You Don't Say: Minorities Hit Hardest By Foreclosures In NYC Metro Area

This is astoundingly obvious to anyone who's paid attention over the past decade. All the efforts to increase home ownership have been to increase the numbers of minorities who are able to buy homes.

Is it any wonder that minorities are among the hardest hit by the foreclosure mess and the downturn in the real estate market?

But the storm has fallen with a special ferocity on black and Latino homeowners, the analysis shows. Defaults occur three times as often in mostly minority census tracts as in mostly white ones. Eighty-five percent of the worst-hit neighborhoods — where the default rate is at least double the regional average — have a majority of black and Latino homeowners.

And the hardest blows rain down on the backbone of minority neighborhoods: the black middle class. In New York City, for example, black households making more than $68,000 a year are almost five times as likely to hold high-interest subprime mortgages as are whites of similar — or even lower — incomes.

This holds a special poignancy. Just four or five years ago, black homeownership was rising sharply, after decades in which discriminatory lending and zoning practices discouraged many blacks from buying. Now, as damage ripples outward, black families in foreclosure lose savings and credit, neighbors see the value of their homes decline, and renters are evicted.

That pattern plays out across the nation. A study released this week by the Pew Research Center also shows foreclosure taking the heaviest toll on counties that have black and Latino majorities, with the New York region among the badly hit.

Homeownership was seen as a positive for politicians across the political spectrum and affordable housing was the holy grail. Programs to get minorities into homes was thus a way to curry favor with the minorities, and to achieve political goals. The economics was ignored.

It is instructive to note that one of the New York Times own economics and business reporters found himself foreclosed because he got in way over his head and didn't think twice about the damage he was about to do to his personal finances.

The banking industry was told to lend - even to those who were not on solid financial footing. The money was coming fast and furious and it created a real estate bubble because many of those borrowers should never have been extended credit in the first place. They accelerated the demand for homes, pushing the prices ever higher. To compensate, the lenders were forced to extend even more credit - particularly to minorities who had been denied credit in the past (because they were high credit risks and lacked the ability to repay on the mortgage obligations that they were now suddenly deemed worthy to accept).

The merry-go-round had to stop, and when it did, all those who bought homes suddenly found themselves overextended and they couldn't turn around and sell their homes to someone else as the demand dried up.

Prices dropped. Fast.

And those foreclosures will hit minorities harder - because they are more likely to be subprime borrowers who lacked the ability to repay on the mortgage obligations they had no business getting in the first place.

Corzine Proposes Cuts By Shifting Costs To Next Year

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine wants New Jersey taxpayers to think that he's doing them a favor by cutting $150 million from the current year budget because it is coming up $1.2 billion short. Corzine intends to use $450 million from the rainy day fund, shift another $450 million into next year's bloated budget, and reducing the pension contribution by another $150 million.

On Thursday, Corzine said revenue projections he made back in March were off by $1.2 billion. That meant even more work to put the state budget back in balance before the current fiscal year ends on June 30 -- as required by the state constitution.

To do so, the governor said he will take $450 million from surplus and push $450 million in expenses from the current budget year into the new one that begins on July 1. He's also reducing the state's annual pension contribution by $150 million.

A list released by the state Department of Treasury today detailed the remaining $150 million that will be saved from state departments to balance the budget.

About $3 million will come from a program that helps prepare developmentally delayed toddlers for preschool. Another $2.7 million will be stripped from a program that pays for lead-poisoning screenings. Administration officials said the cuts are unspent funds that will be left over when the budget year ends.

Let's attack these step by step, because it's instructive to see how asinine Corzine's posturing has been.

For starters, how exactly could Corzine and his financial wizards in Trenton be so horribly wrong as to the state's financial picture. They were off by $1.2 billion in just one month. That's financial incompetence by not being conservative enough on revenue projections. They were assuming revenues would be there that disappeared. People aren't spending money, which impacts all tax revenues, and thus far the only response has been to contemplate tax hikes to make up for the revenue shortfalls.

New Jersey has a $1.2 billion budget deficit going into the FY 2009-2010 budget that begins July 1. Corzine's total cuts are $150 million to existing programs, and he's expecting kudos?

The two biggest parts of Corzine's solution are the raid on the rainy day fund and pushing costs into next year. The rainy day fund usage is warranted, since that's the purpose of the fund. However, pushing off the costs to next year does not address the fundamental problem with the structural deficits caused by decades of overspending. It creates incentives to continue overspending and obfuscates the nature of the state's spending. It is a lie.

Attempting to paper over the deficit by claiming that you're going to push it into next year's budget doesn't solve the deficit - it foists it onto the books for next year.

Then, there's the whole notion of cutting pension contributions. Shortchanging the pension contributions means that the pension funds will fall short when the time comes for redemptions. Corzine's policies make the state's fiscal picture worse.

A lot worse.

However, expect the media and social groups to complain about the state's cuts to various social programs, even as there are literally dozens of easily recognizable areas for savings.

Consider the following: eliminate the property tax relief program, along with the 1% sales tax hike that went to pay for it. Two programs that cost too much, and which are using one tax hike to pay and hide the costs of another.

I'd also suggest eliminating COAH and Abbott school spending (including Corzine's massive expansion of state spending on education that is simply unsustainable and unwarranted). The state engages in massive transfer payments and the results aren't promising - and haven't been for years. COAH (which is the state's affordable housing requirements) is neither affordable, nor does it actually create affordable housing because it ramps up the costs for everyone by distorting the market (and putting people who are in no shape to be homeowners in a position to fail miserably).

Wyblog has four other suggestions for cutting the state budget.

UPDATE:
Instapundit links. Thanks!

GM Cuts 1,100 Dealerships in U.S

Well, yesterday it was Chrysler, today, the other shoe fell. General Motors cuts 1,100 dealerships.

General Motors announced plans to drop about 1,100 U.S. dealers as it struggles to slash billions of dollars in operating costs and debt ahead of an anticipated bankruptcy filing by the end of the month.

Taken together with a similar announcement by bankrupt Chrysler a day earlier, over 2,300 U.S. auto retailers have been put on notice that they are being eliminated by the two embattled automakers.

The unprecedented closures taken under the oversight of the Obama administration's autos task force put over 100,000 jobs at risk across the United States and show the spreading economic pain from the collapse of the two Detroit-based automakers.

GM confirmed it planned to eliminate about 1,100 dealerships on the grounds that they are less profitable and weakly capitalized by letting their franchise agreements expire between now and the end of 2010.

The automaker expects to drop another 470 dealerships from cutting its Saab, Hummer and Saturn brands, said GM spokesman John McDonald.

After merging remaining dealerships, the plan is for GM to cut about 2,600 showrooms, or 40 percent of its U.S. retail network.

"We are telling them basically that you are not going to fit into the picture long term, but between now and then we will help wind the business down the best way individually with each dealer," GM spokesman John McDonald said.

GM dealers affected by the closure plans received letters by express mail Friday morning informing them that the automaker did not see how it could have a "productive business relationship" after 2010.

Well, congratulations President Obama, you have successfully moved 100,000 people onto the public payroll. Now, instead of fostering a true renegotiation of the union contracts, which would have lowered the production costs of GM and Chrysler cars to competitive levels, President Obama has supported the Unions, which empowered them to stand up to GM and Chrysler which has led to Chrysler's bankruptcy, and the impending GM bankruptcy, and at least 100,000 people (non UAW people, so they really don't count to President Obama) have lost their jobs. And who is going to pay for this? Who is responsible for picking up the tab? US. The taxpayers. As these people loose their jobs they will collect unemployment. They will loose their health case so they will move to government sponsored plans, that we all pay for. The consequential costs of this are enormous. Each one of those dealers also supported local economies, paid taxes, bought food at local diners, paid landscapers, paid for trash pickup, etc. Each dealer that gets put out of business effects each business that it dealt with. Therefore spreading the misery. That is the damages that protecting Unions will deal to the economy.

And this depressing economic news comes after Chevrolet (a GM unit) and Ford posted some impressive numbers against rival Toyota.

For the first time all year, not one but two Detroit brands outsold Toyota. Chevrolet and Ford both posted brand sales that exceeded Toyota’s figures, proving that there are some silver linings, at least in Detroit, in the continuously cloudy new car market in the United States.

Toyota wasn’t the only Japanese automaker to post a bigger-than-expected sales decrease; Nissan posted its biggest decline of the year and Subaru posted its first sales slide this year.

***

Hyundai sales were down 14 percent, the least of any high-volume, non-luxury brand so far. April was the best month ever for the Genesis and the Accent and Sonata both saw 26 and 7 percent increases, respectively.

Both Chevrolet and Ford outsold Toyota for the first time in 2009. Toyota’s 112,345 cars and trucks couldn’t match Chevrolet’s 115,265 or Ford’s 116,263.

Chevy’s Traverse crossover sold a reasonable 8,2004 units, its best month this year, while HHR, Tahoe and Express passenger van sales were all up, as well. Overall GM sales were down 33.7 percent to 173,007 units.

Ford’s Fusion, including the 2009 and redesigned 2010, which recently hit dealers, had its best-ever April with 18,321 units sold.

So lets debunk the myth that GM and Ford can't build cars that Americans want. The problem is that GM, Ford and Chrysler cannot produce cars that Americans want at the same price point that Toyota, Honda and Nissan can. The reason why is simple. The American big three are struggling against high health insurance costs, high pension costs and until recently, high job board costs. These are costs that add to the bottom line, that Honda, Toyota and Nissan just don't have. And its was not bad business that straddled them with this debt. It was the fear of union strikes, bad publicity and political pressure that forces the big three to kowtow to union demands. If you want to save the automakers, if you want to save American manufacturing, if you want to save the economy, if you want to save blue collar workers, you have to force the unions to make hard decisions and help the companies survive.

Obama Knows Overspending

President Obama knows overspending. He pushed the nation into overspending by such drastic amounts - quadrupling the national deficit in one fell swoop and now claims that the nation has to start saving money (to push his health care plans, which will neither save money nor improve health care delivery).

More to the point, he is simply repeating what he did in his personal life. He overspent, and then hoped for a bailout, which he got once his book deal came through, his wife got a major raise, and he won his US Senate seat.

A close examination of their finances shows that the Obamas were living off lines of credit along with other income for several years until 2005, when Obama's book royalties came through and Michelle received her 260% pay raise at the University of Chicago. This was also the year Obama started serving in the U.S. Senate.

During the presidential primary campaign, Michelle Obama complained how tough it was to make ends meet. During a stop in Ohio, she said, "I know we're spending - I added it up for the first time - we spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we're spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements and so on and so forth."

Let's examine how tough things were for this couple using various public records.

In April 1999, they purchased a Chicago condo and obtained a mortgage for $159,250. In May 1999, they took out a line of credit for $20,750. Then, in 2002, they refinanced the condo with a $210,000 mortgage, which means they took out about $50,000 in equity. Finally, in 2004, they took out another line of credit for $100,000 on top of the mortgage.

Tax returns for 2004 reveal $14,395 in mortgage deductions. If we assume an effective interest rate of 6%, then they owed about $240,000 on a home they purchased for about $159,250.

This means they spent perhaps $80,000 beyond their income from 1999 to 2004.

The Obamas' adjusted gross income averaged $257,000 from 2000 to 2004. This is above the threshold of $250,000 which Obama initially used as the definition of being "rich" for taxation purposes during last year's election campaign.

The Obama family apparently had little or no savings during this period since there was virtually no taxable interest shown on their tax returns.

I can commiserate with the President on the low savings, as I've got student loans and a new mortgage to pay down that put a crimp on my own savings for a rainy day, but I expect to be done with my loans next year, and the mortgage is within the realm of affordability at my current salary level.

However, Obama seems to have lived beyond his means and did so on the expectation that someone else would come and pick up his tab - namely that he would win his Senate seat (which was a huge salary boost), he'd sign the book deal, and his wife would receive a huge salary increase. Without the boost to his income, he'd be so thoroughly in debt that he'd be one of those bailout cases we hear about (although not one with which I'd provide any sympathy).

If only I could be so lucky.

Not everyone can be so lucky, and the United States isn't going to sign a book deal anytime soon. There's no one who will play the rich uncle to Uncle Sam, and that bodes poorly for the United States going forward.

Lingerie Football League Comes To New York

Women in scantily clad uniforms playing football and grappling each other on cable television near you?

What could possibly go wrong.

The league is expanding in to the New York metro region, with a team being formed in New York City called the Majesty.

Here's the league's website, and it's 7 on 7 full contact football.

If there's one complaint, I would say that it's the uniforms, which aren't actually lingerie. It's supposed to be lingerie, and yet the players are wearing bikinis. What is the fun in that? At least some of the players have garters, so there's that.

Swine Flu Reasserts Itself In New York City; 3 Schools Shuttered

Just days after saying that the City wouldn't consider shuttering schools that may have been affected by swine flu outbreaks, the City has closed three schools through the end of next week because of several hundred cases of suspected flu.

Just as many New Yorkers were beginning to forget the threat of swine flu, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a hastily called news conference Thursday evening that swine flu had been confirmed in the sick man, whom colleagues identified as Mitchell Wiener, the assistant principal of Intermediate School 238 in Hollis. He was being treated at Flushing Hospital Medical Center, where he was on a ventilator.

Mr. Bloomberg said Mr. Wiener appeared to have had some health problems that could have made him more susceptible to the virus. His colleagues and friends said he had diabetes and sometimes walked with a cane.

In addition to Mr. Wiener, who is in his 50s, four students at I.S. 238 have been confirmed as having swine flu, officials said, and more than 50 students have been sent home with flulike symptoms since May 6.

The city’s Education Department decided Thursday to close that school, along with Public School 16 in Corona, where 29 students went to the nurse’s office Thursday with influenzalike symptoms, and I.S. 5 in Elmhurst, where 241 students were reported absent Thursday. Officials said the plan is to reopen those schools next Friday.

I have a personal connection to this as my brother in law works at one of the affected schools and he had been telling us that there had been quite a few absences from class of late - far more than a typical day.

The closures mean that the potential transmission between students is thwarted because students wont be in close contact. The City also scaled back its testing for swine flu as it became evident that swine flu is more mild than typical flu. However, as I've repeatedly noted, the regular flu kills nearly 36,000 people and sickens anywhere from 5-20% of the nation every year. The situation gets more attention since a name was placed on this particular strain, which is one of many that circulate around the globe naturally and which evolve on a constant basis.

These three schools were closed because of the unusually high percentage of flu cases.

Meanwhile, a vigil is being held for Assistant Principal Mitchell Weiner, who is suffering from complications of swine flu and is in critical condition at a Queens hospital. Weiner appears to have had a preexisting condition, which made his case more difficult to treat, although the Daily News ominously claims that this may be a mutated version of the influenza (ignoring and/or omitting that the regular flu kills thousands annually).

It's one thing to be cautious, it's quite another to blow things out of proportion. The media needs to keep its perspective on the situation.

UPDATE:
There's some question about the accuracy of reports claiming that Weiner had a preexisting condition. New reports indicate that Weiner had gout, but no other ailments at the time he came down with the flu. Also, his wife claims that the City botched its response to a growing number of cases at Weiner's school in Queens because the principal wasn't given the ability to shutter the school before Weiner came down with the ailment.

Bonnie Wiener, whose husband, Mitchell, is assistant principal of Susan B. Anthony Intermediate School in Hollis, one of three schools closed by the latest swine flu outbreak, said the city health department denied the principal's request to close the school because of suspected swine flu cases there.

"If he [the principal] was allowed to shut the school down, my husband would not be in this condition," she said.

Three Queens schools -- IS 5, the Walter Crowley Intermediate School, in Flushing; PS 16, an elementary school in Corona, and Susan B. Anthony -- are closed through next Friday after hundreds of students were sent home sick this week....

(snip)Bonnie Wiener said her husband called the city Department of Health after meeting with four students at his school who reported feeling ill May 8 with flulike symptoms. He told the department he was concerned the students may have swine flu, she said.

"He was chastised by the [department] of health or someone higher that he was setting off a panic," Bonnie Wiener said. "The man said there is nothing to worry about."

She said the health department official told her husband, "Even if it is swine flu, it is still diluted."

Nanny Stater Nominated for CDC

President Obama has picked New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden to head up the Centers for Disease Control. He's a crusader, and not always using solid science in the process:

Dr. Frieden, a 48-year-old infectious disease specialist, has cut a high and sometimes contentious profile in his seven years as New York’s top health official under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. He led the crusade to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, pushed to make H.I.V. testing a routine part of medical exams, and defended a program that passes out more than 35 million condoms a year.

At the C.D.C., he will inherit a host of immediate and long-term problems, including a looming decision about whether and how to produce a swine flu vaccine. Health experts say the agency must resolve serious morale and organizational issues even as the administration struggles to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

“I think the administration selected Tom Frieden because he can take public health to a new place,” said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit public health advocacy organization. “He’s a transformational leader.”

Dr. Frieden is expected to take office next month. With his appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, New York City will have former commissioners in two of the nation’s most visible health positions; Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, who held the job in the 1990s, is nearing confirmation as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Frieden has long been expected to be Mr. Obama’s choice, and although he is widely admired in the public health community, some C.D.C. veterans began lobbying in recent weeks on behalf of the agency’s acting director, Dr. Richard E. Besser.

Frieden has been behind quite a few dubious nanny stater policies, and it also takes Frieden away from New York City even as it deals with another outbreak of suspected swine flu that has shuttered three New York City public schools.

Perhaps most damaging is the fact that Frieden caused a panic a few years ago when claiming that there was a supervirulent version of HIV that didn't respond to treatments. It turned out that he was wrong, but Frieden continues pushing the envelope. Frieden rammed through a ban on trans fat, which is based on dubious science and conclusions:

Of course, the piece-de-resistance of Frieden’s reign is his successful campaign to ban the use of trans fat -- an artificial food ingredient found mostly in margarine, pastries, and fried foods -- in all of the city’s restaurants. In the months leading up to the ban’s December 2006 approval by the city council, Frieden took every opportunity to brand trans fats as a “dangerous” and “unnecessary” part of the city’s food supply.

Unsurprisingly, the reality of the situation is a bit more complex. Some businesses -- especially smaller outfits -- have struggled to find a replacement that’s just as cheap as trans fat without sacrificing food quality. Case in point: O’Neil Whyte, a baker in Harlem, told The New York Times in December 2006 that “things without trans fat are harder to get and more expensive.”

What’s more, a widely-touted justification for the ban -- fighting obesity -- is specious at best. Trans fat bears almost no relationship with rising obesity rates, and isn’t acutely dangerous like, say, arsenic or lead. Plus, trans fat’s natural substitutes aren’t any healthier, according to not only the National Academy of Sciences, but also the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration. The American Heart Association has warned that the trans fat ban has the "potential for unintended and adverse consequences, such as restaurants returning to the use of oils high in saturated or animal-based fat if healthier oils are in short supply."

Of course, this completely fits the mold that President Obama hopes to accomplish through government.

New Jersey Budget Disaster Looms; Tax Hikes Pending

It's a broken record with New Jersey politics. The state can't budget for good times or bad. It always overspends, and considers taxpayers to be piggy banks that have the ability to give that much more in taxes to cover spending on programs of dubious worth.

Today, we've got a series of reports indicating that Gov. Jon Corzine has to call for additional cuts and dip even deeper into the rainy day fund to cover the shortfall for this year and next year.

With everyone knowing that the recession was going to continue, why was anyone contemplating a budget that depended on overly optimistic revenue projections? That's fiscally irresponsible. You are supposed to be taking the most conservative position when it comes to revenue projections, because if the revenues fall short, you can't fund the programs. But that's not how they do things in New Jersey - or most of the rest of the nation for that matter.

So, how will New Jersey deal with this? Raising taxes. We're supposed to be relieved that Corzine wants to tax wine, but not beer? How about the wineries in New Jersey that will be adversely affected by that (and which benefit from the Jersey Fresh agricultural products campaign)?

And can the media be honest with the public when it comes to Trenton's profligate spending? The state is spending $32-$33 billion, not the $29.8 billion that the Record reports.

Governor Corzine will raid what’s left of his surplus while pushing other expenses down the road to make sure the current budget year ends without a deficit.

The governor will also make some new spending cuts, to be announced Friday, to maintain a balanced budget through June 30, something the state constitution requires.

Corzine said the new budget maneuvers will offset a $1.2 billion shortfall in revenues the state expected to collect back in March when the governor presented a spending plan for the new fiscal year.

That budget is also off by about $2 billion now, prompting Corzine to say he will be coming out with new cuts next week.

"It will, without doubt, require an additional $2 billion in reductions in spending," he said Thursday during an afternoon news conference in the State House. "We'll be precise about that next week."

To get out of the current budget year without a deficit, the state will use $450 million from surplus funds and push another $450 million in planned expenses, including school aid payments and business grants, into the new budget.

The state is spending billions courtesy of the federal porkfest, and it is not reducing its own spending one bit. Any cuts to the state's budget are long overdue and will likely be for show.

Corzine is addicted to spending, and the federal bailouts enabled him to carry out spending without the slightest inclination to control costs. New Jersey recently began an amnesty program so that people would pay back taxes without having to worry about penalties for late payment. That's not going to cut it. We're talking being a billion dollars or more short, and amnesty will raise a pittance in comparison.

Also, Corzine's projections for revenues were off by 50%.

Earlier last week, the state Office of Legislative Services issued a memo on April income tax collections that indicated a 40 percent drop off this year from 2008. Corzine had projected the income tax collections, which are usually a big source of revenue for the state, would be off by 17 percent.

Rousseau said Thursday the April tax collections re-opened a shortfall that had been closed by Corzine’s earlier budget adjustments.

Corzine is widely touted as a financial wiz, but the only thing Corzine continues doing is sending the state into financial ruin with his outlandish and overly optimistic projections, and wishful thinking taking the place of prudence.

Chrysler Closing 1/4 Of Dealerships Nationwide

This shouldn't come as a surprise as Chrysler struggles to get on sound financial footing. It's closing a quarter of its dealerships.

Chrysler LLC will close down 789 dealerships, or roughly 25% of the current number, according to a plan filed in bankruptcy court Thursday.

Chrysler had a total of 3,181 authorized dealers in operation at the time of its April 30 bankruptcy court filing, according to court filings. Just over half of that number accounted for more than 90% of Chrysler sales, according to the filing.

The dealers being shut down represent 14% of Chrysler's total sales, the carmaker said.

Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler does not believe closing these dealerships will adversely affect sales.

For New Jersey, it means 30 dealers are going by the boards, which are named here.

That means that those dealers that are closing represented a drag on business and weren't profitable for the company. It also means that those working at those dealerships will soon be out of jobs, and will have a hard time finding work within the industry given the dire problems facing the US automakers.

Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum Show Interest In Obtaining Shuttle For Collection

The Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum, which reopened with great fanfare late last year after a multi-year refurbishment, is now putting forth an effort to obtain one of the three remaining space shuttles for its extensive collection.

Museum officials have taken the first small step toward acquiring one of the three space shuttles that NASA plans to hand off when the shuttle program ends next year. They are enlisting support from elected officials and former astronauts for their idea of adding a decommissioned shuttle to the Intrepid’s eclectic collection of military aircraft, a Mercury space capsule, a submarine and a Concorde passenger jet.

They dream of housing the shuttle in a glass enclosure on the end of Pier 86 at 46th Street on the West Side of Manhattan, home to the Intrepid since 1982. But they have plenty of competition from museums around the country, including the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

“We have never shied away from competition or a challenge,” said Bill White, president of the foundation that operates the Intrepid museum. “This is very important to us, and it would just be an extraordinary, priceless treasure for New York City to receive. You’re going to see a very public campaign for this in the next few months.”

The Intrepid museum was one of 20 institutions that responded by a March 17 deadline to ask NASA about its plan to give away the last of the shuttles: Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis. The space agency estimates the cost of preparing and delivering them at $42 million each.

The Smithsonian has already notified NASA of its interest in the oldest of the shuttles, Discovery, but considers the cost prohibitive, said Michael J. Neufeld, chairman of the Smithsonian’s space history division. “Our official position is we don’t have the money to pay for the costs at all,” Dr. Neufeld said.

The Intrepid has shown the ability to raise vast sums of money, and that would be put to the test in order to obtain a shuttle for its collection, especially in the current economic climate.

However, the museum would greatly benefit from adding a shuttle to its collection as it would become one of the star attractions, alongside the Concorde, an A-12 (which many mistake for the SR-71 Blackbird), and the Intrepid herself.

The Joke Continues To Be On Taxpayers

I often joked with family members that the economy would pick up by the end of the year if the Obama Administration would do nothing but that the economy would continue in the doldrums well into 2011 and beyond if the Administration pushed its economic agenda.

Well, it appears that we're getting exactly what I expected. The economy continues sucking wind, and taxpayers are going to bear the brunt of Obama's fiscally reckless and irresponsible spending plans.

Now, I'm sure that the Obama supporters will come forward and claim that the unemployment figures would have been even worse had Obama not proffered the porkfest, but the amount of money spent thus far courtesy of the porkfest has been a pittance, and it has actually favored areas where there is lower unemployment.

The Administration continues failing economics 101, but the media continues rolling along as though there is nothing wrong.

North Korea Putting US Journalists On Trial

The North Korean government will put American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee on trial starting June 4. The charges? Well, that's where it gets curious.

The North Koreans didn't actually say what they're being charged with.

The brief dispatch in Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency did not say what charges they face and gave no other details. State media previously said Ling and Lee stand accused of illegal entry and unspecified "hostile" acts - charges that could carry up to 10 years in prison.

North Korea's detention of the two Americans comes at a time of mounting tensions between Pyongyang and Washington, and there are concerns Pyongyang could use the women as bargaining chips as it seeks to position itself for talks with the Obama administration.

The announcement of the June trial date for Ling and Lee also comes on the heels of the release in Iran this week of an American journalist originally sentenced to eight years for spying. Roxana Saberi's sentence was reduced to a two-year suspended term. She was freed Monday after four months in jail and international calls for the release of all three U.S. journalists.

This is a joke. The North Koreans are clearly testing the Obama Administration to see what the Administration will proffer as penance to secure the release of these two journalists.

In Saberi's case, it may have been the US including Iran at a conference on the situation in Afghanistan. North Korea may seek something similar, but the charges are just as bogus.

The Administration is not up to the task and the enemies of the US are probing to see just how much they can get away with. Arresting and detaining Americans is just the start, and it's only going to get a whole lot more dangerous for America going forward.

Back to Square One

There is no peace process when the Arab nations surrounding Israel keep reverting back to square one. Israel has had a de facto peace with Syria for years along its border with Syria, despite holding the Golan Heights, which it won in hard fighting in 1967, and which it defended at terrible cost in 1973. Syria wants the Golan back, not only because of the land per se, but because of what it represents.

Syria cannot recognize that Israel beat them repeatedly, and it needs something to show for its decades of war and support of terrorism against Israel's very existence. Syria still doesn't recognize Israel's existence, but it fears Israel's military. It's seen what Israel can do to Syria's military and its efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction, and it cannot hold a candle to Israel via conventional warfare, so its efforts are primarily via the proxy terror armies of Hamas and Hizbullah and as a conduit for Iranian support.

Of course, the Golan also is a major watershed and supplies much of the region, including Israel and Jordan. Syria's interests in the Golan aren't altruistic. Even Jordan recognizes this as the Jordan River supports a significant portion of the Jordanian water needs.

Meanwhile, Jordan is also working the usual tripe about how Israel must make concessions in order to establish a two-state solution. Let's also ignore the fact that Jordan had the power to make a two-state solution possible from 1947 until 1967, when it occupied and annexed the West Bank (and back in the days when Jordan was called Transjordan). The Palestinians are no different than their Jordanian brethren since they're the same people. The same goes for Egypt, which occupied Gaza from 1948 until 1967, when it too lost that territory. The Arab states didn't want to create a new Palestinian state; they sought Israel's destruction.

That mindset hasn't changed one bit, even with the cold peace between Israel and Egypt and Jordan.

When are the Palestinians, and by extension, the entire Arab world, going to concede that they cannot destroy Israel, and that it is futile to do so? Arab regimes around the world sponsor hatefests that demonize Israel and seek its destruction as a way of controlling their own restless populations.

And these are the folks that Israel has already made peace with.

Keep in mind that these are the so-called moderates in the Middle East.

The Palestinians produce stuff that is beyond the pale in comparison and they are actively seeking Israel's destruction.

All these people feeding the hate are evil.

Yes, they're evil. They're indoctrinating kids into hating and seeking destruction and wanton murder and unending violence because Israel exists. You want peace? Start by dealing with the indoctrination of the next generation of Arab kids into seeking Israel's destruction.

The Palestinian Authority was supposed to stop spreading hatred and indoctrinating yet another generation of Arabs into seeking Israel's destruction as the highest obligation one can achieve. The Palestinian Authority never did stop spreading the hate. Hamas and Fatah continue spreading their venom, using all the means at their disposal.

But we're constantly reminded that it is Israel that must make concessions in the name of peace. What are these people giving up in the name of peace? Nothing.

The Islamists feed on the hate and spread it by calling for jihad against Israel and consider it their religious obligation to fight Israel to the last man, woman and child. These barbarians are more than willing to murder everyone in their path, and no one in the Middle East seems willing to take these Islamists head-on.

UPDATE:
Mere Rhetoric points out that the terrorists are once again firing mortars into Israel despite claiming that they were going to contemplate a ceasefire.

They contemplated, and decided to once again engage in war against Israel because that's their religious obligation.

At the same time, Bill Roggio notes a curious report noting that the US Treasury Department has sanctioned an al Qaeda terror master living in Syria.

Sa'ad Uwayyid 'Ubayd Mu'jil al Shammari, an Iraqi member of al Qaeda who operates from inside Syria, has been designated as a terrorist under Executive Order 13224. The designation allows the US to freeze his assets, prevent him from using financial institutions, and prosecute him for terrorist activities.

"We will continue to aggressively implement the international obligation to target al Qaeda-linked terrorists, like Abu Khalaf, who threaten the safety of Coalition Forces and the stability of Iraq," said Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said in a Treasury press release issued today.

Shammari, who is better known as Abu Khalaf, is known to recruit suicide bombers from North Africa and aids in setting up their travel arrangements into Syria and ultimately Iraq. “The facilitator recruited a few suicide bombers, who attempted to travel to Iraq," the Treasury press release stated.

Khalaf also helped al Qaeda suicide bombers based in the Persian Gulf region travel to the Levant to conduct suicide attacks. The Levant consists of the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea and includes Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. He is believed to operate in Tal Hamis in Syria and Tal Wardan and the 'Awinat village in t Rabiah district in Iraq.

Syria keeps bad company, and sooner or later it will come back to haunt them in a big way, although it looks like the Obama Administration will content itself with issuing directives to cut off funding for those al Qaeda in Syria, rather than demanding the regime in Damascus hand them over.

We've also been hearing reports that the Syrian support for the Iraqi insurgency has picked up in recent weeks, suggesting that whatever the Obama Administration has done vis-a-vis Syria hasn't worked. Syria is pursuing its own agenda, and that comes at the expense of the US and Israel.

Who Blocked This Nomination?

The Albany Times Union, picking up on the AP report by Dina Cappiello, claims that Republicans blocked the nomination of David Hayes to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior.

Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's pick for the No. 2 job at the Interior Department Wednesday in a dispute over oil and gas leases, but Democrats signaled they would soon make a second attempt to win confirmation.

The 57-39 vote was three short of the 60 needed to advance David Hayes past Republican objections, and made him the first of Obama's top-level nominees to be sidetracked on the Senate floor.

Hayes, an environmental lawyer picked by Obama to serve as deputy secretary of the Interior Department, held the same post during the last three years of the Clinton administration. He also led Obama's natural resources transition team, responsible for naming a new Interior Department head.

Republican opposition to Hayes' nomination was led by Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah, who expressed anger over Secretary Ken Salazar's recent decision to revoke 77 oil and gas leases in his state. He was joined by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who raised questions about the administration's plans for oil and gas development and objected to recent reversals of several Bush-era rules on endangered species and mountaintop mining.

The problem is that the facts don't bear this out. Democrats failed to get the votes because three of its members were not present.

The final vote was 57-39, which means three members were not present and didn't vote. Those three members were Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, and Sen. John Kerry. All are Democrats. Had two of the three been present to cast their votes, Hayes's name would have gone up for a confirmation vote.

Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, also voted against the measure as a procedural point to enable him to bring Hayes' nomination before the floor at a later date.

That's four Democrats who did not vote for Hayes' nomination, and yet it is the minority party that are obstructionists?

The AP should be ashamed of itself for this baseless accusation and the Times Union should take down that headline because it is baseless and wrong. The measure was put up to a vote because it was expected that it wouldn't pass - and the Democrats were hoping to embarrass the Republicans.

UPDATE:
To be absolutely clear, the only reason that this measure didn't pass was because Sen. Harry Reid chose to move this nomination even though he lacked the votes. He either couldn't count, or expected that the failure to garner enough votes would be blamed on the GOP. Well, on that score, Reid won.

The facts, however, are what they are and they show that it was Democrats who failed to vote for Hayes. After all, Republicans John Kyl and Olympia Snowe voted for the measure. That makes Reid's math mistake all the more egregious - to say nothing of the misleading AP headlines.

Obama's Health Care Hubris

President Obama wants to remake the US health care delivery system in the nation, and his friends in Congress are ready to aid and abet him. Of course, the reality of what he intends to do means suspending disbelief over the costs, and how it will be paid for.

The numbers simply do not add up.

Democrats have suggested that they are willing to play hardball and pass a bill without Republican support. Arlen Specter, the senior Pennsylvania senator, became a Democrat, potentially adding one more vote. At the White House on Monday, lobbyists for doctors, insurers and other industry groups pledged to reduce the growth of medical spending.

Yet none of these developments has removed the main hurdle to health care reform: the matter of the missing $90 billion.

Providing health insurance to the roughly 50 million people without it will cost something like $120 billion a year. President Obama has proposed $60 billion or so in new revenue for this purpose — a “down payment,” his advisers say. But Congress seems set to reject about half of the down payment (a plan to limit high-income families’ tax deductions for charitable giving and other such things). That makes for the $90 billion health care hole.

And no one is quite sure how to fill it.

That $90 billion is a best case scenario, which is likely to grow as the costs add up. We saw the same thing with the prescription drug program that the Bush Administration pushed, which now costs billions more per year than previously anticipated. There are no cost savings, only more costs - and higher taxes around the corner.


There will be taxes. Lots of taxes.

It means that the expiration date on Obama's claim that most Americans wont see tax increases will have long passed (Obama's tax claims were voided the moment the federal government imposed a cigarette tax hike to partially fund S-CHIP, but I digress).

The sad part is that the media continues spinning for the Administration when it lazily reports that Limit on tax-free benefits may fund coverage. Limiting tax-free benefits on health care coverage is another way of saying that the moment you reach the capped level, you are going to get taxed. Reducing the cap means that you're going to tax that many more people and businesses, with those costs passed on to the end user.

This is a way to claim that you aren't raising taxes all while raising taxes for those who now face higher taxes as a result from their benefits no longer shielded from taxes.

It's a shell game where the money gets thrown around but remains unaccounted for.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday that there are no easy options. Senators began grappling with how to finance guaranteed coverage, a cornerstone of Obama's plan to overhaul the health care system. Independent experts put the costs at about $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

Obama sees a world in which doctors and hospitals compete to offer quality service at lower costs, and the savings help cover the uninsured. Turning that vision into reality remains the biggest challenge for the president and his backers, because hard cash — not just ideas — is required to cover upfront costs of expanding coverage.

The president put health care industry leaders on notice Tuesday that he expects them to fulfill their dramatic offer of $2 trillion in savings over 10 years. "I will hold you to your pledge to get this done," Obama said in a letter that went to groups representing insurers, hospitals, doctors and drug makers.

The cost savings will come from reducing the availability of care to Americans most in need of such care. It means making heart rendering decisions that will prevent needy individuals from getting care under insurance programs that previously covered that care.

UPDATE:
Don Surber points out the blindingly obvious problems with government health care. It doesn't work in the UK, and it wont work here either. The government bureaucrats wont do any better than private insurers, and in fact are showing themselves to do far worse - a death toll that increased in Scotland as more people died in government run hospitals from malnourishment than they did just a few years before.

The Scottish Government statistics also showed 1,884 people were diagnosed with malnutrition in Scottish hospitals in 2008, of whom 110 died –- one in 17. This is twice as bad as the situation in 1998 when a similar number -– 1,805 –- were diagnosed with malnutrition, but only 51 of these patients died from it –- one in 35.”

Another Sad Reminder To Stay Off the Tracks

Last night, a high school student from the next town over died after being struck by a NJ Transit train. The student, Nicholas Bischoff, was killed when a NJ Transit train struck him prior to entering the Borough Hall train station in Glen Rock, New Jersey despite attempts to stop the train with the emergency brakes and sounding the horn.

The engineer of the train saw Bischoff on the tracks, sounded the horn and used the emergency brake, but was not able to stop, Stessel said.

The accident occurred between Harristown Road and Maple Avenue, just east of the Glen Rock borough hall train station, he said. The train had not yet stopped at the station.

The train was No. 1227, traveling on the Bergen County line, he said. It had departed from Hoboken at 8:15 p.m., and the last stop was in Waldwick.

None of the approximately 25 passengers aboard the train was injured, Stessel said. The passengers were delayed for about an hour and transferred to another train.

This isn't the first time that people have been struck and killed by trains in New Jersey, and it's a problem that is nationwide. There is no good reason to walk on the tracks, particularly when train traffic is frequent as it is on the Bergen Line. Yet, I've repeatedly seen people crossing just ahead of oncoming train traffic.

It got so bad at Radburn, New Jersey, that NJ Transit police were called to stand and prevent people from crossing the tracks ahead of trains that were entering the station to pick up passengers.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Bischoff's family and hope that their sorrow can be translated into some good by reminding people to stay off the tracks.

The New York State Culture of Corruption Gains Another Member

This time, it is former New York State Health Commissioner Antonia Novella, who is accused of stealing state services.

Former state Health Commissioner Antonia Novello was charged criminally Tuesday for allegedly misusing her office and stealing services from the state during her seven-year tenure as the state's top health official.
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Novello, 64, health commissioner from 1999 to 2006, pleaded not guilty in Albany County Court to a 20-count indictment, including four felony charges that she defrauded the government and offered false instruments.

The other counts, all misdemeanors, claim she stole state services. She could face a maximum of 12 years in prison if convicted on all counts, said Albany County District Attorney David Soares. Albany county Judge Stephen Herrick allowed her to be freed without bail but required her to surrender her passport.

In a report in January, the state Inspector General's Office alleged that Novello used state workers to provide personal services for her, including taking her on lavish shopping sprees and requiring workers to rack up about $50,000 in overtime to tend to her. The inspector general said she used state workers for such chores as buying her groceries, moving furniture and watering her plants.

Novello's tenure at the Health Department coincides with that of former Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (who later became governor), who once again failed to uncover corrupt state officials during his run as Attorney General. He too failed to uncover the massive corruption in the Comptroller's office and the growing pay to play pension scandals.

Novello's attorney, the well known Albany attorney E. Stewart Jones says that this matter could have been settled amicably. That's what he's supposed to say, but the corruption and theft of services is not something that can just be tossed aside by repayment. It was a series of criminal acts, and Novello is liable for them.

This all goes to the culture of corruption in Albany, where misbehavior is often ignored or excused. That must end, and it is up to the state's law enforcement officers - the attorney general and the local district attorneys to make it happen. It is also up to the voters, who continue to send repeat offenders to higher office, despite the corruption and ethical lapses. New York deserves better.

Also, keep in mind that Novello is being accused of substantially the same crime that former Comptroller Alan Hevesi entered a plea deal on. It seems that Albany politicians think it is perfectly acceptable to use state workers to run their personal chores and services, and that repayment isn't needed (or at least isn't needed until they're caught and charged in criminal court).

UPDATE:
The list goes on and on of ethical lapses and criminal acts by those politicians in Albany. The time to clean up the mess in Albany was years ago, but no one has bothered to heed the call.

UPDATE:
Soccer Dad emails to point out that Novella was a former Surgeon General of the United States and is the sister to none other than Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novella).

NYS Pay to Play Update

A hedge fund placement agent secretly entered a guilty plea two months ago in connection with the pay to play deals undertaken by Hank Morris and former New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office. The deal was kept under wraps because Julio Ramirez was cooperating with NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation.

A former state pension fund "placement agent" secretly pleaded guilty two months ago to kicking back fees to Hank Morris, former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi's political guru, and is cooperating in the far-reaching probe, it was revealed yesterday.

Attorney General Cuomo said former Wetherly Capital Group agent Julio Ramirez of Los Angeles pleaded guilty on March 5 to one count of misdemeanor securities fraud for secretly giving the already-indicted Morris $250,000, or 40 percent of the fees he earned helping Wetherly place $50 million from the state's Common Retirement Fund with two investment-management firms.

Ramirez admits to receiving kickbacks from Morris between 2003 and 2006 in order to secure a deal between the state and Wetherly.

US Coordinating Pakistani Predator Strikes

The pace of UAV airstrikes against the Taliban and al Qaeda inside Pakistan and the frontier provinces continues to increase, and this is a major reason why. The US is closely coordinating with the Pakistani government over the targets in an attempt to smooth over ruffled feathers in the Pakistani government.

The project was begun in recent weeks to bolster Pakistan's ability and willingness to disrupt the militant groups that are posing a growing threat to the government in Islamabad and fueling violence in Afghanistan.

For the U.S. military, the missions represent a broad new role in searching for Islamic militants in Pakistan. For years, that task has been the domain of the CIA, which has flown its own fleet of Predators over the South Asian nation.

Under the new partnership, U.S. military drones will be allowed for the first time to venture beyond the borders of Afghanistan under the direction of Pakistani military officials, who are working with American counterparts at a command center in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

We've known that those Predator airstrikes have occurred inside Pakistan, but this is the first time that we're acknowledging that we're doing so, and that we're doing so in coordination with the Pakistani government.

So, while the airstrikes continue to take their toll on Taliban forces in South Waziristan, the Taliban continue their assaults on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bill Roggio notes the offensive against a security installation in Khost, and while the Taliban suffered significant losses, it shows that this war is far from over.

The attack began mid-morning when a suicide bomber dressed in a burka attacked the provincial headquarters and was followed up by a suicide car bomber. No casualties were reported in the opening salvo.

A six-man suicide team then assaulted a police station in Khost City but was repelled by the policemen. The attackers entered a nearby municipal center and took 20 people hostage. Three of the suicide bombers apparently detonated their vests as Afghan and US forces cordoned then stormed the building, killed the remaining Taliban fighters, and rescued the hostages.

Other explosions were heard throughout the city, while the Taliban set ambushes for US and Afghan forces as they responded to the attacks from nearby bases. The fighting later died down in the evening as security forces took control.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a senior Taliban spokesman, claimed the attack was larger than reported, and said 30 suicide bombers participated in the assault.

Today’s assault in Khost is the latest in a series of complex attacks and other strikes aimed and police and government centers in Afghanistan since January 2008 [see list below]. Taliban bombers and assault teams have carried out sophisticated strikes in Kabul, Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Nimroz, Nuristan, and Khost.

Over the past two years, of the Taliban attacks have become more sophisticated and more effective. The Taliban receive training for such attacks at training facilities in Pakistan's northwest as well as in Baluchistan province. Taliban fighters train with al Qaeda and other allied jihadi groups inside of Pakistan, and some Taliban fighters become members of al Qaeda's Shadow Army, the elite paramilitary force operating in the Afghan/Pakistani border region.

The Taliban continue crossing the Afghan/Pakistani border without the slightest hesitation, and that's a situation that must be rectified.

UPDATE:
The Taliban continue attacking NATO supply lines in Pakistan, damaging yet another convoy. MSNBC also reports that seven civilians were killed in the assault on the NATO facility in Khost when one of the suicide bombers detonated his bomb vest. The issue of civilian casualties remains a hot button issue, and the Taliban will continue putting civilians in harm's way by operating as lawless thugs who couldn't care about human rights or the Geneva Conventions, and hope to pin those deaths on the Americans.

Civilian casualties have been a cause of increasing anger in Afghanistan. Afghan officials say U.S. forces killed more than 100 civilians in strikes in Farah province in the west of the country last week.

U.S. commanders say they believe the death toll from that incident was lower and blame the Taliban for putting civilians in danger and possibly killing some of them.

They've been successful in getting the Afghan government to question US airstrikes against Taliban targets, by inflating body counts, and getting the US to defend its actions.

Questions Persist Following Boston Metro Crash

Over the weekend, a Boston Metro trolley crashed into another trolley, injuring nearly 50 people and totaled three trolley cars. Word came out that the driver of the vehicle that crashed admitted to text messaging at the time of the accident and had a troublesome record, including multiple tickets and one accident, in which a death occurred (although none of the tickets or the accident would have precluded Quinn from obtaining the job).

Normally, that would be the end of the query, but there's much more to this story, as Jules Crittenden points out. Apparently the driver, Aiden Quinn, was transgendered and originally applied for the job under the name Georgia Quinn.

Never mind the texting, the three speeding tickets and one accident in recent years and the relative youth at 24. Should people who deny fundamental biological facts and claim to be of the opposite gender be entrusted with large public conveyances that carry dozens of commuters? Would it be discriminatory to question their judgment and stability? Should the NTSB be looking at possible medical issues, such as any effect hormone treatments for example might have on behavior, perception and judgment?

Transgender trolley driver/texting crash background at Boston Herald. Discussion of MBTA hiring criteria Boston Globe looks at the youth and driving record issues, mentions the transgender aspect but does not take it into consideration.

The NTSB will definitely examine the medical records and see if the treatment plan (including hormone therapy) may have put lives in jeopardy by causing impairment of judgment. It's in this context that the transgender question will be addressed; I don't expect it to evaluate the question of whether transgendered persons should be allowed to drive or operate mass transit vehicles.

Carrie Prejean Keeps Her Crown

Donald Trump, who owns the Miss USA pageant, refused to strip Carrie Prejean of her title. Good for him. Even better was the fact that he pointed out the salient fact that the media chose to ignore - that Prejean's position on gay marriage is the same as that of President Obama.

Prejean had apparently done semi-nude photos, which were not disclosed to pageant organizers, but the real kerfuffle flared in the aftermath of the event finals where Perez Hilton questions Prejean on gay marriage and a firestorm brewed over her honest answer that she personally opposed gay marriage.

As I've notably pointed out, Prejean's position is identical to that of President Obama, and he's received a fraction of the derision and investigation on his position as Prejean has had on hers.

Senate Nanny Staters Seek Soda Tax

You knew that this idea wouldn't die, not with the massive deficits being run up by the states and the federal government. They need the revenues and are more than willing to tax the bejeebus out of anyone and everything.

With that in mind, there are US Senators looking to impose a national sales tax on soda and other sugared beverages to pay for President Obama's massive health care proposal (despite the President saying that he would not raise taxes on most Americans).

The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to hear proposals from about a dozen experts about how to pay for the comprehensive health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama wants to enact this year. Early estimates put the cost of the plan at around $1.2 trillion. The administration has so far only earmarked funds for about half of that amount.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based watchdog group that pressures food companies to make healthier products, plans to propose a federal excise tax on soda, certain fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and ready-to-drink teas. It would not include most diet beverages. Excise taxes are levied on goods and manufacturers typically pass them on to consumers.

Senior staff members for some Democratic senators at the center of the effort to craft health-care legislation are weighing the idea behind closed doors, Senate aides said.

The Congressional Budget Office, which is providing lawmakers with cost estimates for each potential change in the health overhaul, included the option in a broad report on health-system financing in December. The office estimated that adding a tax of three cents per 12-ounce serving to these types of sweetened drinks would generate $24 billion over the next four years. So far, lawmakers have not indicated how big a tax they are considering.

Never mind that the soda tax would never cover the costs, which are in the hundreds of billions (just think of the costs relating to the federal prescription drug program established under President Bush).

That benefit will run $1.2 trillion. This tax would raise a fraction of that total. Never mind that the costs to implement the latest sin tax would erode the revenues raised in the first place, and would further drain the pockets of all Americans, especially those in the low income brackets because it would be a disproportionate and regressive tax on those people.

It's all about the sin taxes and that government knows better than the individual what's good for them.

Well, everyone should know by now that President Obama's statements and positions come with expiration dates, but the imposition of still more taxes will not solve a problem that doesn't exist. Health care is available to everyone in the nation, but people can and do get sticker shock from the costs. Not everyone has health insurance, but that doesn't mean that they can't get health care. The health care debate has muddied the waters on that front and conflated access to health care with affordability of that care.

What this comes down to is that the government under the Obama Administration thinks that it should be the answer to all areas of the economy, rather than letting the market dictate prices and availability of services. We've repeatedly seen that the government cannot get service delivery right - whether it is the decades long problems with providing health care to current and former military service members or the ballooning costs for federal entitlements.

The Administration continues spending more than it is taking in, and yet another major program will only add to the deficit, which is rising faster in Obama's first 100 days than at any other point in the nation's history.

UPDATE:
Don Surber notes that we might be better off if the nation stopped subsidizing sugar in the first place. Well, that and people made the personal choice to stop eating so many donuts and sugared beverages. The former is far more likely to happen than the latter, and both are pretty unlikely to happen.

According to CATO, the US subsidizes sugar prices to the tune of $2 billion annually. That more that doubles the cost of sugar in the US, and that inflates the costs of food products as well.

I'd also note that higher sugar prices sent food processors to seek out alternative sweeteners, which resulted in corn syrup being the product of choice, until those prices rose as the government mandated the use of biofuels. Now, some of those same food processors are back to using sugar because it is cheaper.

UPDATE:
To reinforce the collapsing house of cards that are otherwise known as Social Security and Medicare, a new report finds that both programs will become insolvent far sooner than previously indicated because the recession is sapping the funds for both. In fact, the situation with Medicare is dire, and nothing that Obama proposes provides a fix:

The trustees for Social Security and Medicare are scheduled to provide their annual report on the finances of both programs on Tuesday. In advance of the release, many private analysts said they expected both programs could run out of cash sooner than last predicted.

A year ago, the trustees projected that the Social Security trust fund would start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2017 and that the trust fund would be depleted in 2041.
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For the Medicare trust fund, which pays for hospital care, the situation was more urgent. It was projected to start paying more in benefits than it collects in taxes within a year, and the trustees forecast that it would be depleted by 2019.

But many analysts said the worst recession in decades will produce a bleaker forecast for both Social Security and Medicare in the new trustees' report. The downturn has resulted in a loss of 5.7 million payroll jobs since it began in December 2007 and an unemployment rate that hit a 25-year high of 8.9 percent in April.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 66

The situation at Ground Zero is rapidly deteriorating because of the political machinations of the Port Authority and the bi-state control of the Authority between New Jersey and New York. The Port Authority is ponying up billions to assist New Jersey in the construction of the Trans Hudson Express (THE) tunnel, which was originally meant to upgrade service for NJ Transit and Amtrak, but now appears to be a NJ Transit only tunnel.

Meanwhile, Ground Zero construction is lagging and the Port Authority is stonewalling on modifying a deal with Larry Silverstein to provide him with credit lines so that he can proceed with building office towers at the complex.

In other words, the Port Authority is not prioritizing Ground Zero appropriately. It's something I've been saying for some time as there is a genuine lack of urgency on the part of the Port Authority to build out Ground Zero. Yesterday, we learned that the Port Authority wants to go ahead and build stumps of office towers, dooming the site to decades of construction going forward, rather than building out the towers fully.

We also finally heard from Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver, who wants to throw a monkey wrench in the Port Authority plans - all of them. He notes that if the Port Authority doesn't come to terms with Silverstein and get the Ground Zero construction moving, he's going to stymie other Port Authority construction projects, including the THE tunnel. Where was Silver for seven years? He was largely absent from the discussions, and the lack of leadership among New York politicians on the matter - from US Senators on down to New York City officials is part of the reason that the situation has persisted for as long as it has.

Now, the Port Authority is looking to turn part of the planned 5WTC into a residential tower and hotel. Bear in mind that there was a Marriott hotel (former the Vista International) at Ground Zero, which was along West Street and was destroyed by the collapsing towers. The Port Authority is trying to downsize the amount of office space at Ground Zero because of what it perceives to be a loss of interest in office space.

I think it's a serious mistake as construction isn't just meant for today's conditions, but for those a decade and more from now. Silverstein says that he remains committed to fully rebuilding Ground Zero's office space. He's the only optimist in the whole bunch, as Mayor Bloomberg and others have repeatedly claimed and proposed cutting back office space to build residential or other space.

Meanwhile, there is finally some good to come out of the fatal fire at the former Deutshce Bank building as new building regulations are set to make deconstruction safer.

UPDATE:
As I was leaving the PATH station at Ground Zero, there was an awful stench that reminded me of scorched metal and instantly brought back memories of the smell that hung over Lower Manhattan for months following the 9/11 attacks. As I reached street level, I arrived just in time to see emergency personnel carrying out what appeared to be a worker on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance, which may have been heading to St. Vincent's hospital for treatment. I haven't seen any reports on the incident, but I suspect that accident and the smell were related.

UPDATE:
Effective May 18, 2008 and running for the next 18 months, PATH service between Hoboken and World Trade Center will see service disruptions as construction of the permanent terminal ramps up. One of the two tracks servicing Hoboken will be out of service in addition to the 5th track that was taken out of service several weeks ago.

UPDATE:
About time. We're finally learning that Fiterman Hall will be demolished by late fall. The demolition will mean that the PATH entrance and access to 7WTC will be impaired by the construction work done at the adjacent Fiterman Hall.

It's still years away from being rebuilt, but the Dormitory Authority is finally moving ahead.

UPDATE:
It turns out that I wasn't seeing things this morning. A construction worker was injured at Ground Zero; an ironworker fell 20 feet while on a break from erecting steel for the 9/11 Memorial. His injuries weren't life threatening.

His injuries are not thought to be life-threatening, according to a spokesman for the Port Authority, which oversees construction of the underground museum and street-level memorial plaza.

Around 8:15 a.m. Guido Castro, of Cornell Crane and Steel, fell about 20 feet, from the third to the second floor. The worker was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital for treatment, but by the afternoon the hospital had yet to determine his condition.

“He was on his break, and it looks like he just slipped off the edge of the deck,” said the spokesman, Steve Coleman. According to Coleman, Castro was wearing a safety harness at the time, but it was not tethered to the structure.

Shuttle Atlantis Launch Footage

This is the last time that a space shuttle is expected to service the Hubble Space Telescope, so it has special significance. It's also among the riskiest missions that NASA has planned because if there's a problem with the shuttle that prevents it from returning to earth, NASA would have to send up another shuttle within days to rescue the stranded Atlantis.

Pirates Getting Help From Overseas

This isn't much of a surprise really. The pirates and the shipping industry have been in close contact through intermediaries for years in order to secure ransoms and negotiate deals to release ships and crews in Somalia and elsewhere around the world.

Therefore, it's not much of a reach to learn that there are unscrupulous people who are tipping off the pirates as to the whereabouts of lucrative targets ripe for being attacked by the pirates.

It says that pirate groups have "well-placed informers" in London who are in regular contact with control centres in Somalia where decisions on which vessels to attack are made. These London-based "consultants" help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships' cargoes and courses.

In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company.

The pirates' information network extends to Yemen, Dubai and the Suez canal.

The intelligence report is understood to have been issued to European navies.

"The information that merchant ships sailing through the area volunteer to various international organisations is ending up in the pirates' hands," Cadena SER reported the report as saying.

This enables the more organised pirate groups to study their targets in advance, even spending several days training teams for specific hijacks. Senior pirates then join the vessel once it has been sailed close to Somalia.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 65

This is especially troubling and disconcerting news, even though there had been rumblings that the Port Authority would go in this direction.

The Port Authority is now seriously considering building what can only be politely called stumps of two of the office towers that were set to grace the Eastern side of Ground Zero. These two towers, which were to be designed by world famous architects Richard Rogers and Sir Norman Foster, are apparently on the chopping block in more ways than one. The excuse is that they don't want to build out 10 million square feet of office space, and are instead proffering an option that builds 5 million square feet (the original WTC complex contained 10 million sf when it was destroyed by Islamic terrorists on 9/11).

Bludgeoned by recession and a war with developer Larry Silverstein, the Port Authority is proposing halving the office space it will build at Ground Zero - from 10 million square feet to 5 million, sources familiar with the plan say.

The sources say the agency's new vision for the site calls for scrapping one tower that would have been taller than the Empire State Building and nixing two others that would have dwarfed the nearby Woolworth Building.

In place of two Silverstein behemoths, each designed by a British lord and soaring 79 stories, the PA would erect a pair of short, squat buildings no taller than four or five floors - coined "stumps" - that could be used for retail shops, according to the proposal.

The vastly scaled-back site plan was disclosed to The News hours before Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Friday branded budget-busting delays and cost overruns at the 16-acre site an "embarrassment to our city, our state and our nation."

For a change, I actually agree with Silver. It is an embarrassment. Of course, Silver deserves some of the blame for that, by refusing to push the Port Authority and the State to get construction moving years earlier than it eventually did. Silver has been an obstructionist on major city projects for years, including the Hudson Yards project (which would have resulted in major office building development on the West Side), and various other projects unless he benefited politically.

Now, Mayor Bloomberg is holding a summit on the Ground Zero rebuilding, including all the major players.

Expect Larry Silverstein to be thrown under the bus, despite the fact that he's the only one to have built anything of permanence on the remains of Ground Zero. His 7WTC is a stark reminder of the failings of the LMDC, City, State, and Port Authority. Yet, all too many people are looking to blame Silverstein for the impasse, even though the Port Authority still hasn't turned over the site for 3 and 4 WTC to Silverstein to build and the former Deutsche Bank building wont be demolished until 2010 delaying the ability to access the site and construct the vehicle security center that will service the entire site.

Also, with all the trillions thrown around by the Obama Administration, no one can seem to find the money to make sure that the construction at Ground Zero can proceed without worrying about the money woes? Silverstein's construction efforts are hampered by the inability to secure credit. He's been trying to get the Port Authority to provide the credit, which hasn't been forthcoming.

If the Administration (and the state and city) want to make sure that Ground Zero doesn't remain a perpetual construction site, make the loan commitments to Silverstein and get out of the way so that he can rebuild.

Another New York City Flyby Cancelled?

I regularly receive notifications from the NotifyNYC system, and they sent out emails earlier this morning announcing that as per the FAA, there would be a military flight near Lower Manhattan this morning between the hours of 10:30 to 11:30 am today.

10:25 am - MON, May 11, 2009
Notify NYC - Notification 10:25am
As per the FAA, the planned military flyover has been cancelled.

10:24 am - MON, May 11, 2009
Notify NYC - Notification
This is a message from Notify NYC. Notification 2 issued 05/11/09 at 10:00am. As per the FAA, the planned military flyover has been cancelled.

10:00 am - MON, May 11, 2009
Notify NYC - Notification 10:00am
As per the FAA,a military plane will fly down and back up the Hudson River between the hours of 10:30 to 11:30 am today.

A second notification was issued about a half hour later saying that the flyby was canceled.

There's no word on the kind of planes that were to be involved or the purpose of this flight.

We do know that the White House and Presidential Wing had prepared for a flyby across the District of Columbia, but that was canceled after the outrage from the New York City metro area flyby.

UPDATE:
Bear in mind that the photo taken and released by the White House of the first flyby is awful. (HT: Gabriel Malor at Ace)

I would have tossed it on the circular file because it simply doesn't meet my own standards for publication. It's muddy, includes distracting reflections, and the bottom right includes part of the canopy of the F-16 chase plane.

Meanwhile, one thing that the photo doesn't contain is the EXIF data, which is commonly found on most digital cameras. Why was that information seemingly purged? Was it taken with a simple point and shoot, and not even a prosumer model? That whole episode still reeks.

UPDATE:
Apparently today's planned flight was to include a US Navy P-3 Orion reconnaissance aircraft flying around 3,000 feet above the Hudson River. It would be substantially higher than the skyscrapers, but still far lower than typical air traffic in the region.

The report indicates that the FAA canned the order, even though it sent out an alert to the City of New York, which itself alerted the public via the NotifyNYC system.

Something doesn't quite make sense, given that the FAA apparently approved the flyby in the first place, but only at the last moment cancelled it. In light of the flyby mess two weeks ago, how was it approved?

Also, what was the purpose of the mission? That goes unmentioned. Curious.

Iran To Release Roxana Saberi; Alaei Brothers Still Held

This is a most curious gesture on the part of the Iranian regime. They had trumped up charges against Saberi and convicted her of conspiring to overthrow the Iranian government in a sham trial. Now, it looks like they're going to release her after an appeal that took longer than the original trial (if only barely). (HT: Hot Air)

An Iran court has cut jailed US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi’s sentence to two years suspended and she will be freed later on Monday, her lawyer says.

The court heard Ms Saberi’s appeal against her original eight-year prison sentence on Sunday, after an international outcry. …

The five-hour appeal was far longer than the original trial - and before it began Ms Saberi was allowed a half-hour meeting with her lawyer.

Iranian justice is a misnomer. It's a kangaroo court and the regime was pushing this trial and conviction, just as surely as they're now looking to release her.

The question becomes why. Why is the Iranian regime now releasing Saberi? What have they gained from the release? Well, there's the possibility of a quid pro quo - Iran was invited to a conference on how to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan. That's no better than allowing the fox to guard the henhouse since Iran has no interest in stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan since they benefit from that instability as it enables the regime to expand its influence.

Meanwhile, the regime continues holding the Alaei brothers, who were similarly convicted of conspiring to overthrow the regime. The brothers are doctors who treat AIDS patients and are well known for their AIDS prevention programs in Iran. One was attending my alma mater in a Ph.D program.

Let's not forget them.

UPDATE:
Jammie also notes the reports of Saberi's pending release.

The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the One

How is it that President Bush could visit Normandy and the public was allowed uninterrupted access to the landing beaches and Colleville-Sur-Mer on the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day landings, and now we're learning that the State Department is putting in a request to keep the cemetery off limit to the public when President Obama visits next month for the 65th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

The 65th Anniversary of D-Day is fast approaching. Barack Obama will attend the events on June 6th as George Bush did in 2004 for the sixtieth memorial service. Here is the rub, as of now Obama’s State Department has asked (read demanded) the French government not allow tour guide services to operate that day. It is a big day for Normandy tourism. Yet, the king will not allow those not connected with government to enjoy the day. Obama is very important you know. This is an unprecedented request. I hope the French come to their senses and deny it.

Compare that with 2004. Security was tight as President Bush and other world leaders were in attendance, but the event was still open to all. A friend relayed the story of waiting in line to use a port-a-potty (a French port-a-potty no doubt, yuck, believe me.) She looks to her left and who he is in the next line waiting patiently? President Bush. Sure he had Secret Service nearby, but he waited like everyone else.

Contrast that with Team Obama not even allowing regular people near Colleville-Sur-Mer that day. A shame indeed. Especially as the last of our WW II vets are expiring.

That last part is key. This event is not about Obama, but about those veterans who survived their encounter with history at Normandy and helped secure the liberation of Europe from the hands of the Nazis. Obama is supposed to be honoring those who made it off the beach, and all those who didn't.

He should not stand in the way of all those who want to honor the men who made the supreme sacrifice during Operation Overlord to liberate Europe. I hope that this turns out to be an inaccurate report, but if it isn't, it is yet another bone-headed and tone deaf move on Obama's part, and

Pakistan Plays It Both Ways

Pakistan continues playing games with how they intend to deal with the Taliban that have taken over an alarming amount of Pakistani territory. The Zardari government is limiting the military response to the Swat region only.

Pakistanis don't see the government succeeding with this latest offensive any more than they did with any prior military actions, precisely because the government engages in appeasement and will cave before they succeed in their military operations. Also, despite all the technological equipment provided by the US, the Pakistani military keeps falling short against the Taliban.

In other words, it doesn't matter that Zardari says that the government and country wont collapse. The facts and events in the frontier provinces suggest an instability that the government is ill-prepared to deal with.

Don't think that the Pakistani people aren't noticing either.

The Pakistani army said Friday it had lost 13 of its own men in the past 24 hours and killed 143 militants. There was no word on civilian casualties. But front-line officers report only slight gains against the thousands of militants in Swat and two neighboring districts, Buner and Lower Dir.

"This is going to be hard fighting, no quarter here. These miscreants know the terrain. They are formidable," said an army major in a telephone interview.

Pakistan's military, built for tank battles and artillery duels against Indian forces on the plains of the subcontinent, has in the past four years struggled through a series of campaigns against the Taliban across the mountains of northwestern Pakistan. Most, like the 18-month battle in Swat, ended in standstill.

The U.S. is stepping up its efforts to try to reshape Pakistan's military into a force that can fight insurgents in the rugged terrain along the Afghan border, where the Taliban and al Qaeda have flourished since being pushed from Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

Authorities in Pakistan say they are mobilizing to receive as many as half a million newly displaced people by fighting in and around the Swat Valley.

U.S. and Pakistani officials say the Americans will provide night-vision goggles and more helicopters. There are also plans to train Pakistani soldiers in counterinsurgency doctrine and wean them from their reliance on artillery and air power, which often flattens villages and kills more civilians than insurgents.

Still, U.S. officials privately question whether Pakistan's top brass, many of whom still see India as the real threat, are committed to reorienting their forces.

"Look at what they're doing right now," said a U.S. official in Washington, referring to the airstrikes and artillery bombardment against Taliban positions in Swat over the past few days. "This is why they keep losing."

Part of the problem is that the government isn't putting its best forces in the fight against the Taliban. They're sending paramilitary forces into the breach, rather than the regular army.

The government says that they're going to limit their offensive against the Taliban to Swat. That leaves the rest of the frontier provinces free for the same Taliban thugs to regroup for renewed conflict against both Pakistan and Afghanistan. It's a recipe for disaster, and yet this is how Pakistan's governments have operated for years on end - first under Pervez Musharaf, and now under Asif Ail Zardari.

Meanwhile, the US isn't going to sit back and wait for things to go from bad to worse. Covert airstrikes once again targeted Taliban/al Qaeda targets in South Waziristan, which is the main base for Baitullah Mehsud, who is the most organized and capable Taliban thug.

Mehsud's forces have managed to stymie Pakistani military forces for years, and the Pakistanis don't appear to have any answers to that mess.

Throw in the fact that the Taliban have fully manipulated the media to the point of where all civilian casualties are the fault of the US, NATO, Afghan forces, or Pakistani forces, and not the Taliban and al Qaeda who continue putting civilians into harm's way, and who hide in and among civilians. It's to the point where even Afghan President Karzai questions airstrikes and civilian casualties, despite the fact that it was the Taliban bringing those airstrikes down on civilians by hiding in and among those civilians.

The propaganda campaign continues, and the Pakistanis, Afghans, and US are still playing catchup to the Taliban. Claims that there were casualties that were the result of white phosphorus mimic those alleged against Israel in its battles with Hamas in Gaza or Hizbullah in South Lebanon. They're successful because the smear sticks, while the refutation takes far too long for anyone to care.