Another Libyan Misfire

Oh we killed some people, alright, but I don't see how this is in any way going to help resolve the Libyan crisis:

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi survived a NATO missile strike Saturday that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren and wounded friends and relatives, Libya’s spokesman said.

Gadhafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house of his 29-year-old son, Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, when it was hit by at least one missile fired by a NATO warplane, according to Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.

Did we change the rules regarding assassinations of foreign leaders?  I thought we weren't allowed to do that.  Is this how Obama will rebuild America's standing in the eyes of the world?

The Blogfather

This is kind of inside baseball for bloggers, but having been on the receiving end of the much coveted "Instalanche" a few times (including twice last week) I have a great deal of respect for Glenn Reynolds and the amazing success of Instapundit, not to mention the fire hose of traffic he can turn your way when the gods smile just right.  Glenn started blogging in 2001 and now gets upwards of 500,000 page views a day.  I started in 2004 and get...well, not that many.

Here's a good interview with Glenn by Bill Whittle at PJTV:

8N07108

Attention blonde teenage girl driver of the black Cadillac Escalade with the license number shown above, I saw you back into the black Mercedes at the Albertson's store at La Paz and Muirlands in Mission Viejo.  I heard the crunch of cracking and broken taillights as the cars came together.  I saw you and what I assume is your mom get out, look at the damage you caused, and then drive away without leaving a note or attempting to let anyone in the store know what happened.

I looked at the Mercedes and saw the cracked taillight lens and the damage to the bumper.  I saw it all.

You're both lowlife pieces of crap and I'm going to forward this info to the Sheriff's Department.

"Racers"

I'm a NASCAR fan, but this time the term "racers" has nothing to do with going fast and turning left.  Well, at least not the going fast part.

We've had some fringe groups called "truthers" and "birthers", and now we can add "racers" to the list.  These are the people who attempt to turn every criticism of Obama or every attempt to cut the budget into an excuse to accuse someone of racism.  The "racers" patron saints are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, though pretty much every liberal politician or pundit has at one time or another attempted the race card.

I personally like the idea of labeling the problem children on the left this way.  It immediately dilutes their impact and marginalizes their message.   An accusation of racism used to carry a powerful stigma with it.  Not anymore. Today it's more likely a reflection on the accuser than the accused.

A Democrat in Training

This guy has a future as a liberal politician:

Police say a 27-year-old homeless man robbed a Tampa bank, fled on a city bus and then handed out said stolen cash to passengers.

The only difference between this guy and Nancy Pelosi is he used a note and simulated weapon to take the money. Nancy uses a bill.

Political Cartoon of the Day

Very timely cartoon from Michael Ramirez:

Third Deadliest Tornado Outbreak in History UPDATE: Second Deadliest

Take a look at this graphic from NOAA:

The yellow, orange and red represent the rotation tracks detected by Doppler radar. In all there were 288 tornadoes that killed 318 people as of the latest count.

This makes this outbreak the third deadliest, behind the 1932 outbreak that took 332 lives, and the 1925 outbreak that took 747 lives, including 695 in just one tornado.  It wouldn't be surprising if this outbreak takes over the second spot as the search effort continues through hundreds of destroyed buildings.  Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel posted this last night:

Sadly there are still HUNDREDS of people missing across Alabama and specifically #Tuscaloosa. That is alarming.

That it is. Very sad.

UPDATE:  Death toll now 337 putting this outbreak in second place.  Let's hope it doesn't climb another spot, but according to Jim Cantore more than 450 people are still missing just in Tuscaloosa.

Mitch Daniels Will Sign Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood

I think Mitch is doing a little pre-campaign positioning:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels says he will sign a bill into law that revoked funding for the Indiana affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business and bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Daniels’ decision puts into place one of the strongest pro-life bills in the history of the state and allows him a chance to repair the relationship he strained with pro-life voters last year with his proposed truce on social issues, including abortion, that could adversely affect him in any bid for the Republican nomination for president.

Daniels issued a statement about HEA 1210, which the Indiana General Assembly approved earlier in the week.

“I will sign HEA 1210 when it reaches my desk a week or so from now. I supported this bill from the outset, and the recent addition of language guarding against the spending of tax dollars to support abortions creates no reason to alter my position,” Daniels said. “The principle involved commands the support of an overwhelming majority of Hoosiers, as reflected in greater than 2:1 bipartisan votes in both legislative chambers.”

Daniels added that he “commissioned a careful review of access to services across the state and can confirm that all non-abortion services, whether family planning or basic women’s health, will remain readily available in every one of our 92 counties. In addition, I have ordered the Family and Social Services Administration to see that Medicaid recipients receive prompt notice of nearby care options. We will take any actions necessary to ensure that vital medical care is, if anything, more widely available than before.”

“Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions,” he said.

I guess it's time for the media to turn their venom on Daniels now.

"She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword."

Some of the funniest reading you'll do all day - a collection of 56 of the worst analogies written by high school students and collected by their teachers.  Read them here.

Maybe This Hat Should Have Been Banned Too

I finally saw the Royal Wedding this afternoon since my wife wanted to watch the replay I'd taped last night.  Can somebody explain this?

That's Andrew and Fergie's youngest daughter Eugenie correction, Laura tells me it's actually Beatrice, the older daughter. As soon as I saw that hat I was reminded of an old story from London where Burger King had to change their ice cream packaging because the symbol, when turned a certain way, vaguely resembled the word "Allah" written in Arabic:

I wonder what that thing on Beatrice's head says in Arabic?  Can we ban it too?

Another Train Fatality in Mission Viejo

This explains all the noise last night.  We were awakened in the early morning hours by trains blasting their horns as they moved slowly along the track that runs in the ravine by our house.

A 23-year-old man was killed when he was hit by an Amtrak train Thursday night, authorities said.

Sheriff's officials received reports that the man ran in front of the train as it was traveling south between Alicia Parkway and La Paz Road, said Lt. Stu Geenberg of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies are still investigating the incident, but they received reports the man ran toward the train before being hit, officials said. The incident is being investigated as a possible suicide.

The train was headed toward the Laguna Niguel stop and carrying 85 passengers, according to Amtrak officials.

The person has been identified as Sean Barrientes of Laguna Niguel.  This is close to the area where two people decided to sleep on the tracks last September.

We have trains that pass in the middle of the night (usually freights) but we don't normally notice them because they stay off the horn in this area since there are no grade crossings. Last night we had train horns blasting for the better part of an hour and we could hear them moving very slowly as they passed. I'm sure they had to slow down for the investigators who were literally out picking up the pieces.

Wedding Music

On this big Royal Wedding Day I thought I'd play a little wedding music for you:

Weakness Has Consequences

King & Spalding, the Atlanta-based law firm that suddenly dropped out of the Defense of Marriage case under pressure from gay activists and companies afraid of gay activists, has lost another client (from Mark Tapscott):

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has terminated his office's relationship with King & Spalding, the Atlanta law firm that abrubtly dropped the U.S. House of Representatives as a client for purposes of defending the Defense of Marriage Act.

"King & Spalding's willingness to drop a client, the U.S. House of Representatives, in connection with the lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was such an obsequious act of weakness that I feel compelled to end your legal association with Virginia so that there is no chance that one of my legal clients will be put in the embarrassing and difficult situation like the client you walked away from, the House of Representatives," Cuccinelli said in a letter to Joseph Lynch in the firm's Washington, D.C. office....

The firm had been retained by the Virginia AG's office Sept. 15, 2009. Cuccinelli said the firm was being terminated "effective immediately."

Cuccinelli said he acted because "Virginia does not shy away from hiring outside counsel because they may have ongoing professional relationships with people or entities, or on behalf of causes that I, or my office, or Virginia as a whole may not support. But it is crucial for us to be able to trust and rely on the fact that our outside counsel will not desert Virginia due to pressure by an outside group or groups."

He added that "Virginia seeks firms of committment, courage, strength and toughness, and unfortunately, what the world has learned of King & Spalding, is that your firm utterly lacks such qualities."

Cuccinelli said the firm would not be welcome to re-apply for special counsel status for the state as long as he is Attorney General.

As I said when this story first broke, no conservative organization or politician should have any further business with this firm. They simply can't be trusted.

Jay Cost: Obama Should Worry About the GOP Field

Jay Cost, an excellent political analyst, thinks the GOP field for 2012 will be stronger than anyone thinks:

The conventional wisdom is that the emerging Republican field for 2012 is a very weak one. However, like so much else in the topsy-turvy age of Obama, the conventional wisdom on this one is completely upside down. The idea of a weak GOP field is almost as ridiculous as a debate about a fifty-year-old birth certificate just as the economic recovery comes grinding to a halt. Almost.

In fact, Obama and the Democrats have good reason to worry about the emerging Republican field. Here are four big reasons why.

I'll give you the four points and let you read the detail in his post:The GOP has several serious candidates.

1. The GOP has several serious candidates. 
2. An Obama-Clinton type of battle is unlikely.
3. A “fringe” nominee is unlikely. 
4. An “enthusiasm gap” should not be a problem.

I hope he's right. Obama will still have the media firmly in his pocket and will be able to do no wrong between now and the election...at least no wrong worth reporting. On the other hand, the GOP field will be peppered with questions about Obama's birth certificate, abortion, creationism, they'll be asked why they hate black people, gay people, old people, women...etc. Just be ready for it.

Political Quote of the Day

Guess the speaker:

"Our leaders are stupid, they are stupid people," he said. "It's just very, very sad."

That speaker would be Donald Trump, of course.

Despite Evidence to the Contrary, Left Still Pushes the Idea That Humans Caused the Tornado Outbreak

Foolishness, and even network anchors are not immune.  Witness this exchange between NBC's Brian Williams and The Weather Channel's Dr. Greg Forbes (h/t Newsbusters):

On the NBC Nightly News, Williams prompted Greg Forbes of the Weather Channel:

Let's be candid here. When you and I go home, you see friends and family, you get e-mail from people you know. People ask the same question: What's going on here? Is this something we have done? What has happened to the climate because it seems so much of what we cover is relentless weather-related tragedy?

Forbes skirted around Williams’ silliness:

Yeah, it really has been a remarkable April, certainly a record April. It may be the most tornadic month of any month on record. It certainly, the atmosphere has been in a frenzy. The jet stream just keeps blasting across the country, and then the warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico just keeps feeding the instability and so we’ve had tornado after tornado...

To Brian Williams credit, upon arriving in London for the Royal Wedding and hearing about the tornado devastation back home, Williams turned around and headed to Alabama where he'll report today. His total time in London was 3 hours. He's got his priorities straight, if not his science.

And I've got to give kudos to Dr. Forbes and the entire Weather Channel team for their coverage of the tornado outbreaks not only this week but earlier in the month. There's no doubt that the analysis and warnings they gave saved lives.  You could hear the emotion in their voices as they looked at the Doppler radar showing these enormous tornadoes chewing up heavily populated areas.  They were real pros.

Think Progress, one of the more ardently left websites around, is trying to blame the tornadoes on the votes of Southern State legislators against global warming legislation. How incredibly stupid.  Iowahawk sums them up nicely:

Think Progress: the Westboro Baptists of Klimate Klowns

Just as a reminder, there is a scientific reason for the current tornado outbreak that doesn't include climate change.  Anyone who tells you differently is simply using this tragedy to promote a political agenda.

Civil Rights and Diversity Bureaucrats Sucking up Hundreds of Millions of Tax Dollars

Is this really necessary?

As leaders look for more ways to cut government expenditures and reduce the budget, some have pointed out the duplicative nature of a number of the government’s overlapping bureaucracies. The prodigious amount of federal offices devoted to diversity and civil rights is one example.

Based on The Daily Caller’s analysis, there are at least 55 offices, departments and commissions devoted to civil rights and diversity throughout the federal government. And their budgets don’t amount to petty cash.

In FY 2010, the last complete budget year, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights cost taxpayers $46.7 million; the Department of Agriculture’s Office of Civil Rights cost $24 million; the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division cost $145.4 million; Department of Transportation’s Office of Civil Rights cost $9.66 million; the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights cost $102 Million; the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cost $367 million and so on. Those numbers, however, are just the tip of the iceberg.

Isn't it time to start paring down all these bureaucracies? The civil rights and diversity situation in the country is clearly so much improved over the past 40 years there's simply no justification to keep all of these agencies going. But trying to eliminate these agencies will be fought by the people who make their living by perpetuating the myth that America is still a civil rights cesspool.  There's a whole industry dedicated to keeping people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in expensive suits.

The Dress

I had to run this photo of Kate Middleton's wedding dress so my wife could see it.  She won't be able to watch the replay of the wedding until later:

Some of the media are comparing Kate's dress to the dress worn by Grace Kelly back in the 50's. Not sure I see the resemblance, but here you go:

Frankly, I prefer this dress.

Hero Dad

One of hundreds of sad stories coming out of Alabama (from Doug's Blog):

Tom Lee was a man who always had a sparkle in his eyes and a Gospel message on his tongue. His family is one of those that people describe as “energy givers.” When Tom, his bride and his family of thirteen children would arrive in town, it always meant encouragement.

Last night as tornado storm winds approached the Lee home in Alabama, Tom gathered his wife and thirteen children in the den. They huddled and they prayed. Two minutes later the tornado descended upon them. The house was instantly destroyed as beams and cinder blocks rained down upon them.

But in his last great act of fatherhood, Tom Lee had the presence of mind to throw himself on top of his children, including his first-born son Jordan. Looking up at his father Jordan saw the blood in his father’s mouth and witnessed as the breath began to leave his father, but was able to hear the last words of his father’s crying out to God for the safety of his family. Then the spirit left the body of Tom Lee.

There were other injuries including children trapped under a piano and between beams. Medical assistance was nowhere in sight for many hours. There was just too much damage in the valley, too few support teams, and inaccessibility was a problem. Eventually they came.

Read the rest of it here. The family was trapped from 6:30 pm until 2:00 am.  Americans all over the country are now reaching out to help families like this.

Jimmuh Carter Proves Once Again He's a Few Peanuts Short of a Box of Crackerjacks

Jimmuh once again goes abroad to accuse America of crimes:

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il wants direct talks with South Korea’s leader — an offer unlikely to be accepted until Pyongyang takes responsibility for violence that killed 50 South Koreans last year.

Carter didn’t address the case of Jun Young Su, a Korean-American being held in North Korea, reportedly on charges of carrying out missionary activity. He had said earlier he would not raise the case, though the former president flew to North Korea last year to free another American jailed in Pyongyang.Carter started Thursday‘s news conference by offering condolences for those killed in last year’s attacks, an apparent nod to criticism that he had glossed over the deaths in past dealings with the North.

But he also likely angered many in Seoul and Washington by criticizing their food aid policies.

Carter said that for the United States and South Korea “to deliberately withhold food aid to the North Korean people because of political or military issues not related is really indeed a human rights violation.”

Jimmuh could have had a stellar post-presidency if he'd just stuck to his charitable work. But instead he decided to give aid and comfort to our enemies time after time.

He's a traitor.

Exclusive Video of the Royal Wedding

You saw it here first:

More Tornadoes: Climate Change, Winds, or Just Better Technology

I'll take item #2 and #3 and disregard #1.

US meteorologists warned Thursday it would be a mistake to blame climate change for a seeming increase in tornadoes in the wake of deadly storms that have ripped through the US south.

"If you look at the past 60 years of data, the number of tornadoes is increasing significantly, but it's agreed upon by the tornado community that it's not a real increase," said Grady Dixon, assistant professor of meteorology and climatology at Mississippi State University.

"It's having to do with better (weather tracking) technology, more population, the fact that the population is better educated and more aware. So we're seeing them more often," Dixon said.

There's more info in the linked story. Bottom line, we're seeing more tornadoes this year thanks to the La Niña weather cycle, and thanks to Doppler radar and a host of trained storm chasers, we now spot tornadoes that would have lived and died unnoticed in sparsely populated areas 30 years ago. Consequently, the count goes up.

Greenies Protest to Close San Onofre, Then Will Go Home and Turn on Their Lights, Their TVs, Their Computers...etc

Adventures in foolishness:

Protesters will gather at 5 p.m. Thursday in San Juan Capistrano to call for the closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant, an hour before a public meeting in which federal inspectors will give their 2010 assessment of the plant’s performance.

The protest is being organized by the environmental group, San Clemente Green, and could draw 100 to 300 people, said co-founder Gary Headrick.

“We want to close San Onofre as soon as possible, following the example of Germany, and replace it with green technology as soon as possible,” Headrick said Thursday.

And just what green technology is going to replace San Onofre? Solar? Wind? Unicorn Farts?  Are all you people going to go home and quit using electricity so we won't need San Onofre anymore?

Dummies.

Are You Gonna Watch My Cousin Get Married?

Yeah my cousin Wills, the Windsor kid, is marrying that girl Kate over there across the pond tomorrow.  I've been told I'm distantly related to the royal bunch, though apparently it would take something on the order of a global mass extinction event before I could assume the throne.

My wife was a big fan of Princess Diana, so naturally she wants to see her kid get married.  But no American TV networks for us, mate, I'm taping the whole mess on BBC America.  After watching many episodes of Top Gear I've finally getting to where I can understand what they're saying.

Speaking of Top Gear, I just finished reading co-presenter Richard Hammond's book On the Edge about his crash in a jet car and subsequent recovery from a very serious brain injury.  Being somewhat late to Top Gear I wasn't familiar with the story until I heard about it lately and ordered the book.  It's quite a story.

Do You Have a "Pet"? Shame on You!

Don't you know your animals are insulted by the term "pet"?

Animal lovers should stop calling their furry or feathered friends “pets” because the term is insulting, leading academics claim.

Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as “companion animals” while owners should be known as “human carers”, they insist.

Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned – who should instead be known as “free-living”, the academics including an Oxford professor suggest.

The call comes from the editors of then Journal of Animal Ethics, a new academic publication devoted to the issue.

It is edited by the Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, who once received an honorary degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury for his work promoting the rights of “God’s sentient creatures”.

In its first editorial, the journal – jointly published by Prof Linzey’s centre and the University of Illinois in the US – condemns the use of terms such as ”critters” and “beasts”.

It argues that “derogatory” language about animals can affect the way that they are treated.

“Despite its prevalence, ‘pets’ is surely a derogatory term both of the animals concerned and their human carers,” the editorial claims.

“Again the word ‘owners’, whilst technically correct in law, harks back to a previous age when animals were regarded as just that: property, machines or things to use without moral constraint.”

It goes on: “We invite authors to use the words ‘free-living’, ‘free-ranging’ or ‘free-roaming’ rather than ‘wild animals’

“For most, ‘wildness’ is synonymous with uncivilised, unrestrained, barbarous existence.
“There is an obvious prejudgment here that should be avoided.”

No, what should be avoided are pompous-assed professors of meaningless university centers and state-run churches that make false gods out of animals.

Economic Cartoon of the Day

From Michael Ramirez:

More Alabama Tornado Video

Yesterday's tornado outbreak may prove to be one of the most photographed natural disasters in history.  Almost all of the major tornado damage occurred as people with cameras watched and recorded the events.

The professional storm chasers from TornadoVideos.net, whose work will be seen in greater detail this fall on this season of Storm Chasers, put some of yesterday's video on YouTube:

Wal-Mart: Our Shoppers Are Getting Hit Hard by High Gas Prices

Doesn't look like we'll have another "recovery summer":

Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.

"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."

Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.

Lately, they're "running out of money" at a faster clip, he said.

Wal-Mart's ready to do battle on prices
"Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month even more than last year," Duke said. "This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.

I know how they feel. Last night I spent over $42 for less than 10 gallons of gas.  I never used to spend more than $25 to fill up the PT Cruiser.  Add to that the higher cost of food and just about everything else that is transported by truck, train, ship, or airplane that burns oil products, and we have the set-up for a new economic collapse.

Another sign of impending economic hardship - dry cleaners.  A local dry cleaner just went out of business because fewer people are spending money on dry cleaning services.  Dry cleaning has become a luxury.  When I drove around a bit to look for another cleaners I passed another shop that had also closed.

Things are not getting better.  But Obama supporters are throwing money at him to reward him for all his good work.

Former Bush Treasury Secretary: GOP House Members Are Like Al Qaeda

I think we're about to set a new low for political discourse (from Daily Caller)

Ex-Bushie compares GOP to al Qaeda -- "The people who are threatening not to pass the debt ceiling are our version of al Qaeda terrorists. Really," said former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "They're really putting our whole society at risk by threatening to round up 50 percent of the members of the Congress, who are loony, who would put our credit at risk," said O'Neill, who served as secretary during Bush's first term. He added that the "whole conversation" about whether to take on even more potentially crippling debt "is irresponsible." 

Remember Godwin's law?

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

Since Nazi comparisons have grown old and tired, and generally you can tell when someone loses an argument because he's the first one to call someone a Nazi, we now have a new standard that requires your political enemies to be referred to as terrorists.

Obama's First Term is Over

At least as far as governing goes.  He's now in campaign mode and I don't expect him to do much else until November 2012.  From Top of the Ticket:

Contrary to Barack Obama's schedule yesterday, the next presidential election is not the first Tuesday in May of 2011. It's still 558 days away on the first Tuesday in November 2012.

But you'd never know it by the president's blatant cross-country campaigning and fundraising that appeared to have little to do with governing Wednesday and contained even more of those confusing visual contradictions that reveal this president's political priorities.

Read the rest of it here.  it's all about winning re-election now because Obama knows that once he's completely unfettered by politics in a second term he can finish off the country and turn us into the socialist utopia of which he's long dreamed.

Pass a Tax, Lose a Huge Business

South Carolina chose poorly:

Amazon all but told South Carolina goodbye Wednesday after the online retailer lost a legislative showdown on a sales tax collection exemption it wants to open a distribution center that would bring 1,249 jobs to the Midlands.

Company officials immediately halted plans to equip and staff the one million-square-foot building under construction at I-77 and 12th Street near Cayce.

“As a result of today’s unfortunate House vote, we’ve canceled $52 million in procurement contracts and removed all South Carolina fulfillment center job postings from our (Web) site,” said Paul Misener, Amazon vice president for global public policy.

The decision came shortly after state representatives rejected the tax break 71-47.
“People who think this is a bluff don’t know Amazon,” Lexington County Councilman Bill Banning said. “Too many other states want them.”

The partly finished center probably will be completed and then “put into mothballs,” he said.

Sure glad they have a surplus of jobs in South Carolina. It would be a real shame if their unemployment rate was something like 9.6%.

Oh wait...it is.

This is yet another of those unfortunate examples of legislatures who think their taxes and regulations can be made in a vacuum and won't cause businesses to make fundamental changes in how they operate.

Nearly 200 Dead in Yesterday's Tornado Outbreak...So Far. UPDATE: Over 200

And the number will rise:

The death toll from severe storms that punished five Southern U.S. states jumped to a staggering 178 after Alabama canvassed its hard-hit counties for a new tally of lives lost.

Alabama's state emergency management agency said early Thursday it had confirmed 128 deaths, up from at least 61 earlier.

"We expect that toll, unfortunately, to rise," Gov. Robert Bentley told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Mississippi officials reported 32 dead in that state and Tennessee raised its report to six from one. Another 11 have been killed in Georgia and one in Virginia.

UPDATE:  Death toll now up to 271.

I was following the play-by-play as the storms developed via Twitter, and later ended up watching The Weather Channel for several hours. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Watching a mile-and-a-half wide wedge tornado level parts of the Northern Birmingham, AL live on TV was almost unbelievable. It was like something out of one of Al Gore's climate horror movies.

Only this was based in reality.

I posted several videos from the storm as it hit Tuscaloosa here.  Just awesome power.  I posted this on Twitter last night:

To all those people who believe mankind has the ability to control the climate, please see Alabama.

Yesterday could end up being the biggest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. The tornado that his Tuscaloosa and went on to Birmingham was on the ground for something like 200 miles. The record for a long-track tornado was set in 1925 at 219 miles. Further study by the experts may result in a new record.

More storms on the East Coast today, though there won't be as many tornadoes. And let's not forget, this is only April. The peak month for tornadoes is usually May. This could end up being quite a year.

Obama's Favorite Catholic Suspended by the Church

What is it with Obama and wacky left pastors?

Citing what he called threats from the Rev. Michael Pfleger to leave the church, Cardinal Francis George has removed the outspoken priest from St. Sabina parish and has suspended his “sacramental faculties as a priest.”

Pfleger had publicly feuded with the cardinal about possibly being reassigned to Leo High School, telling a radio show recently that he would look outside the Catholic church if offered no other choice.

“If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish,” George wrote in a letter dated today.

Given how political Pfleger was, I'm guessing it wouldn't take a very detailed look at his politics to discover that he often strayed far from Catholic teachings. I'll never know why the church allows so much of that. I can think of any number of Catholic politicians who are ardently pro-abortion, and that ought to earn them an immediate ticket to excommunication...but for some reason it never does.

Rev. David Wilkerson Dies in Texas Car Crash

Sad story out of Texas:

Rev. David Wilkerson, founding pastor of Times Square Church in New York City and author of the well-known book The Cross and the Switchblade, was killed Wednesday in a car crash, according to a source close to CBN News. He was 79.

"It is with deepest of sadness that we have to inform you of the sudden passing of Reverend David Wilkerson, our founding pastor," Times Square Church Senior Pastor Carter Conlon said in a statement on the church website.

Conlon added that details of the family's wishes and a memorial service would be provided as information became available.

Crash Details

Wilkerson was driving east on U.S. 175 in Texas Wednesday afternoon, and moved into the opposite lane where a tractor trailer was driving westbound. The truck driver saw the car and tried to move out of the way, but still collided with the pastor's car head on, according to Public Safety Trooper Eric Long.

I read his book, which was the story of his early ministry in New York City, when I was a teenager. It read like something out of West Side Story. Quite a guy.

Tuscaloosa, AL Tornado Video

A tornado that's almost sure to get an F5 rating roared through Tuscaloosa, AL today leaving a mile wide damage path of nearly total devastation. WIAT has a video report:


Here's video from the Fox affiliate:



Another from a chaser. A little shaky, but pretty impressive:

Video from Storm Chaser Reed Timmer here:

More video from WBMA here.

Crystal Cathedral Screwing With Their Musicians Again

I had a friend who finally had to sue the Crystal Cathedral to get the money owed him for his work in their services, but it looks like the management there didn't learn from that experience:

Several members of the orchestra hired to perform at the Crystal Cathedral's Easter Sunday services walked out and refused to play after they realized that the church had paid them half of what was promised to them.

Long-time orchestra members said they have refrained from taking the cathedral to court for failure to pay in the past in light of the megachurch's bankruptcy and church leaders' pleas. But getting shortchanged on their paychecks on Easter Sunday was the last straw, they said.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of paying musician jobs around for those people to go to, but at the same time it's not worth working for someone whose word you can't trust.

Alabama Tornado Video

Unbelievable - a tornado going through Tuscaloosa, AL and now headed into Birmingham, AL where debis is falling ahead of the storm:

More dramatic Alabama tornado video here.

Massachusetts Democrats Vote to Take Collective Bargaining Rights Away From Unions

It's bizarro world:

House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.

The 111-to-42 vote followed tougher measures to broadly eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states. But unlike those efforts, the push in Massachusetts was led by Democrats who have traditionally stood with labor to oppose any reduction in workers’ rights.

Unions fought hard to stop the bill, launching a radio ad that assailed the plan and warning legislators that if they voted for the measure, they could lose their union backing in the next election. After the vote, labor leaders accused House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and other Democrats of turning their backs on public employees.

“It’s pretty stunning,’’ said Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “These are the same Democrats that all these labor unions elected. The same Democrats who we contributed to in their campaigns. The same Democrats who tell us over and over again that they’re with us, that they believe in collective bargaining, that they believe in unions. . . . It’s a done deal for our relationship with the people inside that chamber.’’

“We are going to fight this thing to the bitter end,’’ he added. “Massachusetts is not the place that takes collective bargaining away from public employees.’’

Uh...maybe not.

You know that things must be getting pretty tough for governments if even Democrats are willing to end collective bargaining for public employee unions. And there's no Republican governor to blame like you have in Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Dumb Things I've Read This Morning

I've been weeding my Facebook Friends list because of dumb things like this:

• A doctor posted that today's release of Obama's birth certificate didn't mean anything because his father was Kenyan and he "still hasn't proven he's a natural born citizen as required by the Constitution".  Hey dummy, if you're born on U.S. soil you're a natural born citizen.  
• Another guy said he couldn't support a particular GOP candidate because that candidate "didn't believe in a literal 6-day creation as shown in the Genesis story".  Well, I guess I can't be president either because I don't believe in a literal 6-day creation.  I've written at length on the subject here.  Any candidate that stands up and say "I believe in a 6-day creation and a 6,000 year old Earth" will be laughed off the national stage and will never become president.

And the day is still young.

Oxymoron of the Day - the Atheist Chaplain

Atheists must really be feeling bad about themselves lately because they've sure been trying hard to get attention:

In the military, there are more than 3,000 chaplains who minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of active duty troops, regardless of their faiths. The vast majority are Christians, a few are Jews or Muslims, one is a Buddhist. A Hindu, possibly even a Wiccan may join their ranks soon.

But an atheist?

Strange as it sounds, groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large — and largely underground — population of nonbelievers in the military.

Joining the chaplain corps is part of a broader campaign by atheists to win official acceptance in the military.

If you don't believe in God do you really need someone to help you with that? And what would an atheist chaplain do? Can you imagine an atheist chaplain running to the side of a gravely wounded soldier to comfort him as he dies?

"Don't worry. Your life never had any purpose or meaning. You're just going to disappear into a black void of permanent non-existence."

Yeah, that'll make them feel better.

Do You Think Congress Would Pay Attention to 20,000 CFL Bulbs Smashing on the Capitol Steps?

Coming soon, the end of choice when it comes to lightbulbs:

The United States is on the verge of a lighting revolution that will oust the traditional incandescent in favor of more energy efficient (and less polluting) alternatives. Are you ready?

On Jan. 1, nationwide, a new federal law means the 100-watt incandescent will start disappearing from store shelves. Instead, an expanding line of alternative bulbs will be sold bearing new nutrition-like labels on their boxes. The labels will tout a bulb's lumens, a measure of brightness, rather than its wattage, a measure of energy use. They will also estimate its yearly energy cost.

Less polluting? Do you remember what you have to do if you break one of these in your home? You have an instant toxic waste dump.

Republicans were supposed to try and pass a repeal of the 100 watt lightbulb ban, but so far I haven't seen any sign of action. I wonder if they'd pay attention if 20,000 people showed up on the steps of the Capitol with curly-fry CFL's in their hands poised and ready to smash them all around Capitol Hill?

Then let them tell us they're "less polluting".

White House Releasing Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate

Apparently Donald Trump has had more impact on the White House than anyone thought because this morning they are releasing Obama's long form birth certificate.  I'll have links to it when available.  If this form is different from the one that was released by lefty websites during the campaign this issue probably won't completely go away.

UPDATE:  Here it is.  It's not the same form as was apparently cobbled together by lefty websites during the campaign, but there isn't anything about this that should create any new controversy.

From USA Today:

President Obama released copies of his birth certificate today, hoping to silence questions about his Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Obama himself plans to make a statement about the so-called “birther issue” at 9:45 a.m.

The release is a response to Donald Trump and other critics who have questioned whether Obama was born in the United States, and is therefore eligible for the presidency.

The White House also released letters from this month in which Obama requested copies of his birth certificate.

“The president believed it was becoming a major distraction from the issues we are having in this country,” said communications director Dan Pfeiffer, calling it a “fake controversy” and “a sideshow.”

Obama faxed a letter to the Hawaii Department of Health on April 22, requesting two copies “of my original certificate of live birth.”

The health department replied that it would make an exception for Obama and make two certified copies from their bound volume of birth records; normally the department would generate computer copies.

What's amazing to me is this thing has raged on since well before the 2008 election.  Obama could have stomped this out long ago, but instead he chose to let the rumor mill go until it finally began to significantly hurt him politically.  And just yesterday the White House Press Secretary ripped a CNN reporter for asking about the birth certificate.  An apology is in order.

I've never cared much for the issue because once Obama raised his hand and took the oath he became president, and there's only four ways someone leaves the office after that:  His term ends, he resigns, he dies, or he is impeached.  Had it been shown that Obama was ineligible I'm not sure there was any mechanism outside of impeachment that could have removed him, and with Democrats in charge of the Senate that wasn't going to happen.

Now perhaps we can concentrate on the fact that he's incompetent and his policies are destroying this country's economic strength and harming America's standard of living.

I had planned to post this item this morning:

From D. Bachmann who wrote this on Erick Erickson's Facebook wall:

Obama's approval is slipping so quick now Kenyans R claiming he was born in US!

Heh.

UPDATE: A lot of pundits are finding it odd that Obama personally did the press conference releasing his birth certificate. Not me. The petulant, arrogant Obama is just what I expected from a guy who believes he's above criticism.

Weekly KHND Interview Podcast

Here's the podcast from yesterday's KHND radio interview:

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Gas Prices Could Drop With the Stroke of a Pen

I've often said that the energy markets are driven as much by emotion and perception as they are by supply and demand. Mark Tapscott reminds us what happened the last time we saw prices like we're seeing today:

President Obama says there's not much the federal government can do to bring down gas prices any time soon. Michael Bromwich, Obama's chief bureaucrat in charge of issuing permits for oil and gas companies to drill off-shore, said the same thing today:

“‘Even if we permitted the hell out of everything tomorrow -- every pending permit, some permits that haven't even been filed yet -- it would not have a material effect on gas prices. That's the simple, clear reality,” said the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE).

Both Obama and Bromwich either are purposely lying or they simply don't know what they are talking about. Check out the chart that accompanies this post. Notice what happened on July 14, 2008? Oil prices suddenly plummeted from their historic high of $145 a barrel. Why?

Because that was the day President George W. Bush signed an executive order lifting the moratorium on off-shore drilling in the eastern half of the Gulf of Mexico and off the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Overnight, the price per barrel of oil plunged, and that plunge was reflected at the pump soon thereafter.

In other words, Obama could with the stroke of a pen sign an executive order telling his appointees at EPA, the Department of Interior and the Department of Energy to stop throwing up obstacles to increased U.S. oil and natural gas production and instead work with the energy industry on a crash program to "drill here, drill now."

If Obama didn't want $5 a gallon gas he could fix this thing tomorrow.

Sacramento's Cell Phone Money Grab

Apparently we're going to fund the government on backs of cellphone users:

Motorists who talk and text on their hand-held phones while driving could face fees up to $500 under a bill approved by the state Senate on Monday.

The base fine would increase from $20 to $50 per violation under the bill, which now goes to the Assembly. Once penalties and fees are tacked on, a first offense would cost approximately $309.

A repeat offender could be fined $100, or more than $500 with the added fees. A subsequent violation would also add one point to the motorist's driving record.

Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, who authored the bill, said he expects that stiffer penalties will further deter motorists from violating the hands-free law.

"Compliance to date has been good," said Simitian, "but there's room for improvement. I think this will make a good law even better."

Well, if going from $300 to $500 would "make a good law even better", wouldn't increasing the fine to $10,000 make it that much better? Or $100,000? Simitian's logic is terribly flawed. This is nothing more than another money grab, and you can expect local and state law enforcement to be ordered to aggressively look for violators to build the state's coffers.

Firefighters Stop Donating to Congress

Apparently the state-level moves against public employee unions are taking a toll:

The nation's largest firefighters union and one of the Democrats' most reliable sources of campaign money says it will quit donating to federal candidates this year because members of Congress are not doing enough to support organized labor.

International Association of Firefighters President Harold Schaitberger says there is a more urgent need to spend money defending anti-union measures sweeping GOP-controlled statehouses across the country.

Schaitberger wants the move to send a message that lawmakers shouldn't take firefighters' support for granted. He says members of Congress should be doing more to speak out against efforts in states to take away collective bargaining rights and weaken union clout.

The union and its 300,000 members are among the most influential and biggest-spending lobbying groups on Capitol Hill.

I was eating lunch today and across from me grabbing a bite were the guys from OCFA Truck 9. Their lunch was interrupted by a call, so they grabbed all their stuff and quickly headed to the truck and off to the call. Good to know their union contract doesn't prohibit that.

Atheist Goes Down Swinging

But he still strikes out:

Christopher Hitchens disclosed to his atheist comrades on Friday that he has now lost his voice to esophageal cancer but his atheistic beliefs remain stronger than ever.

In a letter to the American Atheists conference, Hitchens encouraged fellow unbelievers to remain united and to carry on the “secular revolution.”

“Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal; the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need),” wrote Hitchens in the letter, which was also posted on The Richard Dawkins Foundation website on Friday.

The American Atheists organization held its national conference in Des Moines, Iowa, April 21-24, to coincide with the Christian holidays Good Friday and Easter.

In his message, the famous atheist shared honestly that he is current having a “long argument” with the “specter of death” in which no one has ever won. But as the idea of death becomes more familiar, he said the “pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance” becomes “more hollow and artificial.”

Instead of the “false consolations of religion,” which he equates with superstition, Hitchens said he places his trust in medical science and the support of friends and family.

How's that working out?

Hitchens is a very smart guy, but made the mistake of thinking he was too smart to acknowledge there might be something bigger than himself.

Psalms 14:1.

Is Donald Trump Dangerous to the GOP?

Thomas Sowell thinks he is:

Donald Trump is dangerous in at least two senses. If, by some tragic miracle, he should become the Republicans’ candidate for president in 2012, that would be the closest thing to an iron-clad guarantee of a second term in the White House for Barack Obama.

That would be a huge setback for the Republicans — and, far more important — a historic catastrophe for this country.

What seems more likely is that Donald Trump as a candidate for the Republican nomination would use his superior articulation skills — not to mention brash irresponsibility — to trash all the other Republican candidates for that nomination, leaving them damaged goods in the eyes of the public, and therefore less able to gather the votes needed to prevent the reelection of Obama.

Why Republicans seem not to understand the crucial importance of putting the same time and attention into articulating their positions as the Democrats do is one of the enduring mysteries of American politics.

It was obvious that the Democrats coordinated their talking points and catch-phrases — “social justice,” “tax cuts for the rich,” etc. — even before the overheard and recorded statements of Sen. Chuck Schumer about Democrats’ plans to repeatedly use the word “extreme” to characterize Republicans.

But how many Republican catch phrases can you remember? Republican rhetoric tends to range from low key to no key.

There's much more at the link. Read it all, Sowell is one of the best thinkers in conservative politics.

Obama Disappointment Syndrome

DeWayne Wickham, an African-American writer at USA Today, expresses his disappointment with the job Obama has done regarding black unemployment.  He describes a couple of meetings with Obama including a 2007 speech he attended:

“Today’s economy has made it easier to fall into poverty. … Every American is vulnerable to the insecurities and anxieties of this new economy. And that’s why the single most important focus of my economic agenda as president will be to pursue policies that create jobs and make work pay,” Obama said that day to his mostly black audience.

At that time, the nation’s overall unemployment rate was 4.7%. Whites had a jobless rate of 4.2% while the black unemployment rate stood at 8.1%. Today, the black rate is 15.5%, nearly double that of white job-seekers.

I don’t blame Obama for the economic conditions that are responsible for so many blacks being out of work. The seeds of this problem were planted long before he moved into the Oval Office. But I do fault him for not doing more to fix this problem.

The poor in urban America, he said in that 2007 speech, “suffer most from a politics that has been tipped in favor of those with the most money, and influence, and power.” And then he asked rhetorically, “How can a country like this allow it?” To which he answered, “We can’t.”

But so far, under his leadership, he has allowed it.

Finding work for the jobless is the best anti-poverty program this nation can mount. But while the Obama administration spends $608 million during the first 17 days of its involvement in Libya’s civil war — it can muster neither the money nor the will to combat black unemployment.
The president’s failure to fight this problem as vigorously as he wages war abroad gets a pass from black leaders, many of whom complain to me privately but remain silent in public. They’re reluctant to challenge Obama the way Martin Luther King Jr. did Lyndon Johnson in 1967.

America “would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor” so long as it was involved in the Vietnam war, King said in a speech in which he called for an end to that bloody conflict.

Last month, as the Obama administration applauded the creation of 216,000 new jobs and a slight dip in the overall unemployment rate, the gap between whites and blacks without work widened as the black unemployment rate inched up.

I wonder if Mr. Wickham realizes the damage those anti-poverty policies created by Lyndon Johnson has had on the black community since then? The War on Poverty turned out to be more of a War on the Black Family as fathers were replaced with government checks and the illegitimacy rate in the black community skyrocketed.

Want to get more black Americans working? Quit sending them welfare checks.

I agree with Mr. Wickham that the war in Libya is a complete waste of money, but throwing that money into some sort of black America stimulus program would not fix the underlying problems.  In fact, it would probably make it worse.

Majority of World is Laughing at Al Gore

Gallup says he's not fooling most of the people on global warming:

Most of the human race does not see global warming as a serious threat, according to a Gallup poll released last week that surveyed individuals in 111 countries.

Respondents were asked: “How serious of a threat is global warming to you and your family?” They were given the options of anwering: not at all serious, not very serious, somewhat serious or very serious.

Worldwide, only 42 percent told Gallup they believed global warming was either a “somewhat serious” or “very serious” threat. Gallup did not publish the separate percentages for each answer.

In the United States, 53 percent said they believed global warming was a “somewhat serious” or “very serious” threat to themselves and their families. That was down from 63 percent in polling that Gallup did on the question in the United States in 2007 and 2008.

Even if the globe is warming (and that's in dispute) there's not a darn thing we can do about it. Nature would just laugh at our feeble attempts to control the global temperature, especially if it's done with politically correct foolishness.

Record Severe Weather Month

Boy, has it been ugly in much of the middle and eastern part of the country:

April 2011 has been a horrific month for severe weather so far with more than 550 reports of tornadoes, at least 39 tornado-related deaths and unthinkable destruction.

As the wild weather pattern continues this week, the month's total number of tornadoes will continue to rise. There is a good chance that April 2011 will end up being the most active April on record for tornadoes.

With May and June typically being the most active months of the year for severe weather, people are wondering if the trend will continue and make 2011 a record-setting year.

Stats for April

The total number of tornado reports this month (through Friday) was up to 559, according to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC). At least 15 more reports of twisters were submitted thereafter over the weekend.

It's important to note that these are the number of reports (or sightings), not confirmed tornadoes. Oftentimes multiple sightings of the same tornado are reported, and it will take quite some time until all the data is sorted through and the number of confirmed tornadoes is determined.

According to the SPC, the highest number of confirmed tornadoes recorded in the month of April (since 1950) was 267 in 1974.

If all of the tornado reports so far this month were confirmed, April 2011 would by far be the most active April for tornadoes. Even though the number of confirmed tornadoes will probably end up being quite a bit smaller, this month is still likely to beat the record.

There were an additional 31 tornado reports yesterday, including a very strong tornado that did substantial damage in Arkansas last night. Today promises more severe storms and flooding with the threat moving to the east coast tomorrow.

There have been a number of tornado fatalities in April, but nothing like the previous record April in 1974 when hundreds died.  The warning systems available today are light years better than what we had that year.

Wall Street Finally Coming To Their Senses

I never understood why the titans of Wall Street supported Democrats.  It must have been some sort of masochistic attraction to punishment, since Dems haven't missed an opportunity in the past several years to demonize Wall Street and the rich.

Well, at least one executive has had enough (from Daily Caller):

Wall Street ditches Dems for GOP -- After giving heavily to Democrats in the last election cycle, Hedge fund managers are switching sides. "Daniel Loeb, founder of Third Point LLC, was one of the biggest Obama fund-raisers in 2008, rounding up $200,000 for him, according to campaign-finance records. In the decade prior, Mr. Loeb and his wife donated $250,000 to Democrats and less than $10,000 to Republicans," reports the Wall Street Journal. "But since Mr. Obama's inauguration, Mr. Loeb has given $468,000 to Republican candidates and the GOP, and just $8,000 to Democrats." Loeb, who is but one of a number of big money types to play for the other team, summed up his feelings in a widely circulated email initially sent to just a few friends: "I am sure, if we are really nice and stay quiet, everything will be alright and the president will become more centrist and that all his tough talk is just words...I mean, he really loves us and when he beats us, he doesn't mean it." In reality, the spankings never stop. 

Welcome to reality Mr. Loeb. Just like the black community, the gay community, and many other groups, Obama will tell you what you want to hear while at the same time doing the opposite. For some reason there are a lot of people who are willing to ignore his actions while swooning over his words.

Liberal Writer: Obama is a RINO

Needless to say, this piece from liberal Ezra Klein is getting much mockery from conservative pundits:

America is mired in three wars. The past decade was the hottest on record. Unemployment remains stuck near 9 percent, and there’s a small, albeit real, possibility that the U.S. government will default on its debt. So what’s dominating the news? A reality-television star who can’t persuade anyone that his hair is real is alleging that the president of the United States was born in Kenya.

Perhaps this is just the logical endpoint of two years spent arguing over what Barack Obama is — or isn’t. Muslim. Socialist. Marxist. Anti-colonialist. Racial healer. We’ve obsessed over every answer except the right one: President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican of the early 1990s. And the Republican Party he’s facing has abandoned many of its best ideas in its effort to oppose him.

In other words, Obama can't just be an incompetent liberal Democrat socialist, he must be an evil Republican in drag.  And all those "good ideas" the GOP has abandoned were nothing more than liberal policies embraced by RINOs who wanted to get invited to all the best Washington dinner parties.  They were never conservative Republican principles.

The GOP leadership of the early 90's (pre-Newt), especially in the House, were a bunch of guys who had been perennial losers for 40 years.  They'd gotten so used to being in the minority it didn't bother them anymore.  Thank goodness most of those people are gone and the few dinosaurs that are left are being weeded out.

Obama Has Gas Pains

You can hide a lot of bad economic news in government statistics and actually make things look better than they are, but you can't hide high gas prices and people are waking up to the fact that Obama's energy policies are adding to their pain at the pump:

Soaring gasoline prices are biting into household incomes and nibbling at Americans’ fuel consumption — and support for President Obama, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

About six in 10 respondents said they had cut back on driving because of rising fuel prices, and seven in 10 said that high pump prices are causing financial hardship.

Obama, like previous presidents in times of high oil prices, is taking a hit. Only 39 percent of those who call gas prices a “serious financial hardship” approve of the way he is doing his job, and 33 percent of them say he’s doing a good job on the economy.

The Energy Information Administration said Monday that gas prices climbed last week to $3.88 a gallon, up 81 cents since the start of the year. That is the highest pump price since August 2008, before the financial meltdown.

Evidence of motorists’ hardships is littering the roads. AAA says the number of motorists running out of gas has been surging. John Townsend, a spokesman for the automobile association, said that cash-strapped members “are pushing the envelope” and that emergency gas deliveries to stranded members jumped nationwide, including by 40 percent in the District.

That sort of hardship could slow Obama’s reelection campaign. The Post-ABC poll shows that 60 percent of independents who say they’ve been hit hard by surging gas prices also say they definitely won’t support Obama in his bid for reelection.

In a hypothetical matchup with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the top GOP performer in the Post-ABC poll, Romney wins by 24 points among the independents who have taken a severe financial hit because of gas prices, and the president is up 7 percentage points among other independents.

Although there are limited tools at Obama's disposal to moderate gas prices, much of what happens in the energy markets are driven by emotion and perceptions as much as they are supply and demand. With a president who has previous expressed a desire for high fuel prices and whose energy policies are doing nothing to increase supply, there's no reason for prices to decline. If Obama were to seriously push for new drilling in American territory, even though that drilling wouldn't yield actual results for possibly years, the psychological effect would be immediate and you'd almost instantly see an easing in the energy markets.

My call for gas pump activism was picked up by several big websites and I think reminding people of Obama's role in these prices is important.  Nothing will change if we don't change presidents in 2012.

Haley Barbour Out, Ron Paul In

That's not a good trade:

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, whose outspoken libertarian views and folksy style made him a cult hero during two previous presidential campaigns, will announce on Tuesday that he's going to try a third time.

I've already got Paul's campaign slogan:  Don't Trust Anyone Under 78!

Meanwhile, Gov. Haley Barbour, who has about as much chance to win as Paul but who is a significantly more interesting candidate, will not run. Too bad.

At least I'll be able to weed by Facebook feed of all the Paulnuts who will be dancing in the street tomorrow.

Political Quote of the Day

From The Donald, when asked about his birther obsession:

“Well I’ve been told very recently, Anderson, that the birth certificate is missing,” Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Monday. “I’ve been told that it’s not there or it doesn’t exist. And if that’s the case it’s a big problem.”

I don't care that much about the whole birther thing, but I think Trump's constant discussion of the issue is adding a lot of entertainment to a potentially dull campaign.

Meanwhile, CNN is coming to Obama's rescue with an "investigation" that supposedly clears Obama on the whole birther thing.  However, they've got some work to do because according to this poll only 38% of Americans believe Obama was born in the U.S.

No Easter Message From Obama? No Big Deal

Some folks on the right are all verklempt because Obama didn't issue one of those special holiday statements like he's done for many other holidays, religious or otherwise.  Personally, I wish the White House would get out of the business of special declarations.

If I was president (and you can write me in next year if you wish) I'd eliminate all those special events. No more putting pink ribbons on the White House for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, no more Black History Month, no more pardoning turkeys at Thanksgiving - none of that until the affairs of this nation are under such control as the White House has time for all that frivolity.

Because you can't honor everybody's pet cause or special holiday, better to skip them all.

They Could Have Gotten George W. Bush to Run the Dodgers

But they chose a former partner instead:

Thomas Schieffer, the former Texas Rangers president, has accepted the job to oversee the Dodgers and "all of the franchise's related entities," baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced Monday.

"Schieffer, an investor in the ownership group headed by George W. Bush and Rusty Rose that purchased the Rangers in 1989, was the club president from 1991-1999 and the franchise's general partner from November 1994 until June 1998," Selig said in a statement.

Can you imagine what would have happened in the Hollywood leftist community if Selig had chosen Bush to run the Dodgers? That would have been absolutely hilarious.

Political Quote of the Day

From Brit Hume, speaking on Fox News Sunday about Obama's chances in 2012:

“If the election were held today, in my view, Barack Obama would lose. He might lose big. Obviously, he’s got some time. Events change. He would lose to any reasonable nominee from the Republican Party. The Republican Party might be able to lose the election if they nominate some extremely colorful freakish candidate, but my view of this is this election, Juan [Williams] – as you may have heard me say before, is unlikely to be about the Republican nominee. It will be about President Obama and his record and if the public decides it wants to make a change, and it would do that if the election were held today, they will elect a Republican.”

It's a "freakish candidate" part that has me worried. The GOP field seems full of them.

Seven Steps to End Public Employee Unions

Jeff Carter writes a lengthy piece at Points and Figures that includes seven microeconomic steps that could be taken to end public employee unions and reduce the overall cost of government:

1. Break the link between automatic revenue generation and the government. Make unions collect their own revenue. This will decrease their revenue because unionized employees will have to actually write a check to the union. No more auto-deductions. Unions would see increased costs.

2. Have union members vote each year to have their dues raised. Since it’s done automatically today, they have no voice in the outcome. Unions would find that their members might be averse to increasing dues annually, and it will make the fat cats running the unions more accountable to their membership. They would also have increased costs annually to run and tabulate those elections.

3. Ask union workers to contribute more for their own benefits. Currently, many of them contribute very little to the cost of their health care and pension benefits. Ask them to shoulder more of their own responsibilities. Their pensions currently are risk free. Better yet, end defined benefit pensions and go to defined contribution pensions. Very different than the private sector.

3. End collective bargaining for public (not private) unions. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) said, “the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” This will begin to institute the ideals of merit and pay for performance into the government workplace. The government should become more efficient as well, saving you tax dollars and increasing your service at the same time.

4. Force unions to constantly be in court, filing lawsuits and paying attorneys. Business is optimal when it produces where marginal revenues equal marginal costs. If we increase the costs of the union to produce, it will lower it’s production. The unions will counter all these measures. They will incorrectly assail them as attacks on human rights by filing lawsuits. Lawsuits cost money. They will win some and lose some, but as long as the political will is there the union fixed costs of doing business will be permanently increased. Combine that with a broken revenue model and it will put their bottom lines under pressure. If unions adopt the strategy of constantly filing lawsuits, eventually public opinion will turn against them just like the boy who cried wolf.

5. Provide competition. We have already seen what competition can do to government agencies like the postal service. Fedex, UPS and private delivery services are more efficient and effective than the USPS. We need to extend this to other areas to make markets competitive. School vouchers is one place we can do that. By encouraging a private school network to compete against our public school system, we can begin to cripple the monopoly that government has over education, and thus increase the costs for unions while decreasing their revenue. Privatizing the TSA would be another. There is a lot of low hanging fruit that can be converted to private industry when you start thinking about it. Anywhere, including the Department of Defense, that we can set up a private industry to compete with the government for the same service will challenge public unions.

6. Reduce the size and scope of government. Eliminate agencies, programs and departments. Forget the scalpel or ax, we need to use a nuclear bomb. Supernatural beings don’t have the staying power of a government program.

7. Be Pro-Choice. Enact right to work legislation at the state and local level. Give workers a choice of whether to be unionized or not. States that have right to work laws have lower unemployment and more vibrant economies. From today’s WSJ, “In Indiana, where Governor Mitch Daniels used an executive order to end collective bargaining and gave members the right to opt out, some 95% of state employees chose not to pay union dues.”

Read the rest of it here.  Remember, unions are not near as much about protecting employees as they are about generating vast sums of money the unions can use to promote their political and economic agenda.

Poll Proves Majority of My Fellow Californians Are Complete Idiots

From Top of the Ticket:

If the conventional mantra about California being on the forefront of the nation's political trends holds true, it's really bad news for America's taxpayers.

According to a new L.A. Times / USC Dornsife poll, a majority of Californians -- 52% to 38% -- are just fine with Democrat Jerry Brown's plan to fill the state's chronic budget deficit with $14 billion in new or renewed taxes along with cuts, as long as they get to vote on it.

This despite the recent history of waste, corruption and spending abuses in the most populous state's vast government.

This despite the state's continuing 12% unemployment rate, second-highest in the country.

This despite the weak 44% job approval rating for Gov. Brown.

This despite 41% of Californians believing that wasteful, unwise spending by ....

... state officials is responsible for the deficit.

This despite 67% of Californians believing the state's coughing economy is not yet improving and possibly worsening.

This despite 66% of Californians believing the country is on the wrong track under the Obama administration.

This despite 70% believing California is on the wrong track under -- oh, look! -- it's Jerry Brown again.

Brown's idea is to erase the $26-billion deficit in an $85-billion budget with a claimed $12 billion in cuts and $14 billion in new or extended taxes, because who doesn't believe more government would help any situation?

Geez.

There is only one answer to California's massive overspending problem: Stop spending. The tax and regulatory burden on California business is already driving companies and jobs out-of-state, and increasing taxes will do absolutely nothing to fix the underlying problem. It may forestall some pain...briefly...but the pain will return bigger and more devastating.

Now before I completely write the state off, there is a glimmer of hope in another poll:

California voters want government employees to give up some retirement benefits to help ease the state's financial problems, favoring a cap on pensions and a later age for collecting them, according to a new poll.

Voter support for rolling back benefits available to few outside the public sector comes as Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans in the Legislature haggle over changes to the pension system as part of state budget negotiations. Such benefits have been a flashpoint of national debate this year, and the poll shows that Californians are among those who perceive public retirement plans to be too costly.

Voters appear ready to embrace changes not just for future hires but also for current employees who have been promised the benefits under contract.

Seventy percent of respondents said they supported a cap on pensions for current and future public employees. Nearly as many, 68%, approved of raising the amount of money government workers should be required to contribute to their retirement. Increasing the age at which government employees may collect pensions was favored by 52%.

This comes just as word gets out that Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown gave the state prison guards another sweetheart contract which now allows them to accumulate an unlimited amount of unused vacation time that must be cashed out when they retire, thus created yet another unfunded liability for the state.