Wed AM

Interesting how leopards never change their spots. Clarence Page is one of them. He takes the Reps on the Super Committee, indeed, all Reps who favor spending cuts over higher taxes, to task. It's their fault the SC didn't succeed because they refused "to cut a deal." Yep, curioser and curioser. Why is it that the Reps always need "to cut a deal," never the Dems? How about, for once, the Dems don't get everything they want? In fact, how about Americans getting something they want, not some half-baked "compromise," "bi-partisanship," or whatever new name is used to call that hooey? This Page guy cites some poll, but not naming it, that claims Americans are willing to pay higher taxes and cut spending to reduce the deficit. Maybe, maybe not...but I don't know of many people who want higher taxes, unless they are on the "other guy." And, of this, "higher taxes and cut spending," the history of the past four or five decades has been "a deal," one which the Dems have lied. They get an agreement for more taxes and reduced spending, then renege on "the deal." They don't reduce spending, merely going back to the dolts who keep agreeing to "deals" the Reps must know aren't being kept. Fools, all of them.

BTW, I got a laugh out of the "cartoon" on the same page. OK, it wasn't a cartoon, but a photo that accompanied the column. Its caption read, "Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget." Yep, that's really the old committee's title..."Responsible." Heh Heh.

I see Barney Frank is leaving the House. No doubt he'll be lionized by the media. There's no choice. To point out how much he hurt the country would be "homophobic." Bah! The guy is a major reason for, at least, the housing trouble. Just check his record on it, specifically Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Or, perhaps, I am wrong, that there was nothing wrong with the housing market, Fannie, and Freddie, among other things. He's another guy who is addicted to spending other people's money because he knows what's good for us better than we do. I wonder why there's been no investigation, no real investigation, into Fannie and Freddie, esp the high salaries and bonuses their obvious less than capable managers received.

Here's another one of those "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" stories. Actually, it's a bunch of them, from George Will. At least half a dozen states, maybe more, and who knows how many local gov'ts have shut down kids' lemonade/Kool-Aid stands because they didn't procure the necessary licenses from whatever bureaucracies. Imagine that, telling kids they can't have their lemonade/Kool-Aid stands because the gov't is there to protect us from them (and from us)! How can we let the fools continue with this crap??????

I had a talk with a guy a few weeks ago about the Wayne Co mess, the "patronage" among politicians and their friends, the "cronyism" that is so lambasted everywhere else. I was assured that Ficano "is OK," that he wasn't like his predecessor(s). Hmmm.... So, in yesterday's newspaper comes this--he has 85 "at-will" appointees who make at least $100,000. Where to start? Let's see, that number, 85, is more than Detroit, Oak Co, and Macomb Co combined. Oh, you say, but Wayne Co is larger than those. OK, let's toss in the number of "at-will" appointments by the state/governor. Oh, if we do that, the number in Wayne Co is still more than all the other combined. Hmmm.... $100,000 a year? Gee, I wonder what it is that these guys do. What is it they do that, say, Bittinger and Kittle couldn't do--and did do, for a far lot less money? What ever happened to the Founders' concept of citizen-servants or even Frederick the Great's "first servant of the servants?"

First, they came after the communists, but I wasn't a communist, so I said nothing. Then they came after the Gypsies, but I wasn't a Gypsie, so I said nothing. Then they came after the Jews, but I wasn't a Jew, so I said nothing.... Then they came after the lemonade/Kool-Aid stands, but I didn't have a lemonade/Kool-Aid stand, so I said nothing. I'm not being frivolous or irreverent here, but mindful of the Dutch editor who said of the censorship over the Muhammad cartoons, "I was too busy enjoying my freedom to do anything to protect it." Yep, that's us. As long as we can watch the NFL on CBS, Dancing with the Stars, the Simpsons, I guess we're OK. Death, slow death, by gov't is for the other guy.

More from Will: Yale is offering a course on "How people with disabilities are portrayed in fiction." Huh? Study after study shows that our college grads, yes even our Ivy Leaguers, don't know a lot. So, this is being offered. And the part of the course description Will adds is funny, if it wasn't true. Will reminds us that Obama has said ATMs have cost us many jobs and that Jesse Jackson Jr claims I-Pads are "responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs [including] all of the jobs associated with paper." And these elitists think they are smarter than the rest of us?

In the education dept, Rahm Emanuel sends his kids to private, not public, schools, admitting he made the choice, not as the mayor of Chicago, but "as a father." Hmmm, there's one for thought. And, in a Seattle school, Easter eggs are now called "spring spheres." Yep, there are our teachers, too. How much can a flight from Denver to Ely, NV cost? Ignoring who might actually be making that flight, the federal gov't contributes almost $4000 to subsidize passenger service, that's each ticket!, between the two "hot spots."

Good joke, he adds. "A Spaniard, an Italian, and a Greek go into a bar. They drink until dawn. Who pays the tab? A German." I suppose, with some of the talk going on in DC, soon the punch line will be "An American."

Out to run before the kids get up.