April 21, 2010

Natural gas off NC coast is significant

Posted by Paul Chesser at 6:56 PM

The Institute for Energy Research produced a great educational video that illustrates how just one natural gas drilling platform off the Outer Banks (which would be forty miles out and not visible from the beach) would produce far more energy than the Cape Wind project, the controversial turbine farm proposed near Cape Cod. Well worth the 2 1/2 minutes:

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You might be a progressive if...

Posted by Dr. Roy Cordato at 1:52 PM

...you despise free markets while favoring the use of coercive wealth transfers from run of the mill taxpayers to bail out large corporations. The problem that progressives have with the free market is not that it favors large capitalist institutions but that it's too hard on those large institutions when when they make bad decisions. Can you say TARP, Chrysler, General Motors...?

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New Carolina Journal Online exclusive

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 1:51 PM

The latest Carolina Journal Online exclusive features an update on the state Revenue Department's efforts to get refunds in taxpayers' hands, a process that should be complete around May 13.

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Hey Bill -- is it "demonizing" the government to say this?

Posted by George Leef at 1:45 PM

Richard Rahn has this excellent article in the Washington Times, showing that formerly wealthy Argentina has become poorer and poorer because its rulers have followed a relentlessly anti-market course -- the same course that Obama has been racing along.

No need for any Obama zealot who might see Rahn's article to bother reading it, of course. He's merely instigating violence; nothing he says could possibly be true.

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Clinton shakes his finger and tells us not to "demonize" government

Posted by George Leef at 12:44 AM

Jay Ambrose proceeds to tear his tissue-thin op-ed to shreds in this Washington Examiner editorial.

For Bill Clinton to talk about the alleged violence or remote possibility of violence due to the criticisms of federal policy made by tea-partiers (and also those who have never been to a tea-party rally) is the most brazen hypocrisy when you reflect on the high degree of actual violence that he oversaw in his eight years in the White House. Jim Bovard has a devastating piece recounting those awful years.

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You might be a progressive if.....

Posted by George Leef at 12:27 AM

If you have to read to the end to see that Professor Steven Horwitz is poking fun at your economic ignorance in this article.

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You might be a progressive if...

Posted by Dr. Roy Cordato at 10:13 AM

...you have no problem with this.


From Liveaction.org.

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Re: Will Amazon stop selling in NC altogether?

Posted by Jacob Burgdorf at 10:04 AM

CNET has an article describing some of the details of the case. They also point out similar situations that have been struck down across the country (albeit, these deal with books, DVDs, and other media that have enjoyed special privacy protections):

In a 2002 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects "an individual's fundamental right to purchase books anonymously, free from governmental interference."

...

And in a 2007 case, federal prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to force Amazon to identify thousands of innocent customers who bought books online, but abandoned the idea after a judge rebuked them. Judge Stephen Crocker in Wisconsin ruled that "the subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into the reading habits of specific individuals without their prior knowledge or permission."

In addition, a federal law called the Video Privacy Protection Act makes it illegal for anyone selling movies to disclose customer information to anyone, including state tax collectors.

I must agree with Amazon spokesperson Mary Osako who says, "The best-case scenario for customers would be where the North Carolina Department of Revenue withdraws their demand because they recognize that it violates the privacy rights of North Carolina residents."

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Factiva search of "tea party" and "arrest" finds evidence of widespread violence in the movement

Posted by Dr. Terry Stoops at 09:25 AM

Just kidding. But leave it to "public intellectual" Stanley Fish to ask "The question is, in which category - the serious and the connected or the delirious and the unhinged - do members of the Tea Party belong?" (NYT Blogs, April 19, 2010)

I found three (3) news items from the past week, although I may have missed news reports not covered by the Factiva database:

"Arrest clouds Tea Party's rally plans ; The jailing Thursday of the Springboro group's founder raises questions about event."
By Lawrence Budd and Ed Richter
16 April 2010
Dayton Daily News

The founder of the Springboro Tea Party was in the Warren County Jail on Thursday after turning himself in to police.

It was unclear how the arrest of Brian D. "Sonny" Thomas would affect the group's rally scheduled for Saturday, April 17, at North Park in Springboro.

KS GOV candidate Ken Cannon (I) "faces charges of battery and making a criminal threat" following an "alleged altercation at a recent tea party event" in central KS. Police said Cannon's arrest "wasn't related to the tea party event" -- it "all started when Cannon ran into" the ex-leader of the school board for the district where he once worked, with whom he had "problems." But Cannon's mgr. "says Cannon reacted after someone mentioned the death of Cannon's son"

[Caption] Martin Francis Brown of Sacramento is taken into custody outside the Capitol by CHP Officers Rick Turner, left, and Jeff Lane after Brown rushed the stage shouting, "I want my freedom." Brown was arrested on charges of demonstrating without a permit and resisting arrest.

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Perdue budget: K-12 education

Posted by Dr. Terry Stoops at 08:15 AM

The General Assembly will not approve Bev's proposed $17.7 million (recurring) and $21.2 million (nonrecurring) appropriations for elementary school student diagnostic and handheld device something or other.  Also do not expect to see $1.4 million for high school diagnostics and intervention in the final budget.

Bev's budget sets aside $1.5 million (nonrecurring) for Joe Hackney's pet project, dropout prevention grants. I believe that the money is better spent elsewhere.  Same goes for the $500,000 (nonrecurring) appropriation for the New Schools Project.

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A doctor who dropped out of politicized medicine

Posted by George Leef at 08:10 AM

Here is an interesting piece written by a doctor who was losing money and becoming frustrated under the old health insurance regime, then dropped out of it and began practicing medicine the old-fashioned way: fee for service. It's working wonderfully for him and his patients.

Herbert Spencer argued that individuals have a right to ignore the state. This doctor has taken a step in that direction, deciding to ignore its crummy third-party payer health care system. If Obamacare isn't stopped, I suspect more doctors will do what he has done. And if that movement becomes significant, look for the regime to strike back, making such individualized medical service illegal -- another "regulation of interstate commerce."

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Barone revisits Gangster Government description

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 08:03 AM

Michael Barone's latest Washington Examiner column returns to his theme of "Gangster Government," initially inspired by last year's Chrysler bailout:

Fast-forward to last Friday, when the Securities Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Goldman Sachs, alleging that the firm violated the law when it sold a collaterized debt obligation based on mortgage-backed securities without disclosing that the CDO was assembled with the help of hedge fund investor John Paulson.

On its face the complaint seems flimsy. Paulson has since become famous because his firm made billions by betting against mortgage-backed securities. But he wasn't a big name then, and the sophisticated firm buying the CDO must have assumed the seller believed its value would go down.

That's not the only fishy thing about the complaint. Tuesday came the news, undisclosed by the SEC on Friday, that the commissioners approved the complaint by a 3-2 party-line vote. Ordinarily the SEC issues such complaints only when the commissioners unanimously approve.

Fishy thing No. 3: Democrats immediately used the complaint to jam Sen. Christopher Dodd's financial regulation through the Senate. You may want to believe the denials that the Democratic commissioners timed the action in coordination with the administration or congressional leaders.

But then you may want to believe there was no political favoritism in the Chrysler deal too. The SEC complaint looks a lot like Gangster Government to me.

The Dodd bill, however, has it trumped. Its provisions promise to give us one episode of Gangster Government after another.

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In case you missed him ...

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:56 AM

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New Carolina Journal Online features

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:44 AM

The latest Carolina Journal Online exclusive features Sarah Okeson's report on the race to replace retiring state Sen. David Hoyle in District 43. 

John Hood's Daily Journal explores the potential impact of recent high-profile North Carolina government scandals on this year's elections.

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Latest dispatches from the campaign trail

Posted by David N. Bass at 06:30 AM

• Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory splits his allegiance in the 7th congressional district Republican primary.


• The N.C. Free Enterprise Foundation releases its 2010 primary candidate questionnaires with a focus on business issues.


• Three-termer state Sen. Doug Berger is getting primaried this year.


• Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, R-5th, endorsed by The Winston-Salem Journal, but the newspaper declines to endorse any Republican in the 12th congressional district primary.


• Republican Bettie Fennell hopes to claim Sen. R.C. Soles' seat for the GOP this fall. But now a Brunswick County judge has filed a defamation lawsuit against Fennell's media consultant.


• Gov. Bev Perdue and Sen. Joe Same Queen (who is waging a tough re-election battle) introduce jobs initiative in western N.C.

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