Down the drain: How the federal government flushed away the $833 billion stimulus. “Ramey found that the multiplier for government purchases was somewhere between 0.6 and 1.1, meaning that at most each dollar of government purchases produced an extra dime of economic activity, while the worst-case scenario meant losing 40 cents on the dollar.” So apparently, doing something stupid is worse than doing nothing at all? Fancy that.

Source says cause of Texas fertilizer plant blast that killed up to 15 “suspicious”. “‘It’s 50-50,’ the source said. … At this point, the explosion site is being considered a crime scene, which doesn’t necessarily mean a crime occurred, but officials are still trying to pinpoint a cause.” [Explosion hits 30 secs in.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ROrpKx3aIjA

New Benghazi whistleblowers emerging? What difference does it make, senator? Well, maybe we’ll find out.

Authorities circulate photos of two men spotted carrying bags near site of Boston bombings. Several journ0lists injured attempting to contort own faces so suspects would look like white hispanics, NRA or Tea Party members to them. Update: Another false alarm. FBI to release video of suspects later today and it’s NOT the guys shown in the Post photo.

Obama not handling gun-control failure in Senate very well. “Obama showed the passion and anger at his personal defeat that he wasn’t able to manage after the Benghazi slaughter.” Well, that wasn’t all about him…

Alleged McConnell bugger visited White House. “Days before Progress Kentucky launched a twitter offensive against Mitch McConnell, its executive director met with White House officials.” Birds of a feather…

Philadelphia, 5th largest city in US is effectively bankrupt; Mayor holds closed meeting with Wall Street to discuss asset sales. “You know a city is in deep trouble when its mayor invites Wall Street but not the press and not private citizens to a closed meeting to discuss the future, including a sell-off of city assets.” Next domino to fall?

Senate rejects background checks on gun purchases in 54-46 vote. “The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama’s agenda… What appeared to be a likely victory for Obama was resoundingly defeated by the Senate as jittery Democrats facing tough re-elections next year joined nearly the entire Republican conference.” Bipartisan!

No one knows what the hell is going on in Boston. Professional journ0lists running around like chickens without heads… but professional chickens without heads.

Baucus warns of “huge train wreck” enacting ObamaCare provisions. “…he fears people do not understand how the law will work.” Wrong, they’re finally beginning to see that it won’t work. That light at the end of the tunnel is ObamaCare – choo, choo! More here.

Sen. Ayotte (R-NH) and Heitkamp (D-ND) “no” on Manchin-Toomey. “…big fail for Manchin-Toomey.”

Actor blames Boston attack on gun culture: “2nd amendment must go”. Yeah, ’cause if there were no guns, people wouldn’t kill each other – that’s why the Middle Ages and prior eras were soooo peaceful.

Salon: Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American. “…if you care about everything from stopping war to reducing the defense budget to protecting civil liberties to passing immigration reform, you should hope the bomber was a white domestic terrorist. Why? Because only in that case will privilege work to prevent the Boston attack from potentially undermining progress on those other issues.” Yeah, we’re hoping it’s Chris Matthews or Al Gore ourselves.

Due to ObamaCare, nation’s largest movie theater chain cuts employee hours. “In a memo to employees, management was blunt: ‘To comply with the Affordable Care Act, Regal had to increase our health care budget to cover those newly deemed eligible based on the law’s definition of a full-time employee.'” But aside from the lost jobs, skyrocketing premiums, etc, how’s it going so far?

Axelrod: Obama thinks Boston bombings could be related to “Tax Day”. On the other hand, could this be another “Reichstag fire”, Minister Goebbels?

Report: Boston bomber used at least one pressure-cooker IED. “Terrorists have been using them for more than a decade, most frequently in Nepal, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. …a very crude version was part of the car-bomb attempt in Times Square in 2010.” BTW, the Times Sq bomb was the one that Nitwit Bloomberg thought was planted by an ObamaCare protestor. Projection!

Barney Frank: “No tax cut would have helped us deal with this.” Yeah, so let’s guarantee this never happens again by tripling the climate change vacation conference budget at the Dept of Energy. How is it Barney doesn’t have a job on MSNBC?

Chris Matthews, Democratic congressman suggest Tax Day tie to Boston attacks A day without Tingles is like a day with sunshine. [Video at the link.]

Climate changing for global warming journalists. “Last week, the world’s most prestigious newsmagazine – The Economist – backed away from its past alarmist position, saying that ‘If climate scientists were credit-rating agencies, climate sensitivity would be on negative watch.'” Science is never settled.

Kerry: All you gun toters are scaring Japanese students, or something. Or could it just be that because media idiots (but I repeat myself) and grandstanding pols do nothing these days but talk about guns 24 hrs a day, that’s what makes foreigners think the US is unsafe? Hey, maybe if the media talks about Kerry’s $7 million yacht a lot, the world might think we’re all sailors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2w71PQnIQyc

Chavez’s heir to take over divided Venezuela. Chavez’s hand-picked successor Maduro “got just 50.7 percent of the votes compared to 49.1 percent for Capriles, with nearly all ballots counted.” “…a stunningly narrow margin that highlights rising discontent over problems ranging from crime to power blackouts.” “…a disaster for Maduro…” OPM running out, unicorns running away.

The eco-sex activists who want to save the world. “A new documentary, ‘F*ck for Forest’, detailing the activities of the group of the same name. They enjoy confronting society with sex, nudity and bodily fluids, but what F*** for Forest (FFF) really want to do is save the world.” That’s what they told the journ0lists – we think what they really want to do is get naked, avoid bathing and have sex. Hope the trees are innoculated for STDs (and termites.)

Millions face starvation as world warms, say scientists. Global warming is so destructive, it causes chaos even when it’s not happening. A few trillion more Bernanke Bucks to the UN should take care of it…

Ron Paul plans foreign policy institute. “The ill-advised policies pushed by the neo-cons have everywhere led to chaos and destruction, and to a hatred of the United States and its people. Multi-trillion dollar wars have not made the world a safer place; they have only bankrupted our economic future.” Well, to be frank, kinetic military actions to spread democracy or for “nation building” don’t seem to work, but neither does isolationism. Damn, life is complicated – if only we had people in elected office who knew how to think and make sound judgements.

Brown looks for bullet train “investors”… in China. “‘People here do stuff,’ the governor said. ‘They don’t sit around and mope and process and navel-gaze. The rest of the world is moving at Mach speed.'” Yep, the Chinese have built apartment buildings, shopping malls and whole cities no one wants to use, so a train nobody wants to ride should be right up their alley.