ALMOST A FOOT and still counting.







It's going to be a long day.

THE WHITE HOUSE unveiled its $3.8 trillion dollar budget - with $1.6 trillion in red ink. Michelle Malkin quotes OMB Director Peter Orzag: "The Budget lays out a plan to put the country back on a sustainable fiscal path."

Uh, huh. And I'm the King of England.

Here are the budget projections. And here's what infuriates me. The black dashed line is a 5.63% inflation rate trend line: government over the last ten years has grown at something exceeding 5.6% and is projected to continue at that rate for the forseeable future.



The solid white line is the average annual U.S. inflation rate for the last ten years (2.57%) projected to the year 2020.

The federal government has been growing over 3% faster than inflation for the last 10 years and is projected to continue to do so for the forseeable future!

Incredible.

And the deficit? Well, the good news is that - if you believe Orzag's rosy projections - it won't be over a trillion dollars beyond 2012 ....


Is it any wonder that the Tea Party movement is growing so spectacularly?

[UPDATED - scroll down] THE STORM OF THE CENTURY? At least, that's the way it sounds if one pays too much attention to the news programs. The first flakes fell in Manassas at 9:26 am; it's been snowing steadily - and fairly lightly - ever since.

That's a yardstick on the back deck. Calibrated, it will read 1" more than the actual snow depth.

Looking out from the garage, there has been no measurable snow - at least when this picture was taken. I've been out dressing the edges a bit to give me the maximum amount of room to move snow when the time comes ... the snow blade on the lawn tractor will handle about 8 inches, so clearing the drive will be a not once, not twice, but thrice effort and I'll need as much width as possible to push the snow aside and make way for the car.

The snow is beginning to stick at 11:30.
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[UPDATES]

Saturday, 6:30 am: A bit over 11 inches this morning; still snowing. It's going to be difficult, but the lawn tractor may be able to handle the depth. We'll find out later this morning.

8:30 pm: Local television is still predicting a 30" snowfall, but as of 8 pm my measuring stick shows only about 5" (stick depth minus 1 inch).



2:00 pm: FOX is reporting that Washington DC should expect a 30" snowfall, winds, power lines down, etc. - but the driveway is still clear and the snow on the back deck is melting.