On the first Earth Day in 1970, environmentalists warned that we faced a new ice age unless the government took immediate and massive action. Today, using much of the same data, they claim we are endangered by global warming. These are the same climatologists who can't tell us whether it will rain next Friday, but who are certain that the earth's temperature will be x degrees Celsius higher in 2,011 than today. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will melt the polar icecaps and coastal areas will flood, we're told. As temperatures increase, Dallas will become a desert and Baked Alaska more than a dessert.You'll want to read the whole thing twice.
The proposed solution to this "Greenhouse Effect" is, surprise!, more government spending and control, and lower human standards of living.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Enviro-Skeptic's Manifesto
Lew Rockwell reports:
Big Pharma Loves Harry Reid
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is down in the polls and fighting for re-election, so he's lucky to have a wealthy, new benefactor in his corner. The unions? The greens? Try the drug industry.Great moments in rent seeking.
A new TV ad is up in Mr. Reid's home state praising the Democrat for creating "good Nevada jobs," expanding "clean energy" and providing "tax credits for small business." Moreover, "thanks to Harry Reid's leadership, if you change or lose your job, you can keep your health care coverage." The ad encourages viewers to call Mr. Reid's office, where no doubt they will be routed to his donation line. All this is courtesy of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, in league with the liberal health-advocacy group Families USA.
If it seems odd that drug makers are working to re-elect the Senator who passed legislation to rule the health-care industry, welcome to post-ObamaCare politics. Big Pharma and health insurance companies are betting on short-term rent-seeking from legislation that subsidizes Americans to use more of their products—so the ad is partly a thank you to Democrats for new customers.
Flashback: Rezko Owned Land for Hotel in Chicago Mob Linked Rosemont ,IL (Where Mob Wanted A Casino)
With Blago's trial coming up, here's an important fact. Here's a flashback from John Kass ,of the Chicago Tribune, from 2004:
And Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko was recently found to control Rosemont land that will magically sprout into a hotel if Rosemont gets a casino.You might say this is a mob issue. Something to think about when you consider Rezko, Blago, and Alexi Giannoulias' close friend Barack Obama. The coming Blagojevich trial is really about this casino license: the most valuable thing Blago and Rezko had to sell.
Justice probe of Goldman goes beyond deals cited by SEC
The Washington Post reports:
The Justice Department's criminal investigation into Goldman Sachs goes beyond the financial transactions targeted by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the civil fraud suit brought against the firm last month, law enforcement sources said Friday.
The Conspiracy Theory of History Revisited
Murray Rothbard reports:
Suppose we find that Congress has passed a law raising the steel tariff or imposing import quotas on steel? Surely only a moron will fail to realize that the tariff or quota was passed at the behest of lobbyists from the domestic steel industry, anxious to keep out efficient foreign competitors. No one would level a charge of "conspiracy theorist" against such a conclusion. But what the conspiracy theorist is doing is simply to extend his analysis to more complex measures of government: say, to public works projects, the establishment of the ICC, the creation of the Federal Reserve System, or the entry of the United States into a war. In each of these cases, the conspiracy theorist asks himself the question cui bono? Who benefits from this measure? If he finds that Measure A benefits X and Y, his next step is to investigate the hypothesis: did X and Y in fact lobby or exert pressure for the passage of Measure A? In short, did X and Y realize that they would benefit and act accordingly?When people get involved in politics: it's not for altruistic reasons.
Far from being a paranoid or a determinist, the conspiracy analyst is a praxeologist; that is, he believes that people act purposively, that they make conscious choices to employ means in order to arrive at goals. Hence, if a steel tariff is passed, he assumes that the steel industry lobbied for it; if a public works project is created, he hypothesizes that it was promoted by an alliance of construction firms and unions who enjoyed public works contracts, and bureaucrats who expanded their jobs and incomes. It is the opponents of "conspiracy" analysis who profess to believe that all events – at least in government – are random and unplanned, and that therefore people do not engage in purposive choice and planning.
How the champions of "good government" suppress speech and sow cynicism
Reason reports:
Our 21st century politics might be regarded as an ethical golden age—at least in contrast to the corruption of the 19th century, when senators were on railroad payrolls and urban machines pilfered public treasuries. Yet according to a recent Pew Research Center survey, only 22 percent of citizens now trust government "almost always or most of the time."An article well worth your time.
Republicans' fertile future / Through the past three decades, conservatives have been procreating more than liberals
Here's an important article from the San Francisco Chronicle. It's from 2006. We re-link this one because of it's importance. It's 4 pages. We strongly encourage you to read this one if you haven't.
Judge: Obama won't have to testify at Blagojevich trial
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
A federal judge in Chicago has denied a request from lawyers for ousted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to subpoena President Obama to testify in Blagojevich's upcoming corruption trial.
"The testimony of the president is not material to this case," U.S. District Judge James Zagel said today in issuing the ruling.
Zagel said he might be willing to reconsider the issue during the course of the trial — which is set to begin June 3 — if Blagojevich's lawyers submit more evidence that they need Obama's testimony.
Ex-Blagojevich aide Monk pleads guilty to bribery charge
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's onetime chief of staff and running buddy Lon Monk pleaded guilty today for a second time to crimes tied to the Blagojevich administration.
Monk, 51, admitted to conspiring to solicit a bribe from a horse-racing businessman for a campaign contribution in exchange for getting a bill signed.
Forgotten Facts of American Labor History
Thomas E. Woods, Jr. reports:
The vast bulk of the existing scholarship on American labor history is essentially unreadable. It takes for granted all the economic myths of unionism, the essential righteousness of the union cause, and the moral perversity of anyone who would dare to oppose it. Major incidents in the history of American unionism, as with the Haymarket incident of 1886 and the Homestead Strike of 1892, are often misleadingly described in order to conform to the ideological demands of this one-dimensional morality play.An article well worth your time.
Labor historians and activists would doubtless be at a loss to explain why, at a time when unionism was numerically negligible (a whopping three percent of the American labor force was unionized by 1900) and federal regulation all but nonexistent, real wages in manufacturing climbed an incredible 50 percent in the United States from 1860–1890, and another 37 percent from 1890 to 1914, or why American workers were so much better off than their much more heavily unionized counterparts in Europe. Most of them seem to cope with these inconvenient facts by neglecting to mention them at all.
Obama Gives Unions a 'Massive Payback' with Executive Order, Contractors Claim
CNS News reports:
The nation’s non-union contractors, who constitute the bulk of the construction industry, say President Obama has given a “massive payback” to unions by implementing an executive order that would help them secure billions of dollars in construction contracts on public projects -- and a House Republican congressman agrees.You'll want to read the whole article. This might be one of the best pension scams ever dreamed up the the unions/ organized crime.
The executive order, implemented in mid-April, encourages federal agencies to use “project labor agreements” or PLAs on their construction projects, which could require any non-union workers to pay into ailing union pension funds and follow work guidelines set out by a union.
Auditor faults state's high-speed rail agency
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
California's plan to build a high-speed rail system could be in jeopardy because the state agency overseeing the $42 billion project hasn't figured out how to secure enough money, according to an audit released Thursday.High speed rail is nothing but a scam.
The High-Speed Rail Authority also suffers from lax oversight, poor management and insufficient planning, according to the report by state auditor Elaine Howle.
Gutierrez White House immigration protest; expects arrest
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
In the wake of a new Arizona law aimed at illegal immigrants, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) on Saturday is going to join demonstrators at the White House who will likely be arrested for their protests.For a look at Luis Gutierrez and the FALN.
He expects to be booked and released. Gutierrez will be a guest on "Face The Nation" on CBS this Sunday morning
Gutierrez -- arrested twice in 2001 protesting the Navy's use of the Puerton Rican island of Vieques for bombing practice -- will take part in civil disobedience "to keep the pressure up on President Obama and the leaders of the Democratic party," said Gutierrez spokesman Doug Rivlin.
After reporter's subpoena, critics call Obama's leak-plugging efforts Bush-like
The Washington Post reports:
The Justice Department's decision to subpoena a New York Times reporter this week has convinced some press advocates that President Obama's team is pursuing leaks with the same fervor as the Bush administration.Hope and change!
James Risen, who shared a Pulitzer Prize for disclosing President George W. Bush's domestic surveillance program, has refused to testify about the confidential sources he used for his 2006 book "State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration."
"The message they are sending to everyone is, 'You leak to the media, we will get you,' " said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In the wake of the Bush administration's aggressive stance toward the press, she said, "as far as I can tell there is absolutely no difference, and the Obama administration seems to be paying more attention to it. This is going to get nasty."
Thursday, April 29, 2010
SEC sends Goldman case to prosecutors
The Washington Post reports:
The Securities and Exchange Commission has referred its investigation of Goldman Sachs to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, less than two weeks after filing a civil securities fraud case against the firm, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Any probe by the Justice Department would be in a preliminary stage. No Goldman Sachs employees involved in the mortgage-related transactions that are the focus of the SEC case have been interviewed by Justice Department prosecutors or the FBI agents who often conduct probes on behalf of prosecutors, according to a source familiar with the matter. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Gov. Mike Huckabee on Arizona's New Immigration Law
The Dallas Morning News has a Q and A with Mike Huckabee:
Do you agree with the recently passed law in Arizona that empowers law enforcement officials to check whether a person being stopped or detained is a U.S. citizen? It's not my place to agree or disagree. I understand why it was passed and why 70 percent of the people of Arizona support it. They're angry, they're frustrated, and they're scared. There are a half-million illegals who have poured into their state. ... They feel under siege, and I understand that. What does concerns me is that if it's not carried out and applied carefully, you could end up in the situation where people are indiscriminately stopped who are absolute citizens. ... America is a lot like Disney World in that once you get a ticket, you're in. You don't have to keep showing your ticket to keep riding the rides. That's the whole point of liberty.
Democrats head to New York for Wall Street dough
Politico reports:
While Democrats push Wall Street regulations on the Senate floor, Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) will head to Manhattan Monday for a fundraiser with deep-pocketed donors who have ties to the financial industry.The Democrat party: bailouts for the rich.
According to an invitation obtained by POLITICO, the fundraiser is billed as a “political discussion” for those who want to contribute up to $10,000 for Gillibrand’s reelection campaign and spend Monday evening with the two Democratic senators.
The event will be held at the Park Avenue home of Ralph Schlosstein, a former Carter administration official who is the CEO of the investment firm Evercore and used to work at Lehman Bros. Holdings. Schlosstein’s wife Jane Hartley, the event co-host, is seen as a leading New York Democratic donor, has given more than $300,000 to Democratic candidates in recent years, but is not employed in the financial industry.
Also attending the event is Roger Altman, a former Clinton administration Treasury Department official and founder of Evercore; Leo Hindery, managing partner of a New York-based private equity fund; David Topper, vice chairman of JPMorgan’s investment banking outfit; Wiltold Balaban, an attorney who has represented Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America; hedge fund investor James Torrey and Richard Beattie, a New York-based attorney who participated in the $58 billion acquisition of Bank One Corp. by JPMorgan. Altman co-hosted a fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Sunday night in New York.
Oil Spill May Cost Insurers $1.5 Billion in Claims
Bloomberg reports:
The growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by a leaking BP Plc well, may cost the insurance industry as much as $1.5 billion in claims, according to Transatlantic Holdings Inc.
Chicago Mob Linked Mayor Daley Wants People to Turn in Their Guns
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Holding up an assault weapon surrendered for cash, Mayor Daley urged Chicagoans today to turn in their weapons on May 8 to stop the violence that prompted two state lawmakers to suggest bringing in the National Guard.No word yet from Mayor Daley's close friend and campaign contributor, Chicago Mob associate Fred Barbara on this one. For a look at Mayor Daley's campaigning with a known mafia figure , click on this.
“How would you like to have this gun aimed at a police officer, your son or daughter, mother or father or your brother or sister?’’ Daley asked. “ . . . This is the most frightening aspect of America. We love our guns and we think guns are gonna solve issues.”
He added: “I wish the President would call upon people to turn in their guns. I wish the governor would do that —all elected officials — and say, ‘Guns destroy people.’ ’’
Police Superintendent Jody Weis noted that Chicago Police officers confiscated more weapons over the last year than New York and Los Angeles combined. He urged Chicagoans to turn them in voluntarily.
Credit-Rating Agencies Loom Large in Europe Crisis
The New York Times reports:
The rating agencies that sort good investments from junk are once again injecting fear into financial markets. Only this time it's for warning investors about a possible threat -- Europe's debt crisis -- rather than for failing to see one coming.
Scandal: Obama, Gore, Goldman, Joyce Foundation CCX partners to fleece USA
The Examiner reports:
What is CCX, the Chicago Climate Exchange, projected to gross 10 Trillion a year is Cap-N-Tax passes. Obama played a pivotal role in the formation of the CCX.
Amazon, Dell Founders Help Fund Healthcare Startup
The Wall Street Journal reports on a startup that offers:
primary care treatment to patients who pay a monthly membership fee ranging between $44 and $84, depending on their age. The company accepts no form of health insurance for its services.The miracle of the market.
That housing sales boom is without foundation
The New York Post reports:
take a look at the March figures in light of other years.There's more:
If you ask the government -- and you do have to ask -- it will tell you that 38,000 new homes sold this March.
Going backwards, there were: 80,000 new homes sold in March 2007; 108,000 in March '06; 127,000 in March '05 and 123,000 in March of '04.The boom.
Heck, you'd have to go all the way back to the early 1980s to find a March with new-homes sales at the 30,000-level. And back then, the economy was a mess and mortgage rates were in the double-digits.
Al Gore, Tipper Gore snap up Montecito-area villa
The L.A. Times reports:
Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have added a Montecito-area property to their real estate holdings, reports the Montecito Journal.Al Gore: promoter of a lower standard of living for you, but not him.
The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
39.6% Dividend Tax in 2011: The Dividend Tax Bill Arrives
The Wall Street Journal reports:
As the big tax increase day of January 1, 2011 approaches, the Democrats running Congress are beginning to lay out their priorities. Get ready for bigger rate increases than previously advertised.There's more:
Last week the Senate Budget Committee passed a fiscal 2011 budget resolution that includes an increase in the top tax rate on dividends to 39.6% from the current 15%—a 164% increase. This blows past the 20% rate that President Obama proposed in his 2011 budget and which his economic advisers promised on these pages in 2008.
And that's only for starters. The recent health-care bill includes a 3.8% surcharge on all investment income, including dividends, beginning in 2013. This would nearly triple the top dividend rate to 43.4% in Mr. Obama's four years as President. We suppose the White House would call this another great victory for income equality.When Obama endorsed socialist Bernie Sanders and talked about change, he wasn't kidding.
But the driving impulse here isn't equity. It's money. According to the static revenue estimation rules that Congress lives by, maintaining the current 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividends will "cost" the government $347.7 billion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office hasn't broken out how much the higher 39.6% dividend rate alone would yield in revenue, but a reasonable guess is $200 billion. Congress simply wants that cash.
For health insurance, customers keep the faith
The Miami Herald reports:
A small but growing number of Christians are ditching conventional health insurance for faith-based health collectives, where members pay each other's bills directly.
Health law traps some in pricey state plans : 200,000 hard to insure can't get federal option
USA Today reports:
About 200,000 Americans whose illnesses have kept them from getting regular health insurance will not be allowed to enroll this summer in a new lower cost federal program for people like them because they already buy pricey state-run plans.Great moments in state run medicine.
The nation's new health law creates a far cheaper insurance program opening July 1 for people with pre-exisiting medical conditions. To qualify, a person can't have had health coverage for six months.
The result is it excludes people already enrolled in 35 state high risk pools offering insurance of last resort. The state pools charge high premiums — often double standard rates for healthier people in the individual market — to help cover costs.
The new law provides $5 billion and says federal risk pools can't charge more than standard rates.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
2 ex-Detroit Public School officials, 2 vendors indicted for bribery, extortion
The Detroit Free Press reports:
A federal grand jury has indicted the former chief of risk management at Detroit Public Schools, charging Stephen Hill with looting the financially ailing district of more than $3 million for himself, family members and friends, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade announced in a news release.Stephen Hill almost made it to Cook County government. Anyway, what would the world be without the Detroit Public School system?
Mayor Daley hails passage of law jailing illegal gun toters
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Mayor Daley’s gun control proposals are frequently shot down by the General Assembly, but he won a rare victory today.You can't own a handgun in Chicago and now you'll automatically go to jail if you defend yourself because you can't get a valid FOID card in Chicago! For a look how how gun control came to Chicago with the help of the mafia.
The Illinois Senate unanimously agreed to make unlawful use of a weapon a non-probationable offense — punishable by one to three years in prison — whenever the offender carries a loaded weapon and has no valid Firearms Owners Identification (FOID) card.
The House also approved the bill unanimously. It now awaits Gov. Quinn’s signature.
In a news release distributed after the vote, Daley hailed the bill as “another tool” to protect children and combat an outbreak of neighborhood violence that prompted two state lawmakers to suggest calling out the Illinois National Guard.
The Insurance Mandate in Peril
Professor Randy Barnett has op-ed piece you should read in the Wall Street Journal.
Wal-Mart Blocked: Do Chicago Democrats Want African-Americans to Pay Higher Prices and have Higher Unemployment?
The Chicago Defender reports:
Residents in the business-starved and food- deserted Pullman community on the Far South Side may get a huge development along the Bishop Ford Expressway, complete with two big box retailers, a hotel, a school and new affordable homes, among other things, if all goes well in City Council next month.Since Wal-Mart is the largest private sector employer of African-Americans, you have to wonder whether racism is involved.The Defender reminds us that Alderman Ed Burke is in charge of the Wal-Mart decision.
But, there’s one caveat, according to the area’s Alderman Anthony Beale (9th): Walmart.
The Benton, Arkansas-based discount retail giant has struggled to get more stores in Chicago after opening the city’s first Walmart on the West Side in 2006. The proposed “big box” ordinance a year later halted its efforts.
The union-backed measure required all businesses with more than $1 billion in annual sales and stores with more than 90,000-square-feet to pay a minimum wage of at least $11 per hour, $13 per hour with benefits.
The council passed the ordinance. Mayor Richard M. Daley vetoed it.
FBI searches home of late Chicago Mob Capo Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Chicago FBI agents are searching the home of the family of Angelo “The Hook” LaPietra, the late and widely feared mob leader, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.No word yet from former Chicago Mob attorney Anne Burke on this one.
Authorities have said the house in Bridgeport was the target last month of burglars who believed a fortune had been stashed there — perhaps including the famed, 45-carat Marlborough diamond.
The search began this morning at the fortress-like home at 30th and Princeton. Agents appear to be looking for any stolen items.
Washington Post Confuses Obama With Malcolm X
Gateway Pundit has a Washington Post front page you should see.
Quote of the Day: The Goldman Gaffe
Carp Diem has this quote from Professor Richard Epstein:
"In the end, we learn a lot from this latest SEC fiasco. The agency that cannot detect a Madoff fraud can conjure up a Goldman fraud out of thin air. At this point, some fundamental reform is in order. Forget the fancy stuff. Either the SEC should master its primary fraud prevention mission, or it should shut down altogether."
Why reporters are down on Obama
Politico reports:
President Obama and the media actually have a surprisingly hostile relationship – as contentious on a day-to-day basis as any between press and president in the last decade, reporters who cover the White House say.When you are building socialism, media coverage might get in the way.
Reporters say the White House is thin-skinned, controlling, eager to go over their heads and stingy with even basic information. All White Houses try to control the message. But this White House has pledged to be more open than its predecessors – and reporters feel it doesn’t live up to that pledge in several key areas:
— Day-to-day interaction with Obama is almost non-existent, and he talks to the press corps far less often than Bill Clinton or even George W. Bush did. Clinton took questions nearly every weekday, on average. Obama barely does it once a week.
— The ferocity of pushback is intense. A routine press query can draw a string of vitriolic emails. A negative story can draw a profane high-decibel phone call – or worse. Some reporters feel like they’ve been frozen out after crossing the White House.
$500K for fake grass at Chicago Public School
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Despite a district-wide cash crunch, a Brighton Park elementary school is on target to get nearly $500,000 in artificial turf to replace a grassy field that is being torn up by kids being kids.Great moments in public education.
Paid sick leave pushed for low-income workers
McClatchy reports:
Fresh off passage of a sweeping health care overhaul, the Obama administration is supporting legislation to provide mandatory paid sick leave for more than 30 million additional workers who are some of nation's lowest-paid employees.Barack Obama pro-unemployment.
The Healthy Families Act, sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, both Democrats from Connecticut, would require companies that have 15 or more employees to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked or up to seven sick days a year for a full-time worker.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Ben Nelson, Wife Own as Much as $6 Million in Berkshire Stock
Bloomberg reports:
Senator Ben Nelson, who supported an exemption to proposed derivatives rules sought by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., owned as much as $6 million worth of stock with his wife in the Omaha, Nebraska-based company, financial disclosures show.Ben Nelson(Democrat-Warren Buffett).
A Nebraska Democrat, Nelson reported last year that he owned between $500,000 and $1 million of stock in Berkshire in 2008, and his wife owned between $1 million and $5 million. Senators report their holdings each year in broad ranges. New financial disclosure reports are due May 15.
Nelson and his wife, Diane, owned more shares in Berkshire than any other member of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group.
Mayor Daley: Send gun industry lawsuit to World Court
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Six years after the state Supreme Court dismissed his $433 million lawsuit against the gun industry, Mayor Daley today called for a change of venue — to the World Court normally reserved for disputes between nations and crimes against humanity.Mayor Daley campaigned for office with a known mafia figure who pushed through Chicago's gun ban. It's not everyday that the Attorney General singles out an elected politician who happens to be a high ranking made member of the mob.
Wrapping up the sixth annual Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum, Daley convinced more than a dozen of his counterparts from around the world to approve a resolution urging "redress against the gun industry through the courts of the world" in The Hague.
GSA seeks nearly 200,000 sq ft in Office Space
Baltimore Business Journal reports:
The General Services Administration is scouring Woodlawn for nearly 200,000 square feet of space, a massive expansion of federal agencies triggered by new health care reform law passed last month.The bull market in government growth advances on.
Most immediate, the GSA is seeking 65,000 square feet for the Social Security Administration to occupy by Oct. 1. In addition, the GSA wants two 65,000-square-foot spaces to accommodate growth from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for February 2011 occupancy. The space will house a mixture headquarter employees and new hires, according to a statement from the GSA.
32 indicted in NYC welfare fraud crackdown
The New York Post reports:
Authorities say 32 people, some of them financially well-off, have been indicted in a welfare-fraud crackdown.Greed.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes says the defendants stole about $1 million in benefits, including welfare, Medicaid and food stamp assistance.
The Worst Cities For Jobs
New Geography reports:
California now accounts for a remarkable 7 of the bottom 20 regions on our big metro list. The diversity of the disaster spans both the urban centers and the exurbs--witness exurban Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 63 and the city of Oakland at No. 62. Historic high-flyers No. 59 Los Angeles and neighboring Santa Ana-Anaheim Irvine, which checks in at an abysmal No. 60, didn't fare much better.Ouch.
Perhaps more shocking is the poor performance handed in by the state capital, Sacramento, a former high-flyer now mired at No. 54, and San Diego, a high-tech haven with a near-perfect climate, that resides at No. 48. Even No. 47 San Jose/Silicon Valley has done poorly, despite all the consistent hype about the world class tech center. The likes of Steve Jobs of Apple and Eric Schmidt at Google may be minting money, but the region, paced by declines in construction, manufacturing and business services, now has 130,000 fewer jobs than a decade ago.
Obama administration defies congressional subpoena on Fort Hood documents
The Washington Post reports:
The Obama administration said Tuesday it would provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents.
After days of negotiations, the Pentagon and Justice Department informed a Senate committee that they would not comply with congressional subpoenas to share investigative records from the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, Tex., which killed 13 people. The agencies said that divulging the material could jeopardize their prosecution of Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the accused gunman.
Euro Falls Below $1.32 for First Time in Year on Greece Crisis
Bloomberg reports:
The euro dropped below $1.32 for the first time since April 2009 after Standard & Poor’s lowered Greece’s debt to junk and cut the rating of Portugal.
Cook County Judge throws out arrest of cop accused in fatal DUI crash
The Chicago Tribune reports:
A Cook County judge today ruled that a Chicago police officer accused of drunk driving in a fatal crash on Thanksgiving 2007 was arrested and detained without probable cause.This is the very same Judge Gainer that found these 3 cops not guilty.No word yet from Alderman Ed Burke, the man who slates the judges in Cook County on this one.
Judge Thomas V. Gainer Jr. also called the police lieutenant who ordered Officer John Ardelean's arrest not a credible witness.
"Probable cause to arrest in this case comes down to the credibility of Lt. (John) Magruder and this court does not believe Lt. Magruder's testimony," Gainer wrote in his opinion.
Gainer also wrote he had found "no conspiracy to protect this defendant by rogue officers acting without regard to their oath ..."
States Bristle As Investors Make Wagers On Defaults
The Wall Street Journal reports:
As U.S. cities and towns wrestle with financial problems, investors are finding a new way to profit on their misery: by buying derivatives that essentially bet municipalities will default.Markets for everything!
These so-called credit default swaps are basically insurance contracts that have long been available to protect holders of corporate bonds against default. They became available a few years ago for municipal debt, allowing investors to short sell—or bet against—countless cities, towns and bridges, and more than a dozen states, including California, Michigan and New York.
The derivatives are still thinly traded, but their existence has the potential to make investors skittish about the issuers of the bonds that underlie them. That has been the case for issuers ranging from Greece to Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers during the financial crisis. When the price of this insurance goes up, nervous investors have sold off securities issued by these entities.
The proliferation of the derivatives is angering treasurers around the country, who say the derivatives are sending a negative message and possibly driving up their costs of borrowing at a time when they need all the help they can get. California planned to send out letters as soon as this week to big Wall Street firms that sell its bonds, seeking in-depth information about their roles in selling derivatives.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Council Told to Consider Bankruptcy
Bloomberg reports:
Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, the sixth-most populous U.S. state, has guaranteed payments on $282 million in bonds on the incinerator, run by the Harrisburg Authority. The payments on the bonds and on a working-capital loan this year add up to four times the amount the city collects in property taxes each year, budget documents show.
Law school tuition hikes spark talk of bubble
The Chicago Tribune reports:
The rising cost of law school is becoming a sore subject as the number of high-paying jobs shrink.There's more:
With large numbers of unemployed or underemployed lawyers who borrowed heavily to pay for their educations, legal educators face growing skepticism about the value of a law degree. Anonymous critics have started blogs with harsh names such as "Big Debt, Small Law" or "The Jobless Juris Doctor."
But with law firms cutting salaries and hiring fewer graduates last year because of the economy, Northwestern sent just 55.9 percent of its 2009 graduates to the largest firms, according to the National Law Journal. Yet the school still was No. 1 in the publication's annual ranking of graduates who found jobs at big firms.What about number 10 or number 50?
Earth Day predictions of 1970. The reason you shouldn’t believe Earth Day predictions.
Some Earth Day predictions:
“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
Congressional Dems Say No Immigration Bill Anytime Soon
Establishment mouthpiece Howard Fineman in Newsweek.
Labor opens new offensive against GOP's Whitman
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Organized labor took another step Monday in its quest to defeat billionaire Republican Meg Whitman's bid for governor when the California Labor Federation announced it will launch an "unprecedented effort" to thwart the former eBay CEO and promote Democrat Jerry Brown's campaign.There's more:
Monday's effort is organized labor's latest multimillion-dollar campaign aimed at Whitman. Other independent-expenditure groups doing the same are Level the Playing Field 2010, which is supported by nurses, university faculty and painters unions; and Working Families 2010, backed by billionaire Ron Burkle, construction trades unions, firefighters and the Service Employees International Union.Great moments in Blue America.
Pension Bomb Ticks Louder : California's public funds are assuming unlikely rates of return
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The time-bomb that is public-pension obligations keeps ticking louder and louder. Eventually someone will have to notice.Do you really want to be a long term creditor of the state of California?
This month, Stanford's Institute for Economic Policy Research released a study suggesting a more than $500 billion unfunded liability for California's three biggest pension funds—Calpers, Calstrs and the University of California Retirement System. The shortfall is about six times the size of this year's California state budget and seven times more than the outstanding voter-approved general obligations bonds.
The pension funds responsible for the time bombs denounced the report. Calstrs CEO Jack Ehnes declared at a board meeting that "most people would give [this study] a letter grade of 'F' for quality" but "since it bears the brand of Stanford, it clearly ripples out there quite a bit." He called its assumptions "faulty," its research "shoddy" and its conclusions "political." Calpers chief Joseph Dear wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that the study is "fundamentally flawed" because it "uses a controversial method that is out of step with governmental accounting standards."
Your 401K: Jan Schakowsky's Plan to Eliminate Tax Breaks
The Hill reports:
“If Alan Simpson is so committed to putting entitlements on the table... then we better put all entitlements, including tax entitlements, on the table as well,” Schakowsky told The Hill on Monday.For more on comrade Jan Schakowsky.
The “tax entitlements” Schakowsky referring to were exemptions aimed at helping people save for retirement, such as tax breaks on money invested in 401k and individual retirement accounts (IRAs), according to her office.
Homeless good Samaritan left to die on NYC street
The AP reports:
The homeless man lay face down, unmoving, on the sidewalk outside an apartment building, blood from knife wounds pooling underneath his body.Compassion in Blue America.
One person passed by in the early morning. Then another, and another. Video footage from a surveillance camera shows at least seven people going by, some turning their heads to look, others stopping to gawk. One even lifted the homeless man's body, exposing what appeared to be blood on the sidewalk underneath him, before walking away.
Flashback 1997: Alderman Burke's Two Worlds Face Collision Course
Flashback 1997 to Crain's Chicago Business:
The thin line separating the public duties and private business opportunities of Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke is becoming blurred.That's the Chicago Way.
A review of the powerful Finance Committee chairman's small but lucrative law firm, Klafter & Burke, has found that:
- Mr. Burke is co-counsel on a federal case with Jenner & Block-the same Chicago law firm that's receiving millions of dollars from the Finance Committee for representing aldermen in a ward-remap dispute.
- The 14th Ward alderman has helped line up millions of dollars in public subsidies to companies that later hired his firm for property tax appeals. While not illegal under the few ethics rules that guide the activities of council members, the maneuvers "create all sorts of innuendos and appearances of impropriety," observes 49th Ward Alderman Joseph Moore. "It looks bad."
- Mr. Burke has a convicted felon on his firm's payroll: Stephen T. Gorny, who was found guilty of accepting bribes in 1983 while working for the Cook County Board of (Tax) Appeals.
Another associate of Mr. Burke's, Joseph Martinez, recently left the firm after pleading guilty to federal ghost-payroll charges.
Under financial overhaul, FTC could gain enforcement power over Internet
The Washington Post reports:
The Federal Trade Commission could become a more powerful watchdog for Internet users under a little-known provision in financial overhaul legislation that would expand the agency's ability to create rules.
An emboldened FTC would stand in stark contrast to a besieged Federal Communications Commission, whose ability to oversee broadband providers has been cast into doubt after a federal court ruled last month that the agency lacked the ability to punish Comcast for violating open-Internet guidelines.
College Graduates’ Debt Load May Outstrip Ability to Repay
Bloomberg reports:
Students, especially at for-profit universities, are leaving college in the U.S. with a debt load large enough to raise questions about the ability of many to repay loans, a study found.Great moments in government subsidies.
At for-profit colleges, 53 percent of the degree recipients in 2008 had education-related debt of $30,500 or more, compared with 24 percent at private nonprofit colleges and 12 percent at public schools, the New York-based College Board said in a report released today.
Students graduating in 2008 faced jobs prospects reduced by the financial crisis and subsequent recession, the worst since the 1930s. Whether the students can earn enough to repay their loans is unclear, according to the study.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Illinois Senate Race Now Leans Republican
Political Wire has the latest from the Cook Political Report.
Duncan Praises Teachers Unions
The Detroit News reports:
Duncan said unions often are portrayed as "monolithic" or as " bad guys."Sometimes people question unions, especially given Chicago's history with unions.
"I can take to you many, many places in the country where there is extraordinary, committed, thoughtful union leadership that absolutely understands that public education has to improve dramatically," he said.
ObamaCare Readies for Price Control in Health Insurance
The Wall Street Journal reports:
When President Obama signed his health-care reform last month, he declared it will "lower costs for families and for businesses and for the federal government." So why, barely a month later, are Democrats scrambling to pass a new bill that would impose price controls on insurance?Great moments in central planning.
In now-they-tell-us hearings on Tuesday, the Senate health committee debated a bill that would give states the power to reject premium increases that state regulators determine are "unreasonable." The White House proposed this just before the final Obama- Care scramble, but it couldn't be included because it violated the procedural rules that Democrats abused to pass the bill.
Sex Ads Seen Adding Revenue to Craigslist
The New York Times reports:
Craigslist, one of the most popular Web sites in the United States, is on track to increase its revenue 22 percent this year, largely from its controversial sex advertisements. That financial success is reviving scrutiny from law-enforcement officials who say the ads are still being used for illegal ends.
The ads, many of which blatantly advertise prostitution, are expected to bring $36 million this year, according to a new projection of Craigslist’s income. That is three times the revenue in last year’s projection.
Law-enforcement officials have been fighting a mostly losing battle to get Craigslist to rein in the sex ads. At the same time, officials of organizations that oppose human trafficking say the site remains the biggest online hub for selling women against their will.
Last week, in the latest example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 14 members of the Gambino crime family on charges of, among other things, selling the sexual services of girls ages 15 to 19 on Craigslist.
IL gun control advocates push to take guns away
Illinois Review reports:
According to information obtained by the Illinois State Rifle Association, the gun control movement plans a final, all-out push to destroy your rights and take your guns away from you this week in the Illinois General Assembly. Under orders from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Speaker of the House Mike Madigan may require that the House of Representatives remain in session until it passes Daley’s 2010 gun control package.This is their inspiration.
1 in 3 San Francisco employees earned $100,000
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
More than 1 in 3 of San Francisco's nearly 27,000 city workers earned $100,000 or more last year - a number that has been growing steadily for the past decade.You'll never hear Barack Obama talk about greed in the public sector. Just a reminder, these overpaid government workers are looking for you to bailout San Francisco. That's right, you.
The number of city workers paid at least $100,000 in base salary totaled 6,449 last year. When such extras as overtime are included, the number jumped to 9,487 workers, nearly eight times the number from a decade ago. And that calculation doesn't include the cost of often-generous city benefits such as health care and pensions.
Did Chicago Lose 10% of Its' Black Population in the Last Decade?
The New York Times reports:
The 2000 Census reported that there were 1,054,000 non-Hispanic blacks in Chicago, with 337,361 in suburban Cook County. Those city numbers then started falling, according to the American Community Survey, which is the Census Bureau replacement for the old long form of the Census.Chicago's declining population.
By 2008, the last year for this data, it was down to 936,505, more than a 10 percent drop. The suburban Cook figure is up to 381,886. As a whole, the 2010 city population will probably show a very small drop from the 2,896,000 in the 2000 Census, largely due to a boom in the number of Hispanics.
Deal Near on Derivatives : Berkshire Presses Lawmakers to Roll Back Proposed Curbs, Avoiding Potential Hit
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Democrats took a step toward their goal of overhauling financial regulation, reaching a tentative deal to set restrictions on trading in exotic financial instruments known as derivatives.Government by Buffett.
Among the considerations still in the balance: A big provision being sought by Warren Buffett in recent weeks. A key Senate committee had changed its proposed overhaul of derivatives regulation after lobbying by Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., potentially helping the famed investor avoid a financial hit, congressional aides say.
Non-White Males: Obama and Democrats appeal to new voters in midterms
The Washington Post reports:
In the video message to his supporters, Obama said his administration's success depends on the outcome of this fall's elections and warned that if Republicans regain control of Congress, they could "undo all that we have accomplished."
"This year, the stakes are higher than ever," he said, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by Democratic officials. "It will be up to each of you to make sure that young people, African Americans, Latinos and women who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again.
Max Baucus: A bank tax is coming
Politico reports:
“I don’t think there’s much doubt that there will be a bank tax,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus told POLITICO. And more than ever, the Montana Democrat signaled that Congress will also crack down on wealthy hedge fund and private equity partners who shelter their income as capital gains — taxed at half the top 35 percent rate.
Three times in recent years, the House has voted to rein in the so-called carried interest provision — only to meet Senate resistance. That’s changing with the pressure to find revenues to pay for other priorities such as a $35 billion measure extending popular tax provisions for businesses and families.
Crooked police chief, in Chicago Mob Linked Suburb, still gets a pension
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Vito Scavo -- the crooked former Melrose Park police chief -- muscled a Catholic church, a movie theater, a children's amusement park and other businesses in the west suburb to hire his private security firm, which he staffed with on-duty cops.You'll want to read this one.
He also ordered his employees -- while on the clock -- to drive his car from Illinois to his Florida vacation home.
He had them hang his Christmas lights, get his wife's car washed, take his dog to the groomer -- and pick up its doo-doo from his backyard.
Scavo, who retired in 2006, was convicted of racketeering and extortion and sentenced in February to six years in prison.
But he's still getting his Melrose Park government pension -- $7,737.88 a month.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Public Unions Plot to Control Banks and Other Corporations Through the Dodd Bill
The Washington Examiner reports:
tucked into the 1,250 pages of new rules proposed by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is a provision that gives new powers to board members. And that could mean big payoffs for the unions down the road.There's more:
The great power of the pubic employee unions is their pension funds -- hundreds of billions of dollars provided by taxpayers to pay for retirement benefits. The investment of these funds is directed by political appointees who are motivated to keep the unions happy.
The Dodd plan would federalize that responsibility for the first time and give the SEC the power to set the rules for how boards are governed. The preference among the Democratic majority on the commission is likely to be for rules that give pension funds more seats on more boards and more power to make decisions.An article well worth your time.
While Democrats are busy decrying the growing influence of corporations on politics, little is said about the growing influence of politics on corporations.
Obama's National Security Advisor Jones: Jews are Greedy Merchants
Via Instapundit. This disturbing post about Obama's National Security Adviser Jones. Obama sure has a history of hanging out with people who aren't too friendly to Jews.
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