Now, on with the show:

~The U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S. AID) spent $30 million to spur mango production and sales in Pakistan—and failed utterly.

Yup, mango production … in Pakistan.

~The Air Force spent $14 million to switch three radar stations to wind power; poor planning forced cancellation of one turbine and consideration of the same for the other two.

Because we all know windpower is proven and reliable and … what do you mean “put our national security at risk?”

~The Federal Aviation Administration devoted $6 million to subsidize air service at small, underused airports.

Market smarket … we’ll just create one. Until the money runs out, of course.

~A federal grant for $765,828 went to—I am not making this up, to quote Dave Barry—bring an International House of Pancakes franchise to Washington, D.C.

Because bringing IHOPs to DC is a primary function of the United States government and worthy of every dollar spent.

~The Department for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided a $484,000 grant to build a “Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers” restaurant in Texas.

Because it is not the market’s job to decide what restaurants should exist in a certain area, it’s the job of government.

~Another HUD grant, this one for $1 million, went to a foreign architectural firm to move its headquarters from Santa Monica to Los Angeles.

Because we knew you’d want us to do it. You need to move? Tough cookies.

~NIH gave the University of Kentucky $175,587 to study the impact of cocaine on the sex drive of Japanese quail.

Because we’re sure Japanese quail are the next target of drug dealers. Or something.

~The Federal Highway Administration (FHA) gave $916,567 to underwrite horse-drawn carriage exhibits and survey shipwrecks in Wisconsin.

Because, well, we couldn’t think of anything else to do with the money.

~The Oregon Cheese Guild received $50,400 to promote cheese.

Because obviously the Oregon Cheese Guild wouldn’t be able to promote cheese without this.

~Uncle Sam spent $111,000 to send brewery experts to conduct classes in China.

Because the folks making Tsing Tao obviously couldn’t handle that.

~The ever busy NSF devoted $300,000 to developing a dance program to illustrate the origins of matter.

Because without it … oh nevermind.

And my personal favorite:

~Washington helpfully gave almost $18 million in foreign aid to China—money effectively borrowed from China.

The circle is complete. Borrowing money to give money back to the entity from which we borrowed it while still owing the principle.

Brilliant.

Your government at work. Be sure to read the rest of the top 100 wastes of money that Sen. Tom Coburn has helpfully put together. And remember. They’re the top 100. There are plenty more than just didn’t make the cut.

Yesterday, although the paper warped it into a completely stupid rant on race, the NY Times told us that government workers are losing their jobs. Why? Because revenue is down and budgets are tight.  But there are other reasons as well.

And here’s an example of one of them:

Montcalm County recently received a $900 Arctic Blast Sno-Cone machine.

The West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission (WMSRDC) is a federal- and state-designated agency responsible for managing and administrating the homeland security program in Montcalm County and 12 other counties.

The WMSRDC recently purchased and transferred homeland security equipment to these counties — including 13 snow cone machines at a total cost of $11,700.

The machines were funded by a grant from the Michigan Homeland Security Program. The request for a snow cone machine came from another county, but all 13 counties received them.

Your first question has to be “why wasn’t a request to “Homeland Security” for a Sno-Cone machine summarily turned down with a warning that such requests were inappropriate? Especially in tight fiscal times? Well the simple answer to that is because Homeland Security isn’t dealing with its own money. It’s dealing with your money. And because of that apparently nothing is inappropriate, tight fiscal times or not.

Note the job description of the WMSRDC I’ve emphasized. And what is the reason for a Sno-Cone machine? Well here’s the reason given why it was “necessary”:

MCES Director David Feldpausch said the machine could be useful at the scene of a large fire or during very hot weather.

“I don’t like the term snow cone machine, because it sounds horrible,” Feldpausch said. “When you look at it as an ice shaving machine and its purpose, it makes a little more sense. I assume it will get used in Montcalm County a lot more in the summertime by the Fire Corps.”

Of course he doesn’t like the term “snow cone machine”. It doesn’t just sound terrible, it sounds inappropriate and wasteful. And it is both of those things.  Certainly it would be a “nice to have” item.  But a bucket of ice and some water would serve the same purpose.

And of course there’s the matter of a single $900 request being turned into a $12,000 dollar expense when some bureaucrat decided all of the counties, even the 12 who never asked for one, get a Sno-Cone machine.

Now I know this comes from a completely different bucket of money, but any idea of what percentage of an employee’s salary this would pay if layoffs are being contemplated in the area? Is this the best and most appropriate use of Homeland Security money? Does anyone even review this stuff?

Profligate spending is the symptom of an out-of-control government. While $12k spending is but a mere speck on a drop in the bucket of money spent by government each year, it is indicative of how we got into the debt mess which we now find ourselves and is ever getting worse. Multiply these sorts of transactions by the millions and you begin to understand how we have gotten where we are.

There is no necessity for shaved ice at a fire. Note the word. Necessity. There are plenty of much less costly alternatives. Like bagged ice and water. And this is for a contingency (“large fire”, summertime) for an event which may or may not happen.

The reason I highlight things like this is because the are better understood by people than complex and much more costly examples which are essentially the same but harder to wrap your head around. This is relatable. This shows clearly how wasteful government can be with a fairly low cost example that people can readily identify with.

Its like showing a picture of luxury food which is able to be purchased with EBT cards (Food Stamp Cards). You naturally know “this ain’t right”. You sort of go with the idea of helping the less able, but you bristle at being taken advantage of. Well the above example “ain’t right” and certainly an example of taking advantage of the taxpayer, but typical of literally millions of government purchases over the years.

Result. Well just take a gander at the national debt clock if you need a reminder.

Not so fast.  The post-election tea party has now evolved into the watchdogs of the state and federal politicians that they gave victories to.  The tea party now expects this new breed of politicians to adhere to their campaign promises (yes, I know) as well as tackle the real problems and actually do something about them.  Actions indeed speak louder than words, and in this case they directly affect our nation’s fiscal future–among other things.

Watch.  And listen.  H/T Caleb Howe

More than 40 of the nation’s millionaires have joined Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength to ask President Obama to discontinue the tax breaks established for them during the Bush administration, as Salon reports.

“For the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens, we ask that you allow tax cuts on incomes over $1,000,000 to expire at the end of this year as scheduled,” their website states. “We make this request as loyal citizens who now or in the past earned an income of $1,000,000 per year or more.”

MoveOn.org has also thrown in its, forgive me, 2 cents with a new ad confirming that some of the wealthy don’t need the money–which Allah highlights.  Well, the inevitable has happened and the Taiwanese actors have taken on this issue in perfect step.

To my fellow Americans who want to be taxed more, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is and I have found your opportunity.  If you would like to donate to the federal government, all you have to do is mail a check to the US Treasury at this address:

Citizens who wish to make a general donation to the U.S. government may send contributions to a specific account called “Gifts to the United States.” This account was established in 1843 to accept gifts, such as bequests, from individuals wishing to express their patriotism to the United States. Money deposited into this account is for general use by the federal government and can be available for budget needs. These contributions are considered an unconditional gift to the government. Financial gifts can be made by check or money order payable to the United States Treasury and mailed to the address below.

Gifts to the United States
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Credit Accounting Branch
3700 East-West Highway, Room 622D
Hyattsville, MD 20782

Oopsy Note:  Ted in the comments points out that it is not Next Media who typically produces these vids, but XtraNormal.  My apologies.

This past week, the City Controller released the results of an audit her office conducted and found that with that $111 million, Los Angeles has created a grand total of 54.46 jobs (PDF link). How that is possible can be explained in this quote from the Controller, Wendy Greuel.

“I’m disappointed that we’ve only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million in ARRA funds. With our local unemployment rate over 12% we need to do a better job cutting the red tape and putting Angelenos back to work,” said City Controller Greuel. “While it doesn’t appear that any of the ARRA funds were misspent, the City needs to do a better job expediting the process and creating jobs…” [Emphasis mine]

What struck me about this report is that, even though each job her city allegedly created (or saved, whatever the heck that means) cost us well over 2 million dollars, Controller Greuel doesn’t see any particular reason for alarm. She doesn’t appear to believe that her government has failed miserably, nor that there’s anything at all wrong that a few tweaks here or there to speed up the spending process. Nope, her response is to say that she she can make her government work quickly and efficiently.

And there’s your problem. This is always the response from the Democrats. Every single time government wastes another few truckloads of our money, Democrats tell us that they’ll get it right the next time for sure. And, for reasons I can not for the life of me understand, we believe them, even though their pet economic theories have never worked. Well, I have a few questions for Ms. Greuel. Who will she fire for wasting so much of our money? Which regulation will she remove to speed up the flow of money? What byzantine and corrupt contracting process will she waive to get some of that $2 million a job free from the grasping hands of bureaucrats who don’t want to let that money go? Which budget will she cut to free up even more money for job creation?

I’m no fool. I know I won’t get an answer to any of those questions, but if enough of us ask them, and keep on asking them at every opportunity, we will be impossible to ignore.

So far as I’m concerned, Ms. Greuel and the city of Los Angeles have lost the privilege of spending my money. The people who gave them that money, the Democrats in Congress and the President of the United States, have also forfeited the right to raise taxes at all on anyone until they can prove they won’t chuck the trillions they have already taken from us into a favor-buying, corrupt-as-hell bureaucratic wood chipper. It’s long past time we put their failed “spend and spend and spend some more” plans in the garbage where history says they should be.

What’s happening here is that Blanche Lincoln is a heavily-beleaguered Democratic Senator who was severely wounded in her primary, and is now facing almost certain doom in the general. But if 1.5 billion can save her, it can save her. In contrast, the members of the CBC enjoy the twin advantages of being ensconced in districts gerrymandered for their convenience via federal statute, and being the (eager) beneficiaries of forty years of Democratic agitprop dedicated to painting the GOP as veritable demons from Hell when it comes to race relations. In other words, they’re not going anywhere and their constituents will overwhelmingly vote for the President in 2012: so why is the CBC raising a fuss? And why should the administration care if they do?

Because, really, what does the AA community plan to do about being put-upon like this? Vote Republican?

For those of you searching for the hopeychangeyness in this exercise in rank political power, let me know if you catch a glimpse, would you? I’ve looked, but all I see is the same corrupt backroom vote-trading I’ve seen from Washington almost all my life.

*Yes, I realize that segment is considerable, but there is no doubt that not every black voter in this country has swallowed the progressive Kool-Aid. Perhaps this will help a few more realize that they’re not being fed sweet, sweet drink but a pretty noxious swill.

(Read this post and more from Jimmie at his blog The Sundries Shack or listen to his weekly political and pop-culture podcast, The Delivery)

Defense contractors who openly discussed a suspected pay-to-play scheme in e-mails released by congressional ethics investigators had ties to a powerful lobbying firm and won millions of dollars in federal earmarks after contributing to the campaign of an Indiana congressman.

Democratic Rep. Peter J. Visclosky requested a $2.5 million federal earmark for Nevada-based defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) five days after a March 2007 fundraiser for which the company’s owners and its political action committee contributed $18,800 to the congressman’s campaign.

Similarly, Mr. Visclosky requested $2.5 million for defense firm 21st Century Systems — five days after its employees ponied up $17,050 for the same fundraiser. The firm’s chief executive was awarded an “honorary seat” next to Mr. Visclosky at that fundraiser.

In both cases, company executives wrote e-mails linking campaign donations to earmarks Mr. Visclosky secured or special access to the congressman, a congressional ethics board concluded.

Sometimes you look at them in wonder; sometimes you just… look.

The players in the two vignettes above were all clients of Washington lobbying firm PMA Group; and Rep. Visclosky (D-IN, 90%) sits on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, along with Rep. James P. Moran (D-VA, 85%) and formerly with Rep. John Murtha (D-Pushing up daisies) — both of whom also evidently played for pay with PMA:

All three members of the powerful subcommittee that doles out millions of dollars annually in Pentagon appropriations received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from PMA employees and the firm’s clients who wanted earmarks — often within mere days of each other.

PMA, which earned more than $16.4 million in 2007 specializing in defense earmarks for clients, was one of the 10 top-grossing lobbying firms in Washington before it imploded. Federal agents raided it and owner Paul Magliocchetti’s home in November 2008.

This squalid tale of quasi-legal bribery would be uninteresting except for one aspect: The sad fact that the participants on both sides the transaction felt so secure from investigation, castigation, or even prosecution that they made no slightest attempt to hide their crimes. Everything was seemingly done right out in the open:

• The corporate bribers wrote e-mails carefully enumerating how much they were paying Visclosky, et al, and what earmarks they expected in return.
• They even put the details into an official corporate document — again without the slightest fear of trouble or sense of the enormity of their actions.
• And Visclosky, one of the alleged bribees, didn’t even try to conceal the link between money received and ears requested: In numerous instances, he put in the earmark request to the subcommittee less than a week after the fundraiser! He barely waited long enough to count the campaign cash and get it into the bank.

The Office of Congressional Ethics was created by Squeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Haight-Ashbury, 100%) in 2008 as a board of non-congressmen citizens who investigate ethics charges; if it finds substantiation, it’s empowered to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, the only congressional body that has actual jurisdiction over congressmen under House rules. So what happened in 2009, when the OCE did exactly that?

I bet you’ll never be able to guess:

The eight-member OCE Board of Directors referred the findings on Mr. Visclosky to the House ethics committee, saying they found “probable cause” to believe he solicited or received contributions in exchange for earmarks.

The OCE, which does not have jurisdiction over events prior to March 2008, included in its report the SNC e-mails from 2007 as “evidence that PMA clients seeking earmarks from Representative Visclosky linked contributions to his campaign to specific legislative acts.”

But in February, the ethics committee cleared Mr. Visclosky, Mr. Murtha, Mr. Moran and four other members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, saying it “found no evidence” they or their staffs were “directly or indirectly engaged in seeking contributions in return for earmarks.”

The only reason the investigation continues is that the OCE, piqued at being made laughingstocks by the “the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history,” unanimously referred the entire mess to the FBI, which has continued the investigation… at least until Attorney General Eric Holder realizes the danger and pulls a “Black Panther” on them.

For some reason, these top Democrats all casually assumed that they would be immune to ethical rules and even federal criminal prosecution for bribery and corruption; for some reason, they believed that when push-me came to pull-you, Squeaker Pelosi would not allow her top lieutenants on Appropriations to be held accountable for their follies and foibles.

For some completely unfathomable reason, this belief in ethical invulnerability turned out to be correct, at least so far. It’s a mystery!

The leftstream media is clearly uninterested in telling the story that the Democrats, far from being the paladins of virtue they consistently pretend, are far more corrupt than the Republicans they replaced… if for no other reason than the very normality of corruption in the party on the left.

To paraphrase Churchill, the Left swims in seas of corruption so dense, it crushes their very souls. Bribery and extortion is the rule, not the exception; and nobody fears consequences, worries about exposure, or so much as considers morality, no more than does a “soldier” in a Mafia family: They have mastered Chicago rules.

Even voters seem to accept Democratic corruption as so humdrum, it only becomes an issue when Republicans stand accused as well.

But this year above all others may be the one in which the American voter rediscovers not only fiscal frugality but ethical commandments. The Great Earmark Revolt, which we have chronicled in a series of posts from 2006 to this year, is one example; here are most of those posts, I believe:

1. The Missing Earpiece
2. Has Nancy Pelosi Changed Her Mind About Ears?
3. The Democrats Are All Ears
4. Earmarks? No No… Phonemarks!
5. They’re All Ears… Again
6. The Power of the Big Idea: O’Billery Reduced to “Me Too!”
7. Traders to the Cause – Republicans Are All Ears

America has been blessed by — and sometimes suffered under — moral crusades many times in the past, from the founding of the nation, through the anti-slavery movement, the temperence movement, the legal prudery movement, the civil-rights movement, and of course more religious revivalist movements than you can shake a crucifix at. Perhaps our “popular front” against overspending can find space for a moral crusade for clean government, as well.

This is the year; today is the day; now is the time to actually create — for real, this time — that “most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.” So far, alas, it remains yet another broken promise, like global warming and a sequel to the Incredibles.

Cross-posted on Big Lizards…

But I wonder who that sad little scrap of paper is?

I’m just a bill.
Yes, I’m only a bill.
And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.

Well, it’s a long twisted story
with lots of crime and not much glory.
Secret deals and billions in pork
Hey, there’s Ben Nelson, in whom you can stick a fork!

But I know I’ll be a law someday
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.

Boy: Gee, Bill, you certainly have a lot of patience and courage.

Bill: You ain’t kidding, Einstein. The idea for me got started about 80 years ago when FDR had the crackpot idea that you could grant “rights” by stealing people’s labor. Never mind the idea ain’t even constitutional. That didn’t stop the Democrats…

Constituents h’been flyin’, bussin’, railroadin’, callin’, emailin’, telling their damn Congress-critters to stop with the crazy Socialist crap.

So what’s their Congressman do? Lock their doors and shut off their phone systems, that’s what!

But lately, I been gettin’ closer than ever. Y’see, the Senate passed me by a single vote, which got Scott Brown elected Senator from Massachusetts!

Well, that freaked out the Marxists in the House that realized they’d never get another health care takeover through the Senate.

And because I’m so dang unpopular, Democrats have to figure out how to pass me without actually voting! Pretty cool, huh?

I’m just a bill
Yes I’m only a bill,
And I got as far as Capitol Hill.
Now I’m in the Rules committee
Where the head-mistress is pretty sh***y

And they’re threatening and bribing
Thieving and conniving,
Just trying to get me to float
Without even havin’ a vote!

Boy: Listen to those congressmen arguing! Is all that discussion and debate about you?

Bill: Sort of. They’re trying to pay off as many people as they can with special deals, kickbacks, earmarks, guaranteed jobs if they get kicked out of Congress in November, you name it! And all so they don’t have to vote on the real bill!

Boy: But that’s not what we studied in Civics class! A bill’s supposed to be passed, identically, through both chambers of Congress! That’s in the Constitution!

Bill: Don’t be a chucklehead. The Democrats destroyed the Constitution decades ago.

Now get lost. You bother me. And don’t come back until you’ve got some money to grease the wheels of the legislature. Dummy.

Cross-posted at: Doug Ross @ Journal.

None of this keeps Democrats from spending money like Marie Antoinette on meaningless projects. The latest example? Congress blew $50 million on a park in the Caribbean — St. Croix, to be exact. The vote was almost exclusively along party lines, with every Republican and five Democrats voting against it, and 240 Democrats voting for it.

If you are hoping to visit the newest crown jewel in America’s park system chosen by Congress, throw away the car keys and open up your wallet. The 2,900 pristine acres of beachfront property were not cheap — or even in the United States.

The property soliciting accusations of “pork” from critics is the Castle Nugent National Historic Park. It’s in the U.S. Virgin Islands, about a thousand miles from Miami and an expensive jet ride to get there.

Two weeks ago, on a near party line vote, a huge Democratic majority in the House agreed to spend $50 million to buy the former cotton plantation on the island of St. Croix.

“This is a beautiful and important natural and cultural resource that is in danger of being lost forever,” Virgin Island delegate, Donna Christiansen, told House colleagues in January.

… “Now is not the time to spend up to $50 million dollars of the taxpayers’ money to buy nearly 3,000 acres of beachfront property on a Caribbean Island,” said Rep. Doc Hastings, (R-Wash.), ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee. “We can’t afford a price tag for a new park in St Croix, just as many Americans will never be able to afford a visit there.”

Democrats approved the purchase, even though the National Park Service has yet to complete a study on the purchase.

“We don’t have the money to do this,” said Rep Jason Chaffetz, (R – Utah). “Currently the National Park Service has an estimated $9 billion in backlog maintenance on existing parks. Why should the people of Iowa, Rhode Island or California or Utah have to continue to pay and supplement the people there on St Croix for this property?”

Residents of St. Croix of course support this. But most constituents don’t complain about pork when it benefits them.

The land is currently owned by the Gasperi family. Apparently, they want to sell the property to keep it pristine and to prevent developers from taking over:

The Gasperi family maintains it wants to sell the land to the U.S. government in order to protect it from developers. Critics in Congress say there is nothing stopping them from doing that. They don’t have to sell, or the family could impose a conservation easement on the land, preventing development forever.

“Sometimes you have to say, enough is enough,” Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah told the House in January. “We heard it is (the Gasperi’s) desire that this land not be developed, but preserved in its current condition. It seems to me they are in the perfect position to accomplish that goal as landowners.”

If the Gasperis don’t want the land to be developed, then they have every right to keep that from happening. There is no need for the government to get involved, but there was never a time when Democrats saw a bill with pork barrel spending in it that they didn’t like.

And of course, how can this really be justified when the National Park Service hasn’t even surveyed the area and has a $9 billion backlog for parks right here in the United States? Most Americans will never see this park. The parks here that they could afford to see are the ones that apparently need maintenance.

But then, maybe that’s an ideal situation for Democrats. They can afford to go see this beautiful, pristine park in the Caribbean without worrying about seeing any of us uneducated middle-class low-lifes. They certainly aren’t looking out for the best interests of their constituents. They don’t care about what constituents want. They’re completely out of touch with reality… and in control of our wallets.

If that’s not a nightmare scenario, then I don’t know what is.

Hat Tip: Moonbattery

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary or follow her on Twitter!

No, for real. It happened two weeks ago in Detroit. Some 35,000 people, most of them black, lined up on the streets leading to the Cobo Center, where they believed they would be receiving “Obama money.” If that phrase — Obama money — sounds to you like funny money, you’re on the right track, except that funny money (aka counterfeit currency) really exists.

So desperate were these people to cash in on free money distributed by the man America had elected as its savior that fights broke out. Several people were nearly trampled.

In fairness to the Obama administration, the city of Detroit, and its fine citizens (more on them in a moment), a real process had supposedly been instituted to make stimulus money available to the most hard-hit victims of the recession. Unfortunately, here in the Obama Years, applications were distributed to 65,000 people, when in fact the plan was to issue checks to 3,500 — specifically those who had been out of work the longest and/or were facing foreclosure.

For an insight into the way government operates during the Obama Years, you can look to resounding success of the Cash for Clunkers program. But you can also learn much from the people who lined up outside the Cobo Center. Luckily, Ken Rogulski of WJR in Michigan was on hand to interview people in line for Obama cash. Here is the transcripts of one exchange:

ROGULSKI: Why are you here?

WOMAN #1: To get some money.

ROGULSKI: What kind of money?

WOMAN #1: Obama money.

ROGULSKI: Where’s it coming from?

WOMAN #1: Obama.

ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it?

WOMAN #1: I don’t know, his stash. I don’t know. (laughter) I don’t know where he got it from, but he givin’ it to us, to help us.

WOMAN #2: And we love him.

WOMAN #1: We love him. That’s why we voted for him!

WOMEN: (chanting) Obama! Obama! Obama! (laughing)

This, I believe, is just as Obama would have it: to be adored by his followers who believe he will dole riches out to them as needed from his personal “stash.” In short, the goal of his administration is to keep the masses ignorant and in need — which in turn are hallmarks of socialism. As Grant Ellis writes in American Thinker,

Liberty and responsibility are codependent: two sides of the same coin. I don’t think this concept is that difficult to grasp but our government, often at the insistence of a loud and ignorant political base, has sought for decades to make Americans less responsible for their daily lives and therefore less free. Curiously, this stealthy march toward tyranny is often done in the name of compassion, usually for ‘the needy.’ Shamefully, with the ‘help’ of government, the truly needy are at high risk of becoming truly dependent. Once that happens, escape is practically impossible.

That is one reason Obama is so threatened by dissent — why he and his minions disparaged the tea parties and has mounted an all-out assault on FOX News.

Yes, indeed, the Obama Year. Ain’t life grand?

Cross-posted at Zombie Contentions

You will note I have asterisked out a particular word; but it’s obvious what is found in the original interview:

If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f***ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f*** young girls. Juries want to f*** young girls. Everyone wants to f*** young girls!

For the record, when Polanski ejaculates “Everyone wants to f*** young girls!”, what he means is, “Everyone wants to drug a thirteen year old girl and force her first to engage in fellatio, then intercourse, then anal intercourse, all against her will and out of sheer terror.”

This illustrates one of the most important points to understand about liberals: They project their own evil and perversion on the rest of us, so that they will not feel uniquely vile and disgusting:

• Liberals tend to be extraordinarily racist; they believe racial minorities are incapable of succeeding without special government help, and they insist that all racial minorities follow the rules set for their race by white liberals. They realize what they really feel about blacks, Hispanics, and other “funny colored people,” but they don’t want to think they’re uniquely racist.

  So they accused everyone else of being racist too.

• They’re just as sexist as they are racist; women are just PLTs who need help from Big Daddy government to achieve even a modest level of success. But they feel creepy harboring such thoughts — and enabling such sexual predators as Teddy Kennedy, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT, 100%), and their “waitress sandwich” sexual assaults — and don’t want to think they’re uniquely misogynist.

  So they accuse everyone else of being sexist too.

• Liberals, who have a deep-rooted sense of entitlement and no compunction against enjoying the privileges of power, tend to engage in the most brazen and extraordinary acts of corruption; most recently, witness the Countrywide plc sweetheart mortgage scandal for “Friends of Angelo”. But with all the vicious rhetoric they spew against unbridled greed and the moral immunity bought by power, they don’t want to think that they themselves are the real exemplars of such corruption.

  So they call everyone else corrupt as well.

This is the standard liberal pattern: They project their own sins on the rest of us to “spread the guilt around,” to paraphrase the Guiltmonger in Chief. So when Polanski says “Everyone wants to f*** young girls,” we should conclude that he understands, in some dark depth of his soul (such as it is), that his tastes are not merely perverted but horribly so. Yet because he doesn’t want to believe that his amorality is uniquely eldritch, he accuses everyone else of likewise being a child rapist at heart — “See? It’s not just me!”

(One of the segments of the 1993 movie Shortcuts, directed by the depraved Robert Altman, has an eerily similar theme of expiation by super-projection.)

This is the liberal way. And now we have Barack H. Obama as president — a man who swam in exactly such currents of hatred, false witness, slander, and anti-Americanism his entire adult life, in the bear pits of Chicago’s progressive “salons” — and its Trinity United Church of Christ. Who will Obama accuse of his own projected sins, just to assuage his own gnawing sense of secret guilt?

God help the United States of America.

Cross-posted to Big Lizards…

As I sat still amid a throng of idling cars occupied by frustrated drivers on the verge of road-rage, I looked down the road a bit, and proudly displayed in full view in front of a construction site where nobody was working on a 65-degree sunny morning was a sign just like this one:

From a political sales perspective, I think this was the biggest mistake the Obama administration has made so far — and that’s saying something. There’s nothing worse for a politician than to put a sign up to remind everybody exactly who it was that caused them to be late for work and pissed off that morning. Especially in an area that nobody’s been working in for quite some time.

Obama putting up “Recovery Act” signs that are synonymous with his administration in full view of the accompanying traffic jams has all the sales impact of placing Alpo billboards in front of pet cemeteries.

Road work is a necessary inconvenience (well, often it is anyway), but taking credit for extreme traffic backups is just plain stupid — which is why traffic jams have never been “sponsored” before, and probably never will be again when or if the geniuses behind Hopenchange ever figure this out.

In his insistence upon putting the “stimulus” signs next to highway projects, Obama might be costing himself the 2012 election, one angry driver at a time. Couple that with the “Peggy Effect,” and The One is in trouble.

Cross-posted at DougPowers.com

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

The guy in this video asking why Obama wants to “rush” into spending trillions of dollars when it took him six months to choose a dog doesn’t appear to be wearing Brooks Brothers or sporting any swastikas, but I’m sure Lanny Davis wants him ID’d and photographed nevertheless. Lanny’s upset that “fascist tactics” at townhalls are interfering with the left’s implementation of fascism. How dare we!

What would be hysterically funny if it weren’t so pathetic is the Democrats’ attempt to make it appear that these townhall protesters are “fringe” and it’s just a few rabble-rousing Nazis causing trouble. Approval for Obama’s handling of health care is at 39% and falling fast.

But even if support was at 1% and the “strongly disapprove” was at 99%, Democrats would still push forward under the guise that those “opposed” are just fringe wacko “rent a mobs” hired by insurance companies. They have to press forward — if health care falls, the entire house of cards comes tumbling down, ivory towers and all.

Some Democrats, however, are distancing themselves from the demagogues in Washington. They know that this anger is genuine and potentially highly contagious, and they will feel it on election day if they’re not careful.

So, will Brooks Brothers emerge victorious, or the Hart Schaffner Marxist wardrobe of the DC Dems? Right now, it’s too clothes to call.

By the way, I think that Brooks Brothers has been taken over by Pelosi & Company, because here’s their latest ad:

[Note from Hot Air staff: This image was removed on September 2, 2009, at the request of Brooks Brothers.]

Cross-posted at DougPowers.com

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

h/t GatewayPundit

The government has moved from spending wildly excessive amounts of money on pork, to wildly excessive amounts on money on a small amount of ham.

Follow some of the links on Drudge concerning how the “stimulus” money is being spent, and you’ll realize why you’re not seeing a lot of stimulation — unless you’re buddies with a politician.

Here’s the most pathetic item listed on the Recovery.Gov website so far. Taxpayers spent $1,265,800 a pound for some ham. Over the weekend I spent $3.79 a pound — I circled in red the guffaw-inducing parts:

Makes you long for the fiscally responsible days of $900 toilet seats, doesn’t it?

Here are some more that Drudge linked:

RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,191,200 FOR ’2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED’…

RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $351,807 FOR ‘REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER’… (I think this has something to do with reconditioning Joe Biden’s hair plugs, but I’m not sure)

RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,562,568 FOR ‘MOZZARELLA CHEESE’…

RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $5,708,260 FOR ‘PROCESS CHEESE’…

RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $16,784,272 FOR ‘CANNED PORK’…

The latter is proof-positive that if you’re in the business of pork long enough, eventually you end up with actual pork.

The “stimulus” scam is one of the biggest, most expensive frauds in history — just after man-made global warming, which is, not coincidentally, peddled by the same people.

But hey, let’s let ‘em run the health care system of the entire nation! Great idea.

Anybody who supports government-run health care is either in on the scheme, mentally challenged beyond belief or “all of the above.”

Oh, and don’t forget, $18 million in taxpayer money was wasted to re-design the Recovery.Gov website where all the waste is listed.

Update: The gov’t explains the “two pound” misunderstanding:

The references to “2 pound frozen ham sliced” are to the sizes of the packaging. Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy “2 pounds of ham” are wrong. In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191m, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese.

While the principal purpose of these expenditures is to provide food to those hardest hit by these tough times, the purchases also provide a modest economic benefit of benefiting Americans working at food retailers, manufacturers and transportation companies as well as the farmers and ranchers who produce our food supply.”

Somebody’s stimulating themselves one hell of a ham and cheese sandwich.

In spite of the explanation, I’m wary of a government that’s purchasing tons of food in order to feed all the people they know will be unemployed by wildly over-expensive “stimuli” such as purchasing tons of food.

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Among other things, the bill regulates farming; fertilizers; animal husbandry and animal diets; feedstock; soil; light bulbs; home mortgages; banking; power generation and transmission; water and sewer systems; manufacturing; building codes; land use (forested, cleared, wetlands, etc); “manure management”; and creates gigantic new government bureaucracies (unionized, of course) to regulate, control, monitor and audit American citizens. It even reaches into your neighborhood and overrides Home Owners Assocation agreements.

Most importantly for companies, it specifies “emission allowances” for carbon dioxide. You know, the stuff that plants breathe and we exhale. Somehow, the environmental, flat-Earth, no-growth Marxists were able to have it categorized as a pollutant. Worked out well for California, didn’t it? But I digress. The bill assigns companies the right to emit carbon dioxide. Industry can trade those rights, but each year the amount of CO2 they emit is ratcheted down. Thirty years from now, the amount of CO2 is supposed to be roughly one-fifth of what it is today. The goal would appear to be to transform the U.S. into Somalia (their CO2 emissions are very low).

The emission allowance schedule looks like this (Sec. 721):

2012      4,627
2013      4,544
2014      5,099
2015      5,003
2016      5,482
2017      5,375
2018      5,269
2019      5,162
2020      5,056
2021      4,903
2022      4,751
2023      4,599
2024      4,446 

2025      4,294
2026      4,142
2027      3,990
2028      3,837
2029      3,685
2030      3,533
2031      3,408
2032      3,283
2033      3,158
2034      3,033
2035      2,908
2036      2,784
2037      2,659 

2038      2,534
2039      2,409
2040      2,284
2041      2,159
2042      2,034
2043      1,910
2044      1,785
2045      1,660
2046      1,535
2047      1,410
2048      1,285
2049      1,160 

Let’s take the defense and intelligence communities out of the mix. They seem to be good stewards of our money and, hell, they’re protecting our country from harm, which is more than we can say for Congress.

No, the truly outrageous offenders are the government bureaucracies that endlessly grow, never improving taxpayers’ lives while formulating new regulations and rules to further empower themselves.

So here’s how my Cap-and-Trade plan works.

We start with the most useless government agencies we can find. The Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, The Department of Health and Human Services, The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, the FCC and Amtrak. For the sake of argument, let’s say that together, they consume $250 billion a year.

Congress’ job? They would be required to cut spending for these ridiculous bureaucracies according to the following schedule (which I had a lot of fun creating — all numbers in billions).

2012      250
2013      210
2014      190
2015      160
2016      140
2017      120
2018      110
2019      100
2020       90
2021       75
2022       60
2023       50 

How do you like Cap-and-trade now, Democrats?

Cross-posted at: Doug Ross @ Journal.

The original plan called for the replacement of the rusting, elevated “Central Artery” (I-93) and a third harbor tunnel that would enhance access to Logan Airport.

By 1985, the project had received clearance from environmental regulators and was marketed to taxpayers as a $2.8 billion effort.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA), an organization with a checkered history of waste, graft and fraud, ran the project despite its obvious lack of experience in managing projects the size of “The Big Dig”.

Over two decades, the project incurred numerous cost overruns, criminal arrests, tunnel leaks, a fatal collapse of a ceiling on a driver, significant usage of substandard materials and documented waste on a grandiose scale.

Instead of $2.8 billion, the Big Dig will cost at least $22 billion, an 800% overrun. And taxpayers will be paying the tab until 2038.

Consider the Big Dig in the context of the stunningly large “Stimulus” package. Instead of an estimated $2.8 billion for starters, the corpulent government construction tab arrives at over $100 billion.

It includes transportation infrastructure, which translates to roadways, bridges, public transportation, and airports; renewable energy projects and energy-efficiency initiatives; and upgrades to water infrastructure (both drinking and waste-water systems) as well as flood-protection projects.

Given the nebulous nature of many of the projects — just what encompasses energy-efficiency, for example? — it’s unclear just how much waste and fraud will result. But one thing is certain: it will range from immense to spectacularly huge.

Case in point: Politico reports today that an Illinois “clean coal” plant called “FutureGen” will receive a billion dollars in “Stimulus” money. The plant has a long, troubled history involving half a million in Illinois taxpayer funds spent by disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich; and was a pet pork project of both Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama. Put simply, FutureGen is rightfully called the “Costliest Pork Project in History.”

100 similar, wasteful projects (PDF) have been identified by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and represent “egregious examples of stimulus dollars being handed out on the basis of politics rather than merit or need.”

Furthermore, a little publicized Executive Order rescinded by Barack Obama will result in even more waste and expense.

Obama’s action means that 84% of America’s construction workers and 25,000 businesses will be ineligible to participate in any federally funded construction projects. Why? Because those workers and businesses are non-unionized.

That is precisely why Obama and Democrats in Congress rushed to ram the immense Porkulus package down taxpayers’ throats before anyone even had a chance to read it.

It’s called payback to the unions. Obama’s executive order limits federally funded construction spending to union shops. And the “Spendulus” package is heavy in federally funded construction spending.

The combination is a festival of waste, fraud and mismanagement, topped off with a wonderful return-on-investment for the union bosses. The Porkulus package was not temporary, was not targeted, and it certainly didn’t create any jobs. That’s why even Joe Biden admits that it’s a failure. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts current unemployment (U-6) at a shocking 16.4%.

The Stimulus was a payoff to the union bosses. It directly ripped off the U.S. taxpayer in order to redistribute wealth to Democrat cronies. Now that’s change we can believe in.

Related reading: Tom Coburn’s list of the worst 100 Stimulus projects, Wikipedia: Boston’s Big Dig and The Big Dig comes to an End. Maybe.

Here’s just one:

Oh wait, my bad. Now it’s the much more politically correct, H1N1 (Dems can’t offend the porcine population, they might need Porky Pig or pro-choice Miss Piggy to vote in 2010 and 2012).

In the meanwhile, a lot of stories haven’t been covered nearly enough outside of blogs and Fox News. Oddly, the vast majority of these stories seem to be things Obama God, Jr. wants to keep quiet. Here’s a not so exhaustive list:

• That little problem of a projected 1.7+ trillion dollar deficit, from the very people who moaned at Bush’s comparatively minuscule deficit.
• That’s okay, God, Jr. promised a chicken in every pot, and his biggest supporter Oprah provided! There were line-ups at Kentucky Fried Chicken locations across the country, however, her coupons for free food often proved as useless as an American dollar in Paris. But at least those who got the free grub got gas.
• Speaking of fuel, people right of center and those in NYC know, Scare Force One buzzed NYC for the $380,000 photo op. The results of which may (or may not) actually be released. And may, or may not further terrorize New Yorkers when they realize exactly who is in the oval office.
• Oh, on total transparency, God, Jr. has proclaimed the tracking of ‘every dime’ of stimulus will be delayed until 2010.
• In the meanwhile, Bank of America needs billions and billions more, likely to be spent long before we achieve Deepak Chopra style transparency, world peace, and the universal ability to take a free yoga class, in 2010.
• But back to the present, I heard there is a successful school voucher program in DC, being revoked. Who would do such a thing?
• No one knows, but the USA’s Community Organizer in Chief wanted Grey Poupon on his burger.
• Speaking of community, God, Jr.’s plan to close Guantanamo includes them being released in your backyard. That’s cool with you, right?
• It better be, or the Obama misadministration might threaten you with public attacks, the way they didn’t to Chrysler creditors who refused to surrender their contractual rights!
• Speaking publicly, John Edwards, formerly the pretty-bunny-boy of the Democratic party has a wife with terminal cancer and a book coming out, which mentions his alleged affair with possible baby mama, Rielle Hunter.
• Plus, someone doled out a bunch of hush money for Rielle, and guess whose campaign funds are being looked over?
• Of course, some good did come of the swine flu hysteria. Joe Biden told people not to fly or expose themselves to confined areas. He should know all about confined areas, having been released from his own undisclosed padded location.

Some people might be wondering where Moses works into this, and why an Atheist is mentioning Moses at all. But as the story goes, Moses had to tap the rock twice to produce water…and many stories are worth repeating. Even if we can’t add anything new.

But I know I missed so many stories, glossed over by the mainstream media, feel free to add them in the comments.

Moxie can usually be found at her own blog Moxie.nu, and at Big Hollywood.