CALIFORNIA UPDATE: Little Public Sympathy for State Workers.
Plus, allegations of pension “spiking” in San Francisco.
Archive for 2009
July 20, 2009
AN UPDATE ON THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL SCANDAL: Fired Inspector General Says His Lawsuit Was Filed to Protect Future IGs.
ABC NEWS: Why the Health Care Clock Might Be Ticking. “In a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, the President’s approval rating for handling health care has slipped under 50%. And for first time in our polling significantly more Americans disapprove strongly of his handling of health care reform than approve strongly, so he’s dealing with an intensity gap as well. The fact that the president’s job approval rating is so closely tied to the economy, and both are sinking, sheds some insight into why he’s pressing for health care reform now. As the economy continues to tank, he may not have for much longer the political strength to push something this dramatic.”
And by sitting on its budget update, the White House is strongly suggesting that there’s another shoe about to drop. A big, stinky one.
THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND, if you were off, you know, having a life.
Nationwide protests target Obamacare. Much more on that here, here, and here.
Plus, Heath Shuler’s ungracious treatment of the 250 who showed up at his office in Asheville. And some video from Tucson.
An informative video from the Health Administration Bureau: Health Rations And You.
White House foreclosure plan a bust so far.
Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie on Obama as Jimmy Carter. Actually, I now see that as a best-case scenario . . . .
Environmentalists for space exploration.
A NEW P.R. FRONTIER: Someone to Tweet your events! I noticed on Facebook that Elizabeth Terrell does that. I’m sure there are others, but this was my first encounter with pro-event-tweeting.
QUESTIONS ABOUT sock puppetry, astroturfing, and Carolyn Maloney.
A.C. KLEINHEIDER: ATF Declares Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act Null And Void. I think they’re on pretty solid legal ground here, but it won’t play well.
RUBBER, MEET ROAD: White House putting off release of budget update. “The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today’s bleak landscape. . . . The release of the update – usually scheduled for mid-July – has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess. The administration is pressing for votes before then on its $1 trillion health care initiative, which lawmakers are arguing over how to finance.”
MORE THOUGHTS ON THE AMAZON KINDLE SCANDAL, from Eugene Volokh.
WHY PEOPLE ARE GETTING FATTER. Upside: When the global famine strikes, we’ll be well-prepared!
UPDATE: No, really, after reading One Second After, where everyone’s starving, I remember walking through the mall and seeing all the fat people in a whole new light . . . .
GOVERNMENT SPENDING SHATTERS POSTWAR RECORDS. Adjusted for inflation, we’re spending more this year than we spent during World War II. ” Data published by the White House show federal spending has inched upward annually since 1965. But no other year comes close to matching 2009’s $3.997 trillion gusher — a spending binge that’s helped put Congress on track for a record $1.8 trillion deficit. . . . The $4 trillion that Congress may spend by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, breaks down to a daily outlay of $11 billion every 24 hours. Congress is now spending about $3 trillion more than it did in 1945, at the end of World War II, once numbers are adjusted for inflation.” And yet members of Congress would be hard-pressed to tell you where the money’s going. This isn’t just undisciplined spending. It’s looting.
THE HONDURAN VOTING-FRAUD STORY makes Slashdot.