The Bureaucracy is Expanding to Meet the Needs of Ray Lahood's Ego

The Imminent Threat Posed by the Cell Phone

With all that's going on the world, one would think the federal government would be a bit more concerned with the exploding deficit, flying Unabomber types, and other minor issues like the war in Afghanistan. But that line of thinking doesn't create new, do-nothing government jobs and pension plans for your friends like anti-obesity campaigns, and the latest, the War on Distracted Driving. From the Weekly Standard:

The most valuable term for LaHood is “distracted driving.” It is an expansive phrase that a deft government guy can play like an accordion, stretching or squeezing it as his argument demands. The immediate upshot of LaHood’s initiative, he said last month, is that he wants laws that will make it illegal for drivers to use handheld cell phones behind the wheel. State laws, local laws, federal laws, whichever, it seems not to matter to him—just so long as this little slice of unregulated human behavior is prohibited and punished.

Great. We bemoan our collective loss of liberty when the NSA listens in on Mr. Abdullah's call to his weapons-smuggling cousin in Syria, but when little Suzie texts her BFF that she just saw the cute guy from Bio class, we're supposed to treat her like a federal criminal. There's even a website dedicated to this national plague www.distraction.gov. Judging by Mr. LaHood's pork record, I'm sure it was taxpayer money well spent.

Some Non-Phonies For a Gloomy Sunday

One of Those Days (Borrowed from Oddlyspecific.com)

Anyone else bummed out about the so-called Tea Party Nation convention taking place next month in Tennessee? Charging over 500 bones to take part in a "populist" movement is about as appropriate as a Massachusetts Democratic Party campaign ad. The whole "We're Just Being Capitalists" argument doesn't really cut it, as politics is supposed to be about what's good for the country, not what's good for your pocketbook. The fact that money gets so involved both in DC and the grassroots leads to a whole slew of corruption and cronyism both at the local and national level. I thought the Tea Party movement was supposed to address this problem, but what do I know, I don't even live in the country anymore.

So here's some non-phonies to clean up your head: Army of Dude has a good description of vets going through college, and Vox Veterana is up and running after a long period of disillusionment.

Paul Ryan Goes All Anti-Corporate On Us

Maybe I should've listened to more Crass growing up...despite the fact that they didn't know how to sing or play their instruments. Then maybe I could've recognized what Paul Ryan (R-WI) was saying about powerful corporate interests earlier instead after the economy imploded. From Forbes:

We must champion an aggressive reform agenda to tackle our outdated financial regulatory structure, the convoluted and anti-competitive tax code, and the looming entitlement crisis, and to fix what's broken in health care, energy, and more. We should focus on removing the hurdles the government has erected, rather than further centralizing power in Washington. The legislative reform must focus on empowering individuals instead of bureaucrats.

We cannot lose our commitment to individual liberty--a commitment we've shed blood to defend in generations past. The American idea cannot be defeated.

Even if the bailout saga wasn't an incredible drain on our nation's treasury (which it was), it was a tremendously dangerous precedent since it empowered moneyed interests with gangs of lobbyists and left the average small business owner out to dry. It's refreshing that a true conservative in Washington actually realizes this instead of kissing asses for campaign contributions. Paul Ryan for emperor!

Matt Taibbi Latest Highlights the Problem but Not the Solution

Chris Dodd: Not an adequate substitute for hope in America

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone has another great article on the crony capitalism running amok in the Obama White House, where there is more starched suits than a Tokyo subway terminal. But I sort of lose him when he starts talking about cleaning up this mess of pigs at the trough by calling in...Chris Dodd?!?:

The original measure, drafted by chairman Christopher Dodd of the Senate Banking Committee, is surprisingly tough on Wall Street — a fact that almost everyone in town chalks up to Dodd's desperation to shake the bad publicity he incurred by accepting a sweetheart mortgage from the notorious lender Countrywide. "He's got to do the shake-his-fist-at-Wall Street thing because of his, you know, problems," says a Democratic Senate aide. "So that's why the bill is starting out kind of tough."

It's sort of like he's upset that a bunch of Wall Street people are in charge of the country instead of his progressive buddies being in charge of the country. I suggest that no group of men or women should have so much command and control of the economy, because I believe that "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" and sort of extrapolate all my political beliefs from there.

Taibbi then takes aim at the "teabaggers" on page 6 who he dubs a pack of "idiots" because they aren't protesting Obama correctly. I dunno, I thought fistgate was both funny and worth getting outraged about.

Wall Street Descends into Cartoonish Super Villainy

The CEO of Goldman Sachs

Not long ago, Godman Sachs was famously called the Great Vampire Squid Wrapped Around the Face of Humanity. Well that squid certainly has some good connections with the CDC to get this many H1N1 vaccines when health care workers and the military are up in arms about the shortage. From Guardian:

New York's health department confirmed that vaccines had been shipped to banks - Citigroup, which asked for 7,200 doses, received 1,200 while Goldman Sachs, which applied for 5,400, was given 200. A spokeswoman said distributing vaccines in workplaces would "alleviate stress and pressure from community healthcare settings and hospitals"

The NYC health commissioner tries to defend this egregious blunder by saying the boobs on Wall Street are going to distribute it to at-risk employees. After the events of the last few years, I would place Wall Street execs that took bailout money somewhere in line between the surviving cast of Three's Company and the Fluffers' Union on the scale of national priorities. Not even Robert Gibbs would defend this ridiculous policy.

Kumar in Trouble

When Kal Pen (aka Kumar of the great movie, Harold & Kumar go to White Castle) left the beautiful people of Hollywood to spend time with the bottom-feeding parasites in DC, he received some praise for serving his country or something. But now a FOIA request has revealed that he was mixed up in the recent NEA scandal which forced its Communications Director into resignation. From Washington Examiner (h/t Jammie):

Former actor and present White House associate director of public engagement Kalpen Modi was directly involved in planning the controversial conference call hosted by a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) flack to encourage tax-supported artists to create propaganda for President Obama, according to emails obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Uhoh, making trouble for Hollywood's messiah, that'll probably get you blacklisted. Which is unfortunate, because I thought Kal Pen was a great actor. Well, he'll always have the ability to write crummy HuffPo articles alongside all the other has-been celebrities.

Our Longstanding Corrupt Practices

USA Today had a well-researched article about all the political appointees in the Obama administration who just happened to have fundraised over $100,000 for the campaign. But, for some reason, the story generated less interest in the blogosphere than the 25th anniversary of Ice Pirates. I don't know if it's because the article was in the Mikky-D's press, or because the practice is so common amongst both parties that none of the partisan operatives dare criticize, or because there was other corruption allegations that stole the limelight. But it seems like we just brush it aside as "business as usual" in Washington and wonder why the government is being run by incompetent boobs whose only purpose in life is to make speeches and false promises.

Pre-Emptive NEA Goes Under the Bus Post

After the devastating muckraking done on ACORN this month, Breitbart promises some more against the NEA. Although, Big Hollywood has already revealed some pretty serious dirt regarding financing the creative arts in exchange for health care reform support:

But, there is even a larger issue that hasn’t yet received much attention in the press. Among the Obama Administration officials on the call were Buffy Wicks, Office of Public Engagement and the lead White House official on the President’s Serve.Gov initiative to promote national service. Also on the call was Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for Serve.Gov. One of their main goals on the call, it seems, was to encourage artists to produce works that would reinforce the President’s call for service; specifically through the Serve.Gov web-portal.

Andrew Breitbart is amongst the Hollywood creative arts crowd, so I can see why they would want to go after the NEA. But, really, how much are these people ripping off the US taxpayer for to fund annoying Obama-art? I hope that Breitbart's next target is to go after the bozos on Wall Street who fleeced us for billions while the rest of us are scrounging for breadcrumbs. The media seems to have fallen down on the job with the new administration, and I think Breitbart has proven himself quite capable of sticking it to the man during a liberal administation.

Federal Bureaucrats Livin' High on the Hog

It's bad enough that Washington DC is riding out the recession quite well and sucking up a high proportion of stimulus dollars, but do federal workers have to continue giving themselves massive pay raises? At least they know what their priorities are. A CATO analyst found that federal wages have risen at a significantly higher percentage than civilian wages over the last 8 years, and IBD has more:

Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, touched quite a nerve earlier this week when he relayed the latest wage data, categorized by industry, from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. "The new data show that average federal compensation is now more than double the average in the private sector," Edwards noted.

He added: "In 2008, the average wage for 1.9 million federal civilian workers was $79,197, which compared to an average $49,935 for the nation's 108 million private sector workers. The federal advantage is even more pronounced when worker benefits are included. In 2008, federal worker compensation averaged a remarkable $119,982, which was more than double the private sector average of $59,909."

Not that I have anything against public servants...hell, I was one for close to 7 years. But, I question how much taxpayers dollars have to be spent towards the salaries and benefits packages of people who figure out what color beer cans Americans should be allowed to drink.

Robbing Peter to Pay Goldman Sachs, Big Government is Back

Awesomely Awesome Graphic From Rapture Ready Radio

So, I was sent to this luncheon for work hosted by the UN and the speaker was talking about sustainable agricultural practices and how to improve the environment in rural areas of developing countries. He stated that the development sector needed to stop acting on a "Soviet Union-type central planning" model and start thinking more about markets (i.e. making environmentally-friendly ag practices beneficial to consumers and what not). If the motherfuckin' United Nations recognizes that central planning might not always be the way to go, why is the United States reverting to a cross between the WPA and Mao's Great Leap Forward? Matt Welch has an article in the NY Post about the new era of big gummint started with Bush's TARP fiasco:

This isn't about liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. A majority oppose Obama's policies because they fly in the face of this country's bedrock values of personal liberty and limited government. Robbing Peter to pay Goldman Sachs does violence to that fundamentally American ethos.

And increasingly, Obama administration policy does violence to European values, as well. The continent has for the last two decades been systematically disengaging national governments from domestic industries. Top officials from Sweden, of all places, complained about Washington's auto bailout, tersely announcing that "The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories."

It's complete arrogance that any politician can manipulate the economy as efficiently and productively of the free market. John Stossel makes the point with health care that the free market is a representation of the wills, needs, and capacities of billions of people around the world, and what centrally-planned bureaucracy is going to be able to do that more efficiently? Certainly, I would argue that there needs to be government-run, central-planning models for institutions like the military (because of its unique purpose), but this whole concept that governments need to intervene in failing markets has proved a colossal dud these last 10 months.

The Foreign Policy Expertise of the New Ambassador to France

The New York Times discusses the newly appointed ambassador to France, Charles Rivkin, whose experience with all things diplomatic consists of being an executive producer of a Nick Jr. show about one-eyed blingwads and hanging out with muppets. Of course the President wouldn't appoint any old yahoo to such an important position, just yahoos who were able to raise a lot of campaign cash. From NY Times (by way of Yglesias):

As it stands, Mr. Obama could not now come close. Thirty-eight of his first 65 ambassadorial appointments were political. Even if every political envoy remaining were replaced by a career officer, the percentage would fall only to 26 percent. The lowest among recent presidents was 24 percent, under President Jimmy Carter.

For the Prez to appoint some rich guy from the civilian world to the position of General or Admiral would be criminally insane. Why is doing so with the Foreign Service a standard political practice?

The Problem With Freedom of Speech

pic from WaPo

Seeing how it's a day ending in Y this month, intellectual elites with unresolved emotional issues stemming from getting wedgied by the football team in high school are taking to the dead tree media to chastise the NASCAR-loving rubes in flyover country for not supporting Obamacare. Rick Perlstein is the latest person to call folks concerned about adding a trillion bucks to the deficit crazy birther/rednecks who bear more resemblance to Ed Gein than hard-working Americans. From WaPo:

It used to be different. You never heard the late Walter Cronkite taking time on the evening news to "debunk" claims that a proposed mental health clinic in Alaska is actually a dumping ground for right-wing critics of the president's program, or giving the people who made those claims time to explain themselves on the air. The media didn't adjudicate the ever-present underbrush of American paranoia as a set of "conservative claims" to weigh, horse-race-style, against liberal claims. Back then, a more confident media unequivocally labeled the civic outrage represented by such discourse as "extremist" -- out of bounds.

Yes, it's such a shame for the powerful elite that us little people have things like blogs and cable news alternatives instead of 3 crummy TV stations to voice our opinion. Perlstein also attacks right-wing paranoia of communism in America's past and certainly there is some legitimacy to that claim. But, if there's anything that the tragedies of the 20th century taught us (the Cultural Revolution, Gulags, Pol Pot, etc.), it's that the grand experiment of Marxism led to a very high number of stiffs. Maybe it wasn't completely irrational to be concerned about the spread of communism.

The more I see the progressives in charge of the country, the more I believe that it's being led by power-hungry politicians who to seek to continuously win elections by coercing constituents to be dependent on government charity. If they are so true to their "power to the people" principles, then why is there so much opposition to average people speaking their mind?

Update: Forgot to mention that there has been no increase in security threats for the President during all this town hall hoopla.

Dear God, No More Cowbell Please

Go Away

The cornball stunt of dragging a bunch of morning shows to her fishing expedition was pretty much par for the course in modern politics (ooo, she's just like me, how do I give money?). But one thing that pisses me off the most about her resignation is that she took an oath to serve the public in Alaska, and then she flies the coop. Abruptly walking out of your contract with the American people in the military gets you thrown in jail, but doing it when you're a governor gets kudos from prominent conservative pundits? WTF. Then she has the audacity to compare herself to the troops in her horrendous resignation speech:

We can ALL learn from our selfless Troops… they’re bold, they don’t give up, they take a stand and know that life is short so they choose to not waste time. They choose to be productive and to serve something greater than self... and to build up their families, their states, our country.

I still can't figure out the fascination fellow conservatives have with Ms. Palin. I'd agree the media has been particularly vicious in their attacks, but I can only hypothesize that many conservatives see a bit of themselves in Sarah: a regular schmoe who took on the "elites" in our country. If I wanted to vote for someone who was just like me, I probably would've campaigned for David Carradine, but I'm much more interested in someone who knows what the fuck they are doing. Sarah just never inspired that confidence.

Eric Dondero, with much enthusiasm, says the next best hope for the GOP in terms of leadership is...Mitt Romney! Brr, it's getting chilly out here in the wilderness.

So It Has Come To This in England: The Green Gestapo

Pic Borrowed From Zipline

They're not billing this new greenie enforcement agency across the pond as the "Green Gestapo", but it sure does sound like it. Decked out in green jackets, the ability to barge in on private property, shaking down factories for their power readings, do they think these companies are akin to the Fratelli Brothers hideout or something? From The Times:

Decked out in green jackets, the enforcers will be able to demand access to company property, view power meters, call up electricity and gas bills and examine carbon-trading records for an estimated 6,000 British businesses. Ed Mitchell, head of business performance and regulation at the Environment Agency, said the squad would help to bring emissions under control. “Climate change and CO2 are the world’s biggest issues right now. The Carbon Reduction Commitment is one of the ways in which Britain is responding.”

The formation of the green police overcomes a psychological hurdle in the battle against climate change. Ministers have long recognised the need to have new categories of taxes and criminal offences for CO2 emissions, but fear a repetition of the fuel tax protests in 2000 when lorry drivers blockaded refineries.

This is just more evidence that environmentalism seeks to appease its own eco-guilt/juvenile emotions instead of actually improving society at large. Yes indeed, there is a need to improve emissions standards and air quality through engineering innovations and established science. But, for too long the environmental movement has been dominated by green-chic busybodies and politicians who make ridiculous promises of energy independence through solar panels and windmills to win elections. Nevermind the fact that countries have developed from subsistence farming and a generally lousy quality of life by exploiting fossil fuels. Countries rapidly modernizing like China and India need serious engineering solutions, not calls for more bike lanes and Al Gore bumper stickers.

Note: Wired had an interesting article last year about how environmentalism was too important to be left to the environmentalists and their bizarre cult of Gaia-worship.

US Media Finally Coming Around (maybe)

After the US media's disgracefully biased PrObama coverage during the campaign season and the first 100 days, they maybe realizing that the government subverting a supposedly independent press might not be a good thing. Well at least the reporter who's been covering the White House since the Taft administration recognizes this. From CNS news:

“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.

“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.

Careful, Helen, with that kind of attitude you'll be targeted for character assassination by the left's well-funded hit squad, or you could end up like dissenters in other countries and get mysteriously stabbed. Moonbattery has the video of this much-needed exchange with Gibbs.

Big Banks To Start Some Weird Astroturf Campaign

Due to your 401K going poof and a potential worldwide economic collapse, large banking conglomerates are rightfully concerned about that you don't feel enough sympathy for them. That's why they've hired a bunch of skeezy politico types to boost their public image. Bloomberg has the scoop:

The internal papers call for using regional securities firms, many of which have escaped notoriety in the financial crisis, to push the industry’s message with their local members of Congress. The plan notes that brokers across the country can also be used.

“The foot power of the private client group has proven to be effective in blunting populist messages in the past,” said board member Paul Purcell, chief executive officer of Milwaukee investment firm Robert W. Baird & Co., according to the minutes of one meeting.

Not sure why they feel like they have to lobby congress to be on their side, because both a Democrat and a Republican administration have printed enough money to make Mugabe blush in order to save these bumbling boneheads... and we just sat back and took it! Maybe they're trying for a more aggressive approach whereby anyone who speaks ill of the cronyism between DC and Wall Street gets put on some DHS watchlist.

More Humiliation For Michigan; Some Skinny-Jeaned Hipster In Charge of GM

Seeing how the state of Michigan is heavily invested both financially and emotionally with the auto industry, and the Governor had to go begging for cash from Obama like a schmuck to keep people employed, you'd think it couldn't get any lower for the Great Lakes state than having the former #1 company in the world go bust. Well, not unless the new person in charge of GM is some law-school dropout/pizzafaced-politico dweeb who has probably never worked a day in his life. From New York Times:

But that, in short, is the job description for Brian Deese, a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry. Nor, for that matter, had he given much thought to what ailed an industry that had been in decline ever since he was born. A bit laconic and looking every bit the just-out-of-graduate-school student adjusting to life in the West Wing — “he’s got this beard that appears and disappears,” says Steven Rattner, one of the leaders of President Obama’s automotive task force — Mr. Deese was thrown into the auto industry’s maelstrom as soon the election-night parties ended.

Yeah! I'm sure the thousands of newly unemployed are breathing a sigh of relief that some no-experience hipster is taking charge. God bless our political system.

GM said that they have sold Hummer to an "undisclosed buyer". Maybe it's to this Deese guy so he can have his buddies chauffeured to some party in Brooklyn where none of us are invited.

Proposed Cap and Trade Actually a Big Corporate Welfare Program

I know it's difficult to get upset about the collusion between corporations and the federal government after TARPapalooza, but the ever-reliable Reason directs our attention to a WSJ Op-Ed about massive corruption in the way in which Cap and Trade might be implemented. Despite Waxman not bothering to read the bill named after him, the Waxman-Markley Bill to radically alter policy is out of the Energy and Commerce Committe and up to Congress. The bill will give free CO2 emissions to influential corporations, which a CBO report from 2007 indicates would pass the cost along disproportionately to lower-income families. Too bad Joe Six Pack doesn't have a swanky office on K Street.

Bjorn Lomborg looks at who will benefit and who will not [WSJ]:

Naturally, many CEOs are genuinely concerned about global warming. But many of the most vocal stand to profit from carbon regulations. The term used by economists for their behavior is "rent-seeking."

The world's largest wind-turbine manufacturer, Copenhagen Climate Council member Vestas, urges governments to invest heavily in the wind market. It sponsors CNN's "Climate in Peril" segment, increasing support for policies that would increase Vestas's earnings. A fellow council member, Mr. Gore's green investment firm Generation Investment Management, warns of a significant risk to the U.S. economy unless a price is quickly placed on carbon.

Even companies that are not heavily engaged in green business stand to gain. European energy companies made tens of billions of euros in the first years of the European Trading System when they received free carbon emission allocations.

Great, so the swinging dicks in our society will become energy-trading CEOs with Enron-like ties to Washington, that asshole who invented the Segway, and Al Gore, while the rest of us have to scrounge around like Gypsies looking for heating oil. At this rate, a Lenin-style workers revolution ain't sounding like such a bad idea.

Nutty IVAW Guy Actually a Real Crazy Person

Well, this is certainly a slap in the face to the far-left who loves exploiting "dissenting" voices from the veteran community for their own political purposes. Apparently, one of IVAW's big spokesman was actually an former mental patient from Colorado.

This Ain't Hell has the full story.

TSO gigs VoteVets, since the guy had a couple of diaries at VetVoice, but I wouldn't say he was deeply enmeshed with the organization.

Scumbag NY Fed Chairman Resigns

Wow! Who would've thought that billions in no-accountability funny money being dished out to Wall Street banks would produce any corruption? The NY Fed Chairman (who also has large ownership in Goldman and was a former senior partner) continued to buy shares in Goldman Sachs even though the NY Fed is supposed to be regulating the company. After being asked a few questions by the media, he abruptly resigned. From CNN:

The chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York resigned Thursday, days after coming under attack for his continuing involvement in a company regulated by the institution.

Stephen Friedman received a waiver to remain on the board of Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), the Wall Street firm that became a bank holding company amid September's financial frenzy, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. He also holds a substantial amount of shares in the company and continued to buy more even after Goldman came under the Fed's supervision.

It should also be noted that Bush's Treasury Secretary (Paulson) was once the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Obama's economic adviser (Summers) received 6-figure speaking engagements from Goldman Sachs, and Obama's Treasury Secretary (Tax Cheat Geithner) helped push the AIG bailout which benefited Goldman Sachs. It's obvious to the most casual observer that there's a good ole boy network going on here, and the cronyism is comical. I'm half expecting Boss Hogg to take over as the new Chief Financial Officer of this plutocratic company.

For those interested in the collusion between the banks and Washington and are in the Ron Paul wing of politics, I highly recommend Alex Jones' The Obama Deception. I know the guy is a bit of a conspiracy nut and once threatened Michelle Malkin for no reason. But, the links in the documentary between DC and the banks are somewhat interesting, just skip over the crazytown shit about the Bilderberg group.