Holy moly.

The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

It was more than twice the $40-billion deficit that Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast and was striking since April marks the filing deadline for individual income taxes that are the main source of government revenue.

Department officials said that in prior years, there was a surplus during April in 43 out of the past 56 years.

The government has now posted 19 consecutive monthly budget deficits, the longest string of shortfalls on record.

This is hardly a record to be proud of. You know, Republicans were booted out of power in 2006 in part because Democrats attacked their high spending. Here we are today, and Democrats have made the Republicans’ spending look frugal.

Sorry libs, you can’t blame Bush for this. This is the Democrats doing… Obama is the drunkest of drunken sailors.

From NRO’s The Corner:

No one else seems to have noticed yet, but Alan Mollohan (D., W. Va.), who twice voted no on a federal marriage amendment and earned a 63 percent approval rating from Human Rights Campaign, was just ousted by a man (Michael Oliverio) who strongly endorses “traditional” marriage.

Conservatism is surging, it would seem – even in some quarters of the Democrat party.

People are furious with government – tired, that is, of government officials routinely ignoring the clearly expressed, popular will. Mollohan fell afoul of this. So did Bennett in Utah – I’ll bet that Specter does in Pennsylvania, and its 50/50 that McCain will survive his challenge in Arizona.

Throw away all the books about politics – get ready for a very wild ride in 2010.

The news:

The Republican National Committee’s Site Selection Committee is recommending the party hold its presidential nominating convention in Tampa-St.Petersburg in 2012, the RNC announced this afternoon.

Tampa beat out Phoenix and Salt Lake City for the event. Minneapolis-St. Paul hosted the 2008 event.

I was hoping for Phoenix just to really stick it to the left – but Tampa will be fine because we’re going to mop the floor with Obama in that State in 2012.

Illinois, destroyed:

Illinois lawmakers were in disarray Thursday as they groped for stopgap measures to address a $13 billion deficit equaling nearly half of the state’s general-fund revenue.

The state faces one of the nation’s worst budget crises, spilled over in part from the broader national economic crunch, and its current bond ratings lag only California’s. But the confusion in the legislature indicates that serious steps to fix state finances won’t be taken until after the November elections—if then…

…Any hopes that the national economic recovery would help the budget discussions were dashed this week when Illinois disclosed that revenue for April —when most citizens pay taxes—fell more than 15% from the same month a year ago, or $501 million, in part because of a $345 million drop in federal aid. Gross personal income-tax receipts, a major revenue source, dropped $103 million, or 8.1%.

And that last bit, by the way, puts to rest any notion that we are in a recovery. If we were recovering, then State tax revenues would at least be stabilizing, but they are still falling. They might not be falling as precipitously as they were last year, but they are still falling. Which means that less people are working; working people are earning less; people are spending less…the economy is contracting.

Illinois – like California, New York and New Jersey – just illustrate in the most stark terms where liberalism brings you: to bankruptcy. Liberals have just spent and spent and when revenues didn’t keep up with political promises, they borrowed. And now the bill has come due – and there simply isn’t enough money to pay for liberalism.

Naturally, liberals are refusing to face reality. New Jersey has proven lucky in getting Chris Christie as governor – the governor has the power (and Christie has the guts) to do do what is necessary to bring things under control. Elsewhere, it will actually take the votes of liberals to undue the damage of liberalism. And so it isn’t happening – as you can see, in Illinois they are just trying to find some sort of stop gap to keep things going for a little while…until after the elections, when either the GOP will be saddled with the problem, or re-elected Democrats will feel safe in hammering the Illinois taxpayer.

The States are in acute crisis because they can’t print money. The United States appears to be a going financial concern because the Federal Reserve can print money – and by printing a couple trillion over the past year, the Federal Reserve has made it seem like a recovery is ongoing. But, it isn’t – and, in fact, all the fake money has just made things worse (we’ve taken the bad debts of stupid bankers and turned them in to the bad debts of an electorate which elected Obama). But even with the magic of Federal Reserve, there is a limit – and we’re very fast approaching it (maybe by as soon as 2013).

We hit that wall, and complete collapse will greet us, just as it is greeting the great State of Illinois – not enough money to pay all the promises. We can still avert if, if we elect a Republican Congress in November – but it will be a close run thing. We might not have enough time to avert the worst sort of crash (there will be a crash – what remains to be determined is how bad it will be).

HAT TIP: Mish’s

The news:

To hear mainstream media outlets like the Associated Press and Washington Post tell the story, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan once urged President Bill Clinton to back a ban on partial-birth or late-term abortions. The take from the stories is that Kagan’s rock solid pro-abortion views aren’t that strong.

Nothing could be further from the truth…

As it turned out, what Kagan had advised was for Clinton to back the Daschle bill on late-term abortions – an alternative which the pro-abortion groups were trying to slip through. It would have “banned” late term abortions except where the “health” of the mother was concerned. With “health” being undefined (and, indeed, undefinable) it wouldn’t have banned a single late-term abortion. Kagan was just trying to find a means for Clinton to please both sides while still advancing a radical, pro-abortion agenda.

Ultimately, this just indicates what was already suspected: that Kagan is a pro-abortion fanatic and that is the prime reason she was selected by Obama. Abortion is the be-all and end-all of existence on the left – it doesn’t matter if Kagan eventually comes down in favor of gun rights, free speech or a host of other issues…as long as she’s safe on abortion, that is all the left cares about. Given this, the one thing everyone involved would make sure of is that no matter what case comes before the Court, Kagan will vote in favor of abortion.

Which, of course, doesn’t change the complexion of the Court, at all. Justice Stevens has proven to be a pro-abortion fanatic, and he’s to be replaced by same. But don’t let anyone try to sell you on the notion that Kagan is other than what she is – an ultra-leftist, judicial activist.

From Rasmussen:

Americans continue to overwhelmingly believe that English should be the official language of the United States and reject by sizable margins the idea that such a move is racist or a violation of free speech.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 87% of Adults favor making English the nation’s official language…

Me: I disagree with making English the official language. But I also see this for what it is: the people are tired of multi-culturalism and all the rest of the PC claptrap the liberals have been foisting on us for a generation.

The left in America had better start to tread with care – the people are fed up. Press just a bit more, and the backlash will be astounding. I’m not just talking about a good GOP year in 2010, but majorities being elected capable of amending the Constitution. The line has been drawn – the people are determined to keep their freedom, and keep their country.

Poor guy:

Tory leader David Cameron has entered Number 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister for the first time – and said: “This is going to be hard and difficult work.”

Uh, David, old buddy – its going to be impossible work. The only way to save Britain’s economy: massive spending cuts. Your coalition partners: Liberal Democrats who simply won’t go along in a serious way. What will happen: eventually double-dip for which you will get blamed. Long term result: Labour back in power, Tories disgraced and out of power for a generation.

I hope it works out differently, but I don’t see much hope.

Socialism is evil. This video will make our liberals blow a gasket. T

Republicans retain lead in “generic” ballot – by 6 points, which is the narrowest GOP lead in 2010. Reason? Financial reform has hit us a bit – unfairly, but politics isn’t fair. But all the issues are on our side – I expect that we’ll maintain and perhaps expand our lead as we head in to the fall.

A Chinese TEA Party?

Brits still yammering on about whom shall preside over the final collapse of Britain’s economy.

Discuss the Kagan appointment or anything related to the judiciary, Constitutional issues and such.

Kagan appointment: helping to bring social issues back to the center of politics. Thank you, Mr. Obama. Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad – and Obama seems to be more and more of a raving lunatic.

UPDATE: She’s also already ordering waffles for her confirmation hearings.

UPDATE II: She seems to have some worrisome, liberal-fascist views on free speech.

I’m of the opinion that Obama is a fool – a man without the requisite knowledge or character thrust in to office by a set of odd circumstances. For an alternative position, we go to Wayne Allen Root over at Nevada News and Views:

It’s time to stop mincing words. Obama is not a fool. He is not incompetent. He is not a madman. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis, and social chaos- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within. But the bonus is brilliant…as he destroys and taxes to death business owners, he also cripples his political opposition.

Rahm Emanuel cynically said, “You never want a crisis to go to waste.” It is now becoming clear that the crisis he was referring to is Obama’s Presidency. As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Obama’s Columbia University. In 1966, they outlined a plan to socialize America by OVERWHELMING the system with government spending and entitlement demands…

Root was the Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate in 2008. I don’t subscribe to this view that Obama is deliberately wrecking things – but one doesn’t have to in order to agree that Obama’s policies are immensely destructive. If one were setting out to bankrupt America, nothing worse could be done.

The varied expedients which have been used to keep things afloat in America are going to fail. There is just no way to back up all the debt we’re piling up – we can’t tax enough to pay what we owe; taxing at that level would kill economic activity, altogether, and thus make our problem worse.

And so, we’ll slip slide down this hill until we hit bottom – and hopefully learn our lesson both about electing liberals and trying to borrow and spend our way in to wealth.