Translated LA Times: Today LA Sheriffs seized $234,000 worth of harmless products from small businesses in a move certain to harm their businesses, increase unemployment and withdraw money and trade from a lagging economy.

Sometimes you need a Rosetta Stone to translate the New York Times when it tries to unravel the moral muddle of the Obama Administration’s Afghanistan policy. Today’s example shows the Times hopelessly mired in doublespeak from the very first paragraph.

MoDo agrees when Gibbs punches hippies, but he should go for being snotty to the press

America is being strangled by unchecked corporate power, and it’s leaving a trail of dying cultures, communities and peoples. Seeing that, explaining that, fighting that, and yes, fixing that, is your job, Mr. President.

I have finally figured out how to get Obama to stop listening to all the people who are leading him down the wrong path.

Ahhh, the power of the Democrats! To all of you who said that Dems couldn’t get anything done, to all of you that said Congressional Democrats couldn’t find the President’s desk with a map, a flashlight, and guided tour from Desirée Rogers, to all of you that said this White House did not know how to play political hardball, I say: Behold!

Just look what has happened in the last fortnight (or so): the president actually put his health plan on paper, the Senate leadership and the White House decided that budget reconciliation wasn’t such a bad idea after all, Democrats in both houses of Congress came together on a sidecar strategy, leadership has started whipping votes like there’s no tomorrow, President Obama has taken his show on the road in campaign-style events to sell his reform plan, and he, the president himself, is having one-on-one meetings with Democratic members (yes, that’s Democratic, not Republican) of the House to arm twist and horse trade. And, the great grassroots organizing forces of the left—from OFA to SEIU, from DFA to HCAN, from MoveOn to what the serious folks call “the liberal blogosphere” (not the marginal blogs, of course [smile])—have been mobilized in an all-out, no-holds-barred, damn-near scorched earth effort to move every last member of the House off the dime and on board the health care highway.

Hell, the White House is giving away NASA bases, and the SEIU is threatening primary challenges to anyone that votes against the “Senate-plus” health care overhaul—even if that means running kamikaze, third-party candidates. All to counteract the horrible, obstructionist, downright evil efforts of notorious Public Enemy Number One. . .

While defending the cost-cuting measures in the health reform bill, Budget Director Orszag and Health adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle slip in one whopper with cheese when describing the excise tax escalation rates.

Toyota: American Governmental Hypocrisy Writ Large?

Obama’s new, improved healthcare reform ‘compromise’ shows he is still the honest politician who, once bought, stays bought.

You will be shocked, shocked to hear that a Blue Dog Democrat who made a career out of undermining his own party is sucker-punching them on his way out. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana abruptly announced this week that he would not seek reelection in November. Bayh’s departure is ratcheting up insecurity in the Democratic caucus at the very moment they need to take decisive action to pass health care reform.