Upcoming votes on earmarks were going to illustrate the a massive divide between the conservative grassroots and the House GOP establishment, until Minority Leader Mitch McConnell came out in support of the earmark ban this afternoon. McConnell had recently explained that "this debate [on earmarks] doesn't save any money, which is why it's kind of exasperating,” but on Monday, he changed his tune.

Today I am announcing that I will join the Republican Leadership in the House in support of a moratorium on earmarks in the 112th Congress.

…I’m not wild about turning over more spending authority to the executive branch, but I have come to share the view of most Americans that our nation is at a crossroads; that we will not be able to secure the kind of future we want for our children and grandchildren unless we act, and act quickly; and that only way we will be able to turn the corner and save our future is if elected leaders like me make the kinds of difficult decisions voters are clearly asking us to make.

This means that the GOP Senate conference is all but united on the issue of earmarks, with the notable exception of Sen. Jim Inhofe.  That’s unlikely to affect the conference vote, and will probably not affect the larger Senate vote.

“Our country is in the greatest difficulty of my lifetime, and perhaps the greatest difficulty in the history of our country,” said Coburn, during a conference call with reporters. “For us to defend a process that takes our eyes off the real problem so we can defend our own interest is an untenable position for a politician to be in.”

DeMint echoed Coburn’s sentiments during the call.

“Sixty-two percent of all Americans believe that earmarks are just wasteful,” said DeMint. “It’s not a matter of the total amount. The way I look at is that earmarks are the cause of big spending.”

Even before McConnell's statement this afternoon, it was becoming increasingly clear that Coburn and DeMint were gaining wider support for their earmarks push. McConnell undoubtedly felt like he was losing the battle, and responded to the demands of his caucus. A big pat on the back should also be given to tea party activists, who made earmarks into something of a pet issue throughout the past year.

Rep. Charlie Rangel has a law degree from St. Johns University. It was curious, then, when his main defense this morning during the start of his ethics trial was that he did not have an attorney advising him. "All I'm asking is for a chance to get counsel," he said, petitioning for a delay in the proceedings.

Uh, what? Rangel is a attorney who knew he would be in a legal hotseat starting this morning. How come he failed to plan for appropriate counsel ahead of time? Furthermore, how come he couldn't simply defend himself, as was widely expected?

His team of lawyers had left him in September, Rangel said, and he had exhausted all of his unethically raised funds trying to pay for them. This apparently amounted to being treated inappropriately by the Ethics Committee. "I truly believe I am not being treated fairly," he said. Astonishingly, Rangel threatened to walk out of the trial if his request was not granted.

Rangel is a guy who has evaded taxes and used high office for personal fundraising, and throughout it all has declared his innocence by avoiding tough questions. This flimsy excuse is nothing more than an attempt to continue doing the same.

UPDATE: Rangel followed through with his threat to walk out of his trial. The Committee decided to deny Rangel's request to delay the proceedings, and Rangel is no longer in the Ethics Committee trial room. NY Daily News:

Embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel startled the House panel weighing ethics charges against him Monday by announcing he was "excusing myself from these proceedings" and walking out.

"I respectfully remove myself from these hearings," the 80-year-old Rangel said with a dramatic flourish before bolting from the startled subcommittee.

It's the last gasp for a Democratic Congress that is on the way out; Pelosi is reportedly divided on what exactly she will try and pursue between now and January. Nothing is off the table, including immigration reform, gay rights, spending bills and curtailing the Bush tax cuts for anyone making over $250,000. Also on the table is Rep. Charlie Rangel's ethics trial, an awkward situation at best for Democrats who were ousted in part because of Americans rampant distrust in both houses of Congress.

Democrats were ousted mainly because of the policy items that Pelosi is leaving on the table for this lame-duck. Congress must pass only one main item: a temporary spending bill that prevents a government shut-down. If they don't pass a bill on the Bush tax cuts, however, no one will be happy. That issue is at the front of the national agenda, and is an item on which many new Members have campaigned.

In the more immediate future, three bills will be on the table in the Senate on of Wednesday: the Food Safety Modernization Act; the Promoting Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles Act; and the Paycheck Fairness Act. Democratic aids are reportedly unsure as to which of those bills would gain the requisite 60 votes to begin debate. Meanwhile, the new class of incoming Congressmen will sit through days and days of orientations and introductions, inside the halls of Congress and out. As Guy reported over the weekend, which introductory events they'll attend is riddled with controversy as well. Democratic and Republican conferences will also elect their leadership on Tuesday.

Another grocery store has pulled their line of re-usable bags after they were found to contain such high levels of lead that they actually qualified as toxic waste. Publix grocery stores are the second store after Wegmans to pull their bags as a voluntary measure before lower lead requirements go into effect next year.

Tribune tests showed certain bags from Winn-Dixie and Publix stores had levels of lead that concerned health officials. And some bags had enough lead that they could be considered hazardous waste if residents put them in their household trash.

Notice that the bags are only considered toxic when they're put into household trash; according to the tests, the lead isn't a big deal if humans touch it.

Scientists are now promoting the use of leeches and maggots to cure maladies like Crohn's disease, severe allergies, or irritable bowel syndrome. Previously, these types of parasites were only used to assist with amputations and severe wounds.

The new ways of using these slugs, called "helmetic therapy," involves placing the live organism inside a human being, where it develops into type of symbiotic relationship with the host. Scientists say it's less of a "parasite" and more like a complement to our existing biological processes. Here's Tufts University scientist Joel Weinstock speaking to Discovery News:

Many of these worms are bio-engineered for humans...We adapt to them; they adapt to us. It becomes like an organ, just like your heart, your spleen or your liver.

The Los Angeles for the International Conference on Biotherapy this weeks promises to highlight some of these new slimy developments.

Voters elected 25 vets to Congress as part of the new class of incoming freshmen, and all of them Republicans, according to USA Today. That brings the grand total of military veterans in Congress to 120 overall, including 25 senators and 95 House members.

As Guy posted earlier, John Ziegler, creator of the documentary "Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted,” did an interview with CNN's Kathleen Parker. In it, he said.

You took part in the targeting of Sarah Palin. You essentially took part in the assassination of Sarah Palin 1.0.  That person is dead; she doesn't exist any more.

Here was Parker's response:

No, no, no.  Actually, I did not take part in it: I led it.  Let's be clear. Let's get our facts straight.

Good to see pundits trying to one-up themselves with how thoroughly they have assassinated a former Vice Presidential candidate.

 HT: Newsbusters

Elizabeth Mort had a baby at Jameson Hospital in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Jameson Hospital has a policy of drug testing mothers who give birth there, and Mort tested positive after consuming an everything bagel from Dunkin Donuts that contained poppy seeds.

According to reports, Lawrence County Children and Youth Services (LCCYS) kept the baby for five days without bothering to investigate, while the mother and father were left in the dark. What a harrowing experience.

I'm not usually in the habit of posting anonymous email forwards on the Townhall blog. I thought this was wild enough to make an exception.

Dear Red States,

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, New York, and all of the Northeastern states. After this election, we'll be adding Colorado and New Mexico. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, especially to the people of our new country - Nuevo California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas , Oklahoma and all the slave states;  we get stem cell research, the best beaches, and the best  ski resorts. We get the Statue of Liberty; you get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft; you get WorldCom. We get Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cal Tech, MIT and Columbia; you get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America 's venture capital and entrepreneurs; you get Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than that of the Christian Coalition, we get a bunch of happy families and you get a bunch of under-educated single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we'll need all of our citizens back from Iraq at once.

If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They apparently have kids they're willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't mind if you don't televise their  kid's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq and hope that those Weapons of

Mass Destruction turn up for you, but we're not willing to spend any more of our money in Bush's Quagmire. With the Blue States, we will control 80 percent of the country's fresh water, 90 percent of pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 97 percent of America 's quality wines (you can serve French wines at your state  dinners), 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, and all the Ivy League and Seven Sister schools. We also get New England, the Great Lakes and Yosemite , thank you very much.

In the Red States, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, 100 percent of  tornadoes, 94 percent of hurricanes, 99 percent of Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, and Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bob Jones University, and Clemson. Additionally, in the Red States, 38 percent actually believe Jonah was swallowed by a whale; 62 percent believe life is sacred unless it involves the death penalty or gun ownership; 44 percent claim that evolution is only a theory; 53 percent insist that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11; and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you have higher moral standards than those of us on the left.

By the way, we're taking all the good pot, too. You get that dirt weed from Mexico and Kansas ditches.

The Blue States

NPR's latest analysis on the fate of the Amargosa toad includes long descriptions of toad-counting, bridge-building, and community development, all designed to increase the population of the amphibian in Beatty, Nevada -- population, 1,154 .

Halfway in, NPR tells us why.

[Rancher David Spicer] is doing all this in part because he really, really does not like the Endangered Species Act.

In part? Lets look at Spicer's quote:

Nobody trusts the government anymore. Nobody wants to work with the government. The government always wants to take something from you, and they don't look at this as any different, you know?

I think a better way of putting it would've been that he believes this in whole. The NPR announcer explains:

Spicer feared the government would tell him he couldn't raise cattle or ride off-road vehicles on his own property. So he helped start a group called STORM-OV. It stands for Saving Toads thru Off-Road Racing, Ranching and Mining in Oasis Valley.

Spicer explains again:

We want to keep it in our hands, where it's at a local level, where we can do things and be nimble. You know, you start to get restricted by bureaucracy and monstrous, litigious things that go on in the Endangered Species Act, and we're definitely not going to have any fun on our own ranches anymore.

Heaven help it if NPR could run with these themes a little more, or explain exactly how the EPA threatens this small town. But they don't. Instead, it's more sounds of toad-belches on their radio report, and interviews with environmentalists who think this toad could bring in tourists.

Why? Because toads apparently make people want to vacation in back country Nevada towns just a little bit more. That's right: Beatty, Nevada — 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas — should be just as concerned about tourism as it should about ranching.

Good job, NPR.