When he's not discontinuing education programs for poor, inner-city children in Washington, D.C., Sen. Durbin dismisses the idea that a ridiculously long bill is problematic and, in case you weren't disturbed enough, he somehow likens creating health care reform to God creating the Ten Commandments.

Say what?

Bear in mind, by the way, that only 22 percent of Americans believe that most of Congress will understand health care reform legislation before they vote on it. The American people certainly won't be reassured by Durbin's dismissive attitude; it speaks volumes to how well he'll understand his vote.

Thank you to Sen. Alexander for calling Durbin out on this. Sen. Durbin's heartland constituents should be worried about rushed legislation that would insert bureaucrats and "protocol" between families and their physicians.

Finally, a good parody that sufficiently mocks political advice from celebrities. And DMV-style health care? I think I'll pass.

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The Christie campaign for governor in New Jersey launched a new site, completely centered on social networking and interaction: ItsMyNJ.com. If you're in New Jersey and ready for something different, check out the available tools and share your comments, videos and more.

(Non-disclaimer: I now work with some Republican candidates' and conservative organizations' websites. ItsMyNJ.com is not one of them.)

Why did the World Economic Forum rate America as less competitive than it has in the past? In part, the WEF report demonstrated "particular concerns on the part of the business community about the government’s ability to maintain arm’s-length relationships with the private sector and in the perception that the government spends its resources wastefully."

Yup, that sounds about right.

It gets better though. America was rated very highly with regard to innovation and business efficiency, but we lost big points in the macroeconomics category, largely because of extreme public debt. The United State also ranked poorly from an administrative and legal standpoint. Perhaps most telling is that in the category of soundness of banks, America is ranked 108th out of 133, which--in the words of the Financial Times video--"nestles it right between Tanzania and Venezuela."

That's not a place I want my country to be.

You can download the full report and pick it apart for yourselves via FT.com: http://www.ft.com/cms/6a14d298-9c67-11de-ab58-00144feabdc0.pdf.>

Michael Kruse, a reporter from the St. Petersburg Times, found it necessary to mention Rifqa Bary's "dark red nail polish" in his news story about a hearing regarding Bary's family. Bary recently converted to Christianity and ran away for fear that her Muslim parents would kill her. She's been living with a Christian foster family.

Why was it necessary to "report" on her nail polish? Just to highlight that she's a disobedient former Muslim?

Here's to Rifqa for her courage to convert and--gasp!--rebel with nail polish! My prayers go out to her for continued strength.

What I really noticed most about this story, though, is that it fits this administration’s “gaffe template” almost perfectly. Here’s how the template looks:

1. The administration overreaches and tries to do something it can not or lacks the authority to do.
2. When called on it, the administration either lies about what it is doing or attempts to blame someone else for approving the attempt.
3. The Administration fixes the problem then either acts like it never existed or declares it a “distraction”.

This is almost exactly what happened with the school speech fiasco and it need not have gone as badly as it has. If the President had released the speech a week ago, along with a set of guidelines clearly labeled as a draft, this wouldn’t have been a story at all. Of course, that’s not what happened. The White House decided to run out the insulting and dismissive talking points. Worse, the responses came most loudly from Robert Gibbs, who is physically unable to give an empathetic and sincere explanation for anything. The White House reaction sounded like a blow-off, which made people even more angry.

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Tags: Education, President Barack Obama

Above is an excerpt from Jimmie Bise's post on the gaffe that is the school speech. The whole piece is worth reading (and funny, too!), but I'm most interested in his the excerpted theory.

What other gaffes from President Obama and his administration fit this template?

This year will mark the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

On September 11, 2009 the participants of Project 2,996 will join in a massive blogburst. With enough participants I hope we can flood the blogosphere and the internet with the names faces and stories of the 2,996 people who were murdered for doing nothing more than living their daily lives.

A humble, modest man is (again!) organizing Project 2,996, one of the best tributes for the victims of September 11th. There's no cost except some of your time--and I'll even volunteer to help you with the research if you sign up. Remember that you don't have to be a blogger to participate! See project2996.wordpress.com for all the details.

As some of you may know, liberals are boycotting Whole Foods because the CEO and co-founder came out against a government-takeover of health care. Conservatives are leading "buycotts" to support the store for taking an unpopular position. The video here, posted by Dana Loesch, is raw footage from one such buycott.

Dana and other witnesses have spoken about the buycott's success: "Whole Foods called it the stores biggest day since grand opening. Based on a sample of about 20 receipts, we spent $50,000 tonight."