There is a great opportunity to create a lot of jobs, using money from Porculus Americana.

Here's the deal:

California auto repair shops now are required to check tire pressure

Maintenance shops will have to check the tire pressure of every vehicle they service under a new regulation adopted Thursday by the state Air Resources Board.

The rule takes effect July 1, 2010, and is part of the package of rules the Air Board is adopting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It includes smog check stations, engine repair shops and oil service stations. Car wash, body and paint, and glass repair businesses are not included.

“Under-inflated tires waste fuel, cause tires to wear out prematurely and increase drivers’ safety risk,” said Dan Zielinski, senior vice president with the Rubber Manufacturers Association, which represents tire manufacturers, in a news release. “This regulation will help protect California’s environment, help consumers save money in fuel and tire costs, and help Californians optimize vehicle safety.”

Yes. You understand it correctly. The California state government now requires that vehicle tires be checked for proper inflation, even if the vehicle is in for repairs having nothing to do with the tires. Though the measure has obvious Big Brother connotations, it is (being California), like, dude, like, toadily in harmony with the government doing all things for all people, whether they want it or not.

So I think it's a magnificent idea, rife with job-creating opportunity, and we should do it here in Colorado, too. While most shops already check tire pressure (most of them do here in The Smile Hi City; I asked), making a regulation, or even a state law, that requires it just makes sure it is done. It's like the pooper scooper ordinance for the city. As we have seen, the mere passage of that ordinance has completely eliminated (no pun intended) canine elimination by-products.

But think of the revenue-generating opportunity: Our police officers could carry gauges and check tire pressure on each vehicle stop. They could ticket offenders, and help fill the city's coffers with money from fines. This could lead to the creation of more jobs in the courts, as more clerks would be required to keep up with the tickets and court cases.

And the gauges would have to be certified, as with radar devices. So we would have to create state-certified laboratories for tire gauges. And we would have to have state inspectors to certify the state-certified laboratories. Lots of jobs there, and they could apply for grants for free Federal money to fund them.

The police officers would have to be certified on the proper use of the gauges. This would create an entire new field of police-related equipment training. The officers could attend a one week basic certification course, where they would learn to check tires on all passenger and commercial vehicles. There could be an extra week for a 'special vehicles module', to take in such machines as aircraft, implements of animal husbandry, even wheeled military vehicles convoying on the public highways and byways.

The gauges of private citizens would have to be certified, too, of course, otherwise how could motorists risk running afoul of John Law? They'd have to take their vehicles to a shop every month or so for a certified tire pressure gauge operator to run the test, and provide proof of testing. Perhaps in the form of colored windshield stickers. We'd create jobs for more sticker printers and sticker affixers.

Perhaps the state could charge a fee per gauge, the inspection certificate on the gauge renewable annually. Professional gauges would have to bear a higher fee, of course. In fact, if we can get this rammed through the state legislature - no one would actually have to read the bill - a colleague and I already have plans to get the state contract to open up the shops to certify the calibration on all those tire gauges. Probably be able to get about $10 each from John Q. Public, with a percentage to the state. I think we could certify state gauges, for the state patrol and police, for example, we can go for a state contract to certify law enforcement units at, oh, $63.76 per gauge.

Think about this. The job creation opportunities are nearly endless.

Perhaps we should bring this up before city council, and get the ball rolling.

Well, here's a great precedent:

GM CEO Wagner out; US sets new rules for GM, Chrysler

It was a tough day for the auto industry, as General Motors’s (GM: 3.62, 0, 0%) CEO was forced to step down, while the Obama Administration set strict new deadlines by which GM and Chrysler had to take steps toward financial viability and declared that Chrysler was not viable as a standalone company.

GM (GM: 3.62, 0, 0%) CEO Rick Wagoner is stepping down immediately, the government said on Monday, and is being succeeded by the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Fritz Henderson. Kent Kresa, a GM board member since 2003, will serve as interim chairman.

GM declined to comment on the executive moves.

A White House official told FOX Business that Wagoner was asked by the Administration to step down as a precondition for the company to continue to get help with its restructuring.

So now we have the president dictating to corporations who will run the show. Well, I guess that's a natural offshoot when the company sticks its corporate hand out and begs for billions of tax dollars.

But really now. The government? Aside from those who have drunk gallons of Obamanian Kool-aid and really think the government will keep their bellies full, their houses warm, their feelings happy, do we really think that Barack Obama, dancing to the Pelosi and Emanuel tunes, is the best judge of who should be running a company?

The Obama regime has also rejected the automakers' "plans".

Here's a corker:

The Administration plan will backstop warranties on new vehicles bought from auto makers participating in this plan during the time they’re restructuring. The cash contribution will be 125% of the costs anticipated by the manufacturer to satisfy projected claims – 15% of the projected cost will be paid by the auto company, and the Treasury Department will cover 110% of the projected costs.

If I read that right, Barack Obama is underwriting warranties for automobiles? Using your tax bux and mine?

The lunatics really are running the asylum.

Hillary steps on her whang again:

Maybe Hillary Clinton should have picked up a guidebook prior to her trip to Mexico. Last week the secretary of state visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is the second most popular Catholic shrine in the world. Catholics believe the image of the Virgin Mary was miraculously imprinted on a peasant's cloak 500 years ago. Clinton was apparently unaware of the legend. The Catholic News Agency reports that after being shown the famous image, Secretary Clinton asked, "Who painted it?" The rector of the Basilica responded, "God!"

And as she left the church, Clinton told some waiting outside, "You have a marvelous virgin!" Spokesmen for Clinton did not respond to requests for comment.

This is the Secretary of State who was supposed to demonstrate how swah-vay and dee-boner 'Merkins really are. Can you imagine an overseas trip by Hillary and Joltin' Joe Biden, together?

Obama breaks it again:

Remember the campaign promise He made, about posting non-emergency bills for at least five days, for public review? He did it again with the omnibus land conservation bill. "Giggles" Gibbs weighs in:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs addressed the shortened time saying: "Although not perfect, I think the president has made a greater step forward in transparency and feels like we're making progress on ensuring that the American people can see and read what their president is going to sign into law."

Of the nine bills President Obama has signed, six of them have not been posted the full five days. Officials say some of those bills were emergency legislation and therefore do not qualify for the five day minimum posting. And adding another excuse, White House officials said — in the most recent case — the President is leaving for Europe Tuesday.

And of course, no day would be complete without an update on GM (Government Motors). Here is the new GM logo, from Doug Powers:

Wanna deal?

Kinda like those "Dealin' Doug" Moreland commercials, don't you think?

New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg may be one of the few members of the United States Congress for whom the phrase "Clown of Congress" is a poor fit. The fact that he is a Republican is really of no consequence, as the Republican party is of no consequence. It is Gregg the man who is important.

Gregg was picked by Obama as nominee for Secretary of Commerce as a demonstration of how the Obama regime was going to "reach across the aisle".

Of course, Obama put the screws to that when he moved the 2010 census out of the Commerce Department and into the Orchid Office, specifically into the sticky fingers of Rahm "The Fish" Emanuel. The census is an important undertaking, as the results of the census determine Congressional districting as well as allocation of funding. Both parties have been guilty of manipulating the census for political purposes, but none in recent history have been so blatant about it as the Obama regime.

When Obama moved the census to the Orchid Office, Judd withdrew from consideration for Secretary of Commerce. I liked that. It showed that the New Hampshireman was not going to be an Obama puppet for the sake of a political appointment.

Gregg is considered by many knowledgeable people to be a fiscal expert, our foremost fiscal expert in the Senate. We've seen a lot of 'fiscal experts' in the past several months. Most of them would be best served by shoving their heads in a toilet for a swirlie, to clear out the fog or cobwebs or whatever. Timmy Geithner, for example.

Gregg has become an increasingly vocal opponent of Obama's 'fiscal policies'. I use the term guardedly, because figuring out what Obama's policies really are, other than huge takeaways/giveaways, requires a good background in Chaos Theory.

"We believe you create prosperity by having an affordable government that pursues its responsibilities without excessive costs, taxes or debt," Sen. Judd Gregg said Saturday in the weekly Republican radio address.

The Federal and state and local governments are identical in that respect. The same is true of family finances. How can any family spend itself into prosperity? How can any family borrow money many times the amount that it will reasonably bring in, in a year's time, and expect to survive? How can any small business do that?

Our city government does not run on a deficit. I suppose it could, if it could get a lot more of that free Federal money, but that Federal money has to come out of someone's wallet eventually. Obama is apparently not concerned about that. Gregg is. So am I. So should you be.

How about this:

Gregg said Obama's proposals "represent an extraordinary move of our government to the left."

He said Obama "is not trying to hide this; in fact, he is very forthright in stating that he believes that by greatly expanding the spending, the taxing and the borrowing of our government, this will lead us to prosperity."

Gregg countered that:

-- "It is the individual American who creates prosperity and good jobs, not the government."

-- "We believe that you create energy independence not by sticking Americans with a brand new national sales tax on everyone's electric bill, but by expanding the production of American energy ... while also conserving more."

--"We also believe you improve everyone's health care not by nationalizing the health care system and putting the government between you and your doctor, but by assuring that every American has access to quality health insurance and choices in health care."

He said the United States "has an exceptional history of one generation passing on to the next generation a more prosperous and stronger country, but that tradition is being put at risk."

'Put at risk'?

There is such a fundamental difference in personal philosophy in this nation today that I have begun to think that the difference is insurmountable. We have a large segment of the population, perhaps a majority, that has a deeply-held belief that the government owes them. That it is government's responsibility to make them happy. That it is government's responsibility to keep them fed and clothed and housed.

Then there is the other part of the population that believes this is nonsense. It is this part of the population that allow us to live up to Lincoln's closing comment at Gettysburg:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government : of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Though no shots are being fired, and no battles are destroying the countryside, it seems to me that we are engaged in another form of warfare, a different version of "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure." It's a war of ideologies.

Obama likes to hear himself compared to Abraham Lincoln, but any comparisons between Obama and Lincoln are shallow and specious at best.

Obama, who is proving to be more of a Pelosian puppet than a real president, and his collection of Chicago henchmen and Clintonistas, is not "... a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory."

So far, despite a few Congressional leaders like Judd Gregg ... or perhaps because there are so few of them ... we are losing the battle.

Wounded warrior

Erik Roberts, an Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, underwent his 13th surgery recently to save his right leg from amputation. Imagine his shock when he got a bill for $3,000 for his treatment.

and

"I put my life on the line and I was wounded in combat, and I came back and they're not going to take care of my medical bills?"

It's a level of outrage shared by his mother, as well as the doctor who performed the surgery.

"It's hard to understand why we're not taking care of guys like Erik whose injuries are clearly related to their service. They deserve the best care of anybody," said Dr. William Obremskey, an Air Force veteran and surgeon at Vanderbilt Orthopaedics in Nashville, Tennessee.

and

The Department of Veterans Affairs has now decided to pay his bill, but only after prodding from a U.S. senator who got involved after CNN brought it to his attention.

The VA is going to pay the $3,000.

You'll recall that this is pretty much what Obama wanted to do anyway:

Obama medical plan for vets spurs outcry

You'll notice that Robert's insurance through his employer picked up most of the $90,000 in costs. The VA is going to pay the $3,000 - once they lose the paperwork a few times - but President Obama won't have to worry about that 90 large. Perhaps he can give it away to some of his non-voluntary volunteers in the GIVE-away program?

Fighting the flood

If you are so inclined, a prayer or two for our friends and neighbors in Fargo would probably be in order.

Also:

Relief agencies involved with the Red River Flood

American Red Cross

Salvation Army Northern Division

From Andrea Tantaros:

Obama Fails to Make the Sale

Though “words matter” to President Obama, details don’t.

Last night Obama delivered a live press conference that came after a week of bizarre behavior, ranging from inappropriate jokes on “The Tonight Show” and delayed outrage over executive bonuses. America is eagerly waiting for President Obama to make his case, but once again, there were no answers.

After Wednesday night’s prime time press conference , one thing is clear: Obama has his Bachelors, Masters and doctorate in persistent ambiguity. He dodged questions from the press on how exactly he’ll cut the deficit by increasing spending. He ducked the issue of whether his policies will result in massive inflation. And he danced around the fact that his budget will double the national debt in 5 years and triple it in ten years.

The only question of any substance was from Ed Henry, and that got a Chikaga wise-acre slapdown. Very nice, Mr. President.

Most notable was his verbal word orgy when it came to “investments.” We all know that is liberal-speak for spending. In fact, I use the term investment every time I try to justify a shoe purchase at Bloomingdale’s. Note: the last person to overuse the term “investment” was Bernie Madoff.

Well...we can always influence national policy via the Obama regime's new and highly reliable "Open for questions".

Here is the first real sign that the honeymoon between the heretofore vapid MainStream Media and the Obama regime is over:

Obama turns to web to bypass news media

and

Open for questions

The only problem with this, of course is found in Pete Steiner's 1993 New Yorker cartoon:



In other words, with the media, you at least had a reporter, identifiably associated with a known source, asking questions. They may have been softball questions, and the "reporter" nothing more than a gibbering sycophant with thrills shooting up his leg, but at least you knew it was "real".

With this latest propaganda ploy by the Obama regime, all those questions are just as likely to be coming straight out of Rahm "The Fish" Emanuel's office. Yep. The pooch in the seat at the keyboard is Rahmbo, and the little tail-wagger sitting next to him is Dave Axelrod.

Looking at the questions posed, I see that all of them, at least at the time I looked, had to do with free handouts in one way or another. And, Obama will have plenty of time to get the teleprompter set up.

Sorry, sports fans, this one doesn't wash, either.

Another week of malfeasance

excerpts:

With the braying of 328 yahoos — members of the House of Representatives who voted for retroactive and punitive use of the tax code to confiscate legal earnings of a small unpopular group — still reverberating, the Obama administration Monday invited private-sector investors to become business partners with the capricious and increasingly anti-constitutional government.

and

From Mexico, America is receiving needed instruction about fundamental rights and the rule of law.

Trying to abolish the right of workers to secret ballots in unionization elections is California's Rep. George Miller who, with 15 other Democrats, in 2001 admonished Mexico: "The secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose."

Last year, Mexico's highest court unanimously affirmed for Mexicans the right that Democrats want to strip from Americans.

Congress, with the approval of a president who has waxed censorious about his predecessor's imperious unilateralism in dealing with other nations, has shredded the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Congress used the omnibus spending bill to abolish a program that was created as part of a protracted U.S. stall regarding compliance with its obligation to allow Mexican long-haul trucks on U.S roads.

The program, testing the safety of Mexican trucking, became an embarrassment because it found Mexican trucking at least as safe as U.S. trucking. Mexico has resorted to protectionism — tariffs on many U.S. goods — in retaliation for Democrats' protection of the Teamsters union.

and here's one that applies to Pelosi's blatant attempt at shoving yet another fiasco up our collective backside:

The Federal Reserve, by long practice rather than law, has been insulated from politics in performing its fundamental function of preserving the currency as a store of value — preventing inflation.

Now, however, by undertaking hitherto uncontemplated functions, it has become an appendage of the executive branch. The coming costs, in political manipulation of the money supply, of this forfeiture of independence could be steep.

Jefferson warned that "great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities." But Democrats, who trace their party's pedigree to Jefferson, are contemplating using "reconciliation" — a legislative maneuver abused by both parties to truncate debate and limit the minority's right to resist — to impose vast and controversial changes on the 17% of the economy that is health care.

and we have this nice summation:

This is but a partial list of recent lawlessness, situational constitutionalism and institutional derangement. Such political malfeasance is pertinent to the financial meltdown as the administration, desperately seeking confidence, tries to stabilize the economy by vastly enlarging government's role in it.

The president gets snippy with CNN:



CNN's Ed Henry had the audacity to question The Obamessiah about why it took him so long to express outrage over the AIG bonuses:

Ed Henry: But on AIG, why did you wait — why did you wait days to come out and express that outrage? It seems like the action is coming out of New York and the attorney general’s office. It took you days to come public with Secretary Geithner and say, “Look, we’re outraged.” Why did it take so long?

Obama: It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.

"I like to know what I'm talking about." Ahaahhahahahaaha....hoooodoggie. That's a knee slapper.

It's also a steaming pile of horsepopp. Yep.

Here is why:

Obama still doesn't get it. Remember how he was going on about how "McCain doesn't get it"?

Obama "doesn't get it". Obama and his crew of jolly spinsters - a nice way of saying 'liars' - claimed that they knew nothing about those bonuses. Then the Dodd amendment was exposed - again - and they claimed not to know about that. Then Dodd finally confessed to lying about the Dodd amendment that protected those bonuses, and which was in the bill signed into law by Obama. Then it came out that The Blithering Idiot of the Treasury Department and the Clowns of Congress discussed those bonuses back on March 3. And then FoxNews used FOIA to get emails showing that TBIOT (Geithner) knew about the bonuses back in November when he was still with the New York Fed. And, that TBIOT told Senator Chris "The Treasury Dept made me do it" Dodd to add the Dodd amendment protecting those bonuses.

Obama signed the bill into law.

Guess who made the bonuses possible? Ya, you betcha (wink). Mr. "Snippy".

This clip really doesn't pick it up, but the gathered reporters got an audible chuckle out of that one.

The president either remains clueless, or he is simply lying through his teeth.

"The biggest traitors among you hold elected office."

Here's a good article on our beloved Secretary of State's latest social and political faux pas:

Reines storm: Clinton conflict brews

When she abdicated her throne in the US Senate, Hillary took her long-time Senate press secretary Philippe Reines with her. I expect the press reporting on the senate's doings breathed a huge collective sigh of relief.

Here are some excerpts from Hillary's latest effort to woo back the respect of Europe, for our benighted "hick from the sticks" image:

State Department reporters and observers have been buzzing about the brewing conflict since her second foreign trip, earlier this month, to Europe and the Middle East. On that trip, her longtime Senate press secretary Philippe Reines – one of the combatants in Hillaryland’s long civil wars – took over as the political staffer charged with handling the press.

The trip was marked by tussles over information and access, but it became known for a high-profile blunder in Geneva on March 6. There, Clinton met Sergei Lavrov, the dour Russian Foreign Minister, and cheerily presented him with a large red button in a yellow case, with the words “Reset” and “Peregruzka” written on it.

How cute! But then ...

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Clinton asked.

“You got it wrong,” said Lavrov.

The error appalled some in the State Department, because the button – which was inscribed in Latin script, not Cyrillic – hadn’t been assembled with the help of State’s cadre of Russian speakers and professional translators, but rather by Clinton’s small political team. The day of the event, people involved said, Reines showed the finished product to officials who spoke Russian, but who weren’t native, or up-to-date enough to catch the error in a word out of computer terminology.

Let's see...for most of Hillary's life, the "USSR" on Soviet (Russian) spacecraft and other military hardware was always "CCCP", the Cyrillic characters for the acronym for the Soviet Union. In most circles, that is seen as something of a clue. Russian uses a different alphabet. But of course, when you are a Clintonista, you aren't deterred by mere fact. You make your own. Like ... snipers in Bosnia. Serbia. Wherever. Whatever.

But then, we get to the really good stuff. Reines sent out an email explaining it all. The problem is, Reines turns out to be another illiterate inside-the-beltway moronic sycophant. The man simply can't spell, and is apparently too stupid to use a spell-checker. Note that we aren't talking about a little typo or the usual sort of thing that gets missed from time-to-time. Look at this:

“Ultimotely [sic], this was my soul [sic] risponsibility [sic], nobody else's in or out of the building. While the Russians laughed off the error and accepted the gift in the spirit of cooperation that it was meant, I've been sic [sic] about the mistake since, especially that I let down the Secretary and the fine professionals at the State Department,” he e-mailed.

This was supposed to be a "joking" response. Perhaps Reines and "Giggles" Gibbs should get together and compare professional techniques for "handling" the press.

Reines, who worked for Clinton through most of her Senate career, was a controversial figure inside Clinton’s world. As Senate staffer, he was kept out of the campaign by her senior political aides, who dislike him intensely. He was nearly fired, two senior aides said, for a key early mistake – telling Maureen Dowd, on background, that McCain’s alliance with the White House left the Republican “looking similar to the way he did on those captive tapes from Hanoi.” Clinton was forced to promptly apologize.

Yep. Reines and "Giggles" should definitely get together.

Meanwhile, Hillary and Phillipe are off to Mexico. One can only hope they don't step in the mierrrda down there, too. (Yes, I know that one is spelled wrong, but Townhall won't let me use the "M" word).

See also: Hillary really sucks as Secretary of State

First, we had Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano eschewing "terrorists" and "terrorism" in her testimony before the Clowns of Congress.

She prefers "man-caused disasters".

Please see Obama has ended the terrorist threat for more on that.

Now, we have further proof that the Global War on Terror is over. The Obama regime prefers that we use the term "Overseas contingency operation".

Wow. In one swoosh of the pen, it's all over, and we no longer have a "war". Kind of like we didn't have a "war" in Korea, and we didn't have a "war" in Vietnam, and we didn't have a "war" in Bosnia, etc etc etc.

Is Obama cool, or what?

Hopefully, Hillary will get those Mexicans straightened out, and perhaps she can make another quick trip to Yurrup and straighten out Mirek Topolanek, who is not being at all helpful:

A top European Union politician on Wednesday slammed U.S. plans to spend its way out of recession as "a way to hell."

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama's massive stimulus package and banking bailout "will undermine the stability of the global financial market."

Perhaps Brother Mirek should sit down with Obama and discuss it over coffee. Then he will understand that as a European, he is to recognize that we here in the US have recognized the horrible error of our ways under Bush, and are now embracing a Brave New World under the benevolent leadership of The One.