IF THIS GOES ON ...

The world will end on October 5, 2009.

At least that's when the Dow Jones Industrial Average will go to zero at the current rate of decline.

THE PORK ADMINISTRATION

via Michelle Malkin.

LANGUAGE ALERT

Those ubiquitous concrete barriers that line both sides of urban freeways are now "concrete safety systems."

HEARD ON THE RADIO

One in four Americans was without health insurance at some point in the last year.

So soon we'll all be without jobs, but have Government health care - and all the control it implies.

Sweet.

GOING GALT

Michelle Malkin beat me to the computer with this post on Townhall.com:

Enough. While they take to the streets politically, untold numbers of America's wealth producers are going on strike financially.

ABC News spotlighted upper-income earners going Galt in response to Obama's proposed tax hikes on families with incomes of $250,000 or more. A Lafayette, La., attorney told the reporter she was cutting back on her business to avoid the tax threshold: "Why kill yourself working if you're going to give it all away to people who aren't working as hard?"

"Going Galt" is a reference to the famed Ayn Rand novel "Atlas Shrugged," in which protagonist John Galt leads the entrepreneurial class to cease productive activities in order to starve the government of revenue.

Well. Me too. I’m “going Galt” as well. If it costs me a few bucks to maintain my freedom, then so be it.

I AM AN AMERICAN. I WILL NOT GIVE UP MY LIBERTY.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

From the comments at a Hot Air post on the likely effects of Obama's tax policies on charitable contributions. The comment isn't exactly on-topic, but it's telling about the Left's hostility to capitalism.

The comment from Entelechy:

We’re following in the same path, and I will not blame anyone who works/produces less, hides more assets, pays lesser taxes. I’ll lead the way, and how.

The response from sethstorm:

I’ll be glad to help the IRS in catching you at every step.

My contribution: Sorry, sethstorm, but the IRS has no say (yet) in whether or how much I choose to work.

HOPE LOST, CHANGE IS LOSING

A long delayed $410 billion omnibus spending bill, loaded with nearly 9,000 (!) spending earmarks is now before the Senate.Minutes after hitting the Senate floor Monday,

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), is not happy.

We need earmark reform and when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure we’re not spending money unwisely,” McCain said, reading back Obama’s words at a debate last fall. “That’s the quote, the promise of the president of the United States made to the American people in a debate with me in Oxford, Miss. So what is brought to the floor today — 9,000 earmarks.…So much for change.”

Hope & Change - it must be getting crowded under the Obama bus.

A SHAMEFUL ACT

What is being done to future generations of Americans today in Congress is one of the most shameful acts in our country's history. It's the equivalent of stealing the baby's milk money to buy Viagra and it is selfish, contemptible, and unworthy of the proud legacy we've been left by previous generations of Americans.

Yes.

TODAY’S LAUGH

True or not, it’s a great anecdote.

In addition to communicating with the local Air Traffic Control facility, all aircraft in the Persian Gulf AOR are required to give the Iranian Air Defense Radar (military) a ten minute ‘heads up’ if they will be transiting Iranian airspace. This is a common procedure for commercial aircraft and involves giving them your call sign, transponder code, type aircraft, and points of origin and destination.

This was on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency of 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai. It’s too good not to pass along.

Iranian Air Defense Radar: “Unknown aircraft you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.”

Pilot: “This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.”

Iranian Air Defense Radar: “You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!”

Pilot: “This is a United States Marine Corps F/A-18 fighter. Send ‘em up, I’ll wait!”

Iranian Air Defense Radar: (no response … total silence)

Via Don Surber.

OPPORTUNITY FOR OBAMA

“You never want a serious crisis go to waste.” That’s the thought of Rahm Emanuel, the President’s chief of staff.

As the economic signs grow ever more grim, so do the problems facing the incoming Obama administration.

That's one way of looking at things. Here's another:

As the economic signs grow ever more grim, the opportunities for the Obama administration to drive through its agenda actually are getting better.

And that’s exactly what the Obama administration did.

The most notable feature of the budget is its fundamental reordering of the role of government. In the fiscal year starting in October. Obama wants to spend a 10-year total of $630 billion for a downpayment on a government takeover of the healthcare system, green the nation’s energy economy, make college education an entitlement and otherwise heavily involve the federal government in education system.

Welcome to the Welfare States of America.

THANK YOU MR. OBAMA

Eventually, when it finally reaches zero, there'll be no way to go but up.

A SENATOR RESPONDS

My Senator, Jim Webb ($-VA), finally responded to my concerns about the spending ... oops, “stimulus” package passed by Congress:

Dear Dr. Hankamer:

Thank you for contacting my office regarding the ongoing economic crisis and the federal government's response. I appreciate your taking the time to share your concerns with me.

The United States is facing an economic crisis that is causing American families to fall behind. Communities are being hard hit by home foreclosures, failing businesses, and job losses that are almost unprecedented in recent history. As your U.S. Senator, I am committed to supporting policies that will help end the economic crisis and will help restore basic fairness for all Americans.

It is for this reason that I supported the bi-partisan American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1). This economic recovery package is designed to swiftly drive money into our struggling economy. With help for struggling families, meaningful tax cuts and concentrated funding on key infrastructure programs, I am hopeful that this responsibly-crafted legislation will create millions of new jobs and begin immediately to restore America's economic strength.

As one of those who were concerned with many aspects of the original proposal, I was pleased to work with colleagues from both sides of the aisle to put this plan into place within a set of targeted parameters for economic renewal. My Senate colleagues and I focused on programs to help families struggling under today's serious economic downturn, on shovel-ready infrastructure and public works projects, and on addressing the housing crisis. I am pleased that we were able to remove almost $100 billion in spending from the original proposal.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also contains tax cuts for families and businesses, provisions to help unemployed Americans keep their health care and find new employment, and provides aid to help the most vulnerable. While this legislation is an important step, other measures must be adopted to restore the health of our economy. These include appropriate reforms of our banking and financial systems, tax fairness, and measures to place the nation on a long-term path to fiscal responsibility.

I appreciate hearing from my constituents. Your correspondence helps me serve you better in the Senate. I hope that you will continue to share your views with me and my staff in the years ahead.

I would also invite you to visit my website at www.webb.senate.gov for regular updates about my activities and positions on matters that are important to Virginia and our nation.

Thank you once again for contacting my office.

Sincerely,

Jim Webb
United States Senator

OK, Jimbo, one question: just how do plan to pay for this trillion (Ed: that’s 12 zeros, my friend) dollar “bi-partisan” (Ed: I see; it takes 3 Republican votes to be bi-partisan) “responsibly-crafted legislation” (Ed: your words, not mine: responsible must mean vote for without reading)?

Capital gains tax? Hey, I’ve already got enough long-term capital losses to offset any “gains” for the next five years.

Tax the rich? Don’t get your hopes up. My wife and I would qualify as “rich” by Democrat standards if we both worked full-time, which we don’t – and won’t. The blunt fact is that our marginal tax rate is so high that it’s not worth working full time.

So let me ask again: how do the Democrats plan to pay for this abortion? The honest answer, of course, is that our children and grandchildren will pay. Are you willing to answer honestly?

A CULTURE OF IMPUNITY?

From Glenn Reynolds, writing in the Washington DC Examiner:

Despite all the faux-outrage about Wall Street bonuses on Capitol Hill, it seems to be the members of the political class who are getting away with things. Some examples:

Obama's appointee as Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, turns out not to have paid all of his taxes.

Tom Daschle had a $100,000 tax problem, which caused him to forfeit his nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, faces too many scandals to count, from tax problems, to real estate questions, to an interest-group-funded Caribbean junket that violated House ethics rules.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-CT, had sweetheart loans from Countrywide Mortgage -- a subprime lender under the jurisdiction of the Senate Banking Committee, which he chairs.

We've gone from a "culture of corruption" in which people who figured in scandals faced actual consequences, to a ”culture of impunity.”

By all accounts, we're heading into a rough period, with the economy spiraling downward, the federal government near bankruptcy, and many state and local governments actually broke. And the fault will lie with our political class, which has done so much to forfeit the trust that, ultimately, makes a nation possible.

BRING IT ON

Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow apparently wants to bring back the Fairness Doctrine to “balance right-wing talk on the radio dial.”

That tempts me to say “bring it on!” Can you imagine Rush Limbaugh or Neal Boortz on NBC? or CBS? or ABC?

What the liberals fail to recognize is that this knife cuts both ways.

By the way, Stabenow is married to Tom Athans, a liberal talk radio executive.

A VIEW FROM MY WINDOW

Manassas, VA at 7:30 am.

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT

And my retirement fund.

NO MORE PRESIDENT EEYORE?

Mike Baker returns:

It’s the damndest thing… one minute you’re in the land of the free, brave and capitalist…the next, in the words of the now famous Newsweek cover, we’re all socialists now.
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Pillory big business, tax anyone making more than you do, redistribute assets, toss in a little protectionist rhetoric… this is the change we’ve been waiting for? My parents got this change back in the early 1930’s and it led to another depression in the late 1930’s.
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President Obama has spent the past couple of weeks explaining that the sky is falling. Tuesday night during his Not-a-State-of-the-Union Address to the nation, he sounded more hopeful and optimistic. This is because polls, pundits and now advisors are telling him that he can’t be President Eeyore anymore.

Don’t limit yourself to my excerpts – read it all.

BON APPETIT

Hmm. A better analogy, I think, is that food is the progressives' new religion, and its high priest and priestesses are the Nanny Police.

THE SIX TRILLION DOLLAR MAN

Mark Steyn at his best: "Of course, when Barack Obama is accused of creating his Six-Trillion-Dollar Man “because I believe in bigger government” he denies it: “I don’t,” he says flatly. This is like Clark Kent telling Lois Lane he’s not Superman: They just look a bit similar when he removes his glasses. Likewise, any connection between Obama and a Big Government behemoth swallowing everything in sight is entirely coincidental."

I AM AN AMERICAN

I am an American. I will not give up my liberty.

I am an American. I will not give up my liberty.

I am an American. I will not give up my liberty.