Why Government Can’t Run a Business
This should be required reading by everyone under the sun.
In 1913, for instance, thinking it was being overcharged by the steel companies for armor plate for warships, the federal government decided to build its own plant. It estimated that a plant with a 10,000-ton annual capacity could produce armor plate for only 70% of what the steel companies charged. When the plant was finally finished, however — three years after World War I had ended — it was millions over budget and able to produce armor plate only at twice what the steel companies charged. It produced one batch and then shut down, never to reopen.
The reasons listed for why government can’t run businesses include:
- Governments are run by politicians, not businessmen.
- Politicians need headlines.
- Government does not tolerate competition.
- Government enterprises are almost always monopolies and thus do not face competition at all.
- Successful corporations are run by benevolent despots.
- Government is regulated by government.
Bush Administration Political Appointees Overrule Career Lawyers in DOJ Civil Rights Division
Democrats are in an uproar over new revelations that the Bush Administration’s political appointees in the Department of Justice overruled career lawyers in the Civil Rights Division who were in civil litigation against a group of white conservative activists engaged in voter intimidation tactics on Election Day.
More troubling, the Department of Justice had obtained a default judgment against the defendants and the political appointees ordered the career lawyers to go no further, despite having judgment in hand.
Democrat John Lewis (D-GA) is demanding an investigation saying not since civil rights activists were attacked by dogs in the sixties has the government so cavalierly disregarded the basic civil rights of its citizens.
Except that’s not the story at all.
Consequently, there is no outrage by Democrats.
The voter intimidation happened by Black Panthers who supported Barack Obama.
It was Barack Obama’s political appointees who shut down career lawyers going after the Black Panthers for voter intimidation.
And the mainstream media yawns.
Thankful, the Washington Times is on the story.
Today Barack Obama healed 5 lepers, pooped enough gold to pay off the national debt, then patented cold fusion
It is increasingly clear that the Barack Obama Administration just makes stuff up and expects no one to catch them.
Jake Tapper, however, caught one whopper today.
TAPPER: All right. Just to follow up, I looked at your “100 Days, 100 Projects” booklet yesterday, and the very first one says, quote, “Using $27 million of Recovery Act funding a public housing development in D.C., the Regency House, has undergone a green retrofit. As part of this upgrade, the building installed solar panels, green roof, rainwater collection system, energy-efficient lighting, as well as water-conserving toilets, showerheads and faucets.” But when I called the D.C. Housing Authority, they said only $59,000 was spent of stimulus money, not $27 million, and of these seven things mentioned, only two of the seven were actually done – GIBBS: I think the mistake — mistake in that one, as you blogged about earlier, took a series of different projects in a cut- and-paste into one. TAPPER: OK. So it wasn’t as clear and — it wasn’t as accurate as it could have been? GIBBS: I — I think that’s accurate to say, yes.
But how many mistakes will be allowed before the media recognizing the administration has decided to serially lie?
Just yesterday Barack Obama claimed his stimulus package “saved or created nearly 100 — 150,000 jobs” when in reality 16,000 jobs have been lost every single day since the stimulus was passed.
Was the “saved or created” statement cut and pasted onto the Teleprompter? was it a mistake or a lie? Because it certainly is not true.
Much Ado About Nothing
I realize this is a 3 day weekend article, one put on standby to fill the pages of the paper. I wish there had been more substantive quotes because it misses a few key facts about a proposal I’ve written to change the way people will speak before City Council.
The most important is this: a large number, if not a majority, of Council want to cut everyone back to 3 minutes. I am not in favor of further cutting back from 5 minutes to 3 minutes those people who have something to say about business before Council.
But, because Nancy White and I are Chair and Co-Chair of the Rules Committee, we were asked by other members of Council to put together a proposal. I wrote it.
We bifurcate the speakers — those with business before Council speak before we get to the business of Council. Those who just want to speak, go between old and new business. That second group would be reduced to three minutes.
In the year and a half I’ve been on Council, I’ve yet to see one of the perennial speakers speak for five minutes without, basically, starting over from the beginning to fill up the clock. Likewise, most of those who just want to speak are there to complain about various city employees, policemen, etc. and I don’t think Council should be the place to hurl invective at a policeman without that policeman being able to defend himself.
Most importantly, the article fails to mention that the proposal was submitted, then I moved to table it so we could review what other city councils in Georgia do. I’m fine with the present rule, but having been asked to come up with a new proposal, I did.
Vichy Republicans
The year is 2003. Tom Ridge is chatting, explaining what’s going on with Homeland Security, having a seemingly good time. His good natured counterpart in the conversation lets Ridge run with the conversation.
The other party in the conversation is Rush Limbaugh. Ridge had called into Rush’s show.
Over the past twenty years Rush has been on the air, people like Powell, Ridge, and others have had no problem using Rush to air their policy views, defend themselves, and chat.
And in those twenty years, as anyone who has regularly listened to Rush can tell you, the substantive coverage of issues has increased, not decreased. As Rush has become better educated over the last two decades on issues, we all have too. But Rush’s consistency of principle, conservatism, and humor have not changed.
Now, twenty years after Rush began, some Republicans who once fell all over themselves to get on the air with him, have decided he is too shrill, too conservative, and too harmful to the cause.
What they do not seem to notice is that Rush has not changed. They have. The ground has not shifted to the left. They have shifted to the left. They have become Vichy Republicans — not Republicans in Name Only. The difference is that they stand on their bona fides as Republicans, patted on the back by other Republicans of unquestioned party affiliation, to sell out the party by collaborating with the Democrats.
During World War II, the Vichy Regime arguable ran France as an independent nation, but were puppets of the Axis powers. In Norway, a similar situation occurred under the illegitimate regime of Vidkun Quisling. Today we use the word “quislings” to refer to those who collaborate with and help the enemy.
Call Powell, Ridge, etc. quislings, Vichy Republicans or whatever you like, but one thing is clear — these respected men have chosen to use their positions and media adoration to take on not Rush and Dick Cheney, but conservatives. Like Obama using various bank executives as a proxy to fight the free market, these men and others are using Limbaugh, Cheney, and others as proxies to fight conservatism in general.
Why? Because Cheney, Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, Coulter, and others are burning down their potemkim village — their facade of being both reasonable and on the right. Read more
Money for Marco
Hannity
My first time on Hannity’s radio show today. That was a lot fun.
John Cornyn’s manure is so thick he could build dung huts in Texas
John Cornyn knows better than you conservative boobs and he wants you to know it.
In commenting about the NRSC’s endorsement of Charlie Crist, Cornyn said
“I need to constantly remind some of my very conservative friends who want to sort of purify the party – and, in so doing, cast us in a permanent minority status – that Ronald Reagan said the person who votes with me 80 percent of the time is my friend and ally, not a 20 percent traitor,” Cornyn says.
But contrast that with this statement from Cornyn in the same article:
n 2010, cting “public anxiety about spending and borrowing” by the Obama administration and the fact that the popular president won’t be on the ballot, “there will be some genuine opportunities for Republicans, assuming we get good candidates, assuming we do our job to raise the money.”
Yet, in Florida, John Cornyn has endorsed a man who supports Obama’s spending and borrowing. How the hell does he expect to make the case to voters who have “anxiety about spending and borrowing” that they can trust Charlie Crist on that issue?
Senator, you should flush the endorsement and your manure filled statements along with it.
The Ramada Plaza
The Ramada Plaza in downtown Macon will be sold at foreclosure.
Wouldn’t that spot make an awesome court house?
BREAKING: Speaker of the House to Resign
The Speaker of the House will, in a very historic move, resign this week.
No joking at all.
The Speaker, facing a rebellion from back bench members of the House over ethics problems, mismanagement, and the Speaker’s own desire to block inquiries into allegations about the ethics of members of the Speaker’s own party, has decided to announce the resignation later this week.
It is historic and we’re glad the Speaker has chosen to do the right thing.
This also hasn’t happened in 300 years. Read more