News 2

In another nearly orgasmic tribute to The One, in its Arts section The New York Times published a May 30 story buoyantly jubilant over the fact that Obama's face "rules the web." The story is in glee over how the Obammessiah's portrait fills the web and that some folks are even making a bit of cash off the deal.

To my mind, though, the amusing thing about the piece is that, if read closely, it appears that only schlocky Obama art can bring any sales for any serious artistic efforts are going unsold. I don?"t know what that says about Obama art aficionados, but there you have it. Obama schlock rules.

The first Obamanist cum arteeste the piece reveals to us is one Mimi Torchia Boothby of Seattle who was so inspired by The One that she painted a "contemplative, sun-splashed portrait" of Obama that she is now selling on the web. And she was excited that a whole 24 takers was dredged up.

Sadly, there is no sense of proportion about this whole phenomenon and there just is no real effort to place this phenomenon in any historical perspective. Obama is ranked with John F. Kennedy in the excitement for his portrait but, there is no sense that the Times understands that Kennedy's portrait didn't become ubiquitous until his assassination. Yes there were many portraits of him just after he got elected, but his assassination spurred that displaying of his image a lot more than his mere election. On the other hand, Obama's portrait is everywhere despite his relative lack of accomplishment as president.

There is no discussion of other presidents that enjoyed popularity in portraiture. George Washington was hugely popular for generations of Americans including those first American voters of the late 1700s. Just about every American had a portrait of Washington somewhere. Abraham Lincoln was also everywhere in his day and after and was one of the most photographed president's of his era and on into the next. Teddy Roosevelt was the people's president and found great popularity as a subject of portraits. Original images of Teddy are still easy to find on ebay or in antique stores. In his turn, Franklin Roosevelt's image became popular everywhere, as well. But does the Times talk of any of this? Nope.

Finally, one might think that a thoughtful piece on the widespread appearance of Obama's portrait might include some words of caution, some perspective, or some effort to look deeper into the matter. But, I guess that is far too introspective for the Times, sadly. No effort was made to make this piece a serious treatment of the matter.

What does it say, for instance, about people so taken by this man even though he has yet to actually achieve any major effort (shy of getting elected, no mean feat, to be sure), has not faced any significant challenge or emergency, and has yet to be proven to have succeeded in his goals?

But, let?"s not worry about reality, shall we? Unfortunately, it's all about the slavish sycophancy for The One as opposed to any serious treatment of the subject.

Sigh.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released its preliminary analysis of crime trends in the U.S. for 2008 and there's plenty of good news:

... the nation experienced a 2.5 percent decrease in the number of violent crimes and a 1.6 percent decline in the number of property crimes for 2008 compared with data from 2007. The report is based on information that the FBI gathered from 12,750 law enforcement agencies that submitted six to 12 comparable months of data to the FBI for both 2007 and 2008.

... In 2008, all four of the violent crime offense categories declined nationwide compared with data from 2007. Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter declined 4.4 percent, aggravated assault was down 3.2 percent, forcible rape decreased 2.2 percent, and robbery decreased 1.1 percent.

See FBI press release detailing crime trends here. 

A presidential proclamation marking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.

Available in full after the jump.

How Canadian can you get?

The Finance Minister understates the deficit by $16 billion. Do we get mad?

Nah. The guy's doing his best. Let's give him another chance.

Canadian Press:

OTTAWA - Canadians appear to be willing to cut Finance Minister Jim Flaherty a little slack over his deficit shocker.

A Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll shows few Canadians think the
finance minister should resign just because he made a $16-billion
mistake on his deficit projection.

The survey of 1,000 people finds only 28 per cent who want Flaherty to
step down, while 59 per cent think he should stay on the job.

Even among Liberal supporters, 54 per cent don't think he should lose
his position because the budget deficit has ballooned to more than $50
billion - not the $34 billion predicted in the budget four months ago.

Ex-VA AG Bob McDonnell, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Virginia, announced some campaign fundraising numbers today, the Monday after he was officially nominated at the VA GOP's state convention over the weekend. Since the start of the 2nd quarter 4/1, McDonnell's camp says it has raised $3.7M from 2,159 donors (making the average donation per individual right around $1,700). When combined with monies still left over from the 1st quarter, McDonnell's camp claims "nearly" $4.9M cash on hand, according to a release.

This weekend's nominating convention was just a formality for McDonnell, who's been running unopposed for the GOP nomination since January. He's still waiting for VA Dems to choose his opponent from three contenders: ex-DNC chair Terry McAuliffe, state Sen. Creigh Deeds and ex-Del. Brian Moran. Dems are set to make their selection in a statewide primary 6/9.

The fundraising numbers are something of a formality, too. Along with the hotly contested NJ gubernatorial race, VA GOV is seen by both national parties -- but particularly by the beleaguered Republicans -- as a harbinger of '10's congressional cycle. Both parties are expected to pour vast amounts into VA's general election contest, making it tough for either nominee to grab a monetary advantage in the race. It's also hard to determine exactly what candidate fundraising totals foretell in a state with no contribution limits.

Still, McDonnell has shown that he's ready to fight hard to pull the purple VA back into the red column in Nov. Most polls show him leading a general election matchup against the Dem, even after an expensive statewide ad campaign targeting him run by the DGA through a VA-based 527.

There's also the boisterous Dem primary fight, which has focused even more attention on McDonnell criticisms. But the Republican's campaign says all the noise coming from the Democrats has been a good thing for McDonnell.

"We continue to build the resources we need to win this November," McDonnell's campaign manager, Phil Cox, said in the statement announcing the fundraising numbers. "And we are doing this while our potential opponents are waging an expensive and increasingly negative primary race. This is a crucial advantage as we take Bob McDonnell's positive message of new jobs and more opportunities to every voter in Virginia."

(EVAN McMORRIS-SANTORO)

How hosed is California based on state-sector pension obligations alone? Alert reader Robert Kelley sends along this gruesome little database of the 5,115 people currently drawing pensions in excess of $100,000 from the Golden State. (If you want to go down a fascinating rabbit hole of Internet searching, I highly recommend looking up the half-mil-pension-receiving Bruce Malkenhorst.) Kelley comments:

I used to work at a library and for a city government in the Bay Area.  I took a look at some people who I knew worked there and retired recently.  One librarian had retired with a $110k a year pension.  A former police chief who retired recently (in his early 50s) from my tiny city now has a pension of $185k a year.  These government workers are retiring with full health care benefits for them and their families at no additional cost, and they can retire at age 50 or 55 depending on where they work.

It's an amazing gravy train.  Given that a person at age 55 can reasonably expect to live 30 years now, that means the effective yearly salary paid to those people during their working years is about double what is stated.

The next time you hear about a schmuck Coastal Commission Analyst only making $80k a year, think about that.  The real cost is more like $160k a year.  Beats working.

While public employees continue enjoying gold-plated retirements, the ongoing media scare campaign over Gov. Schwarzenegger's "annihilating" cuts continues apace. The latest, care of also-alert reader Ray Eckhart, comes from the New York Times, under the headline "Deep Cuts Threaten to Reshape California." The word "pension" was not harmed in the production of this article.

The cuts Mr. Schwarzenegger has proposed [...] would turn California into a place that in some ways would be unrecognizable in modern America: poor children would have no health insurance, prisoners would be released by the thousands and state parks would be closed.

Nearly all of the billions of dollars in cuts the administration has proposed would affect programs for poor Californians, although prisons and schools would take hits, as well.

My take on big-California-government apologists who don't ever come out and say big California government is kewl, here.