• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 28th from 18:39 to 19:04

    These are my links for February 28th from 18:39 to 19:04:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 28th from 18:00 to 18:10

    These are my links for February 28th from 18:00 to 18:10:

    • Low-flow toilets cause a stink in San Francisco – San Francisco's big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.

      Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.

      The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem.

      Now officials are stocking up on a $14 million, three-year supply of highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite – better known as bleach – to act as an odor eater and to disinfect the city's treated water before it's dumped into the bay. It will also be used to sanitize drinking water.

      That translates into 8.5 million pounds of bleach either being poured down city drains or into the drinking water supply every year.

      Not everybody thinks it's a good idea.

      A Don't Bleach Our Bay alert has just gone out from eco-blogger Adam Lowry who argues the city would be much better off using a disinfectant like hydrogen peroxide – or better yet, a solution that would naturally break down the bacteria.

      As for whether the supposedly environmentally friendly, low-flow toilets are worth the trouble? Well, according to Jue, they have helped trim San Francisco's annual water consumption by about 20 million gallons.

      ++++++++

      The unintended consequences of environmental political correctness.

      Or how about an error in judgment?

    • Wisconsin Sarcasm – Gov. Scott Walker’s Response to President Obama – Dripping statement from Walker spox mocks president’s “misunderstanding” of budget repair bill debate.

      Statement in Response to President Obama’s Misunderstanding

      Madison– Today President Obama again weighed in against Governor Walker’s proposal to balance the state’s budget deficit by having state government workers contribute a modest amount toward their own pensions and pay 12.6 percent toward their healthcare premiums.

      In response to the President’s comments, the Governor’s Press Secretary Cullen Werwie issued the following statement:

      I'm sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I'm sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts.

      Furthermore, I’m sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin.

      I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.

      +++++++++

      Back at you pal…..

    • Scott Walker responds to Obama: You sound a little like a union boss, you know that? – Oh, now, no he doesn’t. Union bosses are known for making thinly veiled violent threats, like the time his pal Trumka reacted to a strikebreaker being shot dead with a wink-wink about not playing with matches if you don’t want your fingers burned. The One doesn’t say stuff like that; he sits back and lets other people say it, then does his above-the-fray shtick by pleading for civility towards those on his side. Much more nuanced.

      Walker’s office issued this statement:

      “I’m sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I’m sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts.

      “Furthermore, I’m sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin.

      “I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.”

      ++++++++

      Read it all

  • Charles Koch

    Charles Koch: Why Koch Industries is Speaking Out

    Charles Koch of Koch Industries

    A piece in tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal lays it out.

    Years of tremendous overspending by federal, state and local governments have brought us face-to-face with an economic crisis. Federal spending will total at least $3.8 trillion this year—double what it was 10 years ago. And unlike in 2001, when there was a small federal surplus, this year’s projected budget deficit is more than $1.6 trillion.

    Several trillions more in debt have been accumulated by state and local governments. States are looking at a combined total of more than $130 billion in budget shortfalls this year. Next year, they will be in even worse shape as most so-called stimulus payments end.

    For many years, I, my family and our company have contributed to a variety of intellectual and political causes working to solve these problems. Because of our activism, we’ve been vilified by various groups. Despite this criticism, we’re determined to keep contributing and standing up for those politicians, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who are taking these challenges seriously.

    Both Democrats and Republicans have done a poor job of managing our finances. They’ve raised debt ceilings, floated bond issues, and delayed tough decisions.

    In spite of looming bankruptcy, President Obama and many in Congress have tiptoed around the issue of overspending by suggesting relatively minor cuts in mostly discretionary items. There have been few serious proposals for necessary cuts in military and entitlement programs, even though these account for about three-fourths of all federal spending.

    Yes, some House leaders have suggested cutting spending to 2008 levels. But getting back to a balanced budget would mean a return to at least 2003 spending levels—and would still leave us with the problem of paying off our enormous debts.

    Federal data indicate how urgently we need reform: The unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already exceed $106 trillion. That’s well over $300,000 for every man, woman and child in America (and exceeds the combined value of every U.S. bank account, stock certificate, building and piece of personal or public property).

    The Congressional Budget Office has warned that the interest on our federal debt is “poised to skyrocket.” Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is sounding alarms. Yet the White House insists that substantial spending cuts would hurt the economy and increase unemployment.

    Read the rest here.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 28th from 15:42 to 16:54

    These are my links for February 28th from 15:42 to 16:54:

    • Obama flies workout trainer out to D.C. often, increases carbon footprint – Washington may be the nation’s capital — and one of America’s fittest cities — but its trainers apparently don’t cut it for President Barack Obama, who frequently flies his personal fitness instructor from Chicago to D.C., reports the New York Times.

      Cited as the mastermind behind first lady Michelle Obama’s “famously toned arms,” trainer Cornell McClellan has managed the Obamas’ workout routines for more than a decade. The owner of Naturally Fit, a Chicago-based personal training and wellness center, McClellan spends part of his week in D.C. at the president’s request.

      “It was an easy sell for me, because I thought of it as kind of a duty, to serve the president,” McClellan said.

      McClellan usually works with the Obamas in early morning sessions at the White House gym. The first lady and president both attempt to work out for at least an hour each day, and Mr. McClellan says he typically sees them two to four times a week, depending on their other duties.

      ++++++

      Obama may be just a little hypocritical here?

      You betcha.

    • Is the U.S. Immigration Debate Going in the Right Direction? – New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican who became the state’s first Latina governor after the November elections, rescinded an executive order by former Gov. Bill Richardson that prohibited law enforcement officials from asking people about their immigration status for the sole purpose of determining if the individual had violated immigration laws. Opponents have likened the bill to Arizona’s SB1070 and claim the order will lead to racial profiling. Will other states follow suit and enact similar legislation? Is comprehensive immigration reform likely to be addressed this year and, if so, what would that consist of?

      +++++++

      Read it all

      There will be NO comprehensive immigration reform unless Obama is re-elected and the Democrats win 60 plus members of the U.S. Senate.

      This means there will be none in the foreseeable future.

    • Mark Steyn: STATES OF THE UNIONS – You don’t have to go to Athens to find “public servants” happy to take it out on the public. In Madison, politicized doctors provide fake sick notes for politicized teachers to skip class. In New York’s Christmas snowstorm, Sanitation Department plough drivers are unable to clear the streets, with fatal consequences for some residents. On the other hand, they did manage to clear the snow from outside the Staten Island home of Sanitation Dept head honcho John Doherty, while leaving all surrounding streets pristinely clogged. Three hundred Sanitation Department workers have salaries of over $100,000 per year. In retirement, you get a pension of 66 grand per annum plus excellent health benefits, all inflation proofed.

      That’s what “collective bargaining” is about: It enables unions rather than citizens to set the price of government. It is, thus, a direct assault on republican democracy, and it needs to be destroyed. Unlovely as they are, the Greek rioters and the snarling thugs of Madison are the logical end point of the advanced social democratic state: not an oppressed underclass, but a spoiled overclass, rioting in defense of its privileges and insisting on more subsidy, more benefits, more featherbedding, more government.

      Big Unions fund Big Government. The union slices off two per cent of the workers’ pay and sluices it to the Democratic Party, which uses it to grow government, which also grows unions, which thereby grows the number of two-per-cent contributions, which thereby grows the Democratic Party, which thereby grows government… Repeat until bankruptcy. Or bailout.

      In his pithiest maxim, John Maynard Keynes, the most influential economist of the 20th century social-democratic state and the patron saint of “stimulus”, offered a characteristically offhand dismissal of any obligation to the future: “In the long run we are all dead.” The Greek and Wisconsin bullies are Keynesians to a man: The mob is demanding the right to carry on suspending reality until they’re all dead. After that, who cares?

      If the new class war is between “public servants” and the rest of us, some countries no longer have enough of “the rest of us” even to put up a fight. That’s why you can’t wait to fight in the last ditch. The longer you wait to stand up against the “public service” unions, the less your chance of winning.

      ++++++++

      Read it all

      There is a class war between public servants and the rest of the taxpaying public.

      Mark Steyn illuminates the conflict in this piece.

    • Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels Is Tough On Budgets : NPR’s Interview – n 2005 on his first day in office, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed an order ending collective bargaining with public employee unions. He said it freed him to turn over some state jobs to private contractors.

      Daniels was able to put his state’s finances in order just as other states headed for trouble. Now, that’s a big part of his reputation, and some Republicans are promoting him as a possible presidential candidate.

      Yet as he looks back on that budget-cutting moment with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Daniels says that he also added government jobs in the child welfare system.

      Mitch Daniels is a former budget director to President Bush. He won re-election as governor at the same time Indiana was carried by President Obama. Currently, he’s pushing contentious conservative plans. Just last week, Democrats walked out of the Indiana state Legislature protesting a range of Daniels’ plans, including government vouchers for private schools.

      Read the full transcript of Steve Inskeep’s interview with Gov. Mitch Daniels below.

      +++++++

      Read it all

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 28th from 14:29 to 14:32

    These are my links for February 28th from 14:29 to 14:32:

    • Obama: Flexibility OK, but ObamaCare health care law remains – Anxious to ease deepening political tensions with the states, President Barack Obama on Monday told governors he wants to speed up their ability to enforce his signature health care law on their own terms. But his concession goes only so far: He warned he won't allow states to weaken the law.

      He also told them not to vilify their own states' public workers while struggling with spending cuts.

      Hosting governors of both parties on his own turf, Obama offered them what they often request: more flexibility as they cope with painful budget dilemmas. Declaring that he would "go to bat for whatever works," Obama supported letting states propose their own health care plans by 2014 — three years faster than the current law allows.

      Yet this would be no change to the fundamental requirements of a federal law that has divided the nation and prompted about half the states to try to overturn it through lawsuits. To gain new powers, states would first have to convince Washington that their plans would cover as many people, provide equally affordable and comprehensive care and not add to the federal deficit.

      ++++++++

      Maybe the states governors should just run away to Europe or Asia so they do not have to implement this law?

      Seriously though, Obama is being disingenuous here as members of his administration earlier in the day told Left-wing supporters that this change to the states would allow more easy implementation of single payer health care systems in the states, including Vermont and Connecticut.

    • ObamaCare: On call, officials stress public options in health care shift – Jennifer Haberkorn reports that President Obama's move to allow states flexibility in spending health care funds is the "most significant change" since the law was enacted, and a potential gesture toward critics.

      But a source on a White House conference call with liberal allies this morning says the Administration is presenting it to Democrats as an opportunity to offer more expansive health care plans than the one Congress passed.

      Health care advisers Nancy-Ann DeParle and Stephanie Cutter stressed on the off-record call that the rule change would allow states to implement single-payer health care plans — as Vermont seeks to — and true government-run plans, like Connecticut's Sustinet.

      The source on the call summarizes the officials' point — which is not one the Administration has sought to make publically — as casting the new "flexibility" language as an opportunity to try more progressive, not less expansive, approaches on the state level.

      "They are trying to split the baby here: on one hand tell supporters this is good for their pet issues, versus a message for the general public that the POTUS is responding to what he is hearing and that he is being sensible," the source emails. (This CNN story reflects the public presentation.)

      ++++++++

      Another ruse by the Obama administration on ObamaCare.

      Just repeal this bad legislation

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 28th from 11:40 to 13:36

    These are my links for February 28th from 11:40 to 13:36:

  • President 2012

    Audio Update: President 2012: Republicans Waiting for 2016 Should Run in 2012

    Today on The Laura Ingraham Show, Laura issued a challenge to those Republicans who have yet to decide whether or not they will challenge President Obama in 2012 or 2016: it’s now or never. Both Bill Kristol and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) agreed with Laura.

    According to South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham.

    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged Republicans who are reportedly waiting until 2016 to run for president to consider getting off the sidelines for 2012.

    Graham said Monday that the time was ripe to take on President Obama, and that any candidate with the ambition to be president should run.

    “If you really decide to do this, now’s the time,” Graham said, noting speculation that a number of top GOP candidates are waiting until 2016. “If you think you should be president, it’s not about timing, it’s about ability.”

    Absolutely correct. Chris Christie, Bobby Jindahl, Sarah Palin. Mitch Daniels, Bob McDonnell should ALL give it a shot.

    President Obama WILL have an advantage but the race is really in just a few states. I mean, who cares about California and New York?

    Graham is correct here:

    Graham said that he didn’t expect Obama to win North Carolina, Virginia or Indiana, as he did in 2008, and speculated that the president might be vulnerable in Wisconsin and Ohio, the latter of which is a traditional bellwether in presidential campaigns.

    “Any sitting president probably has some built-in advantages, but this guy’s incredibly exposed,” Graham said.

    All a GOP nominee needs to do is win/flip Virginia, Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Game, set, match.

  • Americans For Prosperity,  Charles Koch,  David Koch

    Americans for Prosperity Calls on Opponents to Condemn Squelching of Free Speech


    Americans for Prosperity website

    The Far Left group “Anonymous” took down their website yesterday via a Denial of Service attack (DNS).

    The online activist group “anonymous,” which has used coordinated denial of service attacks — a crude but effective Internet weapon — to temporary disable sites belonging to foes ranging from Scientology to WikiLeaks foes — has turned its firepower on the Koch-backed conservative group Americans for Prosperity, making the group’s site intermittently unavailable tonight.

    Why?

    Here is the press release.

    It has come to our attention that the brothers, David and Charles Koch–the billionaire owners of Koch Industries–have long attempted to usurp American Democracy. Their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin are the final straw. Starting today we fight back.

    Koch Industries, and oligarchs like them, have most recently started to manipulate the political agenda in Wisconsin. Governor Walker’s union-busting budget plan contains a clause that went nearly un-noticed. This clause would allow the sale of publicly owned utility plants in Wisconsin to private parties (specifically, Koch Industries) at any price, no matter how low, without a public bidding process. The Koch’s have helped to fuel the unrest in Wisconsin and the drive behind the bill to eliminate the collective bargaining power of unions in a bid to gain a monopoly over the state’s power supplies.

    The Koch brothers have made a science of fabricating ‘grassroots’ organizations and advertising campaigns to support them in an attempt to sway voters based on their falsehoods. Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and Citizens United are just a few of these organizations. In a world where corporate money has become the lifeblood of political influence, the labor unions are one of the few ways citizens have to fight against corporate greed. Anonymous cannot ignore the plight of the citizen-workers of Wisconsin, or the opportunity to fight for the people in America’s broken political system. For these reasons, we feel that the Koch brothers threaten the United States democratic system and, by extension, all freedom-loving individuals everywhere. As such, we have no choice but to spread the word of the Koch brothers’ political manipulation, their single-minded intent and the insidious truth of their actions in Wisconsin, for all to witness.

    Anonymous hears the voice of the downtrodden American people, whose rights and liberties are being systematically removed one by one, even when their own government refuses to listen or worse – is complicit in these attacks. We are actively seeking vulnerabilities, but in the mean time we are calling for all supporters of true Democracy, and Freedom of The People, to boycott all Koch Industries’ paper products. We welcome unions across the globe to join us in this boycott to show that you will not allow big business to dictate your freedom.

    In response, Americans for Prosperity’s President Tim Phillips has issued the following:

    Americans for Prosperity has established itself as a leading voice in one of the great political debates underway in this country over government spending and how best to restore the fiscal solvency of governments at both the state and federal level. Yesterday, a group claimed credit for an attempt to silence our voice and to stifle that debate through an illegal attack on our website. While the political debate over government spending can be heated, we hope that even our opponents will join us in condemning this illegal attack on our free speech rights as unacceptable and irredeemable. Our country cannot meet the great challenges before us if we cannot have a free and open discussion about the threats that we face.

    Americans for Prosperity will not be intimidated and will not be deterred from our effort to support responsible economic policies, including the efforts of Governor Walker and other democratically elected leaders in that state to balance the budget through common-sense reforms.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for February 28th from 10:01 to 11:04

    These are my links for February 28th from 10:01 to 11:04:

    • Pelosi splits with Reid, dismisses GOP plan to avoid a shutdown – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is showing no enthusiasm for the new proposal from Republicans to avoid a government shutdown, putting her at odds with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

      Pelosi said in a statement that the GOP's plan for a two-week spending bill cuts funding for critical programs.

      +++++++

      But, the Senate Dems are going to roll over and Pelosi is in the minority.

    • Wisconsin Democrat Legislator GORDON HINTZ: "YOU ARE F’N DEAD!" | Newsradio 620 – Milwaukee, Wisconsin News, Talk, Sports, Weather | Charlie Sykes – Last week, we heard that State Rep. Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) had been busted in a prostitution sting.

      State Rep. Gordon Hintz was issued a municipal citation in Appleton earlier this month for violating a city sexual misconduct ordinance.

      Appleton police said the citation was issued Feb. 10 in conjunction with an ongoing investigation of Heavenly Touch Massage Parlor, 342 W. Wisconsin Ave., in Appleton. Police searched the business and a nearby residence in the 1300 block of North Division Street Jan. 28, after investigators had staked out the properties for several days after receiving a tip.

      **

      Last Friday…. after the Assembly voted to engross the Budget Repair Bill, Hintz turned to a female colleague, Rep. Michelle Litjens and said: "You are F***king dead!"

      +++++++

      Nice civlity there from the LEFT……

      He is frakking through in politics, baby….

    • Unions vs. the Right to Work – Collective bargaining on a broad scale is more similar to an antitrust violation than to a civil liberty – How ironic that Wisconsin has become ground zero for the battle between taxpayers and public- employee labor unions. Wisconsin was the first state to allow collective bargaining for government workers (in 1959), following a tradition where it was the first to introduce a personal income tax (in 1911, before the introduction of the current form of individual income tax in 1913 by the federal government).

      Labor unions like to portray collective bargaining as a basic civil liberty, akin to the freedoms of speech, press, assembly and religion. For a teachers union, collective bargaining means that suppliers of teacher services to all public school systems in a state—or even across states—can collude with regard to acceptable wages, benefits and working conditions. An analogy for business would be for all providers of airline transportation to assemble to fix ticket prices, capacity and so on. From this perspective, collective bargaining on a broad scale is more similar to an antitrust violation than to a civil liberty.

      In fact, labor unions were subject to U.S. antitrust laws in the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which was first applied in 1894 to the American Railway Union. However, organized labor managed to obtain exemption from federal antitrust laws in subsequent legislation, notably the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.

      +++++++++

      Read it all