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Welcome to the Green Eyeshade Blog. I’m John Campbell, Congressman from the 48th District in California. I am also a Certified Public Accountant.

…I am the chairman of the budget and spending task force for the Republican Study Committee. The Republican Study Committee is a caucus of about 100 of the most fiscal responsible members of the House of Representatives. We are tired of watching both parties spend away our money and our future.

Rep. Campbell will be blogging at TownHall.com.

Pencils Down, Please. It’s time for a quick math quiz, so easy an eight year old can do it without pencil and paper. Well, if the eight year old goes on to win the Fields Medal and MacArthur Fellowship, anyway.

Militia Watch At The Washington Post: Christopher Fotos looks at the manner in which the WaPo treats militias and the Second Amendment. Soundbite – “it’s not called the Bill of Privileges.”

The Few, The Proud: Pardoning Scooter Libby is an idea whose time has not yet come, if polls mean anything.

I Owe Ann A Coke? Naturally I am delighted, but I am being dragged into a legal thicket here.

Octa-Gonzo: Jeralyn Merritt has thoughts on the eight fired US Attorneys:

The job has always been a political plum. The U.S. Attorney is nominated by the President, based on recommendations from the Senators in the particular District. Almost without exception, the appointee is from the President’s political party. When a new President is elected, we get new U.S. Attorneys.

…The travesty of the current U.S. Attorney firing scandal is not that U.S. Attorneys are being replaced. That is expected after an election, such as the one in 2004. It’s that it’s happening in 2007.

…I’m no fan of Republican U.S. Attorneys who got their job because they carried water for Bush in 2004 and had the blessing of their District’s Senators. That’s the way the job is assigned.

But, firing them because they didn’t bring the cases the Administration wanted them to bring, or because they brought cases against Republicans or didn’t bring cases against Democrats is beyond the pale.

…So have whatever sympathy for these U.S. Attorneys that you deem appropriate. Just remember that when appointed, it wasn’t because they were non-partisan champions of justice. It was because they were political friends of Bush or the Republican party.

Eventually we may find out why they were fired.

Laura Rozen rounds up some recent reporting.

MORE: “Octa-Gonzo”? Well, there are eight attorneys, they are gone, Gonzalez is involved… ahh, if I have to explain it, forget it (I need to ask John Tierney about this…). “Eight Men Out” works for me but the Black Sox have a prior claim.

There’s Team Blogging, And There Is Insta-Team Blogging! OK, we doubled the fun on the Al Gore global warming story, but the morning is young… I blame Daylight Saving Time.

The Goldwater Girl Was a Martin Luther King Jr. Fan? Betsy Newmark is skeptical but I can offer this – Martin Luther King Jr. was in Chicago in January 1963, so at least we aren’t talking about childhood memories of church burnings.

Times To Gore – Chill Out. Mark Coffey has excerpts and a live comment section.

MORE: McQ thinks Hollywood has already charted their course:

“…being a student of human nature and by nature a bit cynical, I just don’t see it getting any cooler, in terms of hype, before it gets much, much hotter.

“We were being used completely as an ATM machine for the regime”: Dan McLaughlin picks up the North Korean version of oil-for-food.

I Am Back From The Gym And Brainier Than Ever, if this is to be believed…
The proof will be in the next few posts. Onward, science!

How To Reclaim That Hour Lost To Daylight Savings: Colin McEnroe has a suggestion.

Here is background from Mickey Kaus on how Luke used The Force.

More on Fred Thompson from A.C. Kleinheider:

Fred Thompson is his own man but he has a lineage and he he has a history and it is not as conservative as his studio-packaged image would indicate.

At the end of the day, Thompson may be the best conservatives can hope for but let’s not fool ourselves into believing he is a conservative — he isn’t.

He may be conservative (adj.) but he is not a conservative (n.) and he has certainly been less than helpful to the ascendent traditional conservative wing of the Tennessee Republican Party.

We last heard from A.C. a few days ago.

Zahra Kamalfar and her children will leave Moscow Airport and be admitted to Canada, not forced to Iran. Pajamas Media has been following this, as has the True InstaPundit.

If I May Amplify And Extend: The always-interesting Megan McArdle links to a Matt Yglesias article on neoliberalism below. For a thumping of the neolibs from the left on foreign policy, let me wave in Max Sawicky.

Radley Balko Finds A Congressman With Courage – 75 year old Congressman Pete Stark has announced that he is an atheist (but I won’t step on the punchline). Nathan Newman’s view on atheism in politics is timely again, and Mr. Balko had some thoughts just last week.

Sandy v. Scooter: The Tigerhawk has questions about the sentencing disparity between Sandy Berger and Scooter Libby.

Porkbuster’s Alert from Mark Tapscott

Looks Like Bush Has Caved on Earmarks

When I heard last week from Hill sources that the White House congressional liason staff was pressuring OMB Director Rob Portman to not release all of the earmarks requested by Members of Congress to executive agencies under the FY2005 budget, I called the OMB press office.

When I asked for a copy of the earmark database and copies of all correspondence between OMB and executive branch officials and Members and Hill staff, I was promised a call-back from a senior OMB spokesman. Not surprisingly, that call never came.

Now this morning, word is circulating on the Hill that the Bush administration is going to release only a limited database of earmarks later today or maybe no database at all, but just aggregate or summary data.

Not my area of expertise, but I am passing it along.

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR DIAL: Nor do you need to adjust your glasses – this post has had a certain “Now you see it, now you don’t” quality while I have been grappling with the HTML. Sorry for any confusion.

<strong>Porkbuster’s Alert</strong> from <a xhref="http://www.examiner.com/blogs/tapscotts_copy_desk/2007/3/12/Looks-Like-Bush-Has-Caved-on-Earmarks">Mark Tapscott</a>:
<blockquote><em>Looks Like Bush Has Caved on Earmarks

When I heard last week from Hill sources that the White House congressional liason staff was pressuring OMB Director Rob Portman to not release all of the earmarks requested by Members of Congress to executive agencies under the FY2005 budget, I called the OMB press office.

When I asked for a copy of the earmark database and copies of all correspondence between OMB and executive branch officials and Members and Hill staff, I was promised a call-back from a senior OMB spokesman. Not surprisingly, that call never came.

Now this morning, word is circulating on the Hill that the Bush administration is going to release only a limited database of earmarks later today or maybe no database at all, but just aggregate or summary data</em>.</blockquote>

Not my area of expertise, but I am passing it along.

Laffer Curve Laughers: Dartmouth economist Andrew Samwick ponders John McCain and asks the question that makes every Irishman (and tax cut enthusiast!) shiver – “Why did you make them so small?”

“Where’s Lloyd Bentsen when you really need him?”

Don’t We Need A Baseline? Hilzoy discusses the "Gonzalez Eight", the eight prosecutors fired in a political purge (left), or for poor performance (right). My eyebrows (and ire) were raised by an excerpt from Paul Krugman citing a study which tells us this:

Well, if you don’t even look at data from earlier Administrations you aren’t likely to find anything, now are you? Hilzoy is experiencing a reader’s revolt in her comments, but I expect this "study" will be cited again. And again.

GROAN:  Gender-bending pronoun fixed; more after I return from killing myself.  Metaphorically.

We Go To The Movies, or at least, the movie reviews – Wretchard ponders the criticism of “300”, the battle epic about 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermoplyae; the Armed Liberal wonders whether to take his ten year old; yours truly suggests not.

Hey, this can be as much fun as actually seeing the film, and is a lot more time-efficient.

RETRO, I KNOW, BUT… in a nod to tradition let me link to Douglas Bass, who has actually seen the film.

"Only in Durham": The invaluable KC Johnson refers us to the indefatigable John in Carolina for more coverage of the Duke lacrosse situation. Here is the Johnson summary of John’s post titled “Major Duke Involvement":

After some digging, however, JinC discovered fairly intimate connections between CrimeStoppers and two key Duke officials. In the listing for the Duke Alumni Association board of directors, Sue Wasiolek, dean of student life, is listed as “involved in the boards of Durham CrimeStoppers.” And, as of February 2006, Bob Dean, director of the Duke University Police Department, was listed as chairman of Durham CrimeStoppers.

Moroever, the organization has an in-depth link to Duke through longtime Duke Police Director Paul Dumas—who, one Duke insider told JinC, “was always ‘recruiting’ for CS. He worked with them for years.”

To Boldly Blog Where No Man Has Blogged Before… Or at least, in a way no Insta-surrogate has blogged before. I can do it my way or the right way. Fortunately, I am flexible.