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:

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.