Courtesy of an Illinois zoo. No wonder Obama got his start in Illinois, those damned people will buy anything!

The $15 pendant necklaces contain dried, sterilized reindeer droppings — sprayed with glitter — on a beaded chain. They’ll be available at the zoo’s gift shop, or by mail for $20. The ornaments are back, and 450 have already sold this season. About 1,500 are still available for $7.50, or $10 by mail.

Unfortunately, they aren’t able to buy a whole lot these days because the largely corrupt and liberal state is bankrupt. That’s the other dot, bankrupt, just like Obama is currently making us and the US.

You can check that out in a video courtesy of two Republicans running there I’ve posted on before - McKenna and Murphy. Thanks to Blago, we may have a shot at making some gains in Illinois. Along with the video, if you want to help them out, that’s the place.

Sure would be nice to notch some wins in Obama’s home state. The Reindeer-dung jewelry costs extra, of course. It kind of reminds me of Democrats in a few ways, now that I think about it!

While we’re all focusing on picking Charlie Crist off in the Florida Senate Primary, I think if conservatives really want to send the GOP establishment a message, target number one a high priority should actually be Bob Bennett of Utah. Just to clarify for those of you freaking out that I said target number one should be Bennett: the Bennett race happens before the Florida race. That said, we should be targeting more than just Florida. Bennett is worth picking off because he is an incumbent troublemaker. Granted, it was a poor choice of words on my part, but I hope you get the drift — picking off an incumbent has added value.

Let’s briefly consider some facts that can help in making this decision. As regards ”we should be targeting more than just Florida,” I thought we were. Was NY - 23 merely a bad dream caused by the terrible candidate Scozzafava was for us? For starters, we have to fight Owens at least to some degree in winning back a previously reliable GOP seat we’ve lost.

Does anyone believe defeating Crist in Florida is going to be a walk? Are we already throwing DeVore in California under the bus because the energy, cash and focus is needed to take out a popular state-level incumbent - never an easy thing in the first place, by the way?

Did Dodd concede to Simmons and does Toomey now have PA locked? Will Harry Reid continue to lead the Senate for the Democrats, or are those votes counted already? When are Portman and Kasich in Ohio sworn in, they both beat liberal Dems? Or haven’t we taken back Ohio, yet? There’s at least the possibility of some low hanging Senate and Governorship fruit in Illinois thanks to Blago. Are we going to wait and see if it falls to the ground so we can just pick it up? And I haven’t even mentioned any Blue Dogs we might want to take out while the timing is good. That’s especially true in parts of the South, where some GOP incumbents we like are going to face serious challenges, too.

The GOP was thrashed in the House in 2008. Was it only due to Obamania and are all those Dem incumbents going to do the right thing and simply step aside without a fight? Sorry, I don’t think so, friends. There’s a heck of a lot more than Rubio on our plates. And there’s an out of control Leftist WH destined to take apart much of traditional America by 2012 without a Republican majority in Congress to stop him. Is now the time to take out a Republican who won with about 70% in 2004 only to gamble on someone who has never run statewide, let alone won, and hasn’t been seriously vetted? Meanwhile, the Dems are looking at a moderate to run that Obama knows and said he would support.

Now, given all that, let’s have a quick look at this scourge of liberalism, Bennett, we need to purge. I’ll bullet point it to make this quick. Frankly, if this guy is such a threat to elements of the base it warrants putting a seat at risk in a year where we absolutely need to gain them, some of us conservative bloggers better get our resumes ready. It won’t be long before we aren’t welcome either. Or, maybe it’s time for people to slow down and think before they go a Bennett too far. Always did like the similarly named war movie, though!

His record is solidly Pro-Life, Pro-Gun and Anti-Tax

Voted against Bush on No Child Left Behind on states rights grounds.

Voted against Obama stimulus bill

Voted against “Auto bailout”

Voted against “Cash for Clunkers”

Voted against the second round of TARP after pushing to break Bush’s extreme emergency $700 billion request into two parts. He felt the $350 billion was enough and wanted to limit it.

Introduced an amendment to the Budget Resolution requiring additional TARP funds to be authorized by Congress and offset with reductions in discretionary spending.

Bennett introduced legislation with Thune to strip the Treasury Secretary’s authority to extend TARP beyond Dec. 31, 2009. The Bennett-Thune bill allows TARP to expire at the end of the year so Dems can’t keep using it as a slush fund.

Voted against Hate Crimes legislation

Voted against the closing of Guantanamo Bay

Voted against the Obama budget

Voted against FY 2009 Omnibus bill

Voted against Sotomayor

Voted against Geithner

Voted against  Sebelius

Will be voting against David Hamilton

Blocked David Hayes, deputy secretary of
Interior out of domestic energy concerns.

Passed an amendment to protect the charitable contribution deduction from being used to pay for health care to save American charities $9 billion per year.

Passed the Washington County Land Bill to set the precedent for how Utah and the West manage public lands issues. This was firm push back on extreme environmentalism

Introduced legislation requiring the Census Department to include a question on citizenship  in census forms for purposes of apportionment and worked with Vitter on an amendment to restrict funding to the Census Department until the citizenship question is included.

Voted to prohibit funding to ACORN

Net Neutrality - Opposes efforts to regulate, or impose industry-wide rules based upon speculation about what may occur in the future of the Internet. He believes that government regulation will only threaten the innovation that continues to thrive through the internet.

Opposed the fairness doctrine (voted in 2/09)

Opposed the “Medicare Doc Fix” or Medicare Reimbursement bill proposed by the Democrats this year because there was no offset or plan in place on how to pay for it.

Respecting States Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009

The Guns in National Parks Legislation (passed on cc bill)

Amendment restoring gun rights to DC

He supports a Federal Marriage Amendment to keep marriage between
a man and a woman.

If someone with the record above can’t fit under the tent, maybe it’s time to learn to enjoy the feeling of fresh rain myself. There’s no way my libertarian streak would make the cut, whether I live in Utah, or not. And it’s a potentially disastrous strategic move no matter how you slice it given the serious challenges we already face. I’m strongly backing Bennett out of nothing more than the principle of the thing at this point. There won’t be that many left in the conservative base if these are the types of standards allowed to be employed.

Blagojevich’s arrest on federal corruption charges and subsequent impeachment spurred a flurry of Republican candidacies. The party is looking to return to relevancy after voters reacted to the scandals that eventually sent one-term Republican Gov. George Ryan to federal prison by electing Blagojevich, a Democrat, over Jim Ryan in 2002.

And unfortunately for Jim Ryan, academia hasn’t exactly kept his political skills sharp. He was forced to make an apology that wasn’t, so it seems. Doh! What’s needed is someone who can win Illinois for the Republicans - not someone who wants another bite at the apple, and yet another, as he’s now lost once and screwed up after resurfacing. The reason I said the smart money seems to be on McKenna is because along with being a former GOP Chair, he’s now got the backing of the Republican establishment. And his resume includes significant business experience. That’s the kind of resume that reads jobs. And jobs is going to be what many coming races are all about, including in Illinois. Professors don’t hire people, or even much know how to. Businessmen do.

The worst apologies are those for which you ought to issue another apology.

Jim Ryan, who now is running for governor, has just issued one of those “apologies.”

“In the Cruz-Hernandez cases, prosecutors, police officers and detectives acted in good faith and still came up with the wrong result,” Ryan said Wednesday. “In the Cruz-Hernandez cases, the system and I failed to achieve a just outcome. And for that I am sorry.”

Ryan was referring to DuPage County’s prosecution of Stephen Buckley, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez for the 1983 murder of Jeanine Nicarico, 10, of Naperville.

The problem with Ryan’s apology is that law officers did not act in good faith. They concocted statements, encouraged witnesses to lie, withheld and misrepresented evidence, used a phony expert witness, let another expert witness espouse a conclusion he knew wasn’t true and engaged in other shenanigans that could be called a lot of things, but not good faith.

At one point, Fausta Wertz brought up the Palin treatment. Lowden appreciated the comparison, saying she was a fan of Palin, seeing herself as similar in many ways, including on political views.

In what I thought was a great idea, Lowden held an event outside a Reid fund raiser attended by Joe Biden this morning. Several hundred people showed up for the meet and greet while bringing along donations for a local food bank. Inside, Reid and Biden chowed down at a $2400 a plate fund raiser with reserved seating for 20 people in total. Slam!

She also acknowledged that it’s going to be an expensive race but said her campaign is up to the task. I liked what I saw when I posted on her previously. If you do, too and dislike Harry Reid as much as I do, you might consider offering her whatever support you can. I don’t have to tell you that beating Reid would be absolutely sweet!

She’s not a career politician, despite heading the state Republicans at one point and having won at the ballot box before. The race will involve local issues. Lowden pointed out that pre-Reid, out of every dollar Nevada sent to Washington, 90 cents came back. Now it’s down to 65 cents. Obviously Reid has become a careerist and a creature of Washington after all these years.

It does seem odd that Nevada is at the very bottom of Federal dollars coming back to the state from taxes when he’s supposedly such a powerful Democrat. It suggests he’s more interested in growing the Federal Government, than he is acting as a representative of his alleged home state.

This race should be as much fun as it will be brutal. I doubt it’s one that will leave the headlines come election time. Stay tuned.

So, what has Reid himself had to say about Ensign, regardless of what you want to make of his troubles? Nada, zilch!

It was part of an ongoing attempt by Democrats to tie Ensign, the Nevada Republican embroiled in an ongoing scandal, to Lowden, who is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

But Ensign still has at least one other friend in Nevada — Reid.

Through a spokesman Reid said that Ensign’s affair with the wife of a staff member, who also worked for him, is a “personal matter.” That despite a report in The New York Times last week raising allegations that Ensign helped secure employment for Doug Hampton, a former top aide, who apparently went on to lobby the senator’s office in possible violation of the federal one-year lobbying ban. Ensign had been having an affair with Hampton’s wife, Cynthia.

You got that? Reid, being a part of the old boys club, well, he’s allowed to remain silent. None of the members of the party for the most part protecting Charlie Rangel even care. But a Republican woman and former GOP chair who looks like she could beat Reid? Well, they simply can’t allow that. She’s expected to denounce Ensign right out of the gate, even though she’s more focused on her own challenges in beating Harry Reid. Real nice. So much for fairness and equality, I guess.

And leave it to the Washington Post to spout the party line without making much noise about Harry Reid … or Charlie Rangel. I looked at this race because I want to see Reid go down in flames. It looks to me as though Lowden might be just the gal to burn him. Keep an eye on this race.

Former Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden entered the race against Sen. Harry Reid (D) last week to much fanfare from national operatives who saw her as the strongest candidate in what almost certainly would be a referendum on the Senate Majority Leader.

But, Lowden is already running into trouble for her willingness to stand behind embattled Sen. John Ensign (R) and Gov. Jim Gibbons (R).

“I never called on them to resign,” Lowden said in an interview with the Fix last week. “I am supportive of both of them.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has seized on those words of support in the wake of revelations — first reported by the New York Times — that Ensign pulled strings to find his mistress’s husband a job without disclosing all of the details of that relationship.

“Sue Lowden’s support of John Ensign may have fundraising value to her, but it is a reflection of her own character and fitness for office,” said DSCC communications director Eric Schultz. “She has shown more fidelity to him, than he has shown to his own wife.”

YOUCH!

“Youch!” Nothing says that quite like Rachel Maddow, assuming you can stand to watch, of course. Hypocrite.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Not only is Garamendi a tax man, he has been one of the main players in stopping oil drillingoff the CA coast. The alternate plan simply relied on raising taxes on all current oil production. That’s not smart, especially with the economy such as it is. And we don’t need more votes like that in Congress. Nanacy Pelosi does.

His luck could swing the other way early next year if there is a change in the political makeup of the State Lands Commission. One of its three members — Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat — is expected to win a November special election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Garamendi had cast one of two “no” votes that shot down the proposed drilling. The governor’s representative provided the sole “yes” vote.

Recently, Bill Clinton took a break from the golf course to stump for him. That means this seat is vulnerable, as polls suggest. Garamendi is a liberal ideologue.

But if the South San Francisco location was far from ideal, Clinton delivered a pitch-perfect public testimonial for Garamendi, describing the Californian as an ideological ally on key issues such as energy, jobs and health care.

Then-state Insurance Commissioner Garamendi met Clinton during the former president’s 1992 presidential campaign, where the men turned a scheduled 15-minute chat into a two-hour discussion on health care reform.

The pair became friends and Clinton would later hire Garamendi as deputy secretary at the Department of the Interior.

Here’s Harmer’s site, again. In a close race every little bit can help put someone over the top. It looks like defeating Garamendi is worth it. He’ll be a reliable vote for Pelosi every time out.

For all the attention paid to the recent voting in Iraq and Afghanistan, one would think that the process for getting absentee ballots to our own service men and women should be simple and straightforward. Unfortunately, it’s a rather convoluted process and easy to miss the deadlines – especially if you’re deployed in a war zone.

For service personnel who claim residence in Virginia and New Jersey, this is a pressing issue, as the deadlines for requesting ballots for the statewide elections this November are fast approaching. A couple of organizations in Virginia, the Dominion Leadership Trust and ProjectVirginia are working to publicize how service men and women can vote in these two states’ 2009 elections.

The important first step of this process is to alert military personnel that they are eligible to vote absentee and give them the information to navigate the process for requesting a ballot. While both of these organizations are supporting Republican candidates, the information they are providing is a non-partisan step-by-step guide to navigating the process. They are simply asking everyone who knows someone in the military or a military family to email them this information – a small request to support our men and women in uniform.  You can use the links below:

Virginia: http://www.ProjectVirginia.com/military-vote

New Jersey: http://www.ProjectVirginia.com/military-vote-nj

The voting difficulties faced by deployed military personnel are not new – and cut across federal, state and local elections. As Peter Roff of US News & World Report wrote in May 2009, the PEW Center on the States found that only 26 percent of the absentee ballots requested by military personnel were ever actually counted in 2006. The widespread difficulties with military absentee voting in 2008 led Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mark Beigich (D-AK) to sponsor a bipartisan bill, the Military Voting Protection Act, earlier this year. While this legislation is a worthwhile effort, it is aimed at 2010 – so the rest of us need to step up just a little in 2009 and help spread the word to the troops and their families today.

First, it appears that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff may well be violating FEC regulations, while failing to attract the kind of broad support he would need in the Fall if he manages to knock off Bennett in a potential run-off. And it’s far from the first instance of Shurtleff playing fast and loose with money, while squandering taxpayer dollars pandering to illegal immigrants when he was supposed to be doing his job.

At issue is where Shurtleff’s money is coming from. Gee, lawyers and payday lenders who often serve the illegal immigrant community … who woulda thunk? Those aren’t folks who normally support conservative politicians, but then, Shurtleff has a history of being soft on illegal immigration, what with his pandering to illegal immigrants on the taxpayer’s dime and his ‘Aguila Azteca’ award, see second and third graphs below.

Back in 2006, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff addressed a rally of thousands of illegal immigrants. “Many of my fellow Republicans will criticize me for being here,” he said. “They’ll tell me instead of speaking to you, that as the chief law enforcement [officer] of Utah I should be arresting you. [That's] not going to happen.”

For years, Shurtleff has supported amnesty, opposed English-only legislation and has been known to break Utah’s Official English law by speaking in an official capacity in Spanish. [Shurtleff and Latinos Share a 'Pretend' Meeting, March 10, By Frank Curreri, The Salt Lake Tribune]

Vicente Fox is so pleased with Shurtleffthat he is planning to award the Utah Attorney General with the ‘Aguila Azteca’, Mexico’s highest award for foreigners. [Order of the Aztec Eagle, a very different bird from the American one.] [Pedira Fox Condecorar a Procurador de Utah Por su Apoyo a Migrantes, Hector Alvarez Fernandez Notimex, May 24th, 2006]

Here’s the heart of his latest financial woes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there.

Bennett told reporters that Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff “appears” to be using state funds for a federal race.

“It appears that there has been comingling, and if there has been it’s illegal,” Bennett said. “The fundamental question is, he’s announced that he’s not running for re-election as attorney general, but he’s still raising money for his race for attorney general. What is he going to do with that money?”

Shurtleff received much of his money through huge donations (much larger than allowed by federal law in Senate races) from corporations, which by law cannot give directly to federal candidates. The cash usually came from local groups interested in his local work as attorney general, ranging from local law firms to payday lenders.

Shurtleff already remains under suspicion of taking cash for favors given his prominent Koeber Pass issues. So, where is this so called conservative going to come down on any immigration vote? Has he aleady been bought off? One might argue the case, as opposed to Shurtleffwho, as with Koeber, doesn’t seem to want to argue any case when there’s a potential deep pocket for him involved.

Of course, not every thing has such serious implications where Shurtleffis involved. If nothing else, having him in Washington should provide some comic relief. Besides his well known bumbling, also see Utah to fight on line sex sales, and  Shurtleff’s penchant for call girls on his Twitter feed.

Still large, potentially illegal corporate campaign donations, bought off prosecutions and call girls mixed in with the perpetual screw up Shurtleff  might not be the next change we need in Washington right now.

You can say what you want about Bennett, what he hasn’t done is embarrass us, or ever delivered a loss in the election booth. Yes, I’m a conservative, there’s no doubt of that. But given the incredible need we have to retain and take every seat in 2010 to stop this atrocity in the White House just now, I’ll take a guy I can count on, as opposed to one who very well might blow up in my face and lose a race he never should because he can’t keep his hands out of the cookie jar as a state DA.

He’d have the opportunity to rake it in if he makes it to the Senate and I’ve never known Bennett’s vote to be up for sale. As a Reagan conservative, I still believe there’s a lot to be said for principle. And we have too damned little of it today in politics as is.

Make up your own mind as you will, but I have serious concerns this guy Shurtleff is just more bad news after bad news. And that’s not an opinion, it’s straight from the headlines of the Salt Lake City Tribune.

But what good is a conference call without some well known, high flying Democrat turned Republican consultant who knows so much about the issues. Sounds good to me!

The problem is, I recently interviewed Rep. Joe Wilson and also made this post: I Am Joe Wilson. Oh, and I also found time to note this item, as well:

Make Joe Wilson pay. And by pay, I mean beat his sorry ass at the polls and send him to the private sector. That is the only way to change the political discourse in America today. Because as long as louts like Joe Wilson can spout off and call the president a liar and get rewarded with re-election, then louts will continue to spout off. And we will continue to claw our way to the very bottom of the political swamp.

That was in this post, by the way: McCain Adviser, Gurly Man, Punk, Mark McKinnon

You might recall this otherwise un-noteworthy McCain adviser Mark McKinnon. He’s the one who threatened to quit McCain early on if he attacked Obama. I would have fired him on the spot and had one of the secretaries beat his azz before he left. It’s the losers like this we have to throw out of the GOP, not Joe Wilson. The silly sumbitch probably cries at weddings, I bet. Mark McKinnon … the Republican most likely to make you throw up in your mouth.

So, ah, … I don’t know. Should I call in, or not?

Good Morning - Given the news about the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act today at the AFL-CIO convention, I wanted to invite you on a call today with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), the ranking Republican member on the HELP Subcommittee, and Mark McKinnon, Workforce Fairness Institute representative, to discuss the implications of any “compromise” version of the bill. Would you like to join us at 2:45 pm ET today?

Workforce Fairness Institute

Personnel

Mark McKinnon

Mark McKinnon, former media adviser for President George W. Bush, is a founding member of the new online political and social networking community HOTSOUP.com, which is debuted in October 2006.

In 2006, McKinnon started working on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. In January 2007 he said he would quit if the general election pitted McCain against Barack Obama. “I will, however, still support and vote for John McCain,” he told the Austin American-Statesman. “I just don’t want to work against an Obama candidacy.

Sure, why should he care? He gets paid either way. Unfortunately, I don’t. I actually give a damn about more than just a six figure salary, Mark. Go feather your nest somewhere else, jerk. And the Republicans that continue to do this to us can go to Hell, too.

Insulting us by expecting us to carry your water no matter which way it flows is not the best way to make friends and build trust. Is it raining? Or, is someone just whizzin’ down our backs?

New York, NY (September 15, 2009) – Louise Burke, Threshold Editions’ Executive Vice President and Publisher, announced today that Mark R. Levin’s clarion call to conservative America, LIBERTY & TYRANNY: A Conservative Manifesto, has sold one million copies, a rare publishing milestone.  Published six months ago on March 24th, 2009, LIBERTY & TYRANNY debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, spent twelve weeks in the #1 position, and has remained in the top ten ever since.

Just as Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative articulated conservative principles in the 1960s, LIBERTY AND TYRANNY is the modern conservative movement’s roadmap back to its principled roots, and an action plan for returning conservatives to elective office in the years to come.  As provocative, well-reasoned, robust, and informed as his on-air commentary, Levin’s narrative has galvanized readers to begin a new era in conservative thinking and action. 

Louise Burke also announced the acquisition of world rights to Mark R. Levin’s next book, which will again be political in theme, through his attorney, David Limbaugh.  Pocket Books Vice President and Senior Editor Mitchell Ivers, Levin’s longtime editor, will edit.

Mark R. Levin, host of one of the country’s largest nationally syndicated talk-radio programs, is president of Landmark Legal Foundation.  His previous books, MEN IN BLACK: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America and RESCUING SPRITE: A Dog Lover’s Story of Joy and Anguish, both reached #3 on the New York Times bestseller list.  He has worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser and administrator to several members of President Reagan’s cabinet.  He holds a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law. 

LIBERTY AND TRYANNY:  A Conservative Manifesto
By Mark R. Levin
Publisher: Threshold Editions
Publication Date: March 24, 2009
ISBN: 1-4165-6285-0