Internet Scofflaw

President Obama is speaking at Carnegie Mellon at this hour. The White House said the speech “will discuss the state of our economy, the future we need to seize, and the path we choose to get there. He will talk about the progress we’ve made in building the New Foundation he discussed at Georgetown last year, as well as the work we have left to do.”

The live stream melted down, so I only got to watch about a minute or so, but that was enough to see that, in fact, this speech is just about attacking Republicans.

UPDATE: Apparently this was an “official” event, not a political event. You couldn’t tell from the part I saw.

UPDATE: From Politico’s account, I pretty well got the gist of it. There’s also this:

Obama, who plans to stay in Pittsburgh for only a couple of hours before flying back to the nation’s capital, said most Republicans “have sat on the sidelines and shouted from the bleachers.”

Just a few hours. So he comes to CMU, shutting half the campus down and snarling traffic, just to deliver a partisan speech to a handpicked audience (no tickets were available to the campus community). He says nothing of any particular relevance to Pittsburgh or CMU. Then he turns around and goes home.

Use the Rose Garden next time, Mr. President.

President Obama will meet with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer after all:

President Obama intends to meet with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday, a White House official told FoxNews.com, after criticism mounted over reports the president wouldn’t be able to meet her while she is in Washington this week.

Brewer had requested a face-to-face meeting with Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor, as tensions rise between his administration and the Grand Canyon State over its controversial law clamping down on illegal immigrants.

The White House denies that Obama snubbed Brewer, saying there initially were some scheduling issues this week that have been resolved.

(Via Hot Air.) (Previous post.)

Victor Davis Hanson puts it well:

There has been a lot of noise about the oil plume and the proper responsibility of government, but the real lesson is that, during Bush’s two terms, the media began to hold presidents culpable for many things that used to be attributed to tragedy, and also for things that are in large part the proper domain of local and state governments.

After Katrina — in which the mess was attributed to Bush rather than to the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, the miscalculations of generations of hydraulic engineers, and local communities’ lack of initiative — we were indoctrinated into the notion that “he,” the president, either fixes things or pays. The media, hurting after the 2004 election, either figured that a Democrat would not be president for a long time, or that nothing like Katrina would happen again, or that they, without much shame, could simply rewrite the rules of attributing culpability.

(Previous post.)

Reuters reports:

Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model

Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada’s provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system. . .

“There’s got to be some change to the status quo whether it happens in three years or 10 years,” said Derek Burleton, senior economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. “We can’t continually see health spending growing above and beyond the growth rate in the economy because, at some point, it means crowding out of all the other government services.

“At some stage we’re going to hit a breaking point.”

(Via Corner.)