Shameless. Rep. Steve Cohen said today that John Murtha’s death was malpractice and or course used the occasion to plug Obamacare.

Is it just me or will these people not use any method necessary to make sure their agenda is passed?

Some thought it a photoshop prank, others figured it to be just another jab at President Obama. It turns out however that someone actually paid good money to have the billboard put up.

It’s not certain yet who put up the Bush “Miss Me Yet?” billboard, but you can be certain the culprit (according to the left) will be found out and properly chastised.

I think it’s kind of funny myself.

You know you’re struggling when you can’t even give out free blankets for flights anymore. Here’s the story via Drudge:

American Airlines quietly announced last week that it would eliminate free blankets in coach and sell an $8 packet that includes a pillow and blanket starting May 1.

According to Joesentme.com, a subscription travel site that reported the move last Friday, the airline based its decision on consumer surveys. Joe Brancatelli, the site’s publisher, raised a skeptical brow. “American executives run focus groups on blankets?,” he said. “You think they’d look for customer focus group data on what fliers think about American’s worst-in-the-nation on-time performance, its atrocious baggage-handling ability or the hideous condition of its planes.”

The change is for flights over two hours in length to and from Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Central America. The airline will join JetBlue and US Airways, which began charging $7 for a pillow-and-blanket set in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Sometimes in life you find yourself in the unenviable position of trying to find something nice to say about a person who has passed away. Sometimes you just can’t.

Fox sent out Democratic strategist Bob Beckel to give it a whirl and even he fell short of the mark.

Here’s a post from RedState that does not necessarily reflect my views in total of one Jack Murtha, but it comes mighty close.

In his Meditation XVII, known to most of us as No Man Is An Island, John Donne opined that any man’s death diminishes us all. As Mr. Donne preceded Jack Murtha by nearly four centuries he can be forgiven the broadness of this statement.

Jack Murtha was a profoundly destructive force in American politics. His legislative efforts were limited to lining the pockets of himself, his family, and assorted cronies. For all of his woofing about being sympathetic to the men and women of the Armed Forces he did not author a single piece of legislation in his career which did anything other than milk the Department of Defense for money.

Murtha did lead a charmed life. In Vietnam, as seems de rigeur among Democrat politicians who served there, he managed to acquire two Purple Hearts without spending a single day in the hospital. Likewise, he picked up a Bronze Star with V device as a battalion intelligence officer. As a member of Congress he was up to his eyeballs selling his influence to all comers and was captured on video by the FBI. For reasons that have never been real clear, Murtha was allowed to skate while he testified against two colleagues.

One would say that the real shame of Murtha’s congressional tenure took place in the past 6 years when he attempted to burnish his anti-war credentials for a run at a congressional leadership position at the expense of the men and women engaged in combat. He publicly declared the Marines charged with murder in connection with alleged killings at Haditha were guilty (they have since been acquitted or the charges have been dropped) and he described General David Petraeus as a political hack

All respect to Mr. Donne, none of us are diminished by the death of Jack Murtha. He was a man of few if any redeeming public attributes, he pillaged the treasury to enrich himself, he tarnished the reputation of good men, and he was a blight on the body politic. The nation is better off, not for his death but for his absence from its political life.

Well if this isn’t just hilarious. The White House press corp, and that’s a silent p Mr. President, is none too happy about a recent YouTube interview that Obama gave. They feel, if you can believe it, that President Obama hasn’t been accessible enough. Are you freaking kidding me?

Here’s a bit from the Top of the Ticket:

“The power and influence among the press used to be concentrated in a small handful of people who sit in the first two rows of the White House briefing room,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told the New York Times. “And that’s no longer the case.”

The jilted lover is always the last to know. In this case the MSM is the last to know that they aren’t the cat’s meow anymore. Obama knows that his buddies in the media are firmly in the bag, no need to court them much anymore.

Here’s more from the LA Times blog:

The decision to shift media attention away from the traditional powers in the White House press corps to a new generation is not sitting well with reporters who cram the White House briefing every day to ferret out news.

“It’s a source of great frustration here,” said Chip Reid, CBS’ White House correspondent. “It’s important for us to hold the president’s feet to the fire.”

Hold the President’s feet to the fire? Exactly when did you ever do that Chip? They actually really do think they’re serving the public interest don’t they? The story goes on to talk about the fact that Obama hasn’t held a public news conference in 6 months. I think there’s a reason for that; every time he had one of his staged news conferences to demonstrate how powerful he was, his poll numbers went down.

Do you think maybe the reporters are mad that they aren’t able to attach themselves to Obama’s aura anymore? Asking him softball questions in the East Room of the White House filled that need I suppose, maybe someone should tell them that Obama isn’t that popular anymore, and neither are they.

I can’t wait to see how the mainstream media spins this statement by Sarah Palin. In her comments during her speech to the National Tea Party Convention, Palin said America is ready for another revolution. You just know they’re going to accuse her of causing trouble and possibly condoning violence of some kind.

This is from the Financial Times:

Sarah Palin, the former US presidential running-mate, on Sunday hinted strongly she was preparing a 2012 presidential bid and suggested that Barack Obama needed to take radical steps, such as going to war with Iran, to boost his chance of winning a re-election.

Ms Palin’s comments to Fox News Sundayfollowed a provocative speech on Saturday to the Tea Party Convention in Nashville.

Amid chants of “Run, Sarah, run”, Ms Palin told the Nashville audience: “America is ready for another revolution and you are part of this.”

She also kept the very real possibility open that she would run for President in 2012. You know it’s funny, the media acts as if Palin is the dumbest thing that’s ever walked in high heels, yet if she were to decide not to run for President, who do you think would be the most disappointed?

The same people who act as if she doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Barack Obama.

Here is Palin’s Tea Party Speech in full if you haven’t seen it.

New on my list of career’s I never want is midwife. Here’s the freaky story of a midwife who was bitten during labor and had to endure six months of HIV and Hepatitis tests. This is from the UK Daily Mail:

A young mother was jailed yesterday for deliberately biting a midwife who was helping to deliver her baby.

Leanne Pennington, 26, was in the final stages of labour when she sank her teeth into the forearm of experienced midwife Carolyn Burden.

Mrs Burden, 41, needed immediate first aid but bravely went back onto the ward to help Pennington give birth.
But the experienced nurse later had to endure six months of HIV and hepatitis tests because Pennington was a “high risk patient”.

I think that’s a nice way of saying she was a ho bag. Or drug addict. Or both. Anyway, the incident landed the 26 year old mommy in jail for assault. I’m assuming she didn’t experience this during childbirth.

Midwife Carolyn Burden says the experience has been a bit of an eye opener. Although it’s doubtful she’ll run across many homicidal mothers giving birth who turn into vampires during labor.

This is probably the greatest weather report in history. Do you think it’s possible that this meteorologist at one time or another hoped that global warming was true?

H/T to ACE

I’ve long felt that common sense no longer has a place in our society, especially in our education system. Here’s a perfect example. 12 year old Alexa Gonzalez was arrested (yes I said arrested) when she was caught doodling on her desk.

This is frankly ridiculous and has no reasonable explanation. The kid was waiting for her Spanish teacher to pass out homework and scribbled a few things on her desk in erasable marker. Instead of being properly reprimanded and made to clean up the desk, she was actually handcuffed and taken to the police precinct.

City officials said the arrest was a mistake:

“We’re looking at the facts,” said City Education Department spokesman David Cantor. “Based on what we’ve seen so far, this shouldn’t have happened.”

Wow, what gave that away, you example of brilliance you? The incredible lack of common sense anymore is stunning. Did you see the story the other day about a 4th grader who landed in a heap of trouble and was nearly suspended for playing with a Lego toy gun at school?

Please somebody tell me all hope is not lost. Tell me there’s a chance that our kids are not hopelessly exposed to stupid adults. Tell me there are still educators out there who know how to use common sense when educating and correcting children.

Just more evidence that stupid decisions are made on a daily basis under the guise of some sort of open-minded enlightenment.

Edith Raim at the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich said Thursday it plans to issue an annotated version of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) with editorial comments once the copyright expires at the end of 2015.

Banned since World War II, the anti-Semitic political work first published in 1925 became a school textbook after Hitler seized power in 1933.

The Bavarian state government, which has held the copyright since the war, said it had no intention of relaxing its restrictions on the book’s publication for now