Stop, hey, what's that smell? - The push for low-flow toilets in San Francisco has resulted in more sludge in the sewer system and a rotten egg smell.

To combat the stench, San Francisco has spent $14 million on bleach...from Halliburton! Cheney wins again!

Sea of red - Here's a little piece of trivia I found over at Big Government and this article titled "Financial reality, part III: Reforming Social Security." "If we were to double federal taxes on all Americans, our deficits would still be in excess of $400 billion per year." Yikes.

Oscars tonight - YouTube won't allow embedding of this video but it's one of my favorite Academy Awards moments. Louise Fletcher wins best actress for her role as Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and thanks her deaf parents with sign language.

What to focus on - Tigerhawk has a chart of the threat to the U.S. economy: "It's the entitlements."

Iran reactor don't run - Here's some good news to start your day from the NY Times: "Iran reports a major setback at a nuclear power plant." Could be the Stuxnet, maybe? Good.

Flashback for Wisconsin Republicans - Remember this little rhetorical flourish when dealing with Democrats unclear on the finer points of democracy.

Sounds like an Elvis Costello song - Investor's Business Daily: "The Social Security trust fund may be worth less than zero." (H/T Instapundit.)

Winning the future by facing reality

Here's Charles Krauthammer summing up "Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin."

We have heard everyone - from Obama's own debt commission to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - call the looming debt a mortal threat to the nation. We have watched Greece self-immolate. We can see the future. The only question has been: When will the country finally rouse itself?

Amazingly, the answer is: now. Led by famously progressive Wisconsin - Scott Walker at the state level and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan at the congressional level - a new generation of Republicans has looked at the debt and is crossing the Rubicon. Recklessly principled, they are putting the question to the nation: Are we a serious people?

When Krauthammer writes about "famously progressive Wisconsin" I can't help but think back to super-liberal Massachusetts replacing Ted Kennedy with Scott Brown. There's been a tipping point somewhere where Americans realize the status quo of public policies erected 50+ years ago cannot stand anymore.

Hold onto your hats: Freddie Mac lost money, wants some taxpayer cash - Shocking, I know. Business Week: "Freddie Mac reports loss, seeks $500 million in aid." When you're running a $1.5 trillion deficit, $500 million is the spare change in the couch.

Who's going to pay for all this? - Here's Victor Davis Hanson at Real Clear Politics: "After Obama, the deluge." "After Obama leaves office, a perfect storm of rising international interest rates, an anemic dollar and panic on the part of foreign lenders may force an end to this unhinged American rush to borrow and blow what it has not earned."

"You're an Ocean" by Fastball

Here's one of those songs that should have been a huge hit, but wasn't. Oh well. With Billy Preston on the keyboard.

Social Security again - Here's former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin with "Social Security and the budget mess": "It would be nice to see somebody in Washington willing to lead." Amen to that, brother.

Extra - The government made promises, it knew it couldn't keep.

Saying it ain't part of the budget don't make it so - Veronique de Rugy has a very good outline of the pressure Social Security puts on the federal budget now that its finances have tipped into the red: "Social Security is part of the problem."

Andy Stern beclowns himself

Over at Hit & Run, Matt Welch reviews the SEIU chief's reasons for ignoring the voters in Wisconsin and is it really necessary to go beyond argument #1? "Wisconsin's budget deficit is far from the nation's largest."

This is like saying: "I'm gonna have another piece of cheesecake because I'm not as fat as Michael Moore." By Stern's own admission, the budget deficit is $1.8 billion in Wisconsin; a gap that must be closed by state law. As George Will noted today, governor Scott Walker campaigned and won election on making these changes and now a "minority of the minority" wants to silence the vox populi. Color me unsurprised.

It's been a rough winter, I know - Via Maggie's Farm, Passive-Aggressive Notes has some reminders left for people who take parking spots cleared of snow by other people.

The spoiled-brat Baby Boomers - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "The worst generation's war in Wisconsin."

Slow President's Day - I guess I could say something about Libya but all the news is very sketchy so far. The Colonel is heading for Venezuela? Sure, why not. In other news, I took my teenagers to see "The King's Speech" today.

There will be no champagne in Victory Lane - That's because the winner of the Daytona 500 is only 20 years old. In only his second Sprint Cup start, Trevor Bayne became the youngest winner of America's Race. Very exciting finish.

FDR, union buster - Real Clear Politics: "FDR's ghost is smiling on Wisconsin's governor."

It's like, you know, and stuff - City Journal: "What happens in Vagueness, stays in Vagueness - The decline and fall of American English." (H/T Arts & Letters).