Memorial Day

Freedom Wall - World War II memorial, Washington D.C.

George Will is going to plotz - Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay throws the second perfect game in just this past month. It looks like this is the shortest interval between perfect games in the "modern era" unless you count the five-day span in 1880.

Something seems off

Look, I understand that political "favors" are exchanged in Washington all the time. I've avoided writing about the Sestak-Obama quid pro quo because I thought it was a tempest in a teapot. "Power politics in Washington!? Perish the thought!"

But now the ham-handed explanation by the Obama White House raises so many questions, I feel like Michael Corleone:

"Only don't tell me that you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and it makes me very angry."

So, the (evolving) explanation is that although Sestak earlier claimed he was offered a "high-ranking" position - possibly Secretary of the Navy - now it was just a uncompensated advisory board position. Because, you know, ex-Presidents are regularly dispatched to Democratic primary challengers to relay unpaid job offers. And that Thursday lunch with Bill Clinton along with the near-simultaneous phone call to Sestak's brother? Just good old-fashioned gab, not "getting the story straight before the Friday news dump."

Now let's grill up some burgers!

Update - American Thinker: "Sestak cover story starts to unravel."

As the Georgia Satellites said - Keep your hands to yourself. Oh, man, I don't know how that reporter kept his cool. I would have caused a commotion.

We're all Vikings now - The Stieg Larsson phenomenon led to this Foreign Policy article: "We're all Swedes now."

As coincidence would have it, I just finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" this past week. Here's my spoiler-free review: the first third was slow but ably set the stage for the story and the characters, the second third was very good as the suspense built and the plot quickened, but the final third was a let-down.

Let's just say there were elements of the conclusion to which I could not suspend disbelief. Lisbeth Salander (the girl) is a great character, but the denouement just about spoiled it for me.

We gotta get out of this place - Atlantic Crossings reminds us that 70 years ago was the Dunkirk evacuation.

Using the noggin - Obama: big thinker, he thinks.

Gary Coleman dead at 42 - You know what's depressing? The guy who played his father on "Diff'rent Strokes" is still alive (87 and living in Canada).

Atlantic ocean magazine blunders - The Atlantic Online gleefully played up that Ken Starr was charged with security fraud until they found out it was a different Ken Starr. Then they apologized to Bill Clinton. Journalism is hard.

Slightly less deficit spending = savings! - Keith Hennessey explains the extenders bill that includes a one-year "doc fix" will add only $84 billion to the national debt.

Extra - More background from The Foundry.

Hoping for irrationality

The New Yorker has a great piece by John Cassidy about how the fantasy figures used to sell Obamacare depend on corporations to ignore basic math when considering health care insurance benefits for employees:

In a situation like this [a hypothetical business], the firm has a strong financial incentive to junk its group coverage and dump its workers onto the taxpayer-subsidized plan. Under the new law, firms with more than fifty workers that don’t offer coverage would have to pay an annual fine of $2,000 for every worker they employ, excepting the first thirty. In this case, the security firm would incur a fine of $140,000 (seventy times two), but it would save $610,000 a year on health-care costs. If you owned this firm, what would you do? Unless you are unusually public spirited, you would take advantage of the free money that the government is giving out. Since your employees would see their own health-care contributions fall by more than $1,100 a year, or almost half, they would be unlikely to complain. And even if they did, you would be saving so much money you afford to buy their agreement with a pay raise of, say, $2,000 a year, and still come out well ahead.

Sure, it's a win-win for everybody as long as the government picks up the balance of medical expenses. Who will pay for that? Somebody else, as usual.

Related - Opinion Journal: "Obamacare vs. small business."

The Mayor of Simpleton



IMHO, the best XTC song.

About last night - While you slept, the national debt entered the terrible teen-trillions. Terrific.

Debt per taxpayer: $118 large. For heaven's sake, I'm not a New Jersey teacher.

I blame Blinky - CNet: "Pac-Man on Google wasted 4.8 million hours." You can play here.

Out of control - WashPost: "New spending plans belie Congress's deficit worries."

Related - WSJ: "The PayGo con." Everything is "emergency" spending now.

Obama is the new Eisenhower

James Fallows set it up in his review of Obama's U.S. Military Academy speech: "Obama at West Point: I like Ike." Interesting comparison considering that Eisenhower was a fan of covert operations and today Fox News reported this headline: "U.S. Orders Covert Military Action in Mideast."

Then there's this from today's Washington Post:

Since the oil rig exploded, the White House has tried to project a posture that is unflappable and in command.
But to those tasked with keeping the president apprised of the disaster, Obama's clenched jaw is becoming an increasingly familiar sight. During one of those sessions in the Oval Office the first week after the spill, a president who rarely vents his frustration cut his aides short, according to one who was there.
"Plug the damn hole," Obama told them.

Which is reminiscent of this quote by Harry S Truman:

When contemplating General Eisenhower winning the Presidential election, Truman said, "He’ll sit here, and he’ll say, 'Do this! Do that!' And nothing will happen. Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating."

Yeah, Obama needs to go all South Side of Chicago on that oil leak. Take that!

Headline of the day - LA Times: "Obama White House probe of Obama White House finds no Obama White House impropriety on Sestak."

Extra - White House declares: "No controlling legal authority!"

Lindsay Lohan's day in court

I don't normally engage in celebrity gossip or drop the name of starlets in a naked attempt to grab more internet traffic, but the saga of Lindsay is just too funny to pass up. Let me count the ways:

1.) Lindsay showed up for court sporting a revealing white top, obviously hoping she would, um, persuade, a male judge with her, um, assets. Alas, Judge Marsha Revel was unswayed.

2.) When Lindsay's lawyer objected to the terms of her release, including wearing a SCRAM bracelet to monitor her vodka intake, the judge declared she would enumerate her reasons for the conditions. Lindsay's lawyer pulled an Emily Litella: "Never mind!"

3.) Among the reasons Lindsay gave for missing the original court date: somebody stole her passport, some jewelry was missing, she ran out of gas, had a flat tire, didn't have money for cab fare, there was an earthquake, a terrible flood, LOCUSTS!

Health care reform more popular than ever

Sorry, that was misleading. The repeal of HCR is more popular than ever:

Support for repeal of the new national health care plan has jumped to its highest level ever. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of U.S. voters now favor repeal of the plan passed by congressional Democrats and signed into law by President Obama in March.

Wait, but wasn't the strategy of the White House to accelerate the roll-out of health care reforms so that Americans would appreciate this superb piece of legislation? Maybe those who were polled saw this report from the Hill indicating that Obamacare is dissuading small businesses from hiring new workers:

A study by the National Center for Policy Analysis shows that tax credits in the new healthcare law could negatively impact small-business hiring decisions.

Oh, and businesses who already have workers? Well, according to today's NY Times, they could be socked with additional penalties:

About one-third of employers subject to major requirements of the new health care law may face tax penalties because they offer health insurance that could be considered unaffordable to some employees, a new study says.
The study, by Mercer, one of the nation’s largest employee benefit consulting concerns, is based on a survey of nearly 3,000 employers.
It suggests that a little-noticed provision of the law could affect far more employers than Congress had assumed.

A "little noticed provision" deep within a 2,500 bill? Who saw that coming?

Can't blog...watching "Lost" - It's the end of an era for my favorite web site: "Is Lost a Repeat?" Tonight will be the last time it reads "No!"

Update - The "Lost"-themed Target commercials are hilarious.