The voice of Speaker Boehner

House Minority Leader John Boehner is on the House floor as this is written, reading highlights from a 300-plus-page amendment to the "American Clean Energy and Security" bill, otherwise known as climate-change cap-and-trade legislation, which was "dropped into the hopper" at three o'clock this morning.

Under the "custom of the House," the Minority Leader's remarks will be heard, regardless of time limitations on the debate.

He may be killing the bill right now. America Wants To Know just telephoned Rep. Brad Sherman's office (we're in his district) and his staffers said he has not yet decided how he will vote. "We're giving him a tally," said the person who answered the phone in the district office.

We called because the House website gave us an error message when we tried to e-mail.

Maybe the climate change bill will die on the floor tonight, never to be revived.

That would be a victory for all Americans, except the ones who make money from corrupt and idiotic government contracts and subsidies.


Copyright 2009

Win a free tidbits® puzzles book

Calling all crossword puzzle and word game fans: tidbits® puzzles book #1 is now available at Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com.

You can also get it at any bookstore. Ask for ISBN 978-0-9823837-3-5 if they can't find it. They'll find it.

Here's a peek at the cover of tidbits® puzzles book #2:



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Thanks for playing our game! Visit tidbits® puzzles online every Sunday for a new puzzle.


Copyright 2009


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Mullahs retire from show business

It was evident from Iranian "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Khamenei's public statements after the election that he wanted the world to accept Iran's regime and give it the same deference shown to repressive governments in places like China, Vietnam, and Egypt, just to name a few.

In his speech announcing that after further review, the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would stand, the Ayatollah repeatedly cited the voter turnout in Iran as evidence that the regime is legitimate.

So that was the plan: Hold a sham election in which both candidates had been selected by the "Supreme Leader," and then hold it up to the world as proof that Iran's government is a freely elected, legitimate expression of the will of a majority of the Iranian people.

There's a scene in the first Rocky movie in which Apollo Creed, the boxer who was supposed to defeat Rocky in a sham match and instead finds himself being pounded, complains to his corner man, "He don't know it's a damn show. He thinks it's a damn fight."

So it goes.

The people of Iran have succeeded in destroying the mullahs' plan to use the election as a means of solidifying their power and their international standing. Governments that had intended to find a way to do business with Iran, including ours, will find it very difficult to go forward with their plans.

It won't be easy for elected leaders to shake hands with a man who dropped lye from helicopters to get demonstrators off the streets.

The show's over.



Copyright 2009

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Just kill it

Today's Washington Post reports that the Senate Finance Committee has hit on a compromise proposal for health care reform.

It would "require most people to buy health insurance."

Good luck with that.

Over in the House, they're looking for a trillion dollars to pay for the first ten years of the plan. So far, their favorite options are a "surtax on the rich," an "increase in the payroll tax," new taxes on "sugary drinks and alcohol," and "a national value-added tax" (that's a type of sales tax) of 3 percent.

Good luck with that, too.

How do you like it so far?

Maybe you'll like the Senate's funding idea better. They're leaning toward taxing employer-paid health insurance, meaning you would owe income tax on the cash value of your employer-paid benefits as if you had received that money as cash income.

Some Democrats are opposed to this because it would really hammer union members, whose health plans are excellent and very expensive.

Senator Max Baucus told reporters he's open to the idea of exempting from the tax any health benefits that are provided under a union contract.

Seriously? Non-union employees would have to come up with the money to pay taxes on their health benefits and union employees wouldn't?

Do you feel sick yet?

Have a glass of club soda and relax. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have never exhibited suicidal tendencies. One day you'll open the newspaper (or the iPhone) and there will be a stunning, staggering number in some government economic report, or there will be a stunning, staggering development in some international situation, or there will be a stunning, staggering harvest of vegetables on the White House lawn, and that will suddenly become THE REASON that health care reform must wait until... until... until after the 2010 elections.

Then it will be back where it started, on the campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire, just one more bottle of snake oil in the hands of a charismatic traveling salesman.


Copyright 2009

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Gazing into the future

America Wants To Know brought out the fringed tablecloth and the crystal ball today and summoned our in-house Gypsy fortune-teller to answer a question about health care reform.

"What is it this time?" Madame Lyubitshka asked irritably. Gypsy fortune-tellers hate to be called away on poker night.

"I have an image in my mind," America Wants To Know said, "of Congressman Dan Rostenkowski. I see him surrounded by angry senior citizens who are pounding his car with sticks and umbrellas."

"I see," said the Gypsy.

"Can you track that down?" we asked.

Madame Lyubitshka seated herself at the little round table and passed her hands slowly over the crystal ball. "Yes," she said after a moment. "There he is."

Flickering in the glass was an image of the venerable Illinois congressman in his car, surrounded by a crowd of about a hundred senior citizens. They were jeering. Faintly we could hear shouts of "Liar, liar," "Chicken, chicken," and "We won't forget at election time."

Some of the seniors surrounded the congressman's car and briefly prevented him from driving away, pounding on the hood and the windows in anger.

"Where is he?" we asked.

Madame Lyubitshka peered into the crystal. "The Copernicus Center," she said. "Right in the middle of his district in Chicago. He was meeting privately with six senior-citizen groups and these people were waiting to speak with him. He promised to talk with them after the meeting, but instead he just ran for his car."

"What did they want to speak to him about?"

The Gypsy moved her hand over the crystal ball and stared deeply into the glass. "The new catastrophic care benefit in Medicare," she said. "They are very angry because they were asked to pay something for it. Come, see for yourself."

It was all there in the crystal. It was August, 1989. Congress had passed the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 to provide insurance for catastrophic illnesses and long-term nursing care. Eligible seniors were asked to pay a premium ranging from $4 per month to $800 per year, depending on income. And all hell broke loose when the government tried to collect.

"Sen. John McCain said he recognized the brewing backlash a year ago--after he got 30,000 responses to a questionnaire in which sentiment ran more than 3-to-1 against a catastrophic-insurance bill that was sailing through Congress with bipartisan support," the Gypsy read from a reflection inside the glass.

"When was this?" we asked.

"September 17, 1989," Madame Lyubitshka read. "This is a story by Dan Balz in the Washington Post."

"Read some more," we urged.

"Other members began to sense something was wrong earlier this year, then wrote off the anger to a few greedy old folks," she read, "But when House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski was surrounded by jeering senior citizens during the August recess, everyone on Capitol Hill knew they had a problem they could not avoid. Chalk up another victory to the power of the elderly."

"Is there more?" we asked.

"You know the rest," Madame Lyubitshka said. "The catastrophic care benefit was repealed by Congress because the people who were eligible for the benefit didn't want to pay for it. They wanted everybody else to pay for it."

"Do you mean to tell me that the health care benefit was actually passed by Congress and signed into law, and then as soon as people found out it was going to cost them money, Congress was forced to repeal it? After all that work and effort? How could that happen?"

Madame Lyubitshka appeared to fall into a trance. "We call Dan Rostenkowski," she wailed in a tremulous voice. She lifted her hand. There was a cell phone in it. "Area code 773-276-5575," she said. "He's out of jail now. He'll explain it to you."


Copyright 2009

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Frauds and Liars

Karma. It's so slow.

That favorite saying of a friend was brought to mind last week as we watched car dealers complain to Congress that they were getting screwed.

The lawmakers listened sympathetically but didn't offer much help. Apparently the Gallup Poll hasn't uncovered any public support for a bailout of car dealers, other than a few dollars to pay for a headstone inscribed, What Goes Around, Comes Around.

In another championship display of prevarication, President Barack Obama devoted his weekly Internet and radio address to an explanation of how he plans to pay for his health care reform proposals.

He plans to pay doctors, hospitals, and drug makers less than they charge for their products and services.

Why didn't we think of that.

The next time you go to the grocery store, tell the manager you're only paying fifty cents a pound for beef, and it had better be sirloin because it's discriminatory to reserve the good stuff for people who can pay more for it. When he laughs at you, tell him he'd better play ball unless he wants to see his supermarket nationalized and his salary cut to a dollar a year.

How many Army divisions does Kroger have?

President Obama must be in real trouble on this health care reform bill because he has already gone to the old, reliable Washington lie: he can find the money to pay for it by "rooting out waste."

He couldn't have picked a worse week to fire Gerald Walpin, the Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, who had the bad taste to root out $400,000 in waste in an AmeriCorps program run by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an Obama ally and former NBA star.

There's no inspector general in the NBA, which might explain why commissioner David Stern gets away with what looks like the biggest rigging scandal since black-and-white quiz shows.

America Wants To Know became convinced last week that the cat is out of the bag when we heard the women at the hair salon chatting about the Lakers' loss in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, and how everybody knew that "they" weren't going to let the Lakers win four straight games because it would be boring and the ratings would tank.

We always get e-mail from friends who enjoy sports betting whenever there is an egregious call or non-call by an official, like the one in the Mavericks-Nuggets Western Conference Semifinals game on May 9, and whenever a player inexplicably shoots or doesn't shoot an uncontested basket at the end of the game that affects the point spread or the over-under.

This week someone sent us the news story about former NBA referee Tim Donaghy, presently serving a 15-month sentence for conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with sports gambling, being clubbed in the knee by an inmate who claimed to have ties to the New York mob. "Verbally, there was a comment made that they were going to shoot him in the head and break his knee caps," reported Donaghy's representative.

Donaghy, who is scheduled for release on October 24, is said to be writing a tell-all book on "how he picked those winners 70 to 80 percent of the time and about the knowledge of the special relationships that exist between referees, players and coaches."

Donaghy's representative, Pat Zaranek of Executive Prison Consultants, said the former ref's gambling problem should be seen in context. "To understand his addiction, what transpired, you have to understand what led up to it during his 13 years in pro basketball and the whole culture of what he perceived as fraud and manipulation in the NBA," he said.

If NBA commissioner David Stern is rigging the outcome of games, it appears that he's doing it with a sophisticated system of manipulating the officiating to get key players in foul trouble early and at the foul line late.

That would explain the peculiar sequence of events involving Lakers head coach Phil Jackson in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Jackson gave an interview between the first and second quarters of the game and said there were some "bogus" calls in the first quarter that resulted in two fouls each for the Lakers' Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum.

The NBA fined Phil Jackson $25,000 for that comment. An additional $25,000 fine was assessed against the Lakers organization.

The league had already fined Jackson for comments about the officiating of a playoff game the Lakers lost to the Denver Nuggets, in which the Nuggets shot 49 free throws and the Lakers just 35. "We want the game to be fair and evenly played," Jackson said.

That cost him $25,000.

A reasonable person might think Coach Jackson makes these expensive public statements to let David Stern know that he knows, and that there is a limit to how much he'll play along with it.

Or it all could be theater to make it look good for the fans at home. Maybe everybody's in on it for the financial health of the sport.

In February, the NBA borrowed $175 million to help 15 struggling teams pay their bills. That's in addition to a "$1.7 billion league-wide credit facility," according to the New York Times. "The league uses its lucrative media contracts as collateral to secure loans for its clubs," the Times reported.

Lower ratings would mean less lucrative media contracts, which might lead to a disastrous financial meltdown of the whole wildly-leveraged operation.

That would explain it.

It would also explain this odd report in MediaPost.com last week. "As the NBA looks to get a better handle on its ratings, the league has reached a deal with TiVo to provide it with an analysis of viewing patterns based on second-by-second data," David Goetzl reported. "It's not just how many people watch, but information as to when viewers are likely to tune out during a blowout."

By coincidence, or maybe not by coincidence, Game 4 of the NBA Finals was very close after three key Laker players picked up two fouls each in the first quarter. The game was tied at the end of regulation and the Lakers edged out an overtime victory over the Orlando Magic, one of the teams that needed $10 million of that emergency loan in February.

"After the Game 1 blowout, what a thrilling series this has become," the ABC announcer remarked.

He was not fined by the league for that comment.


Copyright 2009

Editor's note: You might be interested in the earlier posts, "NBA Fines and Finals," "NBA Commissioner caught cheating," and "Pete Rose: Yes I did."

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The real map of Israel

Iran, a country that is neither free nor democratic, just held an election that was, arguably, neither free nor democratic. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who has called for "a world without Zionism," was re-elected in a landslide.

Two Israeli officials, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, expressed their concern that the election results underscore the threat Israel faces from Iran's nuclear ambitions.

On Google News, this story was illustrated by the map that is typically used to illustrate any story about threats to Israel's existence:



Here's a closer look:



That's Israel in the middle, with the dashed lines indicating the tiny little Gaza Strip on the left and the bigger, but still relatively small, West Bank in the center-right. That's Egypt to the left, Jordan to the right, Saudi Arabia next to Jordan and Syria just north of it.

Doesn't Israel look like a power player? Doesn't it look like Israel is a big presence in the region, throwing its weight around to crush the Palestinians and deny them the smallest sliver of land for their own state?

Look again. This is the same map, if you zoom out:



Can you see Israel? It's that little diamond-shaped outline in the center of the map. Look closely and you'll see the word "Israel," which juts out into Egypt because the text won't fit inside the borders of the country.

That little dot is Israel. That's all the land Israel has.

The Palestinians want a state, and U.S. President Barack Obama wants Israel -- not Jordan or Syria or Egypt or Lebanon or Saudi Arabia -- to give up land so they can have one.

Will the Palestinian state have the full sovereign powers of all other states around the world?

Will it have a military? An airbase? Treaties with other nations?

Will it renounce the goal, stated by the elected Palestinian leadership, of destroying Israel?

Details, details.

Did you know that the Israelis won the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in a war that was launched against them by neighboring countries?

More details.

It's just a distraction from the main point, which is that Israel is expected to volunteer for suicide in the name of "peace."

Don't expect that to happen.

"Never again" means "Never again."

There are enough Holocaust museums, thanks very much.


Copyright 2009

Editor's note: You might be interested in the earlier posts, "Sen. Joe Biden erases Israel," "Ayn Rand's advice and the Gaza Strip pullout," and "Why the Arab-Israeli peace process didn't/doesn't/can't work."

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tidbits® puzzle books are coming soon

For everybody who's been writing to ask when tidbits® puzzles will be available in books, at last, there is an answer to your question.

SOON!

Here's a link where you can see the front and back covers of tidbits® puzzles #1, which will be published by the end of June. You'll be able to get it from Amazon.com and all the other online booksellers, or by special order in any brick-and-mortar bookstore.

ISBN: 9780982383735
Price: $6.95
Publisher: ExtremeInk Books
Pages: 108
Size: 5" x 8"

Tell your moms, tell your kids, tell your favorite puzzle people. Follow tidbits® puzzles on Twitter (@tidbitspuzzles) for updates on the release dates of future books in the series, which will be published before too long.

Thanks for doing tidbits® puzzles! (What's that? You're not doing tidbits® puzzles? Try them out at www.tidbitspuzzles.com!)

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Five ways to save California

California voters recently defeated a slate of budget and tax tricks put on the ballot by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers, leaving the state budget in a hole so deep we've struck oil five times on the way down.

Governor Schwarzenegger suggested Friday that the answer might be a fifteen percent flat tax on everybody's income in order to keep up the payments to the millions of people who get checks.

This sounds like a good way to accelerate the outflow of people who pay taxes and the inflow of people who get checks.

A better way to save California is to overhaul the tax and regulatory structure, and keep overhauling it, until you'd have to be crazy not to start a business in California, instead of the opposite.

Of course, that's not going to happen.

Another way to save California is to fully exploit the natural resources of the state by drilling for oil and natural gas, and by exploring the use of desalination of ocean water to provide cities and farms with affordable access to adequate water supplies.

That's not going to happen either.

So here are five ways to save California without asking Californians to become rational on the subject of business or the environment.

Legalize Marijuana. The state already taxes alcohol and tobacco, and legalizing marijuana would open up another source of sin-tax revenue. Untold budget savings would result from freeing up police resources, courtroom time, and prison space. Pardoning all felons convicted of non-violent marijuana-related crimes would save the state the cost of their room and board. When the feds show up, the state should challenge the Controlled Substances Act in federal court on the grounds that it violates the Tenth Amendment, which reserves all powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution to the states, or to the people. (More on that here.)

Legalize Gambling. Why should selected Indian tribes have a monopoly on gaming in the state of California? Legalize gambling statewide, or permit cities to legalize it within their borders, and enjoy the tax revenue from the kind of gaming resorts that spring up in the desert when the government stops prohibiting them. Energy-saving bonus: Less traffic on I-15 to Las Vegas.

Sue the Federal Government for the Cost of Illegal Immigration. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot deprive illegal immigrants and their children of a free public education or emergency medical care, but that doesn't mean state taxpayers have to carry the financial burden alone.

Charge for Public School. Even if the state asked parents to contribute only a token amount, like $200 per year, charging for public school would remind everyone that education has a value and ought to be appreciated, not blown off in favor of merrier pursuits. Of course, no one will agree to this. But it's still worth debating, if only to call attention to the fact that somebody's paying for what passes for public education in California.

End Busing for Desegregation. Children should attend a school that is a reasonable distance from their homes. Spending money on buses and drivers so kids can spend two to three hours a day on the freeway is irrational, wasteful, pointless, and racist. The warped idea that black and Hispanic children can only get a good education if there are white students in the class is something we should abandon, and not just for budgetary reasons.

In case you missed it, former California Governor Gray Davis was interviewed on CNBC this morning by Erin Burnett, who expressed her annoyance that California voters are constantly using the initiative process to limit the discretion of state government. "People are not going to give up the right to the initiative process," Governor Davis explained patiently, "They're never going to give that up, so just-- you have to live with it."

Give the teachers an award. At least one person in this state has learned something.

Copyright 2009

Editor's note: You might be interested in "The Great Death-Defying California Recall Election" at www.SusanShelley.com. If you live in California and you'd like to sign a petition to recall Governor Schwarzenegger, visit http://www.totalrecall2009.com.

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Tabloid update: "Obama Gay Cover-up!"

There's "World Exclusive Breaking News" in this week's Globe tabloid and you're in luck, America Wants To Know ran out of milk and tomatoes and happened to be in the grocery store check-out line this evening when the Globe swan-dived out of its rack and into our cart.

"Michelle's Mission: Put Out Gay Firestorm!" the tabloid declares across the top of pages 16 and 17.

This turns out to be yet another story about Larry Sinclair, the Chicago man who says he had sex and did cocaine with Barack Obama in the back seat of a limousine in 1999.

"In shockingly graphic language," the tabloid reports, "Sinclair describes performing oral sex on Obama in a limousine after meeting him in a Chicago nightspot in November 1999. He also describes how they used cocaine together in the car."

Mr. Sinclair also claims to have knowledge of a sexual affair between Barack Obama and Donald Young, the choir director of Obama's former church. Mr. Young, who according to Mr. Sinclair was openly gay, was murdered in December, 2007.

"The furious first lady has made it her mission to silence author Larry Sinclair," the Globe reports. He's an author because he has written a book called "Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder," which he said he plans to self-publish and release this month.

He's planning to self-publish because, according to the Globe, Michelle Obama had her "close friends and associates" contact publishers and tell them she would consider it a personal favor if they would "lay off this book."

The Globe says Mrs. Obama has launched a "secret but comprehensive campaign" to undercut the allegations in the book by staging photo ops that show her husband as a "macho man." Basketball, golf, that kind of thing.

And, the Globe's "insider" says, "They've even gone out of their way to set up photos of him with the cute 27-year-old White House receptionist."

Really.

We haven't seen those.

We did see photos of the Obamas' Broadway "date night" in Manhattan, and we noticed something kind of odd.

This is a photo of the Obamas before the big date, as they walked to the helicopter that would take them to the plane that would take them to New York:



This is a photo of the Obamas after the big date, as they walked to the jet that would fly them back to Washington:



Notice anything?

Once again. Before:



After:



One more time. Before:



After:



Does it look to you like those two people had one hell of a fight?

Look again. Before:



After:



Maybe they called the baby-sitter during intermission to see if everything was all right, and the sitter told them Mr. Gallup called.


Copyright 2009

Editor's note: Catch up on your tabloid reading with the previous posts, "Bush suicidal! McCain Dying! Obama Gay!" and "Suicidal Bush in Therapy!"

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