Video clip of the day

Last month, a group of anti-government extremist types gathered in the nation’s capitol to protest Federal intervention into matters of personal choice. Their struggle is documented in a reason.tv clip below.



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Letter to the Editor of the day

From yesterday's U-T, H. Robbins of San Diego writes:

I am having great difficulty understanding where the claimed savings are coming from with the forced closings of the auto dealerships. The dealerships are all privately owned and get little from the manufacturers except the right to buy cars, for cash. When business gets really bad, the dealers will shut down or declare bankruptcy. It does not appear that the companies gain any advantage from the mandated shutdowns.

We welcome more informed readership to broaden Mr. Robbins’ understanding and to perhaps eliminate some confusion which would go double for us.

ABC doesn't quite rhyme with TASS

...darn

What? Apparently, NBC has not been survile enough. Olby, Chris Matthews and then their own version of “Cribs” and all they have to show for it is to be shut out of the Obamacare infomercial?

Maybe this is the President’s own version of the Fairness Doctrine or spreading the wealth around...or something.

Which all means that with respect to his health care plan... he doesn't have the votes. Consider the full-court press "on".

And so the walk-back begins.

If you listen closely enough, you can almost hear it all slip away...

"No one realized how bad the economy was. The projections, in fact, turned out to be worse. But we took the mainstream model as to what we thought -- and everyone else thought -- the unemployment rate would be."
"Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made about what the state of the economy was at the moment this was passed."

That from Joe Biden, foreign policy expert and stimulus fall guy on Meet the Press on Sunday.

What he should've been investigated for was his wicked cross-over.... boo-yah!

The Friday evening dump... Pt. II

Hey do you remember when they told us that if we voted for McCain it would just be a continuation of politicization of Presidential appointees of the Bush era? Well, they were right.
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President Barack Obama tried late last week to quietly fire an inspector general who had investigated a close political ally, a move that prompted attention from several media sources anyway. Obama terminated Gerald Walpin, inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program, after Walpin launched an investigation last year that involved Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player who had founded a community group called St. HOPE Academy.

Walpin’s audit of St. HOPE, which sought to find out how the organization had spent $847,673 in grant funds from AmeriCorps, came in the middle of Johnson’s reelection campaign. At that time, Walpin raised the specter of funds being diverted and misused by Johnson’s organization. The Democrat and supporter of Obama called the investigation “politically motivated,” and his aides brought up details about Walpin’s support for Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to indicate bias on his part. In 2007 and 2008, Walpin donated money to the presidential campaigns of Rudy Giuliani and John McCain.

In April, St. HOPE Academy agreed to a settlement with the federal government to pay $423,836.50, of which $72,836.50 came out of Johnson’s pocket. Walpin was cut out of those negotiations to settle the matter.

"...a move that prompted attention from several media sources anyway." Heavens, no.

Now, about that tax cut... (UPDATED)

(UPDATE #1): We were wondering when someone was going to get around do doing some heavy lifting for us. Recall the “support” that President Bush got when he proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that were far smaller than the cuts President Obama is proposing. Click on over to Verum Serum to view a video montage of Democrat pols tearing into Bush for his proposals and then in response to Obama’s… the sound of crickets.

Now aside from the obvious, (it’s their guy who is making the proposals) here’s a point made by VS that is probably even more relevant:

“… the other reason for the Democrats’ silent hypocrisy on this is that they know these proposed cuts are completely bogus. If the Democrats have their way, government spending for healthcare is going to explode in the coming years. At best, it will be a shell game shifting funds from one government healthcare program to another. But the idea that Medicare/Medicaid spending is going to decrease at the same time the government adds 50-100 million people or more to a government run healthcare plan…well, it’s beyond audacity."

Seriously. If the ultimate goal here is to eventually get everyone covered under some type of government plan (which it is) then how do you really “cut” any spending on government health care?

And the fact that the AARP has remained silent on this matter is due mostly likely to the fact that they were probably advised by back channel means that “…yeah, about those cuts to Medicare and Medicaid? Fogheduhbowdit”.

(here endeth the update)


Do you all remember the criticisms leveled at the Tea Partiers and in particular the criticism with respect to the name of the movement? The scoffing was “What are they protesting? Taxes? The President is giving these ingrates a (whopping and completely illusory $13/week) tax cut and they're whining about being taxed? Obviously, they must all be racist”.

Well, the Tea Partiers, the vast majority of whom live in the real world and whom possess a modicum of common sense, realized that if the federal government was going to continue spending money at astronomical rates while making zero cuts to the budget, then something was going to have to give.

Recall the “pay-go” concept trotted out by the Administration earlier this week and which we covered here that explained pay-go was to be implemented not as a way to exercise any real fiscal discipline but as a way to make it easier to raise taxes.

(cue sound of shoe hitting ground)

Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.

Alas, we have misspoke. There will be budget cuts, after all… to existing government-run health care plans. It’s the best of both worlds: you take home less money for the benefit of receiving less service from Medicare and Medicaid.

So, all the haters out there can submit their apologies, here. Since we won’t be holding our breath for any such mea culpas, we will continue to party under our shiny, happy banner of "Tax hikes: as inevitable as a sunrise"

Porkulus: Potentially bad for your health

Swindlers, con men, and thieves could siphon off as much as $50 billion of the government's planned stimulus package as the money begins flooding the economy in coming months, according to David Williams, who runs Deloitte Financial Services Advisory and counsels clients on fraud prevention.

(Yawn) We can’t get too worked up over fraud in a government spending plan that is inherently fraudulent in nature to begin with. But do you know what does chap us a bit? We are siphoning off resources from the FBI and Treasury Department to track down fraud when when we’ve had a few incidents over the past couple of weeks that would suggest we have our law enforcement priorities misplaced.

The 9-11 attacks prompted the FBI and other government agencies to divert resources from financial fraud and other corporate crimes to fighting terrorism, including the transfer of 2,000 agents tracking white-collar crime to counterterrorism, Mueller said.

But now the focus is returning to white-collar crime and fraud in a big way.

Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about anything like terrorism or religious/political wackos shooting up the place anymore.

Obviously, the common sense solution here would be to cut-off the flow of the money that is the source of the fraudulent behavior (i.e. cancel porkulus as its not working anyway) and let our law enforcement people get back to catching the bad guys. Obviously, that is not going to happen.

Your obligatory "most ethical Congress in history" update

Energy panel Republicans are levying accusations of witness intimidation against Democratic Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the key authors of the contentious House climate change bill.

Republicans have seized on a letter – a copy of which was obtained by The Hill – that Markey penned to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff asking FERC to investigate the actions of a major energy company on the same day that the company’s CEO was set to testify before the energy panel on the dangers of a carbon cap and trade system.
According to the June 9 letter, Markey requested that Wellinghoff probe how thoroughly MidAmerican Energy Holdings – a $41 billion company in which Warren Buffet is a major investor – followed up on promises to invest as much as $15 billion in electric transmission expansion in the wake of the repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act in 2005.

In fact, Markey singled out MidAmerican Energy to also ask FERC to look into his concerns “that the repeal of PUHCA has also freed large multi-state public utility companies to diversify into other potentially risky business, to the potential detriment of utility investors and consumers.”

Remember, folks – the same people who are employing these strong-arm tactics and who will be leveraging cap and trade for their own political benefit and who will be builiding cars no one will want to buy, will soon be in charge of your health care. Thanks, G.O.P.

"...and to those who speak Spanish..."

6 seasons removed from their last which included two miserable finals appearances, a trade demand and a complete overhaul of their roster, the Los Angeles Lakers won their 15th title as a franchise last night beating the Orlando Magic, 99-86. The championship also represents head coach Phil Jackson’s 10th title pushing him ahead of the Boston Celtic’s Red Auerbach who had 9 for the all-time lead among NBA coaches.

From the likes of Smush Parker, Luke Walton and Kwame Brown to Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Derick Fisher as his band mates, Kobe finally gets his.

But who are we kidding? This is all just a sorry excuse to rebroadcast perhaps the most excellent moment in the history of championship parades. From 2001 championship…



Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers who in addition to being the team of the 80s, cement their status, with 4 titles and 6 finals appearances in this decade, as the team of the aughts.

We claim, therefore we are.

When earning and having become decoupled, new rights can be found everywhere. For example, many supporting universal healthcare claim it should be a right. Since there is no longer a connection between getting and earning (hello $1.85T deficit!), they can claim anything as a right.

We loved the above from KT because it sums up perfectly what’s at the core of a culture that wants everything but doesn’t want to pay for it.

We’ve become a nation of 4 yr. olds aided and abetted by a political class that reasons just as we do.

KT has more on our statist quest for stability at the expense of economic growth, here.

You know, maybe closing Gitmo won't be so difficult after all.

Depending upon our motivation and the material which we have to work with (which has been plentiful, by the way), we are thinking of adding a weekly/semi-weekly feature on the weekends called the Friday evening dump. A long-cherished institution by which the sitting Admnistration unloads bad/unpopular news on a nation that just wants to get its weekend on.

Even the L.A. Times gets in on the act of the Friday dump by burying the following deep in a story regarding European reluctance to take detainees that we don’t want within our own borders:

In Washington, the Justice Department said Friday that three more Guantanamo detainees had been transferred.

The detainees were sent back to Saudi Arabia, their home country, where officials will review their cases before sending them to a rehabilitation program. One of them was identified as Ahmed Zuhair, a relatively high profile detainee who, has been protesting his detention since 2005 through a hunger strike and has been force-fed liquid nutrients.

During a hearing in Guantanamo in October 2004, Zuhair was accused of involvement in the 1995 killing in Bosnia-Herzegovina of William Jefferson, a U.S. official with the United Nations. At the tribunal, U.S. officials said Jefferson's watch was found on Zuhair.

Zuhair also was convicted in absentia by a Bosnian court in a 1997 car bombing in the town of Mostar. He also allegedly told another detainee he was involved in the bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole in 2000, according to evidence presented at a Guantanamo proceeding.

Of the 200+ Club Gitmo residents that have not already been sold off to South Pacific tropical resorts (transitioning from Gitmo will be a cinch), you start to see that we are left with the cream of the crop as far as jihadists go and why it is that these people are still there… well, used to there.

And this is what we do with them: we give them back to their home country and a country whose royals have been the source of funding of terrorist activity for years now, and we send them to this country for…. rehab?

If this is going to be our policy for closing Gitmo then let's just get on with it and release these cretins here in the U.S. and most preferably in states with right to carry laws where at least we can keep an eye on them rather than fast-tracking them back into the global terror network via our petrol-dictating and terror-funding friends, the Saudis.

Yep, we’re in good hands.