I was tooling around Twitter this morning when I came across a blog by Aaron Brazell called Technosailor. This particular post covered his annual installment of "Words That Must Die in 2009." It was mostly tech-centric and hilarious.

After reviewing my comment, I noticed it was skewed toward politics. So I thought I'd offer this...

Words to Rest in 2009

"Hope," "Hope and Change," "progressive," "non-partisan," "gamechanger," "mandate," "happy holidays," "Obama-" (ie. Obamanomics. This is already really, really old), "centrist," "Office of the President-Elect," "bubble," "tax cuts for 95% of Americans," "middle class," "the rich," "macro," "billion," "crater," "governance," "global warming," "green"

"We 'hope' the 'hope-and-change' 'progressives' move toward 'non-partisanship.' This would be a 'gamechanger' and expose a 'mandate' to cure 'Obamamania' and encourage 'centrist' 'governance.'

"Unfortunatley, 'The Office of the President Elect' will instead immediately propose 'tax cuts for 95% of Americans' and 'green' jobs initiatives to solve 'global warming,' which will obstensively boost the 'middle class' and only lightly burden 'the rich.'

"This trickle-up 'macro' approach intends to cure the housing 'bubble,' stabilize our economy, and generate 'billions' of new revenue for the incoming administration, but it will actually 'crater' our economy further.

"Happy Holidays."

What are some words you have had enough of in 2008?

A Hugh Hewitt Show listener responded to some of the goings-on surrounding the mechanics of the investigation US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is running of the Blagojevich scandal in Chicago. Hewitt published this correspondence on his blog, and I've re-posted it here.

This is a facinating read that shines a bright light into the precarious process of navigating this type of investigation.

* * *

From an Assistant United States Attorney:

Caught some of the show yesterday after the release of the Obama internal report.
I know you're off the air for a couple weeks, but I thought I'd mention a couple of things:

First, the "false statement" statute is 18 USC Sec. 1001 (not 2001).

Second, neither the FBI nor US Attorney's Office puts witnesses under oath when they are interviewed. The oath is only administered before testimony before a GJ [Grand Jury]. Agents are not authorized to administer an oath, nor are prosecutors.

Nevertheless, the existence of the 1001 statute has the same functional effect. Any intentional misstatement or omission of a material fact when being questioned by a federal law enforcement agent about a matter under investigation is a felony, oath or no oath. That's why Libby was charged both with perjury before the GJ and making false statements to the FBI during his earlier interviews.

As for the order of the witness interviews, its really only speculation, and witness availability has a lot to do with it, but in my experience having done a few wiretap cases involving drugs back in California, you start with the recorded conversations as your basic record. I would then pull the telephone tolls of every person who was recorded, and I would want to know who they spoke to on the phone immediately before and immediately after each recorded conversation. So, if Emanuel is recorded at 12:00 noon talking to [Gov. Blago.'s Chief of Staff] Harris about appointing Jarrett, and at 12:15 there is a telephone toll showing a call to Obama, I would want to ask Obama about the contents of that phone call. If there was a call at 12:20 from Emanuel to Jarrett, I would want to ask Jarrett about that phone call -- keeping in mind that I know what it is Emanuel and Harris talked about because they are recorded. So, it's sometimes easy to pick-up on prevarications and inconsistencies when you start getting explanations that don't sound right. Once you have the interviews done of the people who were contacted around the same time as key recorded conversations you go back to the person who was recorded and ask him about the unrecorded conversations that came before and after the recorded conversations.

This is really where the current environment -- the same as the environment Libby found himself in -- borders on the unfair. Fitzgerald knows -- as any good prosecutor would know and take advantage of -- that the people he wants to talk to cannot assert their Fifth Amendment rights for political reasons. If I was Emanuel's lawyer, it would be my advice that he not be interviewed - he has only his best recollection of what he has been recorded as saying, and he doesn't get to listen to his conversations prior to answering questions about them. Second, he has no idea what the other people being interviewed are saying about unrecorded conversations they had with him.

For a prosecutor this is the equivalent of "broken field running" -- you're through the line or scrimmage and behind the linebackers, and everyone else is trying to catch-up to where you are. Fitzgerald has probably 3-4 guys/gals working on this full time -- meaning they spend all day comparing transcripts, subpoenaed documents, and interview notes looking for opportunities to lay traps for people about to be interviewed. That was the undoing of Libby and almost Rove. When the prosecutor calls you back to the GJ for the 3rd and 4th time, its not because he's still genuinely unsure about your testimony. He's asking you to navigate the minefield of the record that has been created to that point under oath. Your missteps are going to become his indictment. No normal person would go back to the GJ time after time, but Fitzgerald knows that he's going to get whatever he asks for because doing otherwise would make it look like Obama's people have something to hide.

The report comes out late in the day on Tuesday, Dec. 23. They know that most folks like yourself are going to be off the air on Wed, or they are going to have holiday themed shows. Thurs, is obviously not a news day, and Fri is likely going to be the same. Next you have the dead week between Christmas and New Years.

Obama is in Hawaii until Jan. 2 with no public events planned where he might be asked questions. Emanuel is in Africa where he is out of contact on a long planned family vacation.

Consider that again -- the incoming WH Chief of Staff, in a "change of parties" transition from one Presidency to the next which is less than 4 weeks away -- and he's in Africa??????

And they want the press to have nothing on this story other than their self-serving exoneration of all key staffers.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

emphasis and links added

* * *

A few quick thoughts:
(1) The much-lauded-and-referenced "Report" is an exhaustive 5 pages long. FIVE. As I read through it, all I could hear was, "Move along, move along ... there's nothing to see here..."
(2) Obama's number-one strategy for Dealing With Unpleasantness seems to be going away, doing and saying nothing, and hiding behind holidays and other national events. (the Obama-enabling media makes this especially easy.) And by the way, does anybody else get a little uneasy that our Prez-elect has a tendency to leave the continent at the drop of a hat? I know we all this modern technology and what-not, but geez - a little engine trouble and we've got ourselves a major problem.
(3) You know Rahm (and others in Obama's ranks) is doing some long, hard thinking along the lines of, "How hard do I fight? Will protecting myself take down Obama? Will Obama reward me for taking a fall? How do I get out of this? What's my exit strategy?" They know they are the only ones looking out for themselves. Obama's campaign is strewn with his fallen "compatriots."

All-in-all, this certainly does not seem to be the kind of change I can believe in.

We've all heard to story and seen the video...

A 29yr-old reporter reporting in Iraq for ab Arab satellite channel interrupted a press conference and threw his shoes at President Bush. Called him a dog, too.

We here in America may not recognize that these two things are indeed grave insults to our President. We see this goofy guy throwing shoes and Bush deftly ducks the assault.

In an extraordinary move (extraordinary for leaders in that part of the world, anyway) Bush calls off his security detail and makes a joke. The Iraquis take the man into custody. This act is against the law in Iraq and carries with it a seven year prison sentence. Whether or not the Iraqis choose to prosecute this forgiener is up to them.

I can only imagine what would have happened if it was Barack Obama in Bush's place that afternoon... So I asked my Twitter-friends, "Even though it's kinda old news, I wonder how would Obama have handled a shoe being thrown at him??"

Here's what some of them had to say...

Mortimas "he would have bobbed when he should have weaved"
BreakTheirBones "he would have stopped the shoe midflight with a Jedi mind trick."
DecidedlyRight "Well, Obama is severely lacking in machismo, so my guess is that he'd be taken to a hospital for observation. :)"
TracyCarol "Obama can walk on water, so a shoe shouldn't be a problem. Think how tragic would be for his followers to see him as mortal."

What do you say?

Join conversation here or at twitter.com. Be sure to check out TopConservativesOnTwitter.org (TCOT)

(H/T David All)

Take 5 minutes and watch this amazing video. It really helps put things into perspective...

What does it mean to you?

Thanks, Jennifer...

Here's a wonderful cartoon from 1948 that talks about the dangers of "ism."

It's as true today as it was then! Enjoy...

"Make Mine Freedom"

Alfonzo Rachael is at it again - this time, with stunning visual effects! That's right - if you thought his videos were compelling before, hold on to your umm... thing you want to hold on to.

Zo's newest video features brilliant dialogue, crip stunts, and dazzling v/fx.

Presenting, "The Vote Reaper" Starring 'Zo... Enjoy!

Fantastic :D

Florida State University invites unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers to speak. (h/t Michelle Malkin)

Today, we are all SEMINOLES. Let's take a few short moments to stand up for America.

Email your opinion about Ayers' speechmaking to our kids to the student council who approved it: http://sga.fsu.edu/

Be nice. No cussing. Remember, they're just kids (idiot kids, but still...)

I'm sad to report that Cosmo, for whom this blog is named, has passed away.

He was a beloved member of our family for more than 13 years.

We were lucky enough for Cosmo to pick us when he was a wee one at 9 weeks old.

He was always a sport. The neighborhood kids nicknamed him "Wonderdog" for his abilities with frisbees.

He was our buddy, our 'Mo. We will miss him terribly until that day we see him again.

Perhaps now more than ever, we are all in Cosmo's World...