POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Latest News on Fannie and Freddie

So far, the American taxpayer has been on the hook for $130 billion (and growing) to bail out the "struggling mortgage giants." Yesterday, FHFA's Acting Director was "grilled" (in the parlance) in the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on a variety of subjects, including whether it was appropriate to grant the administrators of the programs salaries of up to $6 million per annum, and whether it was appropriate for taxpayers to have to foot the legal bills of past executives:

Since the government takeover, taxpayers have paid more than $160 million defending the two firms and their former top executives. About $24.2 million of the total went to defend former Fannie Mae Chief Executive Franklin Raines and two other senior executives, according to the committee.

The panel's chairman, Texas Representative Randy Neugebauer, questioned the decision to pay fees for the three executives, who he said earned more than $150 million collectively from 1998-2003.

"I think all of my colleagues can agree that these fees are not 'reasonable' given the mounting taxpayer exposure, the delay tactics of the defendants and the fact that many of these securities-related lawsuits have no end in sight," Neugebauer said.

Meanwhile, OMB Director Jeff Lew was getting pounded by Paul Ryan and Jeff Sessions, among others, over his absurd representation of Obama's budget as "balanced."

At Slate, Bethany McLean doesn't believe that Fannie and Freddie are going away:

But before Fannie and Freddie's detractors clink champagne glasses, they should know that the administration's plan—which it was required to produce under last year's Dodd-Frank financial reform—makes no decisions of real consequence. You don't have to be a cynic to conclude that Fannie and Freddie aren't going anywhere.

The administration plan proposes certain steps to coax private capital back into the mortgage market. (As things stand today, there are very few government-free home sales; Fannie, Freddie, and the Federal Housing Administration guarantee more than 90 percent of new mortgages.) For example, the plan would reduce the size of the loans Fannie and Freddie can buy in high-cost areas from $729,750 to $625,500. It would also increase the size of the down payment that Fannie, Freddie, and the FHA require and raise the fee these three entities charge. The purpose of these proposed changes is to make it easier for private firms to compete. "As the market begins to heal and private investors return," the authors of the plan pledge, "we will seek opportunities, wherever possible, to accelerate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's withdrawal." But what if private capital doesn't want anything to do with most of the American mortgage market? And even if some private capital does return, the decrease in loan limits and the increase in down payments are "clearly not enough to 'wind down Fannie and Freddie,'" Amherst Securities concluded in a recent report.

Considering the administration's policy of rewarding failure for purposes of redistribution, I'm inclined to believe her.

It goes beyond that, though. The real taxpayer exposure is much higher, and despite the government's having bailed out and seized control of Fannie and Freddie in 2009, the government argues that the records are not subject to FOI requests. Such cover-ups on the part of the administration have caused Issa and company to adopt an aggressive posture towards investigation, with the result that liberal activists are organizing to impugn the investigators, even as FOIA requests are submitted to political appointees for approval, causing them to be delayed or ignored at the whim of those appointees.

Belatedly, even ABC has finally come to the conclusion that the White House is granting or denying access to reporters based on their affiliations. Of course, if the MSM hadn't been so deeply in the tank for Obama, they might have established a different sort of relation from the get-go.

You know what else isn't going away, though? The Kermit Gosnell story.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Obama’s Budget

I'm sure it's raaaaacist, but . . .

Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen! He's under complete control!

Yeah, racist obscenity.

Even the WaPo has brutally panned Obama's enormous crocoshite for its mind-boggling irresponsibility. And people were wondering why they didn't wheel out Carney to defend it.

I'm not going to read that thing, for fear I might say something like this.

Regarding Larry O'Donnell:

I'm going out on a limb here, but maybe this had something to do with the Super Bowl menu at the White House?

I didn't have to be told who was represented by that Michelle cartoon, douchebag.

And, although I haven't seen the Obama with animal features thing, I wonder where your moral indignation at ChimpyMcBushHitler was?

Shut up, Larry.

UPDATE: McCardle on Obama's HCR budget gimmicks, nothing left to lie about.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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The Clash of Values: Lara Logan’s Sexual Assault [UPDATEDx3]

In case you haven't read about this, Lara Logan, covering the reactions in Tahrir Square to Mubarak's announcement that he was stepping down on February 11th, got cut off from her camera team when a group of "bad elements," numbering about 200, surrounded them. She was beaten and sexually assaulted for some time before some Egyptian women and soldiers were able to retrieve her. She returned to the US on the first available flight the next morning, and apparently is still in the hospital.

At Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams has written a piece entitled, "What not to say about Lara Logan," chronicling a variety of sick and demented reactions to the news. Having done so, she manages to screw the whole thing up at the end:

Here’s what you do say when something like this happens. Like countless women around the world, Lara Logan was attacked in the line of duty. She was assaulted doing her job. It was a crime of unspeakable violence. And your opinion of how she does that job, the religion her assailants share with a few million other people, or the color of her hair had nothing to do with it.

Unfortunately, the religion that her assailants share with a few million other people does seem to be a major facet of the culture that generates people who express their jubilation by assaulting a woman who doesn't look or dress the way that they do. As Ace says:

The article doesn't say she was "raped," but sexually assaulted -- I'm not sure what happened. She was ultimately...

saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

Well, that is something. On the other hand, goddamn if I am not weary of a barbaric desert nomad culture of rape and outrage while carrying around a ton of chip-on-the-shoulder arrogance-hiding-profound-insecurity about it all.

Oh right, a thousand years ago they invented algebra. So, like, they should keep doing victory laps over that.

There's some context given by a variety of writers at this post from the Maynard Institute:

Sunni Khalid, who has covered Egypt and continues to follow events in the country, told Journal-isms via e-mail:

“When I was living in Cairo, sexual harassment was a problem for all women, but especially for foreign women in Western clothing. Of course, many women, Egyptian and otherwise, began wearing the higab in much greater numbers, either to express their piety or to avoid pervasive sexual harassment and potential assault. In recent years, however, not even simply wearing the higab has been enough to ward off either growing harassment or increasing numbers of sexual assault. You have an obvious contradiction of growing outbursts of sexual violence at a time when Egyptian society has become more socially conservative."

Writing for the American Prospect, Beenish Ahmed, a writer and social justice activist who recently served as a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom, wrote on Feb. 11:

"In Egypt, street and sexual harassment has been endemic, even described as a 'social cancer.' Egyptian women have become rightfully wary of any sort of public demonstration where they might become targets of abuse. During the 2009 celebration of Eid al-Fitr, no fewer than 150 men were arrested for a harassing spree in a single Cairo neighborhood.

"It might even be worse during protests, which have proved especially disconcerting for women, in part because many alleged attacks come from the security forces as a way to quell the demonstrations. In 2005, for instance, hundreds of young men affiliated with President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party assisted in physically and sexually assaulting female protesters of a government referendum, tearing blouses off two."

I will grant you that the evidence I've seen suggests that the assailants constitute a small minority among the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, who have shown real courage and humanity, for the most part. It doesn't square, though, with Williams' own treatment of the sexual scandal in the Catholic Church, just for example:

The Catholic Church has taken heat lately for that whole "decades-long, widespread raping of children and covering it up" thing. And as the world searches for explanations as to how so much abuse could have gone unpunished for so long, many lay responsibility on Pope Benedict and the legacy of his tenure as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

But those within the Catholic Church have a few ideas of their own. Who's to blame for the church's epic failure to protect kids from sexual predators? Let's find out!

No, a culture that stones women on the accusation of adultery or honor kills them for having suffered rape and forces them inside the niqab, either by law or by virtue of tolerating sexual harassment, has nothing to do with the sexual assault. On the other hand, the Catholic hierarchy has been trying to pass the buck.

There was indeed something rotten in the Church that permitted these crimes to be perpetrated and covered up, but Westerners covering up for the perversions of Islamic cultures isn't understanding; it's willful blindness to the fact that when push comes to shove, and after all of the mealy-mouthed platitudes are said and done, many of them don't give a rat's ass about anyone else's values. Making excuses, trying to seal off the matter of relative cultural values from scrutiny, does nothing at all to advance intercultural dialogue. In the end, it is offensively patronizing, morally bankrupt twaddle.

At some point, "It was the colonialism!" ceases to cut it. We are far beyond that point.

UPDATE: from JWF--

A network source told The Post that her attackers were screaming, "Jew! Jew!" during the assault. And the day before, Logan had told Esquire.com that Egyptian soldiers hassling her and her crew had accused them of "being Israeli spies." Logan is not Jewish.

Ironically, it's the American media that has for two years portrayed tea partiers are being out-of-control raucous mobs with no evidence to support the assertion, yet they're seemingly giving a casual pass to this savage behavior.

UPDATEx2: Tree-Hugging Sister has thoughts about Lara Logan.

UPDATEx3: Logan's interview on Charlie Rose, just before she returned to Egypt.

And over at Patterico's, Aaron Worthing feels much the way I do.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Hi! I’m Tari! We May Have Met (Sort Of)

I have met so many seemingly wonderful people on Twitter. I’m sure most people who spend much time on Twitter have as well. Don’t you wonder if they’re as wonderful in person as you find them on Twitter? I sure wanted to find out. I have a little insight now, and a very short answer: The answer is YES. If you’re interested in a longer answer, I’d love to share that with you now.

Over the last couple of years on Twitter, I’ve read about various conservative blogger/activist/political organization meet ups and my impression was that overall, people have a whole lot of fun at these. New, real life friendships are forged and, really, that aspect has always been appealing to me. My envy and curiosity led me to deciding to attend CPAC in Washington, DC this year.

If you’re on any kind of a tight budget and have paid attention to this event, you probably know that it’s not an inexpensive excursion. I decided to splurge and hoped it would be worth it.

I found it very worth it.

I met up with a small group of people I’ve conversed with over my time on Twitter and found them to be not only extremely generous with their time, but warm and friendly and most of all REAL. I was instantly at ease.

I arrived on the Friday of the gathering with no ticket for the day’s events. That was my budget and plan. I figured I’d get acclimated to the venue and say hello to people I wanted to meet in between what they’d plan to attend. I found that many of these people just took me under their wings and missed part of the actual events to spend time with me. I was so touched and grateful at that kindness; after all, no one owed me any of their time. I’d like to give a shout out here to a few of them by their Twitter handle, since that is how we all got to know each other originally: @bluedevilmsn, @SisterToldjah, @anthropocon and @meadabawdy. Also, to @BrainLemon for waiting for me to catch up with him so we could attend a speech together. Thank you all so much!

My new friends were kind enough take me by the blogger’s lounge at the CPAC hotel. You can’t get into the lounge if you’re not a blogger, but you can catch the people coming in and out. I was lucky to get to say hello to so many that way. I had a lovely meet up with my Twitter friend @JimmieBjr (Jimmy Bise) and I also got to say hello to a few people I’ve had back and forths with on Twitter, like @pinkelephantpun (Tabitha Hale) and @snarkandboobs (Lori Ziganto). Lovely ladies. Thank you for stopping to say hello.

The venue itself, the Marriott Wardman Park, was beautiful. I wasn’t lucky enough to be able to stay there due to my budget, but I found the commute via the Metro pretty easily done. It was fun just walking around and seeing notable personalities at the venue. For instance, my friends and I ate lunch next to Andrew Breitbart and (separately) Dana Loesch. G. Gordon Liddy walked by our table and so did Bay Buchanan. I saw Pamela Gellar in the lobby bar. We saw Joe Lockhart (one of Clinton’s press secretaries) in the hotel pub. He and I exchanged “Hmmm…I think I recognize you./Oh, I think I’ve been spotted.” looks. Hee! In fact I saw so many personalities in the hallways and lobby that it is hard to recall the whole list.

A few people who are Twitter acquaintances surprised me by just showing up at the location where I’d just tweeted that I was to say hello, like @Amuk3 (Dodd Harris) and @glenasbury. I have to tell you that I found that very lovely and flattering, indeed. Oh, and I’d also like to mention what a wonderful chat I had with @alwaysonoffense (Ryan), who took the time to sit down with me and ask me – and really listen to my thoughts about my beloved Detroit. Thanks for that, Ryan.

I should admit that my main reason for going to this event was not really the actual schedule itself. It was all about the people for me. It always is. I wanted to meet some of the bloggers I read every day – I wish I’d met more of them! – and also the people I have come to know on Twitter whom I consider real friends. I wasn’t disappointed! Not one bit. Okay, one disappointment, if I can find any, is that I didn’t get to meet my Twitter friend @SarahWW (Sarah Wells). I think we were both really looking forward to that, but she fell ill and couldn’t make it. Darn it! Also did not run into Melissa Clouthier. We’re not really Twitter “friends”, but I do admire her writing and thoughts on Twitter. Here’s hoping I meet Sarah and say hi to Melissa next year.

I did get to catch a few actual speeches. I saw both John Bolton and Ann Coulter. I really enjoyed both speeches (Bolton actually got a “Whoop!” out of me – I love that guy). I was also looking forward to hearing Jonah Goldberg speak as well, but sadly, a death in his family prevented him from attending and speaking. Rich Lowry filled in and was …not Jonah. Heh. But! I did enjoy his speech, anyway. His humility about filling in for Jonah was very endearing.

I don’t think I can express how much fun I had hanging out with the people I’d looked forward to meeting up with. They were beyond my expectations in every way. The city, my hotel, the venue: all were gorgeous to me - a small town Michigan gal. And, the time my friends and I spent in Harry’s Pub and Murphy’s Pub was just magical for me. (I’m going to dub CPAC “PubPac” next year!) It was all too much fun to be missed and I feel so very blessed with new, now not just Twitter pals, but real life friends. And the list of people I feel that way about does not include just the people I mentioned here. There were so many more!

Lastly, it is very interesting how we come to know each other by our online monikers, particularly on Twitter. If you use Twitter handle that is different from your actual name, people come to know you by that name, obviously. It makes referring to people at a gathering like this a little confusing! Over and over again at CPAC, to my great embarrassment at one point, I would forget to tell people that I met my actual name. Sometimes it just seemed awkward to correct people. So before I find myself forever lost behind my Twitter handle – my name is not Darcy. My real name is Tari. I blog (a bit) and tweet under the name Darcysport. But please, call me Tari.

I so look forward to meeting more new friends next year at CPAC. I hope you’ll be there.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Pigford Fraud Update

All-American Blogger interviews Rep. Peter King about the Pigford fraud:

via Verum Serum.

Latest must-read update on this is at Big Journalism, and it's not readily redactable, so go read it.

Salon interviewer pleads with "First Amendment Guru" to find a scenario under which Sherrod can successfully sue Breitbart. No dice.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Turmoil and Turpitude

Maggie's Notebook has the latest on the swath of uprisings in the Middle East. Years ago, there was a funny Onion article (when, I believe, they were still a Wisconsin print publication) entitled, "US Must Reduce Its Dependence on Foreign Turmoil." And there's some wisdom in that, so I'm going to change the focus to this awful story out of Washington, DC:

The D.C.-based Hillcrest Children's Center, a mental health provider that began as an orphanage nearly 200 years ago and was first led by Dolly Madison, is accusing a Washington financial firm of bilking $8 million of its investments.

In what lawyers for the center call a “straight-forward case of theft and fraud,” the center filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington recently against Gibraltar Asset Management Group LLC, its lawyer and executives.

Nothing like a Madoff-style Ponzi scheme that evolves over decades, this was the equivalent of a smash and grab:

When negotiating with the Hillcrest Children's Center to handle millions of dollars from the District-based nonprofit group’s endowment, executives at Gibraltar Asset Management Group held themselves out to be responsible investment managers whose advisers included top faculty at Howard University, according to court records.

But two years after investing nearly $8 million with Gibraltar, officials at the Hillcrest Childrens Center in Washington say their money is all gone except for a few hundred dollars. In a federal lawsuit, Hillcrest, which began almost 200 years ago and was first led by Dolley Madison, is accusing Gibraltar and its executives of outright theft.

Hillcrest doesn’t name or identify any of the business advisers as defendants in its lawsuit, nor does the nonprofit suggest they played any role in handling the investment proceeds. But Hillcrest attorneys do point out in court documents that Gibraltar‘s advisory board was an important factor in gaining Hillcrest’s trust before the nonprofit group invested so much money.

Within months of acquiring the account (Hillcrest's board was concerned that their then-financial advisers weren't paying enough attention to their portfolio, which, like everyone else's but Congresspeople, was hemorrhaging), the "investment group" had redistributed all but a few hundred dollars of the non-profit's $8 million. It appears that the sleight of hand that allowed them to do so was a technique that they represented as "covered call," just a verbal Three-Card Monty, although some of the board expressed concern during that brief time that the profits that Gibraltar were claiming seemed a bit outsized, considering the state of the markets, generally.

And who introduced these charming people to the members of the Board of Directors of Hillcrest?

While nobody at Hillcrest had institutional investment experience, they came up with several possible new advisers through various acquaintances. It was Nathaniel Sims, a board member, who first mentioned Gibraltar. He knew Garfield Taylor, the firm’s chief executive, because he had invested with him and the pair had other “societal connections,” according to the suit.

Nathaniel Sims, who styles himself a Lieutenant (and maybe was), seems to be the very same fellow who was disbarred back in 2004 by the DC Court of Appeals for "moral turpitude":

The record before us shows that beginning around February 1997, the FBI launched an investigation into allegations of impropriety by Mr. Sims. At the time, Mr. Sims was a hearing examiner in the Bureau of Traffic Adjudication (“BTA”) at the District of Columbia Department of Public Works.1  Two FBI agents interviewed then current and former staff at the BTA, the project manager for the computerized Ticket Information Management System (“TIMS”) used to keep track of the issuance and disposition of traffic tickets, and Mr. Sims. An unsigned March 24, 1997 report of the two FBI Agents stated, in part:

The Acting Chief [of the BTA] with the assistance of the TIMS Project Manager for Ticket Processing, Lockheed Martin, the contractor who maintains the TIMS data base for the District, provided hard copies of a total of $1,280.00 in reductions and suspensions made between March 6, 1996 and February 4, 1997, for [Mr. Sims] and his wife and daughter's tickets. (3) tickets were dismissed and 2 points were suspended for his wife ․ and (1) ticket was dismissed for his daughter ․ (18) tickets were dismissed for [Mr. Sims]. All the entries in TIMS on the (22) tickets reflected [Mr. Sims'] identification code and the [h]earing [o]fficer codes of either [Mr. Sims] or other [h]earing [o]fficers.

Why do I think so? Because of this latter statement on his petition for restoration:

His statements of remorse before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia during his sentencing hearing, and during the hearing before Hearing Committee Four reflect a recognition of the seriousness of that misconduct. There is no indication in the record that he has engaged in any misconduct in his law practice or other aspects of his life. Prior to the entry of his guilty plea, he paid the money he denied to the District government by his actions. And there is no reason on this record to question his present character, or his present qualifications and competence to practice law. Mr. Sims is a graduate of the Georgetown Law Center and holds a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. For a substantial number of years he held positions in various departments and agencies of the District government, including the Department of Personnel, the Rental [*41] Accommodations office, and the Department of Public Works, with no disciplinary record. In addition, he participates in community, civic, and religious activities, including the Boy Scouts, the Hillcrest Children's Center, and his local church. He has been married for approximately thirty-six years, has five children, two of whom at the time of Sims I were still in elementary and secondary school; and he raised four foster children whose care he assumed following the death of their mother. In sum, on this record I am convinced that rather than protecting "the legal profession, the courts, and the public," Lenoir, supra, 604 A.2d at 15, or ensuring " the continued and restored fitness [of Mr. Sims] . . . to practice law," Bettis, supra, the sanction of disbarment imposed on Mr. Sims constitutes punishment despite the fact that "our purpose in conducting disciplinary proceedings and imposing sanctions is not to punish the attorney. . . ." Steele, supra, 630 A.2d at 200.

[Emphasis mine]

So, Hillcrest has initiated a civil suit. It's going to be interesting to find out whether this sad fiasco makes its way onto the radar of Eric Holder's DOJ, but it's the redistribution that matters most, in these cases, because that's what justice is really all about.

Maybe you'll have better luck Googling up the Washington Post's coverage of this story than I did.

Read both of the articles in full, please, and then tell me how it is that people like Allen West or Herman Cain are the "race traitors" here. Because, honestly, I don't get it.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Niall Ferguson Schools Morning Joke

via The Right Scoop

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Monday Morning Miscellany, 2-14-11

Packers gave great fan big send-off:

A year ago Bob Cook guaranteed a Packers appearance in Texas for Super Bowl XLV, and he was right.

The rest of his prediction - that he would attend the game as he had every Super Bowl - unfortunately did not come true.

Cook died Thursday after being hospitalized with a blood infection -an ailment that did not stop him from watching the Packers triumph on TV from a Milwaukee-area hospital.

"We were packed and ready to go," his wife, Sarah, said. "He was just too weak to go."

Cook of Brown Deer was the former owner of Bob Cook's Vagabond Travel Service. He was 79.

You're probably familiar with Cook's story, which credit card giant Visa introduced to the world in a Super Bowl ad featuring Cook and the three other fans in the Never Miss a Super Bowl Club.

When Cook made his guarantee to Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Silverstein last February, he was described as one of four fans and two journalists who had been to all the Super Bowls.

His pals on Sunday fondly recalled Cook as they lamented the group dwindling to three. It was five at one time.

RIP, Bob. I have confidence that you're up there with St. Vincent de Paul Hornung.

Michael Moynihan rips Oxford plagiarist several new orifices:

Mr. Sandbrook, an Oxford-trained historian, knows better. After all, it wasn't long ago that, reviewing Jon Wiener's "Historians in Trouble," a book on academic misconduct, he upbraided a historian for "ignor[ing] the codes and courtesies of historical scholarship."

Writing a tedious and unoriginal book is excusable. Recycling the phrasing, the descriptive adjectives, the reportorial detail of other historians—in other words, ignoring the codes and courtesies of historical scholarship—isn't.

I disagree with him about the excusable part, by the way.

In space, no one can hear you moan.

Teh stupid, from HuffPo:

Sarah Palin is a master of self-immolation.

In the month since the horrific shooting in Tucson, Palin squandered an opportunity to help mend the country's fragile psyche. She could have chosen to rise above the fray and tone down her patented partisan rhetoric. It was a chance for her to acknowledge words matter.

Instead, in her now infamous "blood libel" tirade, Palin exposed herself as a platitude-spewing automaton. For a woman whose battle cry leading up to the mid-term election was "Don't Retreat, Reload," self reflection would have been a more appropriate response than defiance.

This post is such a rat's nest of stupid that I'm going to just deal with the opening 3 grafs, and even then, it's hard to know where to begin. First off, dummy, what does Sarah Palin have to do with Gabrielle Giffords' shooting? Is there some particular reason that Palin has to parrot your "words matter" mantra, when there's no evidence at all that she had any influence on Loughner?

Many people have noted that Obama's not exactly a choir boy when it comes to "violent rhetoric."

Mobster wisdom tells us never to bring a knife to a gun fight. But what does political wisdom say about bringing a gun to a knife fight?

That’s exactly what Barack Obama said he would do to counter Republican attacks “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

But what's most disturbing and most foolish about this is the deliberate way in which Ms. Coker sets out to de-humanize Palin by calling her a "platitude-spewing automaton."

Platitudes? "Self-immolation" (a little projection there, hon?); "mend the country's fragile psyche" (who made you National Shrink?); "rise above the fray and tone down her patented partisan rhetoric" (Patented? Really?). Puh-leeze. You're a young idiot, apparently, so there's hope for you, maybe--but you're an idiot nonetheless.

Or as Freud famously noted, as he smoked a (circumcised) phallus . . . Bill Clinton.

Politico:

President Barack Obama, balancing his blueprint to recalibrate the nation’s economy against a looming confrontation with Republicans over federal spending, will use the issue of education to help frame the budget debate.

As he argues for a budget that includes painful cuts to government-funded initiatives he favors, such as home weatherization programs, community development plans and even college Pell Grants, the president will use his bully pulpit to defend spending more on education — a domestic issue that has been overshadowed by debates about the economy and the health care overhaul.

“I think they have to,” James Carville, a Democratic political strategist, told POLITICO, referring to Obama’s budget strategy.

Carville appeared at Teach For America’s 20th anniversary celebration in Washington on Saturday, where thousands rallied for the president to push for a more aggressive education reform agenda. Later in a recorded video message, Obama praised TFA and pledged his administration will continue to support teacher recruitment.

Republican “budget cuts call for cutting AmeriCorp, which funds this stuff,” Carville said referring to the education award given for domestic public service that incentivizes much of Teach For America’s corps of teachers. “I think he can draw some pretty sharp lines in this budget fight.”

What the hell does "blueprint to recalibrate the nation's economy" mean? Screw it up more, I suppose. (Related: GM and Chrysler's bonuses said to have grown to as high as 50% of salary. That's what I call Winning The Future!)

You'd think that after Obama's corpse gaffe, the left could get this right: It's AmeriCorps. AmeriCorp, though, has the advantage of flagging the actual nature of this administration's attempt to bring all aspects of the country's enterprise under its control, so I say, have it your way.

Obama, famously, wants to fund a youth corps for public service, and to make secondary financial aid for higher education contingent upon service. What this does, in effect, is continue to feed the academic bubble. Moreover, there's nothing to suggest that the Obama administration won't try to instrumentalize an expanded AmeriCorps for partisan ends, the way they do everything else. The content of such a programme would be political correctness, because that is what the President and his advisers believe is the fundamental task of education, and really, all they know. It doesn't take a Sputnik scientist to see where this is going, Carville.

I'm not even going to go into what the effectiveness of insulation efforts has been. Let's just say that it's been up to the general standards of this administration, whose initiatives are principally designed to redistribute wealth and increase reliance on government, whatever the stated purposes are.

Pentagon software didn't predict Egyptian uprising. Madden 2011 did, though. Or not.

"I see Eagles fans!"

UPDATE: Obama's shit-filled chocolate Valentine's gift to American taxpayers.

Lots more at Memeorandum.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Best and Worst Valentine’s Day Gifts

that you've ever received.

An almost fatally cute Valentine's Day card from No Sheeples.

Well, we know what the worst is:

President Obama later today will propose a 10-year budget plan that would increase the national debt by $7.2 trillion over 10 years -- $1.1 trillion less than if it weren't implemented.

Jerome Corsi on unemployment:

Even a quick inspection shows that unemployment in this table is presented for January 2011, not at 9.0 percent, but as 9.8 percent, listed under "U-3 Total unemployed, as a percentage of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate).

A difference is that Table A-15 considers a person to be unemployed if they are without a job for 15 weeks or longer, with no requirement that the person be actively looking for a job in the prior 15 weeks.

In other words, a different time frame - a longer look at weeks unemployed - and a less rigorous screening out for those who are becoming discouraged - results in a higher unemployment rate.

But the major difference is that the monthly unemployment rate reported by the BLS press releases is seasonally adjusted - in other words, altered - by a calculation known only to the bureaucrats within BLS.

By the time we get to U-6, the BLS is willing to consider as unemployed all persons including those marginally attached to the labor force, plus those forced to work part time.

Now, looking at the unadjusted U-6 data, the unemployment rate jumps to 17.3 percent for January 2011, not the 9.0 percent originally reported in the monthly BLS unemployment rate press release.

Even here, the number is intentionally understated, largely because workers who are so discouraged that they have abandoned looking for work altogether are by definition excluded from being included in the BLS estimate of how large the labor force truly is.

But the seasonal adjustments and "baseline" recalculations are where the Obama administration gets to manipulate the unemployment numbers to make sure the BLS remains on theme with the current White House spin on the economy.

It is no wonder that economist Jim Fitzgibbon, head of the Highlander Fund, calls the BLS monthly unemployment rate report "worthless," noting "the entire report is seasonally adjusted to be positive, while the non-adjusted data is just awful."

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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