National

Experience matters.  And it is painfully obvious, yet again, that the B team is running the show.  As proof we have the Obama release of an 11 page outline with pointers to the massive Senate bill, with what could be an even higher price tag, just days before the so-called bipartisan confab.  In short, Mr. Obama invited the republicans into the policy kitchen, told them they’d have an opportunity to work with him to develop a menu of options, then showed them what they are serving. 

Liberal saws like Hodes and Shea-Porter, Shaheen and the rest, believe deep down inside that the answer to any perceived problem must involve government.   Their policies, their votes, all make it clear that they trust the government more than they trust you.  Why else divert your earnings to government directed purposes, even ones to which you object?  Why else proceed with legislation to control massive sectors of the economy and the way it generates wealth, unless you were committed to some idea of social justice.

It is refreshing to see the President taking responsibility for things that happen on his watch.  I am of course suspicious.  Today we should expect some relatively good news on jobs numbers (mostly due to seasonal hiring) so yesterday may be a lead in to taking credit for today.  Of course January will likely shed jobs and so that's a story for next month.  Just remember jobs got better in December.  That aside, I am happy with the idea that Mr. Obama is willing to say such things.  The larger problem is that all he's done is say things.  And we know that nothing is done without political calculation. 

On December 22nd Jeanne Shaheen and three other ladies of the Senate posted a letter to the Secretary of Defense.  Why?  The commander of American forces in Northern Iraq issued a series of prohibitions, including one against pregnancy for all operational personnel under his command, and promised equal punishment for anyone, man or woman, who got someone pregnant.

Change we can expect

Mr. Obama ‘inherited’ an intelligence system from President Bush who, despite years of supposedly inflaming the ‘Arab Street,’ dividing the world, and emboldening our enemies with his unilateral military actions, still managed to keep young men like Mr. Abdulmutallab from having to put his seat back and tray table in their full and upright positions before igniting a concealed explosive device.   

So what changed? 

Starting in 2011 (Tax year 2010) the IRS plans to require paid tax preparers to take some kind of new competency test.  That's right, Tim Geithner wants to make sure that people who prepare taxes know how to do it.

 That's just priceless.

I just found this list over at American Thinker.  It's By Jim H. Ainsworth and he calls it his Bucket List for America.  The one difference is this is not a list of things to do before you die, they are things to do to keep America from dying.  He lists 23 things.  I've added a few of my own at the end.

There was a bit of mixed emotion on the left over the holiday weekend.  An al-Qaida terrorist tried to blow up a plane over Detroit—bad for Obama/Napolitano, but a crazy woman attacked an 80 year old man and knocked him down in Rome.   On the latter, the woman became an instant progressive anti-establishment role model because the man she knocked down was the Pope.   Attacking the Pope is apparently an act worthy of praise from liberal progressive bloggers which begs the question, should Mo Baxley be demanding that every liberal and democrat apologize for their tacit complicity for such praise by their fellow travelers?  

The Fox news flap is lingering in my memory.   I''m trying to reconcile how the White House, which continues to insist it is interested in ideas and opinions "from all sides" can justify calling a news channel an extension of the Republican party--as if this is a bad thing--and still insist it doe not object to opinions other than its own?

Are the ideas of the GOP, even reflected as they insist in the editorializing of shows like Hannity and Beck, (regardless of their complicity with the actual Republican Policy agenda) unwelcome?  How partisan and closed minded of Mr, Obama and his administration.

RGGI carbon allotments have been trending steadily downward in the first twelve months of New Hampshire's participation in RGGI, from a high of 3.51 per ton, down to 2.19 per ton.  To date some $15,250,316.16 has been spent on allotments (or credits) for New Hampshire.

Aristotle International Inc, a political campaign technology company, reports that almost 19,000 of the voters registered in the Granite state are, in fact, dead.

In New Hampshire, there are 18,816 dead people on the voter registration rolls, or 2.5 percent of the total registered voters. There are 105,472 voters that have moved outside of the area where they are registered to vote.

SWAT team raid a grandmother and grandfathers’ home in search of Orchids, IL city counsel shuts down Courtesy Rides which gave people free rides home from the bar to prevent drunk driving, park bans children over 5 from public playground, the Downsizer Dispatch, Jack Thompson is suing facebook group for $120 million because they made fun of him, NY City bans school bake sales, and a couple loses land because under current law apparently squatters can take ownership if they are aloud to squat for a long enough time.

After a week of toking in Manchester, the Union Leader finally takes notice. Thanks to Mark Hayward for the story:

With glass pipes and odd-smelling cigarettes, protesters have taken to Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Manchester, lighting up at 4:20 p.m. daily, the same time as do protesters in downtown Keene.

Participants yesterday said they started the effort Sept. 28, a week after the daily smoke-ins began in Keene. They say they light up to protest marijuana laws.

Police state crackdown at the G20 summit, daily 4:20 marijuana smoking in Keene NH, the TSA and butt bombs, the Downsizer Dispatch, China attempting to control the weather, man to raffle off an AK-47 to raise campaign money, squeezing the middle class, and a UK woman is threatened with jail time for weeding a dead flower out of a city council flower bed.