Celebrity Endorsements for 2008

The Hill takes a look at which 2008 presidential candidates are getting financial support from Hollywood celebrities. In the sample, 37 out of 41 gave to Democrats, with only this exception:

Actors Kelsey Grammer, Adam Sandler and John O’Hurley (J. Peterman on “Seinfeld”) cut checks for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).

Most Americans Dependent on Taxpayers

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Slightly over half of all Americans – 52.6 percent – now receive significant income from government programs, according to an analysis by Gary Shilling, an economist in Springfield, N.J. That's up from 49.4 percent in 2000 and far above the 28.3 percent of Americans in 1950. If the trend continues, the percentage could rise within ten years to pass 55 percent, where it stood in 1980 on the eve of President's Reagan's move to scale back the size of government.

With the "boomers" seeking to bankrupt their children through increasing entitlements and Democrats throwing money at anything they can see, this number will only grow.

Democrat Inaction Hurts Local Prosecutions

The Macaca Post reports:

A half-dozen sitting U.S. attorneys also serve as aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales or are assigned other Washington postings, performing tasks that take them away from regular duties in their districts for months or even years at a time, according to officials and department records.

Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer, for example, has been effectively absent from his job as U.S. attorney in Montana for nearly two years -- prompting the chief federal judge in Billings to demand his removal and call Mercer's office "a mess."

...

At the moment, at least six sitting U.S. attorneys, including Mercer..., also hold senior spots at Justice. Each prosecutor continues to draw a regular U.S. attorney's salary and is not paid extra for the executive position...

Mercer currently wears two hats as the U.S. attorney in Montana and as third-in-command at Justice, behind Gonzales and his deputy, Paul J. McNulty. Mercer has been pulling double duty since June 2005, when he was first appointed to a different executive position at Justice headquarters.

His regular absence from the U.S. attorney's office in Billings has caused severe friction between Mercer and U.S. District Chief Judge Donald W. Molloy, a Clinton appointee. Molloy wrote a letter to Gonzales in October 2005 demanding that Mercer be replaced.

...

[Department of Justice spokesman Brian] Roehrkasse said Mercer has "effectively served" in his simultaneous postings but that "Congress should move forward quickly to confirm his nomination, which has been pending for eight months." Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have indicated they will not proceed on the appointment until after the panel's probe of the U.S. attorney firings is completed.

If Senate Democrats are unwilling to consider their consitutional duty of advice and consent, there's no reason to submit yet another appointment for them to ignore.

President Bypasses Senators' Coward's Veto

The LA Times reports:

In a flurry of nominations and appointments, [President] Bush also named a researcher at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, as deputy director of the Social Security Administration. Andrew G. Biggs has been an outspoken proponent of converting Social Security benefits into self-directed retirement accounts, which Bush favors but Democrats have stopped cold. Bush nominated Biggs to that post in November, but the process stalled in February when the Senate Finance Committee refused to hold confirmation hearings because of his views on privatization.

...

[Susan Dudley's] nomination [as director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB] stalled because the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which held the hearing, didn't vote on it.

Dudley was unavailable for comment Wednesday, as were leading senators on the committee. But Leslie Phillips, the committee's communications director, criticized Bush for making an end run.

The recess appointment, she said, "shows disrespect for the advise-and-consent responsibilities of the U.S. Senate and for the American people, on whose behalf the president acts. The power to recess appoint should not be used to avoid any scrutiny of presidential nominees."

The Democrat Senate shows disrespect for the advise-and-consent responsibilities of the U.S. Senate and for the American people by failing to follow through with those responsibilities and give nominees an up or down vote. Refusing to hold hearings and refusing to vote is shameful and childish behavior.

No wonder Congress has the lowest approval rating of any branch of government.

Democrats Fail to Control Gas Prices

The Washington Times reports:

A gallon of gas costs an average of $2.68 nationally and is rising -- about the same price as last spring when Democrats on the campaign trail vowed to swiftly ease the pain at the pump if elected.

...analysts predict gas prices could hit $3 per gallon by summer.

ABC News adds:

'Strong Possibility' Gas Will Rise to $4

Democrats are too busy creating pork and nonbinding resolutions to do either of the two things that would reduce gas prices - increase production or enact price controls (and rationing).

Democrat Congress Wastes Record Amount of Paper

The Macaca Post reports:

One of the unintended consequences of the new five-day workweek under the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill is a whopping bill from the Government Printing Office. A longer workweek means more paper.

The Congressional Record, for instance, is printed daily and captures every debate, vote, parliamentary maneuver, tribute to a fife-and-drum corps, post office naming, and utterance by members on the floor of the House and the Senate. It averages 250 pages.

...

That's two additional days of the Congressional Record, 500 more pages and an additional $3 million annually in printing costs, according to Robert C. Tapella, chief of staff for the printing office, which is responsible for publishing all government documents. The current press run for the Congressional Record is 5,604 copies, a figure set by Congress.

...

The agency is producing 3 million or 4 million pages a week for Congress from its 1.5 million-square-foot North Capitol Street headquarters, the largest information-processing, printing and distribution facility in the world. Tapella could not say how that compares with the workload under the last Congress.

All the talk of paper led some members of the panel to question why the printing office, which was created in 1813 when printing was a central tool in communication, hasn't gone all-electronic.

That's a good question since few, if any, of the 5,604 copies of the Congressional Record are probably ever read.

The printing office is in the middle of a $29 million technological shift that will allow it to store and maintain all federal documents electronically, Tapella said. About 92 percent of everything it publishes now is available in an electronic format, said Michael L. Wash, the agency's chief technical officer. The agency produced its first online edition of the Congressional Record two weeks ago.

But [William H. Turri, the acting public printer,] said the printing office will stick with paper until Congress directs it to do otherwise.

"It's kind of like the newspaper business," said Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn). "They know things are going electronic, but they know people are going to want to read their newspaper with their coffee."

Who reads the Congressional Record with their morning coffee? If any do, it should come out of their office budgets.

Metro Adding Cars?

From WMATA:

Metrorail Adding 24 Rail Cars

To accommodate higher ridership during Cherry Blossom activities, Metro is adding 24 rail cars to its weekday morning and afternoon peak service starting Monday, April 2. These 24 rail cars will allow Metro to initiate eight-car trains on the Red and Green lines and to expand eight-car train service on the Orange Line during the afternoon peak period. Metro will convert one four-car train to a six-car train on the Yellow Line, and convert two four-car Blue Line trains to six-car trains. These added cars will remain in service after the festival.

Don't get excited. They said we'd be rid of those four-car trains by last December.

There is, however, one important and fundamental piece of advice for anyone visiting the DC area:

Visitors should avoid traveling during the peak commuter periods from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m., and are strongly encouraged to avoid traveling Metrorail between 4 and 6 p.m. at the height of the afternoon peak period.

Metrorail doesn't have the capacity to handle commuters on a normal day, there certainly isn't room for tourists.