OBAMA'S WORLD

APPLYING THE GOLDEN RULE

He who’s got the gold makes the rules. GM CEO [Rick] Wagoner resigns at Obama’s behest.

Who’s next? If I were a business owner, I’d be worried.

[More]

James Lileks: “Maybe I’m old-school, but ‘President fires CEO’ looks as wrong as ‘Pope fires Missile.’”

Mickey Kaus: “After visibly defenestrating GM CEO RIck Wagoner, ... won’t Obama now ‘own’ the GM problem? If the company shuts down in the near future, ... [i]t will be Obama’s failure, no?"

Via Instapundit.

SMUG ALERT

The Los Angeles Times explains why it is a failing newspaper:

Journalistic trend-spotters say the recession is whetting the public's appetite for happier stories from their daily news outlets.

Those of us who are left in this business ... would like to oblige, but that isn't really what the Fourth Estate gets paid to do. We're supposed to document what's new, of course, including successes as well as failures. But we're also expected to question the powerful and hold them to account. When we don't -- when we aren't tough enough or brave enough to find the error in popular policies -- we end up with misbegotten wars, ruinous asset bubbles and other avoidable disasters.

So journalists feel compelled to be skeptical, and to focus on potential harms more than the likely benefits. It's far better for us to be proved too critical than to be seen as cheerleaders for policies or politicians that go bad.

With Washington pumping trillions of dollars into the economy and the financial sector, now's the time for disbelieving, penetrating journalism.

So journalists are “expected to question the powerful and hold them to account.” And pamper and excuse the weak?

Perhaps you should just, er, report the news?

via Opinion Journal.

JUST WHEN YOU THINK IT’S SAFE TO BREATHE

Barack’s back. GM is now Government Motors, and the market responds.



Need I say more?

A BRILLIANT IDEA

Don Surber solved the global warming crisis: "Hey, maybe we can fill our tires with carbon dioxide."

The California Air Resources Board adopted a resolution requiring auto repair shops to check tire pressure every time drivers bring in their vehicle for maintenance, oil changes and smog tests.

With 120 million cars and pickups on the road, that’s 480 million tires.

And at 32 psi per tire, that’s a lot of carbon dioxide.

TENT CITIES

In an earlier post I referred to a New York Times article (pictures here) on homelessness in California.

Homelessness is sad anywhere, but just to put those pictures in context, here is a reminder of the sacrifices our military are making in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is one of the Times' pictures.



This is the interior of the trailer I lived in during my 2008 deployment.



Here is a second Times photo of a homeless "village."



This is our "village" in Iraq. The shelters are cargo containers.



And I would end by pointing out that these are the high–dollar quarters for senior military and civilian – basic quarters are nowhere near as nice.

O.B.A.M.A

O(ne) B(ig) A(wful) M(istake) A(merica)



Courtesy of Michelle Malkin.

OBAMATOWN

Chris Muir named them.



The New York Times reported them.



Obamopolis.


Bidenburg.

FIGHTING TAXES

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota caused a little controversy by saying we should all be “armed and dangerous” on the issue of energy taxes.

Frank J. Fleming agrees:

I’ve never met a problem that couldn’t be solved by proper firearm usage, and taxes are certainly no exception.

[T]ake a look at California. It’s one of the most difficult states for a law-abiding citizen who wants to own a gun. It also has some of the worst taxes. In fact, taxes have swarmed the entire state and rendered it nearly uninhabitable by human beings; they writhe on it like maggots on a corpse.

Fleming continues by offering tips on fighting back, to which I would add one more from Lazarus Long: “Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.”

WHAT? ME WORK?

Glenn Reynolds: “'More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life.' Hey, I’ve got an idea — why don’t we organize society so that it rewards hard work! We could even see that people who work harder and do better make more money! And then their efforts would pay off in more general societal prosperity, making life better for everyone! And we could . . . Naaaah."

WE ARE SIMON JESTER

And we are watching.

OBAMACORPS?

Volunteer for America -- or else!

From the DC Examiner:

Lurking behind the feel-good rhetoric spouted by the measure’s advocates is a bill that on closer inspection reveals multiple provisions that together create a strong odor of creepy authoritarianism.

Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education, my aching ass.

The bill text can be found here.

DUMB AND DUMBER

California to reduce carbon emissions by... banning black cars?!

California Air Resources Board figures that the climate control systems of dark colored cars need to work harder than their lighter siblings – especially after sitting in the sun for a few hours. Anyone living in a hot, sunny climate will tell you that this assumption is accurate, of course.

When we first heard of this issue, an internal debate immediately began as to whether this might be an elaborate early April Fool's joke, but it isn't.

Just how much energy does the state think it will save? Enough to cover the regulatory costs?

Every time I think the state of California can't possibly get any stupider, it proves me wrong.

THE BIG 3-5-0

A milestone of sorts. I just published my 350th post, with three more still scheduled. I'm still in a bit of shock about that - I never dreamed I'd be writing so much or so often.

When I first started Shadow's World, it was simply going to be a mechanism to communicate with family and friends while I was on my first tour of Iraq. It didn't work, of course; in 2006, internet communication from a war zone simply didn't exist.

Well, that's not quite true. It did, but "commercial" internet was in its infancy in Iraq, slow and intermittent at best.

On my second tour in 2008, I was smarter and didn't take a computer - only to find out that I was wrong again. Even the CHU's (Coalition housing units, or quarters) were wired with high-speed internet. (One of my co-workers used to watch football games from his CHU via webcam with his father in the States.)

Now Shadow's World has morphed into sort of a semi-political blog, and I've morphed into a pajamas-clad (gasp!) blogger, flinging unwashed opinions into the ether from a darkened basement (well, not quite: the computer I'm at is actually in a bedroom).

To paraphrase someone, I'm not sure who, "we live in interesting times."

CHARITY IS COMMUNITY PROPERTY

In an earlier post, I suggested that possibly the Obama administration’s proposal to reduce the charitable deduction for the wealthy was a ploy to fund his social engineering programs and, at worst, buy votes.

I worried that I might be “attributing malice to that which could be explained by stupidity.”

I needn’t have worried. Here’s Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, in today’s Washington Post:

When the wealthiest Americans donate to charities, they are most likely to give to universities, hospitals and cultural institutions from which they and their families may benefit.

Well, it’s their money, isn’t it? Berg doesn’t appear to think so.

First, such tax deductions are a highly inefficient way to fund social programs.

Second, voluntary private charity is a less equitable way to solve community problems. While many people assume that the rich amass their wealth on their own, the truth is that their business interests are almost always aided by public efforts such as roads, bridges and ports through which they ship their goods or public schools that educate their workforces.

It doesn’t seem to occur to Mr. Berg that “the rich” also pay the majority of taxes that build these roads, bridges, ports, and public schools.

Given that even the wealthiest benefit greatly from this modern "public commons," it is wrong to give them unilateral power to decide whether their taxpayer-subsidized donations should go ....

In other words, Berg’s priorities outweigh the priorities of those who are actually supplying the funds.

It is fashionable these days to say that "the community," not government, should solve social problems.... In America, the government is the most legitimate voice of the entire community.

Wealth is, or rather should be “community property.” Is it any wonder why the wealthier among us are “going John Galt?”

Wasn’t it Karl Marx who said “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”? Why yes, yes it was.

[UPDATE] The Washington Times agrees: “Mr. Obama, his administration and allies seem to see charity and charitable giving in a different light.”

LIGHTS ON, PEOPLE

Don Surber:

On Saturday, [the Left] will celebrate Earth Hour by shutting off the lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. A whole bunch of cities and corporations will also turn down the lights to show their political correctness.

We had plenty of Earth Hours in Western Europe from 500 AD to 1000 AD.

We called it the Dark Ages, a time when the Western World regressed and abandoned all the cultural and scientific achievements of the Roman Empire.

Nice going, ancestors.

Instead of Earth Hour, I shall celebrate Human Achievement Hour by leaving on my lights and maybe turning on the air conditioner regardless of the temperature.

The furnace can always warm me if it gets too cold.

Celebrate progress. Keep the lights on and the furnace warm.

THERE’S NO JOY IN MUDVILLE TONIGHT ...

... mighty Soduku has been solved.

But there’s a catch: “To complete a puzzle using his theory takes more than an hour, while most sudoku problems can be solved within 20 minutes using logic and intuition.”

The solution is here.

GODSPEED, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

And thank you for your service to America.

CHANGE I CAN BELIEVE IN

The SUGAR act of 2009.

Pricey, yes, but worth every nickel.

WHEN OBAMA HANDS YOU A LEMON

Make lemonade. At least that’s what I think is happening. Consider the chart below. It shows the percentages changes in Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and my retirement accounts, as of last Friday, all normalized to January 1, 2009. The dashed lines are second-order least-squares curve fits to the data points and the trend lines are clearly on an upward trajectory.



What does it mean? One plausible explanation is that the bubble has burst, the market collapse is complete, and the present value of the market indicators is the “real value” of the stock market.

I don’t think that’s true, however. I think the stock market – and business in general – has taken a careful look at Congress and the Obama administration and found them wanting. Some states have refused to accept stimulus money; business are appearing more and more inclined to refuse federal “assistance”; and some financial institutions are actively seeking to give back stimulus funds they had previously accepted.

It appears that business and financial institutions would rather take their chances in a less regulated economy and risk bankruptcy in a well-ordered court process than risk the whims of an obviously incompetent administration and Congress.

NO MORE WAR ON TERROR?

The Obama administration has decided to forgo the War on Terror for a “kinder, gentler” term: Overseas Contingency Operation.

And so now we are engaged in a great Overseas Contingency Operation, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. And be assured: if the Overseas Contingency Operatives succeed in pulling off another Contingency Operation on American soil on the scale of 9/11, or more than one, we will indeed be sorely tested -- and utterly unprepared to meet the multifaceted cultural, military, political, and spiritual challenge the enemy presents.

So now Jihadists are now overseas contingency “operatives."

DAMN, THAT’S ONE BIG BUS

Wall Street gave to Barack Obama and other Democrats only to be thrown under the bus when the going got rough.

via Don Surber.

THIS IS A SURPRISE?

[NYC mayor Michael] Bloomberg said "51, 52 percent of our taxes come from people making $500,000 or more."

"Five thousand people back in 2006, it's probably a little more diverse today, but in 2006, 5,000 people paid 30 percent of the taxes in New York City.

"If only 1,500 of that 5,000 people move to Connecticut, that would cut 10 percent of our tax base, that's another $3.5 billion," added Bloomberg, who has repeatedly warned that higher income taxes will damage the city's already reeling economy.

MORE ON THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

In an earlier post, I suggested that the Obama administration’s proposal to limit charitable deductions by the wealthy does nothing more than take money away from those that need it most. That argument is based on a (realistic, I believe) assumption that charitable contributions are affected by the marginal tax rate. [At least they are for me – I have to pay taxes; I don’t have to donate to charity.]

We know that the Obama administration is committed to “social justice” – President Obama’s told us that often enough. And that’s what bothers me about his proposal.

As the law currently stands, a wealthy taxpayer has complete control to direct his/her charitable contribution, including, as I have shown, the Government’s contribution. Under the Obama proposal, that same taxpayer has effective control of only 89% of his/her contribution, while the Government – committed to social justice – has control of the rest and can designate it as it wishes, not as the taxpayer wishes.

Given the incredible lobby influence in Government – and the Obama administration’s penchant for “social justice” – it strikes me as an opportunity to buy votes.

I’d like to believe I’m wrong, and there’s an old saying that one should not attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity, but here I’m leaning toward malice.

CHANNELING ANGER

Cal Thomas on “channeling anger”:

Next week, millions of tourists will begin the annual ritual of visiting Washington to see the cherry blossoms bloom. They might wish to organize a bus ride up to Capitol Hill and make their blooming idiot senators and congresspersons feel their wrath. Then they should go home and organize tea parties and anything else that will unite them with others in the fed-up community, and then vow to throw these bums out come the 2010 election.

No political fish should be too big to touch and goodness knows fish like these have been stinking up Washington for far too long. Showing the most powerful the door is the only way we can liberate the country (and ourselves) from these overpaid, egotistical, self-centered, corrupt, uncaring pack of rats.

So, Cal, tell us what you really think.

BLIND FAITH AND IGNORANCE

Many years ago in a graduate math class I had a professor who attributed success to “main strength and awkwardness.” Today we have a governing class who appear to attribute success to blind faith and ignorance.

"We liberals are going to do what we've been itching to do for decades, and even though our policies will place greater burdens on the economy, retard economic growth, and cause the debt and deficits to further explode, we'll end up with a surplus anyway because we are so doggone virtuous with our liberal compassion that fate will have to reward us."

Change you can believe in.

HOW A RECESSION BECOMES A DEPRESSION

Scott Johnson is depressed “because the president of the United States is a fool who will immiserate us, render us wards of the state and lose us our life and liberty .... “

Yes.

SMART, REALLY SMART

From James Taranto’s “Best of the Web” (scroll down):

There are other indications that last week's fury [at Wall Street and particularly AIG] may be calming. The Wall Street Journal reports that "over the weekend, the White House worked to tone down its Wall Street bashing and to win support from top bankers for the bailout plan announced Monday." It seems the administration "has concluded that it needs the private sector to play a central role in fixing the economy." Brilliant, guys. We could have told you that.

Problem: "Weeks of searing criticism by politicians and the public had left bankers leery of working with the government." Isn't Obama among those who spent years arguing that President Bush's arrogant my-way-or-the-highway attitude toward foreign policy harmed America by alienating friend and foe alike? Whatever you think of that insight, did it not occur to the new president that it might have some applicability in domestic politics?

It looks that the Obama administration may be a little late “toning down its Wall Street bashing.”

GREEN JEALOUSY

Environmentalists are turning green (with jealousy):

For huge numbers of people in India the imminent introduction of the world’s cheapest car – the Nano – is a boon to families all over the developing world that currently speed around town on overloaded two-wheelers, often with an infant perched precariously on someone’s lap.

Environmentalists, however, have decried the Nano and its low-cost imitators as an impending disaster. ... Last year, the Nobel Prize winner Rajendra Pachauri, who is head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was quoted as saying he was “having nightmares” about the car.

How dare the poor have the effrontery to despoil their “pristine” environment!

IS BARNEY FRANK A HETEROPHOBE?

“After Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, admitted he feared a Supreme Court ruling on homosexual marriage because ‘that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current Court’, the associate justice called on all Americans to ‘have patience with Rep. Frank as he struggles with his heterophobia.’”

Scott Ott rocks.

REVISITING THE WIZARD OF OZ

After President Obama’s appearance on 60 Minutes, one feels he is the "anti-amalgam" of Dorothy’s sidekicks in the Wizard of Oz - no heart, no brain, no courage.

But he does have a diploma.

The interview highlights are here; the interview is here.

SOMETIMES PRAYER DOESN’T WORK

The headline: Crash pilot who paused to pray is convicted.

As the pilot who forwarded this link commented, “If praying was listed at the bottom of the EP [emergency procedures] then this would have been avoided.

I QUIT

This is what happens when the demonization of capitalism continues:

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

Read the whole letter; then ask yourself if the US is better off. Somehow I don’t think so.

IGNORE THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Ed Morrisey thinks President Obama may have inadvertently endorsed the flat tax last night.

I don’t. I think it’s much worse. Here’s Obama on reducing the charitable contribution deduction for “the rich.”

People are still going to be able to make charitable contributions. It just means, if you give $100 and you’re in this tax bracket, at a certain point, instead of being able to write off 36 percent or 39 percent, you’re writing off 28 percent.

Now, if it’s really a charitable contribution, I’m assuming that that shouldn’t be the determining factor as to whether you’re giving that $100 to the homeless shelter down the street. And so this provision would affect about 1 percent of the American people. They would still get deductions. It’s just that they wouldn’t be able to write off 39 percent.

In that sense, what it would do is it would equalize — when I give $100, I’d get the same amount of deduction as when some — a bus driver who’s making $50,000 a year, or $40,000 a year, gives that same $100. Right now, he gets 28 percent — he gets to write off 28 percent. I get to write off 39 percent. I don’t think that’s fair.

His explanation is slick, glib – and wrong. Absolutely, flatly wrong.

Here’s what actually happens. If Joe Sixpack decides to give that marginal dollar to charity, what happens is this: Joe gives 72 cents and directs Uncle Sam (through the charitable deduction) to give 28 cents to the charity Joe specifies. The same is true for Jane Upscale: she gives 61 cents of her marginal dollar to charity and directs Uncle Sam to give 39 cents.

Now under Obama’s proposal, Joe Sixpack’s charitable contribution remains the same. But now Jane Upscale gives 61 cents, directs Uncle Sam to give 28 cents, and pays Uncle Sam 11 cents for his trouble!

David Copperfield would be proud.

BUSH DEFICIT VS OBAMA DEFICIT

The picture. See the Heritage Foundation website for details.

Thanks to Instapundit for the tip.

ROVE ON O'REILLY

Karl Rove made an interesting point on the O'Reilly Factor. President Obama wants to hold down the cost of health care by increasing the Federal budget. Sort of like robbing Peter to pay Paul (with a little skim off the top for Uncle Sam).

OFF STAGE

TOTUS was in the back of the briefing room tonight. I guess the President felt he was being upstaged.

via twitpic.

LIVEBLOGGING OBAMA

8:06 PM - So far he's used the word "investment" repeatedly. So taxes are now investments in "liberalese."

8:08 PM - He's got a list of people to call on. Can't recognize the individual reporters? Or is he calling on the friendlies?

8:10 PM - Can we trust you with the authority to take over other financial institutions? No answer.

8:11 PM - Why not ask the public to sacrifice? Answer: folks are sacrificing already; we have to make sure that the "rich" make sacrifices. We're going to "invest" in the future. Don't want to return to the "false prosperity" of the last several years.

[UPDATE} Jonah Goldberg comments on sacrifice.

8:12 PM - American people must continue to "volunteer." Huh?

8:16 PM - Will you veto the budget if there is no cap-and-trade? Answer: it in Congress's hands; I'm sure they'll come through. But no threat to veto.

8:21 PM - Obama: if we don't invest, we won't grow. We'll still have trillion dollar deficits. No recognition that the deficits are a result of the spending which is occurring on his immediate watch.

8:24 PM - Don't look behind the curtain ... those future deficits are just current estimates. Next year (when no one's looking) we'll give you a better number.

8:26 PM - Now it's Mexico. Should the military be sent to the border? Uh, well, uh ... the Mexican government is doing very well.

8:28 PM - Blame Bush. "Over the last several years ... veterans have been neglected."

8:30 PM - He's now trying the Defense Department "fraud, waste, and abuse" argument. As a former Defense contractor, I've been through this before -- it's nonsense.

8:31 PM - Asked about the deficit (again), the President turned the answer to health care. If I understand him (hah!) then the health care crisis is the cause of the deficit.

8:37 PM - Did I hear him right? The deficits will persist beyond our 10-year forecast? Is he seriously suggesting running the US into complete bankruptcy?

8:44 PM - Why is the President always talking about layoffs of "teachers and policemen?" What about people employed in the private sector? So far, I can't recall him ever saying word one about secretaries and plumbers.

8:55 PM - It's over.

9:55 PM - Two last thoughts. First, the arrogance. Approaching the podium, President Obama didn't walk; he strutted. Second, no matter what the question, the answer was "investment" in health care, energy, and education. The financial crisis is just an opportunity to invest.

EXACTLY!

Chris Muir strikes!
(March 23, 2009)

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT

On Saturday, there were “Tea Party” tax protests held in Orlando FL, Raleigh NC, Ridgefield CT, and Cincinnati OH. Round-up here.

Today I opened my Sunday Washington Post, and what did I find?

On the front page, below the fold, an article on Obama’s “volunteer” campaign (Obama’s Campaign Army on Road Again).

On page A-8, an article on a rally outside the AIG offices in Washington (In the Capital, a Glut of Outrage).

On page A-10, a full-page article on the anti-AIG demonstration outside the home of AIG executive Douglas Poling in Fairfield CT (Obama Looks for Calm in a Firestorm).

On page A-16, an article on the anti-war (in Iraq) march from the National Mall to the Pentagon (Protestors Mark Milestone). The largest demonstration (against the war) was estimated at 2000-2500 people.

The Tea Parties linked to above were more widespread, and at least one was larger than those reported on by the Post. Did I see any coverage of the Tea Parties?

Nope. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Nothing.

All the news that’s fit to print. Riiight.

[UPDATE] Oh, my God, an Instalanche! Thanks, Glenn, for the link.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming; please look around and come again.

MH

NOT IN MY BACK YARD

Don't Spoil Our Desert With Solar Panels: “California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy.”

"It would destroy the entire Mojave Desert ecosystem," said David Myers, executive director of The Wildlands Conservancy.

It would supply power to much of southern California, but tortises and aesthetics are much more important. In other words, put thesolar panels in someone else’s yard.

RECESSION? OR DEPRESSION?

More thoughts from Victor Davis Hanson:

Why are so many Americans so depressed about things these days? It is perhaps not just the economy.

I think the answer is clear: all the accustomed referents, the sources of security, of knowledge and reassurance appear to be vanishing.

Hanson never misses. Read it all.

SEND IN THE CLOWNS, II

I’m starting a new feature, SEND IN THE CLOWNS, because the caption is too good to waste with every new clown entering the Obama administration.

Welcome the latest clown: Jon Wellinghoff, a Nevada lawyer appointed as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Climate change will remain "a big priority for [Wellinghoff]. From everything I've read, we're in big trouble and we need to do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint."

Enter “cap and trade.” A Heritage Foundation analysis of the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill (less aggressive than Obama’s proposal) projects permit revenues of $1.6 trillion to $1.9 trillion from 2012 to 2019. Those “revenues” come from anyone who purchases energy (electricity, gasoline, natural gas, etc.). Think "taxes."

Wellinghoff envisions a more sophisticated electricity system with more big transmission lines and a "smart grid" with greater ability to coordinate fluctuations in wind and solar power with the demand from households, buildings and factories.

OK, let’s consider two items here. First, transmission lines, especially large, high-voltage lines, aren’t cheap. Who pays? Think "taxes."

Second, a “smart grid” implies control, not coordination. Think "regulation" - and "bureacracy."

He is also seeking greater authority over the siting of transmission lines that could carry renewable resources from sparsely populated places where they are plentiful to the cities and suburbs where those resources are most needed.

In other words, not in my back yard. Don’t put wind turbines in the ocean off Massachusetts where they can be seen ... put them in Kansas, or Nevada, or the Mojave desert. You know, one of those “sparsely populated places.” Think "your back yard, not mine" - and "arrogance."

A recent court ruling, which asserted states' rights to block transmission lines, could complicate that task. But Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) favors an increase in FERC's authority ...

Eminent domain, anyone? After all, who cares about Kansas farmland, or a cattle ranch in Texas. We’ll just give ‘em a few bucks and move them off properties that have been in families for generations. Think "your back yard, not mine."

[Wellinghoff] is a proponent of using electric cars to send electricity back to the electrical grid as well as draw from it. Electric-car owners could sign up with a company that would amalgamate hundreds or thousands of car owners and, based on their average behavior, promise to either draw down or send back electricity to the grid.

Oh, please. “Promise?” But skip the control aspect (and the implied bureaucracy) and consider the single word: efficiency. I haven’t tried to look up the numbers, but conversion efficiencies are typically in the low 90% range. Thus a double conversion to battery storage and back to AC for transmission may be as high as 80-85%. In a distributed plant – automobiles scattered all over the grid – I’m guessing maybe 70-75% at best. Think "stupid."

If the Obama administration was serious about energy, there is an obvious answer. Put nuclear power plants where the power is consumed – in Manhattan, for example. Also Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit,.... The transmission infrastructure is already in place, transmission losses are minimized, no “big transmission lines” are needed, and – Kansas gets its farmland back.

WHERE ARE THE CLOWNS?

Cal Thomas on the congressional frenzy to “recover” the $165 million in retention bonuses paid out by AIG:

When politicians get on their high horses about something, it is almost certain that a considerable amount of horse manure will get spread around. ... For politicians to complain about misspent tax dollars is like one of those tabloid honeys lamenting the decline in family values. ... This is all populism, of course, since the amount of money Congress wastes every minute makes whatever earned or unearned money paid to AIG employees pale by comparison.

Well, we know where the clowns are – elected to Congress.

THE END OF AMERICA?

THE END OF AMERICA? [R]iddled with slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship.

Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is cracking jokes on late night comedy shows, his energy minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is dithering over a banking reform program amid rising concerns over his competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U.S. Congress is launching another public jihad against corporations and bankers.

Is this the end of America?

Probably not, if only because there are good reasons for optimism. The U.S. economy has pulled out of self-destructive political spirals in the past, spurred on by its business class and corporate leaders, the profit-making and market-creating people who rose above the political turmoil to once again lift the world out of financial crisis.

I hope Terence Corcoran is correct in his assessment. Before the Obama administration, I probably would have agreed that the economy is strong enough to pull through; this time I’m no longer sure.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

From Pajamas Media: "After watching Ann Coulter’s stand-up routine at CPAC, I think a good case could be made that Jon Stewart is the liberal Coulter, except Stewart has less intellectual substance and a far nastier edge."

TOO FUNNY

TOTUS (the Teleprompter of the US) has a blog.

Enjoy.

SPRING IS HERE

But someone forgot to tell the weather gods; it's still COLD outside.

BEST PHOTO CAPTION EVER

POTUS Salutes TOTUS (Teleprompter of the US)
"Yes, Sir! As you say General Teleprompter!"

via Don Surber.

EARMARK MADNESS?

No, earmark entertainment. Daniel Henninger at the Wall Street Journal has an entertaining suggestion.

Joy in public life is hard to find these days, so I exhort conservatives to get over their anti-earmark mania and view the pork spectacle as (relatively) cheap entertainment.

Some Washington experts say that to come out from the shadows and join respectable society, this distasteful Congressional habit just needs to be reformed. I agree. Reform's watchword is "transparency."

Let's not be shy about this. Given its past sins, the earmark pork barrel must migrate to America's most transparent medium -- television.

On the "American Earmark" show, Senators and Representatives would have to do a song and dance about each of their projects. Sen. Jon Tester could sing out for $682,000 for Sustainable Beef Supply in Montana. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins could do a lovely duet for the $3.45 million Machias River project. Frank Luntz, the pollster, would assemble focus groups of local citizens who'd use those little post-debate machines to vote thumbs up or down on the competing pork.

These sectionals could be escalated to a televised national finals of earmark madness. Taxpayers for the first time would see some of earmarking's legendary professionals compete in public: John Murtha, Bobby Byrd, Dan Inouye ($238,000 this year for the Polynesian Voyaging Society), Virginia's Jim Moran.

Quoting Henninger, “Hey, it used to be your money. Why not enjoy it?”

Indeed. Grab your popcorn.

INAUGURATION 2009

When I learned to stop worrying and love the government.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

A reader on Instapundit writes:

After watching the Liddy debacle on C-SPAN, it has become painfully clear to me that our federal government is a joke. Those jerks were personally attacking a man working very hard to pull our collective butts out of the fire, all at great risk to his reputation, and for only $1 per year. I was angered and saddened.

Congress has zero accountability. The only solutions that I can come up with to address this are term limits and flat taxes. If the American people don’t put the reigns [sic] on these people by limiting the power of longevity and limiting their ability to tax us to death, we are doomed.

I vote the the Tea Party movement adopt term limits and flat taxes as major components of governmental reform.

Exactly! I only wish we had a parlimentary system where we could call for a vote of no confidence and send these clowns to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey where they belong. Though I doubt the “Greatest Show on Earth” would hire them.

GOING AFTER JOHN GALT?

Via Instapundit.

Is the IRS going after John Galt?

[I]f you're a small business person, either as a partnership or a Schedule C filer reporting self-employment income on your personal tax return, make sure you take extra care with your returns.
There's a good reason for the IRS' increased interest in small business filers. Because self-employment income typically has no verification mechanism (i.e., the IRS can't double check much of it in the way it can verify wage income via an employer-issued W-2), tax officials believe that many small business people underreport their income.

Since many small business owners are near that $250,000 cusp of the Obama tax plan, one must wonder.

‘TOO BIG TO FAIL’ A FAILURE

In today’s news:

The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says the government's strategy in the financial crisis of bailing out huge institutions deemed "too big to fail" must be replaced by a new model.

Umm ... isn’t that what we taxpayers have been screaming for months now? Let ‘em go bankrupt; then start over by assembling the pieces into smaller, more diversified, more nimble entities.

With that experience, we can then tackle the real problem: state and federal government. They’re also “too big to fail.”

GM CEO ENDORSES $4 GASOLINE

From the Washington Times:

In a surprising turnabout, General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said Tuesday that increasing the federal gasoline tax to guarantee a minimum price of $4 a gallon is an idea "worthy of consideration."

Another reason to let GM go bankrupt ...

NEW MARKET ANALYSIS

The Obama Factor. Richard Miller writes:

I have come to the conclusion that the recent stock market rally is not so much a bear market rally as it is a reaction in support of the growing bipartisan disenchantment with Obama’s spending, tax, and so-called stimulus plans — or, as some contend, the lack of any clear plan. His competence is now being openly questioned, even within his own party; the market has already reached solid and unpleasant conclusions about his management skills.

In an earlier post, I had come to much the same conclusion. Here is a chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the last two months (Jan 18 through March 18).



Here is a chart of President Obama's Presidential Approval Index from the Rasmussen daily tracking polls from January 21st through March 18th. The Approval Index is the difference between the percentage polled strongly approving President Obama's performance and the percentage of those disapproving.



I think, as I did earlier, that Wall Street finally concluded that the Obama administration is incompetent and decided to go it alone.

POLE DANCING

It's safe for work.

THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY

From John Paul Jones via Don Surber's place:

A French doctor says "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks."

A German doctor says "That is nothing; we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks."

The Russian doctor says "In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks."

An American doctor, not to be outdone, says "You guys are way behind. We recently took a man with no brains out of Illinois; put him in the White House, and now half the country is looking for work."

CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN

How About the End of Farmers Markets? Say Hello to H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009.

What this will do is force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the “Food Safety Administration.” Even growers who sell just fruit and/or vegetables at farmers markets would not only have to register, but they would be subject inspections by federal agents of their property and all records related to food production.

Some comments from Michael Silence’s blog.

Posted by bobby b:

Obama's idea of Hell is a society in which we don't brush up against some government official at least three times every day.

Government should be a constant daily presence in our lives, checking on us and approving us and correcting us as needed to keep us thinking correctly, regulating every aspect of interaction and commerce to make sure the wrong sorts don't take advantage of the right sorts, and reminding us that the right sorts have already determined what "correct thought" means, and no, sorry, that was a closed meeting.

Posted by Beth:

I thought I'd try my hand at growing veggies for the farmer's market and by selling my chicken's eggs. ... Are they even going to let me eat my own eggs and produce?

And I was going to start a garden this spring. Oh, well.

DUMB INVENTIONS

A kitty wig. Shadow is NOT happy ...

For other dumb inventions, go here.

My personal favorites are the pedal-powered wheelchair and the battery-operated battery charger.

IT'S 3 AM IN THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE

Linked from a PowerLine post on White House teleprompter use. Read the rest of the post here.

INSULTING WEASELS?

Michelle Malkin likes to use the term "crapweasel" to describe politicians who arouse her ire.

A commenter responds: "No weasel in its right mind wants to be associated with these people."

I agree: the weasel is getting a bum rap.

IT’S MY FAULT?

Kathleen Parker thinks

“[T]he biggest challenge facing America's struggling newspaper industry may not be the high cost of newsprint or lost ad revenue, but ignorance stoked by drive-by punditry ... non-journalists who have been demonizing the media for the past 20 years or so and who blame the current news crisis on bias.” ... “And, yes, some newspapers are more liberal than their readership and do a lousy job of concealing it.”

Hmm. It’s my fault newspapers are declining because I’ve been accusing them of bias. But, yes, they’re biased. Okaaay ...

“But the greater truth is that newspaper reporters, editors and institutions are responsible for the boots-on-the-ground grub work that produces the news stories and performs the government watchdog role so crucial to a democratic republic.”

Half right. Produces news stories is correct. But “performs the government watchdog role” is flat wrong. That's my responsibility – and yours – as citizens and voters.

“How does the newspaper industry survive in a climate in which the public doesn't know what it doesn't know? Or what it needs?”

Again, half right. But it’s wrong, flatly, deadly wrong for journalism to claim that its their responsibility to decide for the public “what it needs.”

“[Journalists] are the champions of the industry, not the ... bloggers ... who rely on newspapers to provide their material.”

Journalists are essential, yes, but only to the extent that they report the facts and not their opinions.

[Alex S.] Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, says newspapers have to focus on their traditional core of fact-based, serious reporting.

Close, but no cigar. Replace the phrase “fact-based” with the single word “factual” and you’ve got it.

We might add to that formula the need for a serious populace informed about the fragile thread that connects a free press to a free future.

We’re already here. We’re called “bloggers.”

SWINE ODOR CONTROL

The swine odor research earmark was for Congress!

From a twitter on Michelle Malkin's blog: “My recommendation is that people look no further than the halls of Congress to find the stench of pork.”

OH, REALLY?

Headline from today’s Washington Post (print edition): “White House calls bonuses a late surprise”.

It’s pretty clear that the Obama administration took the training wheels off a bit early.

HE’S BAAACK ...

Seen in Washington DC.

BROKEN RECORD

Phil Kerpen, the Director of Policy at Americans for Prosperity lists Obama’s top five broken promises:

Promise #1: Sunlight Before Signing
Promise #2: Lobbyist Revolving Door
Promise #3: No Tax Hikes on the Poor (cigarettes, cap-and-trade, etc.)
Promise #4: Pork Barrel Earmark Reform
Promise #5: (I don’t believe in) Big Government

And now .... Promise #N: Taxing Health Care Premiums

At least he’s consistent - consistently breaking inconvenient promises.

Rather than count the promises he’s broken, it might be easier to count the one he’s kept.

ANOTHER NEWSPAPER DOWN

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer went out of business as a “news” paper yesterday – although apparently there will still be a web-based version. Good riddance.

Look, I like newspapers; I subscribe to two – the Washington Post and the Washington Times. But I’ll probably give up the Post soon, simply because I’m tired of finding opinion in a “news” story, and switch to a small local paper. And no, I don’t favor the Times because it conservative, I favor it because its news stories are more news than opinion.

When the newspapers return to reporting news factually (who, what, when, where,and how), then (I think) readership will return. I will.

NGO – THE DEMOCRATIC EQUIVALENT OF CHARITY

Some charities and nonprofit experts are worried that President Obama’s proposal to impose new limits on charitable tax deductions for wealthy people would dampen giving at a time when charities are under severe strain because of the recession.

So let me get this right. The government will tax the charitable contributions of “the rich”, likely reducing the amount of their contributions, and then it to various “non-profit” non-governmental organizations (NGOs) organizations that are committed to social and economic justice (think ACORN).

It sure sounds to me that the Obama administration doesn’t trust me to direct my charitable contributions to the right places.

CHANGING COURSE

Obama promised to change direction from the Bush presidency.

Did he?

Or did he just push down on the accelerator?

A NATION OF COWARDS

Even though it happened last month, this still rankles. In his official capacity as Attorney General, Eric Holder spoke to Justice Department employees, saying:

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. ...

We, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race. ...

It is an issue we have never been at ease with and, given our nation's history, this is in some ways understandable. If we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us."

Al Barger at Blogcritics responds:

“This is an exceptionally stupid, wrong and dishonest thing to say. on every level, though it's a common refrain of left wingers such as Mr. Holder.” ... “What left wingers generally mean by saying that we haven't talked enough about race is not that we should have an open, honest discussion of our observations and perspectives on racial issues. It's that Whitey should feel more guilty and seek penance of being lectured to by self-righteous liberals — and of course giving over yet more of our money.”

The Examiner responds as well:

"Actually, what 'we' don’t talk about concerning racial issues is how Democrats are guilty of prejudice. 'We' talk plenty when a Republican is involved.

Ironically, it is this very double standard that is cowardly, for if the Left really want to end racism they must be willing to confront it within their own ranks and not just when their political opponents transgress."

And responds again:

"Not only were Holder’s comments morally bankrupt, demonstrably untrue, and compelling proof of his own outlandish hubris; they also carried distinctly chilling undertones of government coercion. It is not the province of law enforcement chiefs to be judges and chief scolds of what their countrymen discuss. ...The glaring hubris of a man who would deem himself fit to pronounce such moral judgments on his fellow citizens is astonishing."

John Derbyshire at National Review responds to the cowardice accusation:

“If we are afraid to talk about race, it’s with good reason. For white people, at least, talking openly about race is a sure way to get yourself in trouble. ... For an ordinary white middle-class Joe, with a family to feed and a job to hold on to, by far the wisest strategy is just to keep his mouth shut, parrot a few multi-culti catch-phrases if the topic comes up, rent a couple of good action movies to see him through the Martin Luther King holiday, and take a crossword puzzle along to keep himself awake through those Diversity Awareness seminars his company makes him attend once a year in hopes of insulating the firm against nuisance “discrimination” lawsuits.”

If Holder wants to have “have frank conversations about the racial matters” then it’s time to have the racists on the Democrat side of the partisan divide to shut up, sit down, and listen.

AND THE REST OF CONGRESS TOO

Isn't this stimulating? Barney Frank and I (almost) agree on something.

Echoing outrage expressed on both sides of the political aisle in the wake of revelations that American International Group will pay roughly $165 million in bonuses, Frank said he believes it's time to shake up the company.

"These people may have a right to their bonuses. They don't have a right to their jobs forever," said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Yes, Barney Frank should go.

I’ve got no brief for AIG, but the real anger should be directed toward the clowns in the White House and Congress who are busily throwing our hard-earned money down every toilet in the nation.

WHAT’S NEXT? OPRAH?

From Fox News: President Obama is heading back to the late-night circuit, with an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" set for this week.

Jeez. I thought we had a President, not a late-night show comedian.

OBAMA? CARTER?

I’m not the first to consider a comparison between Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter - a quick Google search with the phrase “Obama Carter comparison” will generate over 17 million hits – and I certainly won’t be the last.

With less than two months into the Obama administration, two things strike me as obvious. Both men are clearly incompetent and both are self-righteous, close-minded, dogmatics.

But there is one striking difference. Carter believed in the American dream but was convinced that Americans had lost the will to achieve it.

Obama is actively hostile to that dream.

President Obama is on track to becoming the worst American president of the 21st century.

MULTI-FRONT MANDATE

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson is convinced that “Obama is right to pile his plate high.” Robinson argues

Advice to "fix" the financial system before even thinking about health care, energy or education is either misguided or disingenuous.

And

This isn't about Rahm Emanuel's too-cute admonition not to "waste" a good crisis. It's about honoring a clear mandate.

Robinson continues by bemoaning the “multitrillion-dollar bailout for the banks,” a “wasteful and ruinously expensive” health care system, and “dependen[cy] on foreign oil.”

He continues: “The ‘overload’ criticism makes sense, until you think about it.” And “I would argue that a laserlike focus on the financial crisis, to the exclusion of everything else, is unlikely to improve the situation and may actually make things worse.”

Robinson shouldn't have thought about it; he was correct to begin with.

I can attest to the fact that the “overload” criticism does make sense.

Been there, done that, learned from the mistake.

As a systems engineer with considerable experience in the design and development of large systems, it’s taken as gospel that you don’t tackle big problems all at once. You break them into smaller, more manageable systems and work them one at a time. It used to be called “build a little, test a little;” the current phrase du jour is “spiral development.”

Today, a “laserlike focus on the financial crisis, to the exclusion of everything else” is exactly the right approach. Why? Here’s an analogy: one doesn’t build a high-rise by constructing and occupying the 17th floor first -- without a foundation, keeping it airborne is tricky.

And the foundation for today’s problems is the financial and banking system. Fix it, and the rest of America’s problems become manageable. Don’t and, well, that 17th floor isn’t going to stay hanging in the sky for very long.

Robinson again:

Here's the real question: Do we throw all that money into the apparently bottomless pit of Wall Street's irresponsibility and greed? Or do we spend some of it on initiatives that will make the American people healthier, better educated and less dependent on foreign oil -- and that, in the long run, should make us all more prosperous?

Ignoring the ad hominem attack on “Wall Street’s irresponsibility and greed,” here’s the real question: Do we continue to put our children and grandchildren deeper and deeper in debt in a vain hope that Government irresponsibility will compensate for our own? Or do we step up, act responsibly and individually to fix what ails and move on?

CAN’T WE ALL AGREE?

Victor Davis Hanson on some “hopenchange” measures that could get bipartisan support. I’ve paraphrased, so please read it all.

1) Recently the UN Secretary-General termed the US a “deadbeat” donor ... cannot we hope and change this organization out of New York? A UN headquarters in Nairobi or Lagos would save millions in transportation costs, and allow UN employees a feel for problems in a way New York does not.

2) We had a 9/11 Commission; a Baker-Hamilton Commission on Iraq. So why not a Meltdown Commission. Collate all the campaign contributions from the failed banks, Madoff, the entire open sewer of politics and high finance, and then let the commission issue a white paper on when, why, and how it all went down.

3) Farm subsidies. I never understood why a plum or grape grower got nothing and survived, and much wealthier cotton growers got lots, thrived, and said they would go broke without federal largess.

4) Our Ambassadors. Can we stop appointing the wealthy and well-connected to ambassadorships? Iimagine majors and colonels never making generals, who were instead appointed on the basis of campaign contributions.

5) When will the public simply ridicule the practice of naming buildings, highways, bridges, schools after living representatives and senators? If we must name infrastructure after our congressional grandees, cannot we at least wait until they are dead?

6) Do no harm. Yes, do nothing for a few months. Why not relax for 100 days and let the markets correct?

TAX THE RICH? IT'S BEEN DONE ALREADY

I originally posted on this subject when my daughter was laid off. Now it’s time for a little bit of the history of taxing the rich. First, the prediction, taken from a letter to the editor of the New York Times published on January 3, 1991:

I have been in the boat business since 1972. The luxury tax that came into effect this year is in general unfair, but as it pertains to boats, grossly so. My industry was singled out and is being crushed by this tax. This will translate into lost jobs for about 600,000 people if something is not done quickly.

JOE MEGLEN
Dana Point, Calif.
Dec. 27, 1990

And the result (taken from the transcript of a PBS News Hour program broadcast on January 1, 1996):

KWAME HOLMAN: According to David MacFarlane, president of Alden Yachts, Dockery's order brought the company back from the brink of collapse. MacFarlane thinks back to November 1990, when President Bush and the Democratic majority in Congress agreed to levy the luxury tax. He says he still can't believe they did it.

DAVE MacFARLANE, Alden Yachts: I don't know anybody in the Marine industry that didn't know that there was a total disaster to start, and it's still amazing to think how somebody could come up with an idea that would shut off a business, and everybody that was in the business knew this would happen, and yet it floated right through.

KWAME HOLMAN: The theory behind the luxury tax sounded simple enough. Congress believed anyone willing to spend $100,000 or more on a new boat surely would be willing to pay an additional 10 percent to the federal government. But that didn't happen. Rather than pay the tax, many people in the market to buy a boat either didn't buy one, or bought one overseas. As a result, the luxury tax didn't bring in much money at all, and the customers' reluctance to buy put the boat-building business, particularly here in Rhode Island, out of business. We first visited Rhode Island in June of 1992. The luxury tax had been in effect for 18 months. Tens of thousands of jobs had been lost across the country, thousands in Rhode Island alone.

And now the Democrats want to do it again? Don’t I remember from somewhere something about those refusing to read history being condemned to repeat it? And something to the effect that history repeats itself, first as a tragedy, then as a farce?

Jeez. This administration makes Robin Hood look like a piker.

IS THE ERA OF BIG GOVERNMENT OVER?

The stock market has gone up for four straight days.

Wall Street appears to have decided that it can’t afford the Government’s dithering with a “recovery stimulus” and it’s now time to “do it itself.”

“Tea Parties” are continuing throughout the nation. They haven’t gotten much national attention (yet), but at the grassroots level, the tea parties seem to be getting traction. Taxpayers are saying loudly and clearly that they are disgusted with Congress and the Obama administration.

Congressional overreach and chaos at Obama’s Treasury Department may be a blessing in disguise.

So I ask: “Is the era of Big Government over?”

THE DIVIDER IN CHIEF

Victor Davis Hanson scores again with good advice for President Obama. The Obama administration responds.

Hanson: Forget talk radio.
Obama Administration: We are. Rush won.

Hanson:Forget about George Bush.
Obama Administration: Rush won. Back to Bush.

Hanson: Drop the messianic style.
Obama Administration: The teleprompter made him do it.

Hanson: Enough of the evil “rich.”
Obama Administration: It distracts the people from the likes of William (“Cold Cash”) Jefferson, Charley Rangel, and John Murtha.

Hanson: Stop the dissimulation.
Obama Administration: What’s dissimulation?

Read VDH's post; it's worth the time.

RICH DEMOCRATS

Gary Andres asks why the “rich” support Democrats.

My guess is that they simply consider high taxes a cost of doing business; an investment in future earnings from access.

Those without access, the “almost rich” – those with incomes in the $200-$500 thousand range - are "going John Galt” because the marginal tax burden is so high that it’s hardly worth working to earn that next dollar.

OH, THE DEBTS WE WILL SEE!

More from Victor Davis Hanson.

These numbers are so fantastic, so absolutely crazed, that the thought of ever paying them off boggles the mathematical senses.

A trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there ... pretty soon you're talking real money.

Read it all.

REASON TV AT THE DC "TEA PARTY"

Reason TV was at the Washington DC "tea party" I posted on earlier.



Here's their take on the protest.

RUSH TO FAILURE

Barack Obama was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2009. Twenty-four days later, on February 13, the Economic Stimulus Act was passed. It was signed into law on February 17. It seems to me that the Democrats were in somewhat of a rush to spend roughly $1 trillion (Ed: that’s 12 zeros following the number 1).

After Rush Limbaugh declared that he wanted "the President to fail” – meaning, of course that he wanted the President’s programs to fail, the Democrats attacked with this billboard.



Ouestion: Are the Democrats so stupid as to not realize that that very slogan applies as much -- if not more -- to them as it does to Rush Limbaugh’s comment?

Answer: Why, yes. Yes they are.

[Update] From Hot Air, a very perceptive commenter:

Hmmm….guess they pulled the pin and forgot to throw.
ElectricPhase on March 14, 2009 at 8:04 PM

[Update 2] Yosimite Sam and Porky Pig keep coming to mind ....

OBAMA AS LINCOLN - REALLY?

JUST FOR FUN

Spotted a bright apple green Honda Element on the road to work today.

License plate - GRNPEA

DEBT STAR? OR DEATH STAR?

Shamelessly stolen from Glenn Reynolds.

Frankly, I’m not sure that “Death Star” isn’t a better descriptor. It does seem that the Obama administration is calling for the death of that shining city on a hill, death of capitalism, death of American exceptionalism – simply put, the death of the American dream.

AWED BY HIS BRILLIANCE

Could Obama Be Just Too Awesome?

“[We] need to know that if Obama’s actions seem stupid or insulting, it’s only because [we] are not yet able to understand his splendor. We must remember that while Obama’s brilliant radiance may fill us with awe, it could actually hurt the eyes of those unused to such light.”

Read the whole post.

WHY FLY SOUTHWEST?

SAVE $9,530 A YEAR TAKING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

WASHINGTON - People who opt for public transportation over driving in the D.C. metro area can save $9,530 a year or $794 a month, a new report finds.

The report linked to an American Public Transportation Association public transit calculator that allows you to enter your individual information (for a number of cities, including D.C.) to calculate your savings by taking public transportation instead of your car.

I tried it. My car is a small truck, about 20 mpg (can’t go fast enough during the commute for the truck to get beyond a fast idle). Commute distance is 58 miles round trip. Using fare information from the Virginia Railway Express, the Washington DC Metro, and estimating the cost of a parking space at $7.50/day based on a monthly rate, I had my annual savings estimated:

-$1002.82

That’s right. Public transportation would cost me roughly $1,000 more per year than driving in to work. Not to mention that it would cost an extra hour of commute time each day.

What happened to that $9,530 savings?

AUGUSTINE’S LAWS

Norman R. Augustine, former chairman of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, wrote a book which I have used as a systems engineering “bible” for nearly as many years as I have been a practicing systems engineer. In it, he has written fifty-two “laws” about life, engineering, and defense acquisition which are both humorous and prescient.

Here’s Augustine:

It took the federal government seventy-seven years to build up to where it could dispose of $1 billion in a single year. It reached the $10 billion level in another fifty-three years, jumped to $100 billion in just forty-three more years, and required only twenty-five years to smash through the $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000.00 for those who like figures) barrier. “Blessed are the young,” said Herbert Hoover, “for they shall inherit the national debt.”

President Obama exceeded $1 trillion in only 30 days.

The significance of these observations is obvious.

Law Number LII “People working in the private sector should try to save money. There remains the possibility that it may someday be valuable again.”

HMM

The stock market has been up for two consecutive days.

Is it because Wall Street is beginning to have some confidence in the Obama administration? Or because Wall Street has no confidence in the Obama administration and has decided to go it alone?

I'd like to hope for the former, but I'm betting on the latter.

WELL ...

At today’s rate of decline (1%) the Dow Jones Industrial Average should cross the 5,000 mark on Tax Day (April 15) and 3,000 by Independence Day (July 4).

Beyond that I’m afraid to go.

[Update} The comment: “Once the Titanic is under water, does it really matter how much farther it sinks?”

Thank you. That made my day!

BRAIN DRAIN?

They're Taking Their Brains and Going Home.

Vivek Wadhwa is concerned about a “reverse brain-drain” – foreign nationals taking their degrees in the US and then going home. According to Wadhwa, that’s bad:

When smart young foreigners leave these shores, they take with them the seeds of tomorrow's innovation. Almost 25 percent of all international patent applications filed from the United States in 2006 named foreign nationals as inventors. Immigrants founded a quarter of all U.S. engineering and technology companies started between 1995 and 2005, including half of those in Silicon Valley. In 2005 alone, immigrants' businesses generated $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers.

Why is that bad? In the past, the US has taken the best and brightest from third-world countries, educated them, and kept them in the US, depriving those countries of the very people most likely to move those countries to first-world status.

Why is it bad to deny the third world the opportunity to move up to first world status? According to Wadwha,

[A]lthough immigrants accounted for only 12 percent of the U.S. workforce, they made up 47 percent of all scientists and engineers with doctorates. What's more, 67 percent of all those who entered the fields of science and engineering between 1995 and 2006 were immigrants.

What will happen to America's competitive edge when these people go home?

Well, for starters, perhaps it will spur the US to take a long, critical look at our incredibly lousy feelings-based elementary and secondary school systems and fix them. It wouldn’t hurt to do the same at the university level as well.

ON THE MARK

Commenter J has a way with words: "If you are not in control of the services that you receive, you are not free."

That says it all, I think.

Via Don Surber's place.

BREAKING NEWS ...

The headline in today's Washington Post: Job Losses Could Drown Stimulus

Gee, ya think?

ANOTHER JOHN GALT

From the Letters to the Editor page of the Los Angeles Times, another taxpayer goes Galt:

I have employed about 50 people during the last 20 years, and my family’s taxable income is about $300,000. In order to avoid paying a higher percentage of taxes on all of my income, I will decrease output, lay off some staff and still end up keeping the same amount.

I have no incentive to hire people or expand my business, because the more I make, the more President Obama will take to expand government. This discourages expansion of the private sector. It will backfire with disastrous consequences for all.

It is repulsive that Obama is being allowed to take this country backward by pickpocketing the very people who run the private sector through their energy, money and creativity.

Kay Santos
Diamond Bar

Michelle Malkin reported on this letter on her website, eliciting the following comment:

Comment #11 on March 4th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

lgm said: Both you and the LATimes have been punked. This letter is a hoax. As long as his marginal return is positive he has an incentive to make more money. If he really were in business he would know that.

Uh, sorry lgm, although I have no direct knowledge of its authenticity, the letter is quite likely real. My wife and I are “going Galt” on much less income. With a $300,000 pre-tax income and a marginal tax rate approaching 70%, I’m rather certain that Kay Santos, like myself, can find more rewarding things to do in the time it would take to earn the 30 cents that marginal dollar is worth.

You might want to consider re-taking Economics 101 at your local community college.

EMBRACE THE FAILURE

Following the attacks on Rush Limbaugh, David Harsanyi asks “Is it inherently unpatriotic or immoral to want to see a president fail?”

After eight years of seething hatred -- plenty of it deserved -- for George W. Bush, this brand of contrived indignation touches a new level of creative dishonesty.

[M]any of us are hoping that all those in power fail, because those in power have a grating habit of being annoyingly self-righteous, hopelessly corrupt, resolutely incompetent and completely apathetic about the freedoms that they have sworn to protect.

Embrace the failure. It's patriotic.

Nothing personal.

THE DOW WOKE UP

Unfortunately.

DJIA is down 75 points at 1 pm. I expect it to close down around 120 points.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Update @ 4:30 pm] Whew! that was close. The DJIA rose almost 150 points in the last half-hour of trading to close up 30 points for the day. Never have I been happier to have guessed wrong.

ANKLE-BITING DEMOCRATS

From The Fix in the Washington Post.

"Rush is the bloated face and drug-addled voice of the Republican Party," said Paul Begala, a longtime Democratic strategist who rose to prominence during Bill Clinton's presidency. "Along with lots of others, I intend to continue to turn up the heat until every alleged Republican either endorses or renounces Rush's statement that he hopes our President fails."

Read what Limbaugh actually said:

This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we've got. That's nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it, why in the world do I want what we just described, rampant government growth indebtedness, wealth that's not even being created yet that is being spent, what is in this? What possibly is in this that anybody of us wants to succeed?

So what is so strange about being honest to say that I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?

I was under the impression that the Democrats were the ones who were sophisticated and nuanced [And you believed them? – Ed. C’mon, Shadow, let it be.] but they seem to have trouble understanding the difference between wanting Obama to fail and wanting Obama’s agenda to fail.

On this one, I’m with Rush Limbaugh. I hope ... no, pray ... that President Obama fails to push his agenda through Congress.

The full text of Limbaugh’s CPAC address is here.

I AM AN AMERICAN. I WILL NOT GIVE UP MY LIBERTY.