Einstein's Definition of Insanity: California

Gee, it's so surprising that stealing more and more money from the private sector -- to fund a bloated, unaccountable, massively top-heavy and unionized public sector -- would fail to close budget shortfalls.

Well, it's surprising if you're a Democrat, because they appear to be immune to facts, logic, reason and arithmetic.

Tax-hike austerity failing in California, just like Europe

I am having problems comprehending this Bloomberg headline: “Brown Tax Increase Gains Urgency as Deficit Rises to $16 Billion.” The story is even more puzzling:

California Governor Jerry Brown bet that a nascent financial recovery would lift the world’s ninth-largest economy enough to whittle down a $9.2 billion deficit. Instead, the gap has widened to $16 billion.

Today the 74-year-old Democrat will unveil his revised budget and explain what additional spending must be cut. Tax collections have run $3.5 billion below what he calculated four months ago. Spending has grown $2 billion above projections... The new deficit estimate increases the urgency of the governor’s plans to increase income taxes on some earners to the highest in the nation, and boost sales levies that are now more than any other state.

The plan would temporarily raise the statewide sales tax, already the highest in the U.S., to 7.5 percent from 7.25 percent. It would also boost rates on income starting at $250,000. Those making $1 million or more, now taxed at 10.3 percent, would pay 13.3 percent, the most of any state.

Wait, taxes are rising and revenues are falling. So obviously the solution is even more taxes? Who’s running the show over there, the IMF? So the state with highest sales tax in America would also have the highest income tax in America?

As it is, California ranks 48th in the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index. The California Dream has become the Golden State Nightmare.

As I predicted in 2011, Governor Moonbeam will soon be a thrice-failed state executive.

For unless Jerry Brown discovers a flock of gold-nugget-crapping unicorns, his strategy of crushing society's most productive citizens will simply drive them out of the state.

Which is why I published the "California-to-Texas Translation Guide a while back.

L.A. residents stunned to find out that solvency and 11% wage hikes for public unions may be mutually exclusive

I just want a Democrat to point me to one state, one municipality, one anything where their infernal policies of high regulation, high taxation, oppressive government and mirage-like Utopianism actually work.

But I won't hold my breath.

Offering a dire warning about potential bankruptcy, Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said Friday the city will need to raise taxes, clamp down on employee pay and consider layoffs in order to keep solvent...

...The report comes two weeks before Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - who recently also warned of possible salary freezes and layoffs - releases his budget for the coming year...

..."The rise in the city's labor costs has not been as a result of increased employment levels, but rather increases in what the city spends on health care for employees, workers' compensation, employee compensation and retirement benefits," Santana said.

There is an agreement to provide cost-of-living adjustments of 11 percent for the next two years and 11.75 percent for deputy city attorneys.

"It is not sustainable without further reductions to the workforce and essential public services," Santana said. "In addition, these increases create substantial compensation inequity within the workforce. This will result in significant pressure from other unions."

But, whatever you do, don't outlaw public sector unions, or raise the retirement age, or require reasonable contributions to pension and health benefits, or actually pay workers market wages.

Heavens, no.

These are Democrats we're talking about. And Democrats are big government. They are public sector unions. And, together, they're dedicated to extracting every last cent from you, the taxpayer.

Global Warming Comics -- The Fraudulent And The Immoral

One of the great warriors against the United Nations' Global Warming Scam is Christopher Lord Monckton. Lord Monckton is touring the United States giving presentations to a variety of interested parties.

On Wednesday, he presented to the California State Assembly to describe the extent of the climate fraud and its sheer immorality, representing nothing less than a war against the world's poorest people.

The following text is Monckton's, which I've left outside of the normal "block quote" in order to format the presentation.

---

Two-thirds of the warming predicted by the IPCC’s (non-peer-reviewed) models is supposed to arise from temperature feedbacks. None of these feedbacks can be measured. There is no consensus about how big they are. There are powerful scientific reasons to suspect the IPCC has very greatly overstated them...

The principal conclusions of each of the four IPCC Assessment Reports are questionable:

2007: The IPCC twice concludes that the rate of warming is speeding up and we are to blame. But it uses a false statistical technique to reach its conclusion.
2001: The IPCC concludes that today’s temperatures are warmer than in 1300 years. How it reached this conclusion is under criminal investigation.
1995: The scientists had concluded that no discernible human effect on climate could be found. Just one man rewrote the report to say the opposite.
1990: The IPCC predicted rapid warming. A generation has passed and the predicted warming has not happened...

...This and many other [of the IPCC's] predictions are overblown:

• Global temperature is rising more slowly than IPCC’s least estimate;
• Sea level has been rising for eight years at just 1.3 inches/century;
• Ocean heat content has barely risen in 6 years;
• Hurricanes and tropical cyclones are quieter than for 30 years;
• Global sea-ice extent has changed little in 30 years;
• Methane concentration is up just 20 parts per billion since 2000;
• The tropical hot-spot the IPCC predicts as our footprint is absent;
• Outgoing radiation is escaping to space much as usual.

California’s carbon tax, with other statewide measures to curb CO2 emissions, will cost $450 billion by 2020. Even if 25% of California’s emissions are abated by 2020, just 0.4% of global emissions will have been abated; CO2 concentration by 2020, instead of the business-as-usual 413 parts per million by volume the IPCC predicts, will be 412.9 ppmv; just one-thousandth of a Fahrenheit degree of warming will be abated; the cost of abating the 0.3 F° warming the IPCC predicts to 2020 by measures as cost-(in)effective as California’s policies would be $180 trillion, or $25,500 per head of global population, or a third of global GDP over the period; and the cost of preventing the 6 F° warming the IPCC predicts by 2100 would be $2700 trillion, or more than 10 times the maximum 3%-of-GDP cost of climate-related damage arising from not mitigating this predicted 21st-century warming at all.

Environmental over-regulation, cap-and-tax, “renewable”-energy mandates, and a 40-year ban on most offshore drilling are crippling California. The Monterey Shale holds 15 billion barrels of oil, yet over-regulation has cut production by more than a third to just 200 million barrels a year. Now 11% are jobless in California, second only to Nevada in the US (50% are jobless in construction); the 2012/13 State deficit is $6 billion; unfunded pension liabilities are $250 billion; 50,000 rich Californians (one-third of them) fled in 2007-2009, taking their businesses and jobs with them: twice as many firms fled the once-Golden State in 2011 as in 2010; Intel says it will never build another plant here; Globalstar, Trizetto, and eEye fled in just one month; Boeing, Toyota, Apple, Facebook, and DirecTV have all fled. The wagons are heading East.

The bottom line: No policy to abate global warming by taxing, trading, regulating, reducing, or replacing greenhouse-gas emissions will prove cost-effective solely on grounds of the welfare benefit from climate mitigation. CO2 mitigation strategies that are inexpensive enough to be affordable will be ineffective; strategies costly enough to be effective will be unaffordable. Focused adaptation to any adverse consequences of any warming that may occur is many times more cost-effective. Since the premium greatly exceeds the cost of the risk, don’t insure. Every red cent spent now on trying to stop global warming is a red cent wasted. Don’t mitigate: sit back, enjoy the sunshine, and adapt only if and when and to the extent necessary. That, however unfashionable, is the economically prudent and scientifically sensible course.

USA Today: Electricity Prices Necessarily Skyrocket

Remember how, in May of 2009, the president said that, "under my plan... electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket"?

Well, I'm sure the "middle class" -- whoever that is -- appreciates the one campaign promise that Barack Obama kept.

Electric bills have skyrocketed in the last five years, a sharp reversal from a quarter-century when Americans enjoyed stable power bills even as they used more electricity...

...Households paid a record $1,419 on average for electricity in 2010, the fifth consecutive yearly increase above the inflation rate, a USA TODAY analysis of government data found. The jump has added about $300 a year to what households pay for electricity. That's the largest sustained increase since a run-up in electricity prices during the 1970s...

...Electricty [sic] is consuming a greater share of Americans' after-tax income than at any time since 1996 — about $1.50 of every $100 in income at a time when income growth has stagnated, a USA TODAY analysis of Bureau of Economic Analysis data found...

...High taxes, limits on air-polluting fuels and the expense of maintaining an underground transmission system keep consumer costs high, says ConEd spokesman Chris Olert.

But then again, maybe USA Today is some kind of propaganda arm for the right wing Visigoths.

Or perhaps the EPA is just an out-of-control, unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy bent on de-industrializing America in pursuit of the United Nations' thrice-debunked climate scam.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Public utility commission and FERC board slam EPA: it "ambushed" utilities, will cause "widespread and uncontrolled blackouts"

The electric grid is in grave danger thanks to the EPA's arbitrary and draconian new regulations for utilities. Oh, and that's not just according to the utilities impacted by the agency's hastily constructed rules, it's a message echoed by public utility boards and the Midwest's seven-state Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Kansas electric utility Westar Energy contends that meeting a mid-December Environmental Protection Agency deadline on new air emission regulations will result in rolling blackouts for its customers.

“We asked the EPA for more time, but they tell us they're enforcing the Dec. 15 deadline,” said Westar Energy CEO Mark Ruelle. “So we're pushing back. KCPL, Sunflower and us have asked a court to stay the rule. It's not our style, but we've sued through the court in D.C. and the Kansas Attorney General has filed his own lawsuit... We've cut sulfur by 80 percent and NOX (nitrogen oxide) by 50 percent,” Ruelle said, from highs in the years 2002 and 2003. “We've still a ways to go, but we have a plan to get there. Then this rule came out based on emissions crossing state lines. It came out in July and it says we must comply by Jan. 1. You can't.”

...The company can meet the more stringent regulations, but not until 2018, Ruelle said... A separate study by the Southwest Power Pool agrees with Westar's assessment... [the] seven-state regional transmission organization [was] mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale prices of electricity for its region.

In a September letter to the EPA, which used the word concern seven times, the organization warned an initial “reliability analysis” of utility operations under the EPA timeline pointed to hundreds of potential system overloads in the region and more than a thousand cases of system voltages going too low to meet mandated levels.

The result, the letter advised, could include “the potential of cascading blackouts... or localized rolling blackouts initiated by utilities within the SPP region, to avoid more widespread and uncontrolled blackouts and to remain in compliance with reliability standards... SPP encourages the EPA to work with generation owners to develop flexible compliance schedules to ensure equipment installation is completed in a timely, safe, reliable and cost-effective manner without an arbitrary deadline..."

...Even the Citizens' Utility Ratepayer Board, which represents customers in utility rate requests, voiced sympathy to Westar's situation... “The EPA really kind of ambushed the utility, in terms of the process,” said David Springe, CURB's consumer counsel. “Clearly they're all working toward reducing emissions to the level the EPA wants. In their final order they were really radically different than the preliminary. They changed the mark they were supposed to hit and made it under a timeline that is simply not reasonable.”

Whether the EPA sticks with its deadline or works with utilities, it's ultimately the consumer that pays, Springe said... “Whether it's January or 2015, they have to retrofit the plants and rates will go up,” he said. “I don't know that I've seen a full rate estimate, but it won't be small.”

If we don't begin defunding the Environmental Protection Agency -- first by handing a pink-slip to President Obama in 2012 -- the damage to the electric grid will be catastrophic.

We can see that the eco-Marxist Left is well on its way to shredding America's energy infrastructure. 2012 may be the last chance we have to save this country from the Cloward-Piven Leftists bent on -- in President Obama's words -- "transforming this society".

What this society would ultimately be transformed into under Obama I leave as an exercise for the reader.

Poster Child for Insanity: Los Angeles Times Advocates Even Higher Taxes So Californians Can "Pay It Forward"

Those sounds you just heard were California's beleaguered taxpayers smacking themselves on their foreheads:

California's budget is almost never adopted by the legal deadline, but it was this year — in part because of a new simple-majority-vote requirement that left quarrelsome Republicans out of the discussion, and in part because daydreaming Democrats relied on a vaporous wish that the economy was going to improve and that the state would recoup $3.7 billion more in tax revenues than now seems likely. The shortfall is expected to trigger $2 billion in spending cuts, and Californians who think that's a good thing — that the cuts will impose needed fiscal discipline, or will force the state to make more responsible decisions, or will punish lazy freeloaders or greedy state workers — should wake up and smell the future...

...California is a wealthy state, with enough money and brains to create a future of opportunity and achievement for the next generation. As we face these new triggered cuts and even deeper cuts in the coming year, Californians must now show whether we still have sufficient regard for each other and for our successors to invest a little more today for an abundant, and sustainable, future.

The Times ignores the costs of California's operation as a sanctuary state, which the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates at $20 billion. Consider just one slice of that figure and the devastating effects that California's open borders policies have on taxpayers:

According to The Modesto Bee, the California correctional system spends $50,000 annually to house each prisoner. This translates to 10 percent of the entire state's budget -- more than double that of the immense California university system -- which is spent on prisoners.

The state prison system currently houses about 155,000 inmates, 21,000 of whom are illegal aliens. Thus, California is spending about $1,050,000,000 (one billion and fifty million dollars) on imprisonment of illegals alone.

There is only way out of this mess for California before cities and the state itself descend into bankruptcy and chaos: they must eradicate collective bargaining rights for public sector workers; they must terminate open borders policies that allow sanctuary cities to exist in California; and they must rein in the regulatory superstate that has sent businesses fleeing the state in record numbers.

The time is now, Californians. You don't have much time left to repair this mess. Reject the idiocy of the Los Angeles Times and the other leftists who have set the state on a course for economic collapse. Vote for freedom.

*** Sniff *** California Kids Face Days Without Class as Revenue Falls Short. Hey, Let's Subsidize Tuition for Illegal Aliens!

I've diagnosed this aspect of modern liberalism as disorganized schizophrenia.

Public schools in California, which already spend less per student than those in 28 states, are bracing for a $1.7 billion cut that may wipe out high-school sports and student busing, and trim the academic calendar by seven days next year.

Automatic cuts built into this year's budget, intended to protect bondholders if revenue falls short of projections, are drawing new attention after California fell $705 million behind estimates in the first quarter.

A shortfall of $1 billion will slash hundreds of millions of dollars from universities and care of the elderly and disabled. A deficit of $2 billion will trigger reductions to public schools, creating "a fiscal emergency" that could leave some districts insolvent, a group of superintendents told Governor Jerry Brown in a Sept. 15 letter...

What would you do if you were Governor Brown?

You guessed it, Kreskin: subsidize illegal aliens with California's own, delightful version of 'The Dream Act':

Undocumented students now receive access to public aid.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 131 — the second part of the DREAM Act — into law on Oct. 9, making undocumented students eligible to receive state financial aid to attend California community colleges and universities...

In other words, even though illegal aliens cost the state's taxpayers at least $10.4 billion a year, Governor Brown wants to subsidize illegal behavior and encourage more of it. All while kids are forced to go without an ever-increasing number of school days.

Which leads to my definitive conclusion that Democrats are disorganized schizophrenics.

And painfully stupid to boot.

Good News: California Bans Styrofoam, Small Businesses Rejoice!*

*If you call rejoicing being really, really pissed off.



As if California hasn't done enough to alienate businesses -- withholding water from farmers, paying government bureaucrats outrageous salaries, enacting a thicket of regulations (said to cost half-a-trillion dollars in 2009), and levying punishing taxes -- its latest brilliant law ought to really help kick-start the economy.



The dangerous, toxic substance known as styrofoam will finally be completely banned in California.

Democratic state Sen. Alan Lowenthal's bill to put a stop to Styrofoam use in grocery stores, restaurants, and food vendors is set to pass in the Senate. It would be the first state-wide ban of Styrofoam in the country...



Many have come to the aid of the ubiquitous containers: restaurant owners say the biodegradable alternatives are more expensive and less effective, while manufacturers like Dart claim they'll have to close two production plants that can't produce anything but Styrofoam.



...environmentalists are pleased to see a ban on the non-compost-able, non-biodegradable, chemical-laden receptacles... It would be interesting to see how this bill affects the rest of the nation, as California is commonly ahead of the curve on environmental law.

And it's working out so well for them, eh?



So, just to be clear: California's government-subsidized scientists have apparently determined that styrofoam is just as dangerous to humans as carbon dioxide.



We may want to count this as reason #18,306 that this bluest of blue states is bankrupt, hemorrhaging businesses and about to tell its pensioners (politely) that they're screwed. Yes, let's all emulate California, shall we?




Completely Unrelated Update: California Employment Level Sinks to Record Low

"Millionaires and Billionaires"

The committee calls Thomas Edison to testify. Please swear him in.

Mr. Edison, describe for the committee the nature of your "light bulb" invention.

Distinguished representatives and guests, while the idea of electric lighting is not a new one, neither had it been a practical matter until we produced our new incandescent light bulb.

It uses a lower current of electricity and is both safe and economical.

So this electric light bulb that your firm invented: do you agree that demand for affordable lighting will skyrocket and that more and more electricity will need to be produced? Have you considered the impact on carbon emissions into the atmosphere -- the inevitable result of lighting all of these "bulbs"?

No, sir. We were simply trying to create a useful product for consumers, one that enhances safety and society as a whole.

Have you considered alternative lighting mechanisms that would consume less electricity? How many "green collar" scientists are working in your laboratories? Have you considered the impact of your invention on climate change?

No, sir -- I'll admit we were simply trying to create a functional light bulb.

And this phonograph you've invented, Mr. Edison, have you evaluated how its production could skyrocket due to high demand for musical recordings? Have you produced an assessment for the EPA and state regulators as to its impact on the environment? Production of tin, vinyl and other substances could explode!

Ah, never mind.

The committee calls Henry Ford.

Here.

Please explain this "invention" of yours: this "mass-produced" automobile.

Ladies and gentlemen, one day it struck me. We could produce cheaper goods, without compromising quality, by standardizing designs and assembly processes. We created an "assembly line" that helps us mass-produce vehicles...

These "cars" of yours are reproducing like locusts! Virtually everyone is driving them! And where do you think you'll get the fuel, the gas for these --

Distinguished Representative, America's natural resources are plentiful and there is no shortage of oil. Furthermore, our new processes are a significant improvement because automobiles can be produced more efficiently and consistently.

Mr. Ford. Mr. Edison. The conclusions of this committee are clear. The U.S. government cannot tolerate out-of-control corporate entities run by super-wealthy individuals such as yourselves. We must confiscate your factories and laboratories until they can be unionized; vetted by federal, state and local regulators; and certified as "green".

In short, we must call a halt to your outrageous activities. You and Mr. Edison are dismissed.

Democrat Chickens Come Home to Roost: Oil Prices Expected to Jump Again as Japan's Demand Skyrockets With Its Nuclear Facilities Offline

Why is America the only country in the world that restricts access to its own abundant natural energy sources? I keep asking that question and not one Democrat has ever answered it.

Well, as Obama's beloved preacher used to say, "America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Stratfor Research is predicting that Japan will have to dramatically increase its importation of oil and natural gas, of which it is wholly dependent upon foreign sources.

Stratfor estimates that roughly one-sixth of Japan's generation capacity is currently offline, much of it permanently.

Even before this news broke, Americans supported more offshore oil drilling by a 66 to 25 margin.

Can I just say it one more time? Everything the Democrat Party touches turns to crap. In fact, you can't name any program that a Democrat has created -- any one! -- that isn't a complete cluster. And their policy of preventing Americans from tapping our own rich energy reserves is literally choking the economy at the worst possible time.

So every time you fill up your gas tank, thank a Democrat.


Hat tip: Stratfor Research.

Green Joblessness: Hundreds of Energy Projects Stalled Indefinitely in Regulatory Limbo

True, the situation in the Middle East is troubling, especially when it comes to oil prices. Thankfully, all of those Green Energy Projects™ promised by the Obama Democrats should pick up the slack.

The Chamber of Commerce released a report Thursday that found 351 energy projects around the country were in regulatory limbo last year because of regulations, environmental protests, or lawsuits... None of them include drilling for oil or gas and remarkably, almost half of the delayed projects involved renewable energy.

"There are hundreds of laws with thousands of provisions, all of which can stop a project," said William Kovacs of the Chamber’s Environment, Technology & Regulatory Affairs Division... [and the] delays are costing the economy dearly... the stalled projects cost the economy $1.1 trillion in economic activity last year and would have provided 1.9 million jobs in each year of construction.

The report said that once constructed, the projects would have supplied some 791,000 jobs per year over 20 years and added $3.4 trillion to the GDP, and that’s without taking into account lower energy prices that could result from the completed projects.

Kovacs said the purpose of the report is to urge a more rational permitting process, such as a 180 day statute of limitation for protests similar to the process used in federal determinations on highway projects.

...A partial list from the report shows the stalled or delayed proposals included 22 nuclear projects, 1 nuclear disposal site, 21 transmission projects, 38 gas and platform projects and 111 coal projects... [and] renewable energy isn’t exempt from the slowdowns either. Included are 140 renewable energy projects, notably 89 wind, four wave, 10 solar, seven hydropower, 29 ethanol/biomass and one geothermal project.

In fact, Pociask, the study’s author, said that of the projects studied, 45 percent were renewable energy projects... “We would think that if we want cleaner energy, the process should be working for it,” Pociask said. “What we demonstrate in the study is that it is broken for everyone."

Gallup reports that the average American consumer believes gas prices will soon rise to $4.36 a gallon.

That could be a best-case scenario now that we're seeing "the Obama Doctrine" (i.e., voting present) spread to Saudi Arabia.


Hat tip: D&S. Linked by: Weasel Zippers. Thanks!

Great news: gas prices hit $5 a gallon in various parts of the U.S.

Well, this certainly comes as a surprise.

Gas prices in southern California and parts of Florida have topped $5 a gallon.

Meaning the prices of everything shipped by trucks -- which, last time I checked, aren't powered by wind or solar -- will rise. Food. Drink. Building supplies. You name it.

The Obama administration's refusal to lift its drilling moratorium has resulted in the Interior Department being found in Contempt of Court by a federal judge.

Its hatred of America's abundant fossil fuels isn't just a tax on every man, woman and child in the country.

It's an abrogation of a President's primary constitutional duty as commander-in-chief.

America could be largely energy independent. But Democrats, since the era of Jimmy Carter, believe that government can invent new "green" energy sources.

Which seems to be working out as well as their efforts to make housing more affordable.


Image: MSuei.

Nike, Best Buy, Target and Other Crony Capitalists back the EPA's Soviet-Style Control of Industrial Policy

I'm not a big fan of boycotts, but if you can avoid buying Nike, Best Buy, Levi Strauss and Target stuff, you might help stop their support of the global warming scam.

Crony capitalism is a stepping-stone to socialism. The term is used to describe the unholy, anti-citizen alliances between corporations and big government. These kinds of companies generally engage in massive lobbying efforts (read: backscratching) to coerce government into various taxpayer-funded schemes:

• by paying them directly through government purchases...
• by carving out market segments for them through regulation...
• and otherwise increasing profit margins by suppressing the free market.

With this as our context, let's examine The American Spectator's article entitled "What Do Nike, Best Buy, Levi Strauss and Target Have in Common?".

They all support EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gases, even though that circumvents the citizens' right to have their elected representatives make U.S. laws. More on the Obama Administration overreach and his crony corporatists support at the National Legal and Policy Center blog today.

Heading over to the NLPC, we can discover the sordid details.

Earlier this month corporate climateers including Nike and 3M were given awards -- supposedly "the equivalent of an Oscar for the climate change mitigation world" -- for their efforts to reduce their carbon emissions... Nike also co-signed a letter to President Obama that called for U.S. leadership in an initiative to create and finance the Global Climate Fund, which was established at the UN climate talks in Cancun in early December.

Other members of [this group include] Levi Strauss & Co., Starbucks, Timberland, Best Buy, Ben & Jerry's, eBay, Gap Inc., The North Face, and Target Corporation. Mark them down as corporations who favor the circumvention of the peoples' right to have their elected representatives make U.S. laws.

Carbon dioxide is plant food. It can no more be a pollutant than water vapor or oxygen. The Marxist Left progressives believe, or want us to think they believe, that capping CO2 emissions can act as a thermostat on the climate.

The reality is quite different. Trying to control carbon dioxide is a money-making scam and it has been since the original IPCC reports that were issued by folks poised to make millions through inherent conflicts-of-interest.

Companies that feed this government-run monstrosity should be treated as the anti-free market pariahs they are.


Image: Fox News.

Back Away From the Photo-Morphing Software, Sir

These photos simply have to be illegal in California.

Is it possible to laugh so hard that you rupture your splenum?

And is there really a body part called a splenum?

What does the market know about California's finances that the rest of us don't?

The bond markets are depicting some very ugly goings-on in California

Over at The Big Picture, Barry Ritholz focuses our attention on the meltdown of California's municipal debt obligations. Translated for progressives: the market believes that something very bad -- Greece-like, in fact -- is happening in the Blue State Utopia of windmills, unicorns and Jerry Brown.

California Muni Bond Fund Shellacking

Since so many of you have asked: These funds are getting mangled on expectations of — All Aboard! Munis and California joining Ireland on the default train... Even the general Muni funds have lots of California Exposure...

Sure, the Governor declared a "fiscal emergency" a few months ago. True, the state wants to sell $14 billion in new debt instruments to any suckers interested parties it can find.

But we already knew all of this. Everyone in America already was aware that Cali is an economic train wreck.

Everyone, that is, except for Paul Krugman who has yet to compare his insane national policy prescriptions with what is already unfolding in the Democrat Utopia of California.

So what's really going on? Your guess is as good as mine, though if you believe in "The Wisdom of Crowds", you may want to batten down the hatches.


Hat tip: Mish.

Every road is an on-ramp to fun with the startlingly new, surprisingly sexy Dodge Deflation™"

Karl at Hot Air: "Big Media's Biggest Failure."

Why was Goldline targeted by Congress? Because it advertises on conservative talk radio. ... ... ... that is all, comrades.

In a politically incorrect era, some might call it "fascism".

The vicious Statists known as Waxman and Weiner -- no relation, unless you feel one is warranted -- have targeted an advertiser on conservative talk radio named Goldline. The half-century-old company is a precious metals dealer that specializes in coinage.

Why are Waxman-Weiner picking on Goldline?

Because the company advertises on conservative talk radio. That much I can say with certainty, given my analysis of gold bullion pricing.

The following testimony of a Goldline executive is -- frankly -- depressing because it exists. Why should a California-based coin retailer be forced to testify in front of Congress?

Because the Democrat Party is completely out-of-control.

The decision on where to advertise is based upon sound business decisions, not political ideology. Currently, the most popular talk radio shows in the United States are hosted by conservative commentators such as Messr[s]. Beck, Levin and Thompson, and Ms. Ingraham. The demographics of these radio programs strongly favor those who are inclined to diversify their portfolios with precious metals. (This is best exemplified by the number of competitors who advertise among these same marketing channels.) The radio hosts themselves share an interest in owning precious metals, an important consideration when deciding where to advertise.

By that same token, Goldline’s choice of advertising is not limited to a narrow political spectrum. Before his untimely death, Goldline’s principal spokesperson was Jay Johnson, a former Mint Director and Democratic Congressman. Mr. Johnson shared a firm belief that precious metals were an important component of a diversified portfolio. Mr. Johnson was also an avid coin collector who wrote and spoke about numismatics.

Goldline also advertises with other major networks including CNBC, History International and CNN. Goldline has advertised with approximately 14 different networks within the past 12 months...

Why does Goldline have to explain itself?

This is a free country, right?

We don't live in Venezuela, correct?

The modern, Soros-funded Democrat Party is an outrage. This country's founders are spinning in their graves so fast that the Earth has tilted off its freaking axis.

Would-be Tyrants Henry Waxman and Anthony Weiner Set Hearings on the Future of Conservative Talk Radio

Believe me: that headline is not an overstatement. Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Anthony Weiner (D-NY) are attempting to pick off talk radio's advertisers, one-by-one.

They are starting with Goldline -- a half-century old business that just happens to place ads on the shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.

Just as the government is trying to prevent people from investing in anything other than T-Bills by raising taxes on taxable interest and dividends to confiscatory levels, it's also trying to prevent you from parking your wealth in assets, like gold...

A press release from Rep. Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, not yet (as of this instant) posted on Mr. Weiner's Web site, announces that a September 23 hearing of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection (a subcommittee of Rep. Henry Waxman's Commerce Committee) will focus on "legislation that would regulate gold-selling companies, an industry who's [sic] relentless advertising is now staple of cable television."

From the press release: "Under Rep. Weiner's bill, companies like Goldline would be required to disclose the reasonable resale value of items being sold." That's great. Are Mr. Weiner and Chairman Bernanke also going to agree to print on every dollar the reasonable expectation that its value will be eroded by inflation?

Gold investors (or speculators) are already punished by the federal government by having their investment, even in a gold exchange-traded-fund, taxed at the higher rates that apply to collectibles rather than long term capital gains.

Not to mention the fact that Mr. Weiner's regulatory push seems as much aimed at conservative journalists as at the gold-dealers. The press release says, "Goldline employs several conservative pundits to act as shills for its' [sic] precious metal business, including Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, Laura Ingraham, and Fred Thompson. By drumming up public fears during financially uncertain times, conservative pundits are able to drive a false narrative. Glenn Beck for example has dedicated entire segments of his program to explaining why the U.S. money supply is destined for hyperinflation with Barack Obama as president."

Imagine the uproar if a Republican-majority Congress started investigating and having a regulatory crackdown on big advertisers in liberal outlets such as the New York Times. The First Amendment freedom-of-the-press crowd would be marching in the streets.

The whole situation is amazing. If Mr. Weiner really wants to calm fears about hyperinflation, the last way to do it is to have a government hearing cracking down on the people warning of it...

I want you to know that Waxman and Weiner are detestable Stalinist hacks. They represent a menace to the civil society. They are attempting to silence political speech with which they disagree.

I say this because Waxman and Weiner do not believe in the First Amendment, or any part of the Constitution, so far as I can tell. They are, as is their habit, blatantly violating their oaths of office.

Under the pretense of "consumer protection", Waxman and Weiner are attacking perfectly legitimate private businesses like GoldLine in order to silence conservative speech. Using the specious claim that GoldLine "grossly overcharges" its customers (PDF), Weiner is specifically targeting sponsors of conservative thought-leaders like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Fred Thompson.

Waxman and Weiner are thugs masquerading as Congressional representatives. Why? Because Goldline isn't overcharging anyone.

A one-ounce 2010 American Eagle gold bullion coin is the single best benchmark for most gold collectors. Using a Google search, I took the first nine websites I found (that would allow me to shop online) and ran through an ordering process for a 2010 1-oz. Eagle on each.

And this is what I found:

Raw Price + Shipping	Total Price	Shopping Cart	Website
$1,239.05 + $24.95 shipping	$1,264.00	1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	APMEX
$1,256.22 + $17.95 shipping	$1,273.17	1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	Gainesville Coins
$1,255.48 + $27.00 shipping	$1,282.48	1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	Blanchard Online
$1,240.01 + 24.95 shipping	$1.284.96	1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	Golden Eagle Coin
$1,295.00 + free shipping	$1,295.00	1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	GoldLine
$1,278.74 + $20.95 shipping	$1,299.69	1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	Brandon's Coins
$1,247.92 + $49.51 shipping	$1.297.43	1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	BullionDirect
$1,299.00 + $19.95 shipping	$1,318.95	1 oz. 2009 Gold American Eagle	Austin Gold Information Network
$1,399.00 + $7.45 shipping	$1.406.45	1 oz. 2009 Gold American Eagle	Steve's Collectibles
$1,435.00 + free shipping	$1,435.00	1 oz. 2010 Gold American Eagle	GovMint

In fact, Goldline was fifth out of ten on total price for the one-ounce benchmark gold bullion coin, separated by 2% from the first slot. Does that sound like overcharging to you?

Are Waxman and Weiner investigating #10?

Or #9?

Or #8, #7 or #6?

No. Because they don't sponsor conservative authors and speakers. If these Democrats were really concerned with overcharging, they could have found far better targets than Goldline in a matter of a few minutes, just as I did.

Henry Waxman and Anthony Weiner are would-be dictators. They are, in no uncertain terms, targeting free speech. Their tactics are anti-American.

If these penny-ante tyrants get their way, any business that advertises on talk radio is fair game.

I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. If you believe in the right of free speech, you will reject the current slate of Democrats.

Spread the word: give Henry Waxman and Anthony Weiner pink slips in November.

Preview of Coming Attractions: EPA Imposes Death Sentences on Thousands of Americans

KMPH in Fresno reports on yesterday's catastrophic accident involving a "smart car":

An accident in Fresno County sent two people to the hospital Friday morning.

Around 7 a.m. California Highway Patrol officers were called to the area of Highway 168, near Sample Road, for reports of a collision between a "Smart Car" and another vehicle.

CHP officials say the two cars crashed head-on, after one of the vehicles cut into the opposite lane while trying to maneuver a turn.

Only two people were involved in the crash; the female driver of the "Smart Car" was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for major injuries, while the other driver is said to have suffered minor injuries.

This news comes as the EPA announced its new guidelines for fuel efficiency, which were opposed in Congress by representatives on both sides of the aisle.

The requirements were raised to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon for 2016 model-year cars and light trucks from 27.3 mpg in 2011...

...The final rule issued today will cost automakers $52 billion to comply and add $926 to the cost of buying a car within five years, according to government estimates.

Legacy media has ignored the real impact of CAFE standards: the human toll represented by thousands of deaths on the roads. As cars get smaller and smaller, to meet central planners' guidelines, the mismatches between large and small vehicles become more pronounced -- and far more deadly.

According to a 2006 report by Ryan Bilas of the National Center for Public Policy Research several studies demonstrate the cost in human lives due to CAFE standards:

• According to a 2001 National Academy of Sciences panel, smaller and lighter vehicle production resulted in an additional 1,300 to 2,600 traffic fatalities in 1993.
• A 1999 USA Today analysis of crash data found that since CAFE went into effect in 1978, 46,000 people died in crashes they otherwise would have survived. That equates to roughly 7,700 deaths for every mile per gallon gained in fuel economy standards.
• A 1989 Harvard-Brookings study estimated CAFE to be responsible for 2,200 to 3,900 excess occupant deaths over ten years. It also estimated between 11,000 and 19,500 occupants would suffer serious injury due to these standards.
• The same study found CAFE has resulted in a 500 pound weight reduction on the average car.
• Lastly, passengers in smaller, lighter cars die at a rate 12 times that of people driving larger, heavier cars.

To meet increased fuel efficiency standards, automobile manufactures reduced vehicle weight.  There is a direct relationship between vehicle weight and passenger deaths and injuries. 

In short, the EPA has imposed death sentences on thousands of Americans.

Furthermore, its arbitrary, Politburo-style rules will likely "paralyze the recovery" and financially damage auto companies at the worst possible time.

And it's all in support of a charade called global warming climate change, as an eight-part series in Germany's Der Spiegel reports this week. Autos contribute 1% of all human-caused CO2. And CO2 is an infinitesimally tiny portion of all greenhouse gases. Global warming is a scam, through and through, designed to let the government control industrial policy.

It's time to defund the EPA completely and stop their radical progressive agenda. The lives we save in doing so may be our own.

Boehner: Stop Trying to Intimidate America's Biggest Employers, Pig-man!

To be fair, I could have heard Boehner incorrectly. The dogs were barking.

House Minority Leader Boehner today accused Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman of using intimidation-like tactics in demanding congressional testimony from employers to back their claims the new healthcare law will be costly and undercut job creation.

"Instead of interrogating America's private-sector job creators, Congress should be listening to them, heeding their warnings about the effects of this deeply flawed new law, and replacing it with reforms that will help them get back to creating jobs," Boehner said in a statement. He said American employers have been warning that the new healthcare policies being promoted by President Obama and Democrats in Congress would damage the economy and hurt efforts to create jobs.

"Yet now that those policies have become law over the objections of the American people, congressional Democrats such as Chairman Waxman profess shock and surprise at hearing American employers announce that they will have no choice but to make painful changes to comply with it," said Boehner.

Boehner's comments referred to letters dated Friday from Waxman and Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to the heads of AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co., requesting that they back up their claims in April 21 appearances before the subcommittee.

Company officials were also asked to provide documents to the panel by April 9.

Waxman's call for hearings came after Speaker Pelosi urged members last week to go on the "offensive" in defending and soothing public doubts the new law. Boehner's reaction shows Republicans are just as intent on pressing the case that the law carries negative implications for businesses.

Waxman's office did not comment by press time.

• Letter to Samuel R. Allen, Chairman & CEO, Deere & Company
• Letter to James W. Owens, Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc.
• Letter to Ivan G. Seidenberg, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Verizon Communications Inc.
• Letter to Randall Stephenson, Chairman, President, and CEO, AT&T