The Doyle Incompetency: Monumental

Hooboy.

Doyle sure picks a bunch of wieners winners for HIS administration.

...people wanting to sign up for Food Share – that’s what food stamps are called in Wisconsin – need to call (888) 947-6583. The number’s toll-free.

Simple, eh? Wrong answer!!

...the state Department of Health Services, the people doing the takeover, didn’t tell the media. You’d think they’d do that if they want the message out that, as of July 1, the old number stops being answered.

And it gets even better, but not for the 178,000 people who will soon depend on the Doyle Incompetency for food. Read the article linked below...

HT: McIlheran

Stupid Crook Jokes, Texas Edition

Dreher passes along a story from Fort Worth.

Big kerfuffle in Fort Worth as gay protesters complain that cops who turned up at a gay bar to arrest patrons were brutal. I find this hilarious:

Protesters said they want to know why Fort Worth police officers and Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission agents used what the protesters described as excessive force when arresting seven patrons at the Rainbow Lounge early Sunday.
...

In a statement, the Fort Worth Police Department said agents inspected three bars early Sunday and police arrested patrons at the Rainbow Lounge because they were drunk and tried to grope officers

Umnnnhhh...a crotch-grab of a cop in Texas is not a wise move. Period.

Screw Paul Krugman, Too!

Only a complete jackass could write that:

[i]f, like virtually all House Republicans and a handful of Dems, you don't agree with the likes of Henry Waxman on the need to take radical measures on the climate, you're guilty of . . . "a form of treason." Treason against the planet, to be precise.

Calling dissenters 'treasonous'?

Is that somewhere in Econ 101 books?

NewsBusters via Caveman

The Abuse of "Power"--from a Philo/Theo Standpoint

This guy has a good grip on the issue.

Sample:

...Nevertheless, the term was used in the common colloquial sense that suggests that power is the capacity to do what one wills, as one wills. This sense of power as arbitrary application of force over/against someone or something else certainly corresponds to the arbitrariness associated with modern notions of freedom. It also is what gave rise to the Hegelian-Marxist-Nietzschean view that conflict is in someway a necessary part of the natural order. This defective philosophy permeates many aspects of our society.

He points to Ockham (Occam's Razor fame) as one source--and tells us that Ockham was influenced by Mohammedan thought (!)

It's not a lenghty post--read the rest.

GimmeMoneyMagination; GE KO's Competition w/FDIC Help

HT to Rhymes With Shown for this. You should read his post to get a feel for Professional Rent-Seeking.

Long story short, the FDIC began backing the borrowing of certain banks and S&L's about the same time TARP rolled out. That FDIC guarantee encouraged bond-buyers.

At the time, GECapital owned a couple of small S&L's in Utah and was primarily an "industrial loan" company--essentially, GE financed sales of its own product. They were not limited to that, by the way; they also made a lot of commercial real-estate loans.

Anyhoo, GE's lobbying effort paid off--despite its prima facie non-eligibility for FDIC backing, they managed to get it.

What's just as interesting as that is this:

Not every finance company has had that peace of mind. One of GE's competitors in business lending markets, CIT Group, a smaller company, has had a harder time raising cash. It has been unable to persuade the FDIC to allow it into the debt-guarantee program, at least in part because of its lower credit ratings. A recent Standard & Poor's analysis cited CIT's "inability to access TLGP" as a factor in the company's declining financial condition.

Awwwww. Too bad. A major GECapital competitor may just disappear.

Now and then the critics of "capitalism" are absolutely correct.

Why Obama Backs the CorruptoCrat of Honduras

From IBD, via Powerline, a couple of reasons that Obama/Clinton are lining up with Zelaya.

1) Buttering up Chavez:

The Venezuelan despot has made political hay against the U.S. over its premature recognition of the Venezuelan coup leaders who tried to overthrow Chavez in 2002. Obama wants to avoid that this time

2) Buttering up to the Organization of American States (OAS)

The White House also wants to mollify the morally corrupted Organization of American States,...

3) (and a much darker, but entirely plausible, rationale)--Obama likes Statists:

Such a response says that democracy effectively ends with elections. It says rule of law is irrelevant and that rulers have rights, not responsibilities

Maybe it's all three. But with Obama, there is a track record of Statism and "ruler rights" which gives one pause to think.

The "Gummint Efficiency" Lie

The Warrior found this.

...when you compare administrative costs on a per-person basis, Medicare is dramatically less efficient than private insurance plans. As you can see here, between 2001-2005, Medicare’s administrative costs on a per-person basis were 24.8% higher, on average, than private insurers.

Actually, Obama is much less-sophisticated a liar than Clinton.

And, fortunately, the smackdowns are faster. Yesterday, the "McAllen lie." Today, the "Administrative costs" lie.

Squash That Recovery With Taxes!

Geez.

Dear Leader Obama has a few more business taxes lined up, ready to go, reported by Geoff Colvin at Fortune, relayed by the AmSpec blog.

The White House therefore proposes charging all American companies full freight -- the whole difference between their overseas taxes and the U.S. corporate rate -- on all their profits as soon as they're earned, no matter where. This measure, in their minds, would bring jobs home.

...Another would require companies to account for their inventories on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis rather than a last-in-first-out (LIFO) one -- an eye-glazing change that's highly significant.

1) It's not likely that 'full freight' taxation, in and of itself, will move jobs back to the USA; there are a lot of other considerations which play into that decision.

2) FIFO is great for the Gummint when inflation hits (and it will.) But it's like property taxes, which increase based on the "value" of your home, rather than your ability to pay.

But that's not the bad news. Here's the bad news:

Tax-wise, a company is just a bunch of incorporation papers; all taxes are paid by people -- customers, shareholders and employees. And guess who would bear most of the burden of these tax increases? It's the U.S. employees of the companies being taxed.

Research has shown that when business taxes are raised by a dollar, 70 to 92 cents comes out of employees' pay.

Now that's a stimulating thought, eh?

Was Buckley Right About Iraq?

Good, if brief, discussion here.

Takeaway:

Buckley was influenced both by a Cold War conservatism that emphasized American ideals and an older conservatism that understood the rootedness of normal countries in history and place. Believers in the latter have sometimes been guilty of indifference in the face of tyranny. Believers in the former without any regard for the older conservatism's sobriety tend to be guilty of something else: liberalism.

Yes, boys and girls, the Wilsonian conceit. Liberalism.

Bush gained my assent on the Iraq adventure only by the slimmest of margins; I assumed he had intel that I did not have. But as to his Second Inaugural foo-dadderie about 'spreading democracy' all over the earth like Glidden paint?

Wilsonian conceit.

Five Months Past Due: Get Sued

No, not your mortgage.

The campaign finance reports, silly.

A state Government Accountability Board attorney said Monday the agency would sue four legislators because they have not filed campaign-finance reports that were due nearly five months ago.

Michael Haas, an attorney with the state elections watchdog, said lawsuits would be filed within about two weeks against Rep. Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee), Rep. Scott Newcomer (R-Hartland), Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and Rep. Annette "Polly" Williams (D-Milwaukee).

Reports from the four were due Feb. 2, but none has been filed, Haas said.

Only Newcomer is (cough) a relative newcomer to the scene--but that's not really a good excuse.

Obama Doubles Down on Honduras

Despite the fact that the Honduras' President was removed by court order, Obama is not happy.

President Barack Obama says the weekend ouster of Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya was a "not legal" coup and that he remains the country's president.

Obama spoke to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday after meetings with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Obama said he wanted to be very clear that President Zelaya is the democratically elected president.

Obama pledged the U.S. to "stand on the side of democracy" and to work with other nations and international entities to resolve the matter peacefully.

That's fairly strong language: "not legal."

But Obama has plenty of folks who agree with him:

...Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo [Chavez].

That list is from an earlier report published in the Wall Street Journal.

Here's more:

While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela.

...The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.

Castro, Chavez, Ortega. I don't know if I like those associates, Mr. Obama.

French Catholic "Fundies", or Integristes

Interesting observation here.

Where do the fundamentalists come from?

The vast majority of the faithful are those nostalgic for the Church before 1965 and especially the Latin Mass. However, the leaders of the movement are priests and lay people who are much more arrogant and who often belong to the extreme right. Sociologically, they consist mainly of large families of aristocratic and bourgeois tradition who are very committed to the moral order and the Catholic tradition. But it is not exclusive - they also recruit from the mainstream. --Henri Tincq, Le Parisien interview.

The French term for "fundamentalist" is "integriste" and has approximately the same connotation as does "fundamentalist" in the US.

Another Look at Obama's Foreign "Policy"

Spengler:

...In Obama’s imagination, a Sunni Arab coalition – empowered by Washington’s turn against Israel – would encircle Iran and dissuade it from acquiring nuclear weapons, while an entirely separate Shi’ite coalition with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would suppress the radical Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This was the worst-designed scheme concocted by a Western strategist since Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery attacked the bridges at Arnhem in 1944, and it has blown up in Obama’s face.

I don't know whether Obama designed this based on his political experience in Chicago, or based on a stunning lack of understanding of the power of religious fanaticism.

Either way, it won't work.

Oh, Yah. Wisconsin Pioneers "Card Check"

Jo found this in the new "budget".

...Provide that bargaining units would be formed if and when a majority of research assistants at each campus affirm the decision to participate in collective bargaining by signing an authorization card stating this intent. Require the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) to establish a procedure whereby research assistants may determine whether to form themselves into collective bargaining units by authorization cards in lieu of secret ballot...

This only applies to research assistants. Doyle's proposal (for faculty) requires a secret ballot.

Sheesh.

"Shaken Baby"? Maybe Not

Interesting article here.

Of specific interest is this:

“there is no consensus among medical professionals as to whether the symptoms that have traditionally been attributed to SBS are necessarily indicative of intentional shaking.”

Seems that some SBS symptoms occur in newborns just released from the hospital, and CAN occur through accidental dropping at only one to four feet.

The McAllen, TX Lie-With-Statistics

The McAllen, TX. "case" became the foundation of an ObamaCare argument--that there was "too much" medical service rendered in 'some parts' of the USA. Grand Junction, CO., was offered as the antithesis to McAllen.

The "case" is hogwash.

Many of the disease rates for the McAllen population are more than double those for Grand Junction. If the Medicare population in McAllen is truly that much sicker wouldn’t we expect the payments to be greater? A comparison of expenditures for Medicare enrollees without a diagnosis of diabetes or heart disease in the last year shows that costs for these standard populations are statistically very close.

HT: JustOneMinute

$3,972,000. Per Day

That is the amount that the State of Wisconsin will borrow during the next 2 years, per its new "budget."

Almost $4 million/day, every single day.

HT: Sykes

Also HT to the anony who has a calculator!

Lessons From Chairman Mao

Owen came across a gem.

What, then would the Chairman himself do? “Easy,” he said - concurring with Liu at least on that. “You rub the pepper thoroughly into the cat’s backside. When it burns, the cat will lick it off - and be happy that it is permitted to do so.”

Just as revealing are the solutions Mao determined NOT to use.

And if you can't read between THOSE lines, come back in 10 years or so...

'Hindering Sales' or Reality Pricing?

The local angle is just the tip of the iceberg; realtors are protesting nationally, too.

Under an industry code of conduct that took effect May 1, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and loan officers are prohibited from selecting home appraisers. In order to avoid trouble with the rule, called the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, many lenders are hiring companies that put together pools of appraisers and then assign them to individual housing transactions, they say. The code applies to mortgages that will be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Real estate agents and mortgage brokers say it has led to an increase in questionable or stingy valuations by appraisers who are leery of producing estimates that are too high, or who may be from outside the housing market and unfamiliar with the nuances of neighborhoods to which they're sent.

Note the Fan/Fred connection. You might recall that Fan and Fred have a few problem loans.

Bill Garber, director of government and external relations for the national Appraisal Institute, said appraisals are meant to be a risk-management tool for lenders "who typically don't want to lend beyond what the value of the collateral is worth."

"Appraisers don't make the market. They simply report what is occurring within the markets, and they are sort of the eyes and ears of the lender," said Garber, whose organization is the nation's largest association of appraisers. "In the end, it's really a lending decision."

It may be a fact that 'non-locals' are less informed. On the other hand, it IS a fact that if Fan/Fred lose, so does the US taxpayer.

From Ritholtz, in an essay outlining the national effort to rescind the new regs:

Historically, there was no incentive to inflate appraisals. But with the rise of the mortgage brokers—many working closely with real estate agents—the business of steering appraisals to the most generous rose rapidly. By inflating appraisals, many appraisers found they could attract more referral business; some even managed to always hit the target prices given by real estate agents, which contributed significantly to the huge run-up in home prices. In 2005, more than 8,000 appraisers—roughly 10 percent of the industry—petitioned the federal government to take action against such abuses. But both Congress and the White House did nothing, allowing this rampant fraud to continue unabated.

Nobody wants to hear that their house has devalued. But a devalued market is what it is.

Honduras: NOT a "Coup"; What's Obama Doing?

The early reports were a bit under-informed.

In a nutshell, Zelaya wanted another term as president so he decided to hold a popular referendum on whether he should be eligible. Minor problem: The Honduran constitution can’t be amended by popular referendum so the country’s supreme court ordered the vote canceled. Zelaya tried to go ahead with it anyway. Literally every other arm of the Honduran government — judiciary, legislature, military — was against him, to the point where the troops who arrested him this morning were evidently acting on a court order.

Zelaya is a Chavez-ite; some Hondurans were concerned that Zelaya was following the Chavez/Argentine model, beginning with his move to make his Presidency long-lived.

Even more interesting is the Obama reaction, which seems to favor Zelaya. Why? Perhaps he did not want the US to be perceived as too close to the Honduran military.

Promises, Broken

What "promise"?

White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration wouldn't rule out taxing some employees' benefits to fund a health care agenda that has yet to take final form.

...But if President Barack Obama compromises on that point, it would reverse a campaign tax promise.

"I pledge that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase," Obama told a crowd in Dover, N.H., last year. "Not income tax, not capital gains taxes, not any kind of tax."

Under the bus.

Cap-and-Tax Building Codes

We mentioned in passing that yes, indeed, Cap-and-Tax has a section which will supercede local building codes.

Samples? Sure.

Sets energy efficiency targets for the national building code: “on the date of enactment of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, 30 percent reduction in energy use relative to a comparable building constructed in compliance with the baseline code…effective January 1, 2014, for residential buildings, and January 1, 2015, for commercial buildings, 50 percent reduction in energy use relative to the baseline code; and…January 1, 2017...

...Requires that states and local governments comply with or exceed the national energy efficiency building code, and provides for enforcement mechanisms for states which are out of compliance

And then there's this:

"This section requires the Secretary of Energy to develop a Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) program to facilitate building retrofit programs for energy efficiency and efficient water use. Funding will be made available through REEP to the State Energy Programs for state and local efforts, including audits, incentives, technical assistance, and training.

The red highlight is very interesting, indeed.

HT: Riehl

The HRC Question

Just Sunday afternoon speculatin'.

Hillary ain't going down with the USS Obamanation, bet on it- serving Chairman O to the bitter end is not the way the Clintons plan to end their legacy. And as for other Democrats who were caught surprised by the meteoric rise of Obama, then just went with the flow-- there's a lot of shallow support out there that could evaporate as quickly as it appeared. The arrogant serial-opportunist Obama seems destined to offend much of the party's old guard, as well as anyone else that he used to get elected... but now no longer finds useful.

Reaganite is of the opinion that Obama's numbers are not going to recover. But that's highly unlikely, UNLESS the recession continues unabated (or gets much worse.) Even then, the only immediately-endangered species is Democratic Congresscritters.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Here's the thing: Obama knows that his honeymoon is short-lived under the very best of circumstances, which is why he's trying to jam ObamaCare, Cap-and-Tax, and a (summarily) ridiculous budget through Congress all at the same time.

But looking at cap-and-tax (which would have LOST if the Pubbies had held together)--and the now-imminent "re-shaping" of ObamaCare, it's clear that O will have to begin playing nice-nice with the (D) Party "old bulls," or he will lose Congress in '10.

Of course, that could also mean that he doesn't really give a rat's ass about Congressional (D's) after 2010, too--

Hmmmmm.

REAL Non-Profit Health Options

Oh, yes there are some.

McIlheran points to quite a few co-operatives, matter of fact, all in Wisconsin.

But that's irrelevant. He and I agree on this:

That's where co-ops lose Congress. They're a reasonable, thoughtful, voluntary option. What Congress contemplates is more compulsory.

The only word a Statist loves more than "compulsory" is "I".

For Kagen, Baldwin, Kind, Moore, and Obey

Not exactly fair. "You cap us. We cap you." would be fair. But I'll settle for what's there before some Congresscritter gets all upset.

HT: RedState

The "Justice" Bunch

The trial lawyers, in an attempt to make themselves all soft and cuddly, re-named themselves last year. The new monicker has something to do with "justice."

Beats "ambulance-chasing scum-suckers", I suppose.

Here's an example of their new-found "justice."

In re TD Ameritrade Account Holder Litigation, Case No. C 07-2852 VRW (N.D. Cal.) ($1.87M for the attorneys, coupons for the class.).

What? 5% off at Pick-N-Save?

By the way, for some strange reason, the 'class' objected to the settlement!

HT: OverLawyered

A Rational Discussion of Health Care

Schiff has a few good observations and ideas here.

They will not comport with the Statist dream, of course.

...The meteoric rise in health care costs, which has become an unending nightmare for U.S. businesses and consumers, is not an accident. This painful condition has arisen from excess government involvement in the system, tax provisions that encourage the over-utilization of health insurance, and government support of an out-of-control malpractice industry.

Who could argue with that?

Given our current tax code, the simplest way to bring down medical costs would be to fully tax health care benefits as wages and simultaneously increase the personal deduction by an amount significant enough to neutralize the effect of the tax increase. This would do two things. First, the uninsured would get a huge pay increase, enabling them to buy reasonably priced catastrophic policies. Second, those currently insured could opt out of expensive employer-provided plans, trading premiums for extra wages, then buy a more economical plan. The savings would go right into their pockets.

And what might those "economical plans" look like?

...insurance should only cover unpredictable, catastrophic costs.

Schiff compares to typical automobile insurance, which does not include routine maintenance, and homeowner's insurance, which does not include routine maintenance, either...

...President Obama claimed that government insurance would not drive private providers out of business. This is absurd. As the government provider will not have to produce a profit or accurately account for its contingent liabilities, it will provide insurance on an actuarially unsound basis.

It is impossible for a thinking person to accept Obama's claim; Schiff merely adds to the chorus.

I suspect that Obama knows his ObamaHealth is in trouble; the shape and (likely) origin of the "survey" I participated in yesterday tell me that the rhetoric is about to change significantly.

That's characteristic for this Administration. If you don't like our idea, we'll simply implement the idea and change the terms and/or language.

See, for example, here.

A Problem in IRAN?

Vox makes a very, very good point. He cites the news-item:

Through a series of parliamentary inquiries, the Republicans learned that the 300-plus page managers' amendment, added to the bill last night in the House Rules Committee, has not even been been integrated with the official copy of the 1,090-page bill at the House Clerk's desk, let alone in any other location.

And makes the comparison:

This sort of thing is why I find the false and sentimental concern for Iranian democracy to be so ludicrous. Worry about your own so-called democracy, people, while you can still harbor the illusion that you possess it.

Similar, but not as egregious: the Wisconsin "budget."

Home Defense

Also clears squirrels from bird feeders.

HT: Cramer (just like below)

We're Ready!

Go ahead, Owen. Be jealous.

HT: Cramer

Rumor? Threat? or Fact?

One line from an essay in the Weekly Standard kinda jumps out at you.

All of this means that the electrical energy needed to power battery-driven vehicles won't come cheap, if indeed it is available. Industry sources fear that with coal and nuclear more or less off the table, at least for now, we will end up rationing electricity.

Given a squeeze on coal and the "no nukes" mindset, that could start happening in less than 10 years.

"Climate Change" Chatter Is a Loser

New polling data, different flapjaw from Obama.

Read the President's remarks Friday night after the House passed the measure most Capitol Hill staff and press referred to as the Waxman-Markey climate bill. You'll notice some words that the President never speaks: "climate," "warming," "greenhouse," "carbon," "cap-and-trade," or "emissions."

The charts at this link tell the story.

When asked in 2009 "how much more would you pay in utility bills to combat climate change?" FIFTY-EIGHT percent of respondents said "Zero."

Contrast that to the 2007 survey, in which only 35% had that response...

Put another way, in 2007, 57% of the respondents would pay something to offset climate change; by 2009, that had diminished to 35%.

Let's see if the Senate will bait the public into a revolution like Pelosi's House attempted to do.

The Dirty Underbelly of TARP

If you think TARP bailed out a bunch of banks, you're right.

But that's hardly all it did.

That legislation included $20 billion in tax breaks for companies that produce energy from wind and other alternative sources as well as $1.6 billion in relief related to the tax treatment of canceled debt for Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- largest U.S. mobile-phone-service company, and other firms.

...Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, spent much of 2008 searching for a way to enact the tax provisions, says Russ Sullivan, the committee’s staff director. Baucus recommended to Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada that the tax breaks be included in the October bailout bill, Sullivan says.

Think that stuff is stupid? We're not done yet.

The legislation, which includes dozens of narrowly written provisions, created a new class of bailout beneficiaries.

One, championed by Michigan Representative Dave Camp, the top Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, and supported by Baucus, is saving Nascar track builders $109 million in taxes this year by allowing more generous write-offs. ...Another shaves $478 million during the next decade from tax bills to movie and television producers as a better way of encouraging them to shoot in the U.S.

Fred Rosenthal, president of Beltsville, Maryland-based Jasper’s Restaurants, says his industry needed shorter cost-recovery periods for renovations to restaurants.

The October bill changed that time to 15 years from 39 and 1/2 years. That will cost the IRS $8.7 billion over the next decade, according to the JCT

And then there's Captain Morgan Rum. But you'll have to read the linked story for that part.

Health Survey

Yup.

Got a call from a (D) polling outfit. You can tell because all their questions leave little room to doubt that ObamaCare is the best thing since sex.

So when CCI releases its info, don't believe a word of it.

Losing Bets: TARP, Zombie Banks, FDIC

No wonder this is a Friday/Saturday news release:

Of the original $700 B of TARP funding, CBO estimates that $439 B of the original $700 B has been spent, $280 B of that will be repaid and $159 B will not be repaid and will be a cost to the taxpayer. When you include the costs of FDIC actions and the bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the expected cost to the taxpayer rises to about $553 B.

But hey: SPEND MORE, you Congressional jackasses!

To Pocan, It's No Big

Mark Pocan, letting you all know how to spend your money.

Madison Democrat Mark Pocan said the plan does what Democrats pledged they would do after gaining the majority in the Assembly: dealing with a record deficit, while protecting schools, public safety and health care, and shielding working families from big tax hikes. A family earning the median state income, said Pocan will pay "about 128 bucks" in new taxes and fees. "Given a $6.6 billion deficit, a historic deficit, I don't think that's all that bad."

Of course, that number doesn't count property-tax increases which WILL result from the State budget.

Beyond that, when you are taking a reduction in pay somewhere between 6% and 50% (or more), that $128.10/year actually means something.

And yes, I know several people who have taken 50% pay cuts. White-collar, hardworking guys. There are a lot more of them around than you may think.

Of course, they still HAVE an income, unlike the folks in Janesville, to whom $128.10 is even MORE significant.

Thanks, Mark!

HT: Kevin

Kagen Crows About Screwing You

I believe that the number of lies and half-truths in Twit Kagen's statement exceeds all world-records heretofore known.

Example:

“We are taking the necessary steps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and build a better future for our children and grandchildren.”

Except that the oil companies will now import MORE product.

Congressman Kagen has been working closely with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Colin Peterson to ensure that Wisconsin’s family farms are rewarded for their efforts to operate self-sustaining farms.

Read: Corn-a-Holing will be more lucrative. The fact that you are Corn-a-Holing your fellow Wisconsin residents--well, ignore that.

“We have kept the EPA off our farms,” said Kagen.

Except for your farm-HOUSES, which will now have to conform with California (!!!) building codes.

The jobs created cannot be shipped overseas and will make America the global innovation leader and preserve our planet by reducing the pollution that causes global warming.

All OTHER jobs--not so much. Like the ones in metalbending, for example.

HT: Berry

The Obama Catches Some Smarts from Bush

Heh.

...the Obama Administration leaked this afternoon that the President is drawing up an executive order to allow indefinite detention of terrorism suspects.

Close Gitmo. Abandon Iraq in 6 months. No tax hikes if you earn less than $250K. No taxes on health insurance.

Nothing like having a "R" gear on that wreck Obama's driving.

HT: Ace

Was Lombardi a Southerner?

This is a great essay/memoir about growing up Southern.

The quote most Lombardi-esque:

...The key to winning as a lineman, Dad said, was the first play from scrimmage. Come to the line with the determination to fire off as soon as the ball was snapped and hit the other guy as hard as you can. “Line up and look him in the eye and say, ‘I’m going to beat you today,’ and then knock him on his butt. Hit him as hard as you can, then come back on the next play and do it again. Just keep at it until you’ve got him beat.”

But you really should read the whole thing.

McCain

Football Trivia

OK, I'm not a football geek, but I didn't know this, and maybe you didn't either.

...Hutson—destined to become a Hall of Famer for the Green Bay Packers—caught six passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns in Pasadena to lead the Tide to a 29-13 victory over Stanford. Yet it was the fellow who described himself as “the other end” on that championship squad—a tough farm boy from Fordyce, Arkansas, named Paul “Bear” Bryant—who ultimately became synonymous with Alabama football legend.

Hutson and Bryant(!!)

Kinda like Lombardi and Landry both working as NYGiants assistants.

Reverse Rent-Seeking: FedEx

Rent-seeking is what GE does: get Congress to write laws which force people to spend money on YOUR products, and yours alone. (It works just as well with regulators, of course.)

Then there's 'reverse rent-seeking,' which is getting Congress (or a regulator) to minimize YOUR expenses, and yours alone.

That's exactly what FedEx is doing, folks. Facts supplied by Muth, and HT McCain.

Nuclear Fallout? Phosphates? ChemoPlastics?

Nope. Sorry, but this ain't man-caused. Find another Scary Story.

Around the world, frogs are found with missing or misshaped limbs, a striking deformity that many researchers believe is caused by chemical pollution.

However, tests on frogs and toads have revealed a more natural, benign cause.

The deformed frogs are actually victims of the predatory habits of dragonfly nymphs, which eat the legs of tadpoles.

Nymphomania, redefined.

HT: Agitator

More on the Fake "CRA Did It" Stuff

Ritholtz discovers that the Orange County Register did data-analysis on Community Reinvestment Act lending.

“Most of the lenders who made risky subprime loans were exempt from the Community Reinvestment Act. And many of the lenders covered by the law that did make subprime loans came late to that market – after smaller, unregulated players showed there was money to be made.”

The study included 55 million mortgages classified as "high-priced" by the Fed.

VanHollen Will Need More Expense Money

....for his department, silly!

Crime laboratory reports may not be used against criminal defendants at trial unless the analysts responsible for creating them give testimony and subject themselves to cross-examination, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a 5-to-4 decision.

Interesting split: Scalia, Thomas, Souter, Stevens, and Ginsburg were the 5.

HT: JustOneMinute

Jobless FantasyLand

Here we go!

America’s biggest oil companies will probably cope with U.S. carbon legislation by closing fuel plants, cutting capital spending and increasing imports.

The same amount of gasoline that would have $1 in carbon costs imposed if it were domestic would have 10 cents less added if it were imported, according to energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie in Houston. Contrary to President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing dependence on overseas energy suppliers, the bill would incent U.S. refiners to import more fuel, said Clayton Mahaffey, an analyst at RedChip Cos. in Maitland, Florida.

Murphy Oil? Maybe they'll re-think their upgrade plans, too.

WI Dems Vote to Strangle State for FantasyLand

Ron Kind, Tammy Baldwin, Twit Kagen, Dave Obey, Gwen Moore.

Remember those names when your plant closes and when your electricity bill exceeds your property-tax payment.

They all voted against manufacturing and against about half your electricity generation--in favor of FantasyLand.

Is Doyle Bent on Killing Off Manufacturing in WI?

This thread gets interesting.

In recapping the Merc Marine situation, I cautioned about assigning all the blame to Doyle and his (D) pals in the Legislature. There are other considerations whenever a business closes and relocates.

But, as others have observed, there seems to be a cold shoulder in Madistan when manufacturing is on the table. He's unfriendly to most businesses, but GM, Thomas, Merc (??), Simplicity.....and there are others in the process (or who are less visible.)

Anyhoo, my interlocutor hit on something I had been discussing with another friend a couple of weeks ago:

the only jobs our Gov seems to recognize are those requiring PhDs.

As to you factory-laboring slobs, "meh" sez Jimbo.

That's short-sighted; there are some things which MUST be manufactured domestically because offshoring is simply not practical; either transportation is inadequate, or JIT considerations preclude it, or only US plants have the quality required.

Interesting.

Another Perspective on Gay "Marriage"

Good think piece, for those who think.

...Franz Rosenzweig’s anthropology—in which religion is a response to man’s sentience of death, and the sentience of death is not only an individual but also an communal characteristic—may help answer that question. Humankind fights mortality in two ways. The first is to raise children who will remember us, and the second is to seek eternal life through divine grace. The estate of marriage involves both.

“Why do men chase women?” asks Rose Castorini in Moonstruck. “Because they want to live forever.” The data suggest that we marry and have children for just that reason. When we cease to hope in eternal life, we no longer marry and no longer have children. That is the terrible lesson that the triumph of secularism has taught us. In industrial countries where atheism triumphed in the form of communism, fertility rates have fallen to levels barely half of replacement. The fertility of Eastern Europe in 2005 was only 1.25 children per woman, according to the United Nations Population Prospects. Japan stood at 1.3. In secular Western Europe it was 1.6. In industrial countries where most people profess some form of religious faith, however, fertility remains at replacement levels or above. America’s fertility in 2005 stood at 2.1, and Israel’s at 2.9.

Hmmmm....recall that there is such a thing as "practical atheism" when someone remarks that 'Oh, yes, I believe...'

...The first principle of Augustine’s anthropology, that we are made for God and restless until we come to him, coheres well with what we observe in societies that abandon God. Our restlessness in that terminal case can reach levels that tear us to pieces. It is entirely possible to devise other means of perpetuating the species than marriage, for example, the collective raising of children as in Plato’s dystopia and the various attempts to realize some of its features. But none of them has taken, not even for short periods of time. They have no interest for human beings. It is not only that people want to raise their own children, rather than the state’s children: Without the expectation of eternal life within a faith community, mating couples do not evince interest in reproducing at replacement levels.

...This may be the first time in Western history in which the sacred foundation of society, whose irreducible fundamental unit is the family, faces explicit opposition. If militant secularism succeeds in banishing the sacred from social life, we will lose heart and perish, as the tragic victims of communism are perishing. There is nothing to be done for the infertile, aging peoples of the former Soviet empire. The best thing one can do for them is not to be like them. Secular Western Europe already has one foot in the demographic grave. If we lose the sacred in the United States, we will follow them into Sheol. We might as well make a stand now over the sacred character of marriage, because there is nowhere to fall back from here.

Amen.

How To Make Money in a Recession

Berry has three stories--I'll give you just one.

A Monroe County, WI Policeman had a perfect spot to watch for speeders, but wasn't getting any. Then he discovered the problem -- a 12-year-old boy was standing up the road with a hand painted sign, which read 'RADAR TRAP AHEAD.' The officer also found the boy had an accomplice who was down the road with a sign reading 'TIPS' and a bucket full of money.

Damn, that's good!

Merc Outta Here?

The speculation is rampant. Will Merc Marine leave?

One blogger, Maichle, opines that Merc will depart and indicts Doyle, Sheridan, Decker, and Pocan. Those four are certainly in the Hall of Shame, if that Hall consists of politicians who did their damndest to drive businesses out of Wisconsin.

But it's not quite that simple.

Yes, the tax rate in Wisconsin is a factor. Yes, the union-labor situation is a factor. Yes, Wisconsin's repressive regulations are a factor. And the uncertainty of what the NEXT round of budget/policy/regulations will bring is a really big factor.

But distribution counts. Wisconsin is located in a part of the country which is very cold in the winter; people do not use powerboats on frozen lakes. The South doesn't have that problem, AND the South actually has lakes. A lot of them. And fishermen, too. (We could also postulate that "taxing the rich", a Wisconsin "solution" has an effect on boat-and-motor purchasing.)

An aging plant is another factor. The Oklahoma site is not encumbered by that problem.

Maybe, as Maichle states, OSU has talent. But so does MSOE, the UW system (especially Stevens Point's manufacturing program), and Marquette (ask Briggs and Stratton.)

Finally, if Wisconsin and Oklahoma get into a bidding war for Merc's plant, ........

Who has more money available? Wisconsin, with a projected $2.3Bn deficit??

It Ain't the CRA, Folks; It's De-Regulation

Ritholtz doubles down on his point: it was NOT the CRA which made the mortgage market implode. Personally, I think that CRA was a contributor, but Ritholtz clearly makes the case that it was not "THE cause."

Some facts which should be considered by Phil Gramm and his mind-darkened followers:

The 345 mortgage brokers that imploded were non-banks, not covered by the CRA legislation. The vast majority of CRA covered banks are actually healthy.

The biggest foreclosure areas aren’t Harlem or Chicago’s South side or DC slums or inner city Philly; Rather, it has been non-CRA regions — the Sand States — such as southern California, Las Vegas, Arizona, and South Florida. The closest thing to an inner city foreclosure story is Detroit – and maybe the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler actually had something to do with that.

When CRA was introduced, the FDIC (and other bank regulators) made a big deal of it, and a number of Milwaukee-area banks paid attention. But the lending resulting from CRA was not the "disaster" which was predicted at the time. Gramm is way overblowing his case to draw attention from his successful deregulation, which was successful only in creating 'too big to fail' Zombies such as Citibank.

Need more on the ills of deregulation? OK. Paul Volcker thinks that the system needs MORE regulation. Remember Paul? The guy who fixed the system post-Carter? Yah, him.

Shut up, Phil.

The Nasty Little "Public Option" Provisions Upcoming

Oh, yah, ObamaCare gets worse. It's only a matter of time before the screws are tightened as this scenario envisions.

What is being overlooked this time around compared to 1993 is this: to prevent "leakage" from the system, draining of supply to other providers of insurance/purchasers of health care services...the "public option" has to effectively outlaw them. The mechanisms will be various and include provisions in law such as a prohibition on "topping off" fees paid independently by patients to physicians or hospitals above the public option's reimbursement rates to get better service or, indeed, any service at all in some circumstances (already in Medicare, I believe). A prohibition against taking private patients if a provider accepts ANY public patients...it's an all or none situation...unless your entire practice is exclusively private, you must accept the government's terms and conditions and no others. Severe penalties for the economic "crime," probably deemed to be medical fraud, of engaging in free market medicine, for violators.

One suspects that these provisions SHOULD ignite a shooting-war...

EPA Malfeasance? Fantasyland, Part 2

From a memo suppressed by EPA:

"...Our conclusions do represent the best science in the sense of most closely corresponding to available observations....and are sufficiently at variance with those of IPCC, CCSP, and the draft TSP that we believe they support our increasing concern that EPA has not critically reviewed the findings by these groups."...

"...we believe our concerns and reservations are sufficiently important to warrant a serious review of the science by EPA before any attempt is made to reach conclusions. ..."

[In critiquing the EPA's TSP] "The principal comments are as follows:

"The current draft TSP is based on the IPCC AR4 report which is at best three years out of date in a rapidly changing field.

..."Global temperatures have declined, extending the current downtrend to 11 years...at the same time, atmospheric CO2 levels have increased and CO2 emissions have accelerated.

..."A new 2009 paper finds that the crucial assumption in the GCM models [used by IPCC concerning water vapor] is not supported by empirical evidence and that the feedback is actually negative."

There is plenty more.

In short, the reservations are extremely serious--flawed/faulty premises, observations contradicting IPCC projections, and new criticisms of Global Warming Theory which deserve a very close look.

Fantasyland Exposed, folks.

Will Obey, Kagen, Kind, and Petri Vote for Fantasy?

The House of Representatives is about to vote on Cap-and-Tax, which has been compared to the "Smoot-Hawley" bill of this age. It is astonishing that Wisconsin congressmen would seriously consider pointing a death-ray at Wisconsin manufacturing plants in the first place. It is even more astonishing that they will do it in the name of Fantasy--and a Fantasy which many other countries are now seeing as just that.

...In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming. In the Czech Republic, where President Vaclav Klaus remains a leading skeptic, today only 11% of the population believes humans play a role. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the country's new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Mr. Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted. New Zealand last year elected a new government, which immediately suspended the country's weeks-old cap-and-trade program.
The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. -- 13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers...

...Australian polls have shown a sharp uptick in public skepticism; the press is back to questioning scientific dogma; blogs are having a field day.

Stossel's article also mentions serious opposition in Japan and Norway.

Beyond that, neither India nor PRChina will participate. They know better, and are perfectly willing to watch the U S Congress impose a national-suicide regime on the US. Fantasy doesn't play well in China.

Word has it that "farm state" congressmen are being purchased by logrolling on ethanol, or "Corn-a-Hole", which only goes to show that the bill is NOT about 'pollution'; it is about raw power and control.

The first consideration in legislating should be "What are the facts?" The fact is that the religion of AlGore is heresy. In the case of this particular heresy, its corollaries will lead to national economic suicide.

The Fantasy should be opposed by Kagen, Petri, and Obey. Period.

The Dave Obey/Obama "Die Now" Act

Just as a reminder, Wisconsin's very own 'Doctor' Dave Obey authored the language establishing the "Die Now" Commissariat, Bureau of Health, Life, and Death, ObamaCare Department.

Matt Vadum has the Committee's motto:

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." (How sweet and proper to die for one's country.)

Not the same meaning as 'Arbeit Macht Frei' over the gate, but the same result.

I.G.-Gate, Amtrak Branch, Part 2

This stuff is getting serious.

Officials of Amtrak have "systematically violated the letter and spirit of the Inspector General Act," Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) charged Thursday, making public a 94-page legal report prepared at the request of the Amtrak inspector general who resigned suddenly a week ago

...Amtrak vice president and general counsel Eleanor "Eldie" Acheson -- a close friend of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- had been involved in several of the disputes between the money-losing passenger rail service and the IG's office.

Ms. Acheson, daughter of the ex-Sec/State, was also a lobbyist on GLBT issues prior to joining Amtrak.

HT: AmSpecBlog

Ordination Confers Vast Powers, Eh?

Here a reporter for LifeSite News examines the statements of the Canadian Bishops, who speak with "authority" on matters of fact.

Problem is that the Canadian Bishops have made up "their own facts."

I have just heard that the Canadian bishops, in their "God-given authority" can change external reality. Stop looking at me like that. Of course I'm not kidding.

We have it from the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops himself, so you know it must be true. Archbishop James Weisgerber, the President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has said, unequivocally, that there is "no evidence" that the groups that D&P is funding around the world are plumping to legalise abortion....Except for all the, you know, evidence, an' stuff..

But Bishop Weisgerber wants to let us know that these so-called "facts" are just the machinations of "websites" who have no, ABSOLUTELY NO, authority in the Church to judge these matters.

We in Milwaukee are quite used to claims that Ordination (either to the priesthood, or to the Office of Bishop) confers the license to ignore Church laws and teachings, in addition to conferring the power to make up one's own "facts."

It must be so; the Canadians have confirmed it!

Should You Survive ObamaCare's Rationing...

Yes, ObamaCare will ration healthcare, especially for the elderly.

But if you are young, or reasonably healthy, that's not the ONLY rationing Dear Leader has in his bag.

...Worse than the increased cost of energy, perhaps, is that the Waxman-Markey bill will essentially result in artificial limits on electricity production and, ultimately, electricity rationing.

...In addition to the limits imposed by the renewable energy requirement, Waxman-Markey essentially phases out coal-generated electricity (50% of our current supply) while failing to guarantee the construction of the only realistic substitute for coal -- nuclear power. In the end, what we’ll have is an energy grid constrained by the supply of natural gas -- much of which will have to be imported. Even so, there’s simply not enough natural gas to affordably meet all our energy needs, so supplies will have to be rationed somehow.

However, neither the President's family, nor Congress, will be on the short end of either ObamaCare or electricity rations.

Fortunately, we are still able to BUY MORE AMMO!!

WOLVERINES!!!

Obama on Whatever Topic!

Your basic all-purpose picture, HT AOSHQ

Think HRC Is...Unhappy? Part Two

Great minds...

Yesterday we mentioned that Obama hammered HRC about her 'mandatory joining' for Gummint Health. Obama won the election and (voila!!) 'mandatory joining' is now part of the ObamaPlan.

The Winning McCain finds another reason that O should be very, very grateful for his Secret Service protection, albeit secondary.

...dear old Joe Biden gets $1.3 billion in "stimulus" money for Acheson's Amtrak, and they don't need no stinkin' IG sniffing around.

But wait a minute, there's more. As Michelle Malkin points out, Biden's all about Amtrak. Suppose that Biden's fingerprints were discovered on some shenanigans at Amtrak, so that there was a real scandal? If dear old Joe had to resign . . .Vice President Hillary? OK, that's far-fetched.

But did anybody else notice that Hillary's now got Sidney Blumenthal working for her over at State Department?

The wolfpack is circling.

Christian Schneider Gets Half of It?

Christian Schneider does a good job showing us how Jim Doyle personally raises the cost of healthcare in Wisconsin.

...raising taxes on hospitals by hundreds of millions of dollars...mandating health plans cover autism services...requiring all Wisconsin health plans to carry coverage for cochlear implants and hearing aids for kids...[and t]he current version of the state budget includes a provision that provides increased mental health coverage by insurance plans

Other Wisconsin legislatures and executives have also added 'mandates' (birth control and abortion services come to mind) which also increase the cost of health insurance.

But Schneider is, I think, a bit naive.

The major driver behind a Gummint Health plan is the "increasing cost of health insurance." Today's JS contains an article which has some frightening numbers--like 30%--and those numbers are killing small businesses.

Think of it this way, Chris: if Doyle can drive the cost of health insurance even higher, the argument from "cost" is far more effective.

Doyle's not only playing Hero with our money. He's doing his best to facilitate ObamaCare.

You can purchase Cynic Pills by living another 20 years with politicians, Chris...

Liar's Poker: Cap-and-Tax

They are lying--and hope you're really, really stupid.

...the Congressional Budget Office did an analysis of what has come to be known as the Waxman-Markey bill. According to the CBO, the climate legislation would cost the average household only $175 a year by 2020. Edward Markey, Mr. Waxman's co-author, instantly set to crowing that the cost of upending the entire energy economy would be no more than a postage stamp a day.

(Which postage stamp? The one we used in 2005? 2006? 2009? But I digress...)

A closer look at the CBO analysis finds that it contains so many caveats as to render it useless.

Well, yah!

The CBO's analysis looks solely at the year 2020, before most of the tough restrictions kick in. As the cap is tightened and companies are stripped of initial opportunities to "offset" their emissions, the price of permits will skyrocket beyond the CBO estimate of $28 per ton of carbon.

Isn't 2020 about the same time that Social Security and Medicare collapse?

The biggest doozy in the CBO analysis was its extraordinary decision to look only at the day-to-day costs of operating a trading program, rather than the wider consequences energy restriction would have on the economy. The CBO acknowledges this in a footnote: "The resource cost does not indicate the potential decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) that could result from the cap."

Sorta like measuring the impact-crater of a missile while ignoring the effects of the nuclear bomb it delivered.

Under this more comprehensive scenario, [measured by the Heritage Foundation], Waxman-Markey would cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four. As the bill's restrictions kick in, that number rises to $6,800 for a family of four by 2035

That would be about--what? 5-10 years after the collapse of Social Security and Medicare?

Think HRC Is...Unhappy?

Heh.

One of the few actual domestic policy differences between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during their contentious primary involved whether to have a mandate forcing individuals to purchase health care. Obama was strongly opposed, his campaign hammered Clinton on this, and the issue was aired over and over again during their many debates. Yet today, Obama told Diane Sawyer that he's reversed on the issue because, "People have made some pretty compelling arguments to me that if we want to have a system that drives down costs for everybody, then we've got to have healthier people not opt out of the system."

Obama can be very thankful he has the Secret Service.

HT: AmSpec Blog

Charlie Sykes Feeds Obama the Lines?

The End of the World As We Know It...TEOTWAWKI...one of Charlie's occasional themes.

It's been hijacked by Obama!

If Congress did not pass the Porkulus bill, it would be TEOTWAWKI

If Congress fails to pass ObamaCare, it will be TEOTWAWKI

If the Government did not take GM ownership it would be TEOTWAWKI

If Congress does not make the Fed into a Super-Regulator, it will be TEOTWAWKI

And, of course, if Congress does not pass Cap-and-Tax, it will be TEOTWAWKI

And it is "all of the above," not just 'some of the above,' or 'one of the above.'

Propaganda 101: The Missing "Climate Change"

Noted by a very sharp observer of Obama's presser:

He is still not referring to it as a “climate change bill,” nor does he ever say “cap-and-trade.” He refers once to “the carbon pollution that threatens our planet,” but continues to rhetorically frame this cap-and-trade legislation as a clean energy technology bill. He has been doing this consistently since his first press conference, and it reaffirms for me that his political and communications advisors think that addressing climate change is less popular than promoting clean energy technology

Of course, his assertions about the "job-creation" are pure hogwash; while there may be some 'new jobs' in windmill factories, the crushing of the coal industry alone should more than wipe out those gains.

HT: KeithHennessey

AlGore "Forgets" To Mention Earthquake Problems

AlGore, whose interest in profits is orders-of-magnitude larger than his interest in 'saving the earth,' seems to have forgotten a minor detail.

AltaRock Energy — a start-up geothermal energy firm whose investors include Al Gore’s venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins — failed to notify federal regulators that the bedrock drilling technique it is using in the San Francisco area had been linked with a project-ending 3.4-magnitude earthquake in Basel, Switzerland in 2006.

Rule Number One: Follow the Money.

HT: GreenHell

Jackboots vs. Dishwashing

The fact that the "new, improved" product actually DOES NOT WORK won't bother the jackboots in Madison.

Household dishwasher detergent that contains phosphorus would be banned Wisconsin, under a bill that is poised to pass the Assembly

Kevin has the rest of the story:

...The people of Spokane found that the phosphorus-free detergent wasn't cleaning their dishes as well as the 'nasty stuff,' so they'd head in the car and travel to neighboring Oregon which hadn't enacted a ban on phosphorus detergent and buy out stores in border towns.

The temptation is to capitalize on Wisconsin Government's endless quest to "fix" its citizenry's bad habits. A semi-load of bootlegged cigarettes is worth about $150K in profits these days; bringing in actual working detergent would simply add to the pot.

Tax-free, by the way...

TSA Reforms

Some very good suggestions from Schneier on the TSA airport jungle.

Obama has repeatedly talked about increasing openness and transparency in government, and it's time to bring transparency to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Let's start with the no-fly and watch lists. Right now, everything about them is secret: You can't find out if you're on one, or who put you there and why, and you can't clear your name if you're innocent. This Kafkaesque scenario is so un-American it's embarrassing. Obama should make the no-fly list subject to judicial review.

...Obama should mandate that airport security be solely about terrorism, and not a general-purpose security checkpoint to catch everyone from pot smokers to deadbeat dads...The TSA should limit its searches to bombs and weapons and leave general policing to the police - where we know courts and the Constitution still apply

The fact that these are common-sense suggestions militates against acceptance by Gummint.

"The New Professionalism", Chapter 33,540

You gotta love the excuse.

Marye Minton, 70, and her 72-year-old husband were awoken early Thursday to officers banging on the door of their home…

Marye Minton said she is upset that the officers came inside and ordered her husband, who is in poor health, onto the ground.

...

Officers were trying to serve a warrant for a man wanted on drug charges. The address listed on the paperwork was 4042. The Minton’s home is 4048, with both house numbers clearly marked.

But Major Mark Robinett of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, who is in charge of warrant sweeps, said he was told that officers had a difficult time reading the addresses because of overcast skies

I suppose the standard-issue flashlight didn't work, either.

HT: Agitator

Maybe It IS Your Data---but We Have It!

Good observation here from Vox, who notes that 2-year-cycle 'upgrades' will be required for some hot-selling doodads.

The point is that if you accept DRM devices, then you had better accept you are going to be completely at the mercy of the device manufacturer. That's why I refuse to buy either a Kindle or an iPhone; anything that requires passing your own data through the manufacturer's official distribution channel is of zero interest to me. Yes, I'm aware that there are always ways to get around it, but I prefer to give my business to manufacturers who aren't attempting to keep their customers, and their customer's data, in virtual lockdown.

DRM is nothing more than theft... from the consumer. It's the transformation of a purchase transaction into a rental one.

One of the Norton security options is to back up your data on their servers. Thanks, I'll use R/W CD's. The security implications of storing stuff 'out there' someplace are convincing.

The Cost of Cap-and-Tax

Key to map: If it's red, you will have bled.

The cost to Wisconsin is $200++ million in 2012, and we're lucky compared to OH, PA., and TX.

And that's just the cost of the "allowance allocation formula."

HT: PowerLine

I.G.-Gate, Amtrak Branch

Seems like the "suddenly resigned" I.G. of Amtrak was having some problems with Amtrak--they were not cooperating in an investigation the I. G. was conducting.

Sen. Charles Grassley says Wiederhold's unexpected resignation came after he was asked to provide "specific examples of agency interference with OIG audits and/or investigations."

Just co-incidence, of course: the VP-General Counsel for Amtrak is HRC's old Wellesley roomie, and a very good friend of none other than Joe Biden.

Finally! An Idea on Iran!

Not from the President-in-Jellospeak, of course.

Obama won't say that he won't recognize a government imposed by force.

That's an option which he could exercise, and would have big-time approval from US citizens, not to mention being a boost for the Iranian resistance.

Too bad the ideas have to come from a blogger, eh?

Obama Channeling Doyle: The Democrat "Mind"

Gabe watched the presser, and his first "this is a LIE" observation is relevant to Wisconsin.

When the President claims that cap and tax will be paid for only by polluters, implying that it will not have an impact on the economy, he fails Economics 101. Polluters, aka producers of goods and services, aren't going to magic up the money to pay for cap and trade out of nowhere. That money will be felt by consumers (and by every entity in the chain of commerce between the first cap-and-taxed company and the consumer). Prices will rise. The President's intimation that they won't is an outright lie.

Yah. And that's the same damn lie that Doyle told about the "Oil Company Tax"--which even his own (D) yutzes in the Assembly knew was simply impossible.

If Obama is so damn smart, how could he mimic the Doyle-O-Lie machine? Or is this mental deficiency something genetic in the (D) ranks above "Assemblyman"?

Actual History: Jack Chick Was Hugo Black's Mentor

Gee. What a surprise. Everson opinion written by a bigot!

"What I learned in Mark [Levin's] book (pages 30-31) is that former Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black -- who wrote the fateful, culturally damaging, precedent-breaking 5-4 decision -- was described by his own son as an avid reader of the vilest anti-Catholic hate literature. This fact contradicts the usual excuses for Black's former membership in the Ku Klux Klan (youthful indiscretions, socially required, etc.). So this American Civil Liberties Union-cherished provision was not the product of 18th-century enlightenment, but 20th-century rural anti-Catholic Protestant bigotry. Fascinating and useful. " --Tony Blankley, reviewing Levin's Liberty and Tyranny

In the 1960's, before Roe v Wade (and after), knowledgeable attorneys were well-aware of Black's vicious and pervasive anti-Catholicism. Might have been interesting to hear Wm. Bentley Ball's private comments, eh?

HT: The Shepherd

Forty-Six Years' Worth of Change

Roughly forty-six years ago, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, was doing the horizontal mambo with a woman who was also a Mafia wench, while the U S Attorney General, JFK's little brother, was investigating the Mafia.

That was most assuredly and definitely NOT "news."

Today, the chief of police in a larger Midwestern city does the horizontal mambo with an occasional journalist and pundit, and it is MOST ASSUREDLY and CERTAINLY "NEWS."

Or so we are told.

My, how things change in 40-some years, no?

QueenNancy's New Clothes: Tyrant Chic

Well, well.

...Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, said in an interview on The Washington Times' morning radio show "America's Morning News" that Mrs. Pelosi and the Democratic majority had recently authorized an unprecedented change in House rules to curb the right of the minority to offer amendments to appropriations spending bills.

...Mr. King and other Republicans charge the rules violate the House's traditions for debate and are meant to protect Democrats from politically embarrassing votes.

We all know that the Democrats have the votes to pass whatever they damn well please. Now they KO amendment-offers?

The word "tyranny" comes to mind.

Use Plastic? Keep Your Eye on the Ball

MWBH has a few tales of interest, particularly if you have/use credit- or check-cards.

And two of the three are "right-under-your-f'n-nose" jobs.

U C Bennie Exhaustions Worst in 30+ Years

Some "green shoots" are poison ivy.

HT: BigPicture

The "100 Year Storm" Crock

Not to pick on the engineer from West Allis, but here's the quote:

"Our system is not designed to handle, nor any system is designed to handle, what is fairly close to a 100-year storm," said [Mike] Lewis, who met with [West Allis] residents Monday

That "100-year" line has been used a lot lately. And that phrase has an odor which strongly resembles the odor of the stuff in those West Allis basements.

Actually, the "100-year" line is used every year, sometimes twice a year, to explain why $Mega-Zillions of sewer systems, interceptors, and drains do NOT work as advertised.

It's always a "100-year storm" which is at fault.

That was the case 12 years ago when 9" of rain fell in a couple of days, flooding Brookfield and Elm Grove. That was ALSO the case exactly one year later, same time, same place, about the same amount.

That was ALSO the case last year during June, and THIS year during June.

Getting the picture? "100-year event" doesn't mean "100-years." It simply means that somebody decided to design and build an inadequate system and made up the "100-year event" label to justify that.

Obama's Goolsbee: Liar or Fantacist?

Hennessey isn't quite as direct as was my headline, but you be the judge.

FoxNews Sunday, regarding the GM/Chrysler bailouts, Goolsbee (excerpted):

The President made totally clear in his remarks, and he specifically said we are not going to be in the business of telling General Motors or anybody else what kind of cars to make, where they should open their plants, or anything of the sort. The President made clear we want to get out of this as quickly as possible. We are only in this situation because somebody else kicked the can down the road, and that’s really an understatement. They shook up the can, they opened the can, and handed to us in our laps. Senator Shelby knows that to be true. When George Bush put money in to General Motors, almost explicitly with the purpose, how many dollars do they need to stay alive until January 20th, 2009? There was no commitment to restructuring, to making these viable enterprises of any kind.

Not true.

At 3:30 pm on Sunday, November 30, 2008, a quiet meeting occurred at the Treasury Department in Secretary Hank Paulson’s office. Present for the Bush Administration were Treasury Secretary Paulson and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, Deputy COS Joel Kaplan, White House Legislative Affairs chief Dan Meyer, Treasury Legislative Affairs head Kevin Fromer, and me. Present for the incoming Obama Administration were Deputy COS-designate Mona Sutphen, NEC-designate Dr. Larry Summers, Dan Turullo (now a Fed Governor), and WH Legislative Affairs-designate Phil Schiliro. We had requested the meeting. They agreed and asked that it be held outside the White House.

There's too much to re-post; suffice it to say that the ObamaBoyzz were VERY well-informed, and the BushBoyzz made a very fair and respectable offer to the OBoyzz on the matter.

Note that Goolsbee was not a party to the meeting...so he's just 'talking through his a%%', in the vernacular.

One interesting note:

...the loans to GM and Chrysler were a choice, but they were not the choice that he and Senator Shelby thought we faced. The choice was loan or liquidate. There was no feasible Chapter 11 option available at the time.

Wow.

The (R) House Health Plan

Major elements, as summarized by "Health Reform Talk"

--An "above the line" deduction that is equal to the cost of an individual's or family's insurance premiums.

--Incentives for individuals to build health savings accounts and IRC Sec. 125 flexible spending accounts.

--An option for Medicaid beneficiaries to "transfer" the value of their coverage to a private insurer.

--Allowing youths up to age 25 to remain on their parents insurance policies.

--Limits on malpractice lawsuits.

--Insurance pools that would encourage states, small businesses and others to share risk in low-cost plans.

Same post also shows the Daschle/Dole/Baker plan.

Anything with the Bob Dole name attached will have artificial manhood chemicals contained therein, of course.

Petri Alert!

There may be .06 people who read this blog and live in Petri's district. Well, take action!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Energy and Commmerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman are reaching out to the following House Republicans for their support on Waxman-Markey, according to Carbon Control News:

Tom Petri, (R) WI.

(Rest of the list at the link here.)

One would think that Rep. Petri is aware of the remaining manufacturers in his district, not to mention the very significant agricultural sector up there.

I'm sure he doesn't want to represent a bunch of nothing.........

The Usual "Polling" Nonsense For Obama

The NYTimes, slobbering excess fluids from its lips, runs a custom-designed "poll" supporting ObamaHealth.

Custom-designed, indeed.

BUT, according to the actual poll data, of the 73% of respondents who said they voted in 2008 only 34% voted for McCain and 66% for Obama. The actual vote was 46% (corrected) McCain. So, 29% of McCain voters ignored by the poll must not be Americans, according to the NYTs methodology, and there are about as much an overpolling of Obama voters. NYT's Shady Lady polling.

Interesting that even this heavy slanting of the results STILL couldn't pull more than 78%, no?

HT: Ace

It's "The Inflation", Not "The Liquidity Trap"

Alan Reynolds absolutely demolishes Krugman's "liquidity trap" theory, using actual history instead of (carefully) selected date/date comparos.

...His column says, "A rising monetary base isn't inflationary when you're in a liquidity trap. America's monetary base doubled between 1929 and 1939; prices fell 19%. Japan's monetary base rose 85% between 1997 and 2003; deflation continued apace."

Oh, really?

...With the exception of a brief Fed easing in the spring of 1932, the U.S. monetary base was generally falling or flat from January 1929 to early 1934. From March 1934 to July 1937, by contrast, the rate of growth of the monetary base jumped above 16% on a year-to-year basis. If we had been in a "liquidity trap" that would have had no effect. Yet real gross domestic product grew by 9.5% a year from 1934 to 1937, and consumer prices by 2.6% a year. Since the facts contradict his liquidity trap thesis, Krugman pretends the rebound after 1933 was "helped along by New Deal policies."

There's plenty more at the link.

For what it's worth, even my Econ prof (Les Aspin, no (R)) had conceded by 1970 that economic policies had to utilize both Keynesian and Friedmanite principles at the same time, and probably in small doses, not large ones.

HT: The Winning McCain

What, Exactly, SHOULD Obama Do About Iran?

Seems as though everyone has an opinion about Iran's election.

Most likely, the election was not exactly honest. No question that the election is largely irrelevant, as the Mullah Council runs the country no matter what the hoi polloi do. So in the case at hand, the Mullahs allowed a few candidates to run. One of them was backed by a Mullah who is also a corrupt-o-crat: Rafsanjani. The other was backed (more or less) by the current Maximum Mullah, Khameni.

The loser wanted to reform Iran to a "purer Mohammedan model," not exactly the liberte, egalite, fraternite sorta system that we have here. The winner is a twit. Both of them intend to continue their quest for nukes, and both use the US as the rhetorical punching bag.

Obama has stated that the US doesn't like repressive tactics, or repression of free speech. He's also stated that the US will continue talks with Iran no matter who actually emerges as the winner.

A bunch of other politicians in the US have demanded that Obama say or do "more." Of course, they don't have any suggestions as to what that might be. While Obama may be clueless, at least he's operating from his plan, which is to 'talk' with the Iranians. (That is the 'clueless' part--the Iranian government doesn't really want to talk productively with the US about nukes, period.)

If "regime change" is the objective of the pols who object to Obama's method, they have an uphill climb. A military intervention is out of the question and the CIA is not particularly useful at this time in Iran. Besides all that, it is valid to question whether the typical Iranian really wants the US messing in their sandbox.

As to economic sanctions--maybe. But that requires the US to marshall allies, few of which seem to have interest in cutting off Iran's purchases from their own domestic industries.

We await a suggestion........

BOHICA, Part 24,389

The State's defined-benefit plan is in a pickle.

The solution, of course, is more money from the taxpayer!

The contribution rate for the Wisconsin Retirement System will increase in 2010, with the fund that pays pensions for most teachers and municipal workers in the state increasing to its highest level in more than a decade.

The decision by the Employee Trust Funds Board raises the amount that has to be paid on behalf of employees to the equivalent of 11% of employee salaries. For the current year, that amount is 10.4%.

The Department of Employee Trust Funds attributed the increase to investment losses in 2008.

Well, yah. Investments have been kinda nasty.

Here's the part which is just obnoxious:

The increase largely will burden local governments, most of which have contract agreements requiring them to pay both the full employee and employer contributions to the retirement system.

That line about "preparing for your own retirement" is NOT operative under WEAC and AFSCME-negotiated contracts.

Fortunately,

Rep. Mark Gottlieb (R-Port Washington) [is] reviv[ing] calls for passage of legislation that would require most public employees to pay 3% of the pension contributions

Meaning that Gottlieb now has a large target painted on his back.

Milwaukee and Iran

Same difference, no?

Iran's Guardian Council has suggested that the number of votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of people eligible to cast ballot in those areas.

The mullahs studied Milwaukee's Election Commission.

Welcome to Chicago, D.C. (Part 2 of a Long Series...)

Walpin was fired from his position as I.G. of AmeriCorps and then slandered. That clears the way for AmeriCorps to become Michelle Obama's personal playground (and likely as the tax-dollar conduit to ACORN.)

The I.G. responsible for oversight of TARP allocations is being stiffarmed by Geithner.

The I.G. of the International Trade Commission was "not renewed."

And now:

The inspector general of Amtrak unexpectedly resigned Thursday night, becoming the third such federal official to leave prematurely since the Obama administration took office and the latest in a string of potentially controversial moves involving government watchdogs.

We don't need no steeeeenking Inspector Generals.

HT: NTCNews

Clever Line

Heard on this weekend's Prairie Home Companion, allegedly a note from husband to wife:

"I wouldn't trade our marriage for all the happiness in the world."

Transparency from O? Fuggeddaboutit

Even Isikoff is unhappy.

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against public disclosure.

There is, of course, a DofJ memo supporting Obama's Secret Club meetings.

Administration officials say the Holder memo was drafted by senior Justice lawyers in consultation with Craig's office.

Craig is White House counsel.

Isikoff compares this to the Bush secrecy games. Maybe, maybe not--but it certainly is not "openness."

Something ELSE You Can Do With Ethanol

Ethanol is good for us. (Repeat until in zombie-state...)

Tank cars loaded with thousands of gallons of highly flammable ethanol exploded and blazed through the night after a freight train derailed, killing one person in a car at a crossing

That's not the worst part.

Firefighters say the best tactic is to let the ethanol burn out. They're staying a good distance back and have some unmanned hoses on the cars. They don't want to risk any injury to firefighters.

They're keeping the firefighters 100 yards out, and watching with binox.

Oh, there's more:

There is a mandatory evacuation for the area around the scene. If you live 1/2 a mile from Sandy Hollow and Mulford, you are to leave your home until further notice

Three others were treated for serious burns.

Actually, Boxer DID Earn Something

After reading the post below, you need humor!

Clearly, it was inappropriate for a mere Brigadier General to display a level of respect typically reserved for commoners. Sure, he served a tour in Iraq, but she serves on the Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation.

You try sitting next to John Kerry for five hours.

Plenty more on The Most Honorific-Deserving Beeeyotch of All Time at the link.

Congressional 'Destroy Everybody' Act: Update

In a way, the CPSIA is an icon. It is THE story of how Congress can screw up a one-car funeral procession. Neither Twain nor Mencken nor Rogers could have dreamed this up; only Congress (and a feckless President) could have created this monster.

Overlawyered has been keeping track.

...the next all-out debacle on the CPSIA front is expected to result from the law’s tracking and labeling regulations, due to take effect August 14, and for which the CPSC has not yet issued guidance, although product makers ordinarily need to resolve crucial issues of manufacturing (as with etching of lot numbers) and packaging at least many months if not longer in advance of sale

..."When you think through the implications, it means closing our libraries to children”. And in a sign of possible things to come, ABC-affiliated stations in Seattle and Washington, D.C. have now run sensationalist “toxic books!” attacks on local libraries

(Maybe this is the solution in West Bend!!)

... The CPSC’s stay of enforcement didn’t really solve the problem of the ban on dirtbikes and mini-ATVs, and responsible users and dealers end up getting the short end of the stick

...Those who remain in the kids’-product business after coping with all the other parts of the law will also want to educate themselves about “recall escrows”

Congress: Certified Damn Fools.

Ever Think of Crashing This Party?

Sometimes, it's fun to think about simply over-running the personal police-force of Doyle and the Dems and crashing these little tete-a-tetes.

There will be no formal action on the state budget until Tuesday, a delay that allows legislative leaders to meet privately to try to resolve major differences between the spending plans of the Assembly and Senate.

That would continue what has been a pattern of secrecy surrounding the $62.5 billion two-year budget.

"Politicians never seem to learn that operating in secrecy only convinces the public that they are hiding something and makes people that much more suspicious of all politicians," said Mike McCabe, head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

McCabe makes the point very well.

Things are manageable at the office, what with most people trying to figure out how to get the hell OUT of this State. Maybe there's be time for a quick run to Madistan's Capitol-area taverns.

HT: Kevin

Browner Off the Hook, For Now

We mentioned that Jim Sensenbrenner was extremely upset about Carol Browner's apparently top-secret meetings. It's a story that the local "news" paper did not mention.

House Republicans accused Obama climate czar Carol Browner of deliberately violating the Presidential Records Act by ordering a shroud of secrecy around the development of Obama’s CAFE standards and the EPA’s CO2 endangerment finding.

Waxman, who is as slimy as any (D) in DC, cut this off at the pass.

[Waxman] is pledging to “monitor” and potentially hold hearings on the decision-making process behind EPA’s proposed finding that carbon dioxide endangers public health…

So? Oh, yeah, there's more:

Democrats… may be willing to investigate the issue given their own interest in obtaining Bush-era EPA documents

To which my response is: GO FOR IT! If Bush & Co. were playing fast and loose on this, we should know. You know, "accountablity," and "open-ness" and all that rot.

HT: GreenHell
What say, Jim Sensenbrenner?

This Pump Will Fail

He's trying to pump up a balloon which popped, folks.

President Barack Obama’s program to help more homeowners refinance may be expanded to include borrowers who owe more than 105 percent of their homes’ values, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said.

The Obama administration is considering allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance loans with current loan-to-value ratios of 125 percent or higher, Lockhart said at a National Association of Real Estate Editors Association conference in Washington yesterday.

It ain't gonna work, and the sludge will splatter directly into the taxpayer's "pay IRS" account.

HT: Ticker

Contingent Federal Liabilities

Yah, there's the SpendSpendSpendSpend porkulus and budget proposals.

And there's the imminent collapse of Social Security and Medicare.

And then there's "contingent liabilities," found by PowerLine.

The summer 2009 issue of the FDIC's Supervisory Insightscarries an article summarizing the government support for financial assets and liabilities announced in 2008 and soon thereafter...

The numbers are prefaced by an important note explaining that "the amounts are gross loans, asset and liability guarantee and asset purchases, do not represent net cost to taxpayers, do not reflect expected private capital expected to accompany some programs, and are announced maximum program limits so that actual support may well fall short of these levels." Nevertheless, they signify something.

According to table 1, the total gross support extended in 2008 was $6,788 billion (i.e., $6.78 trillion). That's a big number, but it has increased with stunning rapidity during the Obama administration. The "maximum capacity of support programs" announced or in place through the first quarter of 2009 was $13,903 billion (i.e., $13.93 trillion). The breakdown of the numbers provided comes with 22 footnotes that should be consulted for clarification
.
For reference it may be helpful to compare these newly created government programs with the the gross domestic product of the United States. In 2008 the GDP of the United States was about $14 trillion. The recession will probably cause it to contract in 2009 to an amount that is exceeded by the total of the government support programs announced or in place through the first quarter of 2009.

Happy banks and brokerage firms.

Hint to GOP: How to Play the ObamaCare Bill

Easily the best idea I've seen:

Barack Obama compares our current health care system to General Motors. Seeing as the government bailout/restructuring of GM isn't too popular, and that 41% of people predict the quality of GM vehicles will suffer, I think this is a good metaphor to stick with.

Outstanding thinking!

BOHICA!! How to Pay for ObamaCare

Well, you really didn't think it was "free", did you?

House Democrats have lots of potential targets for higher taxes as they aim to expand health care coverage, from wealthy Americans and the nation's employers to anyone who pops the top on a soft drink.

Also under consideration are higher alcohol taxes, increases to the Medicare payroll tax and a value-added tax, a sort of national sales tax, of up to 1.5 percent or more.

Have we mentioned that "It's the SPENDING, Stupid"?

Roeder's Favorite Court

Roeder kills "Tiller the Killer."

And a 4th Amendment ruling in a Kansas Appeals Court might have helped him.

About 13 years ago Roeder was under suspicion due to his "Freemen" association and a rise in activity by that bunch of wackos. This led to an arrest, which led to discovery of all sorts of interesting gizmos in his (unlicensed) car--like wires, blasting caps, batteries, gunpowder, a rifle and ammo, and a copy of "The Underground Cookbook".

You know. The kind of stuff everybody keeps handy in their car-trunk, just in case.

On behalf of the state, Brown argued in his brief to the appeals court that the law enforcement officers’ action was reasonable and justified. “For this court to require law enforcement officers to leave a vehicle without license tags or insurance, whose ownership is unknown, in a private parking lot or on a public street on the word of one who claims ownership but cannot furnish evidence of the same is so unreasonable as to be ridiculous,” Brown wrote.

A three-judge panel of the appeal’s court--the late Kaye Royse, Jerry G. Elliott and Barry A. Bennington—agreed with Roeder.

That was on Christmas Eve; certainly ironic timing, in retrospect.

There's more at the link...

Flagrant Theft of Your Money--Indian Health Services

It's been known for years that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is a cancer within the Federal budget.

Now we have "Son of BIA."

...a Government Accountability Office audit released the previous June concluded that mismanagement of the IHS had allowed $15.8 million worth of equipment to be lost or stolen between 2004 and 2007.

'Salright. They got another $85 million in Porkulus JUST FOR 'health technology' stuff.

Some of the "lost/stolen" stuff isn't too easy to put in your pocket, either.

“We analyzed IHS reports from fiscal year 2004 through fiscal year 2007 and identified over 5,000 lost or stolen property items, worth approximately $15.8 million,” GAO revealed in a June 2008 report presented to Congress. “These items included all-terrain vehicles, tractors, and pickup trucks worth around $6 million; and 'Jaws of Life' equipment worth over $20,000.”

The GAO found that the service purchased a great deal of IT equipment and had a difficult time keeping track of it both at their headquarters and at field offices.

“Of the 3,155 pieces of IT equipment that were on the books at IHS headquarters in 2007, 1,140 items, or about 36 percent, were lost, stolen, or unaccounted for,” said GAO’s June 2008 report. “These missing items, valued at about $2 million, include computers, computer servers, video projectors, and digital cameras. According to IHS records, 64 of the items we identified as lost or stolen during our physical inventory were ‘new’ in April 2007."

Can't wait for ObamaCare. I need a new pickup truck, and a couple of new servers...

Madison's Hatred for Employers

McIlheran lays it out clearly: Wisconsin (D) leggies, in bed with Jimbo Doyle, simply hate employers.

Worse: everybody in the country knows it.

Remember all those job losses? Maybe it's not "just co-incidence."

Soggy Night

We have three ways to tell that it was very wet last night.

First, some pots on the back porch filled with water, meaning that at least 3, and perhaps as much as 6 inches of rain fell in only about 4 hours.

Second, the Waukesha Gun Club (and Watertown Road) are under water.

Third, the neighbor's basement wall caved in last night from the pressure.

Is Walpin in Alzheimer's? Nope. White House Lying

The White House's personal slush-fund/ACORN conduit, AmeriCorps, has issued statements to the effect that its Inspector General, Mr. Walpin, was canned because he was "confused" and "disoriented," AND that he was AWOL.

That's two malicious lies.

An exclusive witness told The Washington Times both charges are baseless.

...Our witness, a staff member, said the board was hostile and rude. He said the board repeatedly interrupted Mr. Walpin and peppered him with questions on multiple issues. He fully confirmed Mr. Walpin's account that the board excused Mr. Walpin for 15 minutes and that when Mr. Walpin returned to find his notepapers out of order, the board refused to give him time to get them straight.

As to "AWOL,":

Mr. Walpin was not "absent from the Corporation's headquarters ... over the objections of the Corporation's Board," as the White House claims. Instead, he had specifically cleared an arrangement to telecommute (from New York to the District office) with the agency's general counsel and its acting chief executive officer. Our witness was present at the meeting when the arrangement was approved.

Walpin nailed some AmeriCorps grantees--a New York college and a West Coast "activist" bunch, for improperly spending money. And he found some irregularities in a Chicago grantee, whose Board included Michelle Obama.

The White House intends to use AmeriCorps to fund ACORN (or a reasonable facsimile thereof), and re-election is in play here.

Fortunately, Grassley will be raising Hell about this. It will be fun to watch.

HT: McCain

The I G Firing Mess Gets Messier

The Walpin thing is only Part One. Treasury's TurboTaxTimmy is having a pitched battle with the Treasury I.G.--and the blood is in the water. It's TurboTaxTimmy's blood, folks.

ABC's Tapper reports:

The Obama administration’s disputes with government watchdogs do not end with fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Behind the scenes, the Treasury Department is embroiled in a disagreement with Neil Barofsky, the watchdog for the $700 billion government bailout Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP

Got that?

Explicating a bit, NRO quotes the NYTimes:

Members of Congress and the New York State attorney general demanded detailed information Thursday on how tens of billions of taxpayer dollars flowed through the American International Group during its crisis last fall and ended up in the coffers of several dozen big banks, shielding them from losses...

''We would like to know if the A.I.G. counterparty payments, as made, were in the best interests of the taxpayers who provided the funding,'' said Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, in a letter to Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The letter was also signed by 26 other members of the House, all of them Democrats.

The representatives asked Mr. Barofsky to find out who had made the decision to shield A.I.G.'s trading partners from any losses during last fall's crisis, and what factors had shaped the decision.

Their letter mentioned that Mr. Barofsky's office had been created to investigate the uses of TARP money, and that A.I.G., the biggest recipient of government aid in recent months, was among the largest recipients of money from the TARP.

This would not be the first time AIG counterparty payments were questioned. See Ritholtz' rants on the topic, or those of Market Ticker.

Cui bono? Who benefits from AIG counterparty payments?

Names like Goldman, Sachs (Hank Paulsen's alma mater) and a bunch of European banks have been floated.

IF it is the AIG thing, expect NYState AG Cuomo to be all over this like flies on garbage.

And expect that TurboTaxTimmy will be looking for work.

HT: McCain

Jobs Shifting in Wisconsin

Here's a pair of stats that should draw your attention:

"One disturbing trend," Russ Kashian, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, said of the manufacturing decline. Since a May peak in 1998, factory jobs have dropped by 159,900, or 27%.

That means that in 1998, there were ~600,000 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin. Now there are ~425,000.

Kashian also noted that the public sector had a net gain of jobs in the last year....

While Tommy "Stick-It-To-'Em" Thompson and Jim Doyle (and others) have been adding to the State (and local) payrolls for the last 10-15 years, manufacturers have been disappearing, or reducing their employment in this State.

Correlation is not causation, of course. But someone has to PAY for all those public servants and all those regulations they write, and the favorite target has been manufacturers.

There are a number of factors at play. Increased automation has reduced direct-labor needs; offshoring of consumer and light industrial manufacturing has been significant contributor to the trend; and of course, there are the "move-outs": companies which retain US manufacturing operations but NOT in Wisconsin.

Maybe Prof. Kashian could quantify all that.

The Chrysler Mess

Reasonably well-explained in this YouTube video.

And to the BK lawyers who insist that this was a "legal" deal--so is abortion.

HT: Old Salt

Creating Boogeymen, Preparing for 2012

Roeser nails it, as usual.

...with high personal popularity ratings for the president, why do the Emanuels plus Axelrod and their show biz allies have the bitter-end obsession with conservatives to the extent that they have to demean a woman and her under-age child?

The reason: The Obama-ites believe-rightly-that their candidate’s high numbers are illusory-based only on his personal charisma but that the public doesn’t buy his programs.

That's borne out in today's polls (and it's consistent with earlier findings.)

This means that unless he gets his programs passed, the Democrats will lose double-digit seats in the Congress in 2010--and may see a very close race for the presidency in 2012. So they are moved by extreme fear-fear that even Obama’s personal numbers could crater if he doesn’t improve the economy, the condition of the jobless and pass his tripartite program, universal health care, federalized education from k-1 through college and energy. The Emanuels plus Axelrod have decided they need villains from the Republican right to make the contretemps very personal…to get the voters excited. Thus they have settled on a litany of conservatives: Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck, Cheney and, oh yes, Sarah Palin.

And it ain't going to be easy for His Lord-and-Mightiness Obama.

The downside is that the warmth and affection for Obama largely comes from a dying branch which is described as the Old Media: The Chicago Tribune (bankrupt), The Boston Globe (bankrupt) , The Baltimore Sun (bankrupt), The New York Times (bankrupt), The Los Angeles Times (bankrupt), The Washington Post. The Washington Post lost $53. million last quarter and is supported largely by Kaplan Educational Testing.

In addition, broadcast TV networks (and the two major newsmagazines, Time and Newsweek which are unremittingly liberal) are rapidly losing audiences. CBS’s Katie Couric who skewers conservatives regularly is dead last in ratings for her Evening News among the networks. As a matter of fact, the Old Media needs Obama to stabilize their weak numbers, needs him far more than he needs them. That’s why the supplicant Brian Williams, the toadying NBC-TV evening anchor, was seen to bow humbly when he left the president after the network presented its “Day in the Life of President Obama”-and why NBC has circulated a private memo to its news-writers forbidding negative reportage on Obama.

And Roeser, a very sophisticated analyst, has a suggestion for the Republicans. But you'll have to read his piece to find it.

Rembert Weakland and the SSPX

Oh, yes, there's a commonality.

Terry is taking on the task of reading the Archbishop's new book. It's possible that Terry is also over-using his shower as a result.

Anyhoooo, he cites a passage and observes:

...a bishop ought to keep in mind what it's like to take hierarchy when he's dishing it out.

That 'transitive obedience' concept is difficult for the SSPX to grasp, too. And they're not the only ones.

Out of Date Survey

Biz Journal Milwaukee posts the following:

Wisconsin was ranked as the 43rd-worst state for job growth and business in the fifth annual Chief Executive magazine’s “Best and Worst States” survey.

The magazine evaluated states on a broad range of criteria that included proximity to resources, regulation, tax policies, quality of life and infrastructure. More than 540 chief executive officers participated in the survey and ranked Texas the number-one state for job growth and business for the fourth straight year.

The five worst states in the survey were California, New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Wisconsin also ranked ahead of Illinois, Ohio and Louisiana. In addition to Texas, other states in the top five were North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

Midwest states that ranked ahead of Wisconsin were Indiana (11th), Iowa (19th) and Minnesota (32nd).

That survey was taken BEFORE the cap-gains preference was eliminated by the Wisconsin Socialist Senate.

Divorce Differences by State

I never knew this until the Winning McCain put it out there.

Down home, we never heard of a "friendly divorce." No divorce in Georgia is final until somebody's in the emergency room or under a restraining order.

Maybe the pre-nups aren't written very well.

Wallace, Faubus, Colon, & Kessler No Longer Practicing

The "men" standing in the schoolhouse door (specifically, St. Anthony's schoolhouse) were slapped upside the head by the Senate Democrats.

Deletes the JFC provision to require a choice school with an enrollment of more than 10 percent limited-English proficient students to have a bilingual-bicultural education program

Kudos to Plale and Co.!!

Not ONE I.G. THREE of 'Em!

Welcome to Chicago, D.C.

Walpin was dumped for--apparently--doing his job vis-a-vis some New York city college, a jock-turned-rent-seeker in California, and a Chicago rent-seeking outfit which had a "Michelle Obama" serving on its board.

The International Trade Commission fired its I.G., as well.

And in the Treasury Department, run by a fellow who tells jokes to PRChina students:

...Neil Barofsky is embroiled in a dispute with the Obama administration that delayed one recent inquiry and sparked questions about his ability to freely investigate. The disagreement stems from a claim by the Treasury Department that Barofsky is not entirely independent of the agency he is assigned to examine; a claim that has prompted a stern letter from a Republican senator warning that agency officials are encroaching on the integrity of an office created to protect taxpayers.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent the letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanding information about a "dispute over certain Treasury documents" that he said were being "withheld" from Barofsky's office on a "specious claim of attorney-client privilege."

TimmyBoy is not only TurboTax challenged. He's plain-English challenged.

HT: Hot Air

Scathing Wiggy

Oooohhhh. Wiggy takes the razor and opens a nasty hole in the collective ass of the West Bend Library Board.

Obama Interview Transcript

We've mentioned Planet Moron a few times, all for good reasons.

Another grand-slam today.

HARWOOD: Would you please launch into a five-minute speech extolling your financial industry regulation plan in response to my softball question?

Pres. OBAMA: You bet. In examining our current regulatory structure, which was more expansive, thorough, intrusive, comprehensive and vulnerable to political meddling than that imposed on any other sector of our economy, we decided that the only way to avoid future financial crises was to create an even more expansive, thorough, intrusive, and comprehensive set of regulations vulnerable to political meddling.

And that's just the beginning...

AmeriCorpsGate: Chicago Connection

You didn't have to be Einstein to guess that the Walpin firing might have had a Chicago connection. (After all, I guessed that--correctly, as it turns out.)

Mrs. Obama’s interest is more than passing. She ran the AmeriCorps-funded non-profit Public Allies in Chicago from 1993-1996 and served on its national board until 2001. Like so many of the AmeriCorps recipients investigated by the inspector general’s office over the years, Public Allies was found to have violated basic eligibility and compliance rules. A January 2007 audit reported that the group lacked internal controls verifying that recipients who received education grants and living allowances were legal citizens or permanent residents as required by law.

Gosh, what a surprise!

HT: Malkin

THIS is "Health Care"?

At 651 pages and counting, the ObamaCare bill is not yet 'complete.'

And some stuff just doesn't seem to be "health care."

The HELP Committee Democrats' bill would:

Establish a "Community Makeover Program" to spend billions to beautify streets, up to $10 per person in selected communities;

Fund a federal government program to build new sidewalks and bike paths, and put up street lights;

Finance new grocery stores and farmers' markets;

Revoke employers rights to provide free wellness benefits to employees;

Mandate that a new Washington health police bureaucracy dictate what local restaurants can offer their customers; and

Subsidize community projects like building jungle gyms in parks.

More and more it appears that there is a Mental Health crisis--in Congress.

HT: AmSpecBlog

Really?

News item:

Concerns that a coyote might have been rabid led Milwaukee police to shoot the animal early Thursday as it came toward officers on Lincoln Memorial Drive.

Police reported that officers in the area came upon the animal in the 1700 block of Lincoln Memorial Drive about 3:30 a.m. The coyote made a movement toward officers before it was shot.

Really?

Don't get me wrong. I would have shot it, too.

"Men Behind Tree" Faulted by Decker, Sheridan, Doyle

What a friggin' game.

Doyle writes a budget which increases State spending by 7%, and taxes anyone who buys gasoline (plus the usual "rich" suspects.)

Sheridan and Pocan, in the Assembly, increase State spending by 7%, but decide to tax anyone who has a phone, "the rich" (why not?) and people who dispose of garbage.

Decker agrees to increase State spending by 7%, retains telephone and garbage taxes, but hits "the rich" even harder, while eliminating the gas tax.

Except, of course, Decker's targets might not be "rich".

"Eliminating the capital gains exclusion is about tax fairness," he said. "Why should someone who sells a painting, a second home or gold coins get a tax break while someone who earns their money by working all year does not?"

The produce-guy (Decker) has picked the wrong battle. There are thousands of Milwaukee-area people who beat their brains in at A O Smith, or Rexnord, and bought a 3-room cottage up Nort' for hunting, fishing, and sheepshead playing. There are thousands of grannies and grandpas who bought a gold coin or 10, hedging against Big Spending Governments who debase the US dollar.

And those Big Spending Governments have names: Doyle, Decker, and Sherman.

But to DoyleDeckerSheridan, they ARE the "man behind the tree." 'Granny gold-coin' and 'Grandpa fishing-shack' are the eeeeeeeeeeeevil "rich."

And they are going to pay for DoyleDeckerSheridan's Big-Spending Government.

(We note that Herbie Kohl's boy-playground Bradley Center still gets $5 million. Talk about eeeeeeeeeevil "rich," folks...)

DoD: Protesters are "Terrorists"

The pattern of these damnfool reports would suggest that there is "Government" and there is "the enemy."

And as Pogo famously said, "The enemy is us."

Just weeks after a scandal erupted over a Department of Homeland Security report that described as "right-wing extremists" those who oppose abortion and support secure national borders, another report is revealing that the Department of Defense is teaching that protesters are "low-level terrorists."

The newest action to define those who disagree with positions adopted by the government or administration of the United States was revealed by blogger Dennis Loo at Salon.com.

He cited a complaint filed by the northern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union demanding that the Department of Defense change its instructions and those who have been given the training be told of the modifications by "sending out corrective materials."

Maybe there's extra budget money if you use the term "terrorist" enough.

Almost as Bad as Biden: Michelle Obama

Believe it or not, Michelle Obama is taking a run at Biden's gaffe-a-minute record.

At yesterday’s Harvest Party for the politically exploited local school children, Michelle Obama continually showcased how ill-prepared she is to pontificate on diet and health (my comments in bold):

Obama: “Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure are all diet-related health issues that cost this country more than $120 billion each year.” [This is an absolutely made-up figure. There is no evidence that diet alone is responsible for the alleged conditions and cost.]

Obama: “Nearly a third of the children in this country are either overweight or obese…” [Wrong. CDC says the figure is about 17%]

See the other 8 or so inanities/lies/stupidifications at the link.

HT: Green Hell

Double-Flim-Crossing-Flamming the Gays: Obama

This guy Obama...frankly, I don't think he knows how stupid this really is.

This moring, the buzz was that Obama "would extend bennies" to gay partners in the Fed Gov.

This afternoon, those "benefits" are ........evaporating.

However, the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits the federal government from extending health and retirement benefits to same-sex couples, so the benefits are more likely to be marginal -- like relocation assistance.

Out of Iraq in 10 months. Stop renditions. Close Gitmo immediately. Gay benefits. Sign Abortion Laws. No single-payer health plan. Never tax health benefits. Increase taxes on only those earning more than $300K.

There's more, I'm sure. When the MSM finally comes out of the honeymoon suite, I'll ask a reporter.

HT: Ace

Iran Continues to Boil

Ace has a great post and pix.

Discussing Iran, Mousavi, and Ahmadinejhad:

It's insulting this shape-shifting two-faced double-talking cryptosocialist Alinskyite douchebag needs that fact pointed out to him.

Ooops! Sorry.

He was describing Obama.

Hail! The Gang's All Here!

Just co-incidence, folks. Nothing to see here.

Incidentally, as I write this, ACORN donors are celebrating the 39th birthday of the radical activist group at a $250 a ticket gala reception at the National Education Association. Center for American Progress president John Podesta, SEIU union boss Andy Stern, and corrupt former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros are expected to attend.

That's a list if I ever saw one.

HT: AmSpec

The FED? Please Be Serious!

Obama plans to give the Fed "sweeping new powers" over financial institutions to prevent cataclysms.

The very same Fed which pushed bubbles all around the financial map, beginning with the Bond Bubble (crash of money-manager in '87), then the dotcom bubble, and finally the housing bubble?

The Fed which then drained $100Bn from the system, which was the immediate trigger for the crash of WaMu?

The Fed which now shows about $1Trillion of "assets"--some of which it is legally barred from holding?

The Fed which is monetizing USTreasury debt at such a rate that Chinese college kids laugh at the USdollar and the Russkis are selling Treasuries in favor of "baskets" of money?

We have FDIC, SEC, and Treasury, OTS (scheduled for elimination) and credit unions. And the Fed already has some regulatory authority over banks. SEC could take on derivative trading with a line-item addition to its functions, and would be MUCH better-positioned to do the work.

It will be redundant, and not necessarily successful......

So I guess it is a good (D) invention, yup.

Jesse Jackson on Threats to the State

The Hustler opines on Roeder and VanBrunn.

The reasons are clear. The election of Barack Obama may demonstrate progress toward a post-racist society to many, but to others it’s a threat and a betrayal. The economic downturn has been particularly brutal on manufacturing workers, veterans and low-wage workers. Many of these people feel abused by their government, threatened by low-wage immigrants and angered by civil-rights advances.

Yah, that's it, Jesse-Desperately-Seeking-Relevance.

HT: CrankyCon

What You Won't Hear from Sotomayor

Neatly summarized by another Catholic Federal judge.

“The authority that was vested in me upon taking [the oath of office] is derived exclusively from the Constitution. Thus the justice I am sworn to administer is not justice as I might see it….And if I consciously deviate from that body of law to do justice as I see it, I violate my oath of office and undermine the safeguards embodied in the Separation of Powers. Should I ever be asked to hear a case in which the application of the law might result in my material complicity in an immoral act, I would have to examine my conscience and, if it so dictated, recuse myself. What I may not do is bend the law to suit my conscience.”

Funny. I don't see anything about "policymaking" in that statement, nor a "surfeit of wisdom."

Oh--that's James Buckley's paragraph.

Will the Real Rembert Weakland Step Up?

Terry has discovered the dualities that Margaret Steinfels missed (by a mile or two).

Summer Internships From St Norbert College

A strange bunch of places for SNC students to 'intern', no?

At St. Norbert College the Women’s and Gender Studies program recommends internships at a host of pro-abortion organizations including the National Organization for Women, Legal Momentum (formerly the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), Planned Parenthood, the League of Women Voters, the National Women’s Health Network, the National Women’s Law Center, Our Bodies Ourselves, the Women’s Campaign Fund and the Women’s Information Network. Also recommended are the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), both of which advocate homosexual “marriage.” The Population Institute, which St. Norbert College recommends for internships, is an aggressive lobby for government funding of family planning programs.

At one time, SNC marketed itself as a Catholic school.

It would appear that the Bishop of Green Bay has a burden.

HT: Caveman

Prenup Agreements: The Underlying Issue

Found in a FT essay on the recession of fatherhood in contemporary America.

Voluntarism, the new and Constitutionally validated philosophical undergirding of parenthood, is the notion that no person has any special duties to any other person unless he has explicitly or implicitly consented to them. To be duty-bound for any other reason, such as circumstance or biological kinship, would be to find oneself despotically ruled by irrational forces. This notion lies at the heart of reproductive freedom, championed by organizations such as Planned Parenthood, whose very name echoes the unconstrained view.

But that "voluntarism" also undergirds state-licensed marriage, which explains the rise of "pre-nup" foolishness.

Like High-Priced Electricity? Go for Cap-and-Tax

The first noticed reverberation of cap-and-tax.

Citing coming global warming legislation, Duke Energy, the third-largest U.S. utility, has asked North Carolina regulators for permission to raise electricity prices 12.6 percent. The requested price hike would cost North Carolina ratepayers $496 million.

Quoting the Duke supporting documentation:

“In addition to the significant costs associated with existing state and federal environmental and other regulatory requirements… we are facing expected greenhouse gas reduction requirements in the near future.”

“By 2030, the electric utility industry will need to make a total infrastructure investment of $1.5 to $2.0 trillion.”

Duke happens to be a big-time promoter of Cap-and-Tax, by the way.

"If Only...." TABOR

Most interesting note from this editorial.

Where would we be had TABOR taken hold this budget cycle? We’d probably only be in as bad a shape as Michigan, home state for our intrepid domestic auto makers, The Big [ger than a breadbox] 3. Can you imagine: YOUr state’s top 2 employers, GM and Chrysler, have laid off thousands and are on the horizon of bankruptcy, your unemployment rate is almost 13%, and your budget is only $2 billion short?!

Gee. Michigan, an economic wreck if there ever was one, only $2Bn short? Compare to Wisconsin, not a 'wreck' (YET) and its $6.6Bn problem.

Hoocouldanode?

Woopsie! ObamaCare Misses 17 Million

Besides the staggering cost (at least $1Trillion, probably $1.6Trillion, possibly $4Trillion), there's another little problem with ObamaCare:

An analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office raised the hurdles for draft legislation in the Senate just as its Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee planned to begin voting on Wednesday. The office concluded that a plan by the committee’s Democratic leaders, Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, would reduce the number of uninsured only by a net 16 million people. Even if the bill became law, the budget office said, 36 million people would remain uninsured in 2017.

So who knows? Should we simply multiply the costs to compensate for the remaining un-insured?

HT: JustOneMinute

Doyle: Shacking With Imaginary Babe?

Schneider makes the point very well.

Evidently there's an easy broad near the Wisconsin Governor's office named Rosy Scenario. And Jimbo's been in her shorts.

Four point five percent growth? Maybe with Viagara.

HT: Bruce

Obey Reduces Obama's DOD Budget Request

We all know that the Democrat Party doesn't have much use for the military. What's the big deal with running a two-front war, countering the wacko in North Korea, and preparing for messy little contingencies around Iran, anyway?

But when the Appropriations Committee actually reduces the military budget beyond what the (D) President proposed, you have bad judgment on steroids.


The amount to be allocated to the Department of Defense [DoD] cannot be ascertained, because
the DoD is funded by both the Defense and the Military Construction/Veterans Affairs
Subcommittees. But because the allocation to the Defense Subcommittee is $3.5 billion less than
the President’s request (which is assumed in the congressional budget resolution), it can be
surmised that defense grows at a slower rate than the 4.2 percent requested by the President and assumed in the budget resolution, and non-defense discretionary spending grows at a rate faster than the 11 percent in the budget.

Appropriations is run by Dave Obey, the Ultra-Lefty (D) from Wisconsin.

As Mitt Romney mentioned in an article for Human Events, the President's plan maintains the Clinton reduction from 18 Army Divisions to only 10; does not foresee a replacement for the B-52 bomber (now a 50-year-old design), and will bring the Navy fleet down to 240 or less vessels--not even close to the 313 the Navy thinks it needs to carry out potential missions.

Maybe Obama and Obey plan to bring US troops back from Germany, Korea, and Kosovo (not to mention Iraq and Afghanistan.) That would certainly reduce spending requirements.

But they haven't mentioned it.

"Single Payer Works Well." Where, Exactly?

The Lord Obama told the AMA that 'single-payer systems work pretty well in other places,' but he didn't say where.

And the MSM didn't report that sentence from his speech, either.

The full context of Obama’s remark is available from the official transcript posted on the White House Website. One paragraph of this transcript reads:

“Let me also say that—let me also address a illegitimate concern that’s being put forward by those who are claiming a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. I’ll be honest, there are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well. But I believe—and I’ve taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief—that it’s important for our efforts to build on our traditions here in the United States. So when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They’re not telling the truth.”

You won't find the red-highlighted sentence in the NYT, WaPo, or LATimes reports.

That's because the assertion is indefensible, like his assertion that the US is 'one of the larger Muslim nations.'

Even more blatant is his lying about 'not trying to bring about government-run healthcare.' Of COURSE that's what he's trying to do; it's something he's campaigned on for years, and there's plenty of evidence. (HT Sykes)

But to Obama, truth is not fixed. It's relative to audience, time, and place.

Obama to Order Gay Benefits

Should happen today.

President Barack Obama, whose gay and lesbian supporters have grown frustrated with his slow movement on their priorities, is extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, a White House official said

Lotsa political debts that the taxpayer has to pay.

It's the wrong thing to do, of course.

Speaking (in unison) of Health Care...

USA Network is a property of NBC.

But if you didn't know that, you could infer the fact. A couple of nights ago, the new USA offering "Royal Pains" ran a slam on the eeeeeevil insurance companies.

Then last night, TNT's "Closer" also ran a slam on the eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil insurance companies.

TNT is a property of the old Ted Turner empire.

On June 24, ABC (formerly a large-viewer network) will run its news from the White House.

Not that the location actually makes a difference.

"Nice Family You Have There..." Part 1,464

It is not a coincidence that Cap-and-Tax is written by some East Coast Snot and a West Coast...ummmnnnnhhh... Markey and Waxman, respectively.

(Nobody from the industrial Midwest could be so ineffably stupid. Obey would love to have written it, but he'd be skinned alive by his constituents, as would any Illinois congresscritter.)

Anyhoo, Comrade Markey didn't like the testimony of a utility exec regarding the plan.

Immediately after MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company Chairman David Sokol testified against cap-and-trade on June 9, Rep. Markey sent a letter to FERC chairman Jon Wellinghoff asking for an investigation of MidAmerican.

We think that CongressCrapWeasel Markey should be careful with his threats. What goes around comes around, twit.

Also noted by Patrick.

League of Women Voters: "Screw the First Amendment!"

Patrick lays it out carefully.

You'd think that the LWV would value free speech. But you'd be wrong.

Can't Defeat the Idea? Attack the Person!

That "Party of No" line is meaningless, of course, but it is part of a larger project.

Except the larger project is straight out of Alinsky's Rules--in this case, 'personalize' the thing.

Barack Obama and his political advisors have proven themselves to be a most ideologically liberal administration practicing the politics of personal destruction against anyone who dares to challenge them — even their own. They would have us believe they are defending the country from Rush Limbaugh, Congressman Eric Cantor, and a relatively unknown private citizen named Rick Scott.

(You could add Dick Cheney; Panetta's absolutely gutter-ish comment that Cheney 'hopes the US will be attacked' is a perfect example of "personalizing.")

...The character assassinations began less than a week after Barack Obama moved into the White House. Obama told Congressional Republicans “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done”. John Podesta then attacked Limbaugh, distorting Limbaugh’s statement the he wanted Obama to fail if Obama a socialist agenda. Next, Americans United for Change ran advertisements declaring Rush Limbaugh the “real leader” of the Republican Party

This gambit is now playing out in the ObamaCare campaign:

Now Obama’s minion have begun attacking private citizens. Obama promised to lower healthcare costs. His preferred policy is to drive up private healthcare costs so public healthcare looks cheaper in comparison. Rick Scott, the former President and CEO of Columbia/HCA, founded Conservatives for Patients’ Rights to defend the free market healthcare system from the White House’s policy prescription. Instead of attacking his arguments or advancing their own arguments, the left coordinated an attack against Mr. Scott personally

...The coordination began on one of Mr. Podesta’s 8:45 a.m. calls.

On March 3, 2009, Jonathan Cohn wrote at the New Republic that Scott is “public enemy number one.” Ezra Klein, who also coordinates attacks against the right with journalists on a private email list, then took to the American Prospect to attack Scott for business practices at HCA. Two days later, John Podesta, on Fox News, tried dodging a question Rick Scott had raised about the costs of Obama’s program by smearing Scott. On March 11th, Christopher Hayes parroted his left-wing brethren at the Nation writing, “Having Scott lead the charge against healthcare reform is like tapping Bernie Madoff to campaign against tighter securities regulation.”

Never mind the argument, or the principles, or all that innerlekshul stuff. Just get down and dirty.

It's the (D) way!

Find the Elephant in the Living Room

Folkbum, a pleasant (if addled) fellow, blows through several million pixels to demonstrate that he does not know a SERVICE from a PRODUCT.

Liberals are like that.

Hint to Jay: medical treatment is a SERVICE. Books are a PRODUCT.

Climate Changer

Understanding THAT chart will get you 90%++ of the knowledge you need about warm/cold temperatures on Earth.

By co-incidence, understanding THAT chart means you don't have to believe AlGore (and his best pal, General Electric/GimmeGovernmentMoney-gination) ever again.

HT Cramer

Milwaukee County's Shortfall

It appears that Walker has a good case.

One reason for the large discrepancies in county deficit projections was that Walker did not include a $5 million payment from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

If the $5 million is paid by next March, it could still be applied to this year's budget, the report says.

Walker said the money's not likely to be paid in time to count against the '09 shortfall.

The County Board 'leadership', a wholly-owned subsidiary of AFSCME, seems to think that the UW-M money will arrive before March.

Well, there's an easy way for the County Board's 'leadership' to make that $5 million appear: tell Jim Doyle to order UW-M to pay up.

After all, the (D) Party is writing the State's budget.

Hack Pol Runs CIA. Great...

Panetta was a hack pol when he was a Clinton shoe-shiner.

Nothing changed except the location of his office.

"I think he smells some blood in the water on the national security issue," Mr. Panetta said in an interview published in the New Yorker magazine's June 22 issue.

"It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics," said Mr. Panetta, a former Democratic House member from California. "When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."

Great to know that this lowlife is "protecting" the country.

ObamaCare: "At Least $1 Trillion" Added to Deficit

Actually, the Congressional Budget Office doesn't know HOW much more than $1Trillion.

The CBO has just released its initial cost estimates on the Democratic health care proposal coming out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chaired by Ted Kennedy, and found that it would increase deficits by at least $1 trillion. I say "at least," because there are major provisions of the bill that have not been finalized and which were not inclued in the cost, such as a massive expansion of Medicaid elgibility.

HT: AmSpec Blog

A "Plant" at Obama's Green Bay "Town Hall"

Well, well.

Seems that the ObamaLord might just have rigged the questions in Green Bay.

One of Obama’s first questions from the audience wasn’t from a mere concerned citizen, but from a former Democratic Party candidate for Congress that wants a socialist, single payer system to be implemented raising the suspicion that the administration knew exactly who was going to ask questions and what they were going to ask.

...The woman is identified as “Paulette Guerin” and labeled as an “attendee” of the meeting on the CNN segment. In fact CNN got the spelling of the woman’s last name wrong, it’s not Guerin, but Garin. Additionally this “attendee” is far from just the average Wisconsin citizen just out for the day to hear the president’s ideas. Paulette Garin is far more than just another one of the folks

Right-o.

Seems Ms. Garin is a failed (D) candidate for the 1st Congressional district. That would be the southeastern corner of the State---Kenosha, Racine, Janesville.

So in the first place, she drove a long, long way for this little 'rally.'

Here's Comrade Garin's 'thought' on single-payer:

President Barack Obama said if he were building the health care system from scratch, a single payer system would be the best approach. Senator Russ Feingold said he’d support a single payer system over our current system, which he called a “mess.” HOWEVER, both President Obama and Senator Feingold recognize that our nation has a long tradition of health care through private insurance companies and that trying to eliminate their influence is an almost insurmountable task.

This is why it is imperative for each of us to contact our President, Senators, Congresspersons and all other elected officials stating our support for a single payer system. They need our help to overcome the powerful well funded lobbyists working against Single Payer.

It was undoubtedly just a co-incidence that Ms. Garin was selected to ask a question.

But with all the "political-beat" reporters up there, NOBODY recognized Ms. Garin?

More on Obama's AmeriCorps Scandal

There's some stuff in here which is interesting.

The heart of the matter is a dispute that began last year over Walpin's recommendation that Johnson and St. HOPE be barred from receiving and using federal grant money. The process is known as "suspension and debarment," meaning that Johnson would be suspended from receiving federal funds under any current arrangement and might ultimately be barred from receiving any such funds in the future. "The whole purpose of suspension and debarment," Walpin says, "is to say that somebody who was involved in the misuse of government funds in the past should not be trusted with federal funds in the future."

That language is very significant. Johnson's St. HOPE program had unquestionably mis-used Federal funds. But Johnson had been elected Mayor of Sacramento, so it was possible that the city of Sacramento would be ineligible for any Federal funding so long as Johnson was its Mayor.

As you can imagine, that particular outcome was explosive.

However, Walpin was not alone in making the "suspension" call.

...it was not Walpin's decision to make; there is another official at the Corporation whose job it is to make that call. In September 2008, after reviewing Walpin's evidence, the official decided to order a suspension, with the distinct possibility that it would lead to a permanent debarment.

And there is really not a "happy ending" here for the taxpayer, either.

Together, Brown and the top Corporation brass negotiated a deal. Johnson and St. HOPE would pay back about half of the $850,000 in AmeriCorps grant money it had received, and the suspension against Johnson would be lifted.

Walpin was very unhappy. First of all, he said it was a terrible deal for the U.S. government, because St. HOPE was essentially insolvent and would never pay the money back. Second, he felt lifting Johnson's suspension would dilute the effectiveness of future investigations; why should grant recipients worry about their misconduct if any sanctions can be so easily lifted? In the end, Johnson was not suspended, not debarred, and was probably not going to pay the vast majority of the money back.

And Walpin is out.

US to Throw Money at PRChina for "Climate Change"

This is insanity to the nth power...

U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said that there was “no question” that China would receive both financial and technological assistance from the United States as part of upcoming climate change talks to be conducted in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Uh-huh. What PRChina really, really needs is more US dollars...

Stern acknowledged that the details of precisely how the United States would assist China had yet to be worked out, explaining that there were many questions which need to be answered before December.

Maybe the first question is 'How to stop the Chinese from laughing out loud at this idea'. Check with Geithner.

“The stark reality, though, is that the world cannot contain climate change, we cannot avoid dangerous levels of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, without very significant effort by China,” Stern said. “We talked very openly and candidly and in a lot of detail about what needs to be done on both sides to advance to a successful outcome in Copenhagen.”

Reports from Beijing say that the Chinese are more concerned with the pollution of US debt.

TEA Parties and Protests

News you should know about:

Fair-sized crowd protests Pelosi in Houston

Large crowd holds TEA Party in Columbia, MO.

Extremely large crowds protest and are handled by Big Government.
(Oh, wait, that's in another country, right?)

Extra credit question: Which of the above featured "hate speech?"

Round Up the Usual Suspects for Speech Violations

Well...

Playwright Janet Langhart Cohen appeared on CNN yesterday right after the shooting, as she wrote a play that was supposed to have been debuted at the Holocaust Museum last night.

...She said something must be done about ridding the Internet and the public dialogue of hate speech. I agree. ...They are hate-motivated crimes and each of these men had been under some sort of police surveillance prior to their actions. Isn't it time we started rounding up promoters of hate before they kill?

Quoted by Clay Cramer

Think she's referring to Olberman and Letterman?

There's more.

Judith Warner wrote a column for the NYTimes--which is mocked in this essay. Pertinent excerpt:

Progressives are rational and logical. This means we can afford to disregard the facts and allow fear to take over. We don’t need evidence to conclude this lone gunman is merely the tip of a vast, sociopathic iceberg known as the Republican party. They’re everywhere. Tiller’s murder followed months of harassment and intimidation at abortion clinics: a chilling sequence of events that never happened before a black man ascended to the Oval Office. The obvious connection between insane abortion activists and insane, Christian hating Nazi anti-Semites is so self-evidently self evident that there's no need to establish a link between them. In fact, it's the absence of a tangible connection that proves our case beyond a reasonable doubt. Under our system of checks and balances that's all we need to lock these folks up for the duration.

But if you read the original essay, all the above is in it except the explicit "lock 'em up" call. Warner mentions O'Reilly, Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Limbaugh, and unlocks the "code" language which they use. Turns out it's all white supremacism and anti-governmentism.

I had no idea that killing Tiller was an act of "white supremacism" --nor "anti-governmentism." For that matter, I'm curious about the connection between 'anti-governmentism' and an attack on the Holocaust Memorial.

Grim suggests that Ms. Warner calm herself a bit. I join him there.

But Grim does not challenge the loose (therefore not useful) claim of Ms. Warner that the speech of O'Reilly, Beck, et al. is 'hateful.'

The term 'hate speech' is now used to describe almost any oral or written communication which is not Politically Correct. But 'politically correct' speech is usually content-free speech; it does violence to communication by masking what is true.

Politically correct speech is closely related to the code-speech used by residents of the Soviet Union or East Germany when those residents were expressing unhappiness with the regnant dictatorships. It has historical precedent--another variant was documented in the book Shadowplay, where the author showed how Catholics used code under the regime of Elizabeth. (She learned about 'code-speak', by the way, when living in Moscow as the wife of the British Ambassador.)

There is such a thing as hate, and it is sometimes expressed in speech. Actual hate-speech, while rare in public, is despicable; those who use it should be shunned.

But the 'hate' label is becoming meaningless, as Aesop warned us.

And that is bad for discourse.

The REAL Cost of Solar and Wind Electricity

It only matters if you pay taxes...

There are several alternative ways to compare subsidies across fuels. In FY 2007, wind power received subsidies and support valued at $23.37 per megawatthour (MWh). Refined coal and solar had even higher subsidies per MWh produced. The estimated subsidies for traditional primary energy sources used for electricity production were significant in total dollars. It is estimated that coal received $854 million, nuclear received $1,267 million, and natural gas and petroleum liquids received $227 million. However, these traditional forms of generation produce most of the Nation’s electricity, resulting in subsidies and support per unit of production of between $0.25 and $1.69 per megawatthour. --US Department of Energy

In other words, that windmill is sucking up 20x the tax subsidy that the nuke plant is. 'Splains all the interest from the Oklahoma Windbag himself, no?

HT: BeerBiker

The Reality of the Democrat Budget

From Robin Vos, an iron-man (R) leggie who did his best...

While the Democrats have said this budget is responsible and doesn't raise taxes on the majority of Wisconsin citizens, nothing could be further from the truth. Prior to consideration of the budget, Democrats passed a "budget bailout bill" that raised taxes $1.2 billion to provide the revenue to fund the current budget bill. This budget now will raise taxes and fees by another $2.1 billion. It also includes a property tax increase of $1.48 billion. If you drive a car, buy gas, pay for electricity, pay for garbage service, own a cell phone or a land line, own a home, have a child in day care, or have a child in college, you can be sure that you will pay more.

Meantime, the JS' political "reporters" are taking dictation from Jim Doyle...

"We are protecting Wisconsin's middle class," Doyle declared, saying residents who earn less than $300,000 will face no increases in sales or income taxes in the state budget.

Beyond parody.

HT: Fred!

"NeverMind" Evolution...

Another one bites the dust...

Researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental new discovery about how birds breathe and have a lung capacity that allows for flight – and the finding means it's unlikely that birds descended from any known theropod dinosaurs. The conclusions add to other evolving evidence that may finally force many paleontologists to reconsider their long-held belief that modern birds are the direct descendants of ancient, meat-eating dinosaurs, OSU researchers say....

The findings add to a growing body of evidence in the past two decades that challenge some of the most widely-held beliefs about animal evolution

It's clear that there IS 'evolution.' But that 'evolution' is in the actual science--which more and more puts the lie to "Evolution."

HT: Vox

Badger's Historical Fiction

Go here and read it.

Better yet, go to the linked whole document.

Have a bottle of booze handy. You'll need it.

Then BUY MORE AMMO.