PERFECT: Obama accepts transparency award in closed press ceremony. Well, yes, laughing at a public ceremony is so... unseemly.

MORE: "the most open and transparent [administration] in history."

A MESSY END to a messy beginning. And that's the best case.

OBAMA ROLLS OUT PLAN to cut oil imports. Highlights:

The president's proposal relies primarily on increased domestic production, conservation and a shift to biofuels and natural gas.

Hmm. Domestic production. Is there somewhere in the United States that hasn’t been put off limits? Conservation. Voluntary ... or mandatory by way of taxation? Biofuels? Not unless starvation is an option.

The president also announced that he is directing the federal government to ensure that all its vehicle purchases are alternative fuel, hybrid or electric cars by 2015.

And the higher taxes that go with them.

Higher fuel efficiency standards for cars will be announced this fall ... [and] a new fuel efficiency standard will be proposed for heavy-duty trucks, he added.

Better plan on driving that clunker into the ground - if you didn't fall for "cash for clunkers."

"The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity and security on a resource that will eventually run out."

Any resource will run out if you don’t produce more.

"[D]rill baby drill" -- a reference to the push for more domestic oil drilling -- would do little to provide short-term price relief.

But if we’d started 20, even 10 years ago?

Obama ripped GOP budget proposals that would strip money away from his renewable energy agenda.

I’ll believe in renewable energy when it can be shown to be both reliable and cost-effective. Until then ....

REASON’S NANNY OF THE MONTH: Drug warrior-in-chief Barack Obama.
I’m no great fan of marijuana, but I can live with them if they in turn will live with my cigarettes.

BAD NEWS is really good news. You may be starving, but that leaves us with plenty of food to distribute to others.

McCaskill needs to go.

WORLD’S FIRST SPACE GAS STATION for satellites to launch in 2015. But how do you get gas to the gas station?

FINALLY, a clear statement of the Obama Doctrine.

See also here and here.

OBAMACARE UPDATE (excerpted from my email) from Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli:

Here on the first anniversary of the signing of the federal healthcare bill and Virginia's lawsuit, I wanted to update you on developments in Virginia's healthcare case and let you know what to look for in the next couple of weeks.

Virginia is on a 'dual track' in the case at the moment. We have a motion to expedite the case pending in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the same time we are briefing the case for presentation to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals - the appellate court that covers Virginia.

Supreme Court

We have asked the Supreme Court to expedite the case under its Rule 11. They only do this for one or two cases per decade, so don't bet a lot of money on this one; however, the nature and cost of the healthcare law is the type that they have expedited in the past, so we'll see what they do.

We submitted the final brief on expediting this week. The Supreme Court will consider our request on April 15th. We could see a decision by the Supreme Court as soon as April 18th.

What does "expediting" mean under Supreme Court Rule 11? Basically it means to skip the appellate court and go straight to the Supreme Court.

There are three levels of federal courts: district courts, appellate courts (aka circuit courts), and the Supreme Court. We won in the district court in December. The federal government appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (the 4th Circuit covers Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas). In the ordinary course of things, the Supreme Court would follow the Court of Appeals.

Under Rule 11 of the Supreme Court, Virginia has requested that the Supreme Court pull the case out of the Court of Appeals and hear it directly. This could cut almost a year off of the case, resulting in ENORMOUS savings to both state governments and the private sector if the law is found unconstitutional and stricken. And why go through all the hoops of getting ready to implement a law that may be stricken anyway? Oh, I'm sorry, there I go thinking logically again... naturally the Obama administration is opposing this effort... I know you're shocked.

You might ask yourself, 'won't the Supreme Court want to hear from Appellate Court judges?' And the answer is 'maybe.' Remember this case is pure legal argument. There are no documents or other discovery to consider, no trial witnesses, in fact there was no trial at all. So, we are re-arguing the same pure legal arguments from the district court again in the Court of Appeals. Also, five different judges have addressed the merits of the case, with more to come. So, there are going to be an unusual number of judges' opinions to look at - should the Supremes so choose - without even getting to the appeals courts.

Thus far, we are the only state requesting that the Supreme Court exercise its discretion to expedite the case. Whether or not the Supreme Court decides to expedite the case is entirely within their discretion, so it's hard to tell what may happen. When we know, I'll let you know!

4th Circuit Court of Appeals

At the same time, we are about to submit our first of two briefs in the appellate court. In their opening brief, the feds made essentially the same arguments that they made in the district court. And while we adjust our presentation to include elements of other cases, our arguments will be the same as in the district court.

We will argue our case on May 10th before a three judge panel of the 4th Circuit (assuming the Supreme Court does NOT expedite the case, thereby taking it out of the appeals court). We will not know who those three judges are until the day of the argument.

Following our hearing, it would then be reasonable to look for a ruling around mid-July. I expect each side to react differently depending on who wins.

If Virginia wins in the 4th Circuit, I expect the federal government to ask the full 4th Circuit to rehear the case en banc (i.e., with all 14 judges of the 4th Circuit participating). This would be consistent with their efforts to drag the case out, as that may add several more months in the 4th Circuit, at which point, whichever side loses en banc will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the feds win in the 4th Circuit, I expect that we will immediately appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Once we get to the Supreme Court, I would expect to brief and argue the case during the next term of the Court. The next term of the Court will run from the beginning of October 2011 through the end of June 2012.

I would then expect that a final decision in our case will most likely be made (best guess) toward the end of June 2012. I think it will be very hard for the Obama administration to drag the case beyond June of 2012.

Obviously, that is very interesting timing in light of the Presidential race. And it further baffles me as to why the President would want to drag the case as close to Election Day as possible.

The only rationale I can think of is the following scenario: given that this case is being carried forward primarily (though by no means exclusively) by Republicans, if we succeed in winning the case, having the individual mandate declared unconstitutional, and having the entire law stricken (as happened in the Florida case), then I believe House Republicans will need to have their alternative healthcare reforms already prepared and ready to submit. If the Republicans in the House are not so prepared, then rather than voters reacting against the President due to the loss, they will be angry at Republicans for the appearance of just saying no without having positive alternatives.

That's the only reasonable explanation for the consistent efforts to delay the case being undertaken by the Obama administration.

Again, if something happens in the 4th Circuit, I'll get back to you again to update you on the case!

My conclusion? At best, there's a long way to go. This one, I believe, will be solved politically, not legally.

THE REPUBLICANS ARE BEGINNING TO GROW SOME COJONES: Republicans pitch unusual backup plan as fragile budget talks resume. I doubt it’ll work - it didn’t for the Democrats when they wanted to deem Obamacare passed - but it does seem to indicate a willingness to stand and fight. Still, I’d rather go for Kuhner’s approach: shut the government down.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: bank bailout mostly benefited banks. Hey, if Big Government is good for America, then shouldn’t Big Business ... and Big Labor and Big Pharma and Big Agriculture ... be equally good? It all depends on what the meaning of “good” is.

WRONG ON BOTH COUNTS: Maher is neither right nor sorry.

THE SCHISM in the Coffee Party is so bad, they split up into two different booths at Denny’s. I doubt Denny's would serve them - the restaurant makes money by selling food, not coffee. Linked from Instapundit.

COLBERT I. KING on how those right-wingers are complaining about Obama’s stance Libya. I guess he was sleeping during the eight years of the Bush administration. It’s a pity King can’t seem to take off his ideological blinders. Without them, he can be incisive, even brilliant. With them, he’s just another flack.

FOX NEWS POLL: What would you be willing to do to help America break its dependence on foreign oil?

'Green' options aren't getting much support.

NASA studies laser for removing space junk. The trick is directing it to the nearest available landfill ....

MORE: the Earth really is a landfill.

FROM MY EMAIL: With breathless anticipation, the crowd awaits the unveiling of the Obama statue. I won't miss him.

THE “I” TEAM LOGO Okay, I couldn't pass it up.

NASA'S MESSENGER SPACECRAFT releases first close-up of Mercury. The detailed image is here.

THE RUSSIANS are hiking the price of rocket rides again for U.S. astronauts — to nearly $63 million. Who'd a thunk prices rise when demand outpaces supply?

UNFORTUNATELY THEY'RE NOT PREDATORS: Mexico confirms use of U.S. drones in drug war. A few well-directed Hellfire missiles would have a salutary effect.

ANOTHER MEMBER OF THE ‘OBLIGARCHY’: Obligarches can’t be bothered with all those laws when they’re busy with their obligations of caring for the little people.

CLIFF’S NOTES on American democracy.

THE GOP FRESHMEN speak up.

Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure. You have failed to pass a budget, failed to restrain spending, and failed to put our country on sound fiscal footing. We do not accept your failure as our own. The American people did not send us here to fail. Make no mistake: any government shutdown is the result of your lack of leadership.

Mr. McConnell, Mr. Boehner, if you like your jobs and want to keep them, listen up! America is speaking to you, too.

WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR? Now if they can just get the cost down ....

I GET regular email updates from Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli - the most recent titled "Thanks for helping us accomplish so much!" - and he doesn't even beg for money! We need more politicians like him.

GLENN BECK: Obama puts the 'I' in Team. Come to think of it, the Obama administration reminds me of television's "A-Team", the difference being that the A-Team was better organized and actually acted on the side of good.

PRESIDENT OBAMA is calling for the U.S. to reduce its oil imports by one-third over the next decade. Yeah, and increase production of subsidized (read as green) domestic energy. That'll solve the problem.

SEN. JIM WEBB (D-VA): How to save taxpayers $6 billion a year (excerpted from a constituent email) by repealing the corn ethanol subsidy.

Eliminating or reducing ethanol subsidies and trade barriers will help decrease the federal budget deficit, benefit the environment, and lessen our reliance on imported oil. Historically our government has helped a product compete in one of three ways: subsidize it, protect it from competition, or require its use (emphasis mine). Ethanol may be the only product receiving all three forms of support from the U.S. government at this time.

Of course, he's not running for reelection, so he can afford to be honest.

NPR'S ADDICTION:

After decades of mainlining public funds, NPR's brass is understandably alarmed at the prospect of going without its drug. But addictions are unhealthy, and it is a blessing to get free of them. Ron Schiller was right: NPR would be better off if it gave up federal funding. A little tough love from Congress can finally make that happen.

It's time.

YOU CUT vote of the week. I voted for #2, despite the fact that it affects me. I work for one of those "studies and analyses" think tanks, and I'm only too aware of how much of it is unnecessary.

THE OBAMA DOCTRINE: "ad hoc and situational" - whatever the Presidential Teleprompter tells him it is. ADDED: I had hoped TOTUS would teleprompt more intelligently.

HOW TO KNOW when green technologies are real.

FROM THE ELECTRICITY TREE, OF COURSE. Read to the bottom for the question.

WELFARE STATE: handouts make up 1/3 of U.S. wages. Dang! My welfare benefits (social security) make up less than 25% of my total income. Where do I protest to rectify this gross injustice?

FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE BASKETBALL HOOPS. Something similar happened to me when I lived in (where else?) California. We lived in a cul-de-sac and had a basketball hoop set up on the sidewalk between adjacent driveways so the neighborhood kids could play basketball in the street. Then came the call from the police. Take it down, because the sidewalk can’t be blocked in case it needs to be used by the wheelchair-bound. Never mind that there were no wheelchair-bound people in the entire neighborhood, and never mind that that 5-foot segment of sidewalk had two adjacent driveways for easy-off/easy-on. A classic example of government of the morons, by the morons, for the morons.

EU TO BAN CARS FROM THE CITIES. Look for a growth spurt in the 'burbs. Linked from Hot Air.

SUPREME COURT to decide whether millions of female employees can sue Walmart. If the court grants class certification, get ready for plenty of "you hurt my feelings" class-action lawsuits. UPDATE: the Supremes appear to be skeptical.

THUMPER OBAMA: Steven Hayward takes note of an annoying Obama habit. Favorite comment: “Does anyone besides me get the distinct impression that the president believes we are all credulous boobs? Being continually mistaken for the village idiot by one's leader eventually has a numbing effect on one's enthusiasm supply.” Read it all - especially the comments.

FROM STUDENTS, a misplaced sense of entitlement. The proper response is "tough". The s-word can be added for emphasis. Linked from Instapundit, who notes it's not just students.

OUCH! “He’ll be the only one who’s not a prostitute.”

COMPETENCE is not a liberal strength.

CHUBBY should start with himself.

UNDER NEW FEDERAL RULES, most Americans disabled? I guess now we’ll all be able to park in the first row in every parking lot.

I BELIEVE the proper term is "obligarchy."

THREE THINGS I noticed about President Obama's speech on Libya tonight:

(1) It's still about "I" - not "we," "us," or the United States.

2) He hasn't given up strawmen (the 'false choice' paragraphs).

And

(3) He was very uncomfortable with patriotism. Even with the teleprompter, he stumbled nearly every time he spoke about anything that could even loosely be described in terms of American exceptionalism.

November 2012 can't come too soon.

MIRACLES HAPPEN. To say that Daisy and Shadow (front) dislike Diamond (rear) is understating things a bit. Usually, they won't even let her come up to the second floor, much less to "their" bedroom. Seeing them all on the same bed is nothing short of a miracle.

FEDERAL JUDGE TO SENIORS: take Medicare or lose Social Security. So I bought another pack of cigarettes. At least they’ll kill me with less pain than Obama’s Medicare.

Linked from Instapundit.

MEET THE NPR REPUBLICANS. Fortunately for him, my congresscritter isn't among them.

INSTEAD OF A SNAKE hissing "don't tread on me," these central planners would have the American people be a well-trained dog, ready to heel to a wise government master.... It's time for professional politicians - of all stripes - to be sent home.

TIME - the difference between a nightmare and a vision.

DOZENS OF HOUSE REPUBLICANS defected from their leadership last Tuesday and voted against another short-term spending measure that would keep the government operating for three more weeks.

With a little more courage, there won't be another short-term continuing resolution and we'll be able to get on with the real budget battle.

OOPSIE! Sen. David Vitter to Interior: DOJ filing proves you’re misleading the public on drilling permits. Who's lying? Probably both.

POLITICO: No point giving money to Democrats - they don't stay bought.

An honest politician is one who stays bought.

Link from Instapundit.

JIMMY CARTER plans trip to North Korea. I hope they keep him.

CONTEMPORARY LIBERALISM suffers from a great many problems, but excessive intelligence is not one of them.

OH, WAIT. Did I forget to pay $287,000 in property taxes on my private jet?

Congresscritters should be required to fly commercial (steerage class, with the rest of us) and leave their security entourages behind when they enter the loving arms of TSA.

"WATCHING THE PEOPLE WHO SAVAGED BUSH and called his supporters warmongers and so on now faced with watching the Lightbringer doing basically the same thing, only less competently, is too good a pleasure to forego."

Read the rest.

LET'S FACE IT -- Our President is a follower, not a leader: "On one issue after another the president has flip-flopped according to the sentiment of the day."

REST IN PEACE. Margaret Koehler Moore Hankamer (1917-2011). When we left the family gathering after the memorial service today, I noticed that the sky was completely clear, and full of brightly shining stars. It has been cloudy in Texas all week, so Mom must have cleared the skies and turned on all the lights to let us know that she was finally home.

HONEST DEMOCRAT: Ex-congressman admits increasing government paved his way to K Street.

Another reason for less government.

CASHING OUT IN ORDER TO CASH IN: "Barack Obama's housing policy involved quite a bit of trying to throw taxpayer money at underwater housing, expanding subsidies, expanding TARP, and so on.... Now one of the architects of Obama's housing policy, Federal Housing Authority Commissioner David Stevens, is cashing out to the Mortgage Bankers Association."

They're just following the money to ensure it doesn't get lost before entering their pockets.

ENTITLEMENT REFORM: Obama criticizes lawmakers for not doing what he didn't won't do either.

Another profile in courage....

CAPE KENNEDY SHUTTLE WORKERS form life-size shuttle for photo-op.



Nice.

MIA? Or just missing?

UNDERSTANDING WHAT'S HAPPENED with Japan's nuclear plants.

Here's another good link.

THERE'S A RIGHT KIND OF DIVERSITY - and then there's a wrong kind. Liberal diversity - good; any other - bad.

IRAN ANNOUNCES launch of its unmanned flying saucer.


IEEE Spectrum is also skeptical.

NUCLEAR PLATITUDES

Reader Brad Westbrook in the March 21 edition of the Austin American-Statesman, which can't seem to get its act together well enough to have the letters online the day the print edition appears on the news stands.

Here's what I keep hoping to hear from a U.S. offical about nuclear power plants here: "We are completely terrified by the events unfolding in Japan. The worst case scenario, becoming more and more likely, is the catastrophe that sends everyone in the nuclear energy industry to their knees in fear and dread..."

Well, the reason you're not hearing it is that it's simply not true. The events in Japan are a disaster, certainly, but not a nuclear disaster.

Continuing with Westbrook's letter:

"We have convened emergency meetings of all those with administrative control over nuclear power plants, along with boots-on-the-ground workers, to determine what we can do to prevent such a scenario here. Nothing is fool-proof. But we intend to implement immediately any lessons learned that we posssibly can."

Umm, usually lessons-learned follow a post-mortem, which is usually well after the event. What Westbrook is suggesting is more in line with implementing lessons unlearned.

Instead, we get platitudes about how things aren't so bad, that the radioactive vapor can't possibly get to the U.S., that our nuclear reactors are perfectly safe.

Again, not true. There haven been multitudinous news reports, citing government officials, that (a) it's bad; (b) radioactive emissions did occur and were in fact measured (though with very sensitive instruments) in the continental United States, and (c) whether Westbrook likes it or not, our nuclear reactors are quite safe.

Insert expletive-laced snort of disbelief here.

I would advise against snorting in the future; Mr. Westbrook can ill-afford to lose any more brain tissue.

COMMUNITARIANISM IS GREAT - until it's my turn to pay.

In the ongoing hue and cry over school funding in Texas, one thing is noticeably absent: the voice of the tea partyers.

Where are all of the letters accurately portraying our public schools as socialist? Where are the justifiable demands for property owners without children to be relieved of their school tax obligations? Where is the heartfelt insistence that families pay more for each child they have in the school system?

Let the voice of these patriots be heard.

Letter from reader Brad Smith in the March 21 edition of the Austin (TX) American-Statesman (who, bless its incompetent little heart, can't put anything online until at least one day after the print publication hits the street).

Well. I presume Mr. Smith is single, or childless, so let me ask him if he is willing to forego his Social Security, since it will be paid for by my children. Just in case Mr. Smith is unaware (which certainly he is) his - and some of my - FICA taxes are going to pay for his parents, of which I presume he has two.

And since he is obviously willing (being childless) to forego his Social Security benefits, does he think it is appropriate for me to receive a larger Social Security benefit since I have two children?

And yes, I am both receiving a Social Security benefit check and a tea party "patriot." And additionally for those of you about to go "Aha!" I am also willing to sacrifice some of my benefits for the common good.

FACTS MIGHT BE STUPID THINGS, but they are still facts. And as you read through Leonard Pitts' commentary, you soon realize that the facts are not 'real facts' until they're seen through the proper liberal dogma. Otherwise, "La, la, ... I can't hear you."

HEY, INSTAPUNDIT JUST PUBLISHED one of my sarcastic comments. But never mind that, read the Instapundit post - lots of attitude and links.

UPDATE: to get the "uber-partisan" reference, you'll have to link through Instapundit to the Andrew Sullivan post. I generally avoid linking Sullivan because immediately afterward I have a strong urge to wash my brain.

COULD THE JAPANESE DISASTER taint California's milk supply? You're stretching, progressives. Really stretching.

ENERGY SECRETARY STEVEN CHU: My job is to take the pain out of higher gas prices. He's going to do that by requiring gas stations to include an Advil with every fill up.

WHY DO STARS snap nude pics? Narcissism, perhaps?

“THE ONLY CLASS STRUGGLE IN WI is the one between those with class and those without it.”

ENDEAVOR begins its final journey, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords plans to watch.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION can't get it's act together. I'm no fan of National Intelligence Director James Clapper, but in this case, I think he's more nearly correct. The only thing that can change the Libya dynamic is for the U.S. to join with Britian and France in support - and implementation - of a 'no-fly' zone. And that had better happen damned fast.

STOP PIRACY: tax the rich.

“FRANKLY, my toilets don’t work in my house. And I blame you.”

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS when you’re taught, almost from birth, that you are a victim.

Linked from Instapundit.

GOOD GRIEF. These people are underperforming even my low expectations.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE, in a Homeland Security committee meeting:

We would be better off if we would have a hearing speaking about the importance of human intelligence. Funding for the elements of the Department of Homeland Security that can work on human resources to be able to hear from individuals who do want to engage and help this country promote its values.

Incoherent: the new English.

INDIA successfully tests anti-missile system.

BRITISH REPORT says society is too reliant on satellite-based navigation. "[T]here is a whole generation of road users who cannot use maps."

IT’S NOT BULLYING if the Left does it.

WE’VE GOT THE TECHNOLOGY; we’re just not sure how to use it.

Texting while driving - bad; texting while flying - good?

DON'T PACK YOUR BAGS JUST YET: scientists this week unveiled images of a reusable 'spaceplane' they hope will elevate space tourism to new heights.


Read more here.

TWO COMMENTS ON THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT.

“I love the tea parties. It’s like a political movement of Huxtables.”

“When the Tea Partiers lost in their attempt to kill Obamacare, they went to the ballot box and voted. That’s what representative democracy looks like. Not at all like the theatrics we are seeing in Wisconsin.”

IT’S ONLY A BOMBSHELL to the completely oblivious. Read the whole thing, then check out the comments.

HEH. “Green” cars pollute more. They use more gas, too.

I RARELY READ [NYT COLUMNIST PAUL] KRUGMAN, and this is a good reason to keep it that way.

RARE WARPLANE TO BE RECOVERED. A TBD Devastator war plane that was lost at sea in 1941 has been located off the coast of San Diego, and a Florida museum plans to raise it from the bottom.

Capt. Ed Ellis (USN, retd.), head of aircraft restorations for the National Museum of Naval Aviation, in Pensacola, told EAA the Devastator is "the 'holy grail' in terms of naval aviation, and something we'd like to have in this museum."

WELCOME TO THE REGULATORY STATE: "It's very difficult to protect the public from itself ...."

Perhaps it's because Americans don't want to be 'regulated'.

COINCIDENCE? Or conspiracy? I'm sure it's coincidence, but the conspiracy theory is intriguing. The question, to me, is what was the Glory spacecraft expected to find?

"IT PAINS ME to say that more bureaucracy is better, but if it’s bureaucracy aimed at targeting the rest of the bureaucracy, at least it serves some virtuous end."

STINGS ARE GOOD as long as only we do them.

OPERATIONS RESEARCH gets Instapundit notice.

THE ENTIRE STATE OF OREGON SHOULD BE EXPELLED FROM THE UNION. School bus driver fired after he refused to remove a Confederate battle flag flying from his pickup truck.

JEFF JACOBY: a fix for RomneyCare ObamaCare.

The list of mandates is astonishing - and incomplete; no mention of preventive care, annual physicals, well-baby care, etc. No wonder "healthcare" is so expensive.

HURRAY FOR "STUFF": We thought it was junk; but "[m]aterial abundance ... produces economic resilience."

MAKE OBAMA KING. “Then we could hold a special election and choose a real president.... Sure, it seems like a radical solution. But consider the alternative.”

MANY COLLEGE STUDENTS not learning to think critically. You've got to have people with critical thinking skills to teach critical thinking skills. Those people are not educators.

More here.

BEHOLD! YOUR PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS AT WORK

GOV. WALKER wins the Battle of First Wisconsin.

WELL, SO MUCH FOR EUROPEAN FLYING. The inclusion of aviation in the [European Union] cap-and-trade system may push up fares.

Or reduce the number of flights ....

DEMOCRAT STAFF engineered mob’s unlawful invasion of Wisconsin Capitol Building. Link and comment rich; take your time and read carefully.

DO YOU WANTto give greater economic opportunities to more Americans? Then education is not the way to do it, Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times. It's one of the more incredible and demonstrably untrue assertions he has made so far this year, and that's saying something.

Follow the link. I'm convinced by the data, but I suspect there's a nugget of truth to Krugman's basic claim. The "educrats" have so cheapened a college degree that it has about the same worth as my 1962 high school diploma.

For a contrary view, see here.

HARRY REID: Republican budget cuts will mean the end of cowboy poetry. "If Democrats are unwilling to abide belt-tightening on federal subsidies for regional cowboy poetry festivals, that tells you everything you need to know about their seriousness on spending."

SENATE REJECTS BUDGET PLANS nine days before deadline. This time the Republicans must hang tough and refuse to settle for less even if it risks a government shutdown (which no one beyond the chattering class will ever notice). As Rahm Emanuel once said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

OBAMCARE WAIVERS: On Wednesday, I suggested that it would be sompler just to count the number of waivers that have not yet been granted. Today there are only 56 left to grant.

CHARLIE SHEEN: I'm losing my mind. That presupposes he had one to begin with.

AN OPEN LETTER TO LARDBUTT:

You want war? Bring it, Lardbutt. You are the biggest talking, good for nothing little piece of Communist filth this country has produced in decades. You suck up to backward brutes and thugs like Castro while you castigate the American engines of the world’s economy. You trash this country and our people and belittle our values every chance you get, you cynical black hole of a human being. The worst words I can think of are too good to use to describe you. You are a buffoon, a hypocrite, and really of no use to civilization whatsoever.

Brian Preston is not thrilled with Michael Moore.

"IT'S CLEAR that Obamacare was seriously botched. We need to repeal the damned thing and start over with a more modest, incremental, and carefully vetted alternative."

HMM. Ice sheets melting, sea level rising faster than previously thought.

51% IS 'UNDEMOCRATIC'.

TANSTAAFL (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch). Thomas Sowell explains.

Read it all.

PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME how several thousand Democratic and union thugs (but I repeat myself) can take time off from work to occupy the Wisconsin Capitol building. Could it be because they’re on the dole?

LAUGHTER is the only medicine. "In these absurd times, when both parties quibble over crumbs while the layer cake of debt rises higher and higher, laughter is a mark of fiscal seriousness.”

NO, PROHIBITION AND THE 55 MPH SPEED LIMIT were sensible by comparison.

JUAN WILLIAMS MUST BE HAPPY: NPR CEO Vivian Schiller has resigned.

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, the 'tough' get going - on the road.

WE'RE NOT LAUGHING WITH YOU, we're laughing at you, clowns.

IS IT TIME to defund public broadcasting? Fox News poll says yes (94%).

WISCONSIN votes to strip union rights. It's not over by a long shot, especially given the unions' propensity for mob rule, but I'm certainly pleased to find that Gov. Walker and the Republican legislators have cojones. With similar happenings in other states, it may be that the tide is finally turning.

FORGET $5 GAS; we're shooting for $10.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE PAYING UNION DUES that are used to support Democratic candidates, you can always get another job.

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE in theory and in practice. If you like theory, you'll love socialized medicine.

WISCONSIN: Gov. Walker should order power (and heat) be turned off.

More here. And go here for updates.

NEA CAN'T TEACH KIDS TO READ, but it will teach them orgasms.

"IF [ENERGY EFFICIENT] TECHNOLOGIES were so good, they wouldn’t need to be imposed on us by law.”

THE MEGLOMANIACAL STYLE in American politics.

We are ... living with what results when personal charisma magnified by media adulation trumps executive management experience, demonstrated knowledge, proven judgment, the proven ability to coordinate and lead in crisis, practical private sector business experience, and the ability to forge a workable compromise.

Read the whole article.

CONGRESS: when you win, you win; when you lose, you win.

NOW PUT A 'DNR' TAG ON IT: ObamaCare vital signs starting to fade.

FOR A MERE $15,000, the finger-pointers are getting a bit carried away.

Linked from Instapundit.

NEXTGEN: efficiently moving aircraft to the next runway where they can't land. Former Air Traffic Controller Don Brown writes about the NextGen [air traffic control system], arguing that the limiting factor of air traffic capacity in the US is the fact that the vast majority of America's passenger traffic must travel on 100 runways as the result of our hub-and-spoke air transportation system.

My suspicion is that NextGen will enable a return to the old 1970's model for point-to-point air transportation.

DEMOCRATS: Obama 'failed to lead' on budget talks.

IS HARRY REID STUPID? Not when compared to a block of concrete.

IF WE CAN'T .... Good questions all.

AMERICA’S 401(k)s ARE DISASTERS, but are pensions any better? I dunno. My 401(k) is in pretty good shape, even after the recession, but I’m a strong saver (or as my kids put it, remarkably cheap).

More at Instapundit.

SHUTTLE DOWN*: Discovery completes her final mission.

* Yes, that's a reference to the Lee Correy book.

HOW DARE YOU break my narrative. More here.

AGED VOYAGER 1 does in-flight gymnastics for science.

She might be old, but she’s still got it where it counts. The 33-year old Voyager 1 probe, flying out near the edge of the solar system conducted a roll program, spinning 70 degrees counterclockwise, and held the position by spinning gyroscopes for two hours, 33 minutes. Voyager performed its in-flight gymnastics on March 7, 2011 and scientists hope the maneuver will help answer the question of which direction is the sun’s stream of charged particles turns when it nears the edge of the solar system.

Voyager's communication system was my first real job as a communications engineer in the mid-1970s.

GET USED TO BROWNOUTS. We’re going green - whether you like it or not.

WEST VIRGINIA SENATOR JOE MANCHIN: Obama has 'failed to lead' on budget. PJ Tatler: No, he hasn't bothered to try to lead.

STILL RISING: Number of healthcare reform law waivers climbs above 1,000. Wouldn't it be easier just to count the number of companies that haven't been granted a waiver?

JUAN WILLIAMS on National Public Radio: “The rank hypocrisy of his remarks was telling for me. They will say things to your face about how there’s no liberal orthodoxy at NPR, how they play it straight, but now you see it for what it is. They prostitute themselves for money.”

Williams may still be a liberal, but he's one I can respect.

NPR "APPALLED" by exec's comments on O'Keefe tape.

No, they're appalled his comments became public.

MAMMA GRIZZLY ALERT: the day Sarah Palin kneecapped feminism.

METRO IS FOR LITTLE PEOPLE; not those of us with important public responsibilities.

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

WE'RE EXPECTING 3-4" of rain tonight and tomorrow. Does that mean March rains bring April flowers? I'm ready.

UNION WORK RULES: It's the productivity, stupid! This is an older post that explains rather succintly why private sector unions are declining with such rapidity. And Simberg is correct; I remember (back in the 60's) having to wait for a union technician to remove a cover plate (four screws) on an equipment rack so that the engineer and I could install a new receiver in a downrange satellite tracking station.

While the vignette is only indirectly relevant to the Wisconsin public union controversy, it does illustrate the union mind-set: if it's not covered by a union rule, it won't get done.

Linked from a Washington Examiner post.

AS GAS PRICES RISE, is it time to 'drill, baby, drill'? To which a liberal will reply, " Yes, if by "drill, baby, drill" you mean tap into the Strategic Oil Reserve.

EXPLORING the moral universe of Wonkette.

Wonkette's "moral universe" reminds me of this quote from Deteriorata: "Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet."

Linked from Instapundit.

ON THE VALUE OF A COLLEGE DEGREE: “Every time Paul Krugman [PhD, Nobel Laureate] sits down at his typewriter he proves that a college degree is valueless.”

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE: Babies born after just 23 weeks of pregnancy or earlier should be left to die.

These are difficult decisions, to be sure, but difficult decisions are best made by those closest to them - not some disinterested bureaucrat hundreds or thousands of miles away.

REVERSING our suburban, commuting lifestyle. Fat chance - read the comments.

Linked from Instapundit, who points out the reality.

LIBERAL LUNACY: Let's solve unemployment by adding lots of new rights to the Constitution.

INSTAPUNDIT: "[R]emember the fierce moral urgency of change? Well, this is what you voted for when you voted for change. Suckers. "

ANOTHER CASUALTY of the government’s war on children.

THE FAILURE OF MASS TRANSIT: will bureaucrats ever learn?

The answer is clearly “no” and I would further suggest that the reason they keep pushing mass transit is to reserve the roads for themselves.

“ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY is not driven by tree-hugging activists, earnest liberal bloggers, or ecologically minded citizens. Instead, it flows from the lobbyists and executives of well-connected multinational corporations and built-for-subsidy startups that see profit in the loan guarantees, handouts, mandates, and tax credits Congress creates in the name of saving the planet.”

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: NPR executives caught on tape bashing conservatives and Tea Party.

An Instapundit reader comments: "This is just too funny. My irony meter has red-lined and wisps of smoke are curling up from it."

More here.

UPDATE from the comments here: "The Schiller character is just dripping with intellect...."

SEEMS RATHER OBVIOUS TO ME: “That people with agendas exploit government power for political ends is not exactly news. Want to stop them? Limit government power in the first place.”

THE SAD STATE of political science at Harvard University. “One has to study for years and get a Ph.D. to learn not to recognize the nose on one's face.”

GIVE THE MONEY BACK: Michele Bachmann calls on Congress to block $105B in health law money.

NO SHIT, SHERLOCK: “[I]t is getting increasingly difficult to distinguish the crazy left from the ostensibly respectable left. What is on Democratic Underground or Think Progress today is in Paul Krugman's column tomorrow. Or, worse yet, in news stories in liberal papers like the New York Times.”

SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY: ”Oil, coal, and gas extraction could create millions of new well-paying and union jobs, but the unions keep contributing to those politicians most likely to block the extraction and use of all three.”

WHAT A SURPRISE: “Nineteen of the 22 members of President Obama's recently created White House Council on Jobs and Competitiveness are linked by something other than a desire to serve on a presidential panel - they contributed either to the chief executive's 2008 campaign or to other Democratic candidates.”

Much more - ECO:nomics.

Crony capitalism at its best worst.

MESSAGE TO UNIONS: Taylorism died a long time ago.

But not that long ago. Time-and-motion studies were still in use when I started college back in the early ‘60s.

LIBYA: a practice ground for Special Operations forces.

WE THOUGHT we had a Secretary of the Labor Department; what we got was a union activist.

OVERDUE: Senate Republicans introduce bill to de-fund public broadcasting.

GLENN REYNOLDS: Is the ‘lower education bubble’ about to burst?

Related item here.

COMMENT OF THE DAY: writing about public union pension funds and the union demonization of Koch Industries, National Review’s Christian Schneider notes “They’re all part of the same money-making ecosystem, despite many state employees believing all their retirement funds are invested exclusively in dreams and rainbows.”

He forgot unicorns.

Linked from Hot Air.

BEHOLD: the structure of redundancy, stupidity, and unconstitutional power the 100-year fog of leftism has created.

It wasn’t just leftism.

WE ARE LIVING lives of self-imposed impoverishment.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: some very bad habits.

Read it all.

HEY, ERIC HOLDER: meet my people.

Background here.

SO WHO IS the ‘bitter clinger’?

A REQUIEM FOR MULTICULTURALISM. Key graf: “[L]ike a parasite sucking the blood from its host, multiculturalism often latches onto the righteous aims of true diversity. Indeed, many organizational mission statements cannot separate the two, presenting them as corollaries amidst flowery platitudes about values. ”

Something the company I work for has yet to learn.

JEFF JACOBY: What would Jesus cut?

[W]e are emphatically commanded by Scripture to help the poor, to comfort the afflicted, and to love the stranger. But those obligations are personal, not political. It requires a considerable leap of both faith and logic to read the Bible as mandating elaborate government assistance programs, to be funded by a vast apparatus of compulsory taxation.

Yes.

JUST DESSERTS: Press coverage of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., usually focuses on her megalomania ... [b]ut being a race-baiting megalomaniac is no crime. It is against the law, however, to racially harass your employees.

Put some popcorn in the microwave ....

IGNORANT, STUPID, or just a liar? You make the call.

YOU KNOW, there just aren’t enough Hitler comparisons in politics.

Another Democrat, naturally.

BADGERING THE WITLESS: Ottumwa Body & Fender’s most famous graduate responds to criticism of his earlier post.

REASON’S Nanny of the Month: Harry Reid.

HEH: POSSIBLE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. From the office email:

The senior team met to discuss ... actions should the government temporarily shut down as a result of Congress’ inability to reach agreement on the budget. Unless Republicans and Democrats can come together ... the government will likely shut down.

[T]here may be some government offices that will be shuttered, thereby leaving some of you who work at a government site needing a place to work. There is an outside possibility that the shutdown may also affect your specific tasks for your sponsors. Your managers will be working with you on a case-by-case basis to see what your needs are and help you find space to work as needed.

Of course, there’s no cost associated with all of this ....

HAH. “Anything that puts Krugman back behind a paywall can’t be all bad.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA announced Monday that military trials will resume for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Two years wasted while the boy president finally figured out that the Bush administration was right.

NOT THE WAY TO WIN FRIENDS: public union workers walk off the job in the midst of power outage. And in Hawaii, it’s a wee bit difficult to bring in replacement workers from neighboring states.

BREAKING NEWS: Congress cannot repeal the Laws of Physics.

A SMALL VICTORY: it looks like Donald Berwick is out as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I had forgotten his was a recess appointment.

CARTER REDUX: Obama is making the same energy mistakes as Jimmy Carter did.

The full article is here.

HIGH SPEED RAIL: in high gear and speeding toward a wreck. As is usual in IEEE Spectrum’s green technology posts, the commenters have the better argument: high-speed rail simply isn’t justifiable outside high-density urban centers with effective local mass transit.

Read the entire post and comments.

NO KIDDING. There is actually strong empirical evidence that climate scientists are very highly paid, and it comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Gee, and all this time, I thought they were compassionate altruists, toiling endlessly for the benefit of all mankind.

WOULD UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE actually improve health? The answer seems to be “No.”

JEFF JACOBY: “There is no ‘fundamental right’ to collective bargaining in government jobs.” Here’s the zinger:

[President] Obama scolds [Wisconsin Gov.] Walker for trying to restrict collective bargaining by government employees to wages, yet the two million federal civilian (non-postal) workers Obama presides over can't even bargain over that much: With rare exceptions, the wages, hours, and benefits of federal employment have never been subject to union contracts. The president appears to be quite OK with that. Last November he unilaterally announced a two-year pay freeze for all federal civilian federal employees, informing them -- no negotiating -- that they were going to "make some sacrifices" adding up to $2 billion this fiscal year.

Another case of “do as I say, not as I do.”

UH, OH. THAT GOLD STRIKE may be fools’ gold.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SCIENCE ADVISOR is a global warming denier. Just 40 years ago, an eyeblink in geological time, he was predicting the end of the world as we know it from global cooling.

OBAMA KEEPS MUM ON LIBYA. One can hope he’s truly working “behind the scenes” but past performance suggests that is a slim hope indeed.

FRACKING REPORT: "With hydrofracking [hdraulic fracturing, used to release natural gas from underground rock formations], a well can produce over a million gallons of waste-water that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground."

I tend to agree with most of the commenters that this is an advocacy piece, not a news report. Read it and make up your own mind.

PAC-3 INTERCEPTOR destroys missile in test flight at White Sands Missile Range NM.

OH, MY. Walking down the hall at the office Friday, I passed one of the maintenance crew changing light bulbs in the hallways. On his cart, a cleanly broken flourescent bulb, and no HAZMAT cleanup team in sight ....

HARVARD WILL LET ROTC RETURN TO CAMPUS: [A] director of Naval ROTC at Harvard will be appointed, and the university will resume funding the program, which will be given office space and access to athletic fields and classrooms. [But] Harvard cadets will still train, as they have for years, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

I don't think this is a victory for the Navy. I hope the Army and Air Force have more sense.

ON THE FREEWAY, I saw a Prius with two bumper stickers: “Obama/Biden 08” and “Hope and Change are working out pretty good.”

I just hope the Prius owner doesn't expect me to fund the change he believes in.

LONGHORNS, 17, BADGERS, 1: New York Times editorial blowhard, er, columnist Paul Krugman disparages Texas’ educational performance. Iowahawk 'respectfully' disagrees:

To recap: white students in Texas perform better than white students in Wisconsin, black students in Texas perform better than black students in Wisconsin, Hispanic students in Texas perform better than Hispanic students in Wisconsin. In 18 separate ethnicity-controlled comparisons, the only one where Wisconsin students performed better than their peers in Texas was 4th grade science for Hispanic students (statistically insignificant), and this was reversed by 8th grade. Further, Texas students exceeded the national average for their ethnic cohort in all 18 comparisons; Wisconsinites were below the national average in 8, above average in 8.

More funding does not necessarily equate to better performance, but don’t expect a liberal to understand.

IT’S ALL ABOUT CONTROL (CONTINUING): To really save the planet, stop going green.

Translated into plain English: “You, common man, cannot be trusted to deal with Nature on your own. Instead you must demand that Government force you to accept the dictates of we “experts” who can be trusted to deal appropriately with the looming catastrophe that only we can see.” Got it?

ANOTHER ADVANCE VIEW INTO OBAMACARE: A cruel FDA rollercoaster ride for women taking Avastin.

ALL KINDS OF CRAZY: and Kos speech is different from hate speech or Tea Party speech how? They’re projecting again.

Linked from The Corner.

YA THINK? Alan Greenspan says too much government is preventing economic recovery.

Read the comments. Greenspan is catching a lot more criticism than I would have thought.

GOVERNMENT IS TOO BIG. We know how to get around the earmark ban.

Jim Moran is a Virginia congress(hypo)critter - not my district, unfortunately. It’s time for him to go.

CLOWN CITY: another profile in Congresscritter idiocy.

We already know that Sheila Jackson Lee thinks her constituents are dumb (many of them voted for Sheila Jackson Lee, so that’s tough to argue against), but she also ... accuses her staffers of being sub-stupid.

Read it all; then follow this link.

WHAT IS the ‘Obama doctrine’? If the Bush doctrine was preemptive war, then the Obama doctrine is preemptive surrender.

Frankly I prefer the Reagan doctrine - preemptive victory.

IF I CAN’T HAVE IT MY WAY, I’ll take your football and flee.

THE OBAMAS’ PERSONAL TRAINER flies to DC from Chicago weekly for fitness training.

And the Obamas are too damn cheap to buy indulgences carbon offsets; instead they exhort the rest of us to walk, bicycle, carpool, or take the Metro to offset their extravagance.

I repeat myself, but “it’s all about control.”

IT’S TIME TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH: Tea Partiers to clean-up mess left by union protesters in Wisconsisn.

Today, at 1 pm. Will any union protestors show up?

NOW APPEARING in Ring 2 of the three-ring circus we laughingly call Washington D.C.

ROCKET CARRYING GLOBAL WARMING SATELITE crashes into Pacific Ocean ... again.

Before too long you’ll be able to walk across the Pacific all the way from Al Gore’s seaside California mansion to Japan without getting wet by only stepping on global warming satellite and rocket wreckage.

Do you think maybe Nature is trying to tell the environmental movement something?

SO TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL: ”I would vote for a syphilitic camel over Barack Obama in 2012 ....”

LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST ALARMIST prepares for climate Armageddon by buying a shotgun, replacing the locks on his doors, and raising tomatoes and lettuce behind barred basement windows in case Iowa becomes a dust bowl by the end of the century.

Arlington resident John Doyle responds (third letter):

That August thunderstorm that so frightened Mike Tidwell that he ordered his wife to "Go to the basement now!" impressed me, too. When I saw that monster barreling in, I ran to the top of the basement stairs and shouted down to my daughters to "Get up here now! You're not going to believe this storm!" The three of us stood on the porch, completely drenched, watching an absolutely glorious display of nature's power.

The Earth's climate is changing, just as it has for 4 billion years. The question is: How are you going to greet that change - holed up in your basement, windows barred, clutching your shotgun, or out in the front yard with your kids, stomping in enormous puddles?

I’m with John Doyle.

CAT NAP

THIS OUGHT TO BE THE HEADLINE: "Global Warming Kills Dolphins."

AN INCONVENIENT QUESTION: "Is it just me, or is the notion that guns are especially dangerous on university campuses because they’re lawless and full of alcohol and drugs one of those arguments that “proves too much?” If campuses are really that bad, isn’t the problem, you know, bigger than just whether someone with a permit has a gun there?"

HOW ABOUT THAT? John Galt is Irish.

OBAMA JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: We'll enforce DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) but not defend it because we think it's unconstitutional. Uh, hold on there. Isn't an act, passed by Congress and signed by the President, presumed to be constitutional unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise?

Or can our next President just declare ObamaCare to be unconstitutional and just refuse to defend/enforce it?

Instapundit comments: "You take an oath to enforce the Constitution. This may give the President the authority to enforce the Constitution as he sees it, but it surely doesn’t give the President the authority to choose not to enforce the Constitution as he sees it."

MARK STEYN on the Wisconsin public union kerfuffle:

That's what "collective bargaining" is about: It enables unions rather than citizens to set the price of government. It is, thus, a direct assault on republican democracy, and it needs to be destroyed. Unlovely as they are, the Greek rioters and the snarling thugs of Madison are the logical end point of the advanced social democratic state: not an oppressed underclass, but a spoiled overclass, rioting in defense of its privileges and insisting on more subsidy, more benefits, more featherbedding, more government.

Correct.

HOW DID YOUR CONGRESSMAN vote on HR1 (the budget bill)? My congresscritter, Frank Wolf (VA-10) didn't do so well. He's going to hear from me and I'll be looking for a replacement in 2012.

DONALD RUMSFELD flummoxes MSNBC interviewer Andrea Mitchell. This is why I like Rumsfeld.

MORE: I saw Rumsfeld on O'Reilly last night. He had O'Reilly on the defensive as well. Here are three exerpts from the interview.

DEMOCRATS just don't understand the new populism.

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL.

You are too dumb to make the proper decisions, so the medical community wants to make indoor tanning illegal for your minor children.

The American Medical Association doesn’t want you to know about your own DNA, since you're not competent to understand what it means.

Bull.

SMASHING the Democratic/media narrative.

VISION STATEMENTS for visionaries. My feelings exactly. "Vision statements" are bland, feel-good, vacuous mush of no use whatever.

A LOOK BACK: Public unions are giving thugs a bad name.

TRACKING THE PULSE of the Tea Party movement.

The 2012 election season is heating up. There are many potential Presidential candidates, and we will make the bold prediction that every single Republican will attempt to gain the support of the tea party movement. But which candidates do this powerful grassroots movement really support?

This poll gauges such support using a unique “run-off” matchup model. It is designed to elicit deeper preferences from voters and make it much more difficult for well-organized campaigns to “game” the system. The results reflects the percentage of times a candidate was preferred in a head-to-head “run-off” against other potential candidates. We also suspect they more accurately reflect the true pulse of the tea party movement than those cited by the mainstream media.

Take the straw poll.

THE TEDIOUS ANNOYING COMPLAINTS of public radio listeners. There's a simple no-cost solution. Quit listening - and stop funding public radio.

Linked from Instapundit.

TRAIN WRECK? Not necessarily.

[P]ollster Scott Rasmussen reports that 58 percent of likely voters would rather have a government shutdown until both parties can agree on spending cuts, while only 33 percent would prefer spending at the same levels as last year.

The train wreck will be if the Republicans falter and choose not to take an ax to the budget.

WISCONSIN ETHICS BOARD: Democrats can use campaign funds to pay for life on lam.

And who supplies the Democrats’ campaign coffers? Unions, perhaps?

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON: how a real leader speaks. Mr. Obama should take note.

FAA OKAYS iPAD for pilot’s charts.

WHO THE HELL is this twit?

“A” IS FOR AGITATION: “The goals of the teachers union machine are not academic excellence, professional development and fairness.... The goals are student indoctrination, social upheaval and perpetual agitation in pursuit of bigger government and spending without restraint.”

MICHAEL MOORE: Wealthy Americans’ Money is a ‘National Resource'. “This is why the wealthy filmmaker has taken the unprecedented step of posting his bank account numbers online so all Americans can have access to the vital national resource that is ‘our’ money.” What? He didn’t do that? Aww ...

UNION POWER, by the numbers.

This should disabuse you of the myth that unions are “paltry players” when compared to the business lobbies. Oh, and by the way, even the non-union “big players” contribute predominately to Democrats.

Continue reading here.

MORE UNION CIVILITY. You have to wonder what kind of people raised these thuggish brats.

WHY KOCH INDUSTRIES IS SPEAKING OUT: Crony capitalism and bloated government prevent entrepreneurs from producing the products and services that make people's lives better.

OUCH! Since I’m so smart, why aren't I better paid? Well, perhaps because you're not so smart ....

PLAYING "WHERE'S WALDO?": As the 14 Wisconsin Democrats run, meet the numerous Illinois Tea Party activists giving chase.

CONSIDERING WHAT THEY MIGHT BE DOING INSTEAD, I think I’m okay with this use of their time.

HEH: the Law of Unintended Consequences strikes the Green Movement.