There are a couple of guffaws (“politicians agree that Obamacare is great but politics is keeping them from getting it done”?), but the biggest whopper is when Obama claims that, under his plan, employer health premiums will drop up to 3,000 percent (if this doesn’t sell, he’ll switch to a “gazillion bajillion percent”), which will then of course lead to you getting a raise.

Let’s see — if your employer is paying, say, $15,000 toward your health care premiums, and your employer’s premium drops 3,000 percent, the insurance company will have to reimburse your employer to the tune of about $450,000 (hopefully your boss shares just a little of that windfall with you).

Wow — if the government taking over 1/6 of the US economy could get us a raise like that, just imagine how much we’ll be making after Obama, Pelosi and Reid have taken over everything!

Obama has morphed into Tommy Flanagan in just a few short months.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Obama Administration Files Brief Supporting Racial Preferences in University Admissions
On Friday, the Obama administration filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, supporting the use of racial preferences by the University of Texas in its undergraduate admissions. The brief is a full-throated endorsement of such discrimination, and it goes out of its way to say that the administration will support it at the K-12 level, too, as well as throughout university admissions.

So, minorities who don’t do well in school are off the hook. Teachers who don’t teach are off the hook. Politicians who won’t let kids opt out of failing schools are off the hook. Unions who won’t let teachers and administrators be held accountable are off the hook. Parents who don’t motivate their children are off the hook, and all this in post-racial America.

BTW — The Obama Administration is buying off our kids.

WASHINGTON — The White House is backing down from efforts to drop “sweetheart” deals poisoning health care legislation as House Budget Committee Democrats meet Monday to craft a “fix-it” bill that does not yet have a price tag.

In a new take on its policy, White House top strategist David Axelrod said President Obama only objects to state-specific arrangements, such as an increase in Medicaid funding for Nebraska, ridiculed as the “cornhusker kickback.”

But instead of dropping them, the concept behind those deals could be widened so that all states benefit.

Though White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs last week singled out state-specific deals as items Obama wanted removed, two powerful committee chairman, Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, have convinced the White House that the arguments being applied for special offers could be expanded to other states where similar circumstances arise.

That “similar circumstance” will be that it’s okay to use our money to bribe a member of Congress if he or she is still on the fence on Obamacare.

Oh, and for those of you keeping score at home, the term “bribe” has been replaced by “special offer.” Please make a note of it.

WASHINGTON — The White House is backing down from efforts to drop “sweetheart” deals poisoning health care legislation as House Budget Committee Democrats meet Monday to craft a “fix-it” bill that does not yet have a price tag.

In a new take on its policy, White House top strategist David Axelrod said President Obama only objects to state-specific arrangements, such as an increase in Medicaid funding for Nebraska, ridiculed as the “cornhusker kickback.”

But instead of dropping them, the concept behind those deals could be widened so that all states benefit.

Though White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs last week singled out state-specific deals as items Obama wanted removed, two powerful committee chairman, Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, have convinced the White House that the arguments being applied for special offers could be expanded to other states where similar circumstances arise.

That “similar circumstance” will be that it’s okay to use our money to bribe a member of Congress if he or she is still on the fence on Obamacare.

Oh, and for those of you keeping score at home, the term “bribe” has been replaced by “special offer.” Please make a note of it.

Update: CBS News’ Bob Schieffer says the White House might have to waterboard Dems to get them to pass the bill. Pelosi will deny she ever heard that.

Update II: “The Mile Bribe Club”:

The president invited Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Martha Fudge (D-Ohio) aboard Air Force One for his flight Monday to Ohio, where the president will hold a townhall on healthcare. Kucinich represents the Cleveland suburbs where Obama will be speaking.

Both lawmakers are liberals who are upset that the bill does not go far enough to crack down on insurance companies. Kucinich has said he is a “firm no,” while Fudge is undecided. The flight will give the president an opportunity to press the Ohioans to vote for final passage.

City employees with a strong aroma of perfume, cologne or any scented products will soon be in for a warning.

The employee, Susan McBride, was awarded $100,000 in the federal case because of her breathing sensitivity to chemical products — but she has yet to receive her money.

I hope Ms. McBride likes how it will smell, citywide, from now on.

Rielle Hunter seems to be having some regrets about her GQ spread.

On The View today, Barbara Walters said she had talked to Rielle Hunter this morning. “She was in tears when she called,” said Walters, “and said that when she saw the pictures in GQ she screamed for two hours. She said she found the photographs repulsive.”

Fair enough. One thing…

You wore the man shirt, on a bed, with no visible panties, when you POSED!

I can think of nothing more flattering I’d like to hear about my leadership style:

That would explain Obama’s use of terms like “wee weed up.”

(h/t GatewayPundit)

Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz, in his introduction of part-owner of the basketball team, unknowingly referred to Jay-Z’s drug dealing past when he introduced him as “the man, who as he famously said, went from bricks to billboards.”

Let’s wish the Brooklyn Nets well (as they can’t help who their owners are) and hope their games aren’t as eventful as a rap music awards ceremony.

Oh, and the locals have voiced opposition to this new stadium in futility.

In theory, it should be everything that a progressive urban policy analyst like me would want from a new development. Atlantic Yards would create lots of new housing immediately adjacent to mass transit lines. It would be a mix of residential, commercial, retail, and entertainment space. And it would create new affordable housing and green space.

But, somehow, Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner got it all wrong. The project required two things to make it feasible: the use of eminent domain to acquire the property and hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies. Public officials justified both by proclaiming that the project would also create public benefits. But these public benefits were always dubious. And as the project has progressed, they have all but disappeared completely. Now it seems that the project will be a money loser for the city and will scar the face of Brooklyn for decades.

Jay-Z’s prior bad behavior paid off.

He’ll get to exploit his hood again, and liberals accomplished a land grab that would never occur in a white, middle class neighborhood. Unions and their workers will make out like bandits and the City and State of New York will have a temporary new source of revenue so they won’t have to make those tough decisions right away.

And one last question: A Marketing Quandary: How Do You Sell a 4-40 Team?

Another great day in New York.