Congress isn't so much exercising a power to tax to the ends of its constitutional duties as it is extorting an allowance to use at its sole discretion.
Apr 23, 2010
Tracking the enemy
It can be challenging to keep track of some old presidential buddies after the sting that exposed Acorn's love for helping hookers and pimps launder money. The nutty bunch is quick-stepping all over the place, rebranding itself under a variety of names.
But Matthew Vadum is trying, and he has a list of some of Acorn's new AKAs.
Apr 22, 2010
Two and oh
It may be a little gauche to post about strictly personal affairs, but I have just scored twice against the retail automobile establishment, and that's newsworthy.
The new F150 clutch didn't hold up under even the light use I've made of it for the 4,000 miles since the the $1,350 repair job, and I was being set up to pay for the entire replacement cost. The installing dealer blamed me and the clutch manufacturer. The clutch maker blamed me and/or the installers. Serious negotiation ensued with a certain firmness on the part of yours truly. ("Pardner, a new clutch on a four-by-four truck ought to be all but immune to even an intentional effort to burn the SOB out just to see what a melted clutch smells like.") A letter with an undertone of "also got a lawyer in my back pocket" may have helped. I'll get the job done for the clutch-kit cost. The dealer will eat the labor. Not perfect , but better than I expected without a good deal more hassle.
Smaller but still satisfying: At the quickie lube center today the bill for routine van service looked a little high. I found a six-buck bite for a new oil plug. The lad in charge and I performed an autopsy on the old plug and then engaged in a deep philosophical discussion. In due course he agreed it wasn't stripped at all and the slight rounding of the hex head might have resulted from his man's use of a wrench one millimeter too large. He seemed relieved that I left smiling after saying I bore him no hard feelings for trying to follow the owner's marketing orders.
It's scummy industry, and it feels kind of good to evade two stabs at sodomy in the same day.
Margin of error
I wouldn't want anyone to misunderstand. I stand with Ed Newman on the subject of polls. We do too damned much polling. We ask idiotic questions of ignorant persons.* We hire the best flacks we can afford to spin any survey result into a self-satisfying version of truth.**
But a giggler over at WND, proves they can be fun, especially if you happen to be a cynical Obama skeptic.
The Zogby poll reports Obama would lose an election held today. Among the sub-results:
People who pay federal income tax would vote for someone else 53-40.
People who do not pay tax prefer Obama 49-42.
Gun owners would vote for someone else, 68-26
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*Miss Hilton do you consider it likely or unlikely that CERN will identify a Higgs boson?
**Therefore President Barack Obama is the choice of unarmed hippy diaper dampeners on welfare.
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Ed Newman summed up his views with: "Ask not to know on whom the poll palls; it palls on me."
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