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Rachel Madow is a Progressive of the first rank (and you can take that last word anyway you want) and has a loud large megaphone as an MSNBC host (er, that is, such as a megaphone that MSNBC may have left, given their ratings plunge).  I was rather amazed, however, in her rant on Salon about how disorganized and discombobulated the Left is…

Sidenote: I dryly note that each side thinks the other is such a monolith.  Go read the article to watch the Left’s cracks grow.

..and WHAT ORGANIZATION she actually admired (even as she has beat on it for years?

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From TechDirt comes this intrusion from unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats that believe THEY own your privacy (reformatted, emphasis mine):

To Enforce Emissions Standards, State Governments Are Looking To Ride Shotgun In Constituents’ Vehicles

Californians may find their cars being converted to government informants at some point in the future, thanks to the state’s push to curb emissions. As always, a trip to the land of Unintended Consequences begins at the Port of Good Intentions. Cleaner air and vehicles will come at a cost, and that cost may include an extensive collection of driving data. (via Cato).  The On Board Diagnostics computer systems on all of our late-model cars now collect a wide range of information mostly related to a car’s emissions. When something is amiss, your dashboard flashes with a “check engine” light and you head to a repair shop to fix it. The goal is to assure cars aren’t polluting the air.  But now the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is proposing regulations(for a May board hearing) requiring manufacturers to significantly expand the kind of information on-board computer software collects about our driving habits.

The software could track miles per gallon, driving distances, how often one stops and starts the car, and how fast one drives. Newer cars already tell us most of this information on those nifty trip computers in the dashboard. The difference, of course, is the regulations would require our cars to also tell government officials the information.

And if you play chess and think out a few moves, you can see where this COULD go.  Especially when you start linking in such “benign” sustainability Government programs like the EPA  HUD / DOT Sustainable Communities Initiative.

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Here it is from the Free Beacon:

Pentagon: Islamic State Burning Hostage Alive ‘Not The Act of a Winner’

The Islamic State released a barbaric video of the Jordanian pilot that was being held prisoner and was used as bargaining chip, burned alive. Rear Adm. John Kirby held a press conference to address the situation and how the United States plans to respond. Kirby said that the plan was to degrade and destroy IS capabilities and continue to put them on the defensive. When asked about the seriousness of the murders, Kirby couldn’t put it into words.

“I can’t–there’s no way I could possibly figure out how to justify it in your brain because it’s so twisted,” Kirby said. “These aren’t the acts of a winner. They’re not winning.”

I would have expected more from the Pentagon representative – seriously “…acts of a winner”?  When one engages in military action against an enemy (and make no mistake

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Yep – the Obama picture is from the video clip where he announced that under his regime, electricity prices will necessarily soar.  Yep – I am not surprised at that headline in the UL yesterday (reformatted, emphasis mine):

New plants on way, power needs still unmet

Three new power plants — two in Connecticut and one in southeastern Massachusetts — will add more than 1,000 megawatts to the New England power grid by 2018, thanks largely to rising prices in the regional energy market, the operator of the New England power grid announced on Wednesday. But that still won’t be enough to address a predicted supply shortage in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to ISO-New England.

Heck, I would NOT be very surprised if, however, that “predicted supply shortage” (and unexpectedly, as Glen Reynolds writes all the time) spill up to NH.  Dave Soloman continues:

The grid operator needs to know well ahead of time how much power will be available from power plants in the six-state region, whatever the fuel source. So every year it holds what is called a forward capacity auction to see who is willing to commit to producing electricity three years down the road.  The results of last year’s auction, for delivery of power in 2017, set off alarms.

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Even as Obama crows about the deficit (annual) being cut in half (like that’s supposed to be hard, given he started at over a Trillion), the National Debt keeps going up. And that debt requires debt servicing – and that is real money too.

Currently, the government’s interest costs are around $200 billion a year, a sum that’s low due to the era of low interest rates. Forecasters at the White House and Congressional Budget Office believe interest rates will gradually rise, and when that happens, the interest costs of the U.S. government are set to soar, from just over $200 billion to nearly $800 billion a year by decade’s end.

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The Youngest received his paperwork and card for this program (born out of such ire created by the VA scandal (whereby vets were refused timely service of their health needs) rose to heights that it coalesced both Dems and Repubs) a little while ago.  It allows him, in certain circumstances, to go to a civilian healthcare provider when needed.  As it turned out, he has had the unfortunate experience of having to have taken advantage of it; happy it was available but not that he was ill.  Now, Obama wants to kill it and his just released 2016 Budget:

The Obama administration outraged members of Congress on Monday by proposing to scale back a new program aimed at letting veterans access health care outside the VA system.

Last August, Congress passed a VA reform bill that created the Veterans Choice Program, which was supposed to be a way to speed up access to health care given the breakdown within the VA itself. President Barack Obama quickly signed it into law.

Of course he did – dead vets kinda spoils the Narrative that all Government has only our best interests at heart.  Until it doesn’t (remember, the scandal was all about “hiding the numbers” so the VA managers could get their bonuses; dead vets spoils that as well.

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Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure!  I am getting to the point where I hate the word.  Why?  I have come to realize that it’s only a political talking point and that for all the talk and all that money, it’s simply about political posturing (at best) and cronyism (at worst).  We were promised an ROI on that Trillion Stimulus that turned out to be spent on, pretty much, boosting the size of government and not so much on asphalt, concrete, steel and…..wait for it……finished USABLE product.  You know, like the Hoover Dam and other public works stuff done in the 1930s?

And I’m not the only one asking this question – it did nothing before so why does Obama believe that we’ll believe him this time?

YEAH, HOW ABOUT THAT? “Quite aside from the problem of new taxes on business, what bothers me here is that Obama’s old and extremely expensive ‘stimulus’ package — back in ’09 — was presented as a transformation of the ‘infrastructure’ — with lots of talk of roads and bridges — but where are all those improvements we were gulled into thinking we were getting for our money?”

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Ah yes, the Progressives have their panties in a bunch in that SB116 would have NH’s streets and byways become an ocean of blood when it would turn us into the equivalent of Vermont in terms of no longer needed permission from the Government to keep a firearm and bear it either in an open or concealed carry.  Remember, the four “tells” of a Progressive that hates your Freedom:

• You don’t need that
• I don’t know of anyone who says they need that
• It’s about the quality of life“
• It is the cost of civilization

Shall we judge how to tell that Carla Breton is a Progressive?

Jan. 24 — To the Editor:

I have just been informed of a bill introduced by Sen. Jeb Bradley which challenges the reasonable requirement to obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon. I cannot believe there is opposition to requiring a license to carry a gun, concealed or otherwise.

Yup, “I don’t know of anyone who says they need that” applies here; shades of Pauline Kael:

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