WASHINGTON D.C. PUBLIC SCHOOLS are ranked 51st in a 50-state ranking of public schools and they rank 3rd from the top in per-pupil spending of the 50 states.
So what does the D.C. City Council choose to do? They’re launching a campaign against childhood obesity.
I guess it makes sense an a perverted sort of way. Graduates (assuming there are any) won’t be able to read; won’t be able to write; won’t be able to add or subtract – but their food stamps will last longer.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: Is it (the Gulf oil spill) Obama’s fault?
Hurricane Katrina was widely regarded as a Bush administration failure even though the primary responsibility for disaster response lay with the local and state governments. The Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill occurred over a week ago, and is clearly a federal responsibility for disaster response and yet so far, the Obama administration seems to have focused more on passing the buck than on containing the oil spill.
That seems to be the standard Obama administration response: stand back, play the victim, find someone to blame, and call for more regulation.
About what one would expect from a community organizer.
Hurricane Katrina was widely regarded as a Bush administration failure even though the primary responsibility for disaster response lay with the local and state governments. The Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill occurred over a week ago, and is clearly a federal responsibility for disaster response and yet so far, the Obama administration seems to have focused more on passing the buck than on containing the oil spill.
That seems to be the standard Obama administration response: stand back, play the victim, find someone to blame, and call for more regulation.
About what one would expect from a community organizer.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
A FINE SPRING DAY
The photos simply don’t do justice to the richness of the color; a 24-bit color dynamic range isn’t enough.
Azaleas are beautiful, but bluebonnets are better.
The photos simply don’t do justice to the richness of the color; a 24-bit color dynamic range isn’t enough.
Azaleas are beautiful, but bluebonnets are better.
AT A CERTAIN POINT, YOU’VE MADE ENOUGH MONEY.
Notice that Obama said “you’ve” made enough money; not “I’ve” made enough money.
Linked from Hot Air.
MORE: Obama made almost $5.5 million last year ... according to his tax return.
On a president's salary.
Notice that Obama said “you’ve” made enough money; not “I’ve” made enough money.
Linked from Hot Air.
MORE: Obama made almost $5.5 million last year ... according to his tax return.
On a president's salary.
“DECLARING THAT THE DEMOCRATS are the party of accomplishments is one thing, but it really does not matter to swing voters in all those House seats straddling the Appalachian Trial, the industrial Midwest and the Rocky Mountain region that the U.S. is once again beloved in the world, that Obama is a man of science, or that he appointed a Latina to the Supreme Court.”
Friday, April 30, 2010
WELCOME TO FLYOVER COUNTRY. “I’m never against elected officials coming to the tri-states to really hear what the heart and soul of America is thinking. It’s when they come to simply get photo ops, gather cheap political currency, and have no plans of listening whatsoever that it infuriates me. If you’re coming to really find out what ideas we have to fix your mess, that’s great. Enjoy your stay. If you’re coming to just use us as props in campaign photos, please stay in the plane.”
Photo ops aren’t environmentally friendly; please save jet fuel and stay home.
Photo ops aren’t environmentally friendly; please save jet fuel and stay home.
THE MEDIUM ISN’T THE MESSAGE. The Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby has some thoughts on technology and messaging in pursuit of democracy and freedom.
SAN FRANCISCO calls for Arizona boycott. But it won’t take Arizona's illegals.
Hypocrites. Let’s see what happens if the state of Arizona boycotts San Francisco.
Hypocrites. Let’s see what happens if the state of Arizona boycotts San Francisco.
IF AMERICANS RESPONDED with "Go to hell" and "See you in court" each time they were asked to produce their license, both hell and court would be very crowded.
UPDATE: It appears that it “reveals a fundamental lack of empathy” when I “fail to comprehend” that being asked for a driver’s license is more burdensome in some circumstances than in others. Nuts. Empathy for whom? If you are doing something illegal, then even mundane interactions with the police are “burdensome.”
UPDATE: It appears that it “reveals a fundamental lack of empathy” when I “fail to comprehend” that being asked for a driver’s license is more burdensome in some circumstances than in others. Nuts. Empathy for whom? If you are doing something illegal, then even mundane interactions with the police are “burdensome.”
THE WASHINGTON POST’S Colbert I. King is unhappy that he can’t have his cake and eat it too.
They want to remain victims with special rights, so they continue to whine.
Enacting D.C. voting rights legislation with a "poison pill" gun amendment [restricting D.C.’s absurd gun laws] attached would have been worse than winning ugly. It would have meant accepting the assertion that Americans in the District of Columbia don't have a fundamental right to representation in Congress ....If D.C. residents really wanted voting rights, they’d exercise their right of retrocession and rejoin the state of Maryland. But they don’t, really; they’re “too important” to be mere citizens of Maryland.
They want to remain victims with special rights, so they continue to whine.
OBAMACARE IS A RATIONING SYSTEM, and the IPAB [Independent Payment Advisory Board] will be one of the key drivers for that rationing. If you don’t believe me, just listen to [OMB Director Peter] Orszag.
Linked from Hot Air.
Linked from Hot Air.
FINES ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE. Vehicles assigned to the offices of [Washington D.C.] Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee have racked up more than $1,000 in unpaid parking tickets and traffic fines, according to a new D.C. auditor's review.
No surprise here, of course. Traffic fines are for little people, not D.C.’s movers and shakers.
Here’s the interesting factoid, though. Washington D.C. has a total land area of 61.4 square miles; it has 40 Metro (subway) stations, or roughly one station for every 1.5 square miles. If they were uniformly distributed over the land area, there would be one within 1,200 yards of wherever you are in the city.
Yet the city owns a fleet of 2,635 vehicles, or just over 40 vehicles for every square mile of land area.
Can’t they use the Metro?
No surprise here, of course. Traffic fines are for little people, not D.C.’s movers and shakers.
Here’s the interesting factoid, though. Washington D.C. has a total land area of 61.4 square miles; it has 40 Metro (subway) stations, or roughly one station for every 1.5 square miles. If they were uniformly distributed over the land area, there would be one within 1,200 yards of wherever you are in the city.
Yet the city owns a fleet of 2,635 vehicles, or just over 40 vehicles for every square mile of land area.
Can’t they use the Metro?
OBAMA TO DEBT COMMISSION: ‘Everything Has to Be on the Table’.
The Washington Examiner’s Chris Stirewalt observes (third item):
The Washington Examiner’s Chris Stirewalt observes (third item):
The president certainly likes to set a big table, but the portions usually seem to end up being pretty skimpy for those who disagree with him.In other words, the panel is designed, not to succeed, but to give Obama cover.
As with health care, Afghanistan strategy, economic recovery, energy and seemingly everything else, Obama favors a laborious process of decision making before arriving back at his obvious decision.
His debt commission seems to be the most lavish example of this process-intensive approach to validating his decisions so far.
The end result from the deficit commission – after Alan Simpson gets done berating his fellow Republicans for anti-gay bias and a list of other offenses real and perceived – will be the president’s support for a huge tax increase and some modifications to Medicare to help battle the deficit that is squeezing America so much tighter after the president’s emergency spending and national health program.
The best evidence is that the administration so often finds ways to rephrase candidate Obama’s iron-clad promise not to raise taxes on any family making less than $250,000 a year: “Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,” he once said. Now, the president talks about a promise not to raise “income taxes.”
After the election, get ready for some even more creative language.
AFTER POLICY STUMBLES, Obama turns to politics.
In his first 14 months in office, Barack Obama worked to change public policy, with partial success. He jammed through the stimulus package in February 2009 and health care legislation in March 2010 on party-line votes.It’s all about power.
But he paid curiously little attention to the substance of the legislation. One-third of the stimulus money went to state and local governments -- i.e., to public employee unions -- which helped ensure that the bill would not hold down unemployment to the promised 8 percent. And the health care bill, we now learn from Health and Human Services Department actuaries, is going to increase spending rather than hold it down.
Now Obama seems to be pivoting toward legislative priorities chosen not for policy but for political reasons.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
THE SUPREME COURT said that a lower court went too far in ordering the removal of a congressionally endorsed war memorial cross from its longtime home atop a remote outcropping in California.
A small step, perhaps, in returning to freedom of - and not from - religion.
A small step, perhaps, in returning to freedom of - and not from - religion.
EVEN USING THE BEST COMPUTERS, garbage in still produces garbage out.
“The computer models used to determine whether it was safe for airlines to fly through the ash resulting from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland were flawed ... and ‘based on incomplete science and limited data, according to European officials. As a result, they may have over-stated the risks to the public, needlessly grounding flights and damaging businesses.’ "
“The computer models used to determine whether it was safe for airlines to fly through the ash resulting from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland were flawed ... and ‘based on incomplete science and limited data, according to European officials. As a result, they may have over-stated the risks to the public, needlessly grounding flights and damaging businesses.’ "
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