He Can Do This By Himself

For years, I've mocked Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for his "job creation" initiatives, all of which always seem to involve hiring people directly onto the state payroll for needless public programs, given his demonstrated inability to attract private capital.

Our jobs bill means creating more than 85,000 jobs through mass transit construction, more than 7,000 jobs through school construction, and more than 140,000 jobs through road construction...We can build roads all around our state: roads like Route 51 in Decatur, widen I-55 outside of Chicago, widen Route 13 from Marion to Carterville, improve Route 2 in Rockford, Route 5 in Moline, build the Technology Boulevard in Peoria, start work on the Mississippi River bridge, and realize the dream of making Route 336 a gateway from Chicago all the way to Kansas City....And when I say jobs, these are good jobs. Laborers laying asphalt for the expansion of Route 2. Ironworkers fabricating the support beams for the new Mississippi River Bridge. And do you know what these jobs pay? They can pay anywhere from $40,000 all the way to $120,000 a year.

That's what taxpayers want to hear, how well-paid all the new hires will be.

In a variation on the same theme, Blagojevich is now under fire for his seemingly arbitrary decision to move a government agency a hundred miles south.

"It's a decision I could make by myself as a governor and I've made a decision to move some IDOT operations out of Springfield, where it's been for more than 100 years, to bring that IDOT facility and the jobs that go along with it to Southern Illinois as a way to do a couple of things," Blagojevich said. "First and foremost, it will balance the representation of the IDOT throughout Southern Illinois and give Southern Illinois a presence. The better part of it is the opportunity to create 150 jobs in Southern Illinois that otherwise didn't exist."

"I respect their position, but as governor, my job is to provide opportunities across the state. Southern Illinois is a part of our state that for way too long has been (treated) sort of like a forgotten stepchild by state government," he said.

"You're always going to have critics and criticism and your motivations questioned. At the end of the day I know where my heart is and I know this is the right thing to do and I'll let all the critics be critics," Blagojevich said. "All I know is there will be 150 new jobs and I'm really excited about it."

There will not be 150 "new jobs", there will be 150 jobs moved from one place to the next as, by Blagojevich's own admission, an effort to "provide opportunities" under an administration that apparently can find no other means to do so.

Coincidentally, these "new" jobs are moving into my old state senate district, held by Gary Forby (D). Forby, prior to Blagojevich's announcement, was conveniently indisposed during the recall amendment vote.

Speculation that the relocation was politically motivated, perhaps in part as a sort of "payback" to Forby for not casting a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for recall of public officials, is untrue, Blagojevich said.

Therefore, it is likely true.

Bring Out The Gimp

Joseph Fritzl, the creepy old Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter in his basement for 24 years, raping her repeatedly and producing an entire secret family who were living out their lives underground, says Hitler made him do it.

In a bizarre attempt to defend his conduct he said Hitler's Germany had instilled "a high regard for decency and uprightness" in him.

For example, Fritzl raped a nurse at knifepoint in the 1960's.

He claimed he had "rescued" Elisabeth, who was then 18, to keep her from "going out to seedy bars" and "drinking and smoking".

Fritzl also admitted incestuous feelings for his mother - who he described as "the greatest woman in the world".

"I belong to an old school of thinking that just does not exist today."

That would be because we hanged most of the people who were teaching that school. We know exactly what to do with people who belong to that school of thinking.

Fritzl, who's children were described as being "open-mouthed with awe" at their first sight of the moon, says he's being treated unfairly by the press, who are portraying him as a monster, despite his benevolent decision not to murder all his offspring.

Here, Eat This

A couple weeks ago, I was forced to eat at McDonald's and noticed that they have a new menu item: the "southern-style chicken sandwich"

I wouldn't have noticed it, except that it looked so incredibly unappealing that it left what I can only call a "mental footprint". In fact, I wasn't the only person in line looking at it with a little revulsion.

This is their promotional photo:


The ones they use on the big in-store menus appear to be deliberately color-adjusted for optimum bland. Maybe it's just the strong impression the picture gave me, but I'd swear it's photographed on a gray background with some kind of lighting that leaves a slight bluish tint on the food. Besides, who was the genius who decided that they should only have pickles sticking out of it? Is that all it comes with? I remember thinking about the efforts most of these art shops go to to make the food look bigger, more flavorful, juicier than it really is, and assuming that if McDonald's, a company with one of the most intense product planning schemes known to modern business, was willing to put up this photograph, what comes out of the little foil wrapper must be a sickly abomination unfit for wild beasts. It's as if by "southern-style", they meant "this is what PoWs were fed at Andersonville".

Now, McDonald's is resorting to giving away 8 million of the sandwiches in a desperate bid to get someone, somewhere, to eat them.

On May 15th, the Oak Brook-based restaurant chain will give customers samples of its "Southern style" chicken biscuits and sandwiches.

Customers can get the free lunch and breakfast items when they buy any medium or large drink at the company's 14,000 U.S. restaurants.

The promotion's part of McDonald's efforts to convince customers to try their expanded chicken menu.

If they don't change the photos, I won't be surprised if staff offer the free sandwiches, and customers, having already seen the picture on the menu, enthusiastically decline. I also won't be surprised if it turns out the "giveaway" was actually a scheme to liquidate unsold product before they pull it from the menu, because it is seemingly unpopular with the customers who have tried it:

I ate a protein bar instead.

Ouch. From the sound of this, I'm not sure they want more customers tasting it.

City Remains Open

Al Sharpton tries to "close this city down". 216, including Sharpton, are arrested.


Sharpton originally claimed he was planning to ruin everybody's day to make "people" understand that the police shouldn't have shot Sean Bell, something the majority of New Yorkers already agree with. Now, the story is that they're protesting for a federal investigation, something which the Justice Department has already pledged to work on.

Apparently, Sharpton's main goal at this point is making sure that everyone knows Sharpton is there.

"Hysterical demonstrations apparently designed to alienate the target audience? People deliberately getting themselves arrested to no constructive end? I thought this looked like your work."

No Holds Barr-ed

You can visit former Congressman Bob Barr's Presidential Exploratory Committee website. Barr left the GOP a few years ago over his differences on wiretapping, and he's now the front-runner for the Libertarian nomination. As much as I've spent my adult life actively not voting Libertarian, with John McCain pushing this foolish gas tax holiday and planning to deliver the keynote speech at La Raza's annual conference, it's tempting to give it serious consideration.

I can stomach my disagreements with him on foreign policy a little better than I could Paul, and I think he's a lot more practical on domestic issues. He certainly has a lot more experience than, say, Barack Obama or, frankly, most other Libertarian Presidential candidates to date, and was the keynote speaker at last year's D.C. conference honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Atlas Shrugged, which I consider a virtue. You can read his blog for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Barr Code.

An Omen For Her Career

Politico.com blogger Ben Smith gets an email:

Don't know if you watched the Derby, but the horse Hillary wanted came in second, collapsed and was killed on the spot.

Perhaps her efforts to paint herself as "down to Earth" would be more believable if her latest mailer claiming to support gun rights didn't simultaneously depict a $2,000 German rifle and have the image backwards. How much do you want to bet there was a conversation when this mailer went to press about finding a gun that didn't "look scary", and this is what came out?

Meanwhile, populism gone wild:

"Why don't we hold these Wall Street money-grubbers responsible for their role in this recession?" Clinton asked at an Indiana Democratic Party dinner in Indianapolis tonight.

OK. What was that role? Specifically.

She wouldn't know, because she doesn't trust the people who are familiar with how this sort of thing actually works:

"I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," Clinton said when asked to name an economist who backed her [gas tax] proposal.

"We've got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans," said Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman president.

She wouldn't want to get mixed up with the people who actually "know stuff".

You don't need to be an economist to recognize how broken the underlying economics of Clinton's (and, sadly, McCain's) gas tax "holiday" idea actually are. Gasoline taxes don't work like cigarette taxes. If we had the excess refinery capacity to meet excess demand, this might work, but then prices wouldn't be jumping so high in the first place. No, there's a limited, finite supply of gasoline. The pump price won't go down, because it's already priced at exactly the level that is required for stations to sell it all without running out. Instead, this would just translate into the tax being left as profits.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that isn't what Clinton, or, for that matter, McCain, claim it's going to do, and surely they know better. Even with the "record profits" of "the oil companies" (earned off prices that are beyond their control), the actual profit to be had on a gallon of gasoline is a rather slim piece of the total price. This is one reason it's difficult to find companies willing to make the capital investment in building new refineries, and reducing the portion of that price that is consumed by government would help attract new players into the market.

"I am unabashed. I am unapologietic. I am going to fight for the middle class, and I am going to take on the oil companies and everybody else who has had it their way too long," she said in Fort Wayne.

The only people who really stand to gain from this proposal are the oil companies.

Update: The Wall Street Journal:

This is one strange debate the candidates are having on energy policy. With gas prices close to $4 a gallon, Hillary Clinton and John McCain say they'll bring relief with a moratorium on the 18.4-cent federal gas tax. Barack Obama opposes that but prefers a 1970s-style windfall profits tax (as does Mrs. Clinton).

Mr. Obama is right to oppose the gas-tax gimmick, but his idea is even worse. Neither proposal addresses the problem of energy supply, especially the lack of domestic oil and gas thanks to decades of Congressional restrictions on U.S. production. Mr. Obama supports most of those "no drilling" rules, but that hasn't stopped him from denouncing high gas prices on the campaign trail. He is running TV ads in North Carolina that show him walking through a gas station and declaring that he'll slap a tax on the $40 billion in "excess profits" of Exxon Mobil....You may also be wondering how a higher tax on energy will lower gas prices...

This tiff over gas and oil taxes only highlights the intellectual policy confusion – or perhaps we should say cynicism – of our politicians. They want lower prices but don't want more production to increase supply. They want oil "independence" but they've declared off limits most of the big sources of domestic oil that could replace foreign imports. They want Americans to use less oil to reduce greenhouse gases but they protest higher oil prices that reduce demand. They want more oil company investment but they want to confiscate the profits from that investment. And these folks want to be President?

Read the whole thing.

You Don't Say

The Motley Fool just sent me an email with this subject: "Warren Buffett is a better investor than you."

Well, duh.

I've managed to catch some kind of bug, no idea what it is but it is a nightmare.

Update: After eating the same Chinese food dinner for three days (I've still only half finished it, but went through about two gallons of juices) and laying on the couch like I was in a coma, my fever broke last night and I think I'm getting back to normal. Thank you, merciful God.

What Can This Strange Device Be, What Can This Thing Be That She's Found

Comedy gold, as Hillary Clinton encounters what appears to be the first coffee machine she's ever seen in her life:

Go Team

A minor victory in Somalia:

A U.S. air strike killed an Islamist commander thought to be al Qaeda's man in Somalia, the insurgents and witnesses said on Thursday.

ADAN HASHI AYRO: (Killed May 1, 2008) Head of Islamists' feared military wing, the Shabaab. Reportedly trained in Afghanistan. Linked to murders of four aid workers in Somaliland and more than a dozen Somalis with Western links. United States says has al Qaeda links via mentor Aweys. Reportedly gave al Qaeda members including al-Sudani housing, security and weapons in Mogadishu.

Good.

Ego Over Country

I've missed a host of Obama stories over the last couple weeks, but the man's talent for painting himself into corners seems to have overpowered his gift for charming his way out of them this time:

Barack Obama, March 18th:

As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother...

Barack Obama, April 29th:

The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church. They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs... I want to use this press conference to make people absolutely clear that obviously whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright has changed as a consequence of this.

So what was the heinous crime that finally led Obama to renounce his former pastor? It wasn't Wright's claim that the United States created AIDS to kill black people. That was already out of the bag when Obama played Wright as a "crazy uncle", seemingly displaying limitless fraternal love for a man most politically moderate Americans would've long since banned from their family dinner tables. The ideas Obama is condemning now are all old news.

Instead, the factor that made this the final straw was personal:

And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing...more importantly, I don't think he showed much concern for what we are trying to do in this campaign and what we're trying to do for the American people and with the American people...That's -- that's a show of disrespect to me.

When Wright declared that the Bible says God damns America for passing the three-strikes law, that the September 11th attacks were somehow a result of Apartheid and of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that wasn't enough to change Obama's relationship with the Reverend. No, what disgusted Obama enough to dump this "member of his family" was not Wright's enthusiastic loathing for the society which Obama aspires to lead, but rather that Wright "angered" and "disrespected" Obama, didn't "show concern" for what he's trying to do.

So is Wright correct, then, that Obama's comments have been empty (and ill-considered) political posturing, or is it that these are Obama's real priorities? Why do each of Obama's mistakes always come down to the question of whether he's naive or secretly reprehensible, and if it's always the former, just how dopey of a Presidential candidate do the Democrats think they can get away with nominating?

Update: Hilarity at IMAO.

So apparently another issue that McCain and Obama disagree on is whether Jeremiah Wright is a legitimate issue. McCain says it isn't, Obama says it is. Will McCain now denounce Obama as voraciously as the North Carolina Republicans?

Do you think Jeremiah Wright hates America? Before you answer too quickly, think about it. Now, what he says makes it sound like he hates America, but what about his actions? The way he's going around right now spouting crazy stuff makes it seem like he's dead set on sinking the Obama candidacy, and is there a better way than that to show your love of America?

Also, read this.

"I was unaware that Jeremiah Wright was a crazy man," he told them. "This is something I've just become aware of... and not something I ignored previously for political expediency. I totally just found out about it now."

"But didn't you quote Wright ranting about 'white greed' in your book Dreams from My Father?" another reporter asked.

"I've never read that book," Obama answered.

Heh.

Maybe The Car Was Towed For Being Black

April 26th:

Hundreds of angry people marched through Harlem on Saturday after the Rev. Al Sharpton promised to "close this city down" to protest the acquittals of three police detectives..."We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians," Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office in the historically black Manhattan neighborhood. "This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell."

April 29th:

Dude, where's my car?

The Rev. Al Sharpton may have felt something like the stoners in the film of that title when he emerged from a meeting in Queens yesterday with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) - and found his 2007 Jaguar missing. Turns out it had been tagged for some $900 in tickets - and towed.

It's not clear who owns it, but I like to think Al had to get it out of the impound lot. New York Post headline idea: "This city closes Al down."

Despite the fact that other investigations are still ongoing and that nobody really seems to contest Sharpton's underlying point, including the mayor, the current governor, and the guy who was governor when it happened, Sharpton is still outraged by Barack Obama's call for nonviolence.

Hell, I agree with his underlying point. I've written quite a bit about the problems created by police overreactions, and while the extensive arrest records of the three in the car (Bell himself was twice arrested for selling crack and once for firearm possession) raise some serious questions about exactly how "innocent" they were, the whole incident looks pretty sketchy. However, Bell wasn't shot by a bunch of racist white cops (two of the detectives were black), and Sharpton would be well-advised to consider just how much sympathy the last attempt to "close down" New York City actually generated.

"[S]econdly, if i could meet the masterminds behind this strike, i'd personally spit in each of their faces."

"You guys really have a lot of balls. All you do is drive around in circles."

"Your strike is hurting financially the people with daily wages, people who usually have no medical insurance, no pension plans, who usually have to take mass transit because they don't make enough money to afford anything else (and who definitely make less then TWU workers). Luckily, some of them are making your sandwiches. So, I am hoping the TWU strikers will find some spit in theirs and some piss in the beer they drink between picketing duty."

"You agreed to not strike when you became MTA employees. You are criminals - if you are that dissatisfied, get another job. Oops, no you can't because where else are you going to get paid as much for doing nothing?"

"You suck."

Oh, wait, Sharpton was there for that, too.

On Monday night, the Rev. Al Sharpton kept his word and spent the night on a portable mattress with Toussaint supporters. One fellow camper said he had a personal assistant to escort him to the bathroom.

Instead of needlessly harassing and alienating citizens who have nothing at all to do with the case and, in all likelyhood, already sympathize with Bell's family, Sharpton could focus on doing something constructive, or, at the very least, on pestering the judge directly. Of course, that wouldn't generate nearly as much personal media attention for Sharpton.

A Tradition The Illinois Comptroller Might Consider

While doing some research, I ran across this fun fact:

In Westminster, members of Parliament are not allowed to eat or drink in the chamber. The exception to this rule is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is allowed to drink alcohol while delivering the budget.

I'd imagine it takes the edge off.

Irony Is A Merciless Foe

Awesome.

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.

The market knows no borders.

This Is Going To Be Fun

Where have I been for the last couple days?

Preparing research for a gun control debate.

Inside, I'm giggling.

Through the Looking Glass

Another disturbing series of links in the chain:

An ex-international fugitive helped spring Tony Rezko from jail earlier this month, putting up homes that comprise nearly one-third of the $8.5 million in property and cash securing Rezko's bail, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

The three homes belonging to former Iraqi Electricity Minister Aiham Alsammarae -- a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen who broke out of a Baghdad jail in 2006 -- are part of a long list made public in Rezko's case Friday following a Sun-Times request. Six of the other individuals who pledged property to get Rezko out of the Metropolitan Correctional Center on April 18 are current or former state employees.

Prosecutors, however, strongly opposed Rezko's release from jail, saying he was a flight risk and that he wouldn't think twice about leaving his closest friends penniless.

Of those employees, no fewer than four were tied to "Central Management Services", the Orwellian bureaucracy created to figure out why Illinois has too much bureaucracy. A state audit later determined that the problem, at least in part, was that Central Management Services was contributing to state government's resemblance to a car with a hole in the gas tank, itself hiring contractors who would then bill the State of Illinois for, for example, the cost of parties to celebrate getting a lucrative state contract.

A few months ago, I first started reading about Alsammarae, and, frankly, had no idea what to make of it. The web of corruption surrounding the Chicago Democrats has become too complicated for me to keep track of, and that's practically "what I do". That's disturbing to me.

Update: Heh.

Ata marks the third person to say under oath that the governor offered to trade favors in return for raising money for his campaign.

We know, we know.