Links and Minifeatures 2009 02 16 Monday

Carnival of Real Estate

Projected jobs numbers don't quite add up

A + B adds up to considerably more than A + B when certain politicians want it to. At least on the reports written by them and their subordinates.

Hot Air:

Clearly, the White House is using the time-honored mathematical method of pulling numbers out of one's rear end. They are so bad about it that no one at the White House apparently thought to reconcile the numbers to see whether they even came close to agreement before publishing them. If someone produced numbers like this in the private sector for a project, they'd be fired. In the public sector, they get to run things.

William M. Briggs, Statistician: Count 'em: The White House should not control the Census

We statisticians are lovely folk--we know some great jokes, and can integrate multidimensional integrals faster than you can crack open a peanut--but we cannot be trusted to not play with our own creations, especially when our bosses, eager for a certain result, are watching over our shoulders.

Obama puts attempts to use constituents to put pressure on Freshman Republican to vote for stimulus bill, instead by a margin of 1400 to zero, they want it stopped

Obama: Caterpillar will re-hire people if stimulus passes; Caterpillar CEO: No, we won't

Obama's new deal is the same old blunder

The Fiscal Trap of Hope

Rubin hits the nail on the head. The fiscal fantasies of Hope are about to slam head-on into the economic realities of the bond market. Economic reality is an unmovable object, and liberals are about to discover that Hope is not an irresistible force.

"Real and tangible progress for the American people" Not!

"Real and tangible progress for the American people." That's how the current President of the United States, in his weekly address yesterday, described the bloated $800 billion spending monstrosity that he just rammed down our throats. (Please don't called it a "stimulus" package: the only thing it stimulates is fiscal irresponsibility.) I wonder if the current President of the United States had a little smile on his lips when he said those words: "Real and tangible progress for the American people." Real and tangible progress for the governmental juggernaut is more like it. Did he snigger, just a little, when he went on to claim that throwing billions at every conceivable Democratic boondoggle would somehow "save or create more than 3.5 million jobs over the next two years"? Did he manage to keep a straight face when he said that opening the US Treasury to Democratic interest groups would "ignite spending by business and consumers alike"? I didn't actually hear the speech, but I wonder how he managed to get through the claim that putting the country in hock would "lay a new foundation for our lasting economic growth and prosperity."

The "war" on Barack Obama? Oh, please

Good faith? When exactly did the Democrats show good faith? This bill started out by locking Republicans out of its draft, as well as many Democrats through Nancy Pelosi's refusal to return to regular order in the House. This is the most expensive bill ever considered by the Congress, by far the most expensive project ever considered, and yet the Democrats have failed to allow any meaningful debate or access to amend the bill. In fact, they have yet to provide the bill to some members, but K Street already has its copies. Yet they want to force a vote today on a bill comprising 1500 pages of legisation, with an initial cost of $785 billion and a ten-year cost of over $3 trillion without giving people a chance to read it -- and the Republicans are acting in bad faith?

Eight years of slandering and libeling George Bush on every subject under the sun is ok. Eight years of calling for impeachment and criminal prosecution based upon policy differences is "patriotic". But disagreeing with Barack Obama on the biggest bill ever considered by our government is "war". This must be the most irregular verb ever.

The Anchoress pretty much has it covered in Obama & Dems: Put your dreams away

The Obama administration finds a bomb in Iran

So imagine my interest to see the Los Angeles Times report that the intelligence agencies have reversed themselves again; (bold emphasis added):

Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb.

In his news conference this week, President Obama went so far as to describe Iran's "development of a nuclear weapon" before correcting himself to refer to its "pursuit" of weapons capability.

Obama's nominee to serve as CIA director, Leon E. Panetta, left little doubt about his view last week when he testified on Capitol Hill. "From all the information I've seen" Panetta said, "I think there is no question that they are seeking that capability."

The language reflects the extent to which senior U.S. officials now discount a National Intelligence Estimate issued in November 2007 that was instrumental in derailing U.S. and European efforts to pressure Iran to shut down its nuclear program.

"Like a fire bell in the night"

Words then versus deeds now: Obama's words versus Obama's Deeds

An off-the-record speech at the National Press Club?

Obama's Broken Promises Were Entirely Predictable

President Obama seems to think that just because he wasn't vetted by the national media prior to his election, his administration doesn't have to vet its cabinet nominees. Individually, these missteps wouldn't be news. But the sum total of their parts leads one to believe there is a pattern -- just as there was in Chicago with Wright, Ayers, Rezko, Pfleger, Mansour, etc. -- and if it weren't our country, it'd almost be comical. Hardly anyone today, and certainly nobody a year from now, will be able to listen to President Obama's campaign pledges about transparency, ethics, and change and keep a straight face.

Justice Dept. Lawyers in Contempt for Withholding Stevens Documents

Last month, Sullivan told the Justice Department to turn over all its internal communications regarding a whistleblower complaint against the FBI agent leading the investigation into the former Alaska senator. The agent, Chad Joy, complained about some Justice Department tactics during the trial, including not turning over evidence, and an "inappropriate relationship" between another agent working the case and the prosecution's star witness.

Stevens was convicted in October of lying on Senate disclosure documents about hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and home renovations from an Alaska businessman. In November, the Republican lost his bid for reelection to the Senate seat he had held since 1968.

This was known in October (well before the election) yet both the justice system and the media sat on the news until after the election, no so coincidentally contributing to Stevens (a Republican) narrowly losing his Senate seat to a Democrat.

The entire stimulus bill came within one vote of failing on a procedural vote in the Senate.

Mis-remembering

You see, he meant to tell the committee that Robert Blagojevich, the governor's brother had asked him to do some, uh, fund-raising to the tune of $10,000, on three separate occasions, but he just wasn't given a chance to testify to all these things fully. So, it's really the committee's fault, with their slipshod procedures and what not. That's why he told the committee that he had not been asked for any fund-raising at all.

Yes, but with him being another Democrat in the Senate, I'd rate the chance of anything being done to remove him to be somewhere below "pigs flying."

Burris covered up solicitation

There is no possibility that Burris simply "forgot" about such a demand. In the first place, that's exactly what the House was investigating, a pay-for-play arrangement for the open Senate seat. In fact, one has to question why Burris himself didn't report such a blatantly corrupt demand to state or federal authorities. He never paid the money, but the demand itself is explicitly illegal, and as a state lawmaker Burris had a higher responsibility than most to report the attempt.

We Are All Illiterates Now

Mexico: A Western Somalia?

Oldie but Goodie: The Road to Serfdom

What chapter do you think we're on?