In case the circumstances of this plane disappearance weren't odd enough already ...

U.S. investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, according to two people familiar with the details, raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of additional miles under conditions that remain murky.

Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co. 777Â’s engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program.

Update: Of course this report is disputed, but the amount of conflicting information on this thing continues to amaze.

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Car F*cker Ready to Settle Down

There's comes a time for a man when playing the parking lot no longer holds the thrill it once did and he begins to long for a single vehicle to share his life with and perhaps one day even raise a fleet of little priuses with.

And for Edward Smith that time is...well real soon now.

After losing his virginity 45 years ago, Edward Smith of Yelm, Washington, knew that the way he felt about headlights and bumpers was the way most men felt about "boobs and buns." Although he never forgot his first - a neighbor's Volkswagon Beetle - the self-proclaimed mechaphile went on to sleep with thousands more automobiles and one woman (who we can only assume is his long-term neighbor Sarah, who is very happy that he's found "something that makes him happy").

Now, at the age 62, after driving around with any car or helicopter part that ignited his passion, Smith is ready to give up his slutty ways and become a one-car kind of man. Well, kind of. Although he considers his carfriend Vanilla (a secondhand VW Beetle he's been with for 30 years) his number one, he still has two other cars he sees on the side - Cinnamon and Splash. But Vanilla doesn't seen to mind much. Their relationship is as solid as steel according to Smith.

"When I hold Vanilla in my arms there's a powerful energy that comes from her in response to that . There's something about Vanilla that I can't fully express on an emotional level," Smith said of his carfriend.

[Side note to Yelma-Olympia area morons: Be careful where you park you car and watch yer exhaust hole.]

Ukraine: Hopeless But Not Serious

Spengler is quite down on Ukraine as a viable, independent nation.

There isn't going to be a war over Ukraine. There isn't even going to be a crisis over Ukraine. We will perform our ritual war-dance and excoriate the Evil Emperor, and the result would be the same if we had sung "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" on a road trip to Kalamazoo. Worry about something really scary, like Iran.

Ukraine isn't a country: it's a Frankenstein monster composed of pieces of dead empires, stitched together by Stalin. It has never had a government in the Western sense of the term after the collapse of the Soviet Union gave it independence, just the equivalent of the family offices for one predatory oligarch after another-including the "Gas Princess," Yulia Tymoshenko. It has a per capital income of $3,300 per year, about the same as Egypt and Syria, and less than a tenth of the European average. The whole market capitalization of its stock exchange is worth less than the Disney Company. It's a basket case that claims to need $35 billion to survive the next two years. Money talks and bullshit walks. Who wants to ask the American taxpayer for $35 billion for Ukraine, one of the most corrupt economies on earth? How about $5 billion? Secretary of State Kerry is talking about $1 billion in loan guarantees, and the Europeans are talking a similar amount. That's not diplomacy. It's a clown show.

Still even a poor, benighted country deserves its sovereignty. But that doesn't imply that we must or should go to war over it.

And yes it's clown shows all the way down.

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The picture was taken March 9, but they've only now revealed it.

Jake Tapper's guest says it's the only lead, but it's a logical lead, as the site of the wreckage is about where one would expect the plane to have crashed.

"It's where it's supposed to be," Peter Goelz, a former National Transportation Safety Board managing director, told CNN's Jake Tapper, noting the "great skepticism" about reports the plane had turned around to go back over Malaysia. "I think they've got to get vessels and aircraft there as quickly as humanly possible."

But there are skeptics that these objects are from flight 370:

Clive Irving, a senior editor with Conde Nast Traveler, said that the size of the pieces -- since they are fairly square and big -- "don't conform to anything that's on the plane."

Video at the link. The satellite picture is displayed from 1:57-1:59.

Pic from the Sydney Morning Herald

CBS.com has released the cockpit's last words: "All right, good night."

This Popular Mechanics article discusses how such a large object can just disappear without a trace.

A system that would use satellites to beam an airliner's position and other vital information is not only possible—it's already being used on some planes. In fact, on long-haul routes that fly over the North Pole or the Pacific Ocean, where radar coverage can be iffy, the latest models from Boeing and Airbus are using data link communications to transmit GPS coordinates and status updates.

But the particular Boeing 777-200 flown here didn't have that technology.

The fact that the plane did not offer communications during the presumed tragedy is not notable, it turns out.

"All we know for sure is that a plane went down with no warning or communication from the crew," says Patrick Smith, a pilot for a major airline and the author of Cockpit Confidential. While that would suggest a sudden and dramatic event such as a bomb, Smith cautioned that pilots in an emergency are trained to focus on flying first, with communicating to the ground a lower priority.

I read another article which said a pilot's goals in an emergency were: 1. Aviate 2. Navigate 3. Communicate. Further, an article said that when a plane is far from any tower, communication is not as simple as just picking up a radio and pushing the button; it is often a multi-step process, which might be difficult during a true emergency.

So assuming this was a sudden disaster, it's not strange that the cockpit issued no information to the outside world.

BTW, I've wanted to put up a flight 370 post for days-- but commenters were always ahead of me in the comments! This is the first time I feel like I'm posting something that's reasonably fresh.

About Where It's Supposed To Be: @rdbrewer4 says FoxNews has offered some skepticism on this picture. The debris are only 115 miles from the last known position of the plane. I think he's suggesting that a plane falling from 35,000 feet would move a lot further from its last known position before crashing. He says he doesn't think that drifting on the sea can bridge the gap.

And... If you're the type of person who can't help seeing Omens in things (I pride myself in being a rationalist, but I can't help doing it myself), this news from four days ago will give you your Recommended Daily Allowance of Doom.

A slew of shockingly weak data from China and Japan has led to a sharp sell-off in Asian stock markets and the biggest one-day crash in iron ore prices since the Lehman crisis, calling into question the strength of the global recovery.

The Shanghai Composite index of stocks fell below the key level of 2,000 after investors reacted with shock to an 18pc slump in Chinese exports in February and to signs that credit is wilting again. Iron ore fell 8.3pc.

Fresh loans in ChinaÂ’s shadow banking system evaporated to almost nothing from $160bn in January, suggesting the clampdown on the $8 trillion sector is biting hard.
“It seems that rising default risk has started to erode Chinese investors’ confidence,” said Wei Yao, from Societe Generale. “Together with continued regulatory tightening on banks’ off-balance-sheet activity, we are certain this slowing credit trend has further to go and will inflict real pain on the economy.”

And Open Thread.

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Why hasn't this hashtag taken off?

Sowell calls the left's relentless attack on high-performing charter schools a "war on minorities." Indeed, it is. Some people in the left's coalition have more pull than others. The teachers unions have a great deal of pull; minority children, not much at all.

And so the #WarOnPoorChildren continues.

If anyone wanted to pick a time and place where the political left's avowed concern for minorities was definitively exposed as a fraud, it would be now -- and the place would be New York City, where far left Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched an attack on charter schools, cutting their funding, among other things.

These schools have given thousands of low income minority children their only shot at a decent education, which often means their only shot at a decent life. Last year 82 percent of the students at a charter school called Success Academy passed city-wide mathematics exams, compared to 30 percent of the students in the city as a whole.

Why would anybody who has any concern at all about minority young people -- or even common decency -- want to destroy what progress has already been made?

One big reason, of course, is the teachers' union, one of Mayor de Blasio's biggest supporters. But it may be more than that. For many of the true believers on the left, their ideology overrides any concern about the actual fate of flesh-and-blood human beings.

Something similar happened on the west coast last year. The American Indian Model Schools in Oakland have been ranked among the top schools in the nation, based on their students' test scores. This is, again, a special achievement for minority students who need all the help they can get.

But, last spring, the California State Board of Education announced plans to shut this school down!

Why? The excuse given was that there had been suspicious financial dealings by the former -- repeat, former -- head of the institution. If this was the real reason, then all they had to do was indict the former head and let a court decide if he was guilty or innocent.

There was no reason to make anyone else suffer, much less the students. But the education establishment's decision was to refuse to let the school open last fall. Fortunately a court stopped this hasty shut-down.

Sowell goes on to note that Obama has joined the #WarOnPoorChildren at the federal level, cutting DC's voucher program, and having the DoJ attempt to block Louisiana's attempt to expand charter schools.

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And therefore, impliedly, a legal nullity, to be undone at Russia's whim.

According to Dzhemilev, Putin also said that it was debatable as to whether UkraineÂ’s independence from the Soviet Union, acquired in 1991, was even legal.

Dzhemilev is a Crimean Tartar leader. He'd called Putin to advise him that the upcoming referendum on Crimea's re-annexation by Russia might violate treaty guarantees of Ukraine's sovereignty.

Putin seems to be taking the position that Ukraine has no legal sovereignty to violate.

Thanks to @slublog.

Meanwhile, a Kiev legislator has said Ukraine must go nuclear to preserve its freedom.

Ukraine may have to arm itself with nuclear weapons if the United States and other world powers refuse to enforce a security pact that obligates them to reverse the Moscow-backed takeover of Crimea, a member of the Ukraine parliament told USA TODAY.

The United States, Great Britain and Russia agreed in a pact "to assure Ukraine's territorial integrity" in return for Ukraine giving up a nuclear arsenal it inherited from the Soviet Union after declaring independence in 1991, said Pavlo Rizanenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament.

"We gave up nuclear weapons because of this agreement," said Rizanenko, a member of the Udar Party headed by Vitali Klitschko, a candidate for president. "Now there's a strong sentiment in Ukraine that we made a big mistake."

Yes, but it seems a bit late for that.

Even NPR is asking if it would have been better if Ukraine had kept its nukes-- and not been pressured to turn them over to Russia, based upon a false promise by the UK and US to defend its borders.

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Kimmel is doing shows from Austin in connection with SXSW.

He gets an Austin welcome -- that is, he gets jeered and booed -- but his proposal to partly decriminalize (or defelonize) minor marijuana possession of course gets them on board.

Asked if he jogs with a gun, he says he does interviews with one.

He also notes he's considering running for president. Asked why he'd run again, given his failed 2012 run, he says "America is a great place for second chances. Let's just leave it at that."

BTW, what's up with the Executive Chair Dominance Play? Perry's taller than Kimmel, but their respective chairs make Perry a full head shorter than Kimmel.

more...

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The Washington Post has the full story.

Here's the flowchart, so you understand who is making this allegation:

Washington businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson, who pleaded guilty Monday to federal conspiracy charges in a case that has focused largely on D.C. Mayor Vincent C. GrayÂ’s (D) 2010 campaign...

It is Thompson making these allegations to federal prosecutors, in his plea bargain. He implicates a Hillary advisor, who is not named in the government documents, but whose identity is known.

Thompson...

... told federal prosecutors that Clinton aide Minyon Moore asked him to fund pro-Clinton efforts in four states and Puerto Rico costing $608,750 during the hard-fought 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, the documents show.

So Thompson makes these claims against Clinton aide Minyon Moore.

Moore denies this (through a spokeswoman), and says he didn't know what Thompson was up to. He's claiming that he asked Thompson to do legal things, not illegal ones.

But Thompson, in his discussions with authorities, depicted Moore as playing a far more intimate role in the off-the-books campaign than was previously indicated — securing the money and helping guide the strategy by feeding internal campaign documents and receiving messages about the media coverage.

...

MooreÂ’s alleged participation in the scheme could have violated federal campaign finance laws, which prohibit officers or agents of a campaign from soliciting or arranging for illegal contributions. Election lawyers said pursuing charges against Moore could be difficult, however, because the five-year statute of limitations has expired.

The scheme involved funding "street teams," I guess to get out the vote.

The new court filings, submitted as part of ThompsonÂ’s guilty plea, lay out internal e-mails and other details portraying Moore as a central player who asked Thompson to finance the operation and then provided him and White with internal campaign strategy.

...

The documents say that Moore, who was a senior adviser to the Clinton campaign responsible for minority outreach, asked Thompson to fund the operation. The effort aimed to drive up voter turnout for Clinton in a string of key primary states as she was battling Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

There is, it is said, no evidence that Hillary knew of these matters.

Hot Air highlights an important part of the story:

The effort included people from League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), even though the organization supposedly refrains from endorsements. It’s a 501(c)4, according to its website, although it takes a little digging to find the reference. That makes it the same as those conservative groups attacked by the IRS — a category which is designed for groups that are primarily oriented to “social welfare,” and which cannot endorse or work for candidates. The “street teams” provided by LULAC and funded through off-the-books cash distributed campaign materials for Hillary, the papers allege, among other activities.

The Free Beacon has more on LULAC, including their own statement:

The money was routed through Troy White, a marketing director who pleaded guilty to insurance violations last September, and through a group identified in the plea agreement as “Civic Organization A.”

The unnamed group is LULAC, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

A LULAC spokesperson would not immediately confirm whether it was “Civic Organization A” when contacted by the Washington Free Beacon. However, she said the group was cooperating with federal investigators on the case.

“We are cooperating with the investigation, but we can’t comment on any specific matters,” said LULAC spokesperson Paloma Zuleta.

She referred further questions to LULAC counsel Manuel Escobar who did not return a request for comment.

I just got an email from Lois Lerner, saying that she was "going to look into these serious allegations" and "finally bring the Tea Party to justice."

Um, that's a joke, in case anyone's not sure.

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NBCNews headlines that the GOP "may" reap the benefits of Obama's poor standing.

But that seems obvious -- even if it's remarkable that NBC would confess the obvious -- so I'm linking the neutral WSJ instead.

President Barack Obama is struggling to overcome widespread pessimism about the economy and deep frustration with Washington, notching the lowest job-approval ratings of his presidency in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

...

Mr. Obama's job approval ticked down to 41% in March from 43% in January, marking a new low. Some 54% disapproved of the job he is doing, matching a previous high from December, when the botched rollout of his signature health law played prominently in the news. The latest survey also showed the lowest-ever approval in Journal/NBC polling for Mr. Obama's handling of foreign policy.

The article notes that Obama's decline in approval is partly due to Democrats' disappointment in him. A new high of 20% of Democrats disapprove. Even his largest power source within the "Coalition of the Ascendant" -- blacks, Hispanics, and women -- support him less.

One factor in his favor: Obama still commands a large enough reservoir of support among white women, the WSJ opines, to hold him above Bushian levels of unpopularity, and perhaps blunt any GOP incursions into Democrat-held territory.

Right track/wrong track is at 26% right track, 65% wrong track.

The WSJ goes on to note five takeaways from the poll.

They say that the impact of Obamacare is "uncertain."

Uncertain? Yes, because Democrats still manage to keep parity with their "fix Obamacare" message:

Thirty-five percent said Obamacare is a good idea, while 49% said itÂ’s a bad one. For Republicans trying to parlay opposition to the law into victory in 2014, the outlook is muddled. Thirty-seven percent of Republicans and 55% of Democrats said their views of the health care law will not necessarily reflect their vote for Congress. Forty-eight percent would support a Democrat who wants to fix the law, compared with 47% who would vote for a Republican who favors repeal.

One incredible thing: Point Five is that the public supports both Spending More Money and Cutting Spending.

Sixty-seven percent said they are more likely to vote for a congressional candidate who will bring home federal dollars and projects; the same share of respondents support cutting federal spending.

Incredible.

There is America's political dysfunction in a single number. 67% want more federal pork, and 67% also want the federal government to cut spending.

Posted by: Ace at 10:48 AM | Comments (452)
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They've expanded/extended the so-called "hardship exemption" by executive fiat again.

The hardship exemption now includes not only poverty or extreme personal distress, but "feeling inclined to vote for Republicans this year."

Obviously it's completely political.

[L]ast week the Administration quietly excused millions of people from the requirement to purchase health insurance or else pay a tax penalty.

This latest political reconstruction has received zero media notice....

That seven-page technical bulletin includes a paragraph and footnote that casually mention that a rule in a separate December 2013 bulletin would be extended for two more years, until 2016. Lo and behold, it turns out this second rule, which was supposed to last for only a year, allows Americans whose coverage was cancelled to opt out of the mandate altogether.

In 2013, HHS decided that ObamaCare's wave of policy terminations qualified as a "hardship" that entitled people to a special type of coverage designed for people under age 30 or a mandate exemption. HHS originally defined and reserved hardship exemptions for the truly down and out such as battered women, the evicted and bankrupts.

But amid the post-rollout political backlash, last week the agency created a new category: Now all you need to do is fill out a form attesting that your plan was cancelled and that you "believe that the plan options available in the [ObamaCare] Marketplace in your area are more expensive than your cancelled health insurance policy" or "you consider other available policies unaffordable."

The new "interpretation" of the hardship exemption requires only that someone state his belief that there are better plans out there, which of course there are. Therefore anyone can legally ignore the mandate, just by certifying this belief.

Obamacare will be on the ballot in November, as it was on the ballot yesterday in Florida 13. Jim Geraghty sees no point to the Democrats' spin that David Jolly "underperformed" in a Republican-leaning district (which nevertheless voted for Obama).

David Wasserman, House editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, declared, “If Dems couldn’t win an Obama CD with a solid candidate against a flawed R, expect a rough November… Bottom line: #FL13 result suggests House GOP still on track for gains this November, perhaps in 5-15 seat range.”

We know the real fight in November is in the Senate races, and you know whatÂ’s less Democrat-friendly territory than this R+1 swing district? The states of West Virginia (R+13), North Carolina (R+3), Louisiana (R+12), South Dakota (R+10), Alaska (R+12). Arkansas (R+14) and Montana (R+7). Those are all currently Democrat-held seats. And there are seven of them.

If last nightÂ’s result means that a halfway decent Republican candidate can win on Republican-leaning territory by hammering away at ObamacareÂ… then the odds of the GOP winning the Senate look very, very good. That means that the competitive Senate races in places like Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, and VirginiaÂ… thatÂ’s all gravy. Bonus seats. A cushion for the tougher set of seats up for reelection in 2016.

Almost hard to believe, isnÂ’t it? Amazing what happens when Democrats get to enact the laws they want.

Posted by: Ace at 09:07 AM | Comments (547)
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David Jolly defied most predictions (including mine!) and beat back the better-funded, more recognized Alex Sink by just under a 2% margin. His campaign staff, which had gotten some nasty shots from "concerned Republicans", stuck to the basics and got their voters out.

Democrats were overjoyed at their dominating presence in the in-person early vote (turning in ballots at an eight point clip better than the Republicans) and were cautious about their performance in the mail-in/absentee returns (they trailed Republicans by about five points in the end after keeping the margin to just 2% for much of the reporting cycle). With over 70% of the vote already in before polls opened yesterday, Team Jolly needed a big Tuesday turnout. more...

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