Neal wearing the beads in honor of Fat Tuesday

ROVE OBSESSES ABOUT HILLARY?  THE ENTIRE NATION SHOULD!

Washington Times reporter Bill Sammon has written a compelling book titled "Strategery."  (He's scheduled to be a guest on the show tomorrow!) It's a great look inside the Bush White House and Bush's strategy for the 1996 reelection campaign.  In the book Sammon writes that Karl Rove believes that Hillary Clinton will be the Democrats' 2008 presidential nominee, but that she will lose the general election.  Hillary responds with Rove "spends a lot of time obsessing about me."

First step ... we define "obsessing."  Very simply, it means " to preoccupy the mind excessively." When it comes to Hillary Clinton and the possibility that this liar could become our president, obsessing would seem to be the thing to do.  So, Karl Rove probably isn't the only one.   Anyone who loves this country, who cherishes freedom, who values economic liberty and who believes in the concept of individualism should be obsessing about Hillary and her quest for the White House.

Hillary views the people of this country with a level of disdain unmatched in other politicians.  We are simply masses who are worthy of nothing more than to be governed and controlled by Hillary and the liberal elite. 

There will be plenty of time to remind listeners and readers of the duplicity, the lies, and the just plain old-fashioned viciousness of this woman.  For now ... feel free to obsess. Better now than later, when it may well be too late.

BIN LADEN HELPED DEFEAT KERRY?

More on Sammon's book.  Administration staff members, and the president himself gave interviews to Bill Sammon for his work.  It's really giving us some great nuggets of information. Bush, for instance,  was asked about his 2004 victory over The Poodle.  Specifically, the author inquired as to whether or not Osama Bin Laden's last-minute videotape helped him win.

Bush does give credit to bin Laden for some help, but holds that Kerry's boat was already sunk. The election turned out to not be anywhere near as close as the media was portraying it to be.  Kerry was not going to win anyway. Thankfully, despite all of the blunders of the second term, we are infinitely better off than we would have been with John Kerry sitting in the Oval Office.  You're forgiven if your hair stands up on end at the very thought.

What's also interesting is what comes at the end of the Drudge exclusive story.  Bush's campaign manager now says the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth were an important part of the Bush victory.  That's right...it was them, and not Bin Laden, that sealed The Poodle's fate. Yet at the time, the Bush campaign pretended to distance themselves from the Swifties.  That's too bad.

It makes for an interesting headline, but the fact is that even in the face of an unpopular war, John Kerry was a gift from the Democrats to the Bush administration.

COME ON HARRY, CAN'T YOU GET ANYTHING RIGHT?

The controversy over the ports deal continues to simmer and boil.  Now we have the Coast Guard expressing some misgivings.  The Democrats, of course, are using this controversy to hammer Bush, and it must be said that Bush deserves some hammering on the issue.  While doing the hammering, though, it helps to get some basic facts right.  Yesterday the dour Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid constantly repeated the phrase "give another country control of our ports" in his statements to the media.  He's wrong, and he knows he's wrong.  This deal with Dubai Ports World does not give them "control of our ports."  It does give them control over some, not all, of the terminals in our ports, not the ports themselves.  There's a bit of hysteria over this issue ... so let's keep the facts straight.

By the way .... not that my opinion matters, but I still don't like the idea of allowing a foreign government, especially an Arab government --- no matter how friendly to our country --- operating these important facilities in our ports.  I guess that makes me a profiler .. profiling a government on the basis of its ethnicity.  Well, at least the Democrats are finally on board in that regard.

BUSH APPROVAL 34%, CHENEY 18%

CBS News, always glad to play their part as an extension of the DNC press office, has released a new poll.  The slanted survey says Bush's approval rating has reached an all-time low....34%.  What's driving the low approval ratings?  The ports deal.  Seventy percent of Americans say they disapprove of the Dubai Ports World deal.  Two-thirds disapprove of the way the Bush administration handled the response to Hurricane Katrina.  And here's the big one: just 30% approve of the way Bush is handling the Iraq war.

That's a tough order.  So what does it mean?  Not much.  Bush is a lame duck...only in office for less than 3 years.  In the next 35 months or so, the war in Iraq will wind down and the troops will come home.  People will forget about Hurricane Katrina.  Bush's approval rating will rise back to somewhere around 50%, where it's always been.

What's more interesting in that poll is Cheney's approval rating...18%.  That's pretty bad. There are rumors (as always) that Cheney may get the boot after the 2006 Congressional elections.  With that low of a number and that much of a political liability, he may pack up his office a lot sooner, especially since he's probably going to have to testify in the Scooter Libby matter.

Could be time for a little housecleaning at the White House.

By the way .... there's a story out there that the U.S. economy is set for some huge gains in the first quarter of this year.  This is the type of news that boosts presidential ratings.  Maybe that's why you won't find it on the front pages. 

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Hey, if you saw your neighbor doing this you'd probably just be happy he was mowing his lawn at all! This isn'tthe first riding mower we've had either. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

SOME READING ASSIGNMENTS

Does the concept of Anna Nicole Smith standing up before the Supreme Court make your head explode? Here's a visual to the right to help you imagine it.

Did you know that one-half of the population of Amsterdam is .... Dutch?  Well, actually, I'm not sure of that statistic.  But try this one:  One-half of the population of Amsterdam is Muslim.  It's Europe vs. Radical Islam.  Don't miss this article by Francis Fukuyama.

Moving right along, David Warren says that Americans don't really understand what is coming our way.  And what would that be?  Radical Islam ... again.  He says that the so-called "Danish cartoons" were a red herring from the start.  It was a fake issue trumped up by Muslims to stoke outrage.

And Kathleen Parker says that just because you might be a bit Islamophobic, it doesn't mean that you are wrong.

Muslims in Baltimore want two Islamic holidays added to the school calendar.  What if the Baltimore Board of Education says no?  Are you beginning to get the big picture here?

Now this is troubling.  The U.S. Coast Guard says that there were intelligence gaps that prevented them from providing the Bush administration with an accurate assessment of the Dubai ports deal.  Why, then, was Bush defending the deal so strongly?

A new report circulating says that Dick Cheney will step down from the administration after the elections.  Perhaps his 18% approval rating will hasten that departure.

Senator Trent Lott has drafted a bill requiring that pork projects, or 'earmarks' as they're called in Washington, be prominently disclosed.  Good luck.

Hillary continues to pretend that she cares about national security...this time she's complaining about a deal from 1999 that allowed a Chinese company to take over the ports at the Panama Canal.

Is Iraq a hopeless country where we'll never be able to accomplish our mission?  Jack Kelly argues otherwise, explaining that the Iraqi people continue to disappoint the naysayers, including William F. Buckley, Jr.

Pat Buchanan, never a fan of the neoconservative bent of this administration, unloads on George W. Bush's vision for the world.  He particularly rakes him over the coals on illegal immigration.

Thomas Sowell enters the world of Medicare and Social Security spending and tell us how the government not only likes to take your money, but then tells you how you have to spend it.

David Limbaugh makes a good point about Democrats.  If they're so up in arms about the Dubai Ports World deal, then how come they always complain about stuff like racial profiling?  Isn't that what they're doing here?

The left, including liberals both in power and in the mainstream media, never seem to blame Muslims for Islamic terror.  It's always somebody else's fault, says Dennis Prager.

Disgraced California Congressman Randy 'Duke' Cunningham apparently had a tidy arrangement for his bribe-taking.  He actually had a printed price list.  He didn't work cheap, either.  Are we really supposed to believe he's the only one?  Doubtful.

The female teacher in Florida that was having sex with an 11-year-old boy has landed in the slammer.  5 years. She wisely took a plea deal instead of facing a possible life sentence.

Female teachers are being canned left and right for sleeping with their students.  An Oregon teacher has been fired for having sex with a 15-year old and a South Carolina fifth-grade teacher has been arrested for doing it with an 11-year-old.  Times sure have changed in the classroom.

Oh, and check out the Oregon teacher's page on the school's website. Pay attention to her favorite memories. Oh, and another listener pointed out if you right click on her picture at the school's site you'll get a nice "dont steel" message.

If you're a flight attendant and you want to keep your job you probably want to avoid screaming "we're going to crash!"

Man in ninja mask attacks woman walking her dogs, chases her back into her house, where husband dispenses with the need for a lengthy, expensive trial.

What happens when Georgia State University students decide to see how people will react on an Atlanta freeway if everyone is forced to drive the speed limit? Watch the video. They're lucky they didn't get shot.

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