Ok, I know nobody likes to strain those synapses and make the neurons move around any more than they need to on a Friday night. If we wanted that to happen weÂ’d all be over at GabeÂ’s blog discussing maritime treaties from 1647 to 1873 and the impact they have on our lives today. But no, the neurons have about had it for the week. Still, I ask you to fire those bad boys up one last time today and see if you can puzzle through the following articles (If it helps, try holding that beer can as if it were a snifter of brandy. Or get really fancy and pour it in a plastic cup. Uncouth bastards). ItÂ’s a game you see. Your task is to arrange these three articles in the proper order. LetÂ’s begin:

Article ?: Deputies Arrest More Than 50 Suspected Illegal Immigrants.

“Sheriff's deputies arrested 50 illegal immigrants Tuesday after making two traffic stops on Interstate 17 north of Phoenix and raiding two drophouses in the Valley, according to a press release from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office”

“All 52 people arrested were booked by sheriff's deputies on state felony immigration charges or turned over to federal immigration authorities, the release said.”

Article ?: Illegal-Immigrant Population in Arizona Falls by a Third, Study Says.

”The number of illegal immigrants living in Arizona has plunged by one-third in the past two years amid a dismal job market and stiffer enforcement of immigration laws, according to researchers who released a new report.Arizona saw the largest decline of any state, according to researchers at the Center for Immigration Studies, whose report shows that the nation's undocumented population fell nearly 14 percent from the summer of 2007 to the first quarter of this year, following years of steady growth. The report comes as the Obama administration is gearing up to push for major immigration reforms, including a possible legalization program for millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. The loss of illegal immigrants has had ramifications for the Arizona economy, with some saying the exodus means less of a drain on taxpayer services and others saying the loss has hurt businesses and tax revenue.”

“After reaching a high of 530,000 in 2007, Arizona's undocumented population now numbers about 350,000, a drop of about 180,000 people, Camarota said. The exodus is good news for Arizona taxpayers, Camarota said, because illegal immigrants tend to work in low-wage jobs and therefore contribute less in taxes than the public services they use.

Note: There are counter-arguments in the article in case Dum-Dum shows up and needs to borrow any. – ed.

Article ?: Toughest Sheriff in U.S. Pushes Back Against Feds.

”PHOENIX - The Homeland Security Department wants Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., to stop arresting illegal immigrants who haven't committed crimes besides crossing the U.S.-Mexico. The thing is, Arpaio doesn't much care. He says he's not going to bend to the federal government. The Homeland Security Department has reworked the federal program that has allowed Arpaio's deputies to make federal immigration arrests since February 2007. It's not yet known whether Arpaio will sign the new deal. If he doesn't, his ability to crack down on illegal immigration will be limited.Eleven agencies in the country have signed the new so-called 287(g) agreement. Sixty-six operating under the old program -- including Arpaio's -- were given 90 days starting July 10 to decide
whether they want to sign it.”

Note: First two articles above are from the Ariz. Republic and the last is from AP via KSAZ (FOX) in Phoenix.

So what are you waiting for? Get started already. Also, from now on ONT policy is that all commenters wear a coat and tie while visiting the thread. Where and how you choose to wear them is entirely up to you, but weÂ’re trying to class up the joint.

Additional material will arrive shortly. I suppose. Maybe.

Update: Oh lookÂ…additional material has now arrived below the fold.

more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 03:40 PM | Comments (19)
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That's the racist idiot Crowley, our Susan Boyle, helping Gates navigate the stairs, while President Wonderful preens for the camera.

Thanks to Slublog.

Posted by: Ace at 03:16 PM | Comments (11)
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Goof, I think. But I'm not sure.

What the hell is Hugh Laurie from House doing in there?

Thanks to St. Patrick.

Posted by: Ace at 02:17 PM | Comments (12)
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My laptop did not make the trip. Unbootable. No idea what's wrong but seems serious. (No, I never made a bootdisk; I'm an idiot.)

Anyway I'm shopping for a computer now; at the moment I'm on a friend's.

If anyone has a spare, older laptop (that works, mainly) for a couple of weeks loan, please let me know.

NYC area only, so I can pick it up.

Hmmm... Um, looks like my hard-drive, which is built into the side and can be slipped out, had slipped out an eighth of an inch.

I just had to push it in.

Thanks for responding. At the moment, looks like I'm okay.

Posted by: Ace at 01:47 PM | Comments (9)
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The government has an easy, direct way to limit health care costs.

Price controls, Harry Waxman thinks.

What could go wrong? Price controls work so well as regards rents in the city. There are zero negative consequences, such as disincentives for anyone to build new units in order to meet demand. Nor an incentive for landlords to let their properties fall into disrepair.

Paul Krugman had a column, long ago. The point was that no one asks economists about things they actually know about. They ask them about sort of speculative things where they only have guesses, but they never ask about things economists know to be true.

His example of something economists know to be true? Rent price controls make housing scarcer and less affordable.

Don't expect him to revisit that essay any time soon.

Democrats sought to limit increases in the cost of insurance sold under a sweeping health care bill Friday as they labored to clear the final obstacle to a September showdown on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

Several officials said a last-minute agreement among Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee also included authority for the federal government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices under Medicare.

The changes were part of an intensive effort Democrats have made in recent days to satisfy the conflicting demands of liberals and conservatives on the panel. "We have agreed we need to pull together," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the committee chairman. He said he hoped for a vote by early evening.

Several officials said the cost of insurance to be sold widely under the bill could not rise by more than 4 percent a year unless the government approves.

...

The White House declined to state a position on the changes.

Rationing, again. If insurance costs a lot of money, you can reduce that cost by government fiat, but have no illusions: Service provided will be cut too.

Again I note the phatasmagorical strangeness of all this: People's primary beef with health insurance is that health insurance doesn't cover enough. People go bananas with their insurer or HMO denies them coverage for this or that.

With good reason-- unfair surprise, in many cases.

And the Democrats' response to this state of affairs is to reduce covered services still further.

Amazing.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff again.

Posted by: Ace at 12:18 PM | Comments (9)
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Like clockwork, the Obama Administration has important disclosures to make...on Friday afternoon. This week it's the Terror Force One FOIA disclosure.

There are more pictures which also look like they're done with a pocket camera at that link. The meat is in these two very large PDFs: FOIA Supporting Docs 1 and FOIA Supporting Docs 2.

I've glanced through them, but don't really have a lot of time for this right now. I did not see a crew or passenger manifest for the Air Force One backup VC-25. I did, however, see this comical pre-flight email (page 32 of the first PDF):

Sir: per our conversation about Scott Turner's plans to fly over the Statue of Liberty -- it's scheduled for this Monday, April 27th. All has been coordinated. AF PA plan/statement is below and will be released only if asked. Will probably receive some local press, but WH shouldn't catch any questions about it. Provided in case you want to pass to Jim Messina or Robert Gibbs for awareness. This is an AF operation, in close coordination with FAA. Happy to discuss with you as necessary.

Then this short one (dare I say worried?) from when the shit hit the fan. The author's name is redacted and this is the full email (page 19 of the first PDF):

Yes sir. It was on CNN a few minutes ago. Apparently people were evacuating their office buildings in Manhattan.

Apparently. Apparently there are a whole bunch of idiots working for the President.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:03 PM | Comments (11)
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MSNBC Deputy Political Director Mark Murray is absolutely shameless. After years of mentioning President Bush's low numbers in the same breath as his name, MSNBC is furiously spinning for President Obama:

But according to Peter D. Hart, the pollster who conducts the NBC/Journal survey with Republican Bill McInturff, poll numbers don't always tell the entire story.

Ah, now they want to talk about nuance.

ThatÂ’s why Hart held a focus group Wednesday in the Baltimore area with 12 self-described independents to evaluate the first six months of Obama's presidency.

Really? You want us to ignore the polls because you put twelve blue-state independents in a room and they expressed cautious support for the President? Fuck. Me. Sideways.

The breakdown:

Seven of these independents voted for Obama in last NovemberÂ’s presidential contest, four voted for Republican John McCain and one voted for Ralph Nader. All the participants were white men and women, except for one African-American man.

While a few of them expressed negative opinions about Obama — saying they were “worried” or “afraid” — those who voted for him remained mostly supportive. And even half of the McCain voters said they were pulling for the president.

Got it. Thirty-nine percent of voters strongly disapprove of the President's performance, but we should keep in mind that ten independents from Maryland are pulling for him. Bully!

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:43 AM | Comments (7)
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Wow! Pulitzer them!

Actually it's the Washington Blade

A fundraising event to benefit an LGBT community center in Lebanon last week took a surprise turn when stunned audience members were shown graphic photographs of beheaded corpses and images purportedly depicting U.S. soldiers preparing to execute gay Iraqis.

Two gay Iraqi refugees, who declined to use their real names, delivered a presentation at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters July 24 in which they detailed alleged abuses of fellow gay Iraqis while calling on their audience to donate funds to Helem, a Lebanon-based center that works to address the plight of LGBT people in the Middle East.

One of the Iraqis, who goes by the name “Hussam,” showed the audience of about 80 people gruesome images, including shots allegedly of a beheaded man who was gay and another of the victim’s twin brother grieving over the severed head.

While asserting that anti-gay violence in Iraq is often committed by Iraqis, Hussam also said U.S. service members were involved in anti-gay hostility.

For example, he said service members displayed signs in front of their barracks with the words “Fuck Off Fags.”

But the reaction from the audience turned from anger to shock when Hussam said U.S. service members had detained Iraqi civilians perceived to be gay and executed them.

He then showed an image of what appeared to be an American soldier standing in front of a small group of four or five kneeling naked men who were chained together. Hussam claimed the men were gay Iraqis and that he possessed images of their execution, which he did not show the audience.

Dana Beyer, a transgender activist and Chevy Chase, Md., resident who attended the event, said she was “appalled” by the images of the atrocities, but especially by the allegation that U.S. service members were murdering gay Iraqis.

“When it comes down to our armed services … who potentially have contributed to atrocities like that, I’m just appalled,” she said. “And I hope that we will pursue this through the government, through the State Department and through the Department of Defense because this just can’t be left standing.”

...

When confronted by a Blade reporter after the presentation, Hussam said he feared public disclosure of the photos would incite further violence in Iraq and refused to turn over copies of the images.

Uh-huh. The guy's fundraising among well-heeled liberal gays, peddling a story sure to open wallets, but he can't show you the photos, because, um, the photos are explosive.

The claims? Not explosive. The proof of those claims? Explosive.

The Washington Blade isn't super-duper culpable here as they are, as newspapers do, playing stenographer to someone making a claim. I'd have liked to have seen a bit more skepticism in the article, but, whatever.

The Daily Kossites on the other hand are ready to run with it.

I can't help but notice that the MSM is at a DEFCON 1 state of alert for any criticisms of the president -- Rush Limbaugh said this, Glen Beck said that.

But they never seem to note that their left-wing compatriots spend an awful lot of time maligning our troops -- "mak[in'] stuff up," as Sarah Palin correctly put it.

Nor do I remember the MSM having any particular troubles with Keith Olbermann calling Bush a "fascist" thirty times, nor the spate of assassination-fantasy films and books that became a cottage industry when Bush was President.

But call Obama a racist and it's a national emergency.

Thanks to Doc Holliday.

Posted by: Ace at 11:21 AM | Comments (4)
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This Politico article is a followup to the DiFi Senior Citizens in Shackles story from below.

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.

“I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to temporarily suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”

In BishopÂ’s case, his decision came on the heels of a June 22 event he held in Setauket, N.Y., in which protesters dominated the meeting by shouting criticisms at the congressman for his positions on energy policy, health care and the bailout of the auto industry.

This is the fingers-in-your ears approach to legislating. These Congresscritters know that constituents are pissed off by their reckless spending and economy-destroying regulatory programs. But their solution to angry constituents isn't to change their idiotic policies. They don't even want to explain their idiotic policies. Rather, they'll just ignore the public.

This is the typical approach for Democrats. How often have we heard: "the debate is over!"

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:05 AM | Comments (4)
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Sure, 2 billion is just pocket change but it's amazing how fast Congress can move when it wants too.

Congress is moving quickly to save the depleted cash-for-clunkers program, as the House passed a $2 billion spending measure Friday afternoon that would keep alive a program that has encouraged American car owners to trade in their old gas guzzlers for more fuel efficient vehicles.

Despite some criticism from Republicans who called the legislation another bailout for another industry, the bill easily passed on a 316-109 bipartisan vote.

...The Senate path will be more complicated, as the upper chamber will have to work through a dispute between Michigan lawmakers who want more generous terms on gas mileage than California senators seeking higher fuel efficiency rules.

Not everyone is enamored with the idea. Behold Democratic Senator Claire McCaskil.

We simply cannot afford any more taxpayr $ to extend cash for clunkers. Idea was to prime the pump, not subsidize auto purchases forever.

We put a billion $$ in cash for clunker program.That's 250,000 cars. We weren't sure how long it would last,but a billion of your $ is alot.

But a couple of hundred million for F-22s was 'waste'*.

For those who missed it earlier, here's a link to a take down of the program from a free market perspective.

Below the fold, Slu sends along his thoughts on the program.

*Yes the life cycle cost of F-22s are significantly higher than the purchase price but worrying about the out years is for suckers since few domestic programs are budgeted with any real concern for that (see Care, Health). At least with the F-22 we get years and years of blowing shit up. I like that. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)
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