† Chicago On The Potomac: Eric Massa (D-NY) has resigned to avoid an ethics investigation – that he insists no one had mentioned to him until he announced his retirement because of a recurrence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. At least, that was his reason for quitting his office last week. Then he started reading articles by The Associated Press and Roll Call about the political calculus of his resignation – he had voted against cap-and-trade, and against the House healthcare “reform” bill – and the proverbial light bulb went off. He says he now believes that the White House and House leadership orchestrated the ethics investigation to force him out of office and lower the bar that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has to clear to pass healthcare legislation. 

In a radio interview with WKPQ-FM in Hornell, a city in his western New York district, Massa explained the circumstances surrounding the sexual harassment compaint against him by a male staffer and goes on to say:

[W]ith the departure of Congressman Neil Abercrombie, who is running for the governorship of Hawaii, and with the tragic and sad passing of my personal friend, John Murtha, mine is the deciding voe on the healthcare bill. And this adminsistration and this House leadership have said ... quote- unquote ... They will stop at nothing to pass this healthcare bill. And now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots.

When I voted against the cap-and-trade bill, the phone rang and it was the chief of staff of the president of the United States, Rahm Emanuel. And he started swearing at me ... and I gave it right back to him.

Massa also called Emanuel the “son of the devil's spawn” who “who would sell his mother to get a vote,” and went on to detail Emanuel’s strong-arm tactics:

In my first eight weeks [in office] ... I worked out in the Congressional gym and went to the showers ... I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me because I wasn't going to vote for the president's budget. You know how awkward it is to have a political argument with a naked man? ... What the heck was he doing in the Congressional gym? He goes there to intimidate members of Congress. ... He's hated me since Day One, and now he wins. He'll get rid of me, and this bill will pass and I don't know what we'll do in this country.

In 2008 when Iraqi “journalist” Muntadar al-Zeidia threw his shoe at President George Bush, the left had a field day creating interactive games (click here for one example) that put players in the, um, shoes of the shoe-thrower. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a similar Obama game.

† Obama Gets A “Makeover”: A year ago, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and other libs saw Obama like this:

Now, the ACLU sees Obama like this, in its full-page ad in the The New York Times:

† Life Imitates “A Law Abiding Citizen”: Less than a week after registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III was charged with the rape and murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King, the skeletal remains of Amber Dubois, who disappeared more than a year ago at the age 14, were found on the Pala Indian Reservation, north of San Diego, reports The Associated Press:  

The search for Amber produced few leads until 17-year-old Chelsea King disappeared Feb. 25, last seen wearing running clothes in a park about 10 miles south of where Amber was last seen walking with a man near school. A body presumed to be Chelsea's was found five days after Chelsea disappeared in a shallow, lakeside grave.

Gardner … pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murdering Chelsea and raping or attempting to rape her and attempting to rape another woman in December, a potential death penalty case.

Gardner was registered as a sex offender in Escondido, a north San Diego suburb, from January 2008 to January 2010, with some gaps, police say.

He served five years of a six-year prison term for molesting a 13-year-old neighbor in San Diego in 2000; he saw her at a bus stop and lured her to his home to watch movies, authorities said. He completed parole in September 2008.

Gardner was charged with two counts of a lewd act on a child and one count of false imprisonment, which could have put him behind bars for 30 years. He pleaded guilty to the charges and under the terms of the plea agreement he was allowed to serve the three sentences concurrently instead of consecutively – a total of 10 years and eight months in prison. As Gardner did not have a significant criminal history, prosecutors rejected the recommendation of Mission Valley psychiatrist Matthew Carroll to sentence him to the full 30 years because he “takes no responsibility whatsoever for his actions” and “would be a continued danger to underage girls in the community.”

Then-District Attorney Paul Pfingst told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the plea deal would have been arranged without him by a division chief, and that it went down the way it did because judges are instructed not to throw the book at felons who don’t have prior convictions.

But just because a “first time” sex offender doesn’t have a prior conviction doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been committing or trying to commit sex crimes – and he certainly will commit others once he gets out of prison.

Meanwhile, CBS News reports that “there are not enough parole officers to monitor the more than 700,000 registered sex offenders in the United States”:

At least 100,000 may not even be living where they say they are.

"The sex offender registry provides this false sense of security we are monitoring and doing something with the sex offenders out there," said Robin Sax, a former Los Angeles county prosecutor.   
 

† All The News That’s Fart To Print: AZ “has the largest budget gap in the country when measured as a percentage of its overall budget,” reports The New York Times, and decided to shrink the hole, in part, by shuttering 13 of the state’s 18 highway rest stops – a move that saves $300K a year per facility - much to the displeasure of motorists:

“People in this state are mad about this,” said State Representative Daniel Patterson, a Democrat from Tucson who has sponsored a bill that would allow other entities to reopen and maintain the rest stops. “This bill may have the broadest support among members of any bill this year.”

Some residents see something sinister in the closings. Betty L. Roberts, who lives in Sun City, west of Phoenix, said the topic was a hot one among her friends.

“I honestly think they are setting us up because they want to do a tax increase,” Ms. Roberts said. “I think by shutting down things people want, they will give us one.”

Arizona is not alone in singling out toilets. Colorado, Georgia, Vermont and Virginia are among states that have also closed rest stops, though Virginia’s new governor, Robert F. McDonnell, has vowed to reopen 19 stops that closed last year.

Well, at least Sheriff Joe Arpaio hasn’t been forced to empty the prisons.

† Is Obama Already A Lame Duck?: Freelance writer John Kenney does a humorous riff on the closing line of a New York Times article about the results of President Barack Hussein Obama’s first routine physical since assuming office (“One oddity of the report: Mr. Obama weighed 179.9 pounds with his shoes and workout attire on, which is not the usual way to measure a patient’s weight.”), envisioning a Republican cabal led by Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (KY) accusing Obama of trying to obscure his true weight “to add bulk to his delicate frame” and threatening an investigation, even as media outlets reported his “true weight” being 127 lbs (FOX News) or 11 lbs, 3 oz(which Vogue editor Anna Wintour deemed “almost the ideal weight, if he could lose three more pounds.” Unfortunately, the truth is that Obama is viewed as a 98-pound weakling by allies and adversaries alike, so the “unbearable lightness of leading” is not quite as metaphorical as the satire would suggest. 

As the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers and the Democrats have a symbiotic relationship, the two national teachers’ unions are trying to help Central Falls school administrators and teachers work out their differences.
 

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, 10 Reasons Michelle Obama Should Be Proud – Really Proud – Of America): This latest installment in The Stiletto Blog’s ongoing series meant to help instill the necessary pride of country in Michelle Obama’s consciousness to enable her to serve as an unofficial ambassador focuses on the healthcare providers at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami and Americans from all walks of life who have raised money to repair and rehabilitate the hands of blind, Julliard-trained violinist Romel Joseph after he was rescued  from the rubble of Haiti’s New Victorian School. The Washington Post reports:

Joseph's left hand was broken and his right hand was impaled by nails from a wall that had fallen on him. A second wall had crushed his right leg and pinned his heel. Trapped for 18 hours, he wondered if he would survive - or if he would want to. …

Across the United States, friends and strangers have rallied to aid Joseph, 50, who lost his pregnant wife, Myslie, 26, in the rubble. Last month, Andover Chamber Music in Massachusetts held a benefit concert for him. Another concert at San José State University was aimed at helping the New Victorian School's 300 students, who had already gone home before the quake struck. Stevie Wonder gave Joseph a keyboard to aid his recovery. South Miami middle schoolers brought their instruments to Joseph's bedside and played Mozart for him. …

While Joseph is grateful for the care he's getting, he also betrays flashes of frustration, fussing at the nurses, turning up his nose at the soup, and pecking at the keys longer than his physical therapist would like.

"He doesn't like being a patient," said his doctor, Patrick W. Owens. "He has all these things he really wants to do outside the hospital and sees this as a big setback to his plans."

Owens, a hand specialist, didn't know who Joseph was when they met. "His number just came up and I was there," he said. But after learning that he was a violinist, "there was some pressure" to perform a perfect operation "on someone whose hand is their entire being and purpose." …

But Joseph isn't sure he'll ever be the same musician. "These guys have no idea what it takes to play the violin," he said. He plays the donated keyboard for exercise and spends five hours a day breathing pure oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber to help his hands mend more quickly.