Yesterday on Facebook, a good friend of mine cited the Federal budget surpluses at the end of the Clinton Administration as an argument for higher taxes. I pointed out that if we had the same Federal budget as Clinton did, weÂ’ve have a surplus, too. Then I put together this chart from a spreadsheet downloaded directly from a US Government website (Table 3.1), though the percentage growth and overage columns on the right are my addition.

Put simply, from 1999 to 2010, the US population grew by 10% and inflation reduced the value of the dollar by about 30%. Combine those two, and Federal spending should have gone up roughly 43% over that period. Instead, it went up 135%, or three times what it should have. Setting aside some of the bailouts, etc., that are in the budget, it’s still clear that almost every Federal line item went up at least twice what it should have during that period. Almost nothing (other than “general government”) grew a “mere” 43%.

I fully blame Bush and the 2002-2006 Republicans as much as I blame Obama and the 2006-2010 Democrats. The real question is whether the 2010 Republicans have the brains and the will to turn back the tide. ..fritz..

[Cross-posted and adapted from And Still I Persist]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:06 AM | Comments (47)
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Probably just potshots at outgoing Gibbs, but still funny.

“Prior to the president's statement Tuesday night, the press corps had not received a substantive update from the White House all day on the situation in Egypt,” the letter read. “In addition, the press corps did not have an on-camera briefing, or an off-camera gaggle, with you yesterday to ask the White House about its decision-making process during this major foreign policy crisis.

Now for two straight days the full press pool is being shut out of events that have typically been open and provided opportunities try to ask the [president] a question."

The "best and the brightest" have been caught with their pants down over what started as food riots and now has escalated into something called "shaky governments have completely lost control of events." The best our media beagles can manage is whiny complaints about a lack of access to "Obama's opinions and deep thoughts."

They want to help him, they just need a couple of clues to go on.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:24 AM | Comments (72)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:23 AM | Comments (97)
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Eh, why the hell not?

(Bonus: There's a marketing tie-in with the Egyptian post below.)

From AFP:

"OSLO — The vibrant protest movements across the Arab world, Russian human rights activists and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will all likely be in the running for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, observers say as the deadline for nominating candidates approaches."

But Julian's up against some stiff competition, what with current events and all...

Since news events often influence nominations, this year's list of candidates could be coloured by the recent waves of protests against authoritarian Arab regimes, including in Tunisia and Egypt. "That's a possibility," explained Nobel expert and historian Asle Sveen.

"But no name really stands out. In Egypt, the (opposition) movement seems very spontaneous. And (the most visible opposition leader) Mohamed ElBaradei already received a Nobel prize" in 2005, he pointed out. The nature of the protests, which appear more motivated by socio-economic factors than ideological, could also complicate finding an obvious candidate."

So no double-dipping for Mr. ElBaradei.

As for St. Julian's prospects, there are always naysayers, doubters, heretics and other words in my thesaurus. But that's way over there on the bookshelf so let's stick with what we've got:

"But experts are sceptical of his chances of grabbing the prize. "To claim that his actions have in some way promoted 'fraternity among nations,' to invoke the famous line in Alfred Nobel's will, would be far-fetched, if not altogether inaccurate," US journalist and Nobel Peace Prize specialist Scott London told AFP.

"It might be truer to say that he has undermined that fraternity by creating a culture of anxiety and suspicion in international affairs, especially between countries in volatile regions like the Middle East," he added. Assange's misadventures in Sweden, where he is suspected of rape and sexual molestation, also diminish his chances of winning the prize, according to experts."

What, a guy can't get a little leg now and then? What's it take to please you people? (Probably a question best left unanswered)

"I come in peace! If I settle the whole Egyptian thingy, the ongoing Midwest conflict between snowflakes and snowplows, and pre-empt the bloody showdown between Pittsburg and Green Bay I can haz Peace Prize?"

Posted by: Genghis at 11:00 PM | Comments (50)
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From Al Jazeera

Heavy gunfire and running street battles for the last hour or so.

Bumped and updated: Daylight now in Cairo and the clashes continue but toned down a little. Egg McMuffin break and so forth. Al Jazeera has switched momentarily to yapping about Israel/Gaza but stay tuned for the return of 50 cal. gunfire and molotov cocktails. Also hash browns.

The Al Jazeera feed is in English, which nearly three people who read this blog understand, so it's all good.

Also, it's official name is "Tahrir Square" but is also being referred to as "Liberation Square" by those who are, well, trying to liberate it.

Posted by: Genghis at 10:00 PM | Comments (118)
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Note: Christina's World swapped with Helga painting.

I don't have the names or information on these three Andrew Wyeth paintings. If anyone does, please put it in comments. I do know that the last one is one of the Helga paintings. Wyeth had been painting nudes of his neighbor, Helga, for 15 years without either spouse's knowledge. According to Wikipedia:

[Wyeth was] primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century, and was sometimes referred to as the "Painter of the People," due to his work's popularity with the American public. In his art, Wyeth's favorite subjects were the land and people around him, both in his hometown of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at his summer home in Cushing, Maine.

I like his work--I think it's beautiful--but it makes me uneasy. It's profoundly melancholy, lonely-feeling. I think it's much darker than it may appear to some. And some of it is weirdly frightening. I've looked at dozens of his paintings, and I get no sense of invitation or warmth from any of them. To me, he's the visual equivalent of Robert Frost. more...

Posted by: rdbrewer at 07:00 PM | Comments (91)
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Welcome to tonight's semi-half-assed hump day ONT.

A Twilight Landing at LAX

So here's a nice cockpit video of landing at LAX in the twilight. It's been sped up so that 30 minutes only takes about 4. So it's more like a cruise missile's point of view. I was a little surprised that they had to go so far into East LA before coming around for approach. Soundtrack is "Los Angeles" by Sugarcult.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:17 PM | Comments (397)
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As I wrote in my year-end review, the Administration's shenanigans on the Gulf drilling moratorium were lawless and bound to get it in trouble.

The federal judge who struck down the Obama administration's moratorium on deepwater drilling after the Gulf oil spill held the Interior Department in contempt Wednesday, and ordered the federal agency to pay attorneys' fees for several offshore oil companies.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman chided the department for its "dismissive conduct" after he overturned the agency's decision to halt any new permits for deepwater projects and suspend drilling on 33 exploratory wells after the Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and triggered the massive spill.

After Feldman overturned the government's moratorium in June, the agency issued a second nearly identical suspension.

"Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the reimposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government's contempt of this court's preliminary injunction order," he wrote.

This is the future of the ObamaCare litigation too, if Administration officials insist on continuing implementation without first asking Judge Vinson for a stay.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:16 PM | Comments (189)
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"Civility." It's not a value, it's a partisan attack line, but I guess we're as stupid as they think we are so we can't see that.

Posted by: Ace at 03:29 PM | Comments (126)
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I don't know what to say about this other than we really need a lot more Republican senators.

All Democrats who voted voted against it, including Ben Nelson, who is in a great deal of trouble in Nebraska and really could have benefited from a flip-flop. Warner and Lieberman were not present and didn't vote.

Posted by: Ace at 02:42 PM | Comments (158)
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