Quote of the Day
The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight, But they,
while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The SEC Diddled While Wall Street Burned...
No telling what videos or pictures that a senior lawyer at the regulator's DC head office had watched or downloaded up to 8 hours some days on the government dime: "Swaps: Wives and Mistresses", "Wash Rules: What To Do with a Bride in the Shower", "Briefs on the 69 Position", or "Debbie Does Longs and Shorts". What we do know is that he downloaded enough to fill his work PC and several discs stored in his office. He wasn't alone; you have to admire the due diligence of a female accountant at the SEC whom was unfazed about being blocked 1800 times by the government firewall during a 2-week period: she did manage to store 600 explicit images on her laptop. What's remarkable is this happens despite the best efforts of government (and businesses) to filter objectionable websites and other measures to minimize the use of government computing infrastructure for unofficial purposes, and government employees and contractors are routinely advised about IT policies, including Internet use, and sexual harassment policies; people often have to go out of their way to work around technical obstacles to obtain their access to pornography.
Now the government will tell you that only about 3 dozen of some 1400 workers over 5 years engaged in these activities, and other agencies besides the SEC have similar problem. But this figuratively confirms what conservatives have long known: Big Government screws the American taxpayer...
Obama Panders for Latino Votes on Arizona Immigration
Congressman Luis Gutierrez, probably the most prominent Latino legislator, brought up the immigration issue, using his undeclared position on the Democratic Party Healthcare Bill to draw attention to the issue. Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed a tough Arizona immigration law, which seems to pick up the perceived slack of federal efforts on the Arizona border. (In yesterday's post, I expressed opposition to the act, which I think raises the risk that a law enforcement officer might use the law to engage in unlawful, arbitrary ethnic profiling and also duplicates a primary federal responsibility.)
To the White House, the controversy represents a rare opportunity for Democrats to make even further inroads among Latinos, most of which feel threatened by anti-immigrant sentiment; thus, Obama made it crystal clear that the Justice Department will be on the lookout for any evidence of violations of civil rights legislation. He used the incident to push "comprehensive immigration reform", but I detailed during the 2008 campaign where he voted to undermine concessions to Republicans regarding a temporary worker program, which unions oppose, and to weaken merit-based criterion (e.g., English fluency, professional credentials, etc.) and to maintain unacceptable chained immigration policies; in essence, immigration is biased towards low-skill labor.
What makes the current situation even worse is ex-Arizona governor Napolitano, whom is in a state of denial about the ripple effects of the current battles immediately south of the US/Mexican border, between Mexican police and criminal/drug gangs (and among the criminal gangs). In fact, the Obama Administration has slashed budget dollars for the virtual fence project and reduced the number of Border Patrol agents.
Obama can try to demagogue this issue like just about any other issue by attacking Arizona citizens and politicians upset at spillover crime as "misguided" and issuing ugly threats at Arizona lawmen, but the fact is that he has shown little leadership on a deteriorating situation south of the border while at the same time pandering for de facto amnesty without even first stopping the flow of illegal immigration shows yet another instance of wanting to ram another partisan measure down the nation's throat.
Political Cartoon
Chip Bok indirectly references the palpable hypocrisy of morally self-superior, judgmental progressives whom engage in the most blatant, disrespectful stereotypes. We didn't hear Bill Clinton draw implicit references to the Oklahoma City bombing when the anti-Iraq protesters were agitating against Bush et al., others showed uncivil behavior, even speculating about his assassination. There is no doubt there is anger among some in the Tea Party movement (or, in the disparaging progressive lexicon, "tea baggers"); that has its basis in the progressive legislature and executive branch ramming through an unpopular, deceptively promoted government expansion in 17% of the American economy while adding trillions to the national debt, enacting an anti-growth/anti-jobs Big Government agenda, despite numerous polls.
Musical Interlude: "Hand" Songs
The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (all-time favorite)
Jewel, "Hands" (performance at the Vatican) (all-time favorite)
U2, "The Hands That Built America"
The Pointer Sisters, "Slow Hand"
