. . . a bet with myself.

In my feed reader I can see the headline Group decries textbooks on Islam as inflammatory followed by this opening paragraph:

A series of children’s textbooks on Islam contains misleading and inflammatory rhetoric about the religion, inaccurately portraying its followers as inherently violent and deserving of suspicion, according to a Muslim civil liberties group.

Anyone want to make a bet with yourself about who this “group” might be? The answer is below the fold.

The phrase that keeps popping into my head whenever I read anything about the health system takeover bill is, “how stupid do they think we are?” The rhetorical answer, sadly, is, “pretty stupid.”

After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate’s health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers “deem” the health-care bill to be passed.

The tactic — known as a “self-executing rule” or a “deem and pass” — has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.

You don’t need to know a thing about the details of this bill to know just how terrible it must be. The fact that Democrats are running such a shell game to get the bill on the President’s desk should tell you all you need to know.

But, you have to admit, the Democrats aren’t being sneaky. In fact, they are being brutally honest in their disregard for the will of the people and contempt for the Constitution.

Pelosi reportedly told liberal bloggers Monday that “nobody wants to vote for the Senate bill,” and so she’s strongly considering the non-vote vote.

“I like it, because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill,” she said.

Did you catch that? “I like it, because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill.” Thank you San Fran Nan for telling us that you’re willing to ignore the clear wording of our Constitution.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.

The phone lines, fax lines, and email on Capitol Hill have been burning up. Let’s continue that today.

Rusty and the rest of the outstanding crew at The Jawa Report received a bit of recognition regarding the work they do “combating violent Islamist material and support on the Web“.

For all their hard work, I think they deserve a reward. This, my friends, is for you.

How often do you get to post an islamist takedown Rule 5 post? Sweet!

Via twitter from @MarcoRubio: Pulling over off I-95 to do interview with Greta on Fox News from Daytona Speedway @10:30. Tune in.

OK, I really don’t want you to have a Wyattastic day. Or maybe I do. I guess it depends on what the definition of “is” is. Wyattastic, for those of you not in the know, is a newly coined word. Here is the Urban Dictionary definition of Wyattastic:

1. When an episode of 24 turns out to have no action, just a bunch of filler. This usually occurs early in the season when useless subplots are being hashed out, as if anyone cares.

2. Based on the fact that when a certain contributor at a site called blogs4bauer participates in a liveblog of an episode of 24, the episode usually sucks…bad.
“Wow, tonight’s episode was Wyattastic!”

“Dana Walsh is a moron and this episode is so Wyattastic”
“Looks like we have another Wyattastic episode, unless Jack Bauer pulls another knife out of his belly”

The inspiration for this linguistic gem is blogs.4bauer.com contributor and Support Your Local Gunfighter blogger Wyatt Earp. He has a long and well documented history of liveblogging only the most sucktastic episodes of 24. However, sucktastic only takes you so far. Wyattastic episodes are several factors worse.

Of course the meaning of a word depends heavily on the context. In one instance you may be talking about how unbelievably bad something is: The President and Democrats are trying to shove the wyattastic health care bill down our throats. In another instance you may be using the milder definition that merely indicates something boring and uneventful: Things were so busy at work this week. I hope my weekend is wyattastic.

Your assignments for today:

1. Use Wyattastic in a sentence (in the comments).
2. If you’re a blogger, use Wyattastic in a blog post.

Time for me to wrap up this wyattastic post and get ready for a wyattastic day at work.

Admiral Farragut Pelosi has a wonderful idea, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her colleagues to back a major overhaul of U.S. health care even if it threatens their political careers, a call to arms that underscores the issue’s massive role in this election year.

Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public, Pelosi said in an interview being broadcast Sunday the ABC News program “This Week.”
“We’re not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress,” she said. “We’re here to do the job for the American people.”

Let me be honest here, I do agree with the Speaker that the role of our elected representatives is to, “do the job for the American people” rather than get elected to Congress with the sole goal of being reelected to Congress. Where she is wrong, totally wrong, is that the direction she is heading is 180 degrees from what the American people want. She seems willing to ignore that even while acknowledging the political price.

Her comments to ABC, in the interview released Sunday, seemed to acknowledge the widely held view that Democrats will lose House seats this fall — maybe a lot. They now control the chamber 255 to 178, with two vacancies. Pelosi stopped well short of suggesting Democrats could lose their majority, but she called on members of her party to make a bold move on health care with no prospects of GOP help.

“Time is up,” she said. “We really have to go forth.”

Conservatives, and anyone who is opposed to the unaffordable cost and government control issues inherent in this plan, need to continue their opposition and education. The Speaker is wrong on this as well.

Pelosi told CNN that “in a matter of days” Democrats will have specific legislative language on health care to show to the public and to wavering lawmakers. She predicted voters will warm up to the bill once they understand its details.

“When we have a bill,” she said, “you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie. But you have to have a pie to sell.”

OK, I’m not sure where pie fits into all of this, but I am confident in this; rather than warming up to the bill once they understand the details, smart, aware Americans will run from this monstrosity when they understand the details. It is up to us to continue to educate and inform people about the economy ruining, choice killing, innovation suppressing details of the coming legislation.

The actual quote, according to WikiAnswers is: “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells! Captain Crayton, go ahead! Joucett, full speed!” Thus the title to this post.

Cross posted at The Regiment.

This is not how I want to start out my Wednesday, but I will be at Lowes in about 15 minutes to get the needed parts to finish a shower repair before we all need to get ready for school and work. I will be my optimistic self and say that it should be interesting.

Of course I may be wrong about that.

John Hawkins recently polled right-of-center/conservative bloggers asking questions copied from a Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll. Here’s why.

The poll results were treated as suspect mainly because some controversial questions were asked the results featured what many conservatives perceived as an unusually high percentage of flaky answers.

Comparing the two polls is an interesting exercise. While there are some questions that tracked relatively close to one another, some of the more controversial questions featured significantly different results. Those regarding President Obama are a good example.

In the Kos poll 39% of respondents answered “Yes” to the question, “Should Barack Obama be impeached, or not?” 32% answered “No”. (The Kos poll had the additional option of “Not Sure”)

In contrast, only 9 of the 78 bloggers (11%) who responded to that question answered “Yes.” The other 88% answered “No.”

It is de rigueur to paint the entire right as “birthers”, but look at the difference in response to the question “Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?”

• Daily Kos “Yes” — 42%
• RWN “Yes” — 80%

Quite a difference.

On one Obama characteristic the two polls are much closer. “Do you think Barack Obama is a socialist?”

• Kos “Yes” — 63%
• RWN “Yes” — 89%

The accompanying comment by Kos blames the results on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. A better explanation might be the takeover of banks and auto companies, and the attempted takeover of the medical system.

One thing to note. The Kos poll was a phone poll of self-identified Republicans. John’s poll was of Right-of-Center bloggers, and he points out:

Now, right-of-center bloggers don’t match up exactly to the Republican base. They’re more knowledgeable, more libertarian, and less socially conservative than Republicans overall, but still, they seemed like a roughly representative group.

There are several questions on the Kos poll that John didn’t ask. Here’s one that I’m curious about:

Do you believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama?

The Kos Results:

• Yes 53
• No 14
• Not Sure 33

You can express your opinion in the poll embedded in the side bar. Your comments are welcome as well.

Just saw the news story that Rep. Jack Murtha has died.

A spokesman says Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine Corps officer who became an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 77.

He had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery.

In addition to his opposition to the Iraq war, Murtha is known for his involvement in Abscam and the volume of pork brought to his little corner of PA.

I can’t think of any political area where I would agree with him. Still, I pray for comfort for his family and friends.

Today is going to be an adventure.

If you are a regular reader you know that I don’t talk a lot about my day job. While I do mention work occasionally, I seldom, if ever, mention the company I work for directly. I want to modify that a bit this morning.

For most of the past eight years I have worked for a call center here in Central Florida, most of that time in the Workforce Management department. And although I will be going in to the same building, the same office, and sitting at the same desk, I will begin working for a new company today.

My old company was purchased by another company. After four months of legal and regulatory hoop jumping the deal closed last night and our new, joint operation begins today.

As far as I know now, my work life won’t be much different going forward than it has been in the past. Of course with a new company there’s no way to know what changes could be coming down the road. And while I am excited about the possibilities, there is still a certain amount of nervousness surrounding what could be.

Our center’s location could make us the beneficiary of some very good things due to our proximity (we’re less than 50 miles away) to the new company’s headquarters. As the center closest to corporate HQ, it is easy to imagine us being a showcase when presenting the business to potential clients. That could mean top of the line facilities, equipment, and infrastructure. (Hey, maybe they’ll upgrade our browsers from Microsoft’s bastard step-child — IE 6. That, in it’s self, would be a great change.)

At the very least we’re getting a party. Now that the legalities have been wrapped up, today is the day for the official public announcement. There will be site walk throughs, information sharing (the amount of information that can be shared before all the legalities are out of the way is minuscule), media coverage, the announcement, and the unveiling of our new sign. And food. Good food. Lunch always tastes better when the company is picking up the tab.

I don’t know what will happen after today. No idea how things will change. I’m fairly confident that any changes will be better for me personally. But then, I’m an optimist. Because of the flexible nature of what I do, I will be assisting with festivities.

I’ll let you know how things turn out.

There’s a malady sweeping the country that is quickly going from sporadic to epidemic. That disease is OIT, otherwise known as Obama Induced Tourettes.

We saw the first public outbreak of OIT last October when Congressman Joe Wilson popped a rupture disk and famously intoned “You Lie.”

The condition is triggered by the inability of The Won to utter more than a paragraph without serving up more whoppers than a Burger King near a MorOn MoveOn convention.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is the latest to display OIT.

Please don’t condemn those with OIT, there’s really nothing they can do. In fact there is growing evidence that those who had originally been diagnosed with HCDB (Hope-n-Change Debilitating Blindness) have been cured of that dread disease only to find OIT left in it’s wake.

Rather than pitying those with OIT, we should embrace them. As it spreads the prospects for the removal of the root cause by 2012 increase exponentially. In fact, some signs are pointing to the eradication of some of the subordinate causes as early as this fall.

To recycle a MLB ad campaign from several years ago: OIT — Catch it!

(h/t for the video TMH at Moonbattery)

I guess I’m just a big kid, but I am so excited about Legoland coming to Florida.

A front-loading tractor was positioned Thursday morning outside the Magnolia Mansion at Cypress Gardens. It wasn’t there to move any dirt.

Instead, a driver tilted down the scoop and dumped 100,000 Lego bricks onto a stage. That was a mere down payment, with 39.9 million more to follow when Legoland Florida opens by the end of next year.

Cypress Gardens is nearly in my front yard, less than a 15 minute drive. If pushed, I could practically walk there. It was a destination for travelers long before the mouse moved in.

The possibility of 1000 local jobs is great news for the area, but I am excited about being so close to 40 million Legos.

[Merlin Entertainments Group CEO Nick] Varney said Legoland Florida will be larger than any of the company’s four existing Legoland parks – one in California and three in Europe. He said the park will eventually become Legoland Florida Resort and will contain at least one hotel.

Legoland Florida will follow the same model with a central “Miniland” exhibiting elaborate Lego models depicting scenes from the area. He said the company’s designers are already at work designing Lego constructions for the Winter Haven attraction.

The Legoland parks are geared toward children 2 to 12 years old – and, of course, their parents. Varney, calling Lego one of the world’s best-known brands, said the parks are unique among tourist attractions in presenting children the opportunity for “playful learning,” as opposed to passive entertainment at other theme parks.

The projected opening is October, 2011. I’ll be there.

Photo Credit: SCOTT WHEELER | The Ledger