The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 89-10 to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut. According to theAssociated Press, the two-month extension requires President Obama to grant a permit for the Canada-to-Texas Keystone pipeline within 60 days unless he determines that the pipeline is “not in the national interest.”

Obama had implied that he would veto any bill that required that he make a decision before it was politically expedient for him to do so. During his December 7, 2011-presser with Canada’s Prime Minister Harper, Obama put everybody on notice:

First of all, any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject.  So everybody should be on notice.

If you can stomach it, you can watch Obama say it here.

Obama, putting politics before country, tried to kick his decision down the road until after the 2012 elections. The Republican-controlled House didn’t let Obama get away with that and passed a payroll tax cut extension bill despite Obama’s veto threat.

Thrown under the bus by Senate Democrats, Obama again caved. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer indicated Obama would sign the two-month extension measure.

President Obama and the biased media wing of the Democrat Party are heralding the “official” end of the Iraq War.

They are neglecting to note that in order to get the Democrats’ nomination, presidential candidate Obama promised to remove all combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months:

Whatever nuance Barack Obama is now adding to his Iraq withdrawal strategy, the core plan on his Web site is as plain as day: Obama would “immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.”

As we reported in July 2008, Obama’s 16 month withdrawal plan was not realistic. To save face, President Obama redesignated the 7 remaining combat brigades still in Iraq after his artificial 16 month deadline as “Advise and Assist Brigades,” and declared his scheduled end to the war in Iraq on August 31, 2011

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The New Hampshire Union Leader, New Hampshire’s largest newspaper endorses Newt Gingrich for president:

America is at a crucial crossroads. It is not going to be enough to merely replace Barack Obama next year. We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing.

He did so with the Contract with America. He did it in bringing in the first Republican House in 40 years and by forging balanced budgets and even a surplus despite the political challenge of dealing with a Democratic President. A lot of candidates say they’re going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that, and in this race he offers the best shot of doing it again.

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Nearly 200 Conservative bloggers were in the middle of a training session on data visualization when Occupy Denver launched their “surprise” effort to occupy the conference. The protest was a major fail in no small part because the Occupiers announced the “surprise” occupation attempt on Twitter.

When the Occupiers showed up they were met at the conference room door by dozens of cameras wielded by experienced bloggers.

The attempted failed occupation attempted after a brief and very one sided debate. The Occupiers were outnumbered, outclassed and totally incapable of articulating what was the point of their so-called protest. After about five minutes of chaos the Occupiers retreated from the conference facility with only one of their sorry group being arrested.

You can watch raw video of the chaos below:

The good folks at Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies released a new TV ad in Massachusetts taking on Democrat Senator wannabee Elizabeth Warren for her support of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

You may remember that a couple of weeks ago Warren not only embraced the Occupier Party, but in Al Gore-like fashion, claimed credit for creating the “intellectual foundation” for the movement:

“I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do. I support what they do.“

Watch the ad, appropriately called “Foundation.”

Hopefully the Foundation ad will help inform Massachusetts voters about the the radical views of Elizabeth Warren.

As the Occupiers continue to devolve from simple aimless silliness to dangerous thuggery, mayhem and now disease, the Democrats will regret their shameless support of the Occupiers.

A year before the 2012 election, the good folks at American Crossroads released a terrific new video featuring Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to remind us of the importance of this presidential election.

In the video, Governor Barbour, talks about what a second Obama term would mean for America:

“[Obama’s] policies aren’t fixing our problems, they’re making them worse. And a second Obama term means making this malaise permanent. … We’re the greatest country on earth, and we can get America right again. To do that we have to win in 2012. … So come on now, let’s get this done.”

Barbour also calls for lowering, simplifying and stabilizing tax rates; cutting spending and putting a moratorium on new regulations; and keeping America’s military strong.

Watch the “Let’s Get This Done” video:

The Governor has it exactly right about the epic fail of Obama’s stimulus.

Occupy Boston, the Boston branch of the Occupy Party, hosted a rally yesterday supporting accused terrorist Terak Mehanna.

The U.S. government says Mehanna, 28, provided “material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” and acted as a “media wing” for al-Qaeda.

It’s one thing not to know what you are protesting as some Wall Street occupiers told Reason TV and the organizer of the Sacramento “demonstration” put on by the Sacramento branch of the Occupy Party told CBS13 reporter Tony Lopez. It is something else all together to rally in support someone accused of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

I recognize and will defend the right of these sad souls to protest, but I certainly question their judgment and motives. To someone like me, who was around for the protests in the 60s and 70s, giving support to an accused terrorist is little better than “Hanoi” Jane Fonda propagandizing for the North Vietnamese in 1972. Especially when the occupiers are led by disgraced “green jobs czar,” “truther” and admitted communist Van Jones.

A new IBD/TIPP survey finds 51% of Americans now oppose giving President Obama a second term:

• By 51%-41%, respondents in October picked “someone new deserves a chance” over Obama “deserves to be re-elected.” Among independents, it was 54%-36%.
• Half of Americans give Obama poor or unacceptable marks in creating jobs and economic growth vs. 24% who say he’s doing well. Among independents, it’s 51%-18%.
• The Occupy Wall Street movement, while directed at fat cat bankers, also reflects broad dissatisfaction among Obama’s political base.

The poll was conducted from October 1-5, and has a margin  error of +/- 3.3 percent.

The IBD/TIPP poll reinforces the findings of the recent ABC News/Washington Post poll that found that  55% expect Obama to lose reelection.

Using Obama’s own metrics, even Obama says his presidency will be “a one-term proposition.” That is something Obama and I can agree on.

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds only 37% expect Obama to win reelection. A majority, 55%, expect the Republican presidential nominee to win.

Democrats do expect Obama to win, but only by a 58% to 33% percent margin. Republicans, by a margin of 83% to 13%, expect their presidential nominee to win. And Independents, by a 54% to 36 margin expect the Republican nominee to win.

The poll was conducted September 29-October 2, 2011and has a margin of error of 4 percent.

President Obama was asked about the new poll results today during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

In his response Obama called himself the “underdog” and admitted Americans are “not better off” than they were four years ago. Watch the video:

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Van Jones resigned as President Obama’s so-called “green jobs czar” in 2009. Or as we put it then, “Truth ousts Obama’s ‘Truther’ czar.”

The Jones resignation was an attempt to stop the damage to Obama from the revelations that Jones signed the “9/11 truther” statement — which alleges government complicity in the 9/11 terror attacks, the fact that Jones was an admitted communist and video of Jones calling Republicans a**holes. You can watch a CNN video report concerning those issues at Right Side Politics.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, his extremist left-wing views America’s far left just cannot get enough of Van Jones.

In an appearance on MCNBC’s “The Last Word,” Jones told Lawrence O’Donnell that he is going to build astrotruf a Progressive Liberal “counterbalance to the TEA Party.” He calls this so-called anti-TEA Party movement an “American Autumn” and intends for it to be “just like the Arab Spring.” Jones warns us there is going to be an Autumn offensive to “take back the American dream” starting with a conference and rally in Washington, D.C. next week.

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Wisconsin Congressman, and Chairman of the House Budget Committee, released the following  video this morning, in which he explains common sense ideas about pro-growth tax reforms that are fair, competitive, simple, and that have bipartisan support:

It’s that simple.

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In the latest CNN poll Governor Perry maintains his lead over the rest of the Republican presidential contenders at 30%.

But the big take away from the new poll is that  Perry is now perceived as the most electable, with 42% saying he has the best chance of beating Obama next year. Only 26% say Romney has the best chance of defeating the president.

Perry – 30%
Romney – 18%
Palin – 15%
Paul – 12%
Cain – 5%
Gingrich – 5%
Bachmann – 4%
Huntsman – 2%
Santorum – 2%

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I have published and republished my remembrance of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. I don’t feel it is as poignant as are those of some of my RedState colleagues, so I keep looking for new remembrances. This year I found the recollection of the only American not on earth on 9/11.

“The smoke seemed to have an odd bloom to it at the base of the column that was streaming south of the city. After reading one of the news articles we just received, I believe we were looking at NY around the time of, or shortly after, the collapse of the second tower. How horrible…”-Frank Culbertson

Frank Culbertson (Captain, USN Retired), the commander of Expedition 3 on the International Space Station, was the only American not on Earth at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

This was the view he had:

Image credit: NASA

As soon as Culbertson learned of the attacks, he began documenting the event in photographs because the station was flying over the New York City area. From his unique vantage point in space, he recorded his thoughts of the world changing beneath him.

In the video at the end of this post he reflects on what it was like being the only American not on Earth at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

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After promising time and time again to focus on jobs.

After promising time and time again to pivot to jobs.

After promising time and time again to give a jobs plan speech right after his Martha’s Vineyard vacations.

After promising new fresh proposals, not a rehash of plans he has pitched previously.

After demanding time and time again before a joint session that Congress pass his [stimulus] bill.

After demanding time and again at a campaign rally in Richmond that Congress pass his [stimulus] bill.

President Obama hasn’t yet provided Congress the [stimulus] bill.

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Unfortunately, except for the price tag, President Obama’s big jobs stimulus speech was nothing new and all too familiar and repetitive.

It really was that repetitive. Obama used some version of “pass this bill” — 17 times in his stimulus speech.

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Senate Democrats gamed Republicans and saved their unpopular President from issuing a veto to get his request for another $500 billion in the national debt.

Last night, after Obama’s “pass this bill” speech, 52 Senate Democrats voted not to consider the Resolution disapproving President Obama’s request to increase the national debt.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress disapproves of the President’s exercise of authority to increase the debt limit, as exercised pursuant to the certification under section 3101A(a) of title 31, United States Code.

One Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), voted with the Republicans. Two Republicans, Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Scott Brown (Mass.), voted with the Democrats.

This was the vote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled to force GOP attendance.

If the resolution of disapproval had passed, Obama would have had to veto it to get the debt limit increased to $15.19 trillion.

President Obama will address a Joint Session of Congress tonight to present his new jobs reelection stimulus plan, which is all too similar to the Obmacrats 2009 failed stimulus plan.

A number of members of Congress let it be known that they did not intend to show up for Obama’s presentation. Concerned that empty seats would ruin the optics for the Obama reelection campaign videos, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled votes before and after Obama’s speech to force attendance of Republican Senators.

South Carolina’s Senator Jim DeMint, during his Sunday appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” explained that America needs Jobs, not speeches:

DEMINT: Well, I’m, frankly, very tired of speeches. I don’t want to be disrespectful to the president, but what I want to see is something in writing and that the Congressional Budget Office tells us what it’s going to cost so that we can not only read it ourselves, but the American people can read it.

Speeches, we’ve found, are not very similar to the actual legislation. So I’m pretty frustrated with the speech idea.

[. . .]

But if he’ll send a written proposal, I’ll give it every chance, in — but I’m not interested in his speech right now. And as the Congressional Budget Office said, we can’t score a speech. We can’t tell him what it’s going to cost or what it’s going to do.

DeMint even came up with the following video detailing the Obama failure to reduce unemployment:

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How is President Obama going to say anything in his big jobs speech tomorrow night that will make a difference?

Apparently he is not. Obama’s new jobs plan looks remarkably like his $830 billion 2009 economic stimulus package.

According to Al Hunt the latest Obama job plan stimulus includes tax cuts, infrastructure spending, unemployment benefits extension and direct aid to state and local governments. At an estimated cost of $300 billion, it looks like another so-called stimulus that won’t be any more effective than Obamacrats’ http://www.examiner.com/right-side-politics-in-national/the-obama-stimulus-predictions-vs-reality.

According to the Associated Press almost half of the $300 billion cost of new Obama stimulus would come from a one year extension of the two percent reduction in the payroll tax paid by workers due to expire December 31, and a new decrease in the portion of the tax paid by employers.

In typical Obama fashion, Obama proposes to pay for his new stimulus plan by asking Congress to raise tax revenue in later years.

As the good folks at the RNC put it:

Same words, same speeches, same failed policies.

President Obama, on yet another taxpayer-funded reelection campaign junket — this one billed as a preview of his upcoming big jobs speech, called for a bipartisan response to his latest plan amidst extreme partisan rhetoric.

Before Obama took to the podium, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa set the tone with profane, violent and partisan rhetoric:

We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner. It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war.

President Obama, this is your army, and we are ready to march. Everybody here’s got a vote. If we go back, and we keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these son of a b[*****]s out and give America back to America where we belong.

As if Hoffa’s uncivil discourse wasn’t enough, at a separate taxpayer-funded reelection campaign event, Vice President Biden referred to Republicans as “Barbarians at the gate.”

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At her big speech in Iowa today Sarah Palin took it to President Obama again and again, defended the TEA Party, spoke about her “bonafide pro-working man plan,” and no, she did not answer that bothersome question — will Palin run?

On President Obama:

• Palin reminded us that she warned in her vice-presidential acceptance speech that candidate Obama’s plan, after turning back the waters and healing the planet, was to make government bigger and take more of your money to give to others.
• Palin said America is hurting and at a tipping point due to failed policies and incompetent leadership.

On the TEA Party:

• Palin credited the TEA Party folk for rising up, going to the ballot box and winning an election victory of historic proportions.
• The TEA Party rejected the Left’s big government agenda — we don’t want it, we can’t afford it and we are unwilling to pay for it.

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