"It's unbelievable," said an unemployed waitress. "How can Obama be leading in the polls and likely to win enough electoral votes for a second term despite the worst economic performance by any President in the past 100 years?"

"It's downright frightening," said A small business owner. "What is the real plan that Obama and the Democrats have for their ‘transformation of America' and, more importantly, how are they going to achieve that plan and how will it affect my business and my family?"

The answers to these critical questions is clear. There is enough evidence, both direct and circumstantial, to provide reasonable answers. Yet, the reasons for Obama's showing in the polls and his transforming plan are kept masked by a media and a public who is seduced by the silver-tongued politician.

Obama's ability to mask his intentions produces an almost opium-like effect. That mask, however, will be removed once re-elected and America will, more clearly than ever, see and feel the impacts of the ‘plan'.  Here is that unbelievable, frightening plan to transform America.

Today's (2/17) Wall Street Journal has an op-ed by a CIA intelligence officer, Guillermo Christensen, entitled Un-Intelligence.  The article exposes the self-serving attack on President Bush and the War in Iraq by a fellow CIA officer named Paul Pillar in the current issue of Foreign Affairs.

Pillar is now being lionized by the left for his anti-Bush screed - but you first learned about him here at To The Point in October 2004.

Porter At The Pass revealed that Paul Pillar and his left wing cabal at the CIA, which I named The Pillar Gang, was conducting a covert campaign of leaks and disclosures to damage George Bush's chances of re-election and help John Kerry's.

As explained in "Porter At The Pass":

Rep. Todd Akin has, unwittingly to be sure, harmed the pro-life movement, his senatorial race in Missouri, the Republican Party, and therefore quite possibly the nation.

Every person who speaks or writes for the public will make an occasional faux pas, and sooner or later, will write or say something inappropriate. The game of "gotcha" that the media play -- especially with regard to Republicans and conservatives -- is what makes so many politicians sound robotic when they speak.

But Congressman Akin said something that cries out for condemnation and retraction -- and necessitates an explanation.

On a Missouri TV program Sunday (8/19), he was asked his position on abortion in cases of rape. Akin responded, in part, that "from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

As one wit put it about such a comment: that was worse than wrong, it was stupid. Akin should say so. And so should the pro-life movement.

If you Google "coyote hunting," you'll get 2,790,000 hits.  It's a popular sport among outdoorsmen, and a necessary one.  As one hunter puts it:

Coyote populations across the country are exploding and taking an unprecedented toll on wildlife. Zero predator control by state and federal agencies and low fur prices have kept trapping to a minimum, hence predator populations are booming. The opportunity to add some prime coyote pelts to your trophy collection and reduce the predator pressure on the local game and bird populations have never been better.

Coyotes are pests, varmints, hated not only by cattle and sheep ranchers, but by anyone with a regard for all the wildlife they kill.  In many states, they can be shot on sight with no permit required in a year-round open season.  Ed Boggess, Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources fish and wildlife policy chief explains:

Coyotes are an unprotected species and can be taken at any time of year, in any quantity, by almost any methods.

It's time this perspective is applied to human coyotes - for "coyote" is what smugglers of illegal aliens from Mexico into the US are called.

On the heels of record freezing weather in Europe, there was a story this week (carried by the Drudge Report and WorldNetDaily so you may have seen it) about a Russian scientist predicting global cooling.

Russian astronomer Khabibulo Absudamatov expects a “decrease in the flow of the Sun’s radiation,” over the next several years which will lead to cooling, not continued warming of the planet.

While his prediction may be right, he is wrong about the cause. As discussed in Solar Warming last September, it’s not the sun’s heat radiation causing a warmer earth, it’s the sun’s magnetic activity.

In Solar Warming, we discussed the cost-free solution to global warming: Let the world’s airlines use high-sulfur jet fuel while flying at cruise altitude.

The solution to global cooling is the mirror image of this: Have international jetliners burn their fuel “rich” at altitude. Give them a tax credit as an inducement.