The tax breaks are pretty big: “The tax breaks exempt companies in the Mid-Market neighborhood from the city’s 1.5 percent payroll taxes on new hires for six-years. Twitter tax breaks are estimated to be worth $22 million over six years.”
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN FOR TOMORROW: Why Not A Waiting Period For Laws? “I’d like to propose a ‘waiting period’ for legislation. No bill should be voted on without hearings, debate and a final text that’s available online for at least a week. (A month would be better. How many bills really couldn’t wait a month?) And if the bill is advertised as addressing a ‘tragedy’ or named after a dead child, this period should double.”
OF COURSE, IT’S STILL JANUARY: The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone. “When did we decide that we wanted a law that could make unlocking your smartphone a criminal offense? The answer is that we never really decided.”
JUST A REMINDER: Amazon carries shooting supplies.
COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU: National School Choice Week!
THOUGHTS ON conservatives and dating sites.
A DIALOGUE ON WOMEN IN COMBAT.
POPULAR MECHANICS: SHOULD YOU BUY A STANDBY GENERATOR? “Standby generators offer a steadfast solution to extended outages. Unlike portable generators, they’re installed permanently on a concrete pad in your yard and will provide uninterrupted backup for days. That’s because they’re connected directly to your home’s electrical panel and powered by an external fuel supply, such as natural gas, liquid propane, or diesel. Smaller, air-cooled essential-circuit units (below) are slightly larger than portable generators and can energize just a few circuits at a time. Larger, liquid-cooled whole-house systems will do just as their name suggests—they’ll comfortably power an entire home.”
If I were building my home from scratch today, I’d run everything off propane instead of natural gas, add a big propane-powered standby generator, and have a big underground propane tank. I’d be good for weeks off the grid if necessary. And, as Sandy — and some of PEPCO’s failings in the DC area — demonstrated, that can sometimes be necessary.
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IF YOU GET A WEIRD EMAIL FROM MY BELLSOUTH ACCOUNT WITH A LINK, don’t follow the link. It’s some kind of spambot. I’ve changed the password on my Bellsouth account, but I’m not even sure that’s where it’s actually coming from.
Giffords can only get a few words out — “so slowly” — and Diane Sawyer has no compunction about supplying words all around Giffords’s words, most notably at the end of the interview — you have to watch the video — when she turns Giffords into a puppet who voices the last word to a long sentence yammered out by Sawyer. Sawyer repeatedly assures us that Giffords understands everything and is able to think well, that her only intellectual deficit is in speaking. We’re told how effective Gifford will be in pressuring Congress to enact gun control. She will be taken around to the members of Congress so they will be subjected to the ordeal — if they want to say “no” — of saying “no” to her face.
This is how it’s done. At what point do you say “no”… enough?
Resort to theatrical efforts at emotional blackmail is an admission that you have no intellectual arguments. Which is par for the course with the smarmy Diane Sawyer, of course, and with the even-smarmier gun control movement.
I would ask “have you no decency?” — but we already know the answer to that.
Plus, from the comments:
The members of Congress that will be subjected to this ordeal, will be Republicans.
Democrats running for re-election in places like Minnesota will not be called on.
The love-and-caring bit is all a con. Every time.
THOUGHTS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CHANGING THE CULTURE. “Glenn Reynolds was spot on when he suggested after the 2012 presidential election that wealthy Republicans stop wasting their money on Republican politicians and buy women’s magazines, which virtually operate as a ‘propaganda arm of the Democratic party.’”
Plus: “It is perfectly proper to be taught by one’s enemy.”
SARAH HOYT ON BOYS AND THE CULTURE: Blowing Steam — or The Counterfactuals Can Harm You. “Well, it’s just that girls get to do ALL the fun stuff.”
TRANSPORTATION TRUSTBUSTER: Andy Kessler interviews the CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick. Key bit:
“We don’t have to beg for forgiveness because we are legal,” he says. “But there’s been so much corruption and so much cronyism in the taxi industry and so much regulatory capture that if you ask for permission upfront for something that’s already legal, you’ll never get it. There’s no upside to them. . . . It’s anticompetitive behavior. If a CEO did that kind of stuff—-you’d be in jail.”
The joys of regulation.
JOHN TIERNEY: Prison Population Can Shrink When Police Crowd Streets.
Now that the United States has the world’s highest reported rate of incarceration, many criminologists are contemplating another strategy. What if America reverted to the penal policies of the 1980s? What if the prison population shrank drastically? What if money now spent guarding cellblocks was instead used for policing the streets?
But here’s the key quote:
“If you had a dollar to spend on reducing crime, and you looked at the science instead of the politics, you would never spend it on the prison system,” Dr. Jacobson said. “There is no better example of big government run amok.”
Indeed.
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PROGRESS: ‘No Budget, No Pay’ Advances Despite Reservations.
In an earlier era, a move like the one engineered by House GOP leaders to pass a “no budget, no pay” measure probably would have been stopped in its tracks.
But with Congress’ approval ratings in the gutter, House lawmakers pushed aside questions about fairness and constitutionality and tacked the idea on to an unpopular, must-pass measure to increase the government’s borrowing cap.
This AP story is an apologia for the bill’s opponents, but it still can’t obscure the fact that with Congress deeply unpopular for failing to do its job, reform proposals that would normally not have a chance might make it now. Which is a good reason for someone to introduce my revolving-door surtax for government officials who leave for higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
TOO COLD FOR THE SUPER BOWL? “According to the Weather Channel, it feels like 3 degrees Fahrenheit in East Rutherford, N.J., today. . . . So who’s up for sitting in the open air at Met Life Stadium for four hours? If the weather is like this next year around this time, that will be the question for NFL fans holding Super Bowl tickets. The Feb. 2, 2014, Super Bowl at the new home of the New York Giants and Jets will be the first played outdoors in a cold-weather city. When the NFL’s 32 owners selected New Jersey in 2010, they decided to suspend a league rule that requires the host city to have an average temperature of 50 degrees or warmer for the time of year or climate control (read: a roof) at its stadium.”
My stepmother went to the famous “Ice Bowl” game where it was colder than that. But Wisconsinites have antifreeze in their blood.
IN THE LATEST TSA NEWS: Man With 4th Amendment Written on Chest Wins Trial Over Airport Arrest. “A Virginia man who wrote an abbreviated version of the Fourth Amendment on his body and stripped to his shorts at an airport security screening area won a trial Friday in his lawsuit seeking $250,000 in damages for being detained on a disorderly conduct charge.”
JOURNALISM: ABC’s “This Week” Has Sen. Menendez On For Entire Segment – Forgets to Ask About Underage Hooker Scandal. “On Friday the news broke that the FBI has been investigating top Democratic Senator Bob Menendez for having sex with underage Dominican hookers. For some reason the ABC host Martha Raddatz forgot to ask Menendez about the hooker scandal. That’s outrageous. You could imagine the grilling this man would have taken if he had an ‘R’ behind his name insted of a ‘D’. Instead, ABC willfully keeps the public in the dark.”
That’s what media apparatchiks do.
LATER, THEY’LL EXTEND IT TO HUMANS: Darpa’s Plan to Recruit Military Dogs: Scan Their Brains.
BITTER CLINGER: Obama claims that he totally goes secret skeet shooting all the time, guys. Funny we’ve never heard about that before.
I’M GLAD I DON’T HAVE THIS JOB: South Africa police join hunt for 10,000 escaped crocodiles.
PAPER: CAN LAWYERS STAY IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT? “If history is a guide, cheaper alternatives will evolve into higher-quality alternatives, at which point the law firms most invested in the status quo are likely to suffer greatly. While the significance of this disruption is often viewed in terms of how it will affect lawyers, in fact it should be assessed mainly from the perspective of consumers and society: does the quality of legal services rise or fall at any given price point?”
IN THE MAIL: From Judith Kleinfeld, The Frontier Romance: Environment, Culture, and Alaska Identity.
HOW’S THAT SMART DIPLOMACY WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Obama Buries the Reset.
The “reset” policy with Russia that was one of the Obama administration’s signature endeavors in its first term came closer to death this week, as the United States pulled out of a key working group on civil society in Russia. The decision came after weeks of heightened tensions between the two countries, beginning with the passage of the Magnitsky Act last month. Since then, Russia has increased crackdowns on civil society groups at home, and inflamed tensions with the US by measures like the ban on American adoptions of Russian kids.. . .
Like their predecessors in the Carter years, the Obama team has been torn between the demands of the international realpolitik they think America needs and the attachment to human rights they cannot live without. Maximizing cooperation with Russia on issues like the war in Syria and the Iranian nuclear issue demands that we shut up as Putin jails his opponents, cracks down on civil society and generally consolidates authoritarian rule as best he can. If we don’t pay Russia’s price on human rights, the Kremlin retaliates by making life as difficult for the United States as it conveniently can. That makes it harder for the Obama administration to achieve its goals in the Middle East without the use of force and with the blessing of the United Nations Security Council.
This is another version of the problem that the United States faced in the 1970s when the policy of detente with the Soviet Union led to what many people on both the left and the right considered an immoral tolerance for Soviet human rights abuses. For Carter, the struggle ended unhappily; he was unable to get another nuclear deal, the human rights situation in the Soviet Union and its satellites did not change, and the Cold War heated up when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
Tell me again how successful Hillary was as Secretary of State? Remember, even the original reset-button prop was bungled. Which, in retrospect, was a pretty accurate omen.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Tuition squeeze — “the likely impact is doubly ominous.”
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO REDUCE POST-HOSPITAL SYNDROME? “Hospital is a dangerous place, especially for the old and very sick — which is one reason why a measure of a hospital’s efficiency is the speed with which it discharges patients home after treatment. Another reason for this measure is, of course, economy. Long stays in hospital are hugely expensive. However, aiming to discharge patients as quickly as possible may be neither humane nor efficient.”
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THE EDITORIAL CARTOONS SEEM TO BE GETTING LESS FRIENDLY.
CHARLIE MARTIN: 13 Weeks: Week 12 — In Which We Get Cross and Fit. “It’s week 12 of 13, and time to start thinking about the next thirteen weeks. I’ve taken to calling it my ‘second season’, indulging my fantasy of writing for TV. As I’ve been saying for a while, I’m going to emphasize the fitness part of the training for the next thirteen weeks. This is in addition to the dietary changes that turned out to be the focus of the first 13 weeks, so let’s summarize the whole: overall motivation and what I’ve been doing.”
CHARLES RANGEL’S ARGUMENT FOR bringing back the draft and including women.
CARBON-TRADING MARKET IN EUROPE IN DANGER OF COLLAPSING.
STEVEN GREENHUT: How Big Government Undermines Freedom and Prosperity.
Why is it assumed by these moralistic Affluence Police that the rich are mainly greedy people who spend their money on luxury goods? Charities and non-profits are funded by wealthy people. Real capitalists invest millions of dollars into ideas and often create good jobs in the process. I have no idea what Mickelson does with his money, but it isn’t any of my business. Given California governmental attitudes, one can’t blame him for looking elsewhere.
For instance, during a recent Capitol press conference, the Orange County Register’s Sacramento reporter asked Gov. Jerry Brown about the spending increases in his supposedly austere budget. Brown joked about there being no hope for Orange County readers, according to a Register editorial. Then he mocked “this doctrine that government is the problem,” which he said is promoted by the “Orange County Register or whoever all these people are.”
At the Capitol, the free market is viewed as an arcane joke. Yet I look at everything government does—at all those programs and bureaucracies and entitlements that Brown and Obama prefer. I see enormous debt, corruption, abuses of power, union-enrichment schemes, shoddy services, terrible attitudes, and an endless sea of scandal and greed. Just read the newspapers.
Indeed.
CALL ME A CYNIC, but I think this will bear down harder on innocent people in actual pain than on drug abusers. F.D.A. Likely to Add Reins on Painkillers. “Trying to stem the scourge of prescription drug abuse, an advisory panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration voted on Friday to toughen the restrictions on painkillers like Vicodin that contain hydrocodone, the most widely prescribed drugs in the country. The recommendation, which the drug agency is likely to follow, would limit access to the drugs by making them harder to prescribe, a major policy change that advocates said could help ease the growing problem of addiction to painkillers, which exploded in the late 1990s and continues to strike hard in communities from Appalachia and the Midwest to New England. But at 19 to 10, the vote was far from unanimous, with some opponents expressing skepticism that the change would do much to combat abuse. Oxycodone, another highly abused painkiller and the main ingredient in OxyContin, has been in the more restrictive category since it first came on the market, they pointed out in testimony at a public hearing. They also said the change could create unfair obstacles for patients in chronic pain.”
THE NEXT STAGE IN HEALTH CARE “REFORM:” Let smokers, obese die.
JIM TREACHER: Ladies and gentlemen: the great Nick Searcy.
OBAMA’S HOME STATE: Illinois Credit Rating Now Worst in the Nation.
IF WE DO, WOMEN AND MINORITIES WILL BE HARDEST HIT: Can We Shame Our Way To Thin?
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: New York Gun Owners Flip the Bird to “Assault Weapons” Registration Law. “Assault-rifle owners statewide are organizing a mass boycott of Gov. Cuomo’s new law mandating they register their weapons, daring officials to ‘come and take it away.’” In the original Greek, ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ.
UPDATE: Reader Bayard Rucker notes that even in orderly Canada (which, of course, lacks any Second Amendment tradition) the rifle registry was a failure: “Not everyone complied. An estimated 65% of firearms owners registered at least one rifle or shotgun, and no more than half of all long guns ended up in the registry. Opposition was intense and has never abated. Grassroots anger helped to fuel the rise of the Reform Party, and contributed to the elimination of the Liberals as a political force in the West.”
LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: The Crisis Of The Black Middle Class.
The Clinton and Bush administrations set policies to encourage Black home ownership, but these made things worse. . . . So when the real estate bubble burst, it hurt Blacks much more than whites: 25 percent of African-Americans who purchased or refinanced homes from 2004 to 2008 have lost or are losing them, compared to 11.9 percent of white Americans. According to Sugrue, “the median black family today holds only $4,955 in assets.”
This is what happens when you violate Reynolds’ Law.
FLU NEWS: 1 in 5 infected in H1N1 pandemic. “At least one in five people in countries for which data are available were infected with influenza during the first year of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, according to a new study.”
MORE ON WHAT I THINK IS A BIG DEAL: IBM’s Warmth-Activated Gel Can Break Up Tough Bacterial Biofilms And Kill Superbugs. And it is not vulnerable to evolved resistance. Like I said before: faster, please.
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LOOKING FOR WAR ON TERROR NEWS? Visit Fred Pruitt’s Rantburg.
ARE DRIVERLESS CARS REALLY IN OUR NEAR FUTURE? “The technology is great. The legal environment, maybe not so much.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: My master’s wasn’t worth it. Profiles of students who bought educations that aren’t paying for themselves.
WHY THIS IS THE WORST RECOVERY EVER: Because we have the biggest government ever.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Not Getting What You Paid For:
Everyone knows there’s a reason the most expensive colleges in the country — generally private residential institutions — charge so much. The money they spend on hiring the best faculty members (full-timers of course) and on keeping student-faculty ratios low results in a higher-quality education. Right?
The crowd gathered here for a standing-room-only session at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities certainly wanted to believe. From a show of hands at the start of the session, the vast majority of attendees were administrators at those institutions. And the researchers who presented new data on the economics of liberal arts education threw cold water all over that conventional wisdom.
Research presented here by researchers from Wabash College — and based on national data sets — finds that there may be a minimal relationship between what colleges spend on education and the quality of the education students receive. Further, the research suggests that colleges that spend a fraction of what others do, and operate with much higher student-faculty ratios and greater use of part-time faculty members, may be succeeding educationally as well as their better-financed (and more prestigious) counterparts.
I do not find this surprising at all.
SAXBY CHAMBLISS OUT: Mediaite and Morning Joe Hardest Hit.
WHY WE’RE NOT SMARTER: Big brains vs. strong immunity: Genes hint at evolutionary tug of war. Plus, the value of miscegenation:
The genetic record indicates that the human species passed through a series of “bottlenecks” in prehistoric times that reduced population diversity to perilously low levels. That’s where interbreeding with Neanderthals could have played a part. “One way that modern humans replenished the genetic diversity lost in populations was through the selection of new variants … another, and possibly more effective, mechanism was to acquire old variants by mating with archaic humans,” Parham and Moffett write.
What’s Cro-Magnon for “Hey, baby, let’s replenish some genetic diversity?”
GOOGLE’S PRIVATE CELL NETWORK: “Filings made with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission reveal that Google wants to start operating its own, very small cell phone network on its Mountain View campus. It’s the latest in a series of hints in recent years that Google is unsatisfied with the way that mobile networks control the mobile Internet.”
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Don’t We Have Teleportation Yet? I’d settle for flying cars. But they need to be real flying cars with antigravity or reactionless thrusters, not ducted-fan kludges.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Delete Yourself From The Internet.
MORE PRAISE FOR HELEN’S PAGE: Reader Danielle Ivey writes: “Helen’s Page is good. I’m seeing stories there that I don’t see anywhere else with great information. I suspect the comments will pick up as more people discover it.”
DAVE HARDY DECONSTRUCTS a widely-circulated email about the Dick Act. More from Dave Kopel.
2014 RACES WHERE GUN CONTROL MATTERS:
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., the politics of gun control turned upside down — or so the proponents of increased firearms regulations would like to believe. The reality, however, is the issue appears likely to affect only a handful of congressional contests this cycle. . . .
The argument can be made that all of the senators in tough 2014 races — Mary L. Landrieu, Mark Pryor, Tim Johnson and Kay Hagan among them — are in states that are typically pro-gun-rights. But Democrats are operating under the logic that Senate candidates have an easier time setting themselves apart from national figures such as Obama and the gun issue won’t be catastrophic.
Hmm. From “winning issue for Democrats” to “won’t be catastrophic.” That’s change you can believe in.
UPDATE: Chicago anti-gun panelist compares crowd reciting Pledge of Allegiance to Nazis’ beer hall conduct.
POINTS AND FIGURES: Fake It Till You Can’t Fake It Anymore.
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: U.K. Referendum Call Rattles Europe’s Gilded Cage.
PAYCHECK POLITICS COULD BE HERE TO STAY: “Longtime Rep. Dan Lungren lost re-election last year in part because of redistricting that favored Democrats. But the California Republican said it didn’t help that his Democratic challenger, current Rep. Ami Bera, campaigned on the promise to support a bill known as ‘no budget, no pay’ while a deluge of TV ads charged Lungren with blocking the very same measure.”
AARON SWARTZ UPDATE: Hackers take over sentencing commission website. “The hackers say they’ve infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public.”
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OVERCRIMINALIZATION: Web of environmental rules threatens Gulf Coast businesses with jail, steep fines.
I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER GODDAMN THING ABOUT MY CARBON FOOTPRINT. “Clearly he’s concerned about the planet. Meanwhile, his mansion uses enough energy to power a small country.” Great plot for a novel: Underground group targets mansions, private jets of global-warming hypocrites for destruction; no one can figure which side of climate debate they’re on.
LOOKING BACK ON HILLARY’S CAREER AS SECRETARY OF STATE: NOT VERY IMPRESSIVE, REALLY. “American foreign policy under Secretary Clinton has been one disaster after another. She may not deserve blame for all of them — or even most of them — but it defies common sense to call her tenure a success.” Read the whole thing.
UPDATE: Reader Dennis Mulcare writes: “When the mass media measures Hilary’s career as Secretary of State in miles traveled, 1,000,000, and the number of countries visited, 120, then you have a major confusion between mere activity and actual accomplishments. Now there is a difference for you.”
A BINDER FULL OF SPEECHES: Jon Favreau takes credit for Obama’s inaugural speech.
BRIAN HUGHES: Plummeting Union Membership A Bad Omen For Obama.
UPDATE: Reader Richard Rusk emails: “Union membership may be down but journalists and actors are still unionized: The Newspaper Guild, Screen Actors Guild.” Yeah, we’ve seen a real conflict-of-interest problem in press coverage of union disputes.
THE GENTRY ALWAYS ENJOYED THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS IN WAYS THE COMMON PEOPLE DID NOT: Feinstein Gun Control Bill to Exempt Government Officials. Say, is this a Titles Of Nobility Clause violation?
WELL, NOT DOING YOUR JOB IS SUPPOSED TO HURT: Senators not in ‘millionaires’ club’ would be hurt by lost paychecks.
The Senate is often called the “millionaires’ club,” but some of its members would feel the pain if a blown budget deadline costs them their paychecks.
Provisions in the “No Budget, No Pay” debt ceiling bill that is headed to the Senate floor would impound senators’ salaries if the upper chamber doesn’t approve a budget by April 15.
For most of the upper chamber, the loss of the $174,000 annual salary would be no hardship. Many senators are millionaires many times over, having earned substantial fortunes outside of politics.
But for a small group of senators whose net worth is measured in thousands instead of millions, the passage of “No Budget, No Pay” would put their very livelihoods at risk.
“We’re not all millionaires,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) told The Hill. “When I splurge, it’s on a Ravens t-shirt.”
To be fair, they charge extra for XXXL.
DAVID SOLWAY: Understanding The Educational Mess We’re In. “We have reached a point where the past has more to teach us than the present.”
IRAN: A Kiss, And An Embrace.
GOING AFTER THE RATING AGENCIES?
Shades of Argentina.
MICHAEL WALSH: A 57-State Doolittle Strategy.
DAVID MAMET: Gun Laws and the Fools of Chelm. “The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so.”
IMPORTANT SENATE DEMOCRATS wavering on gun control. “The popularity of guns like the AR-15 has exploded in the last decade, with millions of Americans using ARs for hunting, target shooting, competition, and home defense. The AR-15, a relatively uncommon rifle when I was growing up, has become mainstream among shooters. When Diane Feinstein talks about banning ARs she is threatening the rights of millions of people, not just a few social outcasts and hillbillies like myself. . . . The power of the gun rights movement has grown since the 1990s because gun culture has been spreading far and wide among people who defy the stereotype of what a gun rights supporter is supposed to be. Just as an anecdote, when I go to the NRA Headquarters Range in Fairfax I see blacks, whites, and Asians all shooting together—not just overweight white guys in John Deere hats. The culture of shooting, including its accompanying political and social mantras, has infiltrated new communities.”
AARON SWARTZ UPDATE: Protesters In Guy Fawkes Masks Target U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.
OOPS: Obama Off To A Slow Start In Capitol Hill Gun Campaign. “The campaign emails its massive list demanding calls to Congress. Bad timing — and nobody seems to have noticed.” Obama’s fans aren’t going to be motivated. Gun control is a movement of old white people.
ACE: We Must Do Something About The Media. “It’s important.” So go full Alinsky. Buy stock and show up at shareholder meetings. Protest at executives’ homes, like ACORN did for bankers. Hound correspondents and anchors by name for unfair coverage. That’s how you do it.
STEVEN HAYWARD: We’re Kicking Some Fracking Butt Here:
Not sure whether we have added to the chorus about the new documentary Fracknation that debuted this week, from the dynamic Irish film duo Philem McAleer and Ann McElhinney and co-director Magdalena Segieda. (We did have a brief squib featuring McElhinney in my highlight reel from CPAC last February.) It’s the perfect antidote to Matt Damon’s Promised Land, which, shall we say, isn’t exactly setting the box office on fire like gas-infused tap water.
Meanwhile, sit down for this: at the current Sundance Film Festival–Robert Redford’s baby–there is debuting a new documentary about environmentalists who have changed their mind and are now pro-nuclear power. Does Redford, who signs direct-mail letters for the anti-nuke NRDC, know about this? The film is called Pandora’s Promise.
If you’re seriously worried about global warming, it’s hard not to be pro-nuclear power.
WHY THE BRITISH EMPIRE WAS SO EFFICIENT: Bad communications inhibited micromanagement.
BRYAN PRESTON: Hey, Look at How the Obama Machine Crushed the Romney Campaign. “The GOP had better not only pore over every detail of this at the national and state levels, they must build something better for 2014 and beyond. The Romney campaign’s ORCA project was supposed to be the GOP’s technological answer, but it was a total failure. Last night, Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed the GOP to stop being the ‘stupid party.’ They not only have to stop being stupid, they have to become very, very smart.”
The GOP has some learning to do.
SEN. RON JOHNSON: “We know what happened in Benghazi now… but what we don’t know is why we were misled.”
Plus: “Johnson’s question to her and then to Kerry related to the point in time when the people in the Obama administration decided to mislead the public by actively pushing a phony story about the ‘Innocence of Muslim’” video. That was a strange thing to do, and both Clinton and Kerry have doggedly distracted us by pretending the question is why the attack occurred.”
But Mr. Nakoula is still in jail.
PUBLIC PENSION UPDATE: Florida Legislators considering pension system overhaul. “A panel of Florida lawmakers is considering a drastic overhaul to the state’s pension system that would include eliminating the state’s current pension system and shifting new employees to a 401(k)-style plan. The move comes just a week after the state Supreme Court upheld a 2011 law that required public employees to contribute 3 percent of their pay to their retirement plans. Previously, the state fully funded the Florida Retirement System, long considered a perk for state employees with low salaries.”
HEH: Gingrich to Piers Morgan: Let’s hold gun-control hearings in Chicago. “Why is it that the people who are for gun control don’t want to go to Chicago to find out why gun control has failed so much?”
DUH. THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT NIXON WAS A REPUBLICAN. John Kerry Tries to Distinguish Obama’s Bombing of Libya from Richard Nixon’s Bombing of Cambodia. Also, shut up.
VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D Levels Predict Outcomes In Coronary Bypass Surgery. “Low vitamin D levels before coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery predicted worse outcomes after 3 months, results of a retrospective study showed. Patients with vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, defined by levels of 25(OH)D, had significantly higher 90-day mortality after CABG than those who had sufficient levels of the vitamin (OR 5.24 and OR 4.61, respectively), Takuhiro Moromizato, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues reported during an oral session at the Society of Critical Care Medicine meeting.”
A BAD WEEK FOR MASSACHUSETTS U.S. ATTORNEY CARMEN ORTIZ. First the Aaron Swartz debacle, now this: Triumphant motel owner slams Carmen Ortiz.
A Tewksbury motel owner who just beat back U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s three-year bid to seize his business has become the latest critic to accuse the Hub’s top fed of prosecutorial bullying.
“I don’t think she should have the power she has to pull this stuff on people,” Russ Caswell, owner of the Motel Caswell, told the Herald last night after a judge’s ruling in his favor.
The feds first tried to grab Caswell’s property in 2009 under drug seizure laws, citing numerous drug busts at the motel. Caswell’s defense team argued that he was not responsible for what guests did. And his lawyers found there was actually more drug activity at nearby businesses, and theorized the government was going after Caswell, who has no criminal record, because his mortgage-free property is worth more than $1 million.
“It’s bullying by the government. And it’s a huge waste of taxpayer money,” said Caswell, whose father built the motel in 1955. “This has been a huge financial and physical toll. It’s thrown our whole family into turmoil. You work for all your life to pay for something and these people come along and think it’s theirs. It’s just wrong. The average person can’t afford to fight this.”
In a written decision after a November trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Gail Dein dismissed the government’s forfeiture action, ruling yesterday that Caswell, “who was trying to eke out an income from a business located in a drug-infested area that posed great risks to the safety of him and his family,” took all reasonable steps to prevent crime.
“The Government’s resolution of the crime problem should not be to simply take his Property,” Dein said in her decision.
The innkeeper’s complaint follows the suicide of hacker Aaron Swartz, who faced up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Swartz’s family, lawyers and legal commentators have called for Ortiz’s ouster and new guidelines for federal attorneys, saying the Swartz case was a prosecutorial abuse.
It’s hard to imagine Ortiz moving to higher office that would require some sort of Senate confirmation after this. At least, the hearings would be ugly.
PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Egyptian protesters torch Muslim Brotherhood HQ in Ismailia. But if you really want to succeed, you need to make people afraid to identify with the Muslim Brotherhood.
CHINA’S SHALE GAS DREAM. “Given the limited extraction capability of Chinese firms, this will exacerbate the already immense challenges China faces in extracting the natural gas and bringing it to market.”
