*This* is “Truth to Power”

I got this video from I Hate the Media! “Who the hell do you think you are? The Euro game is up!”

…Consider it the European equivalent to that moment that moment when Rick Santelli erupted on CNBC and the Tea Party was created. The scene is European Parliament in Strasbourg on November 24. Nigel Farage, a member of the European Parliament representing the United Kingdom, is involved in a debate about economic governance when he loses it. “Who the hell do you think you are? The Euro game is up! … We don’t want that flag, we don’t want the anthem, we don’t want this political class. We want the whole thing consigned to the dust bin of history … You are very, very dangerous people indeed. Your obsession with creating this Euro-state means that you’re happy to destroy democracy. You appear to be happy for millions and millions of people to be unemployed and to be poor. Untold millions must suffer so that your Euro-dream can continue …”

Funny, that last bit sounds very similar to the situation and complaints back here in the states, too. “I should thank you! You should perhaps be the pinup boy of the EuroSkeptic movement!”

Bankrupting America

Fly The Sexual Abuse Skies

I personally haven’t flown anywhere in five years, because I thought airport security was getting unreasonable back then. Apparently, I hadn’t seen anything yet; but if I flew today, airport security would get to see it all. It remains an open question of how many other people will also get to see (H/T GoV) your p0rnoscanner pictures – in England, after a celebrity went through a body scanner, security personnel printed out his nude scan and asked him to autograph it. Tens of thousands of images are known to have been saved from a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse, despite ongoing claims by the TSA that such things are impossible.

However, even though I haven’t personally been subjected to the machines (or the alternate opt-out body search which follows new prison-shower-room parameters), airport security and protests against it have been much in the news lately. A pilot has refused the scan for privacy issues, although airline unions have raised concerns about the health issue of frequent X-rays for their personnel who have to go through them every time they go on a flight. (The same health concerns apply to any frequent travelers, or other people who are particularly vulnerable to X-rays like pregnant women and children. My wife pointed out that women also get X-rays more frequently as they get older because of mammograms, although I believe ObamaCare is trying to remove that concern – they already advocate reducing mammograms as a money-saving measure.) Another man, John Tyner, was ejected from an airport and threatened with a fine when he refused to go through either the scanner or allow himself to be groped.

Sign On San Diego — …He may not be the first traveler tossed from an airport for security reasons but he could well be the first to have the whole experience captured on his cell phone. During the next half-hour, his cell phone recorded Tyner refusing to submit to a full body scan, opting for the traditional metal scanner and a basic “pat down” – and then refusing to submit to a “groin check” by a TSA security guard. He even told the guard, “You touch my junk and I’m going to have you arrested.” …

“OK, I don’t understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying.”
“This is not considered a sexual assault,” replied the supervisor, calmly.
“It would be if you were not the government,” said Tyner.
“By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights,” countered the TSA supervisor.
“I think the government took them away after 9/11,” said Tyner.

The TSA thugs are even performing full-body searches on small children, which is yet another reason why I’m not taking my family into an airport any time soon.

“Shocking” News About the Volt

There have been several articles written recently about the new Chevy Volt electric car brought to you by billions of dollars of wasteful government bailouts. Doctor Zero’s The Value of a Volt is but one which crunches the numbers and shows how much the car actually costs, above and beyond the $41,000 sticker price (which is already far too expensive for most in the Obama economy). Edward Niedermeyer of The New York Times points out that

…it looks suspiciously similar to a Toyota Prius. It also requires premium gasoline, seats only four people (the battery runs down the center of the car, preventing a rear bench) and has less head and leg room than the $17,000 Chevrolet Cruze, which is more or less the non-electric version of the Volt.

What we have here is a brand-new “Cash for Clunkers” program. Only this time, we’re expected to put up the cash and the government is providing the clunkers.

It’s The Jobs, Stupid

President Obama, upon his arrival to Buffalo yesterday to tout his efforts to get the economy moving again, was to have been greeted by the sign below along his motorcade route. According to reporters traveling with the President, however, (and we know how dependable their word is), Obama never saw the sign either coming from or going back to Buffalo International Airport.

The billboard was put up by a group of unemployed Buffalo residents, who also have a website and are on Facebook (unlike me). Even though the President didn’t see the sign, according to FOX News Senior White House Correspondent Major Garrett did speak on the phone with Jeffrey Baker, one of the people behind the Buffalo billboard.

Obama Takes Care of His Own

According to the National Review‘s (H/T: AllahPundit) analysis of recipient report data from Recovery.gov, as well as economic and political data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and GovTrack.us, there was

…no statistical correlation for all relevant unemployment indicators and the allocation of funds. This suggests that unemployment is not the factor leading the awards. Also, I found no correlation between other economic indicators, such as income, and stimulus funding. … On average, Democratic districts received one-and-a-half times as many awards as Republican ones. Democratic districts also received two-and-a-half times more stimulus dollars than Republican districts ($122,127,186,509 vs. $46,139,592,268). Republican districts also received smaller awards on average. (The average dollars awarded per Republican district is $260,675,663, while the average dollars awarded per Democratic district is $471,533,539.)

On the other hand, I live in a heavily Democratic district (my representative is the House Majority Leader), so let me tell you that receiving all of this money (the district, not me!) is no bed of roses either. In the last year they’ve ripped up and repaved just about every road in my area – in some cases, more than once. I guess that’s what happens when you run out of roads before you run out of pork.

Pissing me off: my stimulus tax dollars at work!

Summing It Up

I got this excellent summary of Obamacare from Dirk Diggler on C²:

[Obamacare] is a health insurance plan written by a committee whose Chairman has publicly stated that he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that has literally not read it but yet has made damn certain to exempt themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also has not read it, with funding administered by a treasury secretary who cheated on his income taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that is $14 Trillion in debt to begin with and adding $2 Trillion a year more in red ink per year BEFORE this bill adds even more red ink to it. And it will be delivered to you by a House of “Representatives” that won’t even actually vote on it, headed by a Speaker who is on record saying that they’ll have to, “pass it to see what’s in it.”

Doesn’t include the extortion, bribes, and other dirty deals; but it’s a good starting point.

“Shocking News!”

Bloomberg – U.S. employers won’t hire enough workers this year to lower the jobless rate much below the level of 9.7 percent reached in February, three Obama administration economic officials said today. The proportion of Americans who can’t find work is likely to “remain elevated for an extended period,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, White House budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a joint statement. The officials said unemployment may even rise “slightly” over the next few months as discouraged workers start job-hunting again. “We do not expect further declines in unemployment this year,” the officials said in testimony prepared for the House Appropriations Committee.

That’s a hell of a statement to be making in March. Maybe the Administration ought to try, just for variety, to push some measures that will help people find jobs (or just get the government the hell out of the way!) instead of pushing one job-killing bill after another (the health scare bill, of course, being one of the biggest killers of jobs – and people – of all). And yet, even though the administration is coming right out and saying this, why do I suspect that the media will continue to be “surprised”, each and every single month, to see unemployment continue to rise just as it has done month after month beforehand? (H/T: Bulgar Wheat)

Any Way You Slice It

According to Politico (H/T: JCM) the poor staffers are upset at the quality of food in the House cafeteria.

Staffers are so unhappy with the “value meal” offerings at House cafeterias that lawmakers spent much of a hearing last week grilling the House’s chief administrative officer about them.

My, there’s a productive use of Congress’ time! Good thing they don’t have anything more important on their plates right now! But seriously, another section of the story leapt out at me:

The value meals – five bucks and change for a meal and a drink – are supposed to appeal to lower-paid Hill staffers who can’t afford to pop for more expensive lunches, such as sandwiches that go for nearly $8 a la carte. But staffers complain that there’s not enough variety in the value meals – and that the quality is less than they’d get at the same price from a fast-food chain.

Really? You can get better products for less money in the private sector than you can from the government? Sounds like a teachable moment here! Unfortunately, I’ll bet that this light bulb didn’t go on over a single representative’s head.

It’s Your Money They’re Holding

According to USA Today, some “states may hold onto tax refunds for months.”

Residents eager to get their state tax refunds may have a long wait this year: The recession has tied up cash and caused officials in half a dozen states to consider freezing refunds, in one case for as long as five months. … Delaying refund checks isn’t unprecedented, [executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers Scott] Pattison said, but it is something virtually no politician wants to do, because taxpayers are owed the money and in most cases want it fast. Delays in paying refunds and other state bills can trigger interest on those overdue payments, depending on state laws, he said. California’s massive budget shortfall of more than $20 billion last year prompted it not only to delay tax refunds but to issue billions of dollars in IOUs to vendors and others who were owed money. …

I remembered this happening last year and figured that this year would probably be worse – So I’ve already long since filed my returns and gotten both my state and federal refunds this year, while the getting was good. If you haven’t filed yours yet, do it now. (The IRS has a web page where you can track the status of your refund; some or all states do as well.)

Believe Five Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Nancy Pelosi (D-Twilight Zone): “A Bill can be Bipartisan Without Bipartisan Votes.”

• Islam can be a religion of peace without any peaceful proclivities.
• Tea Party rallies can be racially discriminatory without discriminating by race (unlike, say, the MSNBC lineup).
• Global warming can be true without any actual warming of the globe.
• Rises in unemployment can be surprising even though they happen with regularity and with people predicting them beforehand.

And so on… Oh, and here’s a bonus picture, from Desert Sage:

Popularity: doesn’t last long once people find out you’re a fake!

No One Left to Tax

In this short clip from Wednesday’s House Committee on Business and Labor hearing, Rep. Michael Schaufler, D-Happy Valley, made an emotional off-the-cuff statement about how jobs are being killed in this state and how we have “no one left to tax.” He was the only Democrat to vote against the tax bills that were later referred to voters as Measures 66 and 67. Later that afternoon, Schaufler apologized to the House for making this speech while in committee, calling it out of order. On the contrary, perhaps some of his colleagues owe the people of Oregon an apology for not admitting that what he said is all too true.

From Oregon Catalyst.com (H/T: JCM).