Teachin' 'em Young

Little Kaid Fuhrman getting a shooting lesson from his mom last Sunday:

He was hitting the target with his single-shot .22 in no time.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a child to shoot and you won't have to worry about eating fish every stinking day the rest of your life."

-- Henry David Thoreau

I think it was Thoreau.  Or was it Leno ...

It's The GOP's Fault. Again.

Governor Kaine is being roundly criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike for sitting on all those federal stimulus funds (see "Letter: Va. last to use highway cash").  Though Kaine accepts responsibility (see "Kaine: don't worry about stimulus spending") and says he has things under control, the Roanoke Times says he has no control at all!  It's those damn Republicans who are keeping him from spending money on all those highway projects that he's been whining about all these years!

I wish these guys would get their excuses straight:

Stimulus spending
editorial

Virginia shouldn't be proud that a report by a congressional transportation committee found that Virginia was dead last in its pace of spending stimulus money on transportation projects. But predictable Republican criticism aimed at Gov. Tim Kaine misses the mark.

"This is the result of having a governor who is more concerned with traipsing around the country tipping wine glasses with the Democrat elite to raise money for his national party," said Pat Mullins, chairman of the state Republican Party.

Mullins' statement followed a letter from U.S. Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, that criticized the pace of Virginia's transportation spending.

But Mullins is wrong. Kaine's role as Democratic National Committee chairman has nothing to do with the slow pace. Republican intransigence on fixing Virginia's underfunded transportation system, on the other hand, has a lot to do with it.

As Kaine explained in a reply to Oberstar, Virginia had few shovel-ready projects because a drastic decrease in state transportation funds resulted in many projects being trimmed from the state's six-year transportation plan.

For his entire term, Kaine has been trying to get House Republicans to understand the need for more transportation revenue. They have refused to consider ... [blah blah blah] [link]

Understand the need?  Is someone stuck on stupid?  The "need" no longer exists, fool.  The cash is there.  All Kaine had to do was get his VDOT - the one whose leadership threw a hissy fit this past summer and closed all those rest stops along the interstates - to resurrect the detailed construction plans they had put together in the past.

Why, if 49 other governors could do it, couldn't Tim?

One would suppose, since Virginia ranks dead last in stimulus money spending (angering a prominent Washington Democrat who, by the way, didn't send a letter to Virginia Republicans for their perceived failures, ahem) that the other 49 states have no Republicans on hand to oppose state spending.

No, it couldn't be the case that our governor is a doofus who is spending his time these days chasing DNC campaign donations rather than doing the job he was elected to do.

It's all the Republicans' fault that Kaine is dead last.

For the love of God.

Quote of the Day

"Democrats have found someone worth fighting in Afghanistan. His name is Stan McChrystal."

Abandon Ship

Even Obama now sees Creigh Deeds's chances of winning the governorship next month to be a dim - and fading - hope:

White House Steps Back in Virginia Race
By Elizabeth Williamason, Wall Street Journal

Washington -- The White House is stepping back from lending its heft to a bellwether gubernatorial race in Virginia, party strategists say, seeking to conserve its political capital and avoid close association with a candidate who might lose.

After one appearance earlier this year, Mr. Obama hasn't committed to any further engagements in the state, despite repeated requests by the campaign of Virginia state Senator Creigh Deeds.

The White House says it remains supportive of Mr. Deeds. [link]

"The White House says it remains supportive of Mr. Deeds."  Translation: Deeds? Who?

Stuck On Stupid

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman still believes the planet is warming.  Read his silly musings about the "climate bomb" in "Our Three Bombs."

If only he read the New York Times on occasion ...

Weasel Words

Show of hands: Who among you accepted Obama at his word when he pledged to not raise our taxes?

Keep 'em up so that everyone else knows who the fools are.

Then again, don't feel alone:

The health care taxman cometh
Investor's Business Daily editorial

Campaign promises are like fruit flies - they never live very long. The latest to go legs-up is President Obama's campaign pledge that not "one single dime" of new taxes will hit families making less than $250,000 annually.

If by "not one single dime" then-candidate Obama meant about $2 billion, he should love the Senate Finance Committee's embrace of additional taxes on the middle class and younger Americans.

According to new Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation figures, 71 percent of the individual "penalties" in Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus' health care plan would hit families well under Mr. Obama's threshold. If the president signs the legislation, $2 billion of $2.8 billion in expected penalties faced by those who refuse to buy health insurance would be paid by families of four earning less than $120,000 annually.

The White House's response is to argue that this is not a tax, equating the penalty to a speeding ticket. We've heard it all before under different guises, such as talk about "revenue enhancers" or "user fees" or measures to close supposed loopholes. The reality is simple. If the feds are taking your money to pay for government expenses, it is a tax, no matter what spin Democrats want to put on it. [link]

We're back to trying to get a clarification of what the meaning of the word "is" is.

Why can't these snakes be straight with the American people?