From Denver:

Dec 19, 2011 / 05:26 pm

St. Michael the Archangel is the model for a saint-based action figure, part of a new “Action Saints” series from the Denver-based Kolbe Film School. The series is intended to engage children in their faith and help them get acquainted with the saints.

The poseable, four-inch-tall figures “provide children the ability to put the heroes of our faith in action,” Kolbe Film School said.

“St. Michael leads the holy angels, saints, and the Church militant over the evil powers against the Church today — a true hero for our times.”

The figures’ creators said that figures of saints tend to be “dangerous and breakable ceramic, metal and glass statues,” not something that children can play with. They contended that these statues convey to children the message “Do not touch!”

The creators saw the need for child-friendly figures after hearing parents’ stories about their son who loves to play with a St. Michael statuette, even though he has broken off its wings and punctured himself with its spear. …

Go here for the rest of the story, and the web site which carries the action figures.

You might think it’s Solyndra, and LightSquared would probably take the crown if it were to go live before year-end, but for now this one looks like the worst:
(more…)

Correctly:

Rep. Walsh: Boehner Right to Block Senate Payroll Tax Bill

The House of Representatives’ refusal to rubber-stamp a two-month extension to the payroll tax holiday is a victory for House Speaker John Boehner, not a defeat, tea party Rep. Joe Walsh tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview.

The Senate-agreed extension would have placed an unacceptable burden on small businesses throughout the country, the Illinois Republican said, and Boehner’s insistence that Congress remained in session rather than simply accept the compromise showed strong leadership.

“What a courageous leader he is that he has kept his conference here in Washington working. He has kept us meeting, he has listened to us,” said Walsh, who is considered one of the key tea party leaders in Congress. “I give him all the credit in the world.”

… Walsh insisted the House vote should not be read as a “tea party revolt” as the White House has tried to paint it.

“Since I first started running for Congress two years ago, there is a movement of people in this country that is sick of the way Washington does business and they are scared to death with how broke we are. That is labeled the tea party movement.

“I’ll tell you what, it’s bigger than the media knows and it is truthfully bigger than either party knows.

“This movement is people who are out of work, they are suffocating and they are hurting this Christmas. They are hurting because this president doesn’t know the first thing about the economy and, as a result, his policies have destroyed the economy.”

Walsh said business groups have been adamant that a two-month extension would have resulted in a crippling burden of form filling and red tape.

Heritage elaborates:

The trouble with the Senate’s two-month plan is that it leaves so much undone and with so many people hanging. Working Americans will have no idea whether or not they’ll suffer a tax hike when the extension expires. Employers will take on additional costs and have to jump through more hurdles in having to change their payroll systems to keep up with Washington’s policy du jour (and then change them again in Jan. or Feb. — Ed.) — and that will be an even bigger pain in the neck for small businesses who do payroll by hand. In short, it’s terrible policy, and the American people deserve better.

And this is where America finds itself. The House is in one corner. The President is in another. And Senators checked the box and hopped a flight home for the holidays instead of doing the people’s business and reaching a compromise. Though President Obama would like us to believe the onus is on the House, it’s the Senate that has dropped the ball. And for the sake of the American people, they should come back to Washington and get to work on reaching an agreement.

Only an outfit completely out of touch with the real world would pass something as stupid as a two-month payroll tax cut (with Occupy-inspired complexities added which are designed to take the cut away from eeeeeeevil high-income earners), skip town, and say “Take it or leave it.” That perfectly describes Harry Reid and his United States Senate majority.

To be clear, I don’t like the payroll tax holiday at all, but if you’re going to have one, you don’t turn it into an administrative nightmare.

Rules are here. Possible comment fodder follows. Other topics are also fair game.

__________________________________________

Observation of the day (HT Instapundit) from David French: “… after $16 trillion (spent in the War on Poverty), we have a different kind of more, more, more — more illegitimacy, more citizens in poverty, and more inequality, with growing stickiness at the bottom.”

But, as he notes, all he ever hears from what he calls the Christian Left is that we aren’t spending enough, and need to spend more — as if that will somehow generate different results. Of course, it won’t.

__________________________________________

Add Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey to the list of those calling for Eric Holder to resign. Holder should count himself lucky if that’s the only thing which happens to him — or his boss. 300 people have died as a result of Fast & Furious, which is 300 more than died as a result of Watergate.

__________________________________________

Ever More Dangerous, Damaging, and Immature Occupy Update — Remember that this is the Obama-endorsed (proof here, here, here, and here) Occupy movement (HTs mostly to OWSexposed.com):

• Dec. 17, at RedState (“SEIU Job Description: Train & Lead Members to Occupy State Buildings & Takeover Banks”) — “The SEIU is advertising on its main site for SEIU Healthcare 775NW in Washington State. Among the job duties listed includes the training of members in civil-disobedience, peaceful resistance (how to get arrested), as well as the occupation and takeover banks and state buildings.” The ad has since been pulled, but RedState has the screen grabs.
• Dec. 20, at the Washington Times — “Hackers post cops’ personal data to avenge Occupy movement.”
• Dec. 20, from the Associated Press, as carried at Fox News in Boston (“Massachusetts Man Guilty of Conspiring to Help Al Qaeda”) — “A federal jury in Massachusetts convicted Tarek Mehanna on four terror-related charges and three charges of lying to authorities.” The AP “forgot” to note that “Back in October, Boston occupiers held a rally for a then accused terrorist by the name of Tarek Mehanna.”
• Dec. 20, at BigGovernment.com — “Frances Fox Piven (in the Nation Magazine): #Occupy Movement Must Bring About ‘Upheaval of Historic Dimensions’”
• Dec. 20, from TV station KWGN — “Occupy Denver protesters evicted in fiery clash.”
• Dec. 13, at the New York Daily News — “Milk Street Cafe, FiDi eatery that lost business due to Occupy Wall Street barricades, to close for good.”

__________________________________________

Well-stated at the Mendenhall, regarding Occupy Movement sympathizers who claim to renounce the violence and mayhem, which might as well have been addressed directly to President Obama and other Democratic Party supporters and even the left’s sideline-sitters:

You can no longer close your eyes to the screaming mob before you and assert that you support what they “really” stand for while simultaneously denying that the destruction of the individual is not their goal. You cannot hide behind the thin veil that is the mismatched, contradictory, philosophic chaos of the Occupy Movement and say that not every member stands for the same thing – they do not have to, and nor do you. Your very support pushes the mob forward against the liberty which you claim you love so dearly. You, by your voluntary act of association and assent, are no less culpable than the most ardent nihilistic insurgent at these rallies, and perhaps, even more so.

Exactly.

__________________________________________

Here’s something which might finally get OH-01′s Steve Chabot and others on the House Judiciary Committee who are getting together today to consider the horrid Software Online Piracy Act (which Chabot, incredibly, is cosponsoring) to reconsider (HT Instapundit) –

“All Candidates Should Be Concerned About SOPA”

Here’s a plausible campaign scenario under SOPA. Imagine you are running for Congress in a competitive House district. You give a strong interview to a local morning news show and your campaign posts the clip on your website. When your opponent’s campaign sees the video, it decides to play hardball and sends a notice to your Internet service provider alerting them to what it deems “infringing content.” It doesn’t matter if the content is actually pirated. The ISP has five days to pull down your website and the offending clip or be sued. If you don’t take the video down, even if you believe that the content is protected under fair use, your website goes dark.

Political campaigns and anyone interested in an open political process should be greatly concerned about the regulations SOPA creates and the freedoms it restricts. Online piracy needs to be stopped, but not at the expense of creating a legal wasteland that could restrict the vital flow of candidate and campaign information on the Internet.

Are you paying attention yet, guys and gals? Chabot’s phone number in Washington is 202-225-2216. His email contact form is here.

Updates (HT to Instapundit in each case):

• Julian Sanchez at Cato @ Liberty — “SOPA: An Architecture for Censorship”
• Adam Savage at Popular Mechanics — “SOPA Could Destroy the Internet as We Know It”

From an Investor’s Business Daily editorial (bolds are mine):

Posted 12/19/2011 06:57 PM ET

Europe’s outpouring of grief over the death of Vaclav Havel, hero of Czechoslovakia’s great Velvet Revolution, says much about its longing for more like him. His honesty and courage liberated Europe.

… Havel died Sunday at age 75 after liberating his country, leading his nation as president from 1989-2003, and voicing his moral authority to scourge lingering tyrants in Cuba, Burma and China.

Havel, a playwright whose health had been weakened by years spent in communist dungeons, was an unlikely and yet perfect leader for leading Eastern Europe’s liberation from communism. He unshackled Europe with the only weapon in his arsenal — words, which he animated and empowered by expressing them truthfully.

In the former Czechoslovakia, the nightmare of communism imposed after World War II was employed with a Nazi-like oppressive intensity, leaving a bleak society whose citizens got by on lies, collaboration, mediocrity and ratlike survival ethics.

“… Only a few of us were able to cry out loud that the powers that be should not be all-powerful,” Havel told his nation after being elected the first president of the restored democracy in December 1989.

Condemned from birth as a “bourgeois element,” Havel was always an outsider who could never become a “new communist man” or a cog in the machine of “progress.” Denied admission to university, denied jobs, denied permission to leave the country, spied on by secret police and refused liberty in prison beginning in 1979, he managed to free his country by standing up for freedom against all odds.

It was an incredible dream then — because right up until the end, no one believed communism would ever fall. Havel’s Velvet Revolution changed that, as first a few thousand, and then a few hundred thousand flooded the streets calling for the regime’s end — and the move spread like wildfire through Europe and eventually hit the gates of Moscow.

Havel’s peaceful revolution, unlike almost any other, left all oppressive regimes — to this very day — uncertain about their self-declared permanence.

… “Humanity will pay the price for communism until such a time as we learn to stand up to it with all political responsibility and decisiveness,” he said, encouraging a group of Cuban civil society organizers in 2006.

It would be utterly negligent not to recognize the importance of Ronald Reagan’s and Bush 41′s steadfast stances with the Kremlin during the previous eight years in enabling Havel to have his message taken to heart by sufficient numbers of emboldened fellow Czechs.

Go here for the rest of the editorial.

Lord have mercy, these people are looking anywhere and everywhere to turn an economic improvement molehill into something that sort of looks like a mountain.

Today, the headline to Derek Kravitz’s report at the Associated Press (“Rise in home construction suggests a turnaround”) reasonably reflected the underlying reality reported by the Census Bureau, but his first six paragraphs most definitely did not:

(more…)

The establishment press will never tell their readers, listeners and viewers that the five best-performing states in job growth through the first eleven months of this year, as well as nine of the top eleven, have relatively conservative Republicans occupying their respective governors’ mansions. If these eleven star performers had only performed as well as the rest of the nation, over 300,000 fewer people would be working, and the unemployment rate would be at least 0.2% higher.

As will be seen after the jump, the list, based on data released today by Uncle Sam’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, includes several against which the Obama administration has undertaken significant job-killing or job-deferring actions (i.e., these states have outperformed despite the handicaps, and would have done much better without them):

(more…)

I’ve just been forwarded an email from Jim Woods of Medina, a suburb of Cleveland.

As seen here, Mr. Woods was among the sensible conservative dissidents who challenged ORPINO (Ohio Republican Party In Name Only, known to most as the Ohio Republican Party, or ORP) incumbents in the May 2010 Central Committee races during that year’s primary.

Also at the link, readers will see that Mr. Woods was the author of an April 2010 email wherein he declared quite accurately that “The ORP has declared war on the conservative majority.”

After mostly turning back the opposition in that May primary thanks to brazen voter deception and massive spending of party funds which should have been held for the general election, ORPINO Chairman Kevin DeWine and his staff have in the intervening 19 months back-stabbed candidate and then-Governor John Kasich in many ways large and small. Despite Kevin’s denials, this is a fact, and is not arguable.

Kasich’s people are so (completely justifiably) infuriated that they are attempting to unseat incumbent Central Committee members with successors who will not support DeWine. Wood’s email and the linked support he provides show that even if he loses the war this March and faces a hostile Central Committee, Kevin DeWine will act as if nothing happened (slightly revised for blog presentation; links were in original; bolds are mine):

Greetings,

The purpose of this message is to keep everyone informed of “The Rift” between the Chairman of the Ohio GOP and the rest of the GOP in Ohio. Please feel free to forward it.

The best summary of where we are now is at the media interview entitled “The Rift” at this link (click on “GOP Rift” when you get to the link — Ed.).

Additional info (but not a lot) can be gleaned from the lengthier interviews with DeWine and Batchelder. For additional background is the DeWine remarks to the Ohio GOP state central committee on 12/2/2011 at this address, and Batchelder’s memo on DeWine’s remarks.

There is one thing to me that is abundantly clear from DeWine’s consistent message, in both his remarks to the state central committee on December 2 and his more recent interviews with the press; he will not step down as Chairman. Not in order to prevent a costly Primary battle for state central committee seats, consuming resources that should be applied to the general election. Again, as he did in 2010. Not if a majority of the state central committee wishes him to step down. He is adamant that he will remain Chairman no matter what, until January 2013. Not if the war between him and the rest of the party continues right through the general election, with all the implications of infighting and intrigue within the party has on the Ohio Presidential election, and the possibility that the divisiveness in Ohio may result in Obama’s re-election.

This is not the action of a man who is committed to the cause. It is the action of a man who has put himself first. Conservative Republicans, liberal Republicans, social conservatives, and the “Tea Party” may disagree on many things, but one thing I think they can all agree upon is that a person who is in it for their own self-interest above all else, should not be in a leadership position.

Best regards,

Jim Woods

I certainly agree.

This is a man who would rather lock himself in his office and suck his thumb for eight months (if the Central Committee turns over), whine, and obstruct, even if it means four more years of Barack Obama ruining the country, perhaps (make that probably) irretrievably. If Ohio goes blue in the circumstances described, it will on Kevin DeWine, and Kevin DeWine alone — and he appears to be okay with that.

No one outside your small Central Committee circle of friends is, Kevin.

___________________________________________

Previous related posts:
- Dec. 12 — Kasich v. DeWine: Kevin Explains Why He Should Resign. Will He?
- Dec. 5 — Of Course Kevin DeWine Should Resign (But He Probably Won’t)

The Cincinnati Enquirer will no longer be printed in Cincinnati, because the Columbus Dispatch’s facility can produce the paper in a more reader-friendly format, and because (my opinion) the people running the show haven’t fully thought things through:

… Enquirer Media’s Queensgate print production facility will close next fall, impacting about 200 positions. Enquirer Media employs roughly 715 people in the region.

… Because its press equipment is newer, more flexible, and required a lower capital investment to retrofit for the new format, Gannett chose the Dispatch over the Queensgate facility to print the Enquirer.

… a press running 50,000 papers an hour can expand to 75,000 papers an hour.

… The increased speed, combined with more efficient delivery routes, will offset the geographic impact of printing a product in Columbus that is delivered to subscribers in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

The Enky’s daily circulation is 206,000, per Wikipedia. The press run will take a bit less than three hours (206 divided by 75) instead of a bit more than four (206 divided by 50).

That’s a savings of about one hour and 22 minutes. The drive from Columbus to downtown Cincinnati is about an hour and 45 minutes (possibly less if the Dispatch’s print facility is where I think it is a bit to the southwest).

So on a good day, it looks like the news will be about twenty or so minutes more stale than it already is. On a bad day (it has been known to snow a bit in Columbus and in the Cincy-Columbus corridor — /understatement), papers which might otherwise have arrived if produced locally will either be really late, or won’t get there.

This is the kind of move which makes the cost accountants and bean counters look like heroes and gives the circulation department indigestion. On balance, I think the circ people would be quite justified if they are unhappy with this move.

__________________________________________

UPDATE: Not to mention the carbon footprint from all those over-the-road round trips between the cities (yes, I know, somewhat but I don’t believe anywhere near completely offset by the shorter and more efficient production run). Remember that the next time the Enky pushes a globaloney editorial on its readers.

UPDATE 2: Of course (and don’t think this isn’t relevant, because it is), by releasing about 200 people currently employed at the Enky’s local printing facility, that’s 200 fewer potential ObamaCare participants about whom Gannett won’t have to worry.

Rules are here. Possible comment fodder may follow later. Other topics are also fair game.

__________________________________________

Squeaky Clean, Scandal-Free Update and Quote of the Day from John at Powerline: “During the Age of Obama, the scandals come so thick and fast that you can hardly remember them all, let alone keep track of their details.” You must go see the Michael Ramirez cartoon at the link.

__________________________________________

Well, consider the source, but this may explain why Helicopter Ben Bernanke has backed away publicly from the idea of a Euro bailout (sadly, we can’t really know if he means it):

DSK (Dominique Strauss-Kahn): No ‘Firewall’ Exists, Europe Has ‘Only Weeks’

… …Strauss-Kahn said the firewall to staunch the spread of the crisis “doesn’t really exist”. The €500bn European Stability Mechanism would only be operational in months when “the question is a question of weeks. The question is not a question of months.”

__________________________________________

Food Stamp Update:

• If you want to rein in costs, you’re a racist.
• At the link, BigGovernment.com’s Wynton Hall points out that “In 2012, taxpayers will spend a projected $89 billion on the program. Today, a record 46 million Americans now receive food stamp–an increase of over two-thirds since Mr. Obama took office.”
• Also at the link, there’s a good (well, useful) rundown of examples of fraud and abuse, including many among those who administer the program. Here’s another from Greater Cincinnati which I never go to when it was first reported: “Former Hamilton County Jobs and Family Services workers accused of food stamp fraud.”

And don’t you dare saying anything about the fact that kids on the school lunch program are getting at least five meals a week (ten per weeks if there are school breakfasts) which Food Stamps supposedly already paid for.

__________________________________________

Mary Chastain at BigJournalism.com — “The New York Times Paints Holder As A Victim Of Fast And Furious.” With apologies to Samuel Johnson (“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”), whining about racism is the 21st century’s last refuge of a scoundrel. Let’s hope Holder is out of refuges, and will soon be out of office. The suspicion here, despite Holder’s aggressive intentions to avoid dealing with voting irregularities, is that Team Obama is beginning to see his continued presence as a serious reelection liability.

__________________________________________

In a Wall Street Journal editorial — “Liberals Love the 1%; A lesson in big business tax favoritism in Illinois.” Crony capitalism at its worst: Raise taxes on everyone, and give favors to those who have clout who threaten to leave. One of these days, someone is going to convince the courts that tax breaks such as these (and yes, so many others in so many other states) violate the equal protection rights of all who aren’t granted such breaks. Because they are.

From Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, about one of thousands of underappreciated heroes of the prolife movement:

Dec 18, 2011 / 01:08 pm

Catholic Charities is making transitional care available at the Holy Family Maternity Home in Oklahoma City for teens in crisis pregnancies.

“The goal of this new service is to help the family and the teenage girl who is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy as they work to create a ‘new normal’ in their lives,” said Monica Palmer, associate director for Clinical Services.

“Families often need time and help to adjust.”

As part of the Transitional Care program, Holy Family Home offers short-term residential services in a safe and supportive environment. Each girl enrolled in the program will have a private room with caring staff on duty 24 hours a day, as well as case management to assist in making an educational and a medical plan.

Additionally, Holy Family Maternity Home provides age-appropriate recreational activities including field trips, art and musical events.

“The residents and families will be able to decide on the length of the stay based on their needs,” said Mary Jane Webster, Holy Family Maternity Home director. “If needed, the girl can stay through the birth of her baby and complete the school semester.” …

Go here for the rest of the story.

See-no-evil economic reporting during the Obama years has “somehow” missed a number of developments in the makeup of the American workforce which I believe would not have been missed (or deliberately overlooked, take your pick) if a Republican or conservative were in the White House. One of them relates to full-time employment.

Did you know that seasonally adjusted full-time employment in September 2011 was lower than it was when the recession officially ended in June 2009, and that this was the case for 26 of the first 27 post-recession months? What’s more, the economy had over 8.7 million fewer full-time workers in November 2011 than it did when full-time employment peaked four years earlier in November 2007. Proof from the Bureau of Labor Statistics follows the jump:
(more…)