You Stay Classy, Pickens County

The moment I read last night that President Obama had ordered the nation's flags to be flown at half-staff until Monday in memory of Nelson Mandela, I knew some red state jackass like this was going to make it all about himself.

Rick Clark, the sheriff of Pickens County, S.C., vowed on Friday to defy President Obama's order that U.S. flags be lowered to half staff in honor of deceased South African leader Nelson Mandela. 

Clark made his promise in a Facebook post to keep flying the flag at the Pickens County Sheriff's Office at full height. 

"I usually don't post political items, but today is different. I received this notification today, 'As a mark of respect for the memory of Nelson Mandela, the President orders that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff effective immediately until sunset, December 9, 2013,'" Clark wrote. "Nelson Mandela did great things for his country and was a brave man but he was not an AMERICAN!!! The flag should be lowered at our Embassy in S. Africa, but not here."

Hey meatball, pay attention.  You might learn something.

In the early days of our country, no regulations existed for flying the flag at half-staff
and, as a result, there were many conflicting policies. But on March 1, 1954, President
Dwight Eisenhower issued a proclamation on the proper times.

Ike set out 30 days for President or former President, 10 days for a veep, Chief Justice or Speaker of the House, and from day of death until day of internment for other justices, other Congressional leaders and Cabinet officials.  Senators, House Representatives, and Governors are honored by their own states, and then there's this:

The president may order the flag to be flown at half-staff to mark the death of other
officials, former officials, or foreign dignitaries. In addition to these occasions, the
president may order half-staff display of the flag after other tragic events. 

So Sheriff Clark, get your head out of your ass.  The precedent for honoring a foreign dignitary like Mandela has stood for nearly 60 years.  There's no penalty for non-compliance, of course.  It just makes you, your county, and your state look like petty little assholes.

So congrats on that.  

'Murica!

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Jennifer Rubin is a terrible and stupid troll, but you knew this already.  Nowhere is she more terrible and stupid than on the subject of macroeconomics:

A drop to 7 percent unemployment and 203,000 jobs added is extremely positive news, suggesting there is something to be said for benign neglect. Without a stimulus, a new tax plan and or even a budget deal, we had the best month in quite a long time. The economy, if left largely alone, is very resilient.

The very next paragraph:

I agree with my colleague Greg Sargent that this shouldn’t lead to a cutoff in unemployment benefits. Seven percent is still a lot of unemployed people, and the number of long-term unemployed is still historically high. Conservative Doug Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum says via e-mail, “The unemployed are increasingly the long-term unemployed — the hardest policy problem to solve. In addition, memories are short — 200,000 jobs should not be a cause for celebration. At this pace, it will take another 19 months to get the unemployment rate down from 7.0 to 6.0 percent.” In exchange for extending unemployment benefits, Democrats should look at GOP ideas for consolidating and reforming work training programs.

To recap:  This proves Obama shouldn't do anything and let the jobs market correct itself, but why doesn't Obama do something about long-term unemployment?  And then there's the very next paragraph following the above:

The stratification in unemployment rates among college graduates (3.4 percent unemployment rate), high school graduates (7.3 percent) and high school dropouts (10.8 percent) is worrisome. If the president wants to do something about income inequality, focusing on the dropout program would be a good idea.

Obama should do nothing about unemployment and why hasn't he fixed income inequality yet?

This one is paragraph 5 on the list:

The improvement in the jobs pictures suggests a small-is-better approach to governance. Modest budget deals are perfectly fine for now. In the long-term our entitlement problem is deeply worrisome, but so far this president has shown neither the will nor the ability to face up to it. It will have to wait for the next president.

And finally she ends with this sentence:

Government should do no harm (see Nos. 1 and 5), but it would be better if both sides could agree on a package of growth-enhancing proposals.

We need growth, but Obama should do nothing and why hasn't he fixed the economy?

Here's a better economics question:  why is this vapid pile of derp still employed?