Wisconsin Teacher Charged With Sending Death Threats

I wonder what the kids are learning in the early childhood classes she teaches?

A 26-year-old woman was charged Thursday with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts for allegedly making email threats against Wisconsin lawmakers during the height of the battle over Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill.

Katherine R. Windels of Cross Plains was named in a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Criminal Court.

According to the criminal complaint, Windels allegedly sent an email threat to State Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) March 9. Later that evening, she allegedly sent another email to 15 Republican legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau).

The subject line of the second email was: “Atten: Death Threat!!!! Bomb!!!” In that email, she purportedly wrote, “Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks.”

“I hope you have a good time in hell,” she allegedly wrote in the lengthy email in which she purportedly listed scenarios in which the legislators and their families would die, including bombings and by “putting a nice little bullet in your head.”

According to the criminal complaint, Windels told investigators “I sent out emails that I was disgusted and very upset by what they were doing.”

Asked if she intended to follow through on any of her threats, Windels told the investigators “No,” according to the complaint.

Windels was charged with two felony counts “bomb scare” and two misdemeanor counts of “computer message-threatening injury/bodily harm.” If convicted, each felony count carries a maximum penalty of three years and six months in prison and a $10,000 fine, and each misdemeanor count carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in prison and a $1,000 fine.

I'm sure there are a lot of thugs in prison who could use some early childhood education. And she'll probably get an education of her own in all kinds of things she never knew before.

Twins

We've had twins!  Not people, but hummingbirds.  The nest in the back yard has had chicks the last several years and the two kids are almost ready to leave:

Cute little buggers.

Today's Quick Hit Headlines

Some quick hits on today's headlines:

REPORT: Obama sends in CIA teams to find out who rebels are...
Didn't we used to send the CIA in first to make sure they were on our side?

UPDATE: College officials 'appalled' as fratboy, girl caught having sex on roof of USC building...
Yeah, that kind of stuff is only supposed to happen in front of Tommy Trojan.

FEDS: Only 129 Miles of 1,954-Mile Mexican Border Secure...
And we're worried about what's going on in Libya??

5,000 'non-citizens' voted in Colo election in 2010...
This is not hard to fix, but the Dems don't want to lose those voters.

Obama Accepts 'Transparency' Award -- in Secret!
Sometimes the jokes write themselves.

3 Middle Eastern Men Try To Enter Camp Pendleton...
Middle Eastern men walking into Camp Pendleton is a sure way to meet your virgins.

WALMART chief warns of 'serious' inflation in coming months...
They'll be changing their logo to a bouncing frowny face.

Spanish tennis player whacks ball toward crying baby...
Baseball players try to hit a ball going 95 miles per hour while 50,000 people scream at them, but a tennis player has to have absolute quiet to hit the ball he's holding in this hand.

SOMETIMES IT SNOWS IN APRIL: Powerful Nor'easter charging in...
It's 86 here today.  April fools!

Trump: Obama Possibly A Muslim...
Say what you want about Trump, he's certainly the most entertaining of the possible GOP candidates.

U.S. Wants to Grill Libyan Defector About Qaddafi's Role in Lockerbie
If we find the Lockerbie bomber in Libya I want him grilled too...slowly and over a very hot fire.

Man Says He Found Mouse in Energy Drink Can
I bet that got his heart rate up.

Economic Video of the Day

Bill Whittle does a great job of dismantling the entire "tax the rich" argument for budget balancing.  Watch it all:

Our Third War Quote of the Day

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is not mincing words regarding Libya:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told a Congressional panel that he strongly opposed putting any American forces in Libya. Asked if there would be American “boots on the ground” — that is, uniformed members of the military — Mr. Gates swiftly replied, “Not as long as I’m in this job.”

Gates also said during one of the Sunday shows that Libya did not represent a vital national interest. It's pretty clear he's not a fan of this action.

Food Omen of the Day

My friend Bob spilled some milk when making his breakfast this morning.  When he picked up the bowl he saw this:

My reading - it looks like Africa and South America are in for some real trouble.

Are We Going to Cut $73 Million From the Budget?

No.

Joe Biden is such a Continuing Resolution tease -- "Vice President Joe Biden told reporters following a meeting with Senate Democratic leaders that both sides had agreed on a number — $73 billion in spending cuts — but little else," reports National Review's Andrew Stiles, noting that Democrats continue to inflate their cut offer by including the amount that spending would have increased had Obama’s budget 2011 been approved. Shortly thereafter, Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel said, "There is no deal until everything is settled — spending cuts and policy restrictions. The Vice President simply hasn’t been at the table." Government shutdown, here we come. 

Biden is trying to count increases that never took place as part of the "cuts". In reality, very little is being cut from current spending. Just as Democrats love to declare that going from a 7% increase to a 5% increase constitutes a "cut", they're trying to insist that money that was never authorized and never spent constitutes a "cut". It's completely dishonest, but they're counting on the support of the media who will only report the $73 billion dollar figure without explaining how they got there.

The Born Again Neo-Con

Bill Kristol praises Obama's Libya policy, and hits him with the ultimate lefty and libertarian insult (from the Daily Caller):

It’s not an endorsement Barack Obama probably expected — or wanted — but Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol gave the president high marks for his recent foreign policy gestures.

In his “You’ve come a long way, baby” post Monday night, Kristol praised Obama for his address to the American people about the action he took against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. On Wednesday’s “Red Eye” on the Fox News Channel, Kristol took things a step further and declared Obama “a born-again neo-con.”

I remember when some crazy libertarian on Facebook thought she'd really gotten me when she declared in all caps "YOU'RE A NEO-CON!!!!". Uh, no. There's nothing "neo" about my conservatism. But putting all that aside, the term "neo-con" has been used as an insult toward conservatives by both liberals and libertarians, and Kristol employing that term with Obama is likely to be a dog whistle to a lot of antiwar groups.

Critics Think Palin Knew in 2008 That She'd Star in a 2010 Reality Show

This is yet another reason why I think a Sarah Palin candidacy would be problematic - no matter what she does she's subjected to all kinds of criticism, even if totally unwarranted (from the Daily Caller):

The company that produced Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s TLC reality show, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” received $1.2 million in state tax credits for filming in Alaska through a government program Palin signed into law as governor in 2008.

The Anchorage Daily News first reported the story in February, but after an analyst at the Tax Foundation posted a blurb on the group’s blog linking to the piece Tuesday, Palin faced a fresh heap of criticism from Washington conservative pundits who may have been a bit late to the fight, but were not shy to throw punches.

The state legislature passed the subsidy program in 2008 to encourage media companies to film their projects in Alaska and offers up to 30 percent of the money they spend in the state.

But in a political age where it’s controversial in many circles to defend public funding of National Public Radio, critics panned Palin for supporting a measure that forced taxpayers to foot the bill for a private media project after many statements from the former governor in support of a government that only plays a limited role in the economy.

“I’d bet, like many politicians, Palin’s views on the proper role of government becomes more flexible as it comes closer to her own interests,” wrote the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney on Tuesday.

Jim Geraghty of National Review said that the reality show’s subsidy was “ridiculous” and that the policy was “problematic for a crusader for small government to end up collecting a seven-figure paycheck from an endeavor that received a seven-figure subsidy,” while Peter Suderman of the libertarian Reason Magazine cracked: “In 2008, Sarah Palin, then the Governor of Alaska, signed a special taxcredit for filmmakers into law. … Who’s benefiting from that tax subsidy now? … none other than Sarah Palin.”

Palin, however, stood by her decision to sign the bill into law in 2008, and the media company’s choice to take the tax credit.

In a statement to the Daily Caller, Palin called the criticism “ludicrous.”

“Any suggestion that I somehow did something wrong by signing this legislation is ludicrous. The accusation hinges on the notion that I signed the legislation into law knowing that it would personally benefit me. That’s absurd,” Palin said. “Obviously I had no intention of benefiting from it when I signed it into law in 2008 because I had no idea I would be involved in a documentary series years later.”

There are numerous states and localities that provide tax benefits to production companies to film in their areas. Why? Film production brings money to the area, and in the case of "Sarah Palin's Alaska", the series will more than pay for the tax break with the additional tourism that's already taking place. Bookings on cruises and land tours in Alaska picked up once the show began to air.

Some are comparing these tax breaks to the federal funding of NPR or PBS, but they couldn't be more different.  Tax breaks for film production are designed to provide a return on the dollar through jobs or tourism.  The money that goes in NPR or PBS is designed to put liberal views on the air that can't attract commercial sponsorship.

I have no problems with communities providing tax breaks for the purpose of generating business.  I'm opposed to providing tax money to promote ideas that are otherwise unmarketable.

Hillary - 66%

Could 2012 be knocking?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's favorable rating from Americans is now 66%, up from 61% in July 2010 and her highest rating to date while serving in the Obama administration. The current rating is just one percentage point below her all-time high rating of 67%, from December 1998.

With Obama at 42% approval rating in some polls, don't you think Hillary Clinton's 66% approval in Gallup might be making her rethink her 2012 plans?

Since Hillary has spent much of this administration hop-scotching around the globe the voters probably won't hold Obama's screw-ups against her.  The Dems may want to make up for their mistake in 2008.

Got Milk (that glows in the dark)?

It'll make it easier to find during those late-night milk and cookie runs:

The U.S. government said Wednesday that traces of radiation have been found in milk in Washington state, but said the amounts are far too low to trigger any public-health concern.

The Environmental Protection Agency said a March 25 sample of milk produced in the Spokane, Wash., area contained a 0.8 pico curies per literlevel of iodine-131, which it said was less than one five-thousandth of the safety safety guideline set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The EPA said it increased monitoring after radiation leaked from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It expects more such findings in coming days, but in amounts "far below levels of public-health concern, including for infants and children."

First GOP 2012 Debate Cancelled

It's hard to have a debate when no one has declared their candidacy:

A tree falling in a forest with no one there does make a sound but it's a little hard to hold a presidential debate for Republicans when none of them have officially declared their intention to run.

This morning, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced that it had rescheduled a debate which was previouly supposed to be held for Republican presidential candidates in May to September 14. The forum is also being sponsored by the newspaper Politico and NBC.

Scuttlebutt has it that no one has thrown his/her hat into the ring as everyone is waiting to see what former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is going to do. Things are a bit murkier for her given her standing contract with Fox News as a paid staff commentator. That lucrative revenue stream for her would cease if she files to run for president.

All that Sarah Palin stuff aside, if I were a GOP candidate I would refuse to do a debate run by NBC and Politico. Both are full of liberal political hacks and I can guarantee you the questioning will be designed to embarrass GOP candidates and provide sound bites for Obama's campaign.

The GOP does not have to accept debates sponsored by mainstream media outlets.  They can set up their own forums with questions being asked by people who don't have such obvious leftward bias.

Health Care Video of the Day

This is kind of a companion piece to an early post:

Wisconsin Union Thugs Demand Businesses Show Their Support

If you have a business in parts of Wisconsin you are no longer free to keep your political views to yourself:

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows.

If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members."

Jim Parrett, a field representative of Council 24 for Southeast Wisconsin, confirmed the contents of the letter, which carries his signature. But he added that the union was also circulating letters to businesses thanking them for supporting workers’ rights.

Parrett said that since the letters were sent out, he has received threatening phone calls as well as calls from people supporting the state workers.

"I've gotten a lot of threatening phone calls," Parrett said.

I'll bet he is. This is the kind of stuff that doesn't build public support, but instead invites a backlash.

Perhaps those who support Gov. Walker should be made to wear a scarlet "W" on their outfits so they can be properly shunned.

The unions are their own worst enemies.

The Aftermath of the Reagan Shooting

In an earlier post I reflected on my memories of the Reagan assassination attempt 30 years ago today and linked to a story about the Secret Service agent that took a bullet for him.  Steven Hayward writes about the aftermath of the shooting, including some information about Reagan's condition that was kept from the public for quite some time (h/t Powerline):

The shooting and near death of President Reagan on that March afternoon provides another occasion for reflection on the radical contingency of human affairs and for counterfactual "what-if" speculation. What if Winston Churchill had been killed when he was struck by a taxi on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1932? What if Oswald had missed his target in Dallas? Most such speculations are ultimately fatuous, but in the case of Ronald Reagan one can speculate with confidence that the "Reagan revolution" as it came to be known would not have been consummated under the presidency of George H.W. Bush. . .

One of the quips Reagan scribbled on a note pad after waking up after surgery was Winston Churchill's famous line from his autobiography My Early Life that "there is no more exhilarating feeling than being shot at without result." But the bullets missed Churchill. While Reagan survived his bullet, it was not without "result." In addition to the severe pain of his wounds (whose treatment required strong medication including morphine), Reagan contracted a staph infection in the hospital that was as life threatening as the bullet wound. He had to be placed back on oxygen and given powerful antibiotics. Three days after the shooting House Speaker Tip O'Neill was the first outsider to visit Reagan in the hospital. "He was in terrific pain, much more serious than anybody thought," O'Neill said. In an extraordinary moment, O'Neill, in tears, knelt next to Reagan's bedside, held the president's hand, and recited the 23rd Psalm with Reagan in prayer.

Although Reagan returned to the White House after 13 days in the hospital, his working hours were severely curtailed for weeks. Al Haig, one of Reagan's first visitors back at the White House, said "I was shocked when I saw him. He was a shell of his old self." It would be two months before he worked a full day. His personal physician said that he didn't think Reagan fully recovered until October, seven months later. Reagan never mentioned his discomfort. His only complaint was that he wouldn't be able to ride a horse for a while.

The White House staff never made any conscious decision to downplay or mislead the public about Reagan's condition, as was the case after Woodrow Wilson's stroke in 1919. It was understood that the uncertainty over a diminished president would be intolerable. Reagan's own jauntiness--his "courage under pressure," as the pundits were quick to pronounce--bestowed on him a heroic quality that would have been foolish to traduce by officially deeming him disabled from his job. Senator Pat Moynihan, who was present in the White House on November 22, 1963, wrote a few days after the shooting: "In the history of the office has any man ever so triumphed over danger and pain and near death? We are surely proud of him." Even The Nation magazine, not ordinarily friendly to Reagan, wrote: "[Reagan's] resilience provided a brief celebration of the tenacity of life and a reassuring glimpse at an appealing aspect of Ronald Reagan's character. . . One half-expected to read upon awakening from the anesthesia he had quipped, 'Where's the rest of me?'" Certainly the nation was better served by the hope of his recovery rather than the worry of the continuity of his administration.

Somewhere in the back of everyone's mind was the memory of the national tragedy of 1963, and the day after Reagan's shooting the nation breathed a sigh of relief that it had averted a JFK-style nightmare. In fact Reagan's shooting would turn out in the fullness of time to be the exact inverse of the JFK tragedy. JFK looms large in our mind because he was, as our second-youngest president, the youthful tragic hero, cut down before he could achieve his potential. Reagan, our oldest president, having survived the assassin's bullet, would go on to achieve his full potential, and become the conquering hero of the Cold War. (Reagan's later Alzheimer's Disease, taking him away from the public years before his physical death, elevated him also to the status of tragic hero, which is one reason why his passing in 2004 recalled the memory of JFK for so many Americans.) That such a prospect was possible was understood at the time. The Washington Post's Haynes Johnson wrote that "Reagan's survival alone was proof enough that the country's luck had turned for the better."

We're lucky we didn't lose him that day. I can't imagine George H.W. Bush having the kind of success in turning the economy around and effectively ending the Soviet Union the way Reagan did. Yes, Bush was president when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union broke up, but it wouldn't have happened without a President Reagan.

Does Planned Parenthood Actually Provide the Health Services They Claim?

Big Government has found some problems with a common claim from Planned Parenthood:

Just a few weeks ago, on national television, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said thisabout Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to defund Planned Parenthood:

“If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are gonna lose their health care access–not to abortion services–to basic family planning, you know, mammograms.”

Yet this is blatantly false.

We got a tip from former Planned Parenthood director, Abby Johnson, that Planned Parenthood does not provide any mammogram services. Just to be sure, our investigative team called up 30 Planned Parenthood clinics in many major metropolitan areas. Every single one of the clinics told our actor that no, they do not provide mammograms. “We don’t provide those services whatsoever,” one staffer in Arizona said.


Another in Wisconsin remarked, “We are just a surgical center, we don’t really do health services.” In Overland Park, KS, at Planned Parenthood’s “Comprehensive Health Center,” they said, “We don’t actually have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics.”

We called 27 states total. In none of those states does Planned Parenthood provide mammograms.

We challenge Planned Parenthood to provide evidence that they provide mammograms to “millions of American women”–or to any at all.

Maybe somewhere, in some obscure clinic, they have a mammogram machine and they'll claim that justifies the statement. However, they're not kidding anybody. Planned Parenthood is an abortion mill, nothing else.  American taxpayers are paying $363 million to fund abortions.

Eric Cantor: Thanks, Chuckie!

Sen. Chuckie Schumer did a service for the Republicans and they know it:

Republican leaders wasted little time playing up reports Tuesday that New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, told other members of his party that the caucus had urged him to start calling Republican budget cut proposals “extreme” during public battle between the parties of government spending.

“Chuck Schumer did us a favor. He exposed their tactic,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, told reporters. “You heard his comment. He’s basically instructing his members to deem any spending cut unreasonable. Any spending cut. So clearly they’re not serious.”

Just hours earlier, Schumer was heard on a conference call with reporters giving what Republicans immediately dubbed “marching orders” for how to frame the debate on government funding.

The potentially embarrassing episode revealed something that happens every day in Washington — partisan maneuvering, messaging and coordination — but it is uncommon that a party can lift the curtain on the opposing side’s sausage making. With that in mind, Republicans wasted no time in calling out Schumer for telling other Democrats to call them “extreme.”

“I always use the word extreme,” Schumer told Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Barbara Boxer of California, Benjamin Cardin and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, according to New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer, who was on the call without Schumer knowing it. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.”

To my surprise the news stations were reporting this story on their news last night. I expected Schumer's words to be buried in the mainstreat media.

Unfortunately, nobody is looking at the actual numbers that Chuckie calls "extreme". Cutting $20 billion out of a $3.65 trillion budget is far from "extreme", and the story would certainly have a lot more punch if the comment were put in context.

The Agent Who Took a Bullet for Reagan

Thirty years ago today I was working as a teller at a branch of Beverly Hills Savings in Tustin, CA when I heard the news that President Ronald Reagan had been wounded in an assassination attempt.  I remember going out to my car to listen to the radio during my lunch, praying Reagan would survive.  I remember how angry I was about the attempt and what a shame it would be if Reagan never got a chance to prove his ideas in office (he'd only been president for barely two months).

Reagan survived, and one of the reasons he did is due to the work of The Secret Service.  The famous film footage shows one of the agents, Tim McCarthy, spinning to face the shooter and taking a bullet meant for Reagan.  McCarthy is now the police chief of Orland Park, IL, and he talks about that day in this L.A. Times article.

One question that wasn't addressed in the article is why Agent McCarthy wasn't wearing body armor that day.  I would assume that's standard practice for agents today, but all he had to protect himself was a brand new suit.

One unfortunately byproduct of that day was the James Brady anti-gun campaign which has spent 30 years trying to take guns away from just about everyone.  Brady, of course, was Reagan's press secretary who was very seriously wounded in during the shooting.  I'm glad he survived, but it's a shame his focus in the years since has been so misguided.

Energy Cartoon of the Day

From Dilbert (larger version here):

The California Drought is Over

Well, almost:

Heavy rain and snow have extinguished California’s drought, water experts say, and Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to make it official Wednesday by rescinding his predecessor’s drought declaration.

The governor’s announcement would come sometime after the next snow survey by the state Department of Water Resources, set for 11 a.m., said Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford.

It’s part of the department’s traditional April 1 survey, when the water content in the snow pack is typically at its peak.

Snow pack is now at 165 percent of full seasonal average — the largest since 1995, when it was 182 percent, said department spokesman Ted Thomas.

“This is probably one of the top 10 years going back to 1970 and even beyond that,” he said.

But don't worry, a new environmental crisis requiring the curtailing of personal freedom is expected to be announced on Thursday.

The Tea Party Racing Truck

Coming to the Craftsman Truck Series, an entry that's not sponsored by the Tea Party, but will be raising funds for the Tea Party:

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Just in time for the 2012 election cycle, the Tea Party plans to sponsor a NASCAR racing vehicle.

But not just any vehicle: a Camping World Truck Series truck.

TheTeaParty.net announced Monday that the red No. 89 truck currently driven by Chris Lafferty will be re-dubbed the “We the People’s” truck, in order to tear up the racetrack for the next two seasons.

In a statement, spokesman Todd Cefaretti explained that unlike traditional NASCAR sponsorships,

TheTeaParty.net won’t be paying Lafferty’s racing team, Lafferty Motorsports LLC, for the right to emblazon his car with its logo. Just the opposite.

“Over 50 percent on average of the money that is raised from sponsors for the racing team will be donated to

TheTeaParty.net to be used to advance the Tea Party movement even more.”

Last month, the House voted to preserve the military’s sponsorship of three NASCAR vehicles, to the tune of nearly $40 million, defeating a proposal by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) to ban the sponsorships, which the military argues are effective recruiting tools.

That's gonna be a popular truck, though I wonder if they'll have trouble gaining sponsorship because of the political component. The way the left goes after people who support what they perceive as enemies, it could create situations in which a sponsor finds themselves boycotted for supporting this ride.

Schumer Issues Orders to Democrats

Chuckie Schumer got caught with his foot in his mouth giving marching orders to Democrats regarding the budget battle:

Um, senators, ever heard of the mute button?

Moments before a conference call with reporters was scheduled to get underway on Tuesday morning, Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, apparently unaware that many of the reporters were already on the line, began to instruct his fellow senators on how to talk to reporters about the contentious budget process.

After thanking his colleagues — Barbara Boxer of California, Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, Thomas R. Carper of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut — for doing the budget bidding for the Senate Democrats, who are facing off against the House Republicans over how to cut spending for the rest of the fiscal year, Mr. Schumer told them to portray John A. Boehner of Ohio, the speaker of the House, as painted into a box by the Tea Party, and to decry the spending cuts that he wants as extreme. “I always use the word extreme,” Mr. Schumer said. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.”

A minute or two into the talking-points tutorial, though, someone apparently figured out that reporters were listening, and silence fell.

Today Howard Dean admitted that the Democrats want a government shutdown. They believe it will benefit them the way it did in 1995...but this isn't 1995. With trillion dollar deficits now the norm under Obama the idea of a government shutdown is not so politically incorrect. In fact, I'm not sure it wouldn't have pretty wide support right now. Anything to stop the bleeding.

As far as the story above goes, how many reporters will simply stick to the Democrat talking points and ignore the behind-the-scenes orchestration that was going on?  If the press was really doing its job they would ridicule anyone describing as "extreme" the cuts the GOP is proposing.  The amount they want to cut is barely a blip in the national budget.

Wisconsin Public Union Paychecks Going Up Thanks to Gov. Walker

Gov. Walker is now proceeding with his union reform law:

Gov. Scott Walker’s administration no longer is collecting dues on behalf of state unions and, as of Sunday, is charging employees more for their pensions and health care, even though nonpartisan legislative attorneys say the changes are not yet law.

Backing up the administration, the state Department of Justice argued that the new law – which eliminates most collective bargaining for public workers – is in effect and asked a judge to vacate a restraining order against the law. Meanwhile, a Dane County prosecutor asked a judge to declare that the law is not now in place.

Highlighting the different legal interpretations, some local governments are not implementing the new law for their employees. Officials with the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County said they are waiting for answers from courts before making any changes on benefits and union dues.

William Jacobson adds this:

With the law now in effect and paychecks getting an increase since union dues are not being withheld, Democrats are the party arguing for a reduction in state worker paychecks.

So, how many of those dedicated union thugs will pay their union dues voluntarily?

Email Scam of the Day

Haven't done one of these for awhile.  I got this in the mail this morning:

Dear Customer.

A Spam is sent from your FaceBook account.

Your password has been changed for safety.

Information regarding your account and a new password is attached to the letter.
Read this information thoroughly and change the password to complicated one.

Please do not reply to this email, it's automatic mail notification!


Thank you for attention.
FaceBook Service.

The email came complete with an attachment that probably has some sort of virus attached to it. I love it when I get email like this written by someone who clearly doesn't speak much English. Very entertaining.

People Who Shouldn't Run Against Obama in 2012

Sen. Marco Rubio has rejected a 2012 White House run with this statement:

“I want to be a United States senator. I want to be the best United States senator that Florida’s ever had ...I just got elected three months ago ...So how can I be a full-time

United States senator if my eye’s already on something else?"

Let me add some other names of people who should reject a 2012 run.  These are people whose names I see thrown about on Facebook and political blogs:

• Gov. Chris Christie (NJ) - too soon in the job. Give him a chance to straighten out New Jersey and he'll be a force in 2016.
• Gov. Scott Walker (WI) - see Chris Christie and swap New Jersey for Wisconsin
• Sen. Rand Paul (KY) - Again, too soon. Give him some time in the job.  I want to make sure he's sane first.
• Rep. Ron Paul (TX) - goes without saying.
• Sarah Palin - damaged goods. She can be far more effective in her current role as political analyst and speaker for conservative causes.  Could be a kingmaker in 2012.
• Michele Bachmann - Although a favorite of some Tea Partiers there's no sign that she would have any significant national following. I think her 2012 hints are more about gaining visibility for a Senate run than running for president.
• Herman Cain - former pizza company chairman and conservative speaker. No one knows who he is. Needs more time.
• Rep. Allen West - too new in the job.

Republicans shouldn't go after the latest flash-in-the-pan politician. Given them a chance to prove themselves first.

Yes, Democrats went after the latest fad and won, but they had a race card they could play and a media willing to join in the fawning. The GOP won't have any of that. We'll be running against an incumbent president, and although with Obama's record beating him in 2012 should be easy, we just don't seem to have the kind of presidential field we need. However, that's no reason to rush someone into the race before they're ready.

Oh, there is one Democrat who should run against Obama - Hillary Clinton.  I firmly believe she could win the nomination though the outcome in the general election is far from certain.

Hollywood Attempts Another History Rewrite and Moviegoers Ignore It

One of the lasting canards from the Bush era was that someone in the White House revealed the secret identity of a CIA agent.  It never happened but that didn't stop Hollywood from following in the example of Oliver Stone's JFK and rewriting history anyway.  Moviegoers weren't impressed (from Newsbusters):

You might think that given the abysmal box office record of left-wing movies about the Iraq war that "Fair Game," a highly distorted version of the tired controversy surrounding former CIA non-agent Valerie Plame Wilson, would never have been made.

Of course, since Hollywood is dominated by leftists, economic sanity did not prevail. Economic reality did prevail, though, as "Fair Game" ended up being a total bomb. It grossed just $9.5 million domestically. Add in the international ticket sales and the fiction flick just barely managed to recoup its production budget of $22 million.

Even the Washington Post couldn't hold their nose and support this movie:

Hollywood has a habit of making movies about historical events without regard for the truth; "Fair Game" is just one more example. But the film's reception illustrates a more troubling trend of political debates in Washington in which established facts are willfully ignored. Mr. Wilson claimed that he had proved that Mr. Bush deliberately twisted the truth about Iraq, and he was eagerly embraced by those who insist the former president lied the country into a war. Though it was long ago established that Mr. Wilson himself was not telling the truth - not about his mission to Niger and not about his wife - the myth endures. We'll join the former president in hoping that future historians get it right.

Let's hope this puts the sorry Plame-Wilson episode in the ground once and for all.

For Most Liberals Anti-War Really Meant Anti-Bush

Back on March 21st I posted this comment on Twitter:

If there's one thing the Libyan attacks have confirmed it's the antiwar movement was more about opposing Bush than ending war.

Today former congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough writes this:

In defending Obama’s Libya offensive, they are compromising their own morals. The American left is also making it abundantly clear that it does not find all wars morally reprehensible — only those begun by Republicans.

Former conservative and current moderate squish Scarborough finally gets it.  You can read Joe's entire piece if you wish, but it basically proves the point that the antiwar left which was so vocal during the Bush years has suddenly gotten laryngitis when it comes to Obama and his entry into a third war.

Sen. Durbin's "Defend a Muslim Day" Hearing Already a Disaster

Sen. Dick Turban Durbin decided to hold a hearing in the Senate defending Muslims.  This was a response to Rep. Peter King's hearing on Muslim terrorism a few weeks ago in the House.  Durbin has already blown it:

The number two Senate Democrat, Richard Durbin, has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to highlight claims of anti-Muslim discrimination, but his primary Muslim witness has publicly excused a U.S. imam for revealing an FBI investigation to a Muslim suspected-terrorist.

Durbin’s bungled choice for lead witness is another in a series of Democratic flubs that have paired top Democrats with anti-democratic, terror-excusing Islamists in the United States. According to a report released today by the non-profit Investigative Project on Terrorism, Durbin has already added to the flubs this year by visiting a mosque in Bridgeview, Ill., and posing for a photo with two Islamists who were named as unindicted conspirators in an Islamist project to smuggle funds to the Hamas Muslim terror group.

Hamas is an orthodox and militant Muslim terror group that controls the Gaza strip. Since it seized control in 2007, it has allowed numerous missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets and it has established an apartheid-like system of laws that cite Koranic texts to justify formal and informal discrimination and abuse against women, gays and Christians.

There's more at the link. You'll remember that Durbin once famously compared our troops to Hitler. He seems to have a problem understanding who his friends and who his enemies are.

As I've said before, Durbin is kissing up to terrorists in the hopes they'll kill him last.

Black Flight From Blue States

Walter Russell Mead looks at an interesting phenomenon revealed in the latest Census Report:

Two milestones in the long, painful decline of the blue social model were reached this week and reported, of all places, in the pages of the very éminence grise of the monde bleu: the New York Times.

The first was a piece of national and historical news: The Census reported that waves of blue state blacks fled the stagnant job opportunities, high taxes and rotten social conditions of the mostly blue northern states to seek better lives for themselves in the south. The second milestone was local and literary: Bob Herbert, for many years the only regular Black columnist on the New York Times‘ op-ed page, has written his last column before stepping down.

The Census story is a shocker. First, according to the Times, the Blacks leaving tend to be the “younger and better educated”. Second, the three states Blacks left in largest numbers don’t just include snake-bit Michigan; the other two are Illinois and New York. Within those states, Chicago and the city of the New York (widely considered among the most successful cities in the country) are the places Blacks are deserting. 17 percent of the Black flight from Big Blue is from the Empire State; after almost a century of trailblazing social policy, New York State has succeeded in creating the most hostile environment for Blacks in the country.

It gets worse. One would think that the Blacks who choose to stay in the cold, unwelcoming North would cluster in the cities where more liberal and humane governance models mandate such generous policies as “living wage” laws and where all the beautiful features of the blue social model can be experienced at full strength.

But one would be wrong. Blacks across the North are fleeing the urban paradises of liberal legislation and high public union membership for the benighted suburbs. The Times interviewed a professor to get the straight scoop:

“The notion of the North and its cities as the promised land has been a powerful part of African-American life, culture and history, and now it all seems to be passing by,” said Clement Price, a professor of history at Rutgers-Newark. “The black urban experience has essentially lost its appeal with blacks in America.”

Read the rest of it at the link.

Several generations of urban blacks seem to have been lulled into complacency by the hand of the government, giving them barely enough to squeak by and ensuring they would never be able to get out of their miserable situation. However, the younger more educated generation is not buying it, and that's good for everybody.

Every American a Victim

A liberal fantasy is coming true:

Millions of Americans may be disabled and not even know it, according to some legal experts.

That's because sweeping new regulations from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offer new guidelines on the issue of how to define "disability" under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADA, originally passed in 1990 and updated by Congress in 2008, originally defined disability as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity."

When a worker satisfies the definition, employers must provide reasonable accommodations. For years, employers and employees have clashed over who truly qualifies for the sometimes-costly modifications to workplace duties and schedules. Attorney Condon McGlothlen says the new regulations could have a profound impact on that debate.

"Before, perhaps 40 million people were covered by the ADA. That number will increase significantly," McGlothlen told Fox News. "Some people might even say that a majority of Americans are covered as disabled under the law."

EEOC Commissioner Chai Felblum said the agency worked hard to find compromise between the business and disability communities, and she's optimistic the new regulations provide the right balance. "These are workable guidelines that will help people with disabilities, and it will be workable for employers," Feldblum said.

Although the new regulations cannot classify any condition as a disability per se, there is a list of maladies that will be viewed that way "in virtually all cases." The list includes: autism, diabetes, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Overall, lawyers for employers say the regulations shift the burden of proof in disability claims.

They say that employers will now have to show why a worker doesn't require special accommodations, rather than employees proving that the measures are merited.

It's a perfect liberal world where every worker is a victim of some malady and every employer a slave to the victim's every need.

More Amazing Tsunami Footage

It seems like one video is more spectacular than the next, and another one has popped up of the tsunami surge destroying the port city of Kusennuma:

Harry Reid Urges John Boehner to Commit Political Suicide

I'm sure Reid has Boehner's best interests at heart:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to ditch members of the Tea Party and cut a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.

Reid insisted it is those GOP internal divisions that are threatening to shut down the government after April 8, in less than two weeks.

“For the sake of our economy, it’s time for mainstream Republicans to stand up to the Tea Party and rejoin Democrats at the table to negotiate a responsible solution that cuts spending while protecting jobs,” he said.

So, Mr. Speaker, who is more likely to have your back when things get tough, Reid or the Tea Party?

Screw Harry Reid - shut it down.

University Faculties in Wisconsin Screw Themselves Out of Spite

And these people are supposed to be the best and brightest among us?

Several university faculties in Wisconsin have voted overwhelmingly to join the American Federation of Teachers, a move the union says amounts to a backlash against Gov. Scott Walker's bid to strip their collective bargaining powers.

Faculty members at five University of Wisconsin campuses have voted to join the union since they were granted collective bargaining rights in 2009. Three of those votes have come since Walker introduced a landmark budget bill that eroded the unions' bargaining powers and benefits. Though those votes were scheduled before the budget bill was introduced -- and later signed -- AFT representatives said the wide margins of victory show professors are galvanizing in opposition to it. The most recent vote last week at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls campus was 148-16.

"They feel they have the right to have a voice in the workplace and they have a right to have collective bargaining rights, and they want to pursue that," AFT spokeswoman Janet Bass said.

The vote at the River Falls campus followed others at the La Crosse and Stout campuses.

However, the faculties are voting to unionize at a time when the advantages of joining are in question. The Wisconsin law would strip their collective bargaining powers -- state AFT President Bryan Kennedy told The Chronicle of Higher Education employees would instead be allowed to negotiate, only without the clout they once were afforded. He said the union elections themselves would also have to be administered by a neutral third party in accordance with the law.

What morons.

EU: Less Freedom by 2050!

Europeans must be a bunch of sheep if they're going to agree to this:

The European Commission on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050.

The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.

Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of "zero" for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities.

Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto "alternative" means of transport.

"That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres," he said. "Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour."

What ought to follow is a revolt that pitches the EU and all their blathering cronies onto the ash heap of history.  Giving their sovereignty to a bunch of Brussels bureaucrats is the dumbest thing European countries ever did...outside of trying to appease Hitler, of course.

24 Years Since My Video Debut

On March 28, 1987, 24 years ago tonight, I recorded my first ever video concert as a member of The Watchmen Quartet. It was rough by the standards of stuff I produced in later years with my own group, but it was pretty exciting at the time.

I almost had a disaster that night. I was waiting off stage about 10 minutes before the concert began and decided to peek through the double doors to see if the building was full (it was). Just as I was peeking someone came through the other side and the door hit me right in the forehead and opened a small cut. I had a heck of a time getting that to stop bleeding before we walked on stage.

At one point a few songs in the lead singer looked over at me and said "your head's bleeding!". I quickly dabbed at it and it's not noticeable on the video.

Here's one of the songs featuring the impossibly skinny bass singer (I had just lost about 60 pounds thanks to diet and mono):

32 Years Since Worst U.S. Nuclear Accident

The U.S. had it's closest brush with nuclear disaster starting 32 years ago today:

The 32nd anniversary of the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island is being marked at the plant with prayers for Japan.

WGAL-TV reports about 30 people gathered early Monday outside the nuclear plant near Harrisburg for a vigil to remember the worst commercial nuclear power plant accident in U.S. history.

An equipment failure and operator errors led to partial core meltdown at the plant's Unit 2 reactor around 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979.

And yet, not a single person outside the plant was in any way harmed. Although mistakes were made, the safety features of the technology did their job.

And there hasn't been an accident in the U.S. since then. We can't let a 32-year old incident, or a plant devastated by a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami stop us from pursuing clean nuclear energy.

Starving Yourself While the Bloated Government Gorges Itself Stupid

This is one of the dumber stories of the day:

The heads of five anti-hunger organizations on Monday will lead open-ended fasts to protest proposed cuts to domestic and international food programs contained in the House-passed six month spending bill.

Former Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio), the head of the Alliance to End Hunger, told The Hill Friday that Democrats are not doing enough to ensure the cuts do not become law, and he is fasting to give a “voice to the voiceless.”

Now hold on just a moment. Here's the guy whose organization is pledged to end hunger but he's going to intentionally starve himself. Perhaps he's in the wrong line of work.

He will be joined in his water-only fast by Rev. David Beckmann, the president of Bread for the World; Jim Wallis, the president of Sojourners; Ritu Sharma of Women Thrive and Ruth Messinger of American Jewish World Service. Beckmann said in an interview that so far 350 others have pledged to join the fast and the groups are seeking more support.

While in office, Hall protested 1993 budget cuts to food programs through a 22-day fast.

He told The Hill that conditions for the world’s poor are worse now, given worldwide food price inflation.

Want to stop some of that price inflation? How about quit making corn into inefficient fuel for autos and start turning it back into food? These idiots that plan to protest and going after the wrong people. They should be protesting the Dem politicians who have saddled us with stupid policies and promises that can't be kept.

Over the weekend anarchists and others rioted in Britain because the government there has dared to cut back on spending and the people who have lived with their hands out their entire lives suddenly might have to fend for themselves.  The same thing is happening in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and several other places around the country where government largesse is coming to an end.

Democrats in Congress talk about a tiny budget cut as "draconian".   I'm afraid the battle to save the government from financial collapse has already been lost because there are no serious people on the left.

ObamaRail

Obama is doing for high speed rail what he's done for nationalized health care:

“ObamaRail” is fast becoming the new “ObamaCare” for many Republicans.

Conservative activists are deriding the high-speed rail proposals set out by President Obama in his State of the Union address and 2012 budget as wasteful spending that imposes new mandates on cash-strapped state governments.

“Look, you look at the studies of these things, when they get built, [they] cost way more than they think,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said in a Fox News interview shortly after he rejected $2.4 billion for a railway connecting Tampa and Orlando.

The Republican governor also said states get stuck with the costs of operating the new railways once they are built. “Who is going to take responsibility for that,” he asks.
The fight over high-speed rail loudly echoes the battle over healthcare, with Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio also making big shows of rejecting federal money.

Way too many of these federal grants for special projects come with a rude wake-up call for the states when the money stops but the projects continue on. Remember Bill Clinton's "100,000 cops" program from the 90's? Money was provided agencies around the country to hire 100,000 cops, but when the money ran out many of those cops had to be laid off because the cities couldn't afford to keep them on the payroll. The president gets to make a flashy announcement that makes him look like a hero, but he's nowhere to be found when the programs run out of funding.

High speed rail is another of those pipe dreams of the left (and some on the right) who think if they build it people will come. But they won't come unless the rail goes where and when they need to go, and they rarely do. Unless a area can afford to build and maintain an extensive system such as the New York City subways, the ridership will always be limited and the systems hugely expensive and unable to support themselves.

Americans Worry Least About Global Warming

Al Gore, you may now retire in shame.  Jim Geraghty tells us that Americans just haven't bought the globaloney hype:

I’ve never understood why the environmental movement so wholeheartedly embraced discussing a problem that is unproven and far-off in the future, like global warming, instead of discussing problems in the here and now, like water pollution, air pollution, etc. It would seem that is indeed where the public’s mind is, these days. Gallup: “With Earth Day about a month away, Americans tell Gallup they worry the most about several water-related risks and issues among nine major environmental issues. They worry least about global warming and loss of open spaces.”

Al, I might suggest you consider moving to an energy-gulping mansion in Europe where they've bought into the whole globaloney thing. They'll still worship you there.

Meanwhile, the same people who are futilely pushing global warming are stopping clean energy projects around the country:

The Obama administration has set a target of having 80 percent of America’s electricity come from “clean energy sources” by 2035, but ironically one of the biggest obstacles to this goal could come from within the environmental movement itself.

From coast to coast, efforts to build everything from wind farms to solar plants has run afoul of local environmental groups and the “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY) phenomenon. Pro-environmental journals, such as the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, as well as business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have each cataloged this trend.

“Often, many of the same groups urging us to think globally about renewable energy are acting locally to stop the very same renewable energy projects that could create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Bill Kovacs, senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote in the introduction of the group’s recent “Project, No Project” report. “NIMBY activism has blocked more renewable projects than coal-fired power plants by organizing local opposition, changing zoning laws, opposing permits, filing lawsuits, and using other long delay mechanisms, effectively bleeding projects dry of their financing.”

Recent examples include environmentalist lawsuits seeking to block construction of a solar power plant in California’s Mojave Desert due to threats to the endangered desert tortoise and environmentalists suing to block the construction of a 75-wind turbine project in Nevada due to threats to local wildlife.

And don't forget the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts that would have provided tons of clean energy to the area, but was killed by Teddy Kennedy because he might have been able to see a windmill from his family's compound. He could probably use a windmill right about now.

A State Cannot Achieve Prosperity by Taxing the Rich

Look at these numbers:

Almost half of California’s income taxes come from the top 1% of earners. In New York, the percentage is now 41%, up from 25% in 1994. In Connecticut and New Jersey, the top 1% pay more than 40%.

Being so dependent on super-rich people is great when times are good, because revenues soar. But the trouble is that the earnings of super-rich people are super-volatile, so when times are bad, or even mediocre, tax revenues plummet.

If governments approached budgeting the way smart people would, they would run massive surpluses in boom times, thus storing acorns for the inevitable winter ahead. But if our government officials have demonstrated anything over the years, it’s that they are utterly incapable of doing this. Instead, they look at the revenues in the boom times and think “WOW! We’re rich! We can spend every penny of that and more!”

States that insists on hammering the rich forget one important thing about rich people - they can move. Just look at all the people who've left New York because of the outrageous taxes (for instance, Rush Limbaugh).  Meanwhile, states with no or low income taxes are gaining people right and left.  Florida and Texas and doing quite well, thank you, and neither have state income taxes.  They make their money off the rich people when they buy huge mansion and expensive cars in their states.

Our tax system, both state and federal, is hopelessly tilted toward the upper income groups and at the federal level something like 45% of wage earners don't pay any income taxes at all.  People who have no financial stake in the government aren't going to bother to learn about the issues facing the country and will simply vote for whoever promises to keep them on the gravy train.

We've got to fix that.  Personally, I would favor some type of minimum income tax contribution percentage from every wage earner, even if it's only a few bucks.  Everybody benefits from government programs and agencies - and especially the military which protects us all - and everybody needs to contribute.

Non-Profit Group Needs an IRS Slapdown

Mark Tapscott has the details on a liberal political group masquerading as a non-profit as it goes on a holy war against Republicans and Fox News:

Media Matters, the George Soros-backed legion of liberal agit-prop shock troops based in the nation's capital, has declared war on Fox News, and in the process quite possibly stepped across the line of legality.

David Brock, MM's founder, was quoted Saturday by Politico promising that his organization is mounting "guerrila warfare and sabotage" against Fox News, which he said "is not a news organization. It is the de facto leader of the GOP, and it is long past time that it is treated as such by the media, elected officials and the public.”

To that end, Brock told Politico that MM will “focus on [News Corp. CEO Rupert] Murdoch and trying to disrupt his commercial interests ..." Murdoch is the founder of Fox News and a media titan with newspaper, broadcast, Internet and other media countries around the world.

There is nothing in the Politico article to suggest that Brock, who was paid just under $300,000 in 2009, according to the group's most recently available tax return, plans to ask the IRS to change his organization's tax status as a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt educational foundation.

Being a C3 puts MM in the non-profit, non-commercial sector, and it also bars the organzation from participating in partisan political activity. This new, more aggressive stance, however, appears to run directly counter to the government's requirements for maintaining a C3 tax status.

Since Brock classifies Fox News as the "leader" of the Republican Party, by his own description he is involving his organization in a partisan battle. High-priced K Street lawyers can probably find a federal judge or a sympathetic IRS bureaucrat willing to either look the other way or accept some sort of MM rationale such as that it is merely providing educational information about a partisan group.

But in the IRS application for 501(C)(3) tax-exempt educational foundation status, Section VIII, Question I asks the applicant: "Do you support or oppose candidates in political campaigns in any way?" (Emphasis added).

Under Brock's definition of Fox News, it appears he is setting MM on a course of actively opposing all Republican candidates.

There's more at the link. If anyone thinks Obama's IRS is going to challenge these guys, he's kidding himself. However, there will be a day when someone else is in charge and I guarantee you people are collecting the documents and biding their time.

Word of the Day

From Mark Steyn, describing all those Earth Hour supporters who think Mother Gaia will die if we don't change our ways:

Ecochondriacs

Perfect.

Scenery and Citations vs Ugly and Fast

I'm writing this from Camarillo where we've stopped so my wife could catch up with an old friend.  When traveling from Orange County to Sonoma County and back as we've often done, you have two options for your route: I5 or Hwy 101.  This trip we've driven them both.

I5 is the most direct route and definitely the fastest.  For 200 miles the road is almost chalk-line straight and pretty flat. It's also ugly.

You can set your cruise at 80 and pretty much drive brain-free. If the visibility is good you can spot a CHP cruiser a mile away. There's no excuse for getting a ticket in the daytime on that stretch of road.

Hwy 101 is more of a driver's road. If they'd just dump the speed limit it would be great. It winds through the coastal foothills, crosses beautiful farm valleys, and for awhile runs right along the coast. Lots of wonderful scenery, but the route is 60 miles longer and adds anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes to the trip.

It's also more treacherous for those of us who consider the speed limit a "suggestion".  They didn't get me, but because of the curves and hills there are lots of places where the CHP can hang out and nab you before you have time to spot them.

People who drive 101 also don't seem to understand the concept of "slower traffic keep right". They"ll get in the fast lane and drone along at the speed limit oblivious to the line of cars riding their bumper.    Aggravating.

We still have a ways to go once we leave here, and fromhere on we start getting into the L.A. traffic as people return home from the weekend. At least two more hours to go.

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Southbound

Heading down 101 today. Takes longer than the I-5 but we have to meet a friend in Camarillo this afternoon, 400 miles from here. Probably won't post much unless we see something unusual.

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Across the Bay

The City of San Francisco as seen from the shoer in Sausalito. The sun is finally coming out.

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Earth Hour 2011, Otherwise Known As National Burglar Night Out

I can't believe I almost missed Earth Hour, or National Burglar Night Out, which takes place tonight at 8:30 pm local time.  This is the night all good liberals turn out all their lights for an hour thus giving the poor, downtrodden victims of GOP policies a chance to "redistribute the wealth".   The absence of lights is also a good indicator of which homes are not likely to have armed homeowners. Win-win for the bad guys!

I'll be celebrating in liberal Northern California where I expect it to be dark as the bottom of a well in most neighborhoods. I might even do a little "wealth redistribution" myself.

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The Ladies

On our way to eat lunch we had to get a photo with the iconic San Francisco Trolley Car.

We were looking for a place that serves Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat, but apparently it's not as much of a treat as it used to be.  We settled for clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls. Very good on a cool day.

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The Bored Man

Spotted this poor man at Nordstroms waiting for his daughter to try on dresses for her Senior Recital.

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Union Square, San Francisco

The view from the fourth floor in Macy's where I'm trapped in the women's "Special Occasion Dress" section.

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