Lying about nothing? - Tom Maguire reviews the latest maneuvers in the Scooter Libby case in “Fitzmas never comes.” The perjury case is still in a nascent stage, but it’s noteworthy that the special prosecutor has essentially admitted there was no underlying crime in the Valerie Plame kerfuffle. Maguire: “Oh, that will irk my friends on the left.”

One - Happy first blogoversary to Wunderkraut!

Get happy!

From Business Week: “Why the economy is a lot stronger than you think”:

You read this magazine religiously, watch CNBC while dressing for work, scan the Web for economic reports. You've heard, over and over, about the underlying problems with the U.S. economy -- the paltry investment rate, the yawning current account deficit, the pathetic amount Americans salt away. And you know what the experts are saying: that the U.S. faces a perilous economic future unless we cut back on spending and change our profligate ways.

But what if we told you that the doomsayers, while not definitively wrong, aren't seeing the whole picture? What if we told you that businesses are investing about $1 trillion a year more than the official numbers show? Or that the savings rate, far from being negative, is actually positive? Or, for that matter, that our deficit with the rest of the world is much smaller than advertised, and that gross domestic product may be growing faster than the latest gloomy numbers show? You'd be pretty surprised, wouldn't you?

This cover story for Business Week maintains that investments in research, development, product design, and other innovations are setting the U.S. to drive the world economy for as far as the eye can see.

The danger of transferring frozen assets

From the AP: “Ice Cream Shop Owner Gets 15 Years for Funding Terror”:

An ice cream shop owner from Yemen was sentenced to 15 1/2 years in prison Friday for illegally funneling nearly $22 million overseas in a case stemming from a major terrorism investigation.

Abad Elfgeeh, 51, was convicted last year of running an illegal money-transmitting business and structuring bank deposits to avoid reporting laws. Prosecutors alleged that at the behest of a radical Yemeni sheik, he sent money around the world from bank accounts linked to his tiny storefront in Brooklyn.

Well, this story just begs for new ice cream flavors. How about “Hamas fudge swirl”? “Moose tracks of the unclean animal”? “Crazy infidel vanilla”?

It’s Vegas, baby! - Harry Reid got a lot of money from Indian tribes…after they retained that evil Jack Abramoff. The Senator from Nevada says “what I do?”

Thanks for all this cool technology, infidels!

Stay tuned - Blogger has been acting up tonight.

The Old Gray Traitorous Lady - Commentary magazine asks: “Has the New York Times violated the Espionage act?” Blogs for Bush adds some thoughts.

The Herbert Hoover economy strikes again – Unemployment at 4.7%, a 4 ½ year low

Everything you thought about John Kerry is true – This New Republic article “By pushing for a filibuster, Kerry alienated fellow Democrats” is behind a registration wall, but you can read the whole thing on Free Republic. Basically, it reveals that Democrats did not want this fight and were irritated at Kerry for forcing a filibuster against Samuel Alito. The Dems looked fractured and helpless while Kerry fed into his haughty caricature by opportunistically calling for the maneuver from the slopes of Switzerland. It’s a win-win!

Western Union declares telegram service to STOP – Wired has an article on the Internet of the 19th century: “For more than 150 years, messages of joy, sorrow and success came in signature yellow envelopes hand delivered by a courier. Now the Western Union telegram is officially a thing of the past.”

Social Security reminder – Since Will linked me (twice!) in this post, I feel obligated to reciprocate. Scroll down to the graph from the Congressional Budget Office and the widening gap between revenues (taxes) and outlays. Says Will: “At best, it's a bad situation. At worst, it's a BAD situation.” Indeed.

Extra - A high school teaching friend of the Anchoress recounts how her class reacted to the Democrats at the SOTU: ““My kids thought it was hysterical when the Demos stood up and applauded themselves for preventing any change to Social Security. They said they were like Wyle E. Coyote, blowing themselves up.”

Riot act

Remember when all those Christians rioted because of a cartoon representation of Jesus? Yeah, neither do I. Yet these pictures have driven hundreds of Muslims to protest in the streets. This is only going to get worse: in the global locker room, the guy who cries “cut it out” is just asking for more. Watch for videos of anonymous pranksters handling Korans without gloves.

Extra – AJ Strata thinks this brouhaha will wake Europe to the growing danger of radical Islamists.

Update – As I predicted, here comes a Mohammed Photoshop contest.

Talk about a towering intellect – Tall men get better education

Coming up next: the sock puppets – Daniel Gross has a funny article titled “Presumed Ignorant” in Slate about the Enron trial. It appears that in an effort to simplify the complexity of the financial scandal (and, for the prosecution, avoid a mistrial) both sides in the case are throwing out a steady stream of clichés and boiled down concepts. "If the accountant did not remit, you must acquit!"

Standing for nothing

Wow – I thought I was peeved about the Democrats’ celebration for inaction at the SOTU. Tony Blankley portrays it as the defining moment for the Democrats:

If one recalls, last year, the official position of the Democratic Party was not only that they opposed President Bush's Social Security reform, they argued there was no crisis -- no major problem that required rectification.

(In fact, Social Security has $4 trillion of unfunded liability, and if major changes are not made quickly, we will only be able to pay the retired baby boomers about 70 cents for each dollar of promised benefits.)

Social Security is the single most iconic Democratic Party issue of the past hundred years -- the Democrats created Social Security in 1935, and have won countless elections since then by beating up Republicans for allegedly not supporting it. It was the Democratic Party's sacred virgin. They would lie for it, die for it, steal for it, demagogue for it -- but never cheer its demise or harm, even sarcastically.

Their collective decision to cheer the failure of the body politic to provide for sufficient revenues to pay the benefits was an act of historic shame for the Democratic Party.

Writing on Opinion Journal, Peggy Noonan picks up the nihilist theme:

It was the first State of the Union Mr. Bush has given in which Congress seemed utterly pre-9/11 in terms of battle lines drawn. Exactly half the chamber repeatedly leapt to its feet to applaud this banality or that. The other half remained resolutely glued to its widely cushioned seats. It seemed a metaphor for the Democratic Party: We don't know where to stand or what to stand for, and in fact we're not good at standing for anything anyway, but at least we know we can't stand Republicans.

Actually, the Democrats have one firm belief: they should be elected to public office. To do what, even they don’t know.

Send in the clowns

John Tabin on silly time at the SOTU:

On paper, this is a retreat: a tepid non-policy has replaced the ambitious ideas laid out at last year's address. But the Democrats clapped and hooted as soon as Bush said "Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security," giving Bush an opening to turn his bromide into a scathing attack: When he said "partisan politics," he had a visual aid to point to.

Suddenly it was as if Bush said "we mustn't act like clowns," and the entire Democratic caucus had shown up in multicolor wigs and greasepaint.

Of course, the Democrats know a “better way” – but they’re not telling you! Psyche!

Blog news

Happy first blogoversary to Ex-Donkey!

HoyStory has moved. New format includes a link to Viking Pundit, so right away it’s off to a good start.

Scooter moves - Tom Maguire has the latest legal filings in the Scooter Libby case.

Spending like a screaming Dean – Right Side Redux posts the FEC filings for the major political parties. The GOP raised more money and now holds massive 6-to-1 advantage on cash reserves over the Democrats. Howard Dean’s DNC spent $1.5 million more than it raised since December; at this burn rate, the Democrats will be bankrupt by June.