Sunday, February 13, 2011

Relo Expert: Top 10 Reasons Businesses Flee California

Corporate relocation specialist Joe Vranich tracks businesses moving into and out of California. Given the current climate, he's only seeing the latter. In the first five weeks of 2011 alone, he's watched 30 corporations move to greener pastures.

The newest trend Vranich is reporting: employees asking management to move out of state. Some business owners tell Vranich they were unconvinced about moving until they were persuaded by employees to leave.

Vranich lists a variety of reasons owners have had enough with California, from which I created a "top 10".

10 - California’s high corporate tax rates — Colorado has only a 4.6 percent corporate tax as opposed to California’s 8.84 percent, and 10.84 percent on banks and financial institutions.

9 - Hostility from government agencies — local, county and state employees often view business owners as “the enemy,” according to Vranich’s clients.

8 - Costly, business-killing regulatory measures. And with AB 32 [Ed: "The Global Warming Solutions Act"] implementation already taking place, regulatory costs will climb higher.

7 - Extravagant state spending with no end in sight.

6 - Unfriendly business environment — California is ranked 51st (even behind D.C.) in the country for being a “business friendly state.”

5 - High cost of doing business within California’s cities, which are some of the highest in the nation.

4 - High personal income tax rates — California’s personal income tax is 9.55 percent.

3 - California’s Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT is 6.65 percent for business and 7.25 percent for individuals).

2 - Litigious environment in California — businesses can be sued for just about anything.

1 - General quality of life - other states offer less traffic, lower real estate prices and better schools.

California, led for decades by the locusts known as Democrats, is headed down the drain. The voters' decision to reelect a two-time failure as governor cemented its fate. Jerry Brown won't stand up to the monstrous public sector unions that bought him the governorship -- and he can't fix the problems confronting the state without nuking the public sector unions. More than two-thirds of the state's entire budget goes to salaries and benefits.

The average total compensation for an employee of the state of California is $106,000 a year. And the state retirement system (CalPERS) shows that the average defined benefit pension is $67,000 a year for a 30-year employee.

Fraud and abuse of the taxpayer is rife throughout state government. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that "[n]early three-quarters of Los Angeles County firefighters and lifeguards who retired in the last three years successfully claimed they were disabled on the job and won enhanced pension benefits."

The very same week the San Francisco Chronicle noted that , "In the game of megabuck public paychecks, outgoing San Francisco police brass are hauling away the gold... former Police Chief Heather Fong – who retired in 2009 – received a grand total of $528,595 in her final year. ... Now that she's gone, she's pulling down an annual pension of $229,500 for life."

I don't begrudge any cop or firefighter gold-plated benefits. But their benefits have to be rooted in reality, not fantasy. Californians' failure to deal the public sector unions a collective blow by electing fiscal conservatives will only delay and amplify the pain they'll feel.

The collapse of California's finances will come quickly and by surprise. But it will come, probably far sooner than anyone thinks.


Food Distributor Sysco: Prepare for Food Price Inflation as Freezing Temperatures and/or Global Warming Kill 80-100% of Mexico's Harvest

I forget: is the proper term global warming or climate change? Either way, the following memo from food giant Sysco appears rather dire (PDF).

All of our growers have invoked the act of god clause on our contracts (force majuere) due to the following release:

The extreme freezing temperatures hit a very broad section of major growing regions in Mexico, from Hermosillo in the north all the way south to Los Mochis and even south of Culiacan. The early reports are still coming in but most are showing losses of crops in the range of 80 to 100%.

Even shade house product was hit by the extremely cold temps. It will take 7-10 days to have a clearer picture from growers and field supervisors, but these growing regions haven’t had cold like this in over a half century.

This time of year, Mexico supplies a significant percent of North America’s row crop vegetables such as green beans, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, peppers, asparagus, and round and roma tomatoes.

Florida normally is a major supplier for these items as well but they have already been struck with severe freeze damage in December and January and up until now have had to purchase product out of Mexico to fill their commitments; that is no longer an option.

With the series of weather disasters that have occurred in both of these major growing areas, we will experience immediate volatile prices, expected limited availability, and mediocre quality at best.

This will not only have an immediate impact on supplies, but because of very strong blossom drops, this will also impact supplies 30 – 60 days from now. Some growers are meeting with their boards right now to determine whether they should immediately re-plant, hoping for a harvest by late-march-to-early-april, or whether they should disc the fields under and wait for another season.

We are doing everything we can with our growers to minimize the effect of this disaster on you. With the unprecedented magnitude of this event we wanted to immediately make you aware of the conditions. We will continue to send out communications as our people on the ground report back to us. We thank you and we appreciate your understanding during this time.

Good thing the EPA is on the case, harnessing all of that extra CO2.

I don't know what we'd do without 'em.


Hat tips: D&S, Food Freedom, Steve Quayle and Sysco.

Ohio Governor John Kasich: the Era of Having Public Sector Union Bosses Control the Budget Process Is At an End

The Chris Christie virus is spreading. And it would appear that Ohio's new Republican governor -- John Kasich -- has caught the bug. He's explicitly warned public sector unions that the days of their unaffordable compensation, benefits and pension packages are over.

A day after hundreds of public employees jammed the Statehouse to protest a bill they believe will kill their unions, Gov. John Kasich said he is working on an even-tougher version, one that would punish workers who go on strike.

If the Republican-controlled legislature doesn't fashion a collective-bargaining reform bill to his liking, Kasich said yesterday, then he will include language in the coming state budget to enact the changes he wants... "We would outlaw strikes, and the penalties would either be firing or docked wages," the governor said.

Asked what recourse public union workers would have under his proposal, Kasich said, "They have a job. They should continue to negotiate and try to come up with something."

Kasich's statements underscored the resolve of Republicans, who enjoy hefty majorities in the House and Senate, to roll back the power of public-employee unions. On Wednesday, a Senate committee opened hearings on a measure sponsored by Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, to eliminate collective bargaining for all state workers and significantly weaken it at the local level.

... [The proposal] would prohibit all public employees, not just police and firefighters, from going on strike. Along with possible termination, workers could be fined two days' pay for every day they strike, and their unions could lose the right to deduct dues from paychecks... Kasich restated his intent to eliminate binding arbitration, the use of outside arbitrators to break contract stalemates with public-safety forces...

You may remember Kasich from his days in Congress. When Democrats crow about "the Clinton surplus" they are really complimenting Kasich and his band of fiscal conservatives who kept shoving sensible spending bills into Clinton's hands to sign. Which he did. After the '94 mid-term debacle, Clinton wasn't willing to expend much political capital fighting Kasich's crew.

And Kasich's common sense approach to dealing with unions is precisely what is needed now. The nefarious anti-taxpayer alliance of big government Democrats and public sector union bosses has run its course, economically and ethically. The unions must be shattered once and for all.

There is no alternative if fiscal sanity is to be restored.


Bob Herbert Sets New Standard for Idiocy at The New York Times

Ever wonder how Bob Herbert got hired at the Times? I'll bet editor Bill Keller is wondering that today after reading the columnist's latest world-class nutbaggery, which was layered paragraph upon paragraph like some sort of delusion cake. I'll spare you all of the details: just consider a few "highlights":

• "More and more Americans are being left behind in an economy that is being divided ever more starkly between the haves and the have nots."

• "As poverty increases and reliable employment becomes less and less the norm, the dwindling number of workers with any sort of job security or guaranteed pensions (think teachers and other modestly compensated public employees) are being viewed with increasing contempt."

• "...there are not enough tax revenues being generated to pay for the basic public services that one would expect in an advanced country like the U.S. The rich are not shouldering their fair share of the tax burden."

• "The U.S. cannot cut its way out of this crisis."

• "Long-term joblessness is a recipe for societal destabilization. It should not be tolerated in a country with as much wealth as the United States. It's destructive, and it's wrong."

Hey, everyone: the genius Bob Herbert thinks anyone who pays taxes isn't paying enough. Don't be fooled about his rhetoric concerning "the rich": you could confiscate every penny from the rich and it wouldn't be enough.

Hell, former Obama budget director Peter Orszag admitted as much last September, noting that a "middle-class tax increase is unavoidable, but it will probably take a bond crisis to push politicians to act."

No, folks: apparently Bob Herbert believes you're not paying enough. After all, you're only paying federal, state and local income taxes. FICA and Medicare taxes. Property taxes. Excise taxes. Gas taxes. Sales taxes. Fees for registering your car, your dog, adding on to your house. Taxes on your phone calls, your cable TV, your Internet connections. Can you think of anything that isn't taxed?

And don't say breathing because the EPA is working on carbon dioxide regulations as we speak.

In short, Bob Herbert believes that government isn't big enough! Despite massive borrowing, crippling levels of debt at every level of government, imminent bankruptcy for states and municipalities, and pension plans that are collapsing as we speak, Herbert wants more government control!

Bob Herbert is going to cure unemployment by taking more money from the employers.

Yes, folks, this is what passes for informed commentary among the Leftists. They are all economic illiterates who view government as some sort of heroic enterprise and private business as the enemy. And yet they complain about unemployment while pillorying the engines of job creation.

Herbert's intellectual peers have created endless bureaucracies, endless agencies, endless central planning experiments, and Politburo-style control of every aspect of our lives. They control health care, how cars are built, the kind of mileage cars must achieve, where we can drill for oil and gas, how much water can flow into a toilet, light bulb design, carbon dioxide emission, how much dust a farmer can kick into the air, "light pollution", and tens of thousands of other areas.

Herbert and his ilk have created hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations, laws and dictates. They have authored so many different rules that no one on the planet has a full grasp of their scope.

And still they are not enough for the Times and its preeminent dimwit, Bob Herbert.

The progressives' greed has no limits. Because they never learn: no matter how many times their Statist agenda fails, they insist it was because it wasn't big enough.

Bob Herbert is a thought leader for progressives, which proves once and for all that liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid. There can no longer be any argument over that issue.


Reading between the lines of President Obama's speech to the Chamber of Commerce: We can't go back to the free market--it actually works!

Centrist my foot.

Last week's speech to the Chamber of Commerce by President Obama contained dozens of platitudes and an ostensible homage to the free market, but the critical paragraph of his speech could not disguise his distaste for entrepreneurship and business.

If we’re fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports to help you compete, the benefits can’t just translate into greater profits and bonuses for those at the top. They have to be shared by American workers, who need to know that expanding trade and opening markets will lift their standards of living as well as your bottom line.

Here Obama resorts to his standard rhetoric: class warfare of the sort socialists have used for more than a century. This rap is no different than that employed by Vladimir Lenin, Juan Peron, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and dozens of other failed Marxist crackpots.

The playbook is simple: foment envy and hatred of some arbitrarily defined group called "the rich". Pity that the liberals who fall for this patter don't realize Obama defines "the rich" to include the sixth-generation farmer, the family that runs two dry-cleaners, or the businessman who risked everything to create a small manufacturing company. Obama has proposed no tax on "millionaires and billionaires" -- folks like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who are among his strongest supporters. Instead he proposes higher taxes on moderately successful businesses; increased taxation on capital gains; and estate taxes that punish asset-rich (but cash-poor) businesses like family farms.

We can’t go back to the kind of economy and culture that we saw in the years leading up to the recession, where growth and gains in productivity just didn’t translate into rising incomes and opportunity for the middle class.

Translation: we can't go back to the free market. What would we do with all of those millions of government bureaucrats who exist only to create new regulations on top of the hundreds of thousands of pages of existing laws and dictates?

In short, Obama's rhetoric rings hollow. Consider this graph depicting the change in household income, by segment, from 1980 to 1990. Using 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars, the percentage of poorest households decreased under President Reagan's much-derided "voodoo ecnomics"; likewise the percentage of wealthy households increased dramatically.

President Obama's speech to the Chamber was anything but triangulation. It was a call for more government, more regulation, and more of his failed "spread-the-wealth" policies.

Government bureaucrats aren't angels, though Obama would like you to believe they are. Corporate self-interest is far superior, provably superior, to any command-and-control, Soviet-style board of central planners.

Because Obama's economic theories can't work... and have never worked in all of human history.


Hat tip: Brad.

Larwyn's Linx: Allen West - America will flourish with conservative values

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Allen West: America will flourish with conservative values: Cubachi
ACORN Zombies, Obama and Stealth Socialism: EmCor
CPAC Boinks: Pawlenty, Cain, Lee: Not Presidential: Uncov

The Ground Zero Mosque Event at CPAC: Atlas
CPAC: Libertarian Youth Group Expels Ron Paul: Uncov
Haley Barbour Interview, CPAC 2011: WTH

Obamacare officials duck Congress' questions: BigGovt
Obama: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Warrants: OTB
Don't GoProud, Just Go Away: A Withdrawal Of Support: Riehl

Economy

Libs Win! Most Miserable State in the USA: RWN
Debunking the leading Obamacare litigation myths: WashExam
Does Obama want the best for America?: AT

Bernanke encouraged by non-existent drop in unemployment: RWN
How Big is the Health Care 'Free-Rider' Problem?: Foundry
Admit it: you wish you lived in Wisconsin: RWN

Climate & Energy

Al Gore Might Be Getting Weirder, But the Weather Isn’t: Malkin
Sanity slowly returning to global warming policy: Tapscott
Surprise: Study Finds Global Weather Not More Extreme: BlogProf

Media

CPAC Day 2: Into the Scrum: RSM
Exclusive interview with Herman Cain at CPAC from Bloggers Lounge: ConOut
Conservative Blogger RS ‘The Other’ McCain Apologizes for Rape Remarks: Mediaite

MSNBC’s Ratings Collapse, Now Lower Than Left-for-Dead CNN’s: WZ
ABC Relays Claims Obama & Dems Will ‘Protect’ GOP from ‘Less Than Responsible’ Budget Cuts: NewsBusters
The Right Way to 'Spread the Wealth Around': AT

World

Soros, the Youth, High Tech and the Fundamental Change that is Revolution: NoisyRoom
Never Mind Egypt. What Would We Do without the UN?: Rosett
Former Freedom House Official: Until Recently, White House Put Egypt’s Pro-Democracy Movement Off: Tapper

CBP Officer: WMDs Have Been Detected in U.S.: BMW
Obama Botched Egypt — Here's How To Fix It: IBD
When Being a Woman Is a Crime: Dawn

Battles That Changed History – Chipyong-ni 1951: Wolf Howling
Mubarak Out; Another Historic Marian Feastday!: Anchoress
Muslims lawsuit against California school district thrown out: Creeping

B.H. Obama: Shameless Imperialist: AT
Welcome to one of Britain’s most influential Islamic faith schools: Atlas
The Collapse of Arab Civilization?: AT

SciTech

Report: Stuxnet Hit 5 Gateway Targets on Its Way to Iranian Plant: Wired
Y-12, Libya, Stuxnet, and things that go bump in the night: Frank Munger
AT&T sweetens the iPhone pot with extra minutes: CNet

Cornucopia

PDS Explained: Moonbattery
Robert "Bob" Everett Tink: "Whistled When He Went to Work": The Streetsweeper Chronicles
Caption Contest: Richard Dreyfuss and I: AllAm

WTF? Seriously: Waznmentobe
Friendships in a Cyber Age: RWN
Must-read: "The Man Who Loved Women Too Much": Pundette

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Allen West's Keynote Speech at CPAC

Saturday, February 12, 2011

CPAC 2011 Straw Poll Results -- and Commentary #cpac11

The results of this year's Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll are in.

The number of voters were up dramatically this year, emblematic of increased interest in constitutional conservatism nationwide.

Here's a preview of the results: the biggest bloc of voters were college-age students.

Like last year, 18-25 year old attendees dwarfed all other segments, which makes the straw poll less than useful for predicting anything of significance.

In addition, voters were overwhelmingly male.

Interestingly, 91% of all respondents listed cutting the size of government and reducing government spending as their #1 or #2 priority.

Cutting spending was, by far, the preferred choice for balancing the budget.

And attendees were generally optimistic that Congressional Republicans could achieve their highest priorities.

The collegiate-aged attendees stuffed the ballot box for Ron Paul. While Paul has admirable stands on many domestic issues, his isolationist foreign policy positions are downright nutty. He's a foreign policy kook, plain and simple.

In response to the young idealists, may I suggest they contemplate the following: You can't be a super-power without the ability to project power.

We defeated the Nazis by teaming with known bad guys -- the Soviets. After teaming with them, we immediately devolved into the Cold War stalemate. The Cold War was won through an aggressive foreign policy that involved protecting our national security interests -- energy and freedom among them -- across the globe.

Today we are in the midst of a war between Christendom and Islam that has heated up and cooled down for centuries. At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam appeared poised to overrun all of Christian Europe. We are simply in a new phase of a very old war.

Today, we can't run and hide and hope that advanced weapons won't harm us here at home. China's 2007 anti-satellite test demonstrated that crippling technologies -- which could throw our society into chaos -- are very real.

Iran continues its work on nuclear armaments and intercontinental ballistic missile technologies, its steady progress delayed only by a clever cyber-attack. Its leaders believe that the return of the Twelfth Imam can be hastened by fomenting 'argmageddon'.

Mexico, on our unprotected southern border, is a failed narco-terror state with roughly 30,000 of its citizens killed in the last five years alone -- and refugees streaming north on a daily basis.

Venezuela, Hugo Chavez' dictatorship, is now said to be fielding Iranian military personnel and missiles with 'scientific' collaboration revolving around warhead design and nuclear technology.

The military regime of North Korea recently torpedoed a South Korean warship and is threatening to retest its nuclear weapons.

China is on the move: building aircraft carriers, stealth fighters, destroying satellites in an effort to test space-based weapons, and locking up energy contracts across the globe.

Again, you can't be a super-power without the ability to project power. SDI and missile defense must be expanded. Our military power must be increased, not decreased.

The world is a very dangerous place -- and many take for granted that our civil society will always be as it is. History tells us otherwise. All over the world people live in desperate squalor, under despots, tyrants and maniacs. For most of human history this has been the case.

We have a precious society, our United States, and we must do everything in our power to protect it.


p.s., I am encouraged by Michelle Bachmann's showing -- she is a forthright, brave constitutional conservative who understands the reality of the situation in Washington and abroad.

p.p.s., I would recommend that anyone looking for a historical perspective read the seminal article "No Substitute for Victory."


Hat tip: Tabitha. Linked by: Michelle Malkin and The Tatler. Thanks!

Arizona versus Obama: State representatives draft legislation that would nullify unconstitutional federal dictates

You've got to give the state of Arizona credit: its top legislators and administrators possess more guts than President Obama's entire team of bureaucrats combined. When sued, Arizona sues back. When knocked down, they stand up and throw haymakers.

A new proposal at the Arizona Legislature will take the state's fight with the feds to a whole new level: It would let the state actually nullify federal laws that legislators believe are invalid.

The measure crafted by Sen. Lori Klein, R-Anthem, would set up a committee of 12 lawmakers to review federal laws and regulations to determine which are "outside the scope of the powers delegated by the people to the federal in the United States Constitution."

... "We have in Washington a particularly overreaching administration as well as regulations that are coming out of agencies that are not even mandated from Congress," Klein said. "The states have a right to stand up to these kinds of onerous regulations."

...her measure says the only court ruling that Arizona will accept is that of the U.S. Supreme Court...

... "We have in Washington a particularly overreaching administration as well as regulations that are coming out of agencies that are not even mandated from Congress," Klein said. "The states have a right to stand up to these kinds of onerous regulations."

...She specifically singled out "Obama-care," last year's national health care law, and its requirement for individuals to obtain insurance or face a fine. If nothing else, she said, that flies directly in the face of a measure Arizona voters approved just last year providing state constitutional protections against such requirements.

Arizona, to its credit, has been particularly aggressive in combating the bizarre and often contradictory dictates emanating from Washington. Among their challenges to federal authority:

• SB 1308 and HB 2562 setting up interstate compacts to honor each other's birth certificates segregating children who are considered U.S. citizens from those who are not;

• SB 1309 and HB 2561 defining Arizona citizenship, part of the move to deny U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants;

• SB 1328 saying Arizonans do not have to comply with a federal law or rule if they allow a federal employee or member of Congress not to comply;

• SB 1391 creating an interstate firearms freedoms act guaranteeing the right of citizens to bear arms free of federal regulation;

• SB 1393 declaring the state has exclusive right to regulate carbon dioxide emissions;

• SB 1394 protecting the right to emit carbon dioxide from human-caused activity;

• SB 1545 allowing the production of nuclear fuel in Arizona free from federal regulation;

• SCR 1016 requiring approval from the legislatures of half the states to increase the federal debt;

• HB 2077 requiring any federal agency coming into a county to conduct official business to first register with the sheriff;

• HB 2471 barring the appropriation of any state funds to comply with a federal mandate unless the federal government provides a report to show the mandate is constitutional;

• HB 2472 allowing the state to acquire federal property by eminent domain unless the federal government first got legislative permission to obtain the land in the first place;

• HB 2537 permitting the House speaker and Senate president to sue over or defend last year's SB 1070 imposing new state laws on illegal immigration;

• HB 2544 requiring presidential candidates to provide certain proof of citizenship before they can appear on the ballot in Arizona;

• HCR 2015 calling for a constitutional convention to adopt an amendment to require consent of three-fourths of the states to increase federal debt;

• HCR 2022 proposing a constitutional convention to require a balanced federal budget.

While I don't support some of these bills (a constitutional convention, for instance), it's good to see an organized rebellion against unconstitutional and extra-constitutional behavior that has become standard fare for the Obama administration and an insatiable, power-hungry Democrat Party.


Hat tip: D&S.

'When special interests put their thumb on the scale, and distort the free market, the people who compete by the rules come in last.'

"When special interests put their thumb on the scale, and distort the free market, the people who compete by the rules come in last." -- Barack Obama, 2 August 2008

The United States is on an unprecedented spending and borrowing binge.

For the third consecutive year, the budget deficit will top $1 trillion.

Under President Obama the federal government has incurred "more debt than the previous 43 presidents combined... [while] government has taken more control, by purchasing General Motors and Chrysler, monopolizing the student loan market and by owning over half of America's mortgages."

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels likened the federal debt to the Soviet threat during the Cold War: "We are currently borrowing the entire defense budget from foreign investors... Within a few years, we will be spending more on interest payments than on national security. That is not, as our military friends say, a 'robust strategy'."

And just who are the special interests that the president decries as he rings up these catastrophic deficits?

According to OpenSecrets, labor unions are -- by far -- the dominant contributor to campaigns.

And the lion's share of those donations -- and all donations -- go straight into Democrat campaign coffers.

Dr. Antony Davies of Duquesne University (PDF) states that "Labor unions have given twice as much money to politicians as the Telecommunications, Insurance, Tobacco, Pharmaceuticals, and Real Estate industries combined."

More than half of all union members are public sector workers. Which means the Democrat Party is the party of big government special interests.

Unions funnel more than 90% of members' dues into Democrat campaigns--while Democrat politicians and bureaucrats keep spending on "government programs" (i.e., public sector union employment) to keep those campaign contributions flowing.

This nefarious partnership has resulted in insane and "unsustainable" levels of spending. And that's according to Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin.

Public sector unions need to be de-certified and dismantled if this country is to survive.


Hat tips: Brad, Dr. Antony Davies (graphs from original PDF report) and Gateway Pundit.

Larwyn's Linx: Yep, Military Voters Were Disenfranchised in 2010!

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Data in: Military voters were disenfranchised in 2010: PJM
Obamacare Moratorium: Fitton
Obama's Parting Gift to Gibbs: Ace

CPAC: Interview With Olympia Snowe’s Primary Challenger: RWN
Interview with Donald Rumsfeld: Atlas
Romney supporters at CPAC pitch him as the anti-Palin: Hot Air

Herman Cain at CPAC: I’m Black and They Call Me Racist!: WZ
TX Senate Honors Islamic Cult Leader: WZ
Murder in the Service of the Obama Agenda: ConfYank

Economy

De-fund the predators of Planned Parenthood: Malkin
Things so good in IL, we're raising taxes & minimum wage!: P&F
The Time for Spending Cuts Is Now: WSJ

A Step in the Right Direction, But Still...: GayPatriot
MI #2 of states running out of smart people: RWN
Amazon.com complies with Texas law, gets no love: BSF

Climate & Energy

Can we have our regular old light bulbs back now?: WUWT
Sorry, Obama Zombies, It Was Climate Change That Caused Mubarak To Resign: RWN
The Benefits of CO2: WUWT

Media

Chris Matthews Declares Newt Gingrich to Be a "Mortal Enemy to Our Civilization": Moonbattery
Sarah Palin Imposter Cashes In at CPAC: Uncoverage
A Most Righteous Rant: Obi's Sister

Walid Phares shocks Lou Dobbs: WestWing
Behind the Scenes at CPAC: NiceDeb
Coulter at CPAC: AmPower

How to Turn Physical Comedy into a Race Issue, by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: RWN
Praise the Lord... and Pass the Ammunition: JihadWatch
Bill Maher Says He Doesn’t Think Obama Is A Christian: Mediaite

World

The Flight of the Intellectuals: Totten
The Egypt Post (pro forma): Mudville
Et maintenant, le deluge: Sensing

Egypt: Improv Night at the White House: Dewey
Egyptians Hate America and Want Islamic Rule: Fort Liberty
Taking A Clear-Eyed Look at the Obama Administration’s Full Two-Year Record on Reform in Egypt: Tapper

US, Israel will soon exit Middle East: Ahmadinejad: Atlas
After Mubarak: Belmont Club
Pakistan: "The incidents against Christians are increasing at an alarming rate": JihadWatch

SciTech

Army Wants More XM-25 "Punishers" For 2012: Ace
Lightning in Slow Motion: Quipster
Shame on Pepsi: iOTW

Cornucopia

Can Someone Explain to Me Why...: DaTechGuy
10 things Star Wars has taught me about running a fascist dictatorship: Den of Geek
Victoria Jackson's advice for my daughter, an SNL fan: Marathon

Image: adapted from photo at Ms. Underestimated
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Obi's Sister
QOTD: "It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain for it would be “difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power” [Lopez, supra, 514 U.S. at 564], and we would have a Constitution in name only. Surely this is not what the Founding Fathers could have intended." -- Judge Roger Vinson

Friday, February 11, 2011

Gas prices hit highest level ever for this time of year as Constitutional Crisis hits day 9--White House remains in contempt of court for drilling ban

Pity the Democrat Party doesn't understand -- or care -- about the law of supply and demand. Not to mention the Constitution.

U.S. gasoline prices have jumped to the highest levels ever for the middle of February. The national average hit $3.127 per gallon on Friday, about 50 cents above a year ago.

The price is about 6 percent higher than on this date in 2008. The next day, pump prices began a string of 32 gains over 34 days. They rose 39 percent over five months, eventually hitting an all-time high of $4.11 per gallon in July...

...Kloza expects gas to reach $3.50 to $3.75 per gallon this spring because of the usual run-up in prices ahead of the summer driving season. That would mean an increase of 12 to 20 percent from the current level.

Gasoline climbed almost 10 percent since November as oil prices rose because of factors including stronger demand from China, a frigid winter in the U.S. and tension in Egypt, Kloza said... The price of Brent crude, a key oil contract that also influences U.S. gasoline prices, hit $100 per barrel in January for the first time since 2008.

The underlying reason is plain as day: the Obama administration's hostility to fossil fuels, culminating in the White House being held in contempt of court over its illegal offshore drilling moratorium.

...a U.S. district court judge a week ago held the Obama administration's Interior Department in contempt for continuing to enforce a moratorium on oil drilling after he told the department it had no right to do so.

"Each step the government took following the court's imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance," Judge Martin Feldman found.

Ordinarily there are consequences for such defiance. But this administration fears nothing because there's simply no precedent for a government trampling the law with such apparent impunity.

Where is the media?

Do they care? Apparently not.

Try to imagine their reaction had a Republican administration been found in contempt. They would be lobbying for impeachment.

Which is why they are the very definition of anachronism.


Legacy Media desperately attempts to spin Mubarak's departure as a victory for the "Obama doctrine" and secular democrats like the Muslim Brotherhood

The boobs in legacy media are desperately spinning President Mubarak's resignation as a victory for some sort of social democracy movement in Egypt and an amorphous "Obama doctrine":

Credit Obama, Not the Bush Administration, for Seeds of the Egyptian Revolution - "...the pro-democracy movement in Tahrir Square has much more in common with the grassroots, bottom-up spirit of the Obama campaign than the messianic, barrel-of-a-gun foreign policy pushed by George W. Bush."

The Messy Failure Of [Bush's] Freedom Agenda - "That's what we are seeing in Cairo — the chaotic push and pull of millions of Egyptians deciding to clean up their own country's mess... barging in, Bush-style, to someone else's house, no matter how good the intention, is rarely the right thing to do."

Mubarak's exit and the Egyptian democracy movement [are] of crucial importance to the Arab world - "...while the Muslim Brotherhood was part of the protests, the democracy movement there was primarily nationalistic and ecumenical rather than Islamist in its genesis..."

It doesn't take an expert in Middle East affairs to predict that a secular democracy doesn't stand a chance.

• Muhammad ElBaradei is a puppet of Iran, a non-entity in the region and -- if he assumes power -- nothing more than a temporary figurehead.

• The best organized political movement in Egypt is the radical Muslim Brotherhood, said to command the loyalty of at least a third of the population.

• There are no serious secular democracy movements in Egypt.

The Tehran Times reports on the Mullahs' opinion of the situation unfolding in Cairo.

In Iran, millions of people from all walks of life held rallies across the country to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution... The people chanted “God Is Great,” “Down with the United States,” “Death to Israel,” and other slogans.

...Chants of “Egyptians, Tunisians, your uprisings are just and we are with you,” “Death to Mubarak,” “Hosni Mubarak, ‘mubarak’ (congratulations) on the uprising of your people,” were heard in the streets. Some people also set an effigy of Mubarak on fire... They also reaffirmed their allegiance to the concept of velayat-e faqih (rule of the supreme jurisprudent).

...In his speech, the Iranian president said that a new Middle East will take shape in which the United States and Israel will have no place... 'Despite all the (West’s) complicated and satanic plots... a new Middle East will take shape soon without the Zionist regime and the United States. And there will be no room for the arrogant in that Middle East,' Ahmadinejad stated... The world will soon savor the sweet taste of a world free of Zionism, arrogance, and bullying, he added.

“You have reached a dead-end,” the president stated, addressing the global hegemons... Take away the Zionist regime, which is the source of all corruption, and liberate the region, Ahmadinejad said, addressing the United States.

Iran's leadership is, of course, posturing to prevent a repeat of last year's bloody "Green Movement" demonstrations. If there's a best hope for a real democracy movement in the Middle East, it lies with Iran's Green Party.

After all, they're the people who have actually lived for decades under the barbaric primitivism of Islamist rule.


Images: Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Time Magazine.

Politico and Robert Gibbs argue publicly over who gets credit for Mubarak's departure; as a result, both parties look like idiots

Politico does its best and most original reporting of the year in relaying a Democrat operative's email.

Great news for the administration/president. People will remember , despite some fumbles yesterday, that the President played an excellent hand, walked the right line and that his statement last night was potentially decisive in bringing this issue to a close. The situation remains complicated and delicate going forward, but this is a huge affirmation of the President’s leadership on the international stage.

Yes, the President definitely looks "decisive"; and his behavior will certainly comfort the most restive of our allies.

However, according to CNN Obama had absolutely no involvement with Mubarak's decision to relinquish power.

Obama did not talk to Mubarak or Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman before the announcement of Mubarak's resignation, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs...

...Now comes "an unpredictable next chapter," a U.S. official[, said. It was] "a sign the (Egyptian) military chose society" over the country's longtime ruler.

Well, when the "secular" Islamists known as the Muslim Brotherhood take over Egypt (a process, in my view, taking no longer than a year), rest assured that the media and the White House will flush all records related to these epic fails down the porcelain memory hole.


Hat tip: Larwyn.

Larwyn's Linx: First Rubio–now Cardenas (We’re on a Rolllll!)

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

First Rubio–now Cardenas (We’re on a Rolllll!): Babalu
Beautiful: SD mandates residents buy firearms: DB&R
Pro-Amnesty Groups Step Up Their Rhetoric: SharkTank

Trump at CPAC: Sorry, Ron Paul Can't Get Elected: HayRide
Sen. Tom Harkin Doesn’t Write His Own Material: RWN
Dirt Bags Heckle Cheney at CPAC: HAP

AZ to sue federal government for failing to secure borders: Malkin
GOProud Dissent Among the Ranks: RedState
'Developing Crisis' in Pigford Settlement: BigGovt

Economy

Fiscal Disaster: a Horrible New Record: GWP
CBO: Obamacare to cost 800,000 jobs: WklyStd
Michelle Obama's Hypocrisy: iOTW

Climate & Energy

No Coal, No Power, No Gas: AT
Long Twilight Struggle: Dinocrat
Mayor Calls For Snowpocalypse Day To Combat Climate Change: RWN

Media

Fact Checking PolitiFact: LegalIns
Big Journalism’s Dana Loesch Joins CNN: BigJournalism
Can Obama be beaten in 2012?: CNN

A Letter from a Fearfully Concerned Muslim: PJM
Time Magazine Beclowns Itself ... Again: WZ
The Guardians of Liberty & T.L. Davis: Zilla

World

Mubarak: 'Brothers, Would You Have Me Crawl Away at the Command of Obama?': GWP
The Iranian Revolution, DNI Clapper & The Muslim Brotherhood: Wolf Howling
More Good News: UN Warns China’s Wheat Crop in Danger: WZ

Oops!: Belmont Club
Mythical Sharia -- Or Not: CJ
Dearborn Should Wake up to Creeping Islamic Shariah Law: Dakota Voice

It's All About Him: Obama “Dispirited” After Mubarak Snubs Him & Decides to Stay in Office: GWP
Who Is Raymond Davis, And Why Is He So Important?: HayRide
The Spooks’ Black Thursday: Ledeen

SciTech

Google Rolls Out Two-Factor Authentication For Everyone. You Should Use It.: TechCrunch
Nokia Shares Are Getting CRUSHED After Big Microsoft Announcement: Insider
Obama pushes for national 4G-speed wireless: CNet

Cornucopia

Tee Shirt of the Day: iOTW
“Tell me lies. Tell me sweet little lies.”: MOTUS
Woman of the People: iOTW

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Andre Harper

Thursday, February 10, 2011

*Whew*, that's a relief -- Someone alleged to be the Director of National Intelligence reports that the Muslim Brotherhood is... secular

There's a fine line between genius and insanity -- and that line may be the Visio connector from the White House to the DNI.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told House lawmakers that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is "largely secular" and has rejected violence and decried al-Qaida as a perversion of Islam, NJ's Chris Strohm reports.

Really?

Well, that statement's expiration date was roughly 17 minutes. And the attempted walk-back of the inanity sounded, truth be told, even worse.

Michael Singh, former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, responds to the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s comments earlier today... describing the Muslim Brotherhood as a “largely secular” group in Egypt:

“It’s not quite right to call them a secular organization,” Singh said. “It’s true that they are laymen, they’re not clergy, but that doesn’t make them secular… they do believe in a big role for religion in the state, they don’t believe in the separation of mosque and state,” he added.

It’s hard to know what kind of policies or ideologies [the Muslim Brotherhood] would have without the suppression of the Egyptian authorities preventing them from perhaps saying what they really feel," he said.

Yes, it's quite hard. Dense, in fact.

The Muslim Brotherhood's history is well-documented. Founded in the 1920's, it had ties to the Third Reich and Nazi Germany. It distributed Mein Kampf throughout the Middle East and promulgated the hatred of Jews, Christians and the West in general. Its progeny include Al Qaeda and Hamas.

Its creed is the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate. Which, come to think of it, sounds very secular to me.


Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.

Rick Santorum Responds to the 'Palin-in-the-Kitchen' Kerfuffle

Before he was booted out of CPAC, Cub Reporter Biff Spackle filed this interview with former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA). First the backdrop: if you've hadn't been tracking the faux controversy, Sisu reports:

...as TIME explains:

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who is exploring a bid for the Republican nomination, told S.E. Cupp, who hosts an online radio show on Glenn Beck's website, that Sarah Palin is skipping CPAC because of her "business opportunities" and "other responsibilities" such as raising her five children.

"I don't live in Alaska and I'm not the mother to all these kids and I don't have other responsibilities that she has,” said Santorum.

Sarah reloaded and came roaring back with vintage Palin on Hannity last night:

Sarah Palin made clear Wednesday night that she took offense at Rick Santorum’s suggestion she’s not attending CPAC because she’s out making money and taking care of her kids, calling his claims “uniformed” and saying she will leave it to his wife to label him a “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.”

We loved twitter buddy Ruth Anne Adams's 140-or-fewer-character retort: 

WTF is Santorum talking about? Last I knew, he had 4 [correction: 7] kids to raise, too. That sexism ain't so subtle, Rick.

And in response to our own diaper-changing tweet above:

I thought so, too, when I heard it. Santorum? Prig.


Santorum responded, "I've discussed this with Sarah through an intermediary. She's fine. I'm fine. This is another instance of liberal media [Politico] spinning a comment by implying something that just wasn't there."

"This was a controversy invented -- soup-to-nuts -- by Politico."

Gee, that seems so out-of-character for a bunch of washed-up has-beens that couldn't make it at the Washington Post.


Behind the Scenes at CPAC #cpac11

Biff Spackle emailed us this exclusive photo from blogger's row at CPAC.

Clockwise from top right: Javier from SharkTank, Obi's Sister, Fausta and the inestimable Gateway Pundit. Bad news, however: this may be the last photo we get from CPAC because Spackle's home-made ID didn't exactly pass muster.



CPAC to TIME: 'Thanks for that lovely introduction' #cpac11

Dan from New York:

"The Conservative Political Action Conference, a three-day carnival of Republican ladder-climbers and red meat throwers, convenes Thursday in Washington."

That's the lede in a TIME magazine story about the start of the CPAC Conference today.

Is it possible for them to sink any lower? (rhetorical question)

Rhetorical, but still worth an answer: of course.

Pravda had nothing on these left-wing nuts.


Bachmann Opens CPAC With Fiery Speech

How does a Michelle Bachmann--Allen West ticket sound? Bachmann's CPAC kickoff speech was truly inspirational.

You've already changed America for the better, just changing control of the house was a huge down payment for the future of America. So many of you got off the couch in this last election and decided you were not going to take it anymore...

...we have 29 Republican governors, 20 Democrat, and one independent. We flipped 680 seats in state legislatures. This is a record...

...What we have seen in recent years is a lurch toward dependency. This is not an America I recognize. I feel we are losing America. I don't think I'm being overly dramatic. We've been trading bits and pieces of our freedom for entitlements and benefits. The result has been devastating to our heritage and our culture. Our welfare system has created out of wedlock birthrates to sky rocket and social pathologies to sky rocket...

...The size and scope of government is out of control. The EPA in particular is out of control. Now they want farmers to control dust flying off their farms -- they call it fugitive dust! They want to control milk spills like chemical spills!

We need to return to a more limited form of government like our founders envisioned. We need spending restraint, and growing our economy. Waive a magic wand - wipe the entire Obama agenda off the table...

Read the whole thing. Michelle Bachmann is the real deal.


Saudi King Reads Riot Act to Obama: Report

Dan from New York writes, "Obama’s sycophancy toward the Muslim world is finally paying dividends: total lack of respect, or fear, for the President of The United States."

The Times (UK), 2/10/2011

Exclusive: Saudis told Obama to back Mubarak


Saudi Arabia has threatened to prop up President Mubarak if the White House tries to force a swift change of regime in Egypt. In a testy personal telephone call on January 29, King Abdullah told President Obama not to humiliate Mr Mubarak and warned that he would step in to bankroll Egypt if the US withdrew its aid programme, worth $1.5 billion annually. America’s closest ally in the Gulf made clear that the Egyptian President must be allowed to stay on to oversee the transition towards peaceful democracy and then leave with dignity. “Mubarak and King Abdullah are not just allies, they are close friends, and the King is not about to see his friend cast aside and humiliated,” a senior source in the Saudi capital told The Times.

SmartPower™!