Beware Weasel-Wording in the WSJ

A little clarification of the bank-reform issue is always useful.

Ticker makes the point very well, commenting on a WSJ editorial which conflates "complex financial instruments" and basic lending.

Notice the weasel in here. One part (trading complex financial instruments) should be

diverted to hedge funds and other unregulated - and free-to-fail, no-backstopped firms.

The other part (lending) will always be done by banks - you have one on the corner, or a credit union, that will write you a loan, yes?

I'm certain that the editorial-writer just kinda made a mistake, no?

It could not be that the WSJ editorialist is another version of the GM Chairman. No. Of course not.

Creating Chaos, Part 22,457

No doubt a very well-thought-out plan.

The Obama Administration shut down all off-shore drilling as the President promised Friday to do "everything necessary" to control the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

In Chaos Creation (below) we find Obama has maintained a drought, cutting down on production of food in California.

Now we find him cutting off production of petroleum.

S'pose those moves will have any effect on the price of those commodities?

We conclude that the 3.2% GDP growth of 1Q10 was just too much growth for Obama's taste.

Eat cake and ride your bike, peasants.

HT: MoonBattery

Durbin (D): "Show Us Your Papers!!"

Well, sure. If Arizona can demand papers, why not the whole country?

A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation’s immigration laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday.

Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.

Naturally, an ID requirement will NOT affect 'off-books' workers any more than "gun control" affects criminals who purchase guns 'off-books.' But never mind.

It is impossible to make up these stories.

HT: JustOneMinute

Creating Chaos in California

Limbaugh was right.

For decades, the California’s Central Valley provided food to the nation and the world, and made California an agricultural powerhouse through wise water management. In weeks, the federal government brought it to an end after determining that the Delta smelt was more important than the thousands of people employed by Central Valley agriculture or the millions of people fed by it.

...Unemployment has hit 45% in some of the towns in the region, and mortgage defaults have predictably risen as well. Instead of feeding itself, California now has to import more food from abroad, with Mexico getting most of the benefit and California consumers paying the price.

It has, however, provided Democrats with a way of extorting votes from California’s Congressional delegation, as Showalter explains in the article. Two of the Congressional districts in the area got immediate increases in water allotments after their Democratic Representatives committed to vote for ObamaCare in March. The one district represented by a Republican mysteriously had its request for more water ignored.

The White House supply of arugula will be uninterrupted, of course. What's a few thousand livelihoods, or a few million people paying more for their fruits and veggies?

Let them eat cake.

HT: Hot Air

GreenWackies Want Highest-Cost Electricity

The extremist Green fringe cannot be satisfied. But they will have opposition from Big Labor.

Could burning trash be a part of Wisconsin's clean energy future?

Some environmentalists and legislators are urging Gov. Jim Doyle to veto a bill they say undermines the state's renewable energy goals — and falsely promotes garbage as a clean technology source.

"Signing this bill will result in less renewable solar, wind and biomass energy for Wisconsin...

Not quite accurate. What the GreenWackies are saying is that the bill WILL result in INEXPENSIVE and RELIABLE energy for Wisconsin.

Exactly what wind and solar are not.

An amendment to the bill, added by Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, and others shortly before the end of the legislative session included power sources such as "synthetic gas created by the plasma gasification of waste" and fuel from the "pyrolysis of organic or waste material."

Sen. Jeffrey Plale, D-South Milwaukee, a lead sponsor of the bill, said critics are misrepresenting the issue. He said the bill would promote new technologies, including a "demolecularization" process to get rid of trash that can't be recycled

So fuggedabout new technologies, especially those which would make landfills smaller and electricity cheap.

The GreenWackies aren't satisfied with that.

Same crap, different chapter:

“While the Obama administration’s embrace of nuclear energy has angered some environmental groups, it has won solid support from the labor movement. Each new nuclear reactor built could create hundreds of jobs for electrical engineers, pipe-fitters and construction workers. Based on industry statistics, most of those jobs will be union jobs, offering labor a way to boost membership rolls after years of decline ---The Hill, quoted in LaborPains

Sounds good, right? Energy, no smoke or CO2, lots of relatively high-paying jobs.

Wrong, neutron-breath.

“The Sierra Club does not consider nuclear-industry jobs to be green jobs, because nukes are neither clean nor green,” Josh Dorner, a group spokesman, said. Greenpeace has opposed climate legislation in Congress in part because the bills provide “money for dirty technology,” including nuclear power.”

The GreenWackies are setting themselves up for a big fall. Couldn't happen soon enough.

HT: JoE

Politico's Analysis of the (R) Purge

I think this story has it right, by and large.

Did I ever mention the PIG? Party-In-Gummint, AKA Party OF Gummint?

Y up.

HT: Hot Air

Neumann Goes Bizarro

Sykes mentions that Mark Neumann has gone flippers.

Neumann also declined to respond to sharp criticism from Scott Walker campaign manager Keith Gilkes, who wrote in an e-mail yesterday that Neumann has threatened to run as an independent if the Republican grassroots didn’t drop their support of Walker. Gilkes wrote in the letter that Neumann made a similar threat to “a member of our Congressional delegation,” though the letter does not identify who.

Let's put the cards on the table.

Neumann had a good record in Congress, although the quirky "I must hunt with my son and skip a really important vote" thing turned out to be a sign of things to come.

Following his term in Congress, Neumann appeared a number of times as a guest-host for Belling. Although his shows were enjoyable, he was quirky there, too. He always brought his wife Sue into the studio with him, and frequently asked for her input and/or approval on his thoughts.

Huh? What's with that?

The current campaign began very badly; it seemed as though Neumann was attempting to sell his houses instead of selling his political philosophy. His ads left the distinct impression that he was an out-of-the-closet GreenWacky.

While we all understand the need to conserve energy and other natural resources, Neumann came across as a zealot on the issue, not a common-sense kinda guy. Then the "buy my houses" message was layered into the mix, too; it appeared as though Neumann hadn't made up his mind as to whether he was running for office or trying to get more buyers for his green houses.

Huh? What's with THAT?

Then came the "Walker should run for Lt. Gov." crap, and next came the mind-games with (R) convention delegates over supporting Walker at the convention.

Now noises about an "independent" run and ankle-biting a sitting (R) Congressman?

We're past asking "What's with that?"

We know.

Neumann's elevator doesn't go all the way to the top of the building any more. The lights are on, but nobody's home. He's a couple cans short of a 12-pack. His transmission doesn't have a 3rd gear. He's wacky, folks.

Thanks for your service in Congress, Mark. Now just go sell green houses, and keep the tax-credits. After all, that's where the money is.

You'll do just fine. And we will, too, without you in office.

Next Advent: the Advent of the New Missal

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments is to issue its formal approval of the new English translation of the complete Roman Missal later today.

The recognitio comes after nearly ten years of study and sometimes difficult consultation over the new translation of prayers for the Mass.

...Advent next year is considered to be the most likely time, once various technical adjustments and printing are completed.

I can guarantee you that some heads will be exploding in Milwaukee--you could start with the list found at "We Resist Actual Translations" (or whatever they call themselves.)

'S OK. 'They're old now, and they'll be gone soon', in the unforgettable words of Rembert Weakland, OSB, disgraced former Archbishop of Milwaukee.

Obama's 2Circuit Nominee Has a Soft Spot...

Apparently Judge Chatigny has a soft spot for offenders, so long as they are sexual sadists.

Or something.

Sounds perfect.

HT: PowerLine

ObamaCare: Crushing Small Business

The Egg notes that one provision of ObamaCare, which has NOTHING to do with health, will simply crush small businesses.

There were a trio of changes buried on page 737 of the 936-page engrossed version of PlaceboCare, specifically in Section 9006, titled “Expansion of Information Reporting Requirements”

The buried changes amount to this: every business--EVERY ONE--must report ALL payments of over $600.00/year on a 1099 form, unless those payments went to a non-profit. Egg provides plenty of examples.

Think about that for a minute.

Next time Obama yaps his flap about the wonderfulness of small business, ask him about that provision.

He won't understand why anyone could object, of course.

He doesn't live in the real world.

Rent-Seeking Corn-A-Holers, Part Two

The Corn-A-Holers like it when you pay for it twice. And they cry "Jobs!! Jobs!!" when you might not. Classic rent-seeking.

Morby and WBIA President Bob Sather are meeting with Wisconsin’s congressional delegation this week to support Senate and House resolutions introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., John Shimkus, R-Ill., and U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., to make those credits viable through 2015.

The credits are needed, Morby said, to help keep ethanol financially competitive with oil. If the credits disappear, he said, it becomes more expensive to blend ethanol and could drive up the price of ethanol-blended gasoline by 10 cents a gallon. The credit expires in December.

The tax-credits include 45 cents/gallon for 'blenders'.

In other words, Corn-A-Holers can't make it unless you are forced to contribute to their scheme. Not only are you forced to buy the crap, but you're forced to subsidize them while they shove their crap into your car.

They also want to mandate even MORE of that stuff, increasing the mix from 10% to 15%.

Losers.

Think Highly of GWB?

Gregory of Yardale sums it up, while condemning Rove, who deserves every bit of our disdain.

George W. Bush's record on immigration enforcement and border security was ... let me reach for a thesaurus… deplorable, dreadful, execrable, godawful, wretched. Bush's administration literally threw border patrol agents in prison for protecting the border. Mainly, these policies were because Bush was a part of the ruling elite, and as such didn't see any real difference between American citizens and illegal immigrants. Like the left, to them, all of us are people to be ruled over. Even after 9-11, Bush left the southwestern border wide open, and only when he was trying to pass amnesty did he even try to give the appearance of securing the border. And then, he and his administration tried to calculate the minimum level of border enforcement that would mollify the voters.

Perhaps that makes it easier to understand the trouble that (R) "Old Bulls" are having in places like Arizona (McPain), Utah (Bennett), and Florida (Crist.)

There are very damn few powers granted to the Federal Gummint. FIRST on the list is to defend the country.

Is that too much to ask?

HT: Moonbattery

Didja Ever Wonder Why....

The Warrior has a fine conundrum.

And this leaves aside the fact that people who want to, say, own a gun or dive an SUV are roundly condemned by the same politically correct people who would never condemn anybody for homosexual acts.

Midst a longer essay about an MU campus group (!) sponsoring a wholly disingenuous movie about homosexuality.

My genetic disposition: Buy More Ammo.

I expect another condemnation from Foust shortly.

ObamaCare: "Show Us Your Papers, Please!!"

Ooops.

Under the final Senate health care bill signed into law (unlike the earlier House version), illegal aliens are screened out. Only persons who can prove they are "a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully present in the United States" get to participate.

In other words, when you try to buy a policy through an exchange, or seek a subsidy, or receive any of the other supposed benefits, you will be told "show me your papers."

It's probably Bush's fault.

HT: Legal Insurrection

A Gov That Knows How to Gov!

Looks like VanHollen has a shooting partner, if they ever meet.

Pistol-packing Texas Gov. Rick Perry has a message for wily coyotes out there: Don’t mess with my dog.

Perry told The Associated Press on Tuesday he needed just one shot from the laser-sighted pistol he sometimes carries while jogging to take down a coyote that menaced his puppy during a February run near Austin.

.380 hollow-point. Meaning that shot-placement is 99%.

HT: Gateway

SWAT Defends Obama From ......Uhhhnnnn

You can see for yourself the danger Obama was in.

HT: Gateway

Going to Mexico? Read This First

State Department bulletin:

Recent violent attacks have prompted the U.S. Embassy to urge U.S. citizens to delay unnecessary travel to parts of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua states (see details below) and advise U.S. citizens residing or traveling in those areas to exercise extreme caution. Drug cartels and associated criminal elements have retaliated violently against individuals who speak out against them or whom they otherwise view as a threat to their organizations. These attacks include the abduction and murder of two resident U.S. citizens in Chihuahua.

...Criminals have followed and harassed U.S. citizens traveling in their vehicles in border areas including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, and Tijuana. Travelers on the highways between Monterrey and other parts of Mexico to the United States (notably through Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros) have been targeted for robbery and violence and have also inadvertently been caught in incidents of gunfire between criminals and Mexican law enforcement. Such incidents are more likely to occur at night but may occur at any time.

...During demonstrations or law enforcement operations, U.S. citizens are advised to remain in their homes or hotels, avoid large crowds, and avoid the downtown and surrounding areas. Since the timing and routes of scheduled marches and demonstrations are always subject to change, U.S. citizens should monitor local media sources for new developments and exercise extreme caution while within the vicinity of protests.

By the way, you cannot carry arms into Mexico except by special arrangement, only for hunting purposes. So fuggedabout, you know, self-defense.

Quoted by Ace for your safety and benefit.

Geithner, AIG, and .....Criminal Charges?

My, my. Mr. Barofsky's been busy.

More than anything else, this story is about Big Gummint. It ain't about Obama; it ain't about Bush. It's about Big.

The TARP watchdog has also criticized Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner in reports and in congressional testimony for his handling of the process by which insurance giant American International Group Inc. was saved from insolvency in 2008, when Geithner was head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The secrecy that enveloped the deal was unwarranted, Barofsky says, adding that his probe of an alleged New York Fed coverup in the AIG case could result in criminal or civil charges.

...Barofsky and Geithner’s offices have gone toe-to-toe over AIG, alleged lax oversight of TARP funds and even over the question of whom Barofsky reports to.

Barofsky, a former federal prosecutor who was once the target of a kidnapping plot by Colombian drug traffickers, says he’s also looking into possible insider trading connected to TARP. He says his agency would want to know if bankers bought stock in their companies before it was made public that their institutions would get TARP money, for example.

Needless to say, Big Gummint ........ahhh........'errors' are bi-partisan.

A Democrat named by a Republican president, Barofsky says missteps by both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations are to blame for TARP’s failures.

We're just totally shocked.

Violence and Threats Thereof

So it's the Tea Party folks who are "violent"?

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, for instance, of the Diocese of Oakland, has been continually harassed since he played a crucial role in the passage of pro-traditional marriage Proposition 8. He was just last summer subjected to a multi-thousand word attack in a widely-read California newspaper.

It was related to me from a reputable source that the bishop frequently has to attend public events accompanied by a body guard.

I will not name the source or the specifics (since I am not concerned with it now), but the person commented: “It is really a telling sign of our times when a Catholic bishop who comes to a Catholic University to talk about the sanctity of marriage has to be sneaked into the building through the back door under armed guard!”

Draw your own conclusions.

HT: CVA

Beauty

If the crests of these three trees [the true, good, and beautiful] join together, as the investigators and explorers used to affirm, and if the too obvious, too straight branches of Truth and Good are crushed or amputated and cannot reach the light -- yet perhaps the whimsical, unpredictable, unexpected branches of Beauty will make their way through and soar up to that very place and in this way perform the work of all three --Solzhenitsyn

Practice Makes Damn-Near Perfect

DaTechGuy makes a very good point about the Arizona legislation.

He's been asked:

...what circumstances would give an officer reasonable suspicion that a person was not a legal resident?...

And has an excellent answer.

One of the things you learn in a job is how to recognize signs, for example, when debuging a system certain performance signs or browser actions will indicate a spyware issue. Others will indicate that temp files haven’t been cleaned out since sometime the Red Sox won the Series. I’ve found after a decade of doing this that I can watch a system for several minutes and have a pretty good idea what is going wrong...

Likewise a police officer who has been trained in law enforcement and spending years or decades in an area where they’ve had to deal with illegal immigration on a daily basis would recognize things that you or I, not having having had said experience would not even think of looking for.

IOW, "practice." For those who STILL don't get it, refer to Lombardi's Sweep.

Since we're dealing with human beings, nothing will be "perfect." But as we've mentioned before, the Lefties (Alinsky-trained) are perfectly willing to play lack of perfection as a total condemnation of any system. (See Rule #4)

Except, of course, their OWN failures. See, e.g., British National HealthCare, or LBJ's management of the VietNam War. Or even the Administration's stupid wild-ass guesses about unemployment with/without Porkulus.

The Whitacre Lie: He Wants MORE Money!!

Seems like there's a Part Two to the Whitacre lie about "repayment."

Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research, points out that the company has applied to the Department of Energy for $10 billion in low (5%) interest loan to retool its plants to meet the government’s tougher new CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards. However, giving GM more taxpayer money on top of the existing bailout would have been a political disaster for the Obama administration and a PR debacle for the company. Paying back the small bailout loan makes the new–and bigger–DOE loan much more feasible. --Forbes, quoted at RedState

So. Gummint Motors needs a $10Bn loan. In order to get that, Whitacre claims to have "paid back" another loan, which he did by drawing down a THIRD loan.

Did this guy pull this shit at SBC?

Bernanke the Stalking Horse

Ben Bernanke, student of and successor to "Bubbles" Greenspan, now takes on the role of economic disciplinarian, calling for "deficit reduction".

Gee. Thanks, Ben!

That'll be the meme as the Democrats start agitating for tax increases, which will happen as soon as they lose control of the House (although it would happen if they retained control, too.)

Nevermind about writing all those big checks. THAT'S not relevant. It's the anemic taxes.

Bennie Bernanke's a nice young fellow who knows who his master is--and that the master lives in the big white house over there on Pennsylvania Avenue.

See Spot run! Hear Spot talk!!

Orszag: "Yup. They're Death Panels. Why Do You Ask?"

Repeal, repeal, repeal.

In both posts, I noted how the IPAB was set up specifically as a rationing system, which ObamaCare advocates denied, but which none other than OMB Director Peter Orszag confirms in this interview from earlier this month, ...

Not only that, but it will take a 67-vote Senate super-duper majority to drag IPAB panels to accountability.

HT: HotAir

Obama Buried the Report. What a Surprise!

He's certainly not the first, nor will he be the last President to bury the facts to get his way.

The economic report released last week by Health and Human Services, which indicated that President Barack Obama's health care "reform" law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers, had been submitted to the office of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius more than a week before the Congressional votes on the bill, according to career HHS sources --AmSpecProwler quoted by ConYank

There were two copies: one to Abortobelius at HHS, and the other to the White House. As soon as it hit, there was a lot of scurrying around--one thinks of rats in the sewers.

The report makes clear that B Hussein is a Notorious Liar, and he's not even as good at that as was Bill Clinton.

Who's Dick Morris?

Evidently Dick Morris thinks he's a Great Politicial Analyst.

Some California conservatives were scratching their heads over an email being sent around by longtime Democrat and Clinton adviser Dick Morris, telling California Republicans not to support Senate candidate Tom Campbell, who has been leading a number of different polls, and who has declined to sign the Americans for Tax Reform pledge to not support tax increases.

"Guess Campbell didn't take any of Morris's advice or a phone call," joked one California political consultant.

That wouldn't be a big deal except for this:

In his email, Morris encouraged Republicans to support either Chuck Devore or Carly Fiorina.

Fiorina is a gadfly who did serious damage to both Lucent and H-P prior to being "retired" by the H-P Board.

But that's hardly all.

Morris has appeared on Jay Weber's show and twice pounded the drum for Leinenkugel. Last time, Weber had to step in and smack Morris across the chops with a not-too-gentle reminder that Leinenkugel has a big spaghetti-stain all over his shirt called James Doyle. Morris then backed off a bit, demanding that other (R) candidates take the ATR "no-tax" pledge in order to be nominated.

In the meantime, Sykes demolished Leinenkugel in an interview.

Clearly, Dick Morris has a few blind spots--or VERY bad sources.

HT: Ace

The Glories of Gun Control

Chicago has VERY restrictive gun laws.

Two state representatives called on Gov. Pat Quinn Sunday to deploy the Illinois National Guard to safeguard Chicago's streets.

..."Is this a drastic call to action? Of course it is," Fritchey said. "Is it warranted when we are losing residents to gun violence at such an alarming rate? Without question. We are not talking about rolling tanks down the street or having armed guards on each corner."

Umnnnhhhhh.....actually, you ARE talking about that. You think the ARNG command will allow its men and women to stand around undefended? They'll use tanks, and put .50cals on the street-corners. That's what armies do.

Your gun-restrictions work really, really well, hey!

Scot Ross, Desperate

This is a "news story"?

State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s office had contacts with a GOP political consultant in Texas while deciding whether to seek a lawsuit to block the federal health-care law, records show.

On March 25, Van Hollen said he was seeking the authority to block the heath legislation’s implementation in Wisconsin because it was an unconstitutional overreach of power by the federal government.

Yah, OK.

Horrible, terrible, conspiratorial, stuff follows. Send the children out of the room. Make certain that any sensitive loved ones NEVER see this:

E-mails requested by the Journal Sentinel under the open records law show that on March 22, Van Hollen’s deputy, Ray Taffora, corresponded with a GOP political consultant in Texas about getting more information on the lawsuit from the office of another state attorney general.

Comparable to killing little lambs and eating them raw!!!!

Poor widdle Scot, desperately in need of a meme...

The e-mail records were requested separately by the liberal group One Wisconsin Now. Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, said that the records were a "smoking gun" that showed Van Hollen had partisan political reasons for seeking to block the Democratic health care law.

"Requested separately." Just co-incidence.

Porkulus Was Just That: Porkulus

Pork, but no Stim.

In latest quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economics, the index that measures employment showed job growth for the first time in two years -- but a majority of respondents felt the fiscal stimulus had no impact.

...That sentiment is shared for the recently passed $17.7 billion jobs bill that calls for tax breaks for businesses that hire and additional infrastructure spending. More than two-thirds of those polled believe the measure won't affect payrolls, while 30% expect it to boost hiring "moderately."

Those polled did NOT work in State or Local gummints, nor in the Fiefdom of Education.

And Big Corn Wants More!

Grassley of Iowa (!!) will support an increase in Corn-A-Holing you, raising the required ethanol content from 10% to 15%.

Nice of him.

U.S. meat prices may rise to records this summer after farmers reduced hog and cattle herds to the smallest sizes in decades, the result of surging feed costs linked to demands for more ethanol.

Wholesale pork jumped as much as 25 percent this month to 90.68 cents a pound last week, the highest since August 2008, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Beef climbed 22 percent this year to $1.6896 a pound on April 23, the most expensive since July 2008. Chicken’s gain in March was the most in 20 months.

And some think that Gummint is too small.

To Quote Doctor Zero

Sums it up very well, indeed.

One of the mistakes Republicans made during the Bush era was to forget the fundmental importance of limited government. There are some people who think that a massive, all-powerful, deficit-plagued, corrupt federal government is OK, so long as “our people” are running it.

Those people are fools. --Doctor Zero, quoted by the Winning McCain

"...Defeat These Bastards"

Pretty good production values in this vid.

HT: MoonBattery

Your Health and ALL the Water Around You

Which is the bigger Statist-grab? Your healthcare, or all the water around you?

A bit of history:

When the Clean Water Act was originally debated in Congress in 1972, the idea of federal water regulation was novel. Regulating and protecting the water supply had always been a local responsibility, and there was no clear federal authority in the Constitution to encroach on this area. So Congress turned to the same overworked clause recently employed to try to justify a national health care mandate—the Commerce Clause. Thus the Clean Water Act applied its regulatory requirements to “navigable waters” of the United States, waters on which interstate commerce is conducted.

We all know how that turned out--it took two SCOTUS decisions to stuff EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers back into their little doghouses. Seems that EPA/ACE decided that "navigable waters" included any (yes, ANY) patch of water over which or in which ducks and geese might fly.

I'm not making that up. (You can ask the City of Brookfield's Public Works department about the "navigable" spring flooding of Calhoun Road just north of the tracks.)

That's all prelude.

The Oberstar Bill strikes back at the court and swings the pendulum wildly in the other direction, deleting the word “navigable” from the law and expanding the Clean Water Act to all the waters in the United States, whether or not there is any connection to interstate commerce.

In theory, the Oberstar act will include your kitchen sink, by the way.

And all this time you thought Obama was a Statist. He's a junior-league piker in comparison.

HT: ATR

Cdl Mahony v. Arizona

Cdl. Roger Mahony has been an activist on the immigration front for a million years or so. He was a very prominent backer of Cesar Chavez when Mahony was Bishop of Stockton, and while in L.A. Mahony has been prominent for other reasons (such as ephebophile priests, sponsorship of notorious "education" conferences filled to the brim with disssenters, and wacko/bizarro liturgical abuse), he's still extremely outspoken about immigration issues.

Including calling the recent Arizona legislation 'Nazi-esque,' which is a pretty big step-up in language, no?

There may be a reason for that.

Maybe he’s just really exercised about the issue. But even so, he can’t think that his flaming rhetoric is persuasive. Now, after reading the law, I suspect the Cardinal’s interest is a little closer to home.

A part of the law that hasn’t been emphasized by the media deals with the fact that Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of the country as coyotes transport and hold captive large numbers of illegal migrants. The law makes it illegal to “transport .. . conceal, harbor or shield an alien from detection in any place in this state, including any building or any means of transportation, if the person knows or recklessly disregards the fact that the alien has come to, has entered or remains in the United States in violation of law.” Similarly, the law makes it illegal to “encourage or induce” people to come to Arizona illegally.

That’s a pretty reasonable response to the crisis, you might think, which probably explains why it isn’t featured in media reports. But imagine that you’re the head of the Catholic church in Arizona. Sooner or later, a lot of your parishioners are going to tell their local priest that they’re here illegally. The church has been pretty clear about what it will do about that. Nothing.

Hmmmmm.

...Cardinal Mahony has to ask himself whether his priests are courting liability under the new law if they continue to give shelter and transport to parishioners whom they know or suspect are illegal immigrants.

Well, not yet in California.

But if Arizona is being burdened by the costs of illegals, California is being crushed. And California is notorious for referendums which reflect the will of the people--such as Prop. 187, later declared un-Constitutional by a Federal judge.

Hmmmmmm.

HT: Fr. Phil

Presidential Pretzel and Your Money

Lott notes that B Hussein Obama is a moron.

...our crusading president is going to send $150 million of your tax dollars to subsidize the Brazilian cotton industry. Why? so that he can continue to spend several billion more of your tax dollars subsidizing U.S. cotton farmers.

This is the Obama administration's idea of how to fix the problem of a WTO finding that the U.S. cotton subsidies are illegal,...--San Fran Chronicle

Read the whole thing; once again, Paul Ryan is correct.

What the Arizona Law Actually Says

As usual, Jacobson provides a public service. He posts relevant sections of the Arizona 'illegals' law.

Pretty mild stuff.

As to Obama's flapjaw: looks like another "Cambridge Cops" moment for him.

"We Really Don't Know......"

That's the answer from HSS Secy Sibelius, when asked about the cost of 'high-risk' pools under ObamaCare.

So the Administration kinda tossed out "$5Bn" as a starter. Want to know how long that lasts? Watch the video.

HT: MoonBattery

Article IV, Section 4

Simple text, no?

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;

So what happens when the United States fails to honor its "guarantee"?

Grim muses a bit; McCain (suddenly a Conservative) exhorts; Obama does what he's very good at: dawdling, lecturing, preening, and trolling for votes.

The Winning McCain, (NOT his crazy cousin John who is the non-maverick maverick/non-Conservative conservative/back-and-forthright candidate), has a good essay on the whole mess.

Arizona finally decided that self-defense is better than no defense at all, which was (and is) the policy of GWBush and Obama.

And 80% of the country thinks Gummint doesn't live up to its word. That 80% includes 70% of the residents of Arizona.

The USCC's Union?

It's reported that Mary Kay Henry will become the next President of the SEIU (the Purple Mob.) She's also very chummy with the bureaucrats at USCC.

In addition to her posts at SEIU, Mary Kay Henry has also been a labor adviser to and member of the Subcommittee on Catholic Health Care of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, an organization that in itself has become a major political force, having brokered deals with the likes of Nancy Pelosi for crucial votes in the eleventh hour of major bills, most notably on health care reform. Additionally, she is a member of the executive board of Families USA, a left-leaning non-profit group that serves as a think-tank for most of SEIU’s and other progressive organizations’ research and reports to support universal health care.

Isn't that sweet?

Note well the wording of that graf: " ...[USCC] having brokered deals.....on health care reform." The author implies that USCC really didn't give a damn about forced taxpayer funding of abortions.

Interesting.

Bad News From Afghanistan

This is not good.

As a journalist (and combat veteran) currently embedded with US forces in Afghanistan, I have found that roughly 95% of the troops on the ground in no way believe in their mission, have no confidence that their efforts will bring about lasting change to Afghan security, stability, governance, or a decreased influence of radicalism. In truth, they fight simply to stay alive and want nothing more than to go home. A recent quote:

“I joined to defend and fight for the United States, but now I feel like I’ve been tasked out to fight for Afghanistan. Yet the people don’t even care, and make no effort whatsoever to help us help them. They don’t WANT help.”

The nature of freedom is that those who are unwilling to fight for it personally will never realize it. As it stands, nothing is more important to Afghans than survival, even at the expense of all self-dignity, nationalism, tribalism, and whatever ideals may at one time surpassed the will to simply “get by.”

More at the link--and it's worse than the above.

HT: Captain's Journal

Good Observation on GWB Popularity

Powerline:

...liberals never understood that the fatal decline in Bush's popularity during his second term had at least as much to do with his advocacy of "comprehensive immigration reform" as with war-weariness...

Good that they never got that, eh?

(One quibble: GWB's reckless Big-Gummint spending didn't do him any good, either.)

Anyhoo,

...Now President Obama has entered the lists, urging Congress to take up immigration. One can only wonder what Congressional Democrats make of this. Maybe they figure their own approval ratings can't possibly get any lower. But Obama's can, and they will if he keeps talking about immigration.

Reid doesn't want to touch it, of course. And he doesn't want to touch Cap-n-Tax, either. But one or the other (or both) will come to the table, now that Obama's budget will NOT be considered.

For whatever reason, Obama seems to think that he's bullet-proof, OR that he's going to elevate himself to 'martyr' status with his agenda ("....good one-term rather than mediocre two-term...")

Whatever.

Repeal or De-Fund ObamaCare

Well, we're 'finding out what's in it.' Thanks, Nancy.

The chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, has released a report showing that the new national health care law will increase health care spending in the United States beyond already unsustainable levels.

.....according to CMS, after the passage of ObamaCare, health care spending will eat more than one out of five dollars in the economy. Specifically, by 2019, health care spending is now projected to represent 21 percent of GDP, as opposed to an estimated 20.8 percent had the new law not passed. In dollar terms, that translates into $311 billion more in spending over the next decade

The report also mentions the Ponzi/CLASS scheme, the double-count of Medicare "savings" scheme, and the "delay-of-spending" scheme.

Repeal it. Failing that, de-fund it.

HT: AmSpecBlog

The Dumper Squawks---About Dumping

You can't make this stuff up.

Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway Friday defended the board's opposition to use of county streams for treated wastewater from Waukesha on health grounds

Waukesha has proposed using Underwood Creek as a way to return Lake Michigan water the suburban community wants to buy from Milwaukee.

Holloway said in a statement that "returning water in this manner would create a terrible public health situation and put children at risk. Children play in this water and animals drink from this water," Holloway said.

And the several hundred million gallons of RAW sewage dumped into Lake Michigan by MMSD is what--ice cream?

Amcore Bank Is Bye-Bye

You've seen a few Amcore Bank branches around town.

Well, now they're Harris Bank branches.

Moonbatess Drools Forth

Naomi Klein in the London Guardian:

The Bolivian government got the ball rolling [in a global warming conference] by proposing four big ideas: that nature should be granted rights that protect ecosystems from annihilation (a “universal declaration of Mother Earth rights”); that those who violate those rights and other international environmental agreements should face legal consequences (a “climate justice tribunal”); that poor countries should receive various forms of compensation for a crisis they are facing but had little role in creating (“climate debt”); and that there should be a mechanism for people around the world to express their views on these topics (“world people’s referendum on climate change”).

You can bet that some twerp in EPA was taking notes.

HT: FirstThings

NY Times Editorial?

Hmmmm.

“There are cases of sexual abuse that come to light every day against a large number of members of the Catholic clergy. Unfortunately it’s not a matter of individual cases, but a collective moral crisis that perhaps the cultural history of humanity has never before known with such a frightening and disconcerting dimension. Numerous priests and religious have confessed. There’s no doubt that the thousands of cases which have come to the attention of the justice system represent only a small fraction of the true total, given that many molesters have been covered and hidden by the hierarchy.”

Nope. Not the Slimes, not the Milwaukee JS, not the LATimes nor the Boston Glob.

That's Jos. Goebbels.

HT: Al

Demographics Make a Difference

Noted by Apostasy:

NARAL's Nancy Keenan told Newsweek last week that she considers herself a member of the "postmenopausal militia" - a phrase that captures the situation of pro-abortion leaders who are aging across the board, including the leadership of Planned Parenthood, and the National Organization for Women. Newsweek's Sarah Kliff notes that "these leaders will retire in a decade or so."

...While March for Life estimates it drew 400,000 pro-lifers to Washington for this year's March, Planned Parenthood's "Stop Stupak" rally in December only drew about 1,300 attendees

Yah, well, lemmeeseeheah, Gomer: the pro-life people have children. The pro-aborts? Not so much.

(An outstanding graphic representation of the pro-abortion bunch is at the very top of Apostasy's post, by the way.)

A Long Time With Cheese Sandwiches

Fifth-longest recession since 1900.

HT: Barry

"I'm Ed Whitacre, and I'm Sorta Lying to You!"

Taking bets on how long Whitacre keeps running that ad about "repaying" the USTreasury...

....which GM didn't really, actually, do.

Geez. What this country really needs is another liar in prime-time commercials.

Feingold (and Others) in November

A friend asked if the anti-(D) mood would hold until November.

Well, assuming no "black swan" moments, it certainly will.

Fortunately, the Democrats controlling Congress and the White House have turned into kamikaze pilots. They rammed ObamaCare where the sun doesn't shine--and now they plan to ram Cap-n-Tax AND Immigration "Reform" into the same spot on your anatomy.

Thus ensuring that the anti-(D) anger will last long past November.

I'm thinking 2030 or so...

The Casualty List of US Allies Grows

B Hussein Obama has achieved a milestone; he's insulted almost every ally of the USA.

England, Czechoslovakia, Honduras, Israel, Poland, India, and now Japan!

When Japan’s prime minister visited Washington this month, Japanese officials lobbied intensely to get him a one-on-one with Barack Obama. In the end, Yukio Hatoyama had to settle for just 10 minutes, and even that during a banquet when the US president was presumably more interested in the appetisers and wine. These things matter in Japan. One senior politician called the put-down — as it was inevitably viewed in Tokyo — “humiliating”. He even noted that the Japanese prime minister was shunted to the edge of a group photo, the diplomatic equivalent of banishment to Siberia.

We got change, alright. And if this keeps up, hope is all that will remain.

More on Thompson's "Retirement From Politics"

Strassel in today's WSJ:

...Let's talk Republican "civil war." Not the one the media is hawking, that pits supposed tea party fanatics like Mr. Rubio against supposed "moderates" like Mr. Crist. The Republican Party is split. But the real divide is between reformers like Mr. Rubio and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who are running on principles and tough issues, and a GOP old guard that still finds it politically expedient to duck or demagogue issues. As Republicans look for a way out of the wilderness, this is the rift that matters. And it's the divide playing out in Florida, even if that's not the press's preferred narrative.

...not to mention Utah, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and a few other places. The old go-along-to-get-along Party in Gummint (PIG) thing just cannot prevail, especially with a Thug Administration in place.

You'll also note that the 'old guard' being purged was also enamored of Big Spending--the GWB model--which is also a failure.

Marquette Law Grad Sues Pope

Oh, yah.

When the Dean of MU Law sent his kid to Marquette High, then MU, then MU Law, he might not have expected that the kid will grow up (in a manner of speaking) and sue the Pope.

"Mr. Smith, You Wrote a Check to Miss Hotsy...."

That's the voicemail you could get from your friendly local FDIC office someday.

Unless Rove is kidding, of course.

Prophesies From the First Earth Day

These are a hoot. All were solemnly intoned for UrthDee 1970.

Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years." --Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

"It is already too late to avoid mass starvation." --Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

"Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct." --Sen. Gaylord Nelson

Plenty more at the link--all just as asinine.

HT: Chesterton and Friends

Blago and Bamster, Sitting in a Tree....

Interesting stuff, no longer redacted.

Obama may have lied about conversations with convicted fraudster Tony Rezko

Obama may have overtly recommended Valerie Jarret for his Senate seat

A supporter of President Obama may have offered quid pro quo on a Jarrett senate appointment

Obama had a secret phone call with Blagojevich

Now Blago wants to subpoena Bamster. Not likely that he'll get his wish, but there's plenty of fun coming up in that trial, whether or not Obama is forced to appear and testify.

It Was an Act of War in Korea

Hmmmm.

The Times of London picks up a report from Yonhap News that will put the two Koreas into a dangerous confrontation. An investigation into the sudden explosion and sinking of South Korean corvette Cheonan has concluded that the ship was struck by a torpedo amidships. Calling this “clearly the work of North Korea’s military,” the conclusion will force Seoul into some sort of retaliation — which could touch off another war on the peninsula

Well, maybe and maybe not. Calling that play isn't just a matter of snapping one's fingers. PRC's in the equasion. (HT: Hot Air)

Meantime, Teh Won will be campaigning in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. Think he'll pick up the phone at 3 AM?

A Lot of People Died for "Earth Day"

Somehow, the Gaylord Nelson worshipers forgot to mention this.

Back in the 1940s, scientists realized that the chemical dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, could stop epidemics of insect-borne diseases such as typhus. Its lifesaving potential was considered such a boon to mankind that the scientist who discovered it, Paul Mueller, won the Nobel Prize. The chemical would soon surpass all expectations in controlling malaria around the world and go on to save millions of lives.

It was so effective that it eradicated the disease entirely in Europe, the U.S. and some island nations such as Taiwan. In the West, Malaria was defeated as an endemic disease more than 50 years ago. Now, though, it's a re-emergent disease of the poor, ravaging populations in South America, Asia and across sub-Saharan Africa. Spread by mosquitoes, malaria kills almost 1 million people a year and inflicts suffering on hundreds of millions more. But it didn't have to be this way.

Early environmentalists made pesticides one of their chief bugaboos. Rachel Carson, who helped launch the modern environmental movement, was among them....

Carson was no doubt well-intentioned, but it turns out that she was flat out wrong about the effects of DDT. It didn't spread the way she thought it did, and no studies have ever been able to show that environmental exposure to DDT — even in large quantities — harms human health. Tren & Roberts, USA Today, quoted in the AmSpecBlog

Well, as Clinton/Reno showed us, dead children (whether before birth or after) aren't a big deal. After all, we're saving the Earth, right?

"Green Energy Savings"? Not Really

QueenNancy held a presser....

...to announce new $140,000 "green" lighting in the Rayburn Building House cafeteria reports the new fixtures "will take almost 10 years to pay off in saved energy:"

LED fixtures.

1) In private industry, a payback exceeding 5 years simply won't be approved. It has to be less; in most places it's 2-3 years, and some require a 1-year payback.

Gummint, of course, is different: it's not THEIR money, so who cares?

2) As the AmSpec article makes clear, the fixtures' price dropped from $800/each to $300/each, which brought the 'payback' to <10 years.

How'd that happen?

Easy!! YOU paid for it, sucker!!

Cree, [the manufacturer] which employs roughly 1,900 North Carolinians, received a $39 million Advanced Energy Manufacturing Credit as a part of the Stimulus that Congress passed last year. Senator Hagan supported Cree's effort to obtain this credit, which allowed the company to lower LED lighting costs and begin construction on a new facility in Durham.

Makes the cockles of QueenNancy's heart all warm and cozy.

Back to work, slaves! Pay those taxes!!!

HT: AmSpecBlog

Have an Office Copier? You Have Trouble!

I saw a few minutes of this the other evening. It will scare the fatoooties out of you.

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive - like the one on your personal computer - storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

In the process, it's turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data.

If you're in the identity theft business it seems this would be a pot of gold.

It's not YOUR copier. It's your doctor's, or banker's--or the one at Kinko's you used to copy whatever.

One quick example:

It took Juntunen just 30 minutes to pull the hard drives out of the copiers. Then, using a forensic software program available for free on the Internet, he ran a scan - downloading tens of thousands of documents in less than 12 hours.

The results were stunning: from the sex crimes unit there were detailed domestic violence complaints and a list of wanted sex offenders. On a second machine from the Buffalo Police Narcotics Unit we found a list of targets in a major drug raid.

Kudos to CBS News! HT: Ace/Laura

Shock and Double Shock!

Many will be shocked--SHOCKED, I say--that Obama lied about tax increases.

But even more people will be shocked that the MSM (CNBC) calls him out on it.

Twice in the past two weeks, Obama has claimed his middle class tax pledge only applied to income taxes rather than “any form of taxes”.

In his April 10 Weekly Radio Address, Obama said: “And one thing we have not done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000. That’s another promise we’ve kept.” In a speech on the evening of April 15, Obama repeated the truncated promise: “And one thing we haven’t done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year — another promise that we kept.”

The two recent statements stand in stark contrast to Obama’s original promise: “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” --CNBC, quoted by Ace

Something tells me that the press has gotten off its knees, albeit not ALL of the MSM has done so.

And just in time; that VAT (or Cap-n-Tax) will demolish any 'recovery' spending by US citizens.

NY Fed Judge Slapped by 2nd Circuit

Heh.

Nina Gershon, a Federal district judge in NYC--and a moron who doesn't understand the term "separation of powers"-- had her head handed to her by a 3-judge panel of the 2 Circuit.

ACORN will no longer get Federal money.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judge's ruling that it was unconstitutional for Congress to cut funding to the activist group ACORN.

The ruling by the three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan will remain in place until full arguments on the issue can be heard during the summer.

...U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon has ruled twice in the past six months that the funding cutoff was unconstitutional.

The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without having gone through processes to decide whether money had been handled inappropriately.

But Nina won't be looking for a new job.

SPLC's Enemies List: Who's Missing?

Very interesting games by Morry Dees and his ragtag band of race-baiters.

What do Glenn Beck, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann [Larry Pratt, Andrew Napolitano], and Joseph Farah have in common?

They're all prominently featured in a new list of 40 "patriots" and "enablers" that a left-leaning group thinks Americans should be concerned about.

Who is NOT on that list?

Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh.

Mo' TEA Parties....They Work

The Wisconsin Senate will not pass the Vote-Fraud-Enabling bill, nor the Wisconsin Cap-n-Tax bill.

They are dead meat.

And you thought those TEA Parties were just recreational events, eh?

"I see (opponents) as defending the coal industry and the natural gas industry and the petroleum industry, none of which are creating jobs in Wisconsin," Doyle said.

Actually, Potato Head, they're defending their livelihoods and their children's futures.

Bingo!!

Good thing it's not a drinking game.

HT: Moonbattery

A Minor Poll

Met a 30-ish fellow today who is employed in a personal-service business (it's legit, you dirty-minded turkeys.)

He's required to have a cellphone so that he and the HQ are in touch; his job includes some unpredictability, so it's important that communications are available.

However, I was a bit discomfited by his wearing a Bluetooth device which was the earpiece-and-microphone thingamabob about 4 inches long extending from ear to lips.

Somehow, that bothered me. Here's why:

"Personal service" should mean that the individual rendering that service has NOTHING else on his/her mind than the customer. That Bluetooth (to me, anyway) detracts from that image. It tells me that you, the customer, COULD be interrupted by someone who is simply more important.

Although a pocket cellphone conveys the same message, it is not visible unless it's in use. That makes it different from the 'tooth thingy.

Or am I really, really, old?

I'm interested in your thoughts.

Tommy Thompson's Exit: The End of an Era?

When Tommy Thompson spoke to the TEA Party folks in Madison the other day, it may well have signaled the end of an era.

Thompson acknowledged that his day was over in elected politics and that 'another generation' of Republicans would have to step up and take his place.

One suspects that Thompson can read the polls and the moods; he wouldn't be Tommy if he couldn't.

His day, and that of Charlie Crist (FL) is, indeed, over. The same may well be true for Bob Bennett (R-Utah), who is having a very hard time in his caucus/primary race against a conservative opponent. Same is true of Dan Coats (IN) who's barely staying ahead of a conservative (R) challenger.

Even John McCain is affected; he's had to change his spots (again), hoping that (R) primary voters in Arizona don't have a memory extending back........ohhhhh.........24 months or so.

By and large these old lions are Big Gummint Republicans. They are modified-limited-hangout-Progressives; people to whom The Government is sacred and always right. They are 'faint Statists' as opposed to the hard-core variety now occupying the White House and holding Congressional majorities (and in the Wisconsin Legislature); but they are Statists, nonetheless.

And their era is over. Thompson, to his credit, recognizes it and had the courage and grace to formally hand over the keys to the next group, Paul Ryan and Scott Walker among them.

That's good. He demonstrated something that Obama never will: grace under fire.

ACORN's Lewis Speaks Clearly

If there was any doubt in your mind about ACORN, this should clear it up.

First of all let me just say any group that says I'm young, I'm democratic and I'm a socialist is alright with me. You know that that's no light thing to do, to actually say, I'm a socialist, because you guys know right now we are living in a time which is going to dwarf the McCarthy era. It is going to dwarf the internments during World War Two. We are right now in a time that is going to dwarf the era of Jim Crow and segregation. They are coming and they are coming after you and they are going to be brutal and...

...This is not rhetoric or hyperbole. This is real. This rise of this tea party so-called movement -bowel movement in my opinion- and this great uncovering and ripping off the mask of racism, ...--Bertha Lewis, Mentee and Pal of B. Hussein Obama, and Chief Organizer, ACORN

THIS is the organization which Legislative Democrats in Wisconsin want to allow to "help" voter registration.

HT: AmSpecBlog

Leadership in New Jersey

Interesting little factoid:

New Jersey voters took a stand on school spending and property taxes Tuesday, rejecting 260 of 479 school budgets across 19 counties, according to unofficial results in statewide school elections.

...

In many districts Tuesday, the governor made himself heard as 54 percent of the spending plans were rejected, according to unofficial returns. If the trend continues, it would mark the most budget defeats in New Jersey since 1976, when 56 percent failed. Typically, voters approve more than 70 percent of the school budgets.

Christie seems to be on the same track as Reince Priebus:

IT'S THE SPENDING, STUPID!!

HT: Ace

What's Another $500 Million??

This little cost-problem was announced in the Fox Valley a few weeks ago; now MMSD figured out what it would have to pay...

...the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District alone might spend $500 million or more, to build new filters needed to comply with proposed restrictions on the amount of phosphorus discharged by sewage treatment plants,...

To pay for the filters, MMSD estimates it would increase property tax rates billed to the communities it serves by 28% or more...

Why not? Use dishwasher soap which doesn't work and raise the price of sewage.

Need Employment? ObamaCare Won't Help You

You're in IT, or med-transcription, and need a job. And you know that ObamaCare will require a lot of new IT or transcriptionists.

Well, fuggedaboutit, sucker.

India's Economic Times declared [ObamaCare] the industry's "biggest bonanza yet" and "far bigger than the Y2K." While it's too early to know the extent of the boon, India's outsourcers — the call centers, the medical record transcribers, the software developers — are quietly gearing up for the increase in administrative work and technology development the health care legislation promises.

...India's outsourcers get new health care work in two ways, by the initiative to computerize personal medical records included in last year's stimulus bill and by run-of-the-mill maintenance of health records both for the newly insured by the reform and the millions of others who already are but whose insurers will need to cut administrative costs.

...Up to 41 percent of the money spent on a health plan in the U.S. goes toward administrative costs, according to a recent Deloitte Center for Health Solutions study. Insurance companies will face mandates to spend as much as 90 cents of every dollar on the actual well-being of a client, Mukerji adds, which will "drive increased need for administrative efficiencies, and thus increased demand for outsourcing."

Similarly, the initiative to digitize medical records could be a multibillion-dollar boost to India's high-skilled software developers. "You don't have enough people in the U.S. to put together these solutions and even if you did, it would be too expensive," said Sudhakar Ram, CEO of Mumbai-based IT solutions firm Mastek. He estimates that digitizing medical records will cost between $10 million to $20 million per U.S. hospital, based on his firm's similar work in the U.K. "That's a huge amount of investment. ... I would say it's a significant opportunity for Indian [firms] over a five- to seven-year time frame."

Well, all that unemployment is Bush's fault, anyway.

HT: Bayou Renaissance Man

The Show-Trial of Goldman, Sachs?

Both Belling and John Lott think that the SEC's charges against Goldman, Sachs are going to be very hard to prove.

That's a "DOH!!!" moment.

Indulge yourself with a bit of cynicism.

The GS boyzzzz contributed ~$1 million to the Obama campaign; GS alumni populate the Obama regime.

Got that so far? Good.

Obama has a political need to find a scapegoat on Wall Street. Can't be "anti-Bank" without a scapegoat. So......

Let's have SEC come up with charges which are .......ahhhh........difficult to prove, but will get headlines. Like, for example, "Fraud" in connection with synthetic CDO's.

Long after the headlines die out, GS and the SEC arrive at a mutually-satisfactory "resolution" of some kinda slap-wrist fine or 'cease and desist' agreement. No biggie; just enough to make it seem as though it were real, but not enough to actually HURT anyone.

Who, me.....a cynic?

Well, look how it's being played by the Regime's money-machine.

Clinton Just Tortured the Children at Waco, Before Killing Them

Some twerp is attempting to justify the Clinton/Reno massacre at Waco (below.)

Pertinent fact:

CS gas was used at the compound, in order, as senior White House adviser George Stephanopoulos said, echoing senior Justice Department statements, to "try and pressure" those in the compound. It was hoped, he said, that as this "pressure was increased, the maternal instincts of the mothers might take over and they might try to leave with their kids" (Washington Times, April 23, 1995).

But the FBI knew beforehand that adults in the compound had gas masks; the gas therefore would not put pressure on them. On whom, then? If the FBI knew that the adults had gas masks, but went ahead with the gas attack anyway, it is plain that this "pressure" was brought directly against the children because, as the FBI knew, they could not fit into adult– size gas masks. "Maternal feelings", the FBI hoped, would be unleashed in the mothers by watching their children choking, gasping and blistering from the gas.

The plan Reno approved and took to President Clinton for approval contemplated the children choking in the gas unprotected for forty-eight hours if necessary, to produce the requisite "maternal feelings". By taking aim at the children with potentially lethal gas, their mothers would be compelled, according to the FBI plan repeatedly defended by the Clinton administration afterwards as "rational" planning, to flee with them into the arms of those trying to gas them.

More at the link, including a near-outright condemnation of Clinton/Reno by a Harvard prof.

Great plan. Torture the kids with CS (which is also flammable, so fires are started.) That way the mothers will have a change of heart.

HT: ConYank

Puff the Magic Dragon: Obama Job Count

The Magic Dragon makes jobs happen in Obamaland.

The number of jobs in the U.S. is currently 129.7 million. So to justify the Administration’s current claim of 2.8 million jobs “created or saved” by stimulus, they need to also claim that without that stimulus there would be only 126.9 million jobs. That’s exactly what they do, displayed as the “baseline projection” level in the graphic...

An inconvenient truth, at least for the Obama Administration, is that once upon a time, in their January 2009 Romer/Bernstein Report they told America that without their stimulus there would be 133.9 million jobs. That’s right, in order to make it look like their stimulus has “created or saved” 2.8 million jobs, the Obama Administration first had to whack 7 million jobs from their previous estimates.

No problem-o, chumps!! The MSM, number-challenged as they are, won't even notice!

Here’s the math:

Step 1: How many jobs does the Administration currently claim there would be, without stimulus?

129.7 million Current number of U.S. jobs

- 2.8 million Jobs currently claimed to be “created or saved”

126.9 million Jobs the Administration currently claims there would be without stimulus

Step 2: How does that compare with the number of jobs the Administration used to say there would be without stimulus?

133.9 million January 2009 projection of jobs without stimulus

- 126.9 million Current claim of jobs without stimulus

= 7 million Jobs removed from the Administration “baseline” to justify their latest stimulus job creation claims

At that rate, in only a few more years there would have been ZERO American jobs in the "baseline" projection.

So it's all Bush's fault, see??

HT: Ace

The Nannies Act Out Again

You're going to DIE unless the FDA helps you out.

The Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans, saying that less sodium in everything from soup to nuts would prevent thousands of deaths from hypertension and heart disease. The initiative, to be launched this year, would eventually lead to the first legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in food products.

The government intends to work with the food industry and health experts to reduce sodium gradually over a period of years to adjust the American palate to a less salty diet, according to FDA sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the initiative had not been formally announced.

Officials have not determined the salt limits. In a complicated undertaking, the FDA would analyze the salt in spaghetti sauces, breads and thousands of other products that make up the $600 billion food and beverage market, sources said. Working with food manufacturers, the government would set limits for salt in these categories, designed to gradually ratchet down sodium consumption. The changes would be calibrated so that consumers barely notice the modification.

The legal limits would be open to public comment, but administration officials do not think they need additional authority from Congress.

Redd Fox was right: sooner or later, there will be thousands of people in hospitals dying of nothing.

The (R) Problem: Jeff Stone

Here's a guy who is a Republican.

“So in an era where you struggle for potential new revenue,” Stone said, “I think the question becomes: How do we take revenue we already have and put it to new use?”

Not once--not ONCE--in the article does Stone mention "less spending." He yaps about 'struggle for revenue,' he yaps about 'moving money around'.

This is what passes for "responsible" Government, folks.

Who Pays Taxes?

The one on the right--the one riding an old lady?

That's General Electric, whose US tax bill last year was ZERO.

Clinton, the "Anti-Violence" Guy

Oh, yah, I forgot this little factoid:

Bill Clinton's government was responsible for killing more American civilians on American soil than any President alive,

...and he seeks to chide Tea Party protesters for pithy signs espousing a return to the core principles of our Founders.

Yup. Horny Bill is just the kinda guy to spread that 'irenicism' message, alright.

HT: Confederate Yankee

"Tax-Reducing" Doyle? Depends on the Meaning of "Is"

Our Thief-in-Chief, James E. Doyle, rattles on about how 'Wisconsin's tax burden has decreased' since he took office.

He's very, very careful not to mention INDIRECT taxation, which is what occurs when legislators impose costs on utilities, which then pass those costs along to consumers.

That is, he's lying, but it's hard to see his lips move.

And there's a good reason for that strategic silence.

Tuesday, Democrat Leaders in the state Assembly came up with a brand new version of a 140 page global warming bill forcing a $700 million energy tax and over $15 billion in unnecessary energy costs on Wisconsin consumers and businesses. They called a meeting to pass the bill with barely 24-hours notice

What do we know about this bill?
- It will cost 43,000 more Wisconsin residents their jobs.
- Utilities warn it will force utility rates to rise from now until 2025.
- Utility rates will rise faster than the incomes of many Senior Citizens.

Likely this nightmare will be passed.

Then it will be necessary to REPEAL IT.

HT: Sykes