Hey, Teachers! Smile. You're on Candid Camera.

Here's what tenured New Jersey teachers said at their recent "Leadership" conference.



It's pretty horrific. O'Keefe's campy editorializing distracts and detracts from what is said. For instance, you can hear one teacher say that after the magic third year for tenure, it's "schwing!"

Here's what Chris Christie had to say about the video:


Oh, and to be fair, here is the NJEA's response to O'Keefe (though it's not much of a response).

And the "Vote or you'll be sorry" video

It's called "Elections have Consequences." Take a minute to watch one of the best videos I've seen yet.

A "Sorry" Video

Produced by David Zucker, a remorseful, former Boxer contributor. He says he's sorry he ever wrote her that $5,000.00 check. This video is his penance.

NPR comes out punching in Williams aftermath

This "ombudsman" column just posted by NPR's Alicia Shepard is shameful.

The headline: "NPR's Firing of Juan Williams was Poorly Handled."

The content: He had it coming.

Here's a snippet:

"Instead, this latest incident with Williams centers around a collision of values: NPR's values emphasizing fact-based, objective journalism versus the tendency in some parts of the news media, notably Fox News, to promote only one side of the ideological spectrum."

NPR values "fact-based, objective journalism"?

Seriously?

The NPR bus ran over Juan and now it's revving its engine. Fortunately, a whole lot of buses are heading NPR's way.

And Nina Totenberg ISN'T a pundit?

Today NPR fired Juan Williams (the only African American male on the air at NPR).

NPR fired him after the Council on American-Islamic Relations ("CAIR") issued a strongly-worded complaint about his recent "irresponsible and inflammatory" comment on Fox News.

Fasten your seat belts before you watch this "outrageous" comment:



But, NPR hastened to add, it didn't fire Mr. Williams because CAIR commanded immediate "action" against him (although it "may have been a "factor").

Nor was it because of the substance of his comment: that he has a moment of worry or nervousness when he's on an airplane and sees someone in Muslim garb, a person who has chosen to identify himself "first and foremost as Muslim."

No, NPR incredibly claims, the real reason it fired Mr. Williams is because he has turned into a . . . pundit!

Okaaaaaay. And NPR star Nina Totenberg isn't?



From NPR's internal email:

NPR News analysts have a distinctive role and set of responsibilities. This is a very different role than that of a commentator or columnist. News analysts may not take personal public positions on controversial issues; doing so undermines their credibility as analysts, and that’s what’s happened in this situation.

But while we're on the subject of objectivity, what does NPR stand for, anyway? It's certainly not "Neutral Public Radio." Just watch this oh-so-clever spoof on the "Tea Party" that NPR posted on its website.

A website, I might add, that you help to fund -- to the tune of $422 million, this year alone. (This CBS link references the specific page on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's financials. But, alas, NPR's parent corporation has taken the page down.)

If Rs and Independents weren't already fired up to vote on November 2nd, they are sure juiced now.

Holy Aqua Buddha! Chris Matthews has 2nd Moment of Clarity

Have you ever seen such a sight in your life as these desperate Dems?

"I was born the daughter of a senator man"

Listen to this clip of Meghan McCain's bizarre espousings on Glenn Beck's radio show. It was all so bad, frankly, that I first imagined it was a joke. Surely someone else was calling in, pretending to be her. But, umm, nope. No such luck.

Back in the '90s, we used the expression "valley girl" to describe brainless babes. In this new millenium, maybe it's "daddy girl."

And, God forbid you were wondering, I am no fan of the catty anti-feminist Maureen Dowd. Though you can bet she'll be all over this like a bed bug in New York city, feasting on corpses in the Waldorf's Junior League suites.

My heroine

Happy Friday.

Don't read my lips.

On October 10, 2010, Obama said, "I will end 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' That's my commitment to you."



But on October 12, 2010, Obama's administration said it would appeal a judge's ruling that held a ban on gay marriage (the "Defense of Marriage Act" or DOMA) is unconstitutional.

In yet another case, Obama 's Justice Department defended the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy ("DADT") and asked the judge to uphold it. Now that the judge has ruled DADT unconstitutional and unenforceable, the Obama administration is expected to appeal that ruling, as well.

But in the above video clip of a speech he gave just three days ago, Obama was clearly against DADT and all for gay rights.

And here's a snippet from his 2008 campaign website, in which he addresses DOMA and DADT, and says he wants to repeal them both:

But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples — whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. Unlike Senator Clinton, I support the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – a position I have held since before arriving in the U.S. Senate. While some say we should repeal only part of the law, I believe we should get rid of that statute altogether. Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples, which is precisely what DOMA does. I have also called for us to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and I have worked to improve the Uniting American Families Act so we can afford same-sex couples the same rights and obligations as married couples in our immigration system. (emph. added)

So . . . . what happened? I'm thoroughly confused.

Repeat after me . . .

O'Donnell: So, Mr. Greene, what did you have for breakfast this morning?

Greene: Well, umm, Jim DeMint started this recession.

O'Donnell: Oh, I see you've got your talking points. We all understand that. But let me ask you this: Do you believe there are aliens waiting to take over planet earth?

Greene: Well, umm, Jim DeMint started this recession.

O'Donnell: I see. Do you favor a tax increase on the middle class?

Greene: Well, umm, Jim DeMint started this recession.

O'Donnell: Okey dokey. And if there were one thing you could do to make this world a better place, what would it be?

Greene: Well, umm, Jim DeMint started this recession.

Tea Party v. Keg Party. Hmmmm.

Even liberal journalists are starting to realize you can hardly argue for spending when you've got a zero balance. Logic is beginning to settle in. Indeed, to read David Brooks's column today, you'd think he was channeling Ronald Reagan.

Brooks gives concrete examples of state government dysfunction, where politicians are beholden to unions. New Jersey and California, to name a few, struggle to fund education and are forced to forgo worthwhile infrastructure projects because union pensions have them in a chokehold.

"New York City has to strain to finance its schools but must support 10,000 former cops who have retired before age 50.

California can’t afford new water projects, but state cops often receive 90 percent of their salaries when they retire at 50. The average corrections officer there makes $70,000 a year in base salary and $100,000 with overtime (California spends more on its prison system than on its schools).

States across the nation will be paralyzed for the rest of our lives because they face unfunded pension obligations that, if counted accurately, amount to $2 trillion — or $87,000 per plan participant."

He concludes with this:

"Many of us would be happy to live with a bigger version of 1950s government: one that ran surpluses and was dexterous enough to tackle long-term problems as they arose. But we don’t have that government. We have an immobile government that is desperately overcommitted in all the wrong ways.

This situation, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, has been the Democratic Party’s epic failure. The party believes in the positive uses of government. But if you want the country to share that belief, you have to provide a government that is nimble, tough-minded and effective. That means occasionally standing up to the excessive demands of public employee unions. Instead of standing up to those demands, the party has become captured by the unions. Liberal activism has become paralyzed by its own special interests."

By George, I think he's got it. But unions are just one problem. We've got plenty more.

Here's my "epic fail" list and I'm just getting started:

* Tax hikes: We don't want our hard-earned dollars "redistributed."

* Health care: We don't want to be forced to engage in "commerce" or pay Andy Griffith to tout it. And we don't like the government hand-picking which connected companies get to opt out of the Obamacare morass.

* Fannie and Freddie: We don't want to be the "people's" bank, lending money to poor people who can't afford a mortgage. The new FinReg law does NOTHING to stop this.

* Quantitative easing: We don't want the Fed printing more money.

* Bailouts and bonuses: We don't want to give our money to failed banks and companies so they can stay in business and put our money in their pockets.


Reagan said the Democrats spend like "drunken sailors," except the sailors spend their own money. And the drunken spending in D.C. is precisely why people are so hopping mad.

If it comes down to a choice between the Tea party and the Keg party, that's an easy call.

Imploding

It's official. Obama and the Democrats are imploding.

In a harbinger of things to come, Obama's presidential seal fell off of the lectern.



Then someone threw a book at him (at about 0:22 in the video). Better than a smelly shoe, I suppose, but still.



Next, a heavy, naked man streaked by him.

But the worst, and self-inflicted wound is Obama's accusation that the Chamber of Commerce is spending foreigners' money to drub the Dems.



This is especially rich, given Obama solicited foreign money for his 2008 presidential campaign and accepted untraceable donations. And let's not forget all the foreign contributions the unions accept. Although this gaping inconsistency doesn't bother Obama.

Obama's desperate "foreign money" claim is particularly galling, given the climate of uncertainty businesses face today and their reluctance to spend money and hire new employees. He's playing a high-stakes game and he's losing.

Indeed, the liberal New York Times quickly debunked Obama's accusation.

Even Bob Schieffer, on Face the Nation, said to David Axelrod, "If the only charge Democrats can make three weeks into the election is that somehow this may or may not be foreign money coming into the campaign, is that the best you can do?”

I think I'll just keep sipping on my Slurpee.

This Sunday, I Rest

Is it just me? I've got a post ready to go . . . except I can't upload any photos.

In the frustrating interim, here's this nearly 2-year-old oldie:
____________________________________________________________________

Verklemption and Redemption

He tied knot after knot in it, for at least an hour or so, when suddenly, without warning, Mr. M used his new jump rope to take me into custody.

Mr. M: "Mam, turn off your computer and put your hands behind your back!" (I complied.) "You are under arrest and I'm taking you into custody."

Me: "But why? What did I do wrong? I want to speak to my lawyer, Leigh, right now. Get her on the phone."

Mr. M: "Hold on a minute, mam. I need to check your i.d.," he said, as he fished an imaginary one out of my pretend pocket and examined it. "You are Leigh."

Me: "Yeah, well, get me on the phone. I need to talk to myself."

Sergeant M: "Well you can't right now. Do you understand?"

After being fitted with a "tracking device" (ever the sophisticate, Mr. M had a black plastic porcupine ring in his pocket for just this purpose. Note to self: when do these never-seen-before, peculiar toys manage to penetrate my household?) I was unceremoniously hauled up the stairs in my jump-rope chains. Throughout my ordeal, Mr. M gave a running narrative to his superiors about the particulars of his arrestee.

Using the plastic jump-rope handle as his walkee-talkee, he broadcast, "Repeat. I repeat. Female in custody. Purple shirt. Pajama pants with flowers. No shoes. Blue eyes. Blonde hair. And a little black on the top of her head."

Me (feeling a bit verklempt, and beginning to resist this arrest): "Whoa. Just a minute, sergeant. A 'little black' on the top of my head? What's black on the top of my head?"

Mr. M (briefly going out of character): "Don't worry, Mom. It's just the shade of your hair, right on the top. It's darker than the rest of your hair. Don't worry."

f@#$%$#@&%*!@#!

A little while later though, Mr. M, in a most unknowing and non-deliberate fashion, redeemed himself.

"Mom, you know those things that have long cords and they have different colors at the ends and they hook up to cars? You pump them and they, like, give cars power? (I'm nodding no, no clue.) They have spikey things on them and you squeeze them. You squeeze them really hard onto the cars. (Now I'm beyond baffled.) Mom! Come on. You know this! You squeeze them and one car gets connected to another car so the other car has power, so it can start!"

"Oh. Oh!" It finally dawned on me. "Jumper cables!"

Mr. M: "Right! Like you and me. We're jumper cables." Then he circled my wrists with his little hands. "See. We're connected now and you're getting my love."

Can we home-school our college kids?

Because after reading this, I'm feeling more than a little skittish about sending Mr. M to college.

It is a Duke girl's "dissertation" on "excelling in the realm of horizontal academics," wherein she profiles each of her "subjects" in great detail and explains how she "hooks up" with them. She goes on to give each boy an overall ranking, based in large part on their "performance" in bed.

In Ms. Owens's defense, she only emailed her Power Point presentation dissertation to her three closest friends. But those three friends forwarded it on to three of their friends, and so on and so on.

And, as some point out, fraternities have been compiling similar lists on women for years.

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. I get that. But this? Is just bad sauce.

"We're not going to have a perfect batting average."

Sorry to dash your Halladay baseball elation with this discouraging snippet, but yet another Obama man says we can "absorb" another terrorist attack, likening it to having a "perfect batting average." And a perfect batting average, he says, we will never have.

Damn.

This weird metaphor is just . . . plain weird. Still, I'll take a bad batting average over "absorbing" a terrorist attack any day. But maybe that's just me.

Amaze your husbands . . .

with this bit of insider baseball.

Apparently it's a big deal. I was making calls at a Republican phone bank tonight and all of a sudden one of the men called out for a television. Stat. Now I think I get it.

Idiot-boarding

Mondale says Obama's teleprompters are, umm, "idiot boards."

"I've seen places where he's done it. * * * But I think he -- he's very bright -- as a matter of fact, brilliant. And I think he tends to -- and he uses these idiot boards to read speeches on television and I think he loses the connection that he needs emotionally with American voters."

"You're talking about the teleprompters that he always has when he's delivering a formal speech?" Blitzer asked.

"Yes, right," Mondale said. (emph. supplied)

He'll get no argument from Chris "Tingle":



Yowza.

Did you see MSNBC's Ed Schultz DC rally?

You did remember it was this weekend, right? The Ed Schultz rally in DC? The one celebrating progressive values and the Democratic agenda? It was promised to be a big one.

What, you missed it? Not to worry. Experience it here.



And if you're really curious and want to compare the turnout between Beck's rally and Big Ed's, for aerial photos, you can go here.

Murderous Do-gooders (Updated)

So here's the most persuasive advert ever on cutting your carbon emissions . . . not. And be sure to send your children out of the room. It runs a little over three minutes and it's, well, extremely violent and utterly sick.



If the video won't play, it's been preserved here.

UPDATE: After a lot of push back, 10:10's spokesperson had this to say:

With climate change becoming increasingly threatening, and decreasingly talked about in the media, we wanted to find a way to bring this critical issue back into the headlines whilst making people laugh. We were therefore delighted when Britain's leading comedy writer, Richard Curtis - writer of Blackadder, Four Weddings, Notting Hill and many others – agreed to write a short film for the 10:10 campaign. Many people found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn't and we sincerely apologise to anybody we have offended.

Extremely funny? Seriously?