Fabulous History Lesson

Rep. David Crockett vs. a Farmer. The article is titled "Charity and the good ol' Constitution" and it is an excellent read!!!!

180 years ago, Davey Crocket related this story between himself and Horatio Bunce, a farmer who told Crockett he would not vote for Crockett again because Crockett had voted for a bill that gave federal funds to charity.

But Horatio Bunce, a one-man "Tea Party" of his day, was having none of it. Rather than be hornswoggled by Crockett's attempt to deflect the argument away from the Constitution, he circled right back to it:

"In the first place," he said, the Government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man... [W]hile you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive, what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose."

Now, how this applies to health care is quite simple. There's no difference between giving money to individual citizens because they have lost their house in a fire or giving money to citizens because they have fallen ill. It is, to use Horatio Bunce's word, "charity." It is, thus, not surprising that the recipients of this government-funded charity, who would number in the millions, have taken to acting as if they are entitled to health-care assistance, whatever you wish to call it.

Likewise, the victims of the fire who were the beneficiaries of Congress' generosity with other people's money were happy to have it, and so were the average and well-to-do citizens who might otherwise have been asked to contribute to a fire-relief fund. Bunce lectured Crockett accordingly:

"The people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution."

The well-spoken farmer concluded his presentation thusly: "It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people."

In California!?! Hooray!

California Tea Party Holds Funeral For ObamaCare

Visit the site, it is kinda hilarious!

Protecting Putin?

GQ and Conde Nast have spiked a compelling article about "Putin's Dark Rise To Power" but when will these silly old print organizations realize, you can't stop the signal.

Read the article and marvel at the corruption and the corruption of Western magazines to weak to speak truth to power any more.

"Come And Get It" Politicians

Thank You Dan Cleary!

"Best Use of a $20 Bill at a Town Hall Meeting Since...Ever."

George Will Speaks Up Against NEA

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-06

Town Hall, Tea Party protests have long history in America - article from Glenn Reynolds (instapundit) in The Washington Examiner.

The Courier-Journal reports on Saturday's Tea Party Protest with "‘Tea Party' fills Louisville Park" Well Good.

Rasmussen Reports has this article up titled, "Does Obama Face a 2012 Challenge In His Own Party?". Basically, they are reporting that progressives and liberals are so unhappy with Obama's handling of Obamacare that they are considering putting up someone to run against Obama in 2012. Ouch!

Not This Pig It's good and it is from Victor Davis Hanson who is brilliant. Read both pages.

Obama’s UN Gambit: King of the Universe and the Polls Given Obama's ghastly handling of domestic and foriegn policy, you'd think he'd just want to lie low for a bit but chairing a UN meeting when the Iranians are saying this about you..."As a Tehran newspaper close to the regime snickered in July: “Their strategy consists of begging us to talk with them.”

The article ends with...

The administration’s zeal for the front-page photo-op on September 25’s New York Times has now become a scramble to manufacture an “outcome” for the session. The president’s idea for a glorious finish was described by Ambassador Rice as some kind of joint statement declaring in part “that we are united in support for effective steps to ensure nuclear nonproliferation.”

Such a result would be breathtaking — for the audacity of claiming exactly the opposite of what it really represents. Even allied council members France and the United Kingdom are reported to be very unhappy with Obama’s no-names strategy for his September rollout.

Far from bolstering his flagging image, the president’s group-hug theory of diplomacy deserves the disdain of anyone who can separate rhetoric from reality.

Pelosi loath to drop hammer on Rangel. This is an interesting insight into how Congress will handle Obamacare because if Pelosi has to keep a crook like Rangel because he's the best of the democrats who will keep to the left-wing agenda, then our nation is in a sorry state.

Obama 'green jobs' adviser quits amid controversy

President Barack Obama's environmental adviser Van Jones, who became embroiled in a controversy over past inflammatory statements, has resigned his White House job after what he calls a "vicious smear campaign against me."

From AP here. (Emphasis mine)

A former civil rights activist in the San Francisco area, Jones told the East Bay Express in 2005 that the acquittal of Rodney King's assailants in 1992 in that infamous police brutality case changed him significantly.

"I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist.."

Jones and other young activists in 1994 formed a group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, rooted in Marxism and Leninsm. Two years later, Jones launched the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland, Calif., based "strategy and action center" which states that it tries to "promote positive alternatives to violence and incarceration."

It was many of the associations formed around this time that served as fodder for conservative critics. In a New Yorker profile of Jones from earlier this year, Jones described his modus operandi as “traditional activism, the politics of confrontation and outrage. I was proud to be hated by the city fathers on both sides of the Bay.”

From ABC News Here (Emphasis mine)

And from Powerline.com. "Van Jones has a past as a record producer. That's right; his "civil rights" group, the Ella Baker Center, produced a handful of CDs between 2002 and 2006. One of them, which appears to have been made around 2002, "starred" convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal, who presumably recorded his portions of the album in prison. Here is the album cover:" See and hear the rest here.

What a charming character is Mr. Jones. He uses the the manufactured "politics of confrontation and outrage" as his form of "traditional" activism. He produces racist "music" records. He signs petitions claiming unthinkably horrible things. He says and claims unthinkably horrible things. And yet, when faced with the rejection of his thoughts and deeds, accuses everyone else of committing a "vicious smear campaign against me" filled apparently with "lies and deception".

Oh really, Mr. Jones? Was this a lie? Or this? You were caught on tape! You said it in print. It was all you. YOU. And while I sincerely hope you don't play the race card. I'm fairly certain you will. Crawl back under your loathsome rock, Mr. Jones. Your 15 minutes are up.

I Love Julia Child

From Competitive Enterprise Institute.

In the new movie “Julie& Julia,” Meryl Streep does well portraying the late Julia Child, but one can say Streep also benefits from her subject. The much-loved food author and pioneering television chef had a vibrant personality and passion about preparing food that made millions of Americans welcome her into their kitchens. It’s likely that no matter who played Julia in a biopic, her legions of fans would have flocked to the theaters.

So it is strange that Streep acts so ungrateful to Child in an interview with the U.K. newspaper the Telegraph. She berates Child for disagreeing with her on boosting organic foods and criticizing fats, proclaiming that Child was “seduced” by a “front orgnanization for agro-business and petrochemical business.”

Streep apparently still has a grudge against Child for refusing to lend her support to Streep’s fringe enviro group Mothers and Others for Pesticide Limits. That group was one of the leading promoters of the discredited scare about the pesticide Alar that was spread on apples.

In a low point for Congressional hearings on science, Streep, despite her lack of any scientific credentials, was invited to testify in 1989 before a Senate Labor and Human Resources subcommittee. She proclaimed: ”We don’t know what’s on our food . . . I no longer want my children to be part of this experiment.”

As Neil Hrab, CEI’s 2003-04 Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow, recounted in the American Spectator: “Within weeks of Streep testifying before Congress, Uniroyal, the company that manufactured Alar, began the triage to save its reputation, withdrawing the chemical from the U.S. market. In November of 1989, the EPA ordered a ban on the sale, distribution and use.”

But major scientific bodies would conclude that the Alar scare had been nothing but a bunch of hype. The American Medical Association stated in 1992: “The Alar scare of three years ago shows what can happen when science is taken out of context or the risks of a product are blown out of proportion. When used in the approved, regulated fashion, as it was, Alar does not pose a risk to the public’s health.” Others who condemned the scare included the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences, and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.

Yet in the Telegraph interview, Streep seems oblivious to these facts and to her role in hyping a costly and unnecessary scare. Instead, she bashes Child for daring to question the organic orthodoxy and what many call the “Food Police.”

Streep recalls Child’s turning down a request to help Mothers and Others in its campaign to get supermarkets to carry organic agriculture. “She was very resistant and brushed us off quite brusquely,” Streep says. Also bashing Child’s love of rich fatty foods, Streep rips Childfor not making “a connection between the high fat diet of a heavily laden cordon bleu-influenced cusine and cholesterol levels. (I admit I have no idea what “cordon-bleu influenced cuisine” means, but I imagine neither does Streep, who admitted in the same interview that she knew virtually nothing about cooking before she played Child.)

Streep also bashes Child for her involvement with a public health group that also had a long working relationship with CEI in promoting sound science: the American Council on Science and Health. “I remember being so disappointed that she was in the thrall [of the ACSH],” Streep said. Calling the group a “front organization” for agribusiness and chemical companies, Streep stated, “They seduced Julia into giving them money, so she was on the other side for a while.”

But the only one sucessfully seduced is Streep– into faddish irational fears about conventioanlly grown and fatty foods. Longtime ACSHPresident Elizabeth Whelan, who knew Child for about 20years, writesthat Child “had two major pet peeves:

•She despised people who demonized specific foods, like butter and sugar.

•She despised activists who terrified people about the safety of their food.”

Whelan adds: “For Julia, there were no “good foods” or “bad foods” — again, just a variety of foods, all in moderation — including an occasional cordon bleu. Julia, unlike her fictional counterpart, exhibited a constant stream of common sense.”

As for Streep’s charge ofACSH being a “front group” for corporate interests–and similar charges are levied against CEI — Whelan answers that the claim is “absurd — given the organization is funded by a full spectrum of foundations, individuals, and unrestricted grants from corporations.” CEI has a similarly broad-based funding structure.

The cherry on the cake of Streep’s nonsensical rant to the Telegraph is Streep’s claim that “Eventually I think she came around” to Streep’s point of view. But interviews from the last few years before she died show that Child never did “come around” to Streep’s anti-fatty food and anti-food technology extremism.

When asked by Business Weekin 2000 what she thought of the low-fat movement, Child replied, “I don’t go for that at all.” She then reiterated the motto of the American Institute of Wine and Food, which she co-founded with winemakers Robert Mondavi and Richard Graff to advance enjoymentof food: “Small helpings No seconds. No snacking. A little bit of everything and have a good time.”

Child also fully endorsed what another bete noir of many enviros — food biotechnology or genetic engineering. In 1999, Child toldthe Toronto Star: “I think it’s all fascinating. There’s no one-minute answer. The technology’s here. If they can give us a better tomato, I’m for it.”

Perhaps the best epitaph for Julia Child came from Thomas Lifson, editor of American Thinker, upon her death at age 91 in 2004. Lifson wrote in AmericanThinker: ”Julia Child, who played a major role in changing the way Americans think about, prepare and eat food, has died at the ripe old age of 91, after a lifetime of urging Americans to go ahead and use butter in their sauces and fry lardons to render some pork fat in which to fry the beginnings of a stew. Take that, health Nazis!”

Saw Julia and Julie today and really enjoyed it. Now my second favorite food movie after Babette's Feast.

Constituent lectures Congressman on executive power

There's Video Too. Here!

Note the standing ovation given to the lecture. Perriello and other Democrats had better start learning something from these reactions, because mistrust is beginning to rapidly increase for this administration. The explosion of czars in Obama’s White House has people worried about “shadow governments,” technically an incorrect term but descriptive of the problem (“shadow government” describes opposition-party positions in a parliamentary system or one that wields total power through the use of puppet elected officials). A handful look like an affront to Congress, but dozens begin to look dictatorial.

If You Care About US Debt - Read This Now

From The Wall Street Journal comes this article titled, "Warning: The Deficits Are Coming! The former head of the Government Accountability Office is on a crusade to alert taxpayers to their true obligations."

Mr. Walker, a 57-year-old accountant, didn't set out to be a fiscal truth-teller. He rose to be a partner and global managing director of Arthur Anderson, before being named assistant secretary of labor for pensions and benefits during the Reagan administration. Under the first President Bush, he served as a trustee for Social Security and Medicare, an experience that convinced him both programs are looming train wrecks that could bankrupt the country. In 1998 he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to head the GAO, where he spent the next decade issuing reports trying to stem waste, fraud and abuse in government.

Despite many successes, he was able to make only limited progress in reforming Washington's tangled bookkeeping. When he arrived he was told the Pentagon was nearly a decade away from having a clean audit, or clear evidence that its financial statements were accurate. When he left in 2008, he was told the Pentagon was still a decade away from that goal. "If the federal government was a private corporation, its stock would plummet and shareholders would bring in new management and directors," he said as he retired from the GAO.

Later on in the article...

Mr. Walker identifies the disease as having a basic cause: "Washington is totally out of touch and out of control," he sighs. "There is political courage there, but there is far more political careerism and people dodging real solutions." He identifies entrenched incumbency as a real obstacle to change. "Members of Congress ensure they have gerrymandered seats where they pick the voters rather than the voters picking them and then they pass out money to special interests who then make sure they have so much money that no one can easily challenge them," he laments. He believes gerrymandering should be curbed and term limits imposed if for no other reason than to inject some new blood into the system. On campaign finance, he supports a narrow constitutional amendment that would bar congressional candidates from accepting contributions from people who can't vote for them: "If people can't vote in a district not their own, should we allow them to spend unlimited money on behalf of someone across the country?"

And Yet There's More Obamacare updates

From the Wall Street Journal, this is very good. How to Insure Every American, We don't need radical change. Subsidies and high risk pools can get the job done.

Sixteen years ago, in the spring of 1993, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton came to me to talk about health care reform. I told her then what I would tell President Obama today: It's impossible to write a comprehensive health care reform bill and get it passed. Politicians aren't that smart, Americans aren't that trusting, and special interests aren't that lazy.

The above is Newt Gingrich talking in this Washington Examiner op-ed titled, We get last word on health care reform. And excellent read.

Push Obamacare At Your Political Peril

Democrats must be scared since now they are issuing ultimatums and threats in their effort to get bi-partisan support for Obamacare. Time to act on health care, Dem negotiator says

The democrats must be increasingly aware that if they cram socialized medicine down American throats, they will be voted out of office so they are desparate for republican cover.

But Republicans know that if they vote for Obamacare, they too will be voting themselves out of office.

The smart move is to reject the entire thing and start with some proper reforms that will help those who need it without hurting those who do not need help.

Please Let This Be A Beginning

Critics march against Chavez across Latin America.

Chavez - or as I call him, Senor Loco-Pants - is dragging South America down, even as countries like Argentina are recovering. I pray this is a beginning of a movement to counter Chavez.

The British Schindler

Sir Nicholas Winton, the 'British Schindler', meets the Holocaust survivors he helped save. From the Telegraph. Sir Nick is a role model for us all - brave and humble. He never told his wife that he saved 669 Jewish children from the Nazis until she accidentally discovered it 40 years into their marriage. God Bless Him.

Destructive ELF

2 radio towers in Washington state toppled.

The terrorist group ELF (Earth Liberation Front) are at it again. I won't put the eco- in front of terrorist because they don't deserve a qualifier that lessens the impact of their destructive and violent acts. If you can't convince people of the rightness of your argument using words, then your argument is either false or too weak. Resorting to violence only makes you a criminal.

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-05

The ever-brilliant Iowahawk has a marvelous take down of the conservative elites who mistakenly thought Obama and his policies would go to the center rather than further left. An Ill Wind is Breaking For Our President

What if you gave a speech on Obamacare and no one heard it? As Obama’s approval rating tanks, so does the generosity of broadcast networks.

It's so tiring pushing extreme socialist agendas on America these days. Has Obama run out of gas on health care?

Blog with ties to state Dems: Schools bailing on Obama speech because he is black. Don't you just love the race card? It works for everything.


Three Ohio Democrats asked about paying for Obamacare, all walk away. With Video! I love it when you get them on tape!

Obama May Need Sense of Crisis to Revive Health-Care Overhaul. Because we've seen how well Obama and his cronies handle crisis and the policies coming out of Congress are so well-thought-out.

Over at Slate.com's KlausFiles Health Care--What Went Wrong: The Official kf Version It still never actually deals with the basic bad-idea-ness of Obamacare.

Another example of media collusion with Obama and why if we can't trust Obama to pick a sane "Green Czar", how on earth can we trust him to pick a sane administrator of Obamacare? The (Non)Feeding Frenzy

Still Bitter: White House Goes After Santelli Again, but Santelli Fires BackIt's probably just me but when politicians attack journalists for not agreeing with them, that's pretty dumb. And yet, we're expected to trust these geniuses on Obamacare, Cap and Tax, etc., etc. Not likely. And if you think this is yet another non-Obamacare-related link, think again. We know next to nothing about Obama and the things that might reveal something about him, like his college transcripts, are kept secret. We have to look at his available spoken and written words and the public office decisions he has made in order to understand were the Dear Leader expects to take us. It ain't lookin' good.

Giffords finally meets “the mob”, thousands strong! With Video. Hooray!


Why are we even considering nationalizing 1/8th of the US economy when the economy is tanking? How can we pay for any government spending when the government's financial resource - taxes - are dwindling because unemployment is so high? and this too, Real Unemployment Rate Hits 16.8%

Nope, they still don't get it. Liberals push Obama to make gov't-run health care

The average American understands why taxes are bad so how come liberals can't? From Rasmussen. 60% Say Tax Hikes Hurt The Economy

Sweet (and with video) Protester to Mark Warner: Which part of the Constitution says you get to take over health care?

Not Quite Universal

Is Labor Day Necessary?

From Wikipedia.

The form for the celebration of Labor Day was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday: A street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families.

Labor Day's origins was based on appeasing the strength of the Unions.

Given the last 50 years of Union History, do we really want to continue to celebrate that? Labor Unions See Sharp Slide in U.S. Public Support

I'm not suggesting we give up the holiday - it has transmuted a lot over the years from a celebration of Union Power to a celebration of the ending of summer. But perhaps we should lessen the tie to Unions by renaming the Holiday to something else.

My suggestion is we simply adopt International Bacon Day - International Bacon Weekend? It is today afterall.

The economy is so bad...

The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

It's so bad, I ordered a burger at McDonald's and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"

The economy is so bad that CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

The economy is so bad if the bank returns your cheque marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

There's more at Blaney's Blarney, here.

Two Political Updates.

Tea Party rally draws 3,000 - Congressman Issa surprises crowd

Another North Carolinian disappears. Senator Kay Hagan: AWOL

There Are No More Gate-Keepers

As many are pointing out, if you only watched the TV news and read paper newspapers, then you would have no clue about 'Green Czar' Van Jones and his ghastly and radical statements.

Nor would you find the repudiation of various 'narratives' put out by TV newscasts and paper newspapers via scientific studies like this here. Which my expert-in-energy-and-environment husband only just found.

Nor have you heard too much condemnation from TV Newscasts and paper newspapers about the beating of Kenneth Gladney by union thugs (because it doesn't fit that 'narrative'?) except on FoxNews here.

Why is that?

Because TV shows and paper newspapers are under the mistaken belief that they are the only information gate-keepers. They are in actuality, the folks foolishly attempting to ration information for their own ideological purposes while completely ignoring the Internet, cellphone cameras, and flip digital recorders.

YouTube, Twitter, and websites now offer the most complete access to information and different points-of-view than television or print ever has.

And yet, and yet, the producers and editors still believe they have a role in shaping our information by providing their point-of-view and only their point-of-view to their public. No matter how many times, the TV newscasts and print papers are "scooped" or repudiated, they still believe there are the gate-keepers of information.

No they are the sad little dutch boys, fingers stuck in a tiny hole in the dike while a raging river pours past them.

Dueling Obama-As-God Articles

One, Obama, the Mortal, by Charles Krauthammer and an earlier one, The God Who Bleeds, by Jonah Goldberg.

Green Marxist in Leftie Clothing

Hat Tip Jonah

What Sin Do You Live In?

American Vice: Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins

Bjorn Bork

BJORN LOMBORG & THE COPENHAGEN CONSENSUS: WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO LIVE WITH GLOBAL WARMING

What's the best way for humanity to reduce suffering from man-made global warming? No individual has been a stronger voice for rational cost-benefit analysis on this issue than Bjorn Lomborg, the head of Copenhagen Consensus Center, and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It! On Thursday, September 3, 2009, Lomborg stopped by Reason's DC HQ to discuss the latest iteration of his ongoing project with Reason magazine science correspondent Ronald Bailey

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Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-04

No to Government-run healthcare! Keep the government off my body!

Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing People’s Organs Without Explicit Consent Ugh!

A Doctor's Plan for Legal Industry Reform, My modest proposal to rearrange how lawyers do business. From the Wall Street Journal. It's funny because it is true.

Harry Jekyll and Harry Hyde Never the two shall meet. About Harry Reid's mood swings at Townhalls.

Rangel Plays Race Card, Says Obamacare The Victim He's such a classy guy.


Obama is losing Chicago (did he ever really have it?) Barack Obama support a bit shaky in Illinois, Tribune poll finds

Marta Mossburg asks Why Democrats lost the health care debate in The Washington Examiner. The answer seems to be wine and cheese.

Despite Best Efforts, Rep. Baron Hill Ends Up on YouTube In a Compromising Position. It is speculated in this post that Rep. Baron "cannot possibly be this big a jerk all the time." Well, possibly not. He's certainly not as big an ass as Pete Stark.

Florida Exodus: Rising Taxes Drive Out Residents. I don't know why this is so difficult for democrats to understand. It has been proven over and over again but they just don't get it. Lower taxes, increased revenues. Increased taxes, lower revenues. 2+2=4. DUH.

Related to the above. The Coming Reset in State Government, My fellow governors and I are likely facing a permanent reduction in tax revenues.

Interesting post over at HotAir.com, here. I'm taking it slightly out of context but I do like this line, "there’s nothing in the Bible about caring for the sick by rendering unto Caesar."

Damn! The Honeymoon Is Over! Too bad the presidency isn't.

TARP Tall Tales Yes, it is about TARP not Obamacare but one just leads to the other as in, if the government can't handly TARP, how on earth will it be able to handle 1/8th of the United States' economy? Nothing is too big to fail but when Obamacare fails (as all socialized healthcare programs do) it will be our health and lives that fail with it.

Ann Althouse points out that the stress is affecting Obama.


Man Who Lost Finger to Bite by ObamaCare Supporter Tells Story to Cavuto

Dem: Obama hasn't led on healthcare

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. Biden fills vacationing Obama's void

$1,500,000,000 for Obamacare but no jobs for thee. Jobless rate at 9.7 pct.; 216K jobs lost in Aug.

Coruscating on Thin Ice, The Obama administration is young and out of touch. From the Wall Street Journal

New Jobs Numbers Require Dems to Drop Plans for Job-Killing Government Takeover of Health Care, Boehner Says

Obama Aides Aim to Simplify and Scale Back Health Bills. I don't care what they propose - All I know is I do not want the government involved with my body or my health. Period.

David Axelrod as Christopher Walken, I got a fever, and the only prescription is more Obama!

Now, more than a month later, things look even worse. The obvious solution? Even more cowbell.

But what is lacking is not cowbell, it’s substance the American people can support. Obama will reportedly be “more specific,” but he won’t commit himself to any particular piece of legislation. This suggests that the White House still thinks it has a communication problem, and if only it dispels the cloud of “lies” belched up by the opposition, there will be nothing but blue skies ahead.

Funny how the people who run the most sophisticated communication operation in the history of the presidency keep concluding that their difficulties stem from their inability to get their message out and never from what their message actually is.

And so, rather than change the substance of the message, they’re grabbing an even bigger megaphone: an address to a joint session of Congress. Three out of the last four presidents gave just one address to a joint session of Congress, and all but one of them reserved such occasions for major international events, like a war or, in Ronald Reagan’s case, a breakthrough with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Only Bill Clinton used such a venue for a domestic priority: health-care reform.

That didn’t work out so well either.

Just seven months into Obama’s presidency, the White House is turning up the faders on the cowbell as loud as they will go. And, heck, if you love cowbell, it’s going to be a real treat. But in all the ways that matter, it may just end up being more noise.