E!!

They must be getting desperate.

Why else would the White House post the following blurb at whitehouse.gov:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Let’s re-cap.

Emails.  And casual conversations.  And stuff on the web.  That are “fishy.”  Should be flagged.  And emailed to the White House.  So they can keep track of them.  And combat “disinformation.”

Oooo-KAY.

Since when, and based on what precedent, does a sitting President ask American citizens to report on their fellow citizens in regards to political speech? Has the White House staff lost their senses?  Is the Teleprompter drunk?

The audacity of the request is eclipsed only by its foolishness. Trying to control information – or disinformation – on the web is like trying to herd a million cats. You can’t do it.

And if you’re the White House, you shouldn’t be trying.

I guess this “flag the fishy” idea was dreamt up by the same geniuses who thought it was wise to call concerned Townhall attendees an “angry mob” spouting “manufactured information” when they dared to show up and ask tough questions about health care reform.

People like the woman who asked her congressman, “How can you manage health care when you can’t manage Cash for Clunkers?”

Or the elderly woman who asked her congressman if HE was going to be on the new health care plan.

Yeah, these people are just totally unhinged.

Our elected officials must find it SO annoying to have to deal with these pesky citizens and their annoying questions.

(Iowahawk embellishes with his usual brilliance.)

No?  Me neither.

Get ready to be flabbergasted.  And angry.

My friend and fellow blogger Dr. Melissa Clouthier brought this story to my attention on her RFC Radio show “The Right Doctor.”  (She airs Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 pm eastern.)  The gist:

On June 4, 2009, Muslim men tried to smuggle weapons onto two different Phoenix bound U.S. Airways flights within 35 minutes of one another…and the FBI called them “isolated” incidents…and no one in in the LameStream media picked the story up.

The FBI has since been shamed into looking into a possible connection.

And then there was this (from the same Pajamas Media story linked to above):

The hit-or-miss Israeli website Debkafile reported on July 7 that U.S. and German intelligence believes that 15-20 al-Qaeda terrorists have been trained in Pakistan and Algeria and are now hiding in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, and Egypt. Their mission, according to the report, is to hijack and bomb Western airliners headed to Israel and the United States.

How is it that in a post-9/11 world – or in any world - the American mainstream media does not bother to report Muslim men smuggling weapons onto commercial airliners?

I have had just about all I can take of a media that gave us 24/7 “news” coverage of Michael Jackson’s death for over a week, but did not dedicate ONE MINUTE to this story on June 4.

We need some independent media watchdog organizations.  Nationally and in every state.  Right now.  Before this country becomes unrecognizable.  And my head explodes.

Since writing about the Fed Ex/UPS dust-up here and here - and taking a fair amount of heat for it (see the Comments) – I’ve occasionally been checking the web for new articles, columns, and updates. 

This morning, before I even checked my Google alerts, I saw a Corner post referring to this story on Politico.  It seems that FedEx has leaked letter from the American Conservative Union detailing the suggested terms for an expensive email campaign on FedEx’s behalf.  (Politico has all the cut-and-pastes from the letter.)

“Oops.”

Where to begin?

Before I lament the loss of integrity or rip the ACU for being so stupid as to detail a “pay for play” proposal in writing without a strict confidentiality clause, I don’t think David Keene would have sent such a letter without an invitation to do so.  I bet someone at FedEx asked for a proposal, thinking the ACU could be a natural ally in their anti-union fight.  Don’t have any facts to support that theory, but I’m guessing that’s what happened.

Obviously FedEx passed on the ACU’s offer to run a $2 to $3.4M (yes, million) email campaign and is now going after Keene and the ACU because he/they recently threw in their hat with UPS via a coalition letter on ACU letterhead and signed by various grassroots conservative groups.  Whether or not the ACU took any money from UPS in exchange for public support is anybody’s guess.  ACU reps are saying “no.”

A purist would say something like, ”Better to lose on issues and at the ballot booth than debase the conservative movement with questionable tactics.” 

A strategist would say, “The other side does this kind of thing all the time, raising gazillions of dollars as they go, and we have to do it also in order to have a chance against them.”

E!! says:  Smooth move, genuises.  Now the reputation of one of the oldest, biggest conservative grassroots organizations in the country is tarnished, and it will be even harder for the ACU to raise money in this already anemic fundraising environment.  Or to have any political clout when they take a stand on issues.

Um…  It is 6:07 a.m. and I am still on my first cup of coffee so I had to read parts of this KansasCity.com story twice before I would accept what Red State pointed out in a post in their morning brief.

The state of Missouri is on the verge of charging consumers a hefty fee for the energy they don’t use. Missouri governor Jay Nixon explains, “To save power is the equivalent of making power.”

(Hm.  Where have I heard this “saved” equals  “created” claim before?  Oh yes!  President Obama has repeatedly claimed that the actions of his administration have “saved or created” hundreds of thousands of American jobs.  Got it.)

Anyhoo, here’s the AP reporter’s sum-up of the MO policy in a nutshell:

Though it might seem illogical, the new energy efficiency charge has support from utilities, most lawmakers, the governor, environmentalists and even the state’s official utility consumer advocate. The charge covers the cost of utilities’ efforts to promote energy efficiency and cut power use.

The assumption is that charging consumers for those initiatives ultimately will cost less than charging them to build the new power plants that will be needed if electricity use isn’t curtailed.

May seem illogical?  How about inherently unfair?  Anti-free market?  How about downright criminal?

How about:  if a new power plant is needed based on consumer demand, then you build it and charge for energy accordingly, and if it ain’t, you don’t?  And how about:  if people find ways to use less electricity, you let them keep and enjoy their savings?  Or is that all way too simple and sensible for the MO governor and his pals?

Missouri’s state motto is “Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto,” which means, “Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.” If this energy policy passes, they ought to change the word “people” to “energy companies and their bureaucrat friends.”

(And don’t miss the part of the story where one of Missouri’s “popular” energy initiatives was for KCP&L to give consumers “free” thermostats – that can be remotely controlled:

One of the company’s more popular energy-saving initiatives has provided free programmable thermostats to about 34,000 residential customers in Missouri and Kansas. KCP&L can remotely control the devices to reduce the frequency at which air conditioners run during peak demand times. The power company overrode customers’ air conditioners four times last year and twice so far this summer, Caisley said.

Yup.)

Ok, maybe a short glass.  But I stand by the rest of the header.

Today’s Heritage Foundation Foundry quote of the day.  With pic.  (Check out the sunglasses on this lunatic.  Talk about a Hollywood complex.)

If you can stomach it, Americans for Tax Reform has a recap of all the major fiscal and tax-related events since Inauguration Day.

Title:  Obama’s First 100 Days:  Higher Spending. More Debt. New Taxes. Broken Promises.

Yep, that about sums it up.

Just a snippet:

Day 1 — January 20: In his Inaugural address, President Obama makes a noteworthy commitment to the American taxpayer:
 
“And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”

Or two:

Day 41 — March 1: The Obama administration foreshadows another broken promise when Peter Orszag, appearing on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, claims the 8,000 earmarks in the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 are “last year’s business. We just need to move on.” The statement by Orszag in not consistent with Obama’s campaign promise made in the first presidential debate:
 
“And, absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.” (Sept. 26, 2008. First Presidential Debate, Oxford, Miss.)

RTWT.

Well, I guess we need to have another Tax Day TEA Party ASAP!  What part of “get out of our wallets” and “stop ‘helping’ us!” and “stop spending money that doesn’t need to be spent” and ”stop hiring government employees to do things we can do ourselves” does the government not understand…?   Good grief!!

This “plan” from the White House is so outrageous and hair-brained and so likely to have the opposite of the intended effect that it is hard to even believe (copied and pasted from The Corner to save time):