AN AIRCRAFT THAT RESEMBLES A FOUR-POINT NINJA STAR could go into supersonic mode by simply turning 90 degrees in midair.


The bidirectional flying wing kicks the general concept up a notch by essentially laying two flying wings on top of one another at a 90 degree angle, so that the aircraft faces one way for subsonic flight and rotates another way for supersonic flight.

A TERRIBLE THOUGHT: Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Speaker's chair. Vote for Karen Harrington.

BREAKING NEWS: Chevy Chase, MD, is in the District of Columbia.

RACIST CODEWORDS: Just in case you don't know what not to say.

STATE DEPARTMENT: 'Hold down the fort' could be offensive.

Now try to tell me that government isn't too big, too burdensome, too wasteful -- and too stupid -- to be allowed to continue on its current path.

BILL WHITTLE: The Incredible Shrinking Man.

GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY: Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention.

SOME VIDEOS from Day 2 of the Republican National Convention:

Mia Love
Condoleezza Rice
Susana Martinez
Paul Ryan

More videos from CSPAN here.

IF 'BED REST', 'personal journaling', and 'helping a relative with household tasks and errands' now meet the work requirements for welfare, then I should apply.

NOW IT'S OUR TURN.

THE BEST alarm clock is a hungry cat. If only they weren't set for 5:30 am.

LOOK FOR used car prices to skyrocket. Buy now, save money.

DEAD VOTERS and a dying democracy?

FIRST, throw out the wonks: “Common sense is in spite of,” wrote Victor Hugo, “not the result of, education.”

THE MIDAS EFFECT: Everything Obama touches turns to Volt.

GUN ID LEGISLATION may trigger exodus of gunmakers Remington, Colt from New York and Connecticut. Sturm Ruger is also headquartered in Connecticut. I expect they will consider leaving as well.

CHINA MAY BE NEXT to land people on the moon.

STORIES FROM AROUND THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.

FINALLY, the Left gets a clue. But they'll refuse to act on it.

THOMAS SOWELL: Risky Business.

Insurance is all about risk. Yet neither insurance companies nor their policy-holders can do anything about one of the biggest risks -- namely, interference by politicians, to turn insurance into something other than a device to deal with risk.

Which explains the ever rising cost of health 'care'.

MARK STEYN: Obama's war on children.

DOES GOD LOVE THE GOP? Ask Dana Milbank.

E. J. DIONNE: Elizabeth Warren on health care and religion. Read the whole thing. It sounds warm and fuzzy and caring until you realize that she believes that warm and fuzzy and caring are government functions to be carried out by herself and her liberal colleagues.

THERE WAS A TIME when risk was acceptable. No longer.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Cheesecake Factory Medicine. To summarize by way of a Henry Ford analogy: "You can have any car you like as long as it's a Volt."

Here's what's truly disconcerting. This comment is primarily about Medicare, but don't kid yourself, it's inherent in ObamaCare as well:

It should be noted that those on Medicare cannot choose to pay privately and outside the system if the provider participates in Medicare.... People who have Medicare have no other choice for insurance, and they will get what the provider is allowed to offer.

And here's the point: if you're receiving Social Security -- as I am -- you're automatically enrolled in Medicare Part A (hospitalization). You have no choice. You can't opt out. You can't pay extra for a higher quality of service.

REINCE PRIEBUS on MSNBC host Chris Matthews' attack on Republicans: “I don’t really care. If more than 10 people actually watched his show, I would actually care, but they don’t, so, whatever.”

YES, ROMNEY CAN; No, Obama won't.

MMM.... Bologna.

OBAMA PAYS TRIBUTE TO NEIL ARMSTRONG, the only way he knows how - with a photo of himself.

FRANK J. FLEMING: Budgeting for liberals.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: the wages of liberalism.

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION schedule highlights:

Tuesday

8 PM: Sen. Kelly Ayotte. N.H., Govs. John Kasich, Ohio, Mary Fallin, Okla., Bob McDonnell, Va., and Scott Walker, Wis.
9 PM: Former-Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz, Texas, and Govs. Brian Sandoval, Nev., and Nikki Haley, S.C.,
10 PM: Mrs. Ann Romney and Gov. Chris Christie, N.J.

Wednesday

8 PM: Gov. Bobby Jindal, La., and Sens. John Thune, S.D., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
9 PM: Mike Huckabee and Govs. Luis Fortuno, P.R., and Tim Pawlenty
10 PM: Condoleezza Rice, Gov. Susana Martinez, N.M., and Paul Ryan.

Thursday

8 PM: Gov. Jeb Bush, Fla.
9 PM: 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey “miracle on ice” captain Michael Eruzione
10 PM: Sen. Marco Rubio, Fla. and Mitt Romney

Be there.

A CARNUCOPIA of bumper stickers. Keep scrolling.

MOCKING THE CLOWNS POLITICIANS.

WHAT? Education is more important than a Presidential visit?

It's either that or UVA's unwillingness to pay the cost of Obama's security....

IN OTHER WORDS, they're recruiting Democrats.

TEAM OBAMA: Nothing left but ego. But there's plenty of that.

THEVOTERSMUSIC: Blame It On Bush.



From their album Electile Dysfunction.

ANOTHER PACK OF LIES.

KIM STRASSEL: What to expect if Obama wins a second term. Good news it is not.

SO WHICH PARTY is extreme on abortion? The answer might surprise.

REALITY STRIKES (SLOWLY): New York Times Public Editor’s Last Column Says Paper Has Progressive Viewpoint. I wonder if he's found a new job yet....

YESTERDAY I POSTED my thought that the President Obama's weekly address was nothing more than a campaign speech. It was also campaign fiction; in other words, a lie.

PLASTIC VS. CLOTH SHOPPING BAGS: Let's put a little chlorine in the gene pool. Scroll up for the original post.

FAIR AND BALANCED? or boring and liberal? Moving slowly toward boring and liberal, I'm afraid.

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO as the Republican convention convenes.

HEH: 'Republican Women for Obama' are Democrats.

THE TEST OF FIRE: the Catholic church fights back.

HOW TO GET RICH QUICK:

UNEMPLOYMENT: "We Tried Our Plan, and It Worked...."

The only problem for President Obama and his economic team is that too few Americans chose to exit the U.S. civilian labor force as they desired. In order to have achieved their goals, they would have needed to remove an additional 2% of the U.S. working age population from the ranks of the nation's civilian labor force.

That would be on top of the 2% of the U.S. working age population that they successfully removed from the U.S. work force since January 2009. With the current civilian labor force participation rate standing at 63.7%, that additional 2% reduction in the number of Americans in the civilian labor force works out to be roughly an additional 4.9 million people.

What can we say? Apparently, the President and his team have decided that culling the U.S. work force is a lot easier for them to do than generating real job-creating economic growth.

Well, almost worked. Those obstinate Americans kept looking for work rather than drop out of the workforce altogether as Obama expected them to.

DIMOCRATS KAN'T SPEL:


Seen flying over the Romney/Ryan rally in Ohio (or is it Oiho?)

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Obama’s Solar Panel Tariffs Threaten To Destroy An American Business. I doubt Romney's position on China trade is any better, but his business acumen may be enough for him to think through the consequences.

BREAKING NEWS: Astronaut Neil Armstrong dies at age 82.

UPDATE: the Fox News story is here.

When Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon in 1969, my wife and I were newly married, living in Waianae, Hawaii. We watched the landing in our living room on a Sony MicroTV (4-1/2 inch diagonal screen) which I had bought years earlier while I was working in Okinawa. I still have the TV, although it hasn't worked in years.

DAVID KOCH: A civic duty.

SKUNK WORKS ENGINEERS develop a laser-powered drone aircraft. I was lucky enough to be able to work at the Skunk Works for several years.

CHANGE? Here's Obama's energy plan from August 2008.

REPUBLICAN CONVENTION may not mean 'tea' time.


The media (and liberals generally) are missing the point. Unlike Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party is not just a bunch of people dressing in funny clothes protesting in the streets in cities across America, it is a serious, long-term, low profile effort to change the direction of America.

“The purpose is to legally nominate their candidate,” Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, told FoxNews.com. “Tea Party Patriots are far more concerned about what laws are going to be passed than what they’re doing at a party in Florida and Charlotte.”

“As long as our values are represented, we are making an effect. What we will be happy about is when bills are signed into law that repeal the president’s health care law, and when the budget is balanced and when we’re on the road to recovery,” she said. “The convention is just a very small step along the way.”

Exactly.

AID AND ABET: How the networks help the Democrats’ distraction campaign.

TECHNOLOGY: Reading and Writing a Book with DNA.

I HAD THE MISFORTUNE to listen to President Obama's weekly address to the nation this morning. It was a campaign speech, nothing more. Obama has managed to demean every symbol of the presidency in his unending quest for power.

SWEAT MORE FOR GAIA.

THE HOPE & THE CHANGE: coming soon to the Republican convention. It is a documentary of 2008 Obama voters who have since changed their minds and will vote for Romney in 2012. I saw an excerpt on Hannity last night. The most powerful moment was when one of the voters said of Liberals "they keep telling us what we think."

Here's an excerpt from the show.

CRONIES are our future.

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, I was a 32-year-old engineer preparing Voyager for NASA's longest mission ever. It's still going while I'm running out of steam.

THOMAS SOWELL: It's time to forget the trees and tend to the forest.

MAGNETIC TROUT: ‘Compass Cells’ Isolated.

INSTAPUNDIT: "Romney joke not about birth cert. Way of reminding people of Obama's post-American approach to presidency." Exactly -- and the Left fell for it.

THE $6,400 MYTH: "One of President Obama's regular attacks on Paul Ryan's Medicare reform is that it would force seniors to pay $6,400 a year more for health care. But merely because he keeps repeating this doesn't mean it's in the same area code of accurate."

KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE:

HUH? "It is not legal for a company to use small unmanned aircraft for commercial photography."

WELL SAID: "No one would question Obama's birth if he acted like an American."

ROMNEY: "[W]hen you see a problem, run toward it or it will only get worse." Compare with Obama's philosophy of 'cover your eyes and demagogue it'.

HA! Punch back.

ON REDUCING BIRD STRIKES: "[T]he agency has taken a comprehensive approach to reduce wildlife strikes since 1960 with better research, technology, training and online reporting." And the solution is ...?

Any day not, the FAA will propose requiring all birds to walk (waddle?) within 1 mile of an active runway. Or perhaps fining the birds who aggressively strike aircraft.

GAWKER: Inside Mitt Romney’s Tax-Dodging Cayman Schemes. But Gawker's tax-dodging Cayman schemes are A-OK....

A VOTE FOR OBAMA is a vote for 9 percent unemployment.

HIT THE ROAD, BARACK: Why Obama needs to go.

Ferguson's article created an avalanche of criticism from the left; he answers his critics here and here.

Linked from PJ Media.

MORNING EXAMINER: President Obama’s imaginary recovery.

AUTO BAILOUT: from bad to worse.

WE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE: Warrantless Cellphone Tracking Upheld.

WHAT A RIDE! Mars rover Curiosity's landing in high resolution video.

STINGY LIBERALS. But they're very generous with your money.

PROTEIN COMPUTERS STILL COMPETITIVE: Military Drones Only 'Slightly' Cheaper Than Piloted Jets.

ACADEMIC MODEL: Romney will take 52.9% of the vote, 320 electoral votes. My personal little mini-model is today predicting a 53-44 Romney win.

HAVE WE REACHED THE POINT where it’s parental malpractice to entrust your kids to public schools? Yes. Yes, we have.

MORNING EXAMINER: Romney’s ongoing war against free stuff.

THOMAS SOWELL: 2016, a powerful movie.

EMMETT TYRRELL: Obama is casting his net for the moron vote. It's conceivable there are enough to re-elect him.

THE WASHINGTON POST'S EZRA KLEIN INTERVIEWS Chris Van Hollen (D) and Paul Ryan (R) on their respective programs for Medicare/Medicaid. It's clear that the Democrat plan is government-centric; the Republican plan is patient-centric. For that point alone, I strongly favor the Republican plan.

That said, however, even the Republican plan disappoints because even it limits the choice of health insurance options from which I can select.

CLIMATEGATE 'SCHOLAR' gets his little feelings hurt.

ALTHOUSE: Democrat (who thinks he's God) disapproves of Republicans.

IEEE SPECTRUM: It's no longer Moore's Law for technology development.

ROB PORTMAN: The Regulatory Cliff Is Nearly as Steep as the Fiscal One. Nearly as steep? I'd suggest it's far steeper.

MODERN ENVIRONMENTALISM: 'helping' the environment while hurting the poor.

RIGHT IDEA, wrong solution. The answer isn't to throw more tax money into basic research; it's to remove the government disincentives from private enterprise investing in basic research.

THE 57TH STATE: OIHO. I wonder how many electoral votes 'Oiho' has....

EDJUMAKATION has come to this. Explain to my why we should continue to throw tax money at K-12 public education when this kind of crap is the result.

SPACE TECHNOLOGY: the Masten Xombie practices powered precision descent and landing.

HEH: Will this take the edge off the Obama campaign's calls for Romney to release more tax returns?

Link from Instapundit.

JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY: Military Must Be 'Apolitical'.

Hmm. The Obama admiistration apparently agrees with Gen. Dempsey that the active military must be 'apolitical'; since 2008, it has done an excellent job of discouraging military voters.

Irrespective of whether or not the active military should be apolitical, Gen. Dempsey misses an essential point: the members of the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund are all ex-military. To say they can't speak out based in part on specialized knowledge they acquired while in the military is absurd.

‘I’VE STUDIED LIBERALS Like Jane Goodall Studies her Chimps.’ There's a difference between liberals and chimps?

TWO BUMPER STICKERS I saw on the road today:

I'LL TAKE THE MORMON OVER THE MORON

47% PAY NO TAXES
SO WHO ISN'T PAYING THEIR 'FAIR SHARE'?

Plus Romney/Ryan bumper stickers are beginning to appear around town.

PRIVATE-MARKET TOOTH FAIRY can't cut Medicare cost. Perhaps. But I have much less confidence in the government-supplied tooth fairy.

REPORT: Muslim Brotherhood ‘Crucifies’ Opponents. If this report is literally true, then I think the West is rapidly being reduced to two, perhaps three, options with respect to the Middle East:

1) Colonization;
2) Coventry; or
3) Annihilation.

Colonization's been tried before, mostly unsuccessfully if one looks that nation-states that were former colonies. Coventry -- that is, embargo -- is the current option du jour, and it doesn't appear promising based on recent history. That leaves the third option -- total destruction of a nation's military capability -- which the Israelis appear to be seriously considering with respect to Iran.

Personally, I suspect the end result being forced on the West will be a combination of 2) and 3): attack Iran, Syria, and possibly others, destroy their governments, infrastructure, and military capability in toto (literally to bounce the rubble) and then walk away, putting a strong embargo in place to prevent any other nation from helping them rebuild.

Unfortunately the Islamic extremists seem to be wedded to the strong horse theory, so the strong horse may yet be forced to demonstrate its true strength.

HARRY R. JACKSON, JR.: Same-Sex Marriage Thought Police?

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Activists would have us believe that the issue of marriage is about the “rights” and “equality” of homosexuals. But in reality, the push to redefine marriage is about demanding public approval and celebration of homosexuality. There is a difference. Slot machines are legal in some areas, but if the COO of Chick-fil-a had expressed a personal disapproval of gambling, would slot-machine supporters have demanded a boycott of his restaurants? What about smokers? Would they have lambasted Dan Cathy for expressing that he personally does not approve of smoking?

No. Because at the end of the day, gamblers want the right to gamble, and smokers want the right to smoke cigarettes. Both groups, however, have accepted the fact that not everyone approves of their choice to do these things.

For progressives, though, if you disagree or disapprove, you must be hateful or evil. For them, it's always about control.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH EDUCATION: It's all about process and polish, not progress. What happened to that old Nike slogan 'Just do it!'?

WHAT DIDN'T HAPPEN on Obama's campaign bus trip through Iowa.

COMMENT OF THE DAY:

I think we’ve all had quite enough of government and other organizations telling us what constitutes a fulfilling life.

Longevity is merely one dimension of a life, and there is no evidence that any of the would-be nannies can extend life or prevent death. Health is another, and so is adventure, victory in physical tests, intellectual accomplishment, business success, political success, etc., etc., etc.!!!

We all deserve to receive accurate risk information, but the choice is OURS!! As long as you are not interfering with other people’s choices, NOBODY else has the right to dictate how you ought to live.

So if someone chooses a risky profession that he enjoys, or a profession like football which has huge rewards and health risks, it is his right to be LEFT ALONE to “spend his life” as he chooses.

Taken from this Hot Air post. Unfortunately, as is becoming more and more obvious, the nanny-staters -- both in and out of government -- have decided that we can't be trusted to evaluate risks and make our own decisions as to what constitutes a fulfilling life.

It's time for them to butt out.

IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN ISSUES.

THE COST OF BAD GOVERNMENT:


Taken from this article.

GOOD QUESTION: Who Will Receive Obama's Next Handout?

“THE MARKET has not been what everybody anticipated it to be with electric vehicles.” Of course 'everybody' means the greenies.

DEMOCRATS TO ROMNEY: You're not following our script!



Neither are our seniors.

HOW TO ESCAPE THE TAX MAN: Weigh anchor. And it doesn't just apply to yachts.

WHERE ARE all those green jobs?

OBAMA WINNING OHIO? Coal miners aren't happy.

MEDICARE 2035: Older, Sicker, Poorer. The proper solution, as it has always been, is to get out of the health care business and back into the health insurance business. Fee-for-service works only as long as the customer (i.e., patient) pays the fee.

MARITA NOON: Energy shortages are coming to an outlet near you.

OBAMACARE AND MEDICARE. If these
two reports don't convince you that Medicare must be reformed and ObamaCare must be repealed, nothing will.

MAYBE THERE'S A REASON for disposable grocery bags.

Of course, in the land of Lake Wobegon, where everyone is above average, there are no unintended consequences.

LINDA CHAVEZ: A Moral Question for the GOP. Chavez is right on the moral question; the relevant question is how to get there. I believe the first thing we need to do is to control the borders, then deal honestly with the mess that our current immigration laws have left behind.

There is a forming consensus that something must be done, but not on when it must be done. I'm strongly of the view that border control must come first; after that, the rest should be easier.

ROMNEY 2.0: The Paul Ryan Effect.

IT ONLY HAPPENS DURING ELECTION YEARS. As gasoline prices rise, the White House says tapping the strategic oil reserve is on the table.

ARE YOU AN EXTREMIST? In the progressive view, of course. But the progressives are so far out left that it's surprising that they can even see the playing field.

IS THIS SOME KIND OF A JOKE? No, it's a real interview. Here's more, including a video clip from the RNC.

OBAMA CAMP WANTS PETITION SIGNATURES to get Romney to release tax returns. I'd rather have a petition campaign to get Obama to release his college transcripts. They're certainly more relevant to America's future than Romney's taxes.

INTERESTING THOUGHT: Biden's gaffes are intentional.

'WHAT I WILL NOT ABIDE': Obama chides his supporters for not contributing enough to his campaign.

"I will not abide...." That's what I would tell my children when they were pre-K and misbehaved.

IF THIS STUDY IS TRUE, why am I still here? Liberal nannies never let facts, logic, or common sense interfere with their preordained outcome.

GUNS AND AMMO: the new growth sectors in Obama's economy. I'll be buying soon, too.

YES. YES YOU DID.

SO IF YOU SCREW UP YOUR LIPS and close your eyes real tight, you may be able to convince yourself that Mitt Romney was culpable in the death of Joe Soptic's wife Ilyona. If you can, then ponder this: by that same 'logic', how many people has President Obama killed during his 3-1/2 years in office?

ENVIRONMENTALISTS, PAY ATTENTION: Carbon emissions are at a twenty-year low, due to ... natural gas. Who said the free market doesn't work?

THE WORLD'S OLDEST COMMISSIONED WARSHIP will sail under its own power for just the second time in more than a century to commemorate the battle that won it the nickname "Old Ironsides."

IF YOU ACTUALLY NEED A THOUSAND BUCKS, ... don’t go to a liberal....

CLEVER IDEA for hiding something, I guess, but the only books I'd be willing to do that to are ones that I wouldn't want displayed on my bookshelves.

WHERE ARE HIS COLLEGE TRANSCRIPTS? Obama flunks Econ 101.

SO I'M A SUCKER for kitten stories.

HEH: My California Lease. Not even the hoodlums can make a living there....

TOUGH LUCK: Faulty Control Fin Results in Failed WaveRider Test.

WATCHING PRESIDENT OBAMA'S just concluded campaign stop in New Hampshire, I now know what his economic plan is: more free stuff.

CURIOSITY'S VOICE:



The link is here.

IT'S NOT JUST MEN ANY MORE: The Liberal Sisterhood of the Plundering Hacks.

LIBERAL CIVILITY: Protester spits on Romney supporter. Of course it's not important enough to garner any (mainstream) coverage.

LEVELUP: Pay-By-Phone Innovator. Thanks, but for now I'll stick with options that allow me maximum control over my money.

OBAMACARE WRIT LARGE: Doctors, we own you. You're no longer citizens, you're subjects.

Think that attitude is limited to health professionals? Think again.

NEW ELECTION PREDICTION: 56% to 44% in favor of Romney.

My little prediction algorithm is now showing 45% strongly in favor of Romney; 20% strongly in favor of Obama; and 35% 'on the fence'. If the undecideds break 2:1 in favor of Obama, as past history tends to indicate, it would mean a 56/44 victory for Romney.

If the undecideds break evenly, the election will be a 62/38 blowout.

FICTION, NOT FACT: A Storied Presidency.

DAMN THOSE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES! They keep interfering with our ability to perfectly manage the world economy.

LOOK AT THE PRETTY WIND TURBINES! Nantucket's elite will have to learn to love them, just like the hoi polloi. FAA rules Cape Wind project poses no hazard.

PAUL GREENBERG: In The Middle of The Night -- Curiosity landed.

MARYBETH HICKS evicerates Andrea Mitchell. "I mean, does she really sit down and balance the [Alan] Greenspan family checkbook? What could she possibly know about the concerns of real suburban moms?"

DEPENDENCY AND FREE STUFF: He'll turn us into beggars 'cause they're easier to please.


Or maybe not beggars....

DECISION COACHING: an emerging profession? Or the result of a shortage of real men (and women, too, for that matter)?

Frankly, I vote for the latter.

NONPROFIT RAISES EYEBROWS with mailings seeking to increase voter registration.



Forget about the partisan aspect of this article and explain why it's a good idea to register the passive, ignorant, and unconcerned to vote.

REGULATION NATION: Showdown at the Red Tape Corral.

AN INDICTMENT of Obama -- and the Left in general.

UPDATE: Barack Obama's family values.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: The Ryan Rally.

MEDICARE: Putting Seniors Before Bureaucrats. The Romney/Ryan plan is infinitely better than anything the Democrats have proposed (will propose?), but it has one sticking point for me: it is still a health care plan, not a health insurance plan. I want health insurance, not health care. And I'd prefer to be allowed to join the premium support plan proposed for those under 55 than be forced to stay in current Medicare.

MAYOR VINCENT GRAY: DC gun laws are effective. Rii-i-i-ght. Just use your body to shield other innocents from harm....

THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN, accurately described: "Nasty, but incompetent."

DAY BY DAY asks; the Government responds.

MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE? Georgia high school choruses reportedly not diverse enough to perform with Atlanta orchestra. Given that the decision was apparently made two years ago, I would suggest there's a bit more 'manufacture' than 'outrage' in today's announcement.

That said, what's wrong with merit as the decision criteria?

AS IF WE NEED MORE PROOF: Blue America has a higher unemployment rate that Red America.

SERIOUSLY? Replace Joe Biden on the Democrat ticket? Look, I know that he is a gaffe-machine, but can anyone say definitively with a straight face that Joe Biden could possibly be a worse President than Obama has already proven to be?

THERE GO THOSE PESKY UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES AGAIN: Ban plastic bags and ban jobs, increase taxes, lose money, and pollute the environment. But other than that....

What really burns me is that none -- none! ... not one! -- of these consequences were unknown or unanticipated. They were simply swept under the rug by the environmental enthusiasts as not being relevant to 'saving the environment'.

A FOX "YOU DECIDE" MINI-POLL: Should Mitt Romney's tax returns be a campaign issue?

(7.65%): Yes. As a presidential candidate, Romney is obligated to be more transparent.

(86.13%): No. I don’t care if he releases his returns, and I don’t care how much he’s paid in taxes.

(6.22%): Only if Dems have hard proof that his tax bills were inordinately low.

Obviously not what the Democrats want you to believe.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: There is no California.

JEFF JACOBY: "swelled heads aren't very attractive." Which is one reason why I didn't bother to watch the Olympics this year.

WHERE IS ANDREA MITCHELL? Don't these ladies know that "[Ryan] is not a choice for women."

THE MEANING of Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day:

Chick-fil-A is not about gay marriage or Christianity at all.... It’s about power. It is morphing into an overt test of whether the cultural elite can have its way. The problem with National Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day is that it constitutes an act of open defiance by manifesting all too publicly the contempt that a fairly large segment of the population has for shibboleths of political correctness.

Read the whole thing. It's been over two weeks now, and I notice that my local Chick-fil-A is still crowded.

CHICAGO CRONYISM: back in the limelight. Pretty sight, isn't it?

GUN CONTROL:


Support Day by Day for another year. I have.

ROMNEY OPENS MOUTH, racism ensues. But it's racism on the part of the progressive Left; by their lights, anyone who has the temerity to disagree with them must be racist.

Frankly I'm a little annoyed at the hullaballoo about Biden's most recent 'chains' gaffe. Of course Biden is a gaffe-master, but the fault here lies with the Democrats who have rewritten the English language to add racial overtones to nearly every word in the dictionary except possibly 'and', 'but', and 'the'. Remember 'niggardly'? And 'black hole'?

LET GRANNY speak for herself. And Grandpa, too.

DON'T TELL THE DEMOCRATS: The election will be decided outside of the nation's capital.

IF CANADA IS SO GREAT, why do they come to the U.S. to shop?

I THOUGHT I had gotten a new lounge chair ...


for myself....

ANSWERS TO frequently asked questions about Christians.

OBAMA CAMP offers to pull back on tax attacks if Romney releases 5 years of [tax] returns. It's the perfect opening for Romney; he should agree if Obama agrees to release his high school and college transcripts. Which one would be more embarrasing?

THE 'CARING' LEFT: "Ethicists" attack religious parents for refusing to pull the plug. I put 'ethicists' is quotes to differentiate them from real ethicists.

WHAT REAL MEN are made of.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO ON UNEMPLOYMENT:

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.

ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It's 9%.

COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?

ABBOTT: No, that's 16%.

COSTELLO: You just said 9%.

ABBOTT: 9% Unemployed.

COSTELLO: Right 9% out of work.

ABBOTT: No, that's 16%.

COSTELLO: Okay, so it's 16% unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, that's 9%...

COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 9% or 16%?

ABBOTT: 9% are unemployed. 16% are out of work.

COSTELLO: IF you are out of work you are unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, you can't count the "Out of Work" as the unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed.

COSTELLO: BUT THEY ARE OUT OF WORK!!!

ABBOTT: No, you miss my point.

COSTELLO: What point?

ABBOTT: Someone who doesn't look for work, can't be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn't be fair.

COSTELLO: To whom?

ABBOTT: The unemployed.

COSTELLO: But they are ALL out of work.

ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are out of work stopped looking. They gave up. And, if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed.

COSTELLO: So if you're off the unemployment rolls, that would count as less unemployment?

ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!

COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don't look for work?

ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That's how you get to 9%. Otherwise it would be 16%. You don't want to read about 16% unemployment, do ya?

COSTELLO: That would be frightening.

ABBOTT: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Wait, I got a question for you. That means there are two ways to bring down the unemployment number?

ABBOTT: Two ways is correct.

COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?

ABBOTT: Correct.

COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job?

ABBOTT: Bingo.

COSTELLO: So there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier of the two is to just stop looking for work.

ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like an economist.

COSTELLO: I don't even know what I just said!

ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like a politician.

From my email. Whoever wrote this did an excellent job of capturing the essence of two real Abbott & Costello routines: Who's on first? and Loafing.

SHE KNEW SHE'D NEVER HAVE A CHANCE OTHERWISE: In Harvard essay, young Michelle Obama argued for race-based faculty hiring.

FINALLY, it's being said out loud: "the main reason for requiring government permits is so that politicians can demand money and favors in exchange for 'helping' you with them."

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: "A government at bottom is nothing more than a group of men, and as a practical matter most of them are inferior men."

TOO BIG TO FAIL.

WHO IS MORE VULNERABLE to 'MediScare'?

DEMOCRATS WANT debate questions on Obama's debt commission [Simpson-Bowles] barred. I'm sure the media will be happy to oblige.

UNICORNS CAN'T VOTE -- yet.

LOST IN NUANCE: the plain meaning of words. To the progressive Left, words have no meaning except that which they assign to advance their objectives.

IS OBESITY a disease or a moral failing? Or maybe it's just a lifestyle choice....

NASA AWARDS $11B for development of commercial 'space taxis'. It will be money well spent if it leads to the government just 'buying tickets' for future rides to commercial space.

HEALTH WARNING: Eating food may be hazardous to your health. Um, just in case liberals are unaware, starvation is also hazardous to your health.

OBAMAFAIL: Facts? We don't need no stinkin' facts.

THE CHILLICOTHE ADDRESS: Romney’s Best Speech of the Campaign. Here are two brief excerpts.

America is one Nation under God. American history has been a story of the many becoming one – uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness. Everywhere I go in America there are monuments that list those who have given their lives. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the United States of America. So, Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America.

And:

America runs on freedom. Free men and women, pursuing their dreams, working hard to build a better future for their families. This is what propels our economy. When an American succeeds, when she wins a promotion, when he creates a business, it is that individual, that American that has earned it, that has built it. Government does not build our businesses, the American people do.

The full text is here.

HEH: Even the mainstream media is admitting that Ryan's Medicare plan won't throw Granny over the cliff.

OBAMA TRIES to buy more votes in Iowa. I'd rather he left the $170 million in the economy so I could afford to buy steak.

SOME FACTS about 'MediScare'.

HUH? What the hell is a 'nonpartisan progressive group'?

FINALLY: "Commercial Space Race" In Full Swing.

"THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS A LOST MORAL CAUSE. It is a party that loves and revels in lies and is running for office on the power of lies. What will that party do if it then wins? The reasonable expectation is that it will continue to lie."

MORNING IN AMERICA or 'Mourning' in America: "The political mirage of something for nothing, from leaders who "care," has ruined many a nation."

A MAN OF IDEAS, and who is clear about them.

IF THE 'RYAN PLAN' won't throw Grandma over the cliff, then it surely will throw future grandmas over the cliff.

The Daily Beast's Kirsten Powers tried that number on Fox's Special Report last night; it went over like the proverbial lead balloon.

RHETORICAL QUESTIONS: (1) If 'right-wing extremists' are in the majority, are they still extremist? (2) If a nation is 'right of center' where is the center?

"IDEOLOGY MATTERS, but we don’t build a nation on ideologies but on deeds...."

A CHOICE OF TWO FUTURES


Read about it here.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN: Ryan Pick Not ‘Courageous’ Because He Votes with GOP Too Much. I suppose a 'courageous pick' would have been a Democrat....

EMAIL PANIC FROM DEMOCRATS: ‘Disturbing Report’ of Overflow Crowds at Romney/Ryan Events.

Uh, yes. Republicans -- and seniors, and women, and independents - are 'coming out' for Ryan and Romney. Deal with it.

AN EXERCISE in incoherent psychology. Rick Moran shoots the fish in a barrel and Bill Reader (via Sarah Hoyt) administers the coup de grace.

AMERICA'S COMEBACK TEAM makes a big splash.

MARS ROVER CURIOSITY to get a 'brain transplant' to transition from landing to exploring.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Our best and brightest aren't. "Our civilization is under assault. Those who have taken upon themselves to direct it are instead doing their own part to destroy it."

HEH. "Democrats don’t think that capitalism works within the atmosphere, and Republicans apparently don’t think it works above it."

SOCIAL SECURITY DEFICITS to add up fast. Well, they should; I'm sucking at the government teat as hard as I can.

UPDATE: We just found out in the mail today that the government wants to pay us more!

ELECTRIC FIRES: second Fisker Karma burns. I guess smoke isn't an environmental pollutant.

NOT GONNA HAPPEN: "The Democratic Party electoral strategy in 2012 asks Grandparents ... to throw their grandchildren off a fiscal cliff."

PHOTOS: Inside the Mars landing. Ignore the annoying ads that keep reappearing throughout the gallery of pictures.

ROMNEY-RYAN TICKET puts entitlement crisis at center of campaign. Now we'll see if Americans have the courage to face the crisis.

Added: the video of Ryan's evisceration of ObamaCare.

WHY I LIKE TEAM ROMNEY: "When your child earns a place on the honor roll, we don't credit the school bus driver who drove him there."

THEY COULD TRY TO GET REAL JOBS: Federal workers fret about jobs as sequestration looms.

ROMNEY'S HORSE

So the Romneys are selfish for keeping a horse? And employing a groom with a family to support. And paying for feed that’s sold by someone with a family to support and transported in trucks by someone with a family to support and manufactured in a factory by people with families to support from stuff that’s grown by farmers with families to support. And having a barn built by construction workers with families to support with materials trucked by drivers with families to support from factories with workers with families to support. Sounds to me like that one horse has done more to put Americans to work than that horse’s ass in the White House.

From my email.

JOHN RANSOM: Washington's Take is Now More than Wall Street's. Under Obama, we are now the 1%.

THERE'S A REASON for the Obama administration's lack of transparency.

AMERICA: Olbermann's Worst County in the World? Not quite.

YES, WE CAN lie, cheat, and steal.

THE CURIOSITY ROVER happened to catch a picture of its own ride crash-landing on Mars — a wink-of-an-eye serendipity....

HISTORICAL NOTE: The USS Paul Ryan USS Wisconsin is a battleship.

WHEN DID MILK become bad for you? The problem with experts is that they're usually wrong; the problem with experts in government is that we suffer when they're wrong.

OBAMA: Flailing and Failing. My personal ObamaMeter reads the same.

MICKEY KAUS: The case for Romney's welfare attack.

It's not just welfare; it's the Obama administration's attitude that if they can't change the law, then they should ignore it, refuse to enforce it, or waive it -- all because they 'know better'.

JEFF JACOBY: Why beg anyone to vote?

Registering to vote isn't complicated. By and large, Americans who don't vote don't want to vote. In 2008 the Census Bureau found that by far the largest share of unregistered voters (46 percent) reported that they were "not interested in the election [or] not interested in politics." Their nonparticipation is rational, and we should respect it.

Why should those of us who take voting seriously enough to go out of our way to register want to increase electoral participation by those who won't?

TECHNOLOGY: The Kenguru wheelchair-accessible EV.

For someone with money to invest, this looks like opportunity is knocking.

IT'S THOSE DAMNED UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES AGAIN: UN Carbon Trading Scheme Increases Pollution. Follow the links for more detail.

ELECTION PREDICTION: Romney, 56%; Obama, 42%. From my Obama Approval Index spreadsheet.

THE SOLUTION FOR DOMESTIC TERRORISM BULLYISM: sit down and shut up.

PAUL RYAN represents Obama’s most horrifying nightmare: Math. Read Reynolds' column.

MSNBC'S ANDREA MITCHELL on Paul Ryan's selection for Republican VP candidate: "This is not a choice for suburban moms. This is not a choice for women."

Oh? Are my lying eyes failing again? That sure looks like a lot of humans of the female persuasion with their offspring to me.

WHERE DO YOU STAND? Higher taxes or more jobs?

THIS IS WHAT 2012 LOOKS LIKE: The Romney/Ryan rally in North Carolina.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER (PART II): Here are some photos/video from yesterday's Romney/Ryan Republican campaign stop in Manassas. This is what it looked like at the entrance to Harris Pavilion shortly after we arrived.

And here's the other end of the 1 km long line where we entered. The Obama counterprotest was a bit weak.... The barber shop was open ... the line of Romney supporters passed by for over three hours. The Obama campaign's Manassas headquarters -- they were very quiet.

We finally gave up on getting into the Pavilion and went to the overflow area to watch the rally on a large-screen video unit across the street. The rally was largely standard stump speech -- even Paul Ryan's comments were a rehash of what I had heard earlier in the morning when he was first introduced in Norfolk.

Romney did get in a nice jab at Obama's "you didn't build your business" comment, however, when he noted that he didn't think the bus driver deserved credit for the honor student's achievements even though the student rode the bus to school every day. Here's a picture of a mother sharing her joy at getting one of the very first Romney/Ryan campaign stickers. Other, smaller, stickers were being passed out just before the campaign rally ended.

And a picture of the Harris Pavilion taken from across the street at the overflow area. The police had the area cordoned off, but it's clear that the Pavilion is jammed. And finally, a short video of the campaign bus leaving afterward. Romney is in the front of the bus on the left. Paul Ryan is standing beside him, and (I think) that's Romney's wife Ann just behind Ryan.



Instapundit has much more. In the view from the campaign bus (link) I'm standing just out of the picture on the left side. Also check out Stacy McCain's Update V link for more photos.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Romney/Ryan in Manassas, Virginia.


View Larger Map

When we arrived at rally site (Harris Pavilion in Old Town) shortly after 2 pm, the entrance line started at the corner of Church and Battle streets, went south two blocks on Battle street, made a U-turn back up Battle street to Center street, turned right on Center street to South Main street, turned right on South Main to the railroad tracks, turned right and followed the railroad tracks back to Battle street, then right again on Battle street (for the third time), up Battle street to Church street (where we started), then left on Church to West street, and (finally) another left on West street to the entrance of Harris Pavilion.

The line length, measured from the map, is roughly 1 km long, and figuring a density of about 3 people per meter of length, equates to about 3,000 people. We didn't make it into Harris Pavilion, which was filled when we got to the final turn up Battle street. The line was still at least 2,000 people long when we left the line to go the overflow area next to the train station.

The mayor of Manassas estimated the crowd at 10,000; my guess that he underestimated a little. I spoke with a Romney campaign volunteer who told me they were expecting around 6 thousand and was clearly surprised by the turnout. The Romney volunteers deserve a whole lot of credit for keeping things moving when they were obviously nearly overwhelmed by the crowd. The crowd deserves equal or more credit for behaviour that was polite, cheerful, and -- clean. When we finally left, there was no trash anywhere to pick up.

Photos and comments to follow.

REAL JOBS? Or government cheese? I'm betting on real jobs.

NO ZOMBIE VOTE IN VIRGINIA. Will they be moving to Chicago?

HEH: New York Times introduces us to couple Romney didn’t try to kill with cancer.

USDA SPENDS $2M on internship program for one full-time intern. And I'll bet that the intern, whoever he or she was, was actually paid diddly-squat.

THE CHICAGO WAY: A Vote For Obama is a Vote For Corruption.

PAUL GREENBERG writes about Kofi Annan and I'm left thinking that President Obama is a 'Kofi-in-waiting'.

1200 DAYS WITHOUT A BUDGET. I couldn't last 12 days without a budget.

MITT ROMNEY: a most 'Reagan-esque' candidate.

IT'S OFFICIAL: Paul Ryan will be the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. The Democrat attacks on him will begin in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ....

Lots more from Instapundit. And my wife and I will be going to the Romney/Ryan campaign stop in Manassas later this afternoon.

IT'S PAUL RYAN. Diamond was asked, but she turned it down: "Nyah."

OBAMA REVEALED in a single cartoon.

THIS WILL BE INTERESTING: Northrop Grumman readies two RQ-4 Global Hawks for an air-to-air refuelling demonstration. Off the top of my head, I can't recall a single instance of an unmanned aircraft being refueled in mid-air, much less one refueling another.

OBAMA'S AMERICA: with welfare and bailouts for all.

JOHN HAWKINS: 5 Things That Will Be Different If Mitt Romney Defeats Barack Obama. A Romney win will certainly be an improvement, but as Hawkins indicates, getting back on track will be slow and difficult. It will take at least one, possibly two more elections to clear all the deadwood from the federal forest.

"HOW LOW CAN THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN GO? Wait until they get done with Joe [Soptic]. You will see how low they can go. Because its not the welfare of the people big government types care about. They don’t really care about me and you. They don’t care about Joe. Lip service is paid, but it’s only to get a vote. The only true worry they have is their control over the levers of power, and the pocketbooks of their friends."

HEH: Romney leads; Obama follows. (It's in the comments.)

OBAMA ECONOMICS: deny the small businessman a job.

Not smart politics.

CALLING IT MUDSLINGING does a huge disservice to mud. Mud is cleaner.

A RIDICULOUS MANDATE. But what else would you expect from the Environmental Protection Agency?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Ideas matter, and the Democrats are fresh out.

A LANDSLIDE ON THE HORIZON? I think so too, and like to believe that whenever I've bucked the conventional wisdom, I've never been wrong. I hope this isn't a first....

INSTAPUNDIT: "It is becoming clear that Obama is not only intellectually, but also morally unfit to hold the office of President."

A GLIMPSE OF THINGS TO COME: Feds dock social security checks for unpaid student loans.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Who Gets a Pass? Donkeys, mostly.

ALFONZO RACHEL: The Hypocrisy of Chick-Fil-A Protesters.

ED ROLLINS: 'Forward' is a direction, not a policy. It's the wrong direction to boot.

PLAYING THE 'I'm offended' card. The 'audacity of dopes' has a nice ring to it.

TIME FOR A moratorium on ‘I’m Offended!’? Absolutely not. It's time for conservatives to play the 'I'm Offended' card, and play it aggressively.

DESOLATION: Curiosity lifts up its head for a look.

MITT ROMNEY STARTED BAIN CAPITAL with money from families tied to death squads. And 4 or the 5 dollar bills in your wallet are tainted with cocaine.

Both 'factoids' are equally germane to the election.

OVER 100 MILLION now receiving federal welfare. Since the U.S. population is estimated to be about 313 million in 2012, that's roughly one in three Americans. And it doesn't include me (Social Security and Medicare).

SPREAD THE WEALTH: Let’s Have a Maximum Income. Is it time to start calling progressives what they really are -- Marxists?

ELECTION 2012: the last chance to buy a ticket to Fantasyland -- before it comes crashing down.

HAS HARRY REID stopped beating his wife? Just askin'.

"HAVING LIVED A LIE, what’s one more lie, in the service of keeping himself in power?”

Read it all.

FIVE YEARS AGO on Shadow's World. And Daisy still likes shoes.

WHITE HOUSE: don't crack down on Occupy Wall Street.

MICHELLE OBAMA'S school lunch rules:

As parents, we try to prepare decent meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat, and ensure they have a reasonably balanced diet.

And when we’re putting in all that effort the last thing we want is for our hard work to be undone each day in the school cafeteria. When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home. We want the food they get at school to be the same kind of food we would serve at our own kitchen tables.

Michelle Obama needs to mind her own kitchen table. I'll mind mine.

THIRD X-51A hypersonic test flight set for mid-August.

HEH: Credit agency blames teachers union for downgrade.

SINCE GOVERNMENT CAN DO NO WRONG, all consequences are intended.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE FACTS; it must be racism.

MICHELLE MALKIN: Meet the Real Workers Obama Screwed Over.

NASA'S NEWEST X-PLANE takes to the skies [video included].

HEH. "[I]f voters generally shared the left's weakness for soak-the-rich nostrums, Nancy Pelosi would be speaker of the House, the Occupy movement would be riding high -- and Republicans would still wince at the memory of Ronald Reagan losing the White House to Walter Mondale in a 49-state landslide."

OBAMA'S DEPENDENCY AGENDA: If you're an American, we own you.

CALIFORNIA: "hunting unicorns when the cupboard is bare."

RIGHT CHOICE:



Background here.

THOMAS SOWELL: Sports Versus Politics. Read it.

HEH: "Wherever you stand on this issue [Chick-fil-A], it is clear that we need to exclude non-conformists who do not share our collective values. How else are we going to promote diversity and inclusion?"

Read it all.

CURIOSITY'S DESCENT TO MARS:



Linked from here, where there are more still pictures.

FROM MY EMAIL:

Dear Fellow Virginians,

Now that we're about half way through the Olympics, I thought it appropriate to reflect on the accomplishment that put Mitt Romney on the national (and international) stage: the turnaround of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

This is important for several reasons, first among them the continuing contrast of real-world accomplishments that Mitt Romney has achieved compared to the complete dearth of accomplishment of the current President when he ran for President (to say nothing of what he has done to America since he took office).

I think that it is objectively accurate to say that Barack Obama was the least accomplished person to ever ascend to the Presidency in my lifetime and probably all the way back through the 20th century, if not ever. What did he accomplish in the U.S. Senate? Nothing. What did he accomplish in the Illinois State Senate? Nothing - including frequently (147 times I think) not even voting even though he was present... pretty basic. What did he accomplish outside of government? Nothing that he seems to want to talk about...

Prior to being elected to anything, Mitt Romney founded and led Bain Capital, a pioneering and successful venture capital firm for more than a decade and a half. And in February 1999, he was asked to take over the effort to plan for and execute the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

I'm writing about Romney's 2002 Olympic accomplishment because it was completely non-partisan, difficult to achieve, and represents a reasonable analogy for the choice before us in the 2012 Presidential election.

Upon Arrival

First, let's look at what he was walking into. The 2002 Winter Olympics weren't merely struggling, they were mired in scandal. Do you remember the discovery of the $1 million worth of gifts and bribes to International Olympic Committee (IOC) members to win the Olympics in the first place? That's what Romney was walking into.

But that's not all. When Mitt Romney came on board, the budget for the 2002 Olympics was $1.45 billion, but it was $380 million in deficit. Executives were spending lavishly on meals and travel, going to meetings with large entourages, and the culture within the organization was such that they would never have gotten into the black without a radical turnaround. Sound like a useful example for the federal government?

On his way in, Romney thought the problem he was confronting was 80% a public relations problem and 20% a management problem. After only three weeks on the job, he concluded the problem was 80% management and only 20% public relations. And he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

To cut to the chase on the numbers, Romney cut $200 million out of the budget (a 15% cut) and finished $100 million in the black... with praise for the accomplishment coming from every corner of America and beyond. A 15% cut in the federal budget would cut the deficit in half.

Making it Happen

To achieve this unprecedented Olympic turnaround required many things: strategic planning, hard-nosed decision making, even harder-nosed execution of those decisions, and a change in the corporate culture (and day-to-day operation) of the whole Salt Lake City committee - starting at the top.

Romney immediately stopped the lavish dinners. At meetings, executives had to pay for their own coffee and doughnuts, had to buy slices of pizza for $1 each, sodas for 25 cents. The entourages stopped going on trips. Trips were cut short or eliminated, e.g., Romney's December 1999 report to the IOC in Switzerland was done by teleconference, saving 3 days travel and $10,000.

Romney and his team questioned basic assumptions about how an Olympics should (must?) be run. When something didn't seem to make sense, he would drill down on it and frequently find that, in fact, it didn't make sense! And over the side such things would go.

For example, having a daily "Olympic Newspaper..." Why not let the papers in Salt Lake City handle that job? And so they did.

No limos for VIPS. No lavish hotel suites or parties for the IOC or anyone else. All business.

Romney also donated each of his three years' of salary - $275,000 per year - to charity? Additionally, he personally donated about $1,000,000 of his personal money to the Olympics. No shortage of personal commitment at the top of this organization.

Comparison

The last time the U.S. hosted the Winter Olympics prior to 2002 was in Lake Placid, New York in 1980. One of the gripes the Obama folks lob in about this incredible accomplishment is that the 2002 Winter Olympics got federal funds. Which is certainly true. However, while just under 20% of the 2002 budget came from federal funds, in Lake Placid in 1980 that number was about 50%.

Would I prefer no federal money? Sure I would, but Romney got a lot less federal help to pull off a winter Olympics than Lake Placid, and he started in a deep, deep hole.

Relevance

Well, this is obvious. America is in a deep financial hole. And Barack Obama has violated the first rule of holes since the day he was sworn in, namely, when you're in a hole - stop digging.

Our federal government needs a turnaround. It involves more than just our President, but the President plays a critical leadership role.

We need to replace our current President - one who insists on continuing to dig us into deeper and deeper holes (e.g., last month's jobs report and rise in unemployment) - with a President who has a track record of executive accomplishment.

I would respectfully suggest that President Obama has had three and a half years of failure as President, and nothing prior to 2008 to point to and say "this shows what I can do." Mitt Romney has achievements that he can point to and say "this shows what I can do," but none of them stand out like his arduous, three-year turnaround of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Half way through the 2012 Summer Olympics, as Americans and others around the world celebrate great accomplishments, it seemed to me to be a good time to reflect back on one of Mitt Romney's greatest accomplishments.

Please share the comparison of accomplishment versus none.

Sincerely,

Ken Cuccinelli, II
Attorney General of Virginia