Ann Coulter’s new book which will soon top all best seller lists (unlike books by frauds like the guy who uses a false name to publish a book about sharing marshmallows with terrorists) was released today.

‘Guilty’ which exposes ‘Liberal Victims and their Assault on America’ is sure to be a hot topic on ‘progressive’ blogs hosted by know nothing pundits like Ariana Huffington and that Kos guy.

According to the DRUDGE REPORT, Coulter has already faced the usual media bias being banned by NBC.

Say what you will about my favorite blonde bombshell throwing conservative female, but if the GOP has a clue, it will get a clue and start following her lead. If the party had an event with Coulter and Sarah Palin as headliners, there is not a venue in the U.S. that could handle the crowd.

If the truth hurts, wear it…Coulter rocks!

What does this say about the GOP?

Hill-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the front-runner to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, according to online oddsmakers.

Despite a slew of negative press this fall about Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) running mate, online gaming site Superbook.com puts Palin’s odds at 3.5-1, the best among Republican hopefuls.

Other top GOP contenders include former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whose odds are set at 4-1, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, at 5-1.

Former Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), who is now governor of Louisiana, has a 6-1 shot of claiming the nomination.

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Will this hurt Obama with his base?

NPR-Early on in his campaign, Barack Obama’s education agenda included a long wish list of proposals for early childhood education, dropout prevention and after-school and college outreach programs among others. Obama called it his “Children First” agenda.

With the economy on life support and just about every state now slashing education funding, President-elect Obama is likely to focus less on his wish list and more on the political consensus he says he wants to build around education.

“For years, we’ve talked our education problems to death,” he said last month. “Stuck in the same tired debates, Democrat versus Republican, more money versus more reform, all along failing to acknowledge that both sides have good ideas and good intentions. We can’t continue like this.”

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The new hope for the GOP?

Politico-Two dozen conservative luminaries will announce today their support for former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell for Republican Nation Committee chairman.

The group, which mixes leading economic conservatives, including Steve Forbes and Pat Toomey, and leading social conservatives, including James Dobson and Tony Perkins, had agreed to endorse and campaign together for a candidate based on a questionnaire assembled by veteran GOP activist Morton Blackwell (no relation).

“The conservative endorsers noted that there were other good candidates, but all agreed that Ken Blackwell is the best choice. They intend to contact grassroots conservatives across the country and ask them to urge the three RNC members from each state and U.S. territory to vote for Ken Blackwell for RNC chairman,” they said in a press release going out shortly.

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Why not find a better way?

Politico-When the 111th Congress convenes on Tuesday, Norm Coleman may be out of an office, even though his Senate race remains far from settled.

Coleman’s first term officially expires at noon on Saturday, and he is locked in one of the closest Senate races in history, with Democrat Al Franken clinging to a 49-vote lead out of nearly 3 million votes cast.

Since he has not been certified a winner in the race, Coleman may have to give up his privileges as a senator, including his desk on the floor, his personal office and his right to vote on legislation, according to Democratic aides familiar with the rules.

Some of his staff members could continue to get paid for up to 60 days if they do not find new employment, but each eligible aide would need to return every two weeks and sign an affidavit to certify he or she has not found new work. Coleman still would be able to enter the Senate chambers and meet with his colleagues on the floor, since former members are granted floor privileges so long as they are not registered lobbyists.

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What will happen?

TELE-Israel invades Gaza in attempt to destroy Hamas

Israel has launched a ground invasion of Gaza, sending a column of troops and tanks into the Palestinian territory to destroy Hamas rocket launchers.

The incursion, which began under cover of darkness near Beit Lahiya near Gaza’s northern border, represents a significant escalation of the week-long conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“This is the second stage of our operation against Hamas infrastructure,” said an Israeli defence spokeswoman on television. “It is to control the launch sites responsible for launching thousands of rockets at civilians in Israel.

“We will stay as long as we need to stay to achieve our goals.

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Israel presses Gaza offensive

Do you think the government abstinence-only education program is working?

TD…”’This study of teens and pledges comes from Johns Hopkins researcher Janet Rosenbaum, who took a rigorous look at nearly 1,000 students. She compared teens who took a pledge of abstinence with teens of similar backgrounds and beliefs who didn’t. She found absolutely no difference in their sexual behavior, or the age at which they began having sex, or the number of their partners.

In fact, the only difference—aside from apparent memory impairment—was that the group that promised to remain abstinent was significantly less likely to use birth control, especially condoms, when they did have sex. The lesson many students seemed to retain from their abstinence-only program was a negative and inaccurate view of contraception.

This is not just a primer on the capacity for teenage denial or the inner workings of adolescent neurobiology. What makes this study important is simply this: “Virginity pledges” are one of the ways that government officials measure whether abstinence-only education is “working.” They count the pledges as proof that teens will abstain. It turns out that this is like counting New Year’s resolutions as proof that you lost 10 pounds….

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Who would you vote for?

SN-Following in Bush’s footsteps already? Just kiddin’ Obama. I am having one heckuva time not laughing about Palin having been in contention for Person of the Year - then again I never could stop laughing thinking about her as a VP either.

President-elect Barack Obama has won another contest: He’s been named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2008.
The magazine has named Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gov. Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou as runners-up.

Last year’s winner was Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Previous individual winners have included Bono, President George W. Bush and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.

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Agree or disagree?

AJC…..The first is a “loan of last resort” of up to $10,000 per year for up to four years to be made available to students who want to attend college, but who fall just below HOPE eligibility. The intent is to make certain that money is not a barrier to college for the determined.

The second, called “graduate on time” loans, require no specific grade average and offer incentive to get in and get out. At present, 54 percent of full-time students fail to graduate within six years. Taxpayers, who finance the bulk of college costs, have an incentive to get them there and get them out. Starting interest rates are no more than prime, but if students graduate within four years with a cumulative grade point average of no lower than 2.0 — a “C” average — the rate converts retroactively to 1 percent.

The third is an “education for public service” loan program. As with the “graduate on time” program, the initial loan rate is no more than prime. The interest rate drops to 1 percent with employment by the state or by a local government or school system for a specified period of time…..

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Is this true?

EC-Bigger Than Bush, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners. …

[M]ost of the whining takes the form of claims that the Bush administration’s failure was simply … bad luck… The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years … is a consequence of that decision.

If the Bush administration became a byword for policy bungles, for government by the unqualified, well, it … rested on contempt for government in general. … So why worry about governing well?

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Agree or disagree?

AJC-Laws mandating stores only sell cigarettes that are slow-burning and fire-safe went into effect in five states on New Year’s Day.

Delaware, Iowa, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas on Thursday joined 17 other states in mandating the fire-safe cigarettes. Fifteen other states have laws that will take effect this year or next, according to the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes.

The paper on these “fire-safe” cigarettes is thicker in two separate spots so they will go out if not puffed when they burn to these areas. The idea is to prevent fires caused when cigarettes are left unattended.

Critics say that the fire-safe brands taste different and can extinguish a cigarette before a smoker is done smoking it.

About 800 Americans die each year in fires caused by careless smoking and the coalition estimates that number will be reduced if at least half the states pass the law.

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Why not?

AJC-A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for higher fuel taxes.

With motorists driving less and buying less fuel, the current 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax fail to raise enough to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

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Is this the future?

AP- Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported Thursday.

The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota’s offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment.

According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an electric vehicle that will get some of its power from solar cells equipped on the vehicle, and that can be recharged with electricity generated from solar panels on the roofs of homes. The automaker later hopes to develop a model totally powered by solar cells on the vehicle, the newspaper said without citing sources.

The solar car is part of efforts by Japan’s top automaker to grow during hard times, The Nikkei said.

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Does this help or hurt Palin with the GOP base?

HP-In its “Oral History of the Bush White House,” Vanity Fair hears from Lawrence Wilkerson. The former top aide to Colin Powell compares our current president to none other than Sarah Palin:

Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell: We had this confluence of characters–and I use that term very carefully–that included people like Powell, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and so forth, which allowed one perception to be “the dream team.” It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin-like president–because, let’s face it, that’s what he was–was going to be protected by this national- security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire. What in effect happened was that a very astute, probably the most astute, bureaucratic entrepreneur I’ve ever run into in my life became the vice president of the United States.
Spencer Ackerman asks whether this comparison is more insulting to Bush or to Palin. Matthew Yglesias says its no contest:

I’m going to say “more insulting to Palin.” Palin’s something of a laughingstock, but Bush is a villain. I mean, he wrecked the world economy, he led to millions of Iraqis being forced to flee their homes, he’s a total disaster and a disgrace. Palin gave bad answers in TV interviews. There’s no real comparison.

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What do you think?

WP-Should Bush administration officials be put on trial for crimes such as authorizing torture?

Personally, I’m just relieved to have this crowd heading out of office and its policies — on torture, on indefinite detention, on warrantless wiretapping, on overweening executive power — soon to be inoperative.

But the imminent arrival of the Obama administration has sparked a renewed clamor for criminal investigation and prosecution in some quarters on the left. Vice President Cheney stoked the flames with an ABC interview in which he was typically unrepentant about the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and particularly explicit about his own involvement.

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee released a report concluding that Donald Rumsfeld’s decision as defense secretary to authorize “aggressive interrogation techniques” was “a direct cause of detainee abuse” at Guantanamo Bay.

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