So funny-guy Al Franken has officially been declared the winner of the Minnesota Senate race. Eight months later. Why is this a big deal? Well, the Democrats finally get their coveted 60-seat filibuster proof majority. Just in time for them to pass global warming and healthcare legislation.

By the way ... two points.

First ... I know Al Franken. He is quite possibly one of the biggest world-class jerks I have ever encountered in my life. A true void surrounded by a sphincter muscle. The people of Minnesota are in for a real treat on this one. Even Cynthia McKinney doesn't come close. She's actually charming.

Second ... The election was stolen by going to counties where Franken was strong and creating extra votes from absentee and rejected ballots. How can you have confidence in an election where the rules on how to count the votes change from district to district.

You can't.

... your views are not welcome. That is the way that the global warming crowd likes to play the game: simply do not invite "deniers" to the ballpark.

That leads me to this story. Next December the UN is going to have a major climate change conference in Copenhagen. So leading up to the event, a host of smaller events are going to take place around the world. One of those events is a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group. The purpose? To scare the tar out of the world into believing that the polar bears are dying off at alarming rates due to man-made global warming. We know this to be entirely untrue ... but that is beside the point for the purposes of this UN meeting.

So naturally, if you are a scientist who does not believe in man-made global warming, you are not going to be invited to this little polar bear conference ... even if you are a world-renown specialist on polar bears. That leads me to Dr. Mitchell Taylor. He has been researching polar bears in Canada and the Arctic Circle for 30 years. But there's one problem, Dr. Taylor insists that polar bear populations are actually higher than they were 30 years ago. He also does not buy into this man-made global warming scam.

So Dr. Taylor has obtained funding to attend the Polar Bear Specialist Group meeting. Then his funding was taken away by members of the group because his views on global warming don't fit into the rest grand global warming scheme.

The chairman, Dr. Andy Derocher, explained in an email that his rejection had nothing to do with his undoubted expertise on polar bears but "it was the position you've taken on global warming that brought opposition." Dr. Taylor was also told that his views running "counter to human-induced climate change are extremely unhelpful." Unhelpful? Yeah .. unhelpful to those who seek to destroy free markets with global warming scares. Are we going to wake up to this nonsense before its too late?

On a similar note, Alan Carlin - the EPA scientist whose study critical of global warming was silenced - has finally spoken up.

Just the other day we had a story about how the government in Great Britain was going to start paying cancer patients to seek treatment in the private sector. Now we have this story out of Canada where private for-profit (the horror!) clinics are becoming a booming business. While Barack Obama seeks to implement a universal healthcare system like Canada, the Canadians are trying to emulate a system closer to the United States.

This article says, "Facing long waits and substandard care, private clinics are proving that Canadians are willing to pay for treatment." Yep, that's the future of the United States. In fact, under the Canada Health Act, private facilities are not allowed to charge citizens for services that are covered by government insurance. That was until 2005, when a Supreme Court ruling in Quebec ruled that patients facing unreasonable wait times could pay out of pocket for private treatment.

Now you are going to love this. Here is the explanation from the Ontario Health Coalition as to why private clinics are bad for Canadians: "Private clinics don't produce one new doctor, nurse, or specialist. All they do it take the existing ones out of the public system, make wait times longer for everybody else while people who can pay more and more and more money jump the queue for health care services."

This, my friends, is why the left is eventually going to have to forbid you from seeking your own doctor with your own funds. That was Hillary's plan .. it will soon be Obama's.

"Our penchant for rugged individualism and laissez-faire survival of the fittest seduces us into believing that every person is entitled to every benefit society has to offer and that no individual should pay a price for the greater good of the society as a whole."

Any guesses as to who would be so distraught over the idea of individualism? I'll give you a hint ... he's a race pimp.

Enjoy!

We'll have to jump across the pond for this one ... a father has been warned by his housing association (that would be the government) that his daughter's trampoline posed as a safety risk and must be kept inside. The 3ft wide trampoline sat in the shared garden of this housing tenant. The father says he was told to remove the trampoline "in case burglars used it to jump though his neighbor's windows."

Now a spokesman for the housing association denies that the risk of burglary was a factor. After receiving a complaint from a neighbor, the association claims it was concerned that other children would use the trampoline unattended and hurt themselves.

Both excuses are lame. Nanny state government at its best.

More from The Wall Street Journal on the Honduran situation. You need to keep up with this ... the Obama crowd isn't going to give you the straight story.

National Review has some interesting info on the Honduran story as well.

Yet another European country lowering income taxes in order to spur economic growth. This time it is Germany. We're becoming more European .. Europe is becoming more American.

Here's how Senator Jerk stole the election in Minnesota.

Barack Obama wants National Guard volunteers to patrol the Mexican border. What? With water bottles and maps?

Guess who is going to be overseeing the political reconciliation process in Iraq? That would be Joe Biden.

The Obama Justice Department has determined that detainees tried by military commissions in the U.S. can claim at least some constitutional rights.

Wal-Mart says that it supports employer healthcare mandates. It sent a letter to Congress announcing its support, co-signed by labor leader and close Obama friend Andy Stern.

At least five states have considered proposals to take pre-emptive action against the pending federal mandates for healthcare.

Did you know that our government bailout plan for banks includes money for a British rum company?

A federal judge in California has issued an injunction to stop the state of California from reducing wages of home healthcare workers.

Here's a question to consider ... are we setting ourselves up for a jobless recovery? You can thank government for that one.

The ACLU is upset that our government continues to practice racial profiling of minorities. For the most part the ACLU couldn't tell its you-know-what from a hole in the ground.

Here's what ACORN has been up to lately ... protesting for mortgage companies to help homeowners --- homeowners who don't pay their mortgages.

Michael Jackson fans are now committing suicide because they are so heartbroken over his death. Somehow this doesn't strike me as a bad thing.

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are duking it out over who gets to have the spotlight at Michael Jackson's funeral. Nothing like a good race pimp fight. No hair pulling guys.

You knew these articles were coming ... complaints about the lack of fireworks shows on the Fourth of July because of the economy.