Slate’s Jacob Weisberg came unhinged on Friday and gave the country the finger.

“Down with the People!” he screams from Bill Gates lap.  As Jacob sees it, we the people are demanding two mutually exclusive things: premium government services and tax cuts, and when we can’t have what we want, we become unruly children.

There is of course a third option, and I think it is the voting issue for the 2010 elections.  It frankly amazes me that TPM-style Democrats going after Paul Ryan’s Roadmap, don’t see it coming…

You can thank me later, but I just saved the United State of America at least  $278,309,600,000.00 PER YEAR. You read that right.  $278 BILLION per year.  That’s almost entirely what Medicaid will spend this year for children and the disabled.  That’s what our normal deficit looks like without TARP and stimulus.

The crazy thing is how easy it was to do.   It took me like three minutes.  And since I’m a big open source, creative commons guy I’m even posting my magical formula shown here using 2008’s budget:

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On Monday, I discussed some of the background in the ongoing journalistic argument about the tactics used by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles in their ACORN takedowns, first released here at Big Government.  This is part two of that discussion.

Since the freewheeling days of the 1920s celebrated in The Front Page, there has been a profound shift in the way journalists view themselves and their societal role.  We might locate its origins in the 1947 report by the Commission on the Freedom of the Press, known today as Hutchins Commission after its chairman, Robert M. Hutchins, of the University of Chicago, and funded by Henry Luce of Time Inc.   In answer to the question, “is the freedom of the press in danger,” the commission answered yes, and issued “five ideal demands”:

1) A truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning.

2) A forum for the exchange of comment and criticism.

3) The projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups in the society.  (“The Commission holds to the faith that if people are exposed to the inner truth of the life of a particular group, they will gradually build up respect for an understanding of it.”)

4) The presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society.

5) Full access to the day’s intelligence. (more…)