OBAMA: “Every economist” says I saved or created 2 million jobs.

I'll believe it when either Thomas Sowell or Walter Williams agree with the President's assertion.

ALMOST A FOOT and still counting.







It's going to be a long day.

THE WHITE HOUSE unveiled its $3.8 trillion dollar budget - with $1.6 trillion in red ink. Michelle Malkin quotes OMB Director Peter Orzag: "The Budget lays out a plan to put the country back on a sustainable fiscal path."

Uh, huh. And I'm the King of England.

Here are the budget projections. And here's what infuriates me. The black dashed line is a 5.63% inflation rate trend line: government over the last ten years has grown at something exceeding 5.6% and is projected to continue at that rate for the forseeable future.



The solid white line is the average annual U.S. inflation rate for the last ten years (2.57%) projected to the year 2020.

The federal government has been growing over 3% faster than inflation for the last 10 years and is projected to continue to do so for the forseeable future!

Incredible.

And the deficit? Well, the good news is that - if you believe Orzag's rosy projections - it won't be over a trillion dollars beyond 2012 ....


Is it any wonder that the Tea Party movement is growing so spectacularly?

[UPDATED - scroll down] THE STORM OF THE CENTURY? At least, that's the way it sounds if one pays too much attention to the news programs. The first flakes fell in Manassas at 9:26 am; it's been snowing steadily - and fairly lightly - ever since.

That's a yardstick on the back deck. Calibrated, it will read 1" more than the actual snow depth.

Looking out from the garage, there has been no measurable snow - at least when this picture was taken. I've been out dressing the edges a bit to give me the maximum amount of room to move snow when the time comes ... the snow blade on the lawn tractor will handle about 8 inches, so clearing the drive will be a not once, not twice, but thrice effort and I'll need as much width as possible to push the snow aside and make way for the car.

The snow is beginning to stick at 11:30.
---------------------------------------
[UPDATES]

Saturday, 6:30 am: A bit over 11 inches this morning; still snowing. It's going to be difficult, but the lawn tractor may be able to handle the depth. We'll find out later this morning.

8:30 pm: Local television is still predicting a 30" snowfall, but as of 8 pm my measuring stick shows only about 5" (stick depth minus 1 inch).



2:00 pm: FOX is reporting that Washington DC should expect a 30" snowfall, winds, power lines down, etc. - but the driveway is still clear and the snow on the back deck is melting.

CONSERVATIVES need not apply. The Department of Justice is seeking qualified mentally retarded lawyers.

OH, THANKS. Social Security tipping over into the red. And my wife and I are (were?) planning to start Social Security in 2011.

SURELY YOU JEST: “The Securities and Exchange Commission is demanding that publicly traded U.S. companies disclose their risks from man-made global warming to shareholders.”

Unfortunately, no.

Please take the stupid pills off the government’s prescription drug formulary ....

WE CAN’T BE SURE what would have happened to the economy without TARP and the stimulus package. But we can be fairly certain that a lot of Obama donors would have had nothing to give in the next election cycle.

Read it all.

TOYOTA RECALL: It’s not about the car.

So let’s set the record straight about how a perfectly normal Toyota, or any other car, truck, or SUV, can accelerate wildly “out of control” with an even reasonably competent driver behind the wheel. Can’t happen. Period. End of story.

But ...

Before the ink dried on breathless press reports, plaintiff lawyers were working overtime to empty Toyota’s colossal corporate coffers. When you combine our culture of victimization, the vilification of corporations, and a big payoff, the result is inevitable.

It's about power. I blame the Obama administration.

EMAIL OF THE DAY: Gonorrhea Lectim.

“OBAMISM” would almost be worth it if:

John Edwards sells his "two Americas" mansion. Al Gore gives his energy-guzzling estate over to poor environmental activists. Warren Buffet forsakes the esoteric deductions that gave him an 18 percent income-tax rate and happily starts paying 60 percent of his income as his "fair share." Bill and Melinda Gates hold back $20 billion or so from the foundation and give it to a broke treasury desperately in need of estate-tax revenue.

Never happen, though.

INSTAPUNDIT ASKS “Why does time fly when you get older?”

That’s easy. When you’re young, there’s an infinite number of tomorrows ahead. At 65, the number of tomorrows is decidedly limited.

DON'T ASK DON'T TELL: gays in the military. A thoughtful post on a number of serious issues that will confront the military if gays are to openly serve.

Gays can already serve in the U.S. military; repealing DADT [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] isn’t about allowing them to. It’s about endorsing their sexual orientation in military operations and culture. The course of hands-off neutrality is not an option in these realms; their unique character is to require affirmative policy. Civilians should start by understanding this. The quiescent tolerance they think of in relation to their own lives must translate, in the military, into endorsement and administration of an explicit position. These matters are hard for most people to discuss without emotion, and the tendency of both sides is to focus on what offends them. But it’s essential to understand that no form of offense felt by either side makes the administrative consequences of repealing DADT go away. They are inevitable.

Linked from here.

I DOUBT THAT my Dodge Dakota will look this good in 2078.

Link via Instapundit.

THE DAILY OUTRAGE: The National Science Foundation gave Oklahoma State University researchers $1.1 million in stimulus grants to examine the "larger sociopolitical factors that shape grandparenthood" in Alaska.

The Washington Examiner’s Daily Outrage is more than you ever want to know about Washington’s “pork policy.”


Read it every day.

BOEHNER: No difference in beliefs between GOP and tea partiers.

Bull.

Commenter Mike G. nails it: ”Boehner is wrong and I refuse to donate to the GOP in general but do support conservative minded candidates regardless of party. In one sense he is right in that there are more GOP'ers that qualify for my support than do Dems but it is not blind alligience [sic] on my part.”

If the GOP persists in believing this myth, it will go down to defeat in 2010.

[G]AY CHIMPS ”eat their young.”

Umm. Gay? ... Offspring?

I must be missing something.

I’M COOL with giving them Apple Computer and McDonalds - but we keep the Statue of Liberty.

FROM MY EMAIL: “Toyota has expanded its product concerns to now include the brakes on the Prius. But look at it this way – it may be a bummer to read a bunch of smug bumper stickers in traffic, but it least it means that the Prius is in front of you.”

Heh.

MORE THOUGHTS ON HEALTH CARE

A Canadian minister, a strong advocate of single-payer healthcare, opts for heart surgery in the United States: “State-controlled access for thee, instant access for me.”

And a health care lesson from Obama’s space policy: “If human spaceflight—a technically challenging endeavor—need not involve NASA, then just maybe health care need not involve the meddling feds either.”