Cranky Hermit

NV GOP Caucus: Two-Minute Drill

2012-02-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

The focus of the Republican Presidential race is (finally!) on Nevada, at least for a few days. For those whose lives don't revolve around politics, here's a little recap of the last couple days.

Donald Trump ensured that, even though he's no longer a candidate, his name will still be in the headlines of the political pages. Trump held a much-hyped media event to announce his endorsement of Mitt Romney, that threw some people off.

Will it help Romney? It may even hurt, as a recent Fox News poll indicated 27% of people would be less likely to support a candidate Trump endorsed with only 10% more likely. Even so, Romney is the decided favorite.

Newt Gingrich held an event in Reno yesterday and another today in Las Vegas.

Sharron Angle endorsed Rick Santorum. Not a surprise as he held an event Tuesday night at T.R.U.N.C., a group whose leaders are passionate Angle supporters.

Ron Paul is, well, Ron Paul. He held a well-attended event in Henderson on Tuesday night, appeared on Face to Face this week and even contributed an op-ed to the left-leaning Las Vegas Sun. He still has the most vocal and enthusiastic supporters among all the candidates. A piece of advice: if you have a conservative or Republican organization and you want to get the biggest turnout ever, invite Ron Paul. His supporters will show up en masse.

The shocker of the week: Nevada Democrats oppose Republican Presidential candidate!

The Nevada caucus is on Saturday. For more info or to pre-register, go to www.ccrp2012caucus.org.

More Pain at the Pump for Nevadans

2012-01-30T16:27:00.000-08:00

Gas prices went up 2.8 cents per gallon in a week and have increased by more than 10% in a year.

In the last week, GasBuddy.com says prices in the Silver State have risen 2.8-cents per gallon to an average of $3.46 a gallon. Comparing that to the same day one year ago, Nevada prices have gone up 35.3-cents per gallon and are 9.8-cents higher than one month ago.

About half of the increase in the last month was likely due to the expiration of an ethanol tax credit suppliers were receiving. Gas prices are seasonal and typically this time of year is when they are at the lowest. So this is not a good sign and prices are expected to be even higher in the summer.

Groups on Witch Hunt Against Global Warming Heretics

2012-01-30T14:49:00.000-08:00

A political action group is targeting meteorologists who don't buy into the theory that man-made global warming is destroying the planet.

If the theory were as bullet-proof as they claim it is they wouldn't have to resort to such thuggishness against the heretics. You may remember the op-ed in the WSJ a few days ago, No Need to Panic About Global Warming in which a group of scientists argue that taking drastic measures to reduce carbon in the atmosphere would do more harm to the economy than good to the environment.

Taxable Sales, Sales Tax Revenue Up

2012-01-30T14:23:00.000-08:00

Taxable sales for November in Nevada were up nearly 10% from the prior November and fiscal year-to-date totals through November 2011 increased by 8.5% from a year earlier.

Sales increased in every category except construction compared to November 2010, with nearly half (Wholesale, Clothing and Accessories, Home Furniture and Furnishings and Accommodations) experiencing double-digit increases. Taxable sales totaled nearly $3.4 billion in November 2011.

Sales and Use Tax collections were up 8.48% from the previous November and FYTD General Fund collections from these are 2.68% above the Economic Forum's 2012 projections, equaling nearly $9 million. Only about a quarter of Sales and Use tax collections end up in the General Fund. The rest are designated for specific uses.

Even with the tepid economic recovery we have had we still are seeing significant increases in tax collections. Economic growth, not tax increases, are what increases government revenues and closes budget gaps.

Putting more pro-growth policies in place (both locally and nationally) will not only put more people to work, it will also lead to government being better-able to address its priorities.

Cain Backs Newt; RJ Endorses Mitt

2012-01-30T08:48:00.000-08:00

Grassroots, Tea Party favorite Herman Cain, who suspended his own campaign a couple months ago, endorsed Newt Gingrich for President this weekend.

This endorsement should give a boost to Gingrich, who won the South Carolina primary but is trailing in Florida. The question is, how much?

My feeling is not a lot. From my very unscientific observations there weren't many former Cain supporters who hadn't already committed or were waiting around for Cain to endorse someone. Many have already ended up in the Gingrich camp. Had Cain done it sooner it would have had a far greater impact.

But every little bit helps and Newt's strategy at this point appears to be to simply survive until the convention while denying Romney the majority of delegates needed to win on the first ballot. After that, anything can happen.

The more surprising endorsement this weekend came from the libertarian-leaning Las Vegas Review-Journal, as it endorsed Mitt Romney in the Nevada Republican caucus. Considering RomneyCare, flip-flopping on key issues and a very inconsistent record of support for smaller government, the former Massachusetts governor would seem an unlikely choice by the R-J editorial board.

Mr. Romney, on the other hand, has less political experience and a lifetime in the business world. His greatest strength is his command of economic issues and his understanding of what the private sector needs to create jobs. He has criticized the uncertainty President Obama and Congress have created by not passing budgets and refusing to provide businesses and investors with a predictable, permanent tax code. And he understands the economic ruin that lies ahead if Washington can't conquer its spending addiction. "We can't have a government that keeps spending more than it takes in, otherwise enterprise will not invest in America," he said.

Mr. Romney is pro-growth all the way. He wants the country to develop all its energy resources, not punish the oil, coal and gas sectors. He wants states and citizens to have more freedom to innovate. And perhaps most importantly, Mr. Romney is a Washington outsider, not a capital insider.

The R-J believes Romney has the best chance of all the candidates to defeat President Obama. He doesn't have the negatives that Gingrich possesses and has a much broader base of support than either Santorum or Paul.

With or without the R-J's endorsement, Romney is likely to win the Nevada caucus by a fairly-significant margin. In 2008 he garnered a majority of votes from caucus-goers in the Silver State.

But only he and Paul had any presence in the state to speak of leading up to that caucus. This year, Gingrich has staff on the ground and Santorum opened a Las Vegas office last week. Still, the only real questions are, Will Romney be able to match his support in this year's much-larger caucus? and, Will Gingrich be able to edge out Paul for 2nd place?

The Private Sector Never Produced Anything of Value

2012-01-27T17:57:00.000-08:00

The government is responsible for all that is good and beneficial and innovative. That's the latest meme emanating from the left.

The purpose is to justify government intervention in the private sector and, especially, more "investments" in green energy and other boondoggles and forays into crony capitalism. If they can convince us that nothing good ever came but for the involvement of the government, then we'll be more likely to look past debacles like Solyndra and approve of more such gambles in the future.

One of my favorites, though is when they attempt to take credit for the Internet. Sure, the basic structure was developed by researchers working for the Department of Defense. But the Internet is the Internet because government hasn't been involved in its development.

The reason the Internet exists as it does today is because the private sector has been given virtually free rein to develop it. It hasn't been subject to the licensing, permitting, regulations, restrictions, red tape, cronyism and bureaucracy that characterize government intervention in every other area of our lives.

Had the government not turned over the Internet over to the private sector and moved out of the way, or regulated it like it does nearly every other communications medium, it's unlikely we'd have progressed very far past the old online services like America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe by now. The transition from these online services to ISPs would likely have been slow and hampered by regulatory interference.

Government-sponsored research certainly has produced some breakthroughs that the private sector has been able to develop into successful consumer products and services that have improved our lives. But the contention the left is currently trying to push - that everything good or beneficial or innovative that has ever happened has been the product of government - is just an excuse to justify even more unnecessary and expensive interventions in the economy, your lives and your wallets.

NV Caucus Results to be Released Via Twitter

2012-01-27T14:14:00.001-08:00

The Nevada Republican Party announced today that it will be releasing results from the February 4 Nevada Republican caucus via Twitter. The @nvgop handle will release the overall results with a yet-to-be-released handle to be used for the individual precinct results.

During a conference call with national and local media, the NRP announced that, in addition to Twitter, it will also be partnering with Google during the caucus. The Party will utilize a Google election map to allow people to follow results from around the state.

The NRP also announced that all results from the caucus will be certified and announced at the state level. County parties will not be doing their own releases of results. The NRP has issued a press release with more details.

It's Good to be King; President Obama's Massive Fossil Fuel Motorcade and Your Carbon Footprint

2012-01-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

Write On Nevada, the blog from NPRI (whose office is just over the fence from the UPS facility at which the President spoke), has video of the 22-car fossil-fuel motorcade the President used to exit the event.

The President's speech was a shorter (thankfully!) version of the State of the Union that can be summed up in a few words: green energy, Bush tax cuts, Warren Buffett's secretary.

Mostly it was about "green" energy. And bashing his opponents, of course. There are so many contradictions in the President’s words and actions, even apart from the massive carbon footprint required to deliver this speech, it’s hard to keep up with them. But the bottom line is he’s throwing away taxpayer money on green dreams while simultaneously reducing our ability to keep the lights on and the economy humming. As fast as his administration is reducing our supply of energy, if the economy were where it should be we might be in trouble.

The President claimed in the SOTU and on Thursday that he wants everyone to play by the same rules. But he’s willing to change the rules, providing corporate welfare to favored companies and favored industries, regardless of the amount of taxpayer money flushed down the drain.

Most people know about the Solyndra debacle. Less well-known is Ener1. And, as the NPRI video mentions, locally a solar panel facility in North Las Vegas that received $5.9 million in stimulus money announced this week it was laying off 200 workers.

The President also claimed in the SOTU and on Thursday that he supports an “all-in, all-of-the-above” energy strategy. But the regulatory policies his administration is pursuing belie that. “All” doesn’t mean “all” and the most cost-effective sources are not included.

Last week, in a sop to radical environmentalists, he killed the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring millions of barrels of oil from Canada to American refineries. Not to mention tens of thousands of jobs to people who need them. As gas prices continue to rise he cut off a potential source of huge amounts of safe and affordable energy.

First Energy announced recently it was closing 6 coal-fired power plants and taking nearly 3,000 MW of energy off the grid because it was more cost-effective to shut those plants down than to comply with upcoming EPA regulations. Don't forget the three planned for Nevada, providing about 3,500 MW, that will never be built. It'll take hundreds of square miles of solar panels to make up for those losses. At a time when our energy needs are increasing we are reducing our ability to fill them. Once again we repeat, are you ready for the day the lights go out?

There is also a growing skepticism in the scientific community about the necessity of such a radical shift in our energy policy. First, many of the “scientists” who have pushed global warming have acted in very un- and anti-scientific ways. They have refused to share data, manipulated results and bullied those who have the temerity to question conclusions or even to suggest the requirements of the scientific method have some relevance to this area of study.

This morning, a group of scientists penned a heretical op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled No Need to Panic About Global Warming.

Speaking for many scientists and engineers who have looked carefully and independently at the science of climate, we have a message to any candidate for public office: There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to "decarbonize" the world's economy. Even if one accepts the inflated climate forecasts of the IPCC, aggressive greenhouse-gas control policies are not justified economically.

A recent study of a wide variety of policy options by Yale economist William Nordhaus showed that nearly the highest benefit-to-cost ratio is achieved for a policy that allows 50 more years of economic growth unimpeded by greenhouse gas controls. This would be especially beneficial to the less-developed parts of the world that would like to share some of the same advantages of material well-being, health and life expectancy that the fully developed parts of the world enjoy now. Many other policy responses would have a negative return on investment. And it is likely that more CO2 and the modest warming that may come with it will be an overall benefit to the planet.

But that doesn’t suit the agenda of left-leaning politicians and bureaucrats who want to be able to control everything and everyone. Nor does the hands-off approach fit the view of leftists who believe that nothing good or beneficial or innovative has ever, or can ever, come without massive direct involvement and control by government. For them, global warming or climate change or whatever the current term is is simply a convenient vehicle to inject more government control over those of us who don’t know what’s good for us.

So we will continue to have the absurd displays like the one on Thursday, in which someone with a carbon footprint large enough to cover a small city lectures the rest of us about the need to shrink our size-8's. All the while taking our tax money to dole out to his cronies. And trying to convince us that all of this is for our own good.

In the Trenches of the Battle for School Choice

2012-01-26T09:09:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to find many people who believe New Jersey is a freer state than Nevada. At least not until they speak with Elissa Wahl.

Wahl began homeschooling her children in New Jersey, which has virtually no laws regulating that educational option. When she and her family moved to Nevada they found the laws very restrictive and efforts afoot to make them even more so.

That’s when Wahl decided to become an activist. Thanks to her efforts, school choice is improving in the Silver State, although there’s still a long way to go.

Wahl, who founded RISE Resource Center in 2009, was recently appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval to Nevada’s newly-established Charter School Authority. The Charter School Authority replaces the State Board of Education subcommittee, which had sponsored charter schools, “reluctantly,” according to Wahl. “For a while there was a moratorium on charter schools.”

The RISE Resource Center provides resources to support educational choice. The Center educates parents about the various educational alternatives, holds classes for homeschools and home-based charter schools and provides other resources for parents and children to pursue the educational option that best suits each individual’s needs.

When parents inform the Clark County School District (CCSD) they want to explore alternatives to the public schools, the CCSD refers them to Wahl for education on the options available to them. “I’ve found out that parents don’t really know what their options are and what the different choices are called,” she says.

Before starting RISE, Wahl helped found the Nevada Homeschool Network in response to the very restrictive laws governing homeschooling that existed at the time. The Homeschool Network “is a state-wide organization that advocates for homeschooling in the least-restrictive manner possible,” describes Wahl. “We’ve written a lot of laws and lobbied for laws and helped change laws so that homeschooling could be done as each parent thinks best for each individual child.”

In 2007, the Nevada passed laws relaxing restrictions on homeschooling and allowing parents much more flexibility to tailor the homeschooling experience to fit the needs of each individual child. The Nevada Homeschool Network’s, and Wahl’s, efforts were instrumental in achieving that success.

Wahl hopes to have similar success at the Charter School Authority but she knows it’s not going to be easy. “It took us years and years and years, diligently, for the homeschooling law,” she says, adding, “it’s not going to change overnight.”

When asked how Nevada compares to other states with respect to school choice, Wahl replies, “Not very well.” She explains, “It’s very hard to start a private school here. It’s very hard to start a charter school here.”

Wahl relates the story of a group attempting to start a charter school in a rural area in Nevada that had to submit a 682-page proposal. “In a land where we’re failing at education, can’t we just let them start?” she asks. “There has to be some way to make it easier than having to submit a 682-page proposal.”

Even in the urban areas in Clark County there is a lot of work to do to expand school choice. Wahl describes a mother she spoke with recently who was looking for a charter school near her home or her work but found there were none. “She’s looking for an alternative but can’t find one that fits her situation,” Wahl says.

Often when there are options, people often don’t take advantage of them. “People know about the public schools,” Wahl says. “Until there’s a problem they don’t know to look elsewhere.”

There are several high-quality private schools in the Las Vegas Valley that are relatively inexpensive ($5,000 - $7,500 per year, compared to the approximately $9,000 per pupil the CCSD spends) but are still operating at far less than capacity. The struggling economy, with 12% unemployment, has certainly contributed to this.

But Wahl also cites a lack of awareness on the part of the public. Many parents simply are unaware there are private schools “that don’t cost $25,000.”

Still, Wahl is optimistic. She cites the potential of online learning to be “the wave of the future” and notes that new CCSD Superintendent Dwight Jones “is really intent on getting a lot of classes online.” And the Charter School Authority represents “a new awakening. So, hopefully, twenty years down the road we’ll have a lot of great charter schools.” Along with other options, so that all parents can select the educational option that best fits the needs of each individual family and child.

Nevada may be behind many other states when it comes to school choice but, with the hard work of people like Elissa Wahl, we will be catching up.

Why the Jobs Haven't Come Back And Why Bigger Government Moves Us in the Wrong Direction

2012-01-25T14:20:00.000-08:00

The current economic recovery, if it can even be called that, is the slowest since the Great Depression. Unemployment continues to be near 9% nationally, and over 12% in Nevada, and there are still fewer people working than when President Obama took office. The Federal Reserve Board, in an announcement today, expects the unemployment rate to be above 8% by the end of 2012.

It's not by accident that the recovery has been so sluggish. As the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal's annual Index of Economic Freedom reveals, the level of economic freedom in the United States is falling. Less economic freedom equates to less opportunity, and fewer jobs.

The Economic Freedom Project presents a video showing the decline of economic freedom in the United States and its consequences.

Government overspending and overregulation is strangling the economy and stifling recovery.

As the growth of federal government spending has sped up, it’s caused the growth of the private economy to slow down. As a result, the US is going through the longest streak of high unemployment since the Great Depression.

The Economic Freedom Project has also conducted research on economic freedom within the states and Canada's provinces. For Nevada, while there is good news, it is outweighed by the bad. The bad news helps to explain why the Silver State's recovery has been far too slow.

While Nevada's ranking compared to the other US states and Canadian provinces has improved over the years, that is more a reflection of the fact that other states are becoming worse, not that we're getting better. Nevada's overall score has fallen recently. The state is currently ranked as the 4th freest, although its overall economic freedom score peaked in 2005 and has since shown a steady decline. Nevada's score for 2009, the latest year for which data is available, was its lowest since 2001.

The main reasons for Nevada's declining scores are increased government spending and declining labor market freedom. Nevada's score has fallen nearly 20% since the enactment of the state's minimum-wage law. This law set a two-tiered minimum wage higher than the national minimum and indexed it for inflation so it can increase every year.

This loss of economic freedom is the reason the jobs are not coming back. Until we reverse the trend we will be postponing the day a true recovery takes hold.

The Economic Freedom video is Part Two of a series. We featured Part One a few months ago.

State of the Campaign, er, Union

2012-01-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

I thought the speech sounded familiar.

Aside from it being a rerun, the speech was a Clintonian laundry list of new and recycled government programs, interventions and spending that promise to grow government even larger and more intrusive than it is.

The President took credit for bringing the American auto industry back, including Ford, which didn't take any help from the government, and Chrysler, which is no longer an American company. As far as GM, give me $50 billion, don't care how much you get back, let me wipe out the creditors and I'll save any company you pick.

He had a proposal for education that sounds good on paper.

Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.

Try getting that past his buddies in the teachers unions. They'll take the extra resources and rewards but make sure that everything else is so watered-down as to be meaningless. Also, so much for parents having any say in their children's educations.

The President also has the idea for states "to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen." This is not only unworkable but unwise.

First, there is no shortage of people who have succeeded without finishing high school. Certainly, the odds are better for those that do. But that's more a reflection of the fact that the willingness to stick it out exhibits characteristics that will help them later in life (persistence, etc.) and not some mystical power inherent in a diploma. Forcing people to stay in school against their will is not going to magically instill these characteristics in the people who don't want to be there.

The Institute for Energy Research looks at some of the President's claimed successes, such as we are now a net exporter of energy a

nd that domestic production of oil and gas have increased during his administration.Politicians taking credit for something good happening on their watch is nothing new, but as we have shown, the reduction in oil use is because of economic dislocation visited upon millions of American families by the longest sustained economic downturn since World War II, while the increase domestic production is occuring on state and private lands, while production on government lands over which he has control is going down. In this sense, the president’s claims are simply breathtakingly in their apparent assumption that no one will bother to fact-check his numbers.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) presents the Congressional Western Caucus's response to the speech.

The Heritage Foundation has a lengthy roundup of reactions to the speech.

The Nevada Republican Party responds to the State of the Union.

Do-Nothing Congress: Senate Hasn't Passed Budget in 1,000 Days

2012-01-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

President Obama and Democrats are planning to campaign against a "do-nothing Congress." But the worst offenders are Democrats themselves in the Senate. The most basic duty of Congress each year to pass a budget. It's not just a duty, it's a legal requirement. The House of Representatives has fulfilled this duty.

But the Senate, controlled by Democrats led by our very own Senator Harry Reid, has not complied with this requirement for nearly three years. In fact, they've only put one budget up to a vote, President Obama's budget last year, which failed to even get a single Democrat vote in support and fell 97-0.

Today marks the milestone of 1,000 days since the Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a budget.

This failure to pass the budget is the reason that the battles that threaten to shut down the government are recurring every couple of months. Without a budget, the government has to be funded through a series of continuing resolutions, which last only for a short time before they have to be fought over again. And again. And again.

From Misfit Politics a musical rendition:

Misfit Politics- 1000 Days (Without Passing a Budget) by Just as Good as Ezra

via Duane at All-American Blogger, a couple video tributes,

From Heritage:

and Speaker Boehner:

Democrat Assemblyman: What's Yours Is Mine

2012-01-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Nevada Democrat Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, who's never met a tax increase he didn't love, sent the following on Twitter.

Nothing like making your agenda explicit, I guess.

The 40-Year Liberal Wish List

2012-01-23T22:08:00.000-08:00

Before the passage of the stimulus bill back in 2009, the WSJ described it as "a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years."

Economist and journalist James Pethokoukis confirms this and many other conservative criticisms of the Obamanomics. Actually, he presents 11 stunning revelations from Larry Summers’s secret economics memo to Barack Obama in which Summers confirms those criticisms.

There's so much good stuff in Pethokoukis's post that it's hard to excerpt, and it's not that long so read the whole thing.

Not Sure That I Agree; There's a Time and Place for Political Statements

2012-01-23T21:44:00.000-08:00

This may not be the appropriate place. Boston Bruins, my favorite hockey team, Goaltender Tim Thomas refused to attend the ceremony at the White House honoring the Stanley Cup champions.

"I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People," Thomas said in a statement.

"This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government," he wrote.

"Because I believe this, today (Monday) I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL."

I don't disagree that he has the right to refuse to attend and I agree wholeheartedly with his sentiments. I just don't necessarily agree with the decision to refuse the invitation.

There is a time and place for political statements. I surely would not appreciate if the director began reciting global warming propaganda during a school play my daughter was in. I would not consider that highly appropriate. Thomas's actions are certainly not as inappropriate as that and, frankly, President Obama, through his actions, has done more than any other person to diminish the stature of the office of President of the United States. I just don't agree that this was an appropriate venue for Thomas to make his statement.

But I'm still going to root for the Bruins and for Thomas and I will defend his right to make the statement he did.

Federal Employees Owe More than $1.03 Billion in Unpaid Taxes

2012-01-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

Nearly 100,000 federal employees owe a total of more than $1 Billion in unpaid taxes, according to a story in the Washington Post.

About 98,000 federal, postal and congressional employees owed $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes at the end of fiscal 2010, according to records provided by the Internal Revenue Service. The total number of delinquent employees dipped slightly from 2009, but the amount owed jumped by $32 million.

The figures are “totally unacceptable and disrespectful to hardworking American taxpayers,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). “If you’re on the federal payroll, the very least you can do is pay your taxes.”

Often when you speak with government workers about pay and benefits and the burden they place on taxpayers, they reply that they are taxpayers, too. That is true, but it seems as though a significant number of them don't take that role as seriously as they take the role of tax consumer.

Republicans have introduced bills that would allow federal agencies to fire government employees who are delinquent on their taxes. It only makes sense that those who are unwilling to pay their fair share are should not be allowed to collect from other taxpayers.

What these numbers really reveal is a disrespect among some, not insignificant number of, government employees for those who foot the bill for their pay and benefits. They apparently don't feel the same obligation to contribute to the functioning of government as they expect others to.

Failing to rein in this type of abuse could lead to private sector workers trying to shun their obligations to pay what they legitimately owe - if those who are in government don't believe they should pay then why should anyone else. The proposals to allow the agencies to fire delinquent tax payers is a good start.

TSA Critic Detained by TSA

2012-01-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

Sen. Rand Paul, a fierce critic of the TSA, was apparently detained by the agency at the Nashville airport.

Paul apparently refused a full-body pat-down.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was detained Monday by the Transportation Security Administration in Nashville, Tenn., after refusing a full body pat-down, POLITICO has confirmed.
“I spoke with him five minutes ago and he was being detained indefinitely,” Paul spokesperson Moira Bagley said. “The image scan went off; he refused patdown.”

If Republicans were smart they would campaign against the TSA, which has done far more to inconvenience innocent travelers than make them safer.

NV Unemployment Rate Falls; LV Rate Rises

2012-01-23T08:09:00.000-08:00

Nevada's unemployment rate fell in December, compared to both the month and year earlier.

Joblessness across the Silver State fell to 12.6 percent in December, down from 13 percent in November and 14.9 percent in December 2010. In Las Vegas, unemployment rose to 12.7 percent, up from 12.4 percent in November, but down from 15.1 percent a year earlier.

Things are still very bad in Nevada. Part of the credit for the drop in the statewide rate is due to people either leaving the state or giving up the search for work.

However, the reality is the state's economy is improving, actually faster than the nation's. It's just that we are starting from such a horrific baseline there's a long way to go before it could be considered even reasonably good.

There are still many businesses and families who are just hanging on by a thread. But the trend is good. Sure, the recovery for certain industries is much farther away than for others but that's not unusual.

We just have to be careful not to throw more roadblocks in the way of recovery and work on removing some of those that are already there. Certainly, piling additional taxes on businesses would be another roadblock. It's ridiculous to think that one thing holding back recovery is that businesses are making too much money and need to have their costs increased.

UPDATE: Both of Nevada's Senators, Harry Reid and Dean Heller, issued statements commenting on the unemployment figures.

Reid said, "I won't rest until every Nevadan who wants a job is working for the government." Okay, that's not really what he said, just what he's been working toward for the last decade or so.

Heller stated, "By reforming the tax code, reducing government spending, and decreasing burdensome regulations, Washington can help create the long-term economic recovery Nevadans deserve."

The statements reveal the fundamental difference between the two philosophies driving the two parties. One believes that government is the driver of the economy and that government spending is what will spur recovery. The other believes that it is private-sector businesses and workers who are the engine of economic growth and the government can help the economy by increasing incentives and reducing the burdens it exerts on private employers and workers.

Choice Doesn't Really Mean Choice

2012-01-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

PowerLine provides a litany of examples refuting President Obama's ridiculous claim that he and his liberal counterparts believe "that government should not intrude on private family matters."

It really is ridiculous how few choices those who claim to be "pro-choice" believe actually should be left to individuals. Certainly not the choice of where to send their children to school, or whether they should be able to own a gun, or what they can eat, or whether and what kind of health insurance they can buy, or what they can drive, or what kind of light bulbs they can use...

National School Choice Week Kicks Off

2012-01-22T20:37:00.000-08:00

January 22-28 is National School Choice Week 2012. The Nevada News Bureau reports on the state of school choice in Nevada.

As National School Choice Week gets under way today state officials say Nevada school children have more opportunities than ever before to choose a school that works best for them.

But one element of choice, a school voucher program, remains an unrealized and divisive issue for the state’s policy makers.

It's a shame that individuals and groups that are so hostile to school choice wield so much power within the education system. The status quo obviously is not working but the entrenched interests continue to sing the same note - "more money!" - instead of allowing parents more power to make decisions regarding where and how their children are educated.

That may be changing, however. The new CCSD Superintendent, Dwight Jones, has indicated he is receptive to at least some level of school choice.

There are also an increasing number of options available - charter schools, homeschooling, private schools, online learning and more. The state has created a new Charter School Authority to replace the subcommittee of the State Board of Education that formerly oversaw charter schools, and which some school choice proponents considered to be less than friendly to their cause. (Note: Later this week we will be publishing an interview with a member of the Charter School Authority, appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval.)

What many Nevadans don't realize are the number of options available to them. There are several private schools, for instance, with prices significantly less than what the CCSD spends per student.

Clark County GOP to Offer Special Session to Accommodate Religious Observances

2012-01-22T16:26:00.000-08:00

The Clark County Republican Party will offer an extra session of the caucus on the evening of caucus day to accommodate those whose religious observance prevents them from participating in the Saturday morning caucus.

The evening session will occur on Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 7 p.m. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Unlike the regular caucus, which will occur at dozens of venues around the County, only one location will be used for the special session. It will be at the Adelson Educational Campus, 9700 W. Hillpointe Rd.

IA Secretary of State Targeted for Identity Theft by Former Obama (Nevada) Staffer

2012-01-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

A Democrat operative was arrested in Des Moines, IA in a dirty-trick political scheme to steal the identity of IA's Republican Secretary of State Matt Schultz.

Blogger Shane Vander Hart, who caught the story in his local paper and gave it wider distribution, likens it to Chicago politics but the political roots of the accused can actually be traced back here, to Las Vegas. Could it be that a graduate of the Harry Reid School of Scorched-Earth Politics crossed the line?

Read Vander Hart's entire post, including the updates where you'll find that blogger Vander Hart revealed some easily-discovered facts about the accused long before the newspaper reported them and an attempt to shove these facts down the memory hole.

Gingrich Wins SC Primary

2012-01-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich wins the South Carolina primary. The surprise is less that he won it than the margin of victory.

The double-digit win over Mitt Romney is shocking considering a short time ago Romney was favored. A strong debate performance by Gingrich on Thursday night certainly helped him.

Taking into account this result and that Santorum actually won Iowa by a couple dozen votes, the GOP has now had three primaries/caucuses with three different winners.

We can only imagine how things might have been different had Nevada kept its caucus between the primaries of New Hampshire and South Carolina. It is likely Romney would have won handily, as he did in 2008, and the momentum from that victory may have won him additional support in South Carolina. Add in the fact Santorum had stated his intention to boycott Nevada if it didn't move its caucus and the race would look far different today. Although Romney figures to clean up in the Silver State, the NRP's decision to move the caucus back may end up hurting his chances overall.

By the time the NV caucus rolls around, probably only Romney, Gingrich and Paul will be left.

A Piece of Childhood Goes Away

2012-01-20T11:01:00.000-08:00

Until I went to college the longest I'd lived in one place was the time my family lived in St. Croix, USVI. My dad worked building the Hess Oil Refinery on the island.

I remember building a model of it for a 4th-grade class project. Non-working model, of course.

Today Hovensa, a joint venture between Hess and PDVSA that owns the refinery, announced it was shutting it down.

ADDED: My wife and I spent our honeymoon here. On St. Croix, not at the refinery.

The hotel we stayed at was less than 100 yards from the apartments my family lived in when we first moved there. The wife and I still have some Cruzan Rum left from that trip.

Reading about this brought back lots of old memories.

Hickey to Lead Assembly Republicans

2012-01-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

Reno Assemblyman Pat Hickey was voted leader of the Assembly Republican caucus yesterday.

Republicans currently hold only 16 of the 42 seats in the Assembly so it's going to be a tall order for Pat to gain a majority. But most people believe that the GOP should be able to pick up at least a few seats.

I've had several conversations with Pat and, even though we didn't always agree, he was always pleasant. But don't let the nice-guy image fool you. He is very aggressive in pursuing his goals and will be a formidable force in facing down the opposition in the election and in the Legislature. Which is exactly what the Assembly GOP needs.

Using Atlas Shrugged As a How-To Manual

2012-01-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

Because the windfall profits tax worked so well the first time around. Duane Lester reports that Congressional Democrats are floating the idea of a "Reasonable Profits Board."

This socialist panel would be able to levy “Windfall Profits taxes” of up to 100% on any profit they deem unreasonable.

Of course, the question that needs an answer is, what define “reasonable.” Liberals treat unreasonable profits like porn. They’ll know it when they see it.

Of course, some of them believe all profits are unreasonable. There are more than a few on the left who won't be satisfied until there is a regulator in every staff meeting of every company in the country monitoring and micromanaging every decision.

But if their intent is to make alternative energy cost competitive by making gasoline more expensive, they're on the right track with this one.

Additional Clark County Caucus Not a Done Deal

2012-01-19T10:19:00.000-08:00

The Clark County Republican Party Executive Board the other night voted to add an additional caucus time to accommodate those who couldn't, for religious reasons, attend the caucus on Saturday. The R-J's Laura Myers reports, and I was informed by someone who would know, this is not a done deal.

The State Republican Party is having attorneys look at the proposal and it would also have to be approved the Republican National Committee.

The Anti-Jobs President

2012-01-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hitting on an issue we discussed yesterday, the WSJ weighs in on the Keystone Pipeline rejection by the President.

The central conflict of the Obama Presidency has been between the jobs and growth crisis he inherited and the President's hell-for-leather pursuit of his larger social-policy ambitions. The tragedy is that the economic recovery has been so lackluster because the second impulse keeps winning.

The never-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste strategy is backfiring, if not for Obama's Presidency for America's workers. Using the economic crisis to push the green agenda is having the effect of worsening the crisis, which should surprise no one.

PERS Board Tries to Hide from the Light

2012-01-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

The Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) Board is pulling out all the stops to prevent the people who insure their benefits from finding out how much they're on the hook for.

The Reno Gazette-Journal recently won a court decision ordering PERS to release information regarding the amounts retired public employees were receiving in benefits. Yesterday the PERS Board, composed of people who either are or will be receiving benefits from PERS, decided to appeal that decision to the Nevada Supreme Court, also made up of people who will be receiving benefits from PERS.

Why not? They have nothing to lose, it's not their money they'll be spending. They'll be spending more taxpayer money to try to keep the veil on who and how much retirees from government are receiving in taxpayer-sponsored retirement benefits.

Taxpayers are obligated to make up any shortfall in the benefits these former government employees are paid. Do those same taxpayers have a right to see who is receiving them and how much?

Chris Wicker, the attorney for PERS, said the law is not that clear.

"Since the 1970s, PERS has interpreted (state laws) as treating employee files as confidential," Wicker said.

He said members of the retirement system board decided to lodge an appeal with the high court to answer this question: "Is the statute right, or is the judge right?"

This is a self-serving distortion of the question that assumes PERS' interpretation of the statute is correct, which is far from a given. This is just another instance of government attempting to keep the people who fund it in the dark about what it is doing.

Thomas Mitchell, who was at the "hearing," (scare quotes around the word in light of the fact that not much was actually heard by the public as the PERS Board used a loophole in the Open Meetings law to conduct their deliberations in private) reported on the closed-door session,

At one point Chris Collins, a Las Vegas policeman and executive director of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, could be heard loudly arguing that, while his pay might be tax money, the notion that PERS funds are tax money is “crap.” Never mind that any potential shortage in funding must be made up for by the taxpayers or that all the money contributed to PERS either directly or through salary deductions came from taxpayers. Also, PERS is a state agency.

Mitchell's exactly correct. Keeping this information private is akin to requiring someone to co-sign for a loan without letting them know what and how much it is for.

But here's an idea: If PERS recipients want to claim that tax money is not used for their benefits then, fine, let's make that explicit and codify it into law. Right now, a portion of each employee's compensation is earmarked for PERS. The employer (the State's taxpayers) also contributes a certain amount.

Unlike some other states, Nevada has been very good about making sure those funds designated for PERS actually end up in the fund. We have an unfunded liability because the amounts contributed by both employees and the State are not sufficient to cover projected benefits over time.

Here's the plan: Both the State of Nevada and its employees continue to contribute at the same rates they currently are. The law would prohibit these contribution amounts from ever increasing over their current percentage of employee pay and would also prohibit taxpayers from ever contributing any additional amounts to PERS. Ever.

PERS can never go into debt nor can taxpayers ever be forced to contribute anything above the percentage contributions. If the PERS fund runs dry, then benefits would be immediately cut, in an equal percentage amount for each recipient, so that outlays match income.

In other words, PERS recipients can have their privacy as long as taxpayers are never on the hook for any shortfall or unfunded liability.

True, it'll never work. But that just means that taxpayers have a right to see who and what they are responsible for paying.

Administration Kills Shovel-Ready Project; Only Government Jobs Matter

2012-01-18T17:06:00.000-08:00

Or at least only those that are the result of some government program or subsidy.

The President today killed the Keystone Pipeline project, which would have brought millions of barrels of oil from Canada and tens of thousands of jobs to the U.S.

Instead, the President would rather try to stimulate the economy by paying people not to work.

The decision was a sop to the extreme environmental left, which finds a reason to oppose any and all projects that will actually provide energy. The Heritage Foundation responded to the decision,

President Obama’s politically intoned decision to reject TransCanada’s permit application to construct a 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas refineries sent a clear message that special interest demands are of more importance than more energy and much-needed job creation.

In a statement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is composed of people who actually know what it takes to hire people and keep them employed, President and CEO Thomas Donahue, said,

This political decision offers hard evidence that creating jobs is not a high priority for this administration. The President’s decision sends a strong message to the business community and to investors: keep your money on the sidelines, America is not open for business. By placing politics over policy, the Obama administration is sacrificing tens of thousands of good-paying American jobs in the short term, and many more than that in the long term.

But, really, what can you expect from people who believe ATM machines are responsible for unemployment and regulations create jobs.

It's even worse than that. This pipeline could increase our oil purchases from Canada, our friendly neighbor to the north, while consequently reducing our imports of oil from countries such as Venezuela, thereby weakening the power and ability of oppressive nutjob dictators to wreak havoc.

As for the greens concerns, our refusal to build this pipeline is going to be a net negative for the environment. Canada is going to sell this oil to somebody. If we don't build a pipeline going south, they're going to build one going west - to a port from which to ship the oil to China.

What would you rather have, from an environmental standpoint? A) Oil refined in the U.S. with our rather stringent environmental rules, or B) Oil refined in China, where they really couldn't care less about the pollution they create? C) Sorry, there is no C.

The Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, Steve Pearce (R-NM), whose members represent many of the districts through which Keystone would travel, stated,

“Once again, the Obama Administration has decided to capitulate to special interests instead of fighting for American jobs and energy security. It is incredibly frustrating to watch as this Administration kills so many potential jobs while the country’s unemployment rate remains so high.

“This Administration claims its top job is to get American’s back to work. Just yesterday, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness stated in a report that we need an “all in” approach to energy policy, including new pipeline construction. However, their actions today are yet another example where their loyalties lie. Unless they are government created jobs that do not interfere with the agenda of their special interest supporters, this Administration is clearly not interested in employing people, even if it means sending precious resources to China while risking our economic and national security by continuing our dependence on oil from unfriendly nations.”

The administration is not serious about improving the economy. It has paid nothing more than lip service to reducing regulations that stifle business development and economic growth, it is intent on smothering the only viable sources of energy production resulting in higher costs and reduced output and they are tools of the environmental left, which sees human prosperity as an evil to be extinguished. The only jobs that count in this administration's eyes are those in the government or the result of a government program.

The Arrogance of Government; Controlling the Stuff of Life to Control Our Lives

2012-01-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

Is government of the people, by the people and for the people being replaced by government against the people? A few recent incidents, all involving an essential ingredient for life, display the arrogance of government and how it increasingly acts against the interests of its citizens.

Yesterday, the Nevada Policy Research Institute held a luncheon in which the attorney for its Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation's (CJCL), Joseph Becker, discussed the lawsuits CJCL has filed challenging government power and overreach.

CJCL's most recent case involves a church camp in which the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife inexplicably diverted a stream that provided fresh water to the Ministero Roco Solida Church's Patch of Heaven camp. Not only did the diversion deny water to Patch of Heaven but it also caused flooding resulting in severe damage to the camp when a rainstorm hit the area.

As Becker related during the Q & A, although F&W staff mentioned protecting some fish in the stream the agency never really provided much of a reason for the diversion. 4thSt8's Tom Mitchell has much more on this case.

A few hundred miles north of here, an Idaho couple experienced another incidence of the arrogance of government. As this R-J editorial explains, the couple purchased property on which they intended to build a home.

They obtained a building permit from the local municipality. But when they began preparing the lot for construction, the EPA ordered them to stop, claiming the lot contained protected wetlands, even though several homes existed between their lot and the nearest water. Continuing construction would expose them to daily fines that far exceeded the value of the land.

Their case has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court will, hopefully, rein in rogue agencies that have defined every pothole that can collect water as a "wetland" or "navigable waterway" in order to push an extreme agenda and reserve for themselves the right to dictate what the rest of us can and (more often) can't do with our own property.

Locally, water for most residents in the area is provided by the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD), a government agency that is overseen by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). At a recent meeting the SNWA board discussed charging additional fees to make up for lost revenue from declining population and construction activity.

Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy has suggested placing liens on foreclosed properties in order to collect a new infrastructure fee now under consideration for all homes and businesses with water hookups, even inactive ones.

The water supplier charging people who don't use water? What a novel idea. I'm sure many businesses would like to charge people who don't buy their products. Except they can't. Only the government can get away with charging people for something they neither want nor need nor use.

The justification reveals an astonishing mindset that is borne of the arrogance of government.

The argument goes something like this: Every home and business benefits from having a reliable water system, even those that are empty. Everyone should pay a share of the cost to keep that system up and running.

As Mulroy put it, a "property isn't worth a nickel unless it has a water supply."

And only they are allowed to provide that supply, which is where the arrogance comes in. The government has created a monopoly for the LVVWD by banishing alternatives. The government prohibits competition and creates a monopoly for itself in providing a particular product or service then demands the people bow down and honor it for its benevolence in providing that product or service.

Don’t think the government has a monopoly on water in Las Vegas? Think again. If service is available to your home by the LVVWD you are forced to use that service, even if you may have an alternate source.

Some friends of mine used to own a home on a little cul-de-sac in Northwest Las Vegas. Most of the homes in that community were built in the 70’s or earlier, long before growth reached that area. The water service for the homes originally was provided by a community well, which cost residents far less than what LVVWD residential customers paid.

A few years ago, the LVVWD decided that it was going to connect these homes to its system. Not only did it force the members of the little community to shut down their well, it made them pay the cost of connecting to the LVVWD. And now their water costs more than it did before. Only through government is this possible.

So, one may argue, it’s not a true monopoly because the LVVWD can’t stop people from buying bottled water (at least not yet). But drinking water is just a small portion of the normal person’s consumption. In addition, some cities have sought to punish those who drink bottled water, in part because that choice hurts municipal water sales.

These are just a few examples of government that has grown far too big and wields far too much power. "Government of the people, by the people and for the people," as described in Lincoln's famous passage from the Gettysburg Address, is being replaced by government that is too often against the people, exhibiting an arrogance and disregard for the rights of those to whom it supposedly is beholden. This trend must be reversed.

Want to Pick the Presidential Nominee?

2012-01-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

If you live in Nevada, here's what you do: Attend the Republican caucus on February 4.

The Clark County Republican Party (CCRP) has set up a website to provide facilitate the caucus and provide information to caucus attendees. The doors will open at 8 a.m. and the caucus will begin at 9. If you're going to go, be on time or, better yet, be early.

For the first time, those planning to attend the caucus can pre-register online. Turnout is expected to be high so people can avoid the check-in lines by pre-registering. Another benefit of pre-registering is that all of the information needed to participate in the caucus (Precinct #, Caucus Location, etc.) are contained on the printout page that is generated during pre-registration. This page must also be presented at the entrance to skip the check-in line at the caucus. Regardless of whether one chooses to pre-register or not, a photo ID is required to gain entrance to the caucus.

The caucus is actually just a combination of hundreds of precinct meetings. Each attendee must participate in his/her precinct meeting. During that meeting delegates and alternates to the County convention will be selected and the Presidential Preference Poll will be conducted. This will determine the allocation of Nevada's delegates to each Presidential candidate.

It's important to avoid being late because once a precinct meeting is over, it's over. The members of that precinct are free to go and anyone from that precinct who shows up after that time will not be allowed to vote.

Although the CCRP has blocked out four hours (until 1 p.m.), it's unlikely any meeting will last nearly that long. Some meetings of smaller precinct may only last a few minutes because that's all it will take to get through the business. Anyone who shows up after their precinct meeting has been completed, won't get a vote.

Important update to the schedule. Last night at the Clark County Republican Central Committee meeting, the Executive Board of the CCRP held an emergency meeting to address a problem that prevented some people from attending the caucus.

Some members of the GOP had raised religious objections to the Saturday caucus. Observant Jews, Seventh-Day Adventists and others are prohibited from certain activities on Saturdays and would be unable to attend the caucus.

The E-Board voted to offer an additional caucus session on Thursday evening, February 2 at 7 p.m. Sheldon Adelson offered the use of his Adelson School to hold these meetings.

NPRI Litigation Arm Launches 2nd Lawsuit

2012-01-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Recently the Nevada Policy Research Institute's (NPRI) Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation (CJCL) fired a shot across the bow of Nevada's entrenched interests by filing a lawsuit to force the state to enforce the separation of powers doctrine in its Constitution.

Today, NPRI announced another action by CJCL, a suit against the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. The Department had rerouted two streams near the Patch of Heaven Camp operated by Ministerio Roco Solida Church in Amargosa Valley. The camp later suffered significant damage from flooding as a result.

The church's pastor, Victor Fuentes, is a Cuban immigrant who was granted political asylum after swimming to Guantanamo Bay twenty years ago.

“I am an immigrant from Cuba who risked death to escape Castro’s regime, only now I am in a country overrun by a federal government that reminds me of the horrors from which I fled,” said Fuentes. “In Cuba, I had this beautiful image of America as a place of freedom and liberty, but after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recklessly damaged our property through its irresponsible actions, that image has changed.”

This is one of a legion of cases of government overreach that harms private individuals and groups and against which most of the victims are unable to fight back. Thanks to NPRI and its CJCL we will now have a chance to rein in some of these abuses.

Huntsman Drops Out of Presidential Race

2012-01-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

If you're asking "Who?" you're not alone.

The most notable thing about his campaign, for those of us in Nevada, was his decision to boycott the Silver State after we moved our caucus ahead of New Hampshire. The boycott included refusing to appear at the debate in Las Vegas during the Western Republican Leadership Conference.

Though he did release an economic and tax plan that was lauded by many conservatives, including being the subject of a very complimentary editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Huntsman presented himself as a very moderate Republican. His support mainly existed among Republicans who buy into the myth that only Republicans who don't act like Republicans are electable.

Not As Free As We Need to Be

2012-01-15T23:07:00.000-08:00

The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal released their Index of Economic Freedom on Friday and the news is (shocker!) not good. The United States is now listed as only the 10th freest country, having fallen several places in just the last few years.

Our rating on the index's Freedom from Corruption scale has dropped as well as government has expanded. But we're not the only one regressing. Many of the freer countries in Asia and Europe have fallen as well.

The importance of economic freedom cannot be overstated. As Heritage's Edwin Feulner explains,

Positive measures of human development in areas such as health and education are highly correlated with high levels of economic freedom, and economically free countries do a much better job of protecting the environment than their more regulated competitors. When you actually look at the performance data, it turns out that the "progressive" outcomes so highly touted by those favoring big government programs to address every societal ill are actually achieved more efficiently and dependably by the marketplace and the invisible hand of free economies.

Increased prosperity allows a society to have the resources, including wealth and time, to address non-economic issues. A society that struggles to provide food for all its people will not have the resources to worry about protecting the environment, for instance. If it's a choice between eating and saving a tree, the survival instinct takes over.

Increasing economic freedom increases prosperity, which allows us the luxury to concern ourselves with other issues. But increasing prosperity is not a given. We can restrain ourselves to our detriment, where we become less prosperous over time, rather than more. Unfortunately, we have been moving in the wrong direction, as this study shows.

Still Not Sure What the Mainstream Media Thinks of Conservatives?

2012-01-15T21:41:00.000-08:00

Newsweek once again proves it's worth every dollar (all one of them) its new owners paid for it.

Caleb Howe is having a Photoshop contest.

UPDATE: More from The People's Cube.

And from Benjamin Kruse.

UPDATE 2: Sooper Mexican piles on.

Vicious Partisan Criticizes His Opponents for Partisanship

2012-01-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

Harry Reid made a rare appearance on to push the Democrats' election theme of blaming Republicans for everything.

Obama can't be blamed, Reid said. The president "bent over backwards" to solicit Republicans during the first 2½ years of his presidency, by inviting them to the White House and venturing to Capitol Hill, without success.

Obama invited Republicans to the White House to inform them, "I won," and ventured to Capitol Hill to insult them in front of their colleagues. Only a vicious partisan like Reid would attempt mischaracterize actions such as these as reaching out to the opposition.

The President ignored Republican objections to his stimulus plan and his party wrote ObamaCare without any GOP input. The only thing bipartisan about the legislation he is most proud of was the opposition.

Reid also defended Obama's non-recess appointments made last week, despite the fact he was the person who invented the tactic of using pro forma sessions of the Senate to block a President from making recess appointments.

"I think the president did the right thing," Reid said. "I am confident the president's recess appointments will be upheld in the courts."

Either he now admits it was just a gimmick that should have been ignored by Bush when Reid did it, or his respect for the Constitution only extends as far as he can use it to benefit himself and his party.

Bush did not challenge the practice, Reid said, "because we worked with him. We gave President Bush hundreds and hundreds of people. He didn't have to worry about recess appointments because we were working with him."

Let's see, Reid worked with Bush on Miguel Estrada, John Bolton, Janice Rogers Brown. Oh, wait, never mind. There were many very important appointments Reid blocked Bush from making both as Majority Leader and Minority Leader. He's not above using any tactic at his disposal to obstruct Republicans, and even inventing a few if need be.

Bush didn't challenge the nominees Reid blocked because he had respect for the Constitution's limitations on government and the separation of powers, something that both Reid and Obama seem to lack - except when they can use them to hamstring their opponents.

The Democrats forced their agenda through Congress for the first two years of Obama's Presidency when Republicans couldn't do anything to stop them. But such programs as ObamaCare, the stimulus, Cash for Clunkers and others proved not only ineffective at improving the economy but unpopular as well. Yet they are still going to try to campaign in 2012 on blaming the Republicans for everything.

"Optics Not Workers"; AFP Slams Obama on Solyndra

2012-01-13T16:12:00.000-08:00

New video from Americans for Prosperity. Conservatives should make sure the administration's self-inflicted wound of Solyndra (along with other failed crony capitalism schemes) is never allowed to heal.

video platform video management video solutions video player

via Ace

Make Up Your Mind on Keystone Already!

2012-01-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

While giving lip service to the need to create jobs, the President continues to stall on approving the Keystone Pipeline project, which would carry Canadian oil to U.S. refineries. This project promises not only to put people to work but to provide a steady supply of fuel from a friendly republic, allowing us to rely less upon brutal dictatorships abroad for our energy needs.

Nebraska congressman Terry Lee, a member of the Western Congressional Caucus and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, criticizes the President for his dithering on Keystone.

It’s well past time for a decision on Keystone XL. While similar pipelines are regularly approved in 18 to 24 months, Keystone XL is still sitting on the shelf at month 40. If Feb. 21 comes around and Obama has decided that the Keystone XL Pipeline is not in our country’s best interest — or if he hasn’t decided anything at all — he will have some serious explaining to do to the American people.

Job creation is certainly among our country’s best interests. With our economy struggling to recover, job creation might just be our top priority. Americans want to work, but while the president twiddles his thumbs in the White House, employment opportunities grow fewer and fewer. Yet, here sits Keystone XL, promising at least 20,000 direct on-site jobs in construction, operations and supporting industries.

That is not a number simply plucked out of the air. Each of those 20,000+ jobs has been accounted for by TransCanada, the company that proposed Keystone XL.

It's hard not to be cynical about the President's decision to not make a decision about this project. It pits two of his major constituencies - environmentalists and labor unions - directly at odds with each other.

No matter what he decides, one or the other of these two groups will not be happy about it. Since he needs the support of both of them in this year's election he is, not surprisingly, attempting to put off the decision until after the election.

Why South Carolina Matters to the Republican Party

2012-01-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

and why Nevada doesn't.

UNLV College Republican Mitchell Cain discusses the title, but not the snarky addition, to this post in his first contribution at Truth About Bills.

I am opposed to the national primary Cain endorses but I'm not so wild about the current system, either. Iowa and New Hampshire have an outsized role, as he points out, in selecting the Republican (and the Democrat, for that matter) nominee for President. Other states that are more reflective of the views and values of each party have far less influence than these perennial first primary/caucus states and probably should be moved in line ahead of these two.

The Iron Lady

2012-01-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

On the day Hollywood releases its portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, the Heritage Foundation presents a video honoring the former British Prime Minister. Thatcher took power when England was called "the sick man of Europe" and revived her nation.

Must Be the Tea Party's Fault Again

2012-01-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

Standard and Poor's today downgraded the debt of several European countries today.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has downgraded the government debt of France, Austria, Italy and Spain, but maintained Germany's at the coveted 'AAA' level.

The cuts, which eliminated France and Austria's triple-A status, deal a heavy blow to the currency union's ability to fight off a worsening debt crisis. In total, S&P cut its ratings on nine eurozone countries.

France and Austria both dropped one notch to AA+. Italy was lowered by two notches to BBB+ from A, and Spain fell to A from AA-. Portugal and Cyprus also dropped two notches. The agency also cut ratings on Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.

You may remember when S&P downgraded U.S. debt the left quickly began blaming it on the Tea Party. Because pointing out that your debt is going to cause a crisis is much more damaging than increasing your spending and taking on more debt.

Europe's financial situation is a mess. Rather than take it as a lesson in what not to do, the Obama administration and others on the left are trying to make us more like them - to adopt more of the policies that are driving Europe off the cliff.

Heller Hauls In Over a Million Bucks

2012-01-13T11:47:00.000-08:00

Not a bad quarter for Senator Dean Heller's re-election campaign.

Today Dean Heller's campaign announced it has raised more than $1.11 million in the fourth quarter from 2,855 individual donors. More than 1,900 donors in the 4th quarter were first time donors to Heller.

Nevadans from all 17 counties have contributed, with more than 2,100 individuals donating $200 or less.

According to the presser, Heller's campaign had $3.65 million cash at the end of 2011.

Finding John Galt and the Compassionate Left

2012-01-12T16:38:00.000-08:00

Politics is all about the ground game, especially at the state and local levels. It's all about getting out, meeting your voters and mobilizing supporters to do the same. Many of the technological advances are only useful insofar as they can recruit and inspire supporters and volunteers to walk, phone bank and talk to their friends and neighbors.

I spent most of the last three days helping the attempt to get Suzette LaGrange on the ballot for the Las Vegas City Council special election. Suzette is a friend of mine and a conservative who would have been a great addition to the Council, which currently contains just one Republican, Stavros Anthony. This is one more Republican than the Clark County Commission has, however.

Participating in the political ground game can be an illuminating and, um, interesting experience. To say the least.

Who is John Galt? The mysterious John Galt is central to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. While I didn't run into him I did happen to discover a similarly-named person registered to vote at a nonexistent address.

In fact, I discovered a few voters registered at nonexistent addresses. There were also several homes that had clearly been abandoned or were vacant, having been taken over by lenders but where voters were registered.

This doesn't necessarily mean anything untoward is going on. There could be perfectly legitimate reasons - typos, data entry errors, etc. - but it wouldn't be impossibly difficult for unethical people wishing to sway a close election to take advantage of this.

An encounter with the tolerant left. One of the people I spoke with was a committed member of the loony left. And I say that with all due respect.

He started off with a reference to the incumbent, not the candidate I was helping, the only part of which I can print here is "scumbag."

He then explained how he called Republicans "righttards" and "teatards," with additional adjectives added for emphasis, and proceeded to tell me we needed to "put people before profits," that we "don't need profits." When I mentioned that profits drove people to produce the products and technology that improved the quality and length of life, including the iPhone he was holding, he insisted that would have all happened anyway, employing a plethora of F-bombs to help illuminate his points.

This "compassionate" leftist was one of the most vulgar, vicious and hateful people I've ever met. Apparently the message about the need for civility in politics escaped him. Or, more likely, he believes in it only as a means to shut his opponents up.

There's nothing wrong with discussing issues with people whose views are opposed to yours. But it's not normally a good idea to engage people who are so vehemently opposed to your candidate or cause - you're not going to change their minds and you can waste precious time that could be spent reaching out to those who might help or support you. And it's certainly not in anyone's interest to get into a confrontation. So at the very first opportunity I continued on my way, leaving him to simmer in the stew of his own venom.

Conservative Jumps Into City Council Special Election

2012-01-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

Could Las Vegas be on the verge of doubling the number of conservatives on the City Council?

After failing once to get enough signatures on the ballot to recall City Councilman Steve Ross, a group led by a local car dealer succeeded in their second attempt to force a recall election. For a while it looked like the choice in that election was going to come down to either re-electing Ross, a former union boss and current Big Labor handmaiden, and the even-more liberal Byron Goynes.

That may have changed this weekend when small businessperson Suzette LaGrange-Miranda decided to throw her hat into the ring. In order to get on the ballot, however, she needs get over a thousand signatures from registered voters in Ward 6 on ballot petitions and has less than three full days to do it. LaGrange is organizing petition walks to gather the necessary signatures for her candidacy.

Even though the Las Vegas City Council offices are officially non-partisan that is true only nominally and everyone knows the party affiliations of the members. Generally, their voting records reflect these as well. There is only one Republican on the Council, Stavros Anthony, and we need to get a conservative option on the ballot for Ward 6.

Citizen Watchdog Training Seminar

2012-01-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

You’ve heard of egregious examples of waste, fraud, and abuse at all levels of government. But we can no longer afford to sit by and wait for the government or mainstream media to fully inform the public about what’s really going on behind closed doors.

The time has come for citizen watchdogs to stand up and take action.

Please join us in Henderson on Saturday, January 14th, from 10am to 4pm, at the Green Valley Ranch Hotel to learn how you can get involved and hold our elected officials accountable.

The Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity will provide a full day of in-depth training to equip you with the tools and skills to become a more effective activist and citizen watchdog. You will learn how to use investigative reporting skills, how to impact the state and local government budgeting process, and how to advance your message through social media.

For more details, a schedule and to sign up, click here.

Obama Circumvents Congress to Make More Anti-Business Appointments to NLRB

2012-01-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

Today is Recess Appointment Day/Stick It to Business Real Good Day at the White House.

After defying the Senate, and possibly the law, in placing a director at the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) via recess appointment, President Obama used recess appointments to stock the National Labor Relations Board with three new members.

The NLRB had issued a series of anti-business rulings recently but lost a quorum at the beginning of the year. That was when the recess appointment of former SEIU attorney Craig Becker, who was unable to garner enough support even from Democrats to be confirmed by the Senate, expired. Since then the NLRB has been unable to issue any rulings or new rules.

Expect the NLRB to continue its assault on business over the next year.

UPDATE: The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), a critic of some of the NLRB's recent actions, issued the following statement on these appointments to the NLRB,

Washington, D.C. – Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today criticized President Obama for undermining the U.S. Senate’s advice and consent role by recess-appointing Democrats Sharon Block, deputy assistant secretary for congressional affairs at the Department of Labor; Richard Griffin, general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB); and Republican Terence Flynn, chief counsel to NLRB member Brian Hayes.

“The president’s decision to ignore the Constitution and decades of established precedent is an overt political act that is beyond the pale,” said ABC Vice President of Federal Affairs Geoff Burr. “Under his administration, the NLRB has been transformed from a neutral arbiter of labor law disputes into an activist organization that promotes the special interests of politically powerful unions.”

NOTE: Earlier update was removed from this post and placed in previous post.

Obama Makes Non-Recess Recess Appointment of Unaccountable Director

2012-01-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

President Obama took an end run around the Senate today and made a recess appointment of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Richard Cordray. The Senate rejected Cordray's nomination last month.

Senators, mostly Republicans, had objected not to Cordray but to the unprecedented power and lack of accountability given to his office. Thomas Donahue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce expressed his organization's objections to the CFPB.

We should root out the predatory lending, financial scams, and fraud that poison a competitive marketplace and harm consumers and legitimate businesses. But what’s also important—to economic growth and job creation and to borrowers and businesses acting in good faith—is the availability of credit and capital. The current structure of the CFPB will breed uncertainty, restrict credit, and stifle innovation when we need it most.

The fixes are obvious and necessary.

Donahue spells out the flaws in the CFPB - the unaccountable director in charge of a massive budget and the incredible powers to institute regulation without regard to its impact on other regulatory agencies or the health of regulated companies or the economy.

Until those fundamental flaws are fixed, the president should stand down.

But the President did not stand down and Donahue has also updated his column with a strong condemnation of the move. The President pressed ahead, in defiance of the wishes of the Senate and, possibly, more.

As White House press secretary Jay Carney tweeted,

In Cleveland, POTUS just recess-appointed Richard Cordray to be consumer watchdog. When Congress won't act, POTUS will. We can't wait.

Possibly, even in violation of the law.

The Constitution provides procedures through which the President may make appointments of officers who normally need approval of Congress while Congress is in recess. Presidents have employed this power on many occasions, both to keep the government functioning while Congress is on recess and to make temporary end runs around Congress for controversial nominees. John Bolton's recess appointment as Ambassador to the United Nations after the Senate refused to bring his nomination to a vote is one example of George W. Bush using this power. Democrats have expressed their strenuous objections to Republican Presidents using recess appointments in the past.

The difference this time is that Congress is not in recess. When Bush was President and Democrats controlled Congress, the Democrats kept Congress in a pro forma session in order to avoid a recess that would have triggered Bush's power to issue recess appointments. Ever since, whenever at least one house of Congress is controlled by the opposition party to the President, that party has used this procedure to block recess appointments.

Democrats did it when Bush was President, Republicans now do it when Obama is President. Would the Democrats who now support Obama making this appointment have screamed if Bush had done so? Of course they would have.

There is also some question as to whether the law that created the CFPB allows the director to be appointed through a recess appointment. But, through his statements and actions, the President has indicated that he's going to make maximum use of his authority and push the envelope of what he perceives his power to be, regardless of the legal niceties or traditions that previous Presidents and Congresses have obeyed.

UPDATE: Former DOJ lawyer Todd Gaziano, now at the Heritage Foundation, calls this appointment a "tyrannical abuse of power."

What is shocking is that the Senate is not in a recess that would allow a recess appointment, and it can’t be under the Constitution, even if many Senators are not in D.C.

The Constitution, in Article I, section 5, plainly states that neither house of Congress can recess for more than three days without the consent of the other house. The House of Representatives did not consent to a Senate recess of more than three days at the end of last year, and so the Senate—consistent with the requirements of the Constitution—is having pro forma sessions every few days. In short, Congress is still in session, and no one in Congress is saying (or can reasonably say) otherwise. It does not matter a wit that most Members of Congress are not in town voting on legislation, because ending a session of Congress requires the passage of a formal resolution, which never occurred.

Under Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution, the President has the power to fill vacancies that may happen during Senate recesses. That power has been interpreted by scores of attorneys general and their designees in the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) for over 100 years to require an official, legal Senate recess of at least 10–25 days of duration. (There are a few outlier opinions, never sanctioned by the courts, that suggest a recess of six to seven days might be enough—but never less than that.)

The President’s purported recess appointment of Cordray would render the Senate’s advice and consent role to normal appointments almost meaningless.

UPDATE: It's more than a little ironic that the President is ignoring Congress's pro forma sessions to make these recess appointments. The tactic of holding pro forma sessions when Congress would otherwise be in recess to prevent the President from making recess appointments was invented by Democrats when George W. Bush was President as a means of preventing him from doing exactly what President Obama is doing. But now that a Democrat is President he is free to ignore them. One can only imagine the howls of protest from Democrats had Bush ignored the pro forma sessions and simply proceeded to make appointments without Senate approval.

In the Aftermath of Iowa

2012-01-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

Mitt Romney emerged with a narrow 8-vote win from the Iowa caucuses over second-place finisher Rick Santorum. Yes, that's 8 votes out of more than 120,000 cast (30,015-30,008). Still think your vote doesn't count?

While Santorum did perform better than had been expected until just recently, I don't see how that success is going to translate into winning the nomination. Unless it's the nomination in 2060, which would give him enough time to campaign for a year in each state, the strategy he pursued to win Iowa.

In the wake of his disappointing fifth-place finish former front-runner Rick Perry announced he was returning to Texas to "reassess" his campaign. Normally this is code for ending it. But Perry responded today with a tweet indicating that he was going to stay in the race,

And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State...Here we come South Carolina!!! http://yfrog.com/odz8ujrj

Michele Bachmann, another former front-runner, decided to throw in the towel, however. Bachmann, who was born in Iowa and had won the Ames Straw Poll on the day Perry announced his candidacy, finished in sixth place. She garnered a mere 1200 more votes in last night's caucus than she had in the Ames Straw Poll that had 100,000 fewer voters.

Herman Cain, who suspended his campaign last month, still collected a few votes and snagged eighth place, finishing about 4600 votes closer to seventh-place Jon Huntsman than Huntsman did to Bachmann.

Ron Paul attracted enough non-Republican voters to the Republican caucus to finish third. Newt Gingrich, the object of negative ads by several opponents, took fourth.

Now it's on to New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. Oh, and then Nevada, the Afterthought State. By the time our caucus rolls around it will be Romney, one - maybe two - others, and Ron Paul left.

Small Flickers of Light May Be Pushing Through Dark Clouds Over Construction Industry

2012-01-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Department of Commerce released a report today indicating non-residential construction spending increased in the U.S. by 0.9% in November. Residential spending rose by 1.8% nationally in November.

Though the news was generally good, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors, there are still reasons not to jump for joy just yet. One is that weather in November was more conducive to construction activity, which may have unnaturally boosted the numbers. There are others as well.

“Despite the recent momentum in nonresidential construction spending, there remain plenty of reasons for concern,” said [ABC Chief Economist Anirban] Basu. “Lending conditions continue to be disciplined and state and local government budgets remain stressed – not a good combination to push the nonresidential construction industry out of the doldrums.”

Of course, Nevada's construction industry continues to suffer more than most and recovery has been extremely slow compared to the rest of the country. That may not change for some time.

NV's Attorney Challenging ObamaCare to Run for State Senate

2012-01-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

The R-J reports today that Mark Hutchison, the attorney handling Nevada's lawsuit challenging ObamaCare, will run for the State Senate, in District 6 against vulnerable Democrat Allison Copening.

Hutchison has been making the rounds at GOP and conservative events in recent months discussing the state's lawsuit, which is part of the 27-state effort the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear. After Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez-Masto disregarded her obligation under the state's Constitution and refused to pursue the case at the direction of then-Governor Jim Gibbons (so "frivolous" it made it all the way to the Supreme Court), Hutchison agreed to take the case on a pro bono basis.

During his appearances, Hutchison brushed aside questions of his future political ambitions, although most revolved around running for AG or for national offices. Hutchison is immensely intelligent and well-spoken and will be a formidable opponent to whoever runs for the Democrats. Copening, a fairly moderate Democrat, has not publicly announced whether or not she will run for re-election.

She was one of only two Democrats who helped defeat the abomination disguised as Construction Defect Reform last session. She also was accused of conflicts of interest when she introduced bills relating to property management companies while being employed by a property management company.

To get Hutchison to run is quite a coup for Michael Roberson, who was named the fundraising chairman for the State Senate Republican caucus. Republicans need to net one pick up in the Senate to gain the majority. Hutchison will definitely help them to do that.

The 7 Most Illuminating Economic Charts of 2011

2012-01-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

How has unemployment compared to the Obama administration's predictions, what is the real unemployment rate, how much of the nation's wealth have the 1% amassed, and more. The answers may surprise you.

From economist and author Jim Pethokoukis, who explains, "My Magnificent Seven. Some bust myths. Others highlight a reality the media is ignoring. Enjoy!"

Election 2012: If Your Friends All Jumped Off a Cliff, Would You Do It, Too?

2012-01-03T06:58:00.000-08:00

We've all heard that argument from our parents, to illustrate the absurdity of doing something just because everyone else is. That warning is pretty much what the next Presidential election is about, according to WSJ's Bret Stephens. Do we follow the Europeans off the cliff or turn around?

The truth is that what began in Greece (and the U.S. financial crisis before it) simply put a match to already very dry tinder. Uncompromising labor unions have spent decades driving European jobs and industry overseas. Confiscatory tax rates have given every incentive to tax evasion, capital flight and the emigration of the fittest. Work-force rules have diminished productivity and discouraged hiring. National budgets have been strained to breaking by delusional pension promises and the mounting cost of everything a welfare state supposedly offers free, like health and education.

Worst of all, the European model has generated a self-reinforcing combination of prejudice and interest that is almost impossible to break. A cultural bias against "savage Anglo-Saxon neoliberalism" limits the political options for structural economic reform; routine labor strikes, politically entrenched civil services (38% of Belgians work for the state, doing Lord knows what), and other beneficiaries of public largess eliminate all remaining hope. Europe's crisis is not just fiscal and monetary. It's also a crisis of vision and character.

The vision of Obama is to move us further in the direction of Europe, even as some of those countries, the ones that still can, are beginning to turn away. The slow growth and high unemployment that we've experienced in the last year or so, that's about as good as it gets with the European model - these are the good times. And the catastrophe that awaits is very real and inevitable.

We have the benefit of watching Europe drive off the cliff and splat at the bottom of the canyon, but some of us apparently want to follow them down. We should heed our parents' warnings.

Our New Year's Resolution: You Shut Up and Do What We Say

2012-01-02T21:10:00.000-08:00

For its New Year's editorial the Las Vegas Sun once again handed the writing assignment to Harry Reid's staff, who responded with a plea for the country to "turn a new leaf" that was, in reality, an explicit call for conservatives and Republicans to set aside their principles and just do what Democrats want.

After a grammatically-challenged headline and a lament of the state of the economy both nationally and in Nevada, ~~Reid's staff~~, er, the Sun quickly identifies the culprits.

One of the problems in the past year was that Washington became bogged down due to the all-or-nothing approach that took root among Republicans in the House of Representatives.

A variety of important measures and legislation stalled because they wouldn’t negotiate or compromise. They held out for tax cuts for the rich and major corporations but showed little concern for the middle class. Consider the most recent example of that type of behavior with the extension of the payroll tax break. House Republicans balked at a compromise and were willing to let the tax bill of average Americans go up just so they could get their way and be “right.”

Let's see, House Republicans passed a year-long extension of the payroll tax holiday, rather than the worthless two-month version Reid's Senate passed, which Reid rejected. Nevertheless, the Sun accuses the Republicans of wanting to let this holiday expire.

Oh, and, of course, there is absolutely no mention of the fact that this holiday weakens Social Security. The Sun also completely ignores the fact that many of these contentious battles could have been avoided if Reid's Senate would simply fulfill its Constitutional duty to pass a budget.

Reid has not passed a budget in nearly three years even though the budget is not subject to a filibuster so it is impossible for Republicans to "obstruct" it. Because a budget has not passed the Senate during this time the government has been forced to run on a series of continuing resolutions, which must be passed every few months and which have sparked many of the partisan battles.

Wouldn't help Reid to publicize those things, though, so they don't make this editorial.

They say their obstruction is aimed at preventing things from getting worse. That’s laughable. Putting aside the hypocrisy of that statement — they scoffed when Democrats correctly pointed out that the stimulus measure prevented things from getting worse

This is just asserting a Democrat talking point as a fact. Even the CBO director stated that the long-term impact of the stimulus will be to shrink the economy and, even at the high end, any short-term economic benefit came at extremely high cost ($100k+ per job "created" and spending 8% of GDP to create 2% of additional growth). This doesn't even include the economic drag that increased taxes and borrowing exert on the economy, so the negative effects are even greater than advertised.

[H]ow, exactly, did the Republicans make things better? By protecting the “job creators” and their lucrative tax breaks, even though they haven’t been creating jobs?

Yes, a reference to Reid's disdainful reference to "job creators" because, just like Reid, the Sun also believes that only the government can create jobs.

Any hope that the New Year would bring a change in the Sun and that its editorial board would no longer act as a mouthpiece for Harry Reid and the DNC, alas, has proven to be too much to ask for.

Happy New Year?

2012-01-01T21:41:00.000-08:00

Mark Steyn opens the New Year (or closes the old?) with a hilarious-if-it-weren't-so-tragically-accurate rant that obsesses about our debt while ridiculing those elites who "think it’s rather vulgar and boorish to obsess about debt."

Last January, the BBC’s Brian Milligan inaugurated the new year by driving an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh taking advantage of the many government-subsidized charge posts en route. It took him four days, which works out to an average speed of six miles per hour — or longer than it would have taken on a stagecoach in the mid–19th century. This was hailed as a great triumph by the environmentalists. I mean, c’mon, what’s the hurry?

What indeed? In September, the tenth anniversary of a murderous strike at the heart of America’s most glittering city was commemorated at a building site: The Empire State Building was finished in 18 months during a depression, but in the 21st century the global superpower cannot put up two replacement skyscrapers within a decade. The 9/11 memorial museum was supposed to open on the eleventh anniversary, this coming September. On Thursday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that there is “no chance of it being open on time.” No big deal. What’s one more endlessly delayed, inefficient, over-bureaucratized construction project in a sclerotic republic?

As with all things Steyn, read the whole thing.

Christmas in God's Country

2012-01-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

Or at least what some people consider to be God's Country.

When I was younger I didn't fully appreciate the beauty of nature, even as I lived in beautiful places.

This Christmas my family and I returned to one of those places, Southeastern Idaho.

This is the best picture of all - my daughter on skis for the first time. She did a lot better than I did on my first day.

A view of the Snake River from an overlook near Ririe, ID. It was an extremely clear day and what look like clouds in the distance are actually the snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains on the border of Idaho and Montana.

Palisades Lake at the head of the Snake River. It was beautiful and unseasonably warm although the wind was blowing about 40 mph.

A view from the road in the mountains of the Targhee National Forest.

From the north end of the Teton Valley. The Grand Tetons near Jackson, WY are hidden behind some of those clouds.

The remnants of the Teton Dam. Construction on the earthen dam began in 1972. Around 7 am on the morning of June 5, 1976 two wet spots appeared on the face of the dam. Just before noon the dam gave way and in less than five hours the reservoir had been drained of all 80 billion gallons of water. Fourteen people were killed and several towns were largely or completely destroyed as water from the collapsed dam caused flooding more than 100 miles downstream over the next several days.

The canyon just below the dam.

(Disclaimer: The characterization of the area in these photographs as "God's Country" is not meant as a slight to any of the other beautiful places I've been, all of which could be given the same description.)

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T22:05:00.001-08:00

Off the Grid & On the Market

2011-12-28T08:22:00.000-08:00

Well, not completely off the grid but definitely on the market.

The family has been spending time with relatives in Southeastern Idaho for Christmas. I've done very little on the Internet since we've been here and didn't even turn the computer on for a couple days.

Christmas was wonderful.

Monday we went skiing for my nephew's birthday. It was my first time on the slopes in nearly a quarter-century and my daughter's first time ever. She took to it really well and by the end of the day was flawlessly swooshing down the bunny hill. The skiing conditions weren't the greatest - barely enough snow for the resort to be open - but the weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

We'll be returning to Las Vegas on Sunday and I'll continue my search for full-time employment. So if you or anyone you know has a spot open and could use some help, I'm available.

Merry Christmas to All!

2011-12-25T10:08:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Here are my five favorite Christmas songs or, as I called them on Facebook, the 5 Greatest Christmas Songs of All Time.

#5 - O Come All Ye Faithful

#4 - Angels We Have Heard on High

#3 - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings - Barenaked Ladies/Sarah McLachlan

#2 - Christmas Time Is Here - Vince Guaraldi (a.k.a. The Charlie Brown Christmas Song)

#1 - The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole (there are a million renditions of this song but none compares to this one)

Every Mass Grave Has a Silver Lining

2011-12-22T16:11:00.000-08:00

It seems that Vaclav Havel wasn't all that in some people's eyes. Here I thought that all of the apologists for Communism were either in hiding or teaching in American universities.

No one questions that Havel, who went to prison twice, was a brave man who had the courage to stand up for his views. Yet the question which needs to be asked is whether his political campaigning made his country, and the world, a better place.

Havel's anti-communist critique contained little if any acknowledgement of the positive achievements of the regimes of eastern Europe in the fields of employment, welfare provision, education and women's rights. Or the fact that communism, for all its faults, was still a system which put the economic needs of the majority first.

So never mind the deprivation, crushed spirits and dead bodies, the Communists meant well. Gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelette, you know.

This piece is so morally vacuous it's almost funny if not for the suffering the author, Neil Clark, ignores. He doesn't even try to claim that the Soviet version was a failed bastardization of the Communist ideal, which many other apologists do. He actually believes, or wants us to believe, that a great mass of people across the world are actually worse off because people like Havel and Lech Walesa, whom he also mentions by name, risked their lives to help bring free Eastern Europe.

This is the price of decadence. Moral midgets who've prospered as a result of all the advantages available from our system, trying to display their superior intellect by romanticizing the system that brought oppression and suffering and death on a massive scale.

UPDATE: Smitty at The Other McCain hits this one, too.

Do remember: China and North Korea are still Communist. You can go there and get your Marxism totally on, baby.

House GOP Caves on Tax Holiday

2011-12-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

It was inevitable, really. As an old political operative once said, "If you're not attacking, you're defending. And if you're defending, you're losing."

But, here's a bet. Good ol' Harry said, and the MSM breathlessly repeated, that if this didn't pass workers would see a drop in their take-home pay after the first of the year. I bet that many workers will see their take-home pay fall at the beginning of the year anyway.

Since not all employers will be able to incorporate the new law into their payroll systems soon enough, a lot of people won't see the benefit of this right away. In fact, there will be some who won't get the lower withholding until this two-month period is over.

The Day the Lights Go Out Just Got Closer

2011-12-21T23:13:00.000-08:00

To much fanfare, the EPA rolled out new emissions rules for power plants that will likely shut many of them down. It's a typical tug-at-the-heartstrings-never-mind-the-consequences policy.

The EPA on Wednesday moved to limit mercury, arsenic, selenium, cyanide, and other harmful emissions from coal-fired power plants for the first time.

The plans were met with a virtual ticker-tape parade for the Obama administration from environmentalists who have had a tough year moving their issues. But there were also immediate threats from Congress, where Republican members quickly launched new threats to use procedural moves to stop the rule.

[...]

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the rule at the Children’s National Medical Center in D.C., flanked by doctors, some industry representatives and health experts, as the Obama administration aggressively moves to promote the health benefits of EPA regulations.

I wonder if they'll have another presser when that children's medical center can't get enough power to keep the respirators running.

This is the most expensive regulation in the history of the United States. This new rule will raise costs for consumers, kill jobs, and destroy the integrity of the power grid.

Amazingly, the EPA claims the regulation will actually create jobs (Keynesianism in action!). But loss of accessibility to affordable and available power will create severe consequences for consumers, employers, employees and everyone else who relies on the lights coming on when they flip the switch, or on a reliable source of power for their medical equipment.

Are you ready for the day the lights go out? Because that day just got closer.

Business Groups Sue NLRB to Overturn Ambush Election Rules

2011-12-21T22:31:00.000-08:00

The NLRB's unprecedented ramming through of its new "ambush" rule that will severely harm the rights of employers to educate workers and ensure due process during unionizing elections has sparked a fight. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which is led by the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), filed suit to block implementation of the rule.

According to a statement from ABC,

“It is indefensible that the NLRB majority not only misused the federal regulatory process, but also denied workers the opportunity to make a fully informed decision about union representation,” said ABC Vice President of Federal Affairs Geoff Burr. “While we are concerned that the new procedures take away employers’ free speech rights in the union election process, it is the employees that come out on the losing end.”

The original “ambush” elections proposal specified the amount of time between when a petition is filed and a union election takes place would be reduced from the average of 38 days to as few as 10 days, as the NLRB would have required pre-election hearings within seven days and provided employers only two days to produce contact information for employees. Under the modified rules, announced in late November and finalized on Dec. 20, the board disposed of the rigid seven and two day requirements, but limited the issues an employer can raise at a hearing as well as the employer's opportunity for appeals. The impact will still shorten election time frames, with experts estimating elections within 14 to 24 days.

“It’s no secret that the board was racing to beat the clock and finalize this rule before controversial recess appointee Craig Becker’s term expired at the end of this year,” Burr said. “What’s most disturbing is that the NLRB continues to move forward with policies and rules that are a political payoff off to Big Labor, yet harm the construction industry and stifle job growth.”

This new rule is just the latest attack on employers by the current NLRB. The rule itself severely limits employers' rights to educate workers and defend against attempts to organize.

In addition, the way the rule was rammed through was unprecedented. The final rule was released only the day before the vote.

Opponents speculate the reason it was pushed through in such a manner was because the anti-employer NLRB wanted to force the rule through before the end of the year. At the end of the year the recess appointment of former SEIU attorney Craig Becker expires. Becker, who was given a recess appointment by President Obama after he was unable to garner enough support from even Democrats to be confirmed by the Senate, will lose his recess appointment at the end of this year and the NLRB will not have a quorum to make any decisions from that point forward, unless another member is appointed and confirmed.

Jimmy Carter: Willing to Chase an Evil Dictator to the Depths of Hell to Kiss His Rear

2011-12-21T19:07:00.000-08:00

Unlike Don Surber I never voted for Jimmy Carter but the only thing that stopped me was that I wasn't old enough to vote when he ran.

Surber notes a story from the Washington Times that reports Carter, who has spent his post-Presidential years sucking up to every murderous thug dictator he can find, has sent a note of condolences to North Korea upon the death of its evil oppressor Kim Jong-il.

Former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished “every success” to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country’s state-run news agency.

A dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency said Mr. Carter sent the message to Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il’s son and heir apparent.

“In the message Jimmy Carter extended condolences to Kim Jong Un and the Korean people over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il. He wished Kim Jong Un every success as he assumes his new responsibility of leadership, looking forward to another visit to [North Korea] in the future,” the KCNA dispatch read.

Considering that "success" in the eyes of the ruling family of North Korea means holding onto power at all costs, even to the point of starving, torturing and murdering his own people and threatening and killing foreigners, this should give a pretty good insight into Jimmy Carter's moral compass.

The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco

2011-12-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

A WSJ editorial explains how the GOP lost the PR battle over the payroll tax holiday and let their big government, tax-raising opponents win a battle over taxes.

UPDATE: This WSJ editorial has been misinterpreted, deliberately, all over the place by people trying to bash the GOP and Tea Party. House Republicans are correct on the policy but they were played by the cynical politics (what's new?) of Harry Reid and Senate Democrats, whom it must be pointed out have not performed their most basic function of passing a budget in nearly three years.

The Heritage Foundation has a good account. But the bottom line, from a political standpoint, is that Republicans, once again, got rolled.

Clark County's Crony Capitalism Cheers ChiComs

2011-12-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

Over at 4thSt8, Thomas Mitchell follows Clark County's decision to sell taxpayer-owned property at below-market rates to a Chinese solar company.

At its meeting yesterday, the County Commission voted to approve the sale of 9,000 acres near Laughlin to ENN Mojave, a firm backed by the Chinese government, for at least 85% below market value. In true Silver State fashion, the deal was negotiated in secret, away from the prying eyes of those meddling taxpayers.

ENN, which hosted Harry Reid at its headquarters in April and who hired former Senator and Nevada Governor Richard Bryan to negotiate the deal with the County (funny how the names of the players in these NV political plays rarely change), is proposing to build a solar panel manufacturing facility and solar farm on the land. However, part of the deal is that ENN is required to find purchasers for the power, which is easier said than done, despite all of the government intervention to force power companies to purchase this above-market priced "renewable" energy.

As Mitchell notes,

In this economy power consumption is down and the pressure is on to keep costs down. Solar power isn’t cheap.

NV Energy has isn't likely to purchase ENN's power, unless it receives pressure. California, which has a pretty stringent requirement for renewable generation, is pushing power companies to avoid purchasing this power from out of state suppliers.

Even worse, this project may qualify for loans from part of the investment fund created by SB75 out of State Permanent School Fund. Renewable energy projects are specifically mentioned as among those eligible for these funds. If ENN's project is eligible for and receives funds from the SB75 investment fund, the taxpayers could be even further on the hook for this project.

While I agree with Mitchell the project isn't likely to come to fruition, it probably will make County taxpayers' wallets a little lighter for the experience.

Johnny O Slams Heck for Opposing Bill Johnny O Doesn't Understand

2011-12-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

Rep. Joe Heck voted against the Senate-passed, worse-than-nothing extension of the payroll tax cut. His likely opponent next November, double-dipping John Oceguera reportedly criticized Heck for that vote but, according to the R-J's Political Eye,

The Senate-passed deal wouldn't immediately help small businesses because it extends a payroll tax cut of 2 percent to employees -- but not employers.

"I'm not absolutely 100 percent on that," Oceguera said when asked whether he was aware of the details of the deal.

Of course he's not because he was fed only the talking points and not any the details.

First of all, this "tax cut" is not a tax cut at all. But, if we're going to accept the fact that this tax cut will be beneficial, then the Senate/Democrat plan is worse than nothing.

Under this plan the "cut" will only last for two months. Yes, two months. While the House/GOP plan would put it in place for a year.

This two month period, as the National Payroll Reporting Consortium notes, will be impossible to implement. I have experience in accounting and payroll and the software that many companies use has already been updated for next year. It may take more than two months for the software developers to create a new update, get it out to their customers and have it installed. Especially at the end of the year and first few weeks of the new year, when accounting departments are swamped with year-end closeout activities. The reality is most employees will see their take-home pay go up at the beginning of the year because they'll have to pay at the higher withholding until their company's payroll system is updated.

Another problem with the plan is that the details will make it even more difficult for programmers to implement. The "cut" isn't simply a reduction in the rate but is prorated, for lack of a better word, for the higher income levels (the reduction only applies to the first $18k and change of income, which amounts to 1/6 of the upper limit for Social Security).

This can cause some serious headaches for accounting departments to figure out. Some companies give yearly bonuses after the first of the year. Employees who exceed the SS cap (~$108,000) on their bonus check will only get the "cut" on the first $18k and will, presumably, have to wait until filing their returns next year to get the remainder.

In addition, it will make it difficult for independent contractors and others who file quarterly returns instead of having their taxes withheld to calculate their taxes in the first quarter.

The Democrats are taking advantage of this opportunity to demagogue this issue - even though some of them don't even understand it - and are helped along by some Senate Republicans, but the reality is their plan is worse than nothing.

The Face of Evil

2011-12-19T20:38:00.000-08:00

For those of you who may have fallen for the moral relativism of the media and Madeleine Albright regarding Kim Jong-Il, read this.

He was a ruthless and brutal dictator who starved, tortured and murdered the people he was responsible to care for. His regime controls every aspect of the life of every person. There is not even a modicum of free thought or free will.

Some media reports described his taste for the finer things in life. While he was enjoying those finer things, he was denying even the most basic necessities from those he ruled.

The fact that North Koreans are mourning his death is yet another testament to his evil. His regime was masterful in its brainwashing and mind-control so much so that the victims cry over the loss of their torturer.

While American popular culture at times ridiculed him (Team America: World Police, for example) he was not crazy or a buffoon but profoundly evil, one of the most evil individuals to ever have drawn breath.

UPDATE: A couple more illustrations of the conditions in North Korea.

This famous satellite image at night showing the lights of South Korea compared to the absolute darkness (in more ways than one) of the North.

This chart showing the economic legacy of the Kim regime - growth of GDP in the South compared to decline in GDP in the North.

Senator, Subject of Separation of Powers Lawsuit, Resigns From Government Job

2011-12-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

State Senator Mo Denis (D-LV), who is the object of a separation of powers lawsuit by NPRI's Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation, resigned from his Executive branch position today.

Earlier in the day, NPRI released an FAQ about the lawsuit addressing many questions that have been asked about it.

It's not known yet whether Denis's resignation will mean the Supreme Court will not hear the lawsuit. The Court could rule that, since Denis no longer works in the Executive branch, there is no controversy and the suit is moot.

The Clark County Democratic party, in a statement quoted in the Sun article, revealed it is not concerned with the Constitution.

The Clark County Democratic Party said in a statement that it was “disheartened” by Denis’ decision to leave his job “instead of fighting for himself and his legislative colleagues whom NPRI will target next.”

NPRI responded to the news of Denis's resignation with a statement quoting Joseph Becker, the attorney for the Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation,

Holding a position in the executive or judicial branch of government while serving in the state legislature clearly violates Article 3, Section 1, of Nevada's constitution. Sen. Mo Denis' reported resignation from his executive-branch job with the Public Utilities Commission is a de facto acknowledgement that he recognizes that he has been violating the separation-of-powers clause.

In regards to Pojunis v. State of Nevada, et al., we are evaluating our legal options.

We hope that NPRI proceeds with this suit and the Court decides to hear it for no other reason than we need to know whether the very clear language of the Nevada Constitution means anything or not.

Vivid New Battle of the Bulge Photos

2011-12-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

Friday was the 67th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. This battle was a last-ditch German offensive to try to stop the Allied advance through Europe. The UK's Daily Mail published an amazing series of pictures taken during the Battle of the Bulge, some of them in color.

via Twitter

Union Jihad Trains Its Fire on Goose Laying the Golden Eggs

2011-12-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

Ask around Las Vegas, especially in the corridors of City Hall and the streets of downtown, and people will sing the praises of Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos. The company’s move to the Las Vegas Valley several years ago was celebrated. And Hsieh rescued the City from its ill-advised and misguided decision to build a brand-new City Hall in the depths of the recession by inking a deal to take over the old one.

Hsieh has played a huge role in downtown redevelopment and pledged to invest even more in efforts to revitalize the area. In some ways he has replaced former Mayor Oscar Goodman as unofficial ambassador for the City. Hsieh and Zappos have brought investment dollars, jobs and energy, elements that had been lacking recently, to downtown Las Vegas.

But there is one group not singing the praises of Zappos and Hsieh.

Read the rest at NBC

Nevada education...sigh

2011-12-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

My friend Matt Ladner has an interesting post over at Jaygreene regarding the best low-income school districts (at least in relation to their ability to teach children how to read...which is an important indicator of graduating later in life)....

Note, the top three all have big school choice programs. Florida offers tax credits for donations to Scholarship Tuition Organizations which create scholarships for low-income students and students with disabilities. Florida also has one of the nations largest charter school networks (privately run public schools) and the nations largest virtual school. New York is also school choice friendly as it is home to a strong network of charter schools and the largest network of empowerment schools (public schools that operate more like capitalist franchises of the public school district rather than hubs of some massive Soviet bureaucracy).

So if you are reincarnated as a poor kid (especially a Hispanic) move to New York City or Florida (I vote for Florida because of the weather).

UPDATE FOR STATEWIDE EMBARRASSMENT

I visited the National Center for Education Statistics data center regarding the NAEP test (which Matt references in his post and the first picture). Basically, I found the percentage of low-income students in Miami-Dade scoring proficient or better on the NAEP (25 percent) is the same result as California and Nevada... for all students regardless of income level.

In other words, the best California and Nevada can muster is the achievement levels of low-income students in Miami-Dade. Let that sink in for a moment before reading the next paragraph.

Worse still, when looking at only low-income students, Florida's statewide average is 24 percent proficient or better on the reading exam while Nevada scores 16 percent and California scores 12 percent. In other words, low-income students are twice as likely to score proficient or better in Florida than in progressive California.

Ouch...

The Top 50 Examples of Liberal Media Bias - Part 2

2011-12-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

Warner Todd Huston completes his compilation with numbers 26-50. The first 25 are here.

An Experience in Musical Eclecticism via Social Media

2011-12-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

If the title didn't scare you away...

The Internet and social media offer a wealth of information and entertainment. And a lot of garbage to go along with it. But it also allows us to experience a variety that was not available to even our recent ancestors.

The following three music videos were consecutive posts on my Facebook timeline. They are a mixture of music and cultural genres that, to me, are examples of the wide variety of entertainment options that are available to virtually everyone in their homes via the Internet.

First, an Indian tune (that you may recognize from some beer commercials) accompanied by 60's mod dancing from Warner Todd Huston

Followed by swing music for an airport flash mob by Philip Dahlheimer

Finally, a Dubstep Christmas (with a Griswold lighting display) by Sean Cary and Mark Ciavola.

75 Representatives Now Signed On to No Confidence in Holder Resolution

2011-12-15T22:44:00.000-08:00

The House resolution we highlighted earlier this week expressing No Confidence in Attorney General Eric Holder is now up to 74 co-sponsors in addition to primary sponsor Paul Gosar (R-AZ).

The resolution was a response to the AG's involvement and behavior surrounding the Justice Department and ATF's infamous Fast and Furious program. From a statement issued by Gosar's office,

Congressman Gosar said tonight, "Attorney General Holder and senior officials under his command have been evasive, aloof and have outright lied to Members of Congress, the media and both the American and Mexican people. This is just unacceptable and is a dereliction of duties.

“The Department of Justice serves as the top law enforcement agency for our nation and through this operation, the Attorney General, himself has opened the Department of Justice and our nation up to questions about the facilitation of crimes both in the United States and in Mexico. The position of Attorney General and those that hold it, need our utmost confidence. Attorney General Holder has continually acted without integrity with respect to Operation Fast and Furious, putting the lives and the safety of countless Americans and Mexicans at risk.

“This resolution expresses the fact that we have no confidence in his abilities and seek for him to immediately return the office of which he holds back to one of trust to the American people."

Included among the signers is Nevada's 2nd Congressional district representative Mark Amodei.

State Rakes In Extra Cash as Economy Slowly Comes Back

2011-12-14T22:15:00.000-08:00

An improving economy has generated nearly $60 million above revenue estimates for Nevada’s state government in recent months, according to figures released by the state’s Economic Forum.

The Economic Forum, which provides the revenue projections lawmakers are required to use in creating the state’s budget, revealed that tax collections were more than $21 million above the Forum’s estimates for the last few months of Fiscal Year 2011, which ended on June 30. The state’s economy has also generated just under $38 million more in tax revenue than predicted in the first five months of FY 2012.

In the past, state government gobbled up and spent additional revenues, which was partly responsible for massive increases in expenditures during boom years. It is up to us, the taxpayers, to make sure the state does not repeat that mistake in the current recovery.

According to participants in the Forum, a slow but noticeable recovery is taking place in Nevada. With one notable exception, the presenters appeared cautiously optimistic about the state’s economic future.

Read the rest at NBC

Revolt by Chinese Villagers Chases Out Communists

2011-12-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

After years of the government confiscating their land, residents of the 20,000-population fishing village of Wukan finally signaled they'd had enough.

From The Telegraph of London,

For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt.

The last of Wukan’s dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm against tear gas and water cannons.

Since then, the police have retreated to a roadblock, some three miles away, in order to prevent food and water from entering, and villagers from leaving. Wukan’s fishing fleet, its main source of income, has also been stopped from leaving harbour.

The plan appears to be to lay siege to Wukan and choke a rebellion which began three months ago when an angry mob, incensed at having the village’s land sold off, rampaged through the streets and overturned cars.

Although China suffers an estimated 180,000 “mass incidents” a year, it is unheard of for the Party to sound a retreat.

The uprising was reignited when one of those arrested as they chased out a group of government officials died in custody. Please read the whole thing.

China has been playing a dangerous game of attempting to allow economic freedom to some of its residents while denying it to others and at the same time denying political freedom to all. Economic and political freedom go hand-in-hand, the two cannot be separated for long.

In addition, no one knows the real state of China's economy. While it has been portrayed as a marvel of growth, that perception is driven by statistics provided by the Chinese government, which has an interest in painting a much rosier picture than reality.

China may, in fact, be a powder keg. With the political oppression, it may not take much economic deprivation to ignite it.

h/t Stacy McCain

No Good Deed Goes Unregulated

2011-12-14T20:44:00.000-08:00

An entrepreneur with a great idea to provide a service to people in need finds herself under the crushing boot of the state in Arizona. Lauren Boice started a business in which she locates cosmetologists to make housecalls to the homebound, those too old or sick to leave the home for haircuts and other services.

Rather than congratulate her for efforts the state of Arizona took the opportunity to bring the hammer down on this scofflaw.

Even though she neither practices cosmetology nor runs a cosmetology business, the board is compelling Lauren to obey a host of cosmetology regulations. Their edict: Open a physical salon even though Boice will never use it, or close her business for good.

“Forcing Lauren to open a salon as a condition of doing business is as absurd as compelling Ticketmaster to open a concert hall or requiring Movietickets.com to open a theater,” said Christina Sandefur, an attorney with the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation.

The Goldwater Institute has taken up Lauren's cause and they are suing the state to get the regulators off her back.

This is example of how government is the enemy of innovation. While innovators think outside the box to conceive of new ideas, regulators try to stuff those ideas back into the box (because that's all they know) often mangling or destroying them in the process.

Put the Brakes on Overregulation

2011-12-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

Guest column by Thomas J. Donahue

Washington seems to be stuck in neutral when it comes to some of the most basic responsibilities of government, like reauthorizing core transportation programs or extending key tax provisions. In stark contrast, it is in regulatory overdrive. This administration is churning out significant new rules and regulations at a breathtaking pace—many designed to accelerate an ideological agenda. The flood of new regulations is weakening the labor market as employers, grappling with economic uncertainty, are forced to freeze hiring.

One agency, in particular, has pushed the pedal to the medal. Driven by a pro-union majority of members, the National Labor Relations Board is using and abusing the regulatory and administrative processes to ride roughshod over America’s job creators. The NLRB has issued dozens of decisions incrementally easing union organizing while making it harder for employers to manage their businesses.

In its most aggressive move yet, board members recently approved a rule that would allow labor organizers to effectively ambush employers with union elections. This would leave employers little time to express their views and communicate to workers the pros and cons of unionization. Employees should have the right to join or leave unions under fair rules.

The regulatory overreach doesn’t stop with the NLRB. The Labor Department has 100 rulemakings in the pipeline. Dodd-Frank, the financial reform law, requires 447 rules, 63 reports, and 59 studies—all that and it still falls short of the reform we need. The health care law established 159 new agencies, panels, commissions, and regulatory bodies as well as countless costly mandates. And the Environmental Protection Agency has several billion-dollar plus rules on the docket.

The Chamber believes in strong protections for public health and consumer safety. But these examples underscore the need for systemic reform.

The good news is that for the first time in 65 years we’ve got a real shot at modernizing the federal rulemaking process. The bipartisan Regulatory Accountability Act would ensure that regulations are narrowly tailored, supported by strong and credible data and evidence, and impose the least burden possible. The bill has passed the House and has broad bipartisan support in the Senate. Another key piece of legislation, the REINS Act, would require congressional consent for any regulation with an economic impact of $100 million or more.

The Chamber is ready to put its power behind these and other efforts to halt the regulatory overreach. One way or another, we’ve got to put the brakes on overregulation—or economic certainty and job creation will become road kill.

Thomas J. Donahue is the President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

In the World of Senator Voldemort, er, Reid Only Government Can Create Jobs

2011-12-13T10:42:00.000-08:00

If you listen to someone long enough, he will always let you know who he really is. No one, no matter how well he can act, can hide his true self forever.

We are now learning a lot about what President Obama and his allies feel about private business. Last week, the President gave us a window into his thoughts. Yesterday, Senator Harry Reid let us know what he thinks, or, rather, how little he knows about private business.

“Millionaire job creators are like unicorns,” Reid said Monday. “They’re impossible to find, and they don’t exist.”

Reid was complaining about the GOP’s stand against his efforts to pay for an extension and expansion of the payroll tax cut — levied on the first $106,800 of income — with a 1.9 percent surtax on incomes over a million dollars.

“They call our plan, time after time, a tax on job creators. And I say so-called job creators...every shred of evidence contradicts this red herring,” Reid said. “Only a tiny fraction of people making more than a million dollars, probably less than 1 percent, are small business owners. And only a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction are traditional job creators...Most of these businesses are hedge fund managers or wealthy lawyers. They don’t do much hiring and they don’t need tax breaks.["]

President Obama, Senator Reid and their ideological allies have shown that they believe the government is the singular driver of the economy – the private sector is irrelevant, except to the extent that private companies can trace their success to government funding or power. Reid has made a series of statements indicating this – from his assertion that the private sector hasn’t suffered in this economy to the contention that government regulations don’t kill jobs.

They also have indicated they believe that after a person amasses a certain amount of wealth that money ceases to do anything beneficial for the economy and, thus, it is undeserved. There’s an exception, of course, when it’s in the hands of the government, in which case it is suddenly transformed into the most effective and efficient job-creating vehicle imaginable.

Reid’s reference to hedge fund managers and attorneys could be because those are the only businesspeople who will have anything to do with Harry Reid. They are also, not coincidentally, people whose businesses are dependent upon crony capitalism – that are able to profit from laws and regulations that favor certain businesses and industries at the expense of others.

But Reid’s cynicism about businesses is understandable, although it is the product of his own, and his colleagues’, quest for power. Because they have been so successful over the years at creating roadblocks to businesses, businesspeople are constantly approaching him to gain assistance in removing those barriers.

Aside from the crony capitalists whose businesses are dependent upon government giving them unfair advantages and/or hamstringing competitors, these are likely the only businesspeople Reid encounters. Most real business owners would rather not have anything to do with him.

Although he demagogues in favor of regulations and environmental restrictions, the reality is that he is not averse to helping to waive or alter those rules when it serves the purposes of his cronies or others who have, at least temporarily, earned his favor. That is the very source of his power and prestige.

Reduce the power of government to control our lives and people will no longer need to come crawling to Harry Reid begging for his assistance in removing some regulatory barrier from their path to success – a barrier that Reid likely had a hand in creating.

Once again Reid betrays his ignorance of how things work in the real world outside the DC bubble he and his colleagues have created. But, as usual, it also advances the cause of increasing the power of government, and by extension Harry Reid, to control our lives.

h/t Ari Armstrong for the Voldemort characterization

UPDATE: The infection runs deep.

AZ Congressman Files No Confidence in Holder Resolution in Reaction to Fast and Furious Scandal

2011-12-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) filed a Resolution of No Confidence in Attorney General Eric Holder over the AG's handling of the flawed Fast and Furious program.

In this program the ATF and Justice Department ordered firearms dealers in the United States to sell weapons to known criminals and members of violent Mexican drug gangs. The murders of hundreds of Mexican citizens and at least one American border patrol agent, Brian Terry, are alleged to have been traced to these guns.

Rep. Gosar's resolution was co-sponsored by 21 additional Republican representatives. A release from Gosar's office quoted the Congressman,

“It is imperative that the citizens of our nation have confidence in our Attorney General. After months of evasive answers, silence and outright lies it is time that Congress speak up on behalf of the many people who have or will fall victims to the firearms in the flawed gunrunning operation Fast & Furious.”

Dozens of members of Congress have called for Holder's resignation in the wake of revelations of the existence of Fast and Furious and the Justice Dept's reaction to Congressional inquiries about the program.

Some commentators (see UPDATE below) have speculated that Fast and Furious was a cynical ploy to push stricter gun control laws. If this is true it would be a huge scandal, one of the biggest in our history. The AG's response to questions about the program, including attacking members of the media, has done little to alleviate such conjecture and, in fact, has only fueled speculation about the motives of those running the scheme. Holder needs to come clean about this program.

UPDATE: Gosar has also expressed concern that Fast and Furious may have been used to push for greater gun control in the United States. A member of his staff stated, "One of the real concerns [Rep. Gosar] has is the evidence that suggests the ATF and Holder were using this as a pretext to cause an incident leading to more restrictive gun laws."

UPDATE 2: Gosar spoke with Cam Edwards of NRA News about the resolution.

Flip This House: New Study Confirms Role of Flippers In Housing Collapse

2011-12-11T22:33:00.000-08:00

But everyone who knew anything about the market already knew that. Well, not everyone. Some people still cling to the belief that rogue bankers and mortgage brokers kidnapped innocent people and forced them to sign mortgages for new homes they couldn't afford.

Vegas, Inc. reveals some of the findings of the study by the New York Fed.

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last week reported that their study "revealed some astonishing facts" confirming that in four states hit hard by the real estate meltdown, investors played a disproportionate role in inflating prices to unsustainable levels.

Those states are Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida. Investors are those buying homes intending to rent them out and hoping prices rise over time — or those planning to simply "flip" houses, i.e. selling quickly and reaping a quick profit, the Fed report noted.

Keeping in mind that when home prices fall investors are more likely to default on mortgages than are owner-occupants, the Fed report found:

• At the peak of the boom in 2006 and 2007, about 35 percent of U.S. new-purchase mortgage loan dollars were going to people who already owned at least one house. In Nevada and the three other hard-hit states, that percentage was about 45 – up from about 25 percent in 2000.

• Investors owning three or more properties were responsible for 20 percent of loan originations in 2006 in Nevada and the three other hard-hit states, almost triple their share in 2000.

• Investors nationwide were more likely than owner-occupants to have received nonprime loans, or loans with low down payments and high interest rates. About 25 percent of such borrowing nationwide at the end of 2006 involved borrowers with three or more properties vs. 35 percent in Nevada and the three other hard-hit states.

Nearly half of all homes purchased in Nevada at the height of the boom were by investors. That is insane and a recipe for disaster.

Most people familiar at all with the industry knew of the massive numbers of investors, many of them ordinary people attracted by the lure of easy money, who purchased homes in order to sell them quickly ("flip") and make a quick buck as the housing bubble inflated and prices escalated. I can remember driving down the streets of new housing developments and seeing For Sale signs in front of half or more of the homes.

Further, these investors were more likely to take on risky loans - no down payment, adjustable-rate, interest-only, even negative amortization loans where the payment was less than the interest accrued each month during the introductory period. The less money they had to put out, the greater the return on investment. And if someone was going to flip the house just after closing (there were even cases where the purchases closed within days of each other) they didn't care what the interest rate would be two or three or five years down the road.

Minimize the money out of pocket - down payment and the initial monthly payment - and maximize the profit. In many cases these investors never made a mortgage payment before they flipped their houses.

The easy credit available was another attraction. Fannie Mae was offering to back loans at this time to borrowers with 580 credit scores who would not have to prove income or assets. In other words, anyone who had a pulse and a credit card could get a loan for hundreds of thousands of dollars with repayment guaranteed by the taxpayers. What a country!

These buyers were also the first to walk away when the bubble burst and the prices began falling. Since they didn't plan on living in the homes and they weren't going to come out of pocket with any additional money they didn't mind letting them go. It was the glut of these homes on the market that caused housing prices to take a nosedive.

It's also not a surprise that some of these borrowers lied about an investment home being their primary residence. Why not? What did they have to lose? It's not as if the Attorney General is going to pursue this type of fraud with the same zeal that she is going after the banks who made these loans or had the misfortune to have been forced to buy the mortgage company that did.

There are some people who continue to cling to the myth that "predatory lending", whatever that is, and Wall Street greed were solely responsible for the financial collapse. While there certainly were excesses by banks and mortgage companies, to ignore all other factors - too easy credit, the government encouraging banks to loan money to people with little chance of paying it back, people using their homes as ATM's as values spiraled up, investors looking for a quick buck in real estate by flipping houses, etc. - is myopic or, in some cases, deliberately deceptive in order to push a political agenda.

The impact of investors on the housing market, especially in Las Vegas, is something that everyone knew about but doesn't advance the narrative of the demagogues. This study confirms what we all knew but some have chosen to ignore.

More Bluster from the Hermit

2011-12-11T15:40:00.000-08:00

No, not me!

The Hermit Kingdom, North Korea, which is threatening South Korea for committing the intolerable act of aggression of...putting up Christmas lights where they are visible from the North.

Now that's a War on Christmas!

Why Obama's Stimulus Failed

2011-12-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

According to the administration and its sycophants, it didn't. But reality argues otherwise.

The administration claimed unemployment would reach 8% with the stimulus (or 8.8% without it). But the rate has been over 9% most of the last three years.

Economic growth has been below normal, even as it traditionally reaches unusually high levels during rebounds from recessions.

Using the example of Silver Spring, MD, ReasonTV and economist Veronique de Rugy take a look at why the stimulus failed and present the case that the failure should not have been a surprise.

Even if you were to believe that government spending can trigger economic growth, the money is never spent in a way that is consistent with the conditions laid out by the Keynesians for it to be efficient.

Nor was the case of Silver Spring unusual. Clark County spent millions in stimulus money on items such as tree-planting, freeway landscaping, purchasing buses and bus shelters and replacing asphalt at bus stops with concrete. Millions more was spent on retaining government workers, putting a strain on state and local budgets when the federal money ran out.

h/t Tina Korbe at Hot Air

Why Separation of Powers Matters

2011-12-10T21:36:00.000-08:00

Last week NPRI's Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation filed a lawsuit to force the state of Nevada to enforce the state Constitution's separation of powers doctrine, which prohibits legislators from serving in the Executive branch but has been conveniently ignored for decades.

This week NPRI's Write On Nevada has been documenting the abuses of that Constitutional provision and the consequences associated with those abuses.

On Monday, they relayed the story of CCSN, Wendel Williams, Chris Giunchigliani and Mark Manendo. The then-2-year college coincidentally happened to employ a number of legislators who allegedly helped the school realize the dream of its administration to become the 4-year College of Southern Nevada. It pays to have friends in high places, which is part of the problem.

Tuesday, Write On Nevada asks and answers the question "Is Freedom Inevitable?"

Freedom isn't inevitable. Freedom is rare, and we should do everything in our power to protect the form and structure of our government — including a clear separation-of-powers provision — which provided us with freedom.

On Wednesday they presented thoughts from great thinkers in history - Madison, Montesquieu and others.

Thursday they commended legislators such as Ben Kieckhefer and Lucy Flores, who resigned from their Executive branch positions before taking their seats as legislators.

Finally, on Friday they highlighted collusion between government agencies and elected officials. This post relates the story of possibly the most brazen violation of the separation of powers doctrine in Nevada history.

NPRI's suit is an extremely important action to enforce a vital provision of the state's Constitution. As they document in the Write On Nevada series this week, violation of this principle presents tremendous potential for corruption.

The old saying goes, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Nevada's separation of powers doctrine is designed to prevent such corruption. History has shown that the state's very lax enforcement of that doctrine has already resulted in corruption of government. For the sake of honest government this provision of the state's Constitution must be enforced.

The Top 50 Examples of Liberal Media Bias - Part 1

2011-12-10T14:25:00.000-08:00

My friend Warner Todd Huston has compiled the list. The first 25 are available now.

Paying People to Not Work Creates More Jobs Than Putting Them to Work

2011-12-10T14:09:00.002-08:00

That's the message the President delivered this week.

Somehow it is better for the economy for people to collect benefits for not working than to collect paychecks for having a job. This is consistent with the actions, if not the words, of President Obama’s administration up to this point. Now he’s merely made it explicit.

His policies have discouraged private employers while touting the government’s role in “creating or saving” jobs. It’s almost as if only those who collect money from the government, whether through benefits or as a government employee, really count in his vision of the economy.

IBD claims, as a result of this attitude, Obama is blocking the biggest shovel-ready project ever.

You can see why the economy is in trouble. Vice President Joe Biden, the stimulus sheriff, says he turned first to MF Global's Jon Corzine for economic advice and President Obama thinks 20,000 people getting extended unemployment benefits does more for the economy than 20,000 people getting paychecks to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada.

The Keystone XL is not the only example. From its hostility to harvesting domestic sources of energy to embracing the Blackout Rule to the regulatory behemoth it is creating, the administration has shown itself to be antagonistic to attempts to develop the private economy.

Thomas Mitchell points out the EPA has issued a draft report, based upon a possibly flawed study, opposing a hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, project. This development of this technology has made it economically feasible to access oil and natural gas deposits within the United States.

But the environmentalist have gone Chicken Little crazy, trying to find some shred of evidence that fracking could cause some problem, somewhere, somehow — even though logic would indicate that fewer wells drilling through the drinking water aquifers would reduce the risk of contamination. But what’s logic got to do with a good job-killing panic?

[…]

Never let the facts stand in the way of a good job-killing stampede.

The administration and its allies have pushed businesses such as Solyndra, a company that was unable to secure private financing because of its fatally-flawed business model, and the “green” energy industry in general – much of which is entirely reliant on government support, such as subsidies and loan guarantees, because the companies are unable to offer cost-competitive alternatives to traditional energy sources.

At the same time these same people have not merely discouraged but actively prevented other projects that are entirely funded by private sources and have a virtual certainty of being successful.

It is as though the only businesses and jobs that matter are those that can be directly traced back to government programs or government action. Jobs produced by private businesses are to be condemned or not counted.

The idea that it is more beneficial to the economy to pay people to not work than to allow them to get jobs is not only asinine, it’s exceedingly dangerous.

The basis of our economy, of any economy, is the exchange of goods and services for other goods and services, including exchanging labor for money. That labor creates something of value for which the laborer is compensated, both sides ending up wealthier at the conclusion of the transaction.

The notion that simply giving money to that person for the simple fact of their existence, where they contributed no additional value or created no additional wealth, is actually better for the economy is laughable.

There is an old saying that if you subsidize something you get more of it. By subsidizing not working we are bound to get more of it.

This is not an argument against a social safety net. It is an argument against the absurd argument that those who are benefitting from it are doing more for the economy by receiving its benefits than are those who are working.

The President and many of his supporters are trying to convince us of that. Or that only jobs created by government subsidies or programs or policies really count, not those created by private businesses. I think, I hope, the American people are smarter than that.

Are You Ready for the Day the Lights Go Out?

2011-12-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

Because it's coming. Someday in the not-too-distant future we in the United States are going to suffer blackouts and brownouts on a significant and fairly consistent basis.

If we stay on the same course we're currently on, sometime, likely in the next decade or so, we are not going to be able to generate enough power to keep the lights on all the time.

It's not that we don't have the technical know-how or the available resources to provide sufficient electrical power. We do. It's not that power companies are unable to produce enough power to meet demand. They are.

When it happens it will be entirely the result of misguided government policy. Over the last decade or so we have shunned cheap, reliable sources of energy to chase a liberal pipedream and, if we don't change course, it's going to have serious consequences. Although they certainly didn't start this soon-to-be-regretted trend the Obama Administration is accelerating it.

The latest threat is from what is called the Utility MACT Rule or, as it has more accurately been called, the Blackout Rule because of the likelihood it will result in massive losses of power. As a Wall Street Journal editorial this week reported,

The threat is that the EPA is triggering what NERC calls "an unprecedented resource-mix change," with utilities switching to natural gas from coal. For the first time in U.S. history, net coal capacity is in decline. On top of the 38 gigawatts of generation that is already being run below normal levels or slated for early retirement, NERC [National Energy Regulatory Commission] predicts another 36 to 59 gigawatts will come offline by 2018, depending on the "scope and timing" of EPA demands. That could mean nearly a quarter of all coal-fired capacity.

According to the report, "the nation's power grid will be stressed in ways never before experienced" and reliability depends on building new power plants to cover the losses. But the electric industry has only three years to comply under one EPA regulation known as the utility rule that is meant to target mercury and is due to be finalized soon, while many other destructive rules are in the works.

Replacing power is not like replacing a lost cellphone. There are bottlenecks in permitting, engineering, financing and building a new plant and then tying it to the electricity network. Over this same three-year window, NERC estimates that between 576 and 677 plants will need to be temporarily shut down to install retrofits like scrubbers or baghouses.

The EPA could release this rule as soon as December 16.

At a time when our energy needs are increasing we are not only not building enough new power plants we are reducing the capacity we currently have. Here in Nevada, a few years ago we had three coal-fired power plants planned that would have produce 3.75 Gigawatts. But Senator Harry Reid publicly opposed them and over the course of the next couple years these plans dropped off one by one.

This is an absolutely dangerous situation. And policies such as the Blackout Rule are hastening the day when we will no longer be able to produce enough power to meet demand.

When these policies begin causing massive price increases and blackouts, expect the politicians and bureaucrats to demagogue and point their fingers at the power companies. But, as the WSJ explains, "when the brownouts and cost-spikes occur, don't blame the utilities. Blame their regulator." And the politicians, we would add.

Battle of the Ads

2011-12-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Powerful new ad by Newt Gingrich. Quote: "We can and will rebuild the America we love"

Newt could have used another take on the opening few lines - they don't sound as natural as they should. Overall, though, it's a great spot.

Perry on faith. Quote: "As President, I'll end Obama's war on religion. And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage."

Perry looks and sounds confident and composed, everything he hasn't been in the debates.

Romney with "Leader". Quote: "If I'm President of the United States, I will be true to my family, my faith and our country and I will never apologize for the United States of America." (Are those shots at Obama and Newt?)

Let me stress that I am firmly undecided on my choice for President. But I will post videos presented by the campaigns that are good, bad or otherwise noteworthy.

"A Date Which Will Live In Infamy"

2011-12-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

Seventy years ago, December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States officially entered World War II.

The goal of the United States was "complete and absolute victory over the forces of evil."

Occupy LV Makes Another Grasp at Relevance

2011-12-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

The radicals, statists and professional protesters who comprise the leadership of Occupy Las Vegas descended upon the offices of Nevada's congressional delegation but came away disappointed when they didn't get kicked out of anyone's office.

Some protesters came prepared for confrontation but the interactions generally were peaceful.

"We figured we'd get run out of one office before we went to another," said Sebring Frehner of Las Vegas, a student at Nevada State College sitting in Heck's office. "We are not amateurs at this. We know we are going to get run out."

"Getting run out is kind of the point," said Debra Dickerson of Washington, D.C.

In the Nevada delegation, organizers targeted Heller and Heck, who have drawn the ire of activists and opposition from Democrats after taking positions in favor of revamping Medicare and for questioning the long-term viability of Social Security without a similar restructuring.

"Given the limited amount of time we wanted to make our voices heard to those we think have been the most unresponsive in listening to the concerns of everyday Americans," Fadie said.

While they may be capitalizing on the concerns of everyday Americans what they stand for is far from anything that is supported by everyday Americans. It is the agenda of a narrow group of leftists, radicals and government union members who want a government that is already larger than ever to become even more expensive and more intrusive and to control even more of everyone's lives.

They are completely oblivious to the collapse of Europe, which is a direct result of the policies that the more moderate among them advocate. The more radical among them would go even further.

Of course they concentrated on the Republican officials, as Occupy Las Vegas is a product of the unions and left-wing groups that are the major constituency of the Democrat party. The Occupiers are advocating the same big government agenda the protesters at the Legislature pushed for earlier this year.

In fact, the leadership of Occupy Las Vegas are many of the same people who participated in those protests. They've simply moved on to to this movement, or their bosses have instructed them to become involved in this movement, whatever the particular case may be.

We have to give the Las Vegas Occupiers credit, though. They have not had many of the same problems with crime and filth that have characterized many of the other Occupy settlements around the country. On the other hand it has made them rather boring. Looks like they're trying to spice things up a bit.

Who Are the Parasites Draining Union Dues?

2011-12-06T22:01:00.000-08:00

LaborUnion Report has released November's Union Corruption Report. A sampling:

On November 17, 2011, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Tommy Harris, former Secretary-Treasurer of National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 1230 (located in Griffin, Ga.), pled guilty to one count of embezzlement totaling $24,646.82, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 501(c). The guilty plea follows an investigation by OLMS Atlanta District Office.

On November 17, 2011, in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Kevin McKnight, former Secretary-Treasurer of United Transportation Union (UTU) Local 1390 (located in Laurence Harbor, N.J.), was charged in a one-count information with embezzling union funds in the amount of approximately $68,000, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 501(c). McKnight then pled guilty to the charge. While Secretary-Treasurer, he withdrew approximately $68,000 from the union’s bank account for his personal use. The sentencing is scheduled for February 28, 2012. The charge and guilty plea follow an investigation by the OLMS New York District Office.

Nothing on the list from Nevada. In fact, virtually all of this month's transgressions were from the East Coast and Midwest.

Brookings Study Waves the Flag for Crony Capitalism

2011-12-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

NPRI's Geoff Lawrence looks at the Brookings Economic Diversity study and came to a familiar conclusion. Great minds think alike, I guess.

Lawrence identifies a number of flaws in the report - from repeating the myth Nevada is a low-tax state to the flawed assertion more funding will improve education to pushing for more green energy despite the fact that will increase the state's already-high energy costs to the promotion of crony capitalism.

The document presents a severely defective plan that pushes the omnipotence and infallibility of government as the solution to the state's current economic woes.

Instead of focusing on the many ways government and Nevada's most powerful special interests have long fought the natural diversification of Nevada's economy, "Unify, Regionalize, Diversify" urges lawmakers to pick economic winners and losers. It is a roadmap for crony capitalism — not for successful economic development.

Nevada's citizens and lawmakers should reject the report's underlying premise — that government does a better job running the economy than individuals working in a free-market system — and most of its recommendations.

Lawrence's analysis is excellent and well worth the time.

100 Incredible Views Out Of Airplane Windows

2011-12-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

Awesome photos from all over the world.

via Instapundit

Crazy

2011-12-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

I'm not a Ron Paul fan. I agree with about 80% of what he says but he really loses me on the other 20%. Of course, most of his supporters like him because of that 20.

One thing he does have is a lot of rabid and creative followers. Which is how they come up with ads like this, which I have to say is excellent.

Dems' Payroll "Tax Cut" Isn't a Tax Cut, It's a Loan that You And Your Kids Will Have to Pay Back

2011-12-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

While Democrats have been demagoguing the payroll tax cuts (and tax increases on high-income earners) the reality is these "tax cuts" are not really tax cuts at all but are loans that will need to be repaid. And the proposed tax increases don't do anything to reduce the amount of the loans. Furthermore, they could hasten the day Social Security will run out of money.

The 2% payroll tax cut comes directly out of the contribution each of us makes to Social Security. It lowers the amount we pay into Social Security from 6.2% to 4.2% of our gross pay. That, and the employer match, are the only funding that Social Security receives.

So that money will have to be made up in the future by increasing taxes. Either that or the Social Security Trust Fund will be depleted even sooner. Or both.

When Trust Fund runs out the law requires that Social Security benefits must be cut immediately so that SS outlays are not greater than SS income. At the current projections that would be about a 30% cut in SS benefits. Who thinks that's going to happen?

The taxes that Democrats proposed be raised to make up for the lost revenue are not directed to Social Security. So they will only allow Congress to increase current general spending and will have no effect on current or future SS obligations.

The result of all of this is that, unless spending is reduced, the money that we are allowed to keep from these "tax cuts" will have to be paid back some time in the future, with interest. Since the people pushing this have no intention of reducing spending, all they are doing is allowing us to keep a little more money now while making us promise to pay them back more later. Some tax cut.

Duane Lester at All American Blogger has an excellent post on the subject.

Evidence Shows Policy Uncertainty IS Related to Hiring

2011-12-05T20:31:00.000-08:00

Confirming what business owners know to be true a recent study by a duo from the Cleveland Fed reveals businesses' expansion plans, whether to hire and/or make capital expenditures, are related to government policy uncertainty.

A reluctance to invest and hire in the face of uncertainty just seems natural. The more certain businesses are about future governmental policies the more likely they are to take risks. Increasing uncertainty increases risks and therefore will make businesses more hesitant.

However, some recent reports, including one by the US Treasury, have stated that policy uncertainty is not a major impediment to job growth.

Sean Hackbarth at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's ChamberPost blog reports on a study by Mark E. Schweitzer, Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Cleveland Federal Reserve and Scott Shane, professor at Case Western Reserve University's business school. They use a policy uncertainty index developed by other researchers and compare the index to surveys indicating the percentage of small businesses that plan to hire and/or make capital expenditures.

Historically, high policy uncertainty correlates to low percentages of small businesses planning to hire or invest, and vice-versa. Schweitzer and Shane report,

While the downturn and weak recovery certainly had a large negative effect on small business hiring plans, policy uncertainty has exacerbated this effect. In the summer of 2011, the net percentage of small business owners planning to hire would be 6 percentage points higher if it were not for policy uncertainty. That is, either 6 percent more small business owners would be planning to hire (or 6 percent more small business owners would not be planning to lay off workers), were policy uncertainty not currently an issue. The results for capital expenditures are very similar.

They acknowledge the fact that this study doesn't prove that policy uncertainty caused business to hold back hiring and expansion, as no statistical analysis can truly determine the root cause of behavior. However, they assert that it is not irrelevant and should be considered by policymakers.

Help Halt the NLRB’s Assault On America’s Union-Free Workplace

2011-12-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

The National Labor Relations Board has transformed itself from a neutral arbiter of labor issues to an anti-business attack dog for Big Labor. The Ambush Rules passed last week were merely the latest in a string of assaults on business. Our friends at LaborUnionReport.com have chronicled some of them.

Micro-unions: In a recent ruling, the NLRB has given unions the green light to begin unionizing portions companies by what are called “micro-unions.” Now, union can unionize small segments of a company by classification (or department).
Reducing employees’ rights to rid themselves of unwanted unions: In a reversal of a previous NLRB decision, the Obama-NLRB has made it much more difficult for employees to decertify unions where highly flawed card-check method of unionization had been utilized. The NLRB’s reversal was only outdone by the NLRB’s destroying of ballots from elections that were already held, but were awaiting the outcome of the NRLB’s decision.
Requiring union-free employees to post union posters. Though delayed, the NLRB is requiring all union-free, private-sector employers to post NLRB posters explaining workers’ rights to unionize.
Legitimizing union ‘sweetheart deals.’ Last year, the NLRB approved unions’ ability to negotiation pre-recognition agreements in exchange for ‘card check,’ thus undermining employees’ rights through “sweetheart deals.”

LUR has also provided a means to fight back. It highlights an online petition from the Free Enterprise Alliance and its Halt the Assault campaign. Send a message to Washington to halt the NLRB's assault on America's businesses. (Click Read more to see)

Cain Out of Race; Endorsement Coming? UPDATED

2011-12-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

I wonder if the ten grand to the NRP is refundable.

Yesterday Herman Cain announced he was suspending his campaign, meaning, despite the claims from him and his supporters otherwise, he's dropping out of the race.

The rumor in the Twitterverse is that he will be endorsing...

Newt Gingrich.

A report in The Hill newspaper echoes this claim.

UPDATE: After both camps initially denied Cain will be issuing an endorsement, it appears he will be endorsing Gingrich after all. Gingrich has scheduled a press conference for 2 p.m. Eastern today after Gingrich meets with Donald Trump.

LA Occupiers: Too Fragile for the Real World

2011-12-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

The cops raided OccupyLA earlier this week and arrested around 300 people. This is one of a number of such actions in which cities are cleaning out these protests, which have often become bastions of filth, disease and crime.

Most of the people detained were released on Friday night. Turns out some of the little dears missed their mommies, or something.

One speaker suggested that some of those arrested might need therapy. Several said they felt traumatized after witnessing police use nonlethal force and being forced to wait for hours in zip-tie handcuffs. Some displayed cuts on their wrists from the handcuffs. Others complained that they were forced to urinate in bags on the bus as they were transported to jails.

Really? Traumatized? Therapy? We really have become decadent and soft. Or at least some of us have.

This is the product of a generation that has been pampered and coddled. One that has never had to deal with any type of deprivation and has been shielded from disappointment. One in which nothing was allowed to damage their fragile self-esteem - where even poor performance and lack of effort generated praise and everyone was a winner. One where the response to every setback was therapy and medication - the Ritalin generation.

In some ways it's little wonder that people who grew up in that artificial world would rebel against the reality. And if this is what they consider "traumatic" they still have a lot of adjusting to the real world still left to do.