Month: December 2005

My son is celebrating his 8th birthday today. Yes. 8 years old, with a party, and friends, and cake, and everything else.

‘Nuff said.

Blogging will be light.

You may remember the controversy sparked by a bought-and-paid-for poll conducted by John Zogby two weeks ago which concluded that a majority the US population thinks Wal-Mart is bad for America. Yesterday, the Pew Research Center released the results of a national poll which, amazingly enough, counters the findings by Zogby.

• 84% of Americans shop at Wal-Mart
• 69% have a favorable view of the company. (That’s thirteen points higher than what Zogby’s biased survey found.)
• 79% of union households shop at Wal-Mart.
• So do 86% percent of people with incomes less than $30,000 per year (53% do so regularly). And this group gives Wal-Mart the highest marks for favorability proving that those who value Wal-Mart most need Wal-Mart’s low prices the most.

Pew poll

There’s no mistaking it, Wal-Mart is Americas store, but they still have their detractors. At one store in Florida yesterday, a union-funded group called Wake Up Wal-Mart dressed up as Santa’s elves and conducted a protest which ended in the arrest of two union members and children of shoppers in tears.

“Unfortunately, this union leader campaign stunt went too far,” said Bob McAdam, vice president for Corporate Communications at Wal-Mart.  “Union demonstrators dressed as Santa and his elves entered a Wal-Mart and began presenting some of the children in the store with wrapped boxes.  The children became excited and started saying things like, ‘Let me have the big one.’  But when the children opened the boxes, they found that the boxes were empty. Needless to say, the children were upset and some began crying.

“When asked to leave, the demonstrators became argumentative.  They claimed that they had permission from the Wal-Mart home office to demonstrate, but, in fact, they did not.  Soon the demonstrators began pushing and shoving
Wal-Mart associates.  The Broward County Sheriff’s office was alerted and deputies arrested two demonstrators for battery and gave fifteen other demonstrators trespassing warnings.

“This just goes to show that the union leadership will stop at nothing -– even upsetting children with fake Christmas gifts and resorting to physical confrontation with our associates.  We have tolerated numerous union demonstrations and disruptions in our stores, but we cannot tolerate attacks that become physical.  We ask for the union leadership to publicly apologize to our associates, these children, their parents and the customers who were in our store and pledge that any future demonstrations will be peaceful and non-violent.

Somehow I don’t think a public apology is what the union has in mind.

Did any of the protesters stop and think about what effect their little demonstration would have on kids who saw their elf costumes and gifts being handed out? Obviously they didn’t.

In the end, the message sent by the union was received loud and clear – by the children. Some of Santa’s little helpers are really just inconsiderate people who do stupid things.

Byron York says it best.

All across Washington today, Republican frustration has shot off the scale after the successful filibuster in the Senate of the extension of the Patriot Act. First, Republicans I have talked to are angry at the four GOP senators who voted with Democrats to filibuster the Act — John Sununu, Larry Craig, Lisa Murkowski, and Chuck Hagel. “Disgusting,” said one Hill Republican. “Just disgusting.”

More substantively, pro-Patriot Act Republicans are angry because they believe that if the Act is allowed to expire, key weapons in the war on terror will be lost. But Republicans are angry about more than just the Patriot Act. When the filibuster is viewed in context with some other recent developments — the Bush surrender on the treatment of terrorist detainees, today’s New York Times story on “secret” National Security Agency surveillance, and the Democrats’ continuing “Bush lied and people died” campaign against the administration’s conduct of the war on terror — a number of Republicans believe they are in a titanic struggle, not just against global terrorism, but against those in the United States who oppose the administration’s policies in the fight against global terrorism.

And all of it comes against the backdrop of a stunning success in the Iraqi elections, in which pro-democratic forces were able to attract the participation of large numbers of Sunnis. Put it together, and today has been a day of great success and bitter anger for supporters of the Bush administration.

Exactly.

Howard closed up his terrestrial shop today. The new era begins on January 9, 2006.

OK, this is completely bizarre.

Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives said yesterday that the Democrats will offer no unified position on Iraq in 2006. Despite claims by Democrats and the media that the Bush administration has no plan, Pelosi said that differing opinions within her party regarding Iraq are “a sign of strength.”

“There is no one Democratic voice . . . and there is no one Democratic position,” Pelosi said in an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors.

What!?!?

Having no position doesn’t win you an election. Why should anyone vote for a Democrat over a Republican when they don’t know what they’re getting?

A year in review, from JibJab.

Oscar winning actor Morgan Freeman, expressing his thoughts to Mike Wallace.

Warning: Listening to this just might bring a tear to your eye.

Silent Night, as it should be sung – Wookie style.

God Bless Us, Everyone.

(h/t Ace)

Last night, John Kerry suggested that if Democrats retake the House in 2006, there’s a “solid case” to bring “articles of impeachment” against President Bush.

Kerry’s off his rocker.

Apparently his staff wasn’t so excited to follow up with any “Impeach Bush” talking points.

Kerry Comm. Dir. David Wade, in an email, said his boss was joking.

Wade: “Is it really a story that, with a smile on his face and to ensuing laughter, at a Christmas party for his hardest working troops who are still working to win in 2006, a Democrat joked about why these diehard Democrats needed to keep dreaming of a Democratic Congress? Impeachment jokes in Washington are as old as Don Rumsfeld and as funny as Dick Cheney is gruff. Only the truly humorless would say bah humbug to the rarest of partisan red meat.”

Wade said Kerry often asks this question: “How are the same Republicans who tried to impeach a President over whether he misled a nation about an affair going to pretend it does not matter if the Administration intentionally misled the country into war?”

Wade – “Good luck finding a Democrat in America who disagrees…”

But, it seems that many who attended the event where Kerry spoke said the comment made them uncomfortable.

In keeping with Kerry’s wishes, several attendees, while acknowledging what he said, declined to comment when asked about the remarks.

Dem strategists know that many in their base might favor impeachment. But they do not want the party to appear hyper-partisan, especially when Cong. approval ratings struggle to reach 30 percent. Most Dem strategists believe that Americans would not stomach a second drawn-out, polarizing impeachment trial in the span of ten years. Others do not believe Bush deserves to be impeached. Dem leaders have cautioned colleagues not to use the word “impeachment” when speaking to base crowds.

I think a lot of Democrats are counting chickens that haven’t been hatched, or have even formed into embryos. They need to work on a message, ANY message that shows leadership. Democrats must prove to Americans that the country is safe under their management.

At least for now, the jury is out on that decision.

From what I’ve heard and read, there was great voter turnout in Iraq. That’s good news. Jim over at Gateway Pundit has coverage, as does Omar, Michelle, and Bill Roggio.