The Foresaken

Remember those three Bay Area grad students who were arrested after they strayed into Iranian while on some sort of adventure travel in Iraq. Looks like things will get worse before they get better: Iran Accuses 3 Detained Americans of Espionage

Iran accused three detained Americans of spying Monday, signaling Tehran intends to put them on trial. It drew a sharp U.S. response that the charges are baseless because the hikers strayed across the border from Iraq.

The Americans — Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27 — have been held in Iran's Evin prison, where Swiss diplomats have visited them twice and said they are healthy.

The three graduates of the University of California at Berkeley had been trekking in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, their relatives say.

The case recalled that of an American-Iranian journalist, Roxanna Saberi, who was arrested in Iran in January and convicted of espionage. After heavy pressure from the U.S., she was freed on appeal in May and returned home — and several months later, the U.S. military released five Iranians it had held for more than two years.

The accusations against the three Americans could be a first step in a similar move by Iran to put them on trial and convict them, then arrange their release, aiming to get concessions.

Espionage. Very imaginative. Even Ahmadinijad is weighing in with his customary commentary.

Commenting on the case, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. of jailing innocent Iranians and pointed to two of his countrymen — a nuclear scientist and a top defense official — who disappeared in recent years. Tehran accuses the U.S. of kidnapping them. The U.S. has refused comment on the two, and there has been speculation they defected to the West.

Ahmadinejad, asked about the spying accusations against the Americans, told reporters in Istanbul, Turkey, said he had no opinion about the case.

"It must be judged by the judiciary, whether they are spies or not," he said. "There are some Iranians who have spent many years in prison without doing anything wrong, in American prisons."

He said the Americans had crossed the border illegally and Iran has a right to punish them.

"In all countries, crossing borders would have a very heavy sentence, according to the law," he said. "Hopefully, they will have an appropriate answer in the court, and hopefully they will convince the judge that they did not have any intention of crossing the border illegally."

"All countries?" Yeah, right, the US, for its part, certainly doesn't follow that policy.

As for the three hostages, here's hoping that the filing of bogus "espionage" charges marks the beginning of serious negotiations.

Mental Mafia

The great Paul Hollander analyzes why the victims of of Communism's mass murder spree are forgotten while the Nazi's victims are rarely absent from the cultural dialogue (unless Israel is the topic of discussion, of course): Remembering Communism

The different moral responses to Nazism and communism in the West can be interpreted as a result of the perception of communist atrocities as byproducts of noble intentions that were hard to realize without resorting to harsh measures. The Nazi outrages, by contrast, are perceived as unmitigated evil lacking in any lofty justification and unsupported by an attractive ideology. There is far more physical evidence and information about the Nazi mass murders, and Nazi methods of extermination were highly premeditated and repugnant, whereas many victims of communist systems died because of lethal living conditions in their places of detention. Most of the victims of communism were not killed by advanced industrial techniques.

Communist systems ranged from tiny Albania to gigantic China; from highly industrialized Eastern European countries to underdeveloped African ones. While divergent in many respects, they had in common a reliance on Marxism-Leninism as their source of legitimacy, the one-party system, control over the economy and media, and the presence of a huge political police force. They also shared an ostensible commitment to creating a morally superior human being -- the socialist or communist man.

Political violence under communism had an idealistic origin and a cleansing, purifying objective. Those persecuted and killed were defined as politically and morally corrupt and a danger to a superior social system. The Marxist doctrine of class struggle provided ideological support for mass murder. People were persecuted not for what they did but for belonging to social categories that made them suspect.

Hollander might have also mentioned that Communists have benefited from progressive omerta, which has consistently downplayed the crimes of the Left. From the Twenties and Thirties when the International Left saw the Soviet Union as the vanguard of the future to the Forties when "Uncle Joe" Stalin was our ally to the Fifties when anti-anti-Communism was the rage to the Sixties when Ho Chi Minh and Chairman Mao were agrarian reformers whose posters adorned the hippest dorm rooms and so on, the Left has seen the communists as purer exemplars of their preferred social arrangements.

The Left loves to point to the approving noises that Charles Linberg made about pre-war Nazi Germany, but we have allowed ourselves to forget the many progressives who actively supported Stalinist Russia, even at the height of the Terror. Prominent New Dealers like Alger Hiss spied on behalf of the Soviets. FDR never failed to take Stalin at his word. Henry Wallace - vice president during FDR's third term - visited the heart of the Gulag and pronounced everything hunky dory, and so it went, and so it goes. Barbara Kingsolver's new novel is set in Trotsky's Mexico City circle. The Icepick is a sentimental favorite among leftists, despite the fact that he was directly responsible for the deaths of thousands during the post-Revolution civil war and beyond. The wealthy western progressives huddling greatfully within the orbit of the red-shirted Hugo Chavez just goes to show how little we have managed to learn.

For the Left, communism's fault is not just its crimes, it's that it took the Left's cherished goals of freedom from want, freedom from competition, and equality for all and left behind a charnel house wherever leftists managed to grab power. This is not to say that Barack Obama is a socialist, or that health care reform will result in an American Gulag for people who refuse to pay their insurance premiums. But, don't tell me that some progressives would be happy to see conservative Americans disappear. Can you imagine the cheers if Rush Limbaugh were to drop dead tomorrow? Can you imagine an alternate reality America where Maxine Waters, Andy Stern and the president of the Sierra Club sit in judgment of dissidents from the One True Path. Not saying it's going to happen, but it sure is easy to imagine.

All Quiet On the Movie Front

The NY Times would like you to know that the new Woody Harrelson movie, The Messenger, is a "different kind" of Iraq War movie. I don't know; if you have a pudgy hippie like Harrelson as your star, it's hard to believe your film will be anything more than yet another glum wallow through the "unseen" aspects of the war (i.e. the only aspects Hollywood would like to present). Let's check the synopsis: "The Messenger" Tries New Attack on Iraq War Film

It is a war movie, but the war, unlike in most films about Iraq and Afghanistan, is completely off screen; nothing explodes, and flashbacks to Baghdad or Tikrit do not occur. The film instead focuses on the relationship between two casualty-notification officers — a crusty career sergeant (Mr. Harrelson) and a wounded soldier just back from Iraq (Mr. Foster) — whose mission is to knock on doors and deliver news of death to next of kin.

As a coming-home-from-war/buddy movie “The Messenger” is, in one sense, quintessentially American. Shot at and around Fort Dix in New Jersey, with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as extras, it has true grit and flavorful dialogue. (“I’d like to strap her on and wear her like a government-issued gas mask,” Mr. Harrelson’s character says about a comely bartender.) Yet the film, written by Mr. Moverman, who was raised in Israel, and Alessandro Camon, who grew up in Italy, has a distinctly European feel that sets it apart from other Iraq War-related films. It is visually spare, dialogue-intensive and restrained in its plotting.

In other words, it's yet another movie about the Pity Of It All; the wailing widows, the "wasted" deaths of young men, the slowly descending coffins; no doubt set to a mournful "Taps" played while American flags snap ironically in the breeze. It's "different" in the sense that the title and plot are not the same as Stop Loss, In the Valley Of Elah, or Lions for Lambs (some of these titles may be off!), but the theme and intent are certainly identical.

Want to make a different kind of Iraq War movie? Portray the US Army as liberators and warriors fighting an evil enemy at great personal cost in pursuit of a noble cause. If one of the characters is a cigar chomping macho man named "Sarge," who wears a bandoleer like other men wear moisturizer, so much the better.

Hard A Starboard

John at Powerline chides conservatives for insufficient loyalty to the Republican Party. I think he has a point: Republican Pride

Of course the Republicans aren't perfect. Of course they spent too much money when they controlled Congress. But the history of the Republican Party is, on the whole, a proud one--far more so than that of the Democratic Party. This is a theme to which I intend to recur in the months to come.

In the meantime, let's leave it with this: we were often critical of President George W. Bush. When he left office, I gave him a B- grade overall. But President Bush would have vetoed Pelosicare. This is the stark difference between our political parties: the Democrats are hell-bent on dismantling free enterprise and advancing government power over every aspect of our lives; the Republicans are not. Conservatives cannot afford to be neutral or indifferent as between the parties, nor can they afford the narcissism of third-party vanity campaigns. Conservatives must work every day to strengthen the Republican Party--it's the only hope we have. And, yes, strengthening the party will sometimes mean drawing the line at a Dede Scozzafava. But purity is not our object here; victory is.

A problem for voters and for Republicans is that a lazy sort of liberalism is the default setting in the media, in the schools, in the universities, in bookstores, and virtually any other place where the battle of ideas is waged. Republicans don't just have trouble getting their message out; voters rarely have ready access to information that the GOP can represent a choice, and not an echo. You literally have to make an affirmative effort to learn about conservative ideas, the philosophy of the GOP, etc. For many people, hearing Rush Limbaugh for the first time is often a shock, a shock because it's hard to hear such a passionate proponent of conservative views in more conventional forums.

In my case, a big turning point came when I read P.J. O'Rourke's books back in my college days. I think he was the first person outside of my family whom I had ever heard criticize FDR (as I recall, the line from Parliament of Whores was "President Roosevelt: the one in the wheelchair, and not the good one who shot bears"). PJ's a very funny guy, and much more thoughtful than most liberal intellectuals, but - come on! - when your side (ca. early 1990's) has to rely on a humorist to put across its ideas to the mainstream, it gives you an idea of what we're up against. Things have changed for the better: certainly we're much better off with Fox News, talk radio, and the conservative blogosphere, none of which existed in their present form when I made my journey right-ward; but we shouldn't kid ourselves. Conservatives and the GOP still have a long way to go, both in communicating with one another and with the voters.

Lily, Rosemary, & the Jack of Hearts

This must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Fake your kidnapping with your lover and then extort money from your clueless husband. Fla. Cops: Wife Faked Own Kidnapping to Scam Husband

A wealthy health care executive came home one night in September to find a terrifying note from his wife, Quinn Gray: The 37-year-old housewife and mother of two had been abducted from her posh Florida beach community.

(snip)

The ordeal began the night of Sept. 4, when Gray's husband, 38-year-old Reid Gray, discovered his wife's note at their $4 million seaside mansion.

Reid Gray called the St. John's County Sheriff's Office, touching off a multi-agency manhunt that included the FBI. The sheriff's office would eventually spend $90,000 on the investigation.

The next day, as sheriff's officials set up a command center for the investigation, Reid Gray received the first of at least six calls from his wife. According to a report, Quinn Gray demanded her husband drop the $50,000 at a Chik-Fil-A restaurant; when he drove to the area, Quinn called again and said he had "screwed up" because police were spotted nearby.

On Sept. 6, Quinn Gray's mother dropped $50,000 at a beach restaurant; a group of college kids picked up the money and called police, frantic that they were in the middle of a "dope deal."

On Sept. 7, the case took an odd turn: an agitated Quinn Gray walked up to deputies at a local mall. She was taken to the FBI office in Jacksonville, where she told agents that her kidnapper worked for a loan shark who wanted her husband to pay up.

Detective Kevin Kerr and others were skeptical, noting Gray seemed to be making up the story as she went along.

During another interview, Quinn Gray changed her story. She said she had been sexually assaulted and that "I was crazy then, I was just doing what I was told to do."

She did give police one telling detail: Her abductor's name was Jasmin, and he drove a white Volkswagen Jetta. She also directed investigators to the warehouse where she was held.

Detectives found Jasmin Osmanovic, driving out of the warehouse in his Jetta. He eventually wrote his version of events in an affidavit.

"I met Quinn Gray about a month and a half ago. We met at a gas station," wrote the young mechanic. He described going to her house and listening to her talk about her marital problems and her issues with drinking _ she had nearly split up with Reid Gray and had gone to rehab at a tony Minnesota clinic. Her husband had affairs, she said, and she wondered if he wanted her dead.

It would have worked except for a meddling tape recorder.

Osmanovic touched on one piece of evidence: an audiotape he and Quinn Gray made that weekend. Osmanovic's live-in girlfriend found it and gave it to officers. The recording captured the sounds of Gray and Osmanovic having sex, plotting the kidnapping and talking about mundane things, like how they needed to eat more salads.

Sheriff Shoar said Osmanovic felt that Gray was acting "hinky" and covertly made the recording.

"He is not a dumb guy. He is a very smart guy," Shoar said. "He wanted some proof and reassurance in case she tried to hang him out to dry."

The lover is toast, but Quinn may yet get out of this. She remains pretty and charming enough that her husband is funding her defense.

Interestingly, Gray's husband _ the owner of a home health care company who detailed the couple's long, painful history of marital infidelity during hours of police interviews _ is standing by his wife. Against the advice of friends and family, he is not seeking a divorce.

"I love my family," Reid Gray wrote in a statement to the media. "And will do whatever I can to make sure that Quinn receives all of the help and support that she needs."

The husband is a wealthy health care executive. Time for him to put some of that money to work buying a clue.

No Time For The Niceties

Supposedly there will be a vote on the 1,990 page long House bill at some point this weekend. It'd be nice if we could all have a chance to have a calm, rational national "debate" over this, but that is the last thing Dems want, so instead we have a peremptory vote on a humongous bill that is literally impossible to read before the vote. Not enough time for the niceties here; given the way the scheduling has been set, there isn't even time for talk radio blow-hards to sink their teeth into this. No, we have to rely on Sarah Palin's Facebook page and a Saturday morning Betsy McCaughey opinion piece in the W$J. She goes through the usual commentary on insurance mandates and Medicare cuts. But, what's really striking is the left-wing identity politics that infiltrates even this supposed effort to "reform" health care: What the Pelosi Health Care Bill Really Says

.While the bill will slash Medicare funding, it will also direct billions of dollars to numerous inner-city social work and diversity programs with vague standards of accountability.

• Sec. 399V (p. 1422) provides for grants to community "entities" with no required qualifications except having "documented community activity and experience with community healthcare workers" to "educate, guide, and provide experiential learning opportunities" aimed at drug abuse, poor nutrition, smoking and obesity. "Each community health worker program receiving funds under the grant will provide services in the cultural context most appropriate for the individual served by the program."

These programs will "enhance the capacity of individuals to utilize health services and health related social services under Federal, State and local programs by assisting individuals in establishing eligibility . . . and in receiving services and other benefits" including transportation and translation services.

• Sec. 222 (p. 617) provides reimbursement for culturally and linguistically appropriate services. This program will train health-care workers to inform Medicare beneficiaries of their "right" to have an interpreter at all times and with no co-pays for language services.

• Secs. 2521 and 2533 (pp. 1379 and 1437) establishes racial and ethnic preferences in awarding grants for training nurses and creating secondary-school health science programs. For example, grants for nursing schools should "give preference to programs that provide for improving the diversity of new nurse graduates to reflect changes in the demographics of the patient population." And secondary-school grants should go to schools "graduating students from disadvantaged backgrounds including racial and ethnic minorities.""

That last bit about creating incentives for schools to graduate more minority and disadvantaged health care workers is just pitiful. Is the health care system "failing" because medical and nursing schools are not graduating students from disadvantaged backgrounds who can address "changing demographics?" Maybe if we weren't creating so many wards of the state in minority communities, this wouldn't be an issue. McCaughey's essay provides important information that is simply impossible to find in the mainstream media, or in the congressional debate over the bill. We really are standing at the precipice.

You can go here to see the bills and some more McCaughey commentary on them.

UPDATE: there's some kind of crazy formatting problem with my block quote from the W$J, so I took it out for now

UPDATE 2: It passed with just 220 votes, which means there was no bi-partisan support (the Republican from "Dollar Bill's" district doesn't count), and really not even the full support of the Democratic caucus. The Destructive Generation continues with its work...

Academy Fight Song

John Nolte digs up more Youtube videos of school kids singing songs about Obama. Nolte provides not just video evidence, but also transcripts and a lyric sheet. The word "disturbing" is used copiously: Elementary Epidemic: 11 Videos Show School Children Performing Praises To Obama

Each one of the videos below is creepier than the last because the further down you go, the younger the children — brace yourself for kindergartners – except for the last and most disturbing video, which you have to see to believe.

Young captive minds, easily influenced, eager for direction, enlisted into a cult of personality focused on an individual who, other than being the first black president, has yet to accomplish anything of significance.

But Obama’s skin color has nothing to do with this. Does anyone interested in retaining their merit badge for intellectual honesty really want to argue that Condi Rice or J.C. Watts would’ve spawned a dozen-and-counting tribute videos?

This is about brainwashing our children into Leftist identity politics. Sure, the schools can argue that they had some kind of parental permission — which, if true, is somehow even more disturbing — but who even considers doing something like this with young minds? That’s a rhetorical question.

Before letting loose with my fiery conservative commentary, I have to say that the videos of the elementary school kids are incredibly cute and very funny (the high school videos are a drag, as the kids are obviously bored and put upon). There's nothing as funny as the genre-defining tune "Barack Hussein Obama/Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!" of course. But I had to laugh at some of these, especially the one with the kindergartners warbling uncertainly through their chanson.

I'm not going to stamp my feet over "indoctrination" because I think there's some limited use for this stuff: the kids are learning about current events, they're getting a chance to be a little creative, and the president is being presented as a role model. Not only that, all of these songs - with their light raps and phat beatz - have a distinctly urban feel, which makes me think there's a strong element of racial pride at work that is distinct from whatever indoctrination into Leftist group think might be going on. Newsflash to Nolte: there's nothing wrong with black people taking pride in Obama's election, and instilling that pride in their kids.

Of course, we all know that not *all* presidents are presented as role models worthy of sing-song praise. In fact, I'd bet that all of those teachers in these videos who are pulling the strings in the background had some choice words to say about George W Bush during his term. I don't mind kids being taught a positive image of the president, but I do mind that not all presidents have been deemed worthy of this basic level of respect. And, as others have pointed out, the same progressives who would be aghast about kids singing songs about Jesus have no problem with the same kids singing about someone who is, ultimately, just a man.

Then, there's the videos' inadvertent glimpse into the harsh reality of life in America's public schools; they look deadly dull, staffed by prissy humorless adults (check out some of the self-important introductions to the videos) dragooning kids into time-wasting "special projects" about the 44th president, rather than having them learn about the 43 remarkable men who preceded him, or anything else for that matter.

What the teachers - and Nolte - don't seem to realize is that these kids are hardly helpless little balls of dough, ready to be formed into leftist tools. I can guarantee that most of them are bored with this, and some of the older ones resent the hell out of it. I well remember my sixth grade teacher, a real New York progressive trapped in an elementary school in the DC suburbs, haranguing us about racism, Reagan and nuclear war (he thought "Atomic Cafe" was a very thought provoking film). No one took him seriously, especially as even us kids knew that the recently ended Carter Administration was a real loser. Just because the adults are standing in front of the classroom talking doesn't mean the kids are listening.

Nine Innings

Just One Minute summarizes What It All Means when the Yankees return to the top of the baseball order: The Restoration of the Natural Order

Since they last won in October 2000 we have endured the Florida election, 9/11, and two wars. Both the Red Sox and White Sox ended title droughts extending back to WW I, contributing to a 'World Gone Mad', anything-goes environment that led more or less directly to the housing bubble and global financial collapse. People cast about for leadership, only to be disappointed and surprised.

But now Mariano is on the mound, the public address is playing "New York, New York", and order has been restored. The millennium is back on track.

I have to admit; when I saw Mariano jogging out to the mound last night, "Enter Sandman" echoing through the night air, I felt an autumnal chill as the eternal verities awoke once again. Does this mean the Cowboys are going to go to the Super Bowl?

The Oath of the Horatii

Thomas Sowell nails the dark heart at the center of progressive health care reform's goal of reducing costs by reducing "end of life" care: The Costs of Medical Care

Letting old people die instead of saving their lives will undoubtedly reduce medical payments considerably. But old people have that option already-- and seldom choose to exercise it, despite clever people who talk about a "duty to die."

A government-run system will take that decision out of the hands of the elderly or their families, and thereby "bring down the cost of medical care." A stranger's death is much easier to take, especially if you are a bureaucrat making that decision in Washington.

At one time, in desperately poor societies, living on the edge of starvation, old people might be abandoned to their fate or even go off on their own to face death alone. But, in a society where huge flat-screen TVs are common, along with a thousand gadgets for amusement and entertainment, and where even most people living below the official poverty line own a car or truck, to talk about a "duty to die" so that younger people can live it up is obscene.

As Sowell says, it's easy to reduce costs by reducing the amount of something. Progressive health care reform ultimately aspires to reduce costs by rationing care; even the President has admitted this in his roundabout faux-professorial way. Voters, at least among the Tea Party Set, realize this instinctively, but there has been a heroic effort among progressives and the media to obscure this. Don't pay attention to the hateful angry racist fascist in the corner, please!

Taxology

Oakland mayor and Progressive "lion" Ron Dellums - actually, "panther" might be appropriate - is in trouble with the tax man. God forbid he pay the taxes he insists on imposing on the rest of us: Mayor Dellums, wife Owe $239K in Back Taxes

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and his wife failed to pay more than $239,000 in taxes over a three-year period, public records show.

Dellums, 73, and his wife, Cynthia, 55, who acts as his unpaid adviser, are named in a lien issued by the Internal Revenue Service and filed with the Alameda County recorder's office Oct. 14.

The lien says the couple failed to pay $124,198 in federal income taxes in 2005, $66,554 in 2006 and $48,246 in 2007, the year Dellums took office as mayor.

The tax lien was imposed on all the couple's personal property, meaning they cannot pocket proceeds from any transactions without first paying off the IRS.

The unpaid taxes date back to when Dellums was operating a lobbying firm in DC after he retired from Congress. His clients were an eclectic bunch:

In 2005, the first year the couple allegedly failed to pay their full taxes, Ron Dellums headed a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, Dellums and Associates. It earned $90,000 in lobbying income, $70,000 from Rolls-Royce North America and $20,000 from AIDS Healthcare Foundation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

In 2006, the lobbying firm received $100,000 from Verizon Communications, $120,000 from the Rolls-Royce group and $20,000 from the AIDS foundation.

Rolls Royce? I guess they're not kidding about limousine liberalism.

I don't really care if Dellums was living the high life. What I get tired of is the endless hagiography about guys like him; that he's the champion of the poor, the powerless, etc. Dellums is the progressive's progressive - a Marxist in all but name, who is hostile to American values and interests; a real Castro snuggler. Yet, here he is with a bigger home than those of the "right wing" Tea Partiers he no doubt despises, along with a tax lien commensurate with someone living beyond his means. Someone please call when progressives get tired of lionizing guys like this.

Change In The Weather

I don't understand this. Why would psychiatrists go through all of the trouble of defining a mental health problem, which has also proved compelling to the general public, before turning around and removing it from their primary diagnostic manual? The Vanishing Diagnosis For Asperger's Syndrome

It is one of the most intriguing labels in psychiatry. Children withAsperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, are socially awkward and often physically clumsy, but many are verbal prodigies, speaking in complex sentences at early ages, reading newspapers fluently by age 5 or 6 and acquiring expertise in some preferred topic — stegosaurs, clipper ships, Interstate highways — that will astonish adults and bore their playmates to tears.

(snip)

But no sooner has Asperger consciousness awakened than the disorder seems headed for psychiatric obsolescence. Though it became an official part of the medical lexicon only in 1994, the experts who are revising psychiatry’s diagnostic manual have proposed to eliminate it from the new edition, due out in 2012.

If these experts have their way, Asperger’s syndrome and another mild form of autism, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (P.D.D.-N.O.S. for short), will be folded into a single broad diagnosis, autism spectrum disorder — a category that encompasses autism’s entire range, or spectrum, from high-functioning to profoundly disabling.

Asperger's has proven to be a compelling syndrome, no doubt because its victims are often able to function well, despite having eccentric personalities and interests. Now, psychiatrists want to fold it into a much broader spectrum of autism, which would seem to unnecessarily stigmatize Asperger's people without doing anything to understand how to treat them. They might be better off with no diagnosis at all.

Greetings From Ashbury Park

I have enough going on without worrying too much about who's going to be governor of *ugh* New Jersey. Still, this is pretty sweet (via Powerline): The Fat Man Sings In New Jersey

FOX News has just called the New Jersey gubernatorial election for Republican Chris Christie. Given New Jersey's status as a heavily Democratic state, this may be the most surprising result tonight. The Democrats can spin the result away, but the Obama folks thought this race was winnable and that Obama's involvement would make a difference. Christie was heavily outspent by Corzine. Christie had Corzine's unpopularity going for him, but didn't run an impressive campaign and had to overcome the drag of a third-party candidate who siphoned off anti-Corzine votes. The result of this race has to sting Democrats.

Corzine is a walking symbol of this country's entrenched elite; a smug jerk who made a mint working for Goldman Sachs, and then sought to expiate his sins through tax-and-spend Big Government liberalism. I can't say I saw this coming; I thought NJ's lazy Democrat voters would re-elect Corzine through a combination of negative campaigning and sheer inertia. Certainly, the fat jokes leveled against Christie by the always sophisticated Tribunes of Tolerance were the sort of jerk-off tactics that might have worked in a year when voters didn't want to hear a lot of "gotcha" politics, but were voting out of a sense of deep concern for the future of their country and their state. Good luck to Christie. He'll need it.