If there’s one thing I’m extremely happy about in the current presidential administration, it’s that Mr. Biden is in a position of no power.

AP (here):

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden said Thursday he advised his family to stay off airplanes and subways because of the swine flu, a remark that forced the vice president’s office to backtrack, the travel industry to cry foul and other government officials to try to massage Biden’s message.

Almost makes Dan Qualye look like a MENSA candidate.

Who knew it would take such a short time to screw up an improving economic situation?  But here we are (article):

…$3.6 trillion — Total spending in Obama’s proposed federal budget for 2010.

$1.75 trillion — Total projected deficit in Obama’s proposed federal budget for 2010.

$787 billion — Cost of tax cuts and new spending in economic stimulus package approved by Congress.

$558.4 billion — Increase in the public debt, from Jan. 20 through April 24.

$235 billion — Tax dollars spent to bail out failing financial institutions, Jan. 20-April 20.

2.055 million — Number of jobs lost, January-March.

908,666 — Housing foreclosures, Jan. 20-April 24.

8016.95 — Dow Jones Industrial Average close on April 27.

7949.09 — Dow Jones Industrial Average close on Obama’s Inauguration Day.

106 — U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan since Jan. 20.

49 — U.S. military deaths in Iraq since Jan. 20.

27 — Bank failures.

15 — Bills signed into law.

11 — States visited.

9 — Foreign countries visited.

4 — Visits to Camp David.

3 — Commerce secretaries nominated.

2 — Formal news conferences.

2 — Republicans in the Cabinet

1 — Visits to Hyde Park home in Chicago

1 — Commerce secretaries confirmed by the Senate.

1 — Number of college basketball teams picked by Obama that made it to the Final Four…

Of course most of this was directly inherited, but following the same irresponsible fiscal policies that Bush did will certainly make things worse.

Not that it matters – “The One” seems immune to any actual results (here):

…Mr. Obama’s 68 percent approval rating at the 100 day mark is better than the ratings of his two immediate predecessors, George W. Bush (whose approval at this point was 56 percent) and Bill Clinton (whose approval was 49 percent). Going back to 1953, only two presidents – John F. Kennedy (83 percent) and Dwight Eisenhower (72 percent) – had a higher approval rating at this point in their terms…

And here I am without my Obama coin!

Long time Republican veteran Senator Arlen Specter announced he is changing to the Democrat party.  Various quotes (here):

“This is a big moment. When Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party, he was the canary in the coal mine warning of Bush era ideological excess, and Sen. Specter’s decision eight years later signals its tipping point.” _ Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

“I am deeply disappointed that Sen. Specter would choose to align himself with so many of the irresponsible policies we are seeing the Democrats attempting to implement in Washington.” _ Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa.

Wow…

I’m not sure when, but at some point in our country I think society as a whole simply gave up on the idea that justice should be equally shared among the population regardless of your job, your wealth, your government position, your friends, or whatever.

Now we sit complacent and knowingly joke about the perverted justice system which obviously gives the wealthy and well known advantages over us “normal” folk.

Even the idea of innocent until proven guilty has been perverted to the point that you can basically be jailed due solely to what a complainant said.

Law enforcement as well – people cling to outdated ideas that a community police force needs to separate themselves from the community itself by calling them “civilians” and automatically assuming the word of an officer should more weight than the word of a defendant..  Not every drug user getting arrested needs a swat team…

Either way – here’s yet another example of what is supposed to be “justice”.

Rich guy football player kills a girl while running a stop sign with a BAC of .19 (article):

…(Leonard) Little received 60 days and 1000 hours of community service.  Six years later, after the involuntary manslaughter conviction was wiped from his record, Little was again arrested for drunk driving…

Rich baseball player dies from a drunk driver (article):

The man police say was driving drunk when he ran a red light and struck a car, killing a Major League Baseball pitcher and two others has been charged with murder.

I guess I failed at this as well by twittering about the rescue of the captain from the Somali pirates, but from here on out, I think the term terrorist is a much better description.

Either way, after an amusingly easy defeat of the idiotic terrorists this past weekend, they have apparently decided to step up efforst in what appears to be a direct challenge to the US administration and other world leaders.

From AP (article):

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — Undeterred Somali pirates went on a hijacking spree, brazenly capturing four more ships and taking over 60 crew members hostage in the Gulf of Aden, the waterway at the center of the world’s fight against piracy.

Pirates have vowed to retaliate for five colleagues slain by U.S. and French forces in recent hostage rescues — and the top U.S. military officer said Tuesday he takes those comments seriously.

These brazen Somalis of course have very little faith in the US to stay the course after the  abandonment of the country in 1994 in a blown operation made famous in Blackhawk Down.

Let’s hope our resolve stays stronger this time to keep international waters safe from those that wish to do nothing more than terrorize others for monetary gain.

For some time now, I’ve listed “journalist” as one of my favorite pejoratives and without fail I get proven correct at least once a day.  Today is no different.

In Pittsburgh over the weekend, a clearly irrational gunman killed three officers (here):

Three Pittsburgh police officers were killed and a fourth was injured in an unprecedented shooting Saturday morning in Stanton Heights, where authorities believe a man was “lying in wait” with high-powered weapons, ready to fire when the victims arrived at his home.

The man apparently was extremely freaked our about potentially losing civil rights such as gun ownership from the new presidential administration.   This terrorist was obviously deluded, as even if his belief was correct, his actions are highly unlikely to have any net positive effect of reducing the likelihood of his fears coming true.

Either way – with this bit of information, a CNN Anchor reported this week (video here), without proof, only conjecture, that Fox News, Sean Hanity, Glen Beck, and other “right-wing” sources are at fault for this very tragic shooting.

He bemoans Hanity  & Beck directly for talking about “doom & gloom” while not having any direct quotes for any Fox News show or the people he name directly talking about Obama taking everyone’s guns.

& If that wasn’t bad enough, he uses the obviously leftist mouth piece  Media Matters to help him argue his points.  They say Beck said… but again, it seems that if this had taken place it would be fairly easy to come up with the audio itself…

With news like this, is it any wonder that people simply don’t believe them?

As FBI negotiators backed up by several naval warships attempt to secure the release of an innocent hostage on the open ocean, the terrorists are now making demands.

AP (here):

A Somali in contact with a pirate leader says the captors of a U.S. sea captain want a ransom and are ready to kill him if attacked.

How about – if you leave the hostage unarmed, we won’t kill you?

Reported in the Orange Country Register (here), the state of California is considering the passage of a bill which will outlaw certain TVs based on efficiency standards.  Once again the state has decided that the normal populace, if left to their own devices are unable to make even the simplest of decisions (emphasis & links theirs):

The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal that would ban California retailers from selling all but the most energy-efficient televisions. Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions off the market — most of them 40 inches or larger.

As usual, the state is only going to do this “for your own good”, and as usual we are likely to watch yet another intrusion into our private behaviors become cemented in law as part of the state’s business without much of a fight.

Little by little, they remove this right and that.  The amount of water your toilet uses, the amount of gas your care uses, whether or not you can allow smoking in your own private establishment, and on and on and on and on.  All because the state can’t trust you to do the right thing.

To paraphrase a Judge Napalitano speech, “When the populace is fearful of the government, that is tyranny.  When the government is fearful of the populace, that is liberty.”

I fear the government no longer cares what we think.