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  • Dick Morris on Obama’s Motivations

    There’s something too this:

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdTyUvY66Mw?rel=0]

    There is a similar situation going on with gun control in the states.  The argument is always”we need the federal government to control all guns because they travel from state to state.”

    This is a common theme with people on the “Left.”  They realize that their policies are horrible and people will react by leaving.  So it’s always not enough to just destroy one state/country, they need to destroy the whole world.

    Enter the UN.  Note that this week the brain trust at the UN said that we need a global tax to help the poor.

    Beware the globalists.

  • Gotta Love American Ingenuity (& Tax Avoidance)

    So I’m reading two stories (here and here) about a new law that will effectively outlaw Roll-Your-Own tobacco stores.  It’s something I kinda follow because I always thought it was a decent business model (until the government outlaws your business) and another fine example of what steps people will go through to avoid taxes.

    In short:

    A tiny amendment buried in the federal transportation bill to be signed today by President Barack Obama will put operators of roll-your-own cigarette operations in Las Vegas and nationwide out of business at midnight.  …

    The machines are used by customers who buy loose tobacco and paper tubes from the shop and then turn out a carton of finished cigarettes in as little as 10 minutes, often varying the blend to suit their taste. Savings are substantial – at $23 per carton, half the cost of a name-brand smoke – in part because loose tobacco is taxed at a lower rate.

    via ReviewJournal.com.

    And I was thinking about how sad this was for all the people who work in this industry: the store owners, their employees, the folks who manufacture the RYO machines, their families, the companies who make the cigarette tubes, and the loose pipe tobacco makers, and all of the folks who work in packaging all of these things.

    And then… in the comment section of the Law Vegas article I read this:

    James Fliess Jul. 6, 2012 | 2:47 p.m.

    Just a thought. My understanding, and maybe I’m wrong, is that cigarettes manufactured by these machines must cost (via taxes) as much as other cigarettes. How about this arrangement. The store sells the tobacco and supplies as they always have, but they do not have a rolling machine. A buisness next door does not sell tobacco or supplies, but it rents time on their rolling machine. Does it work?

    Kudos to you Mr. James Fliess!!

  • More And More Americans Are Leaving

    Last year, nearly 1,800 Americans surrendered their citizenship. In a nation of 300 million folks, 1,800 émigrés is hardly a rush for the exits. But the recent trend is, nevertheless, intriguing.  …

    Who knows the exact reason why 1,800 Americans chose to leave last year — nine times as many as left four years earlier. Certainly, each one of them had their reasons. But like a corporate insider that sells his own stock, there’s one thing you know for certain about his motives: he is not selling because he believes the stock will go up. Maybe he doesn’t believe the stock will go down, but no one sells a stock they believe will go up.

    via Business Insider.

    I wrote about this before.  Still no mainstream press on this issue.

  • Give a Lamb a Gun

    Herman Cain has a new website complete with video.  My first as so far favorite video is entitled Give a Lamb a Gun.

    It’s a priceless quote from Benjamin Franklin.

    The video is under 2 minutes… go check it out.

  • Less Cops = Less (Reported) Crime

    In the city’s most violent districts, police officers say, they may be assigned half a dozen jobs or more—covering everything from traffic accidents to assaults—at the start of a shift. Their watches are spent racing from call to call, while anything that requires investigation stacks up. Officers describe having to weigh whether to make an arrest. The process “downs” their car, taking it off patrol for a few hours or so, which leaves their beat uncovered and puts more pressure on their fellow officers.

    Sometimes, they say, when it comes to minor offenses, they just look the other way.

    via Chicago magazine – August 2012.

    This is from a fairly long piece about Garry McCarthy but it’s this paragraph that struck me.

    In Chicago No Report = No Crime.  You have beat cops who are overworked / overloaded they and cannot focus on the little things.  So what happens?  They let some of the little things go because they have more important — higher priority — calls already waiting for them.  When this happens the little things don’t get reported.  It’s like the crimes never even happened.

    Of course Compstat is at the center of this.  It gives the Mayor and McCarthy the plausible ability to say things like, “Well overall crime is down.”

  • CPS To Raise Property Taxes The Maximum

    For the second year in a row, Chicago Public School officials under Mayor Rahm Emanuel will raise property taxes for schools to the maximum allowed by law, yielding the cash-strapped system $41 million.

    The 1.5 percent increase should cost the average homeowner $28 a year, school officials said Wednesday.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    Well isn’t this interesting.  We’ll see if CPS teachers, a/k/a the CTU, want to strike this year.  I suppose homeowners won’t be getting their second installment of their tax bills until after the election (it always works that way.)  So they won’t see just how much money goes to CTU CPS from their outrageous property taxes unless the strike goes into November.  … Dare to dream.

  • Obama Must Speak Out on Chicago Carnage

    Headline:

    Obama Must Speak Out on Chicago Carnage That Kills Too Many Kids

    via The Daily Beast.

    The story in generally not worth reading.

    But my comment is:

    1. Chicago has the most restrictive gun control laws in the country. What’s needed is not any new laws but enforcement of the current laws. Find me one — any one single — murder committed in Chicago with a legally held firearm. You can’t!! Enforce the laws already on the books and violence will decrease.

    2. Chicago has not elected a single Republican in over 40 years. There is no way that the NRA or the GOP is in any way responsible for the gun violence in Chicago. The violence in Chicago is the direct result of 60 years of unchecked modern liberalism. First Detroit, then Chicago, then Oakland, then … 


    The people voted for Chicago politics in Obama. They got what they voted for.

  • Muslims Attack Christians in Dearborn MI

    Very bizarre behavior on the part of the young Muslims.

    Very bizarre behavior on the part of the local police.

    The whole thing is very disturbing.  I frankly don’t know what to make of it.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnJBW49afzg?rel=0]

  • Bankrupt Stockton Chicago

    Yesterday’s news:

    Officials in Stockton said Tuesday that mediation with creditors has failed, meaning the Central California city is set to become the largest American city ever to declare bankruptcy.  …

    The river port city of 290,000 in Central California has seen its property taxes and other revenues decline, while expensive investments and generous retiree benefits drained city coffers.

    via NY Daily News.

    Tell me something I don’t know, right?

    Stockton, with 300,000 residents and $700 million in debt, would be one of the largest cities ever to file for Chapter 9 protection, according to municipal finance experts and bankruptcy officials.

    via WSJ.com.

    Humm…. ok.  Let’s compare that to Chicago.

    Calling local government debt “staggering,” Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas announced Tuesday that the $108 billion debt tab across various governing bodies in the county translates to $63,525 per Chicago household and nearly $33,000 per suburban household.

    via Chicago Sun-Times. (Sept 29, 2011 — we now know the number to be higher.)

    Math (not new math, the old fashioned kinda math.)

    Stockton:
    $700M / 290,000 residents = $2,413.80 of debt for every man woman and child in Stockton.

    Chicago:
    $63,525 * 1,033,022 households = $65,622,722,550 in total debt;
    $65,622,722,550 / 2,695,598 people in the city = $24,344.40 of debt for every man woman and child in Chicago.

    In order for the situation to be comparable, the dazzling urbanites of Chicago would have to earn 10 x as much as the poor downtrodden folks of Stockton.

    Back to the Census:

    Chicago Per Capita Money Income in Past 12 Months — $27,148

    Stockton Per Capita Money Income in Past 12 Months — $20,176

    So the average joker in Stockton has to work for about a month and a half (2413 / 20176 *365 = 44 days) to pay off their portion of the debt.

    The average joker in Chicago has to work for nearly a year (24344 / 27148 * 365 = 327 days) to pay off their portion of the debt.

    And so I ask you which one of these municipalities should really be filing for bankruptcy?  Which is in worse financial shape?  Who’s employee’s should be more worried about their pensions?  Who’s politicians are doing the right thing by dealing with the issue square-on and not trying to pawn it off on future generations?

    I’m just asking.

    Hat Tip to Anthony Curran for the concept of this post.

  • More Bad News on the Pension Crisis

    If I was Rahm I would so totally throw Daley under the bus on this issue.

    The debt from 10 Chicago-area pension plans swelled more than 600 percent to $27.4 billion between 2001 and 2010, according to a study released Monday by the nonpartisan Civic Federation. That’s $8,993 for each man, woman and child in Chicago, according to the report.

    The shortfall comes on top of more than $83 billion in unfunded pension liabilities at the state level, driving the cost up to nearly $15,000 per Chicagoan, the report shows.

    via chicagotribune.com.

    Shear insanity.