The Other Shoe

At least some in the House are willing to pick up where the Senate left off yesterday:

Today House Republicans will introduce a bill that would end all federal funding to ACORN and its affiliates. Republicans are also sending a letter to President Obama on the same subject.

The action comes after the release, on the website BigGovernment, of three undercover videos showing ACORN employees in Baltimore, Washington DC, and New York City offering advice on how to evade taxes, cover up prostitution activity, and abet the use of minors in prostitution. In the wake of those disclosures, the U.S. Census cut its ties with ACORN, and yesterday the Senate voted 83-7 to cut off housing funds for the organization.

House Republicans point out that they have long pushed for a cutoff in government funding for ACORN.

The Logical Next Step

After a week that would make Badluck Schleprock wince, the US Senate has voted today to defund ACORN:

The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.

The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman's income. Two other videos, aired frequently on media outlets such as the Fox News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.

What next? Well, far as I'm concerned the AG or a state Attorney General or two ought to rain down fire on these crooks and put them out of business.

Insulting

The basic premise is insulting...beyond insulting:

Eight months into Barack Obama’s presidency, as criticism of his administration seems to reach new levels of volume and intensity each week, the whispers among some of his allies are growing louder: That those who loathe the nation’s first African-American president, and especially those who would deny his citizenship, are driven at least in part by racism.

Are there people on the extreme edge of this opposition? Certainly. There were people on the extreme edge of the Left's opposition to President Bush as well.

Frankly, the Left would do well to remove the log from their own eye before telling us all about the logs in ours. Not everyone who thinks Healthcare is a bad idea hates the President. Not everyone who is arguing against the largest deficits in the nation's history is a racist.

Perhaps some of us have an aversion to economic ruin; some of us think that this unsustainable spending arc needs to be resisted. Because President Obama is black? Of course not.

Because ruinous debt will kill our economy; because coming inflation will eat at American's wealth and further strain the very working families the President and his party so vociferously champion.

The vast majority of us who oppose the President's non-plan of a plan do so for a simple reason: we think it's a bad idea.

Smartest President Ever?

Does this sound smart to you?:

Trade relations between two of the world’s biggest economies deteriorated after Barack Obama, US president, signed an order late on Friday to impose a new duty of 35 per cent on Chinese tyre imports on top of an existing 4 per cent tariff.

Smart Presidents don't start trade wars.

"Open War is Upon You..."

"...whether you would have it or not."

Close Enough to Kiss

How low Can you Go?

From NRO's Media Blog...just wow:

The Boston Globe was sold to the New York Times Co. for about $1 billion. The Philadelphia Inquirer was sold to Bruce Toll and the gang for about $515 million. The Chicago Sun-Times is on the block and the best offer so far is ... $5 million in cash and an agreement to pick up $20 million in debt and obligations.

Gives new meaning to "pennies on the dollar". As a former member of the industry (and one who rejoices daily at my freedom), I can't say, unfortunately, that I'm surprised.

Come to think of it, it's time for the quarterly check to see if Lee Enterprises is bankrupt yet...not that I can see but this analysis from earlier in the year is interesting.

The Decorum Debate

Instapundit rounds up some of the discussion about Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during the President's speech last night. He's basically right...

UNION TRIBUNE: Sure, he was a rude jerk. But Rep. Joe Wilson has a point. “The president is right that his proposal specifically says the plan does not extend to illegal immigrants. But one of the most undercovered stories in national politics is the fact that congressional Democrats have gutted the plan’s enforcement provisions.”

I’m finding it hard to get excited about this. It was a breach of decorum and civility. But someone who says “get in their face” and “punch back twice as hard” has little standing to bring that up. If you want to benefit from traditions of civility, you should respect them, and that has hardly been a hallmark of this administration, which has gone out of its way to try to demonize and shout down opponents.

UPDATE: Video Flashback: Dems Shout And Boo At Bush During 2005 SOTU. Goose, meet gander.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Video: Obama supporters boo Bush at inauguration. Like I said, you can’t stand on decorum when you’ve acted without it.

Or maybe we’re seeing the beginnings of British-style parliamentary debate in Congress!
MORE: Reader James Somers writes:

Glenn, it might also be noted that a lot of Democrats and MSM journalists (same thing, I know) who suddenly have the vapors over Joe Wilson’s breach of decorum thought it was just dandy when an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at President Bush. Sure, the journalist wasn’t a Congressman; and sure, a press conference isn’t the same as the SOTU. But that journalist became a folk hero to a lot of folks on the Angry Left – I think you actually could become a Fan of his on Facebook. The point is that lefties loved Sticking It To The Man when Chimpy McHitler was president, but now they’re prissily toting around copies of Robert’s Rules of Order.

Indeed. Sticking It To The Man is supposed to be their sole prerogative.

STILL MORE: Bill Quick: Remember When Harry Reid Called Bush a Liar?

Rules of Engagement (Or, How we Turned a Fighting Chance to Win the War in Afghanistan into a Sure-fire Way to Lose)

Tom Maguire writes a post today that threatens to make me sick to my stomach. In Rules of Engagement, he relays the following via McClatchy Newspapers:

...four Marines died in an ambush in Afghanistan.

The four Marines were part of a US training group attached to a larger Afghan unit. The team (60 Afghan soldiers, 20 border police officers, 13 Marine and U.S. Army trainers and Mr. Landay) had arranged to meet with some village elders, but the meeting was apparently tipped to the Taliban, who prepared a deadly welcome.

In addition to the betrayal by either the village elders or the Afghan security forces, the Marines were let down by the new US rules of engagement meant to reduce civilian casualties:

U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren't near the village.

Helicopters that were supposed to be available on five minutes notice took an hour to arrive.

New ROE kept US forces from engaging the Talibani ambush in a way that would have ensured it's defeat and contributed to the death of 4 US Marines. The fact that the Taliban knew the force was coming is a bigger question that of course must be addressed but is one I'm not focused on.

In 2007 while we all debated the Surge in Iraq, I first came to recognize the self-limiting nature of US Rules of Engagement thanks to the contributions at Captain's Journal. Herschel Smith succinctly summarized the negative effect the then-current ROE's were having. The problem was two-fold.

Not only were there not enough forces in place to provide the security we wanted and the country needed, the ROE's under which forces were acting kept them from engaging insurgents and Al-Qaeda in any meaningful way that would further our strategic goals. I see a glimpse of something similar in this situation.

I've never accepted the parallels that some have drawn between Vietnam and Iraq and I certainly don't agree that there are any between Vietnam and Afghanistan in the larger sense. Maybe between the Soviet occupation and our current situation (though Fred Kagan goes a long way to debunking that notion here) but most definitely no to any thought that Afghanistan must ultimately end like Vietnam did.

However, adopting ROE's that do nothing to further your strategic objectives, that are so focused on creating no collateral damage--worthy in and of itself--that your own forces are exposed to greater risks is counter-productive. Wars must be fought to be won or there is no reason to fight them.

Time to Start sharpening the Pitchforks

Mark Tapscott notes today that Congress has positioned itself to conveniently fore go any public option in health-care reform.

As I noted last night on Facebook when I saw that the President is doubling-down on the public option, I don't think he's this dumb; in fact, I think he's pretty smart, for the most part politically savvy but certainly he thinks he's always the smartest guy in the room. If that's the case, it may be the best of both worlds--hubris.

His health-care reform effort is in the ditch and if he truly is going to double-down on one of the single least-popular components then he risks running his entire Presidency into a ditch.

The key point of course being that the public option is not popular. People don't want it. If health-care reform passes with a public option and Congress exempts themselves, they will unleash a firestorm. The blowback will be intense. Perhaps historic?

What's wrong with this Picture?

What it looks like when you're Wrong

It's BS alright...

More like strategic Bull-shot...the country's smartest VP-ever, Joe Biden, on the stimulus yesterday:

"...the fact is, the Recovery Act is a multi-faceted piece of legislation. It doesn't reflect a lack-of-design, that was the design, that was it's intended design.

Our economy is so complex and so wounded that re-invigorating one segment alone or using one tool alone would never, would never do all that needed to be done. The Recovery Act is not a single silver-bullet. I think of it as silver-buckshot as opposed to a single bullet.

In 200 days the President's Recover & Reinvestment Act isn't just working towards something...see it isn't just working, it's working towards something, it's working toward a more resilient, more transformative economy."

Wha?

It's BS alright, silver or otherwise...

Run Away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wierdness in my home town. See it here.

Run away finger-biter, run away!

Analysis? What's to Analyze...?

Hugh Hewitt asks for analysis of yesterday's interview with AARP's legislative director David Cetner. Sure, why not? It might be fun.

Well, I've listened to it, I've given the transcript a cursory glance to see if there's anything I missed and I'm not coming up with any glaring omissions...theres not really anything to analyze. I'm not sure he answered even a single question.

He talked a lot, certainly but answers? Not that I heard...

Tick, Tock

For whom the bell tolls...well, it's not a bell it's a clock and according to Byron York it ticks for Charlie Rangel:


It hasn’t gotten much attention amid news of Ted Kennedy, Obamacare and the worsening outlook in Afghanistan, but an extraordinary situation is developing in the House of Representatives. With each passing day, it’s becoming more clear that the powerful committee chairman in charge of writing America’s tax laws is a financial wheeler-dealer, a serial asset-hider, and a tax offender. . . .

Last week, we learned that Rangel filed a grossly misleading financial disclosure report for 2007 — failing to report at least half a million dollars in assets.

It turns out Rangel had a credit union account worth at least $250,000 and maybe as much as $500,000 — and didn’t report it. He had investment accounts worth about the same, which he also didn’t report. Ditto for three pieces of property in New Jersey.

Beyond that, we’ve learned that Rangel has failed to report assets totaling more than $1 million on legally required financial disclosure forms going back to at least 2001.

The news comes on top of revelations last year that Rangel didn’t report — and didn’t pay taxes on — income from a villa in the Caribbean. In that matter, the Internal Revenue Service gave him sweetheart treatment; Rangel paid about $10,000 in back taxes but was not required to pay any penalty or interest.

The crook needs to go...

The Government they Deserve

I've been watching the recent stories about Charlie Rangel's latest round of financial mis-management and wanted to write about it but life has conspired against me; time hasn't been very abundant. Until I noticed these today I was content to watch.

At this point however I can't keep biting my tongue. Harlem has been getting the Government it deserves for way too long (Rangel has sat in Congress for nearly all of my 43 years). If ever a member of our Federal Government has begun to think he's entitled, it's Charlie.

The Congressman isn't entitled and the fact that he's ridden 38 years of Congressional service to his own little kingdom belies everything he's ever said about the virtues of public service. Us little folks could never get away with his recent history of non-disclosure in matters financial.

He shouldn't either. The crook needs to go...

Two Dummies don't make an Argument

Two of the not-so-smartest guys in the lefty blogosphere tell us all about why Obamacare is such a good deal. Or not really.

TM has the details and does a far better job of ripping our esteemed know-it-alls then I could ever hope. First, from Kevin Drum:

Let's recap: the United States spends about twice as much on healthcare as any other developed nation in the world and in return receives just about the worst care. Can someone remind me again why there's even a debate about whether we should put up with this?

Brilliant...

Once you've recovered from the magnificence of that non-argument, we go to the guy who replaced Kevin over at Washington Monthly, one Steve Benen:

They've pulled it off, so far, by telling almost comically-ridiculous lies, and managing to get scared, gullible people to believe them. It's no small feat. Indeed, it's almost impressive. Conservatives have managed to create a debate out of nothing but partisanship, paranoia, and greed.

And here's where I give you over to TM and his sharp-knives:

Really? If memory, that unfaithful servant, can be relied upon the Dem leadership has yet to put forth a plan costing less than a trillion dollars over the next ten years. Medicare is projected to be racing towards bankruptcy (whatever that would mean for a government-funded program) and no one has suggested any credible means of controlling, let alone cutting, its costs.

And the Dem health care reform favored by the left is to spend even more money and envelop the rest of us in some sort of universal Medicare. I'm not sure it takes a conniving liar to wonder how that is going to save us money. "We're spending too much on health care and the answer is to spend even more!" - do Dems really think that will be a winning message?

The First Rule of Holes...

...is obvious: stop digging. Dems aren't getting it and in case you're wondering what that means, the "experts" are beginning to paint a picture, however tentative at this point.

We can only hope.

Happy Anniversary

The New Addition

One-eyed Jack

Hoist by their own Petard?

Social Security payments are set to shrink over the next two years, for the first time since 1975 when automatic (COLA) increases were first instituted. Remember when the last Administration attempted to reform the system, understanding that within about 10 years the system was going to hit a brick wall?

I do too. I wonder what the now-Congressional majority thinks about it 4 years later?

Big Bust?

Politico wonders today where the Obama Administration agenda will ultimately end up.

Earlier in the day I was simply dumbstruck by just this one day's worth of 'bad news' or, if you rather, commentary related to the Health care debate and the President's performance. These all come from one day at one blog:

ANDREW KLAVAN: A Subtle Theological Point.

Related: Obama’s Twisted Faith.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “Obama also has a big problem with moderates. Basically, Obama has a big problem. He got lots of people to trust him, chiefly by doing exactly what Krugman now complains about: speaking in vague generalities. It only works from a distance.”

UPDATE: Ron Brownstein: Obama’s Erosion.

POST-PARTISAN, POST RACIAL? Voight: Is Obama creating a civil war in America?

“I’M SORRY.”

PEGGY NOONAN: Pull the plug on ObamaCare.

WASHINGTON POST: Faith in Obama Drops As Reform Fears Rise: Health-Care Effort Is Major Factor, Poll Finds.

DAVID HARSANYI: What would Jesus Obama do? “For with thee is the fountain of life: and in thy light we shall see the public option.”
UPDATE: A reader emails: “Most commenters are focusing on Obama’s words about being his brothers’s keeper and his sister’s keeper, but the most egregious statement he made was that , ‘we are partners with God…’. Really? As a long time student of the Bible, I can’t recall God ever saying he needed a partner or wanted one.”...

ANOTHER UPDATE: “As Jesus often said, ‘Let’s get the government to do something about it!’”

STEVE CROWDER: White House FAIL! The People Win…Now it’s Time to Keep Fighting.

JAMES TARANTO: Q: What’s the difference between the Associated Press and the Obama campaign? A: The AP admits the public is against it.

HAS THE MORTGAGE-MODIFICATION PLAN failed?

UPDATE: A reader emails: “When the present administration put the private sector, rather than trained, non-profit oriented bankruptcy judges, in charge of mortgage modification, what did they expect?”

L.A. TIMES: Americans’ faith in Obama fading: Poll.

DEBACLE, DISCONTINUED: Obama admin. to end cash for clunkers on Monday. Smart move — people were starting to wonder why they could handle healthcare when they can’t even deal with used cars.

How to sum it all up?

He's losing the Left, he never had the Right and the folks in the Middle are asking themselves, "Is this what I voted for?!"

It was just a Matter of Time

I almost asked this question the other day upon hearing of Robert Novak's death. Namely, how long before the vilification began. I'd just seen too many malicious comments from too many people about the man not to expect this kind of reaction.

But it was nice of NBC to make it official.

LOL of the Day

Lefty Angst is always entertaining.

My favorite part is hearing about how the 'regressives'--without a single lever of power anywhere on the national scene--are 'seeking to anihilate him [President Obama]' by 'murdering' the bill. The Good Professor seems to have forgotten that the Democrats own everything...they don't need a single Republican vote to pass anything.

If they could keep their own members in line, this bill would pass.

At their Peril

The CNN headline reads "New White House tactic to bring GOP back to health debate?" It's a bluff:

In the chess game over health care reform, the White House's last move was to say Democrats might use a procedural move to get a bill through without working with Republicans.

Slice it any way you like--polling, townhalls--but the public does not want what the Dems are selling and if it ends up being pushed down their throats, 2010 and 2012 look to be massacres.

Variation on a Theme

A number of Democratic Congressmen (and women) have chosen not to meet with their constituents, thus depriving them of the opportunity to vent, discuss or otherwise inquire about the Congressional Health Care proposals. This was a nice twist on such profiles in courage:

Rep. Giffords canceled her town hall in Sahuarita/Green Valley, AZ and Jesse Kelly, her Republican challenger, scheduled an appearance in the same venue at the same time and place. From the looks of the video below it was very successful. Both sides were allowed to speak for two hours and with no problems.

Sounds like this guy deserves a shot, if for no other reason than he's got serious cajones...

Palin 1, Obama 0

Where be the Death Panels now?

Through the Blinds

An ounce of Sense

These guys have no Business sense:

The Obama administration made it a national priority to spread high-speed Internet access to every American home and it offered stimulus money to help companies pay for it, but the biggest network operators are staying away from the program.

With today the deadline to apply for $4.7 billion in broadband grants, AT&T, Verizon and Comcast won't be going for the stimulus money, sources close to the companies said.Their reasons are varied. All three say they have enough cash to upgrade and expand their broadband networks on their own. Some say the grant money could draw unwanted scrutiny of their business practices and compensation programs, as seen with automakers and banks that got government bailouts.

And privately, some complain about the conditions attached to the money, including a net-neutrality rule they say would prevent them from managing traffic on their networks in the way they want."We are concerned that some new mandates seem to go well beyond current laws and FCC rules, and may lead to the kind of continuing uncertainty and delay that is antithetical to the president's primary goals of economic stimulus and job creation," said Walter McCormick, president of USTelecom, a trade group that represents companies including AT&T and Verizon.

The stimulus bill could have been something helpful for the economy had it been structured more appropriately; meaning, had it actually been money spent in places and ways that would actually stimulate something in a timely fashion. But as Keith Hennessy pointed out a couple weeks back, that hasn't been the case.

FUBAR from Day One.

If a Bill dies in the Senate but Everyone was Paying Attention to Healthcare, did it really Die?

Appears we're about to find out:

The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say.

You Got the Wrong Guy!

Last year it was the oil companies that made too much money. Recently it's Insurance companies that are evil profiteers, refusing to provide coverage for the unfortunate among us.

If you have issues with cognitive dissonance, don't click on this.

Based on profit margins (which is everything in business), "Health Care Plans" (a.k.a. Insurance companies) rank #86, raking in a whopping 3.3 cents on the dollar.

H/T Real Clear Politics with thanks to Professor Perry.

Searching for the Bottom

From Rasmussen:

Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. That’s the lowest level of total approval yet recorded. The President’s ratings first fell below 50% just a few weeks ago on July 25. Fifty-two percent (52%) now disapprove.

Political polling; take it FWIW.

Why there will be Rationing

Critics of the current health-care reform proposals are crying out far-and-wide that any reforms put in place with a stated goal of cost-control must, repeat must entail rationing of care. This post details quite nicely why that will have to be the case:

The elderly consume 70% of all health care spending. That means that when it comes to cost control, they will bear the brunt of the burden. If we don’t cut spending on the elderly we can’t reduce cost without simply denying care for everyone else. When it comes down to choice between spending on old people and children, the elderly know full well who we are going to pick.

Living Vicariously

Former workmate and current pal JM sent this over along with a few other shots from his weekend bike-ride in Malibu. Some guys have all the luck...

While I was busy watching patrons of the Town Center not-shop with us and chow down ample amounts of Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream on Sunday, he was swapping bike stories and chatting it up with Leno at the Rock Store in Malibu.

No she Won't

MKH insists (with tongue firmly in cheek I must think) that Madame Speaker will decry the nature of SEIU's attempt to 'Drown Out Voices' at an upcoming town-hall in Stamford, Connecticut.

I'm going with "Oh, hell no!"

Sounds Fishy to me...

So does this qualify as 'fishy'...? Should we email Dean Kamen's article to the WH?

Those answers not withstanding, it's definitely worth sending to proponents of Obamacare if for no other reason than to see their heads explode from the cognitive dissonance:

PM: So you're saying that rather than trying so much to control costs, we should be encouraging new cures?

Kamen: Every drug that's made is a gift from one generation to the next because, while it may be expensive now, it goes off patent and your kids will have it essentially for free.

Whatever the marketplace, if talented people are given resources they're going to keep driving us to having better, simpler, cheaper solutions to problems. And, by the way, if they come up with a better solution but it can't be cheaper—which, in the beginning, most things aren't—nobody says you have to buy it. If you think this new drug is too expensive, it's not a good deal, we have a crisis, buy the old one. It's a generic now. It's cheap.

You can't look at the problem and say, "I want them to do more, better, faster miracles—and not invest in research, not invest in development, and have those miracles delivered to me free." It's unrealistic. And people know that about most things. They do. Nobody expects that just because they've made computers better they're going to give them to you free.

Double-Standards Defined

Jake Tapper's tweet from yesterday nails it on the head:

Bemoaning lack of "civil dialogue,"Democracy for America's Jim Dean says "Teabaggers..don't want to pay taxes for schools, police, or roads"

Yes, out of one side of his mouth decrying the lack of civil dialogue while trashing the opponents out of the other side.

Poisonous.

Does He own it yet?

Poll results from Quinnipiac University. Take from it what you will...

-President's Job Approval Falls to 50%

-52% Disapprove on Health Care

-Right Track 35% Wrong Direction 64%

From CNN and equally interesting:

"Do you consider the first six months of the Obama administration to be a success or a failure?"

To be Young and Naive

Oh, and stupid too:

An unruly Little Rock crowd heckled and shouted at two Arkansas Democratic congressmen Wednesday, accusing them of supporting a government-backed health plan that would take away Americans' personal choice and freedom.

At one point, U.S. Rep. Mike Ross sat with his head in his hands while the crowd shouted. He and fellow Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder told audience members at a forum at Arkansas Children's Hospital that they wouldn't support a completely government-run, single-payer health insurance plan.

No, not Ross or Snyder. I'll take their claims at face value, least for now when it comes to their stance on the proposed health-care plan trumpeted by the WH and being discussed in the House and Senate.

No, the stupidity I'm referring to is that of the young and inexperienced. From the end of the article:

Though much of the crowd opposed Obama's plan, there were a few supporters.

"I'm a huge Obama fan," college student Jacob Kauffman told the crowd, which responded with a smattering of applause and a few chants of "Get a job."

Kauffman continued, "I was at mad at (Ross and Snyder) for not standing up for stronger health care reform. But after seeing this crowd tonight, I'm pleased with seeing what you have done. I've rather have you two overlook my health care plan than any private insurance bureaucrat any day."

Ah, to be young and naive...and stupid. I've got somewhere around 20 years on you Jacob. Learn from your elders, the last thing you want is the Gubmint in charge of anything complex. For details, give me a buzz and I'll fill you in on my ongoing feud with California's EDD (Hint: If we ran our business as poorly as the state manages this high-profile agency we'd have been out of business even before we began).

The story doesn't mention where Jacob attends school. My guess is the State system somewhere. Regardless, if this is really what he thinks dude needs his money back; he's getting screwed.

Goes without Saying

This study finds that Dogs are smarter than Cats...well, duh!:

They may have nine lives, but cats apparently just don't have the extra smarts when compared to dogs, according to a new study.

Dr. Britta Osthaus, of England's Canterbury Christ Church University, carried out series of experiments testing the intelligence of domestic cats in order to determine their processes of thinking in terms of cause and effect relationships.

Dr. Osthaus tested the ability of the animals to get unreachable food from under a plastic screen. In one scenario, one string was used with a treat attached. In another, two parallel strings were used with just one baited. And in the third setting, two strings were crossed, with food attached to only one.

The psychologist determined there was nothing to indicate that the animals understood the purpose of the strings. All cats were successful with the single string test, however, none of them consistently selected the needed string in the second setting -- unlike dogs.

In the test involving crossed strings, one cat was constantly selecting the wrong string while the rest performed at chance level.

Dr. Osthaus was surprised by the findings and concluded that cats "performed even worse than dogs."

They are the smarter species...my sock-eater especially so!

How far into their Heads did He go?

Mark Steyn at The Corner notes this absurd bit of mental gymnastics from Jacob Weisberg.

It's all Bush's fault. Everything. Ever.

Yeah, that's the ticket...

Still fighting the Last War

Senate-style.

T-Boone Pickens visited with Senate Democrats yesterday to discuss energy. Apparently the visit was, for the most part, collegial and focused on the stated agenda--energy.

But then Pickens made the mistake of introducing himself to the nation's newest Senator:

According to a source, the wealthy oil and gas magnate and author of “The First Billion Is the Hardest” stepped up to introduce himself to Franken in a room just off the Senate Floor after the lunch ended.

Franken, who was seated talking to someone else, did not stand when Pickens said hello. Instead, Franken began to berate him about the billionaire’s financing of the Swift Boat ads in 2004.

According to a source, the confrontation grew heated.

Leave it to a guy like Franken to get fired up 5 years after-the-fact and lash out with all the usual charm & aplomb.

Coming to a Doctor's office near You

Cash for Clunkers sounds like a good deal and it probably is. After all, if I have an old beater sitting in the driveway--and I do--why would I not like to replace it for something newer and nicer and not entirely on my dime?


Like I said, it sounds like a great deal. Though according to this, it's not working out so hot for participating dealers:

Dealers reported problems with the government’s online system to get the transactions approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is running the program.

Scott Lambert, vice president of the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association, said he was “astounded” to learn at a meeting Tuesday representing about 150 Minnesota dealers that not one has had a deal approved.

“We had dealers representing 1,500 to 2,000 transactions,” he said. “We asked how many had a deal approved yet, and not one hand went up.”

Lambert said the government has created a program that’s “so big and cumbersome that it can’t find a way to accept anything. We’re sending in good, reliable deals.”

It’s nerve-racking for the dealers, he said, because they have given the customer $4,500 and now the dealers need to be reimbursed.

Imagine my shock at learning that a government program doesn't work as advertised. Now imagine applying those same industry-leading efficiencies to a government-administered health care system (in part or in toto--take your pick).

As Glenn Reynolds points out, it's almost certain they'd do a better job with your prostate.

Not News

This is what you get when breathless headlines and no new information collide:

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission plans to issue a report next month suggesting speculators played a significant role in driving wild swings in oil prices -- a reversal of an earlier CFTC position that augurs intensifying scrutiny on investors.

In a contentious report last year, the main U.S. futures-market regulator pinned oil-price swings primarily on supply and demand. But that analysis was based on "deeply flawed data," Bart Chilton, one of four CFTC commissioners, said in an interview Monday.

The CFTC's new review, due to be released in August, adds fuel to a growing debate over financial investors who bet on the direction of commodities prices by buying contracts tied to indexes. These speculators have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts that were once dominated by producers and consumers who sought to hedge against oil-market volatility.

Who didn't know that speculative buying was driving oil prices up b/t 2006-2008? I'm pretty sure that I wasn't hallucinating when I constantly saw and heard econ reporters talking about speculative buying as a hedge against the weak dollar, especially at the tail end of the oil bubble last year.

So then to see a report like this as 'econ' reporting makes me wonder if it's more like 'political' reporting.

Welcome to Earth!

Obama sees the bottom-side of 50% for the first time.

The first rule of holes is of course 'stop digging.' I don't expect however that the Administration will suddenly reverse on the very things that have helped drive those ratings down over the last 4 months.

How funny is that?

When rallies go wrong:


Local MoveOn.org members had penciled in on today’s schedule a protest in front of Senator John Cornyn’s Spring Valley Road office, during which they had hoped to pressure the senator to support President Barack Obama’s public health care legislation. But when Paula Anderson, a MoveOn.org member and spokeswoman, showed up at 11:30 a.m., she found another contingent had beat her to the proverbial punch: A large number of Dallas Tea Party members were already set up, voicing their opposition to the proposal.

Anderson was stunned: “We really did not expect them to show up.” She estimated the crowd at about 130. “From our perspective we took names of everyone there, and we had about 30 people,” she told Unfair Park. “And I would assume they maybe had 100.” As it turned out, according to Jessica Sandlin, Cornyn’s Texas press secretary, Tea Party-hearties also showed up to health-care legislation rallies in Austin and in San Antonio.

What does it mean when grass-roots movements out-hustle the professional protesters?

Encouraging sign

On the economic front today, this headline:

Gold prices flat as investors' risk appetite grows

Selling Healthcare Reform

From NRO with the attendant editorial on last night's press conference.

Suck-watch '09 (Day 22)

Suckage, thy name is Chone Figgins.

In the last week Figgins is hitting a grand .208 with the penultimate suckage coming in last night's double-header against Kansas City. Figgins went 0-for-2 last night: that's right, two games, no hits and 4 K's. Though he did manage a walk and a run scored.

Hardly Schocking

At Politico today:


Trust in President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies to identify the right solutions to problems facing the country has dropped off significantly since March, according to a new Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO poll.

Just as Obama intensifies his efforts to fulfill a campaign promise and reach an agreement with Congress on health care reform, the number of Americans who say they trust the president has fallen from 66 percent to 54 percent. At the same time, the percentage of those who say they do not trust the president has jumped from 31 to 42.

The president’s party has taken a similar hit since the last Public Trust Monitor poll, with only 42 percent of respondents saying that they trust the Democratic Party, compared with 52 percent who do not. The party’s numbers are nearly the inverse of March’s survey, in which 52 percent said they trusted Democrats and 42 percent did not.

Obama’s personal approval rating has fallen below 60 percent in a number of recent major polls, and according to a Washington Post/ABC News survey out Monday, support for the president’s leadership on several key issues has fallen below 50 percent.

Not to beat the same drum but some of us right-wing troglodytes saw this coming. The Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training for a Neophyte Executive.

UPDATE: Gallup reports similar numbers. But this is my favorite...thats gonna leave a mark:

President Barack Obama's tumbling poll numbers have dipped below those of his predecessor George W. Bush at the same point in his White House tenure, according to a national poll released Tuesday.

Send in the Clowns

The only question really is which is the bigger buffoon...

Class is in Session

Megan McArdle at The Atlantic takes Kevin Drum to school.

I always get a kick out of that. I don't know what it is about Kevin. Whether at Cal Pundit, Washington Monthly or now at Mother Jones I've just seen him write too many head-scratchers to take him overly serious.

Maybe it's just me.

Senility Setting In?

You couldn't make this up. The Senator that just switched parties to avoid likely getting rolled in the primary next year is challenging the bona fides of his primary opponent. Really.

From CNN:


On Thursday, Specter's campaign sought to bring into question Sestak's roots to the Democratic Party. Specter's campaign sent out a list of Sestak's voting history in Delaware County, which the senator's campaign said showed that Sestak registered as an Independent in 1971, didn't vote in any primary elections from 1971-2005 and that he officially registered as a Democrat in February of 2006. Sestak was elected as a Democrat to the House in 2006.

"Congressman Sestak is a flagrant hypocrite in challenging my being a real Democrat when he did not register as a Democrat until 2006 just in time to run for Congress," Specter said in the statement. "His lame excuse for avoiding party affiliation, because he was in the service, is undercut by his documented disinterest in the political process."

A Pale Imitation

And far more disingenuous:

So the Obama administration is all for due process, as long as it produces the correct result. Obama already has said that Guantanamo detainees who cannot be successfully tried by military commissions or civilian courts can still be imprisoned indefinitely if they are considered too dangerous to release. Now Johnson is saying that even those who are prosecuted can be kept imprisoned regardless of the verdict. The only point of prosecuting them, it seems, is to create an impression of due process while continuing the Bush detention policies that Obama condemned during the campaign.

The Bush Administration was at least principled about their stand on these issues, like the actual policies or not. His successor continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth, in effect simultaneously condemning the very actions he autohorizes.

Does this leave as bad a taste in supporters mouths as it does in mine? Hopefully, people are noticing the disconnect between Presidential rhetoric and action.

Bush is a piker

It almost makes me long for the days of the "Bush cabal" screeds. The current administration makes Bush look like a piker:

Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year’s presidential election. . . . Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows.

(H/T Instapundit)

Re: What California government workers think of you taxpayers

Very I-LouMinatti-ing post that highlights some very contemptuous commentary from some fine California bureaucrats.

If true, these people need to keep something in mind. Those of us in California smart enough to understand what's been going on for the last 10 years have had enough. Should the fools who've simultaneously run the state into the ground and padded the nest of state employees continue down this road folks are going to start showing up in Sacramento with torches and pitchforks.

And it's they that will have the large targets on their back.

As most things go...

People always find ways to ruin a good thing:

A group representing artists and record labels reached a royalty-fee agreement with music Web sites, ending a two-year battle and removing a cloud from over online radio.

"It's a substantial reduction in per-song streaming fees," says Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora Inc., an online music service that will stream about one billion hours of music this year. The royalties question threatened Pandora's viability and hung over all aspects of the business, he said, making it hard to negotiate with potential partners. Now, "we're out from under that," he said.

But as a result of the new royalty rates, Pandora plans to start charging its heaviest users a fee. Those listeners on the free version of Pandora who tune in for more than 40 hours a month will have to pay 99 cents to keep listening for the rest of the month.

To be clear, I'm not one of those who insists that all the best things in life should be free; it's only right that artists are compensated for the use of their work. Yes, Pandora owes royalties.

And it's not the .99 cents...who can't afford a dollar-a-month for anything? But why should the end-user pay?

It's called advertising (something they're already doing btw). By one estimate Pandora has 30 million registered users. Surely it's possible to create an advertising rate-structure that generates enough revenue to meet expenses and turn a profit beginning next year as they are currently targeting.

LOL of the Day

Why Al Franken will make a good Senator...

I'm sorry, that's a 'superlative' Senator. He for sure will be a Senator...

Suck-watch '09 (Day 7)

A lot can change in a week. As of Friday, Jimmy Rollins was in a career-worst 2-for-31 slump. Thats severe suckage.

Since then he's 8-for-15 and including Thursday night's contest, 10-for-19. And he's raised his average from .205 to .224 So is it the water?

Meanwhile, teammate Ryan Howard seems to have caught whatever it is Rollins has finally shaken off. Since the 1st of July Howard is hitting a paltry .150 (3-for-20 through last night) with no HR, with perhaps the worst of it coming in last night's shellacking of the Reds.

The Reds were giving away RBIs all night long. How much do you have to suck to go 1-4 on a night your team scores 22 runs?

Suck-watch '09 (Day 6)

Timing is everything. And mine, as per usual is off. Way off.

A half-season of suckage prompted the first post in this series aimed primarily at Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins. Since that day Rollins is 7-15 including yesterday's HR and 5 RBI in a series sweep of the Mets.

What to say, other than the obvious; timing is everything. And mine, as per usual is off. Way off.

Meanwhile, the other target of that first post continues along his merry way, getting hung out to dry again yesterday. Lee is now 4-8 and has lost 4 straight starts.

If it moves...

...tax it.

Perhaps the greatest Reaganism ever. But did you ever think you'd live to see what amounted to a tax on rain?

Is Late really better than Never?

Everyone's a genius in hindsight.

Suck-watch '09 (Day 3)

A Rollins sighting in Atlanta last night: The only promising signs for the Phillies were another strong start for J.A. Happ(notes), who gave up two runs in seven innings, and two hits by Jimmy Rollins(notes), who ended his career-worst 0-for-28 drought.

2-for-31. Progress!!

Meanwhile, teammate and formerly one of the best set-up men in Baseball, Ryan Madson seems to have picked up here in early July where he left off in June: Suckage. This from Yahoo Sports summarizes it pretty well:

Ryan Madson was 2-1 with four saves, one blown save, 13 holds, a 1.95 ERA and had allowed only 33 base runners (24 hits, nine walks) in 32 1/3 innings through June 16. Since then, and including the three runs he allowed in Thursday night's 5-2 loss to the Braves at Turner Field, the Phillies' setup man is 0-3 with no saves, three blown saves, one hold, a 10.80 ERA and 19 base runners (12 hits, seven walks) in 6 2/3 innings. On Thursday night, Madson entered a 2-2 game and allowed Brian McCann's leadoff single, Matt Diaz's RBI double and Garret Anderson's two-run homer into the Braves' bullpen in right field.

I was never fully sold that the Phils were in fact the best team in Baseball last year. They got hot and blew through the playoffs but they've seriously come back to Earth this season. Good thing 4 of them are sucking up my Fantasy squad.

That wasn't supposed to happen

Unemployment jumped again in yesterday's report. Them's the brown dots. What the Obama Administration promised--both pro and con--for the Stimulus plan are those two lovely curves below that steep line you see if we connect all those dots. You remember...unemployment topping out at 8.5% vs. 9%.

Well, we're at 9.5% and far more likely to blow through 10%--a number not seen since 1982--than not. What do folks have to say about it?

Well, this is pretty self-explanatory: Be sure to thank the President and Congress. This week, with news of some 467,000 jobs lost in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the U.S. has now lost about two million jobs since the economic stimulus package passed. Even more notable is that the average workweek has been slashed to 33 hours - the lowest number on record. When the President signed his $787 billion stimulus package into law, he confidently asserted that unemployment would not exceed eight percent. If Congress hadn’t passed it, he warned, it would rise to nine percent by 2010. Well, unemployment reached 9.5 percent last month, meaning, by the President’s own logic, that his stimulus package has failed.

And Jennifer Rubin pulls no punches: We are recovering. But unemployment is getting worse. And the stimulus is definitely working. Got it? It sounds like they haven’t a clue what to do and don’t want to admit they have been concocting a disaster. And we shouldn't pick on Gibbs. The president and the rest of the administration are no better:...


And what of John Q. Public? Well, how 'bout this: A Rasmussen video report notes that 42% now give the President good or excellent marks for handling the economy . That’s his lowest rating to date...


I expect that, and the approval ratings that go with it, will fall even further when we break 10%, assuming we do (and I feel pretty confident that's much more likely than not). At the risk of sounding like one who is just having fun switching roles from Bush Apologist to Obama critic, I must refute such an allegation, should it come.


The hallmark of President Bush's critics over his 8 years in office, by far, was anger, mixed in with a little irrational hatred of a man 99.9% of them never met much less truly know. The final ingredient in this vile concoction was the fundamental lack of respect for all who disagreed with them about the President and his policies.


President Obama is my president; while I did not vote for him, I will support him when I think he's right, I will be critical when I think he's wrong and I will always show him the respect he deserves. I am not angry with the President over Guantanamo Bay, Iraq or the economy. I think his decisions have been incorrect, but I am not angry.


To the contrary...on the economy I'm actually laughing. I knew his proposal couldn't and wouldn't do what he was promising. I'm sad to see that we're forced now to wait out more difficulty than we otherwise would as a result of his policies. But that is where we're at.


What I patiently wait for is the Administration and it's supporters to finally acknowledge that they own what is now happening in the country. George W. Bush is no longer President; the Democrats who have controlled Congress for 3 years have made every effort at ensuring his policies are no longer in place.


To the Administration and it's supporters, man up! Own your failures. It'll make it far easier to own your successes down the line.

Better or Worse?

Turns out the Washington Post is selling access to Administration and newspaper officials. For as little as $25K, lobbyists get access in a 'non-confrontational setting' to Admin officials, members of Congress and even (HOW EXCITING!) the Post's editorial staff.


Outrageous.


The once and future cynic in me, however, is wondering if the usual suspects who raised bloody hell about this and cried foul over this in the last Administration have anything useful to say about the Post's trashing of journalistic ethics.


Everybody's favorite Washington Post aggregator is silent on the subject. And most others as well it seems...

I prefer Brown

Another reason to hate this crap-and-trade bill. Utter garbage like this:

The bill requires the EPA to establish environmental standards for residences, meaning a federally dictated one-size-fits-all policy for greening every home in America.

Federally-mandated 'greening' of every home in the country?

Hell to the NO!

(Fixed!)

Media Schadenfreude

Beautiful, marvelous, glorious Schadenfreude:

Following a testy exchange during today’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.

“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.

“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said.“I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well—for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”

LOL...when you carry the man's water for the better part of two years, how can you act surprised when you're being taken for granted?

Suck-watch '09 (Day 2)

Jimmy Rollins went 0-3 yesterday in his team's 11-1 blowout loss to Atlanta. He's now gone 27 at-bats without a hit and finds himself flirting with a sub-.200 BA.

But hey, he did steal a base.

Cat got your tongue?

Word comes down that the President will "filter" questions at his Virginia town-hall meeting. That prompted this from the folks at The Weekly Standard:

Both White Houses are entitled to hold such events, which are inherently and sensibly orchestrated to benefit each executive. The press is right to note that fact while reporting them. Odd that the Times chose to do that only for the Bush administration, huh?

Well, no not really. The media in general and the Times in particular wanted nothing to do with President Bush. For the last 6 years of his Presidency they were unambiguously critical, offering no support even for long-held Democrat and liberal positions during the 2005 Social Security Reform debate.

I don't know about you but I read enough screeds to last a lifetime in the Bush years about the imbecile-in-chief who couldn't handle a 'live' question. Fast-forward 5 years and there is no substantive difference between the former President's handling of town-hall events and his predecessor's. Aside from the media's unambiguous support for everything the predecessor does.

Good Job Guys!

Didn't have time to chime in on this yesterday but wanted to shout out to the morons of Minnesota whose message vote puts Al Franken in the US Senate.

Unreal...

Bad time to be a Celebrity

There goes another one...

Fantasy Baseball: Suck-watch '09

Jimmy Rollins, who has yet to get anything going 3 months into the season, came back last night from his 4-game benching, a.k.a. "rest", to go 0-5 with 2 K's. His batting average is now .207 and he hasn't had a hit in 24 at bats. At the rate his average is falling, I'm guessing he'll barely be hitting his weight by the end of this month.

At least one of my fellow Fantasy leaguers is dropping the S-word.

Cliff Lee, coming off a career year in 2008 (22-3 with a Cy Young Award) had his worst start in 3 seasons yesterday. At least in terms of innings pitched, as Lee was done after 3 having given up 7 ER. This from a pitcher who was working a streak of 47-starts going at least 5-innings, the longest such stretch in 30 years.

It's not all his fault, as the Indians are close to, if not the biggest disappointment in Baseball right now and Lee has had multiple good starts and been hung out to dry by his offense but this is ridiculous. Certainly no one should expect anybody to follow a 22-3 season with a similar level of near-perfection (well, maybe Clemens) but 4-7 halfway through the season? Really?

Paul Krugman calls GW 'Denial' Treason...

And I would call him a hack. But that's redundant.

A Ricky Ricardo Moment

Fed chair Ben Bernanke gets the Tenth Degree up on Capitol Hill today about the B-of-A/Merrill-Lynch deal. Of it, Megan McArdle at The Atlantic has this to say:

I'm on the record as thinking Bernanke has done a pretty good job in a pretty scary crisis. Nothing I've heard recently has changed my mind on that. However, I have to say, watching his testimony to Congress today, I suspect that he's not going to be reappointed when his term ends next year. Whatever happened between him and Paulson and Ken Lewis, he is now giving a very good impression of someone who is lying. And Congress wants someone to blame. Besides, firing Bernanke lets Obama portray all of the failures of this year as Bush errors in policy or appointment.

That would certainly fit the President's MO. As best I can tell, nothing bad happened prior to the election of George W. Bush in 2000 and nothing could possibly go wrong now that he's out of office. This despite the fact that President Obama has 6-months worth of fingerprints on public policy and the US economy; most famously the Ginormous Stimu-palooza that was going to save us from double-digit unemployment once passed.

The President's rhetorical skills not withstanding, he will sooner rather than later own US Foreign policy and the economy as well. What will he say then?

Me thinks he'll have an awful lot of 'splainin to do...

'Duh!' of the Day

Members of the US Senate "Worry That Health Overhaul Could Erode Employer Insurance Plans"......really!?

Business Tip of the Day

When you're meeting with an investor who is footing the bill for start-up costs, don't submit work bids that you haven't reviewed.

Kill it Dead

Why Waxman-Markey is an atrocious idea.

The Destruction of Andrew Sullivan

Poetic. Beyond that, I run out of adjectives for this mutilation of Andrew Sullivan.

Few among us have the raw intellectual firepower to go where he has. Fortunately, the internet tubes allow us to track his movements over time – an otherwise dizzying effort made more vertiginous by Sullivan’s kaleidoscopic mind. As with all things Sullivan, the best place to start is with human genitalia.

And it only gets better. Simply marvelous.

For the record, I traded emails at one point with Andrew about Gay Marriage back in 2005. He was cordial though that 'discussion' pre-dated his full-blown meltdown over Gay Marriage and the Christianist onslaught.

You wanted the Job...

From David Broder's column today:

Bush's silence has made it harder for Obama to keep the public focused on Bush as being responsible for our present difficulties -- the weak economy, the unsettled wars, the scandals of Guantanamo and the detainee program.

How many months before a new President owns the events of the day?

Welcome to Reality

You didn't have to be a rocket-scientist to see this. But apparently it was just us knuckle-dragging, right-wing troglodytes that had it figured out.

The Gambler

James Pethokoukis (one of the few econ reporters around who goes out of his way to write accessibly on his beat) wrote an interesting post at his new digs today about changes in public perception of President Obama's economic policies. Key points:

Okay, here’s the thing: Obama took a tremendous economic and political gamble last January. The new president had the option of putting forward a stimulus plan that would attempt to reverse or significantly dampen America’s terrible economic downturn ASAP. The quickest and most effective approach would have been a big cut in payroll taxes. For $800 billion, combined Social Security and Medicare taxes could have been slashed by 6 percentage points, or 40 percent. That would have put $1,500 in worker paychecks and, according to one credible study, increased employment by 4 million jobs in 2009.

Instead, Obama chose to listen to Rahm “Never let a crisis go to waste” Emanuel and put forward an $800 billion plan that advanced his healthcare, energy and education policy goals — but pretty much neglected the economy in 2009. Team Obama had to fully understand this. Indeed, a study from the Congressional Budget Office study — when led by current Obama budget chief Peter Orszag — concluded that an Obama-like economic stimulus package would be “totally impractical” because it would take so long to implement. (True enough, only seven percent of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been doled out so far.)

Presidential gamble. In short, Obama wagered that the deluge of money coming from the Federal Reserve would do the heavy lifting as far as stabilizing the financial sector and keeping the already apparent recession from turning into a real disaster. Voters would, thus, continue to support his policies to assert more government control over healthcare, heavily regulate energy through a costly cap-and-trade program and further intervene into the financial industry.

The gamble appears to have failed miserably, both economically and politically. The terrible tale of the tape: a) the current downturn is arguably the worse since the Great Depression; b) household wealth has fallen by $14 trillion during the past two years, including the first quarter of 2009; c) while the economy may not shrink as much this quarter as it did in the previous three months (-5.7 percent) or the final quarter of 2008 (-6.3 percent), unemployment is soaring; d) Obama himself said the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year; d) even worse, the Federal Reserve sees it approaching 11 percent next year. (Recall, that the original White House economic analysis of the Obama economic plan never saw unemployment exceeding 8 percent if Obamanomics was passed by Congress.)

Falling public support. So now many Americans are rightfully wondering just what they are getting for that $800 billion, as well as massive budget deficits as far as the eye can see. And it goes beyond the mercurial world of polling. Pricey plans to deal with perceived climate change and healthcare are also appear on the ropes or are being scaled back as voters view them as lower priorities than job creation and taming out-of-control spending.

As a couple of the dissenting comments point out, the post includes a number of assertions yet to be proven. I thought however that overall the piece makes a good-faith analysis.

Is he right? No clue and my crystal ball is broken; only time will tell us that.

The more conspiratorial view would be that the President back-loaded the stimulus for obvious political reasons with most of the spending occurring in 2010-12. The question then is what do the economic numbers look like and if as bad as they may be, will people forgive the worst unemployment in a generation, the return of inflation and most-likely slow growth when stimulus spending starts in earnest?

The President may have in fact made that very bet.

President Obama in a Nutshell

As reported in the NY Times, results of a Times/CBS poll yields this nugget:

. . . A majority of people said his policies have had either no effect yet on improving the economy or had made it worse, underscoring how his political strength still rests on faith in his leadership rather than concrete results.

With apologies to the dead horse, us right-wing troglodytes had a handle on this aspect of the President last year.

It remains to be seen if the President is up to the task...his ability to inspire the citizenry is a marvelous asset, don't get me wrong, but in and of itself isn't adequate to deal with coming inflation, potential economic stagnation or--the President's high confidence in his ability to influence others not withstanding--positively affect the nation's foreign-policy.

What, no Mill-Worker?

John Edwards popped his head up out of his hole this week just long enough to remind exactly why the public dislikes self-serving trial lawyers:

In agreeing to his first extended interview since confirming the affair, Edwards refused to address Hunter, the baby’s paternity, his wife’s memoir, or the investigation. But he spoke expansively over the phone for 90 minutes about his tumultuous decade in politics, which began when, after the death of his teenaged son in a car accident, he left behind a career as a trial lawyer to run for the Senate in 1998.

That was yesterday. It didn't take Mickey Kaus long to separate the wheat from the chaff (not that there was much of the former):

John Edwards thinks he can come back. And somehow in theoretically humble disgrace comes off as smugger and phonier than ever!

Why ought we care about the one-term Senator, two-time failed Presidential candidate devoid of any accomplishment outside the Plaintiff's bar?