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These are my links for March 15th from 20:23 to 20:26:

• Sarah Palin: The $4-Per-Gallon President – Is it really any surprise that oil and gas prices are surging toward the record highs we saw in 2008 just prior to the economic collapse? Despite the President’s strange assertions in his press conference last week, his Administration is not a passive observer to the trends that have inflated oil prices to dangerous levels. His war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security.

  The evidence of the President’s anti-drilling mentality and his culpability in the high gas prices hurting Americans is there for all to see. The following is not even an exhaustive list:

  Exhibit A: His drilling moratorium. Guided by politics and pure emotion following the Gulf spill instead of peer-reviewed science or defensible law, the President used the power of his executive order to impose a deepwater drilling moratorium. The Administration even ignored a court order halting his moratorium. And what is the net result of the President’s (in)actions? A large drilling company was forced to declare bankruptcy, the economy of the region has been hobbled, and at least 7 rigs moved out of the Gulf area to other parts of the world while many others remain idle. Is it any surprise that oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to fall by 240,000 bbl/d in 2011 alone?

  But that’s just the Gulf. There’s also the question of a moratorium on the development of Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf. It seems the Obama Administration can’t agree with itself on whether it imposed a moratorium there or not. The White House claims that they didn’t, but their own Department of the Interior let slip that they did. To clear up this mess, Gov. Parnell decided to sue the DOI to get a solid answer because such a federal OCS drilling moratorium would violate federal law.

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  Read it all

  Can 2012 come fast enough for Sarah?

• Mitch Daniels and Obamacare, Round Two – Daniels has an Obamacare problem that could hurt the repeal movement if he doesn’t deal with it. Turner is creating more Obamacare problems. This isn’t the first time conservatives have danced with the devil on health-care questions (see Massachusetts), but with health-care freedom now at its moment of maximum peril, that needs to stop. It will probably, however, take more than just the usual voices of protest to stop it. Tea Party and traditional conservative groups should perhaps spend less time attacking congressional Republicans over relatively minor tactical disagreements, and more time educating the governors, state legislators, and (yes) policy wonks who are actively implementing Obamacare in their own backyards.

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  Read it all.

  Indeed, Mitch Daniels has an ObamaCare problem

These are my links for March 15th from 14:55 to 16:50:

• Overstock.Com Threatens to Terminate California-Based Affiliates Should Internet Tax Legislation – AB 153 Passes | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Overstock.Com Threatens to Terminate California-Based Affiliates Should Internet Tax Legislation –… #tcot #catcot
• Flap’s Links and Comments for March 15th on 14:23 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for March 15th on 14:23 #tcot #catcot
• Boulder, Colo., Leads U.S. Metro Areas in Wellbeing – Poll Watch: Boulder, Colorado, Leads U.S. Metro Areas in Wellbeing
• On Wisconsin! | The Weekly Standard – On Wisconsin! How Republicans Won the Battle of Madison
• Wisconsin Dem Senator Wants to Ban Tactic Used to Hold Up Budget Bill | The Weekly Standard – Wisconsin Dem Senator Wants to Ban Tactic Used to Hold Up Budget Bill

First, it was Amazon.com which said that should AB 153 which imposes internet sales taxes passes they would terminate their California-based affiliates. Now, Overstock.com has weighed into the flap.

Board of Equalization Member Senator George Runner today released a letter from Overstock.com indicating that it will terminate its California affiliates should pending affiliate nexus tax legislation become law.

“This issue is much, much bigger than one company,” said Runner. “A law requiring outof-state retailers to collect sales tax from California consumers could force thousands of online retailers to terminate their relationships with California-based affiliate businesses. This hurts California jobs and revenues.”

In his letter, Mark J. Griffin, general counsel for Overstock.com, writes that his company has terminated affiliate relationships “in every state where this legislation has passed” and “will do so in California.”

According to Griffin, in 2009 Overstock terminated 3,200 California affiliates after the Legislature passed a similar measure. When the legislation was vetoed by the governor, Overstock attempted to reinstate those affiliates with marginal success. Griffin estimates the current number of Overstock affiliates in California is approximately 600.

George Runner is contacting leading online retailers with California-based affiliates in an effort to quantify the potential impact their response to an affiliate nexus law could have on jobs and revenues.

Runner said, “Taxes have consequences. Too often we assume companies and individuals will keep acting the same after new tax laws are passed. That is simply false. Businesses change their behavior as tax laws change.”

“Supporters of this proposed policy claim that they want to create a level playing field for businesses that have retail presence in California and are required to collect sales tax. Unfortunately, none of the bills under consideration will level the playing field because out-of-state online retailers will simply modify their business model to avoid collecting California’s sales tax.”

Runner added, “There are 25,000 Internet affiliates in California who are at risk of being wiped out by this attempted sales tax grab. This law will kill jobs and cost the state revenue as these individuals and businesses close up shop in California.”

Well, there you go. In the attempt to unconstitutionally grab some additional tax revenue, California Democrats are proposing legislation that will not only increase taxes for California consumers but also cost California thousands of jobs.

This idea of internet sales taxes for out of state retailers sounds like a “LOSE – LOSE” to me.

These are my links for March 15th from 14:23 to 14:54:

• Poll Watch: Boulder, Colorado, Leads U.S. Metro Areas in Wellbeing – Community leaders stand to learn a great deal from cities like Boulder, Lincoln, and Washington, D.C. where wellbeing is the highest.

  Boulder, for example, is second in the nation in opportunities for its residents to "learn something new or interesting," a common feature of the highest wellbeing metro areas in America. Book stores, museums, art exhibits, and non-traditional learning environments, such as topical community seminars at local colleges or Elderhostel programs, could all contribute to enhanced opportunities for residents to learn and grow, which can lead to higher wellbeing.

  Lincoln is third in the nation in having workplaces with supervisors who engender high-trust environments, a characteristic of top management talent and a vanguard of a highly engaged and productive workforce.

  The Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria metro area has one of the lowest smoking rates among large metro areas in America, at 15%, and a high percentage of residents who visit a dentist at least once per year (72%). Smoking and choosing to skip the dentist are both lifestyle choices that have substantial negative health outcomes downstream.

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  Not really shocking but read it all.

• On Wisconsin! How Republicans Won the Battle of Madison – It was Wednesday, March 9, and Governor Walker had decided to visit the Wisconsin State Capitol before he headed off to give his “Ag Day” speech that afternoon.

  Walker figured he had been very patient. Four weeks earlier he had proposed his budget repair bill, and he had the votes to pass it. But one week after that, all 14 Democratic state senators fled to Illinois to deny Republicans the quorum they thought necessary to hold a vote on the legislation. In the days that followed, top Republican legislators and senior aides to Walker spoke regularly with Democrats in an effort to forge a compromise—several times believing that they had reached a tentative understanding that would allow the senate to take up the controversial measure, only to have the agreement collapse. The more this happened the less likely a compromise seemed. 

  So, shortly before 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Walker addressed a meeting of the senate Republican caucus. It was time to end the standoff and move forward, he said. The world didn’t know it, but Republicans had been given the tools to do that two days earlier, in rulings from three nonpartisan bodies that allowed them to tweak the bill slightly and pass it with only a simple majority present in the senate. But Walker kept his comments general. He said that while Wisconsinites were divided about the wisdom of his proposals, there was widespread agreement that the stalemate had to end.

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  Read it all.

  A good piece on the last days of negotiations with the Wisconsin Fleebaggers

• Wisconsin Dem Senator Wants to Ban Tactic Used to Hold Up Budget Bill – Democrat Tim Cullen, one of the 14 Wisconsin state senators who fled to Illinois in order to prevent a vote on Scott Walker's budget repair bill, wants to make sure that the tactic he employed cannot be used in the future to hold up state business. The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

  One of the Wisconsin 14 is working on a law that would prevent other lawmakers from stopping legislation by running away and hiding — a move that could be seen as an olive branch to angry members of the GOP.

  Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, a key member of the Democratic senators who fled the state in a failed effort to stall Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, said Tuesday he was drafting a state constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to vote on and pass fiscal bills with a simple majority. The constitution requires each house to have three-fifths of all members present to vote on bills that have a fiscal impact.

  “I was part of creating this divide,” Cullen tells the Journal. “I need to be part of fixing it.”

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  Should have been banned long ago. What about initiative and referendum?

Well, you have to be careful around snakes. But, I doubt the snake died from the bite. Those lips though…..

These are my links for March 15th from 11:04 to 11:07:

• Joseph R. Biden Jr.: The Case for Ratifying New Start – In September 2009, when President Obama decided to alter his predecessor's plans for missile defense in Europe, some critics claimed that we had sacrificed our allies in the interest of the "reset" with Russia. Others thought that we would derail the reset by proceeding with the new plan. The skeptics were wrong on both counts.

  At NATO's summit in Lisbon last weekend, President Obama united Europe behind our missile-defense plans and received strong support for the New Start Treaty that is currently before the Senate. In doing so, he proved that missile defense and arms control can proceed hand-in-hand.

  It's hard to remember how much relations between the United States and our European allies had frayed before this administration took office. U.S. leadership was viewed negatively by many foreign publics, and U.S. policies often met with opposition from our traditional partners. The positive atmosphere in Lisbon—and the substantial progress on priorities like missile defense, arms control and the Russia reset—simply would not have been possible without nearly two years of intensive diplomacy.

  NATO's adoption of territorial missile defense as a new mission shows that President Obama has rebuilt the alliance's underlying consensus about the threats we face and how to meet them. Once considered an insurmountable political, technical and financial challenge, NATO's decision to embrace territorial missile defense demonstrates the alliance's determination to meet 21st-century threats.

  The ballistic missile threat to our allies, partners and deployed forces is real and growing, particularly from Iran. Unlike previous approaches, this NATO missile-defense system will protect all NATO allies in Europe, not just some. And it will protect more European territory sooner than the system it replaced. The capability will improve over time, addressing existing and near-term threats first, then expanding to provide greater coverage and protection as the threat and technology evolve.

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  Read it all.

  What a difference 10 years makes

• Senator Joseph Biden on "Missile Defense Delusion" from 2001 – Op-ed column from The Washington Post on 12/19/01) (880)
  19 December 2001

  (This column by Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., chairman of the Senate
  Foreign Relations Committee, first appeared in the Washington Post
  December 19, 2001 and is in the public domain. No republication
  restrictions.)

  Missile Defense Delusion
  By Joseph R. Biden Jr.

  Washington being what it is, the idea that politics and ideology
  should be set aside for a higher purpose may seem a quaint, naive
  sentiment. But few would argue with the statement that the ultimate
  test in deciding to scrap a treaty that has helped keep the peace for
  30 years is whether it makes the United States more or less secure. In
  that light, President Bush's decision to unilaterally walk away from
  the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is a serious mistake.

  No one doubts we live in a dangerous world and that our enemies are
  ruthless. But a "Star Wars" defense, assuming it could be made to
  work, would address only what the Joint Chiefs of Staff argue is the
  least likely threat to our national security.

  One of the lessons we should have learned from the devastating attack
  of Sept. 11 is that terrorists determined to do this nation harm can
  employ a wide variety of means, and that weapons of mass destruction
  – chemical, biological or even nuclear — need not arrive on the tip
  of an intercontinental ballistic missile with a return address. That's
  why the Joint Chiefs of Staff argue that an ICBM launch ranks last on
  the "Threat Spectrum," while terrorist attacks constitute the greatest
  potential threat to our national security.

  The administration's obsession with missile defense — with a price
  tag in excess of a quarter-trillion dollars for the layered program on
  the president's wish list — is doubly troubling because of the
  attention and resources being diverted from critical efforts to
  address genuine threats. While the president says nonproliferation is
  a high priority, his actions speak louder. Notwithstanding promises of
  new efforts, the fiscal year 2002 budget that he requested would have
  cut more than $100 million out of programs designed to corral Russia's
  "loose nukes," provide help that Russia has requested to destroy its
  chemical weapons stockpile and prevent unemployed Russian scientists
  from selling their services to terrorist organizations.

  Only when it comes to missile defense is the administration pushing
  hard. But nothing could be more damaging to global nonproliferation
  efforts than to go forward with Star Wars. Russia has enough offensive
  weapons to overwhelm any system we could devise, so the real issue is
  what happens in China and throughout Asia.

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  VP Joe Biden as a Senator had never been a fan of national missile defense, but now?