Yet again, I am mystified at why the Atlanta Journal-Constitution continues to wonder why their circulation is in a downward spiral. Maybe they should look (again) at what their resident moron columnist, Cynthia Tucker, has announced. Today she blogs that we simple people should be praising President Obama for the $800,000,000,000 “stimulus” that was passed last year because (gasp) it contained the largest amount of tax cuts since Hammurabi! And, don’t cha know, he’s such a good dude he just skipped telling us about it because he thought it better that way for us (the aforementioned feeble minded denizens of Georgia and elsewhere).

The Obama administration made the decision not to advertise the tax cuts, though — believing that consumers were more likely to spend the money if they didn’t really notice they had it. The administration includes several economists who study consumer psychology, and they didn’t want consumers to use the tax cuts to pay bills or add to the savings account. The administration wanted them to spend it for groceries or gas or clothing or whatever. So they simply reduced the amount of money that the government withholds for taxes. That resulted in paychecks just slightly larger.

‘Just slightly larger,’ mind you. Well, thanks! Except it isn’t so. And I’ve got the charts and graphs just after the jump.

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After supporting Nancy Pelosi myriad times and voting for her as Speaker of the House twice, now Jim Marshall (D-Georgia) wants you to know he’s seen the light. Absolutely. Yup, less than four weeks out from election day…as he sinks in the polls…now he’s announced he won’t be supporting her anymore as Speaker (as if her remaining in that role was even a possibility in 2011 to begin with).

I wonder what brought this sudden pronouncement on? Maybe he finally sees the writing on the wall?

U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall said Wednesday he has cast his last vote for Nancy Pelosi to lead the House Democrats.

“My candidate’s going to be somebody who’s a centrist, preferably somebody who’s going to be speaker of the entire House” who will work with both parties, Marshall said.

He also said he had no alternatives when casting his vote for speaker of the House. If Pelosi keeps her position, Marshall said he doesn’t expect retaliation for his announcement.

Oh, of course not. Curious that he felt now was the time to announce that he thought Pelosi wasn’t working and playing well with others. Where has he been the last four years?

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Georgia’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, are again talking out of both sides of their mouth as they try to convince the electorate they are conservative stewards of the people’s money.

Both men are co-sponsoring the “Honest Expenditure Limitation Program (HELP) Act of 2010.” As Chambliss notes in his press release extolling his virtuous beliefs, “Balancing the federal budget is an obligation that those of us in Washington owe to future generations of Americans, and this legislation takes immediate steps to stop out-of-control federal spending.” Isakson parrots this line in his own press release, noting, “Congress should not continue on the path of saddling our children and grandchildren with insurmountable debt – it’s just wrong.” So, what does the bill do?

Specifically, the proposal would freeze discretionary spending at fiscal year 2008 levels for all appropriations, except those for the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Veterans Administration, and national security functions of the Department of Energy.

Bold talk, to be sure! What a dramatic move on their part! And when would this legislation, as sponsored by Chambliss and Isakson, to curb spending be fully in effect? 2015.

Five. Years. From. Now. In a word: pathetic.

The problem that spenders like Isakson and Chambliss continue to avoid from inside the cocoon that is the Beltway, is spending is out of control now and has been for many, many years under their watch. And waiting until 2015 is too long.

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From the diaries by Erick

As Erick has been repeatedly noting, there is an effort afoot to bring the public’s attention to the plight of three U.S. Navy SEALs (Julio Huertas, Jonathan Keefe and Matthew McCabe) who, as part of SEAL Team 10, have been brought up on charges that one of the most-wanted terrorists in Iraq, Ahmed Hashim Abed, received a boo-boo during a raid in September.

In early December the trio plead not guilty to charges of dereliction of duty and making false official statements. One would expect the government, having already brought charges, to be prepared to move forward to trial, originally set for two of them a fortnight from now.

Well, if you thought that, you’d be wrong.

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The United States Coast Guard Academy (CGA), as the smallest of the five U.S. service academies, populates the Coast Guard’s officer corps with highly qualified, skilled men and women who stand ready to meet the challenges before them. What differentiates the CGA, located in New London, Connecticut, from the other service academies is that applicants to all other service academies require a nomination from either a Senator, a Congressman, the President, or the Vice President. In New London, applicants to the CGA compete in a direct nationwide competitive process that has no by-state quotas.

This leaves the CGA in an enviable position to select the best candidates possible, thus ensuring that future Coast Guard leaders are intelligent, highly skilled and professional. Who could (or even would) complain about that and seek its undoing?

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Today we’ve learned that RINO Senator Johnny Isakson (Allegedly R-GA) is quite close to cementing a deal with Senate Democrats that will open up additional tax credits for home purchases to even more people.  In said plan, 16,700,000,000 dollars will be spent to further delay a return to market economies of scale and provide more roadblocks to a much needed market reformation.

Liberal Johnny Isakson will, if successful, simply have provided a band aid to a hemorrhaging market (where he made his money) that needs to be allowed to sort itself out.

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Earlier this month, rookie (and now veteran) Astronaut Jose Hernandez returned to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Discovery after completing mission STS-128, which delivered supplies to the International Space Station and also featured his fellow crew members performing a series of station assembly spacewalks.

Neato mosquito, right? Yet another remarkable achievement for some U.S. Astronauts (and one guy from the European Space Agency)? No doubt.

Unfortunately, Hernandez has decided that now his ride is complete and the rare opportunity he was given to become a member of the U.S. Astronaut Corps has reached a new plateau, that this would be just the perfect time to stick his nose into, of all things, the illegal alien debate.

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For years we’ve been treated to the left gushing at the very thought of the island nation of Cuba and the socialist “utopia” that has been created there.  For example, in 1998 the noted academic Jack Nicholson said that, “Fidel Castro is a genius! We spoke about everything [in our meeting]. Castro is a humanist like President Clinton. Cuba is simply a paradise!”

Indeed! Nicholson also has fellow leftists such as Francis Ford Coppola, Kevin Costner, Steven Spielberg, Woody Harrelson, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Leo DiCaprio, Chevy Chase, Robert Redford, Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Robert Duvall and James Caan who think ‘ol Fidel and his never ending revolution are just tops.

And who can forget Michael Moore’s thoughts about the health care system in Cuba?

As for Cuba, yes, when I’ve got a film crew there, they’re going to show us their best. But there’s a reason the World Health Organization ranks their health-care system [among] the best in the Third World and that people from Latin America come there for their health care. There’s also a reason Cubans live on average a month longer than we do. I’m not trumpeting Castro or his regime. I just want to say to fellow Americans, “C’mon, we’re the United States! If they can do this, we can do it.”

So, isn’t it interesting what has happened in this tropical paradise over the last few days? You haven’t heard? Why, they don’t have any toilet paper.

No, really. Cuba is out of toilet paper. Like they have none if it. Anywhere. Yes, I’m serious.

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As ObamaCare proposals gear up, many have been warning about how its passage will permit the Imperial Federal Government to inject themselves in every facet of the lives of citizens, making them change behavior that is disruptive to the “common good” that universal health care provides.

We can already see a microcosm of what the future will hold for us all in the United States Armed Forces. Already, the system of Veterans Administration hospitals are monuments for government inefficiency, laziness, and suffering patients on waiting lists hoping that they will receive necessary care…some day.

All that care costs money, though! And with the government footing the bill, the calls for changes in the lifestyle behavior of soldiers have begun.

Medical experts say they have a solution for the military’s increasing smoking rates: Ban it. And not just in basic training — stop selling cigarettes and chewing tobacco on post, stop with the discounts at the PX, don’t allow it in hospitals, and come up with a deadline when everyone should be smoke-free.

You read that right. These Wizards of Smart are recommending that the military ban smoking. Everywhere. At anytime. By any of their personnel. Even, one would suspect, in a war zone. Think I’m kidding?

On the battlefield, they bleed harder after surgery, heal slower after injury and are at higher risk for infection.

It is all about dollars, here, people!

It cost the Veterans Affairs Department $5 billion to treat smoking-related emphysema in 2008, and in 2006, the Military Health System spent about $564 million on tobacco-related costs.

That’s almost as much as the $611 million worth of tobacco military stores sold in 2005.

The point here is not if smoking is a healthy pursuit. The point is that those who think with ObamaCare that the Imperial Federal Government won’t one day start telling you what you can and can’t do everyday with their lives and what allegedly “risky” behavior must be prohibited upon penalty of law are fooling themselves.

The worst health care in the United States can be found in Veterans Administation hospitals. And, now, some are starting the call for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and coast guardsmen to be prohibited from certain activities which are deemed too costly. Frankly, I say they can have as many smokes as they want. They deserve it…but not in the eyes of “experts.”

If it can happen on base or while deployed, it can also eventually happen in your home.

One more Democrat has announced he is considering a primary run against Senator Arlen Specter (D-Two Faced Hypocrite). This time it’s Rep. Joe Sestak.

Rep. Joe Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral, says he’s seriously considering challenging new Democrat Arlen Specter in next year’s Pennsylvania Senate primary.

Sestak said Thursday he’s concerned that Washington’s Democratic establishment has picked a candidate who may not be the best for the party’s voters in Pennsylvania. The suburban Philadelphia congressman says he has concerns about Specter’s voting record — particularly his recent vote against the Democratic-backed budget.

He says Specter’s decision to break with the Republican Party and become a Democrat moved him closer to running. He anticipates a decision in the coming weeks.

Sestak was elected in 2006. Earlier, he commanded an aircraft carrier battlegroup in Afghanistan.

With the number of primary challengers for Specter growing and his “new friends” proving to be less than welcoming, it’s starting to look like the chickens are inbound for a roosting on the tattered remains of a pathetic career. Good riddance.