BRASS OVARIES

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

Linked from Instapundit.

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

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

Yeah, right. It's all about control.

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

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER: regulator or racketeer?

Racketeer sounds more nearly correct.

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

Their surprise, perhaps; not mine.

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

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

PLUG THE DAMN HOLE


Probably not what he had in mind.

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

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

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

Linked from Instapundit.

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

Read it all.

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

Instapundit notices, too.

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


Gulf oil spill, perhaps?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kinsley might want to revisit that claim on November 3.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on the Marine Corps.

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