There can no longer be an independent IG

Inspector General Gerald Walpin was getting too close to one of The One's protected law violators, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johson. So Obama summarily fired him, despite the law requiring 30 days notice to Congress. A US judge found a way to allow Obama to violate the law. How convenient. But it doesn't make sense. Washington Examiner:

A federal judge in Washington has dismissed the wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general who was fired last year by President Obama. And not just dismissed; if the decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts stands, in the future the White House will be able fire other inspectors general as it fired Walpin without fear of legal consequences. The law requires the president to give Congress 30 days’ notice, plus an explanation, before firing an inspector general, but Walpin was summarily dismissed by the White House without notice to Congress or explanation on June 10, 2009. At the time, Walpin was aggressively investigating misuse of AmeriCorps money by Sacramento, California mayor Kevin Johnson, a friend and political ally of President Obama. Walpin sued to get his old job back, arguing that he was unlawfully dismissed. Judge Roberts rejected Walpin’s claim by deciding that Walpin was not summarily fired, after all. Even though Walpin was placed on immediate administrative leave on June 10, his authority removed, denied access to his office, email, etc., Roberts says Walpin was not technically fired until later, after the White House had notified Congress. Therefore, the president did not violate the law in ousting Walpin.

So Obama can lock out an "independent" IG and prevent him from continuing his work. But he wasn't fired, the judge says, because he was put on paid leave. This grossly violates the purpose of having independent IGs. An independent IG will sometimes find things the "big boss" doesn't like. If he is independent you allow him to do that - to do his job. Obama would not allow Walpin to continue working when he found inconvenient facts. Obama violated the intent of the law and Judge Richard Roberts allowed him to. Big government just got more power. This will hurt all of us as we see our tax dollars going to powerful people who violate the conditions under which they get the grants.

FCC to regulate Internet despite law against

You have too much liberty. Obama wants his FCC to tighten your sharing of information on the Internet. They lost in court a couple of months ago. So they continue. CNS News

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on Thursday to begin the formal process of bringing the Internet under greater federal control – a move sought by both President Barack Obama and FCC Chairnman Julius Genachowski--even though federal law calls for an Internet "unfettered by Federal or State regulation." This step comes after the federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in April rebuked the FCC in its attempt to enforce a controversial regulatory doctrine called Net Neutrality, which would allow the government to prevent private Internet providers from deciding which applications to allow on their networks. The court said that the FCC did not have the authority to prevent Comcast, specifically, from blocking certain peer-to-peer Web sites. The FCC is now trying to reclassify the Internet to broaden its authority over the Web. Currently, the FCC only has “ancillary” authority, meaning it can regulate Internet access only in the process of regulating another service that it has direct authority over, such as television or cable. The 3-2 party-line vote on Thursday at the FCC began the formal process of reclassifying the Internet as a telecommunications service instead of an information service – its current classification. This is necessary because, as an information service, the government has little power to regulate Internet networks. As a telecommunications service, such as a telephone network, the Internet would fall under a much broader regulatory scope – giving the government the power to enforce universal service requirements, making them pay into a federal universal service fund used to provide communications services to poor areas.

Of course the FCC covers their power grab with words about protecting consumers. And they promise forbearance - that they won't do anything heavy-handed - except for what they are doing now, in violation of the law. The minority help make it clear:

Robert McDowell, the commission’s longest-serving Republican member, said the commission should preserve the free Internet of today, adding that more Internet freedom would be in the public interest. “An open and freedom-enhancing Internet is what we have today,” McDowell said. McDowell also said that reclassifying the Internet was “unnecessary” and that the FCC should wait for Congress to grant it explicit authority over the Web, saying, “We are not Congress.” In fact, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which gave the government no explicit authority to regulate Internet service, states: “It is the policy of the United States … to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation.”

Boeing giving big to Demo incumbents

Everyone wants the incumbents out - the Democrat incumbents - except Boeing and other large companies Business Week

While Americans may be eager to vote congressional lawmakers out of office, U.S. companies are pouring money into incumbents’ campaigns. And Democrats are the biggest beneficiaries. Democrats fighting to maintain control of the U.S. House are drawing funds from companies such as AT&T Inc., Boeing Co. and Honeywell International Inc. Their corporate political action committees are among the top donors to 31 Democratic incumbents seen by analysts as the most endangered this year, a review of Federal Election Commission records shows. ... Dallas-based AT&T gave $170,500 and Chicago-based Boeing contributed $95,500, according to FEC records through the first quarter of 2010. Overall, corporate PACs gave $5.2 million to the most vulnerable Democrats, compared with $366,000 to their Republican challengers. ... A Gallup Poll conducted May 24-25 found 60 percent of registered U.S. voters would rather support a House candidate who has never served in Congress, compared with 32 percent who favored a nominee with some congressional experience. That should translate to gains for Republicans, who hold 177 seats in the House and need 218 to take control.

Boeing is so used to playing the "pay to play" game that they give to Dinghy Harry Reid and Boss Pelosi without further thought. They might give directly to them, but every dollar to a Democrat helps them.

Bill Gates, Sr. vs. Bill Gates, III on taxes

Bill Gates, the younger, says to donate your wealth which minimizes the taxes you pay. Bill Gates, the elder, says to pay more taxes. Pay less taxes vs. pay more taxes. Bill Gates, Sr. * has an initiative to reduce property taxes, I mean, to create a state income tax for you. But note that it has changed its number from I-1077 to I-1098. Sign it if you want to pay higher taxes. It won't hit you this year, but it will creep down and down until it does. After all, Christine Gregoire just can't cut spending one more dime. Gates, Sr., says the income tax won't hit people with income of less than $400,000 per couple or $200,000 per single without a vote of the people. But he knows that is not true, even if his initiative requires it. After two years the Legislature can change an initiative. But he says they wouldn't do a thing like that. Was he was conveniently asleep when they gutted I-960 this year? Meanwhile, Bill the younger encourages tax avoidance. It's funny he, Melinda and Buffett only talk about philanthropy, not taxes. Seattle Times

Investor Warren Buffett, who is ranked as the third richest person in the world, is donating most of his wealth to the Gates Foundation. Buffett, who pledged to give away more than 99 percent of his $47 billion fortune, was the main driver of the initiative, which has the support of a couple dozen billionaires, Stonesifer said. Buffett was inspired not by the rich but by the generosity of ordinary people who sacrifice more to contribute hard earned dollars to churches, schools and other organizations. The idea came out of a series of private dinners the Gateses and Buffett held in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area over the past year. They will invite people who take the pledge to meet at an annual event to share ideas. The potential for philanthropy is huge -- the United States alone has at least 400 billionaires with a net worth Forbes estimates at $1.2 trillion. If those billionaires gave the minimum pledge of half of their fortunes to charity, that would triple the current amount of charitable giving in the U.S. ... In his pledge letter today, Buffett describes how having too much wealth is a burden. "Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner," he wrote. "Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced." ... Washington state is home to six billionaires: Bill Gates, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeffrey Bezos, wireless entrepreneur Craig McCaw and Oakley sun glasses creator James Jannard, who lists his residence in the San Juan Islands. ...

* The father is reported as Sr., the son as III. It seems there is a missing generation. Or is the father really Jr.?

Share my map

I am investigating combining online maps with data. I am getting into using the basic tools, but that's programming and takes a lot of learning and experimenting. So for a small step I am using a nice tool, Share My Map.

Here is my own map of beach walks in the Seattle area. Seattle Beach Access at ShareMyMaps

Take a look. Then leave a comment either at the map or here.

We Con the World - video banned by YouTube

This is a takeoff on USA for Africa: We Are the World, an all-star recording in 1985. This is sung by the "peace activists" who armed themselves with daggers and steel pipes then attacked the IDF soldiers arriving on the Turkish shop two weeks ago. There is some video footage of the attack on the Turkish ship. It's at PJTV. If you like it consider a donation.

Bush gets better ratings than Obama

Yes, Bush is higher rated by the people of Louisiana than The One. This is devastating. Especially since it comes from left-leaning pollster PPP.

Our new Louisiana poll has a lot of data points to show how unhappy voters in the state are with Barack Obama’s handling of the oil spill but one perhaps sums it up better than anything else- a majority of voters there think George W. Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama’s done dealing with the spill. 50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama. Overall only 32% of Louisianans approve of how Obama has handled the spill to 62% who disapprove. 34% of those polled say they approved of how Bush dealt with Katrina to 58% who disapproved. While the poll results indicate a lot of unhappiness with the President, ultimately BP is getting the largest amount of blame ... One thing the oil spill has not done is created a spike of opposition to offshore drilling in Louisiana. 77% of voters still support it with only 12% against. Only 31% say the spill has made them less inclined to be in favor of drilling while 42% say it hasn't made a difference to them and 28% say they're now stronger in their support. If there's any 'winner' in this unfortunate event it's Governor Bobby Jindal. 63% of voters approve of the job he's doing, the best PPP has found for any Senator or Governor so far in 2010. There's an even higher level of support, at 65%, for how he's handled the aftermath of the spill.

Via HotAir.com

Do as I say not as I do - AlGore

Albert Gore, Jr., demands full access to the oil spill to reporters - his blog. But he bars reporters from his speeches - 2008 & 2009. You just don't understand why his needs are different. Hat tip to Drudge.

Aerial battle over South Puget Sound

I witnessed a five-minute aerial battle Monday, June 14, over Case Inlet, a branch of Puget Sound west of Tacoma, Washington. I was lounging in the bright sunlight (suffering from an allergy attack) looking west across Case Inlet at our cabin on Key Peninsula - Lat/Lon = 47 14' 13" N, 122 49' 33" W. I heard the distinctive call of an osprey, a high, descending, long chirp, then the sound of air rushing over wings! Close in and less than 50 feet high the osprey was flying fast and turning, turning, turning, with a mature bald eagle in hot pursuit. The eagle would rush the osprey, the osprey would turn to avoid him. At first there were also two crows chasing the eagle. The osprey carried a fish in its talons, which is what the eagle wanted; the fish, not the osprey, is the eagle's prey. A mid-air robbery. They moved higher and farther away, as I wondered how this would end. I remembered to watch for the osprey's captured fish to drop and be grabbed by the eagle or hit the water. I didn't see that happen. It was a long battle; I am sure I saw four or five minutes of it. The eagle could accelerate to much faster than the osprey was flying, but the speed worked against him, because when the osprey turned the eagle would overshoot and be far off. After that long five-minute chase the eagle broke off and flew past me below 100 feet and descending. I saw the same battle between a bald eagle and osprey last summer, but it was much shorter. There are resident bald eagles in our area and the ospreys are summer residents. Photos from Everett Herald newspaper.

ACORN is just a victim - Revising history

Watch the news on ACORN - Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Don't forget that ACORN was caught red-handed on video condoning and offering to assist in the sex trafficking of underage girls multiple times at different field offices. In the remnants of ACORN they are planning to try to overcome history with a white washed version: ACORN as pure, innocent victim. Reports Matthew Vadim at BigJornalism

ACORN’s radical allies are now attempting to rewrite history to cast the organized crime syndicate as victim instead of as the prolific victimizer that it has been ever since it was created in 1970. ACORN online campaign director Nathan Henderson-James served notice in February that a propaganda effort was about to begin. “[T]here will be a fight over the narrative of ACORN’s demise,” he wrote to members of Townhouse, a discussion forum run by Matt Stoller, senior policy adviser to Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.). The other side wants “a narrative about the corruption of popular organizations and how they are simply vehicles for the personal enrichment and power fantasies of their top staff members while pushing public policies that destroy middle America.” Such a narrative must be fought, Henderson-James argued, because it “gives people pushing a pro-corporate agenda a way to tar progressives and even non-progressive Democrats running for office with the ACORN brush.” The effort was already underway when Henderson-James reached out to the leftist community. After ACORN’s national board expelled ACORN founder Wade Rathke for engineering an eight-year cover-up of a million dollar embezzlement, Rathke wrote a combination political memoir/manifesto called Citizen Wealth. More recently, Seeds of Change, an institutional hagiography of ACORN by true believer John Atlas was published. And now comes the “Cry Wolf” Project, a push to encourage academics to help spread more lies about the corrupt group. Heading the push is Peter Dreier, a politics professor and director of the urban and environmental policy program at Occidental College, alma mater of America’s Community Organizer-in-Chief.

For some real, detailed history - History Commons.

SUV kills two teens

The SUV is guilty according to the headline. How about the driver? Vodka bottle found in SUV that hit, killed 2 teens - Seattle Times

Don't do it. The US is broke. Don't you know?

Don't they know the US is broke? Congress is busy spending other people's money. Borrowing to pay current expenses for government employees. It's wrong. Worse... It's foolish. Worse... it's downright stupid. STOP! Obama pleads for $50 billion in state, local aid - Washington Post

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery. In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year's huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy's free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. "We must take these emergency measures," he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party. The letter comes as rising concern about the national debt is undermining congressional support for additional spending to bolster the economy. Many economists say more spending could help bring down persistently high unemployment, but with Republicans making an issue of the record deficits run up during the recession, many Democratic lawmakers are eager to turn off the stimulus tap. "I think there is spending fatigue," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said recently. "It's tough in both houses to get votes."

No, we don't read bills in Congress

Don't feel bad about not reading the 1500 page bill, Congressmen and senators don't have time to read them. Bill Thomas, a former congressman now leading a deficit-reduction special commission, told Warren Buffett June 2.

Congress's ratings by the public are at all-time lows.

Weekly Standard

Obama wants to help newspapers

Obama's desire to love newspapers has hit a wall of public opinion - public opposition. Obama wants to "help" newspapers stay in business. With his help they might stay in business, but they could not stay independent. Of course Obama's FCC says "we don't want to interfere" with the independence of the press. But it is inevitable when the government helps. And a Rasmussen poll of the public found just that. Overwhelmingly people thought government help would mean influencing the press. And the public placed independence of the press above the survival of news printed on cheap paper. Mark Tapscott at Washington Examiner:

More devastating news today from Rasmussen Reports for the FTC's "Reinventing Journalism" project, as fully 85 percent of the respondents to a national telephone survey say protecting freedom of the press is more important than saving existing newspapers. Perhaps even more worrisome for the FTC is the fact that only 19 percent of the respondents think it's appropriate for the government to be involved in efforts to prop up existing newspapers, according to Rasmussen. The FTC's "Reinventing Journalism" project is only at the staff discussion level for now, but there is clearly an effort supported by President Obama to mount some kind of bailout for the newspaper industry similar to those previously conducted by the administration in taking over GM and Chrysler, as well as multiple Wall Street firms, most of the mortgage industry and key elements of the insurance industry. See also my column from last week warning my colleagues in the journalism world that there is no way the federal government can be involved in funding or otherwise "saving" newspapers that won't eventually result in major media outlets becoming tools of government propaganda. Claims by FTC officials and their supporters in the media and academic communities that government aid won't lead to government control of news reporting face an uphill battle with the public, according to Rasmussen, too: "Sixty-four percent (64%) of adults say it is at least somewhat likely that if the government provides funding for newspapers to hire journalists, the government will then place limits on what those journalists can cover. That includes 41% who believe it is Very Likely."

6/11/10: I added the link to Tapscott's story.

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

Guess who gets the better grade on basic literacy in economics - liberals or conservatives? WSJ Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians? According to a Zogby International survey that I write about in the May issue of Econ Journal Watch, the answer is unequivocal: The left flunks Econ 101. Zogby researcher Zeljka Buturovic and I considered the 4,835 respondents' (all American adults) answers to eight survey questions about basic economics. We also asked the respondents about their political leanings: progressive/very liberal; liberal; moderate; conservative; very conservative; and libertarian. Rather than focusing on whether respondents answered a question correctly, we instead looked at whether they answered incorrectly. A response was counted as incorrect only if it was flatly unenlightened. Consider one of the economic propositions in the December 2008 poll: "Restrictions on housing development make housing less affordable." People were asked if they: 1) strongly agree; 2) somewhat agree; 3) somewhat disagree; 4) strongly disagree; 5) are not sure. Basic economics acknowledges that whatever redeeming features a restriction may have, it increases the cost of production and exchange, making goods and services less affordable. There may be exceptions to the general case, but they would be atypical. Therefore, we counted as incorrect responses of "somewhat disagree" and "strongly disagree." This treatment gives leeway for those who think the question is ambiguous or half right and half wrong. They would likely answer "not sure," which we do not count as incorrect. In this case, percentage of conservatives answering incorrectly was 22.3%, very conservatives 17.6% and libertarians 15.7%. But the percentage of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly was 67.6% and liberals 60.1%. The pattern was not an anomaly. The other questions were: 1) Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services (unenlightened answer: disagree). 2) Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago (unenlightened answer: disagree). 3) Rent control leads to housing shortages (unenlightened answer: disagree). 4) A company with the largest market share is a monopoly (unenlightened answer: agree). 5) Third World workers working for American companies overseas are being exploited (unenlightened answer: agree). 6) Free trade leads to unemployment (unenlightened answer: agree). 7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree). How did the six ideological groups do overall? Here they are, best to worst, with an average number of incorrect responses from 0 to 8: Very conservative, 1.30; Libertarian, 1.38; Conservative, 1.67; Moderate, 3.67; Liberal, 4.69; Progressive/very liberal, 5.26. Americans in the first three categories do reasonably well. But the left has trouble squaring economic thinking with their political psychology, morals and aesthetics. To be sure, none of the eight questions specifically challenge the political sensibilities of conservatives and libertarians. Still, not all of the eight questions are tied directly to left-wing concerns about inequality and redistribution. In particular, the questions about mandatory licensing, the standard of living, the definition of monopoly, and free trade do not specifically challenge leftist sensibilities. Yet on every question the left did much worse. On the monopoly question, the portion of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly (31%) was more than twice that of conservatives (13%) and more than four times that of libertarians (7%). On the question about living standards, the portion of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly (61%) was more than four times that of conservatives (13%) and almost three times that of libertarians (21%). ... Mr. Klein is a professor of economics at George Mason University. This op-ed is based on an article published in the May 2010 issue of the journal he edits, Econ Journal Watch, a project sponsored by the American Institute for Economic Research. Thanks to Rick for type reading.

Dino leads Senator Patty

Dino has the lead. In The Washington Poll for the week of May 24, the week he entered, Dino Rossi lead Patty by 42% to 39%. He was in the news every day that week. That helps. But he just entered the race and is ahead. The Washington Poll Power Point (Pdf) Via Seattle Times Politics NW

DIY U - revolution in higher education

Can't reform higher ed. It's too rich and entrenched. So let it sit fat and happy (for a while) and watch the sharp students go around it. But... but... but... that will hurt higher ed. They had it coming; they invited the end run by avoiding reality.

Glenn Reynolds

It's a story of an industry that may sound familiar.

The buyers think what they're buying will appreciate in value, making them rich in the future. The product grows more and more elaborate, and more and more expensive, but the expense is offset by cheap credit provided by sellers eager to encourage buyers to buy.

Buyers see that everyone else is taking on mounds of debt, and so are more comfortable when they do so themselves; besides, for a generation, the value of what they're buying has gone up steadily. What could go wrong? Everything continues smoothly until, at some point, it doesn't.

Yes, this sounds like the housing bubble, but I'm afraid it's also sounding a lot like a still-inflating higher education bubble. And despite (or because of) the fact that my day job involves higher education, I think it's better for us to face up to what's going on before the bubble bursts messily.

College has gotten a lot more expensive. A recent Money magazine report notes: "After adjusting for financial aid, the amount families pay for college has skyrocketed 439 percent since 1982. ... Normal supply and demand can't begin to explain cost increases of this magnitude."
...

He works in higher ed, but recognizes it is impossibly difficult to reform it. So he points to a chronicler of the alternatives, DIY U, a book.

DIY U

DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education is my new book about the future of higher education. It’s a story about the communities of visionaries who are tackling the enormous challenges of cost, access, and quality in higher ed, using new technologies to bring us a revolution in higher learning that is affordable, accessible, and learner-centered.

“This book is not only a smart and forward-thinking look at new and exciting trends in self-directed higher learning, it’s also a smart resource guide for students and their families anxious to take their education into their own hands” says Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

Boxer opponent will accept job bribe

Head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to push for an actual physical fence on the Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants and to end the "anointed incumbent...Boxer's obsessive talk of amnesty, sorry, 'a path to citizenship'" that actually acts as a powerful lure for even more illegal immigrants. --Second, Kaus kindly offers, Obama could put him on the National Labor Relations Board so he could thwart "Big Labor's attempt to add to their dwindling memberships by avoiding secret ballots in union organizing drives." --Finally, Kaus offered to accept an administration job offer to the Department of Education to write "a scathing report" on California teachers' unions and their deleterious impact on the state.

Those are the jobs US Senate candidate Mickey Kaus will accept to drop his primary bid agains the 100th smartest senator, Barbara Boxer. LA Times

D Day - the Liberation of Europe 66 years ago

President Reagan, June 6, 1984 at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy in Real Clear Politics:

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here, in Normandy, the rescue began. Here, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here, and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance. The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs, shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only ninety could still bear arms. Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them here. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Read the rest.

Patriot's history of the US & UW Tacoma

UW-Tacoma Prof Michael Allen and Larry Schweikart wrote an obscure US history textbook. A Patriot's History of the US: from Columbus's Gret Discovery to the War on Terror - Amazon It was obscure until a prominent talk-radio host interviewed coauthor Schweikart who mentioned their book. It shot up the NY Times bestseller list to #1. Thanks, Glenn Beck! Allen is a professor of history at the University of Washington's Tacoma campus. BTW: If you have never been to UW-Tacoma, you should see the neighborhood. The campus is primarily recycled old brick buildings from early 20th century (or earlier) industry. The Washington History Museum is across the street and the Museum of Glass (Dale Chihuly) is across the freeway from there via a bridge that shows enough glass art that you can skip the museum. The (free) Tacoma Light Rail runs through from free parking at Freight House Square. Source: Weekly Volcano (South Sound) newspaper 4/29/10

Christianity worldwide might help USA

The spectacular growth of Christianity worldwide might help the USA. Walter Russell Meade at The American Interest

Sometimes the stone that the builders rejected ends up as the cornerstone of the whole building. That may not quite describe the role of Christianity in American foreign policy, but in some important and little understood ways the massive surge of Christian faith in the developing world is tilting the global playing field in America’s favor. At home, the appeal and the vigor of African-American Christianity, especially of the Pentecostal variety, may be America’s best defense against a sharp increase in home-grown terror.

...

Brown bailout

I thought UPS was a first-class company that is successfully competing in the tough package delivery business. But UPS isn't satisified with the opportunity to compete. UPS and the Teamsters Union are asking Congress for help. Brown Bailout The problem is government regulation. For the full story: Journal Star Newspaper

... Rather than take its lumps and compete, UPS' answer now is to team up with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to hobble its competitors with the same costly baggage that UPS itself unsuccessfully sought to shed.

And the bailout would hurt the Northwest also:

This is not an academic problem. FedEx has informed Boeing that it will cancel its order for 15 Boeing 777 aircraft if H.R. 915 is passed with this provision.

Offline - I spent two plus days at our cabin. But the neighbor didn't have their WiFi on, so I had no internet access. Well, I just had the At&T Edge network on my iPhone. But I don't have a setup to post using that combination.

Egypt blocks Gaza also

If the Muslim world loves the Palistinians so much, there is an obvious way around Israel's blocking access to Gaza. Egypt can open its border to Gaza and allow free going in and going out. But Egypt has first-hand experience with the semi-governed Gaza. Read about Egypt's problem with Gaza below then draw your own conclusions. Egypt's conclusion is that Gaza is run by a criminal enterprise, Hamas, and has to be restrained. Egypt has long had a wall along the Gaza border with Egypt and allows very restricted border crossings. Now Egypt is sending the wall down; building an underground wall 30 meters deep. That's almost 100 feet into the earth. Why? The peaceful people of Gaza and their criminal friends dig tunnels so they can smuggle guns, rockets and every other thing into Gaza and people can come out to Egypt. CBS News

Egypt is building a massive iron wall, approximately 30 yards into the Earth. The controversial move — intended to shut down smuggling tunnels which are the Strip's only remaining lifeline — would further tighten a 3-year-long Israeli blockade, which has turned the poverty-stricken enclave into what critics call "the biggest prison on Earth." The tunnels are used for smuggling everything from food, medicine and household goods, to vehicles, even livestock. But Israel says they're also used for bringing weapons into the Palestinian-controlled territory. The installation of the 10-kilometer-long, 30-meter-deep barrier started physically last November, and it may be months before it is finished. Sealing the underground links would further throttle the Gazan economy and finally cut off Gaza's main link to the outside world. Egyptian officials initially would not discuss the $500 million project, and still decline to provide details. ... Several Egyptian newspapers devoted editorials to the danger facing Egypt from the arms smuggling and the tunnels, and stressed Egypt's right to defend its sovereignty and security. Egypt is wary of Hamas (the Palestinian resistance group that controls Gaza and which is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union) because it is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the long-established trans-national movement that supports the creation of an Islamic state in Egypt and which has long been a thorn in the flesh of President Mubarak. Two years ago, Hamas militants cut down a metal border wall that had been erected by Israel, enabling tens of thousands of Gazans to pour into Egypt until the border was resealed. Though described as a policy of "collective punishment" by many aid organizations, Egypt's decision to build the steel wall has been defended as its sovereign right by the leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement, President Mahmoud Abbas — who, ironically, also condemned Israel's "apartheid wall" in the West Bank, urging the international community to tear it down. ...

Why does CBS blame Israel for the blockade when it is describing Egypt building a wall plus underground barrier? Does the Muslim world love the Palestinians? If so, why don't they allow access to Gaza through Egypt? Hat tip to Brian Suits on radio KVI.

We remember

Today, Memorial Day, we remember those who died in service to the USA.

There are lots of events today from Seattle to Monroe to Edmonds. Seattle Times

Here is one who lived. (Not in the photo.) He doesn't consider himself a hero; they are all buried overseas. But the Army was too sedate for him the summer of 1941 (before the Pearl Harbor attack), so he quit it to go to China with General Chenault's Flying Tigers, fighting against Japan. He kept the planes supplied with armaments.

Boston Herald

Are we ready to cut the spending?

Are we are ready to cut the benefits we receive from the federal government? On more than one occasion tea partiers, when asked by reporters if their main concern is taxes or spending, replied "spending." Get control of the spending first. Then the taxes. Are they ready to reduce what they receive? Do they know what they receive? It is my order of priorities also. Get spending under control. Our Congress and President are not restrained by income or anything else. Any problem they will throw money at, even when it makes no sense. (Example of that: Social Security recipients get a cost of living adjustment every year. This year the cost of living was lower. So, be happy, things are cheaper. No. They wanted the increase they got every year. If adults had been in charge they would have said "Be satisfied. The cost of living is lower." No. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid got Congress to pass a $250 bonus. It makes no sense at all. If they were spending money they had it might be defendable. But they have to borrow in order to pay this "lower cost of living" bonus. Just recklessly throwing money at every situation.) Emmett Tryrrell of the American Spectator magazine thinks we have arrived at the point where people will start accepting the pain. On the side he has an interesting contrast between us hoi poloi and the intelligentsia. American Spectator WASHINGTON -- Owing to the promotion tour for my new book, After the Hangover: The Conservatives' Road to Recovery, I have been meeting with what the intelligentsia once called "the masses." They read books. They pay taxes. They attend lectures. Oh, and by the way, they are now a lot more prosperous and even more civilized than the intelligentsia, today's version of which are actually anti-intellectual and occasionally only semi-literate. The reason that "the masses" are a lot more prosperous and even civilized is that they have been participating in our free-market economy for years. It has made their lives easier, and they recognize it. As Arthur Brooks, the urbane president of the American Enterprise Institute, demonstrates in his new book, The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future, seventy percent of Americans favor free enterprise, with only a glum thirty percent turning their tremulous palms up to the nanny state. At any rate, after talking with thousands of ordinary Americans on talk radio and at book receptions, I have come to the conclusion that America has arrived at a historic turning point. It is not just that Tea Partiers are revolting against big government. It is something more. Usually a revolt against big government has meant that restive Americans wanted their taxes lowered, but as for cutting government back they were vague. They favored economies but certainly no cutbacks in their entitlements -- a loaded word, that, entitled to whom from what? -- or government subsidies. What makes this a historic moment is that growing numbers of Americans now accept that they too are going to have to forego at least some of their so-called entitlements. ...

Sestak - The White House admitted guilt

The White House admitted that ex-President Clinton was authorized to offer Rep. Joe Sestak a job in exchange for not running for Senate against poor Arlen Spector. (It must be a huge disappointment to be denied your birthright of lifetime office in the US Senate. He was sure it was his.) White House Counsel Bauer admitted guilt in a two-page memorandum. Read the memo. It doesn't matter that the office was unpaid. President Obama's team offered a bribe to Sestak to leave Specter alone. It's a crime. Here is The Caucus blog at New York Times version of the law - two laws:

Federal law makes it a crime for anyone “who directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or any other benefit” to someone else “as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office.” It is also illegal for a government official to use “his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate” for Senate.

And Bauer hides behind their obvious trick of doing it indirectly. The White House did not contact Sestak... But had Clinton do it. Doesn't matter. it was a bribe. And besides, everyone does it - breaks this law. In Bauer's words:

There have been numerous, reported instances in the past when prior Administrations -- both Democratic and Republican, and motivated by the same goals -- discussed alternative paths to service for qualified individuals also considering campaigns for public office

And it is Bauer's job - after admitting guilt - to say that the illegal is legal, so he does. OK, lapdogs, NY TImes, WA Post, all of you. Others chased out the scandal. Just report on it. Not on an obscure blog, but on the front page. Ask some questions.

Not so concerned about Europe. China

Anita Raghavan is bullish because of expected growth - not in Europe. Forbes It seems like the market is divided between two camps right now. There are the bears who think the fiscal woes of Europe are likely to threaten the emerging global recovery, dousing it even before it really blazes. And then there are the bulls who quite frankly don't give a damn about Europe. In their mind, Europe is just a speck on an otherwise expanding economic landscape. On Friday, one of the biggest bulls, Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill chimed in with his thoughts before the long holiday weekend. "The China-U.S. economic outlook is simply way more important than all this European stuff," he writes in a research note. O'Neill's basic read is that a "much better tone" exists between senior U.S. policymakers and their counterparts in Beijing than earlier in the year. Among other things that have helped foster the better relationship is a recognition by the U.S. of the contribution of Chinese global consumption. He puts the problems of the euro zone into perspective, saying that Goldman expects Chinese gross domestic product to rise by $7 trillion this decade, nearly two times its current size, two times the change in the U.S. and equivalent to the change in the U.S. and the other three BRIC countries--Goldman's moniker for Brazil, Russia, India and China--put together. Goldman expects Chinese GDP to hit $11 trillion by 2019. "Not a single euro area country will be in the top ten contributors,'' he writes. Also, despite all the hand-wringing over Europe, he says the euro area in aggregate is in better fiscal shape than the U.S. "Irrelevant of the considerable challenges within many individual countries, in aggregate, the euro area is in modest, current account surplus," writes O'Neill. Among the statistics that comfort Goldman's economists is that general government net lending, commonly known as the fiscal deficit, stood as a percentage of GDP at negative 4.1% for the euro zone in 2009 and negative 4.5% for the U.S. ...

Medieval castle in Arkansas Ozarks?

Yes. Under construction using only the tools they had in 1300! Wall Street Journal Boone County Judge Mike Moore has seen plenty of dreamers promise the world to this humble corner of the Ozarks. Developers have talked of an amusement park, a Nascar racetrack, a golf course lined with condos. None of that materialized. So when a dapper Frenchman stopped by his office a few years back to sketch his vision of building a medieval castle in the forest, Judge Moore scoffed. "I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, I'll believe you when I see the moat," he recalls. "Well, now I see the moat." Actually, just a scale model of the moat. The real thing hasn't been dug yet. But construction of the castle itself is under way. The first layers of hand-hewn rock are rising from a hillside clearing. The turrets are taking shape, and the arched entry that will one day support the drawbridge. You can hear the plink of chisels, the creak of wooden carts, and the grunts of local laborers who are building the massive fortress by hand, using only tools available in the 13th century. Which raises the obvious question: Why? It all begins with the Frenchman, Michel Guyot, who has been obsessed with castles since he was a boy. For years, he renovated medieval ruins. In 1997, he set a grander course: He would build his own crenellated château in the Guédelon forest in Burgundy. To finance the project, he opened the site to tourists. It has been self-sustaining ever since. The Guédelon castle, which is about halfway built, has drawn visitors from around the world, including Jean-Marc Miret, a French expatriate living in the Ozarks. He was so taken with the concept, he urged Mr. Guyot to build an American version on his estate in Boone County, Ark. "We went on the Internet to check, where was this Arkansas?" says Noémi Brunet, Mr. Guyot's wife and business partner. Her conclusion? "It was the middle of nowhere." It was also irresistible. Mr. Guyot and Ms. Brunet visited and fell in love with the remote county, best known for its annual crawdad festival. "It's green and lovely, very authentic, very pure," Ms. Brunet says. ...

Rossi forgoes earmarks

Dino Rossi, candidate to replace Senator Patty, announced that he will not seek earmarks when he is serving in the Senate. Senator Patty is a hero of earmarks - 8th in the Senate. OpenSecrets Her representative, Alex Glass, emphasized that she feels it her duty to add spending items after a bill has been debated. That's what an earmark is: you avoid the light of the hearing process and sneak funding for a boat the military doesn't want at the end of the process when there is no time to consider the merits. Her representative says she supports adding some light with a searchable database of earmarks. She has been in the Senate for 18 years. Funny she didn't think of adding light until this week. She's has been hiding from it all that time. And the database, I am sure, will be for seeing the damage after its done, not during the process. She is not a cosponsor of S.3335. Jim Brunner at Seattle Times Politics NW Blog

Kagan ended requirement to study US constitutional law

Why study our legal foundation when you can study stuff that will impress Europeans? Elena Kagan, while dean at Harvard, ended the requirement to study US constitutional law. We need lawyers who appreciate the foundation of our legal system. Well, most of it. Common law and Constitutional law. CNS News

Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, is best known for moving Harvard Law School away from the 100-year old “case-law method” of legal study. But in the process, critics say, she moved the nation’s premier law school away from requiring the study of U.S. constitutional law towards the study of the laws of foreign nations and international law. As dean, Kagan won approval from the faculty in 2006 to make major changes to the Harvard Law's curriculum. “My understanding is that she instituted three new courses to the required curriculum and, in so doing, got rid of a requirement to take constitutional law,” Robert Alt, senior legal fellow and deputy director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, told CNSNews.com. “Currently, at Harvard, constitutional law is not required for first-year law students, or even for graduation,” Alt added. ...

More government and less private investment

Your senator or congressman gets a choice committee spot, or even becomes the chair. It's good for business in your district/state. Of course? No, surprisingly, not for business. An in-depth study was done: Harvard Business School & National Bureau of Economic Research - "Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing?" They found that largess from the federal government goes up, but private investment, activity and jobs decrease. When the government decides the winners everyone else tends to look for a more even playing field - somewhere else.

"The central finding of this paper is that positive shocks to the seniority of a state's congressional delegation cause large and persistent increases in government allocated funding to the states, and significant retrenchment on the part of the corporations headquartered in the state. This retrenchment appears to be a response to the large and persistent increase in federal funding that the state receives following the shock. Following the appointment of a senator to the chair of a powerful committee, we estimate that his state experiences, on average, a 40-50 percent increase in its share of congressional earmark spending, and a 9-10 percent increase in its share of total state-level government transfers. At the same time, firms residing in the state cut their capital expenditures by 8-15 percent, reduce R&D by 7-12 percent, and increase payout by 4-13 percent. Employment and sales growth are also impacted, as corporations scale back employment growth by 3-15%, and sales growth falls by up to 15%."

Via Wash Policy Council

Dino vs. Patty

Dino Rossi made it official this morning. He is running against the 99th smartest US Senator, Patty Murray.

DinoRossi.com

I have been supporting Dr. Art Coday, because I know him and he very articulately expounds conservative principles. We need to get rid of Patty. I hope a vigorous top-two primary selects the best challenger.

Mexico threatens people of Arizona

The Tourism Board of Mexico took out a two-page ad the weekend of May 23 that threatens the people of Arizona. The ad shows a soldier in a camouflage hemet looking through binoculars and says:

In Sonora we are looking for people from Arizona.

Is it reasonable to conclude that they are giving the same message that their President Calderone gave to Congress last week? He said Arizona has no business enforcing US immigration laws. And Democratics stood and cheered. Salon

Mexico's Tourist Board is saying the same thing. They are dictating what Arizona can and cannot do.

I am now an Arizonan. If Mexico welcomes Arizonans with soldiers with binoculars, that is a threat. They are threatening me also.

The past two winters I have spent 9 and 14 days in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur. It's a great place. I enjoyed being there. But now I have been told I will be threatened when I come. We have reserved two weeks there in December. I had better ask them if they want me to come.

TPM Muckraker

Mexico abuses its immigrants - Amnesty International

Tell us again, Mr. President of Mexico, how evil Arizona is to enforce US immigration laws. Your laws and their enforcement at both worse!! Amnesty International says Mexico systematically abuses its immigrants. Report: Invisible Victims: Migrants on the Move in Mexico, April 28, 2010

The Mexican authorities must act to halt the continuing abuse of migrants who are preyed on by criminal gangs while public officials turn a blind eye or even play an active part in kidnappings, rapes and murders, Amnesty International said in a new report released on Tuesday. Invisible Victims: Migrants on the Move in Mexico, documents the alarming levels of abuse faced by the tens of thousands of Central American irregular migrants that every year attempt to reach the US by crossing Mexico. "Migrants in Mexico are facing a major human rights crisis leaving them with virtually no access to justice, fearing reprisals and deportation if they complain of abuses," said Rupert Knox, Mexico Researcher at Amnesty International. "Persistent failure by the authorities to tackle abuses carried out against irregular migrants has made their journey through Mexico one of the most dangerous in the world." Kidnappings of migrants, mainly for ransom, reached new heights in 2009, with the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) reporting that nearly 10,000 were abducted over six months and almost half of interviewed victims saying that public officials were involved in their kidnapping. An estimated six out of 10 migrant women and girls experience sexual violence, allegedly prompting some people smugglers to demand that women receive contraceptive injections ahead of the journey, to avoid them falling pregnant as a result of rape. On 23 January 2010, armed police stopped a freight train carrying over 100 migrants in Chiapas State, southern Mexico. Veronica (not her real name) said that Federal Police forced her and the other migrants to leave the train and lie face down on the ground, before stealing their belongings and threatening to kill them unless they continued their journey by foot along the railway.

...

North Korea secrecy unveiled by satellite photos

While keeping "his people" impoverished to the point of starvation, Kim Jong Il lives lavishly. We now have proof. BBC News shows photos of lavish country estates which include swimming pools with water slides. There are lots of these estates, especially on the coast. Most of the decent roads in N Korea lead to their gates. While people starve.

Is ObamaCare consitutional? Debate Thursday

Cato Institute Senior Fellow Ilya Shapiro will be debating against the constitutionality of ObamaCare Thursday at University of Washington. The UW Law School had a one-sided "debate" in March 30 because they could not find anyone who would take the "un" side. Seattle Times. Where did they look? The Hub? Seattle has a Federalist Society. Come on! Shapiro is traveling here from I don't know where for the debate plus another event:

The Debate, sponsored by UW Law School, Federalist Society and other groups 4:30 pm Thursday May 27 Room 138 of William H. Gates Hall at U of Washington Law School This is mentioned in a post on the developments this week in the court battle at Cato@Liberty Blog. The Seattle Times also.

ON A DIFFERENT TOPIC the night before:

Shapiro will speak about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. 6:30 pm Wednesday May 26 Washington Athletic Club, sponsored by Puget Sound Federalist Society Lawyers Chapter Cost $25 - Registration required - Contact Michael Bindas (206) 341-9300 mbindas AT ij.org Posted on the Sound Politics Public Calendar

The ruling class - crime-free theft

There are two Americas: The priveleged government class and those who pay for it. We pay for them to play. Government workers stole, but most won't be punished. How about if they return or reimburse what they stole? You just don't understand. They are the rulers. Washington Times

An investigation that found thousands of dollars in unauthorized purchases of clothing, gold coins, flat-screen televisions, gym memberships and college tuition payments by employees of the Federal Protective Services using government purchase cards has resulted in no disciplinary action. Twenty-one FPS employees took advantage of an 18-month transition period during which the security agency was moved from the General Services Administration to the Department of Homeland Security "to loot GSA resources by purchasing unauthorized goods," according to the GSA's office of inspector general. Investigative documents obtained by The Washington Times through a Freedom of Information Act request said the California-based FPS employees used the government cards to buy, among other things, $17,000 in suits at Macy's and the Men's Wearhouse, $15,000 in gold and silver coins, $60,000 in tuition payments and professional memberships, and $8,000 in gym memberships in 2003 and 2004. The FPS employees, who are responsible for securing federal buildings, also used expense vouchers to get reimbursements for more than $9,000 in clothing, including an $800 tuxedo. Investigators said employees with the security force bought the questionable items but concealed them by not entering them into the government computer system known as "Pegasys," which processes and reconciles financial transactions. The purchases were the subject of an investigation by the inspector general's office that spanned five years. In September, investigators closed the case and noted that of the 21 employees involved in making the inappropriate purchases, three resigned and four retired. Five employees faced a possible reprimand and no action had been taken against nine others.

Our Senator Patty Murray is protecting these people, because they are her kind of people. Not us.

Gray whale at Everett waterfront

Our on-site reporter, my daughter Margaret, saw a whale Friday on the waterfront of Everett, Washington, north of the Naval Base, by the large marina. My informed guess was that it was a gray whale, given the time of year. The news media rushed to the site after her report and found and photographed it. Unfortunately KING-5 links to video of an arrested baby sitter, instead of the whale. Their first reports were that it was in the Snohomish River. But she saw it in salt water just below (south of) the mouth. KING-5 The outlook is not good for a gray whale swimming at the mouth of the Snohomish River in Everett on Saturday. Boater Jake Jacobson said he's been watching the whale for a few days. Local whale researchers confirm several sightings of a gray whale near the Everett Marina. A whale expert with Cascadia Research tells KING 5 the gray whale is extremely emaciated. Marine experts have no plans to try to move the whale. The researcher says in its extremely poor nutritional state, there is very little they can do. Everett's Marine Patrol watched the whale all morning. "It just surfaces real slow, rolls back down, goes down very, very slow and several times its just sat on the top of water as it doesn't have any energy and doesn't want to go anywhere," said Jim Pulley with the Everett Police Dept. Marine Patrol. The Marine Patrol is concerned that some boaters might get too close and harass or stress the whale. "The problem is that we want to ensure the safety of the whale itself, it appears to be in some sort of distress, its not acting like a healthy whale," said Sgt. Robert Goetz. Cascadia Research says so far this year, six dead gray whales have washed up on Washington's coast. All the whales appeared to be thin and undernourished, which is a common cause of death during their long migration. Experts say it is not unusual to have five to 10 whales die during the spring migration.

Homeland Security Sec. requested federal help for Arizona border

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano aka Incompetano spoke for Arozona as its governor requesting help from the federal government. Because it was not protecting the US border in Arizona. Here is her letter:

Date: March 11, 2008

"... [r]eal solutions to fix our broken borders cannot wait that long. Human and drug smuggling rings continue to thrive in Arizona, crossing our border and using our cities as major hubs to transport crosser throughout the country. While we wait for real progress on the "virtual fence," border communities in Arizona will continue to be strained by the millions of dollars in costs they must absorb due to the state of border security." .... Yours very truly, Janet Napolitano Governor

Greta at Fox News comments: In reading the above letter, would you not think DHS Napolitano would be Arizona's biggest champion in Washington? Would you not think she, of all people, would understand the frustration in Arizona? Don't you think she would be pushing her boss, President Obama, to help Arizona? and get President Obama to push Congress to help this state? Instead DHS Napolitano had to recently embarrassingly admit that she did not read the Arizona illegal immigration law. And before you get all whooped up about whether the Arizona statute is constitutional or not, that is not the issue. The statute is a cry for help and the current fight over it a distraction. The issue is the FAILURE of the federal government to help the STATE of ARIZONA. The statue, while probably unconstitutional for trying to set immigration policy in contravention of our Constitution, is a cry for help -- one that has been utterly ignore. [PS if you think that is the ONLY letter we have from then Gov Napolitano, you are dead wrong. I just finished studying a bunch of her letters pleading the case for Arizona when she was Governor. Tune in tonight to ON THE RECORD at 10pm.]

Getting good information on climate change - the Sun

Algore was so successful at shutting down debate among climate scientists that those who have data that didn't fit were afraid to speak with very few exceptions. Funding is life blood in research; they knew they would lose it. The situation has greatly improved. Probably due to a combination of Algore overdoing it, the in-your-face nonsense of him receiving the Nobel Prize, and the blow out of the emails between the East Anglia University cabal of Phil Jones and fellow travelers Michael Mann of Penn State and others. Lawrence Solomon at National Post's (Canada) Full Comment blog: Four years ago, when I first started profiling scientists who were global warming skeptics, I soon learned two things: Solar scientists were overwhelmingly skeptical that humans caused climate change and, overwhelmingly, they were reluctant to go public with their views. Often, they refused to be quoted at all, saying they feared for their funding, or they feared other recriminations from climate scientists in the doomsayer camp. When the skeptics agreed to be quoted at all, they often hedged their statements, to give themselves wiggle room if accused of being a global warming denier. Scant few were outspoken about their skepticism. No longer. Scientists, and especially solar scientists, are becoming assertive. Maybe their newfound confidence stems from the Climategate emails, which cast doomsayer-scientists as frauds and diminished their standing within academia. Maybe their confidence stems from the avalanche of errors recently found in the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, destroying its reputation as a gold standard in climate science. Maybe the solar scientists are becoming assertive because the public no longer buys the doomsayer thesis, as seen in public opinion polls throughout the developed world. Whatever it was, solar scientists are increasingly conveying a clear message on the chief cause of climate change: It’s the Sun, Stupid. Jeff Kuhn, a rising star at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, is one of the most recent scientists to go public, revealing in press releases this month that solar scientists worldwide are on a mission to show that the Sun drives Earth’s climate. “As a scientist who knows the data, I simply can’t accept [the claim that man plays a dominant role in Earth’s climate],” he states. Kuhn’s team, which includes solar scientists from Stanford University and Brazil as well as from his own institute, last week announced a startling breakthrough — evidence that the Sun does not change much in size, as had previously been believed. This week, in announcing the award of a ¤60,000 Humboldt Prize for Kuhn’s solar excellence, his institute issued a release stating that its research into sunspots “may ultimately help us predict how and when a changing sun affects Earth’s climate.” Earlier this month, the link between solar activity and climate made headlines throughout Europe after space scientists from the U.K., Germany and South Korea linked the recent paucity of sunspots to the cold weather that Europe has been experiencing. This period of spotlessness, the scientists predicted in a study published in Environmental Research Letters, could augur a repeat of winters comparable to those of the Little Ice Age in the 1600s, during which the Sun was often free of sunspots. By comparing temperatures in Europe since 1659 to highs and lows in solar activity in the same years, the scientists discovered that low solar activity generally corresponded to cold winters. Could this centuries-long link between the Sun and Earth’s climate have been a matter of chance? “There is less than a 1% probability that the result was obtained by chance,” asserts Mike Lockwood of the University of Reading in the U.K., the study’s lead author. [Backup link] Solar scientists widely consider the link between the Sun and Earth’s climate incontrovertible. When bodies such the IPCC dismiss solar science’s contribution to understanding Earth’s climate out of hand, solar scientists no longer sit on their hands. Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark of the Danish National Space Institute stated that the IPCC was “probably totally wrong” to dismiss the significance of the sun, which in 2009 would likely have the most spotless days in a century. As for claims from the IPCC and other global warming doomsayers who argue that periods of extreme heat or cold were regional in scope, not global, Svensmark cites the Medieval Warm Period, a prosperous period of very high solar activity around the year 1000: “It was a time when frosts in May were almost unknown — a matter of great importance for a good harvest. Vikings settled in Greenland and explored the coast of North America. On the whole it was a good time. For example, China’s population doubled in this period.” The Medieval Warm Period, many solar scientists believe, was warmer than today, and the Roman Warm Period, around the time of Christ, was warmer still. Compelling new evidence to support his view came just in March from the Saskatchewan Isotope Laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, the authors for the first time document seasonal temperature variations in the North Atlantic over a 2,000-year period, from 360 BC to about 1660 AD. Their technique — involving measurements of oxygen and carbon isotopes captured in mollusk shells — confirmed that the Roman Period was the warmest in the past two millennia. Among solar scientists, there are a great many theories about how the Sun influences climate. Some will especially point to sunspots, others to the Sun’s magnetic field, others still to the Sun’s influence on cosmic rays which, in turn, affect cloud cover. There is as yet no answer to how the Sun affects Earth’s climate. All that now seems sure is that the Sun does play an outsized role and that the Big Chill on freedom of expression that scientists once faced when discussing global warming is becoming a Big Thaw. [end of quote]

Boss Pelosi's Congress: Paygo is a scam

From the subscription only Wall Street Journal Political Diary provided by Sound Politics reader "Paddy Wagon." "The Paygo Con A day after beating incumbent Arlen Specter in a Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary contest, Rep. Joe Sestak announced that he would make "enforcement of the pay-as-you-go budget rules" a priority if he wins in November. Good luck to him. Pay-as-you-go, or paygo, rules require that new entitlement spending and new tax cuts must be paid for dollar-for-dollar with entitlement spending cuts or tax increases. As Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member of the House Budget Committee has noted, the Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi "have violated pay-as-you-go rules by nearly $1 trillion" over the past three years. And they're not done. In the coming weeks, say Congressional Republicans, we should expect some $300 billion of expenditures that Democrats will declare "emergency spending" and thus do not have to be offset by other spending cuts. The list includes $60 billion for a military supplemental spending bill; $23 billion for education; and $170 billion for jobless and other welfare benefits. All said, the deficit could climb to $1.7 trillion from the current record high $1.4 trillion. "I really can't think of the last time the Democrats paid for anything they want to spend money on," Mr. Ryan grumbles. The reality is that paygo is designed to stop tax cuts rather than check spending, which is why Democrats will soon return to singing its praises. Before the end of the year, look for Republicans to push for a continuation of the Bush tax cuts. And look for Democrats to insist they must be paid for. -- Stephen Moore"

Everybody draw Mohammed day - May 20

Today is Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. It was the idea of Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris. After Comedy Central cut a portion of a South Park episode following a death threat from a radical Muslim group, Norris wanted to counter the fear. She wanted to spread the threat. She has declared May 20th "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." My Northwest Molly Norris's cartoon at The Stranger. Is the threat real? From three days ago: Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist who drew the cartoon that was used in the fabricated outrage in Denmark is in hiding after constant death threats. He says there was an arson attempt against his home in Nyhamnslage, Sweden. Yahoo News via Hot Air

ObamaCare Public option is alive and well and hidden. Updated

Update at bottom. Boss Pelosi told her Democrat pawns that Congress had to pass ObamaCare for them to find out what's in it. And - surprise - we keep finding more booby traps in it. She and Honorable Harry Reid put the Congressional Budget Office in a corner so it had to release a beneficial cost estimate which everyone knew was wrong; but they have to do the Chairman's bidding. Now we have learned, via the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, that it will not reduce, but will increase, federal spending on health care by $311 billion over its first ten years. Also, Obama promised you would be able to keep your insurance if you like it. He didn't make it clear that you can keep it for about ten minutes, then ObamaCare would suck you in. The Demos made a big show of dropping the "public option" of government-run coverage. They even had a mock fight over it. Gone, right? Gotcha! Washington Examiner

... The truth is the public option is alive and well, residing in Section 1334, pages 97-100, of the new health care law. That section gives the U.S. Office of Personnel Management — which presently manages the federal civil service — new responsibilities: establishing and running two entirely new government health insurance programs to compete directly with private insurance companies in every state with coverage for people outside of government. Quoting the new law, former OPM director Donald Devine notes that it makes the OPM boss a health care czar, with power to set “‘profit margin premiums and other such terms and conditions of coverage as are in the interest of enrollees in such plans.’ That’s open-ended. You can do anything.” Dan Blair, another former OPM director, calls the new program “nothing but a placeholder for the public option.” Indeed, the OPM head is also given the authority to “appoint as many employees” as needed to run the program, and to spend “such sums as may be necessary” to establish and administer it.

And Boss Pelosi promised to be open and transparent....

As with so much else, Obama and the Democrats did this behind closed doors. They held no public hearings on it and invited no public testimony to estimate its costs or explain its effect on OPM in its traditional role of managing the civil service.

Update 5/21: A reader at Sound Politics provided the list of all the tax increases in ObamaCare passed in March (not sourced; unconfirmed):

A 40% tax on health insurance plans exceeding determined levels. Those levels are projected for 2013 to be $8,500 for self only and $23,000 for any other level. An increase from 10% to 20% on taxes of money in a health savings account not used for qualified medical expenses. For Archer medical savings accounts, an increase from 15% to 20%. A $50,000 tax on hospital organizations, which fail to meet described quality requirements. A fee based upon the sales of pharmaceutical companies in relation to the total sale of such pharmaceutical products to the public. Medical device manufacturers must pay a fee in relation to the sales of their product in the marketplace and the total sales of devices. A fee applied to all health insurance providers based upon net premiums and any third party fees associated with the administration of those programs. High income tax payers, making on a joint return over $250,000 and a standard return over $200,000, are required to pay an additional 0.5% of wages. This applies to both self-employed, and regularly employed individuals. A 1% tax increase for individuals making between $350,000 and $500,000. A 1.5% tax increase for individuals making between $500,000 and $1 million. A 5.4% increase for individuals making more than $1 million. A tax of 5% is levied upon the am mount paid for any cosmetic surgery. This does not include the need for such surgeries created by trauma or a disfiguring disease. If the tax is not collected by that professional completing the procedure, their business is still liable for the requirement.

Arizona offers to cut off electricity to LA

If LA will have nothing to do with Arizona why do they want the power generated there? It's about 25% of LA's power. An official of the Arizona Corporation Commission is offering to help LA be pure by cutting off the electricity. Hot Air

Kerry-Lieberman is a cruel joke

Junior scientists in the Senate. "Hey. We are scared by global warming. So let's try something. It just might work. It will cost billions and cost a lot of people their jobs. And other countries will continue their emissions. But we will feel good. And no one will measure our results." That's John Kerry (did you know he fought in Viet Nam?) and Joe Lieberman ("watch me backtrack on everything I have stood for for years in the next three weeks, because AlGore chose me!") Wash Examiner

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have managed to write a cap-and-trade energy bill that should be greeted with guffaws from both believers and skeptics of man-made global warming. At a cost of billions of dollars and millions of jobs across America, the proposal would produce virtually no reduction in global temperatures even after being in force for decades. Using the MAGICC/SCENGEN climate model originally developed for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and assuming no other nation adopts the same measure, climate researcher Paul Knappenberger found that Kerry-Lieberman would reduce the average global temperature 0.077 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050, compared with what it would be if the bill were not adopted. That is one-fifth of one degree, which, as Knappenberger notes on the MasterResource blog, is a "scientifically meaningless reduction." One problem for Kerry-Lieberman is that China, India and the rest of the developing world show no inclination to join the United States to achieve carbon emissions reductions of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, 42 percent below by 2030, and 83 percent below by 2050. If anything, China is headed rapidly in the opposite direction, building hundreds of new coal-fired power plants in recent years and generating two-thirds of its electricity from the most emissions-intense fuel. China gives lip service to carbon reduction, to be sure, but it keeps building new power plants. China is also moving aggressively to increase its access to oil and natural gas, striking deals recently with Venezuela and Cuba, with the latter for exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico. The other problem for Kerry-Lieberman is that its minuscule temperature reduction comes at immense cost. The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis found in an econometric model analysis that between 2012 and 2035, 1.1 million more jobs would be lost than would be the case without the measure's adoption. Just in the first decade, unemployment would increase by .5 percent, according to the Brookings Institution. Even after accounting for the creation of "green jobs," a study for the National Black Chamber of Commerce projected a loss of as many as 2.7 million jobs by 2030. In addition, gas prices at the pump and monthly utility bills for electricity would, in President Obama's own words, "necessarily skyrocket," while the cost of all manufactured and agricultural products would also rise sharply. Such costs with essentially no return is a bad joke, but neither global warming proponents nor skeptics are laughing. ...

Greece has to end ObamaCare

Greece has to make some basic changes in order to get a bailout from the IMF - International Monetary Fund. Greece has to cut back on government control of health care and put it back in the marketplace. NY Times

Racing to secure financial aid and avoid a debt default, the Greek government has agreed to austerity measures totaling 24 billion euros (about $32 billion) that will include cutting some workers’ pay and some public sector jobs as well as opening up parts of the economy, Greek officials said Friday. A letter of intent with the International Monetary Fund was mostly complete, according to one government official, who declined to be identified because of the confidential nature of the discussions. A deal could be announced by Sunday, this official said.

The letter of intent is "The Plan." Look what The Plan includes:

Another reform high on the list is removing the state from the marketplace in crucial sectors like health care, transportation and energy and allowing private investment. Economists say that the liberalization of trucking routes — where a trucking license can cost up to $90,000 — and the health care industry would help bring down prices in these areas, which are among the highest in Europe.

Yes. Cut out Greece's ObamaCare. The New York Times reports it. Must be unsupervised reporters. At the very same time Obama is pushing hard and fast to get the US to emulate Greece. More government in everything. More jobs for unions. Government control of health care aka ObamaCare. We can see where that leads. Greece is broke. Obama is taking us to the same desperate situation. Via IBD

Gregoire gambit to save Senator Patty?

Who would benefit from Christine Gregoire departing Washington for D.C? Political analysis from Evan at NW Digest

In the speculation about whether Gov. Chris Gregoire may be headed to Washington, D.C. at some point in the near future (to replace Elena Kagan as Solicitor General, so the rumor goes), it’s useful to analyze who benefits from such speculation. As the GOP’s former party chairman Chris Vance alludes, the woman who most benefits from all this is not Gregoire, it’s Patty Murray. Point 1: Citing unnamed sources inside Washington’s congressional delegation, National Journal blew up the story on Hotline. Perhaps the Democratic White House and Congressional grapevines are closer than most imagine, in which case Hotline’s source could be any Democratic aide in Congress. But, if Gregoire were in line for a high-level slot in the Administration, such as Solicitor General, that would likely need Senate-approval. Which makes it more likely that if the Congressional aide learned about Gregoire being on a “short list” not by chance but in the normal course of Congressional business, the staffer is on the Senate side. Point 2: The first “whispers” reportedly came from Olympia, at least according to Political Buzz. So it could be this is all the result of a chatty press corps, wanting to drum up headlines to sell more papers and fill blog space. This does seem to be where the rumor started smoldering before catching fire in the National Journal. From the Tacoma News Tribune: “And why not combine the spring’s most-played political parlor game with this one. Would Dino Rossi stop considering a run for the U.S. Senate and start wrestling with yet-another run for governor? Would the state have to delay the filing period to give him more time to decide?” [end quote] Point 3: Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz doesn’t seem to bothered by this all. Pelz’s comms shop even tweeted a helpful “timeline for picking a replacement” for Gregoire, followed by a tweet with a comment from Pelz that he was pretty sure “[Rossi]‘d rather be Governor than Senator.” For a Party Chair who is likely to be on defense in so many races as it is, to have such eagerness for Gregoire potentially leaving town, may bespeak an ulterior motive (or a masochistic personality). Maybe Pelz is indeed eager to try his hand at playing Kingmaker? ... So, who then ultimately is fueling from [sic] all this speculation — and who benefits the most? On both counts, it’s probably one very nervous U.S. Senator, who doesn’t want the Republican’s top recruit, two-time Gregoire challenger Dino Rossi, getting into the race against her. Recall, a source, most likely from the Senate side, leaked the information. The State Party Chair is either eager for a primary battle, thinks he can play Kingmaker, or is faithfully following the Senator’s song sheet.

Leadership - watch this

In very liberal New Jersey they elected a conservative Republican. Gov. Christie is not playing along with "Let's just be nice while robbing the taxpayers." American Thinker - watch the video. He says he is going to do what he promised to do - cut spending and taxes - rather than be nice.

Supreme Court nominee knowingly violated federal law

Havard Law School Dean Elena Kagan kicked military recruiters off campus. She knowingly violated federal law. As law-school dean surely she knew the applicable law, known as the Solomon amendment. Didn't she? CNS News

... But Rotunda, who is now a law professor at Chapman University Law School in Southern California, said Kagan did something more than simply disagree with the military over its policy regarding homosexuals -- she refused to follow the law, which required her make room for military recruiters. “(I)t wasn’t just a policy – it was a federal law,” Rotunda said. “And when she disagreed with federal law, she just simply decided not to follow it. ...

The case went to the Supreme Court. How did Dean Kagan fare there? First, she admitted guilt:

Kagan acknowledged in her legal brief that she was deliberately ignoring the fact that the law was in effect..

And she lost big:

And the Supreme Court unanimously found that the law was constitutional, and there was no reason to keep recruiters off of law school grounds." ... In a unanimous, 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Solomon Amendment was constitutional, and was enforceable on universities that received federal funds.

Why give a life-time appointment to someone who follows the law only when she finds it convenient?

They took it all

I received my first Social Security check Wednesday. I paid into the tax for 49 years, but they took every penny I and my employer paid. I had my first "contributions" in 1961; the last in 2009. After starting full-time work in 1968 I paid the maximum in 1969 and in 2009 and about 3/4 of the years in between. Senator Patty Murray, Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Jim McDermott spent every penny. They don't have the common sense to say "The federal budget will have to start sending checks to this guy; we had better save at least some of it." If I had put all that money into my 401(k) I could have the same benefit for a long time without costing the taxpayers a penny this year. I need to do the calculation. I have the record of every penny I paid in. 49 years of work: They took it all and spent it and then started borrowing. Now they are going to raise taxes and borrow to pay me.

The support for Arizona enforcing immigration law is broad

Two major polls found the same thing: A strong majority of Americans favor enforcing current immigration law that Arizona is doing. It required a new law to enforce the old ones, for some reason. McClatchy-Ipsos and Pew found the same thing. Here is McClatchy's press release:

A strong majority of Americans support Arizona's controversial new immigration law and would back similar laws in their own states, a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll found. Sixty-one percent of Americans — and 64 percent of registered voters — said they favored the law in a survey of 1,016 adults conducted May 6-9. Strikingly, nearly half of Democrats like the law, under which local law enforcement officers are tasked with verifying people's immigration status if they suspect them of being in the country illegally. While the Democratic Party generally is regarded as more sympathetic to illegal immigrants' plights, 46 percent of Democrats said they favored the law for Arizona and 49 percent said they'd favor the law's passage in their own states. More than 8 in 10 Republicans and 54 percent of independents favor the law. In addition, about 69 percent of Americans said they wouldn't mind if police officers stopped them to ask for proof of their citizenship or legal rights to be in the country; about 29 percent would mind, considering it a violation of their rights; and about 3 percent were unsure. ...

Did you notice? Nearly half of Democrats support the law. And Pew Research Center for the People & the Press:

Fully 73% say they approve of requiring people to produce documents verifying their legal status if police ask for them. Two-thirds (67%) approve of allowing police to detain anyone who cannot verify their legal status, while 62% approve of allowing police to question people they think may be in the country illegally. After being asked about the law's provisions, 59% say that, considering everything, they approve of Arizona's new illegal immigration law while 32% disapprove. ...

Repeal ObamaCare - Progress

ObamaCare has been unpopular from long before it was passed. The Demos said that when it passed opinion would turn, but it has not. Opposition has been increasing as we learn that major private employers find its cost will break them - unless they cancel their employees' health insurace. Recently - AT&T has announced the cost it is incurring. MarketWatch

AT&T on Friday said it will record a $1 billion non-cash expense in the first quarter related to the newly passed health-care law, joining a growing list of large U.S. companies. The AT&T (T 25.62, -0.02, -0.08%) write-down is the largest reported so far. Caterpillar (CAT 67.78, +1.71, +2.59%) this week recorded a $100 million charge in the first quarter and Deere & Co. (DE 60.69, +1.23, +2.07%) said it will report a one-time $150 million expense. See previous story on industries that say warn health reform will cost them. Yet companies that still offer retiree drug benefits, mostly older industrial concerns or those with unionized employees, say the end of the deduction could force them to alter their benefit plans. In other words, they might curtail or even cancel them. "As a result of this legislation, including the additional tax burden, AT&T will be evaluating prospective changes to the active and retiree health care benefits offered by the company," AT&T said in a filing with the government on Friday.

Jeffrey Anderson in Weekly Standard says that strong negative public opinion makes repeal possible:

[Opposition] has risen to 19 points (56 to 37) -- and to 28 points among independents (60 to 32 percent). Independents actually favor repeal by more than Democrats oppose it (34 percent of Democrats support repeal, while 58 percent oppose it).