Category Archives: Front Page

ObamaCare will be Goring the Union Ox as well

From Megan McArdle, earlier this week:

The second problem is that the 40 percent excise tax on especially expensive plans — the so-called Cadillac tax — is going to hit union plans especially hard.  Unlike most people negotiating compensation, union negotiators make an explicit trade-off between wages and other benefits, and the benefit that they seem most attached to is generous health plans.  Union plans are made more expensive still because union membership is heavily skewed toward older workers.  They are thus very likely to get hit by the Cadillac tax, which takes effect in 2018.

And the third problem is that Obamacare undercuts one of the key benefits of being in a union.  Take a low-wage service worker who is currently insured through her union’s multi-employer plan.  If she went to work for a nonunion shop, she could get a substantial wage hike, use part of it to buy a heavily subsidized exchange policy, and still be better off.  As I heard one expert say, Obamacare turns health insurance from an organizing tool to a disorganizing tool.

No wonder the unions are mad.  What’s amazing is that they supported Obamacare with just vague assurances from the Barack Obama administration that it would fix everything later.

Yeah.  My heart bleeds for the Unions.  Do you see what looks like a period at the end of the last sentence?  It really is the world’s tinyest violinist playing the world’s saddest song on the the world’s tinyest violin.

But look for our lawless President, maybe just after the November-2016 elections, to just wave his wand and lift the Unions’ burden.  And if you want to read the whole thing, click HERE.

Harry Reid Is Winning the Senate Shell Game

If you take a vanilla ice cream cone, throw the ice cream part into the GangstaGuvtrash, then refill the cone with liver pudding, do you still have a vanilla ice cream cone?  Most folks, especially kids, would give you an emphatic “NO”, but the Obama Administration, in two cases making their way up the litigation ladder (perhaps to the SCOTUS) says yes.  In 2010, in order to craft ObamaCare in spite of opposition in the House of Representatives, Harry Reid took a bill that had been passed in the House and then sent on to the Senate (H.R. 3590), gutted the content, and used it as a vehicle for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

There are many lawsuits pending over various issues related to ObamaCare.  One issue on which many pinned their hopes was related to the “orgination clause”, which is that portion of the first sentence in Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution which reads “All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives;”.  However, according to an article by Jonathan Adler, posted at the law blog Volokh Conspriracy, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals is not cooperating with this effort.

A key bit:

As for the merits of the claim, what makes the Origination Clause argument difficult is that Congress observed the Origination Clause in form if not in substance.  The Senate took a bill that had passed the House, stripped out its contents, and inserted the PPACA so that it could claim fealty to the Constitutional requirement.  This approach clearly circumvents the purpose of the rule.  So, would a Court throw out portions of the PPACA on such grounds?  I doubt it.  Although the Supreme Court has suggested its willingness to consider such arguments before, I am skeptical that federal courts are likely to scrutinize how legislation gets produced.  Thus, for example, the D.C. Circuit has turned away challenges to federal legislation that allegedly violated the enrolled bill rule, refusing to second-guess the legislature’s certification that a given bill satisfied the relevant constitutional requirements.  When a federal court reaches the merits of an Origination Clause challenge, I would expect a similar outcome, even if this means the Senate may continue to play fast and loose with the origination requirement.  Utilizing shell bills may make a mockery of the rule, but it’s not the sort of thing that is likely to be overturned in federal court.

For the entire article, click HERE.

A Carteret County Boy Makes Good, Twice!

In ceremonies earlier this month at the Pinecrest High School Speech and Debate Championships in Southern Pines, Jace Lawrence, a sixteen year old senior at East Carteret High and President of their award winning National Forensic League speech and debate team, has won the North Carolina Speech and Debate Team Student of the Year award.  Remarkably, this win comes close on the heels of his Tarheel Forensic District Student of the Year award the previous week.

L-R, ECHS Teacher/Coach Julia Brown, parent Mary Lawrence, Jace Lawrence

Left-to-Right, ECHS Teacher & Debate Coach Julia Brown, parent Mary Lawrence, senior Jace Lawrence

Jace, the son of Bud and Mary Lawrence, was the only student from Carteret County to travel to the state championships.  There, he competed in two categories, Impromptu Speaking and Original Oratory, breaking into semi-finals eliminations in both events.  His original oratory entitled, “Resetting the Sails,” addresses the challenge of realizing the American dream given the constraints of our present economy, and re-defines that dream to be attainable with renewed resolve, courage, and perspective.

For more on the National Forensic League, their website is HERE.  In addition, WikiPedia has a page on them, HERE.

First the Good News, then the Bad News

This weekend, at least two things happened of note.  The first was that we went on Daylight Savings Time, which means another hour of daylight in the evening.  The second, as observant visitors may have already noticed, is that the Federal debt surpassed seventeen and one-half TRILLION dollars for the first time ever.

Reconquista Rising: The 9th Circuit Gets It Wrong Yet Again

Live Oak is a small community close to the north shore of California’s Monterey Bay, just a couple of miles east of downtown Santa Cruz, and roughly in the middle of California’s western coastline.  Like most of the places in California, there is a large Hispanic population, but the area around Santa Cruz has the highest concentrations of Hispanics in California.

On May 5, 2010, the date of the annual Mexican holiday known as Cinco de Mayo, several male students came to Live Oak High School wearing tee-shirts bearing depictions of the American flag on them.  The school administration sent them home after they refused his request to hide the flag by turning the shirts inside out, saying that they could either leave school voluntarily for the day, or be suspended.  Figuring this was a no brainer, the boys left for the day.

On behalf of the boys, the Freedom Law Center sued, and the case made it’s way to the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.  A three-judge panel of the court ruled against them, holding, in essence, that the right of the Hispanic students at Live Oak High School to be incensed over being shown the American flag trumped the boys’ First Amendment rights of free expression.

On behalf of the boys, attorney William Becker of the Freedom Law Center says he will first ask for an en banc review from the Ninth Circuit (a reconsideration by the full court rather than the three-judge panel), and if that fails, he will appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

As might be expected, there have been a number of articles written about this case.  One, from American Thinker contributor William Sullivan, is HERE.  Another, written by law professor Eugene Volokh, is HERE.  The official Freedom Law Center account is HERE, and it includes a photo of the boys wearing their flag attire.

And by the way, Cinco de Mayo, which honors the victory by Mexican troops over the forces of Napoleon III at Puebla in 1862, is much more widely celebrated by Hispanics in the United States than by Mexicans in Mexico.  That is one of the reasons why I think such celebrations here are often thinly veiled accolades to the idea of an Aztlan Reconquista more than anything else.

McCrory Backpedaling on the Abolition of Teacher Tenure?

Yesterday afternoon, in an article apparently drawn from a WUNC Public Radio piece, the online WRAL posted an article, HERE, quoting the Governor as saying that “his staff will consider making changes to a new law that offers raises to top teachers who give up tenure rights.”  Wait, what?  Has some of the Obama magic rubbed off on our Governor, so that he now can also change the law at will?  Or does he just mean that his staff will recommend revisions to the next session of the General Assembly?

The latter, apparently, as the article goes on to say this:

McCrory says his staff will review the impact of the law between now and the short session in May.

“I share some of the concerns expressed based on the implementation of the rule.  The intent of the rule is very good — the implementation process needs to be more clarified,” he said.

Well, okay then.  Although it seems a bit early to be declaring the law to be in need of revision when it is yet to be implemented.

Project Morpheus has a sixth Successful Test Flight

This marks another successful test (Elon Musk did it earlier, I think, with Space X) of an unmanned vehicle ascending, moving laterally, then descending under it’s own power, something that is more difficult to do than the video would make it seem.  This flight took place at the Kennedy Space Center earlier this week.  In this flight, the sixth of the series, the craft flew to 467 feet altitude and then traversed 637 feet, including diverting course mid-flight, before landing in the hazard field 56 feet away from its original target while simulating hazard avoidance.   

WikiPedia has more, HERE, on Project Morpheus.  An excerpt:

Project Morpheus is a NASA project to develop a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) test vehicle called Morpheus Lander in order to demonstrate a new nontoxic spacecraft propellant system (methane and oxygen) and an autonomous landing and hazard detection technology.  The prototype planetary lander is capable of vertical takeoff and landings.  The vehicles are NASA designed robotic landers that will be able to land and takeoff with 1,100 pounds (500 kg) of cargo on the Moon.  The prospect is an engine that runs reliably on propellants that are not only cheaper and safer here on Earth, but could also be potentially manufactured on the Moon or even Mars.

The Alpha prototype lander was manufactured and assembled at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Armadillo Aerospace’s facility near Dallas.  The prototype lander is a “spacecraft” that is about 12 ft (3.7 m) in diameter, weighs approximately 2,300 lb (1,000 kg) and consists of four silver spherical propellant tanks topped by avionics boxes and a web of wires.

The project is trying out cost and time saving “lean development” engineering practices.  Other project activities include appropriate ground operations, flight operations, range safety, and the instigation of software development procedures.  Landing pads and control centers were also constructed.  From the project start in July 2010, about $10 million was spent on materials in the following 3+ years; so the Morpheus project is considered lean and low-cost for NASA.

Now for the way-cool video:

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The IRS Scandal: George Will Weighs In

Washington Post opinion writer George Will offers his perspective, Obama_Hammerilluminating as always, on the suppression tactics employed by the IRS in the interest of nullifying conservative political activism in the run-up to this year’s fall elections.  One incisive excerpt:

The rules that Obama says befuddled the IRS boneheads — to his benefit — read today exactly as they have read since 1959. For half a century they did not prevent the IRS from processing applications for tax-exempt status in less than three months. Some conservative group should offer $10,000 to anyone who can identify a liberal group that had the experience scores of conservative groups have had — an application delayed more than three years and receipt of an IRS questionnaire containing at least 60 questions.

And by the way, thanks to all who used our boilerplate, or who otherwise took the initiative of writing to the IRS to express opposition to the proposed rule changes for IRS Section 501(c)(4) organizations.  Will reports that they have received over 140,000 comments to date, an impressive number considering that almost all are critical of the proposal.  For his entire article, click HERE.

And in a related story, the British newspaper Daily Mail reported yesterday, HERE, that after eight months the IRS has now agreed to provide the House investigating committee with all of Lois Lerner’s e-mails from President Obama’s inauguration up through the date she went on leave from her IRS duties.

Radley Balko Shines A Light On Prosecutorial Misconduct

If, dear reader, after reading Balko’s article, HERE, you think it can’t happen in North Carolina, may I remind you of the pseudo scandal involving the Duke LaCrosse team and the despicable prosecutorial misbehavior of Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong.

But, on the flip side, there is THIS story from San Diego about a Federal prosecutor doing the right thing, even when it resulted in professional embarrassment.  And, I think, the judge should garner some strong criticism for his role as well.

Interested in Attending the DC “American Spring” Event?

As can be seen from the Events List (at right, in the sidebar), the “American Spring” event is to take place in Washington, DC beginning on May 16th.  Individuals or groups interested in attending, either for one day or for longer, are urged to get in touch with Eric Broyles via e-mail (EBroyles@ec.rr.com).  Eric is attempting to gather the figures needed to organize buses, etc., for the first weekend of the event.  Please send him your contact information, the number of persons in your group, and whether you will want to return the same weekend as opposed to staying longer.

For more information on the event itself, click HERE.

Teacher Tenure as a Property-Right?

Many teachers (and a number of county school boards) across North Carolina are upset about the education legislation passed by the 2013 NC General Assembly, particularly the elimination of teacher tenure in favor of merit contracts coupled with bonuses.  In fact, according to an article in the February issue of Carolina Journal, the NC Association of Educators and a small group of teachers have filed a lawsuit in Wake County contending that tenure (or “career status”) is a vested contractual personal property right, and it therefore cannot be terminated without providing just compensation, much as the State would be obligated to provide just compensation when taking real property for a highway overpass.

The court has not yet spoken, of course, but the John Locke Foundation’s (JLF) legal advice is to the effect that the claim … MORE.

The FAA Lacks the Authority to Ban Commercial Drones

Aerial photographer Raphael Pirker flew a small drone near the University of Virginia while making a commercial video in October 2011.  In what appears to be a premature effort to regulate the commercial use of drone aircraft in US airspace, the FAA fined Pirker $10,000.  Pirker appealed, and the appeals court found that the FAA does not have any regulatory authority to govern model aircraft (toys) flights or those that classify model aircraft as an “unmanned aircraft”, meaning a drone.

Read the full article, HERE, from Market Watch.

Mexican Tax Preparers Defrauding the US Taxpayers?

My friend Warren is no longer with us, but in his years as an independent tax prepayer with Enrolled Agent status, he often regaled and horrified me with tales of the many Hispanic clients who would claim the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on the basis of having many children listed as dependents.  Now, Carolina Journal is reporting on a similar scheme brought to light by the confessions of a Hispanic tax prepayer who apparently has a conscience.

Read the full article, HERE.

Here’s Hoping Our Locals Aren’t Affected

In two recent announcements, national retailers Radio Shack and Staples have revealed plans to close large numbers of stores nationwide.  Radio Shack intends to close about 20% of its stores, or roughly 1,100.  Staples intends to close about 225 stores, which comprises roughly 12% of its retail outlets in North America.

For more, check out the CNN story, HERE.

WTH — A New Long-Range Stealth Bomber?

On the heels of announcements that the A-10 Thunderbolt-II Warthog may be phased out soon due to budget constraints, the USAF is also placing a high priority on getting a new long-range stealth bomber.  The project is being characterized as a key modernization priority, but at a time when the nation is footing the bill for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the KC-46A aerial refueling tanker, along with retiring what many think of as the best close air support aircraft since the prop jobs of the WW2 era, why don’t we just build more B-2 Spirit bombers instead of launching a project to produce 90 or so entirely new planes?

The Air Force now has twenty B-2 bombers in operation, and it has announced that the plane is to be a part of the US arsenal through 2058.  What possible new features can be built into a new bomber that aren’t already a part of the B-2 design, or added to it?

From the WikiPedia page for the B-2 Spirit:

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American strategic bomber, featuring low observable stealth technology designed for penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses; it is able to deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons.  The bomber has a crew of two and can drop up to eighty 500 lb (230 kg)-class JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs.  The B-2 is the only aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

and

The B-2 is capable of all-altitude attack missions up to 50,000 feet (15,000 m), with a range of more than 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km) unrefuelled and over 10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) with one refueling.  Though originally designed primarily as a nuclear bomber, it was first used in combat to drop conventional bombs …

and

A number of upgrade packages have been applied to the B-2.  In July 2008, the B-2’s onboard computing architecture was extensively redesigned, it now incorporates a new integrated processing unit (IPU) that communicates with systems throughout the aircraft via a newly installed fibre optic network; a new version of the operational flight program software was also developed, with legacy code converted from the JOVIAL programming language used beforehand to standard C.  Updates were also made to the weapon control systems to enable strikes upon non-static targets, such as moving ground vehicles.

On 12/29/2008, Air Force officials awarded a $468 million contract to Northrop Grumman to modernize the B-2 fleet’s radars.  <snip>  In 2010, it was made public that the Air Force Research Laboratory had developed a new material to be used on the part of the wing trailing edge subject to engine exhaust, replacing existing material that quickly degraded.

In 2013 the USAF contracted for the Defensive Management System Modernization program to replace the antenna system and other electronics to increase the B-2’s frequency awareness.

When sequestration is putting so much pressure on the funding for all the military, this initiative does not seem prudent to me, and the Air Force should be pressed to explain why it would not be more cost effective to produce more B-2s.  For more, check out THIS article at Defense News.

It Takes A Village

This post is about just one of the situations that can arise when the full weight and resources of a over-reactive school district are unjustly Hillary_ItTakesAVillagebrought to bear to marginalize a student, particularly a young child.  This portion of the last paragraph seems to summarize it best:

My wife and I have degrees in neuroscience, psychiatry, and psychology.  We have the means and the leverage to go to experts and to the courts.  But even with all that leverage, we still barely saved our son from a system that couldn’t grasp the disability it was dealing with.  How many families and children get ground up by that system?  If our experience is any guide, parents should be vigilant, and if something doesn’t seem right, always stand up for your child.

The entire article, HERE, is fairly long, but well written and illuminating.

The Improved GBU-57: Can It Go 90-Meters Deep?

James Dunnigan at Strategy Page reports on the recent confirmation by the US military of rumors that America’s heaviest Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) has been improved.  Successful tests of the weapon in 2013 were apparently against an accurate replica of the main Iranian nuclear weapons development facility at Fordo, which is said to have sections that go as deep as 90-meters.  Moreover, according to Dunnigan’s article:

The GBU-57 contains 2.4 tons of explosives and costs $3.5 million each.  In the last few years several B-2 bombers have been equipped to carry these weapons (two bombs per B-2).  This was apparently meant to send a message to Iran and North Korea.  There were no known targets for such a weapon anywhere else, but there are plenty of such targets in Iran and North Korea.  Moreover, even if there were deep bunkers in Somalia or Afghanistan you don’t need a stealth bomber to deliver an MOP.  The enemy in those countries have no way of detecting a high flying B-52, much less a stealthy B-2.  But Iran and North Korea do have radars, and a B-2 could slip past those radars and take out the air defense system command bunkers, or any other targets buried deep.

The 6.2 meter (20.5 foot) long MOP has a thick steel cap, which was originally designed to penetrate up to 7.9-61 meters (26-200 feet) of concrete (depending on degree of hardness) or up to 61 meters of rocky earth before exploding.  This was the original spec, which is now supposed to be improved.

Now if we only had a Commander-In-Chief who was willing to use this firecracker.

If only Obama & Kerry had Sarah Palin’s magic Crystal Ball

President Obama’s disappointing reaction to Russian President Putin’s seizure of the Ukrainian Crimea calls to mind Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s warning, during the 2008 presidential campaign, of Barack Obama’s tendency toward hesitancy and moral equivocating, saying this during a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada:

After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next.

Want proof?  Here’s the video:

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And by the way, although the Bering Strait is 58 miles wide, the international boundary between the United States and Russia actually runs between two small islands situated more or less in the middle of the Strait.  The islands are named Big Diomede and Little Diomede, and belong to Russia and the US (as a part of Alaska), respectively.  The distance between the two uninhabited islands is about two miles, so on a clear day, each island can be easily seen from the other.  So, suck it, Tina Fey.

As If We Need More Proof That Bill & Hillary Are Liars

As many readers will know, the Bill Clinton Presidential Library, after years of stalling and postponements, has finally released another batch of documents from his eight years in office.  Amazingly, the British media seems to be doing a much better job of sifting through these newly-ObamacarePost_HeaderImagereleased 4,000 pages than our left-leaning domestic mainstream media.  Imagine that.

The UK’s Daily Mail has found a trove dealing with the HillaryCare project, an effort that took up a bit more than two years of Billary’s first term, with an end stage so disastrous as to be considered the main causative factor in the Republican majority takeover in the House of Representative’s after the 1994 mid-term elections.  

Here’s an interesting bit, from an internal memo sent up the chain by a member of the HillaryCare team:

We have a line on page 10 that says “You’ll pick the health plan and the doctor of your choice.”  This sounds great and I know that it’s just what people want to hear.  But can we get away with it?  Isn’t the whole thrust of our health plan to steer people toward cheaper, HMO-style providers?  It’s one thing to say we’ll preserve your option to pick the doctor of your choice (recognizing that this will cost more), it’s quite another to appear to promise the nation that everyone will get to pick the doctor of his or her choice.  And that’s exactly what this line does.  I am very worried about getting skewered for over promising here on something we know full well we won’t deliver.

In his 1994 State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton uttered the outright lie that with HillaryCare, all Americans would have “the freedom to choose a plan and the right to choose your own doctor”.  He did so knowing full well that the statement was false.  Likewise, of course, President Barack Obama stated many times that “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.  If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”, also while knowing it was false.   Although Bill Clinton originated the lie, Barack Obama, it seems, had no compunctions in resurrecting it.

The whole article, HERE, is well worth reading, as it will be fodder in Hillary’s 2016 campaign.

A Belated Report on the CCTPP Meeting of February 25th

The regular Tuesday night meeting of the Crystal Coast Tea Party Patriots at the Golden Corral in Morehead City saw a good turnout, with guest speaker Mark Mansfield, candidate for the County Commission from District 3.  Also in attendance were local lumanaries including Carteret County Commissioners Bill Smith, Robin Comer, and Jimmy Harrington, along with Taylor Griffin, who is challenging Representative Walter Jones for his seat in the US House.  Janiece Wall, candidate for the Carteret County Board of Education, also spoke briefly to introduce herself and answer questions related to her campaign positions.

In addition to being a member of the school board, Mark Mansfield is a real estate broker at Golf & Shore Properties.  He has a BS in Nutrition from UNC-Greensboro, with concentration in restaurant management.  He is also President of Carteret County Association of Realtors, a two-time past president of the Crystal Coast realtors Multiple Listing Service (MLS), a member of Carteret County Chamber of Commerce, and a supporter of Habitat for Humanity and Relay for Life.  In addition, Mansfield is a former coach for the Morehead City Parks and Recreation and Seashore Soccer League.

In a previous appearance at a meeting of the Carteret County Republican Men’s Club, Mansfield had been asked questions relating to his 18-month tenure on the Carteret Board of Education.  Some of the questions related to the school system budget, and due to the detailed nature of the inquiry, he deferred his answers until he had more time to research the issue.  At the Tuesday meeting, however, he came fully prepared to answer all questions posed, about both the budget and other aspects of his service on the school board.

TOMORROW is the Deadline for Comments !

I have called attention several times in this space to the threat posed by the proposed IRS rule revisions to Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, which is the section under which most of the larger Tea Party and other conservative activists groups seek tax exemption.  The deadline for public comments on the proposals is tomorrow, so please, if you have not done so already, click THIS link for access to a quick and easy process for making your voice heard.

For even more motivation, click HERE to read the latest news, posted by Eliana Johnson of National Review, on the legislation that is planned for introduction in the House tomorrow.  This new bill, written primarily by Dave Camp (R-MI) would:

… directly address the circumstances that led to last year’s scandal.  The specter of Lois Lerner looms large in the minds of many Republicans, and the plan mandates the termination of any IRS employee found to have taken official action for political purposes.  The 1988 bill that restructured and reformed the IRS spells out ten actions for which the IRS commissioner must terminate an agency employee after an “administrative or judicial determination” that the employee has committed the prohibited action — among them, providing a false statement under oath on a matter involving a taxpayer and violating the rights of a taxpayer.  Today’s bill would add the commission of politically motivated acts to the list.

The plan would also require the IRS to modify its interpretation of a critical provision of the Internal Revenue Code that has been used to protect the privacy of those accused of leaking confidential taxpayer records and to deny information to the victims of IRS abuse.

Under the proposed reforms, the provision, Internal Revenue Code section 6103, would require the government to disclose to victims both the status of an investigation as well as its result, including the identity of the perpetrator.

Your turn.  Now, reach out and touch the IRS.  You can even do so anonymously.


UPDATE — WHITE HOUSE VOWS VETO !!

From PJ-Media, just past 5pm:

The White House threatened to veto a House bill that would block the Internal Revenue Service from issuing a rule that would narrow the definition of who qualifies for a 501(c)(4) exemption as a social welfare organization.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp’s (R-Mich.) Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, which was in the Rules Committee on Tuesday evening, would freeze the finalization of the rule for one year and restore the 501(c)(4) standards and definitions that were in place before conservative groups started to come under extra scrutiny in 2010.

Shortly after the Rules Committee meeting began, the Office of Management and Budget issued a statement warning that the administration “strongly opposes” the bill, which has 66 co-sponsors.

More HERE.

Oh! How The Money Rolls In!

First, it was the irresistible Siren call of the the lottery bounty that made the hearts of avaricious state legislators around the nation go pitty-pat, but now there is marijuana, their new inamorata.  In joyful news from earlier this week, the AP reports on the tax revenues arising from Colorado’s new legal pot law:

Colorado’s legal marijuana market is far exceeding tax expectations, according to a budget proposal released Wednesday by Gov. John Hickenlooper that gives the first official estimate of how much the state expects to make from pot taxes.

and

The initial tax projections are rosier than those given to voters in 2012, when state fiscal projections on the marijuana-legalization amendment would produce $39.5 million in sales taxes next fiscal year, which begins in July.  The rosier projections come from updated data about how many retail stores Colorado has (163 as of February 18th) and how much customers are paying for pot. There’s no standardized sales price, but recreational pot generally is going for much more than the $202 an ounce forecasters guessed last year.

Mason Tvert, a legalization activist who ran Colorado’s 2012 campaign, said other states are watching closely to see what legal weed can produce in tax revenue.  “Voters and state lawmakers around the country are watching how this system unfolds in Colorado, and the prospect of generating significant revenue while eliminating the underground marijuana market is increasingly appealing,” said Tvert, who now works for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Yep.  I think there is a danger that legalizing marijuana will follow the same path as lottery legalization.  As states, especially the blue and purple states, continue their profligate spending practices, they will become so desperate for funding that they will get into the drug business just as they got into the gambling business.  Anyhoo, for the full article, click HERE.

The War On Poverty — The One We Flat Out Lost

One of the few advantages to reaching the Biblical three score and ten, or more, is perspective.  Those of us who are old enough to have reached adulthood before Lyndon Johnson became President (in November, 1963) can draw a clear line between the America that existed before the pursuit of the Great Society began in earnest, as opposed to that which has evolved since.  (Spoiler alert: before was better.)

The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for the entire period from 1955 through the beginning of the Reagan Revolution in 1981.  Among the many domestic wealth-transfer mechanisms set up by the whole body of Great Society legislation passed by Johnson and the Democrats was the “War on Poverty” (WoP).  Some of the discrete legislative acts resulting from the overall “War” were the expansion of Social Security (1965), Food Stamps (1964, now known as SNAP), the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (1965), and the Economic Opportunity Act (1964) which was the rubric from which the Community Action Program, Job Corps, and VISTA eventually sprang.

But the fifteen trillion dollars spent on the WoP in the decades since President Johnson declared the war in his 1964 SOTU address have seemingly gone for naught, as the US poverty rate, adjusted for inflation, is largely unchanged in the last fifty years.  Think about that.  In essence, almost one entire year’s worth of GDP, in today’s dollars, pissed away with no substantive improvement.

How can this be?  How can such an enormous amount of money be spent with nothing more to show for it than an occasional twitch of the needle?

John Goodman (the economist, not the actor) takes a stab at addressing this puzzlement in commentary published at the website for The Independent Institute, a public policy think tank.  Two snippets:

From the end of World War II until 1964 the poverty rate in this country was cut in half.  Further, 94% of the change in the poverty rate over this period can be explained by changes in per capita income alone.  Economic growth is clearly the most effective antipoverty weapon ever devised by man.

and

In 1965, 18% of the population lived in poverty.  Today we are at 15%, or 50 million Americans.

It is past time that we elected a Congress that will recognize that something radically different needs to be done to bring this catastrophe to a merciful end.  Anyway, to read the entire article, complete with graph, click HERE.

Israel is no longer the only Middle Eastern state with no petroleum deposits

Its true.  From the full article, HERE, at the online Commentary Magazine:

Tamar sits 56 miles off the coast of Israel, an offshore gas platform rising up from the Mediterranean like a white steel beacon whose roots reach down 1,000 feet to the seabed. Named for the natural-gas field beneath the sea floor, Tamar is the symbol of a bright future for Israel if Israel is ready for it: as the newest energy producer and exporter in the Middle East, and potentially the most important.

Ice-Breakers on the Chesapeake Bay

This piece comes from, of all places, the Miami Herald newspaper.  An ArcticIceCapGrowsexcerpt from the article:

Chesapeake Bay watermen haven’t been able to work for days at a time because of one of the coldest winters in more than three years.

They rely on Maryland’s icebreaker boats to clear the waterways.

Around Kent Narrows, where Corbman is, the A.V. Sandusky has been breaking ice.  The Sandusky is one of four icebreakers the Maryland Department of Natural Resources sends out every year.

The full piece, HERE, includes a nice video as well.

And isn’t it ironic that this comes on the very day that Fox News is reporting, HERE, on efforts by AGW alarmists to suppress Charles Krauthammer’s commentary on climate change.