Note: This post originally went up at 8:15 this morning. It has been updated since the GDP report’s release and will stay at the top for the rest of the day.

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Well, this should be interesting. This is the first quarter after the “breakout” fourth quarter of 2009, which came in at an annualized 5.6% after revisions. The performance trailed post-recession “breakout” quarters during the Bush 43 and Reagan years.

An AP item I saw earlier this week but to which I don’t have a link had a prediction of an annualized +3.5% in its final paragraph. Also (again lacking link), Treasury’s Tim Geithner told one of the Sunday shows recently that the economy is growing at a faster pace than originally thought.

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The core news story was at the Daily Caller a month ago.

As is the case with any government program, the rules are complicated, but the bottom line is that a lot of college kids who don’t need them are signing up for and receiving Food Stamps — and it’s all perfectly legal. It’s also an absolutely outrageous, cynical, and transparent attempt to buy votes and create lifelong leftists.

I guess it’s not enough to give Food Stamps to people with $80,000 in the bank and a $300,000 home.

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It’s here.

In addition to dealing with the bogus “payback” of government loans by Government/General Motors (also see Update below), the column notes:

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From Washington:

Apr 28, 2010 / 01:31 pm

The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a federal court overstepped its boundaries in ordering the removal of a long-standing memorial cross in California’s Mojave Desert.

A white, seven-foot cross, which was erected as a memorial by the Veterans of Foreign Wars over 75 years ago in the Mojave National Preserve, will be allowed to stay.

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Earlier this month, the Democratic National Committee’s Organizing For American (OFA) group sent out what I estimate to be 50,000-65,000 e-mails inviting people to attend a celebration of ObamaCare’s passage. The event had an attendance (other than the program speakers) of maybe 50, and many of them were the old reliables who would show up at any leftist event. What they heard, as I noted earlier this month, is bigots on the left directing their usual attacks at anyone who disagrees with them on principle.

Yesterday, I received this gem, flagged as usual and accurately as spam, indicating just how low OFA is setting its sights:

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An unbylined Associated Press item carried at NPR quotes President Obama as follows about Arizona’s recently enacted immigration law-enforcement measure:

The president is repeating a blatant falsehood about the Arizona law that has gained instant currency in the establishment press and leftist circles. It has no basis in fact or in the legislation Grand Canyon State Governor Jan Brewer recently signed.

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Lickety-Split Links:

• From Roger Simon at Pajamas Media — “The real reason liberals accuse Tea Partiers of racism.” It’s the same reason they accuse Arizonans who want immigration laws enforced of racism. Simon says it’s that “Liberals have nothing else to say or do.” That’s his version of what I’ve been saying, which is that they’re out of arguments.
• “Bigots to the Left of Me” Update (related Cincinnati and Bertha Lewis items are here and here), Gordon Brown edition (”she was just a sort of bigoted woman”) — The really impressive thing is that the British press is covering it, instead of covering it up, which is what the U.S. establishment press with its pretense of “objectivity” masking rampant partisanship would be doing.
• “Dingbats on the Right” Update (two among many Ohio-related items are here and here) — It’s important to remember that a year ago, the National Republican Senatorial Committee said it would support incumbent Arlen Specter over principled sensible conservative Pat Toomey, shortly after Specter supplied a critical turncoat vote to enable the misguided and mislabeled “stimulus” bill to get through the Senate. A “grateful” Specter bolted to the Democrats. At the same time, Hot Air’s Allahpundit wrote that “Toomey probably can’t beat a Democrat in Pennsylvania.” It’s still too early to prove Allah wrong, but it would be nice to see him back off on the “probably.” And it would be nice to someday see establishment Republicans support people who won’t stab the base in the back at seemingly any opportunity.

Lightning Links:

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From a Massachusetts Citizens for Life e-mail:

April 26, 2010

Evelyn Waugh described his masterpiece Brideshead Revisited as a story about “the operation of divine grace on a diverse but closely connected group of characters.” Yesterday, I had the profoundly moving experience of witnessing the operation of grace on a particular person and a diverse group of people who were connected to each other through him. That person, Hadley Arkes, the Edward Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions at Amherst College, was received into the Catholic Church in a beautiful ceremony in the chapel of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. Enveloped in the love of his many friends and admirers, Hadley was baptized, confirmed, and received his first communion.

Hadley is an outstanding political philosopher and constitutional theorist who has dedicated much of his professional life to defending the dignity and rights of the child in the womb. In remarks after the service yesterday, he explained that his faith in Christ had come through the Church. The Church’s moral witness, especially on the sanctity of human life and on marriage and sexual morality—a witness that has in our time made the Church a “sign of contradiction” to the most powerful and influential elements of the elite sector of contemporary western culture—persuaded him that the Church is, despite the failings of so many of its members and leaders, fundamentally “a truth-teaching institution.” In teachings that many find to be impediments, Hadley found decisive evidence that the Church is, indeed, what she claims to be.

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A short Associated Press item tonight notes that the Organization for American States is not happy with the state of Arizona for passing an immigration law-enforcement measure:

I don’t expect AP to expand on OAS’s statement any time soon, because in the process of doing so they might feel compelled to look at how some of the countries criticizing Arizona handle their own illegal immigrants. One of the most under-reported stories of the past couple of decades is the hypocrisy of Mexico’s and many other OAS countries’ “anger” at any and every attempt by the U.S. government or its states to enforce laws that are nowhere near as harsh as their own.

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Barry Ritholtz puts together a complete picture of today’s economy.

Consumerist voted Comcast the worst company in America.

Danone is fighting viral rumors with…viral rumors (in Argentina).

The Epicurean Dealmaker on the dissolution of Goldman Sachs’ reputation premium.

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