Alternative to What? Evidently Profitability

October 15th, 2014

Via Dwight comes word that alternative weekly the San Francisco Bay Guardian has ceased publication. Alternative weeklies used to have a market niche as carrier mediums of left-wing opinion, music gig listings and porn ads. The Internet has taken over the music and porn listings, and the left-wing opinion market is glutted not only online, but with MSNBC, New York Times, CNN, NBC, CBS, Washington Post, NPR, etc.

But if you can’t make money with an alternative weekly in San Francisco, where can you? (And keep in mind that this was after they received a settlement from rival SF Weekly.)

Well, probably Austin. At least as long as you have an enormous, money-making music festival attached to it…

(Flashback: “I missed the Bay Guardian’s coverage of their investor’s indictment on child prostitution charges.”)

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Posted in Austin, Democrats, Media Watch | 2 Comments »

Blogroll Addition: Pension Tsunami

October 15th, 2014

Since they linked to me yesterday, I’ve finally done what I’ve meant to do for a long time, namely get up off my ass and add Pension Tsunami to the Blogroll. They offer a great daily news roundup on the looming unionized public sector pension crisis that threatens to bankrupt cities and states across the country (especially California).

I’ve also added the new “California/Pensions/Unions/Etc.” link category and moved Kausfiles there as well.

Expect more additions to that blog category Real Soon Now.

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Posted in Budget, Democrats, unions, Welfare State | No Comments »

Wendy Davis Stops Digging, Gets Out Jackhammer

October 14th, 2014

Once again, the Wendy Davis campaign is the gift that keeps giving to conservative pundits. It’s all over but the voting at this point, but Davis’ thrashing, flailing campaign is so ham-handed and tone-deaf that she keeps staying in the news for all the wrong reasons.

First came this amazingly stupid ad:

Reaction was swift and pretty much universally negative.

Fox: “Absolute desperation…catastrophic.”

Even ultra-lefty Mother Jones was appalled: “Wendy Davis just released an ad attacking Greg Abbott, her opponent for governor in Texas, which is, to be blunt, bullshit. It’s offensive and nasty and it shouldn’t exist. She’s basically calling Abbott a cripple.”

MSNBC? “A huge blunder.” “Every Democrat I met down there was appalled.” “She’s gonna get creamed.”

Indeed, the ad is so ill-considered and offensive that it may derail what I thought would be her next gig: a position at MSNBC.

As Hot Air noted: “Perhaps Wendy Davis isn’t familiar with what an Attorney General does.”

Also note that this ad didn’t come from an outside group or SuperPAC, this came from the Davis campaign itself. Her fingerprints are all over it and she has no deniability.

So what did Davis do after this nigh-on universal condemnation? She doubled down on stupid.

And this happened:

And Abbott? He’s just shrugging over the whole thing, and why shouldn’t he? Never interrupt your opponent when they’re in the process of committing suicide. Also note that he eschewed the frequent liberal tactic of calling a press conference to talk about how offended he is. When you’re a front-runner with a comfortable lead and a big money advantage, you don’t need such cheap theatrics.

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas, video | No Comments »

A New Kronies Action Figure

October 13th, 2014

Evidently I missed the new Kronies action figure when it dropped in September:

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Posted in ObamaCare, Regulation | No Comments »

LinkSwarm for October 10, 2014

October 10th, 2014

Another Friday, another LinkSwarm. I think i may have to stop watch Houston Texans games for the sake of my health…

  • The American MSM may be reluctant to tell the truth about Obama’s many manifest failures, but UK’s Telegraph isn’t.
  • Most Americans see Obama as a failure.
  • I’m shocked, shocked to discover that the IRS is auditing the producer of an anti-ObamaCare movie.
  • One in five Americans will have medical bills in collections this year. Thanks, ObamaCare!
  • How do you know your foreign policy sucks? When even Jimmy Carter is dissing it. And he’s right!
  • Even Piers Morgan calls Obama’s governance as marked by “lethargy and complacency.”
  • Why Harry Reid is attacking Koch: Big money Democratic donors will spend more in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa than all RNC spending across the country combined.
  • Democrats 2014 = Republicans 2006.
  • Democrats pull out all the stops to save Kay Hagen’s North Carolina senate seat. If she wins, I’m sure her family will appreciate the opportunity for more graft in the coming years…
  • Michael Barone says that trends, with so many Democratic incumbents still polling below 45%, indicate the Harry Reid-controlled Senate is still toast. “Rewind back five years: The Obama Democrats expected their major policies to be popular. They expected that most voters would be grateful for the stimulus package, for Obamacare, for raising the tax rate on high earners. They aren’t.”
  • Obama slams billionaires while attending while attending fundraiser at the home of billionaire Rich Richman. Yes, that’s his real name. If I put that in a novel, editors would reject the symbolism as too heavy-handed…
  • Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Grimes won’t even admit to voting for Obama.
  • While the New York Times has gotten around to talking abut American children dying from Enterovirus D68, they’re still refusing to talk about how Obama’s illegal alien influx might have helped bring it here. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • Michael Totten reports from SE Asia: “Sweden is more socialist than Vietnam.” Except for the stupid propaganda loudspeakers…
  • Philadelphia’s deeply indebted public school system actually cancels it’s contract with the teacher’s union. “The move, in which the Philadelphia School Reform Commission invokes emergency powers, comes after the teachers’ union spent more than a year resisting concessions that the commission was seeking even though rising personnel costs have crippled the budget.” How crippling? “The schools’ budget projects spending $44,100 a year in benefits for every $68,700 in wages earned by the average teacher.”
  • NYC School therapist helps handicapped student launch successful Kickstarter. Reward? 30 day suspension.
  • John Kerry spent Wednesday consulting with allies on ISIS and Ebola. Ha, just kidding! He toured a wind turbine.
  • Islamic State supporters threaten to behead U.S. soldiers in Iraq. And by “soldiers” I mean “elementary school children” and by “Iraq” I mean “Rhode Island.”
  • Remember when Bill Clinton ginned up an “epidemic” over a dozen random church burnings? Boko Haram has torched 185.
  • Brett Easton Ellis on Generation Wuss.
  • Iranian professor jailed for associating with “known Zionists.” Like Noam Chomsky. To Islamists, not even an actual hatred of Israel is enough to remove the taint of your Jewishness…
  • “That’s 21st-century U.S. politics in miniature: a half-assed listicle penned by a half-bright celebrity and published by a gang of abortion profiteers.”
  • Top aide to Al Sharpton and boyfriend of top De Blasio adviser in trouble with the law? Inconceivable!
  • An inside view of feminist groupthink and #GamerGate from a former social justice warrior.
  • Random meme pic I made:

  • Random Twitter exchange with Michael Quinn Sullivan:

  • BattleSwarm extends best wishes for a speedy recovery to Borepatch, who wiped out on his motorcycle to the tune of “7 broken ribs, a broken collar bone, and a bruised lung.” Ouch…

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    Posted in Border Control, Communism, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Uncategorized | No Comments »

    Texas vs. California Roundup for October 9, 2014

    October 9th, 2014

    Another Texas vs. California roundup:

  • If Stockton bankruptcy judge’s ruling is upheld, a lot of California cities could actually start working for citizens again, rather than public employee unions.
  • There are plenty of lessons to be learned from Stockton’s bankruptcy. Too bad Stockton’s officials seem unwilling to learn them:

    Pension contributions for public-safety workers now amount to 41 percent of payroll. That would put the total cost of salary, health benefits, and pensions at about $120,000 annually for a fifth-year officer…The long saga of Stockton’s decline dramatizes the inefficiency and illogic of union-dominated, monopolistic, government-labor markets.

  • But letting cities escape their crushing public sector union pension burdens doesn’t sit well with California’s looter class. Solution: propose eliminating Chapter 9 bankruptcy. (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
  • According to the September labor report, California did manage to add 313,900 jobs between August 2013 and August 2014. But Texas added 395,200. (Hat tip: WILLisms Twitter feed.)
  • California legislature decides that students don’t need any of that stinking due process.
  • Hey, remember those “temporary” tax hikes Jerry Brown got voters to approve? Guess what?
  • California’s roads are among the worst in the country.
  • Someone should tell that to the city of Stanton, California, which reached for tax hikes rather than cutting the pay of unionized workers.
  • How San Jose reformed their finances using transparency. (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
  • How California browbeat Toyota over closing a money-losing plant.
  • The California-based manufacturing facility of Colorado-based Boulder Electric Vehicle shuts down after receiving a $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission.
  • How California’s for-profit Thomas Jefferson Law School got itself into serious financial trouble through excessive dependence on loans (both the student type and the tax-exempt bond type).
  • Americans don’t want their state to secede so much as they want to kick California out of the union. (Hat tip: Karl Rehn of KRTraining.)
  • A look at PSAT participation rates in Texas. (Also via WILLisms.)
  • Californian Trip Hawkins, of EA, Apple and 3DO fame, filed for bankruptcy in 2011. This year, the 9th circuit ruled that a profligate life style (for certain values of “profligate”), does not, in fact, constitute a “willful” attempt to avoid bankruptcy. Mr. Hawkins seemed to be living well, but not necessarily living large…
  • California owner of Akron, Ohio mall abandoned since 2008 declares bankruptcy. And since it’s the Halloween season, and abandoned malls are wonderfully creepy places, here’s a pic:

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    Posted in Democrats, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »

    Reminder: Mark Udall is a Gun Grabber

    October 8th, 2014

    After his fellow Democrats went down in flames during the recall election, Colorado’s incumbent Senator would probably prefer you forget his own support for gun control,. After all, his own campaign website is silent on the issue, and his Senate website includes the usual insincere blather about supporting the Second Amendment.

    Now is a good time to remind voters that Udall has been significantly to the left of even his fellow democratic senators in pushing for gun control:

    Colorado’s Mark Udall indicated support for two key proposals of President Obama’s legislative package to reduce gun violence, taking a stand slightly to the left of his fellow Senate Democrats who also are up for re-election in 2014.

    The Colorado Democrat told Denver’s FOX affiliate last month he supports a renewal of the assault-weapons bans that lapsed in 2004.

    After Obama rolled out his legislative proposals and signed executive orders Wednesday, Udall released a statement that indicates he also supports a ban on magazine clips of more than 10 bullets.

    In other words, Udall favors, at the national level, the same legislation that drove Magpul out of the state.

    Udall also engages in the deliberately deceptive labeling of modern sporting rifles (AR-15, etc.) as “military-grade weapons”.

    Further signs of his gun-grabbing bona fides is the fact that Udall is receiving lots of money from out-of-state gun control groups. Udall has also been endorsed by the latest incarnation of Bloomberg’s anti-gun group.

    All of which goes a long way toward explaining why Udall received a D from the NRAPVF.

    Any Colorado supporter of the Second Amendment should vote for Cory Gardner over Udall in November.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Guns | No Comments »

    Who Is Joe Biden?

    October 7th, 2014

    Jimmy Kimmel asks random passersby on Hollywood Boulevard who Joe Biden is. Ignorance ensues.

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    Posted in Democrats, Media Watch, video | No Comments »

    Kay Hagan’s Family Dips Their Beaks Into The Stimulus Trough

    October 7th, 2014

    It’s no longer a surprise when Democratic cronies rake in the benefits from pork programs created by Democratic Senators and Representatives. After all, giving out taxpayer money to connected interest groups is pretty much the Democratic Party’s business model. However, the family of North Carolina’s Democratic Senator Kay Hagan has taken it to the next level:

    Sen. Kay Hagan’s husband and son created a solar energy contracting company in August 2010, and then, using $250,644 in federal stimulus grant funds, her husband hired that same company to install solar panels at a building he owns.

    Public records show that Green State Power was formed seven weeks before JDC Manufacturing — a company owned in part by Greensboro attorney Charles “Chip” Hagan III, Sen. Hagan’s husband — received the stimulus grant for the solar project at a 300,000-square-foot facility in Reidsville, N.C.

    A story in late September on the Washington, D.C.-based website Politico revealed that JDC Manufacturing received “nearly $390,000 in federal grants for energy projects and tax credits created by the 2009 stimulus law, according to public records and information provided by the company.”

    The story reported that JDC “was one of 27 in North Carolina to be awarded funds for energy-efficient projects, to the tune of about $250,000. The company received the money in 2011, after the first phase of the project was completed in late 2010.”

    And needless to say, Kay Hagan voted in favor of the pork-laden stimulus her family so richly benefited from.

    From a purely amoral viewpoint, you have to admire the brazen efficiency of sucking down the maximum amount of taxpayer subsidies at every stage of the project pipeline. It’s like The Human Centipede of recycled graft…

    (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Elections, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »

    Why Mary Landrieu Sucks

    October 6th, 2014

    (I was trying to think of a more clever headline, but let’s just go with the obvious, shall we?)

    One of the last, best hopes for Obama and Harry Reid to keep control of the senate is Louisiana incumbent Mary Landrieu hanging on to one of the last Democratic seats in the south.

    Let’s discuss just the highlights of why Louisianans should vote for Rep. Bill Cassidy over Landrieu. The latest polls show Casserly up, but at under 50%. (And remember that the Democrat’s ground game surprised a lot of pollsters in 2012.)

    ObamaCare

    Remember how Mary Landrieu was one of the deciding votes for ObamaCare in the senate?

    Now she’s making all sorts of noises about protecting Louisiana citizens from the effects of the law she passed. Gee, maybe shouldn’t have bragged about how she didn’t need to read the bill:

    Contrary to popular belief and what FOX News said, people here read the bills. For 40 years we read the bills. But we did not have to read the bills; all we had to do was look at the faces of kids dying of cancer who had no way to get cured… I don’t need to read a bill. I listen to my constituents. That is what this is about.

    Somehow I doubt she’s going to listen to those whose policies were canceled, or whose prices doubled or tripled, thanks to ObamaCare. Maybe that’s why 59% of Louisianans oppose ObamaCare, and more than half disapprove of Landrieu’s performance.

    And Landrieu says she would vote for ObamaCare again. Maybe that’s why the National Federation of Independent Business has endorsed Cassidy. (More on Landrieu’s ObamaCare support here.)

    Poor Second Amendment Record

    Landrieu got a D from the NRA-PVF on her gun rights voting record. Despite crowing about her Second Amendment support, she has voted for several gun control measures. While not as hostile to Second Amendment rights as Nancy Pelosi or Andrew Cuomo, she’s betrayed gun rights enough for Louisiana gun owners to be leery of her.

    No less than Michelle Obama said that re-electing Landrieu was critical for gun control efforts. And remember: When push comes to shove, there’s no such thing as a pro-gun Democrat. I guarantee you that Mary Landrieu is no more “pro-gun” than Bart Stupak was pro-life.

    Ignoring Louisiana

    Mary Landrieu doesn’t actually live in Louisiana:

    In Washington, Sen. Mary Landrieu lives in a stately, $2.5 million brick manse she and her husband built on Capitol Hill.

    Here in Louisiana, however, the Democrat does not have a home of her own. She is registered to vote at a large bungalow in New Orleans that her parents have lived in for many decades, according to a Washington Post review of Landrieu’s federal financial disclosures and local property and voting records.

    On a statement of candidacy Landrieu filed with the Federal Election Commission in January, she listed her Capitol Hill home as her address.

    It takes a special kind of stupid to put your D.C. mansion down as your home address.

    Finally, for a hard-hitting look at how Mary Landrieu has ignored her constituents, take a look at this ad:

    Reminder: Louisiana has system whereby the top two candidates will go to a runoff on December 6. Unless Bill Cassidy is able to win outright in November (which seems doubtful at this point), he’s going to need help in the runoff. And if the control of the senate hangs in the balance, you know Democrats will pull out all the stops to keep Harry Reid in power…

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Guns, ObamaCare, video | No Comments »

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