It’s Friday, March 20th, 2015…but before we begin, a few brief thoughts on the Starbuck’s race initiative:

It’s a race, alright; a “race” to the lowest common denominator.

By the way, if you aren’t a regular reader, Hope ‘n Change could be the funniest political cartoon on the planet.

Oh…and The Obamao’s latest “get-out-the-vote” bloviation is so much blatant bullsh*t; particularly since it can NEVER be constitutionally confirmed.  Then again…?!?

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, Commentary Magazine‘s Seth Mandel offers a twist on Eric the Red’s Ferguson report which is well worth consideration:

Eric Holder’s Ferguson Report Is a Public Service, and Conservatives Should Say So

Pot calling the kettle a racist!

“There has been so much partisanship and misinformation about America’s police and about race in general these past few years, it’s understandable that conservatives get defensive when the topics come up–and certainly when they are fused in one story. But conservatives should set all that aside and embrace the Holder Justice Department’s thorough report on the toxic municipal policing in Ferguson, Missouri. Holder’s report is a public service. And it would be a tremendous wasted opportunity not to engage in this argument. An abusive government run amok should never escape conservatives’ ire.

…There certainly does seem to be a two-tiered system of justice, and no amount of racial demagoguery from this White House or its partisans should turn conservatives away from recognizing it. (A conclusion we dispute given the racial make-up of Ferguson.)

But the most fascinating part of the report is that it details precisely how the abusive policing is structured. It is a damning portrait of too-powerful government in desperate need of reform, and it should be required reading for every member of Congress.

At the core of the report is the fact that the city uses its police force as a revenue-collection tool. This is not limited to Ferguson, of course. But it’s worth looking at Ferguson to see how easily the wheels come off when this is the operative strategy. “The City has budgeted for, and achieved, significant increases in revenue from municipal code enforcement over the last several years, and these increases are projected to continue,” the report tells us. The city sets a revenue target and tells the police to go get it.

The city is now raising millions a year in fees and fines. This is where the scheme really comes alive…”

Think about it: in a city where 67% of the population is of a particular skin tone, in what OTHER segment of the citizenry would the necessary revenues originate?!?

In other words, the problem with the Ferguson Police Department isn’t a matter of White and Black, but of Red and Green; that is, red ink, and the money necessary to eliminate it.

In a related item detailing the on-going unconstitutional overreach of government at every level, the Washington Free Beacon tells us how the…

$15,000 grant creating device to “modify” guests behavior

‘“Hotels consume a significant amount of water in the U.S. and around the world,” an EPA grant to the University of Tulsa reads. “Most hotels do not monitor individual guest water usage and as a result, millions of gallons of potable water are wasted every year by hotel guests.”

“The proposed work aims to develop a novel low cost wireless device for monitoring water use from hotel guest room showers,” it said. “This device will be designed to fit most new and existing hotel shower fixtures and will wirelessly transmit hotel guest water usage data to a central hotel accounting system.” The funding is going toward creating a prototype and market analysis for the device. The goal of the project is to change the behavior of Americans when they stay at hotels.

“This technology will provide hotel guests with the ability to monitor their daily water online or using a smartphone app and will assist hotel guest in modifying their behavior to help conserve water,” the grant said.

…The EPA is concerned that the average shower, which lasts just eight minutes, uses 18 gallons of water, and has asked Americans to reduce their shower length by at least one minute.

And hey, behavior modification, at least within the boundaries of THEIR beliefs, is PREEEEcisely what Progressives are all about; be it global warming, fossil fuels, gun control, race relations, illegal immigration…or, as this next item from The Boss details, obesity:

Ban on fast-food eateries in South L.A. hasn’t cut obesity, study says

Seven years ago, Los Angeles made national headlines with a novel attempt to reduce obesity in South L.A. by banning new fast-food restaurants. But a new study found the effort has not achieved its intended goal.

A Rand Corp. report released Thursday says that from 2007 to 2012, the percentage of people who were overweight or obese increased everywhere in L.A., but the increase was significantly greater in areas covered by the fast-food ordinance, including Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park. The study also found fast-food consumption went up in South L.A. as well as across the county during that time.

Can you spell “The same results as every other ill-conceived, hopelessly-misguided Progressive policy ever conceived”?!?  In other words,…

Only if you’re a LIBERAL!

Next up, in the Apollo XIII segment: Houston, Hillary has a problem, courtesy of Ron Rotunda writing at the WSJ:

Hillary’s Emails and the Law

It is a crime—obstruction of justice—to destroy even one message to prevent it from being subpoenaed.

“…Whether or not Mrs. Clinton violated a State Department rule, her admitted destruction of more than 30,000 emails sure looks like obstruction of justice—a serious violation of the criminal law. (Not the inconvenience of the Hair Apparent violating the law matters to the MSM.) Let’s consider some of the basic, undisputed facts, and then the law.

First, Mrs. Clinton was worried that communicating through email would leave a trail that might be subject to subpoena. “As much as I’ve been investigated and all of that,” she said in 2000, “why would I ever want to do email?” But when she became secretary of state, she didn’t have much choice. So she set up a private server in her house. That way, in the event of an investigation, she could control which emails would be turned over.

We know this is true because that is exactly what happened. When Congress subpoenaed Mrs. Clinton’s official communications, or when nongovernmental organizations filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the same, the State Department could not turn over her emails because it did not have them.

…The law says that no one has to use email, but it is a crime (18 U.S.C. section 1519) to destroy even one message to prevent it from being subpoenaed.

Prosecutors charging someone with obstruction don’t even have to establish that any investigation was pending or under way when the deletion took place. As T. Markus Funk explained in a journal article for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the prosecutor “need only prove that the defendant shredded the documents, at least in part, to make life more difficult for future investigators, if and when they eventually appear.”

Legal commentators call this “anticipatory obstruction of justice,” and the law punishes it with up to 20 years imprisonment. The burden of proof is light. The Justice Department manual advises that section 1519 makes prosecution much easier because it covers “any matters” or “’in relation to or contemplation of’ any matters.” It adds, “No corrupt persuasion is required.”…”

Gee…”no corrupt persuasion”; does that leave Hillary…

…out?!?

Then there’s this from Kathy Platoni, writing at the WSJ:

The Army’s Fort Hood Disgrace

No one who supervised the shooter has been held to account, but the victims are denied pay and benefits.

We’re of the belief there’s a special place in Hell for anyone even remotely associated with this travesty of justice.

Speaking of the Devil, on the Lighter Side…

And in the Unintended, But Wholly Predictable Consequences segment…

Family sues restaurant after teen eats pancakes, dies

“A family in Minnesota is suing a local restaurant after their son ate two pancakes there and died last June. They say that 16-year-old Scott Johnson, who was so allergic to dairy that trace amounts had sent him to the emergency room before and the family generally avoided dining out, ate the breakfast only after his mother asked the server if the gluten-free pancakes were also dairy free, and said the cook would have to also clean the griddle before making them.

…”Things that you wouldn’t even imagine have dairy in them,” mom Cindy Johnson tells KFOR 4…”

A danger we’re afraid Mr. & Mrs. Johnson bore the responsibility for avoiding, not the restaurant or the cook.

Finally, courtesy of our youngest son Travis, yet Another Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us:

Colorado woman allegedly stabbed, removed baby from pregnant woman’s womb

A 34-year-old Colorado woman was accused stabbing a pregnant woman in the stomach and removing her baby, while the victim was at the suspect’s home to buy baby clothes advertised on Craigslist, police said. Officers were called to the home Wednesday and found the 26-year-old woman stabbed and beaten. The woman was seven months pregnant, Longmont police Cmdr. Jeff Satur told the Daily Times-Call.

Dynel Lane, 34, took the baby to the hospital, saying she had a miscarriage, authorities said. The baby did not survive.

The homicidal Ms. Lane inexplicably already had two healthy children…which offers yet another reason not to utilize Craigslist.

Magoo