"AMERICA IS TRULY A WONDERFUL COUNTRY. Where else would you find a female Navy officer from Reno, Nevada, commanding the destroyer USS Decatur? Did I mention that she is of South Asian origin? Oh, and let us not forget that she is a graduate of the nation’s oldest private military academy, Norwich."

Her blog is here.

ANOTHER ARGUMENT FOR SMALLER GOVERNMENT: Tax compliance employs more workers than Wal-Mart, UPS, McDonalds, IBM, and Citigroup combined.

PRESIDENT WHATEVER finds things not going his way. Whatever you thought of the “great budget debate,” my sense is that Speaker Boehner is taking Sarah Palin’s advice: don’t retreat; reload.”

Read the whole thing.

THAT’S 4% PER ANNUM, over and above the normal inflation rate. Compliments of Neal Boortz.

SAVING ELECTRICITY: and, yes, the view is depressing.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS insist S&P warning means Congress should raise the debt ceiling, no strings attached.

More than half of House Democrats are seizing on news that Standard and Poor's could downgrade the United States' bond rating to make the argument that Republicans need to raise the debt limit without tying it to additional spending restraint.

"America pays its bills," said Rep. Peter Welch, (D-VT).

I would argue that the fact that the debt ceiling needs to be raised is proof that America does not pay its bills. Hence the need, not for strings, but for high tensile strength steel cables.

NO SURPRISE: Rising gasoline prices sinking Obama.

GIANT [SUPERMARKET] DISRESPECTS THE COMMUNITY by outsourcing its formerlly unionized warehousing operation. “From a union activist: ‘We fought for the consumer, who deserves to have food that comes from union workers, warehouses and distribution.’ Problem is, the food tastes the same without the union. And it probably costs less, too.”

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS may not be the righteous voice of the virtuous proletariat, but rather a privileged group that the voters ... are getting wise to.

HOGWASH ONLY A PROGRESSIVE COULD BELIEVE: “Obama ...framing himself as the pragmatic voice in a highly charged partisan environment that could devolve into chaos without adult supervision.”