Enough to make you run around the room screaming and yanking out large tufts of hair:

The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama’s three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency.

I think we know whose fault this is.

Boooooooosh!

[Posted by Karl]

The Land of Lincoln votes today, although if my experience was any indication, neither early nor often.  I proudly cast my presidential vote for David Burge, with some other votes for people I know.  It will not shock you to learn that Illinois runs a “loophole” primary in which your presidential vote is meaningless and the delegates are not actually bound to anyone.  Here’s your Google Map.  Mitt Romney is generally expected to win pretty easily; Karl Rove sets the over under at 29 of the 54 delegates to be selected tonight.  The more exciting races tonight are the challenges to House Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D) and Don Manzullo (R).

The likely anemic turnout will likely fuel the ongoing stories about Romney’s uninspiring campaign.  FWIW, the last WaPo/ABC News poll showed 64% of the most conservative Republicans and independents expressing favorable views of Romney, up from a low of 43% three weeks ago.

Update: FNC calls it for Romney… and CNN as I type this.

Update 2: Turnout surprisingly a little higher than in 2008.  Also, looks like Romney is on track for the over on delegates.

–Karl

A reader from somewhere in Southern California writes to lament the regulatory roadblocks that are severely delaying the opening of his business:

We submitted our building construction plans for the restaurant last year to the county. We had over fifty revisions including a request that the trash dumpster have an enclosure. We stated that the dumpster had a walled enclosure of six feet in height and that the dumpster was rain proof. The County stated that we must have a roof over the trash dumpster. We had the architect draw it up. The plans returned rejected.

The County now rejected the dumpster enclosure because it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. They required that we build a ramp with a locking gate at the top of the ramp for any wheelchair-bound employee. We argued that the public did not have access to the enclosure and we would not ask any employees in a wheelchair to throw out the trash. The County stated that the lack of a ramp would create a barrier to hiring a handicapped person.

The additional ramp with locking gate increased construction costs by $17,000 and it will take my employees longer to throw out the trash on a daily basis.

It sounds like an urban legend. But I have known the reader personally for well over a decade.

This is just one of many roadblocks that our system is throwing in my reader’s path. He is trying to contribute to the economy and put people to work. And government seems hellbent on trying to stop him.

I sympathize with folks who are stuck in a wheelchair. I fully support voluntary efforts to try to accomodate them — within reason. But let’s have a little common sense. Why do we tolerate laws and regulations that appear likely to spur mass pool closures this summer, when more reasonable accomodations exist? Why can’t my reader give trash duty to employees who can walk, and assign more appropriate jobs to employees in wheelchairs?

With a little level-headedness, government could allow my reader to get his business off the ground, so he can put people to work — wheelchair-bound or not.

P.S. The reader refuses to allow me to publish the funniest story of all, because his business would be easily identifiable if I told the story.

I may be able to talk him into letting me tell a third story, though. Stay tuned.

Got the big fish but he promises to catch an even bigger fish if you let him go?

If you’re the feds, the answer is clear.

Throw him back:

Seven months after federal agents began the ill-fated Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation, they stumbled upon their main suspect in a remote Arizona outpost on the Mexican border, driving an old BMW with 74 rounds of ammunition and nine cellphones hidden inside.

Detained for questioning that day in May 2010, Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta described to agents from theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives his close association with a top Mexican drug cartel member, according to documents obtained this weekend by the Times/Tribune Washington Bureau.

The top Fast and Furious investigator, Special Agent Hope MacAllister, scribbled her phone number on a $10 bill after he pledged to cooperate and keep in touch with investigators.

Then Celis-Acosta disappeared into Mexico. He never called.

Shocking!

Me, I might put the big fish on the hook and use him as bait for the bigger fish. That waym rather than simply throwing him back, I have him on the hook.

But that’s me, a simple state prosecutor. If only I were as smart as the feds . . .

Thanks to Dana.