The story:

It became a sort of poster child for fiscal responsibility — a clean-coal power plant in Illinois that was one of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s pet projects.

Democrats insisted they were so serious about keeping pork out of the stimulus bill that it was President Obama himself who blocked the FutureGen project from the massive spending package.

“It shows that we’re serious about it,” Brendan Daly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman, said at the time. “The speaker said it, and the president said it: There will not be earmarks in this bill.”

Earmarks? Perhaps not. But funding for FutureGen? Absolutely, to the tune of $1 billion.

What I noted on passage of the Spendulus:

…In the end, of course, no one knows what is in the bill – not really; it will end up being some low-level bureaucrats and Administration officials who will really decide how the money is spent, and they’ll spend it with a mind towards their future prospects for advancement. The only thing we can be sure about is that a lot of money will be spent…

So, what we have here is proof that no one knew or knows what is in the bill and thus whomever has pull can find whatever he wishes in it…including Obama allowing pork spending on something he said he wouldn’t allow pork spending on. You liberals signed on for this BS and you were warned – we told you that you were being taken for a ride and that the Powers That Be were merely using the financial crisis to feather their nests and reward their friends. But, no, you had to think that The One was different…you utter fools! He’s from Chicago, for crying out loud – name me the honest politician who has ever come out of there.

You don’t have to be an intrepid reporter – all you have to know is the nature liberal Democrats; given this, we can be certain that the money will be spent in a manner which liberal Democrats believe best serves their immediate political needs. It doesn’t matter what they say, doesn’t matter what the law says – nothing matters to liberal Democratic leaders other than winning and retaining power. I knew this sort of thing was going to happen, I said it would happen, and its happened – and it will keep happening until GOPers gain authority to start investigations.

And this time, boys and girls, no holding back – we get the power, we should start sending crooks to jail.

Way cool stuff for science geeks and sailors young and old.

Anyone who attempts to deny the subservience of the MSM to Obama after this is a knave or a fool:

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

It doesn’t really matter – only the Obamaniacs will watch, and they’ll swallow whatever The One shoves at them…but as an example of just how devoted the MSM is to Obama, there’s nothing better…and no chance anyone will ever be able to rationally deny MSM bias any longer.

Obama once promised “a new era of openness in our country,” declaring “transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

So, please… someone explain how this is open and transparent? 

Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com’s request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

Or perhaps Obama can explain how when Bush and other presidents withheld such information it was secretive, but when he does it is “open” and “transparent”?

Obama campaigned on change… but what kind of change is it when you promise transparency and completely go back on your promises? This is hardly an isolated incident… Obama has been criticized plenty for failing to make good on his promises of transparency. Sadly, there are too many people who give Obama pass after pass despite the utter failure that has been his tenure in office.

Because of David Letterman’s moronic, imbecilic jokes about Sarah Palin’s 14-year old daughter, there are those who want to use the opportunity to get Letterman fired.

This is where I part ways with many of my conservative brethren.

Is what Letterman said about Palin’s 14-year old daughter getting “knocked up” by Alex Rodrieguez an abominable statement in poor taste?

Absolutely.

Does David Letterman deserve to be criticized for his gross indiscretion?

You bet.

Part of the consequences of speaking your mind in a free society is opening yourself up for criticism for what you say.

But when we, as conservatives, travel down the road of the gallows for what a leftist says, we are no better than those who take that same path as a means to silence their critics without bothering to take the time nor the energy to engage those critics on the basis of their ideas.

Especially when those on the left have nothing to offer to bolster their own arguments.

Criticize Letterman til the cow comes home. The fact that he made that joke about a young teenager getting “knocked up” by an adult is enough ammunition to figuratively poke holes in Letterman til the hole between his teeth cannot be discerned from the rest of his sorry persona that resembles a putrid hunk of swiss cheese.

Awareness of Letterman’s crass behavior will lose him viewers, causing his show to wither on the vine naturally, resulting in a slow, painful death, a death caused by the changing and awakening of people’s hearts and minds. Our cause will be won in the marketplace of ideas, which will manifest itself in the free market system.

And that, my friends, is how to chalk one up for the conservative cause.

We do the conservative cause nor the advancement of our principles no favors when we adopt the thug tactics of the other side.

No hearts nor minds are changed.

All that is left is a pile of smoldering manure punctuated by a “Gotcha!”

The conservative cause is advanced in and is summarily successful in the arena of ideas.

For the sake of the cause and our priniciples, let’s not lower the bar.

And 59% of non-Democrats:

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans favor an across-the-board tax cut for all Americans to stimulate the U.S. economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirty-four percent (34%) oppose such a tax cut, and 15% are undecided.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of both Republicans and adults not affiliated with either major political party think an across-the-board tax cut is a good idea. Democrats are fairly evenly divided on the wisdom of such a tax cut.

During Election 2008, then-candidate Obama promised to cut taxes for 95% of all Americans. So far, just 26% of adults believe President Obama has delivered on that promise. Forty-three percent (43%) say he has not and 31% are not sure.

Democrats are more likely than others to believe the President has delivered on the tax cut promise.

And that last would be because Democrats, on the whole, are likely to be even dumber than Obama. More importantly, we’re starting to see indicators that a supply-side, tax-cutting program will resonate well with voters in 2010 and 2012. Just takes a bit of warmed-over Carterism to bring America back to its senses, it would seem.

Where to go when life gets you down:

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. – St. Augustine

The news story:

In remarks broadcast Monday night, Letterman directly apologized to the Palin family for the coarse jokes he made last Monday.

“I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I’m sorry about it and I’ll try to do better in the future,” Letterman told the studio audience.

He went on to explain how he had come to the realization that last week’s monologue, in which he joked about one of Governor Palin’s teenage daughters being “knocked up” by New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, could be interpreted as being in poor taste.

“I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There’s no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can’t be defended.

I can’t speak for Governor Palin and her family, but the matter is closed for me. The larger issue of our increasingly coarse popular culture remains a major issue.

Just wanted to point out a salient fact about that strange case – Being yourself never requires surgery. Now, if someone wants to slice and dice themselves into a different bathroom, that is their business, but please don’t tell me that someone who does something insane like a sex change is being courageous or being themselves.

Makes me ashamed of my country:

…Lefties keep assuring me on Twitter that western meddling will only make it easier for the regime to demonize the protesters, but (a) the demonization’s going to happen anyway, (b) no one’s asking Obama to send in the Marines, just to speak up, and (c) Angela Merkel managed to issue a statement earlier today calling the Basij thuggery “completely unacceptable” without killing the uprising in its crib. And still, from the White House, nothing. To think, some commentators are accusing The One of “cowardly silence.”

You’ll also be pleased to know that, according to no less than the New York Times, Obama didn’t bother holding any meetings or conference calls about this yesterday. Remember: Health care is a “crisis.” This is but a “situation.”

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Monday that the United States is concerned about allegations of ballot fraud.

Kelly described the U.S. government as “deeply troubled” by the events in Iran, which is a stronger expression of concern than over the weekend when Vice President Biden cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election.

When pressed by a reporter, Kelly declined to condemn the Iranian security forces for their crackdown on street protesters. And he said the U.S. knows too little about the conduct of the election to say for sure whether there was fraud.

Can’t even muster up a verbal condemnation – I guess Obama is worried that would make the Iranian dictators mad at us and we can’t have any more of that…only Bush would want theocratic mass murderers mad at him, and we saw how that turned out.