Between the backlash of the independents against the Democrats in Tuesday’s historic elections and the bad news on the unemployment today it is not surprising the Democrat caucus is losing the moderate democrat support for the destruction of our nation’s health care system with a government rationed, costly health care system:

A House leader says Democrats haven’t yet lined up enough votes to pass their health care overhaul bill.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland says the vote that House Democrats had scheduled for Saturday could slip to Sunday or early next week.

Hoyer acknowledged to reporters Friday that Democratic leaders don’t yet have the 218 votes needed to pass President Barack Obama’s historic health overhaul initiative.

…

Action on health legislation was slowed as senators waited for the Congressional Budget Office to weigh in on a bill written by Majority Leader Harry Reid in consultation with the White House and key committee chairmen. Senate votes could slip until next year.

No sane Democrat congressman in a swing district (and there are plenty of them in districts won by McCain and/or Bush) should suicide their political career with the Senate not even ready to vote until next year. Mad Maddam Pelosi (’we won Tuesday’) has surely lost her mind and the confidence of her caucus.

If the Dems were smart and listening to the people, they would shut the madness down and try and survive 2010. The liberal congressional leaders aren’t smart – clearly. It seems they instead will try to suicide bomb our economy on their way to political oblivion, being the radicals that they are.

Update: This is the best analysis I have seen of the mood in purple VA and how even veteran democrat congressman are now poised to be ousted in 2010:

Forget the freshmen—how about Virginia’s ninth district, home to 27-year-incumbent Rick Boucher? That’s coal country, though Mr. Boucher, confident in incumbency, has been playing a dangerous game of shepherding through his party’s climate bill. Will Morefield, a little-known Republican running for the Virginia House of Delegates, centered his campaign against that legislation. He beat the Democratic incumbent by 14 points. Mr. McDonnell? He won a devastating 66% of the district vote.

Read the whole thing, and savor it.

Update: Amazing – the liberal answer to holding the Democrat caucus together is to target Democrat moderates:

A few days ago, the left-wing activist group MoveOn.org began sending out emails seeking contributions to fund primary challenges against any Democratic senator who does not fully support “health care reform with a public option.” Now there’s an update: MoveOn executive director Justin Ruben says the group has raised $3,578,117 for the project and is thinking of new ways to punish errant Democratic lawmakers.

“It’s a huge sum, and the clearest signal yet that any Democrat who helps Republicans filibuster health care reform will face an enormous backlash from the grassroots,” writes Ruben. And now, working in conjunction with Howard Dean’s old organization Democracy for America, MoveOn is starting a drive to take away the committee chairmanships of any Democrat who fails to live up to MoveOn’s progressive standards.

The message is loud and clear from the liberals – moderate Democrats are expendable. Which means they are now free to vote their best interest.

As I noted yesterday the topic driving the electorate is the unemployment, which shot up dramatically again in October:

The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September, the Department of Labor said Friday in its monthly economic appraisal.

While the pace of job losses has slowed significantly since the peak of the recession last winter, the unemployment rate, which measures the number of people actively seeking work, continues to climb, and economists do not foresee relief until well into next year.

There will be no relief because the stimulus bill is a liberal fiction, government cannot spend any significant money in any short period to impact an economy it basically lives off of..

The unemployment numbers that came out for October were pretty bad at 10.2% (red lines – U3 – in the chart below), which was another 26 year high . When we look at the underemployment rate (blue lines – U6) we find an even more tragic 17.5%. (Click to enlarge)

The government defines the two metrics U3 and U6 thusly:

• U3: Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate)
• U6: Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian force plus all marginally attached workers

What is clear from the graph is we have passed the summer, part time job lift and are once again losing jobs. Not at the same rate as last spring, but there is no economic recovery for the the voters, and there will not be for some time. While the Administration touts misinformation on jobs created/saved, the reality is over 2,000,000 have been added to the EUC rolls, the last slice of safety net available from the government for the fatally unemployed. (click to enlarge)

This jump in unemployment came in the face of so called ‘good news’ on weekly first time jobless claims (still running over 500,000 per week!)

If the Democrats do to our Health Care system what they did to our nation’s employment picture, we are all going to be in for a world. of hurt. And it is clear the Democrats are heading into an electoral disaster in 2010 that will make 1994 look mild in comparison. In 1994 the one saving grace for the Democrats and Clinton was the economy had been turning around for 2+ years. That will not be the backdrop for the 2010 cycle.

The nation will now be going through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years with little to celebrate and little hope. And they will be turning their fear and anger on those who screwed up and did not make good on their promises.

What was driving the wave of elections in VA and NJ this week? The deteriorating jobs market was and is the driver, which is where the average American voter connects to the ‘economy’ in a visceral way. The crux of the Democrats’ problem with the voters is they have failed miserably on this matter.

I predicted all through the spring that the liberal belief in the fiction that government can spend and stimulate our economy would be their undoing. I noted people would see all this spending and no jobs for over A YEAR after Obama and Pelosi and Ried rushed out that faux stimulus bill claiming it would turn things around. I knew that if we went through Tax Day and Memorial Day and things were not getting better people would start to get agitated. I knew if the situation prevailed through July 4th the mood would begin to get ugly.

It would be obvious that if the situation persisted through Labor Day and Holloween that anger would start to turn to anger – and it did in most races (the one exception was NY-23 where conservative purity was being trumpeted as the higher priority).  Exit polls show that those concerned with the economy (and the impact a government take over of health care and energy taxes would have on it) pushed Independents 2 to 1 against Democrats.

This is just the beginning of the wave. The new weekly unemployment numbers came out today, and there is a reason Congress is rushing to extend emergency unemployment support – we are in a job emergency situation. We are not creating new jobs in sufficient numbers to offset the lost jobs. Every week for the last few months 500,000 people have submitted FIRST TIME unemployment claims. This week is no different. But what is really worrying is the growing masses of people who have been out of work so long they have gone through the normal unemployment benefits and now are clinging to the last edge of the safety net.

The program is called the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and its roles have been growing at a shocking rate ever since the liberal fictional stimulus bill was passed (click to enlarge):

Since the Democrats passed their naive stimulus bill over 2,000,000 people have been added to the EUC rolls! THAT is the undeniable result of the stimulus bill. Not the crap the PR propagandists in the White House try to push on us. America is fed up with their BS.

What did two generations of debt buy us this year? Fake job ‘created/saved’ numbers – see here and here for my discoveries. And check out this list of whacky and crazy jobs we went into massive debt to create:

- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
- $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.
- $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.
- $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.

More fakery found here:

Some Head Start preschool programs reported that stimulus money saved the job of every staff member who received a cost-of-living pay raise, according to their filings. Some colleges and universities counted every part-time student work-study position as a full-time job, according to their reports, which are published online at recovery.gov.

And some low-income housing landlords whose decades-old contracts with the federal government were funded by the stimulus this year reported a total of 6,463 employees as having jobs linked to the stimulus package.

It all stinks of an expensive con game (while Nancy “I’m Still Sane” Pelosi claims Tuesday was a big win for Democrats). Crooks and nuts in charge of the DC insane asylum.

The wave that began this spring and began to be noticed this summer in the Tea Parties across this country is only beginning to build. It was seen in the votes Tuesday, and even Gallup provides its usual understatement on the Democrats’ peril:

Gallup’s generic congressional ballot provides a summary measure of current voting intentions for Congress. This currently suggests the 2010 midterm elections could be highly competitive, and possibly a strong Republican year if usual turnout patterns prevail.

What if turn out patterns not only prevail from Tuesday, but expand? What then? Then 1993 will look mild in comparison. 2,000,000 Americans are trying to survive Obamanomics. Tens of millions are out of work or underemployed. And the Democrats deny there is a rising tide of rejection heading their way?

NY-23 illustrated an interesting decision path for the GOP. There are two paths available, and the decision on which path to take is up to the far right ‘true’ conservatives who spout such bonding terms as RINO.

If the far right can respectfully align with the centrists, the first path forward was illustrated in VA and NJ. A coalition of a center to far right can easily win big as centrists and ‘true’ conservatives come together to oppose the liberal democrats.

But if the far right is still stuck on purity and want to start a 3rd party then we have the second path. There are plenty of left of center democrats and independents who are fed up with the hyper partisan fringe wars. One party will disintegrate into two camps – the fringe and the centrists. Whichever party does break up will be perfectly positioned to beat both fringes.

Liberals are the smallest political group in America. If they take over the Democrat Party they will drop down to 20% of the vote in most areas. If the far right goes 3rd party they will drop down to 20% of the vote in most areas. That leaves 60% of the voters in the center for a center right GOP to sweep elections. Again, you can see this in the voting trends where centrists went to the GOP who ran as moderates and not fire breathing conservatives (and yes, I still count myself as a conservative).

It is all up to the Hannity wing of the conservative movement. They either work within a broad coalition and participate in leading this nation or they become pure and marginal. It is their call, the voters have made it clear which way they prefer to go.

Update: Michael Barone breaks down the advantage of a broad centrist to far right coalition in reviewing the numbers. McDonnell and the other candidates in VA ran as small government conservatives, shunning the social conservative image. And it worked with beyond expectations with historic landslides and a broad political realignment. I know which path I prefer, but as a centrist conservative I must admit either path is a path out of the current mess. I suspect a lot of the Tea Partiers are with me in that they want to throw the hyper partisans out.

Update: Another good analysis of why it is the centrists that control the destiny of any party and this country. Anyone still trying to purge the centrists from their party should be put on a political suicide watch.

I have been holding off posting on the election results to see how bad it was going to be in VA – and it is a historic disaster for Democrats. Not only did the Dems lose all three state wide races, they lost them by astounding margins.  With 70% of the vote in all three GOP WINNERS are ahead by 20% on average. McDonnell is sitting on a 22% win margin. Independents went to the GOP by 60-40. It is a crush.

This is not a local phenomenon. I suspect (and will post later) that Christie wins and Hoffman wins big. I will also now watch CA-10 closely to see how broad this voter backlash tsunami is. But in VA two things are clear: the GOP wave has massive amounts of energy (where McDonnell won he won huge in districts with large votes) and the Dems are out of gas (where Deeds one the voter numbers were pathetic).

A message is being sent to DC tonight. The Tea Partiers are out in mass.

Update: As I predicted Christie blows out Corzine as Dagget voters decide to not waste their vote.

But the big news may be in NY-23, where the Beck-Hannity candidate is about to be handed his head. I also predicted Owens would win if the far right went too far – and it looks like that also happened.

This country is fed up with the fringes. Conservatives running as moderates/centrists win, and the lone far right candidate flames out. I rest my case. Hannity – enjoy your crow my friend.

Update: It’s all about the center and independents:

Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R) is walloping New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) among independents with a 58 percent to 31 percent margin, according to exit polling in the contest.

…

In Virginia, former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell’s (R) victory was driven by his wide 65 percent to 34 percent margin among independents. Compare that to the 48 percent Obama won among independents in Virginia in 2008 and you begin to see the depths of the rout currently underway in the Commonwealth.

The center has spoken – listen up DC. Listen up GOP. Listen up Democrats.

Update: RCP blog notes Hoffman is toast. “True Conservatives” still in exile.

Update: VA sees down ticket move to GOP as many state delegate races go or lean to GOP. Yeah, this is a democrat nightmare, if you represent a normally GOP district.

Democrats better take notice in Virginia today. The purple state that has been trending democrat for years, some could say leading the defection of the GOP that took hold in 2006 and 2008, which went for Barack Obama in 2008 53-47%, is going to send a message today.

The state is going to elect a slate of center right republicans to the state wide offices, and a number of GOP delegates as well. And the margins are going to be noteworthy, if not historic. Democrats will lose the states independents in droves. They will lose Democrat blue Northern Virginia. They may even begin to hemorrhage african american votes. It will be such a vast shellacking only those in deep denial will say it was one candidate or just local issues. This state is the only race where there is no splitting of the anti-democrat, anti-Obama vote.

New Jersey will be the second race to watch. I said a long time ago the anti-Corzine, anti-Democrat wave is really intense and that Daggett supporters and undecideds will go to Christie in the end. Watch Corzine’s numbers for one thing – how small the pro-democrat, pro-Corzine vote is. I would be surprised if it went much beyond 41%.

NY-23 is such a mess it is all local politics and personalities. The only thing there to watch is the ‘throw the bums out’ sentiment, which could propel Hoffman into the winner’s circle. The nation is fed up with the Political Industrial Complex which tells the average people what to think, and then goes on to insult their judgement when they dare to disagree. The Political Industrial Complex is obsessed with the partisan fringe wars, where as Americans are fed up with them. We need new blood to shake up the old thinking, the old ways. We need rogues and mavericks in there pulling back the cancer of big government. Hoffman could easily be seen in that light. We shall see, whoever wins has to come back next fall in a real election.

But today’s message will be very clear – we are fed up with DC and their arrogant screw ups.

Update: The NY Times has a timely article out on how President Obama is losing supporters in Iowa as well:

Interviews with voters across Iowa offer a window into how the president’s standing has leveled off, especially among the independents and Republicans who contributed not just to his margin of victory in the caucuses here but also to the optimism among his supporters that his election would be a break from standard-issue politics.

…

“All my Republican friends — and independents — are sitting back saying, ‘Oh, what did we do?” Ms. McAreavy said. “I’m not to that point yet, but a lot of people are.”

…

A social studies teacher who saw Mr. Obama on his maiden visit here wonders whether momentum from the election is gone forever. A retired electrical engineer who became a Democrat to support Mr. Obama believes that the president too often blames others for his troubles. And a teacher who voted for Mr. Obama because she was fed up with President George W. Bush does not trust this administration any more than the previous one.

Reality has slammed into the Wunder Kid, and he is just not doing very well.

A lot of people (me included) are sending out the warning signals to those ‘true’ conservatives who botched 2006 and 2008 and gave us the liberals in DC. The WSJ now joins those ranks:

Saturday’s decision by Republican Dede Scozzafava to drop out of tomorrow’s special Congressional election in upstate New York is a potentially big political moment that could help to return the GOP to first principles—or could lead to internecine ruin. Much will depend on how GOP leaders and conservative activists respond.

…

But that lesson will be for naught if conservatives conclude that their victory is reason to challenge any candidate who doesn’t agree with them on every issue. The truth is that some conservatives are as bloody-minded and intolerant of all dissent as the hard left is at the Daily Kos. A majority political party requires a far more diverse coalition than the audience for your average right-wing blogger or talk show host.

…

If conservatives now revolt against every GOP candidate who disagrees with them on trade, immigration or abortion, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will keep their majorities for a very long time.

My previous warning shots:

Palin Is Not Far Right – More Likely A Centrist Surprise

Liberal Verses Moderate Conservative

Far Right Screws Up Again

Everyone Is Over Reaching On NY-23

Centrists Now Control Future Of Obamacare

OK, I am a huge Palin fan who is stymied as to what this is all about:

“Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote to share our principles,” the former Alaska governor says in the call, which was provided to CNN by one Democrat who recorded it. “The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don’t take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too.”

No mention of McDonnell, which is fine. I prefer she endorse the entire swath of GOP candidates who are going to knock out Democrats large and small across the state tomorrow in an undeniable backlash against the DC liberals in Congress and the White House. She surely is not supporting Deeds!

But this race is over, not sure what these calls do other than get the anti-Dem crowd out in vast numbers. Once the damage is tallied in VA it will be crystal clear this was not just an isolated race or one candidate. It is the first warning sign of a tsunami heading for the Democrat Party.

Is Palin trying to associate herself with this movement? I hope so. But everyone must remember this movement will not be co-opted by any one group. This is not the far right rising, this is not the centrists rising, this is not the GOP rising. This is America rising in opposition to liberal democrats – and that is plenty enough.

The liberal media is pretty savvy, and knows that to derail Sarah Palin in 2012 they need to brand her a far right zealot. As I noted before, everyone is blowing the NY-23 debacle out of all proportions. The Scozzafava selection was a dumb back room decision by GOP party elites to try and catch the Obama wave. In this all conservatives can agree. She fails two key tenets of conservatism and the most basic level: pro abortion and pro failed stimulus packaged.

However, I tend to believe it is better to help people understand why these are mistaken positions and bring them into the fold than pillory them and create enemies. That’s centrist thinking,  versus far right rage against reality. But Hoffman is not indicative of anything than what can come from political mistakes. He is not the harbinger of the far right rising to power, and he is not Sarah Palin.

Palin is right to define what is too far left and what is not. She is also right (and has a history of this) of opposing political machinery making decisions for We The People. This is common ground we can all agree on. It should not be a shock that conservatives agree on more than they disagree (Duh, that’s why we claim to be conservatives). But Palin has been a voice of moderate and respectful opposition. I don’t think (and I hope) she does not become a ‘true’ conservative, because that will cost her the legions of centrists who support her for being an average American taking on the corruption and decay of DC.

The far right would love to ‘own’ her, so they could make sure she doesn’t poison the GOP with any filthy centrists – like her 2008 running mate who made brought her onto the national stage. So the far right agrees when the far left media tries to tag her as a darling of the far right.

Soon Sarah will have to decide who she is and who she wants to fight for. Will it be for the far right, or will it be for the center-right to far right (where there is common ground). It can be nice to be wanted, but it can also be a royal pain.

Update: Updated with link to LA Times article (thanks NB)

Update: Jay Cost at RCP has a coincidentally timed and similar post on the current political situation - end update

The last few years have been the battle of the extreme views and their respective denunciation by America. After rallying together from the ashes of 9-11 to take change the course of humanity and turn the Muslim Street away from radical Islamo Fascism, our nation began to splinter once again into the far left versus far right zero sum game. The first to lose was the far right (not President Bush, who racked up significant policy wins and turned the tide in Iraq) during the 2006 and 2008 elections.

The ‘true’ conservatives went beyond what was solid political ‘common ground’ with centrist America and the GOP paid the price. Considering these people claim to abhor government running peoples’ lives, they do an awful lot of it telling people what to think, how to act and what is ‘correct’ – along with a hefty dose of name calling (e.g., RINO). It is no wonder the electorate was turned off.

In comes the Democrats – run by their dinosaur-era liberal leaders. They talked about common ground (who doesn’t want cheaper and more accessible health care?) but they voted socialist boondoggles. Instead of across the board tax cuts to allow We The People to keep more of our own hard earned money to spend and invest as we needed, they confiscated our money and blew it on sluggish, wasteful government programs. No jobs stimulated, but two generations of debt racked up. Now they want to destroy our health care system and give us government rationed health care (and we can see how that is going to end up).

The liberals have succumbed to the same failure the far right conservatives did. They are not listening to We The People and they are calling us derogatory names when we do accept their far left policies (even after they have failed spectacularly). They will be getting an ear full this election year and next.

But we still have the problem of which path to go. Surprisingly an article in the LA Times provides and answer using two operating state systems to identify the “do’s” and “don’ts” this nation will accept in defining the future’s solid political common ground:

In America’s federal system, some states, such as California, offer residents a “package deal” that bundles numerous and ambitious public benefits with the high taxes needed to pay for them. Other states, such as Texas, offer packages combining modest benefits and low taxes. These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over what it means to get the size and scope of government right.

…

Overall, the Census Bureau’s latest data show that state and local government expenditures for all purposes in 2005-06 were 46.8% higher in California than in Texas: $10,070 per person compared with $6,858. Only three states and the District of Columbia saw higher per capita government outlays than California, while those expenditures in Texas were lower than in all but seven states. California ranked 10th in overall taxes levied by state and local governments, on a per capita basis, while Texas, one of only seven states with no individual income tax, was 38th.

…

These folks pulling up stakes and driving U-Haul trucks across state lines understand a reality the defenders of the high-benefit/high-tax model must confront: All things being equal, everyone would rather pay low taxes than high ones. The high-benefit/high-tax model can work only if things are demonstrably not equal — if the public goods purchased by the high taxes far surpass the quality, quantity and impact of those available to people who live in states with low taxes.

You can guess which state is providing the better services overall, and which has the better economy and potential for a great life across most of the people (in CA it seems only the far left rich are allowed a good life).

Read the whole article, there does arise a picture of common ground:

• Low Taxes and Minimal Regulations – the government needs to stop playing social engineer. That means stop with the focused tax incentives, stop with the punitive tax penalties, stop trying to dictate what is good or bad and stick with managing what is illegal (all else being legal). Do the minimum from government.
• Close Down The Trial Lawyers – stop these leaches from sucking the blood out of the nation’s efforts and good intentions. No more million dollar suits for failing to (a) be omnipotent and (b) stopping some damn fool from proving Darwin right. If a parent allows his kid to die sucking on a balloon that is the parent’s fault, not the balloon manufacturers. And definitely get them the hell out of medicine – if they want to play THEY PAY when they lose.
• Provide For The National Defense - protect the people from outside threats, and when you get into a war finish it. Never lose because some weak kneed news outlet starts raising the white flag. That is not their responsibility nor their decision
• Keep Faith Out Of Public Policy - This is not the same as keeping faith out of the public square, I think that needs to be just the opposite (and is coming next). That means no Creationism in school (it is not a science and only the scientifically illiterate would claim otherwise). That also means no Global Warming policies until that near busted hypothesis survives honest and open scrutiny. Disband the IPCC now, and let real scientists and engineers and others who know the material debate it. No more Al Gores pretending to have PhD’s. He and Michael Moore are out of this debate because they don’t have the education and experiences to grasp the debate.
• Allow Personal Expression Of Religious Beliefs - We will never get to know each other unless we can share our religious views, teachings and beliefs to others. The constitution provides for religious freedom and free speech. That means no one can close down a manger display or topple a cross. Tolerance means being able to withstand outside views being expressed, it does not mean shutting down views. Government can only ensure everyone can express their views. They cannot fund the expression of religion and they cannot shut it down (if someone cannot afford their version of a manger, too bad, that cannot limit others who can).
• Expand Education options and competition: If anything can be learned from the last 50 years it is the public education in this nation is broken. Unions cannot hold our children’s education hostage. Unionizing is OK to a point, but remember education (and government) has to organized groups at the table. In education one group is the unions, the other is the tax paying parents. The parents have more on the line than the unions, so they get a bigger say – period.

There are probably more, but let’s start small and with something people can agree on. No efforts to punish gays or immigrants. No take over of medicine or banning abortions outright. Both sides need to back off a lot. We need to find common ground and stop kicking up all our differences as if they are poison. They are not. Being religious is not poison. Not being religious is not poison.

It is not always both ways though. Being homosexual is not poison and being pro military is not poison. However, being anti-gay to the extreme, or being anti-military to the extreme, that is poison. You don’t have to chose the same life or beliefs as other Americans – you just have to respect them and honor their choices for themselves. We don’t need nor want the busy-body fringes. We want our center-right nation back.

Is it really that hard for the immature far right to show a modicum of respect and allow people to fix a mistake without all the invective and arrogance? Apparently, yes it is.

Dede Scozzafava did the GOP a favor by realizing she was not what the voters wanted and allowing conservativce Hoffman to run ‘unopposed’ against the democrat Owens. But the lack maturity from the far right has not just pushed Scozzafava out of the way, they pushed her all the way into the Democrat’s hands.

If Hoffman loses Tuesday it is because of the same scorched Earth tactics from the far right that gave us Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Even if he ekes win, it will in spite of the arrogant ‘true’ right. This country is being ruined by fringe fanatics.

Story after story after story have America experiencing its first case of Obamacare – up close and personal. As I noted the other day, the US Administration KNEW damn well what state the disbursement of swine flu vaccines was in, but they pulled the “PANIC” button anyway, more than likely to create a ground swell of support for the liberal health care system take over now in Congress.

But it probably backfired on these naive and inexperienced liberals trying to come to grips with governing, as people ran to get the limited number of vaccines available – showcasing what our future health care system will look like under the government rationed health care plans now in Congress.

Story 1:

The changes were supposed to discourage people from lining up on school property. Instead, they camped out nearby and were not allowed on site until 30 minutes prior to the clinic opening. Even then, only 1,000 vaccines were to be distributed.

“Then we are going to be giving out tickets– numbered tickets– so when we hit a thousand in each one of those schools, anyone after that will be turned away,” explained Tillman. “There will not be anymore nasal spray given to them.”

Wednesday’s clinics in Montgomery County were held at Rockville High School in Rockville, Northwood High School in Silver Spring, and Northwest High School in Germantown from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., but all three locations were totally out of the vaccine by 7 p.m. Many people were sent home upon arrival.

Story 2:

Los Angeles County’s free H1N1 flu clinics opened last week amid public health officials’ promises to aggressively vaccinate people at highest risk, especially the uninsured. Instead, overwhelmed clinic staff began vaccinating many people who were not supposed to be first in line for protection, officials said Tuesday.

“We thought it was important to get to as many people as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, the county’s director of public health. “We were assuming that the private sector was going to be getting a lot more vaccine a lot faster than they did.”

Fielding conceded that county officials failed to conserve vaccine supplies early on, unwilling to turn away those who had traveled and waited in line. By Tuesday, they faced a vaccine shortage, with only enough doses to stay open through Nov. 4 instead of the planned Nov. 8.

Story 3:

Thousands of Lake County residents waited in long lines Thursday to get H1N1 swine flu shots at five different flu shot locations throughout the county. County officials acknowledged they will likely run out of vaccine on Friday or Saturday because of the high demand, but said additional clinics will be scheduled once additional vaccine arrives.

Story 4:

The halls of the Lake County Government Center resembled a refugee camp, as hundreds of children and their parents crowded the hallways to wait for flu shots from the Lake County Health Department.

I could go on and on. This is the current administration’s mess, no going to the Blame Czar, President Bush. America is getting a good look at life under government run and rationed health care.

NY-23 is an interesting case of one party’s political machinery screwing up, another party’s hopes being dashed, and the electorate fed up with both. But it is not a resurgence of the far right.

Dede Scozzafava was a lame attempt by the GOP party leaders to catch some Obama fever. She is so far left on social issues she could and should be a liberal, except she opposes intrusive government. If Obama and the Dems had stayed a more central course and stayed on their electoral wave, she might have been the best hope to hold  seat in a still rising tide of Democrats.

But the liberal fools in DC did not set a centrist policy course, and instead went far left.  There is now a waning Democrat tide. In comes the rogue candidate who challenges both status quo parties – and low and behold he is a shoe in. NY-23 represents are more right district than the nation, Hoffman reflects his district. He does not reflect the nation.

This actually is not very different than the Lieberman case in many ways. The party apparatus throws in the wrong candidate and a 3rd party comes in to be the message from the people they are the ones who will chose.. In the Lieberman case he, the independent, was the centrist. In this case it could be argued there was only left and right – no center.

There is no way Scozzafava is a typical centrist. But that is not how the far right will see it. They will throw this in everyone’s faces as if their time in political exile is over. Too bad McDonnell in VA, Christie in NJ and  a dozen other state candidates don’t fit their fantasy. This was a fluke, not a wave.

The truth is the nation wants the bums thrown out – as seen by this Fox News Poll:

If members of Congress were up for a job review right now — instead of a year from now — the ranks of the unemployed would swell to an even higher level. Americans place a lot of the blame for conditions in the country on Congress and, because of that, about two-thirds want to “throw them out” of office, according to the latest FOX News poll.

It is very important that the establishment conservatives remember they were the bums being thrown out only 3 years ago. The fact Hoffman (who I do prefer) will get in is not an indication of their return to favor. It is still only a reflection of the fact the Dems are joining the GOP in the dog house.

Overplay this at your own risk – it is easy fodder for ailing Democrats. America is fine with this result because it is a center-right nation (note the equality in ‘center’ and ‘right’). But try and label all center-right folks as  Scozzafava’s and you will find that dog house has a long lease on it. The best response is the people are speaking. The worst response is name calling.

Update: This is the big story of the election, not just NY-23 and its screwed up special election:

For years, Republicans were able to win in Virginia by driving up turnout within their base. But as their proportion of the electorate has dwindled, many in the party have said changing times demand that they adopt a more centrist message to appeal to voters outside the party. McDonnell has heeded that advice, making himself attractive to independents such as David Grimes, 43, a teacher from Fairfax County who supports abortion rights and backed Democrat Timothy M. Kaine for governor four years ago.

…

Sixty-one percent of self-described independents in a recent Washington Post poll of likely voters responded that they will cast their ballots for McDonnell, helping him secure a comfortable 11-point advantage over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds. Those unaffiliated voters make up more than one-third of McDonnell’s supporters, and in Northern Virginia such voters have responded well to his message about taxes, jobs and the economy.

This is how you win state wide and nation wide. Why the fringes are focused on the special election in one very conservative NY district is beyond me. But it would seem many are grasping for green shoots – fictional green shoots.

One of the well connected Islamo Fascists that was on the inside of the Hamburg cell of al Qaeda, which in turn became the 9-11 highjackers, is Said Bahaji – a German citizen of Moroccan decent.

He came to Hamburg in 1995. He enrolled in an electrical engineering program at a technical university in 1996. He spent five months in the German army and then received a medical discharge. He lived in a student home during the weekdays and he spent weekends with his aunt, Barbara Arens. Both of them loved computers, and he called her his “high-tech aunt”. She saw that he was secular until other students introduced him to radical Islam. She later put an end to the weekend visits.

On November 1, 1998, he moved into an apartment in Germany with future hijackers Mohammed Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh. TheHamburg cell was born at this apartment.[1][2] They met three or four times a week to discuss their anti-American feelings and plot possible attacks. Many al-Qaida members lived in this apartment at various times, including hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi,Zakariya Essabar, hijacker Waleed al-Shehri, and others. He apparently served as the group’s Internet expert.

He fled to Pakistan one week before 9/11, where his trail was just picked up by the Pakistan forces clearing out the hornet’s nest that is South Waziristan Agency:

The suspected 9/11 plotter whose German passport was found in a mud hut in western Pakistan this week has not been in touch with his family for two years, his mother, Anneliese Bahaji, said in an telephone interview Friday.

…

The suspect, Said Bahaji, a German citizen whose father is Moroccan, is believed to have been the main logistics supporter of the 9/11 attackers, paying their rent and telephone bills. The Pakistani military said it found his German passport five days ago in a mud hut in the village of Sherwangai in South Waziristan, during a search operation.

To me this is a good sign that Pakistan, US, NATO, Afghan forces are circling the last remnants of the al Qaeda brain trust and that we may finally get our hands on some long sought targets. Since being pushed out of Afghanistan, it has been my contention al Qaeda has been holed up in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Not long after we invaded Afghanistan, Pakistan experienced a wave of expanding militancy which had spread into the North West Frontier Province and the Swat region there. But over the last few years the Pakistanis and local tribes have pushed the the Taliban and their allies out of the NWFP and out of the eastern agencies of the FATA (click map above for more detail).

With drone attacks from the US forces surgically taking out top Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, the US, NATO and Afghan forces have spread a cordon across the Afghan-Pak border along the norther edge of FATA and NWFP. The Pak forces have been sweeping from East to West, with forces Southwest blocking of mass exodus in that direction.

Of course, small numbers of people can sneak through any attempt to blockade and purge a region this size. Just melding in with the refugees can work.

This evidence, however, is a clear indication we may be marching to the big nest of bad guys. The violent responses in Pakistan to the military actions indicate we have some kind of wounded animal trapped in this region. Hopefully we will see the end of some major bad guys.

Update: More from the WSJ -

A German passport belonging to Said Bahaji, a close associate of Sept. 11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in the 2001 attacks, was among documents recovered this week by Pakistani troops from an abandoned militant compound in Shawangai.

The mountain village in South Waziristan was used as an al Qaeda and Taliban command base until as recently as this week, a military official said. Pakistani forces recovered other documents, including a Spanish passport, that indicated the possible presence of other European nationals in the area.

Pakistani forces captured Shawangai after days of fighting, in which some militants were killed and many others escaped. Army officials said they didn’t know whether Mr. Bahaji was killed or fled — or whether he was ever in the South Waziristan region.

I doubt this passport has been just sitting around in a pile of documents since 2001, it had to be associated with some leadership group.

Update: The Pakistanis appear to be heading into Taliban center here soon:

Pakistani security forces killed 33 more militants during the last 24 hours, bringing the total fatality to over 300, as the operation in the country’s tribal area steadily progressed towards the Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan, the army said Saturday in a daily press release.

The army said four soldiers of the security forces were injured in clashes in the last 24 hours during the ground assault in various areas in the tribal agency near the border with Afghanistan.

In the operation coded as Rah-e-Nijat, or path of salvation, the security forces have commenced an important phase of operation on all three axes, said the statement.

On Jandola-Sararogha axis the important stronghold of Sararoghahas been surrounded from three sides, on Shakai-Kaniguram axis, Karama has been encircled and clearance of Kaniguram has commenced and on Razmak-Makeen axis the security forces have reached the outskirts of Makeen, the army said.

Fingers crossed we finally get some big named terrorists. Hopefully President Obama will blame President Bush for these events as well.

Update: WSJ has an interesting history of Said worth reading.

A follow up to my previous post. The BS keeps flowing from Team Obama with their false jobs claims (sorry I cannot link to the data, the map only allows for displaying the information – I cannot even copy it, I have to retype it).

From California:

Prime Recipient: Jason A Coleman
Amount: $21,843
Jobs Created/Saved: 4
Cost per job: $5,461

This ‘program’ is to search for an “Area of Potential Effect (APE)” for evidence of native american historical sites prior to it being built upon. It includes digging 74 holes with a shovel . This is not 4 jobs created or saved, just a bunch of holes in an APE.

Prime Recipient: American Systems Corp
Amount: $443,182
Jobs Created/Saved: .02
Cost per job: $22,159,100

I have no clue what this means. The reporting is clearly all over the map when $443,182 creates 0.02 jobs and $21,843 creates 4.

Prime Recipient: MGS Construction
Amount: $8,899
Jobs Created/Saved: 1
Cost per job: $8,899

All it says is this is for electrical upgrades. And when this ‘job’ is done is the ‘job’ gone? You betcha ya it is.

Prime Recipient: Enterprise Rental Cars
Amount: $4,250
Jobs Created/Saved: 0
Cost per job: $N/A

Report says they needed a car to run errands. That’s our tax dollars hard at work – running errands.

Prime Recipient: Vanguard Construction (1)
Amount: $1,031,799
Jobs Created/Saved: 12
Cost per job: $85,983

Prime Recipient: Vanguard Construction (2)
Amount: $84,367
Jobs Created/Saved: 7
Cost per job: $12,052

There are numerous projects listed for this one company totaling over $11 million and supposedly creating/saving 129 jobs. Except there is no consistent formula, so who knows.

Prime Recipient: Hal Hays Construction
Amount: $1,036,774
Jobs Created/Saved: 1
Cost per job: $1,036,774

Again, I have no clue how to interpret this one. Seems sometimes it takes a lot of money to save/create a single job, other times ….

Prime Recipient: Raw International
Amount: $6,615
Jobs Created/Saved: 2.41
Cost per job: $2,744

This data is complete garbage. The site stopped working – sort of indicative of the hole Obama administration.