President Obama Vacations in Hawaii

Don't get me wrong; I have no beef with Presidential “vacations” as such; mostly, because as President, there really are no vacations, no matter where you are. You are always on call. (Still, if GWB had tried this..)

That said, Hawaii's an awfully expensive, exotic touch, when millions of Americans are unemployed, and the nation will struggle to pay for the ever increasing scope of Bailoutistan, as well as the eventuall bill for nationalizing healthcare.

Secondly, I don't want to see any more global warming / climate change hipocracy from a guy who flies his family, a major security detail, a gobble of staffers, and attendant press sycophants a kazillion miles to Hawaii.

If global warming due to man made CO2 is a crisis, why don't our politicians act like it's a crisis?

I'd like to take my family to Hawaii for a vacation, but it seems that in the future, only the friends of Obama will be priveleged to do so.

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

One hesitates to comment on the whole Tiger Woods fiasco; after all, even satire has a lower limit. One that Tiger has easily eclipsed, with the floozie index headed well into double digits, cash losses, a likely divorce, and now one of his doctors headed to le Hotel Greybar.

No doubt more revelations to come; I doubt that even Tiger has enough hush money to prevent these women from selling their stories. Perhaps we'll be treated to a made for TV movie. All the principle parts are in place:

1. Rich celebrity philandering husband;

2. Beautiful wronged wife;

3. A harem that seems largely drawn from a 'Cops' episode shot in America's trailer parks;

4. A shady doctor;

5. A potential flight to Sweden for Mom & kids.

The mob hasn't made an appearance yet, but as the bimbo list continues to expand, it's only a matter of time.

About the only thing that could further impair what's left of his reputation would be to become a deadbeat dad. Which, if present trends continue, is starting to sound far less fetched than it should.

I wonder how many male sports stars are now having to face unpleasant and embarrassing requests from their wives for cell phone logs, expense accounting, etc.?

“ But honey, we're just friends, honest... just because she works in the adult entertainment industry doesn't mean that there's anything going on... well, there was that one time. Well, and another with her cousin... Ok, maybe the sponsorship and personal appearances at the Vegas Strippers & Lap Dancer's Booty Shake Off looks bad... but the St Bernard wasn't my idea, honest!”

Robbing The Poor

To give to enlightened, progressive, artists. It's well known that cigarette smokers are more likely to have lower incomes and educational levels than non-smokers, so essentially this represents the worst sort of regressive taxation.

The “Arts Community” is in favor of a tax on the poor to benefit themselves. Surprised? Me neither.

Progressives, of course, despise smokers more than any other group in American society. Well, technically, the most despised group is Sarah Palin, but she's only one woman, so that's not much of a group.

A couple of quick points: The Beacon piece nicely points out that one Michael J. Mikula, who says that “'investing in the arts community is smart money,''', primarily because he scored $20,000 of taxpayer money. Yup, if you've fleeced the taxpayers out of $20 g's for glassware, you're entitled to think of them as stupid.

Secondly, one can argue that the arts are important. However, in Akron, we're busy laying off cops and firefighters – two professions of much more value to the community than some dude turning out glassware.

I'm not sure that we actually have to raise taxes – as long as we are subsidizing professional softball, the downtown athletic club, and probably the inventors' hall of fame, and a kazillion deputy mayors, one could argue that noone in Akron's political class really thinks that there's a budget crisis – but if we have to, cops, firefighter, and sanitation work should go to the head of the line.

Granted, the position of the Arts Community is all about greed. After all, it's far easier to con some government into giving you a living than producing a product anyone wants to by. Still, this comment from one Thomas B. Schorgi gives one pause for the sheer concentration of industrial strength stupidity:

“ 'If the arts and cultural groups go away tomorrow, there would be people who now come into Summit County who would go elsewhere,'' said Thomas B. Schorgl, president and chief executive of the Cleveland-based Community Partnership for Arts and Culture. ''And when they come into Summit County, they are clearly spending dollars from outside the county. There is a true economic impact.'''

Generally speaking, if you have to subsidize something in order for it to be produced, that's a sign of economic inefficiency. If there was sufficient demand, there would be no need for the subsidy. Note to Mr. Schorgi: you can't make a community better off by producing things that can't be sold for more than the costs of production. That's just a cold, hard fact.

Mr. Schorgi's argument, if one could call it that, that a positive economic impact will be generated boils down to the assumption that the amount spent by out of towners on art will exceed the amount of the tax. After all, anyone buying a pack of cigarettes will have $0.34 less to spend on other things, so if the out of town spend on art is less, the community is a net loser. .

Now, you can argue that the arts produce a value that is unrecognized by the market. That's a different argument. To argue that point is to argue that subsidizing the arts is an economic loser, but that the intrinsic value (an externality or unrecognized community benefit) exceeds the economic costs.

But that would be a quality of life impact, not an economic one. Oh, sure, it's of economic value to the artists enjoying life on the taxpayer's tit, and one for art fans (likely upper class and upper income) who benefit as consumers from the subsidy, but as a net for the community, it's an economic negative.

Memo to the 'Artiste': If you can't make more than your expenses, it's time to get a haircut and get a real job. That, at least, won't be actively harmful to the poor.

Culture of Corruption: The Max Baucus Edition

Sen. Max Baucus nominates his shack up honey for U.S. Attorney* job.

The only known qualifications for this bimbo Melodee Haynes** – other than Max's comment that she gets everything “up and up” – certainly seem to be pretty thin. Still, Baucus' connections were good enough to get her a “top official in the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention”. Spare me the blather about the independent and non-political nature of this gig; If a key Democratic senator' shack up honey is up for a job, she's getting it, qualification would just be a bonus.

It probably doesn't help much that the supposedly independent “third party reviewer” was a Baucus contributor.

* It's also interesting that Bernstein's post suggests that this isn't the first time that Ms. Haynes has had domestically related career “ issues”, or that her c.v. also sounds dodgy.

** Geez, her parents couldn't even spell “Melody” correctly. Strikes one as a sign that she was destined to be a shack up honey.

Iran Searches for the West's Backbone

And keeps coming up empty. Add 10 more uranium enrichment facilities to build nuclear weapons? We may, upon due consideration, at some point in the future, decide to use harsh language, as long as no one would be unduly offended by said language.

Accuse 5 sailors in a disabled racing sailboat of spying?

Ahmadinejad and cronies have to be wondering if there's anything we'll stand up to.

Government Motors

Don't count on getting your $50 billion back anytime soon. Not that I was all that enthralled with Fritz Henderson as CEO (Just how was a 28 year GM employee supposed to radically change the culture?), but there's going to be a loss of focus associated with uncertainty at the top.

Plus, GM is at least 3 years behind Ford in attempting to get their house in order.

Which brings us to an unsung hero of the American auto industry – Bill Ford. At some point, Ford looked at the hard truth of where his company was, realized that he couldn't fix it, and went out to find someone who could.

Lots of people talk about recognizing the grim reality, but fewer manage to do anything about it.

Climategate / Climatequiddick

This is now starting to look serious. At first, the leaked emails seemed too good to be true – admissions of data rigging, attempts to game the publication system, and efforts to conceal information from Freedom of Information Act requests.

About what one would expect from people with so much money and power at stake. About the only thing missing was receipts from payoffs from George Soros and Al Gore.

However, now we're into the territory where they've been destroying the raw data, essentially preventing anyone from being able to duplicate their results.

That, my friends, is cheating of a high order.

And then there's this bit:

“ Professor Trevor Davies, the university's Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research Enterprise and Engagement, said yesterday: "CRU's full data will be published in the interests of research transparency when we have the necessary agreements. It is worth reiterating that our conclusions correlate well to those of other scientists based on the separate data sets held by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

'We are grateful for the necessary support of the Met Office in requesting the permissions for releasing the information but understand that responses may take several months and that some countries may refuse permission due to the economic value of the data.'”

The effective translation: “We're going to stall and hope this goes away”.

It's also an admission of the fact that this alliance between “scientists” and bureaucrats is an economic enterprise, dedicated to taking money and freedom from citizens, and lining their own pockets.

If you believe that the “Exxon” folks were dishonest because of taking corporate money, how much more crooked are the supposedly “disinterested” scientists paid by governments? Exxon only wants to make money by selling you gas to run your car, and oil to heat your home. The government wants an excuse to take your money and your freedom as well. And they won't give you anything in return.

NEWT!

Not. He's a man who needs to go off to a think tank, publish papers, and appear on talk shows.

Not run for President. Newt's ideal job description is “gadfly”.

Would he be a better President than Obama? Given current trends, that's not much of a bar to clear. Say what you will about Newt; “dithering” is not his core competency.

Obama Dithering on Iran

Because dithering is his core competency.

One wonders how much additional time the he'll give the mullahs. Perhaps till there's a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv.

Gorbachev Guarantees Victory in Afghanistan

By claiming that victory is impossible. This guy has been wrong about just about everything; as S.J. Perelman might say, he's a straw to see which way the wind is blowing away from. The only thing that would make this even more sure would be if Paul Ehrlich had recommended withdrawal as well.

The Ghosts of Kelo

So, New London, Connecticut made a decision to deprive Susette Kelo and others of their property for the immense public benefit of a new Pfizer research facility promising “jobs”.

Now Pfizer is closing up shop; the promised facility was never built, and New London is left with a wasteland and a justly deserved reputation as a city run by idiots, eager to swipe the property of the poor and sell it to the rich.

Of course, the city's selling it's residents property rights for a mess of pottage was immensely harmful to Ms. Kelo and others. The message – that if a corporation isn't willing to pay market rates for property, and is relying on government officials to steal it for them, it's not likely to live up to it's end of the bargain – is likely lost on politicians everywhere.

Hey, New London! The world's not laughing with you, we're laughing at you!