire blogosphere, most of which is by now utterly fascinated at the prospect of actually getting to watch the big ship hit the iceberg. Has it been mentioned yet that Burris has been a long time Blagojevich donor? Or that Blagojevich’s General Counsel (not his personal attorney; the administration official) just quit? Or that both Reid and Obama are busily writing the GOP’s campaign ads in 2010 for us by their earnest, but quite likely toothless, opposition?

What a way to start the new year, huh?

Moe Lane

PS: Hey, you know what would have short-circuited all of this? A special election. Shame that Illinois Democrats don’t trust democracy, huh? I invite the voters of Illinois’ Fifth District particularly to keep that in mind, what with the special election there to replace Rahm Emanuel.

Before you ask: it’s only because the US Constitution requires a special election for vacant House seats: Article I, Section 2. Otherwise, Blago probably would have appointed his horse, or something.

One of the few things I miss about television since I gave up my set was watching R. Lee Ermry make watermelons explode on The History Channel. On  his “Mail Call” series and a number of special programs, the Gunnery Sgt.’s favorite pastime is trying out all sorts of firearms from flintlocks to the latest rifles being evaluated as possible replacements for the M16. And his favorite target is the watermelon. Gunny just loves to make watermelons explode. So do I.

But you don’t have to shoot watermelons to make them explode. I’m talking here of a different kind of watermelon than the variety that are the old Marine’s victims of choice. My target is the environmentalist watermelon - green on the outside and pink on the inside. Yes sir, those watermelons are even more fun when their heads explode than the garden variety. There are several ways to make them go “splat.” If you’re going to a New Year’s Eve party tonight, single out a watermelon and go to work on him. He should be easy to find. He will be loudly proclaiming the superiority of his Toyota Prius over every other car on the road.

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Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said it was “time to act” in response to Israel’s tiny state’s offensive against terrorists in the Gaza Strip, calling on the Arab League to move “quickly” against the Jewish state.

“Aren’t these oppressed Palestinians Arabs?” asked Ahmadinejad in a televised speech. “So when should the capacity of the Arab League be used? The Arab League should act quickly.” He also criticized the United Nations, saying, “Why don’t you even frown upon the Zionist regime?” (The eighteen anti-Israel resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly in 2007-08 seem to have gone unnoticed by the Persian leader, as does the fact that over half the total number emergency sessions of the General Assembly have been about Israel).

Ahmadinejad did not offer specifics about the action he desired the Arab League to engage in; however, if his frequent talk of “wiping Israel off the map” and of the wonders of “a world without Zionism” are any indicator, the Iranian president would be happiest with a 1948-style Arab League war against Israel itself (though he would doubtless prefer the one-sided outcome be reversed).

Meanwhile, Iranian judiciary officials are threatening to set up a War Crimes court to try Israelis involved in the offensive against the terror group Hamas in absentia.

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If someone was sending rockets on my house where my daughters were sleeping at night, I would do everything to stop it, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.

That particular quote comes from President-elect Barack Obama, and I offer it up as a goad to anybody who was deluding him or herself that the new administration was going to finally rid the world of those meddlesome Jews Israelis (you can view one of the epicenters of said self-delusion via this fellow: no way I’ll give Greenwald a direct link). Hate to break it to some of our lurkers, but we just don’t do Jew-hating in this country. And while I’ve heard some things about the new President that I don’t like, I’ve never heard all that much about how he’s signed off on the antiwar movement’s dream of sweeping Israel into the sea.

Don’t like that? Who cares? I mean, what are you going to do, vote Repu…

(pause)

Actually, we don’t want your kind, so go see Zionist conspiracies in your breakfast cereal or whatever and leave decent folk alone.

Moe Lane

James Pethokoukis points to an item in the Wall Street Journal on Democratic concerns that the timetable for the stimulus may slip as Barack Obama’s transition team fails to deliver its requests on time:

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I have exclusively obtained for you, the RedState readership, a copy of Obama’s New Year’s Resolutions. Yes, herein witness the One’s soul bared. It seems that Jon Favreau is quite preoccupied with a life-sized cardboard cutout of Ken Salazar, so it’s a rare opportunity to see the One out from behind the speeches, away from the polished sheen of prepared remarks. But here, let me delay no further. Witness the revelations!!!!

Front:

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I’ve written before on the dispute over gay marriage in the state of New York, which has prevented Democrats from asserting control over the State Senate for the first time in 43 years. A quick summary: while Democrats won a majority of Senate seats on election day, several Democratic Senators initially refused to support their leader — Malcolm Smith — for the post of Senate President. Smith and the dissidents later came together on a deal to buy their support in exchange for a series of concessions — one of which was a promise not to bring up legislation legalizing gay marriage in the next two years. Smith was subsequently forced to reneg on his deal however, when the New York gay community rose up in outrage. Weeks later, that’s still where things stand. It’s unclear who will run the Senate when it meets to organize next Wednesday, January 7.

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National Journal features an interesting conversation with representatives of Oceana, an ‘ocean conservation nonprofit.’ The leaders of Oceana speak optimistically about the possibility that Congress and President Obama will work together to reimpose and extend the moratorium on offshore drilling, as well as to extend the moratorium on drilling in the coastal plain of ANWR. They also repeatedly return to an overarching goal for the U.S. –to reduce overall energy consumption by a stunning 30 percent!

NJ: Are you worried that the recent downturn in gas prices will dampen enthusiasm for the green movement?

Short: Yeah, to the extent that it removes the incentives for conservation, I do worry about that. But the United States did heroic things in World War II, and given the threat that we are looking at from the loss of ice in the Arctic, it’s not [too early] to resume such heroic thinking now.

And it wouldn’t take much. If we were to accomplish nationwide a 30 percent reduction of energy use through conservation, that would translate to an 8 percent reduction of worldwide emissions because we emit so much. You would see that in the atmosphere in the next year as a measurable reduction, and it would be a profound example for the rest of the world. If we did that, we would have the price of oil down to around 10 bucks a barrel because it’s so sensitive to marginal costs.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, annual energy consumption now stands at about 101.6 quadrillion BTUs. A 30% reduction from that level would bring us to a level of about 71 quadrillion BTUs annually. According to the same source, overall annual energy consumption last checked in at that level in about 1972. So Oceana and its allies want to turn back energy consumption — which rises almost every year — to a level last seen nearly 40 years ago.

But if you look at the population charts, you will see that the population of the U.S. was just 209 million in 1972 — in comparison to a population of 303 million today. That’s a population increase of about 35 percent. In other words, since 1972, U.S. annual energy consumption has increased about 30 percent, and population has increased about 35 percent — meaning per capita consumption has been very stable.

What would it take to produce a 30 percent reduction? Options would include massive rationing, an enormous price increase, or killing off about a third of the country. I’m not sure which one Oceana favors, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it involved all three.

From the dairies by Erick.

Poor, poor New York Times.

First their circulation goes to hell in a handcart.

Then the National Enquirer displaces them as the “Newspaper of Record”.

Then their stock certificates become cheaper birdcage liners than their newspaper.

And now this…

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If you happened to think that Governor Blagojevich’s situation might become more untenable once he’s formally indicted, it looks like you may have to wait a few months longer:

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has filed a motion seeking a 90-day extension to return of an indictment against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Federal prosecutors normally have 30 days to file an indictment against a defendant. That deadline would have been Jan. 7, and the extension would give prosecutors until April 7 instead…

In the motion filed Wednesday, prosecutors ask for more time because “multiple witnesses” have come forward in recent weeks and investigators have to review “thousands of intercepted phone calls.”

A U.S. Attorney spokesman says a federal judge is scheduled to review the motion at a Monday hearing.

Assuming an extension is granted, there’d be no requirement that Fitzgerald wait until April to get an indictment; it could happen sooner. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine that he would seek a 90-day extension unless he were planning to wait a few more weeks, anyway.

For Democrats hoping that the pressure keeps mounting on Blago to step aside, this can’t be welcome news. For the rest of us… pass the popcorn.

I’ve written before about the move by House “Blue Dogs” to roll over and agree to dramatically increase the federal deficit to pay for pork-barrel projects. So far the Blue Dog strategy seems to be to forget about balancing the budget for the foreseeable future in exchange for a vague promise down the road.

It seems that Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin — the chief architect of the Blue Dogs’ retreat on spending — has gotten the local South Dakota press to cover for her:

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We know the Presidential election.

But what other stories do you think were big this year?

Blago, if nothing else, has proven himself a serious narcissist in these past few weeks. It’s all about him. Well, he apparently admires Roland Burris’s narcissist self-infatuation.

Burris has named his kids, both male and female, after himself. There is Roland II and Rolanda. Yep.

Even more so, brought to us by Wonkette, is the already built Roland Burris gravesite monument with his whole biography carved into it.

At the top, in big letters, it reads “TRAIL BLAZER.”

Yeah, an ego like that suggests the guy wanted the Senate seat badly. He still had space on the marble for a few more jobs. I wonder how much he paid or promised for it.

Well, 2009 is nearly upon us. I’m not one for predictions, and I won’t play that game. But since I travel a great deal and have a considerable amount of experience (commercial, on-the-ground, and otherwise), it seemed like it might worthwhile to collect some of my earlier scattered thoughts into a single discourse.

I’m expecting trouble all over the place in 2009 – in a wide variety of guises.

If you’re brave and have a little time, continue reading below the fold.

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This should surprise none of us. Absolutely none of us.

Obama appoints Sonal Shah, a Google employee, to work on his transition team. Reporters uncover evidence that Sonal Shah is tied to VHP of America, the American arm of Vishva Hindu Parishad, a questionable militant group in India.

Naturally and predictably, Shah denied the allegations.

A series of e-mails obtained by Nextgov suggest that Shah was an active member of the Vishva Hindu Parishad of America during the late 1990s and contributed to strategic discussions regarding the group’s public image. Two VHP of America officials also confirmed that Shah served on the organization’s governing council in the 1990s.

VHP is an international Hindu organization that is part of Sangh Parivar, the Indian nationalist movement organized around Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. VHP has been condemned by the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch and the State Department for its role in the 2002 violence in the northwestern state of Gujarat that killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.

Okay, so Sonal Shah is working on tech policy. The problem is, and Obama should realize this, India and Pakistan don’t care what she is working on. The fact that he has put someone with close ties to VHP on his staff has serious and real potential to disrupt relations with India, who we should be getting closer to, and Pakistan.

Despite Shah’s statement renouncing the VHP, the issue has remained a hot topic in the Indian press. On Dec. 5, a group of more than 60 U.S. academics, many working in South Asian-related fields, sent a letter to Obama expressing their concern over Shah’s appointment and the increasing influence of Hindu nationalism in America.

Prashad also pointed to a 2004 speech by Shah at a Sangh-related event, where according to the organization’s Web site, Shah “exposed the hypocrisy of the Western way of life, highlighting its wasteful ways and compared them to the simpler but more genuine life in India. She mentioned how Indians would sacrifice whatever they had for their guests, but we in the West cannot even sacrifice a little time for them.”

She may be a perfect fit for Obama given all the distasteful people he has surrounded himself with over the years, but she could seriously undermine foreign relations by being so close to Obama.

I saw him on the news this morning. Probably $enator Roland Burris tried to defend his appointment by (A) playing the race card, (B) saying Blago’s problems are not his problems, and (C) acting all surprised by the backlash from everyone — everyone including Barack Obama.

The man must be a power hunger kleptocrat in typical Chicago fashion to get on television as boldly as he has and demand a seat in the United States Senate.

New York is showing maturity in rejecting Caroline Kennedy [who cares what the last name is, did you see she's a KENNEDY!!!]. Illinois is showing it has yet to move beyond its kleptocratic regime.

To wit:

Caroline Kennedy’s second act as a Senate hopeful didn’t get much better reviews from New York’s press than her first.

A New York Daily News columnist said “the wheels of the bandwagon are coming off.” New York Post State Editor Fred Dicker already put her on his list of 2008 losers. And The New York Times said “she seemed less like a candidate than an idea of one: eloquent but vague, largely undefined and seemingly determined to remain that way.”

Last Friday after weeks of silence, Kennedy agreed to sit down for interviews with The Associated Press and New York City cable TV’s NY1. Over the weekend, she scheduled another round of interviews with other news organizations from The New York Times to the Buffalo News. The New York Daily News noted she frequently used the phrase “you know” and “ums” during the interview, which was skewered in political blogs Monday.

“There has been some very rough comments,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College poll, following the series of interviews she provided over the weekend. “I have been surprised,” he said. “The welcome mat has not been out from everybody.”

I refer, of course, to Rod Blagojevich:

Brushing aside charges that he tried to sell Illinois’ vacant U.S. Senate seat, Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the post today in defiance of Senate leaders who said they would not admit anyone he selected.

It was an abrupt about-face for Blagojevich, who had said after his Dec. 9 corruption arrest that he favored a special election to find a successor to President-elect Barack Obama. But Blagojevich said he acted after the Democratic-controlled General Assembly declined to approve legislation for a special election.

“Please don’t allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man,” Blagojevich said while introducing Burris at a downtown news conference.

President-elect Barack Obama said in a statement:

“Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat.  I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it.  I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy.”

Alas, it appears that the President-elect and his allies will not be let off the hook that easily. And for those who think that the Senate can just refuse to seat Burris simply because they don’t like Blagojevich . . . well . . . see this.

And pass the popcorn.

This is worth watching–Dmitri Medvedev has decided he is sick of playing Robin to Vladimir Putin’s Batman:

It was an innocuous sounding comment in what appeared to be a routine television interview. But in the six days since Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, described his feelings about taking the oath of office in May, the corridors of power have been buzzing.

“The final responsibility for what happens in the country and for the important decisions taken would rest on my shoulders alone and I would not be able to share this responsibility with anyone,” Mr Medvedev told an interviewer.

For a normal president in a normal country, such a remark would have been a statement of the obvious. But to a select few, it was a “dog whistle”, a message audible only to those Mr Medvedev wanted to hear.

Usually when discussing such matters he stresses his “consultation” with Vladimir Putin, the prime minister and former president, who all but installed Mr Medvedev in his job and is thought to take most of the big decisions. But this time Mr Medvedev stressed that he was the single constitutionally empowered decision-maker.

Kremlin watchers say this assertiveness seems to be part of a new pattern, with Mr Medvedev appearing frustrated that, in spite of his constitutional power as commander in chief, he is stuck in a subordinate role.

“An apprehension is growing on both sides, particularly the Putin side,” said Dmitry Simes, head of the Nixon Centre in Washington, who spent last week in Moscow.

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I’ve spoken with a Senate source regarding the process by which Roland Burris will (or won’t) be seated in the U.S. Senate. First off, have a look at Rule 2 of the Senate:

The presentation of the credentials of Senators elect or of Senators designate and other questions of privilege shall always be in order, except during the reading and correction of the Journal, while a question of order or a motion to adjourn is pending, or while the Senate is voting or ascertaining the presence of a quorum; and all questions and motions arising or made upon the presentation of such credentials shall be proceeded with until disposed of.

The question of whether Burris shall take his seat or not is a privileged matter; the Senate cannot avoid doing something about it. This is one case where Senator Reid cannot simply pretend that the credentials were never received.

According to a Senate staffer familiar with the process, it’s likely that the Secretary of the Senate will receive Burris’ credentials from Governor Blagojevich prior to the start of the new Congress (and the objection of the Illinois Secretary of State is reportedly irrelevant to the issuance of those credentials). On that first day, the roll call of Senators to be sworn in will then include Burris’ name. Senator Reid — or someone else — will object to Burris taking the seat, and the Democratic majority will vote to refer the matter to the Senate Rules Committee for review. It is a foregone conclusion that the Rules Committee will recommend against seating Burris, and that recommendation will be affirmed by a Senate vote.

Assuming that nothing happens to resolve this dispute, Burris and the State of Illinois will presumably take Reid and the Senate to court — since the Supreme Court made clear in Powell v. McCormack that the Senate cannot reject a Senator on other than the straightforward question of eligibility for the office. And it is entirely conceivable that this fight could end with the court mandating that the Senate seat Burris.

And what would Harry Reid do then?

This could come to resemble Florida, 2000 — particularly if the Democrats lack votes to pass some elements of Obama’s agenda. And it seems that the only person in position to prevent such a crisis — the only person blessed with ties to all the major players — is Barack Obama. When will he step in to forge a solution that treats all sides fairly?