Couldn’t Help But Notice (030707)

“Deafening Silence” Report — Haven’t heard a lot of criticism of Jean’s Schmidt’s degree of principled conservatism since some of the annual vote ratings have come in (National Journal — Schmidt received an 86.8, highest grade in OH congressional delegation by almost 6 points; National Taxpayers Union — 58% and B-, 5th in OH delegation; Americans for Tax Reform — 100%, along with most of the rest of the local congressional delegation).

Maybe their RINO-ometers are broken. Or maybe they’ve really been using BS-ometers all along. Whatever meter they’ve been using (and this is a fault of many not looking at a big-enough picture), they most likely aren’t considering foreign policy, where Schmidt appears to have been about the most reliable conservative on the Hill.

Still to come (yet to be released): Citizens Against Government Waste, Club for Growth.

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Reason Number 6,524 Why Government Regulation of Business Grows

From the Hartford Courant’s Consumer Watchdog George Gombossy (HT Techdirt):

Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.

Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February denied the existence of the internal website that could be accessed only by employees, says his company is “cooperating fully” with the state attorney general’s investigation.

Barber insists that the company never intended to mislead customers.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the investigation into Best Buy’s practices on Feb. 9 after my column disclosed the website and showed how employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on BestBuy.com.

….. Based on what his office has learned, Blumenthal said, it appears the consumer has the burden of informing Best Buy sales people of the cheaper price listed on its Internet site, which he said “is troubling.”

What is more troubling to me, and to some Best Buy customers, is that even when one informs a salesperson of the Internet price, customers have been shown the intranet site, which looks identical to the Internet site, but does not always show the lowest price.

It’s totally obvious that a customer should be entitled to the best price available. That it’s not happening at Best Buy, and that other practices like these are most likely happening elsewhere, partially explains why government grows. It doesn’t need any free excuses.

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Here’s a two-word reaction to this USA Today article about ideas for closing the “$300 billion tax gap,” all of which involve either more paperwork, more audits, and/or more time-consuming tax-return preparation: Fair Tax.

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Global Warming, Destined to the All-Purpose Excuse for anything that doesn’t go right. And I mean anything (warning: R-Rated content). Update, 9:30 AM: As a vehicle for promoting business products, apparently no industry is left behind (R-Rated content again).
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I guess we’re going to have to live with Alan Greenspan running off at the mouth ad infinitum, but I wish, while issuing daily estimates of recession odds, that he could at least spare us gag-inducing claptrap like this (esp the bolds):

Greenspan said he has been careful to avoid making life difficult for his successor.

His contracts with clients stipulate that there will be no reporters present and no recordings. He said he tries to have an exchange with an audience, where he often learns something that helps him hone skills he has worked on for 50 years.

“I was aware of the problem that if I stayed public, I could make it difficult for Ben,” he said. “For the most part it has worked. I was beginning to feel quite comfortable that I was fully back to the anonymity I was seeking.”

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Regarding the Libby verdict, Instapundit himself dug up a timely reminder from the Washington Post in 2004 (it must have killed them to report what they had to; just look at the nonsensical headline; bolds are mine):

Plame’s Input Is Cited on Niger Mission
Report Disputes Wilson’s Claims on Trip, Wife’s Role

Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

Wilson’s assertions — both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information — were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

The panel found that Wilson’s report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson’s assertions and even the government’s previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush’s January 2003 State of the Union address.

Of course, the WaPo didn’t get it right either. The report didn’t “dispute” Wilson’s claims and assertions — it refuted them.

And Scooter Libby’s the liar. Uh-huh.

The verdict doesn’t any bearing on the false garbage about outing a covert CIA agent, or cooked intelligence, or any of the other blather that piled up over a three decade three-year (it felt like three decades). But at least it gives Patrick “Unlimited Budget, Unlimited Discretion” Fitzgerald a trophy — for now.

UPDATE: Jay Tea at Wizbang has more, including another timely reminder –

Fitzgerald has stated, repeatedly, that the only crime he uncovered in the whole sorry mess was Libby’s lying to investigators. There was no crime at the core of the matter, no signs that there was a grand conspiracy to “out” Plame (who committed gross nepotism and abuse of her position by pushing for her husband to get the Niger mission) or “discredit” Wilson (apart from simply pointing out his two contradictory stories), and no orchestrated cover-up behind the whole thing.

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I would hope that those who complain about “crushing dissent” and “chilling free speech” to get righteously, and correctly, madder than hornets about this (HT Instapundit). I expect to be disappointed. Update, 9:30 AM: I didn’t get to the last paragraph the first time I looked at the piece. Whoa –

The government has also proposed a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules.

I thought I had learned not to be surprised or disappointed about anything coming out of this particular country, but they’ve really got my dander up on this one.