The survey, said pollster Whit Ayers, shows travel and tourism related to major issues such as national security and the economy are important to South Carolina voters.“In the minds of South Carolina … primary voters,” Ayers said, “it’s not the least bit tangential. Travel and tourism is a really big deal.”

About 70 percent of Republicans and Democrats surveyed think the federal government can do more to reduce lines without compromising security. Half of Republicans and two-thirds of Democrats said the federal government can do more to improve airline system efficiency.

The State

Here is my problem with the airport screening. I flew home from a business trip in Minneapolis yesterday. The TSA guy wouldn’t let me take my can of Axe deodorant in my carry on because it was one ounce over the limit. They were also performing an extra pat down on an 80 to 90 year old man while I was standing there.

I sure am glad we have all that national security. Imagine if I had been let through with my can. I could have deodorized someone to death and hell, those 80 year old men are dangerously shady. He could have attacked someone with his false teeth or tried to suffocate a passenger with his toupee.

Sure, I want to be safe when I am flying from some crackpot who might want to take the plane down, but TSA does not use an ounce of common sense in their screening. All they do is frustrate people and waste our time with these useless procedures that defy logic.

Washington State’s largest school district sent letters to teachers and other employees suggesting Thanksgiving should be “a time of mourning” for its Native American students.The memo, from Caprice Hollins, the district’s director of Equity, Race & Learning Support, included an attachment to a paper titled “Deconstructing the Myths of ‘The First Thanksgiving.’”

It includes 11 “myths” disputing everything from what was served at the first Thanksgiving (no mashed potatoes or cranberries) and who provided the food to the nature of the Pilgrims themselves: Myth No. 3 calls the colonists “rigid fundamentalists” who came to the New World “fully intending to take the land away from its native inhabitants.”

But what got the Internet abuzz was Myth No. 11: “Thanksgiving is a happy time.” It was followed by “Fact: For many Indian people, ‘Thanksgiving’ is a time of mourning … a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.”

Hollins would not defend her letter, but David Tucker, a spokesman for the district, said it was an effort to be sensitive to minorities in Seattle schools.

Fox News

First of all, what kind of joke of a position is District Director of Equity, Race & Learning Support? I’ll bet that woman makes a six figure salary. Get a real job, Ms Hollins. How many tax dollars are being wasted on you to tell kids that they shouldn’t dare be thankful for what they have on Thanksgiving Day, that instead they should feel horrible and guilty for being white? Sensitive to minorities? Do not black Americans celebrate Thanksgiving? What about other ethnic Americans like Hispanics and Asians? Hell, even the Indians celebrate it, according to the according to members of the Tulalip Tribes.

Native Americans in the Northwest celebrate the holiday with turkey and salmon, said Daryl Williams of the Tulalip Tribes. Before the period of bitter and violent relationships between natives and their culturally European counterparts, they worked together to survive, he said.

“The spirit of Thanksgiving, of people working together to help each other, is the spirit I think that needs to grow in this country, because this country has gotten very divisive,” he said.

I think Michael Medved put it best:

Nationally syndicated talk show host Michael Medved was more blunt.

“The notion that now you have a major school system sending out a message that, no, rather than expressing thanks we should emphasize guilt on this holiday — that is sick, it is destructive and it is anti-American.”

Caprice Hollins is clearly just another far left crackpot who thinks so lowly of herself that she must spread her misery onto other peoples’ children with her anti-American Marxist brainwashing. This is not the first time the Seattle school district has engaged in such behavior. The woman needs to be fired from her job immediately.

The U.S. Department of Education investigated in April after the district spent part of a federal Smaller Learning Communities grant to send 20 students to the “Eighth Annual White Privilege Conference.”

After complaints last year, the district removed from its Web site a definition of racism that claimed planning ahead and individualism were examples of cultural racism.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has a five-point lead, 47 percent to 42 percent, over her once and future Republican opponent Dino Rossi, according to a just-released statewide poll undertaken by an institute at the University of Washington.

The Washington Poll, which surveyed 601 voters, found the Democratic governor with a healthy 50-38 lead in populous central Puget Sound, but trailing her GOP foe 36-52 in Eastern Washington.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

This is the real stolen election that the Democrats, of course, never talk about. Dino Rossi should be the rightful governor of Washington already, but some shady shenanigans kept him from taking his rightful place in Olympia. It looks like this will be another close race next year between the two of them.

The unexpected retirement of Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) marks the latest in an exodus of moderate Republicans that is pushing the caucus in a rightward direction and could potentially cripple the party’s chances of winning back seats in swing districts next year.Of the 17 Republican House members to announce their retirements this year — Ferguson joined the club on Monday — eight have built reputations on Capitol Hill as centrists willing to work with Democrats to get legislation passed. Political observers warn that those are exactly the type of candidates the GOP needs to regain its congressional majority.

The Politico

First of all, good riddance to Ferguson, another RINO I am happy to see walk out the door. We need Republicans that will stand for limited government, lower taxes, and traditional American values, not squishes who blow which ever way the wind is.

I love how these political commentators in the media always cry doom and gloom for the Republican Party every time we lose a Democrat lite from our ranks. As far as I am concerned the party can only get better the more of them that leave. Sure, there are some instances where we need a more leftward leaning Republican in order to win a particular state or district. Maine is a good example of that, but we should never sacrifice the basic values of the party when we don’t have to, and most of the time, we don’t have to. I don’t see Ferguson’s seat an exception.

The writers of this piece, however, contradict themselves:

Davis said moderates were increasingly frustrated about their ability to make a difference in the current partisan age. “And they have to fight even harder to hold onto these seats,” he said.

In 2006, moderate House Republicans took the brunt of the Democratic congressional landslide. Former GOP Reps. Nancy Johnson (Conn.), Rob Simmons (Conn.), Gil Gutknecht (Minn.), and Charlie Bass (N.H.) all were ousted by Democratic challengers.

They tell us how vital the “moderates” are, yet show us how they got slaughtered in last year’s election. So which is it?

Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson are tied for the lead in South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds both men earning 21% of the vote from Likely Primary Voters. That’s a big change from September when Thompson was on top with support from 24% and Romney trailed the frontrunner by nine percentage points.

Trailing the two leaders are Rudy Giuliani at 13%, Mike Huckabee at 12%, John McCain at 9%, and Ron Paul at 8%. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter each earn support from 2% while 13% are undecided.

Those numbers reflect a seven-point drop for Giuliani, a nine-point gain for Huckabee, little change for McCain, and a six-point jump for Paul.

Rasmussen

Another gain for Huckabee and Ron Paul. Thompson is still tied for the lead.