Dodd Just Gets Dodd-ier Every Day

Anyone would be hard-pressed to find a worse example of how diseased the US Senate has become than Chris Dodd:

Back in July, Senator Chris Dodd, D-Conn., proposed an amendment reducing aviation security appropriations by $4.5 million in favor of firefighter grants -- a notoriously inneffective program. In fact, the money was specifically "for screening operations and the amount for explosives detection systems." The amendment was also sponsored by Sen. Lieberman, D-Conn., and Sen. Carper, D-Del., but Dodd deserves to be singled out here because the firefighters union is a pet constituency of his.

Blind slavery to labor unions screws normal Americans once again. Dodd cannot be put out of work soon enough.

Boarding School Does Not Equate Education

It's possible to have it all and still turn out baffled, stupid and alone:

The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an American airliner apparently turned to the Internet for counseling and companionship, writing in an online forum that he was "lonely" and had "never found a true Muslim friend."

"I have no one to speak too [sic]," read a posting from January 2005, when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was attending boarding school. "No one to consult, no one to support me and I feel depressed and lonely. I do not know what to do. And then I think this loneliness leads me to other problems."

Magnificent

And now here we are. Right here in your own backyard, an American company creates a brilliant phone, and that company hands it to you, and gives you an exclusive deal to carry it — and all you guys can do is complain about how much people want to use it. You, Randall Stephenson, and your lazy stupid company — you are the problem. You are what’s wrong with this country.

Follow the link and read it all.

Hey, Neat How THIS Worked Out

Government will consume 100% of the gross national product in our lifetimes.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

"There's no way to justify this to the American people. It's ridiculous," says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House's federal workforce subcommittee.

This Disaster Was Nearly Elected President

I know, who among us are really poets? Instead of mocking his art, let's mock him for being a rat fink liar.

Everyday I Get in the Queue

I get on the bus, it takes me to you.

So Simple Even the President Could Understand

Not Just the Smoking Gun

But photos of it actually firing:

I am seriously worried that our flagship gridded data product is produced by Delaunay triangulation - apparently linear as well. As far as I can see, this renders the station counts totally meaningless. It also means that we cannot say exactly how the gridded data is arrived at from a statistical perspective - since we're using an off-the-shelf product that isn't documented sufficiently to say that. Why this wasn't coded up in Fortran I don't know - time pressures perhaps? Was too much effort expended on homogenisation, that there wasn't enough time to write a gridding procedure? Of course, it's too late for me to fix it too.

Now that has all the hallmark of IRREFUTABLE SCIENCE!

Bold Leadership on Display

It might exist somewhere in Washington DC, but with the junior senator from the state of Minnesota - no chance.

The silent treatment reached an apex (or nadir) of sorts on Tuesday, when I caught Franken on the way to the Senate Democratic policy lunch to ask him the obvious question-of-the-day: What did he think of the Obama administration's plan to increase Afghanistan troop deployments by 34,000.

Franken turned slowly to face me and pursed his lips as if to speak. Just then his body man intervened and flicked out the business card of Franken's well-regarded spokeswoman, Jess McIntosh.

CNN's Dana Bash tried her luck: "What do you think as far as what you heard from the President so far?"

Franken: "You gotta talk to Jess McIntosh..."

Body guy: "We run everything on the record through the press shop."

Me: "Every other Senator we talk with, we ask a question, they answer the question.. I really find it unusual.."

Franken: "Well, give Jess a call and talk about this."

Somewhere in the unwritten rules of representing the people is being able to represent the people; not just shoo them off to some PR flack back in the office somewhere. What a putz.

I Agree with the Dead-Tree Media Guy

Mike Sweeney lays it down:

(Minnesota Public Radio) has successfully lobbied state government for years to secure millions in subsidies to help finance its nonprofit business expansions, most recently obtaining $2.65 million in Legacy Amendment funds over a two-year period. Apparently MPR will use some of those taxpayer funds to compete with private media companies. In a time of such scarce government resources, should public money be allocated to a healthy nonprofit so that it can compete more aggressively with private, for-profit businesses?

Weather I care for his paper's product or not, I'm very happy to see him standing up for his side.

Do I Look Like Mrs. Obama?

All New for 2009!

The Louisiana Purchase:

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.”The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

Sounds so suspicious it's got to be fishy, right?

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill. In other words, the bill spends two pages describing would could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Found the fish!

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.

Harry Reid; now we've also found the weasel to go with the fish.

Here’s the incredibly complicated language:

SEC. 2006. SPECIAL ADJUSTMENT TO FMAP DETERMINATION FOR CERTAIN STATES RECOVERING FROM A MAJOR DISASTER.

Section 1905 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396d), as amended by sections 2001(a)(3) and
2001(b)(2), is amended— (1) in subsection (b), in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘subsection (y)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsections (y) and (aa)’’; and (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

‘‘(aa)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b), beginning January 1, 2011, the Federal medical assistance percentage for a fiscal year for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State shall be equal to the following:
‘(A) In the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), increased by 50 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5.

‘‘(B) In the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection for the State, increased by 25 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection.

‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State’ means a State that is one of
the 50 States or the District of Columbia, for which, at any time during the preceding 7 fiscal years, the President has declared a major disaster under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and determined as a result of such disaster that every county or parish in the State warrant individual and public assistance or public assistance from the Federal Government under such Act and for which— ‘‘(A) in the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5, by at least 3 percentage points; and ‘‘(B) in the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection by at least 3 percentage points.

‘‘(3) The Federal medical assistance percentage determined for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State under paragraph (1) shall apply for purposes of this title (other than with respect to disproportionate share hospital payments described in section 1923 and payments under this title that are based on the enhanced FMAP described in 2105(b)) and shall not apply with respect to payments under title IV (other than under part E of title IV) or payments under title XXI.’’.

You can follow that, right average citizen?

Fools with Guns

And we are all paying for this farcical illusion of safety:

(Montana U.S. Senator Conrad) Burns showed his U.S. Senate identification to a TSA agent who refused to accept it, telling him she was not familiar with the government-issued photo ID. He had to produce another form of picture ID she demanded. In an attempt to be funny, Burns offered his Sam's Club shopping card. The agent accepted it and sent Burns on his way.

Nice.

Tough Day at the White House

Ethics Quiz Time

I guess we're supposed to believe that Obama's flunkie's didn't recognize Stern wandering the halls.

President Obama has always made a pretty big deal about not working with “lobbyists”. Registered lobbyists can’t get stimulus money, can’t be White House advisors and are not allowed access to meetings and summits. So how does one get around that? It’s simple; you just don’t register as a lobbyist.

During the first calendar quarter of 2009, Mr. Stern went to the White House on 11 separate days, including twice on February 18. In the second calendar quarter, Mr. Stern visited on 9 days, and twice on April 13 for a total of 10 visits. Since White House personnel, including the President and Vice President, are considered “covered” officials under LDA, all of Mr. Stern’s communications with them during these 22 visits covering 20 days would constitute “lobbying contacts.”

Thankfully, Big Media is ignoring this story in order to continue to prop up the current administration. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Stern was whoring for the SEIU.

Lucre Pyre

No, you guys shovel my money into the incinerator and keep playing Public Kingdom; why should I have any business wondering where my money is going?

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents rejected a request by the Metropolitan Council to speak before the board Friday about issues surrounding the Central Corridor light-rail line.

Clyde Allen, chairman of the board , said specific channels are already in place to address the issues and they should continue to be handled that way and not publicly.

Met Council spokesman Steve Dornfeld said Chairman Peter Bell has attempted to address the regents on multiple occasions in the last year. He said the idea was to speak directly to the governing board instead of passing the information through staff.

As if You Were Wondering

if the whole thing was bullshit, it is:

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 9th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the website set up by the Obama Administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.

There's one problem, though: There is no 9th Congressional District in Arizona; the state has only eight Congressional Districts.

There's no 86th Congressional District in Arizona either, but the government's recovery.gov Web site says $34 million in stimulus money has been spent there.

Here's the fun map for those too stupid to read. Oversight's a bitch.

If There is a Parade in Minneapolis . . .

. . . you can be sure that city hall will be there with the rain.

The bureaucratic tangle involves two city ordinances. The first requires businesses to obtain a license to sell parking spots. But when several of these smaller, family-run businesses headed over to City Hall to apply, they were told they don't qualify.

That's because a long-term neighborhood plan, approved two years ago by the Minneapolis City Council, established something called a Transit Station Area Pedestrian Oriented Overlay District. (George Orwell, call your office!) The idea was to get cars and parking lots out of the area to make way for more bicycles, walkers and light rail in 2014.

Take the case of Tech Huy Ung, whose family has owned the popular U Garden Chinese restaurant for nearly 17 years on University Avenue.

At the first game, he braced for an onslaught of customers. None showed up, fearing traffic snarls. So, for the second game Sept. 19, he charged $25 to let customers park and receive a gift certificate for a free meal any time. City licensing inspectors photographed him waving cars into his 60 spaces and issued two warnings.

Ung says his property taxes have gone up $6,000 to nearly $42,000 a year since the stadium went up, but now he has no customers on game days and no ability to make parking revenue, while he must pay employees to manage the lot so no tailgaters sneak in and violate another ordinance for which he can be fined. "They treat me like a criminal on my own property," Ung said. "It seems like they have too much control."

Make no mistake - if it happens with the U on the horizon, the U will control all aspectsBetween the oligarchs at the University of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis who will do all their bidding, the glow of that new, outdoor, on-campus stadium will dim much faster than it would otherwise.

Read it all. It just gets worse. What a diseased political and civic culture they have over there.

So Stupid it's Halloween Scary

Part 1

A six-year-old boy faces 45 days in a reform centre after attempting to eat his school lunch with a knife and fork camping set.

Zachary Christie opened up his folding cutlery after sitting down for a midday meal at his elementary school in Newark, Delaware, in the US.

In doing so, he violated the school district's strict zero-tolerance policy on dangerous instruments. He was suspended and ordered to attend a school for badly-behaved youngsters.

Part 2

"I was taken down to the office, and they told me that a student told them that I was carrying a knife," Whalen said. He said he told them "they could search me and everything, and they said, 'There's no need for that.'"

"And they said, 'Do you own a knife?' I said, 'Yes, I'm a soldier and an Eagle Scout — I own a knife.' "And they were like, 'Well, is it in your car or anything?' And I told them, 'Yeah, it's in my car right now.'

"And they asked me to show it to them. I didn't realize it was going to be a problem. I knew it wasn't illegal — my police chief grandfather gave the knife to me."

Whalen said he took school administrators to his car because he thought their fears would be allayed when they saw it was just a 2-inch knife. "They thought I had a dagger in my car or something like that, so I thought yeah, I'd show it to them," Whalen said. "I showed it to them, and they told me I had a knife on school property and had to be suspended."

But things didn't end there, Whalen said.

"They brought a cop in, who told them 'he's not breaking any laws, so I can't charge him with anything.'" Whalen said he asked Macri why a 2-inch pocketknife would be considered more dangerous than other everyday items around the school. "I said to him, 'What about a person who has a bat, on a baseball team? That could be a weapon.' And he said, 'Well, it's not the same thing.'"

"They gave me the five-day suspension, because that is all a principal can suspend a student for," he said. "And from there, they had a superintendent hearing to see if the superintendent wanted to suspend me for longer.

"They asked me if I wanted to say anything, and I told them all my accomplishments and what I've done, and the principal even admitted that I had no intent to use the knife, that I had no accessibility to the knife."

But school officials decided to suspend Whalen for an extra 15 days anyway, he said. And unless the decision is changed, he will not be allowed on school grounds until Oct. 21.

"I've been told by someone who works for the district that they had to do it, because if someone else had a knife and they saw that I didn't get a suspension, that it would look bad for the school."

"Zero Tolerance" continues to be code for "Administrator Too Lazy/Stupid to do the Job They Were Hired for." The public sector is just rife with cowards, frauds and idiots.

Your Government Explained

It's the old adage all over again - when all you have is a hammer, everything stars looking like a nail.

In a world defined by nearly 100,000 iPhone apps, a world of seemingly limitless, self-defined choice, the Democrats are pushing the biggest, fattest, one-size-fits all legislation since 1965. And they brag this will complete the dream Franklin D. Roosevelt had in 1939.

The culture still believes the U.S. has a hipster for president. But the Obama health-care bill, and maybe this whole administration, is starting to look totally out of sync with the new zeitgeist, the spirit of the age.

Everything about the health-care exercise is looking very old hat, starting with the old guys working on it. Max Baucus, Patrick Leahy, Pete Stark—all were elected to Congress in the 1970s, and live on as the immortals in Washington's Forever Land. But it's more than the fact that Congress looks old. The health-care bill is big, complex, incomprehensible and coercive—all the things people hate nowadays.

It's easy to make jokes about how insubstantial the millions of people seem to be who are constantly using technologies like Twitter. But these new digital and Web-based technologies, which have decentralized virtually everything, now occupy most of the average person's waking hours at work or at home. Mass media is struggling to stay massive in a world whose people want to break up into many discrete markets.

So long as the Democratic Party is the party of the Old Hat People, dependent on public-sector unions with Orwellian names like the Service Employees International Union, it will remain yoked to a pre-iPhone political model that will increasingly strike average everyday American voters as weird and alien to their world.

Today the House pooped out a 1,990 page bill full of WHO KNOWS WHAT. Tell me how that's modern, forward or (HA!) progressive.

Well Played, Baxter

Nothing like a good dog.



Rest in peace, Baxter; you've done your part.

"OnStar Calling . . ."

This is what happens when you run a modern GM product at extreme g-forces:

I Call 'Bullsht' on This

Why does it not surprise me this sort of jive comes from New Zealand:

A pair of New Zealand researchers claim a medium-sized dog has about the same carbon footprint as a sport-utility vehicle due to its diet.

Robert and Brenda Vale said in their new book, "Time To Eat The Dog: The Real Guide To Sustainable Living," that a medium-sized dog eats about 362 pounds of meat and 209 pounds of cereal each year, with 43 square miles of land needed to create just 2.2 pounds of dog food cereal, Sky News reported Friday.

The Vales calculate the carbon footprint of a medium-sized dog as 2.08 acres, more than twice the 1.01 acres needed to create enough energy to build a Toyota Land Cruiser. However, the pair said the average driver travels about 12,000 miles a year, making the carbon footprint of the Toyota and the dog roughly equivalent.

However, some experts cast doubt on the book's claims.

"Everything has an impact on the environment but I'm surprised by the size of these numbers. Without analyzing them further I find it difficult to believe," said John Buckey, managing director of carbonfootprint.com.

So today, for the first and maybe last time, I agree with someone from Carbonfootprint.cmo

Calling the Man Out

The natives (if you go along with the boilerplate that he's from Chicago) are restless:

You'd think it's October 2008, the final month in the Obama presidential candidacy, rather than October 2009, nine months into the Obama presidency. Yet the Obama White House is in full campaign mode -- maybe because it needs to mask the shortcomings of the Obama presidency.

Take, for example, all the talk of inheriting the worst economy since the 1930s crisis. That came in response to the news that the federal deficit hit $1.4 trillion.

Yet just a few months ago, the Obama camp was singing a little different tune. It was under criticism for the $787 billion stimulus package it bulldozed through Congress on grounds that massive spending was needed to keep the unemployment rate from breaching 8 percent. When joblessness hit 9.5 percent in June, Vice President Joe Biden said, "We misread how bad the economy was."

They inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, or the economy turned out to be worse than they thought. Which is it? It can't be both -- unless your brain is completely addled by the Obama charisma.

Read it all; I'll wait here.

Recession Proof and Reality Proof

Times are tough. People are out of work. Retirement accounts have crashed. Retail sales are stagnant. Credit is tight, and you can't even sell an excellent new car unless the federal government rides in with an ill-conceived pay-off.

But the cost of a college education continues to go up at a rate higher than inflation for, what, the 25th year in row? So much for the laws of economics.

With the economy struggling, parents and students dared to hope this year might offer a break from rising college costs. Instead, they got another sharp increase.

Average tuition at four-year public colleges in the U.S. climbed 6.5 percent, or $429, to $7,020 this fall as schools apologetically passed on much of their own financial problems, according to an annual report from the College Board, released Tuesday. At private colleges, tuition rose 4.4 percent, or $1,096, to $26,273.

"Every sector of the American economy is under stress, and higher education is no exception," said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education. "It's regrettable, and it's yet another piece of disappointing economic news that affects families."

See, that's where you're fatally wrong, uh, Terry. In every other part of the economy, anything you'd want to buy is more affordable than ever. Anyone providing goods or services has dropped prices and sweetened offers in order to drive business . . . except Big Education.

Across the nation, the price increases came despite painful cost-cutting by colleges on everything from faculty to cafeterias and sports travel. And as usual, the rise in tuition outstripped the overall inflation rate.

In fact, during the period covered by the report, consumer prices declined 2.1 percent. So the latest tuition increase at public colleges was closer to 9 percent in real terms. "It's only natural for parents to question why colleges are raising their prices yet again, while the rest of our economy is inflation-free," said James Boyle, president of the group College Parents of America.

The only reason tuition can keep going up is because government keeps pumping money into Big Education. The only reason money keeps getting pumped into Big Education is because terrified politicians will never turn off the spigot and let the system settle to a sustainable equilibrium.

Time to Face Your Inner Hypocrite

John Ashcroft made your brain steam because you believe in freedom. You went off the deep end over Alberto Gonzales because (you allege) he did not uphold the US Constitution. Now, I ask you, Mr and Mrs. Politically Astute American . . . where are you these days?

KINSTON, N.C. | Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.

The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black.

The department ruled that white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that therefore the city cannot get rid of party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters' right to elect the candidates they want.

"The Voting Rights Act is supposed to protect against situations when black voters are locked out because of racism," said Abigail Thernstrom, a Republican appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. "There is no entitlement to elect a candidate they prefer on the assumption that all black voters prefer Democratic candidates."

Whites typically cast the majority of votes in Kinston's general elections. Kinston residents contributed to Barack Obama's victory as America's first black president and voted by a margin of nearly 2-to-1 to eliminate partisan elections in the city.

In a letter dated Aug. 17, the city received the Justice Department's answer: Elections must remain partisan because the change's "effect will be strictly racial."

"Removing the partisan cue in municipal elections will, in all likelihood, eliminate the single factor that allows black candidates to be elected to office," Loretta King, who at the time was the acting head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, wrote in a letter to the city.

Ms. King wrote that voters in Kinston vote more along racial than party lines and without the potential for voting a straight Democratic ticket, "the limited remaining support from white voters for a black Democratic candidate will diminish even more."

Ms. King is the same official who put a stop to the New Black Panther Party case. In that case, the Justice Department filed a civil complaint in Philadelphia after two members of the black revolutionary group dressed in quasi-military garb stood outside a polling place on election last year and purportedly intimidated voters with racial insults, slurs and a nightstick.

By crapping your pants over AGs that served under Bush and letting this Holder creep slide by, you expose yourself as shallow and blinded by the growing-dimmer Obama light.

Guaranteed to put You Ass in Traction

Oh Looky, Looky!

What could possibly go wrong with this . . .

(Dalia) Mogahed, appointed to the President's Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said the Western view of Sharia was "oversimplified" and the majority of women around the world associate it with "gender justice".

Oh really? Do tell.

The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party.

I'll bet that was Must-See TV

The group believes in the non-violent destruction of Western democracy and the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia Law across the world.

Go on (I mean, I'm sure you have a hell of a definition of 'non-violent destruction' which I'm dying to hear.

During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular "man-made law" and the West's "lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism". They called for Sharia Law to be "the source of legislation" and said that women should not be "permitted to hold a position of leadership in government".

Sounds like a fun, modern, evolved bunch.

Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that "promiscuity" and the "breakdown of traditional values" were what Muslims admired least about the West. She said: "I think the reason so many women support Sharia is because they have a very different understanding of sharia than the common perception in Western media.

Or maybe so many Muslim women "support" Sharia Law because they don't want to get stoned, beheaded or stabbed to death.

Miss Mogahed, who was born in Egypt and moved to America at the age of five, is the first veiled Muslim woman to serve in the White House. Her appointment was seen as a sign of the Obama administration's determination to reach out to the Muslim world.

Just more 'progress' from your Executive Branch.

Watching the Stupid Repeating Failure

I know, we'll get the RICH to pay for everything!

New Jersey enacted its half millionaire millionaires' tax in 2004. Pitched by the state's unions as the cure for Jersey's budget woes, the state collected $9.5 billion in personal income taxes in fiscal 2005. Last year, four budget cycles later, the state collected only $10.3 billion and this year it's estimating just $9.4 billion from the same tax. Revenues have fallen so far below projections that Jersey has actually had to cut its spending (not just its rate of spending, like most states) by more than $3 billion this year despite $2 billion in federal stimulus aid for the state budget. And even so, Jersey had to skip payments to its pension system. If it were a business Jersey would be insolvent, a remarkable achievement in a place whose residents boast the highest personal income in the nation.

Maryland enacted its millionaires' tax in the fall of 2007. Earlier this year the state scrambled to enact mid-year budget cuts because of a sharp shortfall in revenues. Year-to-date personal income tax collections are off by about $650 million, and the Maryland comptroller has said, "It seems reasonable to assume...that there will be a significant decline in the number of returns with taxable income over $1 million and a substantial decline in the income reported on those returns."

-----------------------------------------------------------

The really bad news, however, is that there is no easy way out of this for many of these states. Their budget problems are structural and long-term and can't be fixed merely by trimming a little waste and pork here and there. Most of these states have wracked up huge debts, for instance, so that bond payments are now weighing down their balance sheets. Their bondholders must be fed or chaos will ensue.

These states also suffer from huge public employee pension and benefits obligations that are often guaranteed by law. In fact, the pension funds of these states are so underfunded they make the Social Security Trust Fund look solvent by comparison.

For decades, failed governance on both the state and federal level have written checks to their political patronage that they can no longer cash. Like a bounced check, it's time to also bounce the flunky constituents, from dog catcher on up.

Every One 'Ya

Don't Forget the Cost to Feed Oprah

The password is "junket:"

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's failed bid to bring the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago cost more than a bruised ego.

Taxpayers shelled out probably $1 million or more for the president, his wife and others to fly to Copenhagen and back to woo members of the International Olympic Committee.

A 2006 congressional study pegged the cost of flying Air Force One at $56,518 an hour. The Pentagon recently said it cost $100,219 an hour to fly the huge, reconfigured Boeing 747 without Obama aboard. The Pentagon estimate included more costs for support needs, such as maintenance.

At those rates, the president's 14-hour trip to Copenhagen and back (air travel cost alone) cost about $790,000 to $1.4 million.

Every time the public contributes to a sports stadium, a freeway, launching the space shuttle, etc, all I hear are the bed-wetters cry about starving families, rundown schools or empty food shelves. Well, predictable sheep, where are you on the matter of O's failed voyage to Denmark?

Voting For Other Peoples' Tax Increases

You don't still wonder about the gap between rich and poor do you? Do you wonder about the politicization of it?

In 2009, roughly 47% of households, or 71 million, will not owe any federal income tax, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Some in that group will even get additional money from the government because they qualify for refundable tax breaks.

So there you have it - almost half the country gets to vote on the ever-increasing tax bill paid for by the other half. Now, who wants to reopen that crap about the "rich" not paying their fair share?

Today's Executive Branch Embarrasement

She's always place the importance of the sound bite ahead of the facts.

Hillary Clinton, defending Obama's Afghanistan policy this weekend:

Now, the decision that was made to add troops in the spring has not even been fully implemented yet. You know, you don't get up and just deploy the 82nd Airborne, and they get there the next day.

Actually, Madame Secretary of State, yes they do. With six hours to spare, in fact:

Army Brig. Gen. William Mayville shared his concerns as the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team trains to re-assume its role in June as the U.S. global response force. In this capacity, the brigade will be on 24/7 standby, ready to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours.

May I Come In?

The Sound of the Other Shoe Dropping

Got 'Em All

Way to go Jalopnik!

No "old-school" media outlet bothered providing readers the full list of every car traded-in under the Cash For Clunkers program because it might be too unwieldy. We know Jalopnik readers demand more. Below, the list of all 690,114 trade-ins.

Of course, it was horseshit policy from the children playing Oval Office, and it also lent a hand in the destruction of perfectly legitimate, legal, functioning cars, whose equity was destroyed along with the nation's debt ceiling.

Did you remember the part of how your $4,500 'credit' from the government is taxable income? Don't forget to tell your accountant!

Just Another Unreported Crime

This is so sad; all for a bullshit publicity stunt.

Make Big $$$ in Art!

It's true — U.S. government demand for art and art-like products has never been higher! Uncle Sam and the good folks at the National Endowment for the Arts are on the lookout for go-getting, obedient artists like you for a fast-paced career in state propaganda. With the quick and easy Federal Art Instruction Institute course, now you too can get a first class ticket on the federal art gravy train!

Details here; don't delay!

Of Course I Want One

William Shatner's Competition

Oh Say Can You See?

Steyn's periscope sees farther than most.

Since January, his successor has used the economic slump as a pretext to “reform” health care. Most voters don’t buy it: They see it as Obama’s “war of choice,” and the more frantically he talks about it as a matter of urgency the weirder it seems. If he’s having difficulty selling it, that’s because it’s not about “health.” As I’ve written before, the appeal of this issue to him and to Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, et al., is that governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture — one in which elections are always fought on the Left’s issues and on the Left’s terms, and in which “conservative” parties no longer talk about small government and individual liberty but find themselves retreating to one last pitiful rationale: that they can run the left-wing state more effectively than the Left can. Listen to your average British Tory or French Gaullist on the campaign trail pledging to “deliver” government services more “efficiently.”

When the Federal Goventment Beomes Your Toy

Hey, neato; look what we can do when we get a turn at the wheel:

Never mind that the phone call may have broken several lobbying laws. Forget that the NEA’s Yosi Sergant is now proven to have lied when he denied the NEA’s role in initiating the call. Let’s not even concern ourselves with the fact that White House official Buffy Wicks directed the artists to channel their efforts through Serve.gov, a White House website with ties to the corrupt Acorn.

Corrupted by the White House, (the NEA) has moved to corrupt the artists who look to it for their daily bread. It doesn’t matter that it didn’t actually offer these artists money in exchange for propaganda; its very presence on the line constituted an implied offer of access. It doesn’t matter that the artists on the call were already Obama supporters. Simply by presenting a mission that excluded those who did not support the president’s agenda, the NEA violated the very first principle of its establishing legislation: “The arts and the humanities belong to all the people of the United States.”

And whether or not these artists will bite into the apple of governmental corruption—whether or not they’ll allow their creativity to be guided by the blandishments of the state—the phone call is proof of the depths of this administration’s intentions to corrupt. It seeks, as statist government always seeks, to modify and control human behavior through the doling out and withholding of money and favor. And in seeking to enlist the arts, it has taken this overbearing and ultimately corrupting practice to the deepest and most spiritual level we know.

Okay, America; bac to your nap.

Public Relations at 6:30 Eastern, 5:30 Central

The giant, viral disease that is ACORN is quite the story on many levels, not the least of which is that the once-vigilant world of Big Establishment Journalism is quite asleep at the switch.

There was a time when reporters were curious. The asked questions. They wondered how things worked. Used to be, reporters were like a good terrier; diggers and sniffers.

Seems those days are behind us. The press has allowed itself to be tamed into a docile lap dog since (let's face it) their man is now in the White House. These days, if you want to know stuff, you've got to do the digging yourself to find the cherished few who are asking any sort of questions at all.

I know the Obamas detest our medical profession, but can they please provide us with the medical diagnosis so we can sort out the truth? I know, I know, this is racist for me to ask, but since this was only seven or eight years ago, I'm sure these records are still on file, so we ask the Obamas to please provide the public with the medical records so we can get to the bottom of this mystery. It's pretty simple. Your daughter either was diagnosed with meningitis or she wasn't. If she was, one of you are lying. If she wasn't, one of you are lying.

Please clear this up for us. No doubt on one of the five news shows Barack is appearing on Sunday someone will ask for a clarification, right?

I distinctly recall the Obamas begging the media to not exploit their children all the while they were exploiting their children. Well, now that they've clearly been caught in contradictory tales, we ask that they please clarify for the public their latest tale told while exploiting their daughter.

Otherwise I might get to thinking they're making things up while exploiting their child.

You might think that this inconsistency really isn't news at all, and you'd have a good case, but you're lying to yourself if you say that this wouldn't be above-the-fold coverage if George and Laura had gotten it similarly wrong while using their children for political gain.

For My Next Trick

I know you've got a big night of reality TV to watch but, for a moment, try to follow along with me kiddies:

First, the House of Representatives starts floating a pile of dung called HR 3200 which does nothing to prevent Nationalized Good Will from flowing to people who aren't even citizens of this country. Then, after whatshisname gets mouthy about it during a joint session (which HAS HAPPENED BEFORE, fools) only THEN does the Obama gang fix what they claimed was not broken:

Representative Joe Wilson's outburst of 'You Lie!' during Obama's speech was a direct response to the President's claim that his program will not cover illegal aliens--a claim that, interestingly enough, the White House corrected several days later. In its (then) present form the ObamaCare bill DOES cover illegal aliens.

Only now we are seeing the sleight of hand that the finest illusionists would kill for: How will Obama 'not cover illegals' yet still pander and suck up to every and all "oppressed persons?" That's easy - just make all the illegal aliens LEGAL!:

President Obama said this week that his health care plan won't cover illegal immigrants, but argued that's all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage.

He also staked out a position that anyone in the country legally should be covered - a major break with the 1996 welfare reform bill, which limited most federal public assistance programs only to citizens and longtime immigrants.

Mr. Obama added, "If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all."

Republicans said that amounts to an amnesty, calling it a backdoor effort to make sure current illegal immigrants get health care.

"It is ironic that the president told the American people that illegal immigrants should not be covered by the health care bill, but now just days later he's talking about letting them in the back door," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.

"If the American people do not want to provide government health care for illegal immigrants, why would they support giving them citizenship, the highest honor America can bestow?" Mr. Smith said.

Obama, Axelrod and Emanuel - the Three-Card Monte throwers of the Oval Office.

It's Important to Listen to What the Voices Say

Link:

No One Should Be Forced to Go Without Protien Powder?

So Much For All That Campaign Jive.

How exactly does Axelrod/Emanuel/Obama square this:

"The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm president of the United States." -- Sen. Barack Obama, March 31, 2008

with this?



Sorry to rock the boat of Hope & Change; guess I'm growing more skeptical every day.

All the One-Way Mirrors They Can Fit in Print.

So it turns out that one of Obama's (dozens of) "czars" is batshit crazy. But should you still read the New York Times, you only get the pro-O spin on the issue.

There's a big difference between "allowed" — which might mean only the administration was not sufficiently vigilant — and "deliberately allowed" — which accuses the administration of knowing and letting it happen. The petition is asserting that there is reason to think the Bush administration wanted the attacks to occur so it could lead us into war. The innocuous paraphrase in the Caucus prevents us from feeling outraged at the document Jones "allowed his name to be put on." There's that word "allowed" again! How passive and unknowing was he? He signed it! Let's speak English and quit pussyfooting. The Caucus wanted to frame this as a story of bad old Republicans causing trouble.

Does that mean the NYT will not go into the matter of what Jones did and said and what the Obama administration knew about it? He's gone now. Go back to looking away, like good little Obamites.

Pots, Kettles, Crooks & Liars

Larry and Marge; what a couple of finks:

After crying foul at Governor Pawlenty’s request to negotiate a budget solution behind closed doors, the Senate Majority Leader and House Speaker will be doing almost the same thing.

“The meeting’s sponsors, Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, notified reporters Thursday that the meeting will be closed to the public and the press. A spokesman for Pogemiller said the meeting was closed at the request of some of the participants, whom he did not name.”

What the hell is that all about; some sort of Hope and Change cock & bull trickle-down?

In case you missed it, this meeting about very important public policies is closed to the press and the public. It was closed by two leaders who repeatedly demand that the governor open his budget meetings to the public and harshly criticize him when he doesn’t.

Bill Salisbury

Capitol Bureau Reporter

St. Paul Pioneer Press

That's reporter Salisbury; not right wing-crazy Salisbury, or nutcase blogger (like me) Salisbury . . .

"We Used to Walk Through the Park"

Just the Typical Abuse of Power Story

From Now Hamphire:

In four short years Carol Shea-Porter has evolved from a rabble-rousing, town hall disrupting anti-war activist who once had to be forcibly removed from a President George Bush event in Portsmouth to a Member of Congress who instructed armed security guards to remove a frustrated voter from her own town hall event in Manchester on Saturday.

In the appended video, Shea-Porter can be seen instructing security to remove a man for standing to ask a question without a ticket. Shea-Porter previously held a lottery to determine who could ask questions. She can also be heard taunting the man on his way out by saying, “I do hope the movie theater can be a little quieter for you.”

During a radio program last week, Shea-Porter waved off a hostile question about the constitutionality of the health reform bill she supports because, “The Constitution did not cover everything.” Her response to the caller was grossly inapt. She compared Congress’ efforts to establish a so-called government option for health coverage to the City of Manchester establishing a police force.

“The irony is, of course, that Shea-Porter used to be a ‘tea-bagger’ on the left,” writes Nashua Telegraph columnist Kevin Landrigan. “She stalked then-congressman Jeb Bradley at town hall-style meetings the 1st District Republican incumbent held throughout his district.”

"It Ain't No More."

They told me that if I voted for John McCain, all levels of law enforcement would be defying the US Constitution in favor of the political power structure - and they were right!

Where is Charlie's Heat?

"Geez; I forgot I own another $1MM home."

In 2004, for instance, Rangel reported earning between $4,000 and $10,000 in outside earnings on top of his $158,100 congressional salary.

But the amended filings show that after the sale of a property on West 132nd Street, his outside income that year was somewhere between $118,000 and $1.04 million.

The forms filed by House members provide for a range of value on such transactions, so the precise number isn't publicly known.

Rangel also lowballed his income by as much as $70,000 in 2002, $46,000 in 2003 and $117,000 in 2006, records show.

Only in 2005 did Rangel reveal his total outside income.

This criminal writes the tax laws of our nation, but it goes largely unnoticed since the legacy media is STILL shitting their pants over what the RNC spent on Sara Palin's wardrobe.

Calling Out Harry.

Sherman Frederick:

We've seen cattle ranches give way to railroads. We chronicled the construction of Hoover Dam. We reported on the first day of legalized gambling. The first hospital. The first school. The first church. We survived the mob, Howard Hughes, the Great Depression, several recessions, two world wars, dozens of news competitors and any number of two-bit politicians who couldn't stand scrutiny, much less criticism.

We're still here doing what we do for the people of Las Vegas and Nevada. So, let me assure you, if we weathered all of that, we can damn sure outlast the bully threats of Sen. Harry Reid.

If he thinks he can push the state's largest newspaper around by exacting some kind of economic punishment in retaliation for not seeing eye to eye with him on matters of politics, I can only imagine how he pressures businesses and individuals who don't have the wherewithal of the Review-Journal.

For the sake of all who live and work in Nevada, we can't let this bully behavior pass without calling out Sen. Reid. If he'll try it with the Review-Journal, you can bet that he's tried it with others. So today, we serve notice on Sen. Reid that this creepy tactic will not be tolerated.

Every time I'm angered by Nancy Pelosi's thuggish folly, old Harry crawls out of the crevices.

Count Me Among the Majority

Nearly 6 in 10 would throw every bum out including me.

If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, just 25% of voters nationwide would keep the current batch of legislators.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again.

Half-Assed After-the-Fact Movie Review

So I stayed up too late last night watching "Basic Instinct." It was better written than I remembered and as poorly photographed as I remember. Anyway, I had forgotten that it featured all three of my favorite fat actors George Dzundza, Wayne Knight & Jack McGee.

Our Dog Farm is Poodle-Free

Not that we necessarily hate Poodles, but generally don't trust Poodle owners.

Okay, the bison is sort of cool.

My Own Private Motorcade Boycott

Not all of us are glued to the TV, weeping for false idols. Some have a clearer perspective:

I am very well known, a United States senator. My family is incredibly powerful. There are allegations that I had been drinking heavily hours up to the time I got into the vehicle with the passenger. I deny this for the rest of my life. That at no point did I make an attempt to call for rescue would probably be considered by many people to be outrageous and horrible, perhaps a crime that would carry a prison sentence.

Can you imagine what the parents of the deceased would be going through when they found out that their 28-year-old daughter died alone in total darkness?

I serve no time. Not inconvenienced by the burdensome obstacle of incarceration, I seek to maintain my elected position. I am successful and remain a senator for the next four decades.

Not Part of the Solution

Part of the problem:

In what may prove to be her most controversial remarks to date, Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) on Tuesday defended Washington’s efforts to reform the American health care system by telling a talk radio caller, “The Constitution did not cover everything.”

Someone should bring to Shea-Porter's attention that things not covered in the Constitution are prohibited, not available. You know, it's that whole "enumerated powers" thing. She should brush up on the document she swore to defend by reading this. She should pay close attention to the 10th Amendment, too.

Trouble with politicians is that you can't return them, even if you saved your receipt.

50th Anniversary Mini Cooper

Well, at least this one's not out-n-out stupid like the Clubman.

Really tough, why can't BMW just leave well-enough alone?

Another White House Clunker

Oh, by the way, that $4,500 you got for your 'clunker;' yea, that's taxable income. Pay up, suckers!

"Shaved Into Its Side Was the No. 4"

The Favre phenomenon will be the ruin of us all:

Auto repairman James Prusci has seen some unusual things left in the cars he works on, but nothing quite like what he found Friday in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu.

A woman came into the Tires Plus in Winona just before noon, asking if the shop had time to replace a belt.

Prusci started the paperwork.

"Oh, by the way," the woman said. "I have a goat in my trunk."

Yea, you should probably read the whole story.

Modern Day Book Burning

Oh my; it seems we've not evolved a bit since the 'good old days' of burning books, witches and other straw men.

Preference: Not For Little People Like You

Hope and Change; what a slogan that was in the day:

Gosh, what a surprise: A committee of their fellow senators has decided that Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad did nothing unethical when they took out loans from Countrywide Financial on the kind of favorable terms not available to us mere mortals without their financial or political standing – or a personal connection to the head of Countrywide.

The very Select Committee on Ethics did recognize that the whole deal looked bad, and gave its colleagues a gentle pat on the wrist for creating "the appearance that you were receiving preferential treatment based on your status as a senator." But in the end one hand washed the other, if not very well.

Something else seems to have escaped these two U. S. senators – namely, that they are U.S. senators. Which means their getting a loan at a preferential rate through the head of a corporation like Countrywide, which was very much dependent on favorable treatment by the government before it came crashing down at great expense to the taxpayers, is quite different from a private citizen’s getting a mortgage at the same preferential rate.

Why? Because the private citizen is in no position to return the favor through political influence. Which is why the ethical standards expected of public officials are higher. Or at least should be. That crucial distinction used to be well understood. I’m not so sure it is now.

It's fine to be mad at imbeciles like Dodd and Conrad, and that whole incestuous bunch on Capitol Hill, but leave some anger for your fellow citizens, who keep electing these finks and who yesterday left work early, hoping to catch a glimpse of a millionaire change his shirt.

A Letter to the Obama Faithful

Michael Barone asks America's youth about hope and change:

I am sure that you find it inspiring that America elected its first black president (I do, too). And I am sure you appreciate Obama's openness to alternative lifestyles, although you may have noticed that he, like George W. Bush and unlike Dick Cheney, opposes same-sex marriage.

The larger point is this: You want policies that will enable you to choose your future. Obama backs policies that would let centralized authorities choose much of your future for you. Is this the hope and change you want?

Sunday Night Intelligence

You know, intelligence; something you'll not find in those working for themselves in Washington DC:

While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.

Health-care reform is very important. Whatever reforms are enacted it is essential that they be financially responsible, and that we have the freedom to choose doctors and the health-care services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices. We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health. We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health. Doing so will enrich our lives and will help create a vibrant and sustainable American society.

More very good stuff from Radley Balko here:

Whole Foods is consistently ranked among the most employee-friendly places to work in the service industry. In fact, Whole Foods treats employees a hell of a lot better than most liberal activist groups do. The company has strict environmental and humane animal treatment standards about how its food is grown and raised. The company buys local. The store near me is hosting a local tasting event for its regional vendors. Last I saw, the company’s lowest wage earners make $13.15 per hour. They also get to vote on what type of health insurance they want. And they all get health insurance. The company is also constantly raising money for various philanthropic causes. When I was there today, they were taking donations for a school lunch program. In short, Whole Foods is everything leftists talk about when they talk about “corporate responsibility.”

And yet lefties want to boycott the company because CEO John Mackey wrote an op-ed that suggests alternatives to single payer health care? It wasn’t even a nasty or mean-spirited op-ed. Mackey didn’t spread misinformation about death panels, call anyone names, or use ad hominem attacks. He put forth actual ideas and policy proposals, many of them tested and proven during his own experience running a large company. Is this really the state of debate on the left, now? “Agree with us, or we’ll crush you?”

These people don’t want a dicussion. They don’t want to hear ideas. They want you to shut up and do what they say, or they’re going to punish you.

Live Music is Better

Sarcasm Missed on the Political Jokes

The children are stomping their feet because daddy won't let them eat cookies all day long:

In a sarcasm-laced letter, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Tuesday brusquely rebuffed DFL legislative leaders' invitation to a summit meeting that would address the state's ongoing financial crisis.

Late last month, Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher invited former governors, speakers and majority leaders to a "Minnesota Leadership Summit."

In Tuesday's letter to Pogemiller and Kelliher, Pawlenty declined the invitation. "The state already has a 'Minnesota Leadership Summit,'" he wrote. "It's called the legislative session and it lasts approximately five months."

He then went on to lambaste the DFL legislative leadership for having "wasted the first few months of the session," only to pass budget bills in the waning moments of the session.

After the disaster that was the last session Marge and Larry are still crying for some manner of do-over.

The summit, scheduled for Sept. 8, will also feature economic experts and specialists in fiscal management. The summit's immediate goal is to devise strategies to deal with chronic state budget deficits. By some accounts, the state could be $7 billion in the red by 2011.

How to deal with chronic state budget deficits? Simple; stop electing chronic spenders. There; solved. Go home Larry, go home Marge.

During the past year, Pawlenty wrote, "DFL legislators have done a thorough job of admiring our state's budget difficulties, but have refused or been unable to take action to address them."

The summit, he wrote, would do little more than "rehash already established concerns."

Of course it also will give Larry and Marge more time to spin and weave their blankets of political cover; their situations made tough by that mean old daddy, Governor Pawlenty.

The Country's in the Very Best Hands

Old Dogs and Their Old Tricks

What an operator - she's slogging through Africa and he pops up in Las Vegas, a week before his actual birthday.

Turns out Mr. Clinton decided to celebrate his 63rd birthday with a dinner at one of this city’s hottest – and most pricey – restaurants: Craftsteak at the MGM Grand hotel. How pricey? The 8-ounce wagyu New York strip steak goes for $240. (Potatoes and other sides are extra.)

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state, is in The Congo, as part of her trip to Africa, and thus will miss the celebration. No worries. Mr. Clinton might be celebrating on the strip on Monday, but his actual birthday is not until Aug. 19.

Tracking the Stimulus was so Yesterday

It's so much money, who can keep track of it all? Doesn't matter; no one is taking that seriously it seems:

Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it's essentially worthless.

"TARP has become a program in which taxpayers are not being told what most of the TARP recipients are doing with their money, have still not been told how much their substantial investments are worth, and will not be told the full details of how their money is being invested," a special inspector general over the program reported last month. The "very credibility" of the program is at stake, it said.

Yup; Washington phones it in again.

The program also has undergone a major transformation. When the Bush administration first went to Congress for the money, TARP's main purpose was to buy up hundreds of billions of dollars in bad mortgages and so-called mortgage-backed securities that were bought and sold on Wall Street .

Today, TARP consists of 12 programs that sent those hundreds of billions of dollars to big banks, but it's also bailed out auto companies, auto suppliers, individuals delinquent on their mortgages, small businesses and American International Group , the big insurance company.

Uncontrolled expansion of an unaccountable federal program; neat, huh?

I Am Not Cargo

When I buy a ticket from an airline, I have purchased a contract for travel. I have NOT signed away my rights nor agreed to be held captive against my will:

The Continental Airlines flight Friday night from Houston to the Twin Cities was left parked at the Rochester airport for six hours, complete with crying babies and the aroma of over-used toilets and no way for passengers to leave.

ExpressJet Airlines, which operated the plane, said that crew members on the plane reached their maximum work hours in the air, so another crew had to be flown in. Thunderstorms in the area also were a factor in the decision to redirect the plane to Rochester.

The plane, which left Houston about 9:30 p.m. Friday, arrived in Rochester about midnight, and passengers weren't allowed to leave the plane until 6 a.m. Saturday.

One alternative that night, chartering a bus, couldn't be worked out. And letting the passengers into the Rochester airport was not possible, ExpressJet said, because they would have to go through security screening again, and the screeners had gone home for the day.

What an absolutely agonizing recounting; cowards hiding behind words on paper and demonstrating no initiative to resolve the situation for live people with whose care they are charged.

I've used this analogy before: Your family is in a theater seeing a movie. The the film breaks. Or the power goes out. Or the projector operator doesn't show up for work. For whatever reason, when the wheels come off at the theater, you are free to get up and leave. Hopefully you'll get a refund or a voucher for a return showing, but the theater operator cannot hold you in your seat against your will until they get their own shit straightened out.

Who among us would tolerate being stuck in a movie theater, held prisoner for 9 hours without being allowed to use the indoor plumbing or find some food and drink while the projector operator struggled with splicing the film back together? "Sorry, a thunderstorm knocked out the power; you're all going to have to sit here until the power comes back on and then we'll pick up where the movie left off."

I say this - there is nothing so unique to air travel that compels us to be held prisoner in a fuselage. Security screening, FAA, pilots union, airline personnel costs all be damned; there is nothing about airline travel that makes it okay to hold people against their will, on the ground, within sight of an airport that has plumbing, food and maybe a rental car to get the hell out of there. The reason this happens to travelers is because the people calling the shots are stupid, lazy, unimaginative and/or cheap.

"Sorry, Homeland Security is off for the night."

Sure, I'm a big talker, but I am telling you this - if this happens to me I will politely inform the flight crew of my intentions, give them all my contact information and then I'm going to blow the door, go down the slide and walk away. If I'm arrested, I'll look forward to the day I can stand before a jury of my peers and walk out of court free and vindicated. In the second paragraph of the story, it says the passengers had no way to leave. Bullshit. The airplane had at least one functioning door; THAT is the way to leave.

The bottom line is that any outfit calling themselves an airline had damn well better know the phone number to get an airport terminal door unlocked at all hours, know who to call to get some fuel for an airplane, and know where there's a place to rent a bus to actually move people toward their destination. If you can't do that, you have no business playing with airplanes.

Everything Changed on January 20th

Immediately after President Obama took the oath, change came quickly:

• Seems no one is afraid of big government, privacy matters or record deficits anymore.
• Gone are those "grannies for peace" who used to carry signs demanding an end to the wars that are still going on.
• The open and operating GITMO no longer the cancer of our national soul since someone else now sits in the Oval Office.
• And it's no longer okay to petition the government for a redress of grievances:

When handfuls of Code Pink ladies disrupted congressional hearings or speeches by Bush administration officials, it was taken as evidence that the administration's policies were unpopular, and that the thinking parts of the populace were rising up in true democratic fashion.

This was just good, boisterous politics: "Robust, wide-open debate." But when it happens to Democrats, it's something different: A threat to democracy, a sign of incipient fascism, and an opportunity to set up a (possibly illegal) White House "snitch line" where people are encouraged to report "fishy" statements to the authorities.

Civility is fine, but those who demand it should show it. The Obama administration -- and its corps of willing supporters in the press and the punditry -- has set the tone, and they are now in a poor position to complain.

Whether they like it or not -- and the evidence increasingly tends toward "not" -- President Obama and his handlers need to accept that this is a free country, one where expressions of popular discontent take place outside the electoral process, and always have. (Remember Martin Luther King?)

Rather than demonizing today's protesters, perhaps they might want to reflect on how flimflams and thuggishness have managed to squander Obama's political capital in a few short months, and ponder what they might do to regain the trust of the millions of Americans who are no longer inclined to give the Obama administration the benefit of the doubt.

On Patriotism and Dissent

Michael Ramirez, Investors Business Daily.

Rmember This Well

The video makes this very relevant news:

To get the economy back on track, will President Barack Obama have to break his pledge not to raise taxes on 95 percent of Americans? In a “This Week” exclusive, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told me, "We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.”

Geithner was clear that he believes a key component of economic recovery is deficit reduction. When I gave him several opportunities to rule out a middle class tax hike, he wouldn’t do it.

“We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically,” Geithner told me. “And that’s going to require some very hard choices.”

Another Oval Office fool; either he's contradicting policy or he's revealing the lies. Neither makes for good news to the Obama faithful, or anyone who pays taxes in the United States.