In case you’re wondering, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, who announced her resignation yesterday, is a Democrat.

I’m noting that because last night it took the Associated Press 15 paragraphs to reveal that factoid to its readers, and even when they did, it was done indirectly. Interestingly, the AP’s 4:27 a.m. report refers directly to Dixon’s party affiliation in the 5th paragraph.

That either means that the wire service for once paid attention to its own Stylebook rules, or that it saw how Ken Shepherd at NewsBusters ripped the Baltimore Sun over a similar “oversight,” and wanted to avoid similar fallout.

That said, because of the late change, it’s quite likely that a lot if not most of what actually got into AP subscribers’ print editions and broadcasts didn’t mention Dixon’s Democratic Party affiliation.

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While we’re on Baltimore, in case you’re wondering, that city’s lawsuit against Wells Fargo was dismissed yesterday:

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz explained Wednesday that the city’s claim that the mortgage giant triggered millions of dollars in damages with racist, predatory lending was not plausible.

“Complete garbage” would be a better characterization.

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In case you’re wondering how many times Barack Obama promised that health care plan deliberations would be broadcast on C-SPAN, the answer is “at least eight.”

Also in case you’re wondering, that C-SPAN thing is not happening, leaving Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs even more incoherent than usual. Allahpundit at Hot Air accurately observes that “There is, and can be, no defense here, and everyone in the room knows it.”

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In case you’re wondering, the people of Hong Kong still want democracy, and aren’t getting it, supposedly until 2017.

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In case you’re wondering, Asian-based vehicle makers outsold domestically-headquartered companies in the U.S. for the first time in 2009:

…. the Detroit Three’s overall share fell to 44.2 percent of their home market from 47.5 percent in 2008.

Asian brands captured a 47.4 percent share in 2009, up from 44.6 percent in 2008, Autodata said. It was the first time they gained a bigger piece than GM, Chrysler and Ford combined, which held a 60 percent share as recently as 2004 and a 70 percent share a decade ago.

Fortunately for our economy, most of the Asian companies have significant U.S. operations.

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Finally, in case you’re wondering, Big Journalism has gone live (Andrew Breitbart’s inaugural post is here), and Patterico is among those on board.

From Atlanta:

Romantic moment elicits tears of joy, entertains thousands on YouTube
updated 9:17 p.m. ET, Wed., Dec . 30, 2009

Viewers who tuned in to The Weather Channel earlier this week might have wondered whether they had stumbled upon an episode of “As the World Turns” instead.

But this was no soap opera. And the tears of joy viewers witnessed were 100 percent real.

Meteorologist Kim Perez was standing there, on camera, providing a New Year’s Eve weather forecast. Just as she predicted rainfall for Florida and the Southeast, her boyfriend, police sergeant Marty Cunningham, ambled onto the set.

“Hi!” she said, remaining poised but looking bewildered.

“How are you?” Cunningham asked.

“Good!” Perez replied.

“We’ve been talking about this for a long time, and I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Cunningham said.

A tear-jerker piano melody began wafting over the set, and the weather map transformed into a “Will You Marry Me?” graphic.

“So I’m asking you today,” said Cunningham, getting down on one knee, “will you please marry me?”

“I will,” Perez said, smiling. She shielded her face with one hand as she began to cry.

Weather Channel staffers erupted in applause as Cunningham put the ring on Perez’s finger and the couple embraced.

“You got me!” Perez said. “I love you, Marty Cunningham.”

The sentimental and happy moment was followed by a football forecast.

The clip of Sunday night’s marriage proposal has been viewed by thousands on YouTube and commented upon by scores of people.

One person posted this about the proposal on Twitter: “Weather Channel Marriage Proposal: Touching With a Chance of Viral.”

Go here for the rest of the story.

Joe Klein at Time has a not-fine whine.

He starts out pretty well:

In the snarkier precincts of the left-wing blogosphere, mainstream journalists like me are often called villagers. The reference, so far as I can tell, has to do with isolation: we live in this little village on the Potomac — actually, I don’t, but no matter — constantly intermingling over hors d’oeuvres, deciding who is “serious” (a term of derision in the blogosphere) and who is not, regurgitating spin spoon-fed by our sources or conjuring a witless conventional wisdom that has nothing to do with reality as it is lived outside the village. There is, of course, some truth to this. Washington is insular; certain local shamans are celebrated beyond all logic; some of my columnar colleagues have lost touch with everything beyond their armchairs and egos.
But there is a great irony here: villagery is a trope more applicable to those making the accusation than to those being snarked upon. The left-wing blogosphere, at its worst, is a claustrophobic hamlet of the well educated, less interested in meaningful debate than the “village” it mocks.

True that, and add the sensible conservative blogosphere to that when they occasionally tire of what Klein complains of — and they may have degrees indicating that they’re “educated,” but given the quality of their output, describing the quality of the education that gave rise to it in favorable terms is highly dubious.

But then Klein goes on to brag about something that no Democrat politician will ever have the courage to admit:

Ultimately, it (ObamaCare) means an annual income redistribution of $200 billion to help the working poor pay for insurance, which is why Republicans oppose the bill.

While it’s nice to see the admission that it’s about income redistribution, it isn’t even near the top of the list  of reasons why Republicans, independents, libertarians, and a lot of open-eyed Democrats oppose the bill. Three of the biggest reasons are:

• It’s a moral clunker.
• It’s a staggering increase in the size and scope of government bureaucracy and accompanying inefficiency.
• Beyond being a redistribution of wealth, it’s a redistribution of health.
• It’s more that likely unconstitutional on several grounds.

Zero Hedge wonders if the government is fudging the unemployment numbers.

Well, I guess it depends on what you mean by “fudge.” I don’t think any definitions have changed, and I doubt that there’s any data manipulation going on at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But …. for this to happen, a lot of people collecting unemployment would need to tell BLS that they not only aren’t working, but that they have dropped out of the workforce. The 376,000 increase in “marginally attached” workers doesn’t solve ZH’s puzzling question, which is why it seems that 30% or so more people are collecting unemployment benefits than you would expect from BLS’s unemployment stats.

Why would this be the case? Perhaps (emphasis perhaps) there are a lot of people who retired for Social Security benefit collection purposes who are also collecting extended unemployment benefits. It looks like you can do that without a reduction or “offset” against Social Security benefits in 46 states. It also looks like doing so wouldn’t cause the earnings penalty to kick in if unemployment benefits collected would exceed the Social Security earnings penalty thresholds, because these benefits aren’t income from work.

I’m not totally there with a conclusion, and there are probably a lot of personal considerations in the mix, but I think a pretty good case can be made that a lot of those who are doing this are double-dipping the social welfare system, which in the big picture is supposed to be a safety net, not an ongoing lifestyle enabler. This may be the largest element of the discrepancy ZH has exposed.

So how much of the money involved in the seemingly endless extensions of unemployment benefits is going to people who are also collecting (in these cases, usually tax-free) Social Security benefits?

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To the previous item, add the possibility that a lot of people collecting Social Security disability payments might also be collecting extended unemployment benefits. Disability apps are also way up, and I would think that despite a clogged system, the number of those collecting disability benefits is also way up.

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Speaking of unemployment, here is how ADP’s Employment report came in just now:

Nonfarm private employment decreased 84,000 from November to December 2009 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment Report®. The estimated change of employment from October to November was revised by 24,000, from a decline of 169,000 to a decline of 145,000.

The decline in December was the smallest since March of 2008. Employment losses are now rapidly diminishing and, if recent trends continue, private employment will begin rising within the next few months.

This would be good. As the Kudlow excerpt at my first Lucid Link item yesterday showed, the fact that it may finally be happening has nothing to do with any Obama administration initiatives. It should have and would have happened much sooner if tax cuts instead of bogus stimulus had been the remedy chosen.

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Awwww, poor babies — The National Republican Congressional Committee isn’t flush with cash. I wonder why?

Here’s a suggestion for those who really want to make a difference: Don’t give NRCC or any similar national or statewide GOP organization a dime. Instead, contribute directly to candidates whose sensible conservatism you are sure of, and to Tea Party and think tank PACs that will force candidates to say where they stand on key issues before dispensing campaign cash.

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A repeat BlogNetNews performance — with repeat gratitude to those thanked a week ago.

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Did you know that high school science labs are “white”? Neither did I, but Berkeley (CA) High School has figured that out, and wants “to eliminate before- and after-school science labs.”

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Great point by Ron Hart at the Panama City News Herald:

After recovering from the last downturn in our economy (under the peanut version of Obama — Jimmy Carter), Southwest Airlines, FedEx, Microsoft, Apple, Genentech, Charles Schwab, Oracle and Home Depot were founded by optimistic entrepreneurs. They made billions for themselves, made millionaires out of more than 100,000 workers, employed millions of people and paid billions of dollars in taxes. I do not see that happening now with Obama’s policies.

Not to the same extent. Even setting aside the uncertainty overhang that began with the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy a year and a half ago, there’s Sarbanes Oxley, which works to make selling out to an existing bigger company a better alternative than going public. And even if companies do go public, they’re less likely to do so in the US than they were before SOX came along.

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Columbus, Ohio passed a 25% income tax increase last year, increasing the rate from 2.0% to 2.5% (using the proper language of taxation, the new rate is 25% higher than the old one). In doing so, they’re extracting even more money from voteless suburbanites who work in the city and happen to number 50% of those who pay the tax.

But the city still won’t spend money on the basics:

Residential streets to miss out
City has enough money to repave only some of main, heavily used roads; neighborhoods unhappy

But Mayor Coleman can’t wait to spend money to fund art in public buildings. That may be an idea worthy of debate, Mayor, but only when you know the road situation is under control, which it obviously isn’t.

John Gray, in a letter to the Cbus Dispatch, has a wry suggestion in his title: “Maybe city can pave roads with canvas.” From his text: “We should start with Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s office and decorate his chair by putting a new mayor in it.”

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve done a long overdue site spruce-up.

There’s a new link to my Twitter account, which at the moment merely relays new blog posts (that might change), and another new link to my Pajamas archive.

I went through the blogrolls completely (ugh), purging a bunch of dead links and adding a few new ones (additional suggestions welcome).

I also updated the testimonial quotes, the greatest hits drop-down (now a Top 50), and the “Highlights, History, Purpose” post (formerly the BizzyBlog Manifesto).

The front-page pics are now mostly at Photobucket, which should improve site loading and cut down on bandwidth burned.

Onward and upward.

From Cincinnati:

Last Updated: 8:45 pm | Wednesday, December 23, 2009

When Alisha Loudon learned she was pregnant in November 2008, doctors warned her she had a 50 percent chance of surviving the pregnancy.

Now her doctor says she should have bought lottery tickets: The Cherry Grove woman and her daughter, Addison Paige, are both doing just fine nearly six months after delivery.

Loudon, now 30, had already survived one potentially deadly bout with blood clots, and doctors warned her against pregnancy, worried she might not survive a second round.

Her pregnancy was a surprise. But Loudon credits a combination of determination, medicine and prayer for her survival – and her daughter’s healthy birth.

“It was very, very scary,” she said. “You have all these doctors sitting there, and they never once said, ‘It’s going to be OK.’”

To think, it all started with a back ache.
(more…)

Despite six months of positive economic growth, Treasury collections are continuing what is now a serious two-year downward slide.

In August, the Congressional Budget Office projected that collections during the fiscal year that will end on September 30, 2010 will be $2.264 trillion (PDF; page 2 at link). That’s $159 billion, or about 7.5% higher, than fiscal 2009′s final total of $2.105 trillion.

There’s a problem. Unless there’s a surprise when the final numbers come out next week, Uncle Sam’s receipts for the quarter that just ended, i.e., the first quarter of the 2010 fiscal year, are already $60 billion behind the previous year. Somehow, this is not news.

Through November, as seen here, collections were already behind last year by about $40 billion ($268.9 bil vs. $309.6 bil). From all appearances, December was little better, as its estimated take of $218 billion trailed last year’s $237.8 billion.

So here’s my estimate, based on previous Monthly Treasury Statements and December’s final Daily Treasury Statement, comparing this year to 2008 and 2007:

The chart also shows that to get back on track with CBO’s projection for the full year, receipts from January through September of 2010 will have to beat the same period in 2009 by 14.1%. I would suggest that my beloved and cursed Chicago Cubs have a better chance of winning next year’s World Series than Treasury has of collecting almost $220 billion more than it did the previous year in the coming nine months.

If the American people had any idea (and most don’t) that collections have seriously declined for two years running, and that this year’s decline is even worse than last year’s (4Q08 trailed 4Q07 by “only” 9%), much of what little enthusiasm remains for statist health care and further “stimulus” efforts would vanish.

It’s not unreasonable to believe that this is precisely why the establishment press is pretending that Uncle Sam’s cash collections crunch is not important.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Larry Kudlow is optimistic that the economy “is coming back,” which confirms my assessment last week that the “rebound” claimed as a done deal by Jeannine Aversa of the Associated Press in her review of 2009′s top stories is anything but that.

Kudlow also cites two items of what he calls “false prosperity:

I’m calling it a “mini boom” because we’re likely headed toward 4 to 5 percent real economic growth. That’s not as good as the 7 to 8 percent boom that followed the similarly deep recession of the early 1980s. Then again, Reagan slashed tax rates and Volcker stabilized the dollar. That’s not happening now. Gold has jumped from around $700 to $1,100, signaling higher inflation in 2010 and even more price increases in 2011.

But we know from recent data on retail sales, personal income, corporate profits, industrial production, business investment, and jobless claims that the economic patient is healing.

…. The biggest source of economic stimulus is not the $800 billion Obama spending package. It’s the $4.6 trillion of capital gains thrown off by the stock market over the past three quarters. This is investment money, and it also enhances consumer spending. As a result, jobs are likely to start rising early in 2010.

The second-biggest stimulus is the Fed’s zero-interest-rate policy and ballooning balance sheet that has poured about $1.5 trillion into the economy. How the Fed exits from this remains to be seen. The longer it waits, the more inflation-prone the coming boom will be. So there’s a false prosperity here, or at least one that raises skepticism about the longer term.

And with marginal tax rates going up in 2011, the top 5 percent of successful earners and investors are going to bring their income forward next year in order to beat the tax man. That’s even more false prosperity.

Given that the economy is less than 40% of the way back to where it was before the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy kicked in during the summer of 2008, it’s going to be at least a couple of quarters before anyone can try to claim there has been a “recovery.” But that won’t be enough either, because it will take another quarter or two beyond that to get real per-capita GDP back to where it was in the second quarter of 2008. THAT and that alone will represent a real recovery.

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Speaking of economy-improving items for which the Obama administration can claim no credit:

(The Semiconductor Industry Association) said the rise in personal computer sales may signal the beginning of a recovery in demand from businesses, which have lagged behind consumers. That trend has gotten a boost from the release of Microsoft Corp.’s latest operating system, Windows 7.

By far, the strongest year-over-year sales growth came in the Americas, which posted a gain of nearly 26 percent. Sales in Asia Pacific countries grew 12.8 percent.

The fact that Microsoft did a terrible job with Vista held back and hurt the economy for almost three years. The fact that Microsoft has apparently done a very good job with Windows 7 will greatly help it. Even as a Mac user, that’s a good thing to see.

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It’s a cliche that “no good deed goes unpunished.” In “Whatever happened to the Duke 88?” at Powerline, we learn that seemingly no bad deed goes unrewarded.

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Don’t miss the 2009 edition of Patterico’s LA Times/Dog Trainer year in review. It’s excellent as usual, and it largely explains why circulation at the Times dropped by double digits again during the last reporting period.

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Venezuela, which is swimming in oil, is nonetheless literally descending into darkness:

Venezuela begins 2010 with electricity rationing

A decree published on Christmas Eve states that commercial centers may operate from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm on the electricity grid, but beyond that establishments would have to operate off-grid, using their own generators.

Venezuela is flush with oil — the country’s primary export — and natural gas, but relies mainly on hydroelectric generation to meet domestic energy demand.

Yeah sure, it’s the mean old drought that’s doing this. Nope; it’s the socialism.

If Venezuela were a free-market economy, the drought’s immediate impact would have been to push up electricity prices which would in turn have moderated demand. In relatively short order, electric utilities would search for substitutes like the plentiful natural gas (or would already have a substitution mechanism in place), which would make more electricity available and further moderate price increases.

But since prices are controlled and inflexible, and there’s no incentive to spend the money to develop or use alternatives, the government has instead resorted to rationing. It’s another sign that for all its wealth, Hugo Chavez could yet turn his country into Cuba writ large.

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While we’re on Venezuela, this item from a couple of weeks ago bears mentioning:

Chavez announces new discount ‘socialist’ stores

President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday announced a new chain of government-run, cut-rate retail stores that will sell everything from food to cars to clothing from places such as China, Argentina and Bolivia.

“We’re creating Comerso, meaning Socialist Corporation of Markets,” Chavez said at the opening of a “socialist” fast-food location for traditional Venezuelan arepas (cornbread).

“They’ll see what’s good. We’ll show them what a real market is all about, not those speculative, money-grubbing markets, but a market for the people,” said Chavez in his drive to change Venezuela from a market-based economy to a socialist one.

…. The socialist retail outlets will serve the public alongside the Mercal supermarket chain, which sells subsidized food in Venezuela’s working-class neighborhoods.

Here are some questions about this “public retail option,” so to speak:

• Do you think Comerso will have to pay the same income, property, business, and other taxes Mercal pays?
• Do you think health and safety regulators will be as tough on Comerso as they will be on Mercal?
• Will injured workers or dissatisfied consumers have the same rights to sue Comerso as they have to sue Mercal?
• Especially if Mercal holds its own against Comerso for a time, how long will it be before Comerso lowers its prices below cost and relies on government subsidies coming partially from taxes Mercal has paid to unfairly compete?

Finally, if all of this strikes you as terribly unfair to Mercal and other private retailers and as something designed to put them out of business (and it should), how is this any different from the U.S. government setting up a public option in health insurance with analogous advantages to unfairly compete against existing insurers?

From Jackson County, Florida:

Published: December 23, 2009

The mother of the teenager who was pinned between two trucks in a Jackson County accident Saturday is calling her son’s survival and recovery a Christmas miracle.

Kristian Torano, 14, was retrieving a coat from his family’s truck when another pick-up backed into him in the McDonalds parking lot on State Road 71, just south of the Marianna city limits.

The driver, Ronald Phillips, 50, of Altha, is charged with improper backing.
But the boy’s mother, Tatiana Torano, isn’t focusing her thoughts on blame or anger.
Instead, she vividly remembers that the driver’s wife held her, prayed and cried with her as paramedics prepared to take her son by helicopter to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Torano learned that some caregivers thought her son’s leg or foot might have to be amputated, that his femoral artery might be severed, that his pelvis might be cracked, and that he might be paralyzed.

None of those fears were realized, however.
(more…)

Great…Secretary of State Samsonite spreads the dysfunction (via an emailer):

In what must be a part of some quid pro quo deal (help me in Clermont, I’ll help you wherever), Rob Portman wrote a shining letter of support to the Clermont County Republican Chairman on behalf of Jon Husted, who then sent copies to the Committee with his “endorse me even though I’ve never been to your county” request.

Why? Because the Clermont County Republican Committee endorses in a few weeks, and if anyone on the committee actually knows Jon Husted, they are skeptical at best.

• He is running for Secretary of State, the office charged with enforcing the very election laws whose spririt he broke.
• Until they started shielding him as State Senator, he voted for every budget & tax increase passed (including the CAT).
• He did not attend Clermont’s Lincoln Day last year because he was not given the microphone.

So what’s our motivation here?

Sigh…clearly Rob hasn’t been paying attention.

For the record, I don’t personally dislike Jon Husted, and to his credit, he rocks on school choice. Kevin DeWine will be shocked to know, however, that I am not a one-issue voter (eyeroll). I do think it’s crucial to point out glaring concerns that people have so that everyone knows what they’re in for…so that we don’t have to revisit 2006′s purging process again…you know, that whole “over promise, under deliver” problem plaguing establishment republicans.

I’ve seen Husted speak.  You’d think he’s the most conservative guy in the room, lol, which relates to the emailer’s second point. Husted has insufferably blasted Senate republicans who voted for the recent 4.2% retroactive tax increase in an attempt to look like he’s not an establishment republican. What we now know, however, is that the whole thing was a ruse orchestrated by establishment republicans; and the senators who voted for the monstrocity, were picked as “cowardly lions” based on term limits and who does/does not want to run for statewide office. More betrayal and political posturing at its best.

So why use Portman to coerce Clermont?

Background: Clermont County is a pain in Columbus’ keester. Not only does it have a large number of “coveted” independents (who swing right when republicans are governing conservatively), but the Columbus establishment needs the Clermont GOTV machine to win elections. Unlike Hamilton, Warren & Butler, however, Clermont doesn’t have a lot of “big money” to thow Columbus’ way. As such, the ORP harbors a visceral love/hate resentment toward Clermont. No money, no respect…which is why Clermont doesn’t take the ORP’s crap.  End background.

So how does the ORP help their [unknown] “favorite son” cross that impasse with Clermont in 2010? Well, rather than telling him to get off his duff and earn it by reaching out to actives inside the county, they enable his laziness by strong-arming Clermont’s “favorite son,” Rob Portman, to get the job done. The bigger headline in my opinion, is that Rob so eargerly threw his peeps under the bus with the BLATANT inferences that they are either too stupid to evaluate candidates themselves and/or they’re to forego any conclusions at which they arrive and blindly support someone because he said so.  I’d be offended, too, especially when any other candidate wishing to use Rob’s name and/or picture must dot “i’s,” cross “t’s,” jump on one leg four times while spinning clockwise and – well, you get the picture. Now his campaign blindly cranks out a letter without any discretion whatsoever, which is exactly what got this nation into this mess.

At any rate, I wish the ORP (and any subscribing candidate) luck with their “strategy” of getting entangled in some primaries while ignoring the ones that won’t work out to your heart’s desire.

Lol…the ORP is as transparent as we want the federal government to be…

“Husted Hugs Strickland” pic obtained from Weapons of Mass Discussion.

In a report time-stamped January 2, the Associated Press’s Philip Elliott relayed what was supposedly important news:

Obama cites apparent al-Qaida link in bomb plot

An al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen apparently ordered the Christmas Day plot against a U.S. airliner, training and arming the 23-year-old Nigerian man accused in the failed bombing, President Barack Obama said Saturday.

You don’t say?

The story was on the front page of Sunday’s Cincinnati Enquirer, and likely many other papers across the nation.

Elliott was also co-auther of a piece I cited last week (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) as “deliberately gullible”:

Obama wants answers after botched terror attack

That particular Elliott item acts as if Obama received “new information” about “Al Qaeda’s plans” that finally, four days after the attack, made the idea that AQ was involved plausible. Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post also played along with the charade (“Administration sees ‘some linkage’ between Detroit suspect, al-Qaeda”).

As shown in my Friday afternoon BizzyBlog post on the topic, Al Qaeda involvement was sufficiently known within hours of the attempted takedown of Flight 253, i.e., on December 25, eight days before Barack Obama’s amazing January 2 discovery, as illustrated in two headlines cited there, including this one from AP time-stamped 7:28 p.m. on Christmas Day (story saved at web host for fair use and discussion purposes):

AP sources: Al-Qaida link in failed plane attack

The Christmas Day story was written by Larry Margasak and Lara Jakes. They had some help, as noted at the item’s end, including …. guess who:

Jakes reported from Baghdad, Iraq. Randi Berris and Jim Irwin in West Bloomfield, Mich., and Devlin Barrett, Shelley Adler and Joan Lowy in Washington, and Philip Elliott in Oahu, Hawaii, contributed to this report.

The connection to Yemen was also established by Christmas evening.

Elliott, despite his involvement in what was originally written on Christmas (it was largely sanitized in future revisions, which is why the report cited is at my web host, again for fair use and discussion purposes), acts as if the president told the American people something new and important on Saturday. Horse manure.

This is going to be harsh, but I don’t know how else to say it: Elliott’s January 2 item disgracefully doubles down on disgusting and likely deliberate deception. The Soviet Union’s old Pravda couldn’t have done it any “better.”

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

R. Emmett Tyrell at the American Spectator (HT Hot Air Headlines):

The president’s healthcare monstrosity is an even more unwieldy government effort than Homeland Security. Its goals are more various and vaguer. Its protocols are already in chaos.

The lesson that the President should have learned from last week’s “systemic failure” (with Flight 253) is that government is a very imperfect instrument. A government that takes over 16% of our economy promising to bring us good health at a reasonable cost is an instrument doomed to failure and at a catastrophic cost.

Yeah Bob, but they don’t care if it works as you and I define “working.” They only care about controlling it.

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The latest in mug shot apparel. I’m trying to find legitimate examples from the Bush 43 or any other presidential era, and for “some reason,” I can’t find any, let alone 15 — no, make that 30.

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Rephrasing the Doobie Brothers:

Oh Blackwater, charges dismissed, Justice Department has a lot of egg on its face.
Oh Blackwater, charges dismissed, looks like bringing charges in the first place was the real disgrace.

Update: In a related editorial at the Wall Street Journal –

Something is rotten in the culture of Justice, leading ambitious government crusaders to think they can get away with flouting due process when the political winds are blowing hot. Congress and the press corps may be too politically implicated to police this prosecutorial malpractice, so it may be up to the judiciary to apply more stringent sanctions.

The Blackwater case to the contrary, if we have to rely on the judiciary to stop prosecutorial malpractice because no one else will call it out or stop it before it happens, we’re in a heap of trouble.
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Glad someone else noticed, because I lost this in the shuffle (HT Instapundit):

The Democrats have officially killed a successful private school voucher program banishing more than 3,300 low-income children back to the DC schools they so desperately wanted to escape.

That they did it in an omnibus spending bill that had $3.9 billion in pork — 390 times more than the program’s $10 million annual cost ($50 million over five years) — makes it all the more sickening.

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Great Moments in Finishing Off the Scam Known As Globaloney — “No Rise of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Fraction in Past 160 Years, New Research Finds.” So why would anyone, including the Environmental Protection Police Agency, consider cutting carbon emissions to be of any importance? (Someone is going to have to prove that the oceans somehow can’t keep absorbing what they must to keep things in balance. Good luck with that.)

If someone set up a court where you could collect for time spent that never should have had to have been spent debunking now-disproven garbage like human-caused global warming — garbage that the leading lights, i.e., the scam artists, have known is garbage for quite a while — there would be a lot of climate change skeptic millionaires and a bunch of flat broke globalarmists.

I know it would never happen, but considering how many trillions the skeptics may have saved the world, it surely wouldn’t be an unfair enterprise.

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Great Moments in Making an Undeserving Nobel Laureate in Economics Look Foolish – Paul Krugman, in July 2008:

Fannie and Freddie probably will need a government rescue. But since it’s already clear that that rescue will take place, their problems won’t take down the economy.

Furthermore, while Fannie and Freddie are problematic institutions, they aren’t responsible for the mess we’re in.

…. Fannie and Freddie had nothing to do with the explosion of high-risk lending a few years ago, an explosion that dwarfed the S&L fiasco.

Lord have mercy.

Sorry, Paul, but to bring up a point also made on Thursday (last item at link), yes they are, and yes they did:

New research by Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer for Fannie Mae and a housing expert, has found that from the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime or Alt-A (situations “in which the quality of the mortgage or the underwriting was deficient”).

That’s 15 years of deceptive packaging, aka ripping off investors and now the taxpayers, Paul. Isn’t it an amazing coincidence that the books at BOTH of these companies “somehow” became an incorrigibly unauditable mess for several years in the late 1990s and beyond as their problems mushroomed?

And if the losses at Fan and Fred are closer to $1 trillion than the current “more than $400 billion,” they could still take down the economy by seriously weakening what’s left of the Fed, the Treasury, and our ability to borrow from the rest of the world. And they still “have continued to buy dicey mortgages in order to stabilize housing prices”!

Oh, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is heading for the same cliff.