I hate excerpting entire blog posts, but this one at Radley Balko’s place is short and can’t be done justice without the full text: If you follow with any regularity the police misconduct stories I post on this site, you’re no doubt familiar with the phrase “paid administrative leave.” No matter how serious the alleged [...]

In January 2008 I wrote a post calling for the repeal of the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984. As I mentioned in the post, many thousands of lives are being sacrificed because of the moral hang-ups of certain individuals who think its icky to sell organs to people who need them. How dare they. [...]

Gosh, it doesn’t seem like all that long ago the American public was promised hope, change, and a more open, transparent, ethical federal government if we only elected Obama the next President of the United States. Before that, in 2006 Pelosi and Co. made many of the same promises. Now the Democrats have the House, [...]

On August 10th, a conference call occurred, including folks from the White House, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the arts community. The purpose of the call was to “rally the troops” of artists who had spent time working for the Obama campaign, enlisting their help to push national service initiatives. The revelation of [...]

Okay, that’s probably a bit of an overstatement… But I don’t think that starting a trade war with the Americans who say “eh” and “aboot” Canadians is a really good idea. Via co-blogger Jason Pye at his personal blog: Canada’s six NHL teams are scrambling to find alternative travel arrangements south of the border after [...]

Hmm, I guess we can see once again that our Congress is not in any way trying to manage our car companies (and their unions) for political gain: The latest example is the $10 billion taxpayers will be asked to shell out to prop up the United Auto Workers’ retiree health insurance program. That provision [...]

In the health care debate, the question has somewhat changed within the Democratic party from “what do we want?” to “what can we actually pass?” Because they’re relatively sure there’ll be no help from Republicans, this puts them in an awkward spot, and as Bruce of QandO points out, highlights a point showing how all [...]

One of Obama’s campaign promises was to stop federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries which were allowed by state law. Many pundits (myself included) have been lambasting him for not living up to that promise based upon stories like these: Police raids on medical marijuana dispensaries continue–and continue with federal help, despite an Obama promise [...]

At Cafe Hayek, a letter to the editor by Andy Morriss to the Wall Street Journal is posted: Holman Jenkins asks “Does Obama Want to Own the Airlines?” (Business World, July 8). I am sure he does not. Rather than own them, the president and his congressional allies want to control the airlines — a [...]

I’m at a loss. I don’t know what world can justify this, and can only hope that my readers will be just as appalled as I am, because I have nothing to add. WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson testified on Thursday that he pressured Bank of America Corp. last year to go [...]

Instapundit links to a NYT Magazine propaganda piece about governing California, and the part about taxation reads as if it were written by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, right down to euphemistically renaming taxes “revenue”: In the view of many, the origins of the mud slog began with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the [...]

Congress has been taking quite a few junkets on the taxpayer dime. Not a surprise, I know but the rate of increase (50% increase in last two years, 10x increase since 1995) is a bit of a shocker. Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal [...]

Politicians are usually most revealing when speaking off-the-cuff, and so it was with Karen Bass: Q: How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature’s work? A: The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: “You vote for revenue [...]

The Sheriff whose deputies raided Berwyn Heights, MD mayor Cheye Calvo’s house predictably doesn’t think they did anything wrong. He said a lot of pretty despicable things in that article, but this one really bothers me: “I’m sorry for the loss of their family pets,” Jackson said. “But this is the unfortunate result of the [...]

It’s time to impeach Obama; indict him, and his entire administration, for fraud, coercion, extortion, influence peddling, and grand theft under the color of law, amongst hundreds of other charges. It is not simply the auto issue; but that is currently the most visible. This is no hyperbole. I am not simply spouting off. I [...]

Interesting notes that Judicial Watch has gotten hold of from Paulson/Bernanke’s offer they can’t refuse back in October. It’s the talking points from the meeting… “Strongarm” would be an understatement: We plan to announce the program tomorrow–and–that your nine firms will be the initial participants…. This is a combined program (bank liability guarantee and capital [...]

Back in October, the banks appeared to be in very deep trouble. Such deep trouble that they were forced to enter a deal with the Devil decided to run to the government for assistance. But they were shocked — SHOCKED! — when the government starting attaching a whole bunch of regulations and conditions to the [...]

Yeah I know, the “First 100 Days” of President Barack Obama is somewhat arbitrary. Still, a great deal has happened in these first 100 days so why not take another look at the Obameter shall we? So far, President Obama has kept 27 campaign promises, compromised on 7, broken 6, stalled on 3, has 63 [...]

As I have said here before, I am a senior technical executive at a large bank. As it happens, a bank that was forced at gunpoint, by the secretary of the treasury and chairman of the federal reserve, to accept TARP funds (as all the top surviving banks in the U.S were). Let me be [...]

Those eeevvviiilll capitalists at AIG have been taking quite a beating. Now it’s time to spread the “wealth”: Fannie Mae plans to pay retention bonuses of at least $1 million to four key executives as part of a plan to keep hundreds of employees from leaving the government-controlled company. Rival mortgage finance company Freddie Mac [...]