Government Sponsored Waste

That's pretty much what "Cash for Clunkers" is creating:

Nick Clites, who is in charge of used cars for the dealership, was prepping a 1988 BMW 535IS, with 214,000 miles on the odometer, for its death. He drained the oil, then donned a silky blue protective suit, goggles and gloves and poured a sodium silicate solution into the engine. He revved the car, and within a few seconds, the solution hardened into a glass-like substance, the engine seized up and the car was dead.

So here is one question: With the program now on shaky ground, even with a new infusion of money, what consumer and what dealer will risk rendering an engine irretrievably unusable?

Well, as it turns out, a lot of them are doing so, because unless the dealers can prove to the government that they have killed the engines and scrapped the cars, the government will not reimburse them for the $3,500 or $4,500 discount that they have given the customer on a new, more efficient vehicle.

Barry Magnus, the general manager of DCH Paramus Honda, told us he was owed more than $80,000, and he wondered if he would ever see it. The government has said it would take 10 days to reimburse the dealers, but that was before the program apparently ran out of money and devolved into chaos Thursday night.

Today, dealers are frantically trying to move the old trade-ins to the scrap heap so that they can get reimbursement before the money tap shuts off. Until they can certify that the car has been decommissioned, they cannot submit their paperwork to be repaid.

“Oh my God, what a mess today,” Sally Ann Maggio, who co-owns Hackensack Auto Wreckers, also in New Jersey, said on Friday. We visited her car-crushing business on Thursday. She didn’t think much of the program to begin with.

Ms. Maggio said she generally makes her profit by reselling the engines, the most valuable parts of the cars she takes, but that’s not posible with the cars coming to her because of the cash for clunkers program, because they have been rendered unusable. That cuts down the salvage value of the cars — and the incentive for salvage yards and wreckers to take them — to almost nothing, considering the time and energy they must spend in going to the dealer, towing back the dead cars, removing the engines, crushing the bodies and shipping them to a metal scrap shredder and recycler.

And, of course, the process reduces the supply of used engines for people who can’t afford to buy a new car and come to the salvage yard looking to fix up old ones.

In any case, Ms. Maggio said, dealers are “hitting the panic button” today.

“We have been overwhelmed with phone calls from the dealerships,” she said. They have already killed the engines, and want her to pick up the heaps.

And on hearing the news that the government might be pumping more money into the program, she said, they are stepping up the process. “They’re worried that the new money might last only two days,” Ms. Maggio said. “But until it’s scrapped and the paperwork is done, it’s not a done deal,” she said. “They’re driving me crazy.”

This may come as a surprise to Obama and his green team, but there are a lot of cars being traded in that could have been good vehicles for people who can't afford a new car. Yes, they might get a little bit worse mileage, but now those cars are a complete waste, making used cars and used engines more scarce.

I know they think they're saving the earth, but all they're doing is making it tougher for the folks who really need the most help.

By the way, before you go on the government website for this program, you better watch this.

Disneyland Does Their Part for the Economic Recovery

Theirs, not yours:

Single-day visitors to Disneyland Resort theme parks will pay $3 more starting Sunday.

The theme parks are hiking their prices as they have done at least once a year for the past five years. The new cost for a single-day pass will increase to $72 for adults and $62 for kids.

For at least four years, single-park passes to Disneyland or Disney’s California Adventure have gone up by $3 each year.

This time, the price of the annual passes will go up the most — $40 more for the premium pass that allows entrance every day.

Suzi Brown, a Disneyland spokeswoman, said that the economy didn’t sway Disney officials to shy away from price increase this year. However, annual passholders can still use a monthly payment plan to help pay for their passes.

“Our pricing is based on the value of the experience we deliver,” Brown said.

Here are some of the new prices:

Single ticket adult: $72 (from $69)

Single park child, ages 3 to 9: $62 (from $59)

Premium annual pass: $429 (from $389)

Deluxe annual pass: $289 (from $269)

Southern California annual pass: $194 (from $174)

Southern California Select annual pass: $144 (from $134)

My decision not to renew our passes this year is looking better all the time.

Democrats Bailing Themselves Out of Town Hall Meetings

I thought dissent was the highest form of patriotism. Aren't these Democrats patriotic?

Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.

“I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to temporarily suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”

In Bishop’s case, his decision came on the heels of a June 22 event he held in Setauket, N.Y., in which protesters dominated the meeting by shouting criticisms at the congressman for his positions on energy policy, health care and the bailout of the auto industry.

Within an hour of the disruption, police were called in to escort the 59-year-old Democrat — who has held more than 100 town hall meetings since he was elected in 2002 — to his car safely.

“I have no problem with someone disagreeing with positions I hold,” Bishop said, noting that, for the time being, he was using other platforms to communicate with his constituents. “But I also believe no one is served if you can’t talk through differences.”

Bishop isn’t the only one confronted by boiling anger and rising incivility. At a health care town hall event in Syracuse, N.Y., earlier this month, police were called in to restore order, and at least one heckler was taken away by local police. Close to 100 sign-carrying protesters greeted Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) at a late June community college small-business development forum in Panama City, Fla. Last week, Danville, Va., anti-tax tea party activists claimed they were “refused an opportunity” to ask Rep. Thomas Perriello (D-Va.) a question at a town hall event and instructed by a plainclothes police officer to leave the property after they attempted to hold up protest signs.

The targets in most cases are House Democrats, who over the past few months have tackled controversial legislation including a $787 billion economic stimulus package, a landmark energy proposal and an overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
Democrats, acknowledging the increasing unruliness of the town-hall-style events, say the hot-button issues they are taking on have a lot to do with it.

“I think it’s just the fact that we are dealing with some of the most important public policy issues in a generation,” said Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), who was confronted by a protester angry about his position on health care reform at a town hall event several weeks ago.

“I think in general what is going on is we are tackling issues that have been ignored for a long time, and I think that is disruptive to a lot of people,” said Bishop, a four-term congressman. “We are trying, one by one, to deal with a set of issues that can’t be ignored, and I think that’s unsettling to a lot of people.”

Of course they can be ignored. We can certainly ignore cap-and-tax. We can ignore card check, and we can ignore nationalize health care. We can ignore bailing out failing companies that ran themselves into the ground. We can ignore committing $787 billion to fix a problem that will probably be over before most of the pork money ever gets spent.

I'm an equal opportunity ignorer. I can ignore them all.

If these representatives think they can put their fingers in their ears and go "la-la-la-la-la-la" and make the angry homefolks go away, they're badly mistaken. And if they choose to ignore them, they do so at their peril. Congress has elections every two years and the next one will be here before you know it.

Al Franken Reverts to Form

Seems like Al Franken just can't give up his unbalanced past:

Five years after he put his money behind the Swift Boat ads that helped tank John Kerry’s presidential campaign, Senate Democrats gave T. Boone Pickens a warm welcome at their weekly policy lunch Thursday.

Or at least most of them did.

Kerry skipped the regularly scheduled lunch; his staff said the Massachusetts Democrat “was unable to attend because he had a long scheduled lunch with his interns and pages.”

Sen. Al Franken managed to make time for the lunch — but then let Pickens have it afterward.

According to a source, the wealthy oil and gas magnate and author of “The First Billion Is the Hardest” stepped up to introduce himself to Franken in a room just off the Senate Floor after the lunch ended

Franken, who was seated talking to someone else, did not stand when Pickens said hello. Instead, Franken began to berate him about the billionaire’s financing of the Swift Boat ads in 2004.

According to a source, the confrontation grew heated.

Said Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh: “It was a lively conversation.”

And I'll bet ol' T. Boone gave as well as he got.

What This Country Needs is a "Cash for Bloggers" Program

"Cash for Clunkers" is driving people to car dealerships all over the country, so I'm proposing a "Cash for Bloggers" program that will drive traffic to HolyCoast.com. I think I'm onto something here.

Now, if I can just get Congress to appropriate a billion or two my way (they'll never miss it).... or you can appropriate some yourself at the "Donate" button on the right.

The Hospitality of the Irish

I love stories like this:

U.S. soldiers were given a true Irish welcome at a wedding in Co Clare this week.

The 300 troops were stranded in Shannon last weekend after their Iraq-bound plane was grounded.

As luck would have it, they were booked into the same hotel as the wedding party for Amelia Walsh and Sean O'Neill.

And so the 300 troops were invited to join the festivities at the Clare Inn in Newmarket-on-Fergus.

The groom's uncle, Joe O'Neill said: "It didn’t take long before the combat fatigues were manoeuvring to the strains of ‘The Walls of Limerick'."

The happy couple posed for pictures with the troops earlier in the day and Eamon Walsh, the father of the bride, said the couple were "proud" to have the soldiers at their function.

Walsh said the couple invited the men in so they could experience an Irish wedding.

"They behaved in an exemplary manner at all times and if our troops behaved in the same way when they are on peacekeeping duties, I would be very proud," he said.

Thank you, citizens of Newmarket-on-Fergus. I hope we can return the favor sometime.

Rudy Giuliani Has Some Advice for Obama's "Teachable Moment"

Gotta like Rudy's style:

Rudy Giuliani, who has returned as a leading Republican spokesman, condemned Obama's health care plan in an interview with Sean Hannity.

He also offered, in response to the president's hope that the Gates arrest would be a "teachable moment," this:

"He's actually right. It is teachable. Here's the lesson: Shut up."

You don't have to eat words you never said.

Al Gore's Home Hit by Climate Change

The massive air conditioner's at Al Gore's energy-gobbling mansion must be working overtime as global warming ravages the planet.

Or maybe not:

It was delightfully appropriate that, as large parts of Argentina were swept by severe blizzards last week, on a scale never experienced before, the city of Nashville, Tennessee, should have enjoyed the coolest July 21 in its history, breaking a record established in 1877. Appropriate, because Nashville is the home of Al Gore, the man who for 20 years has been predicting that we should all by now be in the grip of runaway global warming.

His predictions have proved so wildly wrong – along with those of the Met Office's £33 million computer model which forecast that we should now be enjoying a "barbecue summer" and that 2009 would be one of "the five warmest years ever" – that the propaganda machine has had to work overtime to maintain what is threatening to become the most expensive fiction in history.

The two official sources of satellite data on global temperatures, for instance, lately announced that June temperatures had again fallen, to their average level for the month over the 30 years since satellite data began. By contrast, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, run by Mr Gore's closest ally and scientific adviser, James Hansen – one of the two official sources of global temperature data from surface weather stations – announced that in that single month the world had warmed by a staggering 0.63 degrees C, more than its net warming for the entire 20th century.

In the past few years, Dr Hansen's temperature record has become ever more eccentric, often wildly at odds with the other three officially recognised data sources, all of which showed a dramatic drop in temperatures in 2007 leading to markedly cooler summers and two of the coldest and snowiest winters the world has known for decades.

All this has equally made nonsense of the predictions of the computer models that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change relies on, which are programmed to assume that temperatures should soar in line with rising levels of greenhouse gases.

Carbon dioxide levels continue to rise, but temperatures – apart from those revealed by Dr Hansen – have seriously parted company with them. This has not prevented the propaganda machine's media groupies continuing to peddle a daily stream of stories about how in all directions global warming is already affecting the world for the worse.

Soay sheep are shrinking in size (I am sure they've really noticed the global warming up on that bleak Scottish islet). The tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, we are yet again told, is pleading for international aid, as it sinks below the rising ocean – even though an expert study in 2001 showed that sea levels around Tuvalu have in fact been falling for 50 years. Even a report on the record number of Painted Lady butterflies in Britain this summer cannot resist ending with a ritual forecast that many butterfly species will soon disappear because of "climate change".

Meanwhile even America's foremost pro-warmist scientific blog, RealClimate – run by, among others, Dr Michael Mann of "hockey stick" fame – concedes that global temperatures are not only declining but are likely to continue to do so for at least another decade – after which, of course, they will leap up again higher than ever.

The true believers of the Globaloney Religion like Gore and Hansen will go their graves professing their faith in the gospel of Gaia. Should they ever repent and return to the land of the sane their careers and fundraising ability would end on the spot. They've got too much to lose to risk looking at actual facts.

Food Nazis Go After Denny's

Openmarket.org has the details:

It seems that the food police at the unconscionably named Center for Science in the Public Interest are at it again. These are the same people who’ve attacked movie theater popcorn and who called fettuccini alfredo “heart attack on a plate.” Their new pet peeve is salt — or to be more specific, sodium. Last week, CSPI filed a class action lawsuit against the restaurant chain Denny’s, claiming that, because most Denny’s menu items contain a “high” level of sodium, the chain is engaging in consumer fraud and breaching the implied warranty of merchantability. The complaint itself, filed July 23 in Superior Court in Middlesex County, New Jersey, can be viewed here.

A full analysis of the case’s legal merits will have to wait for another day. But, suffice it to say that, by alleging on page 3 of the complaint that “Sodium is the deadliest ingredient in the food supply,” these folks aren’t beyond gross exaggeration. The gist of the argument seems to be that (1) increasing sodium intake is known to increase blood pressure; and (2) very high blood pressure is known to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke; so (3) Denny’s failure to notify customers of the total amount of sodium in its menu items is putting them at risk.

There’s a bit of sleight of hand here, of course. Although allegations 1 and 2 are true, there is no clear relationship between the slightly higher blood pressure that results from exceding the recommended daily amount of sodium intake and the very high blood pressure levels that raise the risk of heart attack or stroke. That’s why scientists have never been able to conclude that high sodium intake itself is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. It’s like arguing that mouthwash manufacturers are responsible for thousands of automobile accidents every year because we all know that mouthwash contains alcohol and that drunk driving causes auto accidents.

Unfortunately, lawsuits like these are bad news for companies like Denny’s. Most people won’t bother to see what the facts are, they’ll just hear that Denny’s is being sued for harming customers and it’ll tarnish the chain’s reputation. It’s one reason why so many unmeritorious lawsuits get settled — it’s much easier to pay the plaintiffs, change your behavior in small ways, and be done with it. Still, I hope Denny’s decides to fight this one in court. It’s about time someone started standing up to these bullies. And, if Denny’s does go to court, I for one will make an effort to eat at a Denny’s restaurant more often.

Do you know anyone who goes to Denny's expecting to find health food? Of course not. You go there because they have reasonably good food at a reasonable price, and most of their restaurants are open 24 hours making them very convenient for people looking for a meal a non-traditional mealtimes.

When I was traveling a lot with the quartet Denny's was often the only thing open late at night after our concerts and it was a frequent stopping place. We still go there from time-to-time because sometimes you just have to have a French Toast Slam. In the past couple of days I've been shredding some old tax files that weren't needed anymore and I found an awful lot of Denny's receipts.

The problem with organizations like Center for Science in the Public Interest is they base their complaints on a fraudulent premise: You'll be eating at Denny's a lot. They did the same thing when they went after Chinese food, Mexican food, movie theater popcorn, and any number of other specious complaints.

Sure, if you eat nothing but Denny's food day and night you might end up with health problems related to what's in their food, be it fat or salt. But real people don't do that. An occasional meal that higher in fat or salt will not kill you. Likewise, dropping Denny's from your list of places you visit now and then will not improve your life. It's all about moderation.

For CSPI complaints like this are all about gaining publicity and funding. If you look at the people who represent their organization they all look like terribly underfed refugees. Those people could really use a French Toast Slam every now and then.

Chris Dodd Gets an Excuse to Retire

Sen. Chris Dodd has a health problem. Too bad he lives in a country with such a crappy health care system:

Chris Dodd tells the Hartford Courant that he's being treated during the recess for "early-stage prostate cancer," and that he'll return to the campaign trail soon thereafter. He'll discuss it at a news conference this afternoon.

A health story like this, for a senator in a tough race who's had nudges to resign, instantly raises the question of whether he'll really return to office -- and Dodd advisor Jim Jordan offered an instant, forceful answer:

"The condition was caught extremely early; the procedure will be as routine as it can be; he’ll be down, out of commission for just two or three weeks; his health is otherwise superb; this in no way whatsoever affects his re-election plans," he wrote in an email.

If only he lived somewhere with a single-payer program like Britain, he'd do so much better.

But maybe not. Don Surber has the numbers:

Because he lives in the United States, he has a 99% chance of surviving prostate cancer for five years or longer.

Under universal health care, in England, his chances of surviving prostate cancer for 5 years would be only 74%.

The data is here (LINK).

In England, his chances of dying from prostate cancer would be 26 times higher.

Don’t worry, England. Obamacare will close the gap.

He still plans to campaign for the seat he's likely to lose next year, but if he needs an excuse to retire, he's now got one. He just better hope he gets this thing fixed before Obamacare kicks in.

Obamacare in Retreat

That's the title of today's Charles Krauthammer piece:

Yesterday, Barack Obama was God. Today, he's fallen from grace, the magic gone, his health care reform dead. If you believed the first idiocy -- and half the mainstream media did -- you'll believe the second. Don't believe either.

Conventional wisdom always makes straight-line projections. They are always wrong. Yes, Obama's aura has diminished, in part because of overweening overexposure. But by year's end he will emerge with something he can call health care reform. The Democrats in Congress will pass it because they must. Otherwise, they'll have slain their own savior in his first year in office.

But that bill will look nothing like the massive reform Obama originally intended. The beginning of the retreat was signaled by Obama's curious reference -- made five times -- to "health-insurance reform" in his July 22 news conference.

Reforming the health care system is dead. Cause of death? Blunt trauma administered not by Republicans, not even by Blue Dog Democrats, but by the green eyeshades at the Congressional Budget Office.

Three blows:

(1) On June 16, the CBO determined that the Senate Finance Committee bill would cost $1.6 trillion over 10 years, delivering a sticker shock that was near fatal.

(2) Five weeks later, the CBO gave its verdict on the Independent Medicare Advisory Council, Dr. Obama's latest miracle cure, conjured up at the last minute to save Obamacare from fiscal ruin, and consisting of a committee of medical experts highly empowered to make Medicare cuts.

The CBO said that IMAC would do nothing, trimming costs by perhaps 0.2 percent. A 0.2 percent cut is not a solution; it's a punch line.

(3) The final blow came last Sunday when the CBO euthanized the Obama "out years" myth. The administration's argument had been: Sure, Obamacare will initially increase costs and deficits. But it pays for itself in the long run because it bends the curve downward in coming decades.

The CBO put in writing the obvious: In its second decade, Obamacare significantly bends the curve upward -- increasing deficits even more than in the first decade.

This is obvious because Obama's own first-decade numbers were built on arithmetic trickery. New taxes to support the health care plan begin in 2011, but the benefits part of the program doesn't fully kick in until 2015. That excess revenue is, of course, one time only. It makes the first decade numbers look artificially low, but once you pass 2015, the yearly deficits become larger and eternal.

Three CBO strikes and you're out cold.

There more here.

I fear the Charles is correct that there will be some sort of Obamacare bill passed this year. Will it just go after uninsured persons, or will it follow the demands of the leftists and include a public option that's one or two steps away from single payer?

It will probably depend on whether San Fran Nan can get her caucus together. The Blue Dogs don't want a public option and the progressives are demanding it. Blue Dogs are concerned about costs and the progressives will never think any bill is big enough. The Blue on Blue fighting may be the only hope to stop this thing from becoming a national disaster.

Don't Go to the White House Without Your Credit Card

Not just so you can buy some knick-knacks in the visitors center, but so you can eat with the president:

Four of the most powerful business leaders in America arrived at the White House one day last month for lunch with President Barack Obama, sitting down in his private dining room just steps from the Oval Office.

But even for powerful CEOs, there’s no such thing as a free lunch: White House staffers collected credit card numbers for each executive and carefully billed them for the cost of the meal with the president.

The White House defended the unusual move as a way to avoid conflicts of interest. But the Bush administration didn’t charge presidential guests for meals, one former official said, and at least one etiquette expert found the whole thing unseemly – suggesting it was a serious breach of protocol.

“I’m sure they have their political reasons for doing that, but I think it’s not what quote, hospitality, unquote is all about,” said Letitia Baldrige, who headed Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House staff in the early 1960s. “We’ve got to relax about this. To have people to the White House and worry about the price of things is laughable.”

“I don’t know what the menu was, but I’m sure it wasn’t braised pheasant,” she said.

The White House did not say what was served for lunch or how much the attendees were charged. A spokeswoman said White House staff collected the credit card numbers separately from the event.

Around the table with Barack Obama that afternoon were Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox Corporation; Muhtar Kent, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company; AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson; and Honeywell International CEO Dave Cote.

“From time to time, White House guests are asked to reimburse for their meals, the reasons include ensuring there is no conflict or appearance of a conflict,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “That is consistent with our tough ethics rules and we will continue the practice when appropriate.”

It is rather tacky to invite people to your home and then charge them for dinner.

Congress Throws $2 Billion More at "Cash for Clunkers"

After the program used up $1 billion in about six days and created all sorts of headaches for car dealers and the government, Congress has thrown another $2 billion at it:

The House raced Friday to pass legislation pouring an additional $2 billion into the popular — but financially strapped — “cash for clunkers” car purchase program.

Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., revealed the floor plan after he and other lawmakers were assured by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that the program would continue at least through Friday while the Obama administration looked for more money.

Democrats in both the House and Senate were exploring the possibility of votes as early as Friday to replenish the funding.

At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs sought to assure consumers that the program is still running and will be alive “this weekend.”

“If you were planning on going to buy a car this weekend, using this program, this program continues to run,” Gibbs told reporters.

He would not commit to any timeframe beyond that.

One thing that hasn't really been discussed much is the impact this program will have on the used car market, especially when it comes to lower priced older cars. The program requires cars traded in to be destroyed and not resold. That's going to make for fewer older cars available on the market for someone who can't afford a new ride or needs to add a car to a household.

There are always unintended consequences in these things, and when people start complaining that the price of used vehicles has risen to a point where poor people can't afford them, what will Congress do then?

The One No More

Jonah Goldberg tells us The One has returned to earth as a mere mortal:

All presidents go through rough patches, and Obama’s no exception. Odds are his poll numbers will get better — and worse — in the years to come. All of this is typical.

But this misses a crucial point: Obama isn’t supposed to be a typical politician. He was supposed to be The One. He was supposed to change Washington. Transcend race. Fix souls. Bake twelve-minute brownies in seven minutes.

Oprah promised Obama would help us “evolve to a higher plane.” Deepak Chopra said Obama’s presidency represented “a quantum leap in American consciousness.” Last month, Newsweek editor Evan Thomas proclaimed that Obama stood “above the country, above — above the world, he’s sort of God.”

Well, now he’s the god who bleeds, and once you’re the god who bleeds, it’s hard to get the divinity back in the tube, as it were.

Obama undoubtedly has major accomplishments ahead of him, but in a real way the Obama presidency is over. His messianic hopey-changiness has been exposed for what it was, and what it could only be: a rich cocktail of pie-eyed idealism, campaign sloganeering, and profound arrogance.

As president, he’s tried to apply the post-partisan gloss of his campaign rhetoric to the hyper-partisan dross of his agenda. And he’s fooling fewer people every day.

There's more here. Certainly the entire Henry Louis Gates fiasco confirmed that Obama's judgment is anything but infallible, and that episode might have done more damage to his image as post-partisan, post-racial healer than anything else he's done.

Health Care Quote of the Day

From a car dealer, commenting on the demise of the "cash for clunkers" program after only six days:

"If they can't administer a program like this, I'd be a little concerned about my health insurance."

And with good reason.

When Did Giving a Suspect's Description Become Racist?

Heather MacDonald comments at The Corner:

Why is it racist to mention a suspect’s race in a 911 call? The New York Times still doesn’t explain, but apparently many other people share its view that only a bigot would give police officers a full description of a potential criminal. Two days ago, the Times raised the red flag of racism over the trivial discrepancy between the 911 call reporting a possible break-in at Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s home and the police report on the incident: The 911 caller, Lucia Whalen, had told dispatchers that she was uncertain about the suspects’ race, whereas the police report said that she had mentioned that they were black.

Today, the Times has written virtually the identical article under what is meant to be another shocking headline: “Caller Says Race Wasn’t Mentioned to Officer in Gates Case.” The only thing new in the second article is a fuller description of the abuse directed at Whalen under the assumption that she had mentioned that the two men seen breaking into the front door of Gates’ house were black: “When I was called a racist, I was the target of scorn and ridicule because of things I never said,” she told reporters.

Perhaps the people who have called Whalen a “racist” under the misimpression that she communicated the suspects’ possible race will indemnify future crime victims attacked by at-large criminals whose apprehensions were unnecessarily delayed by witnesses or prior victims’ withholding information about race from the police.

If the information is true to the best of the informant's knowledge, there no way that giving the police a correct description of a suspect could possibly be racist, but that's how out of whack we've become. Instead of creating a colorblind society, we now have a society that fears even mentioning race for fear of being called racist.

How silly can this get? I believe it was in Great Britain recently that some prisoners escaped a local jail. The police refused to give a description of them that included their race for fear of violating Britain's hate crime laws.

It could happen here too.

Hawaii Residents Lose Twice if They Go to Vegas

If Hawaiian residents go gamble in Vegas, they lose if they lose, and lose if they win:

A new bill signed into law this month by Gov. Linda Lingle has some frequent Las Vegas visitors and local CPAs scratching their heads.

Under House Bill 1495, no longer will gamblers be able to offset their winnings with their losses for Hawai'i state income tax purposes. Previously gamblers would be taxed only on their net winnings, but now they will be taxed on gross winnings.

A Hawai'i resident who wins $10,000 in a year, for example, and loses $9,000 in the same year used to be taxed only on the $1,000 in net winnings. Under the new law, that resident would be taxed on the full $10,000 in winnings.

Even if you end up a net loser, you will still be taxed on whatever you won along the way.

Dennis Kohara, a certified public accountant in Honolulu, called the law "ridiculous."

"You sit down at the blackjack table. You win a hand. You lose the next one. You win another hand. You lose the next one," he said.

And, under the new law, you now owe taxes on all the winning hands, which are not offset by any of the losing hands, Kohara said.

State Rep. Pono Chong, who sponsored the legislation, acknowledged that Kohara is correct.

However, Chong said, the new law will mainly affect those who have substantial winnings, along with substantial losses.

The law is expected to add about $300,000 a year to Hawai'i tax revenue.

Frankly I think the whole thing is fishy. What right does Hawaii have to assess taxes on earnings not earned in their state? Somebody needs to challenge all of this.

And by the way, the new law is retroactive to January 1 so if you made a trip to Vegas earlier this year you're on the hook for the new taxes.

Presidential Medal of Quotas

The White House announced the 16 winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Let's see what we have on the list:

• The woman who started Susan G. Koman for the Cure
• A Hispanic physician in Florida who serves the homeless
• A terribly brilliant and terribly disabled physicist
• A dead white male Republican
• A frequently drunk and currently dying U.S. Senator who left a woman to die in his sinking car
• A lesbian former tennis champion
• A Native American professor
• A dead gay activist
• The first woman Supreme Court justice
• A black actor and lefty activist
• The first female president of Ireland and the driving force behind the infamous and anti-Semitic 2001 Durban Conference
• A brilliant female scientist to help discover the cause of leukemia
• The black South African Anglican Archbishop an avowed lefty
• A muslim banker from Bangladesh

Looks like they pretty much managed to check all the boxes on the quota form. Several are highly deserving of the award. Several are highly suspect. You can read the names and bios here.

Financial Video of the Day

From the Daily Show. Prepare to be really concerned about the guy in charge of the nation's money:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Home Crisis Investigation
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

Four Men, Three Women and a Gorilla Get an NEA Grant...

No, that's not the set-up for a joke, but the cast of a porno flick being supported by the taxpayer-funded stimulus bill:

The NEA was given $80 million of the government’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill to spread around to needy artists nationwide, and most of the money is being spent to help preserve jobs in museums, orchestras, theaters and dance troupes that have been hit hard by the recession…But some of the NEA’s grants are spicing up more than the economy. A few of their more risque choices have some taxpayer advocates hot under the collar, including a $50,000 infusion for the Frameline film house, which recently screened Thundercrack, “the world’s only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla.”

Hope. Change. Porno.

The GOP Recovery

W. James Antle III tells us there's a light at the end of the tunnel for Republicans:

Beneath the prognostications of doom and gloom, however, Republicans are showing real signs of life. The GOP is heavily favored to take the governorship in New Jersey this year, where Republican Chris Christie leads by double digits in some polls. Republicans are slight favorites in the Virginia governor's race, despite an increasing Democratic trend in the Old Dominion over the past few elections.

If the 2010 elections were held today, Republicans would pick up a Senate seat in Connecticut (if the Democrats don't get Chris Dodd first) and have an even shot of reclaiming Arlen Specter's in Pennsylvania -- the latter by running a former president of the Club for Growth. Republicans would even win a one-on-one race against Gov. Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, one of the nation's bluest states.

According to both NPR and Rasmussen Reports, Republicans now lead in the generic congressional ballot. National Republicans have succeeded in getting their top choices to run for Senate in Illinois and Florida. Delaware may not be far behind. Just this week, they managed to nudge their most vulnerable incumbent, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, into retirement, improving their chances in that state.

House Republicans are faring even better at candidate recruitment. They have a target-rich environment, as the Democratic majority is padded with the votes of red-state congressmen who in 2006 and 2008 won districts where Obama was unpopular back when his national approval ratings were above 60 percent. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), chairman of the GOP's congressional campaign committee, boasts that he will make a play for 80 Democratic-held seats next year.

Voters were desperate for change in 2006 and 2008. Well, they got it and now they don't like it. Suddenly the GOP is starting to look like grown-ups again compared to the petulant Democrats who are desperate to get their way as the run toward their socialist utopia.

The voters took a snooze in '06 & '08. They're waking up now.

Cash for Clunkers Comes to a Crashing End

The Cash for Clunkers program I posted on earlier today has now been cancelled by the government after it ran out of money. No word yet on whether outstanding but unfunded deals will be completed.

The law requires the cars traded in under the program to be destroyed. What happens if a dealer takes in a car, ships it out to the salvage yard, and then the government decides not to fund the $3500 to $4500 he fronted the customer? It'll be a scene out of National Lampoon's Vacation when Clark gets his crushed trade-in back.

UPDATE: Whoa, not so fast. Congress throws another $2 billion at the program.

Obama Overload

This poor lady has it bad:

A 78-year-old Carroll woman says she's so tired of seeing President Barack Obama on the airwaves that she's selling her television sets - two of them.

Deloris Nissen, a retired nurses' aide and former Kmart employee who was raised on a farm near Audubon, placed a classified advertisement with The Daily Times Herald for Friday's paper.

In the $5.50 ad, Nissen tells readers she has two television sets for sale.

The reason: "Obama on every channel and station."

In an interview Nissen said she is serious about selling two TVs - and genuine about her disgust with what she believes to be an overexposed president.

"I just got tired of watching him on every channel," Nissen said. "I thought, my gosh, does he ever stay at the White House?"

I've almost stopped watching TV news, even the local stuff. I know how she feels.

The Beer Summit

Hmmm. The President is sitting next to Sgt. Crowley. Poor "Skip" Gates is stuck next to Joe Biden. That can't be going over well in certain quarters.

Word is that Sgt. Crowley will be holding a press conference after the event - around 7:30pm Eastern. I'm sure he'll be gracious, but it could be interesting.

San Fran Nan Melts Down

The pressure is getting to Nancy Pelosi. She apparently has gone far enough around the bend that she thinks it's a good strategic move to blast the insurance companies:

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday ramped up her criticism of insurance companies, accusing them of unethical behavior and working to kill a plan to create a new government-run health plan.

"It's almost immoral what they are doing," Pelosi said to reporters, referring to insurance companies. "Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure," she said, adding, "They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening."

Of course they're trying to stop the public option, as are a lot of us. They know that the public option will spell the end of private insurers as employers dump their employees into the plan to reduce costs. You can't blame them for trying to save their industries from a government takeover.

Microsoft vs. Apple in Mall Wars

My Texas Correspondent forwarded this note to me:

On Tuesday, CNET announced that the first two Microsoft stores would be located in Mission Viejo, Calif. and Scottsdale, Ariz. The California store will be in The Shops at Mission Viejo, a complex that already has an Apple Store. The Arizona store, according to the Associated Press, will be located in Scottsdale Fashion Square (shown at right), a little less than nine miles from Scottsdale Quarter, where Apple opened its fifth Phoenix-metro store last month.

The Apple Store at the Mission Viejo Mall is busy, busy, busy. They always have a crowd in there, and back in 2007 I bought my daughter's MacBook from that store (she's the only Apple user in the HolyCoast household...always the rebel). I have a hard time believing the Microsoft store will do the same level of business, but we'll see. I'll have to check it out.

New Government Program is a Clunker

Customers are scrambling to take advantage of government money to buy new cars, and like most government programs the people who are supposed to get the money, in this case the car dealers, are scrambling to get paid:

Car dealers across the Twin Cities area reported busy showrooms and low inventories Tuesday as customers scrambled to unload their old gas guzzlers and save $3,500 or $4,500 on a new, more fuel-efficient car under the federal government's $1 billion Cash for Clunkers program.

At Morrie's Minnetonka Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, the receptionist started a waiting list for the finance department, the first time she ever had to do so. One dealership in Coon Rapids ran out of two of the eligible cars, the Jeep Patriot and Compass.

But dealers reported problems with the government's online system to get the transactions approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is running the program.

Scott Lambert, vice president of the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association, said he was "astounded" to learn at a meeting Tuesday representing about 150 Minnesota dealers that not one has had a deal approved.

"We had dealers representing 1,500 to 2,000 transactions," he said. "We asked how many had a deal approved yet, and not one hand went up."

Lambert said the government has created a program that's "so big and cumbersome that it can't find a way to accept anything. We're sending in good, reliable deals."

It's nerve-racking for the dealers, he said, because they have given the customer $4,500 and now the dealers need to be reimbursed.

Some dealerships, including Morrie's, are letting customers drive their cars home before the government OKs the deal. Morrie's general manager John Aretz said the customer can return the car if the deal is not approved.

It's nice to see car dealers getting some business, but if people have to start bringing cars back because the government payments aren't approved, it's gonna get ugly.

End Times Video of the Day

I offer this only for entertainment value. I've never been one who looks for sinister or supernatural messages from the great beyond.

Obama's Doctor Doesn't Support Obamacare

Even the doctor who treated Barack Obama for many years in Chicago doesn't think Obamacare will work:

The man Barack Obama consulted on medical matters for over two decades said on Tuesday that the president's vision for health care reform is bound for failure.

Dr. David Scheiner, a 70-year Chicago-based physician who treated Obama for more than 20 years, said he was disheartened by the health care legislation his former patient is championing, calling it piecemeal and ineffectual.

"I look at his program and I can't see how it's going to work," Scheiner told the Huffington Post. "He has no cost control. There would be no effective cost control in his program. The [Congressional Budget Office] said it's going be incredibly expensive ... and the thing that I really am worried about is, if it is the failure that I think it would be, then health reform will be set back a long, long time."

Scheiner, who prefers a more progressive approach to reform, was hesitant about trying to divine the president's motives, although he said he believed that "in his heart of hearts" Obama "may well like a single-payer program."

"His pragmatism is what is overwhelming him." Scheiner added: "I think he's afraid that he can't get anything through if he doesn't go through this incredibly compromised program."

Admitting that he was not a political practitioner, Scheiner said he felt compelled to speak out because of his unique relationship with the president and this critical moment in the health care debate.

The good doctor is probably representative of thousands of his fellow practitioners. I guess Obama will have to invite him to the White House for a beer...or have his Chicago machine invite him down to the Chicago River for a cement shoe fitting.

Rev. Ike Goes to His Reward

A prosperity preacher finds out if his gospel was true or not...

The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, the flamboyant minister better known as the Reverend Ike, who preached the blessings of material prosperity to a large congregation in New York and to television and radio audiences nationwide, died Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he had lived since 2007. He was 74.

His death was confirmed Wednesday by E. Bernard Jordan, a family spokesman. Reverend Ike had suffered a stroke in 2007 and never fully recovered, Mr. Jordan said.

“Close your eyes and see green,” Reverend Ike would tell his 5,000 parishioners from a red-carpeted stage at the former Loew’s film palace on 175th Street in Washington Heights, the headquarters of his United Church Science of Living Institute. “Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool.”

His exhortation, as quoted by The New York Times in 1972, was a vivid sampling of Reverend Ike’s philosophy, which he variously called “Prosperity Now,” “positive self-image psychology” or just plain “Thinkonomics.”

The philosophy held that St. Paul was wrong; that the root of all evil is not the love of money, but rather the lack of it. It was a message that challenged traditional Christian messages about finding salvation through love and the intercession of the divine. The way to prosper and be well, Reverend Ike preached, was to forget about pie in the sky by and by and to look instead within oneself for divine power.

“This is the do-it-yourself church,” he proclaimed. “The only savior in this philosophy is God in you.”

I wonder if it turned out as he had hoped?

Gunga Dan Wants A Presidential Bailout for the News Business

Dan Rather, who singlehandedly tried to destroy the network news business with his fraudulent attempt to create a scandal about President Bush during the 2004 campaign (and which was the subject of the very first post ever on this blog), is now calling on Obama to save the news business:

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute.

“I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media,” the legendary newsman said.

Such a commission on media reform, Rather said, ought to make recommendations on saving journalism jobs and creating new business models to keep news organizations alive.

At stake, he argued, is the very survival of American democracy.

“A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom,” Rather said in an interview yesterday afternoon. “This is not something just for journalists to be concerned about, and the loss of jobs and the loss of newspapers, and the diminution of the American press’ traditional role of being the watchdog on power. This is something every citizen should be concerned about.”

Rather, who has been a working reporter for more than six decades and currently hosts “Dan Rather Reports” on HDNet, pointed out that there are precedents for such national commissions, which have been used to help other at-risk industries.

If the news business is dying it's because so much of it is biased hard left and the public knows it. There are many, many other sources of information out there and no one has to submit themselves to leftist propaganda on the network news if they don't want to.

And more and more people don't want to.

Until the bias problem is fixed, the news business will continue to bleed.

Of course, if things continue to be tough for the media, they can always do what this reporter did and run a prostitution ring.

No Obamacare Vote Until the Fall

With public opinion of Obamacare and other Obama initiatives falling daily, the Democrats needed a vote on a health care bill before the summer recess but they're not going to get it:

President Barack Obama said Wednesday there will be no vote on his proposed reforms of the US healthcare system before autumn, a setback that is costing him more political capital with each passing day.

"This bill, even in the best-case scenario, will not be signed -- we won't even vote on it probably until the end of September or the middle of October," he said in a session here to muster public support for the reforms.

"We're just trying to get all these different bills out of committee," he said.

Lawmakers are going through bills in both houses of Congress with fine tooth combs amid fierce opposition from Republicans and divisions within the Democratic majority and between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Obama has pressed lawmakers to vote on the initial bills before departing on their summer recess August 7, but acknowledged that is unlikely to happen.

He was not clear whether he expected a final vote or only a first vote on the bill by the end of September or mid-October.

Lawmakers will now go home to their local district events and will likely get an earful from unhappy constituents. And they won't be unhappy because there was no bill, they'll be unhappy because their congressmen supports one. I'm hoping that the opposition will be strong and vocal and will scare some of these guys straight.

I want them coming back to D.C. in September scared to touch the thing.

Racists and Victims Share Beers in Rose Garden

The publicity event of the week takes place tonight at the White House when the president, Sgt. Crowley from the Cambridge Police Department, and "black studies" professor Henry Louis Gates sit down together and make nice. ABC News tells us there aren't any planned apologies:

Tonight's the night. Gates, Crowley and the president crack their brews somewhere near the Rose Garden (not the picnic table, too hard to shoot.)

White House aides tell me that there is no "precooked" statement already agreed to and no apologies are necessarily expected.

In my opinion Crowley made a mistake in accepting this invitation. Why would anyone want to sit down and socialize with people who publicly called them a racist in front of the whole country and to my knowledge have not publicly apologized?

If I had been Crowley I would have offered a polite "no thanks" and would have gone on about my business. Instead, Crowley will be used as a political prop for Obama in the hopes he can make this whole thing go away. Gates will probably continue to be just what he is - a guy who hates cops and "whitey" and still thinks of himself as some sort of victim of racist police tactics.

It's all for show, and frankly I think Obama made a mistake in scheduling this event because it will keep the story alive for another day or two, and probably through the weekend shows as panels are asked their reaction to all this.

UPDATE: Looks like Obama has stepped on some other toes in the process. This is what Mark Knoller of CBS is reporting via Twitter:

However, Wall Street Journal reporting American-owned beer companies say the brews for the WH meeting should not be foreign-owned.

Obama will probably have to have another beer summit to assuage the hurt feelings of American-owned beer companies. It never ends.

And don't forget, while Gates is away, it's party on at his house!

My Wife Left Me

Well, it's not as bad as it sounds. This isn't Jon & Kate we got going here. She's leaving me for the next 10 days.

Just three days after coming home from Michigan she'll be flying out this afternoon bound for Hawaii. Her best friend since kindergarten decided the ladies needed to celebrate their milestone birthday this year with a special trip, so she's treating them both to a week long Hawaiian cruise.

As it turns out the best deal on airfare included two nights in Honolulu, so they fly out today, spend the first two nights in a hotel right off Waikiki Beach, and then board the ship on Saturday for seven days cruising around the islands.

We were there together in 2006 and I happened to snap a photo of her future ride as it entered Nawiliwili Harbor on Kauai early on the morning after we arrived on the island. Here's the shot I took that February morning before the sun had popped above the horizon:

So, it's bachelor blogging for me until she gets home on August 8th.

The Liberals Are Revolting!

Well, you already knew that, but I mean revolting in the protest sense, not the general appearance sense:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent half of Wednesday finalizing a deal with the Blue Dogs — and the other half quelling a brewing rebellion among progressives who think conservatives have hijacked health care reform.

Liberals, Hispanics and African-American members — Pelosi’s most loyal base of support — are feeling betrayed after House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) reached an agreement with four of seven Blue Dogs on his committee who had been bottling up the bill over concerns about cost.

The compromise, which still must be reconciled with competing House and Senate versions, would significantly weaken the public option favored by liberals by delinking reimbursement rates to Medicare.

“Waxman made a deal that is unacceptable,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), one of about 10 progressives who met repeatedly with Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Wednesday.

“We signed a pledge to reject any plan that doesn’t include a robust public option, and this plan doesn’t have a robust public option,” he added.

By sundown Wednesday, the outcry from the left had become so loud that Waxman was forced to scrap a scheduled markup of the compromise measure. He rescheduled the meeting for Thursday morning and convened a mass question-and-answer session for a deeply divided Democratic Caucus — a meeting that is expected to be extremely contentious.

Pop some popcorn and pull up a chair. This should be very entertaining.

Political Photo of the Day

From North Carolina, h/t Don Surber:

That pretty much sums it up.

Global Warming Story of the Day

I just saw a Facebook posting by a friend of mine in Portland, OR. It was 107 degrees there today and she decided to see if it really was hot enough to fry an egg on the asphalt.

It only took 4 1/2 minutes.

And most of those poor folks up there don't have air conditioning. At best we were in the low 80's in Orange County today. They probably had us beat by 25 degrees.

And from what I hear, it's not over. I just checked and at 8:25 pm it was still 96. They're supposed to be in the 90's through Sunday.

2010 Starting to Look Ugly for Democrats

Of course, numbers are subject to change daily, but these numbers can't be comforting for San Fran Nan and Slots Reid (from Political Wire):

A new NPR poll finds Republicans catching Democrats in a generic congressional ballot test.

"Asked whether they would support a Democrat or a Republican for Congress in 2010 if the election were held today, 42% said they would choose a Democrat and 43% a Republican, a difference well within the poll's margin of error (plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for each number in each question)."

For several years, Democrats have held wide leads on such questions.

A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds Republicans with a three point lead over Democrats.

With cap-and-tax, health care, and card check all dying on the vine, big losses for Dems next year will ensure these socialist abominations never become law.

Global Warming Headline of the Day

From Watts Up With That?:

Global Warming to Threaten California Fruits and Nuts?

I don't care how warm it gets, California will never run out of fruits and nuts.

Let's Just Abolish the States and Be Done With It

It's pretty clear that states with their own laws and customs are getting in the way of certain Democrat Senators:

Four senators pushed for a bill Wednesday to ban texting while driving, a day after a study found that drivers who text while on the road are much more likely to have an accident than an undistracted driver.

Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-New York; Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey; Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana; and Kay Hagan, D-North Carolina, unveiled the ALERT Act, which would ban truck and car drivers and operators of mass transit from texting while driving.

The proposed legislation would prohibit any driver from sending text or e-mail messages while driving a vehicle, said an earlier news release from the senators. If the bill passes, the Department of Transportation would set the minimum standards for compliance.

States that do not enact text-banning laws within two years of the bill's passage could lose 25 percent of their federal highway funds, Schumer said in a news conference announcing the legislation. The non-compliant states could recuperate that money once they meet the text-banning standards, Schumer added.

The Federal Government has no business making traffic laws. We have states and municipal governments who are better judges of what they need in their areas than the U.S. Senate. This is a typical Democrat statist overreach and should be quickly shot down.

Am I in favor of texting while driving? No. But my local governments can handle that decision without help from Chuckie Schumer and his Nanny State Band.

Station Casinos File for Bankruptcy Protection

Another casino firm is in trouble:

Las Vegas-based Station Casinos Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, making it the latest casualty in the recession-wracked gambling industry.

Despite months of haggling, the company failed to reach a prearranged agreement with all its lenders. Bondholders control $2.3 billion of the company's $5.7 billion in debt.

The company's 18 casinos are separate entities wholly owned by Station and aren't part of the bankruptcy filing. They will continue to operate as usual, a Station official said. All of the debt is held by the parent company.....

Station is the latest victim of a gambling industry bled by borrowing and a prolonged slump in consumer spending. Already this year, a number of smaller casino companies, including the Las Vegas Tropicana and Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City, filed for bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, larger companies like Las Vegas Sands Corp., MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment Inc., struggled to reduce debt and slash costs as tourism and corporate spending shrank.

The Station filing marks the financial downfall of one of the oldest and best-known casino companies in Nevada, and a stark reversal of fortune for its founding family, the Fertittas.

The company, founded in 1976 with one casino, expanded by catering to locals who worked or lived in the Las Vegas area. Its Western-themed properties, with names like Gold Rush Casino and Texas Station Gambling Hall and Hotel, are aimed at budget-minded gamblers.

In recent years, as Las Vegas began catering to luxury travelers with more lavish offerings, Station opened several high-end resort casinos off the Las Vegas Strip.

A&E did a show a few years ago called "Casino" and was a reality show based in Green Valley Ranch, one of the ritzier Station properties. We visited there a couple of times just to walk around and see what we'd seen on TV.

As I understand it from the show and other reports, the same family that owns the casino corporation also owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and that seems to be doing pretty well. Fighting makes money in all economies.

An Offer Republicans Must Not Refuse

President Obama as just given the Republicans a golden opportunity to tie up the Obamacare bill for months:

Could President Obama possibly deliver on the invitation he made at a Town Hall Meeting on health care today?

He didn't just offer to answer any questions that members of Congress might have about the health care legislation.

"If they want to come over to the White House," he said, "and go over line-by-line what's going on, I will be happy to do that."

Line-by-line? Could he have forgotten that the House bill is over a thousand pages in length? Who knows how long the Senate measure will be.

House and Senate members seeking to indefinitely delay passage of the health care measure, could tie Mr. Obama up for months if not years, going over the bill line-by-line. We wouldn't subject detainees at Guantanamo to that level of cruelty.

I think the Republicans should jump on this...one at a time. Make him explain the whole 1000 pages.

Every word of it.

And ask lots of questions.

Make him regret ever making that statement.

The Libs Target the Blue Dogs

The liberal caucus in the Democrat party is not happy to have members of the Democrat party who are not true believers. Rep. Maxine Waters (Nutcase-CA) wants to target the more conservative Blue Dogs members of their party (from Top of the Ticket):

California Democrat Maxine Waters has never been known as the shy, quiet type. Over the years, the congresswoman has charged the CIA with importing crack cocaine into South-Central Los Angeles, assailed independent counsel Kenneth Starr for ‘‘raw, unmasked, unbridled hatred and meanness that drives this impeachment coup d'etat'' against then-President Clinton, and co-sponsored a resolution to impeach then-Vice President Cheney for lying to Congress about the Iraq War.

So it will come as no surprise to those who appreciate Waters' firebrand personality that she is now targeting those who would stand in the way of President Obama's healthcare reform. Blasting the seven fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats who are stalling the reform in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Waters charged the politically moderate group with hypocrisy in protesting the bill's $1 billion price tag but lobbying for increased Medicare reimbursements for rural physicians.

"On the one hand they don’t want to spend money, but on the other hand they want to spend money when it benefits them or their district,” she said on MSNBC.

Asked if she would recruit more liberal candidates to run against the Blue Dogs, Waters said, “That’s normally not done.” But she added: “There may be people out there listening and observing all of this who may get motivated based on what they’re seeing and throw their hat into the ring.”

She also took aim at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who chaired the Congressional Campaign Committee, for recruiting conservative candidates to run in swing districts. Though the election of Blue Dogs bolstered the Democrats' majority in the House, Waters faulted Emanuel, then a congressman from Illinois, for telling the centrists they could vote their conscience.

Now, she said, the White House is having trouble getting its healthcare plan passed in Congress and "the chickens are coming home to roost."

Waters is not the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus angry about the Blue Dogs. The caucus chairwoman, California's Barbara Lee, said last week, “We don’t think any one group in our [Democratic] caucus ought to be able to derail this.”

The Dem party might be considering running primary candidates against those Blue Dogs, meaning they'll be spending their money to campaign against their own incumbents. Blue-on-Blue fratricide at its best.

Recess Rally August 22

The Tea Party folks are stirring up another event to oppose nationalized health care and make some noise while Congress is away on their summer recess. It's called the "Recess Rally" and is scheduled for August 22.

Michelle Malkin has some thought:

We have the momentum to kill Obamacare.

The congressional recess period is critical.

I’ve joined many grass-roots groups in a nationwide coalition holding a Recess Rally on August 22, 2009.

The Tea Party revolt and the grass-roots counterinsurgency against the health care takeover have taken congressional offices locally and Washington, D.C. by storm.

Now, more than ever: Crank it up, spread the truth, raise your voices, and tell Washington…

Hands Off Our Health Care.

Go to Recess Rally to get organized.

Unfortunately I'll have to rally in my heart but not in person because that's the day I'll be driving the college girl back to Sonoma State. However, I hope this will pick up steam as the Tea Parties did.

Unread 1000 Page Bills Are the Death of Representative Government

So says Mark Steyn:

Thousand-page bills, unread and indeed unwritten at the time of passage, are the death of representative government. They also provide a clue as to why, in a country this large, national government should be minimal and constrained. Even if you doubled or trebled the size of the legislature, the Conyers conundrum would still hold: No individual can read these bills and understand what he's voting on. That's why the bulk of these responsibilities should be left to states and subsidiary jurisdictions, which can legislate on such matters at readable length and in comprehensible language.

As for optimum bill size, the 1773 Tea Act, which provoked the Boston Tea Party, was 2,263 words. That sounds about right.

The Founders never intended a federal government that's as massive, bloated, and unresponsive as what we have now. States were intended to do most of the heavy lifting with the federal government providing for the common defense and a few other specific functions. We've really screwed up a brilliant idea.

Michael Jackson and Captain EO to Return to Disneyland?

Could happen:

Disneyland might bring back Michael Jackson’s movie, “Captain EO,” a Disney watchdog blog reports, but Disney officials are declining to confirm the report.
Miceage.com’s Al Lutz reported Tuesday that top Disney officials have met to discuss the possibility of reviving Jackson’s 3D movie during Halloween time, which begins Sept. 25. The movie would replace “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” in the Magic Eye Theater in Tomorrowland, where “Captain EO” used to show. The idea is that there is renewed interest in the film since Jackson’s death, but Disney officials have yet to make a decision, according to Miceage.com.

When asked about “Captain EO,” Disney released this statement: “We are constantly evaluating our attraction and entertainment offerings in order to provide our Guests with the best possible experience. At this time, we have nothing new to announce.”

Jackson starred, sang and danced in the Francis Ford Coppola-directed film that showed in Disneyland from 1986 to 1997.

"Honey I Shrunk the Audience" has long since gotten tired and is poorly attended. We used to eat dinner at the Pizza Port across from the theater all the time, and there was hardly ever more than a few people waiting to see each show. I think Captain EO would probably be very popular, if for no other reason than younger generations who never saw it would want to go. I won't be surprised if they bring it back.

If you've never seen it, you can watch it here.

Hope and Change...For a Week

You'd better discount any "jobs saved or created" numbers you're hearing from Democrats. I imagine what's going on in Oregon is going on around the country:

PORTLAND, Ore. — How much are politicians straining to convince people that the government is stimulating the economy? In Oregon, where lawmakers are spending $176 million to supplement the federal stimulus, Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs in the program’s first three months.

But those jobs lasted on average only 35 hours, or about one work week. After that, those workers were effectively back unemployed, according to an Associated Press analysis of state spending and hiring data. By the state’s accounting, a job is a job, whether it lasts three hours, three days, three months, or a lifetime.

Make work jobs that last only a few days or even weeks do little if anything to stimulate the economy. They might make a few Democrats feel proud of themselves, but that's about it.

Health Care Vote Back On?

Red State is concerned:

Head’s up: there is a rumor circulating in the House of Representatives that enough Blue Dogs have caved on health care for Nancy Pelosi to get the bill to the floor this week. The memo to Republicans assuring them there’d be no vote could have been a ruse to turn down constituent heat enough.

Democrats are growing fearful that August recess will turn the Blue Dogs cold and want something out by Friday.

It appears they may have the votes to do that.

Democrats are desperate for a vote before the recess, even if it produces a bill that will be picked apart while they're out of town. They think they have to be seen as "doing something" and that the act alone will pay off with voters.

All it will do it give an actual bill that can be dissected when Congress is out-of-town and will make it even more unlikely that the Senate will find something to like about it. It will also give protesters an actual target they can shoot at (more on that later).

Blue Dogs who vote for this mess are out next year. Their districts, already more conservative than most Democrats, won't sent them back. Their jobs are gone if they vote for this mess.

UPDATE: From Hot Air:

The Blue Dogs and House leaders have struck a deal to guarantee that the House will not vote on a healthcare bill before August, a leading Blue Dog said on Wednesday.

In exchange for putting off a floor vote until after Labor Day, the Energy and Commerce Committee may be allowed to continue its markup of the healthcare bill this week even if an agreement has not been reached between Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and seven Energy and Commerce Committee Blue Dogs over the content of the bill.

Asked if House leaders had told Democrats that there will be no House vote on healthcare before Friday, Blue Dog Co-Chairwoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) said, “I don’t think [leaders have] made public statements to that regard, but my understanding is that that would be part of an agreement, if they actually do move forward with an Energy and Commerce markup that there will be no vote on the House floor until after Labor Day.” …

“There has been no official announcement on floor timing, but at this point, the odds are that we will not likely vote before we adjourn for August,” a Democratic leadership aide said.

Tax the Fat People!

These three headlines from Drudge:

CDC Chief: Soda Tax Could Combat Obesity...

States to get 'significant' obesity money...

PAPER: Tough love for fat people: Tax their food to pay for healthcare...

So, what will we do about this problem that cost a woman's life?

Shopaholic died under purchases - found underneath pile of clothing...

We clearly need ShoppingCare to monitor clothing purchases to make sure they don't pile up and become health hazards. And while we're at it, we can tax clothes that fit only fat people!

Since He Can't Generate Results, Obama is Generating Excuses

When in trouble blame everything on Bush and Cheney:

Facing the first real rough patch of his presidency, President Obama and his supporters are once again resorting to a tried-and-true tactic: attacking George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

In his White House press conference last week, Mr. Obama referred to the Bush era at least nine times, three times lamenting that he "inherited" a $1.3 trillion debt that has set back his administration's efforts to fix the economy.

With the former president lying low in Dallas, largely focused on crafting his memoirs, Mr. Obama has increasingly attempted to exploit Mr. Bush when discussing the weak economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the difficulty closing the military prison at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

As he took power, Mr. Obama promised a "new era of responsibility" that would transcend partisan politics.

"For a guy who campaigned on taking responsibility and looking forward, he spends an awful lot of time pointing fingers and looking backward," said former Bush deputy press secretary Tony Fratto, who has begun defending the previous administration.

If you read further you'll hear from Democrats who think this is a brilliant strategy, but that's wishful thinking. Obama promised to fix the things that ail our economy and the results show things getting worse. Democrats are right when they say voters have short memories, but refreshing their memories about the evil Bush and Cheney won't make Obama's lack of achievements any more impressive.

The voters expected results, not excuses. That's why Obama's numbers are heading south. That and the socialist nature of his policies which the hopey changey crowd are finally starting to figure out.

The Makings of an Insurance Crisis

Wayne Dunn at Capitalism Magazine has a good article on the makings of the health insurance "crisis":

Is there something special about health insurance that makes it crisis-prone? I mean, we never hear about the horrible "house insurance crisis" or the "spiraling cost of auto insurance."

It wouldn't be too hard to create such a crisis though. In fact, let's try to map one out.

Just imagine if politicians resolved that, since automobiles are vital for getting people to work, companies ought to provide for the care and maintenance of its employees' vehicles.

So political pressure is applied to employers-- maybe through the tax code, or perhaps legislation is passed outright; and, before long, auto insurance is restructured to cover not merely accidents, but routine maintenance and service. For a monthly premium and a $10 or $15 "co-pay,"

your car insurance would cover the cost of an oil change, tune up, new tires, whatever it needed.

Something odd would begin happening though. Mechanics would stop hearing the now pervasive, "How much will it cost?"

Why? Because if all you had to do is plop down ten or fifteen bucks and your insurance paid the rest, why would you care what the mechanic charged? Heck, you'd start taking your car in for an oil change every 1000 miles instead of every 3000. Rather than getting your tires rotated, you'd just have new ones put on. And that rear electric window that won't lower, you'd not think twice about having fixed.

The influx of customers seeking what would be virtually free service means, however, you'd have to wait days, even weeks, to see a mechanic.

Costs would skyrocket. Since comparison shopping would be a thing of the past, auto service centers would have no pressure to lower prices.

Moreover, they'd have to buy more equipment and hire more employees to accommodate the heavier workload, driving costs still higher.

Insurance companies would have to raise premiums. Some people wouldn't be able afford it. So politicians would trot out new government programs -- Car-aid, Car-care-- to help the "disadvantaged." We'd see another deduction on our pay stubs. The numbers of "disadvantaged" would swell.

Resultantly, auto shops would have to hire more clerks to manage all the red tape generated by the government programs and regulations, making costs even higher. Perhaps by then an oil change might run $200 and a brake job $1000.

You can read the rest of it here.

Does Obamacare Have a Cure for Desperation?

If so, please rush a dose to Rahm Emanuel and the Democrat House leadership:

U.S. House Democratic leaders, struggling to reach an accord with party dissidents on health care, said they’re likely to miss President Barack Obama’s August deadline for legislation overhauling the medical system.

“It doesn’t look like it to me,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said in an interview. “I really hoped that we could have gotten a bill out of here by now,” he said, adding that he has a “heavy political heart.”

Obama, who has made revamping health care the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, had urged the House and Senate to each pass versions of the bill before their monthlong August recess so negotiations on a compromise could begin when they return. He’s seeking to provide health coverage to tens of millions of Americans who lack it and curb the soaring cost of care.

With the Senate already planning to leave for its recess without voting, Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, went to Capitol Hill to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and members of the so-called Blue Dog coalition of Democrats, who object to the cost and structure of the legislation.

The House would only stay in session a few days after the start of the August break if an agreement can be reached to allow the bill to clear the Energy and Commerce Committee, where the Blue Dogs are holding up the legislation, Hoyer said earlier.

Not a ‘Failure’

“Whether or not there will be any productive reason to stay for that period of time remains to be seen,” Hoyer said at his weekly press conference. “It’s unfortunate we didn’t meet our timeline, but I don’t think it’s a failure.”

If there's no bill to vote on before this weekend, there's a good chance that Obamacare will die of heat exhaustion in August. Although Democrats are vowing to continue work on the drafting of the bills, every Democrat congressman that goes home to his district and meet with voters (as most of them do in August) will be met with opposition from people in his district who don't want nationalized health care or cap-and-tax.

The other day there was a town hall meeting at Sen. Claire McKaskill's office in Missouri and a Tea Party broke out. There were more protesters than supporters. There's a good chance the same thing will happen all over the country.

Sunbeds, Cancer and Obamacare

A known health risk has been elevated to a top cancer risk:

The International Agency for Research on Cancer announced Wednesday that it had elevated sunbeds, used by tens of millions of people for tanning, to its highest cancer risk category.

Classified in 1992 and a "probable" cancer agent, research since then has left no doubt that soaking up UV rays at tanning salons significantly enhances the chances of developing the disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) agency found.

"The use of sunbeds is carcinogenic to humans. It causes melanoma of the skin, and melanoma of the eye," said Vincent Cogliano, an IARC researcher who led the new assessment.

"I cannot see any reason why a healthy person should use them," he told AFP by phone.

The risk of melanoma -- the most lethal form of skin cancer -- increases by 75 percent when use of tanning devices starts before the age of 30, according to the findings, published in the British medical journal The Lancet Oncology.

Nationalized health care advocates have been making a lot of noise about obesity and the impact on health costs. One report suggest that taxes on fatty foods will be necessary to slow down the fatties and pay for Obamacare. There's also the thought that obese persons will be denied certain kinds of health procedures because they brought their troubles on themselves with their eating habits.

So, what do you think will happen with a 45-year old shows up with a melanoma and admits to tanning bed use in her teens and 20's?

NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU!