The House Democrat Caucus is so furious with Obama, over his compromise with Senate Republicans that extended the Bush era tax cuts, they voted to demand to see his birth certificate.

Previously, when hypocritical Democrats voiced regret that bipartisanship was a thing of the past because Republicans were being Republican, right–thinking progressives assumed bipartisanship meant GOP members would come crawling, begging for forgiveness, confessing myriad sins and making a generous contribution to the fund that will replace the stranger’s medals John Kerry threw over the White House fence.

If House Dems had even an inkling that bipartisanship meant the GOP would get something it wanted, expressing even insincere support would have been out of the question. As the McClatchy News Service described it, 'The Senate was expected to pass the deal overwhelmingly late Tuesday or early Wednesday, drawing a breadth of bipartisan support previously unseen during Barack Obama's presidency.'

And Nancy Pelosi’s House wanted nothing to do with it.
 

The first rule of holes is simple: when you’re in one, stop digging.

Currently Congress ranks at the bottom of Gallup’s 2010 Confidence in Institutions poll with half of all Americans saying they have “very little” or “no” confidence in the body. Congress’ reputation has even sunk below that of HMO’s, which only a few years ago unleashed the drive–through maternity ward on an unsuspecting female populace.

In a November Rasmussen poll an even larger 60 percent of those surveyed believe Congress is doing a poor job, with only 11 percent giving good or excellent ratings. (It is unclear if the approving 11 percent spent the last few weeks underground with the miners in Chile or is currently on the Congressional payroll.)

Yet individual members of Congress continue to order more shovels.
 

The Oxford Dictionary of Economics defines the Ratchet Effect as: 'A tendency for a variable to be influenced by its own largest previous value…the ratchet effect implies that variables are more sticky in one direction than the other.' Think of it as one of those notoriously unreliable DC Metro escalators that only go in the direction conservatives don’t want to travel.

This is the spending mindset the Republicans face in Washington, DC next year.

The Iron Triangle of big government spenders - Democrats, media and feeders at the federal trough - turn every attempt to cut spending into trench warfare.
 

Most of the problems of modern public education originate outside the school building. The locus of the worst influences are schools of education that turn out teachers and administrators who have absorbed four to six years of fantasy–based theory and practice.

If these dreamy theories were confined to Ed schools the situation would be tenable, but that’s unfortunately not the case. Implementation of these fads and fancies does real damage.

The most recent example takes place in West Potomac High School, located in Fairfax County, VA, where Principal Cliff Hardison attempted to deal two body–blows to education standards by first eliminating the ‘F’ from report cards and following that with a policy banning zeros for students caught cheating on tests.

I don’t think anyone with a mere bachelor’s degree would have the necessary woolly–headed thinking process required to formulate and then implement two policies like this, so I’m guessing Hardison has at least a master’s degree in Education. Maybe even a doctorate.
 

Visiting grandma’s house is going to be a lot different this holiday season. Instead of 'Grandma, what big teeth you have!' It’s going to be 'G–man what cold hands you have!' as thousands of unsuspecting travelers undergo their first enhanced airport 'pat–down' at the hands of TSA.

All Washington airports now have 'full–body scanning' machines. These produce a stem–to–stern image of the traveler in his birthday suit that is described as a 'virtual strip search.'

Sec. of Homeland Insecurity Janet Napolitano assures us this blast of radiation is perfectly safe. While we should rightly fear 'climate change,' 'tax cuts for the rich' and Obamacare repealing fanatics — getting microwaved at the airport is a benefit of modern air travel.
 

Once you start bossing people around it’s really hard to stop - just ask Janet 'No Toner for You' Napolitano. Last week it was instructions the new Congress, this week the benefit of my wisdom goes to real victors: the TEA party and independents not ready for Obama’s socialism lite.

While it’s true that not everyone who voted against Democrats was a TEA party member - just like not all Democrats have their lips firmly welded to the government teat - TEA partiers were the largest identifiable block, so they get the advice.

The crucial question facing the TEA party between now and 2012 is how to maintain momentum, membership and motivation over the next two years.