THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II: USA Today reports that FL, MO, TX, UT and other states are seeing “a surge in applications for concealed weapons permits since the November election.” Spurring the trend: fear that the Obama administration will enact more gun control legislation, and concern that crime rates will increase because of the economic downturn. IL and WI are the only two states that do not allow citizens to carry concealed weapons.
† “Clunkers” Is Another Edsel (second item): For days the “transparent” Obama administration was downright opaque about which car manufacturers benefitted from the “cash for clunkers” program. Now we know why: The Washington Post reports that foreign automakers are getting the lion’s share of the new business:
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said 157,000 trades had occurred as of Tuesday morning, eating up $664 million of the $1 billion appropriated for the effort.
More than 80 percent of the vehicles turned in were trucks and sport-utility vehicles, the government said. The top-selling new car is the Ford Focus, followed by the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Toyota Prius and Toyota Camry. The new vehicles on average get 25.4 miles per gallon, compared with an average of 15.8 mpg for the trade-ins.
To add injury to insult, even though the new cars are more fuel-efficient than the ones being junked Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi notes that “building a new car consumes energy”:
It is estimated that 6.7 tons of carbon are emitted in the process. … A survey of car dealerships found a relatively small differential in fuel efficiency between cars traded in and those replacing them. A Reuters analysis concluded - even with the extended program in place – “cash for clunkers” would trim U.S. oil consumption by only a quarter of 1 percent.
Another “miscalculation” by the Obama administration.
† Mama, Don’t Take My Incandescent Bulbs Away: An analysis by the Siemens Corporate Technology Centre for Eco Innovations finds that from manufacture to shipping from a Chinese factory to installation and use in Europe, an LED bulb is as energy efficient as a compact fluorescent bulb – and easier to recycle, too. Even as evidence is mounting that CFLs are not as environmentally friendly as environazis claimed, consumers in the U.S. and throughout the EU are being forced to buy and use them.
† Choo Choo Ch'Brainless: Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice filed reckless endangerment charges against Long Island Rail Road engineer Ronald Cabrera and passenger William Kutsch in the aftermath of commuter complaints that Cabrera was outside the engineer’s cab and Kutsch was at the controls of a train that was carrying 400 riders into NYC during the morning rush hour on July 2nd and travelling at speeds of up to 80 mph, reports The Associated Press:
"It's just unconscionable that you could take that many lives in your hands," she said. "The amount of tragedy that could have resulted, you can't even quantify it. It's staggering." …
Rice said that train didn't have an autopilot function and required someone to be at the controls in the cabin to keep the dead man's pedal from stopping the train. Another LIRR employee who saw Cabrera outside the cabin assumed a trainee was driving, she said. Kutsch, a court reporter, does not have an engineer's license or any training in driving trains.
Reckless endangerment is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Cabrera also faces a disciplinary hearing and could be terminated by the LIRR.
† Updates To Previous Posts (Specter The Defector): Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), a former Navy vice admiral, formally announced that he will contest the Dem nomination for Senate against Sen. Arlen Specter. Specter currently leads Sestak 2:1 in the polls, reports The New York Times, but as of the end of June the challenger had raised “a credible $4.3 million” in campaign cash vs. the incumbent’s $7.5 million. The Washington Times notes that “the two-term congressman jumped into the race in defiance of [President Barack Hussein] Obama and other top Democrats, including Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell, who wanted to insulate the party's incumbents to protect Democrats' filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate.” The Dem primary winner will face Republican Pat Toomey, a former PA congressman and former president of the Club for Growth.
Editorial Note: Sestak is watching Obama spend his political capital faster than car dealers burned through the “cash for clunkers” allocation, and is betting that come Election Day, a significantly weakened Obama won’t be able to sway PA voters to support Specter. His gamble may pay off, considering that the VA governor’s race is already turning into a referendum on Obama’s policies, reports The Washington Post:
Obama's policies are … having immediate consequences in the campaign as the candidates adjust their strategies to account for the president's controversial domestic agenda, which has overshadowed many state issues.
The president will make his first appearance in the campaign Thursday, when he headlines a fundraiser for R. Creigh Deeds (D) in McLean, in part to try to help the state senator from Bath County win over wavering Democrats such as Cleland.
But Obama's entry into the race presents a challenge for Deeds: How does he continue the momentum created by Obama, the first Democratic presidential candidate in more than four decades to carry Virginia, without being saddled with the baggage the president now carries?
His answer has largely been to distance himself from the president's policies despite attempts by Republican Robert F. McDonnell to force him to take positions on issues such as unions, climate change and health care.
Deeds has declined to take firm stands, commending the administration's intentions to limit greenhouse gas emissions and expand health care but objecting generally to actions that would strain small businesses and families.
† Updates To Previous Posts (Deconstructing Obama’s Cairo Speech): On the heels of accusations that the police did not protect them, Pakistani authorities arrested 100 people and offered $6,000 in compensation to the families of the eight victims of a Muslim rampage in Punjab Province, reports The Christian Science Monitor:
It was the third attack on Pakistani Christians in the past month, a trend that observers attribute to a rise in extremism and suspicions that local Christians are aligned with the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Sunni Islamic militants in Pakistan target other minority groups as well, including Shiites and Ahmadis, groups they consider heretics. According to Minority Rights Group International, a UK-based NGO, Pakistan had the world's highest increase of threats against minorities last year and was ranked the seventh most dangerous country for minorities overall.
† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, (Islamo)Fascist Fashionistas): Quelling a demonstration by 50 people outside Khartoum Criminal Court Sudanese police fired tear gas and beat pants-wearing women, reports The Associated Press:
No injuries were immediately reported but witnesses said police wielding batons beat up one of [Lubna] Hussein's lawyers, Manal Awad Khogali, while keeping media and cameras at bay. …
The case has drawn criticism from the United Nations. The U.N. Staff Union urged authorities last week not to flog Ms. Hussein [for wearing pants, considered “indecent” under Sharia law], calling the punishment cruel, inhuman and degrading.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned" about Ms. Hussein's case and said flogging was a violation of international human-rights standards.
Comments