Lefty Hatred of Wal-Mart

What is it with the left and Wal*Mart? Hat to Tip to Carpe Diem for pointing us to this editorial in the Chicago Tribune:

Wal-Mart wants to provide jobs to Chicago.
Ald. Howard Brookins wants Wal-Mart in his 21st Ward.
Yet the company and the alderman face huge resistance from the City Council to a proposal for a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the South Side, at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue just west of the Dan Ryan.
What's there now? A vacant lot. A vacant lot where no one is working.

The article goes on to say that these jobs aren't going to be coming to Chicago because Wal-Mart doesn't provide Union jobs. 500 new jobs in the middles of a recession plus more jobs for the constructon and still no sale?

I'm sure ACORN will come to the rescue, organize the community and convince the city council to approve Wal-Mart's plans. Isn't that what community organizers do, help the community? NOT!

Race Baiting Lefty

Over at BwD, Dean points out the total hypocrisy of Maureen Dowd's following quote:

It was a disgrace that W. appointed two white men to a court stocked with white men.

But Maureen Dowd is the disgrace. She continues the race baiting that is so bad for this country. Tribalism kills. We see it all over the world. Racism is just another form of tribalism. Lefties see the problem and think that dividing up the spoils by race will placate the disenchanted and calm racial tension. It does not, it only stokes the fires of tribalism as each group competes for wealth through the means of theft by government. And government can only divide the spoils by seizing the wealth of citizens, killing the goose laying the golden eggs.

The only real answer is to ask that we all live lives as color-blind as possible. Sure, we will be imperfect. But didn't America just elect a black man as President? We have already shown an ability to rise above. We need to identify with the tribe America, a tribe founded not on race or religion but on a set of ideas and ideals, like equality before the law, civil liberties, the right of everyone to vote. We ought to treat individuals as individuals. Sonia Sotomayor should be treated not as a Latina woman, even if she insists, but as judge with a record of rulings from the bench and a set of written opinions. They should be weighed against the goals of a constitutional republic. And race, tribe and religion should have no say in the matter.

Dems Shocked at CIA Plans to Kill Osama, Obama to Apologize

Top Democrat lawmakers expressed outrage that the CIA was working on a Tippy-Top Secret project to put together a process that would lead to a plan to eventually kill Osama bin Laden and other key al-Qaeda operatives. (My sources indicate lean six sigma was inolved.) Eight years later, nothing had come of the plan and it has been scrapped by CIA Director Leon Panetta, who reported its existence to Democrat lawmakers. Democrats expressed outrage that the U.S. would try to assassinate al Qaeda leaders without first getting authorization from Congress.

Meanwhile, other sources inside the White House say that the President is preparing to apologize to al Qaeda for this breach. A snippet of the speech follows:

"... recently, tension has been fed by our inhumane treatment of prisoners that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a so called "War on Terror" in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated without regard to their own aspirations and denied the opportunity to democratically elect Taliban or al Qaeda leaders..."

The President is counting on these and other apologies to prevent future terrorist attacks on the United States.

Planning for these clandesting ops at the CIA was so secret that only crack investigators at the Washington Post were aware of its existence. Mysteriously, the Washington Post article written by Barton Gellman, on Sunday, October 28, 2001; on Page A01, detailing the program has mysteriously disappeared from the post's web site. However, you can read snippets at Weasel Zippers, Free Republic or the whole thing at Subliminal News and judge for yourself the depth of Cheney's evil in trying to kill bin Laden AND keep the whole thing secret from Nancy Pelosi.

Breakin' Down Obamacare

Over at Politicalmath comes this awesome video comparing Massachusetts vs Georgia on Health Care. Politicalmath has all the technical background affirming the bona fides behind the numbers portrayed.




By the way, the Massachussetts plan was signed into law by Romney, who took great pride in it during the campaign. There is no way he should have ever been the front runner for the Republican nomination after watching the way is health care bill is wrecking his home state.

H/T Are We Lumberjacks? And thanks to Foxie, who linked to that blog in BwD comment.

Fighting Back on the California Budget Mess

I don't normally give financial advice in this column, but California's budget mess provides a perfect opportunity to take personal action to protect your finances in a way that also sends a political message. As you may be aware, the State of California is actually bankrupt, and has started issuing IOUs, except that they are called "registered warrants." Here is a little Q&A from my financial institution:

Q. What is a state-registered warrant? How is it different from other warrants or checks issued by the State of California?

A. State-registered warrants are essentially IOUs that are serialized and distributed to customers in lieu of actual payment. They can be deposited only at financial institutions who agree to receive them. California-registered warrants will be identified with "REGISTERED" printed on the face of the warrant and a special endorsement stamp on the reverse side. Both the issue and the maturity date will appear on the warrant. Registered warrants bear interest and are redeemable by the State Treasury only when the General Fund has sufficient money.

Q. Who is impacted by State of California's registered warrants?

A. At this time, the state has indicated it will issue registered warrants to state business vendors, local governments, for tax refunds and certain others. We understand that state employees will not receive registered warrants at this time. For more specific details about the state's plans, please visit the state treasurer's Web site (www.treasurer.ca.gov) or call the treasurer's registered warrants hotline at 1-888-864-2762

Here is where the personal collides with the political. Note that not all banks are accepting these IOUs. Note also, that tax refunds are among the categories of checks that are no longer being issued by the state. So even though a taxpayer has overpaid the state, he or she won't get a refund. In response, I have significantly changed my state withholding and urge everyone I know to do the same. This way, you won't lose out next year when the state is unable to pay you the refund you are owed. Further, this will starve the state government of cash now, putting more pressure on them to solve this budget crisis. I count on the Republicans to hold steady against new taxes (I could get burned, I know) so this is an opportunity to force spending cuts on our bloated state government. If you are nervous about having to pay a big tax bill next April or you count on that refund, I suggest that you increase you federal withholding by the amount you decreased your state withholding. The Feds will just print enough cash to cover your refund, so no worries there. The other worry is that you might underpay by too much and incur a penalty. Since I don't know your personal tax situation, you'll have to work that one out on your own. I have typically overpaid every year, so my course of action was an easy decision to make.

Hope my readers find this advice helpful. It is an easy quick way to fight back, that might save you some grief down the road.

Keeping The World Safe from What?

In the "In case you missed it" department comes this little gem. State governments have set their sites on a new breed of pernicious scofflaws who have been endangering the public. That's right, Yoga instructors that teach other instructors are now in the sights of sharp eyed bureauthugs lurking in state capitals all across America. Preventing hamstring pulls from over strenuous yogaing is clearly a national priority. Apparently, the Yoga instructors tactical mistake was to put together a national registry of instructors in an attempt at a little informal self regulation. This only invited state scrutiny. From the NYT article:

In March, Michigan gave schools on the list one week to be certified by the state or cease operations. Virginia’s cumbersome licensing rules include a $2,500 sign-up fee — a big hit for modest studios that are often little more than one-room storefronts.

The mindset of government regulators is clearly captured in this paragraph:

The conflict started in January when a Virginia official directed regulators from more than a dozen states to an online national registry of schools that teach yoga and, in the words of a Kansas official, earn a “handsome income.” Until then, only a few states had been aware of the registry and had acted to regulate yoga instruction, though courses in other disciplines like massage therapy have long been subject to oversight.

That whole "handsome income" thing is particularly appalling to state governments who are afraid they weren't getting their cut.

Obama is a Moron

Just a quick note. I am sick of the the way that the press treats every utterance from Obama's mouth as "thoughtful." He is clearly an idiot. He clearly doesn't understand the lessons from Japan in the early 90s.



Dean has continued to hammer his lack of understanding of history. He famously can't speak without the teleprompter. My favorite example is this from a campaign debate:

GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, "I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton," which was 28 percent. It's now 15 percent. That's almost a doubling, if you went to 28 percent.

But actually, Bill Clinton, in 1997, signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20 percent.

OBAMA: Right.

GIBSON: And George Bush has taken it down to 15 percent.

OBAMA: Right.

GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.

So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.

There it is. We've elected a "thoughtful" President who hasn't thought much about history or economics. Doesn't say much for the schools from which he graduated either (Columbia and Harvard, in case you were wondering.)

I will sprinkle other examples in future blog posts, but just had to get that off my chest.