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:: MAX BLACK ::

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --C.S. Lewis

"The Swiss pocket knife of conservative thought on the web..." - Eli Kardrakian

"Bookmark Max and dump your subscription to the newspaper; if you don't have a birdcage you really don't need it anyway..." - Shirley St. James

:: Thursday, September 22, 2005 ::

"Moonbat Disneyland", an update...

:: Max 7:19 AM [+] ::
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Ritawatch

Looks likely Rita will grow into a cat 5 and could shift north before landfall sometime late Friday. The StormTrack is a great blog but I also like the Plymouth State Weather Center Tropical Track Map (click around for satellite photos).

Update: Tropical Storm Max? Thankfully, he doesn't seem to be the least bit threatening...

:: Max 7:46 AM [+] ::
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"Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to stifle your progress utilizing an impeneterable web of petty and conflicting regulations specifically designed to make your life miserable..."

[oh, and he loves - loves - his job...]

:: Max 9:57 PM [+] ::
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I pledge allegiance to the curve
Of supply and demand in equilibrium
And to the principle for which it stands
Market pricing, with low transaction costs
Yields utility and profit for all

Commenter Thoreau via Samizdata

:: Max 9:01 AM [+] ::
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"Cindy Sheehan is a Karl Rove plant..."

[moowah ha ha ha ha....my evil plan to destroy the Democrat Party from within is working!]

:: Max 10:35 PM [+] ::
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The "media" shames itself again and Prairie Fire's patron Saint, Victor Davis Hanson sums it up nicely [emphasis mine]:

"For all the media's efforts to turn the natural disaster of New Orleans into a racist nightmare, a death knell for one or the other political parties or an indictment of American culture at large, it was none of that at all. What we did endure instead were slick but poorly educated journalists, worried not about truth but about pre-empting their rivals with an ever-more-hysterical story, all in a fuzzy context of political correctness about race, the environment and the war.

"Let ghoulish CNN file suit against the government to film all the bloated corpses it can find. Let a pontificating PBS "News-Hour" conduct more televised roundtables with grim-faced elites searching out purported national racism. But few any longer trust a frenzied media whose reporters and commentators continually prove as incompetent as they are disingenuous.

"Was it too much to ask reporters to look to history to judge this recovery against other past disasters here and abroad? Could they have strived for accuracy instead of ratings — and at least made sure that the images from their cameras did not refute their own predetermined scripts?"

Nope. I don't know what these people are doing but it's not journalism. They really are transmogrifying - live and in living color - into the buffoonish charicatures that we've suspected them of being all along and it's painful to watch. What a bunch of frickin' blow-dried, overpaid poseurs. I got yer journalist right here.

:: Max 5:58 PM [+] ::
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Tom Delay says the Republicans have wrung all the fat out of the Federal Government, a shocking statement from a supposed conservative. Here are a few little items the Heritage Foundation dug up that Mr. Delay seems to have overlooked:

The federal government cannot account for $24.5 billion spent in 2003.

A White House review of just a sample of the federal budget identified $90 billion spent on programs deemed that were either ineffective, marginally adequate, or operating under a flawed purpose or design.

The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" book identifying $140 billion in potential spending cuts.

The federal government spends $23 billion annually on special interest pork projects such as grants to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or funds to combat teenage "goth" culture in Blue Springs, Missouri.

Washington spends tens of billions of dollars on failed and outdated programs such as the Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Geological Survey and Economic Development Association.

The federal government made $20 billion in overpayments in 2001.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's $3.3 billion in overpayments in 2001 accounted for over 10 percent of the department's total budget.

Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 for admission to entertainment events, $48,250 for gambling, $69,300 for cruises, and $73,950 for exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.

Examples of wasteful duplication include: 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 federal programs dedicated to assuring safe water.

The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses, and 40% of this goes to Fortune 500 companies.

The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets, and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable.

The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually to not farm their land.

Washington spends $60 billion annually on corporate welfare, versus $43 billion on homeland security.

Via Ramesh Ponnuru, The Corner

:: Max 8:03 AM [+] ::
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"...the obsession with Bush hatred practiced by many Democrats is a sure prescription for their losing again. In fact, when I came back from Asia and saw the endless jaberring about how Bush mishandled the hurricane (as if he were Neptune or Thor), I knew the Democrats were making fools of themselves with the public - with the media, as usual, playing their ironic enablers. (Who makes more Bush voters than Chris Matthews?) The minute Democrats forget or ignore Bush and start thinking about what they should do is the minute their party is on the road to recovery.

If I were the leader of the Democratic Party, I'd take my slogan from the I Ching: "Change, no Blame."

Roger L. Simon

:: Max 2:19 PM [+] ::
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From the New Orleans comprehensive hurricane disaster plan; and I quote [emphasis mine]:

"The safe evacuation of threatened populations when endangered by a major catastrophic event is one of the principle reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The thorough identification of at-risk populations, transportation and sheltering resources, evacuation routes and potential bottlenecks and choke points, and the establishment of the management team that will coordinate not only the evacuation but which will monitor and direct the sheltering and return of affected populations, are the primary tasks of evacuation planning. Due to the geography of New Orleans and the varying scales of potential disasters and their resulting emergency evacuations, different plans are in place for small-scale evacuations and for citywide relocations of whole populations.

"Authority to issue evacuations of elements of the population is vested in the Mayor. By Executive Order, the chief elected official, the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, has the authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.

"Evacuation procedures for special needs persons with either physical or mental handicaps, including registration of disabled persons, is covered in the SOP for Evacuation of Special Needs Persons."

The truth will come out - are you listening Tim Russert? Hey, Tim - big media guy - you out there? Ya, I'm back...

:: Max 10:48 PM [+] ::
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