Oilbama

unsolicitedanalysis:

Obama WILL be blamed for the plight of poor MAJORITIES in the Gulf fishing and tourism industries.

Via the unfair, unrelenting criticism that Obama is about to receive – it’s coming, you best believe it’s coming, especially when those businesses die – liberals will atone for that sin.

This is utter nonsense. Look no further than noted asshat David Brooks:
(via chuckmore) for a moment of clarity on this:

“I persist in the belief that unless Barack Obama has a degree in underwater engineering that he’s not telling anybody about, there’s really not a lot, post-spill, he could be doing. Like you, I’m not a huge fan of presidential grandstanding. The idea that the president is the big national daddy who can take care of all our problems is silly.”

David Brooks

Yep

This crisis is the fault of BP and the total regulatory capture on the part of the oil industry. All of which happened over the past 20 years of conservative rule. But, sure, let’s just blame Obama and require “liberal atonement” for an event totally out their purview. After all, everything is always bad for The Democrat.

Team NoKo

Kevin Drum makes a point I’ve wondered after:

[China’s] unwillingness to put serious pressure on North Korea mostly seems to come down to a combination of inertia and a fear of massive refugee flows across the border if North Korea collapses.

But why? There are 23.8 million people in all of North Korea. Even if every living human North Korean crossed the border, you’d be dealing with a rounding error in terms of China’s overall population. That and, as Kevin notes, you’d likely have broad international support once said refugee crisis began to unfold, so it’s not as though China would be alone in dealing with that rounding error.

Like so much surrounding this crap-fest, it makes no sense at all. Well except for the manifold parts that make it clearly bad news for The Democrat.

Whither Transit

muppetpants:

Looks like the streetcars have effectively been killed off after already spending millions. Good news is unallocated funds will go to building playgrounds in Georgetown!

Uh, no. The economic impact of transit construction is well known:

According to US DOT director Norman Mineta, every $1 billion invested in the nations’ transportation infrastructure supports approximately 47,500 jobs.
Transit capital investment is a significant source of job creation. In the year following the investment 314 jobs are created for each $10 million invested in transit capital funding.
Transit operations spending provides a direct infusion to the local economy. Over 570 jobs are created for each $10 million invested in the short run.
Tri-Rail of South Florida expects its five-year public transportation development plan to spawn 6,300 ongoing system-related jobs.
New York’s East Side Access project is expected to generate 375,000 jobs and $26 billion in wages.
In 2000, the average downtown vacancy rate for cities without rail was 12.8%, but 8% for all cities with rail transit.

Playgrounds: not so much. Terrible, terrible decision with far-reaching, all-bad repercussions for the DC economy.

Whither Transit