Politics and other nightmares

Thanks for the warning, but it's not exactly timely, is it?

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) says President Obama's continued use of the executive order "brings the modern presidency dangerously close to an elective dictatorship."

The results of the Indianapolis city election provide an interesting comparison to Fort Wayne:

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard's re-election victory benefited from thousands of crossover votes. But in giving him a vote of confidence, those Democrats, along with some independent voters, handed him what may become the greatest challenge of his second term: split government.

So much for pledges:

Grover Norquist's grip on the House Republican Conference is loosening.

A growing number of GOP lawmakers have disavowed Norquist's pledge against supporting tax increases in recent days, telling The Hill they no longer feel bound to uphold a document that they signed, in some cases, more than a decade ago.

Concerning this news, I suppose I could choose to cackle with partisan glee:

Is there any clearer symbol of how far the lunacy has gone?

President Obama's Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

I think National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg was trying to be so earnestly serious that he let a joke go right over his head:

Still the support for Cain is interesting in its own right. In all the coverage as well as in the comments sections from readers and in my own email and conversations you find people saying, in effect,  “He made a pass, he took no for an answer, what's the big deal?”

When you put up a government website and promise to answer any question that gets enough petition signatures, this is the kind of foolishness that can be expected:

The U.S. government has said it has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet or that an extraterrestrial presence has ever contacted any human being.

Every move we make:

The Supreme Court is considering whether police use of GPS devices to track criminal suspects requires a judge's advance approval.

The case being argued Tuesday could have implications for other high-tech surveillance techniques in the digital age.

[. . .]

The government argues that people have no expectation of privacy concerning their travel on public streets.

Forever and ever without any stories concering small, private or "backyard" burials, and today there are two of them. A widow in southern Indiana has buried her husband in the backyard of the home they lived in for 50 years, working her way around a state law requiring all bodies to be bured in cemeteries:

This story seems a little overblown to me:

Casual voters heading to the polls in Indianapolis Tuesday could be forgiven for not already knowing which party Mayor Greg Ballard represents and whether challenger Melina Kennedy is a Democrat or a Republican.

Their respective lawn signs throughout the city bear no mention of their political affiliations.

[. . .]