Bad Day to Miss the News

I missed the news yesterday and missed some good news stories, which are infrequent enough. (Work and class pressures were too much.)

Pension Reform Measure Stays on on the Ballot, Survives Two Lawsuits

In the first lawsuit, the California Public Employment Relations Board tried to take the almost unprecedented step of preventing a citizen initiative on pension reform to reach the ballot on the thin legal argument that it was actually a city government sponsored initiative, which violates good faith bargaining principles.

In his ruling, Judge William Dato said case law is clear that the court should block a measure only when it is clear beyond a doubt that it is invalid. He said he found no compelling reason to keep the initiative from the ballot when its legality can be still be challenged later.

Exactly. Further, even if city officials were involved in the initiative process, which is what the PERB alleges, they are citizens, too, and have the right to launch an initiative process.

The second lawsuit

. . . filed by mayoral candidate and attorney Hud Collins, claims the measure is a major revision to the City Charter, and can't be put on the June ballot by way of petition signatures.

But Judge Steven Denton ruled that the initiative won't affect the "structure" of city government, so it's a valid amendment to the charter.

So much for pre-election legal challenges. This initiative will clearly pass in June. I think the unions know it, hence the legal wrangling. Get ready for post-election lawsuits to prevent the law from taking effect. If any city employee is reading this blog, could you please explain how this hurts you; I understand how the union bosses get hurt, but how does the union member get hurt.

Comprehensive Smackdown of Warmist Scaremongering

The WSJ published a second smackdown of the theory that man made CO2 is causing catastrophic global warming. Of course increased CO2 has some impact, the questions about how much and whether this is even a problem are not clear. Further, the supposed climate experts have no clue as to whether the vast economic tradeoffs necessary to shift from a carbon based energy economy are worth it. They rail against supposed non-experts who question their findings, and yet launch themselves into economic discussions in which they are clearly uneducated and untrained. The pseudo-scientific cult of warmism has all the hallmarks of religion. A few choice quotes from the scientists who have gone public with debunking the theory that we are all doomed.

When predictions fail, we say the theory is "falsified" and we should look for the reasons for the failure.
. . .
From the graph it appears that the projections exaggerate, substantially, the response of the earth's temperature to CO2 which increased by about 11% from 1989 through 2011. Furthermore, when one examines the historical temperature record throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, the data strongly suggest a much lower CO2 effect than almost all models calculate.
. . .
Given this dubious track record of prediction, it is entirely reasonable to ask for a second opinion.
. . .
The Trenberth letter tells us that decarbonization of the world's economy would "drive decades of economic growth." This is not a scientific statement nor is there evidence it is true. A premature global-scale transition from hydrocarbon fuels would require massive government intervention to support the deployment of more expensive energy technology. If there were economic advantages to investing in technology that depends on taxpayer support, companies like Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, Solar Millenium, SpectraWatt, Solyndra, Ener1 and the Renewable Energy Development Corporation would be prospering instead of filing for bankruptcy in only the past few months.

Thanks for that.

As I continue to point out, if the warmists were serious they would have called for a carbon tax with an income tax offset as the economically most efficient means of delivering CO2 reduction. That they do not is proof of their statist aims.

Santorum's Odds on In-Trade Drop

Ok, I admit this is today's news, but Santorum has too much big government baggage and emphasis on social issues when the nation has to face down the debt-star. I would hope that social conservatives see that government that is limited in all areas is to their advantage. Notice how every expansion of government eventually intrudes on religious beliefs, usually in a negative way, e.g. Obamacare vs the Catholic Church. Santorum can make a big show of defending Catholicism against Obamacare, but he has some history in causing the problem in the first place.