Apparently to run for congress, you don’t have to live in the district you would be representing.

Charlie Diradour, the local [Democrat] developer who launched his campaign Tuesday to unseat 7th District Rep. Eric Cantor, doesn’t live in the district.

Diradour lives in the 2200 block of Monument Avenue, which is about 10 blocks or so outside of the 7th, which officially picks up just west of Interstate 195. Diradour lives in the 3rd District, which is represented by Democrat Bobby Scott.

The U.S. Constitution doesn’t require U.S. lawmakers to live in their districts, it turns out. They must only reside in the states they represent, although most actually do live in their districts for obvious political reasons.

I never knew. I wonder why, when drawing up the rules, they didn’t include that requirement.

This disturbs me. For a lot of reasons.

BOISE, Idaho — When police officer Darryll Dowell is on patrol in the southwestern Idaho city of Nampa, he’ll pull up at a stoplight and usually start casing the vehicle. Nowadays, his eyes will also focus on the driver’s arms, as he tries to search for a plump, bouncy vein.

“I was looking at people’s arms and hands, thinking, ‘I could draw from that,’” Dowell said.

Just what you want, a police office forcefully drawing your blood.

Thank Arizona, I guess… And the Supreme Court…

Starr hopes the new system will cut down on the number of drunken driving trials. Officers can’t hold down a suspect and force them to breath into a tube, she noted, but they can forcefully take blood — a practice that’s been upheld by Idaho’s Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nation’s highest court ruled in 1966 that police could have blood tests forcibly done on a drunk driving suspect without a warrant, as long as the draw was based on a reasonable suspicion that a suspect was intoxicated, that it was done after an arrest and carried out in a medically approved manner.

The practice of cops drawing blood, implemented first in 1995 in Arizona, has also raised concerns about safety and the credibility of the evidence.

I would say so.

I had blood drawn the other day at the doctor’s office for a routine test. They only took a little bit. It ended with me almost passing out and having to lay down for 15 minutes.

Yes, I know- “man up” you’re thinking. Maybe so, but it happened the last time they took blood as well. That time I actually passed out and came to with a frantic nurse shoving some orange juice in my face.

Both times were in a doctor’s office where I was surrounded by trained professionals. I can’t imagine it would go better on the hood of a police car.

Actually, I can think of a million ways this could go wrong, especially with drunk drivers. Say you have some type of medical condition – hemophilia for instance. In a normal setting your doctor would be aware of this. But as the cop has you face first on the ground and you are drunk out of your mind, perhaps that’s not the first thing that comes up.

I’m all for drunk driving enforcement, but this is over the top. I guess I have a new thing to write my state rep about.

In the United States, a county is typically the intermediate step of government between the state and city. A county usually contains multiple cities. This is true in most states and situations, but there are exceptions.

History
The county comes to us from England, where it originally described the domain overseen by a count. At least after the Normans came around. Before that, they were known as Shires. As such, the county seat is still known as a shiretown in some parts of the UK, as well as in some parts of New England.

US Counties Today
Today, the role of the county is dictated greatly by what part of the country you are in (and specifically the state). In New England, the counties are generally weaker, with cities and townships performing the roles of running courts, jails, etc. However, as you move westward, counties are typically stronger and have larger roles. This difference arose from the vast amounts of unincorporated land in the American West as the country grew.

The oversight of counties also varies greatly. In some states there is a county executive, similar to a mayor, and in some states there are governing councils or commissions. The structure may also vary from county to county within the same state.

Special Cases
Two U.S. States do not have counties at all. In Alaska, there are 18 boroughs, and much of the state is actually part of The Unorganized Borough, which is overseen by the state. In Louisiana, there are 64 parishes. Boroughs and Parishes are considered “County Equivalents”.

In most situations, a county contains several cities or towns, and one city is a part of one county. However, there are a number of instances that vary from this structure:

• Several large cities are both a city and a county. The boundaries of the two entities are the same, and the city government performs the functions that the county government performs in other counties in the state. Examples include Philadelphia, PA; San Francisco, CA; and Denver, CO.
• Some large cities are actually part of several counties. Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; and Houston and Dallas, TX are examples of this. Dallas in in part of 5 counties.
• In New York City, things are all backwards. Each of the Five Boroughs are technically a county, but they are all part of a unified city government. So their city spans 5 counties. These are Manhattan (New York County), The Bronx (Bronx County), Queens (Queens County), Brooklyn (Kings County) and Staten Island (Richmond County).

Source: wiki wiki wiki

A few years ago a state-wide smoking ban went into effect in Minnesota. This precipitated a huge revenue slide for bars.

Enterprising bar owners built outdoor patios in an effort to try to win back some business. So how does the government respond? By taxing, of course:

One of the biggest whacks upside the head of the local blogging/trivia community this past year was the Met Council’s ruling that bars that’d established “smoking patios” outside their premises had to pay fees on that extra square footage as if it was indoor, year-round revenue-generating space. This has forced Twin Cities’ bars to shut down the practice of having special patios for smokers, especially cigar buffs.

The Met Council, for the uninitiated, is the most dangerous government entity in Minnesota, based on the fact that they have a lot of power and are generally misunderstood by the public. (Actually, the County Commissioners may give the Council a run for their money for that title…)

Mitch Berg makes a plea for public action to try to reverse this decision:

Bureaucrats take phone calls seriously. They – the smart ones, anyway – know that every phone call represents 100 people who didn’t call them. One call represents 100 like-minded people; it’s public relations truism.

And so it’d be great if you could take a moment to contact the members of the Met Council. Here they are. Please take a moment and leave them polite, reasoned messages asking them to reconsider their policy; it’s killing bars, putting people out of work, and playing into the hands of chain restaurants and establishments. Phone is better than email, but either is vastly better than letting the other guys have the stage to themselves.

Visit this link for detailed action information.

As I mentioned earlier, the White House wants you to snitch on people who are passing on “fishy” stories about health care reform- either through the internet or “casual conversation.”

So I did just that.

I found this website, called whitehouse.gov that seemed to claim that the President created a new overseer of all things Health Care, a czar, if you will, that reports to the White House and doesn’t require congressional oversight.

That doesn’t seem right? Would the President really create some type of shadow government? That sounds fishy.

So I did what they asked and emailed them. The complete text below:

To: flag@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Fishy Report

The website below seems to claim that in the middle of “the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression” the President set up an expensive new government bureaucracy that reports to the Executive branch. Is this true? Did the President really authorize the creation of a new department that overlaps with the Department of Health and Human Services?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Executive-Order-Establishing-The-White-House-Office-Of-Health-Reform/

Also, the website seems to indicate that the Director of this new Office does not need to be confirmed by the Senate. Is that true? Is the President really creating a shadow government that is only accountable to him? That doesn’t seem right.

Something seems fishy here. I think someone needs to investigate.

I encourage you to do the same. If you see something online that seems fishy (for instance, like the President claiming that “if you like your doctor/insurance, you can keep it” or “I won’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 to pay for this health care plan”) you should report it.

They seem concerned about these fishy reports. I think we should be good citizens and report them.

Update: I decided to double down. I reported that WSJ story that I read earlier.

To: flag@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Another Fishy Story

This Wall Street Journal report (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124939676158504833.html) claims that Robert Gibbs, the President’s Press Secretary, said that the opposition to the President’s health care plan is “being organized by a small group seeking to create ‘manufactured anger.’”

He didn’t really say that, did he? That sounds fishy.

Several of my friends and I have some serious concerns about this health care plan. But our concern (or anger, if you will) is not manufactured. It’s real. And we’re not associated with any “small group.” (Unless Mr. Gibbs was actually referring to me and my group of a half-dozen or so friends in his statements. But I don’t think that’s right.)

So the President’s official spokesman didn’t really accuse my friends and I of being involved in some type of “so-called grass-roots lobbying” did he?

Again, something seems fishy here. I can’t believe that the President’s official spokesman would really discount all of the legitimate criticism of the President’s health care plan as some type of conspiracy.

I think that you should demand that the WSJ retract this report. There’s no way that a President’s Press Secretary would behave so recklessly. That would be fishy.

Seriously, isn’t one of those 35 czars a protocol czar?

Four of the most powerful business leaders in America arrived at the White House one day last month for lunch with President Barack Obama, sitting down in his private dining room just steps from the Oval Office.

But even for powerful CEOs, there’s no such thing as a free lunch: White House staffers collected credit card numbers for each executive and carefully billed them for the cost of the meal with the president.

Hey, come over to my house to give me advice… but bring your credit card…

via AoSHQ

Here is the HR that is currently being looked at for government run health care. Anyone that knows me-knows that I am completely against such an action. I recommend you read this and try to analyze it yourself-to see if you agree.

More things come out about this bill daily. I recommend you call your congress person to tell them if you have concerns for this bill. To contact the House of Representatives call (202) 224-3121; you can always write them as well.

The cost alone is going to give us more debt than we are already facing. Adding more debt is just completely irresponsible, especially for such a quack of a plan. This was a hastily written bill that the president is trying to get passed as quickly as possible. I hope that everyone realizes before it’s too late that this bill isn’t what we need to reform health care.

Resources: HR, House of Representatives, Liberty Counsel review of HR

Or so the Feds just discovered…

With the budget deficit soaring toward $2 trillion, the Department of Justice has figured out how to play its part: double-sided photocopying.

But wait! There’s more!

There are other acts of national sacrifice. The Forest Service will no longer repaint its new, white vehicles green immediately upon purchase. The Army will start packing more soldiers onto R&R flights. The Navy will delete unused email accounts.

Again, I’m all for saving money, but some of this stuff is just a joke. Why did someone have to tell you to delete unused e-mail accounts to save money? Or to use both sides of the paper.

But alas, with all the focus on belt-tightening, it just won’t be enough:

If the administration produces $100 million in savings every 98 days for the rest of Mr. Obama’s term, the savings will total $1.5 billion, or three days of interest on the federal debt, said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Awesome.

Who knew? Detroit is planning on being a trend setter in this regard…

A decision on whether to file for protection under federal bankruptcy laws will be by the end of the northern summer, according to Robert Bobb, Detroit Puablic Schools’ emergency financial manager. Such a filing would be unprecedented.But in Detroit — where US Education Secretary Arne Duncan dubbed the school system a “national disgrace” — politicians and bankruptcy experts see few alternatives, given the deep financial challenges confronting the district and the state.

Having a guy with two first names (and the same no less) in charge is probably a bad sign, but I digress.

Anyway, there’s a special Chapter of the Bankruptcy code, Chapter 9, for public entities.

And even though Detroit started it, expect more…

Some experts say the Detroit case could be the first in a string of Chapter 9 bankruptcies among school districts and other public entities battered by the economic crisis, and it could help shape that area of the law.

Great.

via the Hot Air GreenRoom, where Mitch Berg draws a parallel…

The Detroit Public Schools are pondering bankruptcy, swamped by (let me know if any of this sounds familiar) the combination of lowered demand for their product and mushrooming expenses, including pensions for long-retired employees:

Read it.

Like, about her TV Viewing habits.

Yes, not one, but but both Minnesota Senators embarrassed themselves at the Sotomayor hearing today.

Senator Penguins are Drowning asked the potential Supreme Court justice if she happened to catch the All Star Game last night.

Senator Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot asked her about Perry Mason.

You can’t make this up.

Click the image to see the Klobo travesty, and the Franken travesty is embedded below that.

Speaking of the All Star Game, did anyone catch President Pantywaist failing to get the ball to the plate?

via Hot Air as usual.