May 14th, 2014
Time for another Texas vs. California roundup:
Chief Executive ranks the states for business friendliness. Once again, Texas is ranked the best state for doing business in. And once again, California is ranked the worst.
“Texas is the best state for business and I don’t see anything to slow TX down. The education and quality of eligible employees is excellent right now. Business is booming and growing quicker and more rapidly in 2014 than any other year. It’s an exciting time in Texas.”
“California goes out of its way to be anti-business and particularly where one might put manufacturing and/or distribution operations.”
“California continues to lead in disincentives for growth businesses to stay.”
“California’s attitude toward business makes you question why anyone would build a business there.”
“California could hardly do more to discourage business if that was the goal. The regulatory, tax and political environment are crushing.”
California Governor Jerry Brown unveils a budget that takes baby steps toward actual pension and budget reform. Naturally Brown’s fellow Democrats in the state legislature are fighting him every step of the way.
Texas vs. California? Try Houston vs. California:
California state rep thinks the minimum wage in the state should be $26 an hour. I agree, especially if they call it the “Let’s Drive All Remaining Business to Texas Act”…
When he was a San Diego City Councilman, California Democrat Congressman Scott Peters not only underfunded the city’s pension plan while hiking benefits, he indemnified the pension board for doing so.
More on Peters, via an attack ad:
“A new analysis of California’s independent public retirement systems suggests they are more woefully underfunded than they appear, and that Los Angeles County is among the worst of all.”
Bankrupt Stockton’s last remaining big creditor refuses to take 1¢ on the dollar for debts the city owes. (Remember: State pension fund CalPERS didn’t take any haircut at all.)
In bankrupt San Bernardino, talks between the city and CalPERS are making the federal judge overseeing the case impatient.
Chuck DeVore on why Texans trust their state government more than most:
Then factors that appear to explain from 13 percent to 30 percent of the differences in trust among the states: rate of union membership,with more trust in states with lower union membership; state’s level of soft tyranny, a measure of the power of state government over its people; percentage of state and local taxes as a share of income, with lower taxes leading to more trust; the right to keep and bear arms, with citizens trusting a government that trusts them to defend themselves; a business-friendly lawsuit climate; the days the legislature is in session, with less trust as the legislature approaches full-time; and the average commute time, with less time spent in traffic leading to more trust.
Lastly, a combination of from two to four of the previous factors correlates to 34 to 41 percent of the trust in each state with a mix of four: taxes, gun rights, lawsuit reform and commute time, showing the highest link to trust. Comparatively speaking, Texas lawmakers have done well in these four areas of public policy.
When building trust in state government, enacting liberty-minded legislation is a good place to start.
But it isn’t all sunshine in Texas Local debt continues to rise, though Eanes School District voters finally decide that they’ve had enough and defeat a bond proposal.
Tags: Budget, California, CalPERs, Chuck DeVore, Democrats, Jerry Brown, pension crisis, Regulation, San Bernardino, Scott Peters, Stockton, Texas, unions, video
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Regulation, Texas, unions, video, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
May 13th, 2014
I’m on enough mailing lists that I get a lot of campaign/PAC/etc. solicitations. One of the ones I get pretty regularly in email are missives from “Patriots for Economic Freedom” seemingly soliciting for one or another notable conservative candidates.
Take, for example, this one for Ted Cruz. They’ve also done solicitations featuring Allen West and Mia Love, and I just got one this morning for Oklahoma Senate candidate T. W. Shannon.
Just one tiny little problem: Ted Cruz never authorized Patriots for Economic Freedom to solicit on his behalf.
Well, actually two problems: The money Patriots for Economic Freedom raises doesn’t seem to get to the candidates. Indeed, the lion’s share seems to go to consultants Tyler Whitney and Dan Backer.
That’s right: “Patriots for Economic Freedom” is a scam PAC, and has been pulling their scam since at least 2012.
I don’t know who exactly is selling Patriots for Economic Freedom their email list (though I’m looking in your direction, NRO and Breitbart), but they need to stop. Every dollar spent supporting a scam PAC is a dollar not spent actually supporting a conservative candidate.
And someone should consider suing Patriots for Economic Freedom for false advertising.
And if you want to donate to Allen West, Mia Love or T.W. Shannon, do it directly.
Tags: Crime, Dan Backer, Elections, fundraising, Lee Stranahan, Mia Love, Patriots for Economic Freedom, scam, T. W. Shannon, Ted Cruz, Tyler Whitney
Posted in Crime, Elections | 6 Comments »
May 12th, 2014
The Texas House Transparency Committee voted to impeach University of Texas regent Wallace Hall.
Hall’s case will go to the full Texas House of Representatives. If a majority of the members of the House approve of the case’s merits, it will go to the Senate, where members will convene as a court to make a final decision. If the Senate concurs with the committee’s recommendation, Hall will be the first non-elected official to be impeached in Texas history.
His crime? “Hall’s unreasonable and burdensome requests from records and information from UT Austin violated, and continue to violate, the Texas Education Code, the Texas Penal Code, the Board of Regents Rules and Regulations, and the best interests of the [UT System].”
Translation: Hall found evidence of our sacred system of kickbacks and cronyism, and we’ll never forgive him for that.
The Wall Street Journal: Hall “asked uncomfortable questions about lawmakers getting special favors at the state-funded school and has become a political target…Hall’s real offense has been to expose a cozy and possibly corrupt relationship between politicians and the university.”
Michael Quinn Sullivan:
That targeting, of course, has been handled by Speaker Joe Straus’ falsely named “transparency” committee co-chaired by Dan Flynn and Carol Alvarado. The committee has operated like a witch hunt, denying UT Regent Wallace Hall the ability to defend himself while impeaching his character.
Recent revelations that the committee’s “report” (created by an outside counsel chummy with the corrupt university administration) contained out-right lies should be enough to cause lawmakers to impeach not Wallace Hall but the members of the committee!
As Tony McDonald wrote several days agoo, Dan Flynn is trying to weasel out of his responsibility for the cover-up only after his committee’s work product was shown to be a fraud.
Sullivan also fingers the politicians most responsible for the with hunt as David Dewhurst, Dan Branch and Joe Straus.
TPPF’s Tom Lindsay:
For exercising his right and duty to request information of one of the universities he is entrusted with overseeing, Wallace Hall now faces impeachment and possibly jail. The biggest losers in all this are Texas college students, their parents, and taxpayers. This vote is a powerful deterrent to future efforts to ensure transparency in government, and therefore directly contrary to the best interest of our public higher-education system.”
The cockroaches and worms hate it when you pick up the rock they’re hiding under…
Tags: Austin, Dan Branch, David Dewhurst, Joe Straus, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Texas, Texas Public Policy Foundation, University of Texas, Wallace Hall
Posted in Austin, Texas, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
May 12th, 2014
Health care costs up most since 1980. Thanks, ObamaCare!
And low wage workers are the ones hurt worst by the employer mandate.
Adventures in Liberal Racism:
The late Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., a former leader of the KKK, twice was elected the majority leader in the U.S. Senate and served a 6-year stint as, ironically, minority leader in between. Add Harry Reid, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and countless others to the list of elected Democrats who’ve said things just as racist as Sterling, yet faced no consequences.
To liberals, people are their skin color first, and that should dictate their thoughts and behavior. To stray from that is somehow a betrayal. It’s the basest form of racism, even if the victim and the perpetrator share the same melanin.
To progressives, you aren’t an individual, you’re your skin. Clarence Thomas isn’t a man, he’s a black man. He isn’t an American, he’s an African American. It’s the prefix, not the person, that matters. That, at its core, is racism.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
“There’s no getting around the fact that people who reject everything the West stands for are guaranteed to live in poverty with a boot on their neck.”
Democrats doing as bad as they were in 2010? Nope. Worse.
Even the Washington Post has Republican chances of retaking Senate up to 82%.
They also admit that Obama’s ratings are hitting new lows.
Mark Steyn slams #BringBackOurGirls: “The wretched pleading passivity of Mrs Obama’s hashtag is just a form of moral preening.”.
Democrats can’t find anyone to run as a Democratic against David Jolly in FL-13 race. And the “independent” they endorsed doesn’t live in the district…
In Illinois, little things like being a convicted felon won’t keep you from overseeing millions of “anti-violence” program dollars.
Alan Derschowitz gets it right: “I don’t think we want the thought police to be intruding on people’s private conversations.”
Is China’s military a paper dragon?
Missed this: Defeated Democratic congressman (and Stupak-bloc flip-flopper) James Oberstar dead.
“What is hereditary in the United States is not wealth but poverty.”
The Left’s focus on the status of wealthy and high-income Americans is precisely backward — backward if improving the lives and opportunities of those born into poverty is your goal. If your goal is to increase the income and power of the public sector for your own economic and political ends, then of course it makes more sense to focus on the rich: That’s where the money is, and the perverse reality of the Left is that it cannot fortify its own interests by improving the lives of the poor but can do so by pillaging the rich.”
GOP establishment leader Eric cantor booed in his own district.
Nothing says “liberal tolerance” quite like a UC Santa Barbara teacher threatening to send Ted Cruz supporters home in a body bag.
Russia passes a “bloggers law.”
2013 Walter Duranty awards for media liars were given out. Seymour Hirsch received a lifetime achievement award…
Egyptian Muslim group declares that democracy must be eliminated because ”it does not allow to save Muslims and theorizes the equality of Jews, Copts and Muslims and must therefore be condemned”.
Three girls fined $3,500 for wearing bikinis. In Italy. [Edited to add: Jihad Watch has updated the story as a hoax.]
Democratic trial lawyer and Wendy Davis backer Linda Blue Baron is leaving Texas. Tort reform just keeps paying dividends…
Jeeze, you commit one or two little axe murders, and suddenly you’re not dating material.
The novel is dead yet again. Or: Will Self implores those uncouth striplings to vacate his sward.
Crazy spider gymnast.
Tags: 2014 Election, Alan Dershowitz, China, David Jolly, Democrats, Elections, Eric Cantor, Florida, Illinois, IRS, James Oberstar, liberal racism, Mark Steyn, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Robert Byrd, Ted Cruz, Texas
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
May 9th, 2014
Ted Cruz has thoughtfully compiled a fourth list of Obama Administration abuses of power. If you’ve been following the ObamaCare, IRS and Benghazi scandals, there might not be anything you haven’t already heard, but it’s nice to have them all in one place. There’s also mention of more obscure Obama Administration abuses of power, such as violation of the Magnitsky Act, or paying $205,075 to relocate a $16 shrub. Moreover, every item in the list is sourced, most to MSM outfits that liberals can’t dismiss summarily dismiss.
Read the whole thing, then send a copy to any undecided voters you know.
Tags: Benghazi, IRS, Magnitsky Act, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Ted Cruz, waste
Posted in Obama Scandals, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
May 8th, 2014
Ah, Team Dewhurst: Find an issue no one cares about, then run it into the ground. Their latest attack ad (or attack viral video) doubles down on all the unsuccessful attacks in his previous ads.
“Hey, let’s take a popular Disney song and ruin it! That will get people to vote for us!” Buzzfeed wonders if it’s the worst political attack ad of all time.
Dan Patrick has been a state senator since 2007. If Team Dewhurst has made an ad actually attacking that record, rather than Patrick’s business dealings in the 1980s, I haven’t seen it.
It’s like no one on the Dewhurst team actually understood why the Cruz team flash ads were so effective in the 2012 race. Hint: They made you chuckle rather than cringe.
I can’t think of another campaign team that spends so much time and money on ineffective attack ads as Team Dewhurst. It’s becoming more and more obvious that Buddy Barfield wasn’t the biggest problem with Dewhurst’s 2012 campaign…
Tags: 2014 Election, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Dan Patrick, David Dewhurst, Republicans, Texas
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
May 7th, 2014
The United States House of Representatives votes 231-187 to hold former IRS Lois Lerner in contempt over the IRS scandal. Six Democrats joined House Republicans in voting for the contempt charge. The House also voted to request that Eric Holder appoint a special prosecutor, with an additional twenty more Democrats voting in favor of that as well.
This vote follows on the heels of emails that revealed Lerner coordinating with Obama’s Department of Justice to harass conservative groups.
If Nixon’s IRS did what Obama’s IRS did to suppress the speech of his political opponents, is there any doubt those charges would receive their own line items in his articles of impeachment?
Tags: Crime, Democrats, IRS, Lois Lerner, Obama Scandals
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Obama Scandals | 1 Comment »
May 7th, 2014
Time for another roundup of gun and crime news. As always Democrats are trying to take guns away from the good guys, while the good guys are shooting the stupidest of the bad guys:
Supreme Court refuses to hear Drake v. Jerejian, leaving intact New Jersey’s anti-Second Amendment law requiring citizens to “show need” before being allowed a concealed carry permit. This leaves Heller nominally in place, but allows states to deprive law-abiding citizens of the Second Amendment rights for essentially capricious reasons.
The big news in the gun-grabber ranks, just in case you hadn’t noticed, is Bloomberg merging two of his gun-grabbing front groups into the single Everytown for Gun Safety. The goal, of course, remains the same: The complete disarmament of American civilians. But you couldn’t tell that from their website or spokespeople, who are deliberately vague when asked for specifics. Hint: Your need to keep changing your name is a sign you’re losing.
In related news, the head of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against illegal guns quits.
Louisiana wants to give lawmakers gun rights not enjoyed by ordinary citizens. I think you’ve got some equal protection clause issues there, Catou… (Hat tip: Alphecca.)
Hillary Clinton attacks “gun culture.” How nice of Hillary to remind gun owners that she’s a genuine foe of the Second Amendment prior to 2016. (Hat tip: Alphecca.)
Bonus:
Is the NRA falling victim to its own success and losing focus?
Missed this earlier: Smith & Wesson and Ruger leave California over unworkable microstamping law.
New Orleans teen shot in the head during a burglary attempt is arrested for another burglary attempt just blocks away from where he got shot Dude, being shot in the head is a giant clue that you should be pursuing a different career path…
Two burglars shot dead in Sacramento.
Murderer has sentence reduced and is to be released into the hands of director Richard Linklater, who made the movie Bernie about him. Uh, I don’t think this is the way the justice system is supposed to work… (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Man shot through door by fake policeman.
Try to steal a man’s worktools from his truck three times? That’s an ass-shooting.
If I had a hammer/I’d hammer the pizza delivery guy/But if he had a gun/He’d shoot my stupid thug ass.
Bad gun use in popular media. With an entire section on The Walking Dead. (Hat tip: Say Uncle.)
Tags: Everytown for Gun Safety, gun control, Guns, Hillary Clinton, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Michael Bloomberg, New Jersey, Texas
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Guns | 1 Comment »
May 6th, 2014
With so much Obama Administration scandal, sleaze and general fail, I haven’t devoted as much time to the statwide primary runoffs as they deserve. The Lt. Governor’s race in particular offers up the interesting dynamic of well-funded incumbent David Dewhurst getting trounced in the primary by state senator Dan Patrick. So here’s an update on the latest race news, which is lamentably heavy on who did what while owning a Houston business in the 1980s.
The two debated:
There has also been a lot of back and forth on two Dewhurst attack ads against Patrick:
There’s the little problem of Dewhurst accusing Patrick of having changed his name to “hide from debts.” In fact, Patrick had used the name Dan Patrick as a his working name since 1978, discharged all his debt in bankruptcy filings in 1987, and legally changed his name from Dannie Gobe to Dan Patrick in 2003. This is a case where the Dewhurst campaign connected two dots that simply weren’t connected for the sake of an attack ad. No wonder the claim got rated “Pants on Fire.” (On the other hand, Politifact also dings Patrick for suggesting they rated the entire ad as untrue, rather than just that one part of it.)
Politico also noted that Patrick discharged the payroll taxes debt in 1989. (Consider this your periodic reminder that Politico is considerably more trustworthy when the issue in question features no favored Democrats to protect…) Here are Patrick’s responses to the charges, where he also touches on tax problems Dewhurst’s companies had in the 1980s as well, and his own response ad:
Speaking of that second Dewhurst ad, Dewhurst supporter David Jennings dings Dewhurst for shirtless picture of Dan Patrick taken at a charity event. In fact, all the unflattering photos in that ad strike me as more than a little bush league.
As for the “hiring illegal aliens” charge Dewhurst has leveled:
Jerry Patterson tried using it in the primary, and it got him nowhere.
The idea that a restaurant or club owner in Houston might have hired illegal alien help shocks absolutely no one these days.
While if true, it does show a certain amount of hypocrisy on Patrick’s part, the charge is stale enough, and documentation of it so scanty, that I don’t see it being a successful line of attack for Dewhurst.
Dewhurst also spent an additional $600,000 on attack ads. It’s strange to see Dewhurst doubling down on the same tactic that backfired so badly in his race against Cruz. While there’s a bit more meat to the Patrick charges than the Cruz ads, I just don’t see the payoff putting so much money into attacks over business decisions Patrick made a quarter-century ago during the oil bust.
Other race news:
Patterson endorses David Dewhurst. That’s a good pickup for Dewhurst (certainly a lot better than the Craig James endorsement in the 2012 Senate race), but I don’t think it moves the needle.
Dewhurst picks up the endorsements of Battleground Tea Party of Texas (who I don’t know much about, except they’re from the Clear Lake area) and the Pearland Tea Party.
1980s Savings and Loan scandal figure W. Harold Sellers was involved in helping Patrick buy a radio station. Patrick says he didn’t know about Sellers loan issues, which were eventually settled.
I’d love to bring you news on this race that doesn’t revolve around business decisions in the 1980s, but I’m not seeing much…
Tags: 1980s, 2014 Election, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Dan Patrick, David Dewhurst, Elections, Houston, Republicans, Texas
Posted in Border Control, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
May 5th, 2014
If you’ve been following the story of Newsweek‘s demise (click those two links if you haven’t), then this Politico piece on Tina Brown’s ill-fated editorship is required reading, both for what it says, and for what it doesn’t say.
What it says is that Brown was a creative, involved editor who hired good writers and worked long and hard to make the magazine a success. It also says that she was a spendthrift perfectionist who called people at 3 AM, expensively redid things at the last moment and never had a solid business plan for putting the magazine back in the black. She also had sensibilities that only rarely aligned with the world of news, and readily fell back on stale tabloid topics that were only slightly more hip than disco (Regis Philbin, Jerry Seinfeld, Zombie Princess Diana).
Because Politico is part of the Democratic media complex, one thing they barely even allude to is Newsweek‘s decision to change itself into a liberal opinion magazine, in essence alienating (at least) half its readers. Brown did nothing to change the magazine’s disasterous, naked liberalism, and indeed abetted the trend (like her desire to make Michelle Bachmann look crazy on the cover). Newsweek had a choice between being profitable and being liberal, and they chose liberal. The course may have been laid in before she climbed into the cockpit, but Brown never veered from it. In plane crash parlance, this was “controlled flight into ground.”
Saving a declining newsweekly was always going to be a difficult job in the Internet age; the relentless liberal slant and Brown’s feckless ways just made it an impossible one.
Tags: Democrats, Media Watch, Newsweek, Tina Brown
Posted in Democrats, Media Watch | No Comments »
