News of the Week
"Hide the Decline" *************** California panel reaffirms carbon trading program Death Penalty upheld for state's economy *************** Space Aliens Are Probably Progressive Liberals By Daniel Foster By now you’ve probably read about the paper — authored by a NASA-affiliated scientist along with two scholars from Penn “Hockey Stick Graph” University — laying out various scenarios that might play out in the aftermath of first contact with an alien intelligence. The paper, published in Acta Astronautica, hilariously suggests that an otherwise benevolent alien race might nevertheless destroy us in a “preemptive” strike designed to stop us from global-warming our way to galactic dominion. You read that right. (Shall we call this manner of preemptive strike the Gore Doctrine?) War & Terror *************** Pentagon report: China closer to matching modern militaries By Bill Gertz The Washington Times China's military buildup has made impressive gains that pushed the Communist Party-controlled People’s Liberation Army closer to matching modern militaries, according to the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress made public Wednesday. National *************** Indiana College Bans "Too Violent" National Anthem First it banned the words, now the whole song *************** Inner-city Catholic school doors super glued before Gov. Walker visit Friday By Jay Sorgi and Jon Byman MILWAUKEE - Someone has vandalized a school in Milwaukee ahead of a visit from Governor Walker and threats of protests over the Governor's visit. Someone super glued the front door to Messmer Preparatory School on Milwaukee's north side before the Governor's visit. *************** Second-largest U.S. Indian tribe expels slave descendants By Steve Olafson OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners. *************** DOJ Raids Gibson Guitars looking for Illegal Wood *************** CEO of Gibson Guitars' Main Competitor is a Huge Democrat Donor; Also Uses Same Wood Without Any Complaints From Feds Earlier this week the federal government executed its second major raid of Gibson Guitars in just two years. Armed agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stopped production at the company's manufacturing facilities on Wednesday, confiscating "massive quantities of wood, unfinished guitars, and finished products". *************** Obama Creates Office Of Diversity, Inclusion The economy remains in shambles yet President Obama keeps wasting taxpayer dollars expanding an already bloated U.S. government, this month launching a new office to help build a “diverse and inclusive workforce” at all federal agencies. *************** The end of an era for UW T.A.s. Last week, after hours of debate, the union’s members voted not to seek state certification to continue to act as a collective bargaining agent. *************** FCC finally kills off fairness doctrine By BROOKS BOLIEK The FCC gave the coup de grace to the fairness doctrine Monday as the commission axed more than 80 media industry rules. *************** Wall Street executives turn back on Obama, start donating to Romney By Jake Interrante and Bob Cusack Dozens of Wall Street executives who supported President Obama in 2008 have donated to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign this year. *************** Warren’s criticism of Wall Street poses fundraising dilemma By Michael O’Brien Elizabeth Warren’s combative history with Wall Street could create a fundraising dilemma for her burgeoning Senate campaign. *************** Allen West not running for Senate By Cameron Joseph Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) definitively will not run for the Senate, he announced Monday afternoon in a press release. *************** A Wireless Communications System That Works When Cell Phones, Internet Are Down BY Ariel SchwartzThu LifeNet lets computers and phones talk to each other without an Internet connection, which could come in handy after disasters that knock out communication networks. *************** PETA to launch porn site *************** Fareed Zakaria: Having A Presidential System Led To America’s Credit Downgrade Fareed Zakaria is getting sick and tired of all this partisanship in American politics, but unlike many political commentators, he has refused to blame one side or another. Instead, on his program this morning, Zakaria claimed the system was broken– not that it was too bureaucratic and cumbersome, but that having separation of powers in our government has made it so difficult to pass legislation that it may have directly caused the S&P credit downgrade. *************** Rep. Allen West weighs Senate run By POLITICO STAFF Rep. Allen West (R-Florida) is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. “If people want to talk to me about something like that it would be very disrespectful and rude for me to slam the door in their face,” West said on Monday night at a sold-out Palm Beach County tea party meeting, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. *************** Ohio Business Owner Shot For Being Non-Union, Police Investigating Posted by LaborUnionReport This is a developing story as police are still investigating the shooting of a non-union business owner, John King, by what appears to be a union assailant. *************** Teen Arrested For Stabbing At Erie Lanes Bowling Alley The “Teen Night” event at the bowling alley, where Mayor Michael Nutter bowled with teenagers in an effort to stop the violence, had just ended when several hundred teenagers were released in groups before heading home *************** NBC News Caught Red Handed ‘Selectively Editing’ & ‘ Doctoring’ Video to Smear Gov Perry as Racist Economy
& Taxes *************** California board looking at new ways to collect unpaid tax State wants to sift through shipping records and marketing data to determine which residents have probably purchased goods out of state *************** Jerry Brown to propose new corporate tax package By Kevin Yamamura and Torey Van Oot, Sacramento Bee Gov. Jerry Brown will ask lawmakers today to tighten a corporate tax formula in exchange for giving manufacturers a sales tax exemption and offering enhanced job tax credits, according to legislative sources. *************** Greenspan: "The Euro Is Breaking Down" Simone Foxman Some dramatic comments from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. *************** Brea's big pension burden By ocregister Brea, one of the smallest cities in Orange County, bears one of the heaviest pension burdens per capita, at $2,963 for every man, woman and child. That's $500 more per person than Anaheim, the county's largest city. *************** California Admits to Almost $1 Trillion in Unfunded Pension Obligations by Chriss W. Street The three largest California public retiree plans (CalPERS, CalSTRS, and UCRS) that administer pensions of approximately 2.6 million State and Local public current and retired employees have been under tremendous scrutiny since last year’s release of the Stanford University Institute for Public Policy report: “Going For Broke”. The study concluded that California retirement plans liability was under-funded by over $500 billion. *************** Long-Term Outlook for China, Europe, and the World; 12 Global Predictions The overall outlook is not pretty, and includes a breakup of the Eurozone, a major slowdown for China, and a smack-down of the much beloved BRICs. *************** Why Amazon Can't Make A Kindle In the USA *************** The Recession of 2011? The data this week was just ugly. Even the uptick in the leading economic indicators, seized upon by so many talking heads, must have a large asterisk beside it. *************** When an American Company Redomiciles to the Cayman Islands, What Lesson Should We Learn? by Dan Mitchell Another American company has decided to expatriate for tax reasons. This process has been going on for decades, with companies giving up their U.S. charters (a form of business citizenship) and redomiciling in low-tax jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Ireland, Switzerland, Panama, Hong Kong, and the Cayman Islands. *************** The United States of Entitlements by Bruce Thornton (Research Fellow and W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo The 2012 presidential election will be a referendum on democracy. *************** Fiscal Chart of the Day: Heritage Shows That Unprecedented Spending, Not Taxation, Is Our Real Problem Posted by Matthew Knee Monday, President Obama issued yet another call for a “balanced” approach to our budget crisis, which is of course Obamaspeak for tax increases combined with small or phantom cuts in spending (with the possible exception of very real cuts in defense). *************** California’s ‘Amazon Tax’ Already Proving a Bust by Capitol Confidential California recently instituted as part of its budget solution an “Amazon Tax” aimed at forcing out-of-state, online retailers with no physical presence in the Golden State to collect and remit sales tax in respect of goods sold to Californians where the retailer in question advertises, or maintains an “affiliate” referral relationship, with websites based within state lines. *************** International *************** Chile's Un-Reagan Leadership: A big protest in Latin America normally doesn't merit the time of day. But when the target is free markets — and it happens in Chile, one of the few nations that has them — then there's a leadership problem. *************** London vs. Olympic Shooting The city’s mayor decides that children shouldn’t watch the sport. *************** China Reveals Solar Sail Plan To Prevent Apophis Hitting Earth in 2036 A small shove could prevent a global catastrophe, according to Chinese plans *************** Opinion *************** *************** Obamanonics vs. Reaganomics One program for recovery worked, and the other hasn't. *************** Expect the ‘Unexpectedly’ In the Obama years, bad news has always surprised the media. *************** Anarchists for Big Government Posted by David Boaz Three months ago I wrote a long, thoughtful (ahem) critique of the Washington Post’s use of the word “anarchists” to describe people outraged at the possibility that governments might finally be forced “to cut social benefits and slash public payrolls.” *************** Can Van Jones Create a ‘Left-Wing Tea Party’? Don’t Bet on It by Ron Radosh You remember Obama’s departed Green czar, the once self-proclaimed revolutionary Communist Van Jones? Well, the man is back. According to Michelle Goldberg, writing in The Daily Beast, on July 23 Jones threw a Washington, D.C., party to announce the creation of what he predicts will be the left-wing’s Tea Party, which he calls the “American Dream Movement.” *************** |
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