19 September 2009

19 September 2009

Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

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Weekend Links [Cato at Liberty]

Cheye Calvo Reflects on SWAT Shooting [Cato at Liberty]

SEP 18, 2009 04:37P.M.

SEP 18, 2009 03:16P.M.

• Nat Hentoff has a few tough questions for doctors who aided CIA torture.

Cheye Calvo is the DC-area small-town mayor who had his two pet dogs shot and killed by a botched drug raid about a year ago. In an article to be published in this Sunday’s Washington Post, Calvo reflects upon his experience — not just the raid itself, but on the actions of the police department afterward. Excerpt:

• Is public option a private insurer killer? Larry McNeely and Michael Cannon debate. • “Cap-and-Trade Is Dead. Long Live Cap-and-Trade!”

I remain captured by the broader implications of the incident. Namely, that my initial take was wrong: It was no accident but rather business as usual that brought the police to — and through — our front door.

• Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession is probably over. But was he the man who saved the economy? • Podcast: Should the government have the power to punish you for speaking your mind? Many Americans think it should…so long as

In the words of Prince George’s County Sheriff Michael Jackson, whose deputies carried out the assault, “the guys did what they were supposed to do” — acknowledging, almost as an afterthought, that terrorizing innocent citizens in Prince George’s [County] is standard fare. The only difference this time seems to be that the victim was a clean-cut white mayor with community support, resources, and a story to tell the media.

it’s people with whom they don’t agree.

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More Data Analysis Demonstrates #StimulusFail [Americans for Tax Reform]

What confounds me is the unmitigated refusal of county leaders to challenge law enforcement and to demand better — as if civil rights are somehow rendered secondary by the war on drugs.

SEP 18, 2009 03:38P.M. Mr. Calvo has been a super advocate for reform — he has given up countless hours of his spare time to study and speak on this subject so that fewer people will be victimized the same way his family was. He spoke at a Cato Hill Briefing over the summer.

At times I think ATR needs to set up a seperate website just to keep track of all the articles proving without doubt how President Obama’s so-called “stimulus” plan totally, utterly, an...

Calvo told his story at Cato last year. For related Cato research, go here and here.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

19 September 2009

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Liberal Group Wins Big First Amendment Victory [The Club for Growth]

Poll: 56% Now Oppose ObamaCare [The Club for Growth]

SEP 18, 2009 03:16P.M.

SEP 18, 2009 03:13P.M.

This is ironic — Emily’s List, the abortion rights PAC that supports a lot of candidates who also oppose free speech won a huge victory in US Court of Appeals today. The FEC’s horrible regulations on soft money raised by 527s (written in response to McCain-Feingold) were scrapped by the court on First Amendment grounds. While this decision does not affect the Club in any way that I can see, it’s always a great day when a Court throws out a campaign regulation that infringes on our free speech rights. You can read the decision here. The opinion is so new, no one has analyzed what it all means yet. Update: Pro-speech regulation Prof. Rick Hasen just wrote his quick take on the opinion here. Excerpt: “In today’s Emily’s List decision of a D.C. Circuit panel, Judge Kavanaugh, for 2 of 3 judges on the case, enthusiastically follows the Supreme Court’s deregulatory lead in crafting an opinion that essentially will allow individuals (and, I predict, eventually corporations and unions) to make unlimited contributions to political committees to fund independent expenditure campaigns. (The main reason we’ve seen the rise of 527s is that political committees, by statute, cannot accept more than $5,000 from individuals (and nothing from corporations and unions) to fund their federal candidate advocacy. If this ruling stands, there won’t be much need for 527s anymore.).” I’m sorry, as much as I would want to see that happen, I didn’t see that in the decision. I’m going to go back and read it instead of skim it, but I would be shocked if the decision went that far because Emily’s List didn’t ask for any such thing. This is a classic case of a professor saying that issue advocacy on candidates = express advocacy on an election. I wish that were true, but it is not.

New Rasmussen poll out today that says “Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters nationwide now oppose the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the highest level of opposition yet measured and includes 44% who are Strongly Opposed. ” Let’s hope we can get the “strongly opposed” number past 50%.

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Wolf Blitzer Gets It [Cato at Liberty] SEP 18, 2009 03:08P.M. Why doesn’t David Axelrod get it? Let Americans purchase health insurance licensed by other states. From CNN…

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And to Think: Senators Once Worked For Legislatures [Cato at Liberty]

However, I think he is right about where this could all end up.

SEP 18, 2009 02:50P.M. S. 1536, the “ALERT Drivers” Act (”Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers” — get it?) would reduce federal highway funds available to states if they don’t pass laws prohibiting people from writing, sending, or reading text messages while driving. The circle is complete. Senators, who were once chosen by state legislatures, now believe it is their role to tell state legislatures what to do. Federal command over our lives, in ever more intricate detail. It’s the product of exalting democracy — in this case, direct election of senators — over liberty and over the governmental structure originally established in the constitution. Texting while driving is dangerous to your health and others’. Letting governments amass power is dangerous to your freedom, and ultimately

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

19 September 2009

• The nation would be forced to borrow more than $9 trillion over the next decade under President Obama’s policies, the White House acknowledged late Friday. • —Washington Post, Saturday, August 22

your health (this way, for example, and this way and this way).

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS • White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned late Saturday after weeks of pressure from the right over his past activism. “On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight Saturday. • —Washington Post, Sunday, September 6, 2009

Inside the Twisted Mind of a Government Tax Planner [Americans for Tax Reform] SEP 18, 2009 01:49P.M. Title 1, Subtitle D of the Senate Finance Committee’s Chairman’s Mark establishes “Shared Responsibility” requirements for individuals and

• The White House late Friday announced it would impose high tariffs on imports of Chinese tires in a case seen as the first test of trade policy under President Barack Obama… The announcement was made in a release sent out by the White House press office at about 9:30 p.m. Friday night, a time when news is sometimes “dumped” in the hope it will attract less attention. • —TheHill.com, 10:56 p.m., Friday, September 11, 2009

employers. For employers, this r...

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‘Cruel and neglectful’ care of one million NHS patients exposed [Americans for Tax Reform]

So what will it be tonight? A late-night tax increase? The resignation of another administration appointee who didn’t pay his own taxes? More troops for Iraq?

SEP 18, 2009 01:00P.M.

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Deeds: Are You Going to Raise Taxes or Not? [Americans for Tax Reform]

A devastating new report by the Patients Association in Britain has revealed one million patients have been “the victims of appalling care” in hospitals by the government-run National Health...

SEP 18, 2009 11:54A.M. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds is incomprehensive when is comes to raising taxes. He says he will not raise taxes - “general

It’s Friday — What Bad News Will Be Released Late Tonight? [Cato at Liberty— What Bad News Will Be Released Late Tonight?]

revenue” taxes that is. He is forced to ...

SEP 18, 2009 12:20P.M. President Obama promised to change the way things are done in Washington, but his administration has mastered one old Washington trick: releasing bad news late on Friday, or even on Saturday night of a long weekend, in the hope that journalists won’t have much chance to ask questions or get into the next day’s papers. Consider:

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

19 September 2009

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100 Victims of Government Health Care [The Club for Growth]

Indiana Voter ID Law Struck Down [Cato at Liberty]

SEP 18, 2009 11:35A.M.

Constitutional rules often comport with common sense. The Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure clause — so burdensome to law enforcement, some argue — requires officials to look for evidence of crime where they think they’ll find it and not elsewhere. Common sense.

SEP 18, 2009 10:41A.M.

When I was blogging in Andy’s absence, I noted some horrible stories about government-run health care. Turns out that National Center for Public Policy Research has published a whole book of them called Shattered Lives: 100 Victims of Government Health Care, available via a free download here. Every story has a footnote so you can look up the

So it is with an Indiana Court of Appeals ruling that the state’s voter ID law violates the equal protection clause of the state’s constitution. The law requires in-person voters to show ID, but makes no attempt to verify the identities of absentee voters. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law against a recent challenge, but the Indiana court struck it down based on a broader protection in the state constitution’s equal protection clause.

original article.

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Think what you will on the legal merits. (I generally appreciate courts breathing independent life into their state constitutions.) What is interesting here is that the result is imbued with constitutional common sense.

Tariffs on Tires are Terrible, but the Worst is yet to Come [Americans for Tax Reform]

Requiring ID at polling stations would have a marginal effect on vote fraud because it makes it harder to impersonate a voter or manufacture a vote-qualified identity. But the risk of in-person voter fraud is very low compared to absentee ballot fraud, which the Indiana law did not touch. The Indiana voter ID law was tantamount to caulking windows to keep out the cold but leaving the front door open. Because of the disproportionate effect on different classes of voters, the court struck it down.

SEP 18, 2009 11:26A.M. The Global Trade Alert sure has great timing. Less than a week ago, the Obama Administration announced a 35% tariff hike on tire imports from China. Apparently, the United States is not the ...

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Voter fraud will continue to be a hot issue, and states should continue to tune the balances they strike between voter access and vote integrity. My concern is that the issue might boil over and producing national ID

Friday’s Daily News [The Club for Growth]

proposals as we have seen in the past.

SEP 18, 2009 11:25A.M. THE DAILY NEWS What the Doctors Think - Larry Kudlow, Money Politics Congress Veers Left on Health Care - Kimberley Strassel, WSJ Grassley ‘Resents’ Obama Over Healthcare - Jeffrey Young, The Hill How Max Baucus Knifed the Medical Devices Industry - WSJ Editorial Why Chile Is More Economically Free Than the U.S. - José Pinera, Cato Tariff Pleases Big Labor But Will Cost Consumers - The Oklahoman Editorial Lost: 600,000 Jobs – IBD Editorial Obama Pumps Up Protectionism - OC Register Editorial Massachusetts Mulls Senator Dukakis - Michael Falcone, Politico The Originalist Perspective - David Forte, Heritage Foundation Cubs 4, Brewers 7 - Associated Press

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

19 September 2009

of H.R. 3288, The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010.

Good Health Care Analogy [The Club for Growth]

Senator Wyden (D-OR) requested $3.5 million for the facility where the rodeo is held. Senator Merkley (D-OR) requested a more modest $365,000.

SEP 18, 2009 10:25A.M. Here’s how economist Greg Mankiw describes the Baucus plan, which promises to cut health care costs if strictly applied with no legal changes made by the government over the next 10 years.

The report for the bill has the federal government sending $500,000 to the Pendleton Round-Up Foundation for “reconstruction and construction needs of facilities which are critical to the local economy.” That’s right: The folks in Pendleton, Oregon want you to send them a half-million bucks for their “critical-to-the-local-economy” rodeo ring.

Your friend Joe, who says he wants to lose weight, asks you for an extra slice of pie after dinner. Naturally, you are doubtful about the wisdom of the request.

The people in Pendleton probably love their rodeo, and they’re entitled to! But it’s an open question whether they should be entitled to use your

“Ahem, Joe,” you whisper, “Aren’t there a lot of calories in that?”

money in putting it on. For my part, I say horse hockey!

“Yes,” he says, “but the pie is part of a larger plan. I am committed not only to eating that slice of pie but also to going to the gym every day for the next week and spending at least half a hour on the treadmill. The exercise will more than work off those extra calories.” “But that’s what you said last week, when you asked for an extra piece of cake. And you never made it to the gym.” “Yes, I know,” Joe replies ruefully, “but this time I really mean it....Can you please pass the pie?” This is a great analogy. And, in truth, it can be applied to cost estimates for ALL government spending programs, not just those associated with health care.

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Earmark Horse Hockey [Cato at Liberty] SEP 18, 2009 08:29A.M. I’ve been poring over the earmark request data collected in WashingtonWatch.com’s big earmark hunting contest, and correlating it to the earmarks that made it into bills. It’s slow going, so far . . . But the excitement level sure builds when you take a look at what the money’s going to! Do you have your tickets to the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up rodeo yet? It’s going on right now! And you stand to contribute $500,000 to Pendleton Round-Up Foundation, which puts it on, thanks to an earmark in the Senate version

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