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Last night, he detailed how the Intelligence Committee cleverly made documents briefly available right before Congress’ summer recess, but did it in such a way that nobody was likely to be made aware of it in order to make that “we held hearings but nobody came” claim. In short, they didn’t actually inform the House members’ offices at all, but did the congressional equivalent of posting a hand-written note on the bulletin board of the laundry room.

Makes you wonder what they’re trying to hide. (Perhaps any suggestion of a connection to intelligence. That’s just a guess, you understand.)

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‘Austerity’ is government-speak for ‘forced to use silver utensils rather than gold’.

To help understand what American austerity really looks like in 2013, we’ve helpfully listed the 17,000+ entries from the Federal Register (“The Daily Journal of the United States Government”) since sequestration took effect on March 1, 2013.

Not everything on the list is wasteful, of course. But is this a snapshot of a government cut to the bone?

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My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

This is one of those stories that doesn’t need to be characterized, let alone embellished. You can draw your own conclusions. Today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on Benghazi at which Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the mother and father respectively of two of the men who were killed by terrorists, testified. The Democrats on the committee didn’t even have the decency to listen to what these victims of the Obama administration’s gross negligence had to say.

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In recent years, unions have successfully lobbied Democrat governors in states like Illinois and Connecticut to unionize home health care workers by executive action. The higher pay workers win is offset by the dues now owed to the union. The Labor Department’s action this week takes a step toward nationalizing this phenomenon.

A little known fact about union collective-bargaining agreements is that they can override federal rules and regulations. Federal regulations may require that employees who work more than 40 hours a week be paid time and a half, but a union contract can supercede that. “We know you are supposed to pay overtime,” a union boss could tell an employer. “But, recognize our union and negotiate a contract and we can waive that mandate.”

By adding more regulations to the home health-care industry, the feds are facilitating the union organizing efforts. They are providing more rules that can be waived in a collective bargaining agreement.

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Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but since the 2008 meltdown, the government’s housing specialist, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has not been active in the debate over housing policy. That might seem odd, but given the department’s role in the mortgage meltdown, it’s no wonder the agency would prefer to stay out of the limelight.

…

But then Lehman folded, and suddenly the government went silent on HUD’s great work. Instead, in 2010, the new HUD secretary, Shawn Donovan, told the House Financial Services Committee: “Seeing their market share decline [between 2004 and 2006] as a result of a change of demand, the GSEs made the decision to widen their focus from safer prime loans and begin chasing the non-prime market, loosening longstanding underwriting and risk management standards along the way.” In other words, as Fannie and Freddie plunged headlong into the subprime abyss, HUD was just a bystander.

There is no doubt what really happened. Between 1997 and 2007, HUD’s affordable-housing policies under two administrations built an enormous mortgage bubble—nine times as large as any bubble in modern history—and when this bubble collapsed, it caused a 30%-40% decline in housing prices. This left homeowners who had limited financial resources and no equity in their houses unable to refinance or sell, causing an unprecedented number of mortgage defaults. Shocked by these numbers, investors fled mortgage-backed securities, making them useless for short-term financing by financial institutions like Lehman. The result was a panic and a financial crisis.

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After extending health care coverage to many of its part-time employees for years, Trader Joe’s has told workers who log fewer than 30 hours a week that they will need to find insurance on the Obamacare exchanges next year, according to a confidential memo from the grocer’s chief executive.

In the memo to staff dated Aug. 30, Trader Joe’s CEO Dan Bane said the company will cut part-timers a check for $500 in January and help guide them toward finding a new plan under the Affordable Care Act. The company will continue to offer health coverage to workers who carry 30 hours or more on average. …

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When you give out free money, crooks will find a way to funnel it into their pockets. After all it’s Somebody Else’s Money.

John Stossel blows the whistle.

Advocates also point out something that seems obvious to them: Infrastructure is a job that must be done by government. Who else would launch big projects like the New York City subway system? Subways are what Big Government supporters call a “public good.”

Yeah, but….

Most of New York’s subways were actually built by private companies. Few New Yorkers even know that. Private companies dug the first tunnels and ran the trains for about 40 years. But when they wanted to raise the fare to a dime, the politicians said they had to “protect” the public. Government took over the system, saying only “public ownership” could guarantee affordable fares.

But government doesn’t do anything well. Under government management, profit disappeared and the fare rose well beyond the inflation-adjusted equivalent of what the private companies had wanted to charge.

And, between the city government, the unions, and the Mafia, a private company couldn’t afford to build something like a subway today.

Now, politicians want you to buy them new trains. Who wouldn’t like a shiny new train? The Obama administration gave your money to California politicians who want to build a 200-m.p.h. train to take people from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Somehow, in the tradition of political boondoggles everywhere, the train that politicians actually approved doesn’t yet come close to either city. It starts, and ends, “in the boondocks,” says Reason magazine’s Adrian Moore.

Well, it’s not as if they were spending their own money.

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govBack in 2006, when President Obama was still a Senator, he spoke at a summit on lobbying reform. His remarks were quite critical of Republicans, noting that “we’ve seen the number of registered lobbyists in Washinton double since George Bush came into office.” He condemned the practice of letting lobbyists write legislation, and slammed Republicans for their ties to the lobbying world. “For years now, [the GOP has] openly bragged about stocking K Street lobbying firms with former leadership staffers to increase their power in Washington.”

These days, Obama and his fellow Democrats aren’t exactly bragging about ties between his party and the lobbying industry. But his administration, along with Democrats in Conrgess, have helped facilitate it all the same.

The 2010 health care overhaul, in particular, has meant big business for well-connected lobbying firms—and numerous trips through the revolving door for the former administration and congressional staffers who can help make those firms even better connected still.

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Because, you know, government schools are doing such a great job.

And it’s not as if there were a war in Syria or lots of people unemployed or an impending health care disaster or anything to worry about.

I’m waiting for him to recycle those one WIN buttons from the Ford administration, this time meaning ‘Whip Ignorance Now’.

Walter Olson blows the whistle, but probably won’t get the adulation that Manning and Snowden get.

A year ago I wrote: “It’s rare for a regulated company to mount open and disrespectful resistance to a federal regulatory agency, but that’s what the maker of BuckyBalls, the popular desktop magnetic toy, is doing in response to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s effort to ban its product.” The maker in question had devised cheeky, sarcastic ads asking why other products with injurious potential (coconuts, hot dogs) weren’t banned on the CPSC’s logic.

One reason it’s rare to mount open and disrespectful resistance to a federal agency is that agencies have so many ways to make businesspeople’s lives unhappy. This spring, breaking new legal ground, the CPSC reached out and named CEO Craig Zucker personally as a respondent in its recall proceeding.

You make fun of the big boys, they punish you.

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My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

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Now: Imagine what would have been said by the Usual Suspects if a Republican President (even … dare I say it? … a Bush) had done something like this.

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More government nonsense. Sorry: If you’re not sweating, you’re not an athlete. (No, palms don’t count. And there’s more to ‘sweating’ than body odor.)

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As the federal government struggles to implement ObamaCare in less than two months, the US Agency for International Development has announced a $25 million grant to build a stronger primary healthcare system in Madagascar.

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The New York Times notes an annoying trend toward total police state in America, with “the Transportation Security Administration’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response squads — VIPR teams for short — assigned to perform random security sweeps.”

Yes, what sounds like a second-rate terror-crime cartel that a minor Marvel superhero might be punching out is roaming the land….

The significant differences between the TSA and the Gestapo are the the Gestapo were competent and had better uniforms.

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Colorado legislators are immune from speeding tickets and parking tickets thanks to the special plates issued to lawmakers — ones that aren’t included in the DMV database.

The Crust takes care of its own.

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Rich crook, poor crook….

Greg Mankiw uncovers a rock.

 With the implementation of the ACA (Affordable Care Act) these institutions are giving notification to their part-time faulty that their individual teaching schedules will now be limited to three sections. At the college this will likely result in the cancellation of 20-25% of the class sections in economics, and I would assume other areas will have a similar result. The students are not fully aware of the situation and many will be surprised that their desire to get a college education is now being impacted by the need to avoid the full implementation of the ACA.

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Two weeks ago, Ray Schulze was working in a barn at the Society of St. Francis no-kill animal shelter in Kenosha, Wis., when officials swarmed the shelter with a search warrant.

“[There were] nine [Department of Natural Resources] agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth,” Mr. Schulze told WISN 12. “It was like a SWAT team.”

The agents were there to retrieve a baby deer named Giggles that was dropped off by a family worried she had been abandoned by her mother, the station reported. Wisconsin law forbids the possession of wildlife.

“I said the deer is scheduled to go to the wildlife reserve the next day,” Mr. Schulze told the station. “I was thinking in my mind they were going to take the deer and take it to a wildlife shelter, and here they come carrying the baby deer over their shoulder. She was in a body bag. I said, ‘Why did you do that?’ He said, ‘That’s our policy,’ and I said, ‘That’s one hell of a policy.’”

There’s something about being a government employee that reduces the IQ by about 50 points.

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Yeah, probably. And why not? He certainly started out richer than me.

 “If you can get elected to Congress and stay there, you can retire pretty well,” said Chris Kahn, a Bankrate analyst, who conducted the research.

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

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Laney is a state-funded, open-enrollment community college located in beautiful Oakland, Calif., America’s seventh-deadliest city (just behind Newark).

The community change studies program – which is accepting applications through August 5 – “combines classroom and on-the-job training to prepare students” for exciting careers in community activism, protesting and general mau-mauing.

The one-year program offers participants paid internships in addition to college credit. The 18 hours of coursework includes “Civic Engagement in Urban Communities,” “Grassroots Knowledge: Community Based Research in Action” and, of course, “Introduction to Ethnic Studies.” There are six classes total; each course is worth three credits.

Every class in the community change studies program qualifies for transfer into the prestigious University of California system as well the Cal State system.

Laney promises that completion of the program will give students “strong backgrounds” for work at nonprofits and in union organizing.

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Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer.

Yet even with a department so bloated that it has a horseshoer and no horses, the local union president said it is “not possible” to eliminate positions.

Look for … the union label….

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Hartwell, who has vast experience defending clients under investigation by the Justice Department, believes that, absent Holder, Lerner might well cooperate with a Justice Department investigation in order to avoid prosecution. But as long as Holder is the Attorney General, and in the absence of a special prosecutor, he can block the prosecution of Lerner. And Lerner has every reason to believe that Holder will do so, however hard career DOJ lawyers lean on her.

Indeed, notes Hartwell, Lerner and her attorney (both reportedly staunch Obama supporters) know how protective Holder is when it comes to the friends and supporters of the president. They know that Holder has declined vigorously to enforce the law against the Black Panthers in Philadelphia when they didn’t even contest the charges; that he has refused to investigate all sorts of vote fraud allegations, not to mention schemes to defraud assorted federal entitlement schemes; that he has repeatedly stonewalled Congress on the Fast and Furious operation; and that he has already declined to prosecute the IRS for leaking confidential taxpayer information on conservatives.

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Operate outside of your box, and the government will get you.

The bus industry has been subject to an onslaught of new regulations in recent years—a reaction by government to a few tragic accidents that drew widespread media attention. While horrific accidents occur periodically, buses are not only orders of magnitude safer than passenger cars, they’re safer than they’ve ever been thanks to engineering and manufacturing advances. There are about 34 fatal intercity bus accidents annually as compared to 23,000 fatal passenger car crashes. An unintended consequence of the regulatory onslaught is that higher ticket prices will lead fewer travelers to forgo their cars for the bus, making them far more likely to die on the highway. What safety-anxious parent would prefer their college offspring to catch a ride home in a car driven by a fellow student rather than take the bus?

For all that they love to waste money on trains, the bureaucrats don’t seem to have much affection for mass transit that actually works.

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“This innovative research by the U.S. Forest Service will make baseball games safer for players and fans across the nation,” Vilsack said in a statement. “The U.S. Forest Products Laboratory has once again demonstrated that we can improve uses for wood products across our nation in practical ways – making advancements that can improve quality of life and grow our economy.”

And another serious national crisis is averted due to our friends in government.

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See what you’re getting for your money.

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I am not making this up.

In Connecticut, selling Obamacare involves airplanes flying banners across beaches. Oregon may reel in hipsters with branded coffee cups for their lattes. And in neighboring Washington, the effort could get quite intimate: The state is interested in sponsoring portable toilets at concerts.

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“These documents detail the extraordinary intervention by the Justice Department in the pressure campaign leading to the prosecution of George Zimmerman,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “My guess is that most Americans would rightly object to taxpayers paying government employees to help organize racially-charged demonstrations.”

Well, probably not, given recent history. It’s truly astonishing what ‘most Americans’ will put up with these days.

The Other McCain reacts here.

Law Professor Walter Jacobson reacts here.

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In a public relations coup, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (Metro) gave a certificate of appreciation to a man who voluntarily planted flowers in flower boxes that the agency had been neglecting for years at the Dupont Circle MetroRail station. I’m sorry, did I say “certificate of appreciation”? I meant a letter threatening him with “arrest, fines and imprisonment” if he planted any more flowers or tended any of the more than 1,000 flowers he has already planted.

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 A high-powered rifle lost in the ATF’s Fast and Furious controversy was used to kill a Mexican police chief in the state of Jalisco earlier this year, according to internal Department of Justice records, suggesting that weapons from the failed gun-tracking operation have now made it into the hands of violent drug cartels deep inside Mexico.

Thank you, Eric Holder.

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That’s why they call it the ‘Affordable Care Act’, because it makes care un-affordable. You can always tell what a government program will do by inverting what the title says — the Department of Education, for example, is devoted to making sure that Americans are uneducated; the Department of Energy makes sure that our sources of energy are too expensive; and so forth.

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To quote John Derbyshire, Patron Saint of Dyspepsia: ‘Get a government job!’

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Thank God all of America’s problems are solved and the U.S. government is so flush with cash that we can afford to throw $10 million at Africa. (Not the people of Africa, mind you — who cares about them? — but the animals of Africa, the ones that show up in pictures in the books in our daughters’ day school.)

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As drought conditions and extreme heat continue to plague California, farmers in the Central Valley are struggling to get enough water to feed their land — the bread basket of the Golden State.

But the weather alone isn’t to blame. Fish and Wildlife regulations tightly control water resources in the state, making it impossible earlier this year for the reservoirs to capture the rain, when it fell late last fall. And because of the endangered species in the region, pumping water is also restricted, leaving farmers high and dry.

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According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States spent an average of $15,171 in 2010 on each student when college or vocational training was factored in—the highest in the world. The average for each elementary student was $11,000 per elementary student and more than $12,000 for each high school student. Switzerland spent $14,922 per student, Mexico averaged $2,993, and the average OECD nation spent $9,313.

The survey showed that brand-new and experienced teachers in the United States had higher salaries than most of their foreign equivalents. As a percentage of the economy, U.S. spending on education was higher than the average; the U.S. spent 7.3 percent of its economy while the average was 6.3 percent.

But all of the money spent does not guarantee success; U.S. fourth-graders ranked 11th in the world in math in 2011; U.S. eighth-graders ranked ninth. Among 15 year-olds in 2009, the math literacy rate was 31st in the world—lower than the international average—while they were 23rd in science.

Can you say ‘teacher unions’? I’m sure you can. As with any other field of human endeavor, the existence of unions corresponds to a low-quality product, and the proliferation of unions marks the lowering of that quality over time.

Oh, and aren’t government employees all unionzed now? Hmmm….

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The business model that parents thought was an innovation, but that Labor sees as a menace, is simple but effective. You might have heard of it: cooperation.

We rent a large space for a few days, say an unused department store. Parents with clothes and children’s items to sell sign up online, enter their items into a computerized tracking system and choose their sale price. Then they bring the clothes and other items to the sale location, label them with preprinted price tags and display the clothes. Parents keep 70%; we keep 30%. It is easier than a garage sale, makes more money for parents, and shoppers efficiently find good deals.

A big part of our success are the hundreds of parents — both consignors and shoppers — who voluntarily work brief shifts to help set up before the sale starts. In exchange, these parents get to shop first with more choices and better merchandise.

In January, though, the Department of Labor noticed all this cooperation going on. Months later, investigators concluded that volunteers are “employees” under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

This means paying the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, filling out IRS paperwork and complying with who-knows-what other rules. And all for a pop-up business that lasts days.

‘All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.’ — Benito Mussolini

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Because, you see, it doesn’t matter what the contract says — silly one — what matters is what the Union wants. And it wants guaranteed jobs for its members, guaranteed pay raises for its member, and guaranteed more members, so the Union officials can have guaranteed lush paychecks, guaranteed lush pensions, and guaranteed political power.

Educating kids? Sorry, that’s not in the contract.

(I repeat my question about why do all Teacher Union officials seem to be fat ugly black women. Haven’t gotten an answer yet, but I’ll keep looking.)

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Despite what you’ve heard about the time stopping effects of the sequester, government hiring and spending continues. Imagine that.

Still looking for anybody that the Department of Education has educated. Still haven’t found any.

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My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

According to the Miami Herald, the Cutler Bay Farmer’s Market ran every Sunday for the past two years. A handful of food trucks came to event as well. Somebody anonymously complained to the city about unlicensed vendors (how would an average person know who was or wasn’t licensed to do business at a farmer’s market? Good question!). It turned out the town had an ordinance that prohibited allowing food trucks at the market, but it wasn’t being enforced. So the city sent the market’s volunteer manager warnings about it. Rather than booting the food trucks, he shut the whole affair down. The reason he did so is because the food trucks, even though there were only a handful of them, played a huge role in drawing people to the market….

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Because naming it after Barry would just be a bit much — better wait until after 2016.

Now, imagine what an outcry there would be if some school district named a school after Sarah Palin — who has done a shitload more for America than Michelle Obama ever did.

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Last month, Aetna announced it would not join with California’s new state-run insurance market for consumers, a key component of the new federal healthcare law. In 2011, Aetna trailed Anthem Blue Cross, Kaiser Permanente, and Blue Shield of California; the three groups totaled 87% of the market share in the state, while Aetna only had 5.2%.

Just as minimum-wage laws mean that some people get priced out of the job market, government-controlled insurance means that some people will get priced out of the insurance market. Too bad, so sad. Clutch your Obama Phone and weep.

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My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

 “The F.B.I. takes very seriously any shooting incidents involving our agents, and as such we have an effective, time-tested process for addressing them internally,” a bureau spokesman said.

But if such internal investigations are time-tested, their outcomes are also predictable: from 1993 to early 2011, F.B.I. agents fatally shot about 70 “subjects” and wounded about 80 others — and every one of those episodes was deemed justified, according to interviews and internal F.B.I. records obtained by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

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Here are the facts: the IRS targeted political opponents of the current administration, while repeatedly giving an easy ride to friends of the current administration – going so far as to retroactively approve a so-called charity which was run by the President’s brother, which just happened to be named after the President’s father.

This kind of thuggery and nepotism is usually only found in basket-case countries like North Korea, not in the United States. And yet, over the past few weeks, we have seen example after example of President Obama’s political friends and insiders getting fast-tracked by the IRS, while those of us who dare call ourselves “Patriots” were taken to the woodshed by the powerful tax agency.

What Nixon only dreamed of, Obama brought to pass.

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All of these definitions matter; they’re used by various agencies to parcel out $37 billion-plus in federal money for “rural development.” And each one is different.

In one program, for instance, “rural” is defined as any place with fewer than 50,000 residents. So Lenoir is rural, and eligible for money. But in another, only towns smaller than 2,500 residents are “rural.” So Lenoir isn’t, and isn’t.

And so on. There are 11 definitions of “rural” in use within the U.S. Department of Agriculture alone.

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In Ontario, people have donated some 40,000 pounds of aid to the Windsor Lifeline Outreach for victims of the Oklahoma tornadoes. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection is refusing to allow the donations into the country. Officials are treating it as a commercial shipment, which means each food item must have a certificate from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

And I bet you thought that the government was there to help. Foolish mortal….

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My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

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Hey, that’s what it’s all about.

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You remember Faux-cahontas’s days as a “token Native American” at Harvard University, getting a $349,000 check for what was essentially part-time work. Turns out she’s not the only member of the higher education industry who’s making big bucks for small-time work.

A terrific new article from the New England Center for Investigative Reporting reminds us of the core mission of Massachusetts colleges and universities: To make money for education bureaucrats.

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

There’s another question, too — why are the degrees so much more expensive? After all, the raw materials of a college education are far cheaper today than they were a generation ago. Textbooks that require frequent updates are expensive. Kindles that can hold 1,000 books aren’t. Million-dollar computing systems for college bureaucracies now literally fit in the palm of your hand.

And then there’s the labor: Lots of kids with worthless bachelor of arts degrees going back to grad school to avoid economic reality equals a large supply of potential professors. And as supply goes up, price goes down. (I skipped Latin to study econ.)

Only prices haven’t. College costs continue to grow faster than inflation. How is that possible?

Because, once again, the point of process isn’t to educate your kids. It’s to create cushy government jobs.

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How? By government, of course! Government is the only entity with the power to ban anything!

 In 1943, Claude R. Wickard, the head of the War Foods Administration as well as the Secretary of Agriculture, got the bright idea to ban pre-sliced bread in America, which he did on January 18, 1943. The specific reasons behind this aren’t entirely clear, though it was about conservation of resources. One known reason for the banning was to conserve wax paper. There have also been many who have suggested there were secondary goals of conserving wheat and steel.

But mostly it was just a bureaucrat with a wild hair up his ass and the power to impose his whim on an unsuspecting nation.

(Yeah, the name Eric Holder occurred to me, too, as I was writing that sentence.)