Ford also indicated that Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts made a Republican win in New York possible.

“They’re scared,” he said of the state’s Democratic establishment. “For anyone to believe our normal messaging will win this election … they are kidding themselves.”

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Ford is talking about the coming NY race with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D). He has this to say about her….

“Voters don’t know the junior senator,” he said, referring to Gillibrand. “They can’t name one positive outcome from her.”

If Republicans run someone with a record that New Yorkers can get behind, a win in NY is entirely possible, in which Ford also think is a possibility:

Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. said Tuesday that Democrats are “scared” heading into this fall’s election and that he decided not to run for the Senate from New York because he feared his party would lose the seat after a tough primary.

“The fall is going to be a tough, tough fall for whatever Democrat emerges,” Ford said

The Primaries are going to be very interesting…...

Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
By Terri Cullen – Mon Feb 1, 4:09 pm ET

Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a “patch” that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.

Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year’s levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy—the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.

Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:

* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;

* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;

* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;

* Individuals who don’t itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;

* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.

Link

Four hours later this is now up:

Advisory: Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
Mon Feb 1, 8:07 pm ET

The story Backdoor taxes to hit middle class has been withdrawn. A replacement story will run later in the week.

Link

Fox is the most trusted television news network in the country, according to a new poll out Tuesday.

A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network.

Thirty-seven percent said they didn’t trust Fox, also the lowest level of distrust that any of the networks recorded.

There was a strong partisan split among those who said they trusted Fox — with 74 percent of Republicans saying they trusted the network, while only 30 percent of Democrats said they did.

CNN was the second-most-trusted network, getting the trust of 39 percent of those polled. Forty-one percent said they didn’t trust CNN.

Each of the three major networks was trusted by less than 40 percent of those surveyed, with NBC ranking highest at 35 percent. Forty-four percent said they did not trust NBC, which was combined with its sister cable station MSNBC.

Link

Added to this….

Fox News Finishes Week #1 in All of Primetime Cable

Fox News was the top cable network in primetime last week, averaging the most total viewers between January 18th-24th. The last time FNC topped USA and came in first was during the week of the 2008 presidential election.

In a week dominated by coverage of the earthquake in Haiti and the U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, FNC drew an average of 3.2 million total viewers in primetime (Mon-Sun).

Fox was ranked 3rd in total day. CNN was 22nd in primetime and 19th in total day, and MSNBC was 25th in primetime and 31st in total day.

Link

Let the spittle-flecked flaming of Fox by the left begin…...

JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities said Monday they are considering a petition to tear down a statue of US President Barack Obama as a boy, only a month after the bronze was unveiled in Jakarta.

The statue of “Little Barry”—as Obama was known when he lived in the capital in the late 1960s—stands in central Jakarta’s Menteng Park, a short walk from the US president’s former elementary school.

Critics say the site should have been used to honour an Indonesian and 55,000 people have joined a page on social networking website Facebook calling for the statue to be removed.

Link

Obama, who was born in Hawaii, lived for four years as a child in Jakarta from 1967 after his divorced mother married an Indonesian.

The bronze was designed by Indonesian artists and depicts the boy Obama dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a butterfly perched on his hand.

“The statue is of Obama as a child, not as the US president. His relatives and friends who erected it said it’s meant to motivate children to study hard and dream big,” Bintarto said.

Members of the “Take Down the Barack Obama Statue in Menteng Park” group on Facebook say Obama has done nothing for Indonesia.

“Barack Obama has yet to make a significant contribution to the Indonesian nation. We could say Obama only ate and s (expletive) in Menteng. He spent his subsequent days living as an American,” the web page says.

I do not understand why they would believe President Obama has some sort of obligation to Indonesia. He was there a short time as a boy, yes, but just because he is president now, why do they believe he ‘owes’ them?

If the statue is meant to inspire then leave it up, but if it is political pandering of “make a significant contribution to the Indonesian nation”, then take it down - President Obama doesn’t ‘owe’ you squat.

Winter Could Be Worst in 25 Years for USA…
CHILL MAP…
3 Deaths Due To Cold in Memphis…
PAPER: GAS SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT IN UK…
Vermont sets ‘all-time record for one snowstorm’...
Iowa temps ‘a solid 30 degrees below normal’...
Seoul buried in heaviest snowfall in 70 years…
Historic ice build-up shuts down NJ nuclear power plant…
Beijing—coldest in 40 years…
Miami shivers from coldest weather in decade…

“30 degrees below normal”

“Coldest in 40 years”

“All time record snow storm”

Where is the Global warming people?
Where are the protests?
Where is the news media?

Could this be more in the line of global cooling instead?

Perhaps, just perhaps, we should stop all the hysterics and really study this before making massive changes in the way business and citizens live their lives.

The “we now have more evidence” is a common occurrence in the science field. We hear it so many times when they have told us milk is bad for you, water is bad for you, and so many others, only to come back years later and say…“we now have more evidence” and eggs aren’t bad for you (I JUST heard that one a week ago).

So, perhaps instead of rush to judgement, we can have actual true scientific studies. Not slanted, not biased, but truly scientific studies. The world is not ending, the oceans are not rising so fast to swallow California - there is time, time to do things correctly.

And a side note, we can take the same approach to healthcare. We have time to do it right, take the time, make it something the US people can be proud of.

She said she wanted to be President some day.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?

She replied, I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.’

Her parents beamed with pride.

Wow…what a worthy goal. I told her, But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?

I said, Welcome to the Republican Party.

Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.

Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America’s new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric—and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.

Link
That was just the OPENING….

Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond “enthusiastically” to the speech. But it didn’t help: The soldiers’ reception was cool.

One didn’t have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama’s speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly.

An additional 30,000 US soldiers are to march into Afghanistan—and then they will march right back out again.

Even though Cadet Commanders tried to give artificial support for the President’s speech, Cadets response was “cool”. Not cold, just cool.

But to be fair, 30,000 troops being sent is more than what was expected, and it’s got Liberals all tied up in knots. Is that a bad thing then?

Take for instance, Maxine Waters: What are we going to have to do? Transition that government into a democracy? It doesn’t work for me. Waters said Obama’s strategy “doesn’t work for me,” and that she “will not support” Obama’s efforts. Waters indicated Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee feels the same way. Video Link

I know we screamed bloody murder when during the Bush Administration timetables were being bandied about, but I am hoping this is a GOAL not an actual timetable. 18 Months is a long time, and alot of progress can be made in that time. Obama also is not one to keep his promises very well, so even if this is a goal it most likely will not see the reality of Obama truly enforcing it. We shall see when the time comes.

It was a dizzying combination of surge and withdrawal, of marching to and fro. The fast pace was reminiscent of plays about the French revolution: Troops enter from the right to loud cannon fire and then they exit to the left. And at the end, the dead are left on stage.

Obama’s Magic No Longer Works

But in this case, the public was more disturbed than entertained. Indeed, one could see the phenomenon in a number of places in recent weeks: Obama’s magic no longer works. The allure of his words has grown weaker.

It is not he himself who has changed, but rather the benchmark used to evaluate him. For a president, the unit of measurement is real life. A leader is seen by citizens through the prism of their lives—their job, their household budget, where they live and suffer. And, in the case of the war on terror, where they sometimes die.

Political dreams and yearnings for the future belong elsewhere. That was where the political charmer Obama was able to successfully capture the imaginations of millions of voters. It is a place where campaigners—particularly those with a talent for oration—are fond of taking refuge. It is also where Obama set up his campaign headquarters, in an enormous tent called “Hope.”

In his speech on America’s new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught.

The American president doesn’t need any opponents at the moment. He’s already got himself.

Ouch - Spiegel does not pull any punches with this review of Obama’s Speech. Really is too bad that Journalism seems to be dead in America and the outside Journalists do a better job than the ones closer to home.