Paranormal legislative activity

The latest vid from my daughter:

It’s time to clean House

Nearly half of a House subcommittee in control of Pentagon spending is being investigated for ethics violations. It’s time to clean house, er, House.

Bob Hall: “You have memos and a conscious plan to use the law to manipulate regulations”

Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina — who filed the original campaign finance complaint with the elections board — takes no prisoners in his testimony before the board yesterday. From David Bass’ story in Carolina Journal:

The hearing Thursday wrapped up with closing comments from the man who originally filed the complaint about Easley with the elections board — Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, a left-leaning election reform group.

Hall said he wasn’t convinced that Easley’s campaign and the Democratic Party hadn’t violated the law.

“The emperor has no clothes. There is just a suspension of belief that we’re asked to take, that I can’t take and I don’t think the public can take,” Hall said, adding that he was “bothered” by memos indicating a coordinated effort by Easley’s staff to potentially circumvent campaign finance laws.

“You have memos and a conscious plan to use the law to manipulate regulations,” Hall said.

6:10 AM on WPTF: CJ’s Rick Henderson Discusses Easley Hearing

You can hear Carolina Journal managing editor Rick Henderson this morning at 6:10 a.m. on WPTF. It’s available at 680 AM on the dial, or online at www.wptf.com.

Oh, the irony

On the same spot that a million Americans gathered in friendly and tidy protest on Sept. 12, Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic underground held an invitation-only, no-public-allowed ceremony to unveil their abomination of a health care bill, all 1,990 pages of it, costing $2.2 million a word:

House Democrats blocked the public from attending the unveiling ceremony of their health care bill Thursday morning, allowing only pre-approved visitors whose names appeared on lists to enter the event at the West Front of the Capitol.

Rowwwr! Saucer of milk, table two

Margaret Carlson, lone one of the cattiest columnist going, really has her claws out for Sarah Palin. What is it about Palin that sends lefty columnists around the bend?

For those who wonder what former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is doing with her newfound freedom from the rigors of governing — aside from writing a book in record time — please do a Google search for NY-23. That’s the congressional race in upstate New York that Palin has decided to insert herself into.

She couldn’t even resist a lame play on the “I can see Russia from my house” fiction at the end of the column. Good grief.

Natalie Maines diplomacy

Hillary Clinton learned from The Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines that if you want to get in the good graces of people overseas, just say you hate Bush. That’s what she did in Pakistan today:

Answering questions from students on US intentions and perceived failings, Clinton acknowledged past mistakes but called for a new era and was treated to applause when she voiced opposition to US president George W. Bush.

Maybe Hillary should go easy. It didn’t do Maines’ career much good.

Chapel Hill Mayor: Don’t Come Here for Halloween

Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy is telling people not to come to Franklin Street on Halloween. He’s even taking his message to YouTube. Foy says it’s an issue of public safety and adds that concerns about H1N1 are another reason people should stay away from Franklin Street. Maybe folks should consider heading over to Raleigh’s Hillsborough Street near NC State, where they attract a smaller crowd to their Haunted Hillsborough Hike.

Did He or Didn’t He?

Carolina Journal’s David Bass reports on Wednesday’s Board of Election hearing, which featured about five hours of testimony from former governor Mike Easley. Here’s a sample of key testimony:

Easley denied knowing about memos circulated by his former campaign manager, Jay Reiff, describing a loophole that allowed funds to be funneled to the campaign through the state Democratic Party, potentially circumventing a $4,000 limit on donations from individual contributors.

“I wasn’t in the loop on these kinds of things,” Easley said.

Easley later said that he raised money for the party in 2006 and 2008 to help legislative candidates. Jim Cooney, a lawyer for the Democrats, argued that Easley had no say in how those funds would be spent.

But in apparent contradiction to Cooney’s premise, Easley said he didn’t want to raise money for nonviable candidates, suggesting that he had some influence over how the party would spend the funds.

And though Easley served two terms as attorney general before becoming governor, and as AG headed a bipartisan commission to study campaign finance reform, at one point he testified he did not understand some key aspects of campaign law.

Bass will be live-blogging today’s testimony. You can follow his posts here.

I’m Shocked, Absolutely Shocked

The Associated Press reports that — shock — the number of jobs “saved or created” by the so-called stimulus bill have been way, way, way over-reported.

A Colorado company said it created 4,231 jobs with the help of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan. The real number: fewer than 1,000.

A child care center in Florida said it saved 129 jobs with the help of stimulus money. Instead, it gave pay raises to its existing employees.

Elsewhere in the U.S., some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two, three, four or even more times.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Nor should we be surprised that the philosophy behind the current administration’s economic policy is fundamentally flawed. JLF’s Roy Cordato explains why in this interview.