Veronique de Rugy notes over at NRO’s The Corner that Obama is hauling out the tried and true Washington Monument Strategy in order to secure public acceptance of a State bail out. This sort of tactic is used whenever a government is in a really tight financial spot and wants to justify spending or tax increases – “if you don’t give us what we demand, then X popular thing will be closed”. You know – propose a cut to Interior, they threaten to close the Washington Monument.

The stated purpose of Obama’s bail out is to save the jobs of teachers, cops and firefighters. Of course, if we put those jobs on the Federal taxpayer dime then it will free up State taxpayer money to save the job of the Deputy Assistant Director of Transgendered Affairs – but that won’t be mentioned. It’ll all be “save the teachers!”, and if you don’t agree then you hate teachers and children.

I suspect Obama will get it through – wouldn’t matter if polls showed 60% opposed. You see, those government employees to be bailed out are substantially Democrat in voting pattern but, even more important, their union dues are vital to Democrat campaign activities. And the really wonderful thing, for Democrats, is that they even get to use the union dues of Republican employees (yes, I know; that is illegal – but when has that ever troubled a Democrat?). Democrats in Congress will simply not allow such a lush source of funds to be killed – nor will they want unemployment spiking to 12% or more by November as government employees are let go.

But I also think this will be the very last time we’ll see this tactic used. You see, I think that the people see through the scam. More and more people are coming to realize that as valuable as cops, firefighters and teachers are, they aren’t entirely indispensable and, furthermore, at a time when all of us are hurting, it stands to reason that the government employees have to hurt, too. The old tax and spend song and dance just doesn’t play as well.

So, Democrats will do it, but it will fall on deaf ears – the pleas to save the teachers will be seen for a justification of waste. And, in the end, I think that this tactic will be piled on all the other corrupt shennanigans and will be instrumental in a quite stunning result in November.

One of yours, liberals:

UPDATE: He has an opponent – the lovely, talented and wise Renee Ellmers. Perhaps you can help out a bit?

Hey, liberals – so you don’t believe me when I say the economy is doomed? Well, then perhaps you’ll believe your hero, George Soros? Pinko he is – but he’s also a financial shark…

Plunging tax revenues in Los Angeles. Good news for Angelenos who have kept their jobs and their houses – bad news for Big Government, already on the verge of complete bankruptcy. Aside from that, yet another bit of proof that the economy has not recovered – if it had, Los Angeles wouldn’t have this big a problem.

When faculty pinheads are put in charge of the real world.

Hmmm, maybe that college degree really isn’t worth the $40,000 in student loans?

Axelrod says Obama will be campaigning this fall. I’m sure every Republican in the nation wants Obama to come campaign for his opponent, but I think it’ll be more selective than that…I figure Obama will make repeat appearances in Brentwood, San Francisco, Manhattan and other areas were regular Americans live.

For me that would be just for starters – Mona Charen in the Washington Examiner:

…It is not kooky to favor the elimination of the Department of Education. That this proposal is routinely labeled “extremist” is a reminder of the one-way ratchet that operates in government. Enshrine something in a federal agency and it becomes sacrosanct. Democrats cheerlead for federal programs because they are the party of government, and Republicans quietly go along because they’re afraid.

But if Republicans know how to argue for smaller government — as Gov. Chris Christie is demonstrating in New Jersey — they need not be intimidated. There are hundreds of federal programs that could be eliminated tomorrow with only the happiest consequences for the nation. And yes, the whole Department of Education could be scrapped. It vacuums up money and produces … what exactly?

What, indeed. Pretty much nothing – and if you could sift through the whole thing and find a few worthwhile things, they could better be handled as block grants to States or as part of some other department of government. We don’t need the Department, itself. At any event, the whole thing was just a Carter Administration boondoggle – a payoff to teachers union bosses.

It is high time we started getting a government which is of, by and for the people – getting rid of the Department of Education would be a good first step.

This is a whole, new level of stupidity:

Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders have tentatively agreed to allow the state and municipalities to borrow nearly $6 billion to help them make their required annual payments to the state pension fund.

And, in classic budgetary sleight-of-hand, they will borrow the money to make the payments to the pension fund — from the same pension fund…

For you liberals out there, I’ll explain: money has to be paid by government to the pension fund for the vastly over-compensated, Democrat-controlled, unionized government employees. The government doesn’t have the money to pay because its all been spent on lavish government salaries and wasteful government programs. Government solution: the government will borrow money from the pension in order to pay the pension.

This would be like you or I borrowing money from our mortgage holder to pay our mortgage. It is really that stupid – but, don’t sweat it! The Democrats’ plan is that the stock market will rise so high by 2013 that they’ll be able to make up the difference! Cool plan, huh?

These morons are destroying our nation – we simply must get them out of office.

We’re bound to win, in the end:

He’s locked in a run-off primary fight with another fine Republican – the son of the late Senator Strom Thurmond – but I’m just impressed as all get out by Mr. Scott.

No matter what happens in November, the future is ours and tired, worn out liberalism is doomed.

As if there isn’t a mounting debt crisis, at all:

A recent Gallup poll shows the mounting debt tops American fears and yet Congress continues to pursue legislation that would deepen the debt crisis. This week the House will move to consider legislation intended to increase the availability of credit to small businesses but with a price tag of $33 billion with no offsets made to pay for the program it will only grow the level of our unsustainable debt. Additionally, one should question the necessity of this measure when it clearly duplicates efforts made in the original $700 TARP bill. Also on the docket for the week is the FY 2010 War Funding Supplemental bill meant to pay for on going operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The total cost of the bill is $84.3 billion dollars, although only $33 billion is actually war funding and the rest is a whole list of other “emergency” priorities including $23 billion to bailout the states…

Why are we bailing out the States? Because if we don’t, then a lot of State and local employees will be laid off – a double whammy for the Democrats as it would increase unemployment and cut down union donations in an election year. Can’t have that – so, driving the United States in to bankruptcy is a small price to pay for Democrats to keep the political money flowing and attempt to save their bacon in November.

This is the type of government we’ve got under the Democrats – a government which is of, by and for the party of government. They don’t care about the people – not in the least. They only care about their power and wealth and are doing everything they can to protect it.

If you wonder why I want a complete overturn of our government elite, this is your answer.

As Nancy said, we needed to pass the thing to find out what’s in it – now we’re doing just that. Remember that endlessly repeated promise from the President that we’d be able to keep our health care plan if we like it? Well, turns out not to be the case:

Over and over in the health care debate, President Barack Obama said people who like their current coverage would be able to keep it.

But an early draft of an administration regulation estimates that many employers will be forced to make changes to their health plans under the new law. In just three years, a majority of workers—51 percent—will be in plans subject to new federal requirements, according to the draft….

Liberal spinmeisters are trying to cast this as a good thing – hey, you’re just going to get a better plan! Trust us, the new government regulations will make everything better for you. No one with any sense will believe that – and, most importantly, we were repeatedly promised that if we liked what we’ve got, we’d keep it. Yet another Obama lie.

Now, it was a lie when he spoke it and, furthermore, all of us on the right side knew it was a lie. Obama might as well have promised that his health care reform would cure depression and acne – it would have just been two more lies to place on the pile of lies used the unsuccessful attempt to sell the bill to the public (in the end, of course, it was muscled through, public be darned).

No truth being told. No enemy being thwarted. No friend being helped. No jobs being made. This is Obamunism – a complete failure on every level.

Your allies, liberals – they are traitors to America and proud of it:

Details over at Noonan for Nevada. Seems that AIG has been using some of its taxpayer money to comply with Islamist notions of Sharia law.