Car Business as usual...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation of the cars’ power steering (General Motors) in January after receiving more than 1,100 complaints, including reports of 14 crashes and one injury. But the new recall, while large, is unlikely to hurt G.M. the way Toyota has been damaged by its recalls, in part because G.M. says the cars can be safely controlled and the problem has not resulted in any serious injuries or deaths.

There is that...and...well...G.M. doesn't have to participate in a dog an pony show before a congressional commission made up of interrogators who took in significant campaign cash from the United Auto Workers Union.

Bad magic...

Senate Democrats are preparing to release a roughly $80 billion jobs program this week, but its prospects are uncertain in a political landscape where voters are angry about unemployment yet fuming about federal spending.

I am reminded of a magician I saw in a comedy club outside of St. Louis about ten years ago. The magician, obviously drunk, wobbled around the stage nearly falling out into the audience a number of times and always fortifying his balance with another belt from the highball glass sitting on a stool.

Eventually, he holds up a sheet, covers the stool and glass with the linen and looks expectantly to the crowd. After a rather shakey count of three he whips up the sheet to reveal...that...nothing had changed. The half empty glass remained centered on the stool.

The drunk magician...not disturbed in the least points out over the audience to the bar in the back of the room and shouts..."Get me another Crown Royal."

(shrugs)

Yeah...I know, it wasn't funny. As comedic magicians go...this one sucked. But, it does parallel well with the Democrat's big reveal on a jobs bill. Nothing changes...and eventually they will ask for more...

Snack taxes...

Would you like some taxes with that drink?

The Senate Finance Committee, looking for ways to pay for health reforms, has been considering the possibility of attaching a federal excise tax for the first time to soda and other drinks sweetened with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners. Increasing the taxes on alcoholic beverages has also been on the congressional table.

It seems unlikely that these ideas will make it into the health-care legislation that Congress will tackle this year. In an interview with CNBC, committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said they're "on life support." Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, described them as "nuisance taxes."

Read between the lines...

This won't make it into the legislation that the Democrats are going to try to ram down our throats this year. The reason is because they haven't put their hands on the reigns just yet. There will be more leverage to control your lifestyle after they invoke a Universal Health Care, and start making rules that you will have to follow in order to participate. The thing is...they will decimate any private insurer in the process making it an obligation to secure this Universal Health Care. In essence, you will give up the care you have to pay more so that those who did not make health care a priority in their lives get the same half-ass coverage. Then there will be rules that will turn into laws (since there will be no private insurers left as an alternative). One such "rule" will start with the tax on soft-drinks followed shortly after by outlawing the "substance" altogether. This is how the "nanny-staters" operate. Of course, that will only apply to the "great unwashed."

There are 26 states that have taken this route already. Nine of them repealed the legislation shortly after invoking it. Others still have a tax on snacks and soft drinks.

What is surprising is that snack taxes are anything but new, and actually have been especially unpopular and unsuccessful during the last fifteen years. As of 2000, nine states had repealed existing snack taxes - sometimes within just several years of enactment.9 While seventeen states continue to levy some variation of the tax - including California, which has taxed soft drinks since 193310 - most of the existing snack taxes significantly pre-date the obesity crisis. The first soft drinks and candy tax was levied in 1917,11 an era when food was scarce and calories were much more valuable.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Universal Health Care MUST FAIL! It must fail for a whole host of reasons. At the top of that list is the tool it will give our "control freaks" to shape, dictate, and mold our everyday lives. They are not qualified.

Idiocy in exchange for insecurity...

Studying in the US: Science Students Are Promised No More Visa Delays
State Department sets a goal of two weeks' processing time for security clearances.

American officials say they are working to reduce visa delays that have affected foreign science students, researchers and others. The delays involve a security clearance process called Visas Mantis. Through this program, different government agencies try to identify visa applicants who could threaten national security.

The aim is to protect American military technology or technology with possible military uses to other countries or to terrorists. A two thousand five report said that seventy percent of Mantis requests came from China, Russia and Ukraine.

Oh...that sounds like a great idea. Two weeks turn-around on visa requests from Russia and China...Well, let's hope they are selective in whom is allowed within our borders.

U.S. Visas for Most Russians

U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle said Wednesday that only 5 percent of visa applications filed by Russians were being declined.

Beyrle also told Ren-TV television that he did not expect the visa regime between the United States and Russia to be lifted any time soon. (MT)

That's what I thought. Two week turn-around on visa request from an unknown quantity of "students" at a 95% approval. Who is dumb enough to promote this insecurity?

There have been delays before. Officials said the average processing time in October of two thousand three was seventy-five days. The wait was cut to fifteen days under pressure from Congress. But the wait time has increased again over the past year.

Why, the Democrat infested Congress, of course.

Add it to the list, folks. Congress is not only pushing for "Amnesty" for illegal aliens, they are pushing to saturate our country with an insecure influx of alleged students from countries that have very little interest in the prosperity of the USA. But, when some "manmade crisis" disappears a city within our country, you better believe I'm going to play the blame game. My finger will freakin' point right down to DC and the half-wit, mouth breathers who support this nonsense.