This is half the 2012 campaign right here.

And as a matter of fact it's a campaign for cutting spending this month in the debt ceiling negotiations, too.

Eisenach and Caves looked at three areas that received stimulus funds, in the form of loans and direct grants, to expand broadband access in Southwestern Montana, Northwestern Kansas, and Northeastern Minnesota. The median household income in these areas is between $40,100 and $50,900. The median home prices are between $94,400 and $189,000.

So how much did it cost per unserved household to get them broadband access? A whopping $349,234, or many multiples of household income, and significantly more than the cost of a home itself.

Sadly, itÂ’s actually worse than that. Take the Montana project. The area is not in any meaningful sense unserved or even underserved. As many as seven broadband providers, including wireless, operate in the area. Only 1.5% of all households in the region had no wireline access. And if you include 3G wireless, there were only seven households in the Montana region that could be considered without access. So the cost of extending access in the Montana case comes to about $7 million for each additional household served.

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Posted by: Ace at 02:14 PM | Comments (377)
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Actually he goes on to demagogue still further, if you can believe that.

“The debt ceiling should not be something that is used as a gun against the heads of the American people to extract tax breaks for corporate jet owners, for oil and gas companies that are making billions of dollars because the price of gasoline has gone up so high.”

You dick.

I've got some kind of bug. Like I am always falling asleep these past two days.

"You dick" is all I can manage now.

Posted by: Ace at 01:29 PM | Comments (190)
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What a mitzvah.

If the election were held today, President Obama would get only 56 percent of the Jewish vote against a generic Republican candidate, down from the 78 percent he won in 2008 and less than the 74 percent John Kerry received in 2004.

Posted by: Ace at 12:56 PM | Comments (144)
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He doesn't say that, but it's strongly implied.

Basic point on Brooks' (and all other liberals') calls for higher taxation: No, because that takes us beyond our longstanding historical practice of taxing and spending 18-20% of GDP for government purposes.

The left has always had a much bigger percentage in mind as ideal. The problem is that the country has long objected to taxation at rates much higher than that.

We can't give in to their demands to permanently increase the size of government by feeding it more in taxes.

Posted by: Ace at 11:29 AM | Comments (173)
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Spitzer is... out? Spitzer is out? Spitzer is out?!

The cable news channel also said that Erin Burnett, a new hire from CNBC, would take over the 7 p.m. time slot on weekdays, replacing John King, who will move to 6 p.m. “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” which currently runs from 5 to 7 p.m., will move to 4 to 6 p.m.

Anderson Cooper's show will move to 8 (Spitzer's old time slot), and then get rebroadcast just two hours later.

Okay.

On Twitter, there's a dumb Obama "twitter Town hall" or something where you can ask the Presidunce a question with the hashtag #AskObama and then he can ignore your questions and instead choose the questions of liberal Obama partisans who want to know how it's possible that he could be so awesome.

Oh: Here are his answers.

I had no idea! He's delivering his answers orally, on camera.

Posted by: Ace at 10:08 AM | Comments (348)
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Just some perspective from Hume. They're interviewing Democratic campaign guru Joe Trippi about his remarks; on the whole, Trippi agrees.

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Posted by: Ace at 09:28 AM | Comments (152)
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Hello!

This morning, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley released a copy of a letter they sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on July 5 about MelsonÂ’s testimony. MelsonÂ’s revelations raise even more serious issues not only about the operation itself, but about apparent attempts by the Justice Department to mislead Congress on the details of the operation.

Contrary to the Justice Department’s denials, according to Melson, ATF agents specifically witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without taking any further action. Melson claimed that it was not until the public disclosure of the operation that he personally reviewed the “hundreds of documents” related to the case. He said he became “sick to his stomach” when he learned the full story.

Very interesting is the letter to Holder written by Grassley and Issa, accusing the DoJ of obstruction.

If you recall, we (or at least some of us) had questions about how the DoJ could block someone from testifying. Based on this letter, here's the answer: The DoJ will provide you with a lawyer to advise you, but will only do so when the DoJ agrees you should testify.

They'll pick up the legal expenses of testifying, then, but only if you're a very good boy.

However, nothing prevents you from voluntarily appearing, on your own recognizance, and hiring your own lawyer to advise you, if you so choose.

Apparently the DoJ told Melson about the first thing but forgot to advise him of the second. But he was made aware (probably by Issa or someone like that) that he could do so, and so did.

The letter goes on to accuse Holder of deliberate obstruction of a lawful investigation:

According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF's senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents. Mr. Melson also said he was not allowed to communicate to Congress the reasons for the reassignments. He claimed that ATF's senior leadership would have preferred to be more cooperative with our inquiry much earlier in the process. However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Department wanted us to hear. If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have be en effectively muzzled while the DOJ s ent over false denials and bur i ed its he ad in the sand. That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation.

You guys know no one in the media is reporting on this, right?

As I said with Anthony Weiner: Damn, the media's going to be all over this here story and leave us in the conservative alternate media with no scoops whatsoever. They'll just pick this carcass of every bit of meat and leave us nothing but bones.

Not Testifying "Before Congress"? Drew's not sure about the way I described this:

Not to be pedantic but I don't think saying he "testified before congress" is really accurate. That implies a hearing with members present. This was with investigators. Strikes me as more akin to a deposition or meeting with cops than testifying in court.

Okay, well at the least he testified before Congressional investigators.

Posted by: Ace at 08:58 AM | Comments (171)
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Amazing pictures at the Daily Mail, too.

This sounds completely incongruous with respect to Arizona -- but apparently it's monsoon season. Another out-of-place word being used (at least by the British) is "haboob," an Arabic word for an intense sandstorm.

There are four videos; the first and fourth are the best. I just updated with a fifth one, which is good, dramatic, and short.
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Posted by: Ace at 08:18 AM | Comments (130)
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Just over FoxNews TV now; I don't believe it. I think this is a lie, or at least deliberately misleading. I believe they are trying to suggest they've finally made a budget after 790 days without one; I think what they've really done is, once again, agreed to "principles."

As the CBO head said, "We can't offer analyses of speeches."

Posted by: Ace at 08:10 AM | Comments (33)
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FoxNews link.

Hasan's lead attorney, John Galligan, had urged the commanding general not to seek the death penalty, saying such cases were more costly, time-consuming and restrictive.

And like a Jaguar, it's worth every penny.

Thanks to Drew for the link.

Posted by: Ace at 07:39 AM | Comments (130)
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