New poll finds Americans not buying Obama's light-at-the-end-of-the-recession talk (Updated)

In recent days both Democrat Vice President Joe Biden and the other fellow have begun to make the argument in public that from the point of view of the secure White House, they can somehow see the current dumpster economy smelling better, light at the end of the tunnel, the dawn of a new economic era just over the horizon.

This is based largely on scattered economic stats indicating that things are not so much really getting better; they're just not getting bad as much as before. Back in those awful winter days when new blood and Aretha Franklin's hat arrived with such promise and the new team inherited a terrible situation from you-know-who and his evil partner, you-know-him.

Also Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who also still has a fulltime job and newly-renewed contract, sees the recession as virtually over.

(UPDATE: Friday, 1 p.m. Newly-released figures indicate California's August unemployment rate jumped to 12.2%, the highest in modern record-keeping.)

But a new poll indicates it's gonna take a whole lot more than repeated rhetoric to....

Obama birthers; Gov. Sarah Palin's 3rd-to-last picnic; flu-fighters flock

In Case You're Counting

We once asked an Alaskan friend what they do way up there in the brief summertime. "Well," he said, "if it comes on a Saturday, we have a picnic."

Today's a Friday, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is gonna have a picnic anyway in Wasilla. Such outdoor gubernatorial affairs with food, music and games are annual events in Alaska. There's another one tomorrow in Anchorage. And a third one on Sunday afternoon in Fairbanks. (The community of Kotzebue is apparently on its own.)

In Fairbanks, Gov. Palin will formally turn over the state caribou antlers or whatever it is outgoing govs there officially give to their successors, in this case, fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who won't be nearly as much fun to chronicle.

The good news for bloggers and Palin fans is that thanks to SarahPAC, her political fundraising arm, SP is likely to be spending a good bit more time in the lower 48. That's what Alaskans call the continental U.S. since the current president's original home state doesn't really count. And according to the birthers, he might well be from Kenya or somewhere foreign. More on that in the video below.

Bad poll news, however. A new Washington Post poll out this morning shows ...

An Obama Friday: PETA, TEA parties, a missing father and more

Ah, Fridays....

Think the president wants a second opinion?

Barack Obama's personal physician for the last 22 years has done a thorough examination of his patient's healthcare reform plans and finds them, uh, dubious.

The 71-year-old Chicago internist David Scheiner, who vouched for the candidate's excellent health in a public letter last year, now tells Forbes.com: "I'm not sure he really understands what we face in primary care."

He's got the reflexes of a 47-year-old

In case you missed the left-handed president's quick right hand killing that fly during a recent TV interview, we'll add the video down below.

Those policymakers in Iran and North Korea who think No. 44 is all talk and wouldn't swat a fly may want to think twice.

Now, the caring folks over at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have called the president's insecticidal move an "execution" and, as the L.A. Unleashed blog notes here, are sending him a humane insect trap so future flying White House pests can be set free outdoors to spread their germs there.

Newest member of the California delegation

As regular Ticket readers know, we're all about touching human moments here. So in case you think there aren't any among those clowns in Washington, we're adding a C-SPAN video this morning of California Rep. Linda Sanchez introducing her infant son Joaquin to the House of Representatives this week.

He and she got a big round of applause from co-workers.

It's only fair that the little guy get to witness this generation of elected officials spending his generation of voters' taxes just a wee bit early.

Verbal fireworks planned for the Fourth

Speaking of birth days, July 4 is on a Saturday this year, which may mess up the traditional idea of a lazy three-day weekend for some.

But falling on an existing weekend is apparently helping plans for some more TEA parties around....

GOP poll surge, Cheney vs. Obama, Pelosi's a doll and Sarah's duds

The economy is sooo bad that organized crime is reportedly laying off judges and police officers.

And now, this unbelievable report that GM has forced the federal government into bankruptcy. 

Ahh, Fridays and once again time to cap another confusing political week with questions nobody knew needed asking:

Polls to Please

Republicans are making a strong political comeback in the minds of many Americans.

After losing two straight national elections, control of both houses of Congress and the large white house with the new dog down the street with no indoor bushes anymore, the exact same percentage of Americans -- 32% -- consider themselves Republicans as Democrats.

According to a new Gallup Poll, if you include leaners, party affiliation preferences are still tied -- at 45%. Amazing the GOP is holding steady -- in fact, growing -- in popularity despite the Democratic president's high approval rating.

This is because of a 5 percentage point surge by GOP followers just since last month, and a 4  percentage point plunge by Democrats, who enjoyed a double-digit lead a year ago and still seem unaware of their long slide.

According to another new Gallup Poll pointed out by the aging but astute Don Surber, voters...

Friday Tickets: Aunt Janet, A. Specter, Elizabeth Edwards, Joe Biden

Fridays are always good times to straighten things out with questions nobody knew needed asking:

First, as part of the new American protocol, have you washed your hands several times already today, as Auntie Janet, the director of Homeland Security, has instructed? You never know whether your mouse has been exposed to swine flu. We disrespectfully decline to use H1N1 virus; too labby.

Where flu flies

Swine is a really great word. So's mollycoddle, an all-time favorite. "Toxic assets" was good while it lasted but now we're handed "legacy assets." As in, previously owned. Words are important in politics, as North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx discovered this week when she gratuitously threw in the word "hoax" while describing the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard.

Remember last year how excited everyone got when some Ohio radio host at a John McCain rally kept saying Barack Obama's Muslim middle name, Hussein? Then Obama himself goes and uses it in his inaugural oath. Must be OK now. And radio talk jock and now MSNBC shouter Ed Schultz called former POW McCain a "warmonger" at an Obama rally and everyone yawned?

Now, who's launching his own troop surge in Afghanistan?

A boil-brained scurvy knave

BTW, we've found the best website to generate original political insults with Shakespearean words. Click a button, which we'll do right now to see what to call GOP defector or Democrat hero Arlen Specter. And it gives us "Thou abominable hag-born scut." Again: "Thou artless beef-witted wrinkle-witch."

Do you suppose swine worry about catching human flu? If anyone sees the family of....

Obama's first 100 days: exclusive White House photos

It's been a wild ride, so far.

An economic crisis, with billions of spending and tons of controversy over bankers' bonuses. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and maybe Pakistan, and sometimes conflicts with Somali pirates. Meetings with world leaders, questions at town halls and press conferences, campaign promises met to close Guantanamo Bay prison and open stem cell research. So many firsts -- from the first African American president to the first who fought to keep his BlackBerry. So many marvels -- the first lady's transformation from novice campaigner to international and fashion rock star. And so many memories.

Today the White House released never-before-seen photos of President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, their kids, their dog and Team Obama.

Here's a sampling.

The first one shows President Obama, with Caroline Kennedy, looking under the desk in the Oval Office for the trap door that allowed young John Kennedy Jr. to peek out of their father's desk during the Kennedy administration. (Click the "Read more" line to open up many more photos and our video.)

Friday Tickets: Susan Boyle, Sean Hannity, Meghan McCain, Larry Summers, Larry King and Levi

It's been such a confusing week. Fridays are always good times to straighten things out with questions nobody knew needed asking:

President Obama, a pedestrian commuter, flies a giant 747 all the way to Iowa to talk green about windmill power when the nation's most powerful, perpetual collection of windbags is about nine blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue.

Susan Boyle, who has a beautiful voice and what Grandma B used to call "spunk," has never kissed Simon Cowell. And this is somehow bad?

Waterboarding, which used to be great fun behind speedboats, is now considered a torture that cannot be applied to terrorist prisoners but is given during training of U.S. military troops.

So Charles Grodin, almost forgotten for his inability to control a large dog in some movies about the famous music composer Beethoven, suddenly appears on the Hannity show because -- why? Is "Hollywood Squares" on hiatus?

And because Grodin is so personally and strongly opposed to waterboarding, which Hannity considers merely an enhanced interrogation technique, Grodin offers to waterboard Hannity and the host agrees to do it for charity.

What?

Miss USA and Miss America haven't mattered in America or the USA since Bert Parks died and currently compete for cable eyeballs with bass fishing. Now, a woman who wanted to be Miss USA but isn't doesn't want to marry another woman and anyone should care?

Meghan McCain, part-time blogger and full-time future beer heiress, tells ...

Barney Bush's duty, God and global warming, Wolverine's wrath

While you were sleeping, we were reading and writing:

Suppose B.O. picks up after Bo?

Sounds like Barney, the dog of George W. Bush's, has got the former president trained on the most important duty of a dog-walker in an urban neighborhood.

Hint: It involves a little plastic bag.

Bush was in China this weekend, making another of his paid appearances that started a few weeks ago in Calgary. The retired Republican continues his refusal to criticize his successor, a courtesy that his Democratic successor has not felt obliged to reciprocate.

Bush will only say Barack Obama "was not my first choice."

The 43rd president said that soon after after settling into his newly-acquired north Dallas home, anticipating the new baseball season, he plopped down on the couch and said, "Free at last."

Laura Bush, he said, then added, "Free to do the dishes."

More importantly, Bush talked about his simple pleasure of casually walking Barney around the Preston Hollow neighborhood, and noted that he dutifully carries the urban dog owner's required plastic bag for removing the dog's duty. Bush then added, "It occurred to me I was picking up what I had been dodging for eight years."

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A Reagan opposes California's governor

Michael Reagan, the eldest son of the late president and California governor Ronald Reagan, has joined the anti-big government Tea Party movement. Another Republican splitting with GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over his spending and taxing policies.

In an op-ed, Reagan writes:

Americans are tired of being overtaxed and under-represented.  Well, it looks like....

Obama's donations, Dobson's misquote, Biden's schedule, Bush's life and the Blame Game

While you were sleeping, we were reading and writing:

How do you reconcile this?

As you read here, President Obama and wife Michelle released their 2008 joint income tax return, like all recent presidents. They reported $2.7 million in income. Not bad for someone who spent most of the year not working at his elected job in Washington.

The total means Obama will pay a higher tax rate this year under his own tax plans to get the very rich more than they're already gotten.

The taxes also show that last year the couple generously donated $172,000 to 37 charities, not counting not one dime to their former Trinity United Church in Chicago. That's about 6.5% of the liberal couple's adjusted gross income.

Don "The Pirate" Surber points out this morning that Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, donated almost the same amount of money ($166,000) to charity the previous year.

But since Bush wasn't making millions off Obama's book sales, that similar sum was 23% of the Texan's income, nearly four times larger proportionately than the popular Obama's.

But since No. 43 currently resides on contemporary history's reviled list with one of the lowest exit approval ratings ever, we'll all have to overlook that inconvenient truth.

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All wet

The Washington Post took an interesting look the other day at the new life of retirement for Bush, who's starting his book, giving high-paid speeches and planning his presidential library at Southern Methodist University. The big news from Preston Hollow: Bush has improved the sprinkler system at his home on Dana Place in north Dallas.

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What are a few words here or there?

Speaking of retirement: In case you read somewhere else recently that Dr. James Dobson, the recently retired conservative evangelical founder of Focus on the Family, had conceded defeat on ...

Politics Rdp: What would Jesus spend, Obama's revenge, Chicago Tea Party

--According to The American Issues Project, one thing Jesus would NOT do is support the stimulus package. The group, which aired an ad during the 2008 presidental election opposing Obama, uses Jesus' birthday to prove a point on frivolous spending.

-- Obama's revenge never tasted sweeter. It seems the President is still sore about the satirical cartoon that graced the cover of the New Yorker magazine (pictured left) on July 14, 2008. He conveniently ran out of space on his next Air Force One trip for Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for the magazine, though he invited 40 other journalists.

-- Energy Secretary Steven Chu admits he doesn't have an idea what his job exactly does -- and didn't even know that he was supposed to lead global oil-market policy for the U.S, stating it was "not in my domain." "I will be speaking and learning more about this in order to figure out what the U.S. position should be and what the president's position is," Chu said.

-- The Pope had some harsh words about a private Israeli TV show that satirically poked fun at Jesus and Mary. The show stated that Mary was not a virgin and Jesus did not walk on water, and included images that the Vatican claimed were a "vulgar and offensive act of intolerance toward the religious sentiments of the believers in Christ."

-- It seems that everyone in politics is (or at least allegedly is) being compared to monkeys these days. Huffington Post has issued a correction to a video allegedy showing Fox News reporter John Gibson referring to Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, the first black attorney general, as a monkey with "a bright blue scrotum." The correction states that the video was indeed fake.

-- Yesterday concluded the first round of Obama administrations talks with the U.N. negotiations on racism. Their stance included topics such as encouraging foreign nations to drop reparation demands for slavery and to stop a draft declaration which....