The Democrats are living in fantasy-land:

The majority party on Capitol Hill does not feel bound by that pledge, saying the threshold for tax hikes will depend on several factors, such as the revenue differences between setting the threshold at $200,000 and setting it at $250,000.

“You could go lower, too — why not $200,000?” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “With the debt and deficit we have, you can’t make promises to people. This is a very serious situation.”

Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, concurred, saying, “I don’t think there’s any magic in the number, whether it’s $250,000, $200,000 or $225,000.

“I’m not hard and fast on $250,000,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “Quite frankly, it could be somewhat lower than that. $250,000 — is that the top 1 percent of Americans, or half a percent? I mean, come on!”

Household income data compiled by the Census Bureau in 2008 shows that families earning over $250,000 fall into the top 2 percent.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) hinted in a speech Tuesday that House Democrats do not consider family incomes of $250,000 an inviolable threshold, despite ObamaÂ’s pledge.

Oh, yes, raising taxes in a bum economy...during an election.

This is the Dem civil war. It's between the hard-left in Blue states -- secure in their seats -- and the hard-left in Red states -- doing lipservice to "moderate" voters. The Blue staters want to keep spending money on Libtard projects deferred for the eight Bush years, but the federal government is so far overbudget that the Dems have tossed up their hands and given up. So they'll happily take more of it from taxpayers.

The Red staters want to spend money too, but they know they'll lose their seats if they do. Obama managed to trick them into voting for high-cost healthare, but (they're wise to his lies now.

Here's the danger: if (when) the Democrats lose big in November, I wonder what they'll be doing during the lame duck session...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:53 AM | Comments (100)
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A judge struck down the six-month deepwater drilling moratorium yesterday because it was the very definition of "arbitrary and capricious." The Administration never explained why 6 months was the appropriate amount of time or why the ban should extend to all drilling below 500 feet. The 500 feet depth particularly raised the judge's ire because the material relied on by the Interior Department was about drilling bans at 1000 feet.

Well Interior Secretary Ken Salazar doesn't want the industry to even think about getting back in gear. He's going to reissue the drilling ban.

"We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP's well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling. That evidence mounts as BP continues to be unable to stop its blowout, notwithstanding the huge efforts and help from the federal scientific team and most major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico. The evidence also continues to mount that industry needs to raise the bar on blowout prevention, containment, and response planning before deepwater drilling should continue.

"Based on this ever-growing evidence, I will issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities."

Again, nothing there to explain why six months is an appropriate length of time or why the ban should apply to all drilling in greater than 500 feet of water. For comparison's sake, the Deepwater Horizon was operating in 5,000 feet of water when it sank.

Unfortunately, judicial review of this type of agency action is highly deferential. The Administration simply has to find some "expert" to say why six months and deeper than 500 feet are right for evaluating safety on floating oil rigs. They reissue the ban and that's that. Goodbye Gulf economy.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:23 AM | Comments (158)
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Good morning, sports fans, it's the US team's third and final match in the group round. We face Algeria and they haven't won a game yet! (You think it might be the leprechaun outfits?)

As I explained over the weekend, win and we advance. Draw and we still likely advance unless England has an unusually good showing against Slovenia. Lose and we're out.

As it happens, the England-Slovenia game and the US-Algeria games are taking place simultaneously so we'll know by about 9am Pacific whether we're moving on to the Round of 16. Kick off is at 7am Pacific (just a few minutes from now) and you can watch the games on ESPN and ESPN2 on cable or on ESPN3 on the internet.

The nice thing about the World Cup is that many bars and pubs are opening early for the fans. I'm definitely going to stumble in late for work this morning, since there's no way I can watch both games on my itty-bitty cell phone, like I've been doing (SprintTV gets me ESPN anywhere. Love it.). But I might also stumble over to the Cat & Fiddle to watch at least the first half today.

For our L.A. sports fans a fine list of bars opening early for World Cup soccer is here, and includes my old haunt in Santa Monica. If you live elsewhere, what's wrong with you? No. (Joke.) If you live elsewhere, google your own damn list of pubs.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:52 AM | Comments (81)
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Via Jim Treacher and about all of Twitter, the Federal government is shutting down the dredging that Louisiana was using to construct sand berms to keep the oil off the coastline.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department says that the current location of the dredging could change the salinity of the water and do other things to kill off wildlife. So they want the dredging site moved another two miles offshore. That will take about a week, during which oil will wash unimpeded onto the coastline. So will the department allow dredging at the current sites -- and construction of the protective berms -- to continue just for the week until the dredging operation is moved? Nope.

I'm going to guess that pleas to Obama aren't going to help:

"Once again, our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil," Nungesser wrote to Obama. "Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil.

Gonna get worse before it gets better, I think.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:38 AM | Comments (158)
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Praise Jebus the primary is over in South Carolina, that was dirty. But Nikki Haley pulled out a win with 63 percent. Not bad.

Tim Scott also won in a GOP Congressional nomination last night, holding off Paul Thurmond, son of the late Strom Thurmond.

Both are victories for voters wanting to shake up the South Carolina GOP establishment. Haley, in particular, saw how desperately they fear she will shake things up from the governor's mansion. Both were endorsed by Sarah Palin, which brings her win-loss to 9-3 this cycle.

The other big victory last night was Mike Lee, who finally won the privilege of fighting for Senator Bob Bennett's seat in Utah. Both Lee and his opponent Tim Bridgewater claimed to be outsiders, but in the runoff Bridgewater got endorsements from the GOP convention and from kicked-to-the-curb Bennett. Lee had the support of the Tea Party.

Lee's win represents another score for Senator Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:23 AM | Comments (56)
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Incidentally, guys, I can't post every day like I did Monday. Day job. What I can do is tweet and I usually get a news blitz out between 8ish and 10am Pacific. Right over here, though that's all going to be pushed back today because of the World Cup matches. FYI.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:04 AM | Comments (45)
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Equities gave up much of the ground they gained earlier in the week in yesterday's trading. The Dow was off 148 points to close at 10293.52, while the S&P 500 dropped 17.89 to close at 1095.31. [UPDATE: Fixed the S&P close.] Energy stocks led the losers, but investor concerns over the poor US housing numbers and the continuing weak employment picture also contributed to the decline. On the fixed-income side of the house, the US Treasury just conducted an auction of 2-year notes at a record-low 0.738 percent rate. The US Treasury is still seen by most investors as the safest port in the financial storm now sweeping across the globe. Pull quote:

“It was a great auction,” said Michael Franzese, managing director and head of Treasury trading at Wunderlich Securities Inc. in New York. “If the world goes to hell, your money is secure. If things turn around really fast, you don’t lose a lot.”

Sales of previously-owned homes fell in May. Unexpectedly. A total shockeroo, that's what that was. A real gob-smacker. A once-in-an-epoch bit of weirdness that absolutely no one could have seen coming. An anomaly, a "black swan", a 25-sigma event. A bizarre, unrepeatable, out-of-left field happenstance that has left observers flummoxed.

more...

Posted by: Monty at 03:05 AM | Comments (79)
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Good evening all M&Ms.
Also don't forget about the job bank at the AoSHQ yahoo group.

The Chart The NEA Doesn't Want You To See

This one chart is damning of our entire public education system and ought to be reason enough to disband all teachers' unions.

It shows the average cost to educate a kid from kindergarten through 12th grade in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars. In 1970 each child's education cost about $40,000. Today it's nearly $160,000 - nearly four times as much! And if you look at the test scores over that period, they haven't budged at all. So we're paying 4 times as much in constant dollars and getting jack shit for it. In even a poorly run company that would be enough to get people fired and auditors looking for criminal fraud.

And it's not like children's brains are fundamentally different now or there's a lot more material to learn - basic math is still basic math and reading is still reading. Which means that teaching might be the only profession in the world that has become less efficient over the last four decades.

And if you're wondering where all the money went, well this little tidbit will give you a clue: former Niles Township, IL school superintendent Neil Codell will receive $26 million dollars in retirement checks from the Illinois teacher pension plan which he will qualify for after just 34 years of work. Which means he'll be getting nearly a $1 million dollars a year in his pension. Now multiply that by every school district and you start to see why some states are facing bankruptcy.

So the next time there's a new ballot initiative to increase educational spending to "help the children", remember this chart and vote no. And don't feel a shred of guilt about it. Because the only people who are going to suffer are the Neil Codells of the world. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:34 PM | Comments (724)
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At top, a tally of the contests settling up today.

Will Folks just emailed me to ask if I could give him a courtesy mention.

Posted by: Ace at 05:08 PM | Comments (117)
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Oh dearie dearie dear.

I will say this for Mavs (I always say this): On those occasions when he finally comes down on your side, it's with great force and impact.

Krauthammer had this dynamite point: In a certain sense, it doesn't matter if Obama said this, because we know it's true either way. If he didn't say it, then all he did was succeed in preventing himself from uttering his true agenda in a naked fashion.

But either way, that is his agenda. He says so: He says he can't secure the border unless it's part of a "comprehensive" package. He just doesn't put it as nakedly as Kyl says he did in a private discussion.

However, it actually does matter if it was said -- because this puts the entire corrupt hostage-situation before the public. It makes it news, in other words, instead of policy analysis, which most people don't bother with.

Note especially the woman who gasps, loudly, when Kyl informs her of Obama's plan to hold our security hostage until he gets a little somethin'-somethin' for his... constituents? Are illegal aliens constituents?

I guess more so than the Ecaudorans he first informed he was suing Arizona.

And why did she gasp? She was just informed that the President is making a conscious decision to put her life in danger until he can get his hands on some political deliverables for a constituency that is at least significantly not even American citizens.

Posted by: Ace at 02:50 PM | Comments (311)
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