HUH? IN AN OTHERWISE DECENT COMMENTARY on the increasing isolation of the military from the rest of our society, E.J. Dionne writes “Can we ever return to a time when we pay proper homage to the service of our warriors, living and dead? Closing the divide that exists between military life and the rest of our society is the first step on that path. Achieving that end is the single best reason for ending the ban on gays in the military.”

To argue that gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military is one thing, but to claim that doing so will close the divide ”that exists between military life and the rest of society” is, shall we say, a bit over the top.

Read the whole thing and see if the rest of Dionne’s commentary is consistent with his claim.

MEMORIAL DAY 2010: a view from the porch.

ROLLING THUNDER 2010 came to the National Mall yesterday, continuing today. Here the motorcycles begin the trip from the Pentagon over the Memorial Bridge to the Vietnam War Memorial. The Air Force sergeant remained at the bridge entrance for the duration of the veteran's ride across the bridge.



About an hour later, Rolling Thunder is still going strong.



Another half-hour passes, Rolling Thunder continues. Most of the riders are returning the sergeant's salute. I timed the cyclists' passage at about 1 motorcycle per second for nearly three hours. Between 9 and 12 thousand had passed when we finally left our perch on the bridge to go to the Mall for other ceremonies.



A look down the bridge to the Mall with the Washington Monument in the background.



One of the few non-motorcycles to make the trek from the Pentagon - a remembrance of soldiers lost from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington D.C.



And finally, a concert for the Rolling Thunder veterans at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The band is the U.S. Army band "Downrange". They were excellent, and greeted enthusiatically by the vets.

MEMORIAL DAY 2010 in Washington D.C.

Arlington National Cemetary





The 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles" Memorial at Arlington National Cemetary.



World War II Memorial on the National Mall. One of the few remaining WWII veterans was there having having his picture taken with his family.




A view of the Washington Monument from the WWII Memorial.



Korean War Memorial on the National Mall.





Vietnam War Memorial on the National Mall.





And a final remembrance.

PLAN "B": Wally channels the Obama strategy ....
































From Dilbert.

BP ANNOUNCES ‘TOP KILL’ PROCEDURE has failed to plug the oil leak in the Gulf, yet another setback in trying to control the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

So -- now that the President has announced that he is 'in charge' why doesn’t he just walk out to the spill site and command the oil to stop flowing? Isn’t he the man who, two years ago this week, "declared that his very nomination as Democratic-party presidential candidate (never mind his election, or inauguration) marked the moment when ‘our planet began to heal’ and ‘the rise of the oceans began to slow’?"

IS OBAMA creating a new entitlement culture in America?

Entitlements in the Obama era are no longer a decent provision for the vulnerable; they are intended for citizens at every stage of life.

He’s certainly trying.

Americans resist taking this lollipop precisely because America is not Europe -- which even Europe, it seems, can no longer afford to be.

But, hopefully, not succeeding. Read the whole thing.

JINDAL ACTS; Obama waffles.

Louisiana's request to build sand barriers to protect marshes threatened by oil was still "under consideration" -- nearly two weeks after Gov. Bobby Jindal made the request.

Obama yesterday finally gave the go-ahead to build the sand barriers -- but only for half of the 86 miles requested.

That's hardly reassuring to the people of Louisiana -- who have already been forced to close three beaches.

“The 1990 Oil Pollution Act ... created new procedures for offshore cleanups, specifically putting the federal government in charge of such operations.” And 40 days later, our President finally “took charge.”

As I pointed out in an earlier post, the first priority should be to plug the d#*! hole; the second priority should be to clean up, and the last priority to apportion blame. Looks like the President got the order backwards.

SARAH PALIN: Passing the buck doesn’t “Plug the D#*! Hole.”

HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE COMPETENT. Peggy Noonan writing in the Wall Street Journal:

The president, in my view, continues to govern in a way that suggests he is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen. This is a terrible thing to see in a political figure, and a startling thing in one who won so handily and shrewdly in 2008. But he has not, almost from the day he was inaugurated, been in sync with the center. The heart of the country is thinking each day about A, B and C, and he is thinking about X, Y and Z. They're in one reality, he's in another.

Of course. He’s from the “reality-based” community. Read it all.

ADDED. Peggy Noonan has joined the Tea Party: “When you ask a government far away in Washington to handle everything, it will handle nothing well.” Welcome, Peggy.

BRASS OVARIES

Maybe it's time to unleash the "mama grizzlies."

Linked from Instapundit.

THE WHITE HOUSE wants Congress to grant President Obama “expedited recission authority” - a weakened line-item veto. But when former President George W. Bush requested almost exactly the same expedited rescission authority Obama now wants for himself, then-Senator Obama opposed it.

So Bush couldn’t be trusted to exercise that authority responsibly, but Obama can.

Yeah, right. It's all about control.

'JOBS' BILL PICKS UP leftover costs from ObamaCare: “[L]awmakers promised doctors a long-term fix if they would back the Democratic health care reform bill. Initially, this expenditure was included in President Obama's $1 trillion national health program, but it was stripped out in order to keep the bill from adding $59 billion to the deficit.... Now it comprises nearly one fifth of the cost of the jobs package.”

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER: regulator or racketeer?

Racketeer sounds more nearly correct.

DOWN IN THE POLLS, Democrats at war with themselves. “What we're seeing here are attempts to scramble out of trouble by members of a party whose big government policies have proved, to their surprise, to be highly unpopular.”

Their surprise, perhaps; not mine.

PUNCHING BACK: Nina Easton on SEIU’s home invasion. Watch both video clips.

I wonder if SEIU is aware that Maryland is a "Castle Doctrine" state. They should think long and hard before trying that stunt again.

PLUG THE DAMN HOLE


Probably not what he had in mind.

THERE WAS A TIME when $5 billion was real money; now it's just pocket change. The nation's public debt, according to the obscure Treasury Department website that tracks it, stood at $12,995,779,490,444.52 on Tuesday, just $5 billion short of thirteen trillion dollars.

UPDATE: Interesting - the debt tracker, supposedly updated daily, is still stuck on Tuesday.

THE GREY LADY: taking the ‘new’ out of news.

Linked from Instapundit.

DEATH OF THE POSTMODERN DREAM: “Bankruptcy, not politics, is the final arbiter ....”

Read it all.

SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS on the meaning of “ObamaCare”. If you’re in favor of health care reform, how can it be pejorative?

Instapundit notices, too.

A NEW LOW: Obama’s Presidential Approval Index, as tracked by Rasmussen Reports, has dropped to a new low of -22 today.


Gulf oil spill, perhaps?

BLACK PANTHER REDUX. A trial attorney with the Department of Justice’s Voting Rights Section has resigned, citing concerns about the government’s refusal to prosecute a case involving voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party.

I would like to believe this won’t be swept under the rug, but it will.

SEX LIVES of Supreme Court justices. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

HOW LONG does the Most Transparent Administration Ever plan to play dodgeball with the public?

As long as it takes to gain full control of the country.

OIL SPILL INSIGHTS from a retired manager of an offshore underwater service company. A clear and concise description of the technical aspects of deep-water drilling.

And a bit of an odd post, as well, since from the comments and other posts the Oil Drum appears to be something of an "environmental survivalist" web site.

NON ILLEGITIMI CARBORUNDUM. Watch the whole thing; the post title will make sense at the end.

MY COUNTRY, ‘TIS OF ME: Michael Kinsley believes the Tea Party Patriots are all about me.

[A] third of all adults support the Tea Party, and slightly less than a quarter oppose it. Do they know what they are supporting, or opposing?

For the Tea Party supporters, yes, as a matter of fact, we do. And if Kinsley had ever attended an event, he might as well. In comparing the Tea Party movement to the anti-war 1960’s, Kinsley writes:

[T]he 1960s were by, for, and about young people. The Tea Party movement is by, for, and about middle-aged and old people. If young people discover a cause and become a bit overwrought or monomaniacal, that’s easily forgiven as part of the charm of youth. When adults of middle age and older throw tantrums and hold their breath until they turn blue, it’s less charming.

Hmm. When young people riot in the streets, vandalize private property, and plot to blow up people, it’s being “a bit overwrought.” When adults hold peaceful protests, it’s “less charming.” Did Kinsley and I live through a different 60’s?

The antiwar movement and the 1960's changed America in numerous ways forever. The Tea Party Patriots will be an answer on Jeopardy or a crossword-puzzle clue.

Kinsley might want to revisit that claim on November 3.

The essence [of the 60’s] was selfless and idealistic: stopping the war; ending racism; eradicating poverty. These goals and some of the methods for achieving them may have been childishly romantic or even entirely wrongheaded, but they were about making the world a better place.

Kinsley’s half-right: the methods were entirely wrongheaded, and the Tea Party movement is largely about fixing those mistakes.

The Tea Party movement’s goals, when stated specifically, are mostly self-interested.

Well, yes, if by “self-interested” he allows us to include our children and grandchildren. We’re less interested in our retirement than their retirement, our Medicare than their healthcare, our debt than their debt. We believe that less government, not more government, is the better “solution to what ails America.”

“I like what they’re saying. It’s common sense,” a random man-in-the-crowd told a Los Angeles Times reporter at a big Tea Party rally. Then he added, “They’ve got to focus on issues like keeping jobs here and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.” These, of course, are projects that can be conducted only by Big Government [emphasis added].

Could it possibly be that those are issues precisely because of “Big Government”? In Michael Kinsley’s world, of course not.

REVIEW CITES FLAWS IN U.S. ANTIMISSILE PROGRAM. Dr. Theodore A. Postol, a former Pentagon science adviser and M.I.T. professor who forcefully criticized the performance of the Patriot antimissile system in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, is now casting doubt on the reliability of the Navy’s SM-3 ballistic missile defense (BMD) interceptor, saying “The system is highly fragile and brittle and will intercept warheads only by accident, if ever.”

Postel has long been of the opinion that no defense is better than an imperfect defense. I prefer the view that something is better than nothing. Improvements will come.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on the Marine Corps.

Best comment: “Maybe we should send them to Washington DC.”

MORE NANNY GOVERNMENT. This came to me in a company email:

On May 6, the Department of Labor and Securities Exchange Commission released a primer on target date funds for investors and plan participants. The primer contains background on the funds along with a list of considerations for possible investors to take into account; the considerations include:

Whether or not a hands-off investment approach
is favorable
Whether the fund has an appropriate risk level
Whether the fund's glidepath is appropriate
Whether the fees are acceptable

Question: how much longer until the government requires 401k and 403b plans to invest only in target-date funds? I’m betting not long.

OBAMA DOUBLES DOWN ON ARIZONA. President Obama, May 19th: “[I]n the United States of America no law-abiding person, be they an American citizen, a legal immigrant or a visitor or tourist from Mexico, should ever be subject to suspicion simply because of what they look like.”

PowerLine comments: “If many people suspect that those around them who appear to be Mexican might be illegals, maybe we should blame the 12 million or so Mexicans who are, in fact, illegals, rather than accusing the people of Arizona of bigotry.”

ARE ADULTS FINALLY TAKING CHARGE? Congress is in the midst of the most significant generational shift since 1974. The congressmen and senators who came of age during the Nixon years, mainly liberal Democrats shaped by Vietnam and Watergate, are on the way out. A bunch of youngsters, mainly conservative Republicans shaped by 9/11 and the financial crisis, is on the way in. It’s a trend that will influence our politics for decades.

MICHAEL BARONE: the gathering revolt against government spending.

MICHAEL TOTTEN on Obama’s selection of a new Director of National Intelligence: “Good grief.... I’d have a little more faith in the Obama Administration’s foreign policy officials if they demonstrated more consistent knowledge of Middle East 101.”

I’d be happy if they demonstrated any knowledge of the Middle East.

No, on second thought, make that “I’d be happy if they demonstrated any knowledge, period.”

REPUBLICANS WIN SEAT IN DEMOCRATIC STRONGHOLD.

Republican Charles Djou topped Democrats Colleen Hanabusa and former Rep. Ed Case (D-HI) to succeed retired Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) in Congress.

Given that he was fighting a split Democratic party in the special election, it’s not likely that Djou will retain the seat in November when he’s competing against a single Democrat candidate.

But we can hope.

READING IS FUNDAMENTAL.



Arizona attempts to educate the aggressively stupid.

THE BOOK OF ZO - A conservative manifesto. You have to register, but it’s free.

THE DECLINE OF BASIC RESEARCH at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration jeopardizes the agency’s ability to study and explore the cosmos, a review panel of scientists and engineers said Tuesday.

Big surprise ... when all your funds are allocated for saving the Earth from evil capitalists, there’s not much left for the basics.

Link from Instapundit.

KEY AL QAEDA FIGURE accidentally blows himself up.

Al Qaeda could be a much bigger problem than it is if the terrorists weren’t so damned incompetent.

KLAVEN ON CULTURE: Financial Crisis 101. You have to register, but it’s free.

CONGRESS ABOUT TO LIMIT POLITICAL SPEECH OF BLOGGERS? This isn’t about “good government” or clean elections. It’s an attempt by Congress to step around the First Amendment and regulate political speech that threatens incumbents, just as McCain-Feingold attempted.

OBAMACARE: a Faustian bargain.

BIG BROTHER WISE GOVERNMENT comes to America.

THE MOST DEPRESSING COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS EVER




I doubt Gore will be invited back for another commencement.

My thought: all he needs is the little hat to look exactly like a Pilgram.

Linked from Hot Air.

WRITING ON THAT NOW-FAMOUS VIDEO of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie being confrontational, Paul Mulshine observes:

People are really pissed — if I may employ the governor’s term of art. And what they’re pissed about is almost entirely economic. The old red state-blue state lineup based on social issues is obsolete. At the moment, the people seem to have a better understanding of our fiscal situation than the politicians.

And now it’s up to us, the voters, to make sure the politicians understand.

A BONFIRE OF UNNECESSARY LAWS: If only it was a U.S. politician speaking....

EVEN THE RATS are deserting the U.S.S. Obama.

WRITE THIS DOWN: “Nobody has a right to a paycheck. Nobody has a right to work. What conscientious, honest people have is the will and drive and responsibility to work as hard as we possibly can so as to be as productive and quality conscious as we can be. The American Dream used to be based on excellence, not the whining, crybaby, entitlement orgy it has spiraled down to. Pathetic.”

Read it all.

GLOBAL WARMING is causing what? The weaker the case for Anthropogenic Global Warming [AGW] becomes, the louder and more exaggerated the threatened effects.

Read it all.

OBAMA’S DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE to resign tomorrow. It’s getting so crowded under Obama’s bus that pretty soon he’s going to have to get another.

It’s going to be a rough 2-1/2 years until we can get some adult supervision in the White House.

REFLECTIONS ON SMALL TOWN AMERICA. The phrase “quiet dignity” comes to mind.

OBAMA PLANS TO PUNISH BP WITH TAX HIKE. Neal Boortz comments:

Hmm that's an interesting concept ... using the tax code as a method of punishment. [A]ll this time I thought that the purpose of taxation was to raise revenue, not to punish people whom politicians may not, for whatever reason, like.

And follow the link in Boortz’ post; it’s interesting to me that we have to go to a UK newspaper to get real US news.

WOUNDED WARMISTS ATTACK: The Anthropogenic Global Warming [AGW] community is behaving exactly like the UFO cult studied by psychologist Leon Festinger in his classic study of cognitive dissonance.

That’s probably a bit harsh on the UFO cultists.

LOS ANGELES ‘BOYCOTTERS’ respond to Arizona’s challenge: “When the going gets tough in LA, apparently the tough … cry about getting threatened.”

MORE LIKELY the message from God is “Do it right the first time, dumbsh*ts.”

INDIANA REP. MARK SOUDER resigns after admitting affair.

The Washington Examiner’s Chris Stirewalt adds insult to injury [5th item]: “Souder is so strange-looking that he might be commended under different circumstances for finding not one but two women who would have constituent relations with him.”

VOTERS MAY BE FED UP with Congressional pork. Ya think?

A GUIDE TO THE MANNED SPACE CONTROVERSY: Rand Simberg explains the manned space program(s), relatively successfully. It’s a good exposition, and I disagree on only two relatively minor points.

One, the Vision for Space Exploration, announced in 2004, may have been a sea-change policy, but it was never sold to the public as anything beyond Constellation. This was a serious error.

And two, whether NASA “got the details wrong” in developing Constellation in lieu of immediately commercializing manned launch services, there is still a need for Ares until “Pan American World Spaceways” can become viable.

Previous posts here and here.

IT’S ‘EVERYBODY DRAW MOHAMMED DAY’ and Zombie explains why it’s important.

THE APOLOGY TOUR CONTINUES and Sarah Palin notices.

What is it with these Administration nitwits? Are they so ashamed of America that they’re determined to bring it down to their level?

FINALLY: some intelligent thoughts about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Decades after the Exxon Valdez spill, the technology used to clean up spills is virtually unchanged: barges, booms, burning, dispersing, scrubbing. The problem with that is, these methods weren't effective then, and they aren't now.

So if cleanup is costly, ineffective and potentially harmful, then aren't we just doing it for appearances? (And not actual appearances, but, worse, political appearances?) Indeed, if we can just get over the way it sounds, "the cost of doing nothing" might actually be far less than the cost of doing something.

While we’re at it, why not try to make ‘doing nothing’ - or more precisely, doing little - profitable? As the C.W. Roberts folks suggested at the end of their video, recover the oil-soaked straw, dry it, and use it for fuel.

MORE TERROR ATTACKS SOON? NYC and Washington, D.C. in the next 6 months.

Frankly, except for the Taliban’s incompetence, I’m surprised there haven’t been more already.

UNDER MY BUS: ZoBama reminds of us that it’s getting crowded under the Obama bus.

TEXAS DOCTORS opting out of Medicare at alarming rate. I guess I won’t be moving back to Texas anytime soon; at least in Virginia I have a doctor who will probably continue to see me when I’m forced to enroll in Medicare.

NO ‘PAPERS’ FOR YOU, but required for me.

JOIN THE CIRCUS! If you want to know where it is, go to Washington DC and look for the big building across from the Washington Monument.

“[Soon-to-be-former House Speaker Nancy ]Pelosi tells an audience in DC that ObamaCare is an “entrepreneurial bill,” because it will let people quit being productive and allow them to leech off of … entrepreneurs”:

We see it as an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care.

Yeah, just join the circus and let Mom and Dad (the taxpayers) pick up the bill.

FLORIDA TAR BALLS not linked to Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Unwelcome news for the environmental community, I suspect.

WILL LOS ANGELES GO DARK? The Arizona Corporation Commission [state utility regulation panel] is offering the option.

TWILIGHT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT: Incumbents should be very afraid, and the candidates themselves are not the only endangered species. Party bosses and traditional power players in American politics are also being threatened.

A DOWNSIDE TO RACIAL AWARENESS. Steve Chatman, a researcher at UC-Berkeley, pulled data from the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey that distinguish "interpersonal and diversity skills, campus climate, overall satisfaction and inclusion, and individual characteristics [religion, income, race, etc.]," including data on the respondents' programs of study, allowing Chatman to break down student perceptions by major. Here is what he found:

Upper-division area and ethnic studies students rated Climate of Respect for Personal Beliefs at 4.16. Humanities and social science students gave it a substantially higher 4.80, and science, engineering, math, and business students rated it even higher at 5.05. Obviously, field of study affected scores.

“Chatman attributes the low climate scores in area and ethnic studies precisely to the instruction students receive in those classes.... Whereas a math student might hear a remark and think nothing of it, an African American Studies student might discern prejudice and stereotyping.”

In plain English, “area and ethnic studies” students may be being taught to become racists.

IS THE TEA PARTY a feminist movement? Not really, I think. It’s a low tax, limited government movement that has attracted "a lot of mama bears worried about their families."

MICHAEL BARONE: the top five lessons from Tuesday’s elections.

• Appropriators lost
• Tea tastes good
• Democrats can still win
• The far left isn’t dead
• Politics will still be polarized

Victories are still victories, but the war isn’t over.

THE REAL DAMN OUTRAGE is the disdain with which elitists ... treat voters who don’t share their sophisticated policy preferences.

AWW ... those conservative Tea Partiers are stealing our word. Don’t they know that only liberals can be “feminists” (starts at 1:57)?

BILL WOULD REQUIRE GOVERNMENT to track body mass of American children. For what reason?

I have a great idea: let’s track the BMI’s of politicians first and require them to diet and undergo counseling if they’re found to be “overweight or obese.” Let them be the exemplars of the “Healthy Choices Act.”

“IN CASE YOU HAD ANY DOUBTS about whether Washington bureaucrats were completely out of touch with ordinary Americans, the Environmental Protection Agency is here to reassure you—they are."

"While Americans across the country have been tightening their belts and dealing with a wave of new taxes, fees, and regulations, the EPA has launched a video contest to celebrate their brand of over-regulation.”

The Heritage Foundation has an entry here. Reason TV submitted three entries; they can be found here.

Enjoy them all.

Linked from Instapundit.

REDNECKS TO THE RESCUE: sometimes it’s better to ignore the nuanced, sophisticated “experts” and just tackle the problem head on. Watch the video.



C W Roberts Contracting has just received contract to do the “hay thing” for all the 26 miles of Walton County, Florida beaches including Sandestin. If it works, it will make the EPA look silly.

The YouTube link is here.

FROM MY EMAIL, a short lesson in PC terminology. It is wrong to call people "illegal immigrants;" the correct term is "unregistered Democrats."

SOCIAL JUSTICE: a term for politicians to ”drain away other people's money in order to hand out goodies that will help get themselves re-elected.”

CHRIS MATTHEWS: let’s nationalize the oil industry.

For Matthews, the solution to every problem is more government.

LET SARAH BE SARAH. “[A] successful politician wears the persona he is most comfortable with. Ronald Reagan reveled in playing the old codger who stuck to his principles.... Now we find Sarah Palin as the pretty girl who stuck to her principles. A young Reagan in a skirt, if you will.

Read the whole thing, and follow the comments. Clearly Palin was at least as experienced as now-President Obama, but she’s probably ruled out in 2012, less by her own hand than by the President’s incredible incompetence in office. They may will be wrong, but voters will probably be looking for extensive – and visible - prior executive experience in 2012.

THE “WE’RE NOT EUROPE” PARTY: The bill comes due for a life of fairness at the expense of growth.

HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM IS NOW LAW, giving millions of Americans access to the full resources of our health-care system for the first time. The question becomes: How can we ensure that they receive value-based and high-quality care?

Read the whole article, then ask yourself one question: “Who’s not represented?”

The consumer. The patient is – at best – a thing to be fixed (cheaply).

ARE DEMOCRATS PLOTTING TO STEAL YOUR 401(k)? Megan McArdle comments on the Department of Labor’s "request for comment" on what it can do to encourage more people to annuitize their 401(k)s, rather than actively managing personal investments.

[T]he government hasn't offered much evidence that a widespread return to defined benefit options [annuities] is a net improvement for society.

I think she’s right. The evidence to date suggests to me that on my worst day I’m better at managing my investments than the government could possibly be on it’s best day.

IT’S BACK: The public option is alive and well, but hidden.

[T]he public option is alive and well, residing in Section 1334, pages 97-100, of the new health care law. That section gives the U.S. Office of Personnel Management — which presently manages the federal civil service — new responsibilities: establishing and running two entirely new government health insurance programs to compete directly with private insurance companies in every state with coverage for people outside of government.

Quoting the new law, former OPM director Donald Devine notes that it makes the OPM boss a health care czar, with power to set “‘profit margin premiums and other such terms and conditions of coverage as are in the interest of enrollees in such plans.’ That’s open-ended. You can do anything.” Dan Blair, another former OPM director, calls the new program “nothing but a placeholder for the public option.” Indeed, the OPM head is also given the authority to “appoint as many employees” as needed to run the program, and to spend “such sums as may be necessary” to establish and administer it.

And it’s not going away until every single one of the congresscreatures* who voted for this Obamanation goes away.

*I can’t bring myself to call them “congresscritters” any more – it’s an insult to dumb animals.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: States' tax collections falter, widening budget gaps.

CONFRONTATIONAL? WHO, ME? CONFRONTATIONAL? New Jersey Governor Chris Christie defines “confrontational” for inquiring reporter.

It’s about time.

Linked from Hot Air.

MORE GOOD NEWS ABOUT OBAMACARE: No, you can't keep your health plan.

More here.

AMERICA IS NOW A CAMPUS, and Obama is our Dean.

Instapundit disagrees. I might go along with Glenn Reynolds [Instapundit] if the Dean in question was a Dean of Engineering.

ISLAM? WHAT ISLAM? Mark Steyn has a few choice comments.


Mallard Fillmore concurs.

PREPARE FOR THE WRATH of the angry voter.

It should be interesting after the polls close tonight.

IS IT UNFAIR TO SAY that the Obama administration consists of a bunch of anti-American ignoramuses? I can only echo John Hinderaker’s comment: “unfreakingbelievable.”

LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCILMAN blasts Arizona law for the same provisions currently in the California penal code. “Kerry Picket at the Washington Times interviewed Los Angeles City Councilman Ed Reyes, who said that he would need his passport to travel in Arizona ....”

Follow the link to the Washington Times interview for details. This comment sums it up pretty well:

In the interest of consistency, the City of Los Angeles should, in addition to boycotting Arizona, also boycott Californina as well.

Let’s forget the border fence with Mexico; put one up between the U.S. and California instead.

AT THE WASHINGTON POST they are all in favor of diversity. Except, of course, opinion.

The Capehart post is here.

LAWYERS LINING UP for class-action suits over oil spill. And if you don’t think that money is coming out of your pocket, you must be a liberal.

A SUPER-DIVIDED TUESDAY. The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne strikes (out) again.

Yessiree. The Democrats are ideologically diverse (ranging from far left to extreme left) while the the Republicans are “opting for ideological purity” as “more-conservative-than-thou.”

The lens that Dionne and those of his ilk see through is so narrow that anything to the right of his focus is on the fringe. As a friend once said about another liberal: “He’s so far out on the left that the middle of the bird looks right wing.”

HOW LONG UNTIL ICELAND IS SUED for not controlling its volcanoes?

A THOROUGHLY DISGUSTING PERFORMANCE: “A clearly frustrated President Obama on Friday said that the system for preventing accidents like the April 20 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ‘failed badly,’ while calling the ‘blame game’ among oil executives at Senate hearings this week ‘a ridiculous spectacle’."

This by the man who started the “blame game” himself.

Mr. Obama, until the leak is completely and thoroughly plugged up, if you don’t have something constructive to say, please shut up.

The first order of business is to plug the damn leak. The second order of business is to clean up the mess. The third order of business is to find out what happened – and how it happened.

The last order of business is to assign blame, and Mr. President, as an engineer with 30+ years of experience, I can assure that there will be plenty of blame to pass around, and some of it will be on your watch.

I can say with absolute certainty that when the final report is written, it will be shown that the explosion and subsequent events will prove to have been caused by a number of mistakes, errors of judgement, communication lapses, mechanical failures and unanticipated problems, some serious, most not so serious, that had they occured in a different sequence would not have resulted in a catastrophic failure.

There will be a valuable lesson to be learned from the Deepwater Horizon explosion: leave the ’blamestorming’ for last. That the lesson will be learned is unlikely.

TO GLEEFULLY BORROW A PHRASE FROM INSTAPUNDIT: They told me that if I voted for McCain, the government would attempt to ban books. And they were right.

THE WASHINGTON POST’S DANA MILBANK is terrified. And rightly so – the progressive Left, so ably represented by Milbank, is finally beginning to realize that they don’t have a lock on truth, justice, and the American way.

The last dodo was probably terrified too.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM? Or school choice?

I’M ALMOST READY TO MOVE TO ALABAMA to vote for this guy.

OOPS! White House efforts to tout the rollout of President Obama's health care program this week were brought up short by an independent government analysis showing the plan will cost $115 billion more than advertised.

THEN VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE Bob McDonnell got blasted by the Left as a radical anti-women, anti-gay, anti-welfare-state bigot, for his 20-year old Master’s thesis. The Washington Post broke the story.

Now we have Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s undergraduate thesis at Princeton University: “Socialism in New York City.”

The story is a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism's decline, still wish to change America. Radicals have often succumbed to the devastating bane of sectarianism; it is easier, after all, to fight one's fellows than it is'to battle an entrenched and powerful' foe. Yet if 'the history of Local New York shows anything, it is that American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope.

Question: Why didn’t the Washington Post break this story?

LOOKS LIKE CHANGING PARTIES ISN’T WORKING: Sestak leads Specter by 9 points.

More here.

BLOWBACK: “Look, just because we called you racist bigots … doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t visit.”

Arizona responds.

"THE ECONOMIC ATTITUDE of the nation has shifted. We are no longer a nation of self-sufficient, rugged individualists; we are now a nation of addicts, hooked on a politician's promises of economic safety.... This is why America is lost. Too many Americans are hooked for us to return to a sound economic footing via the normal political processes."

Link via Instapundit.

AUSTIN, TEXAS: moonbat capitol of the American southwest. Read the comments, too.

A FRESH LOOK AT wireless power transmission. Small appliances, close by? Probably. Planes, trains, and automobiles? Not likely.

TO SERVE MANN: Virginia’s AG Puts Climate-Researcher on the Menu.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has opened an investigation into whether Professor Michael Mann (whose “hide the decline” email was an the center of the Climategate scandal) violated the Commonwealth’s Fraud Against Taxpayers Act when he served as a faculty member at the University of Virginia. Dr. Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, comments:

At NAS , we are neither supporters nor skeptics of climate science per se. We support good science on important topics. Good science, however, sometimes requires more than closely-cabined peer review. It also requires public accountability. And this is especially true in a campus atmosphere dominated by unscientific certainty on the matters in question. The reigning unscientific certainty in higher education is visible in lots of ways, including the 685 college and university presidents in the United States that have signed on to a preemptive declaration—the College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment—that treats global warming caused by human emissions as a settled fact which requires by way of response “integrating sustainability into the curriculum.”

Read it all.

Linked from PowerLine.

NOW WE KNOW WHY the stimulus money is being spent so slowly: it takes 5 months to hire one government worker. John Derbyshire comments on this part of the news article:

For the first time in history, applicants will be able to submit résumés and cover letters and will not be required to complete knowledge skills and ability essays.

“Down with knowledge, skills, and ability! No need for that stuff in the federal workforce!”

I must have worked for the government before history began (1968 actually) since all I filled out was the 4-page SF-171. But in 1968 I was a new college graduate – it was obvious I had no knowledge, skills, or ability - and then, as now, there was “no need for that stuff in the federal workforce.”

I lasted 18 months.

DESPITE REPEATEDLY VOICING CONCERNS about Arizona's new immigration enforcement law in recent weeks and threatening to challenge it, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday he has not yet read the law.

These guys must take prescription-strength stupidity pills daily to maintain this level of incompetence.

WHO’S SURPRISED? Obama administration liberals, apparently.

IF WE’RE EVER to run our electric grid on the on-again, off-again power that wind and sun provide, we’re going to need better batteries. Here’s an option.

In place of the solid electrodes of a conventional battery, flow batteries use two liquid electrolytes that react when pumped through a cell stack. The battery is broken down into a cell stack and two large electrolyte tanks; as the electrolyte flows past a porous membrane in each cell, ions and electrons flow back and forth, charging or discharging the battery.

Voltage and current capacity are defined by the chemical reaction used and the number, size, and connection of the individual battery cells. Energy storage capacity is defined by the size of the electrolyte storage tanks. Recharging simply means reversing the current flow - or putting in fresh electrolyte.

More here.

SENATOR BOB BENNETT’S LOSS at the Utah Republican convention a ‘Damn Outrage,’ ‘Non-Violent Coup,’ and part of larger intolerant GOP narrative.

Wow. The ‘nonviolent coup’ remark is particularly ironic ... I always thought that the ability to vote to remove from the leadership of your organization someone who isn’t performing to your expectations was called democracy.

MORE NATURAL GAS, less CO2. So why are the Democrats so intent on passing Cap ‘n Tax Trade?

MICHELLE OBAMA’S OBESITY REPORT: Tax pop and candy, subsidize fruits and veggies.

Uh, right. Subsidize those who can afford to buy the “good stuff;” tax those who can’t. Makes perfect (liberal) sense.

ANOTHER PLEDGE THROWN UNDER THE BUS. Orszag : The president never “pledged” no new taxes; he “preferred.” That bus must have monster tires.

Follow both links.

GET WITH THE PROGRAM, AMERICA: ”You say that the President is out of touch with the people. You are mistaken. Get with the program! The truth is that the people are out of touch with the President; the correct solution to this problem is for the President to put the people out of office.”

The link is here [9th comment].

ANOTHER DAY, another bizarre UC Berkeley tantrum.

Where are the parents of these twits?

MAY IS BICYCLE SAFETY MONTH. So says the sign along the highway I drive to work. Does that mean that it’s open season on bicyclists for the other 11 months?

Seriously, this is just another example of galloping nanny-statism. Surely there’s a better way to waste my taxpayer money.

MALICIOUS ATTACK on Michele Bachmann website.

Bachmann for Congress discovered an attack on its website, which resulted in users in Internet Explorer and Google Chrome to receive virus alerts and some to download viruses. After a search with web developers, the offending code was found and removed from the website.

"This malicious attack caused unsuspecting supporters and Internet users to inadvertently download viruses to their computers, and it is disturbing there are people who spend their time and energy on causing havoc to innocent volunteers," Campaign Manager Gina Countryman said. "We take the security of our website and our volunteers very seriously. We took swift action with our developers to find and remove damaging codes and protect our supporters. We have no reason to believe any data was removed, and no contributor lists are housed on our website."

Any supporters who were affected by the attack should run a basic anti-virus program on their computer, and seek help if they need to have any viruses removed. While the offending code has been removed, some security software programs are being notified of the correction and may still have the website flagged.

Democrats must be feeling very, very threatened. Rightly so.

THE U.S. NAVY fights back.

Link from Don Surber.

BP OIL SPILL: Taxpayers could pay billions in damages.

What? But, but, ... Obama promised that BP would pay all the damages ....

Link from Instapundit.

NEWSWEEK: technology is rotting our brains.

We have more information than ever before. We're never away from it. The air around us fairly hums with it... And yet I can't shake the sense that we are all becoming stupider and stupider—and that we are, on average, less well informed today than we were a generation ago.

Translation: You boobs out there aren’t reading Newsweak ... er, Newsweek.

We're not thinking. We're processing.... We're digitally dithering, clicking on links and swimming through a torrent of useless garbage being thrown at us by idiots and self-promoters, pundits and PR flacks and marketing people.

Translation: gratuitous insult alert.

[I]n the midst of all this, Glenn Beck has become an influential television commentator, and Sarah Palin is a credible candidate for president in 2012. You think this is a coincidence?

Gratuitous insult arrival. Funny you should bring that up ... remember your snide comment about “swimming through a torrent of useless garbage”? It’s name is Newsweek.

No way. What's happening is this ... we've become a nation of Internet-powered imbeciles....

Speak for yourself.

Sadly, I don't see that changing any time soon. If anything, I imagine it will get worse.

For you, yes. And remember to ask me if I want fries with my hamburger.

THE ATTACK HAS BEEN FAILED. Discussing the federal response to the attempted Times Square bombing, President Obama had to make a mid-course correction:

This incident is another sobering reminder of the times in which we live. Around the world and here at home, there are those who would attack our citizens and who would slaughter innocent men, women, and children in pursuit of their murderous agenda. They will stop at nothing to kill and disrupt our way of life. But once again, an attempted attack has been — failed.

Amateur ... can’t even take credit for failing.

THE S WORD: Time for scientists to go into politics? Frankly, I’d say that the climate scientists (and medical doctors, with ObamaCare) have pretty well made a hash of that proposal.

I’d like to see more politicians with scientific – and engineering - backgrounds. But I damned sure don’t want to see any more “political” scientists.

EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW FROM HARVARD AND YALE: 10,000 graduates? Little wonder the U.S. is in deep kim chee.

Read it all; then follow the link.

ONN - the Obama News Network. Well, CNN and MSNBC aren’t working.

IS IT JOBS, or is it the economy? I don’t know that there’s much difference ... what struck me was this comment: “My shops are going gang-busters, then again I’m seeing breeds of cars I have rarely seen before entering for ‘Just make it last for another year’ work.”

“LESBIAN” IS NOW A BAD WORD? Ann Althouse on Andrew Sullivan on Elena Kagan's "emotional orientation." The post is hilarious; the comments more so.

My favorite:

Using "gender" to distinguish between male and female creatures is almost exclusively a mark of being undereducated or overcredentialed (which in my experience often overlaps).

Translation: “undereducated and overcredentialed” = politically correct.

COMING SOON: Drunks Against Alcoholism and the Tiger Woods Sex Addiction Foundation.

Post title and link from Instapundit.

SHORT SELLERS IN CONGRESS: another lesson in financial hypocrisy.

YOUR 401(K) a federal mutual fund? “Don't think Washington would never wreck private pensions in the name of the collective good. It happened in Argentina, and if the same group that's determined to take over the U.S. health care system stays in power long enough, it could happen here.”

Which is why November 2, 2010 is so important.

My thoughts here.

OFFICIAL WASHINGTON has not learned the lesson of Scott Brown.

Link from Instapundit.

THEM'S FIGHTIN’ WORDS ...



Link from Hot Air is here. At no extra cost, a Megyn Kelly interview with Sarah Palin.

THE JUDGE IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT. Megan McArdle comments on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

I do think that David Brooks is onto something when he notes that her relentless careerism, her pitch-perfect blandness, are a little creepy.

I’m inclined to agree with McArdle in the sense that for Kagan, there’s no ‘there’ there - no core values, no convictions, no opinions, no passion; nothing except self-advancement .Do we really want people in power whose only reason for being in power is self-aggrandizement (cf. Charlie Crist)?

The reference to David Brooks (Organization Kids) is here.

CHRIS STIREWALT on the pending financial reform bill [third item].

Democrats defeated a financial reform amendment that would have put $145 billion bailout recipients Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac off the dole within five years, arguing that it was too risky to do anything to create uncertainty in the housing market until later on.

But government reform is like having kids. It’s never the right time, so you might as well get on with it.

Senators can call their pending bill many things, but as Mr. McCain said yesterday, they should not dare call it reform of the financial system.”

Corruption Business as usual.

WAS THE GULF OIL SPILL a regulatory failure?

Halliburton executive Tim Probert testified that his company hadn't placed a final cement plug within the well when the blowout occurred. Such plugs, designed to keep gas from escaping up the pipe, are normally put in before heavy drilling fluid known as "mud" is removed, In this case, mud was removed before a final plug was placed.

A rig worker ... said permission had been sought from the MMS [Minerals Management Service, a government requlatory agency] to do the procedures in the unusual order, withdrawing mud before placing the final cement plug. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar declined to comment on whether the MMS, part of his department, had given such permission.

Hmm.

JEFF JACOBY: Who decides what marriage means?

CASH FOR CAULKERS: for-profit politics in action.

Al Gore acolyte Cathy Zoi, the Energy Department official in charge of energy efficiency, has testified in favor of the caulkers bill, which the House passed last week. She would administer it if it became law and is married to an executive at a window company that has pushed for this legislation. Zoi, formerly chief executive officer of the Gore-initiated Alliance for Climate Protection, also owns stock options in Serious Windows.

When government injects itself into the economy, opportunities for cronyism come with the territory. After all, it’s only your money.

IF I WERE LOS ANGELES, I’d be more worried about Arizona boycotting me.

ECONOMICS 101: Deficits, Debt and Unfunded Liabilities.




Link via Hot Air.

MICHAEL BARONE on the real-life faculty lounge. It isn’t pretty.

BIDEN: Kagan was right to discriminate against the military at Harvard.

“All during that period, she has reached out to veterans in the law school, she has been at promotions ceremonies, she’s recognized veterans coming to the law school. So this is not a single bit of anti-military bias. She does think, and I agree with her, that the don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy is a very bad policy.”

Typical of the left: if they don’t agree with a law, then it’s right and proper to ignore it.

CONGRESS SEEKS TO EXPAND ACCESS to women's restrooms in Federal buildings. Not that this isn’t worth doing, but ... is it really worth holding Congressional hearings over?

On the other hand, they're not passing bills they haven't read.

IS OBAMA LEADING, or ducking blame?

It’s an interesting question. David Frum seems to be trying to make the case for ducking; I would argue that he’s ‘leading from behind’ -- expending his Democrat congresscritters at a prodigious rate in hopes of achieving his goals before he runs out of congresscritters for ammunition.

KITTENS TAKE A SLIDE RIDE



Linked from Instapundit.

NORTHROP CHOOSES VIRGINA FOR CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS because “Virginia is a better place to do business. Forbes magazine rates the state as the most business-friendly in the nation. With a 6 percent corporate tax rate, it costs less to run a business in Virginia than either the District (9 percent) or Maryland (8.25 percent). Virginia's superior business rating is no fluke. It results from official policies that over the years have sent strong welcome signals to companies like Northrop and that contrast mightily with years of anti-business policies across the Potomac.”

“Bob’s for jobs” - no longer just a campaign slogan.

IN 1995 OR 1996, FUTURE SUPREME COURT NOMINEE ELENA KAGAN “was involved in a bizarre controversy in which the Clinton White House was accused of siding with an eco-terrorist group locked in a standoff with federal agents deep in the woods of Oregon.”

BORDER SECURITY IS PRESIDENT OBAMA’S RESPONSIBILITY, whether he likes it or not.

ANOTHER REASON TO ‘DECERTIFY’ BIG GOVERNMENT. Obama appointees rewrite the rules for airline unions.

AN ILL-TIMED REQUEST FOR AID: Fannie Mae’s request on Monday for another $8.4 billion in federal aid comes at a politically inconvenient time for the Obama administration, which is pressing to pass sweeping financial legislation without endangering a major source of Democrat political contributions.

Linked from the Washington Examiner [third item].

I WONDERED WHERE THEY WENT ....

Q: What was the most positive result of the “Cash for Clunkers” program?
A: It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.

- from Letterman.

LEFT WING MEDIA continues struggle to define the Tea Party movement. “It’s like watching a 3 year old struggle with a jigsaw puzzle for AGES 14 AND UP.”

Heh.

HEARD ON THE RADIO THIS MORNING: the Obama administration is aggressively attacking the Gulf oil spill by sending heavy equipment from Alaska and experts from Washington.

I hope the heavy equipment makes it first ... it, at least, can be used.

THE WASHINGTON POST’S COLBERT I. KING on the “rite of passage” for a Supreme Court nominee: “What a waste.”

I wonder if he said anything similar when the Bush administratio nominated John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court? Somehow, I doubt it.

DOWNSIZING NUCLEAR POWER:IEEE Spectrum reports on efforts to “downsize nuclear plants from gigawatt scale to more affordable units that can be built by the dozen”.

It’s a good idea – if it’s coupled with a requirement to put the plants near the consumers.

FIVE PLACES YOU’LL never find a Supreme Court justice. Pity.

PRAY FOR OBAMA: Psalm 109:8

ASSOCIATED PRESS HEADLINE. Obama oil response: aggressive as crisis unfolded.

Uh, huh. The Obama administration aggressively blamed everyone but themselves ....

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION threatened to veto parts of its own health care bill after budget scorekeepers found that the package would add at least $115 billion more to government health care spending.

Jeez. Can an administration possibly be more incompetent?

SHOULD I BELIEVE YOU OR MY LYIN’ EYES?

Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports.

I’ll believe my lyin’ eyes, thank you very much. Even though the wife and I have already partially ‘gone Galt’, our monthly state and federal taxes - alone, excluding FICA - are well above the quoted 9.2% (and yes, I do know how to do percentages).

If I look at all taxes from our 2009 tax return data, the percentage is roughly double; triple including FICA and Medicare; more if sales taxes are included -- and we can’t claim even being close to Obama’s evil rich earning $250K or more.

Linked from JammieWearingFool.

THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN: an early warning that the people do indeed rule the District of Columbia.

While their power is limited, it is nevertheless unconditional where it exists. Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi need the assent of the people of the United States to govern this country. But the people don't need any such thing. In the limited sphere where they rule, they are supreme.

This is easy to forget because it is rare to see the people actually wield their power in its full force.

That's bad news for the establishment this year. They're going to wake up on the morning of November 3rd and be reminded of who is actually in charge of this country.

Democrats will be hit the hardest, but Republicans will be fools to believe they will escape unscathed.

Link from Neal Boortz [5th item].

IT’S THE ARROGANCE, STUPID. Why did Newsweek fail? "For the same reason any species goes extinct; the environment changed and it couldn’t adapt."

“It’s value lies, or used to lie, in being ‘something informed people read’.”

I think that’s almost correct. I had the misfortune of perusing a recent Newsweek at the doctor’s office last week (there was nothing else to read). It was a morass of liberal arrogance weakly disguised as “news.” A waste of time now that I can get my news elsewhere.

TERROR ATTACKS raise tension between the Obama administration and the GOP.

Far from seeing failure, Gibbs saw reason for celebration. Shahzad was found quickly, he pointed out, with federal, state and local authorities working together. "So in many ways, we want to celebrate the success of, rightly so, of what law enforcement was able to do," Gibbs said.

Tell that to Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "These guys continue to be in denial," Hoekstra says of the White House. "We're just a couple of smart people away from having 300, 400, 500 Americans killed. We have to express our appreciation to the FBI and the New York Police Department for capturing this guy, but our focus should be on how he got to Times Square and almost blew up an SUV loaded with explosives. That's not success in my book. Success would have been identifying this guy and making sure he didn't get to Times Square."

There have been 4 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since the Obama administration began; one success and three failures. The one success was by a U.S.-trained terrorist: Maj. Nadal Hasan. The three failures were due to terrorist incompetence, not Homeland Security competence.