Defining accountability downward

From the beginning of his term, President "Present" has credited himself with an unverifiable measure of jobs "created or saved". Gotta give him credit for devising a clearly subjective metric. This makes him way smarter than his predecessors who used such a simple objective measure such as jobs actually created.

Of course "jobs saved" becomes a touchy subject when job losses continue. What's a President to do ?? Well, devise a new metric .... "lives touched"!!!

In late July, a Government Accountability Office report circulated which analyzed stimulus funding being spent by the Department of Energy. The main gist of that report involved the cost of each job being generated by the stimulus bill - a staggering $194,000. Tucked away in that report was a phrase that was new to most of us, a way to calculate jobs through a term called ‘lives touched'.

The Newsbusters article then recounts some of the reporting instructions for stimulus subcontractors to illustrate the job inflation.

The instructions state that, "The lives touched headcount will remain the same or increase over time as new workers become involved with ARRA contracts. The total headcount will never decrease."

In other words, a temporary, part-time, or seasonal worker can come into a project, work no more than one hour on said project, and that person will continue to appear in the headcount with each report. They will not be removed upon their departure from the project.

The DOE themselves have also confirmed this metric. Spokesman Cameron Hardy explains:

"Lives touched" represents the cumulative number of full-time, part-time, and temporary workers that have been employed with EM Recovery Act funds at some point since the start of the program in April 2009. As of June 30, 2010, the lives touched number is more than 24,000 and we have 10,500 full-time Recovery Act workers, working across the DOE Complex.

The metric, according to the DOE, was developed by the Office of Environmental Management "to capture all workers that have been employed under the Recovery Act."

But why the need to capture all workers, when some may have only worked a mere hour on a project, or who have only supported a project in some manner? Simply put, to inflate the numbers.

"Lives touched". Meh. Maybe the President hasn't heard but not all "touching" is appropriate and is not always welcomed. I feel kinda dirty.

There's a word that comes to mind about the administration's evaluations of its own performance -- Unprecedented!!

ObamaCare will become more popular after it's passed

At least that's what we were told. So anyone wanna guess how many NJ residents have signed on ???

Try TWO !!!

Just two people in New Jersey will begin receiving coverage Monday under new plans created by federal health care reforms.

NJ Protect plans are available to those who have been without insurance for at least six months and submit evidence of pre-existing health conditions.

Breakin' the law !!!

I am if I am blogging this from Philly -- and I'm not telling!!

Philadelphia has been a one party town (Democrats) for as long as anyone can remember. Needless to say they are cash strapped from decades of economic mismanagement and malfeasance; but mostly malfeasance.

So one of the new remedies being proposed is levy a $300 fee on bloggers. The fee is a "business privilege license".

I have always had a peeve with this particular tax. And yes, it's a tax!!! So Philadelphia is such a wonderful business climate that you should pay for the privilege of doing business there. This is stupidity on stilts. An area that should be doing everything it can to attract business always seems to make the environment less and less habitable for business.

But of course Democrats always see every dollar as theirs and allow you the privilege of keeping a certain amount -- so at least they are consistent.

Well this will help smooth things over

The Imam of the Ground Zero mosque (f*ck you AP) argues that the US is worse than al Qaeda

"We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non Muslims," Feisal Abdul Rauf said at a 2005 lecture sponsored by the University of South Australia.

Oh yeah, Feisal Abdul Rauf, moderate bridge-builder.

So what will O do now ??

California's Prop 8 has been ruled unconstitutional. But Obama campaigned on the premise that he opposed same sex marriage. So what will he do ?? Some options:

1) Take to the airwaves and declare that the the judge acted stupidly??

2) Berate the judge at the next State of the Union address for thwarting the will of the people of California??

3) Sue!! Have Holder initiate a lawsuit defending the Defense of Marriage Act??

4) Call the judge "racist"??

5) Blame George Bush??

My guess: He votes "present"!