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Archive for February, 2011
February 28, 2011
MORE EARTHQUAKES VIBRATE ARKANSAS. Uncomfortably close to the New Madrid. . . .
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Blue State Dems Turn on State, Local Workers.
Despite the differences in rhetoric, killing public sector unions is a nonpartisan policy in the United States. While Republicans are more explicit about their goal, and want to move faster, Democrats and Republicans are both taking steps that will soon reduce the public sector union movement to a shadow of its current self.
Look at Rahm Emanuel, newly elected mayor of Chicago. Chicago is a dark blue city in a deep blue state; Emanuel is a career Democratic pol who served as chief of staff to the most liberal American president elected in many years. And what is Emmanuel doing? The mayor-elect was cagey on the subject during the campaign, but massive tax increases are off the table, and so are big bailouts from Washington DC. According to Time magazine, the campaign has spoken cryptically about saving $110 million from reducing “outdated and duplicative work processes to focus on front-line service delivery.” Translate that out of bureaucratic Newspeak and it means getting more work done with fewer people: layoffs. Emanuel says that the city’s generous pensions need to be preserved, but may also have to be, ahem, renegotiated. This does not sound like a renegotiation up. . . .
Look at New York, the classically blue state where I live, home to liberal lions like Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Fiorello LaGuardia and Mario Cuomo. Here our new governor Andrew Cuomo is seeking major concessions and threatening layoffs against the public sector unions, vowing to balance the state’s budget with spending cuts. Cuomo has also promised — read his lips? — not to raise taxes, and has introduced what the New York Times editorial page calls a “radical” bill to cap property tax increases and require a super-majority to raise them by more than 2 percent a year. Up to 9,800 state employees face layoffs under his new budget: that is more than six times more people than Wisconsin governor Walker has threatened to lay off if his union bill isn’t passed. . . . The public sector labor movement has reached a historical dead end. Cities and states that yield to labor demands have higher costs, higher taxes and higher debt than places that don’t. Over time, those states stand to lose revenue, jobs and population to cheaper and more efficient jurisdictions. If the governor of Vermont can see New Hampshire from his house, the governor of Illinois can see Wisconsin and Indiana.
Read the whole thing. I think the unions picked Wisconsin for their stand in part because that way they wouldn’t have to go after a well-connected Democratic governor.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Just ran across this pithy summary: If you had to sum up the education bubble in one misconception, it might be: “The average 22-year-old is a good credit risk for $150,000 in debt, collateralized by something completely intangible.”
IN LOUISIANA, weakening tenure rights.
CLAIRE BERLINSKI is just asking questions.
THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:
Looking for American leadership.
Been a long time since I rock and rolled.
If you liked the radio-controlled helicopters, here are some recommendations for taking it to the next level.
A bigtime PorkBusters “I told you so.” Because, you know, I did.
Why I should buy a Porsche. It’s for Gaia!
The Koch Brothers’ Right-Wing Conspiracy to Undermine the PATRIOT Act.
The importance of defensive recording. More on that here.
Meade is the “New Media.” Plus, calls for an Althouse blog-Pulitzer. Er, if there were such a thing.
A retrospective as the Tea Party Movement turns two years old.
Alexis Garcia interviews Ron Paul.
Reporting from the front lines of China’s Jasmine Revolution.
ED DRISCOLL: A WORLD WITHOUT AMERICA.
TODAY ONLY: A GPS SALE.
BOEHNER RIPS BID to regulate Internet. “In a speech to religious broadcasters that received a sustained ovation at his conclusion, he said free expression is under attack by a power structure in Washington populated with regulators who have never set foot inside a radio station or a television studio.”
MORE OF THAT “NEW CIVILITY:” Fox News Reporter Assaulted By Wisconsin Protesters. “Funny, I don’t remember the tea party folks assaulting any reporters. Not even when it was the MSNBC folks who were there for the express purpose of baIting bad behavior out of the crowd for the purposes of recording it and using it to denounce the movement.”
As you sow, so shall you reap.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: How a $5.7 billion program to rebuild L.A. community colleges went astray.
NANCY RAPOPORT: A Tale Of Two Abuses.
IS THERE ENOUGH FOOD? That depends. “Allowing for all the food that could be eaten but is turned into biofuels, and the staggering amounts wasted on the way, farmers are already producing much more than is required—more than twice the minimum nutritional needs by some measures. . . . But the food is not where it needs to be, and biofuel policy is hard to shift (see article). Pushing up supplies may be easier than solving the distribution problems.” Shifting biofuel policy should be part of the low-hanging fruit. But bureaucrats would rather kill people than their own pet projects.
NEW YORK TEACHERS’ UNION calls on members to “agitate.”
February 27, 2011
ANN ALTHOUSE: Who invited Peter Yarrow to the Wisconsin protests? And why was he the only entertainer on the bill? Plus, some political-media history.
I CAN’T BELIEVE TEDDY rented the whole thing.
FRANK BUCKLES, THE LAST LIVING U.S. WORLD WAR ONE VETERAN, has died.
DEAD TALIBAN IN CHORA. Be sure to click through and view the panoramic photo.
RON RADOSH: Blaming Israel, Ignoring Radical Islam at J Street’s National Conference. Yeah, yeah, I know: Dog bites man. But somebody’s got to point it out now and then.