The Enviro-Cult’s war on the poor.

by David K Williams Jr | 10:37 am, July 12, 2011

I have often referred to the “Al Gore Cult of Global Warming.” The name is no longer appropriate. They have abandoned the “global warming” scam and now refer to it as “climate change.” Alas, changing the label on the snake oil does not change its conte…

The Enviro-Cult’s war on the poor.

by David K Williams Jr | 10:37 am, July 12, 2011

The Enviro-Cult’s war on the poor.

by David K Williams Jr | 10:37 am, July 12, 2011

The Enviro-Cult’s war on the poor.

by David K Williams Jr | 10:37 am, July 12, 2011

Washington could learn a lot from a drug addict

by Rossputin | 8:09 am, July 12, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itxfB3dN7ps

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

“Accountable Care Organizations”: The Coming Collectivization of American Health Care

by Brian T. Schwartz | 5:30 am, July 12, 2011

In the 1930s, the USSR forced independent farmers into large state-run collective farms. … these collective farms could not feed the country. … Unfortunately, the United States is about to make the same mistake in health care by collectivizing doctors and hospitals into government-supervised accountable care organizations (ACOs).

Don’t Take Responsiblity, Take Money!

by Jon Caldara | 12:50 pm, July 11, 2011

The Colorado Springs Gazette is about as solid on economic issues as a newspaper could ever get. With Wayne Laugesen at the helm of the editorial page, it’s no surprise. However, something must have slipped through the cracks over on the news side this weekend when reporter Emily Wilkins wrote on food stamps in the [...]

New Jay Greene Book, Dougco Site Brighten School Choice Landscape

by Eddie | 12:15 pm, July 11, 2011

It’s July. School is out for the summer. Education news tends to be slow. To top it all off, your local edu-blogging prodigy is spending extra time at the swimming pool, and occasionally gets wrapped up in frustrating games of Angry Birds on his dad’s iPhone. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few things [...]

Jay Ambrose on Good State Policy, Jake Jabs on Good Business

by Jon Caldara | 11:09 am, July 11, 2011

Ross on Caplis & Silverman Monday and Tuesday

by Rossputin | 10:10 am, July 11, 2011

I’m pleased to let you know that I’ll be sitting in for Dan Caplis on Monday and Tuesday (July 11 and July 12) on Denver’s Caplis and Silverman radio show from 3 PM to 6 PM Mountain Time on 630 KHOW.

Craig Silverman and I will get into a wide range of topics from the Nanny State to the Balanced Budget Amendment to the morality of getting rich.

On Monday, we’ll talk about proposed rules in Colorado which would overregulate day care centers with such ridiculousness as requiring that such centers each have dolls representing three races. We’ll get into other Nanny State discussions as well.

Among our guests, on Monday we’ll have economist Don Luskin, author of “I am John Galt” which is provocatively subtitled “Today’s heroic innovators building the world and the villainous parasites destroying it.”

On Tuesday, among other things we’ll talk about the technology. Do you even realize how integrated it is in your life? Do you control it or does it control you? Does technology hurt employment, as Barack Obama says?

In our first hour, we’ll be joined by Ted Balaker of Reason (among other places) who’s written and directed a fantastic video on technology, including asking people “How much money would someone have to pay you to give up the Internet for the rest of your life?”

Also on Tuesday, we’ll have the privilege of being joined on air by Utah Senator Mike Lee to discuss, among other things, the Balanced Budget Amendment which he has authored.

I hope you’ll listen in and join the conversation by calling the studio at 303 713 8255. For those of you not in reach of the radio waves, you can listen online at the KHOW web site.

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Final Round for Colorado Reapportionment Commission – last public testimony and hearings for metro Denver counties today

by CTBC Director | 7:11 am, July 11, 2011

Colorado’s Reapportionment Commission (charged with drawing our state legislative districts) meets in Denver today to hear public testimony on state legislative district boundaries in a final marathon round (covering six metro Denver counties) today (11 July) in Denver.
This week’s meeting will introduce new preliminary maps for Larimer & Weld County districts (public testimony on those districts took [...]

Carbon tax: Australia’s economic suicide

by Rossputin | 5:47 am, July 11, 2011

Less than two years after a proposed carbon tax felled Australia’s Labour Party Prime Minister, his replacement, an utter economoron if ever there was one, appears ready and able to pass such a tax through the Australian Parliament with the support of a couple of independent members of that body.

It’s a tax which will raise the cost of everything in Australia, the damage from which government will further compound by redistributing income in the form of subsidies to lower-income Australians so that the burden on them is felt less, whereas the burden on the economically productive sector of society is increased. It’s an extremely complicated scheme…and it’s even worse than it sounds at first with some people likely to end up getting subsidy payments larger than the negative impact of the carbon tax on them. This is especially true for people who don’t drive a lot and don’t earn income, namely older retirees. In other words, big companies and high earners will become an even greater blood source for government parasites and their remoras.

It’s remarkable that a country which is so dependent on the energy-intensive mining industry would kneecap itself so badly, but such is the nature of enterprise- and profit-hating leftists.

And at the end of the day, people get the government they deserve.

Julia Gillard is Australia’s own Nancy Pelosi, arm-twisting her caucus into voting for something which is likely to cost many of her members, and probably Gillard herself, their jobs when the next election comes around. Nevertheless, she, like Madame Defarge, keeps on knitting the seeds of economic destruction into the fabric of the Australian economy.

Furthermore, like Pelosi, Bob Brown, the head of Australia’s Green Party says that despite a more than 2-to-1 public opposition to the tax, he thinks Aussies will “change their mind on the carbon tax” once it passes. If ever politicians embodied what Hayek called “the fatal conceit”, it’s people like Pelosi, Gillard, and Brown.

I wonder if Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese recognized the irony in his words when he says that he, referencing his support of a carbon tax, is “in government to make a difference to people’s lives.” No doubt the tax would do just that, raising the cost of essentially everything in Australia while redistributing wealth to cover the tax’s especially damaging impact on lower incomes, thus making business development that much less likely among the entrepreneurial class.

The carbon tax is like sacrificing Australia’s virgins to some mythical spirit and hoping the climate happens to go along. The only problem is that if it does go along, it will make you think that the pagan ritual actually had an impact. After all, the same “scientists” told us in the mid-1990s that we were going to suffer large temperature increases only to have no increase in global temperatures for at least a decade starting in 1998.

When destroying the economy and killing camels become the best-known proposals of the industry-hating cult currently running, and profiting from, Australia’s federal government, it’s time for a new government, not a new tax.

[One quick science and polling note: Poll questions about carbon taxes are often worded in terms of “pollution", “polluters", etc. But carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It’s plant food. And such questions are fundamentally dishonest.]

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Final Shuttle Flight Thoughts

by T.L. James | 7:16 pm, July 10, 2011

I’ve been offline for most of the past week with DSL issues, so didn’t get to see any of the coverage of the final Shuttle launch until this afternoon. Haven’t yet found the ET “death camera” footage (though someone at a wedding I attended yesterday mentioned having seen it), but here’s the normal launch-through-sep version [...]

Backbone Radio, July 10, 2011

by Rossputin | 6:43 am, July 10, 2011

Audio archives for this show:

Segment 1 – Intro; Day care center Nanny State rule proposal
Segment 2 – Scott Wheeler on the corrupt relationship between AP, GfK polling, and the federal government
Segment 3 – Randal O’Toole explains Tax Increment Financing; Jude Sandvall joins the discussion regarding $300MM TIF subsidy in Aurora
Segment 4 – More with Randal O’Toole and Jude Sandvall on Aurora TIF; Ryan Frazier explains why he voted for, and supports, the project
Segment 5 – Debt ceiling talks; Democrat lies about debts, deficits, and money
Segment 6 – More Democrat lies about money and taxes

From Ross Kaminsky:

Please join this week’s edition of Backbone Radio on 710 KNUS (in Denver) from 5 PM to 8 PM on Sunday as we discuss news, politics, philosophy, and whatever else interesting comes along in the prior week.

In our first hour, we’ll talk about the political and economic implications of Friday’s horrible jobs report which showed far fewer jobs created than expected in June, and an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate.

We’ll also be joined by Scott Wheeler of the National Republican Trust PAC and National Investigative Media. At the latter web site, Wheeler has exposed “an unusual financial relationship between the newswire service, Associated Press, and the federal government – and evidence that that relationship may have influenced the AP’s reporting on the Obama administration.” We’ll talk with Scott Wheeler about something that goes a dangerous step beyond media bias.

In our second hour, we’ll talk with Randal O’Toole of the Cato Institute about tax-increment financing, aka TIF, which is a way that local governments subsidize development in their locales. O’Toole argues that this is anything but the “free money” which proponents claim.

This is particular important to Backbone Radio which broadcasts from Aurora because the city of Aurora is aiming to use an enormous TIF financing project, with perhaps on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars of tax abatements to a private company, to attract a hotel and convention development.

I hope to have Jude Sandvall and Ryan Frazier, both running to be the next Mayor of Aurora, call in to the show to express and explain their positions on the issue.

In the third hour, we’ll talk about the incredible nanny state rules proposed by the Colorado Department of Human Services regarding day-care centers. These rules include a provision that all day-care centers must have dolls representing at least three races. ‘nuf said. Can’t wait to hear your views on this.

Please join me by listening to (and calling in to) this week’s Backbone Radio program from 5 PM to 8 PM on 710 AM KNUS in Denver and 1460 AM KZNT in Colorado Springs.

If you’re not in range of the radio waves, you should be able to listen to the show online by clicking HERE.

I hope you’ll actively participate in the conversation with me: Call the studio at 303 696 1971.

Original post at http://backboneradio.net, online home of Backbone Radio with Ross Kaminsky.

Of corporate jets & corporate welfare: The Gaylord Hotel in Aurora

by David K Williams Jr | 6:46 am, July 9, 2011

David K. Williams, Jr.I need a little help understanding something. This, as those of you that know me personally can attest, is not unusual. Let me lay it out: President Barack Obama decries tax breaks on corporate jets because companies that can affo…

Of corporate jets & corporate welfare: The Gaylord Hotel in Aurora

by David K Williams Jr | 6:46 am, July 9, 2011

Of corporate jets & corporate welfare: The Gaylord Hotel in Aurora

by David K Williams Jr | 6:46 am, July 9, 2011

Of corporate jets & corporate welfare: The Gaylord Hotel in Aurora

by David K Williams Jr | 6:46 am, July 9, 2011

Teachers’ union fights transparency…again

by Amy Oliver | 5:12 pm, July 8, 2011

No shock that the Colorado Education Association is fighting new rules designed to bring more transparency to school district. The CEA worked hard to prevent financial transparency in K-12 education; with the passage of HB10-1036, the union ultimately lost that battle. Now, it is fighting to prevent public disclosure of teacher arrests. According to the [...]

Jay Ambrose on State Policy, Jake Jabs on Good Business

by Jon Caldara | 12:30 pm, July 8, 2011

On this week’s Devils Advocate, widely read and widely regarded columnist Jay Ambrose joins me to talk about what states have great public policy (Texas) and what states get their policies dead wrong (New York). Then in the second half of the show, American Furniture Warehouse CEO Jake Jabs talks good business practices and not [...]

Colorado Education Association Sues to Stop Telling Parents of Teacher Arrests

by Eddie | 10:56 am, July 8, 2011

This hasn’t been one of the big issues on my education transformer radar, nor is it one I’ve covered before. But it does bring out an interesting point of clarity for those who are interested in our K-12 schools and the politics that surround them. The Coloradoan in Fort Collins reported yesterday that the state’s [...]

Stop the Hatchet Job on Medical Marijuana Shops

by Ari Armstrong | 10:35 am, July 8, 2011

The following article by Linn and Ari Armstrong originally was published July 8 by Grand Junction Free Press.Around the turn of the last century, Carrie Nation opposed alcohol use. So zealous was her crusade that she gained a reputation for barging int…

June jobs report shows Obamanomics failure

by Rossputin | 8:25 am, July 8, 2011

This morning, the Labor Department released the worst employment report since September of last year, with the economy creating only 18,000 jobs in June versus a Marketwatch consensus estimate of 125,000 jobs. (Yahoo Finance and Bloomberg had slightly lower estimates, but the report was a disaster by any measure.)

Private sector job growth also came in far below expectations at 57,000 net new jobs in June.

As if that weren’t bad enough, both April and May employment numbers were revised lower, down a combined 44,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate moved up to 9.2%. The broader “U-6″ measure of unemployment and underemployment spiked up to 16.2%, the highest level this year.

The rest of the report was bad as well: Hourly earnings were unchanged, with predictions of up 0.1%-0.2%. The average workweek fell to 34.3 hours, below the estimate of 34.4 hours.

Fed Funds futures rose dramatically in the “back months” suggesting that the market is substantially lowering the probability of an interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve anytime this year.

If one can see a bright side to all this, it’s that government at all levels shed a net 39,000 jobs in the month. I realize it’s no fun for those government employees who thought of themselves just as men and women doing a job. And while many government workers perform important and legitimate functions, government is notorious for lack of productivity. At the end of the day these people are paid by taking money from the rest of us. So just as the nation won’t be healthy until Washington, D.C. is no longer the strongest real estate market in the country, we also won’t be healthy until the total number and cost of government jobs falls to, and remains at, a substantially lower level.

After an hour of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 135 points with the S&P 500 down 17 points.

Barack Obama’s economic advisor Austan Goolsbee called the report a “call to action” and then laid out several policy suggestions (more below). Goolsbee then blamed the economic slowdown on a “terrible oil price shock and a slowdown in the growth rate”.

The problem for the Obama Administration is they they’re to blame for both.

Releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve showed Obama’s economic ignorance and desperation. In fact, despite a 2% drop in oil prices on today’s weak report, oil is still almost $3 per barrel higher than when that policy was announced. Oil prices are driven by big-picture supply and demand. As long as the Obama Administration is a barrier to creating new supply, the path of least resistance for oil prices is upwards. As for the slowdown in growth, that was just an odd comment, basically saying that the economic slowdown was due to the fact that economic growth slowed. Not much I can add to such wisdom except to say that the Administration’s economic policies are obviously failing.

CNBC reporters asked Goolsbee twice whether the Obama Administration has any culpability. Goolsbee eventually said “Yes, we take responsibility.” That’s a start…and perhaps this kind of semi-honest talk will get the last victims of Bush Derangement Syndrome to recognize that this economy is no longer George W. Bush’s fault or problem.

Goolsbee called for these five policy actions:

1) Extend the payroll tax cut
2) Pass free trade agreements
3) Create an infrastructure bank
4) Pass a patent reform bill
5) Pass balanced bipartisan deficit reduction agreement

He claimed these “would create hundreds of thousands of jobs if not millions”.

Let’s take these on:

1) Businessmen are not fooled into changing behavior by temporary government policies. Furthermore, the Administration displayed their usual economic ignorance by giving the tax break only on the employee side of the ledger. If they had to choose just one side to give a break to with a view toward creating jobs, it should have been the employer. That said, temporary policies simply don’t have important economic impact because the rest of us know we don’t live temporary lives.

2) Passing free trade agreements is a very good idea, though its impact would take some time. Furthermore, the Democrats tend to try to use these agreements to create new entitlement programs such as “job retraining” which end up lessening the benefit of the bills. Still, free trade is one of the most important things for a vibrant economy.

3) Does anybody but a White House employee think that we need the government to set up a “bank” of any sort? Furthermore, if infrastructure were so important, why did they do so little of it with the nearly $1 trillion “stimulus” plan, during which we heard so much about “shovel-ready projects” only to be told last month by President Obama that “shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.” The “infrastructure bank” is simply the Administration’s latest scheme to divert taxpayer money to their increasingly disaffected union base. A perfect example comes with a union suggestion that if the legislation were to pass, it should require project oversight and inspection to be done by government workers (also likely to be union members) rather than by private contractors (who actually care about productivity.)

4) Patent reform is a good idea, though again this is a much longer-term impact and not going to create jobs in the next several months

5) Obviously, reducing our debt and deficit is critical, in particular because of the confidence (or lack thereof) which the eventual deal will instill in American entrepreneurs. If the legislation ends up being based on bogus assertions of revenue assumptions from class-warfare talking points, the markets and job creators won’t be fooled. We simply must address the growth of entitlement programs’ costs.

And Goolsbee missed one of the most important aspects – because his boss doesn’t want to go down this road: The private sector is massively over-regulated and fears becoming even more so. Dodd-Frank and Obamacare are just the latest, piling on the mess of Sarbanes-Oxley and the increasingly burdensome regulatory state. The use of the EPA, Department of the Interior, and Department of Labor to enforce rules which Obama couldn’t get passed in Congress smacks of anti-business petty tyranny. Reducing debt and deficit is important, but reducing regulation – and the threat of further regulation – is just as important.

The June employment report is indeed a “call to action”, namely to stop naively believing in Obamanomics and to start contributing to political candidates who promise to support repeal of much of this Administration’s economic poison while we still have a patient to save.

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Global Warming Tales and Tails

by Rossputin | 7:15 am, July 8, 2011

One of the beautiful things about “global warming” – now called “climate change” since the planet didn’t warm for a decade starting in 1998 – is, at least from the point of view of the climate change industry, that they can say almost anything and get away with it. Whatever is most likely to scare people into writing checks to this or that environmental defense fund is fair game not just for the organizations but also for many scientists clinging to the teat of private and federal grant money.

——–

Meanwhile, from the other side of the planet comes a story which is perhaps the ultimate proof that “climate change” policy has gone Through the Looking Glass…

Please read the entirety of my article at the American Spectator web page:
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/07/08/global-warming-tales-and-tail

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Global Warming Tales and Tails

by Rossputin | 7:15 am, July 8, 2011

Bennet Frustrated by Budget Crisis He Helped Create

by PerlStalker | 10:00 pm, July 7, 2011

It amuses me that Senator Michael Bennet is frustrated by the budget “crisis” in Washington, DC given that he and his Senate colleagues haven’t passed a budget in nearly 800 days.

He also chided the House members, saying, “When I was in local go…

Colorado PUC Votes Against Jobs

by PerlStalker | 9:41 pm, July 7, 2011

The PUC in Colorado refused to allow Yellow Cab to put another 150 cabs on the road, in Denver, after it refused to allow Liberty Taxi to do the same thing earlier this year.

Last session, Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, introduced Senate Bill 6…

Private Sector Jobs – Our Only Salvation

by Vande Krol | 5:19 pm, July 7, 2011

“I will not be satisfied until everyone who wants a good job that offers some security has a good job that offers security”. President Obama said that, speaking recently at an energy-efficient lighting plant.Whew. I feel better. And more secure. Wh…

New Evidence for Obamacare?

by Jon Caldara | 3:29 pm, July 7, 2011

Rob Natelson must spend his days and nights repelling the incessant, research-free, and totally weak arguments for Obamacare’s constitutionality. This latest example of poor 18th century scholarship points to a 1798 statute that allegedly shows that the original understanding of the Constitution is broad enough to authorize federal health care programs. No way says Rob. [...]

Anti-Douglas County Choice Groups Seek to Stop Education Liberty Bell from Ringing

by Eddie | 1:21 pm, July 7, 2011

A couple weeks ago I filled you in on how there are two separate groups that have filed their legal complaints against the Douglas County Choice Scholarship Program. Well, as Ed News Colorado reports, now they’ve taken the next official step:

Plaintiffs in two lawsuits challenging the Douglas County voucher pilot are asking for an immediate [...]

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