San Francisco’s city government defies gravity; fails to collapse under its own bloated weight

San Francisco has already been described as an increasingly child-free city.  Lately, many have come to recognize yet another dubious distinction for SF.  Benjamin Wachs and Joe Eskenazi report December 14 in SF Weekly:

Despite its good intentions, San Francisco is not leading the country in gay marriage. Despite its good intentions, it is not stopping wars. Despite its spending more money per capita on homelessness than any comparable city, its homeless problem is worse than any comparable city's. Despite its spending more money per capita, period, than almost any city in the nation, San Francisco has poorly managed, budget-busting capital projects, overlapping social programs no one is certain are working, and a transportation system where the only thing running ahead of schedule is the size of its deficit.
It's time to face facts: San Francisco is spectacularly mismanaged and arguably the worst-run big city in America. This year's city budget is an astonishing $6.6 billion — more than twice the budget for the entire state of Idaho — for roughly 800,000 residents. Yet despite that stratospheric amount, San Francisco can't point to progress on many of the social issues it spends liberally to tackle — and no one is made to answer when the city comes up short.

“Despite its good intentions”… For some, the nobility of one’s intentions cover a multitude of sins.  Sure, many of these problems are worse than ever despite all of the money we’ve thrown at them, but at least we care.

Obama administration intends to rule by fiat if Congress doesn’t submit?

[Cross-posted from C-Pol’s companion site, The Global Warming Heretic]

According to a Fox News story today, administration officials acknowledge privately that the EPA’s newly-claimed powers allow the executive branch to function as a dictatorship if it so chooses.

The Obama administration is warning Congress that if it doesn't move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a "command-and-control" role over the process in a way that could hurt business.

The warning, from a top White House economic official who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity, came on the eve of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's address to the international conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jackson, however, tried to strike a tone of cooperation in her address Wednesday, explaining that the EPA's new powers to regulate greenhouse gases will be used to complement legislation pending in Congress, not replace it.

"This is not an 'either-or' moment. It's a 'both-and' moment," she said.

But while administration officials have long said they prefer Congress take action on climate change, the economic official who spoke with reporters Tuesday night made clear that the EPA will not wait and is prepared to act on its own.

And it won't be pretty.

"If you don't pass this legislation, then ... the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area," the official said. "And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it's going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty."

So.  Obama would prefer that Congress take the actions that the administration demands of it.  But if Congress fails to get its act together, the administration will publicly hold Congress responsible for the economic chaos that will follow.

And that economic chaos is a virtual certainty if the administration resorts to fiat rule through the EPA. Who would want to invest in an economy where regulations are changing suddenly and radically (and almost always to the detriment of businesses)?

EPA declares plant food to be a public health threat

[Cross-posted from C-Pol’s companion site, The Global Warming Heretic]

A bit late in reporting on this, but hey, this is a blog, not a news service.  But just for the record, here’s what happened on Monday, as reported by the Associated Press:

The Obama administration took a major step Monday toward imposing the first federal limits on climate-changing pollution from cars, power plants and factories, declaring there was compelling scientific evidence that global warming from manmade greenhouse gases endangers Americans' health.

Does anyone else see a logical disconnect here?  Not the Environmental Protection Agency, because they’ve consciously named carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant.  A gas that occurs naturally, the existence of which is essential for plant life – is a dangerous pollutant.

And notice – only “manmade” carbon dioxide seems to be capable of causing global warming.  Oh, and how is it a danger to public health?  They don’t say here, but it’s obvious that they’re playing the Six Degrees game.

So, what kind of powers has the EPA amassed for itself by this “finding”?  The article gives us a taste:

The price could be steep for both industry and consumers. The EPA finding clears the way for rules that eventually could force the sale of more fuel-efficient vehicles and require plants to install costly new equipment — at a cost of billions or even many tens of billions of dollars — or shift to other forms of energy.

It almost certainly goes beyond this.  If human generated carbon dioxide emissions are as dangerous as the EPA says they are, there is no logical or moral reason why the EPA shouldn’t extend its regulatory tentacles into every aspect of our lives.

In other words, this finding will serve as the greatest mechanism ever devised for state control of American people and resources, all in complete, deliberate mockery of the constitutional limits on the powers of the federal government.

It’s almost as if that was the plan.

Demographic collapse in socialist paradise

Mark Steyn writes that Vermont (a state renowned for not only tolerating socialists, but electing them as well) is suffering demographic collapse, with children composing a steadily decreasing percentage of an otherwise-stable population:

Throughout Vermont, student enrollment at public elementary and secondary schools is declining. According to figures from the state’s Department of Education, there were 104,559 students at those schools during the 1999–2000 school year. Last year, that figure was down to 92,572.

Which is quite a drop. In fact, Vermont school enrollments have declined 13 years in a row. Since 1996, they’ve fallen by 13 percent, slumping below 100,000 in 2004 and projected to fall below 90,000 in 2014.

This blog has previously remarked on an identical phenomenon occurring in another leftwing paradise, San Francisco.

This may explain the Democrat Party’s seemingly insatiable desire to import voters – they’re trying to replace the ones they’re not (re)producing themselves.

When seconds count, the police are minutes away

A rural Oklahoma woman defends her home and her life in this two-minute excerpt from a 911 call.

It took police about half an hour to arrive – an unpleasant reality in rural areas.

(Via: The Tusk and Hot Air)

And the prize for “Most Pathetic Headline of the Week by a Major US Paper” goes to….

…the Los Angeles Times.  Here’s how they titled their story about yesterday’s vote by Honduras’ Congress regarding Manuel Zelaya:

Honduran Congress upholds coup

The LAT seems determined to set in stone the fiction that Zelaya was removed in a coup d'état, rather than in a legal, constitutional action.  If you didn’t catch the “coup” in the title, don’t worry – they use the word four more times in the accompanying article.

The vote was overwhelmingly against Zelaya’s reinstatement (111-14), but the LAT dismisses it by suggesting that this was a vote by the Honduran elite to rid itself of a meddlesome man of the people.

The MSM’s reporting on Honduras’ political situation should be a badge of shame, but you’ll never read that in their newspapers.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Abortion is “preventative care”.

Life News, today:

Yesterday, the Senate began the process of considering amendments to Senator Harry Reid's pro-abortion health care legislation.

The first amendment offered was Mikulski Amendment No. 2791, sponsored by pro-abortion Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, dealing with federally mandated coverage of "preventive care."

The amendment would essentially define abortion as preventative care and could result in mandates to private insurance plans that they define abortion as such and provide coverage of it.

Because of that, the National Right to Life Committee issued a letter to members of the Senate urging them to strongly oppose the Mikulski amendment.

"If Congress were to grant any Executive Branch entity sweeping authority to define services that private health plans must cover, merely by declaring a given service to constitute 'preventive care' then that authority could be employed in the future to require all health plans to cover abortions," NRLC explains.

"Therefore, NRLC opposes both the Mikulski Amendment No.2791, and the underlying language of Section 1001, unless additional language is added to explicitly exclude abortion from the universe of services that might be mandated as 'preventive care,'" the letter continues.

An intriguing alternative to Obamunism

As the president’s poll numbers continue to tank, it may be time to start thinking about what politcal/economic system might best serve as a replacement for the one foisted upon us by the Legion of Hope and Change.

With evidence mounting that many Legionaries are heading home dejectedly, it would behoove us to be ready to implement a replacement like the one above – intriguingly called “freedom” – after next year’s mid-term elections.

President manages to recover from White House TelePrompTer mishap

Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner

Apparently, only Republicans would attempt to honor those murdered at Ft. Hood

Rosa's Cafe put a note on its Facebook page showing respect for those who were murdered at Fort Hood yesterday.  Check out the very first response.

Happily, nearly all of the following comments piled on her (except for her followup reply which says, in total: "hahahahahaha. wow.").

(Click to view full-sized image)

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I wonder if Ms. Covington is in general agreement with the fine, upstanding citizens who displayed this banner at an antiwar rally back in 2003:

If so, then Rosa’s Cafe is well rid of her business.

“24” Season 8 trailer

In my opinion, 24 is one of the few oases in the blighted wasteland that is network television.  Here’s the Season 8 promo that premiered during the first game of the World Series:

(Found via Dark Horizons via BibChr)

New Jersey, Virginia vote for change; conservatives almost pull off NY-23 upset

Highly partisan George Stephanopoulos, to whom ABC News turns when it wants nonpartisan political analysis, described Democrat Bill Owens’ NY-23 win as “a big loss for Sarah Palin” this morning.

Meanwhile, the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races, which saw Obama-endorsed candidates going down, should not be seen as referenda on the president, White House mouthpiece Robert Gibbs insisted:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that voters went to the polls in Virginia and New Jersey to work through "very local issues that didn't involve the president." The presidential spokesman said voters were concerned about the economy.

And yet, the NY-23 race was supposedly all about Sarah Palin.

In the real world, it’s amazing that the Conservative Party candidate almost pulled it off, given that the Republican dropped out and started campaigning for the Democrat.

The message of the NY-23 race is that many conservatives are tired of being part of a political party that can’t shake the habit of putting forth candidates like Dede Scozzafava.  If the GOP becomes a little more reluctant to do this in the future, I will consider the NY-23 race to be a victory.

Creepy compilation

We haven’t seen many new examples of Obama reverence lately, now that the president’s halo is showing signs of tarnish.  Still, it’s useful to see a compilation of videos reflecting the messianic expectations that so many have had for him.


FWIW, I’m not completely sold on the “Hear us” segment.  Many are certain that the people are saying “Hear us, Obama”, but to me it could just as easily be “Hear us, O God”.  That’s bad enough, since it implies that they see Obama as God-sent.

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UPDATE: John Nolte at Big Hollywood has many more, most of which I had not seen before.

“Former” VP Biden, the gift that keeps on giving

Too bad this was just a brain burp on CNN’s part. 

This is from a CNN article today reporting on the ongoing efforts by Democrats to help Bill Owens overcome the surging candidacy of conservative Doug Hoffman.  Even though alleged Republican Dede Scozzafava is now campaigning for the Democrat, Hoffman currently holds a five-point lead over Owens in the latest Siena College poll.

The CNN article also relates this howler from our esteemed Former Vice President (emphasis added):

"We aren't asking you to switch your party," Biden said at a rally for Democrat Bill Owens in Watertown, New York Monday morning. "We are just saying join us in teaching a lesson to those absolutists who say no dissent is permitted within your own party."

Tell us, Former Vice President Biden, about how famous the Democrats are for permitting dissent within their party in recent years.

Quick Quote: Thomas Jefferson on nanny government

And now, a word from the founder of the Democratic Party:

Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

– Autobiography, 1821

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (74)