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“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”

– President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09

This is a most disturbing (emphasis mine):

A Houston-based federal judge ruled that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration does not owe the owner of a small Texas trucking company anything, not even the cost of repairing the bullet holes to a tractor-trailer truck that the agency used without his permission for a wild 2011 drug cartel sting that resulted in the execution-style murder of the truck’s driver, who was secretly working as a government informant…“She [the judge] is basically saying you can’t sue the feds,” he said by phone.

The Houston Chronicle story

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(H/T: The Hill via Instapundit) – reformatted, emphasis mine:

A gas tax hike is dead on arrival in Congress, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday. Transportation advocates have pushed to increase or index to inflation the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax as lawmakers scramble to come up with a way to pay for an extension of an infrastructure funding measure that is scheduled to expire on May 31. McCarthy said Tuesday that lawmakers are not willing to ask drivers to pay more at the pump to finance new transportation projects.  “I think passing a gas tax is politically impossible,” he said, pointing out that he just paid $3.20 a gallon to fill up his car in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif.

The gas tax has been the traditional source of transportation funding since its inception in the 1930s. The tax has not been increased since 1993, however, and improvements in auto fuel efficiency have sapped its purchasing power.  The federal government typical spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in approximately $34 billion annually at its current rate.

Well, our willingness to pay more in taxes has certainly been sapped.  Tell you what, boys – you start

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‘Grok friend Warner Todd-Huston has a giggly post snarking out on all the of Left’s complete dismissal of what people really are but otherwise believing they are something they are not (a good contemporary example being Bruce Jenner) or those precious snowflakes that seem to want to be whatever they wake up being – burly man today and delicate flower tomorrow:

First of all let me say that this isn’t an easy decision and I hope that everyone will support me in my time of need. That being said, I want to admit that growing up I always felt different from everyone else around me. Things always seemed so colorless to me and I was always aware that I felt darker than other boys. Now, at long last, I must admit the truth. I must stop living a lie. I must come out and admit that I was born an African American.

Oh, sure, I “look” white. But so what? I have always felt black and now I wish to publicly embrace my inner African American.

Does this sound absurd to you? Is it wrong that a 50-some-year-old white man is suddenly claiming that he’s always “felt black”?

I’ve known Warner for years now – and one thing is sure, he’s gonna need a whole lotta help for this transition!  Of course, there will be some of you H8ters out there

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The Blaze:

A Georgia middle school teacher has reportedly been removed from the classroom and forced into retirement after parents complained about controversial classroom comments she purportedly made about President Barack Obama back in February. Nancy Perry will leave her educational role at Dublin Middle School in Dublin, Georgia, at the end of the school year after parents alleged that she told students that Obama is a Muslim and that anyone who voted for him couldn’t be considered Christian, the Daily Mail reported.

Problems for Perry began when a 12-year-old student went home and told his parents about the teacher’s purported remarks.  “If your parents voted for Obama, they’re evil and I don’t see how your parents could vote for someone that’s Muslim,” parent Jimmie Scott told WMAZ-TV, recapping what his child claims Perry said.

And that is the absolute right decision to make. 

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A riff on Steve’s post:

We want to pay our fair share of taxes, but Republicans in Congress are trying to pass an unnecessary tax giveaway to America’s wealthiest citizens. We don’t want, need, or deserve this tax cut—which is why we’re asking you to sign our petition to Senate Democrats…

Yeah, sure thing: “We want to pay our fair share of taxes”.  The hypocrisy of these two, Ben & Jerry.  I’m quite sure with their wealth, they could afford all kinds of tax lawyers / accountants they paid the least amount of taxes possible – and I’m OK with that. But to make themselves VICTIMS (“The Republicans won’t let us”???) and the mask slips – the “tell” shows up:

1. You don’t need that
2. I don’t know of anyone who says they need that
3. It’s about the quality of life“
4. It is the cost of civilization

No, they believe,

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Yeah, I missed putting these up on “Earth Day” but hey, what’s a few days given that I’ve been listening to this crap for 40 years.  Frankly, these Watermelon Environmentalists (“green on the outside, red on the inside”) have been giving us such fearful predictions that they make the Pastors fire & brimstone sermons I heard growing up like the rantings of two year olds.  Yet, not a single one has come true – 40 years and no end in sight. This should give any rational person a skepticism concerning any timeline hell on earth conditions.  You see, they just keep thinking status quo / straight line thinking and never consider a resource that makes all the difference in the world – human ingenuity. Here’s a few from WUWT from the original Earth Day:

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.” 
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” 
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

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At least Ben and Jerry want to pay MORE and are willing to pay MORE in taxes.  They just want everyone else to do the same.  So do these folks – MSNBC Progressive (“Lean FORWARD!”) commentators all.  They, too, harp on this all the time.  Unlike Ben & Jerry, they just don’t pay their own taxes (reformatted, emphasis mine):

National Review’s Jillian Kay Melchior reported Wednesday that, along with Al Sharpton and Melissa Harris-Perry, two more MSNBC stars are not paying their fair share of taxes. Touré  Neblett, co-host of “The Cycle” owes the IRS a cool $59,000.  Joy-Ann Reid, a former anchor and now a regular contributor to the “Lien” Forward network, owes New York almost $5,000 in back taxes.  As we reported last week, Melissa Harris-Perry owes the IRS $70,000. Al Sharpton’s tax bill is upwards of $3 – $4 million.

The fact that four MSNBC stars, all of whom must earn a pretty sweet 1% living,

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NEW HAMPSHIRE makes Presidents. The way it’s done was in full view last weekend, when 16 Republican hopefuls pressed into the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua, for two days of Q&A and coffee huddles with local voters. It was democracy at its best.

Since 1952, winning the presidency almost always starts with a win in the New Hampshire primary, the first in the nation by law. In the months ahead, thousands of New Hampshire voters will flock to bars, diners, neighbors’ homes, and packed gatherings like the Nashua event to size up candidates. They will know more about the candidates than anyone else in America. Last weekend they heard that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker buys his shirts at Kohl’s and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina started out as an office temp and lost a daughter to addiction.

Here’s what came out of it:

First, there will be no Jeb Bush coronation. Though the former Florida governor (son of one President, brother of another) is leading in the polls, it’s not by much. “No one’s giving it to me,” Bush said. There was less enthusiasm for Bush than his closest rival in the polls, Walker.

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UPDATE:  I knew I forgot something – from the NH Constitution:

[Art.] 10. [Right of Revolution.] Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; …

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Crony Capitalism – the combination of Big Government and Big Business cooperating to use taxpayers as a Piggy Bank.  Both of these gentleman showed us in their Op-Ed in the Union Leader that they possess an entitlement outlook that NH taxpayers should be expected to shoulder their advertising budget for them (entire Op-Ed after the jump) even with their own personal successes:

Rusty McLear is co-owner and president of Mill Falls at the Lake in Meredith. Alex Ray is owner and founder of The Common Man family of restaurants. Together, they are the principals of Granite State Hospitality, the company building the new state welcome centers on I-93 in Hooksett.

These are not small operations by anyone’s view.  So why should we (just as with Les Otten’s attempted claim on $28 Million for his Balsam Boondogle project) taxpayers fund their operations – as rent-seeking (seeking a profit and/or preferred treatment from Government)is ALSO part of the definition of Crony Capitalism?   McLear and Ray actually make the case against doing so in their own words:

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