"In the long run, we are all dead," Lord Keynes, the newly fashionable economist, famously said. But, if this bill passes, in the medium term, we're all dead. It's a massive expansion of the state in the same direction that has brought sclerosis to Europe.

The must-readable Mark Steyn at National Review.

Our President is now saying that reviving the economy may take years rather than months, per the current headline at Drudge.

Repairing the damage done to America by this "stimulus" bill won't take years to undo. It may take generations. If anyone still has the will.

This is what happens when a guy who has never so much as run a lemonade stand gets to determine policy:

The Federal Government's procurement interests in economy and efficiency are served when the successor contractor hires the predecessor's employees. A carryover work force reduces disruption to the delivery of services during the period of transition between contractors and provides the Federal Government the benefits of an experienced and trained work force that is familiar with the Federal Government's personnel, facilities, and requirements.

[snip]

It is the policy of the Federal Government that service contracts and solicitations for such contracts shall include a clause that requires the contractor, and its subcontractors, under a contract that succeeds a contract for performance of the same or similar services at the same location, to offer those employees (other than managerial and supervisory employees) employed under the predecessor contract whose employment will be terminated as a result of the award of the successor contract, a right of first refusal of employment under the contract in positions for which they are qualified.

Basically, this says that anyone who is awarded a new contract has to use the workers from the old contract.

Fantastic. Just fantastic. An executive order to safeguard any amount of incompetence in government services that may be discovered.

President Obama must truly be an intellectual because only an intellectual would be stupid enough to think this would work. And by "work" I mean improving the quality of work done by the contractor on the taxpayer's behalf.

"Work" in this case may mean just another program to develop the Democrat Party at the grass-roots level because unionized, lazy, useless timeservers make up 35% of their constituency.

Every broken down Landman in town knows how to do proper withholding, but the new Secretary of the Treasury wasn't able to figure it out....according to the 'official' story. Now former long-time Democrat former Senator Tom Daschle is discovered to have somehow neglected to pay $101,000 in taxes due on benefits received from a 'wealthy friend'...in this case the use of a car and driver for three years.

Sure, you can't blame Daschle for not knowing that such benefits are considered income. It was just a favor, right? Are we taxing favors now, too? Easy mistake. Just like Geithner. And Rangel.

And the $83,000 in "consulting income" that he did not declare? Consulting income is income, too? Wow. Who knew?

No wonder these guys aren't bothered by high taxes. They don't pay them.

Seriously, though, I can't but wonder if part of the problem with these long-time "public servants" and their views on the proper levels of taxation aren't profoundly affected by how much in their own personal lives and activities is paid for by other people or entities.

Bill Clinton used to brag about how little he made as Governor of Arkansas, the inference being that he "doesn't care about money". And it is true that the actual salary paid to the Governor of Arkansas is pretty small. I want to say that it was only around $35,000 per year at the time.

But to that $35,000 you have to add all of the trappings of office, like a free residence, access to state aircraft, drivers, assistants, cleaning staff, insurance benefits. Does the Governor buy food for the Governor's mansion? I doubt it. And that is just "official' governor type stuff. Politicians at that level also have access to millions in 'campaign funds' that let them travel and entertain at will.

And on all of that stuff listed above that combined provide a jet-set lifestyle he pays taxes on the $35,000.

And it is the same at the national level. 535 office-holders with the lifestyle habits of multi-millionaires paying taxes on their $174,000 per year salary.

When so much of their lives is unaffected or impervious to the tax code, you can begin to see why they might view taxes a little differently than the rest of us.

Some things you should know about the so-called "Stimulus" bill:

• Only ten per cent of the "stimulus" to be spent on 2009.
• Close to half goes to entities that sponsor or employ or both members of the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions, or other Democrat-controlled unions.
• This bill is sent to Congress after Obama has been in office for seven days. It is 680 pages long. According to my calculations, not one member of Congress read the entire bill before this vote. Obviously, it would have been impossible, given his schedule, for President Obama to have read the entire bill.
• For the amount spent we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000.
• We could give every person who had lost a job and is now passing through long-term unemployment of six months or longer roughly $300,000.

I love how over many months, countless U.N. resolutions, and a Senate vote we "rushed" into war. But if we don't pass this "stimulus" bill (a bill that only spends 10% of the money in the next year) in a matter of hours, then all Hell will break loose.

Thank God that the Republicans in the House found the spine to vote against this en masse. May the Senate Republicans do the same. The Dems have the number to make it pass. They don't need any RINO's to help them out.

This is the greatest looting of the U.S. Treasury in history and the Republicans ought to make sure that the Democrats own it outright.

Dana Milbank has some fun at the expense of the Holy Gore, and in the unlikeliest place--The Washington Post. I've not read the paper, only remembering how it sneered at every politician that I liked and seemed enamored of ones that I held in contempt. But here is a delightfully snide report on the Holy Gore's performance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

There are many jewels: Dick Lugar

Dick Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican, agreed that there will be "an almost existential impact" from the climate changes Gore described.

Johnny Isakson, another Republican, asked the Holy Gore

"I stand to be corrected, and I defer to your position, you're probably right, and I'm probably wrong." He ended his question by saying: "I'm not questioning you; I'm questioning myself."

Milbank zings these stuffed shirts again and again, one of the best being

Mostly, however, the lawmakers took turns asking the Goracle for advice, as if playing with a Magic 8 Ball.

Worth the read.

The $819 billion (that's $819,000,000,000!) "stimulus" bill, that was passed in the House tonight, that all Republicans and a non-trivial number of Democrats voted against, that the House Repubs just hung around Our President's neck even after the lovefest lunch at the Capitol yesterday, is IN ADDITION TO the $700 billion (that's $700,000,000,000) Tarp funds approved by the last congress. Some folks think that the current stimulus only adds a few (119!!!!) billion to the prior bank and automaker bailout bucks. Not true. We are at $1.519 trillion (that's $1,519,000,000,000) total. And no rebound in any of the markets yet. The total equals over $5,000 for every man, woman and child in the country, whether here legally or illegally. It would also equal about $200,000 for every currently unemployed person in the country. Your government at work.

Rep. Carter introduced a bill Wednesday to eliminate all IRS penalties and interest for paying taxes past due.

The legislation calls for the creation of what he calls the, "Rangel Rule," -- drawing attention to the recent legal issues of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., enabling citizens who fail to pay taxes on time to do so later with no additional fees.

A Texas congressman has a BIG clue. I love it! Read it all.

Also, send Congressman Conaway a note thanking him for voting "no" on the "stimulus" bill tonight!

We here in the Permian Basin had no idea of the mental and psychological duress imposed by the Bush Administration on our more sensitive colleagues elsewhere. Newsweek issued an article here which is written by Jessica Bennett. Remember that name--in this one article alone she proves that she's a silly cow in the Rosie O'Donnell league.

The theory is almost too perfect to be true. Barack Obama, the son of politically progressive parents, was born Aug. 4, 1961--almost nine months to the day after John F. Kennedy was elected to the White House. Is it possible Obama was conceived on that historic night?

Her bosom heaving, she breathlessly sighs out anecdotal evidence of people making Obama babies out of Hope and Enthusiasm, and I suspect a lot of booze. I cannot be mocked for some things are so silly that they don't support it.

And what a silly conceit. I was born six days after Einstein died and anyone who knows me would suggest that there was no transference there.

This intolerable gush from what used to a respected newsweekly shows its reporters to be nothing more than giddy children. They moon over and cast doe eyes at Mr. Obama as though he were the Second Coming. Which poses a question. If he is indeed the Second Coming, does that mean that his birth was virgin? And if that's so, how can anyone be sure that he's black?

This is un-freaking-believable.

Many US Airways (LCC) passengers who endured a crash landing in the Hudson River 12 days ago say they appreciate the $5,000 that the airline has offered -- but some say it's not enough.

Joe Hart, a salesman from Charlotte who suffered a bloody nose and bruises, says he "would like to be made whole for the incident."

It's too soon after the accident to determine what emotional distress he has suffered, he says.

Joe, guys like you are made whole with about $15 and should you get more than that you should be hit hard with a windfall profits tax.

The surprising number of no votes suggests that both parties will keep Geithner on a short leash. And it was President Obama who ran over to the Treasury Department to swear Geithner in right after the Senate vote. This was unusual, but it's clear the new president is trying to stop the bleeding of his new Treasury man. Instead of a hoped-for early confirmation to get the next stage of the financial-bailout package moving, Geithner wound up being one of the last cabinet officers confirmed.

Larry Kudlow in a short, great, article on the confirmation yesterday of our new lying, tax-evading, lefty Treasury Secretary and its and his implications.

It seems that not only is the MSM swooning over The Chosen One, but the Japanese are too. This Japanese site shows it.

This from the site:

When Elvis died I filled the air with cursing, knowing that he'd be worse dead than alive because of the people selling bits of his corpse. I predicted that within a year they'd be selling necklaces with bits of his Cadillac in them; it took a month. Back then televisions generally didn't have remotes but I made a speaker killer to avoid the Elvis kitsch. And as we all know, the cult of Elvis has taken over the world. Even Douglas Adams, who ought to know better, was in his thrall.

There is one thing, however, that you can say about Elvis: you could buy his music or not. You weren't forced to open up your pockets to him and he was what he was, instead of a buzz-word salesman.

Freshly released from the gulags of Bushrovistan and ready once again to begin serving others in the community without fear of persecution, imprisonment or exile by the jack-booted Fascist thugs from the Midland County Republican Party, local Followers of Obama (FOB's) met...openly...to discuss various ways to re-establish the once countless opportunities for public service that were declared illegal by President-Select George W. Bush in 2001.

Freed from the constraints of the Bush administration's War on Service, the meeting's attendees suggested a series of possible initiatives:

Things the Midlanders said they would like to work for issues such as universal health care and energy independence to more locally tangible goals such as offering financial literacy programs, advising citizens on how to find financial aid and continuing to register young people to vote.

Fantastic! The first four ideas out of the box include 1) Getting someone else to pay for your health care, 2) helping to tank the local economy, 3 and 4) how to manage the aid money that you have secured, and 5) how to help us keep the tap open for everyone by engaging in that public service closest to Barack Obama's heart: Getting people to vote for Barack Obama.

Two more initiatives from farther down the article:

....educating high school students about nutrition and helping those without insurance know of their options.

One initiative to teach high school students all the stuff about nutrition that they somehow missed while sitting through twelve years of life sciences classes while attending school along with the efforts of countless other already existing 'awareness' initiatives involving proper nutrition. And yet another initiative on accessing public resources.

Hope. And Change.

Okay, I over-state with this post a bit. Maybe a lot. But this whole "what can we do for our fellow man now that Barack Obama is in office" meme is already tired. I have no doubt that these people mean well and that many have actually put in service hours. But that is kind of the whole point, isn't it? It is as though service hours put in under an Obama administration are more worthy and noble and that service hours put in under the Bush administration is tantamount to having served in the French Resistance.

There was not a single issue covered in that meeting that doesn't already have an existing interest group or local organization already pursuing it. Casa de Amigos alone probably has a program already in place for 85% of the service ideas put forth.

So here is an idea: Instead of burning up 36 man-hours to arrive at the conclusion that smaller focus groups may be needed to make sure that these ideas are acted upon rather than just talked about, why not just show up on Casa de Amigos' doorstep and ask, "How can I help?"

The non-profit sector is waaaaaay ahead of you. For every initiative discussed by the Hopenchangers Local 122 there is almost certainly an existing group running an existing program. The best way to do this is to figure out which initiatives are most important to you and to your community, find out who is already working in that area and then just present yourself and your particular skill set to them. They will put you to work even if you don't solemnly chant that you have come "in service to the Obama administration."

And then there is this:

As is happening in living room and community center meetings across the country this month, they said, they're still figuring out what it means to support the administration from home, taking directives from Obama's team who is itself still formulating what Organizing for America will look like throughout the next four years.

President Obama doesn't hear your prayers and his administration is comprised of Obama's fellow Chicago pols, Clinton administration re-treads, and Bush's Defense Secretary. Collectively, they don't know anything about Midland and they don't really care. Don't wait for them to tell you what it means to "serve the administration" (God, that is just creepy). The non-profits have it hard enough as it is. They don't need to be further handicapped by a weird combination of cult-ish worship of a quasi-deity and the central planning of local community service.

The result has been to deliver a society of permanent high unemployment, unaffordable entitlements, and deathbed demographics - even before the economic downturn put more immediate question marks over the future. As Obama was inaugurated, rioters were besieging their parliaments in Iceland, Latvia, and Bulgaria, the beginnings of a civil unrest that will spread inward from the fringes of the European map. Unlike Ashton Kutcher, these people are not worried about arts-education mentoring.

Mark Steyn on the "sheer genius" of our new President, B.H. Obama: His Boringness.

Oh, yeah. And be sure to listen to Rush on Monday, even if you normally don't make time, and really even if you don't like him. He will be On Fire and will make a memorable 3 hour rebuttal to The Big O going at him directly.

France has, as we all know, strange laws but then that's because they're French. Or the other way round. The last president of France, Jacques Chirac, whom Christopher Hitchens called "the rat that soared" and he was being kind, was crooked enough to have been an ACORN member.

Since Chirac's retirement he has been keeping company with his wife and their pet poodle, Sumo, and that really is the dog's name, and said canine has been taking pills for depression. The pill-popping poodle.

It seems that Sumo has bitten President Chirac severely enough that he was rushed to a French hospital, to be treated for the bite of a poodle on Prozac.

You can't make this up.

From Arthur Brooks, in the WSJ:

Over the past several years, studies have consistently shown that people on the political right outperform those on the left when it comes to charity. This pattern appears to have held -- increased, even -- in 2008.

In May of last year, the Gallup polling organization asked 1,200 American adults about their giving patterns. People who called themselves "conservative" or "very conservative" made up 42% of the population surveyed, but gave 56% of the total charitable donations. In contrast, "liberal" or "very liberal" respondents were 29% of those polled but gave just 7% of donations.

These disparities were not due to differences in income. People who said they were "very conservative" gave 4.5% of their income to charity, on average; "conservatives" gave 3.6%; "moderates" gave 3%; "liberals" gave 1.5%; and "very liberal" folks gave 1.2%.

Of course, showing a significantly greater tendency to support charitable causes should never, ever be seen as an indication that we care as much as those on the Left...much less care more.

No, it is obvious that we are all just rich people trying to offset our ill-gotten income gains from other investments. Investments that don't employ fair-trade practices in Third World countries. What is left over goes to the National Rifle Association.....earmarked for the educational seminars that show the proper way to club a baby seal should you find yourself out of ammunition.

Every year or so I get the itch to re-design the site. Further itchiness is caused by an interest in converting from MovableType over to WordPress because that is what a lot of the big, popular blogs are doing.

I am not sure what my point was there.

A gutsy move, no doubt, and we wish the developers great good luck in their endeavors. All the way up to but not including access to public monies (this is Midland's Official 'Aginner' Blog, after all).

But it makes me wonder what the status is of the project that was to turn the old First National Bank Building on the corner of Main and Wall into residential units. I have always loved that old building and its accompanying office 'tower'. That old bank, the old Shell building, and the Yucca Theater are the only architecturally notable buildings in downtown Midland.

That project seemed to be moving along pretty fast and also seemed to have been timed well with the price of oil headed up and the inventory of available homes way down. Those two indicators have since reversed....with a vengeance, unfortunately, and I wonder if that project is on an indefinite hold.

I've been thinking about what all those liberals with BDS are going to do...and it struck me. They are about to start playing defense by attacking commentators and blogs that dare critize President Obama.

I think they have already started on this blog. For the most part all we've critized is those who supported Obama, I wonder how large the malestrom will be when we focus on the President himself?

Ready. Set. Go. Use the comments. Because I've got nuthin'.

Okay, here is one: Because when American foreign policy is conducted in ways that raise our moral standing among all of the other nations then we don't have to go to other countries like Iraq and Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda.

Wait, that came out wrong.

Throngs of the newly inspired to serve wading through a sea of litter that goes unnoticed or ignored. And at this inauguration these disciples of unity didn't even have their hands full carrying eggs.

I blame Bush.

How can America possibly be a "Paper Tiger" when it has the most powerful and best equipped military that the planet has ever known? Easy. Elect people to office who do not possess the will to use it when necessary.

McQ at BlackFive makes the point that if there ever were any doubts about the capabilities of this country's military they have been long dispelled. If Osama bin Laden was talking about our men and women in uniform when he waxed eloquent about "weak horses" and "strong horses" he has been kicking himself in the ass for 7 years for being such an idiot.

If he was referring to America's will to employ our military through difficult and sometimes drawn-out circumstances where casualties could begin to mount then the board was cleared and a new game was started as soon as Barack Obama finished the oath of office.

Which is not to say that Barack Obama won't continue to pursue the war as aggressively as George Bush did. He well may.

One advantage to having Barack Obama in the White House now (assuming he does have the will to pursue our enemies effectively, as opposed to cosmetically, like Bill Clinton, Scourge of the Desert Tents) is that he won't have to fight half of Congress and the entire Mainstream Media also. For six and a half years the press hasn't been in the news business so much as it has the "Bush is wrong" business.

If President Obama pursues a "Surge" in Afghanistan, Harry Reid is unlikely to ever proclaim it a failure, much less before the surge troops even arrive in-country as he did with the surge in Iraq. If MSNBC is any example, any move by the Obama Administration will be accompanied only by accolades or by excuses as to why it was the fault of the previous administration. After a couple of years the excuses will necessarily be exchanged for silence on the topic.

But for now let us hope he has the will to fight a just fight. And that the Mainstream Press and the Harry Reid's of the world stay true to form and continue to determine how just a cause is by who it is that is waging it.

The word "Presidential" being encased in quotes because this parade of idiots has no interest in the Office of the Presidency unless their guy occupies it. Rather their interest is based solely upon their near worship of Barack Obama.

Although, I have to say that it has been amusing to watch the "Stars" themselves become unbridled Starfuc****.

And in the process illustrate the lowest form of the "hyphenated" citizen, the Conditional-American.

If you have watched the video and need a palate cleanser....or a sanity restoration please refer to the transcript of the video provided by iowahawk.

Over the last few years it was near impossible to avoid complete and total moonbats on these here internet tubes that were just sure....absolutely sure...that sometime before today Bush, or Cheney, or the Halliburton/Industrial Complex....or some some damned thing were going to invade Iran, or execute another 9/11 (you know, like they did the first time!) and then declare martial law so that the elections could be suspended, you see, and so Chimpy McHitlerburton and his cronies could stay in office indefinitely or until they could imprison or execute such brave dissenters as Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, and Rosie O'Donnell.

Or at least put a slight dent in their pile of gargantuan 1099's.

These moonbats were usually found in the comments sections of various "progressive" websites and my challenge was always the same: A bet of $1,000 that come January 20, 2009, George W. Bush would leave the Presidency and that there would be a peaceful transfer of power within this great nation.

Today is the day that they would have been required to pay up. Consumed with hatred, but at least self-aware to the point that they knew that they were full of crap.

Today the first black man in the history of the world comes to great power. This is an astonishing thing in and of itself; 140 years ago America had our civil war; the Brits sneer at "America's Founding Sin" but they outlawed slavery only thirty years before we fought a war over it. And today Barack Hussein Obama is inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, and fifty years ago blacks couldn't sit at the same lunch counter as whites in some places. Time does march on. And I see nothing wrong with time marching on.

When my mother moved to Culo de Pecos in the early 40s, whites could pay a nickel and have a Coke at the lunch counter of Ben's Pharmacy; Mexicans had to take their Coke outside to drink it. Mom remarked in the 60s that their nickel was just as good as hers. I recall, in very early childhood, the court house having "White Only" restrooms. They are now much more sensibly ordered by sex, more sensibly also because we're not French.

After the Civil War, blacks were horribly traduced by Jim Crow and just plain violence; it was slavery by other means, and just for the crime of being black. This was a blot on America's history for all Americans are owed equal protection under the law.

As an effort to equalize the races, people came up with Affirmative Action, which was really reverse discrimination. My brother and father are of the opinion that barriers ought to be eliminated and that finishes our obligations. I am a bit, perhaps, to the left of that, thinking that an invitation does no harm. If a door has been closed for decades to you, you might not notice that it's been opened. This it not to say that I believe in preferential treatment, just a welcome mat. To this end corporations like Apple, IBM and even Wal-Mart and Pepsico have established departments making gays welcome, stating that they wanted the talent. I very much hope however that the talent is the sole reason for hiring and I don't mean decorating talent.

Have the Ocean Levels begun to fall? The O-ssiah is speaking light into a dark world as I type.

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

I especially loved, "I pledge to be a better Dad/Mom". Sure, that was impossible under the reign of George the Terrible. And what would that involve exactly? Hiring better au pairs?

I've played it a couple of times and I still haven't seen anyone pledge to give up the use of the studio jet in order to help save the planet. I must have missed it.

The way to watch this video is to mentally precede each and every one of these "pledges" with the words, "Now that the guy I supported is in office....."

And that is only if you believe that any one of these people will actually carry out their pledges.

Which I don't.

I have to admit that overall I'm a good deal more pleased with Barack Hussein Obama's incoming actions than I thought I would be; after all, consider his associates in the past. Would you let them in your house? You certainly would keep an eye on them and count the spoons after they'd left.

I have seen the video, and posted it elsewhere on this site, of Obama speaking to ACORN and promising them that they'd be setting policy. And this has not happened. Nancy Pelosi is upset that Obama has wondered if now is the right time to raise taxes, and that's a twofer, economically and in that it upsets Pelosi, and Obama has been drawing fire from the New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who combines red-of-tooth-and-claw economic redistributionist policies with 200-proof tooth-gnashing moonbat paranoia. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," is a dicey maxim, for it is valid only if reality is two-valued, but if Krugman is angry, we are in general well served. He's a lapidary figure: learn his stance and take the opposite. It saves time.

The television has been issuing orgasmic moans about the upcoming investiture of Obama into the Holy See of Washington, selling cheap medallions, and one huckster went so far as to hustle election-day coverage in that cheap coinage of "Where were you when..." The idea being that you will have a comfortable story when your grandchildren ask you, in your (further) dotage, "Where were you when Obama was crowned?" All this cheap carnie sideshow and Franklin Mint-type hustling of sentimental rubbish draws attention from the fact that it could be a good deal worse.

Should President-Elect Obama get his nominee for Treasury Secretary through the Senate and should Charles Rangel hold on to his Chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee our great nation's chief tax collector and chief writer of the tax laws will both be proven tax cheats.

This has to be the Change that we have been Hoping for. Because we are the ones we have been waiting for and now we are here. Hoping. And Changing.

Well......we're waiting, anyway.

Once President-Elect Obama takes office you will have to stop selling your Club Gitmo line of apparel.

Sometime around *cough* 2012.

In a wide-ranging 70-minute interview with Washington Post reporters and editors, the president-elect pledged quick action on the Middle East once he takes office, promised to support voting rights for D.C. residents, and said he will consider it a failure if he has not closed the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of his first term in office.

Translation: We are counting on the fact that Gitmo and its detainees will cease to be an issue with the Mainstream Media once it is being run by the Democrats and not the Republicans.

First, why did Hollywood Theatres stop uploading their showtimes to whichever service or services it is that makes them available to my IPhone app?

Second, when is KMID going to begin delivering a High Def signal? Until that happens the station should be referred to as "KMSD."

KMSD. Get it? KMSD?

Gawd. I am such a geek.

From Carol Marin at the Chicago Sun-Times:

The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day.

We reporters have earned our own membership in the Bizarro universe.

Who are we, after all? The ones rapid-firing at Rod Blagojevich with tough questions until we drive him from the room? Or the Miss Manners crowd, silent until called upon, quietly accepting that only a handful of questions will be taken at a time?

Frankly? You are both. And which person of interest gets the hard questions and which gets the softballs depends primarily upon their party affiliation AND/OR said person's effect on the agenda of that party.

Aaaaah, but Blogojevich is a Democrat, you say!

Not even a good try.

The only...ONLY...reason Blagojevich is getting the rough treatment from the press is because his activities are kicking mud up onto their anointed savior, the President-Elect. Charles Rangel is hip-deep on an elephant in financial scandals of different varieties (pay for play, tax fraud...you name it) and not only is the press generally uninterested, the Democrat controlled House won't pursue any meaningful investigation of Rangel's illegal and fraudulent activities. Worse still, they have rescinded the term limits that would have removed this weapons-grade crook from his Chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee with no action required.

Press Reaction: Move along. Nothing to see here.

Chicago and its political mores are well-known to the point that "Chicago Politics" is a punch line to almost any discussion concerning crooked office-holders. Which is precisely why the mainstream Press didn't send anyone to Chicago to dig for dirt before the election. Wasilla, Alaska, was not spared so. There was a reporter in every dumpster...alive, unfortunately...within six blocks of the Palin household searching for any morsel of a scandal that could be tied to a candidate whose chief "failing" (at least theoretically) was that she was inexperienced.

The now clearly insane Andrew Sullivan still clutches to the theory that Trig Palin is actually the son of Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol. Yes, the Bristol Palin that just had a baby the other day....only 8 or so months after the birth of Trig. And the Atlantic Monthly still pays him to do this kind of work.

So while the press turns Alaska upside down looking for any hint of.....um....inexperience, they don't show up in Chicago at all before the election and are only there now because Blagojevich is doing damage to the party and to Barack Obama's image and he must be destroyed.

The mainstream press is completely in the tank for the *cough* progressive agenda in general and the Democrat party in particular. They are not even in denial about that anymore.

Which is not to say that they are no longer in denial of some sort.

Now what the Mainstream Press has deluded themselves into thinking is that their lack of objectivity combined with their ever-decreasing work ethic, overall writing and reporting skills, and their total dearth of knowledge in any area outside of the daily operations of a media outfit isn't what is causing them to go broke at break-neck speed.

It is because of the internet.....or because their readers are failing them. Or something.

It just can't be that the product is defective.

From Politico, via NRO:

Obama's critique of executive power, and discussions about it in the Bush years, have focused largely on foreign policy, but the new president takes office amid the largest-scale government intervention in the American economy since the middle of the last century. The presidents of that era - Roosevelt and Truman - found themselves restrained by the courts in their attempts to meddle in the economy, and some scholars suggested that Obama may be seeking to expand his powers more at home than abroad.

"On the one hand, he's dialing back some of the national security powers that have been controversial over the last eight years," said Cato's Healy. "On the other hand, he seems very comfortable redesigning the economy by executive fiat."

"Controversial" but successful. Our weakening economy, a direct result of the election of Obama, combined with the probable gutting of a number of key national security tactics and no overall strategy except lay down arms and talk, means our opponents are looking at us at our weakest and making their plans. God, help us.

To continue with my current trend of being nothing more than an emcee of other people's work, I present a video from ProteanView. I chanced on him on YouTube, home to more crap than the Lillian Vernon catalog, and have a subscription.

He's a black man who is just tired of the 80s Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton mentality. In this he tells people to quit whining:

He also has a video in which he suggests that it is not good to pay western wages in third-world countries. What is this? A minority who is not captive to what he is supposed to be? Sad, isn't it, that it's so rare that I am touched.

I have tried to find this editorial on the website and could not. No matter; I tried to give credit out of decency. Even without it, the article is good.

A victory for the hysterical Oprah Winfrey, the mad racist preacher Jeremiah Wright, the mainstream media who abandoned any sense of objectivity long ago, Europeans who despise America largely because they depend on her, comics who claim to be dangerous and fearless but would not dare attack genuinely powerful special interest groups. A victory for Obama-worshippers everywhere. A victory for the cult of the cult. A man who has done little with his life but has written about his achievements as if he had found the cure for cancer in between winning a marathon and building a nuclear reactor with his teeth. Victory for style over substance, hyperbole over history, rabble-raising over reality.

A victory for Hollywood, the most dysfunctional community in the world. Victory for Streisand, Spielberg, Soros and Sarandon. Victory for those who prefer welfare to will and interference to independence. For those who settle for group think and herd mentality rather than those who fight for individual initiative and the right to be out of step with meager political fashion.

Victory for a man who is no friend of freedom. He and his people have already stated that media has to be controlled so as to be balanced, without realizing the extraordinary irony within that statement. Like most liberal zealots, the Obama worshippers constantly speak of Fox and Limbaugh, when the vast bulk of television stations and newspapers are drastically liberal and anti-conservative. Senior Democrat Chuck Schumer said that just as pornography should be censored, so should talk radio. In other words, one of the few free and open means of popular expression may well be cornered and beaten by bullies who even in triumph cannot tolerate any criticism and opposition.

A victory for those who believe the state is better qualified to raise children than the family, for those who prefer teachers' unions to teaching and for those who are naively convinced that if the West is sufficiently weak towards its enemies, war and terror will dissolve as quickly as the tears on the face of a leftist celebrity.

A victory for social democracy even after most of Europe has come to the painful conclusion that social democracy leads to mediocrity, failure, unemployment, inflation, higher taxes and economic stagnation. A victory for intrusive lawyers, banal sentimentalists, social extremists and urban snobs.

Congratulations America!

----------------------

Violence in Iraq down 60%. Media coverage of it down 6000%.

In response to a blog post at Althouse.com concerning an article titled "Get the sex you deserve" that attempts to blame capitalism (of all things) for the notion by some that we are all entitled to great sex:

If you're going to blame [capitalism] for increasing the general standard of living and wealth to the point that somebody can earn money writing this drivel about sex instead of laboring in the heat (or cold) to scrape up enough food to stay on the topside of the dirt for another 24 hours, Capitalism will take the rap.

Drivel about sex, gourmet dog biscuits, and John Kelso columns....

Think about how massively wealthy a society must be that there is money left over to pay for these kinds of things.

I didn't vote for President-Elect Obama. I am not sold on President-Elect Obama. But I'll tell you one thing. If I happened to find myself next to a guy that just threw a shoe at him, said guy would damned sure not have gotten the second shoe thrown.

Gilbert Gazan, you are a twit, a moron, a cancer on the body politic, a weak-kneed sh**, and a wasteful consumer of the freedom that was purchased by your betters.

Go watch Theo's video below, sourced from our man in Detroit Des Moines, Iowahawk, and then come back here.

(I'm not trying to upstage your post, Theo. The cut and paste thing did not work in the comment box and isn't working too well here, either. Maybe I should resign myself to being less wordy.)

This video shows a number of vehicles, most of which are clearly designed as toys. But four of the cars shown are actual, real, for-sale vehicles at least in the recent past. Three of the four had a lot of government input in the designs.

This guy is just way too serious.

Talking of soft power, multilateralism, the U.N., dialogue, and restoring our image abroad are all salutary and resonate well in Europe; but to others more nefarious, such calming assurances may send the opposite message that the U.S. is now predictable - and predictably not going to hit hard back when provoked.

Victor Davis Hanson. Absolutely. Must. Reading.

Dude, hope and change. How much more specific does the President-elect need to get? I mean, those were good enough for CNN during the campaign.

Stephen Green.

The idea that the Old-and-in-the-Tank-for-OhOhObama Media are just now starting to recognize the non-substance of OhOhObama's rhetoric is stunningly depressing. And stunningly predictable.

The meddlesome Nancy Pelosi has urges to remake the world in her image--which leaves me gagging--and some wag has looked ahead to Detroit's offerings in a mere three years:

I received a solicitation from the New York Times in the mail. They were nice enough to include a postage paid Business Reply Mail envelope.

Which I immediately sent back to them.

Empty.

It is only $0.42 out of their pocket. But it can't help, right?

Call it a media "bail-in."

Most of my life I thought that if you disliked math you were ill-taught or lazy, just as I could change the oil on my car but won't. I later found that my brain is wired differently and there's nothing that I can do about it. Not that I want to.

I see that liberals are wired differently too.

The whole world knows that Israel is trying to kill as many members of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas as possible before the inauguration of our next President, Barack Hussein Obama. And most readers of this website know that this is not unprovoked at all but is a reaction to the incessant missiles that Hamas launches on Israel. Missiles launched to kill any Israelis possible, while Israel targets specific Hamas households, and even warns the families to get out. Hamas responds by putting families on the rooftops as human shields, and then complains of Israeli atrocities, which the Western press eats up with a spoon. I need a word stronger than "contempt."

Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader, gave forth

They have legitimized the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine. They have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people.

His O'liness has already had a protest against the Israeli air strike on New Year's Eve outside the house he was staying in in Hawaii. I wonder how it must feel, the first time he has not been worshipped.

Samantha Power is one of Obama's foreign-affairs advisers and a good friend. She was thrown under the bus, the same one that ran over Obama's grandmother, for calling Hillary Clinton a monster. Defenestrated over the truth, too, but then this is the 21st century and the truth is always more unwelcome than a correct lie.

But she's back. And her views are that all U.S. aid to Israel ought to be given instead to Palestine. Never mind that the billions of aid that western nations gave to Palestine before mostly went into Arafat's pockets while Palestinian income, under him, dropped 40%. Also, in her view, the U.S. needs to land a "mammoth force" in Israel to protect the Palestinians from the Israelis. To protect the people who are strapping bombs on retarded people to blow up Jews, from the Jews who are to be blown up.

Tell me. Why did 81% of American Jews vote for Obama? This is the first time in my life I've questioned Jewish intelligence.

Perhaps the most iconographic portrait on earth, trumping even Marilyn Monroe's, is that of the murdering communist bastard Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Endless numbers of people defend him without know what a nasty bit of work he was, just because he took a good picture, reducible to a monochrome, Warhol style. Che's face adorns clothing, and even a very pricey humidor that the Brits sell. Enough merchandising is done using the face of this lethal thug that people have fun with it.

Last night after the DVR stopped recording South Park, it stayed on Comedy Central, and I walked into the room and found playing The Colbert Report. Colbert was interviewing Benicio del Toro, who stars in Che.

Colbert apologized to del Toro, saying that he liked his work, but that he was going to be rough on him. And there followed questions which I'll give the gist of.

"Do you think it's right to make a hero of a communist?" To which del Toro hemmed and hawed, "It's history..." Colbert riposted that the star of the movie would be the hero and he was a communist. Del Toro found that it was not the love feast that he thought it would be.

A friend, Joe, whose soubriquet is Opiate of the Masses, has issued forth with this:

How to comply with the new Progressive order and achieve a happier life while avoiding jail time

DO buy vehicles from GM, Ford and Chrysler because it helps our UAW friends the economy
DON'T drive them as they pollute the environment and cause global warming

DO insist that nationalized, single-payer government provided health insurance is the solution to our health-care crisis
DON'T mention that a government health care bureaucracy is just like a private insurer's healthcare bureaucracy except that with the former, you don't get another choice

DO condemn smoking in public and private venues because it is filthy and selfish and increases health care costs
DON'T stop buying tobacco products because the collective needs the tax revenue

DO despise elitist wealthy fat-cats like Wal-Mart's and other CEOs who run companies that actually do useful things
DON'T despise elitist wealthy fat-cats like the Sulzbergers, the Kennedys and the Hollywood celebrities that actually do useless things

DON'T fight terrorism with military action, treat it as a civilian police matter
DO hamper police investigations at every turn in the name of civil rights

DO emphasize the Progressive commitment to preserve individual choice when it comes to aborting a pregnancy
DON'T emphasize the Progressive commitment to prevent individual choice when it comes to everything else

DO denounce oil companies for their "excessive" profits whenever the world markets drive the price of oil up
DON'T allow them to drill for oil in the US or do anything else that might reduce these prices

DO rail against the loss of American factory jobs to China, India et al
DON'T stop increasing the environmental, labor and other regulations that make it impossible to open any kind of factory in this country

DO demand fairness in hiring, lending, college admissions and other circumstances
DON'T mention that the dictionary definition of fairness bears little resemblance to the political concept

DO despise war and demonstrate constantly for peace, violently if need be
DON'T hide your glee when the US or one of its allies, like Israel, is losing

DO require bi-partisanship in government and that the rights of the minority party be respected
DON'T make us laugh when we're in the majority

DO politicize science by bullying and cajoling everyone into beliving the AGW myth
DON'T fail to accuse real scientists (who have facts to disprove the myth) of politicizing science

DO holler about the need for more government programs to help the poor
DON'T notice how much these programs actually benefit politically-connected hacks and crooks who are not poor

DO continuously harp on the main vice of capitalism, the unequal distribution of its benefits
DON'T ever mention the only virtue of socialism, the equal sharing of its miseries
NEVER even think about the fact that on the Progressive farm, some animals are more equal than others

While trawling on the internet, I found this from the Gipper:

[G]overnment's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

There is more here.

Remember Reagan's smile. Remember, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Now we're in for Change we can believe in.

I'm going home to cry.

With Congressional redistricting coming up in the next couple of years and with Craddick out of power now, you have to wonder if Midland will go back to the old days when it was part of three different congressional districts, each district being shared with a bigger population base than the Midland portion. Which virtually guaranteed a non-Midlander Congressman.

It looks like the Obama transition team has only now discovered what 83% of the population of New Mexico has known for years: Bill Richardson has a big problem with ethics.

"But Walser", you ask, "How can 83% of the citizens of New Mexico know that he has a big problem with ethics and still elect him Governor?"

Dude. It's New Mexico.

Credit where credit is due. He should be thrown under the bus. Better to blunder with the initial choice of Richardson and then jettison him than to push him through anyway.

The irony of ironies is that Hillary & Bill have the same pay for play....um...features....but won't be thrown under the bus. Richardson even supported Obama but, unlike Hillary and General Motors, Richardson isn't too big to fail.

....will be over on January 13, 2008 after he is sworn in. After that date, Straus, if he really does have 85 votes for Speaker, will be lucky to have his local San Antonio Express News writing balanced stories about him.

For those in a cave, here's the story on MyWestTexas.com.

Mark Steyn has a piece at NRO on Israel's current battle with Hamas.

...if you're as invested as most western elites are in the idea that all anyone wants is to go to university, get a steady job and settle down in a nice house in the suburbs, a statement such as "England's demise is on our agenda" becomes almost literally untranslatable. When President Ahmadinejad threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the map, we deplore him as a genocidal fantasist. But maybe he's a genocidal realist - look at the threads linking North Korea to Iran and to Iran's clients in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza - and we're the fantasists.

Read the whole thing, and while you're at it, read this by Mona Charen, this by Victor Davis Hanson and this by the editors of NRO. Enlightening pieces, all.

Recently a Russian sage opined on the demise of the United States, with us fracturing into 6 different "states," each with different political and economic focus. Clearly the Russian elites have discovered "projection," the nasty disease that plagues our elites: the seeing (wrongly) in others your problems while being blind to being terminally infected with the problem yourself. From the WSJ by Leon Aron:

Such a predicament is most dangerous politically for a country whose population has become used to incomes increasing 8%-10% every year since 2000. Growing disappointment is sure to follow, first among the elites and then people at large.

Despite the reduction of the poverty rate to 14% from 20% in the last five years, tens of millions of Russians continue to live precariously: A recent poll found that 37% of all families have money enough only to cover food. Unemployment and inflation (already 14%, year-on-year, in November) may well push these people over the edge and into the streets.

Aron signals a need for great wisdom and caution in the coming Obama administration, neither trait being evident so far in the transition, in dealing with Russia. Read the whole article here as well.

Happy New Year.

Following up on ospurt's post on the most recent fiscal year reporting on the Midland Development Corporation, I went all of the way back to the beginning and have built a spreadsheet to be used to better illustrate the utter futility of our local Chamber's attempts to direct a portion of the local economy. When time permits I will begin posting the numbers and associated graphs, but the most striking thing is that since its creation in 2001 the Midland Development Corporation has soaked up roughly $31 million of your tax dollars.

And they have paid out in "Direct Incentives" just over $2.7 million dollars.

While paying themselves $3.2 million to do it.

Meanwhile, over $18,000,000 sits in the bank ready and waiting to go to the next Dean Baldwin Painting (Who knows? Google could always stop working.)

Curiously, the "multiplication factor" used in standard ChamberMath (TM) that takes any dollar that they spend and turns it (roughly) into the GDP of South Dakota is never applied to the $18,000,000 taken out of the economy and stuck in their bank account.