Some things are just better presented in their entirety.

“The one and only product of government is power. Government produces (or more accurately, projects) nothing other than power. Look at anything that government does, and once you strip away all the rhetoric, you’ll find that all it’s doing is projecting power, and that it has only two ways to do that. Government has the power to compel and the power to spend. That’s it. Everything government does falls into one of those two categories.” Via Ace of Spades.

“Fundamental Concepts-What Does Government Produce?

Here’s a simple question, but it’s one that very few people even think to ask: What does government produce? Think about it for a minute. With any other organization, the first thing that you need to know to start to understand its nature is, why does it exist? What is it for? In other words, what does it produce? GM produces cars, Apple produces phones, an orchestra produces music. Once you understand that basic fact, you can start to analyze how each organization functions to fulfill that purpose, and more importantly, realize how an organization seeks to maximize that production.

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I guess Pindell is having an off week – scanning through his questions of the week, I was rather disappointed with the offerings.  Oh well, c’est la – go with what’s there, laying on the street.

Will Republicans come home to Scott Brown in the final week or sit on their hands?

Oh sure:

Will the Fairpoint strike become a bigger political issue in the final week of the campaign?

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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

Works means it accomplished something worthwhile with little waste and a good return on our investment.  Yeah, President Obama, this is YOUR Government “working well” (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Millions of dollars worth of television news trucks are sitting under tarps in Kabul years after the State Department bought them as donations for Afghan broadcasters, a letter from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said.  One of the three trucks, which together cost the government $3.6 million, was damaged en route to Afghanistan in July.  Purchased to help Afghans cover live sporting events, the satellite trucks are “still covered by shipping material.”

July.  Which means this year.  Which means the Obama Administration.  So, even as we are blowing up and scrapping other expensive gear that costs taxpayers tens if not hundreds of dollars – what, you couldn’t repurpose some of those vehicles?  After all, they’re just setting around, too!  But wait – it gets worse:

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I was not in my usual seat at GrokTALK! this morning so I’m listening to it here on iHeart radio and just after the start of the show (7:34), Steve says something I need to quickly expand upon:

Keep in mind that their argument was that they didn’t have a choice that there were Republicans who were going to vote for it anyways and they were trying to soften the blow but doesn’t make a difference.

Right….these “Republican Establishment Elite have to provide themselves with an out (NH State Senator Chuck Morse, NH State Senator Jeb Bradley, NH State Senator David Boutin, NH State Senator Bob Odell and the other cast of usual suspects) and a scapegoat – as one of those that would was going to do an unRepublican type vote was NH State Senator Nancy Stiles.

So the utterly political wail from these spineless ones is “Don’t blame us – blame HER!”. Just like Obama, very willing to charter a bus under which to throw her. Except they have one really big problem concerning NH State Senator Nancy Stiles!

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NRO

“A deli in Melbourne, Australia is apparently selling genderless, organic, vegan gingerbread cookies for those who may be offended by the phrase ‘gingerbread man.'”

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From the Op-Ed that Drew Cline wrote over at the UL about the Republican reluctance to go after Dems lack of support on the Constutition:

…It is a little surprising that Democrats have dropped the issue, given that they are using so many other distractions to avoid talking about President Obama, and that certain gun control questions poll well when phrased the right way. What is more surprising is that Republicans have dropped it. With every major race expected to be close, it could help.

It could – but considering how much ill will Scott Brown has engendered amongst the Second Amendment groups and activists, it would not surprise me that Papa Smurf put out the word “icksnay on the unsgay”.  Folks know of his voting record in MA and his post 9/11 statements concerning bans – his protestations to the opposite, the Trust factor is just not there.  And on the First Amendment part you asked about:

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