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Ealing’s eighth film after Michael Balcon’s arrival at the studio is one of those that is permanently stuck in the debate over what makes a film ‘Ealing-esque’ or, indeed, what makes a comedy an Ealing comedy? Cheer Boys Cheer is a comedy, produced at Ealing, which concerns a struggle between Greenleaf (a small, traditional local brewery with community values) and Ironside (a huge, mechanised national brewery with eyes only on the profit margin). Barr sees the film as somehow prophetic, with Ealing as Greenleaf, standing up against the Ironsides of the film industry. While the argument remains valid, I can’t help wondering how many other films of the time period also set up similar small vs. big, community vs. industry comparisons, or if the film is as important in Ealing’s development as Barr suggests.

Well-paced and still funny in places, the film hammers home the oppositions suggested above with little subtlety: the metallic machines of Ironside gleam, as workers in white scientist coats stride between them; while the wooden crates and vats at Greenleaf are tended by a group of loyal misfits. The Ironside family favour impersonal board rooms and the accumulation of wealth; while the Greenleafs and their workers gather in a communal dining room and Greenleaf senior has a collection of antique Toby jugs. The central plot concerns Edward Ironside (Edmund Gwenn) and his son John (Peter Coke) attempting to take over the family business run by Tom Greenleaf (C.V. France) and daughter Margaret (Nora Pilbeam) Windows 7 product key free, a take-over complicated when John, working at Greenleaf under an assumed identity, falls in love with Margaret.

The reason the film likely struggles to claim classic Ealing comedy status is the insistence on broad and forced slapstick routines, notably based around Greenleaf staff Albert Baldwin (Graham Moffat) and Geordie (Moore Marriott), actors loaned out from Gainsborough and delivering music hall-style pratfalls, fights and bickering (filling a car full of grain, fighting in a pub; slapping and arguing with each other). As for the central romance, the film’s bitter rivals turned sweethearts plot includes some… dubious sequences: most notably, when John (despite having only met her minutes before), bends firebrand Margaret over a car door and starts spanking her. Margaret remains the only significant woman in the film (there is a brief appearance by Jean Webster Brough as the barmaid at the Cross Keys pub), and Pilbeam plays her as a strong Windows 7 Key, opinionated and intelligent woman who is more than an equal partner at Greenleaf, making many of the business decisions when her father cannot, and the object of affection of both John and Greenleaf brewer Mat Boyle (Jimmy O’Dea). Yet it is hard to shake the suspicion that the film is, in part, an attempt to tame her character: early on, she is wild and impetuous, drives like a woman possessed, voices her opinions strongly and confidently… but then becomes calmer as she and John grow closer, and then dejected and forlorn when they split up. Given the heterosexual pairing the film is inexorably heading towards – Margaret accepting John back seals the business ‘marriage’ – it remains unclear whether she will remain an equal in the joint Greenleaf-Ironside venture.

The film also fails to sell the change that comes over John, at least in part because of a solid but uninspired performance by Coke (who is acted off the screen by Pilbeam at every turn) but mainly a script that needs the character to change for plot contrivance. John has to shift from a hard-nosed sexist businessman who’ll do anything to get his way, to a sly undercover operative at Greenleaf, to a Greenleaf supporter willing to spend his own money to pay for a huge advertising budget, a cunning saboteur of his own father’s business, and then an accepted husband and owner of both breweries. The tacit assumption is that romance and homespun community values make the change, but the film doesn’t show us this, it simply tells us it happened.

Visually, the film is competent if not amazing: director Walter Ford and director of photography Ronald Neame do try some interesting tricks – an opening credit sequence where the titles are printed on the side of beer crates that roll into camera along a conveyor belt; matte or process shots that increase the scale of Ironsides brewery; sped-up images of fast car rides; an impressive montage sequence of Ironside vans, beer and newspaper headlines near the end of the film; and strong use of sound effects in key sequences, notably John, Matt and the others breaking in to Ironside’s brewery to spike their beer and dropping a tool down a metal canister – the loud bouncing, echoing and clanging goes on far beyond what is realistic, but it adds to the film’s playfulness and slightly unreal atmosphere.

Always solid Windows 7 oem key, Cheer Boys Cheer may not be a full-fledged ‘Ealing comedy’ but it remains an enjoyable precursor of later Ealing themes and narrative interests.

[Cheer Boys Cheer is not currently available on DVD from Studio Canal UK]

Next time, another of Ealing’s Scottish comedies in The Maggie (1953)…

Hello and welcome to my third installment of Morning Parade madness on The Huffington Post.

I’m really enjoying this right now… what do you think?

I’m sitting in our rickety old LDV van affectionately named Winston that we bought back in the earliest days of Morning Parade, we’re currently hurtling at the mighty speed of 70 mph on the traffic laden noose hung around the neck of London better known as the M25.

We named our beloved van Winston after the late great Churchill – I once read a quote from him which pretty much sums up the early days of trying to ‘make it’ in the music industry and its stuck with me ever since: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

We’re on our way to Wales for two weeks of recuperation and songwriting in Monnow Valley where we made our very first demos in 2008, those sessions feel like an absolute lifetime ago now, especially after the craziness of the past few months.

We’ve just arrived back in the UK after a chunk of heavy touring and promo across Europe, the UK and our first trip to the USA. It’s been easily the hardest/most exciting/most grueling/most fun/most busy period we’ve faced in Morning Parade. This crazy existence we call our career leads us on the strangest and most varied of journeys.

After a sold out headline show at London’s Heaven, three hours sleep and a transatlantic flight, we found ourselves weary eyed in front of a 3,000 strong audience supporting The Kooks at New York City’s Terminal 5. That my friends, feels like the deep end, and just the tip of the iceberg.

When this tour was coming together our Glaswegian tour manager (known to us as ‘Nightsheet’) said that this was one of the most grueling schedules he’d seen in his 15 years in the business. He wasn’t joking, but this IS the best job in the world and I thank my lucky stars every day that I am lucky enough to be doing it professionally.

A bunch of promo (acoustic sessions, interviews, meet and greets etc) later we made our way to New Haven in Connecticut where a lovely doctor took a little look at my vocal chords – I’d been having trouble with my voice like never before, a very scary prospect on a run like this, like an athlete losing use of their legs before their big moment at the Olympics. Luckily for me it turns out I was only suffering from laryngitis and nothing too major, still though, on day two of the most intense tour yet. Hardly ideal, but knowing that my vocal chords were strong and healthy gave me the adrenaline boost that helped me and the boys shrug off the jet lag and get back to our best.

That night we played our first show with a full night’s sleep under our belts, Toad’s Place in New Haven. A sweat pit full of students on spring break, quite different to the arena’s we got used to playing in with The Kooks in Europe, but no less energy and it set the tone for the rest of the tour. The Yanks know how to have a good time and we were welcomed with open arms – all you can hope for as an artist is that you can connect with people and share some common ground through your art. To be so many thousands of miles from home and find that is exactly why we make music.

We managed to wangle our way through a few ‘how do you want your eggs?’ confusions, slipped through Providence in Rhode Island, said our goodbyes to the Kooks and made our way across the border into Canada, the home of Tonetta and Justin Bieber – how’s that for juxtaposed?

So being the frontman definitely has its perks, but it also comes with its downsides. The boys rose early and took a trip down to Niagara falls leaving me to tackle the promo schedule alone, who cares! I’m sure Niagara falls looks just as good from the pictures sent to my BlackBerry as it does with the human eye, maybe not.

This is part and parcel of being the frontman, you have to go to bed earlier than everyone else and you have to do all the promo. Starting with live TV on Toronto’s CP24 breakfast show. So while the boys were looking at one of the wonders of the world, I was wearing make up and looking like a Thunderbird on Canadian TV. That’s the other thing about being in a band, you have to go on live TV and radio and stuff but nobody tells you what to do or what to expect. I always feel like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights where he doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

It’s all a very strange ‘5 replica watches,4,3,2,1, Conversation!’ with a stranger on cue. Remember to be witty and charming, oh, and don’t forget to mention the release date. It’s 19 June if you’re asking America/Canada.

Much easier than conversations on cue is performing live on TV which is just what we did the day before on MTV Canada. I LOVE the adrenaline rush of a live TV performance. Don’t fuck it up!

SXSW

So now to the heart of the matter and the crowning jewel of our American exchange. When you’re growing up and you’re in a band you dream of playing in America and the point of entry is SXSW. Tendays, over 2,000 artists performing in around 100 venues scattered across the city of Austin, Texas.

Think sweltering heat, BBQ food, Tex Mex food, crowds of people spilling from the bars into the streets, Corona, Tequila, Jack Daniels, beautiful women, frozen margheritas, music of all genres pouring out of every window and doorway, late nights, early starts and for us, six shows in four days. Sometimes at 1pm followed by a 2pm at the other end of 6th street replica watches, and sometimes at 1am and usually on the same day of course. Chuck in thousands of inebriated punters replica watches, and a hectic promo and interview schedule and you’re somewhere close.

Straight off the plane from Toronto via Chicago and into an acoustic session (arriving late of course) for our reunion with Michiel Veenstra and our pals at 3FM of Holland for a live broadcast. This is how it starts.

Generally everyone spends SXSW running around like headless chickens trying to get to the next line check or to catch the bill with the bands hot on everyone’s lips. Luckily enough for us we happened to be on one of those very bills – two birds, one stone. Day Two of SXSW saw us on the Neon Gold/Communion bill at a venue I’m not going to pretend I remember the name of along with Savoir Adore, Michael Kiwanuka, St Lucia and Haim.

St Lucia remixed one of our singles Us & Ourselves and I’d heard a bunch about Haim. But collectively they were my favourite picks from SXSW along with Electric Guest, who supported us at our London show on the eve of the US tour.

Check it out:

St Lucia – Closer Than This

Haim – Forever

Electric Guest – Troubleman

It was a week full of crazy and weird experiences, few though, came close to this…

Austin during SXSW is very busy and finding a taxi past midnight is near impossible, but thanks to our ‘are you nervous if I tell you I’ve been out of jail one week/I am a crack addict/I HAVE been drinking all day’ totally illegal taxi driver, not only could we get a ride to anywhere in Austin for $10 and a box of cigarettes – we could also access Austin’s best crack and crystal meth, apparently.

I always keep my meth and crack habits away from my work – I find it a little distracting… don’t you? As much as I felt the strong desire to pick up a crack or methamphetamine habit, with the west coast up next, reluctantly I declined.

That’s a lot to take in I think. I’ll let you know how we got on in the west coast and Europe in my next post…

Until then

S

x

New York – Mitt Romney has a chance to substantially boost his delegate tally when New York Republicans vote in the state’s presidential primary Tuesday. Tattoo Gun Needles

New York has 95 delegates, the most of any of the five East Coast states holding primaries Tuesday. Romney is looking to add to his wide lead over Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in the nomination race for the 1,144 delegates. Romney’s closest competitor, Rick Santorum, has stopped campaigning.

Polls have shown Romney with a commanding lead in New York, which doles out its delegates proportionately.

While New York Republicans had once hoped to play a major role in the primary race Tattoo Gun Equipment, those hopes faded as Romney solidified his front-runner status and began focusing more on the general election against President Barack Obama.

Romney did not even make a public campaign stop in this heavily Democratic state in the run-up to the primary. Gingrich spoke to a rally in Buffalo last week, and Paul appeared at Cornell University.

A candidate who wins more than half the vote Tuesday would get the state’s 34 at-large Republican delegates. If no candidate gets a majority vote, they’re doled out proportionately. Also in play are two delegates from each of New York’s current 29 congressional districts Cheap Tattoo Supplies, which will go to the winner of the districts.

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In addition, New York Republican Chairman Ed Cox and two other New York members of the Republican National Committee are “super delegates” who are free to commit to any candidate. Cox has already endorsed Romney.

New York state has 2.8 million registered Republicans.

Obama discusses gay marriage during an exclusive interview on ABC News

Photograph by ABC News.

Joe Biden has such power over evolution he might make an amoeba get up and walk. Three days ago the vice president announced on Meet the Press that he supported same-sex couples getting married. Wednesday, President Obama announced that after a many-year evolution on the issue Best Tattoo Machine, he believed the same thing. The first African-American president became the first ever to announce his support for same-sex marriage.

This is a landmark civil rights moment that happened awfully fast. It was both an act of conviction and political expediency—what measure of each we may never know. What we do know is that this was the president’s private position. What’s less well known is the thinking behind the timing of the announcement. White House and campaign officials have been talking about it for months. According to several sources involved in the campaign, the president was going to make his announcement soon, before the convention (and maybe even very soon) if for no other reason than to avoid a fight over the party platform and to rally gay supporters. Biden stepped on his plan, making it look like the president was backing into a decision and controlled by events.   

This looks like another instance of the vice president stumbling his way into the history books. But Barack Obama’s untenable position is every bit as culpable for the firestorm and rushed decision. The president was for gay marriage in private but wouldn’t say so in public. He told the Justice Department to inform the courts that it believed the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and should be struck down. He said he was “evolving” which made it clear that it was a matter of time before he came to the enlightened position of supporting same-sex marriage (or simply announced a long-held private view that had been constrained by politics). It has been a long evolution for the president. In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, he wrote that he was “open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided.” 

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The administration policy on marriage equality was a jerky spasm of winks and nods. It was the domestic equivalent of the “One China Policy,” the strategic ambiguity that allows the United States to support Taiwan but not support its bid for independence, which angers China. It’s policy by omission, not commission. It’s not a policy that makes sense entirely a Tattoo Gun, but it’s a nonpolicy that everyone has agreed to simply treat like it makes sense. (The agreement that Starbucks makes good coffee is the consumer product equivalent.)

The White House at first tried to pretend there was nothing new about Biden’s remarks. Campaign and administration aides said that he was being totally consistent with the president’s view. This wasn’t exactly true, but under the agreement to keep everything in limbo it might have held. This was a good storyline to get out if the president really was planning a coming announcement. Only if Biden didn’t appear to be getting out ahead of the president could the president take the leading position.

The problem, say Democrats Tattoo Inks, is that the Biden comments poked an existing bruise among the president’s supporters in the gay community. The rush to bowdlerize what Biden had said turned a glancing tap of the bruise into a grinding fist.

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A BOMB targeting former Colombian interior minister Fernando Londono has killed two people and wounded 38 others in Bogota.

An unidentified attacker placed a powerful bomb on Londono’s armoured vehicle, police said. The explosion caused serious damage to a public transport bus and seven other vehicles, including Londono’s, that were stopped at a traffic light on a busy street.

Initially, Colombian authorities had reported that five had died. However, later police general Rodolfo Palomino said only two people, Londono’s driver and bodyguard, died in the blast.

At first it was uncertain whether the bomb exploded inside the bus or in a rubbish bin on the street. Later authorities confirmed that someone travelling on a motorbike placed the bomb directly on top of Londono’s car.

"I just heard that Doctor Fernando Londono was the target of an attack in his armoured car," Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in a televised address.

"Unfortunately, his driver and a police officer died."

The Colombian daily El Espectador featured in its online edition a photograph in which Londono appeared standing with blood on his face.

His wife, Margarita de Londono, told Colombian radio station Caracol that he was admitted to hospital with wounds to his face and torso, although none of them were life-threatening. A medical report said he also had a punctured lung DKNY Dresses sale, although his life was not at risk.

Londono, 78 Replica White Herve leger, a conservative known for his right-wing stance, was interior and justice minister from 2002 to 2004, under former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010).

Earlier today, authorities defused a car-bomb that was reportedly set to detonate near Bogota’s police headquarters. Police are investigating whether the two bombs are related.

Are gun sales really dramatically on the rise?

Firearms scare almost everybody. But no demographic gets more wiggy about handguns, shotguns, and rifles than journalists. Ever since the Washington Post (”Gun Sales Thriving in Uncertain Times,” Oct. 27) put the idea into circulation that the election and economic turmoil were spurring an increase in gun and ammo sales, a score of other news outlets have published their takes on the topic.

The Salt Lake Tribunegot there on Nov. 6 (”Election Triggers Upsurge in Military-Like Firearms Sales”), the New York Timeson Nov. 7 (”On Concerns Over Gun Control, Gun Sales Are Up”), the Associated Press (”Fears of Democrat Crackdown Lead to Gun Sales Boom”) and Reuters on Nov. 8 (”Obama Win Triggers Run on Guns in Many Stores”), the Kansas City Staron Nov. 9 (”Election’s Outcome Triggers Record Sales at Gun Shops”), the Anchorage Daily Newson Nov. 10 (”Armed and Nervous in Alaska”), FoxNews.com (”Gun Owners Stockpiling Over Fear of Democratic Weapon Bans”) and CNN.com on Nov. 11 (”Gun Sales Surge After Obama’s Election”), the Chicago Tribune(”Obama Win Triggers Run on Guns”) and the Globe and Mailon Nov. 12 (”Obama Win Spurs U.S. Gun Sales Boom”). And that’s just a partial list.

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The foundation upon which these outlets build their stories is solid: The primary measurement of gun purchases shows that sales are rising this year. Federal law requires licensed gun dealers to submit background check requests of all purchasers to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The Post reports that “there were 8.4 million background checks from Jan. 1 to Sept. 28, compared with 7.7 million in the same period last year,” which is a 9 percent increase.

It sounds scary, but the 2008 year-to-date increase doesn’t tell the whole story. The first full year of the background check system was 1999, when 8.6 million background checks were conducted. For the next four years, background checks bubbled (PDF Tattoo Supplies, Page 5) under 8 million annually and didn’t break above 8 million again until in 2004. In 2007, the number of applications was essentially the same as in 1999 (8,658,000 vs. 8,621,000), which means that there was no growth in the number of gun sales over almost a decade. Considered inside the context of a decade’s worth of background check data and a growing population, the 9 percent year-to-date increase doesn’t seem very significant. (Nota bene: These days, 1.6 percent of gun applications are denied each year, translating into no gun sale.)

Perceived increases in gun sales tend to make news while perceived decreases do not, a realization I came to when I failed to find evidence in Nexis of any publication making a big deal out of the years that background checks fell below 8 million (2000-2003).

If all 8.6 million background checks in 2008 were for first-time buyers, one could make the potentially chilling case that growing numbers of citizens are bearing arms. But that’s not very likely based on established survey data. Ownership of most of the nation’s estimated 200 million guns is concentrated in relatively few hands—according to a recent article in the journal Injury Prevention, 48 percent of gun owners reported owning more than four firearms. A similar data point collected by the National Institute of Justice (PDF, Page 2) states that of “gun owners in 1994, 10 million individuals owned 105 million guns, while the remaining 87 million guns were dispersed among 34 million other owners.”

This year’s uptick in buyers must reflect some new gun owners, but if past surveys are a good guide, surely most of these buyers are repeat buyers. This means that the well-armed are probably getting better-armed—a point none of the recent news stories makes.

Further tamping down the fears of the nation’s anti-gun nuts are data compiled by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. NORC found that gun ownership in the United States has been falling since 1977 (PDF, Page 11), when 54 percent of households reported owning a gun, compared with 34.5 percent in 2006. More good news for anti-gun nuts: According to the Department of Justice, nonfatal firearm-related violent crimes are down sharply since 1993, and nonfatal firearm-related violent victimization rates are also down since 1994. (Both rates turned up slightly in 2005 but remained low.) Crimes committed with firearms peaked in 1993 and stabilized at late-1980s levels.

Several news outlets (AP, the Anchorage Daily News, CNN.com, and the Kansas City Star) interviewed gun dealers who claimed to be posting record sales. Placed in context, that assertion wilts. A study (PDF) by the Violence Policy Center finds that the number of U.S. gun dealers declined from 250,000 in 1994 to 50,000 in 2007. Granted, many of the original 250,000 dealers were small-timers Tattoo Supplies, moving small numbers of guns, who left the trade because of the cost and hassle of increased regulation. But if gun sales over time remain static while the number of gun sellers is plunging, wouldn’t you expect individual dealers to post increased sales? So take those record sales with a grain of salt.

To be fair to the press horde, some sort of “Obama effect” does exist. During the week of Nov. 3-9, the FBI received 374,000 background requests, “a nearly 49 percent increase over the same period in 2007,” CNN.com reports. Anecdotes collected in some of the news stories indicate that some buyers are keen on buying so-called “assault weapons,” which were banned from 1994 until 2004.

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General Motors has announced that it will invest an additional $68 million into the company’s Oshawa assembly plant to produce the next-generation Chevrolet Impala. Those funds are on top of over $100 million headed toward the facility to help launch production of the Cadillac XTS in the plant. The Impala marks the fifth new model to be manufactured at Oshawa since 2009, and GM says the new investment will secure approximately 350 jobs. The next-generation Impala will be built both in Oshawa and at the GM plant in Hamtramck Replica Marc Jacobs Dresses, Michigan DKNY Clothes sale, which is also responsible for building the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu.

From what we’ve heard so far, Impala buyers can expect their new vehicle to be based on a variant of the GM Epsilon 2 platform with a 3.6-liter V6 under the hood. The vehicle may also boast a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, and the GM eAssist system may rear its head as well.

The Oshawa assembly plant currently employs 4,400 workers Discount Chanel Dresses, and the facility produces the Chevrolet Camaro Karen Millen Dresses sale, Camaro convertible Cheap Karen Millen Dresses, Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet Equinox and Buick Regal. The plant recently added two new shifts Buy DKNY Dresses, thereby securing 1,300 jobs in the process. Hit the jump to view the full press release.

For the second time in as many months, Republicans in Congress have managed to slow down a major appropriations bill with horror stories about tangential spending. During the stimulus debate, when Republicans on the talk shows started scoring points against provisions to spruce up the Mall and fund contraceptives, the White House forced House leaders to drop anything that wasn’t cable-ready. Now Senate leaders are scrambling to pass last year’s omnibus bill Cheap Chanel Dresses, which contains thousands of bipartisan earmarks that sound awfully silly.

In the end Discount BCBG Dresses, Democrats will probably find the votes to break a filibuster on the omnibus. Most senators favor the bill Cheap DKNY Clothing, many of the earmarks were added by Republican members, and appropriation knows no party. But the longer these floor fights drag on Buy Herve Leger v neck, the clearer it becomes that Republicans will succeed in one objective: making a disproportionate amount of congressional spending sound silly. Honeybee factories, Mormon cricket control, beaver management—not much dignity remains after both Dana Milbank and Maureen Dowd devote their columns to the pork on John McCain’s Twitter. While some pet projects may be every bit as reasonable as their defenders maintain, arguments are not won on defense.

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So far, these attacks don’t seem to have done the GOP much good, apart from lifting conservative spirits and uniting congressional ranks. But Democrats ignore them at our peril—which is why the White House moved so quickly to excise distractions from the stimulus. To turn the economy around, the federal government needs to make some significant investments, and President Obama can’t let public confidence be rattled by insignificant ones.

For all the speculation that hard times have suddenly changed American attitudes toward government, the nation’s views are as conflicted as ever. A new Newsweek poll asked people whether they favor a larger government with more services or a smaller government with fewer services. Americans split right down the middle, with 44 percent in each camp—virtually the same results as in 1988, Ronald Reagan’s last year in office. A nation so closely divided on the role and size of government needs constant reassurance that any major government initiative will be worth the cost.

If Democrats want to shut down the Republican anecdote machine, at least three options come to mind. The ideal route, of course, would be to avoid junk spending in the first place. A ban on earmarks would help, because narrowly tailored line items tend to sound ridiculous even when they’re worthy. But abstinence-only is itself a risky approach. As House Democrats discovered during the stimulus battle, items that might seem sensible in one context can be made to sound ridiculous in another.

A second option is to throw the first punch. Many Democrats have adopted that strategy for the omnibus bill, emphasizing that earmarks and other forms of junk spending are neither a Democratic habit nor a Republican habit but a failing common to both sides. The so’s-your-member defense is cathartic and cable-ready. Yet while it may parry any partisan damage, this approach does nothing to restore confidence in government over the long haul.

The third option is to recognize junk spending as the greatest threat to consequential spending and pass a constitutional amendment to give the president a line-item veto to prevent it. While the line-item veto is often seen as a conservative idea, many Democrats—from Mike Dukakis to Bill Clinton—have endorsed it over the years, and most governors in both parties already have it.

In the past, some congressional leaders have resisted shifting that much power to the executive branch. But both parties and both houses might have something to gain from giving the president a line-item veto. Advocates of fiscal discipline would pick up a powerful new tool. Advocates of increased government investment would benefit from fixing spending blunders with a precision scalpel instead of a blunt instrument.

A constitutional amendment is necessary because Buy Herve leger strapless, a decade ago, the Supreme Court struck down a statutory line-item veto when President Clinton tried to use it. But if President Obama doesn’t want to wait for states to amend the Constitution, he can achieve virtually the same effect through existing rescission authority, which allows him to rescind certain items and pressure Congress to vote on whether to keep them. If Congress can’t or won’t get rid of the most egregious earmarks in the omnibus bill, Obama could break the impasse by rescinding them.

Ross Douthat and Mickey Kaus may be right that some Democrats want to “stuff the beast” now to protect against cuts later, but Barack Obama isn’t one of them. Obama wants to prove that government can work Replica Christian Audigier Clothes, and for him, pork and the congressional food fights it inspires are a counterproductive sideshow. Rescinding the beast might make it easier for Americans to see its beauty.

For the first time Replica White Herve leger, the Internet Car and Truck of the year organization presented Mazda and Chevrolet with a number of well-earned awards at the Chicago Auto Show. Mazda won with its freshly updated 2010 Mazda3 in the car category, beating out such worthy candidates as the Ford Fusion Hybrid and the Shelby GT500.

However Discount BCBG Dresses, the big winner was Chevrolet Buy DKNY Clothes, with the Equinox taking home prizes for two separate categories – Internet Truck of the Year and Consumer Internet Truck of the Year – while the Camaro snagged the Consumer Internet Car of the Year. Our particular favorite award, though, was for the Internet Automotive Journalist of the Year.

Why? Well Cheap Emilio Pucci Dresses, it was won by none other than our very own and highly esteemed Editor-in-Chief Replica Missoni Dresses, John Neff. For those keeping track, Neff has won the award every single year that it’s been presented. Nicely done Discount Herve Leger v neck, John.

[Source: Internet Car and Truck of the Year]

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Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen is a big fan of diesels (no surprise) Replica Aigner Watches, and during a recent chat with veteran auto journo Lawrence Ulrich, de Nysschen imparted a few choice morsels on the pitfalls of electric cars Ebel Replica Watches, with an extra helping of wrath aimed at the Chevrolet Volt.

To start Fake MB&F Watches, he said the Volt is “a car for idiots.” Adding that they’re too expensive and Where find Replica Longines Watches, “No one is going to pay a $15 Fake Tissot Watches,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla. So there are not enough idiots who will buy it.” He predicted that the Volt will fall flat, which will cause the federal government to step in and subsidize the Volt in order to save face and boost sales.

And what about pure electric vehicles? According to de Nysschen, “they’re for the intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are.” Maybe de Nysschen should check with the corporate mothership on that last point, considering Audi’s set to unveil its own EV concept this month at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Whoops.

[Source: MSN Exhaust Notes | Image: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty]