Item one:  The ailing Senator Ted Kennedy is seeking to have the rules changed in case he cannot fulfill his term.  Rather than a special election, Kennedy is hoping that the Massachusetts legislature changes the rules to allow the Governor to appoint a replacement so that his state will not lack representation by two senators.  That sounds pretty reasonable especially since it worked so well in Illinois. 

The only thing is that the same Senator Kennedy pushed for a change in the method of replacing a senator in Massachusetts only four years ago.  At that time he did not want the governor to be able to simply appoint a replacement.  Kennedy called for special elections.  So why the change? 

Could it possibly be the fact that four years ago Mass. had a Republican Governor (Mit Romney) and there was a decent chance that John Kerry could be out of office.  If Kerry became president, Romney would probably have appointed a Republican.  Now that Massachusetts has a Democrat governor, it is apparently ok for the governor to have the ability to appoint Kennedy’s replacement.  Some might consider this hubris.  I would call it shameful politicking.

Item two:  I would like to direct President Obama’s attention to the behavior of his friends in the Middle East.  You know the ones that he keeps apologizing to for America’s “sins.”  For humanitarian reasons, a Scottish judge released the only man convicted for the murder of 189 Americans (270 total murdered) twenty-one years ago. 

Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi arrived home accompanied by the son of Moammar Gadhafi to a cheering crowd and what seems like a hero’s welcome.  It sort of reminded me of the images of the celebrations in the Muslim world on September 11, 2001 when more Muslims murdered more than 3,000 inocent people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in a Pennsylvania field.  Do you remember those images?  There are Muslims who still celebrate that day. 

You can relax because the White House has ”registered our outrage.”  There is no word on the effect that the recent visit to Libya by Senator John McCain and colleagues has made to the how much they hate Americans.  The Senators were there a week prior to the terrorist’s release to discuss providing weapons to Libya.  Sigh.

Item three:  Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom “I need to quit government to make some real money” Ridge is writing a book.  Do you want to take wild guess who he takes pot shots at?  Here we go with another Republican biting the hand that fed him.  I have no respect for a person who has access to an inner circle and then betrays that trust to line his pockets.  Not only does he tell tales, he tries to make like he was some kind of hero.

If the things happened as he says, he should have had the balls to speak up at the time.  I am sure the left will love him and give him an addition 15 minutes of fame.  Anyone heard from Scott McClellan lately?

Item four:  Our Congress, lead by Henry “Scabbers” Waxman is going on a fishing expedition.  They are not heading out into the ocean, they have demanded information regarding salaries, bonuses, pension plans, conferences attended, events held, and even details of expenses.  They are not asking this of government employees or members of Congress, but from PRIVATE health insurers.  By private, I mean not owned or run by government.  Insurers have until September 4 to provide the data.

A few predictions; 

• Any insurer that acquiesces will be destroyed as the data will “leak” out of Washington and lead to Acorn and/or SEIU protesting at executives’ homes.
• Any insurer that does not provide the data will be demonized with speculation about what they have to hide. 
• Congress will NOT provide the same information on their staff and budgets to the same scrutiny.

I really, really, really hope that these companies tell Waxman to take a flying leap.