links for 2009-07-10

Governor Sarah Palin’s chief of staff, Mike Nizich, issued the following statement today on the occasion of the 19th ethics complaint being filed against the governor or a member of her staff:
“Although the governor would not have thought it possible, the latest complaint rises to a new level of absurdity in alleging that she has been paid for interviews that she has given to the news media. It is amazing to me that anyone could think that, let alone put their name behind it and once again seek to distract state officials and needlessly increase their work load. The state is losing the value of some of its expenditures when public servants are pulled away from important assignments to deal with far-fetched and mean-spirited allegations.”

The House will propose raising taxes on people earning more than $350,000 a year to pay $540 billion for healthcare reform, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Friday.
Instead, Rangel said Democrats will seek to enact one large tax increase targeting wealthier workers to generate the revenue they need to finance their $1 trillion-plus healthcare reform bill.

“We have decided that instead of putting pieces of different revenue raisers together, that the best that we can do [is] we would have graduated surtaxes starting at [$]350],000],” Rangel said. The tax hikes would begin in 2011 and raise $540 billion over 10 years, he said after a meeting with Democratic committee members.

House Democrats had been weighing a plethora of other tax increases, such as levies on sugary soft drinks and alcohol, that raised hackles within their caucus.

For now, though, Palin will focus on writing her book, on the midterm elections, and on giving speeches. One certainty is that neither she nor the people who love and hate her are going away. "It's not retreat," Palin said. "It's moving more aggressively than ever to fight for what's right." Today the Palinistas and Palinphobes are as much a part of the national scene as they have been part of Alaska's. Since her debut, Palin has sparked curiosity and revulsion, devotion and illwill, admiration and scorn in equal measure. For whatever reason, the press cannot take its unblinking eye off of her. To the media and her detractors, she is a force of nature. She cannot be ignored.

The obsession is sure to intensify. Be prepared. Hurricane Sarah is about to descend on the Lower 48.

The governor tackled the issue in his state. He has admitted early and often it was a compromise and not meant to be a model for the nation. You don't have to want him to be president to think he deserves some credit.
++++++
Please!

You folks at National Review are losing it in the hagiography over Mitt Romney.

His Romneycare is the wrong way to go unelss you enjoy government healthcare and budget busting programs.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, one of the world's leading businesswomen and a possible 2010 opponent to Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, tells the public she's the CEO of her own business and the chairwoman of her own charitable foundation.

But a Chronicle check of public records shows that Fiorina, a former economic adviser to 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain, has never registered her Carly Fiorina Enterprises to conduct business in California, either with the California secretary of state or the clerk of Santa Clara County, where Fiorina lives.

Records also show that her Fiorina Foundation has never registered with the Internal Revenue Service or the state attorney general's charitable trust division, which tax- exempt charities are required to do. The foundation "enables corporations, social entrepreneurs and philanthropists alike to address some of the world's most challenging issues," according to Fiorina's Web site, carlyfiorina.com.

Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk (R) will not run for the open seat of Sen. Roland Burris (D) in 2010, a stunning reversal from just 48 hours ago when Kirk signaled to National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) that he would make the race.

Kirk's decision, a blow to Senate Republicans' chances in Illinois, came in the wake of Burris' formal retirement this afternoon.

It also followed a meeting of the Illinois Republican congressional delegation on Thursday in which his colleagues refused to back Kirk in a primary against Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna due, in large part, to his vote in favor of President Barack Obama's climate change bill.

Kirk's move makes McKenna the almost certain Republican nominee against either state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias or Merchandise Mart CEO Chris Kennedy next fall.

If New Yorkers fantasize that doing business here in Los Angeles would be less of a headache, forget about it. This city is fast becoming a job-killing machine. It's no accident the unemployment rate is a frightening 11.4% and climbing.

I never could have imagined that, after living here for more than three decades, I would be filing a lawsuit against my beloved Los Angeles and making plans for my company, Creators Syndicate, to move elsewhere.

But we have no choice. The city's bureaucrats rival Stalin's apparatchiks in issuing decrees, rescinding them, and then punishing citizens for having followed them in the first place.

The 11th installment of CBS’s Big Brother returned even with last season’s debut (2.3 rating adults 18-49). But the latest collection of crazy people in a house wasn’t enough to stop Fox and So You Think You Can Dance from winning the night with a 2.1 18-49 demo rating.

CBS is likely very happy with BB 11’s opening. In today’s broadcast world, even is the new way up! Samantha Who? continues to drift slowly into the sunset, even with last week’s 1.0 rating.

So You Think You Can Dance was up 20% in the 18-49 demo from last week against the same competition. I’d guess the lack of an up coming holiday weekend caused the boost, but things could just be getting more interesting as the field narrows.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said the U.S. can't let Russia dictate whether it pursues a global missile defense system.

Powell spoke to reporters before a speech Wednesday in Minneapolis. He said he was pleased at President Barack Obama's efforts to establish a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.

Russia's foreign minister said that progress would be jeopardized if the U.S. goes ahead with creating a global missile defense system.

"We have to make that decision," Powell said. "They can't have veto power over what we think is needed."

George Stephanopoulos: "Little progress has been made in continuing negotiations on Capitol Hill over a bipartisan health care reform bill… As a fall back plan, Democrats on Capitol Hill are planning to go this alone. That will increase the chance that we'll see Obama's public option in the bill."

The signing ceremony in Moscow was a grand affair. For Barack Obama, foreign policy neophyte and "reset" man, the arms reduction agreement had a Kissingerian air. A fine feather in his cap. And our president likes his plumage.
Unfortunately for the United States, the country Obama represents, the prospective treaty is useless at best, detrimental at worst.

Useless because the level of offensive nuclear weaponry, the subject of the U.S.-Russia "Joint Understanding," is an irrelevance. We could today terminate all such negotiations, invite the Russians to build as many warheads as they want and profitably watch them spend themselves into penury, as did their Soviet predecessors, stockpiling weapons that do nothing more than, as Churchill put it, make the rubble bounce.