John Lott's Website

Is Romney really in favor of raising the minimum wage?

2012-02-01T23:22:00.002-05:00

I had to read this piece in the WSJ twice to convince myself that it was true. Romney is a disaster if he really believes that this is good policy. Raising the minimum wage puts the poorest least trained people out of work. The rents created for even those that get the minimum wage jobs are also competed away. From the WSJ:

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday reiterated his position that the minimum wage should rise automatically with inflation. His top rival, Newt Gingrich, later criticized the idea.

Mr. Romney has said in past appearances that, dating to his time as Massachusetts governor, he believed in indexing the minimum wage to inflation, though his stance hasn’t drawn much attention. “I haven’t changed my thoughts on that,’’ he said Wednesday when asked by reporters aboard his chartered campaign plane, according to the Associated Press. He did not say whether, as president, he would urge Congress to make such a change, the news service noted.

Later on Wednesday, Mr. Gingrich took issue with the automated increase proposal, pointing to past periods of rapid price rises.

“Figure out what the Romney plan would have cost and how radically it would have raised the minimum wage in the late 1970s,” Mr. Gingrich said during an appearance in Reno, Nev. “Historically, that would be a dangerous idea.” . . .

Newt's comments on Romney's statement about the poor today

2012-02-01T17:37:00.000-05:00

Germany's unemployment rate continues to fall

2012-02-01T10:49:00.003-05:00

Remember Krugman's attacks on Germany over the last couple of years? Here is something from a piece that he wrote in June 2010:

And here in Germany, a few scholars see parallels to the policies of Heinrich Brüning, the chancellor from 1930 to 1932, whose devotion to financial orthodoxy ended up sealing the doom of the Weimar Republic.

But despite these warnings, the deficit hawks are prevailing in most places — and nowhere more than here, where the government has pledged 80 billion euros, almost $100 billion, in tax increases and spending cuts even though the economy continues to operate far below capacity.

What’s the economic logic behind the government’s moves? The answer, as far as I can tell, is that there isn’t any. Press German officials to explain why they need to impose austerity on a depressed economy, and you get rationales that don’t add up. Point this out, and they come up with different rationales, which also don’t add up. . . .

But German politicians seem determined to prove their strength by imposing suffering — and politicians around the world are following their lead.

How bad will it be? Will it really be 1937 all over again? I don’t know. What I do know is that economic policy around the world has taken a major wrong turn, and that the odds of a prolonged slump are rising by the day. . . .

Yet, Germany's unemployment rate keeps falling:

Spain and Italy creaked under record unemployment rates at the end of 2011, while the German jobless rate fell to historic lows — results that put the onus firmly on Germany, with Europe’s biggest economy, to take the lead in steering the euro zone back to recovery.

Joblessness in Italy rose to 8.9 percent, its highest level since current records began in 2004, the country’s statistics institute said Tuesday. Spain ended the year with unemployment at a 17-year high of 22.85 percent.

German unemployment, by contrast, fell to 6.7 percent in January, a decline of a tenth of a percentage point from December. . . .

Germany's manufacturing sector is pulling Europe's along.

Markets were buoyed by manufacturing data from Germany, the U.K. and the euro zone, released Wednesday morning. The German Purchasing Managers Index rose to 51.0 in January from 48.4 in December, slightly beating consensus expectations. The euro-zone PMI rose to 48.8 in January, which was above the earlier flash estimate of 48.7, also a little above consensus. In the U.K., PMI rose to an eight-month high of 52.1 in January, up from a revised reading of 49.7 in December. . . .

Well, there are also crazy drivers in other countries

2012-02-01T08:27:00.000-05:00

VIDEO: Melbourne's crazy drivers

The most open administration ever is again stonewalling documents

2012-02-01T07:03:00.001-05:00

From Politico:

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) threatened Tuesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if the Justice Department did not provide certain documents in response to the committee’s subpoena.
In a letter to Holder, Issa wrote that “this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress” if Holder and the DOJ didn’t produce documents they demanded relating to the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal.
Holder has until Thursday, Feb. 9. to comply, according to Issa.
Issa accused the Justice Department of trying to “obstruct our investigation and deceive the public” by withholding documents.
“Your actions lead us to conclude that the department is actively engaged in a cover-up,” he said in a four-page letter.
The California Republican pointed to a document that the DOJ released last Friday, which indicated that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer had promoted gun-walking to Mexico on the same day that Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote to Congress denying that the DOJ had allowed guns to walk.
“It is inconceivable that the Department just became aware of this highly damaging document,” writes Issa, pointing out that the Oversight Committee had originally issued a subpoena on Oct. 12, 2011. . . .

Robbery foiled in Milwaukee by person with a gun

2012-02-01T06:21:00.002-05:00

This could be an interesting example of how Milwaukee is changing given the new concealed carry law. From the Chicago Tribune:

Milwaukee police say an armed robbery attempt at a grocery store ended when a customer opened fire.

A man armed with a shotgun entered an Aldi store in the north side of the city about 7 p.m. Monday and tried to rob the store, authorities say.

A customer pulled out a gun and fired at the suspect, who fled without any cash or merchandise. None of the employees or customers were injured. . . .

Thanks to MaryEllen Libraro for the link.

Some amazing predictions from the CBO

2012-01-31T13:45:00.003-05:00

Who knows about predicting the economy a year from now, but the CBO has some depressing predictions.

Key facts from the CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook:

Real economic growth is projected to be to 2.2 percent in 2012, falling to 1.0 percent in 2013;

The unemployment rate is expected to reach 8.8 percent in 2012, 9.1 percent in 2013, and 8.7 percent in 2014;

The FY2012 budget deficit is projected to equal $1.079 trillion, the fourth consecutive year with the budget deficit above $1 trillion;

Total debt is projected to reach $16 trillion in 2012, with debt held by the public to eclipse the $11 trillion mark in 2012 (72.5% of GDP);

Debt held by the public is projected to reach $15.3 trillion by 2022. . . .

How about this discussion of the report:

The unemployment rate would be even higher than it is now had participation in the labor force not declined as much as it has over the past few years. The rate of participation in the labor force fell from 66 percent in 2007 to an average of
64 percent in the second half of 2011, an unusually large decline over so short a time. About a third of that decline reflects factors other than the downturn, such as the aging of the baby-boom generation. But even with those factors removed, the estimated decline in that rate during the past four years is larger than has been typical of past downturns, even after accounting for the greater severity of this downturn. Had that portion of the decline in the labor force participation rate since 2007 that is attributable to neither the aging of the baby boomers nor the downturn in the business cycle (on the basis of the experience in previous downturns) not occurred, the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2011 would have been about 11⁄4 percentage points higher than the actual rate of 8.7 percent. . . .

Meanwhile, it looks as if most Americans think that Obama is passing up some jobs with his dragging his feet over the Keystone pipeline. It is interesting to see when the Obama administration is willing to use multipliers in its predictions and when it claims that we need a short term stimulus versus a longer term one. They haven't exactly been consistent over time. From Politico:

Congressional Republicans and proponents of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline have successfully put the issue on the map, as 78 percent of Americans believe the pipeline would create a “significant amount of jobs,” according to a late December poll by GOP pollster David Winston.
TransCanada claims the pipeline would create 20,000 jobs - 13,000 in construction and 7,000 in manufacturing.
But the State Department — which was studying the proposal — said it would create " approximately 5,000 to 6,000 direct construction jobs" and downplayed any major long-term employment boost.
Further muddling the picture, TransCanada commissioned a Perryman Group study that predicted up to 119,000 spinoff jobs. . . .
Meanwhile, voters were divided over whether President Barack Obama was right in November when he attempted to punt a decision on the pipeline until 2013.
Forty-eight percent said they agreed more with the president and concerns about the environmental impact than with Republican claims the delay "is costing 20,000 jobs" and is due to political reasons. Forty-five percent sided with the GOP claim. Those figures are within the margin of error. . . .

"Obama the most polarizing president ever"

2012-01-31T13:35:00.002-05:00

So much for running to unit the country. Now the press concludes that if Obama couldn't get rid of the gap it is probably impossible to erase. From the Washington Post:

President Obama ran — and won — in 2008 on the idea of uniting the country. But each of his first three years in office has marked historic highs in political polarization, with Democrats largely approving of him and Republicans deeply disapproving.

For 2011, Obama’s third year in office, an average of 80 percent of Democrats approved of the job he was doing in Gallup tracking polls, as compared to 12 percent of Republicans who felt the same way. That’s a 68-point partisan gap, the highest for any president’s third year in office — ever. (The previous high was George W. Bush in 2007, when he had a 59 percent difference in job approval ratings.)

In 2010, the partisan gap between how Obama was viewed by Democrats versus Republicans stood at 68 percent; in 2009, it was 65 percent. Both were the highest marks ever for a president’s second and first years in office, respectively.

What do those numbers tell us? Put simply: that the country is hardening along more and more strict partisan lines. . . .

For fourth year the deficit will exceed $1 trillion

2012-01-31T12:51:00.003-05:00

So much for Obama's promise to cut government spending and the deficit. From the Washington Post:

The federal budget deficit will top $1 trillion for a fourth straight year, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday, the smallest since the Great Recession hit in 2009.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the gap between government spending and tax collections would continue to fall, dropping sharply in 2013 and through the decade if policymakers follow through with major changes in both tax policy and government spending now on the books.

The $1.1 trillion deficit is the smallest deficit figure — both in nominal terms and as a percentage of the economy — since the Great Recession. . . . .

Even mass murderers appear to fear the death penalty

2012-01-31T12:50:00.001-05:00

From the BBC:

The sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) attacks has launched an appeal against his death sentence in India's Supreme Court. . . .

A really surprisingly sympathetic piece on guns from NPR

2012-01-31T12:42:00.003-05:00

What do you do when you can't depend on the police for protection? NPR addresses this question in a piece on Mexico's gun control laws, though it does bring in some digs on gun ownership.

In Mexico, where criminals are armed to the teeth with high-powered weapons smuggled from the United States, it may come as a surprise that the country has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world.

Law-abiding Mexicans who want a gun to defend themselves have no good options. Either they fight government red tape to get a legal permit, or they buy one on the black market.

After an outbreak of violence, one embattled community in northern Mexico called Colonia LeBaron has begun to ask if it's time for the country to address its gun laws. . . .

The cold-blooded murders of Benjamin LeBaron and Luis Widmar galvanized the community, Julian LeBaron says. It prompted them to take a stance that is familiar to Second Amendment advocates in the U.S., but one that is taboo in Mexico.

"I think there would be less violence if there were more guns, in the sense that I could barge in here and do whatever I want, knowing that this guy doesn't have a gun," says Jose Widmar, the brother of slain Luis.

Today, if the gangsters return, the LeBaron colony is locked and loaded. . . .

Thanks to Ajit Pai for this link.

Victim turns tables on two gun toting robbers

2012-01-31T10:58:00.002-05:00

The victim, who was obviously a concealed carry permit holder, wounded one of the two men who attacked him. From Mobile, Alabama:

Spokeswoman Ashley Rains said the intended victim parked his car in his driveway in the 1300 block of Center Street about 4:25 a.m. when two men pointed guns at him, demanding property.
Rains said that the intended victim pulled his gun and fired at the two men, shooting one in the hand. The robbers fled toward Cottage Street, returning fire as they retreated, she said. The intended victim was not hit.
About an hour later, a man showed up at the University of South Alabama Medical center for treatment of a gunshot to the right hand, Rains said. . . .

Thanks to Joseph Rich for this link.

The economy is still a mess

2012-01-31T10:45:00.003-05:00

Home Prices drop again

. . . For November, the Case-Shiller index of 10 major metropolitan areas and the 20-city index both fell 1.3% from the previous month. David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices, also noted that 19 of the 20 major U.S. metropolitan markets covered by the indices in November saw prices decline from October.

"The only positive for the month was Phoenix" . . . .

The 10-city and 20-city composites posted annual returns of negative 3.6% and negative 3.7%, respectively, versus November 2010. At negative 11.8%, hard-hit Atlanta continued to post the lowest annual return. . . .

People can't get financing for new home purchases.

Falling homeownership — and prices — reflect the worst housing downturn since the Great Depression. And while there are signs that the housing industry's downturn may at least be nearing a bottom, the impact of the collapse will be evident for years to come, economists say.
As of November, average U.S. home prices were back to mid-2003 levels, S&P says.
"Americans are less keen on homeownership knowing now that prices can fall," says Paul Dales, economist with Capital Economics.
Even if people want to own a home, they may not be able to, given the difficulty in getting financing for a mortgage, Dales says. The National Association of Realtors says many purchase contracts appear to be falling through for that reason.
Many economists expect home prices to continue to fall this year and maybe into next year before stabilizing and then showing little or no appreciation for some time.
"The trend is down, and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand," says David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee. . . .

Consumer Confidence Plummets

U.S. consumer confidence in January gave back some of the huge gains posted in the previous two months, according to a report released Tuesday. Views on labor markets darkened.

The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer confidence retreated to 61.1 this month from a revised 64.8 in December, first reported as 64.5. The January index was far less than the 68.0 expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.

The fallback was concentrated in consumers’ view of the current economy. The present situation index, a gauge of consumers’ assessment of current economic conditions, dropped to 38.4 in January from a revised 46.5, originally reported as 46.7.

Consumer expectations for economic activity over the next six months slipped only slightly, to 76.2 in January from a revised 77.0, first reported as 76.4.

“Regarding the short-term outlook, consumers are more upbeat about employment, but less optimistic about business conditions and their income prospects." . . . .

Perceptions about the job markets worsened this month. The survey showed 43.5% think jobs are “hard to get” up from 41.6% saying that in December, while only 6.1% think jobs are “plentiful” down from 6.6% in December. . . .

Greek Private Bond Holders facing 70 Percent Cut in Value of Bonds

2012-01-31T06:18:00.001-05:00

From the Associated Press:

Investors participating in a deal to slash Greece's massive debt would face an overall loss on their bond holdings of more than 70 percent, a person involved in with the negotiations said early Tuesday.
European leaders at a summit in Brussels said a final debt deal could be signed off in the coming days . . .

Athens and representatives of investors holding Greek government bonds over the weekend came close to a final agreement designed to bring Greece's debt down to a more manageable level. Without a restructuring, those debts would swell to around double the country's economic output by the end of the year.

If the agreement works as planned, it will help Greece remain solvent and help Europe avoid a blow to its already weakened financial system, even though banks and other bond investors will have to accept big losses.

The person involved in the talks said Monday that the more-than 70 percent loss was the result of cutting the bonds' face value in half, reducing the average interest rate to between 3.5 per cent and 4 percent and pushing repayment of the bonds 30 years into the future. A second person briefed on the talks confirmed that the loss on the so-called net present value of the bonds would be around 70 percent. . . .

Double standards for John Kerry and Mitt Romney's tax records?

2012-01-30T21:29:00.002-05:00

John Kerry is wealthier than Mitt Romney, but he has paid a smaller percentage of his income in taxes. Yet, where was the media outrage over Kerry's tax returns?

Obama White House refuses to condemn Occupy Wall Street Rioters

2012-01-30T21:26:00.001-05:00

From Fox News:

QUESTION: Occupy Wall Street protesters are making headlines again as you know over the weekend 400 protesters were arrested in Oakland and now today the national park services is expected to clear out protesters potentially as we speak from a site here in DC.

What is your reaction, is the administration concerned that some of these protesters are taking things too far?

CARNEY: Well, with regards to Oakland that’s obviously a local law enforcement matter. Here in Washington I would refer you for specifics to the U.S. National Park Services and U.S. Park Police and our position has been and continues to be that we need to balance first Amendment concerns, the right to demonstrate, the right to speak freely with public safety concerns and public health concerns and we understand that local law enforcement as well as National Park Service and U.S. Park Police are weighing these considerations when making these decisions and that’s appropriate.

16 Climate Scientists say don't worry about Global Warming

2012-01-29T06:42:00.000-05:00

Where do Americans stand on Concealed Carry Laws?

2012-01-29T05:49:00.005-05:00

Angus-Reid Survey: 59% of Americans support either a right-to-carry law (51%) or a "Vermont" style rule (8%) that doesn't require a permit. Even 50% of Democrats and 50% of non-gun owners fall in this category.

There was also this question. The answer to it raises the question of what the reaction would have been if the 4 Justice minority on the court had their way with the Heller and McDonald decisions. These four justices don't even represent the views of Democrats.

Americans are already facing higher capital gains tax rates?: The question is actually how much higher are they going

2012-01-28T12:49:00.000-05:00

Start with the fact that Obamacare will be imposing a 3.8 percentage point increase in capital gains taxes next year. Next comes the question of whether the Bush tax cuts will expire. If they do expire, the base capital gains tax rate goes up to 20%. In addition, there will be another 1.2 percentage points added for high income earners. Altogether, if the Bush tax cuts expire, the total capital gains tax will rise to 25%.

Obama administration doesn't think that it is appropriate to have a parade in NYC to honor the troops that served in Iraq

2012-01-28T12:45:00.001-05:00

From the AP:

Bloomberg says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and other Army officials "made it clear" to the city "they do not think a parade is appropriate now." . . .

Did Obama's union biased Stimulus slightly increase the number of workers in unionized firms?

2012-01-28T12:02:00.002-05:00

All those rules requiring that work be done by unionized workers only had a small (I assume temporary) impact on the percent of workers who are unionized. From the WSJ:

The percentage of workers who belong to a union inched down to 11.8% from 11.9% in 2010, a decline the Bureau of Labor Statistics said left the rate "essentially unchanged." . . .

In 2011, the private sector added about 110,000 union members, pushing the total there to 7.2 million. In the public sector, membership fell by 61,000 as budget-strapped federal, state and local governments cut jobs.

Still, public-sector union members continued to account for more than half of the nation's total union members, and their membership rate of 37% remained five times greater than the private sector's rate of 6.9%. . . .

Will Obama be helping public colleges at the expense of private ones?

2012-01-28T10:52:00.003-05:00

The key here is how the government defines colleges as being "too costly." Will it simply be tuition or the amount spent? Obviously public colleges cost much more than they charge. I also hate to think of how the federal government is going to determine quality. The article below also has a discussion about possible price controls. From Bloomberg Businessweek:

Saying “we just can’t keep on subsidizing skyrocketing tuition,” President Barack Obama proposed to have the government, for the first time, link federal aid to a college’s ability to control tuition costs and maintain education quality.

“We are putting colleges on notice -- you can’t assume that you’ll just jack up tuition every single year,” Obama said today at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “If you can’t stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers every year will go down.”

For institutions that control costs, the administration is proposing to increase campus-based aid to about $10 billion a year, up from $1 billion. The bulk of the money, about $8 billion, would be devoted to Perkins loans for students, with other aid set aside for work-study grants and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants.

Obama said higher education today is “an economic imperative” instead of a luxury. “College is the single most important investment that you can make in your future,” he said.

The administration’s proposal calls for $1 billion to entice states to help keep costs down at public colleges while encouraging an overhaul of state programs that help finance education.

Obama is also proposing $55 million for individual colleges as an inducement to improve education quality. . . .

Apparently, the public colleges are pretty upset all on their own.

Fuzzy math, Illinois State University's president called it. "Political theater of the worst sort," said the University of Washington's head.
President Obama's new plan to force colleges and universities to contain tuition or face losing federal dollars is raising alarm among education leaders who worry about the threat of government overreach. Particularly sharp words came from the presidents of public universities; they're already frustrated by increasing state budget cuts.
The reality, said Illinois State's Al Bowman, is that simple changes cannot easily overcome deficits at many public schools. He said he was happy to hear Obama, in a speech Friday at the University of Michigan, urge state-level support of public universities. But, Bowman said, given the decreases in state aid, tying federal support to tuition prices is a product of fuzzy math.
Illinois has lowered public support for higher education by about one-third over the past decade when adjusted for inflation. Illinois State, with 21,000 students, has raised tuition almost 47 percent since 2007, from $6,150 a year for an in-state undergraduate student to $9,030.
"Most people, including the president, assume if universities were simply more efficient they would be able to operate with much smaller state subsidies, and I believe there are certainly efficiency gains that can be realized," Bowman said. "But they pale in comparison to the loss in state support." . . .

An amusing campaign ad about Obama's policies

2012-01-28T09:56:00.001-05:00

Racism in South African Politics

2012-01-28T06:09:00.000-05:00

This story is about Lindiwe Mazibuko, the leader of the Democratic Alliance. From the New York Times:

SHE has unmistakably African roots, from her birthplace (the kingdom of Swaziland) to one of her native tongues (isiZulu) to her mocha skin.

But for many people, Lindiwe Mazibuko is just not black enough.

During a parliamentary session this year, a government minister here called her a coconut (white on the inside, brown on the outside). One political opponent described Ms. Mazibuko as the tea girl, or servant, for the leader of the country’s chief opposition party. Twitter users have flung racial slurs at her, called her a token and said she was naïve. . . .

Looking at the previous recessions can you spot the slowest recovery?

2012-01-28T03:15:00.004-05:00

From the WSJ.
Remember Democrats coming to the defense of Obama's economic projections by saying that the worse the recession the stronger the recovery?

Also, only 28% of Americans think that the economy is getting better.

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, rose slightly on Thursday to 79.2. Consumer confidence is down two points from a week ago and shows little change from a month ago, but is up 13 points from three months ago. Consumer confidence is down 10 points from a year ago. Over the course of 2011, the Rasmussen Consumer Index ranged from a low of 58.1 to a high of 93.3. So far in 2012, consumer confidence has ranged from a low of 78.7 and a high of 89.4. . . .

The "Marriage Killer"?: Nagging?

2012-01-28T02:00:00.002-05:00

Is nagging the cause of the problem or is there something that causes the nagging? Do guys ignore requests because they don't care or do women nag because they want a certain level of control? From the WSJ:

Nagging can become a prime contributor to divorce when couples start fighting about the nagging rather than talking about the issue at the root of the nagging, says Howard Markman, professor of psychology at the University of Denver and co-director of the Center for Marital and Family Studies. For 30 years, Dr. Markman has researched conflict and communication in relationships and offered relationship counseling and marriage seminars. He says that while all couples deal with nagging at some point, those who learn to reduce this type of negative communication will substantially increase their odds of staying together and keeping love alive. Couples who don't learn often fall out of love and split up.

Research that Dr. Markman published in 2010 in the Journal of Family Psychology indicates that couples who became unhappy five years into their marriage had a roughly 20% increase in negative communication patterns consistent with nagging, and a 12% decrease in positive communication. "Nagging is an enemy of love, if allowed to persist," Dr. Markman says.

The good news: Couples can learn to stop nagging. Early in their marriage, Ms. Pfeiffer, now 62, repeatedly reminded her husband about household tasks and became more demanding when he ignored her. "If I was asking him to take care of something that mattered to me and he was blowing me off, that made me feel like I didn't matter," she says. . . .

65-year-old woman held criminal at gun point

2012-01-28T00:18:00.001-05:00

Larry Summers' December 15, 2008 Economic Memo

2012-01-27T07:41:00.003-05:00

Summers' memo that gives some insight into what the Obama administration was thinking on the economy is available here. Here is a list of important points in the memo.

The stimulus was about implementing the Obama agenda
Team Obama knows these deficits are dangerous
Obamanomics was pricier than advertised
Even Washington can only spend so much money so fast
Liberals can complain about the stimulus having too many tax cuts, but even Team Obama thought more spending was unrealistic
Team Obama wanted to use courts to force massive mortgage principal write downs
Team Obama thought a stimulus plan of more than $1 trillion would spook financial markets and send interest rates climbing

Pages 10 and 11 shows a list of what others have proposed for Stimulus amounts.
It provides another forecast about the unemployment rate would be over time with and without the Stimulus.

Sixteen prominent scientists say "no need to panic about Global Warming"

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

From the WSJ:

A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed. . . .

Newest Fox News piece: President Obama's strange definition of fairness

2012-01-26T22:54:00.002-05:00

My newest piece at Fox News starts this way:

During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama pushed for higher tax rates on what he called “the wealthiest Americans.”

He declared: “Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes.” As usual, the president motivated the higher taxes with references to “fair play” and getting the wealthy to pay their “fair share” of taxes.

“Fairness” was the codeword of the State of the Union address, not the chronic problem of lingering high unemployment, something the president never even mentioned.

Of course, Obama emphasized “fairness,” but his newest attacks on the wealthy not paying their “fair share” very conveniently comes right after Mitt Romney revealed that he has averaged paying a 14 percent tax rate over the last two years.

Unfortunately, some Republicans come across as confused about capital gains taxes. Romney pushes a weak defense . . . .

Apparently Justice Kagan was actually involved in Obamacare discussions while at DOJ

2012-01-26T21:30:00.001-05:00

From Fox News:

With just weeks until the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law, there are new calls for Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself from the case.
Her critics point to a 2010 case regarding a San Francisco health measure, in which then-Solicitor General Kagan's office filed an amicus brief touting the newly passed health care law.
In May 2010, after Kagan had been nominated to the nation's highest court, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal sent her a memo outlining the cases in which she had "substantially participated." Kaytal specifically referenced the Golden Gate case, noting that it had been "discussed with Elena several times."
That's enough to convince Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Hans von Spakovsky that Kagan shouldn't take part in the current health care case before the high court.
"I don't see how any ethical lawyer adhering to professional codes of conduct could not consider that they need to recuse themselves from this case," he said. . . .

Another company getting Stimulus dollars goes bankrupt

2012-01-26T20:47:00.003-05:00

From CNS News:

Ener1--a company that manufactures batteries for electric cars, and that received $118.5 million in federal stimulus money, and that Vice President Joe Biden visited last year the day after President Obama’s State of the Union Address—announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In last year’s State of the Union Address, delivered Jan. 25, 2011, President Obama set a national goal of having a million electric vehicles on the road in the United States by 2015—a goal that would be achieved, Obama said, by taking money out of the oil industry and “investing” it in new technology.

“With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015,” said Obama.

“We need to get behind this innovation,” he said. “And to help pay for it, I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.”

The next day, Biden visited the Ener1 plant in Greenfield, Ind.—which the White House said at the time had received a $118.5 million grant from the Department of Energy and was the type of investment the president was talking about in his State of the Union. . . .

Obama helps get even more government wealth transfers to Soros?

2012-01-26T17:09:00.001-05:00

Even if Soros wasn't a leftwinger, he would undoubtedly be an Obama supporter simply because of how much money the Obama administration is sending his way. From the Heritage Foundation:

George Soros, a billionaire investor and major backer of President Obama, stands to reap a windfall from legislation promoting natural gas-powered vehicles. The White House unveiled a proposal on Thursday that would do just that.
The proposal would offer incentives for companies to buy and use trucks powered by natural gas. Obama announced the effort at a UPS facility in Las Vegas that received stimulus funding to buy natural gas vehicles and build a fueling station for them.
The proposal is remarkably similar to the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions (NAT GAS) Act.
One company that stands to benefit handsomely from the president’s proposal is Westport Innovations. The company converts diesel engines to be fueled by natural gas. Wall Street analysts predicted a boom for the company if the NAT GAS Act were passed. CNBC analyst Jim Cramer said he “expects shares to absolutely explode” in the event the legislation were to pass. . . .

Why carry concealed in national parks?

2012-01-26T10:40:00.006-05:00

Aren't parks safe? Why would anyone need to protect themselves? Surely this 65 year old man is glad that he had his permitted gun with him. I only wish that the news story explicitly stated that he had a concealed handgun permit. Story from WFMZ-TV about a Cumru Township, PA case:

A 16-year-old boy is dead, another teenager is wounded and another was arrested after a shooting on a popular trail in Cumru Township.

Wednesday night the Berks County District Attorney gave police the go ahead to release the man they say shot at the teens.

Wednesday morning police from multiple departments responded to the Thune Trail near the Bertolet Fishing Dock at S. First Avenue and Chestnut Street in West Reading after reports of shots fired. . . .

Police say four people were involved: three teenagers and a 65-year-old man.

"He was riding a bicycle," said Habecker.

Police said the teens knocked the man off his bicycle and onto the ground.

They said two of the teens were assaulting the man when he pulled out a gun and shot them. . . .

Thanks to Tony Troglio for this link.

UPDATE: Here is a follow up story.

A 65-year-old man was justified in shooting two of three teenagers who were attempting to rob him as he rode his bicycle along a popular river trail Wednesday morning, authorities announced Thursday.

The ordeal unfolded shortly before 11 a.m. on the Thun Trail in Cumru Twp., Berks Co.

The teens knocked the man off his bicycle and onto the ground in their third random robbery attempt in about an hour's time, said Berks County District Attorney John Adams.

Two of the teens were assaulting the man when he pulled out a gun and shot them, police said.

"While I don't condone violence, the bike rider had no choice," said Adams. "He was in danger of death and serious bodily injury. The bike rider did not provoke the situation."

The man is licensed to carry a gun, said Adams. . . .

Thanks to John Kernkamp for the link.

Bizarre Claims that Newt Gingrich was anti-Reagan?

2012-01-26T04:33:00.005-05:00

Michael Reagan endorsed Newt.
Might there have been disagreements from time to time, sure. But to claim that Newt was rude to Reagan or anti-Reagan seems like a very strange claim. If this was believed, would Newt have been in the Republican House leadership in the early 1990s? Here is Newt on the subject on Hannity's show.
UPDATE: LIMBAUGH blasts coordinated attacks on Newt: "I first heard of Newt Gingrich when he was perhaps the premiere defender of Ronald Reagan. This was in the early 1980s of course, Reagan assumed office in 1981."
UPDATE: From Sarah Palin:

"Look at Newt Gingrich, what’s going on with him, via the establishment's attacks,” fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin said on FOX Business. They’re trying to crucify this man and rewrite history, and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years."

Apparently Obama turns his back on others that he talks to as well

2012-01-26T03:03:00.006-05:00

It looks as if Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is getting the type of treatment that I have experienced from Barack Obama (see links to interviews with Mark Levin here and here and Teri O'Brien here), though it appears as if they had a more aggressive discussion than Obama and I had.

A partial transcript is available here.

Apparently, Obama had a similar skirmish with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal:

I was expecting words of concern about the oil spill, worry about the pending ecological disaster, and words of confidence about how the federal government was here to help. Or perhaps he was going to vent about BP’s slow response. But no, the president was upset about something else. And he wanted to talk about, well, food stamps. Actually, he wanted to talk about a letter that my administration had sent to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack a day earlier.

The letter was rudimentary, bureaucratic, and ordinary. . . . We were simply asking the federal government to authorize food stamps for those who were now unemployed because of the oil spill. Governors regularly make these sorts of requests to the federal government when facing disaster.

But somehow, for some reason, President Obama had personalized this. And he was upset.

There was not a word about the oil spill. He was concerned about looking bad because of the letter. “Careful,” he said to me, “this is going to get bad for everyone.”

From the NY Times:

Mr. Obama stepped off the plane and was greeted by Ms. Brewer, who handed him a handwritten letter in an envelope that she later said was an invitation to discuss the “Arizona comeback.” The two had an intense exchange for several minutes; at one point Ms. Brewer pointed her finger at Mr. Obama.

Afterward, she told reporters that Mr. Obama “was a little disturbed about my book.”

“I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president,” she said. “The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt. So.”

At one point, the two seemed to be talking at the same time, seemingly over each other. Mr. Obama appeared to walk away from Ms. Brewer while she was still talking.

Asked what aspect of the book disturbed him, Ms. Brewer said: “That he didn’t feel that I had treated him cordially. I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn’t get my sentence finished. Anyway, we’re glad he’s here. I’ll regroup.” . . .

I will stick with Brewer's version of their discussion.

Remember how Chicago murder rate fell last year? Well, don't look to arrests for murder being the cause

2012-01-25T14:51:00.002-05:00

"Only 30 Percent Of Last Year’s Murders Have Been Solved"

Murders in Chicago were down last year, but it’s a different story when it comes to the number of murders actually solved.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports, the murder clearance rate – the number of homicides that were solved the same year – has slipped. . . .

Romney backed by party elites

2012-01-25T01:27:00.000-05:00

Romney just can't resist playing class warfare card against Newt

2012-01-25T00:59:00.003-05:00

Romney won't explain the difference between income earned from capital gains and income earned from work. Throwing away the chance to explain why his 14 percent tax rate is "fair" Romney would rather win what seems like a short run political gain against Newt. From Politico:

. . . The moment came after Newt Gingrich joked about Romney’s 15 percent tax rate, saying: “I’m prepared to describe my flat tax as the Mitt Romney flat tax.”

Romney jumped in to ask: Do you tax capital gains at 15 percent or zero percent?

Gingrich’s answer: Zero.

“Under that plan, I’d have paid no taxes in the last two years,” Romney said, alluding to the fact that all his income is from investments. . . .

“The real question is not so much my taxes, but the taxes of the American people,” Romney said. “That’s why I put forward a plan to eliminate the tax on savings for middle-income Americans.”

He continued: “But I paid all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. … I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.” . . .

Google moving to complete a comprehensive profile of people that includes searches, information in emails, purchases, basically everything

2012-01-24T23:29:00.005-05:00

Is there anything that Google won't know about people? Linking what is in your emails to what is in your internet searches and purchases leaves almost nothing that they don't know. From the Washington Post:

Google said Tuesday it will require users to allow the company to follow their activities across e-mail, search, YouTube and other services, a radical shift in strategy that is expected to invite greater scrutiny of its privacy and competitive practices.

The information will enable Google to develop a fuller picture of how people use its growing empire of Web sites. Consumers will have no choice but to accept the changes.

The policy will take effect March 1 and will also impact Android mobile phone users, who are required to log in to Google accounts when they activate their phones. . . .

A user of Gmail, for instance, may send messages about a private meeting with a colleague and may not want the location of that meeting to be thrown into Google’s massive cauldron of data or used for Google’s maps application. . . .

Google has also faced greater scrutiny that it is using its dominance in online search to favor its other applications. Google’s decision to blend Google+ data into search results has been included into a broad FTC antitrust investigation, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is private.

Engineers from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace responded by launching a Web tool that they say shows Google is moving away from its stated mission to be a neutral Web directory.

On the Web site for the plug-in, the engineers wrote that searches for generic terms such as “movies” or “music” prioritize Google+ results over more relevant content.

Here is a nice summary of what Google knows about you. Not only does Google know about what movies you like and what you buy, it also knows this type of information:

You agreed to let Google know about your contacts and mails when you started using Gmail.
You agreed to let Google know about your photos when you started using Picasa.
You agreed to let Google know where you are when you started using Latitude.
You agreed to let Google know what people you interact with and what you are interested in when you started using Google+.
You agreed to let Google store your documents for you when you started using Docs. . . .

Newt would be just as strong against Obama as Romney, takes national lead in Republican race

2012-01-24T23:14:00.002-05:00

Gallup has this poll.

Gun control groups advocating boycotting Starbucks on Valentine's Day 2012

2012-01-24T10:51:00.001-05:00

Well, it will be interesting to see how successful the boycott is.

A nationwide boycott of Starbucks stores and its products will be launched on Valentine's Day 2012. Its goal is to eliminate the risk of guns in public places and ultimately to bring sane gun laws to the U.S.

This boycott is being called by the National Gun Victim's Action Council (NGAC), a network of 14 million gun victims, the faith community including the: Episcopal Peace Fellowship, United Church of Christ, Fellowship of Reconciliation (46 peace fellowships and 43 affiliate fellowships), secular groups working to reduce gun violence and many of the organizations that support passing sane gun laws.WHY STARBUCKS? Currently, Starbucks allows guns and assault weapons to be openly carried in its stores (in 43 states) and concealed and carried in its stores (in 49 states) (See Photos). Starbucks' compliance with the National Rifle Association's Pro-Gun Agenda was exposed in 2010 when members of the "open carry" movement began meeting in popular chains, such as California Pizza Kitchen, Peets, IKEA, Disney and Starbucks openly carrying their handguns and assault rifles. . . .

Gun permits almost double over last 5 years in New South Wales Australia

2012-01-24T09:28:00.002-05:00

Gun control groups in Australia aren't happy with this.

THE number of gun permits issued in NSW has almost doubled in the past five years, sparking calls for restrictions on how many guns people can acquire.
Figures from the NSW firearms registry show 111,792 permits to acquire a firearm were issued in 2009 and 2010. That was 29,427 more than for the previous two-year period. In 2005 and 2006, there were 65,997 permits issued.
The National Coalition for Gun Control, which obtained the latest figures under freedom-of-information laws, says that the increase is linked to the scrapping of a 28-day waiting period for a second or subsequent firearm. . . .

Public Employee Union Puts $1 million into Super PAC ads attacking Romney

2012-01-24T08:26:00.001-05:00

This should give Republicans some pause. Apparently public employee unions think that it is a good investment to put money into Super PAC attack ads against Romney. The obvious question is: why? Do they believe that Romney is the strongest candidate for the fall? Do they think that these attacks between Republicans are going to weaken the party for this fall? One thing seems pretty certain: this isn't good news. From the Washington Times (Public employees union heaps cash into GOP ad attacks on Romney, January 22, 2012):

An unlikely combatant has jumped into the big-money battle between independent groups running ads weighing in on the Republican presidential primary: a national union representing public employees. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) spent $1 million Friday on an ad accusing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney of greed, Federal Election Commission records show.

The liberal group’s intent is to sway the outcome of the Republican primary in Florida, with ads running there before the state’s party elections Jan. 31. The strategy seems to indicate that the union views Mr. Romney as the most realistic threat to President Obama and would much prefer to see Republicans field another candidate, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, against Mr. Obama in the general election.

The piling-on of a liberal group on top of the Republican organizations attacking Mr. Romney highlights an irony to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that injected massive independent expenditures into politics with a ruling cheered by many conservatives: The majority of the spending thus far has been used to demonize Republicans. . . .

Obama's decision on Keystone pipeline means really big money for Obama backer

2012-01-23T22:59:00.002-05:00

From Bloomberg:

Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.
With modest expansion, railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department.
“Whatever people bring to us, we’re ready to haul,” Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern, a unit of Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said in an interview. If Keystone XL “doesn’t happen, we’re here to haul.”
The State Department denied TransCanada a permit on Jan. 18, saying there was not enough time to study the proposal by Feb. 21, a deadline Congress imposed on President Barack Obama. Calgary-based TransCanada has said it intends to re-apply with a route that avoids an environmentally sensitive region of Nebraska, something the Obama administration encouraged.
The rail option, though costlier, would lessen the environmental impact, such as a loss of wetlands and agricultural productivity, compared to the pipeline, according to the State Department analysis. Greenhouse gas emmissions, however, would be worse. . . .

New Fox News piece: Lessons to be learned from Europe's debt downgrades

2012-01-23T17:42:00.002-05:00

My newest Fox News piece starts this way:

As we watch the Eurozone struggle with its financial challenges Keynesians keep telling us the solution to our economic problems is to spend more money, to pile up bigger debts.

A week and a half ago, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the debt of more than half of the Eurozone's countries, and the failure of those policies should be very obvious by now.

Solving the Greek debt crisis hit yet another snag on Sunday afternoon. New aid for Greece from the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank would have relied on private bondholders “voluntarily” agreeing to a 50 percent cut in the value of the Greek bonds they hold as the Greek government claims it can't afford the interest rates demanded on the remaining debt. Unfortunately, for the Greek government, it lacks the power to abrogate the rights of foreign bondholders.

Greece can't simply apply the Obama administration's method of doing away with the rights of GM's and Chryslers' bondholders.

The European countries that have fared the best, such as Germany and Poland, rejected the Keynesian medicine. In contrast, countries following the Keynesian path with massive deficits to try to "stimulate" the economy -- such as Greece, Portugal, and Ireland -- have done poorly, with low growth and increased government debt. . . .

Talks this week

2012-01-23T10:33:00.001-05:00

January 24th
noon, Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh, More Guns, Less Crime

January 25th
12-1 PM, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, guns
4-5pm, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Abortion and Crime

January 26th
noon, Akron Law School, Fed Soc, gun-free zones, especially college campuses

Newt Gingrich Favorability/Unfavorability Nationally

2012-01-23T07:12:00.005-05:00

Do I think that Newt would make a better president than Romney? Yes. Do I think that he would be a better debater against Obama? Yes. Do I worry that Newt may have huge negatives that will be hard to overcome? Yes. Can a strong campaign undo some of those negatives? Sure, but I am just not sure how much can be undone with these abilities.

UPDATE: So if the above is true, why are some Democrats so scared of Newt?

Pelosi: Let me just say this. That will never happen.

King: Why?

Pelosi: He's not going to be President of the United States. . .

King: Why are you so sure?

Pelosi: There is something that I know. . . .

The big questions about Republican Presidential Debates

2012-01-23T06:41:00.002-05:00

Newt's campaign depends a lot on presidential debates. Romney is reportedly ready to spend $10 million in advertising during the upcoming Republican Florida primary. The constant debates are very important in Newt getting his message out and also showing how well he debates. Here is the question: given how much the debates are changing the race, will the media keep up with having two debates a week? Will they expand or cut back on the number? The change may tell us a lot about what the media really think about Newt and Romney. From Politico:

Gingrich's campaign was saved in South Carolina "partly because of his commanding debate performances," Jim Rutenberg writes in today's New York Times. "[Gingrich's] candidacy has flourished in debate after debate," his colleague Jeff Zeleny notes. "And with two more debates in the next five days in Florida, the amount of media attention awaiting Mr. Gingrich is sure to be immense."

If you're in the Romney camp right now, you're not only fearing the fact that there are two debates next week, you're probably ruing the fact that there have already been so many. . . .

Castle Doctrine being used in Missouri

2012-01-23T06:35:00.001-05:00

So what happens to burglaries when states adopt the Castle Doctrine? Hint: see the third edition of More Guns, Less Crime.

William J. Whitfield came home early one January morning in 2010 to find his tiny brick bungalow just about emptied out by burglars.
They took his tools, his computer, his flat-screen televisions.
"They tried to get my washer and dryer too, but that was bolted to the floor," said Whitfield, 66, a retired Navy petty officer who lives in the city's College Hill neighborhood.
But the burglars left something else behind: bags stuffed with more of Whitfield's belongings, stacked near his basement stairwell.
He knew they would be back. So, he called police to report the burglary, but he also armed himself with his 9 mm pistol and slept in a chair in the front room that night. And when three people broke in about 3 a.m., Whitfield shot one of them, leaving the man dead on the kitchen floor.
Police investigated the shooting, but Whitfield never really faced the prospect of prosecution. Missouri's expanded self-defense law, passed in 2007 and known as the castle doctrine, not only protected him from being charged but meant he couldn't be sued over his actions that night.
Whitfield's case is just one example of homeowners taking action against intruders — and burglars dying at the hands of those homeowners. . . .

Robert Samuelson explains what venture capitalists do

2012-01-23T05:24:00.004-05:00

Samuelson's piece is available here. The question is what would have happened to the firms that Bain got involved with if they had never tried to turn the company around.

What’s instructive is that, in both cases, total job gains and losses dwarfed the net change. In the two years, private-equity-owned firms created new jobs equal to about a fifth of their workforces — and destroyed old jobs, often at closed locations, in similar numbers. For the non-private-equity controlled firms, the comparable proportion was about one-sixth. Job turnover is routinely high, but private-equity-controlled firms are quicker at “shrinking underperforming facilities and expanding productive and profitable facilities,” says University of Chicago economist Steven Davis, one of the study’s authors. These firms also had greater gains in efficiency, he says. . . .

Big news out of Europe today on debt crisis in Greece?

2012-01-23T04:49:00.000-05:00

From Reuters:

Private creditors said on Sunday they had come to the limits of what losses they could concede, putting the ball in the court of the European Union and the IMF.

Market players are looking to a euro zone finance ministers meeting on Monday where they will decide what terms of a Greek debt restructuring they are ready to accept in order to pave the way for a second bailout package for Athens. . . .

Predicting which countries' stock markets will be most sensitive to news about EU financial crisis

2012-01-23T04:30:00.001-05:00

While private sector debt gets under control, public sector debt explodes

2012-01-23T04:28:00.001-05:00

More after effects of Keystone

2012-01-23T04:18:00.002-05:00

The Obama administration subsidies energy production that costs more than the benefits it produces and prevents energy production where the reverse is true. From The Hill newspaper:

The White House is working to prevent President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline from becoming a political liability in an election year that will be dominated by jobs and the economy.

White House and campaign officials are emphasizing Obama's energy record in broad strokes -- highlighting steps the administration has taken to encourage oil and gas development and investments in clean energy. Those steps, the officials say, create far more jobs than approval of Keystone would have.

The decision Wednesday to deny TransCanada’s Keystone permit has further united Republicans around a common message: Obama is a job killer. And the GOP vowed last week to continue pummeling the president over Keystone both in Washington and on the campaign trail. . . .

Here is another story from The Hill:

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) left the BlueGreen Alliance on Friday, citing a disagreement with the group’s members over the Keystone XL pipeline.

LIUNA, a vocal Keystone supporter, took aim at other unions for opposing the project.
“We’re repulsed by some of our supposed brothers and sisters lining up with job killers like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to destroy the lives of working men and women,” LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said in a statement. . . .

The move underscores the intense political divide among unions over the pipeline, which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf Coast. . . .

One woman who doesn't appreciate being protected by the Federal government

2012-01-23T04:15:00.001-05:00

Can't the government understand that its protection isn't desired some times? From the Associated Press:

The federal government now says a 101-year-old Detroit woman it promised could move back into her foreclosed home four months ago can't return because the building's unsanitary and unsafe.
Texana Hollis was evicted Sept. 12 and her belongings placed outside after her 65-year-old son failed to pay property taxes linked to a reverse mortgage, The Detroit News reported Sunday. Two days later, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said she could return.
But now, HUD said it won't let Hollis move back in because of the house's condition. She had lived there about 60 years.
"Here I am, 100 years old, and don't have a home," Hollis said, rounding off her age. "Oh Lord, help me." . . .

The Peltzman effect for junk food in school

2012-01-23T04:12:00.002-05:00

Limiting kids intake of junk food at school doesn't seem to change their weight since they just offset that reduction at home. From ABC News:

"whether or not junk food is available to them at school may not have much bearing on how much junk food they eat"

The original study is available here.

"Dems push Fannie, Freddie regulator on mortgage write-downs"

2012-01-22T22:07:00.002-05:00

Do Democrats have any idea what these types of policies will have on new loans being made? If you can have a loan you make marked down dramatically after you make it, why would you ever make that type of loan? From The Hill newspaper:

Congressional Democrats are expected to continue pushing a federal housing regulator to write down mortgage principal for government-backed loans if a settlement with banks doesn't help out enough homeowners.

The federal government is "very close" to an agreement with mortgage servicers that could help about a million homeowners, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said this week.

The deal, which also includes states' attorneys general, would require the nation's five largest banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial — to spend upward of $25 billion to help borrowers caught up in so-called robo-signing practices where servicers signed-off on foreclosure paperwork without properly reviewing documents. . . .

World Economic Forum calls for reforms of "outdated" capitalism

2012-01-22T18:53:00.002-05:00

I guess that I could go along with reforming the troublesome regulatory system, but this is something to remember when we hear about all the well-known people who attend the World Economic Forum each year.

Economic and political elites meeting this week at the Swiss resort of Davos will be asked to urgently find ways to reform a capitalist system that has been described as "outdated and crumbling."
"We have a general morality gap, we are over-leveraged, we have neglected to invest in the future, we have undermined social coherence, and we are in danger of completely losing the confidence of future generations," said Klaus Schwab, host and founder of the annual World Economic Forum.

"Solving problems in the context of outdated and crumbling models will only dig us deeper into the hole.

"We are in an era of profound change that urgently requires new ways of thinking instead of more business-as-usual," the 73-year-old said, adding that "capitalism in its current form, has no place in the world around us." . . .

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords resigning, recovery will take some time

2012-01-22T18:46:00.002-05:00

This is sad but not unexpected news. Giffords will surely get a massive ovation at the State of the Union this week when Obama announces her resignation.

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords announced on her website Sunday that she will resign from Congress this week to continue her recuperation from the brain injury she suffered when shot just over a year ago.
"A lot has happened over the past year. We cannot change that," Giffords, 41, says in a video on her website, speaking in a halting manner. . . .
Giffords, a Democrat, will submit a letter of resignation during the week to House Speaker John Boehner and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. Brewer said Sunday in a statement that she will call a "special primary and general election" to fill the state's 8th congressional district seat for the rest of Giffords' term, which expires at the end of the year.
A statement from her office said Giffords will attend the State of the Union address Tuesday as one of her last acts before stepping down. . . .

The Washington Post's ombudsman talks about the papers' "liberal tilt"

2012-01-22T14:46:00.001-05:00

From the Washington Post:

When President Obama has a bad day, or more specifically, on days when the economic news has been bad, I get a slew of feedback from conservative readers that go like this:

“See, you liberal media nincompoops, this is all your fault, you treated Obama like a saint when he was running in 2007 and 2008 and you didn’t vet him, investigate him, report on him skeptically. You were so fawning (and adoring of his blackness), you missed that he was a (pick your adjective), radical, socialist, Muslim, inexperienced, dangerous, corrupt, weak Chicago politician with no track record of accomplishment, whose only talent is giving speeches.” . . . .

Deborah Howell, Post ombudsman from 2005 through 2008, said at the end of her tenure that “some of the conservatives’ complaints about a liberal tilt [at The Post] are valid.”

I won’t quibble with her conclusion. I think she was right. . . . .

New York Times gives only one side of Obama - Steve Jobs discussion

2012-01-22T04:51:00.002-05:00

Here is the way the New York Times in an article entitled "How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work" describes the interaction between Obama and Steve Jobs:

But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?
Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.
Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.
Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.
The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products. . . .

The Times then goes on to quote Jared Bernstein to argue that this is a really difficult problem for the administration to fix.

“Apple’s an example of why it’s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now,” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House.

“If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.” . . .

So it seems pretty clear from the Times that Jobs didn't really blame Obama for driving American jobs to China. But there is a significant problem with that story:

“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” Jobs told Obama at the outset. To prevent that, he said, the administration needed to be a lot more business-friendly. He described how easy it was to build a factory in China, and said that it was almost impossible to do so these days in America, largely because of regulations and unnecessary costs.

Isaacson, Walter (2011-10-24). Steve Jobs (p. 544). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Obama administration political appointee "to assert the Fifth in gun-smuggling probe"

2012-01-22T04:38:00.002-05:00

What would the media be doing if this had happened for a Bush administration official? The Obama administration try passing the buck to this administration official and he takes the fifth? From USA Today:

A federal prosecutor in Arizona plans to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as part of a congressional inquiry into a botched federal gun investigation known as "Operation Fast and Furious," USA TODAY's Kevin Johnson reports.

That investigation had allowed hundreds of firearms to flow into Mexico to arm drug cartel enforcers.

A lawyer representing Patrick Cunningham, criminal division chief in the Arizona U.S. attorney's office, informed the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he would assert the privilege rather than testify in the committee's probe of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who chairs the committee, calls the prosecutor's decision "a significant indictment of the (Justice) Department's integrity'' and marked the first time a witness in the inquiry had sought such protection.

Justice officials have told the committee that they relied on inaccurate information relayed to them by Cunningham in responding to House investigators. . . .

Republicans will revive Keystone Pipeline issue

2012-01-22T04:28:00.003-05:00

The Obama administration keep claiming that several years isn't sufficient to give regulatory approval for the pipeline to be built. Even former administration officials have a hard time accepting these arguments. From the Washington Examiner:

President Obama's decision last week to deny a permit for a Canadian pipeline that would run all the way to Texas helped solidify his support among environmental groups. But it pits the president against congressional Republicans who are all but certain to use the Keystone XL pipeline as a bargaining chip in this week's negotiations over extending a payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance.

"This is a wonderful talking point for Republicans," said Jerry Taylor, a federal energy and environmental policy scholar with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "They will argue that the high gasoline prices Americans have been paying are something one can blame on the president. And they will argue that high unemployment rates are due to this."

Neither argument is entirely true, Taylor said, but Republicans can still use them to back Obama into a corner over the pipeline project, which would carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, through a 36-inch pipe to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast. . . .

Among the Democratic lawmakers backing the Keystone project is Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia.

"I want the project to go forward," Rahall told The Examiner. "I think we need it for our energy security and for jobs for America."

The president, Rahall said, "is obviously walking a tightrope here, with the environmental community. Part of it is an anti-fossil fuel attitude." . . .

At least one Democrat Senator who is up for re-election this year says that he is very critical.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the decision was a major setback for the economy, workers "and America's energy independence."

The United States should be buying oil from allies like Canada rather than from nations wanting to harm America, Manchin said.

"Until we are energy independent, it only makes common sense to get our resources from our friends and greatest allies, like Canada," Manchin said. "I respectfully urge the president to reconsider this decision." . . .

Not only is the administration taking forever to make a decision, it seems pretty clear that the risks from oil pipelines are minimal. From Fox News:

While the Obama administration says it needs more time to assess the potential risks surrounding the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a vast underground network of more than 2 million miles of energy pipeline already traverses the United States.

Several energy experts who represent the oil and gas industry say the controversial Keystone XL, a 1,700-mile pipeline that would run from Canada to Texas, poses less of a risk to the environment than the estimated 50,000 miles of crude oil pipelines already crisscrossing the U.S., a network they say is safe and efficient.

The Obama administration on Wednesday blocked a permit for the $7 billion Keystone XL, at least temporarily, claiming a more thorough review is needed to examine problems it may pose to the nations air and water quality. The administration also blamed Republicans for including a provision in a recent tax cut bill that compelled a decision within a 60-day time frame.

The pipeline system, proposed by the Canadian firm TransCanada, would transport crude oil from the Athabasca Oil Sands in northeastern Alberta to multiple locations in the U.S., including as far as the Gulf Coast of Texas. The Keystone XL would go through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, and the so-called feeder pipelines would connect it to rich oil fields in North Dakota and Montana. . . .

But several energy experts say the Keystone XL would be no different from an extensive network of energy pipelines already in place and some say its state-of-the-art design would make it safer than many of the countrys aging pipelines.

Theres no shortage of energy pipelines, Dan Kish, senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research, told FoxNews.com. This pipeline would be better than 1.9 million miles of pipeline already in the United States. Its newer and has the best technology. . . .

Colbert/Cain "train missing traction in South Carolina"

2012-01-22T04:24:00.002-05:00

Colbert may have gotten a lot of publicity for his attempt at embarrassing the Republican party, but he only got one percent of the vote. Now the question is whether much of the media will find Colbert a joke as well. From Politico:

Not many South Carolinians got on board the Stephen Colbert-commandeered Cain Train.
Just a few thousand people — 1 percent of the vote — went for Herman Cain in Saturday’s primary, despite the comedian’s effort to turn a joke out of Saturday’s primary results by urging fans to vote for the former Godfather’s CEO’s, whose name remained on the ballot.
Colbert trumpeted the former candidate as an alternative to voting for him on his Comedy Central show through the past week. A super PAC set up to aid the effort even aired a commercial teasing that Cain is “such a Washington outsider he’s not even running for president … Send them a message. On Jan. 21, vote Herman Cain.” . . .

CNN's political bias?

2012-01-22T04:10:00.000-05:00

On Obama condescending attitude

2012-01-22T03:54:00.000-05:00

The very liberal NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd finds that the Obamas' self pity even is too much for her. Of course, she simply can't go after Obama so she includes a swipe at Newt.

The portrait of the first couple in Jodi Kantor’s new book, “The Obamas,” bristles with aggrievement and the rational president’s disdain for the irrational nature of politics, the press and Republicans. Despite what his rivals say, the president and the first lady do believe in American exceptionalism — their own, and they feel overassaulted and underappreciated.

We disappointed them.

As Michelle said to Oprah in an interview she did with the president last May: “I always told the voters, the question isn’t whether Barack Obama is ready to be president. The question is whether we’re ready. And that continues to be the question we have to ask ourselves.”

They still believed, as their friend Valerie Jarrett once said, that Obama was “just too talented to do what ordinary people do.” . . .

Kantor writes that the Obamas, feeling misunderstood, burrowed into “self-imposed exile” — a “bubble within the bubble” — with their small circle of Chicago friends, who reinforced the idea that “the American public just did not appreciate their exceptional leader.” . . .

The Obamas, especially Michelle, have radiated the sense that Americans do not appreciate what they sacrifice by living in a gilded cage. . . . .

CNN discusses case where former Marine's arrest for carrying a concealed handgun in NYC

2012-01-21T22:17:00.001-05:00

Solyndra destroying company assets?

2012-01-21T09:15:00.002-05:00

Why would a bankrupt company that owes billions be destroying millions of dollars of assets? CBS's local affiliate in Fremont, Ca. has this investigation.

Newt's answer on the marriage issue

2012-01-21T08:54:00.002-05:00

I had problems with Newt's ex-wife's claims because her statement seemed to clearly contain other embellishments. For example, she claimed that Newt called her when he was in bed with Callista. How would she have known that he was in bed with Callista? Would any one call up and discuss such an issue as the ex-wife claimed when they were in bed with someone else?

So what do we make of the Government Clearing GM over Volt's battery fires?

2012-01-21T07:01:00.003-05:00

There are numerous news stories over the US ending its probe over Chevy Volt battery fires. But where are there mentions over the biases that the administration has already shown over this issue (remember the whole concern over the "fragility of Volt sales"). Here is something from Bloomberg:

U.S. regulators, who ended their investigation yesterday into the Chevrolet Volt, said electric- powered vehicles do not pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline cars.
“Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in an e-mailed statement. . . .

Some news coverage on Meredith Graves

2012-01-21T02:29:00.002-05:00

From the New York Daily News:

A Tennessee lawmaker angry that a home state tourist was busted with a loaded gun at Ground Zero introduced is threatening to go after New Yorkers who speed in his state.

In a resolution, Tennessee state Rep. Frank Niceley asked New York to “use common sense” in the case of Meredith Graves, who had a .32 caliber pistol in her purse and says she didn’t know that wasn’t legal in the city.

Nicely concluded his motion: “Be it further resolved that we remind the citizens of New York, especially those residing in New York City, to drive carefully through the great State of Tennessee, paying extra attention to our speed limits.”

Niceley said his threat against New Yorkers, who he said tend to speed through Tennessee on their way to Florida, was meant lightheartedly. . . .

Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna had a tart reply. “We agree, everyone should use common sense — which is what prosecutors in New York do,” he said. “Common sense also includes checking gun laws before traveling — something even the NRA tells people to do.” . . .

Mark Bederow, a lawyer representing other tourists arrested for carrying licensed guns in the city, said the Tennessee resolution is a symbolic gesture that highlights what a “grave miscarriage of justice” it would be to prosecute what is “clearly a misunderstanding.” . . .

The New York Post was less sympathetic:

Gun nuts in the Tennessee state legislature have declared civil war on New Yorkers — saying they will retaliate for the prosecution of a woman who was carrying an illegal pistol at the 9/11 Memorial.
A resolution winding its way through the Tennessee legislature warns New Yorkers not to drive through their state — because the Highway Patrol is “gunning” for us.. . . .

Graves faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 3 1/2 years if convicted of felony weapons possession; prosecutors have not said if they will seek an indictment on that or on a lesser charge. . . .

Some Dems in Congress want national board to determine what reasonable oil company profits would be

2012-01-21T02:27:00.001-05:00

From The Hill newspaper:

Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits.

The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.

The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding "a reasonable profit." It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress. . . .

British Poll Shows Large differences Perceived Intolerance Towards different Groups

2012-01-19T07:07:00.002-05:00

It is interesting how small a share of the population these different minority groups make in the UK. Pakistanis make up 1.9% of the population in 2009, Bangladeshis make up 0.7%, and Blacks of all types make up 2.9% (African blacks make up 1.5%). I can't easily find the share for Romani, so I assume that it is very small. I thought that discrimination might be related in someway to their population shares, but that isn't immediately obvious from the data. See the poll data here:

More than half of respondents (54%) believe the UK is an intolerant society towards people of Romani origin, and almost half (49%) believe Arabs face comparable treatment. Other groups perceived to be receiving intolerance are Pakistanis (43%), Bangladeshis (37%) and Black Africans (30%). . . .

Even Obama's own hand picked CEO advisors what him to change his regulatory approach

2012-01-18T13:49:00.004-05:00

It turns out that Steve Jobs hasn't been the only business executive warning Obama about his policies. From Reuters:

President Barack Obama's jobs council called on Tuesday for a corporate tax overhaul, expanded domestic drilling and new regulatory reforms, a set of proposals unlikely to provide a quick fix for high unemployment or gain much traction in an election year.
A panel of top U.S. business leaders advising Obama - whose re-election chances could hinge on whether he can boost the fragile economy - offered its latest job-creation prescriptions at a meeting with him at the White House.
Obama pledged to "push as hard as possible" on their recommendations but also sought to temper expectations. "Obviously this year is an election year, and so getting Congress focused on some of these issues may be difficult," he cautioned his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. . . .
"With this report, President Obama's own panel of experts has endorsed the approach to job creation House Republicans have been pursuing for more than a year," Republican House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. . . .

A new Harvard Business School survey of their MBAs confirms these fears.

A new survey of the business school's alumni found that nearly three-quarters of respondents expect the U.S. to be less competitive over the next three years. They said the U.S. is losing ground to emerging economies, where low wages, increasingly skilled workers, growing markets and proximity to customers frequently trump traditional American strengths such as sophisticated infrastructure, a reliable legal system and effective macroeconomic policy.

The survey is part of a multiyear Harvard Business School project on U.S. competitiveness. Its authors, Harvard professors Michael Porter and Jan Rivkin, defined competitiveness as a two-pronged condition in which firms operating in the U.S. can not only win business but also foster rising living standards for American workers. "If businesses win and wages go down, that isn't competitiveness. If wages go up but businesses are losing, that's not competitiveness either," Mr. Porter said.

Pessimism on both counts ran high, but American workers may face longer odds of success in the global economy than corporations do.

While 45% of the study's 9,750 respondents said U.S. companies will be less able to compete with their overseas counterparts in the near future, 64% said those companies will be less able to offer high wages and benefits at home. About a quarter of the respondents identified themselves as chief executives, founders or equivalents. . . .

New Fox News piece: Should New York tourists have their lives destroyed because of concealed carry laws?

2012-01-18T04:22:00.003-05:00

My newest piece starts this way:

Just a few days before Christmas, Meredith Graves made a mistake that could end her medical career and send her to prison for at least 3 ½ years. The 39-year-old fourth-year medical student was carrying a permitted concealed handgun when she saw the sign at the 9/11 Memorial saying “No guns allowed.” She did the responsible thing and asked a security guard where she could check her weapon. Unfortunately, while her Tennessee concealed carry license is recognized in 40 states, New York isn’t one of them. Meredith was arrested.
A week earlier, Californian Mark Meckler told LaGuardia Airport officials that he had licensed handgun in a locked safe in checked baggage. At virtually any other airport in the country, checking a gun locked in a box wouldn’t be a problem. Meckler was arrested and charged with second-degree possession of an illegal weapons. He faces up to 15 years in prison.
Even New York’s second most powerful Democrat and a strong gun control advocate, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver thinks that tourists who accidentally break the state’s strict carry laws shouldn’t have their lives destroyed. “Her actions show a clear indication that she didn’t know she was breaking the law, and when she saw the sign, she said, ‘OK, I do have a gun. Take it from me.’ There was no criminal intent,” said Silver.
As the Tennessean newspaper (Nashville) put it: “[Meredith’s] arrest highlights the confusing patchwork of concealed weapons laws across the nation.”
But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the local District Attorneys don’t seem interested in showing mercy. . . .

"Frank Luntz Analyzes GOP South Carolina Debate"

2012-01-18T01:07:00.000-05:00

A transcript of the South Carolina Republican Debate, January 16, 2012, sponsored by Fox News

2012-01-17T09:21:00.003-05:00

A transcript of the debate is available here. I don't think that Romney's answers help him very much here. It is my understanding that Romney didn't try to work to make the gun law that he discusses here any better.

WILLIAMS: Gov Romney, Speaker Gingrich says your record of support for gun owners is weak. You signed the nation’s first ban on assault weapons in Massachusetts and steeply increased fees on gun owners in that state, in fact by 400 percent. How can you convince gun owners that you will be an advocate for them as president?

ROMNEY: Well, Juan, in my state we had a piece of legislation that was crafted both by the pro gun lobby and the anti-gun lobby. Massachusetts has some very restrictive rules and the pro gun lobby said, you know what, this legislation is good for us, it includes provisions that we want that allows us, for instance, to crossroads with weapons when we’re hunting that had not been previously allowed.
And so the pro gun folks in our state, the the Gun Owners Action League and others said, look, we would like you to sign this legislation. And the day when we announced our signing, we had both the pro gun owners and anti-bun folks all together on the stage because it worked. We worked together. We found common ground.
My view is that we have the second amendment right to bear arms and in this country my view is also that we should not add new legislation. I know that there are people that think we need new laws, we need to find new ways to restrict gun ownership. And there is in Washington a non-stop effort on the part of some legislators, and I believe the president, to restrict the right of law-abiding American citizens from owning a gun.
I disagree with that. I believe we have in place all the laws we need. We should enforce those laws. I do not believe in new laws restricting gun ownership and gun use. . . .

Is there really any credibility to Obama's claims on recess appointments?

2012-01-17T09:16:00.001-05:00

Here is a brief note over what the Obama administration was arguing just over a year ago. From Fox News:

critics are pointing to another legal memo from the Justice Department that they claim is in conflict with the one issued Jan. 6 - and it comes from one of Obama's allies. In 2010, then-Solicitor General, now Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan authored a letter to the Supreme Court Clerk's Office with respect to recess appointments. While noting the president does have authority to make such appointments, Kagan added "... the Senate may act to foreclose this option by declining to recess for more than two or three days at a time..." In her Jan. 6th memo, Seitz addressed the 2010 Kagan memo and determined that it was not on point. . . .

Obama as "Post-Constitutional" President

2012-01-17T06:09:00.000-05:00

15 year old girl points gun at robbers and they ran away

2012-01-17T05:40:00.001-05:00

It would have been nice if the family had taught the girl how to fire the gun before hand, but just having it appears to have gotten the criminals to run away. From KTRK in Texas:

TEXAS CITY, TX (KTRK) -- Officials said a teen in Texas City was alone when a pair of intruders broke into her family's house, but she turned the tables on the suspects by grabbing her father's handgun.

It happened Saturday afternoon at the 15-year-old's home on Meadowlark.

Texas City police said it wasn't a home invasion. They believe it was a burglary and the goal was to steal the family's truck. But the would-be thieves had a spunky high school freshman standing in their way.

"She says she was in the bathroom showering and when she came out she met two intruders inside her house," neighbor Anthony Campbell said. "She run and got her dad's gun. And when she come out, they saw her with the gun and took off."

Police say one suspect ran into the garage and tried to start her father's pickup. The girl told investigators she followed him in there, pointed the gun at him and he ran away.

The other man ran too, but they were able to ransack the house.

"She was hysterical, crying and stuff," neighbor Raylene Morgan said.

Morgan said the girl is smart and an A student, but the confrontation left her upset. . . .

Obama's consolidation plans might actually save $3 billion total over 10 years

2012-01-16T09:12:00.002-05:00

Wow, an average yearly cut of $300 million a year! Obama is really getting serious about reforming government waste. A video discussion is available here.

So much for all those shovel ready jobs: the case of high-speed trains

2012-01-16T06:14:00.001-05:00

From the Washington Post:

Critics began panning the first leg of California’s futuristic high-speed rail network as a “train to nowhere” soon after officials decided to build it not in the major population centers of Los Angeles or San Francisco, but through the state’s Central Valley farming belt. . . .

Obama set a goal of providing 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years. But that lofty vision is yielding to the political gravity generated by high costs, determined opponents and a public that has grown dubious of government’s ability to do big things.

Virtually none of the projects has gotten off the ground, and the one that has is in trouble. . . . .

So are environmentalists admitting that their other green energy offerings aren't working?

2012-01-16T06:08:00.004-05:00

The beginning of this article sure seems to concede a lot. It is too bad that this wasn't understood before we put all the Stimulus dollars into all this. From ABC News:

Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise.

They hope the water comes back to the surface fast enough and hot enough to create cheap, clean electricity that isn't dependent on sunny skies or stiff breezes — without shaking the earth and rattling the nerves of nearby residents.

Renewable energy has been held back by cheap natural gas, weak demand for power and waning political concern over global warming. Efforts to use the earth's heat to generate power, known as geothermal energy, have been further hampered by technical problems and worries that tapping it can cause earthquakes. . . .

Obama has been to church six times since becoming president?

2012-01-16T06:05:00.002-05:00

It looks like that there has been a sudden flurry of the Obama's attending church. From the Washington Post:

He has attended St. John’s Episcopal Church several times — most recently in December — but the Obamas have been only occasional churchgoers. . . . Each time the president has stepped into an African American church in the District since his inauguration — six times, to be exact . . .

It turns out that governments might not be that great a giving out mortgages

2012-01-16T05:57:00.003-05:00

So is the government really able to do a good job lending out taxpayer money? Does a default rate three times higher than other financial institutions in the area look good? Of course, DC has lots of extra money that they don't mind throwing away. From the Washington Post:

D.C. housing officials have routinely subsidized home purchases that low-income buyers could not afford, paving the way for foreclosures, liens and financial hardships.

Nearly one in five buyers participating in the city’s 35-year-old loan program for first-time homeowners is behind on mortgage payments, city officials said — a default rate that’s at least three times higher than the overall rate in the region. Nearly 50 buyers have received notices of foreclosure in recent years, while more than 50 others have struggled with homeowner association or utility liens, The Washington Post has found.

DeAngelo McDonald, a Metro bus driver and father of six who earns $61,000 a year, financed a $338,000 house in 2008, in part with a loan from the city, paying double what city loan officials had estimated he could afford. His three-bedroom home in Southeast is now in foreclosure.

“I was a first-time home buyer thinking that everything was on the up and up,” said McDonald, 48, who declared bankruptcy in 2009. “At any minute, we could be out on the street. It’s heartbreaking. It’s scary. I don’t know what could happen, especially with my kids.”

For more than three decades, the District has helped buyers offset the cost of housing with loans for as much as $77,000. . . .

Now the state legislature in Washington State is talking about setting up a state bank.

The idea of a state bank - a favorite of the Occupy movement that sees it as an alternative to Wall Street - has strong support among the Democrats who control the state House. Speaker Frank Chopp called it a top priority last week in a speech opening this year's session of the Legislature.

"I think people see this as a form of empowerment, that we're going to try to do something in our state to regain control over the safety of our finances," said David Spring, a community-college instructor from North Bend who has spoken at Occupy rallies.Skeptics wonder where the money would come from to accomplish the bank's goals, such as making low-interest loans to college students and to local governments for public works.

Republican lawmakers and the Democratic state treasurer, Jim McIntire, say government programs already exist to serve those functions. The Public Works Trust Fund loans out hundreds of millions of dollars a year to Washington's local governments for infrastructure, and an alphabet soup of agencies have similar goals, including the Community Economic Revitalization Board, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, and the Transportation State Infrastructure Bank. . . .

"Why set up a whole new bureaucracy?" asked Rep. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor. "And one step leads to another step and next thing you know we have a full-blown financial institution that is in direct competition with our financial industry - which by the way is very good in this state." . . .

The proposed Washington state bank is modeled on the 93-year-old, state-run Bank of North Dakota. . . .

Tesla stock falls by over 19% on Friday

2012-01-16T05:41:00.003-05:00

Telsa's stock crashed on Friday. On Friday, two of the companies top engineers announced that they were leaving. And also Ford announced a relatively attractive hybrid car that will be about $18,000 cheaper than the base Tesla model S.

When Ford (NYSE: F) took the wraps off its impressive new Fusion sedan on Monday, analysts and industry watchers (including this humble Fool) immediately started pondering the possibilities: Would this be the car that would finally knock Toyota's (NYSE: TM) Camry off its best-selling pedestal?

The answer to that question isn't simple. Toyota has had its troubles but retains fierce consumer loyalty, but a couple of days after the car's debut, another question struck me: Could the Fusion -- specifically, the Fusion Energi, a plug-in hybrid version that's due later this year -- be a problem for Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA)? . . .

On the top engineers leaving, it raises the question about what they know about the company's future.

Having traded in a tight range for most of the day, Tesla Motors (TSLA) collapsed in the last 45 minutes of trading on Friday. The stock hit a low of 22.64 and closed at 22.79, down 19.3% from its previous close. Although it was reported to have bounced 7% in after hours trading, the price action remains a clear worry. More worryingly, the move took place on what became the third highest volume day of the last 52 weeks - with just over 5.5 million shares changing hands.

The stock indeed closed down 35% from the $35 high it saw twice in November and December of last year.

The move took place after Tesla confirmed that Chief engineer Peter Rawlinson and Nick Sampson, supervisor of vehicle and chassis engineering, had left the company.

Not much has been said publicly about the moves. However, in an emailed statement attributed to spokesman Ricardo Reyes, Tesla made the following comments to Investor's Business Daily -

"Having completed conceptual and design engineering work on Model S, Peter has decided to step away to tend to personal matters in the U.K., ... Nick Sampson is no longer with Tesla. He had fully transitioned from any Model S activities by the time of his departure." . . .

Is the US still a free country?

2012-01-15T23:28:00.003-05:00

While there is no discussion of the loss of economic freedom, Jonathan Turley as the question in the Washington Post:

Assassination of U.S. citizens
Indefinite detention

Warrantless searches
Secret evidence
War crimes
Secret court

Immunity from judicial review
Continual monitoring of citizens
Extraordinary renditions

Might the Supreme Court finally restrict apartment rent controls?

2012-01-15T10:06:00.002-05:00

When do regulations represent a taking? How about if the law lets a tenant and his relatives rent your apartment forever? Richard Epstein has the discussion here.

Some countries reversing decisions on CFL light bulbs

2012-01-15T08:49:00.001-05:00

From the Jerusalem Post:

Each CFL contains small quantities of mercury and other toxins. If a bulb breaks at home, its fragments are dangerous to bare skin and need special handling and cleaning up. Even vacuum cleaners won’t do because they might spread the contamination.

When tossed in the trash CFLs can cause unimaginable havoc in garbage dumps and landfills – harm that far offsets the benefits of energy saving. When mercury enters water sources, biological processes change the chemical form to composites more noxious than found in contaminated fish. Once in the food chain and subsequently in the body, CFL-origin mercury can impair developing fetuses, and children’s and adult’s nervous systems.

Fashions notwithstanding, some intrusive governments have slowly begun to take note of the CFLs’ dark underside. New Zealand, for example, has backtracked from banning incandescent lights due to concerns about safety and even the energy efficiency of the CFLs.

Doubts are also appearing in Germany. Some Green NGOs, such as the World Wildlife Fund, have dared to break with the political correctness that shielded CFLs from more critical appraisal. . . .

S&P says that "euro zone's policy response to the debt crisis has been largely misguided"

2012-01-15T07:31:00.006-05:00

Note that S&P doesn't think that "more fiscal stimulus" will help Europe. The countries that have been doing best (Germany and Poland) didn't follow the Keynesian policy prescriptions advocated by Obama. From the WSJ:

Standard & Poor's analysts on Saturday defended their downgrades of more than half of the euro zone's 17 members, as the highest-profile victim of the mass ratings cut—France—looked to play down the impact.

In a conference call hours after the downgrades, S&P analysts said they stood by their moves as they believe the euro zone's policy response to the debt crisis has been largely misguided and is building up future risks.

"The proper diagnosis would have to give more weight to the ... rising imbalances in the euro zone," said Moritz Kramer, head of European sovereign ratings. He pointed to problems such as divergences in competitiveness from one country to another, which he said is reflected in huge imbalances in national current accounts.

Mr. Kramer said the centerpiece of a December summit aimed at arresting the crisis, the adoption of tighter fiscal rules to avoid excessive deficits, "wouldn't have identified the risks" in advance as Germany had one of the largest budget deficits of all during the first 10 years of the euro's existence, whereas Spain, which is a problem area now, had a largely balanced budget.

But Mr. Kramer stressed that S&P isn't calling for more fiscal stimulus from the countries with the biggest debt problems, saying that they have neither the room, nor enough credibility in the debt markets, to try to spend their way out of trouble.

"That certainly wouldn't be regarded as a credit positive, not by our metrics at least," Mr. Kramer said.

Something more worrisome is on the horizon. If only the Europeans could deal with these pesky bond holders, the same way Obama dealt with the GM and Chrysler bond holders. From Market Watch:

but the real story is that the Greek bond “negotiations” on a “haircut” have broken down once again. The dudes in power over there are trying to put a good face on it and are sure they can get a deal done next week…but the markets appear to be running out of patience. . . .

Portugal is just barely above "non-investment grade." Greece is "likely to default."

Impact of increasing retirement age on the size of the economy

2012-01-15T06:40:00.003-05:00

From the CBO blog:

Raising any of the ages of eligibility would cause some people to work longer, thereby increasing the size of the workforce and the economy. Although the magnitude of those effects is difficult to predict, CBO estimates that:

Raising Social Security’s early eligibility age to 64 or the full retirement age to 70 would, in the long term, boost the size of the workforce and the economy by slightly more than 1 percent.
Raising Medicare’s eligibility age to 67 would also boost the size of the workforce and the economy, but by a much smaller amount.

Mitt Romney on gun control

2012-01-15T05:23:00.000-05:00

From the Examiner:

“Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts,” Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony on July 1 with legislators, sportsmen’s groups and gun safety advocates. “These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.” . . .

"900 Dead People Voted In SC"

2012-01-15T05:20:00.001-05:00

So Democrats claim that there is no evidence of vote fraud? Try this story from WYFF TV Channel 4 in Greenville, SC (January 11, 2012):

South Carolina’s attorney general is asking for an investigation into possible voter fraud in the state.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Alan Wilson asked State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel to review evidence of potential voter fraud in the state.
Wilson said the evidence of fraud was uncovered by Director of the Department of Motor Vehicles Kevin Shwedo during an extensive review of data related to the state's new voter identification law.
"Director Shwedo's research has revealed evidence that over 900 deceased people appear to have 'voted' in recent elections in South Carolina," said Wilson. "This is an alarming number, and clearly necessitates an investigation into potential criminal activity. I have asked SLED Chief Keel to review Director Shwedo's research." . . .

More Stimulus for Europe? Note which countries are doing best and which ones the worse

2012-01-14T16:57:00.003-05:00

So which countries in Europe are having problems? The ones where government spending over the last few years have been completely out of control. Which are doing best? The ones where spending has been restricted: Germany and Poland being obvious examples. The New York Times has this headline: "European Leaders Use Debt Downgrades to Argue for Austerity, and for Stimulus." But the accompanying story has little arguing for an Obama type Stimulus.

European leaders sought to limit damage from a ratings agency’s downgrade of nine countries on Friday, or even turn the news to their advantage, saying that it showed the need to impose more austerity or else do more to stimulate growth.

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, said Saturday that the downgrade by Standard & Poor’s meant the euro area must speed up measures to create a more centralized currency union.

“We are now challenged to implement the fiscal pact quickly,” Mrs. Merkel said in a statement Saturday, a day after S.& P. downgraded France, Austria and seven other countries — but not Germany. She added that leaders should not water down the agreement and instead quickly pass other measures they have agreed to, like limits on debt.

In Italy, Prime Minister Mario Monti used the downgrades to bolster his argument that austerity alone would not solve the euro crisis. Europe needs to support “national efforts in favor of growth and employment,” Mr. Monti told the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, according to Bloomberg News. . . .

Could someone explain to me what law gives the Obama administration the power to make up new gun control regulations?

2012-01-14T16:43:00.003-05:00

A federal judge has upheld the Obama administration's ability to impose new reporting requirements on gun dealers. Here is a copy of the original filing by the NSSF. Here is their statement on yesterday's district court ruling.

We respectfully disagree with the court’s reasoning which places our industry on a “slippery slope.” Today’s ruling will allow ATF to demand whatever information it wants from any law-abiding retailer anywhere in the country for any reason ATF wants simply by sending a letter demanding information. While we understand ATF’s motivation is to try to curtail violence in Mexico, Congress simply has not granted ATF regulatory carte blanche. NSSF looks forward to having the Court of Appeals review the district court’s flawed decision. . . .

The main quote that I get from the above filing is this:

In response to the DOJ Office of Inspector General's review of proposed ATF action" seeking a requirement for reporting multiple sales of long guns[,]" the ATF itself questioned its authority to impose such a new legal requirement:

ATF concurred with this recommendation, but noted that it may require a change in the Gun Control Act, which is beyond the ATF's and the Department's authority. ATF stated that it would explore the full range of options to seek information regarding multiple sales of long guns.

Charles Krauthammer on how Romney should handle the Bain issue

2012-01-14T16:41:00.001-05:00

Krauthammer's advice?

Charles Krauthammer: Number one. Never use the phrase net-net. It makes you sound like some cold-blooded capitalist.

Number two. Here's what I would do, a jujitsu on Obama, and say look, Obama and the government went in and tried to rescue GM and Chrysler. What did they do? They went in and they slimmed it down. A lot of workers lost their work. A lot of dealerships were closed. The Pontiac line and other lines were shut down. A lot of individual suffering. And that was the Democrats, that was the government. That was the people who supposedly are the ones who care about the workers of the middle-class. That's what you have to do when a business is about to go under and everyone is going to lose his job. You slim it down, make it efficient and productive, and then you save the jobs and then you grow it so that later on you add on to other jobs. Which is in fact what happened to some of the failing companies that the Bain Corporation invested in. . . .

Bill Press: "Newt Gingrich is ‘Suicide Bomber Of Republican Party’"

2012-01-14T03:51:00.002-05:00

Calling someone the ‘Suicide Bomber Of Republican Party’ is supposed to be constructive language? This can be viewed here.

Bill Maher makes a prediction about Obama

2012-01-14T03:10:00.004-05:00

This is one time that I think Bill Maher is at least partially right. On the gay marriage issue, Maher is undoubtedly correct. Obama is indeed probably an atheist (note what percentage of elitist liberals in academia are atheist, particularly if exclude Jewish people, 90+%), though I don't think that he will ever explicitly come out and say this. From Real Clear Politics:

"I'm just trying to get it real and keep it fair. And I think he will (Obama will come out in favor of gay marriage). I think in the second term, when he's got nothing to lose you're going to see the real Obama come out, including his admission that he's an atheist too."

US Banks having a tough time

2012-01-14T01:34:00.002-05:00

JPMorgan kicks off bank earnings season with 23% drop in profit

Here is another story from the WSJ: "Bank of America Corp. has told U.S. regulators that it is willing to retreat from some parts of the country if its financial problems deepen, according to people familiar with the situation."