• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th on 19:49

    These are my links for March 8th from 19:49 to 20:01:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th on 19:34

    These are my links for March 8th from 19:34 to 19:40:

    • Obama and the Tea Party, &c. – Like you, probably, I noticed the big news from Kenneth T. Walsh’s new book, about black Americans and the White House. (For an excerpt, go here.) President Obama has said that racism is at least part of what motivates the Tea Party.

      I said “big news,” but it’s not, really: It was kind of written in stone. Who doubted that criticism of Obama, or opposition to him, would be interpreted as racist? For eight years, we heard, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Sometime in 2008, a reader wrote me, “If Obama wins, dissent will be the highest form of racism.”

      Lo . . .

      =======

      Racism indeed

    • Union Myths by Thomas Sowell – The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.

      House Democrats remained AWOL from the Statehouse on Tuesday, and Gov. Mitch Daniels remained peeved.

      "I don't know why we hold elections if people aren't going to respect the outcome. I don't know why people run for office if they are going to pocket the money and walk off the job," he said. "I think everybody involved, starting with the people of Indiana, have shown a lot of patience, and our patience, I suppose, has a limit."

      He noted that if Democrats don't return he will call a special session – "if these folks believe that we will be bullied into submission, I would just recommend they not book any summer travel plans."

      Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” that the Obama administration tried to push through Congress. Employees’ free choice as to whether to join a union is precisely what that legislation would destroy.

      ===========

      Read the entire piece

  • Mitch Daniels

    Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Tells FLEEBAGGING Dems to NOT Make Any Summer Plans

    Yeah, INDIANA Democrat Legislators like their colleagues in Wisconsin, have fled the state. But, Indiana GOP Governor Mitch Daniels will just call special sessons of the Legislature over the summer.

    House Democrats remained AWOL from the Statehouse on Tuesday, and Gov. Mitch Daniels remained peeved.

    “I don’t know why we hold elections if people aren’t going to respect the outcome. I don’t know why people run for office if they are going to pocket the money and walk off the job,” he said. “I think everybody involved, starting with the people of Indiana, have shown a lot of patience, and our patience, I suppose, has a limit.”

    He noted that if Democrats don’t return he will call a special session – “if these folks believe that we will be bullied into submission, I would just recommend they not book any summer travel plans.”

    Well, I am usually in Indianapolis, a short run/walk from the Capitol over the 4th and will be happy to visit the Dems swelter in the July heat.

    Happy Fourth of July, FLEEBAGGERS.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th on 17:04

    These are my links for March 8th from 17:04 to 17:41:

    • Hypocrisy from California Tax Hike Backers? – The Amazon Tax – Capitol Confidential has previously reported on legislation introduced by California Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner that seeks to impose a new, and unconstitutional, tax on out-of-state, online retailers including (ironically) a number of eBay users.  Capitol Confidential has since learned that a prominent corporate sponsor of such efforts is retail giant Target, and that a number of other big retailers back the legislation, too.  According to one source, that group includes Bloomingdale’s.
      So what if neither Target nor Bloomingdale’s collected and remitted sales/use taxes in states where they sell online to customers but in which they maintain no physical presence (the practice Skinner’s bill aims to ban by redefining the concept of “nexus”)?  Based on what appears on both companies’ websites when one inputs an order using the data of a resident of such states, it appears both corporations are willingly taking advantage of the same constitutional case law as the online retailers targeted by Skinner’s legislation to avoid tax liability.
      Here is a screenshot of the “review” page related to a Target transaction input using a Vermont customer’s information. Target’s website indicates that there are no Target stores in Vermont, and this is the final page at which customers can make adjustments, or discard the transaction:

      =================

      Read it all and apparently so.

    • Sarah Palin’s Decision to Keynote Speech Same Day as Debate Says Nothing About 2012, Says Staffer – Sarah Palin’s decision to deliver a speech in Colorado the same day as the first GOP presidential primary debate does not signal that she will not run in 2012, says an official with Palin’s PAC.

      “It has nothing to do with a decision [about running for president in 2012]. The Governor said the other day that she will make a decision about that in the coming months,” Tim Crawford, the treasurer of Palin’s PAC, told National Review Online.

      Palin will be the keynote speaker at the Colorado Christian University’s “Tribute to the Troops” event, which the university describes as “a military and veterans appreciation rally and charity benefit.” The benefit will be held in Lakewood, Colo. on May 2, the same day Politico and NBC News have scheduled the first GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

      ==========

      Right.

      Sarah Palin is not going to engage in a debate for an office she will NOT seek.

    • Sarah Palin to Attend October’s Testimony Of Faith at Liberty University – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will need strong support from social conservatives to win the Republican nomination for president in 2012 should she decide to run. One indication that Palin is attuned to this reality is her scheduled appearance at Liberty University’s Extraordinary Women Conference.

      The News & Advance, a newspaper in Lynchburg, Virginia, reported Tuesday that Palin will speak at the October 7-8 conference, mere months before presidential primary elections.

      “Extraordinary Women is pleased to announce that Governor Sarah Palin will be sharing her testimony of faith with us at the 2011 Lynchburg Ewomen conference,” the group wrote on its website.

      Palin’s speech will be simulcast to 1,000 churches around the country. Tickets for the event are being sold for between $49 and $89.

      Current Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. wrote in a statement to The News & Advance, “Governor Palin is greatly admired by our Liberty University faculty, staff and students for her patriotism and her determination to stand up for what is right despite vicious and unrelenting attacks against her and her family.”

      =======================
      Will she be a non-announced candidate by then?

      You betcha but you know she will have something to say.

    • Gov. Jerry Brown may not have GOP support for budget, but he does have business, police – UPDATE, 4:30 PM: The group of five Republican Senators that have been meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown in the hopes of striking a budget deal — but declared an impasse Monday — just issued this statement:

      "Today we met again with Governor Brown out of a mutual desire to keep the conversation moving forward. Until we are told otherwise, we will be optimistic that the Governor is working hard to find the necessary support for the key reforms we have put forward. But we are realistic. Getting to a constructive agreement involves difficult compromise. Although various interest groups may not have an appetite for real change, we believe that the public is demanding it."

      The group is made up of Senators Tom Berryhill, of Modesto; Sam Blakeslee, of San Luis Obispo; Anthony Cannella, of Ceres (Stanislaus County); Bill Emmerson, of Hemet (Riverside County); and Tom Harman, of Huntington Beach.

      Here's the start of our original post:

      Budget machinations are continuing at the Capitol today, one day after a group of Senate Republicans announced that they had reached an impasse with the Gov. Jerry Brown.

      While the Democratic governor may not yet have Republican votes for his budget plan, he is continuing to win support from two of the GOP's core constituencies: the business community and law enforcement groups.

      ==============

      So, will these State Senators well out the GOP caucus?

      Heads on a stick they go……

    • E-mails reveal possible Wis Gov Scott Walker concessions on union bill – Gov. Scott Walker's office released documents Tuesday detailing now stalled talks with Senate Democrats in Illinois about his union bargaining bill, showing his office is willing to give on some aspects of the proposal but also frustrating one senator involved in the confidential talks.

      The e-mails showed ideas and counteroffers made by the Republican governor's aides and two Democrats as they sought some resolution that would allow Democrats to come back to the state. Senate Democrats have been holed up in Illinois since Feb. 17, when they left Wisconsin to block a vote on Walker's budget-repair bill.

      The emails were first released to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through an open-records request and within minutes were then emailed out to other news outlets. The Journal Sentinel also first reported Friday on some of the proposals in the documents.

      The bill as proposed by Walker and approved by the Assembly last month would repeal bargaining by public employee unions over their benefits and work conditions, leaving only bargaining over wages with a cap based on the rate of inflation, barring a referendum. The measure has sparked massive protests at the Capitol in recent weeks.

      The two Democratic senators, Bob Jauch of Poplar and Tim Cullen of Janesville, have met face-to-face in recent days with both Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) and Walker aides.

      ================

      Read it all

      It is politics folks and back and forth, plus compromise.

      Governor Walker is not the boogey man despite what the unions say.

  • Ann Wagner,  Claire McCaskill,  Polling,  Sarah Steelman,  U.S. Senate 2012

    MO-Sen Poll Watch: McCaskill 45% Vs. Steelman 42%

    Looks like a possible GOP pick-up according to the latest PPP poll.

    Job Approval Vs. Disapproval

    • Senator McCaskill 46% Vs. 45%

    Favorable Vs. Unfavorable

    • Todd Akin 20% Vs. 24%
    • Ed Martin 12% Vs. 22%
    • Sarah Steelman 22% Vs. 22%
    • Ann Wagner 8% Vs. 18%

    Heads Up:

    • McCaskill 45% Vs Akin 44%
    • McCaskill 46% Vs. Martin 40%
    • McCaskill 45% Vs. Steelman 42%
    • McCaskill 45% Vs Wagner 36%

    Missouri is the “Show Me” state with which the GOP wishes to recapture the U.S Senate majority. And, it would certainly be sweet to avenge Claire McCaskill’s bruising win six years ago when she shamelessly used Michael J Fox shaking and baking on “stem cell” televison commercials. Remember?

    Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill is certainly vulnerable and is below the magical 50% in job approval.

    PPP’s 2nd poll on the 2012 US Senate race in Missouri finds pretty much the same thing as the first one. Voters are closely divided on Claire McCaskill’s job performance and she polls in the mid-40s against all of her prospective Republican opponents. She does have small leads over them that are largely attributable to their lack of name recognition.

    46% of Missouri voters approve of the job McCaskill is doing to 45% who disapprove. Her reviews are almost completely polarized along party lines with 85% of Democrats happy with the job she’s doing while 80% of Republicans give her poor marks. The thing of greatest concern for McCaskill should be where she stands with independents- just 36% think she’s doing a good job with 51% dissenting.

    Unless the Republicans nominate a nut job as their candidate (which they won’t), this will be a close race leaning toward a GOP pick up.

    The entire poll is here.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th from 10:53 to 11:25

    These are my links for March 8th from 10:53 to 11:25:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th from 10:21 to 10:46

    These are my links for March 8th from 10:21 to 10:46:

    • Is Chuck DeVore Making A Comeback in OC 3rd Supervisoral District? – The FlashReport.org today released an intriguing poll of the 3rd Supervisor District that revealed some surprising results.

      There are, as yet, no definitively declared candidates. The closest is former 3rd District Supervisor Todd Spitzer. Couple of weeks ago, I saw an e-mail from a wealthy donor soliciting support for Spitzer and stating he would be announcing about now, but no word as yet.

      Former Assemblyman and U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore is actively looking at the race, as well.

      But let’s get to the poll, conducted for FR by SmithJohnson Research. The survey was conducted March 1-2 of 300 registered voters in the 3rd District. The margin of error is 5.6%.

      The poll tests a five-candidate field of Spitzer, DeVore, Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche, Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang and Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu but the most interesting stuff comes from the one-on-one poll testing of a Spitzer-DeVore contest.

      +++++++

      This will be a race to watch.

    • Sen. John McCain back fundraising in California this week – Former 2008 presidential candidate John McCain, a strong supporter of gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman, is back fundraising in the Bay Area this month — this time at a pricey benefit to fund campaigns to win a 2012 Republican majority in the U.S. Senate.

      The Arizona U.S. Senator stars at a what's being touted as "an intimate roundtable breakfast" on March 22 for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the venture capital enclave of Menlo Park.

      The invites specifically say the purpose of the McCain fundraising is "to gain a majority in the Senate in 2012!"

      McCain's CA visit comes the weekend after the state GOP's big convention in Sacramento, where Mississipi Gov. Haley Barbour will deliver the Saturday night keynote address; but so far, McCain has no announced plans to visit the 3-day statewdie party gathering starting March 18.

      +++++++

      The California ATM foe the GOP has already started a new cycle

    • California Tax and Budget Debate – Fact, Fancy and Fudges – As the rhetoric heats up, it may be useful to explore some of the main talking points.

      Anti-tax groups contend that voting to place taxes before voters would violate GOP legislators' no-new-taxes pledges. There is, however, an obvious difference between enacting taxes directly and placing them on the ballot. And since anti-tax groups routinely insist that taxes should require voter approval, chalk up one for hypocrisy.

      Likewise, the anti-tax groups also insist that voters have already spoken when they rejected a 2009 budget package that would have kept the temporary taxes in place for a longer period.

      Wrong. The length of the income, sales and car tax increases was not directly before voters in 2009; the election hinged largely on other issues.

      Brown and supporters of the taxes stress that they are temporary – an additional five years – and that the proceeds would go to local governments and schools.

      In fact, however, they would go to local agencies only because those agencies would be taking on functions that are being shifted from the state, so the net effect of the added revenues would be to take pressure off the state budget.

      The argument that the taxes would be temporary is also suspect, since under Brown's plan the state would be constitutionally obligated to pay for the programmatic shifts to local governments even after the tax extensions expired.

      A permanent obligation financed by a temporary revenue stream is folly; it's a better than 50-50 bet that were Brown's plan adopted, five years later he or his successor would be seeking to extend the taxes again or make them permanent.

      Brown also contends that the tax extensions would fill only half the budget hole, with sharp spending cuts, especially in health and welfare, filling the rest.

      But many of the cuts are actually funding shifts; Democrats are scaling back the real cuts and many of them would either require federal waivers, be subject to litigation, or both.

      +++++++++

      The GOP doesn't want to raise taxes and wants cuts in California's State Budget.

      Jerry Brown and the Democrats don't want to cut spending and wish to shift responsibilities and funding tothe cities and counties who have no easy way to pay for them.

      Looks like a stalemate to me.

  • Olympia Snowe

    ME-Sen GOP Poll Watch: Republicans Want to Melt Snowe

    According to the latest PPP poll.

    It’s been clear for a long time now that Maine Republicans want to swap out Olympia Snowe for someone more conservative. Our newest poll in the state finds that hasn’t changed: only 33% of primary voters in the state say they would support Snowe next year to 58% who prefer a generic ‘more conservative candidate.’

    The gripe with Snowe is pretty straight forward. 58% of primary voters think she’s too liberal to 37% who think she’s ideologically where she should be. Most GOP voters don’t really think Snowe belongs in their party- 34% think she ought to be an independent, 33% think she should be a Democrat, and only 27% feel that the GOP is indeed her rightful place.

    If the GOP does not renominate Sen. Olympia Snowe, they face the real possibility of a Democrat take over of the seat. But, will today’s Tea Party based GOP tolerate RINOS any longer – even if it means a loss of a vote in the caucus?

    Snowe’s approval rating with Republican primary voters is a narrowly positive 47/44 spread. It may seem surprising that her generic reelect numbers are so bad when she’s above ground on approval but to keep those numbers in perspective Lisa Murkowski’s approval with Republicans in January of 2010 was 77/13 and Mike Castle’s in March of 2009 at an identical point in the cycle was 69/24. Their far superior numbers didn’t prevent them from being taken out by the Tea Party.

    The appetite is definitely there for someone to replace Olympia Snowe. Whether the folks who have already signed up to do it- Andrew Ian Dodge and Scott D’Amboise– are capable of doing so is another question. D’Amboise has only a 5% favorability rating with primary voters and 84% don’t know enough about him to offer an opinion. Dodge is even more obscure with just a 2% positive rating and 86% of of voters saying they’re ambivalent toward him. Because they’re so obscure Snowe leads a primary with them in the mix at 43% to 18% for D’Amboise and 10% for Dodge.

    And, then again, Snowe might run as an independent like Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.

    The entire poll is here.

  • American Economy,  Polling

    Poll Watch: U.S. Economic Optimism Declines



    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index worsened to -24 in February from -21 the prior month as Americans’ optimism about the U.S. economy receded from a three-year high reached in January.

    Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index is based on two questions. One measures consumers’ perceptions of current economic conditions and shows them to be the same in February as in January, with 42% of Americans rating current economic conditions “poor.”

    The second Index component asks Americans to rate the outlook for the U.S. economy. In February, 38% said economic conditions are “getting better,” down from 41% a month earlier. However, this decline follows a January optimism level that tied for the highest since Gallup Daily tracking began in January 2008.

    I do not see any improvement in either economic optimism or the economy in California. I talk to regular folks every week and they are all concerned about the declining job’s base and economic uncertainty.

    I think there was a small bump in perception with Obama and the GOP compromising on the Bush Tax Rates and the payroll tax holiday which is now underway. But, ObamaCare reforms loom, health insurance premiums and gasoline prices are skyrocketing and no new employers are on the horizon.