From TNOYF.com

ABOUT TIME

Criminal charges filed against ACORN.

It's a start.

NARCISSM AND POLITICS

A lot of people talk about Constitutional amendments to get rid of this tax, or that policy. But ultimately, I think that unless you get rid of our dangerous narcissistic political class, any Constitution will be ignored ....

And read the comments.

VOUCHERS

Generally I tend to favor public schools and am agnostic on vouchers. But when a school system is as abysmally poor as the Washington DC public schools, this is simply outrageous.



Political payback, as pure and simple as you'll ever see. Go here for more.

NO TAX INCREASES ...

... on 95% of U.S. taxpayers, so said President Obama. Here’s an interesting little tidbit. An excise tax is a Federal or state tax imposed on the manufacture and distribution of certain non-essential consumer goods such as environmental taxes, communications taxes, fuel taxes – and liquor taxes, and cigarette taxes (which have just gone up 60 cents a pack).

Where does the burden of these taxes fall?



You guessed it – on the lowest two income quintiles, second only to FICA/Medicare taxes.

No new taxes, huh? Nope. Not if you’re an environmentally sensitive, health conscious, non-drinking, non-smoking, non-cell-phone-owning, bicycle-riding-to-work low income taxpayer.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR OBAMACARE CARD?

And you seriously want national health care with Obama in charge? “We’re not producing enough primary-care physicians,”Obama said at one forum. “The costs of medical education are so high that people feel that they’ve got to specialize.”

Don’t you believe it. “A primary discouragement to the pursuit of medical degrees is, in fact, the onerous amount of regulation already foisted on medical practitioners .... Combine the discouraging expansion of bureaucratic paper shuffling requirements with the punitive cost of malpractice insurance and you have the regulatory perfecta, reducing the number of men and women willing to undergo the rigorous demands of preparing for the medical profession.”

Still don’t believe government intrusion is a leading reason for the doctor shortage? Then ask yourself this simple question:

“Am I the only one noticing the dearth of calls in America to fill the shortage of lawyers in our country?”

Of course not. Insufficient regulation and the subsequent massive amount of cash available to those pursuing malpractice suits ensures a huge oversupply of lawyers.

Read the entire article.

AUTHENTICITY CHIC

Get ready for authenticity chic. Peggy Noonan, writing in the WSJ:

In New York some signs of that future are obvious: fewer cars, less traffic, less of the old busy hum of the economic beehive. New York will, literally, get dimmer. Its magical bright-light nighttime skyline will glitter less as fewer companies inhabit the skyscrapers and put on the lights that make the city glow.

....

A prediction: By 2010 the mayor, in a variation on broken-window theory, will quietly enact a bright-light theory, demanding that developers leave the lights on whether there are tenants in the buildings or not, lest the world stand on a rise in New Jersey and get the impression no one's here and nobody cares.

A curious article by Noonan; a blend of amusement at the NYC establishment elite’s faux environmentalism, and realization that no one (outside NYC) cares about their “authenticity.” Read the whole thing.

A DOMESTIC POLITICAL ARMY?

This one bothers me. Thomas Sowell wonders:

The Director of Homeland Security is worried about "right-wing extremists."

According to the same official document, the Department of Homeland Security "has no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence."

But somehow they just know that you right-wingers are itching to unleash terror somewhere, somehow.

In one sense, the Department of Homeland Security paper is silly. In another sense, it can be sinister as a revealing and disturbing sign of the preoccupations and priorities of this administration -- and their willingness to witch hunt and demonize those who dare to disagree with them.

Barack Obama during last year's election campaign that got remarkably little attention in the media. He suggested the creation of a federal police force, comparable in size to the military. Why such an organization? For what purpose?

In short, a federal police force could become President Obama's personal domestic political army, his own storm troopers.

Perhaps there will never be such a federal police force. But the targeting of individuals and groups who believe in some of the fundamental values on which this country was founded, and people who have demonstrated their patriotism by volunteering for military service, suggests that this potential for political abuse is worth watching, as Obama tries to remake America to fit his vision.

Sowell is black, and grew up during the Jim Crow segregation era, so perhaps he is overly sensitive. But still ... he should know. This one bothers me.

UPDATE TO OBAMA PRESS CONFERENCE

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, has told U.S. officials the next two weeks are critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive, FOX News has learned.

"The Pakistanis have run out of excuses" and are "finally getting serious" about combating the threat from Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists operating out of Northwest Pakistan, the general added.

But Petraeus also said wearily that "we've heard it all before" from the Pakistanis and he is looking to see concrete action by the government to destroy the Taliban in the next two weeks before determining the United States' next course of action, which is presently set on propping up the Pakistani government and military with counterinsurgency training and foreign aid.

Petraeus made these assessment in talks with lawmakers and Obama administration officials this week, according to individuals familiar with the discussions.

They said Petraeus and senior administration officials believe the Pakistani army, led by Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, is "superior" to the civilian government, led by President Ali Zardari, and could conceivably survive even if Zardari's government falls to the Taliban.

So perhaps the “veiled threat” I alluded to wasn’t so veiled after all. More complete commentary here.