I’m All Out of Outrage

That’s my answer to Andy Roth’s question in this post over at the Club for Growth’s blog.

Why Won’t They Fight For My Right to Choose?

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Political Fix blog:

Nine of Missouri’s members of Congress (including both U.S. senators) have co-signed a letter asking, in effect, what gives with a new interpretation of “teacher” by the IRS and the Social Security Administration.

In a joint statement, the members asserted that “Missouri’s educators may be suffering from a one-two punch” at their retirement accounts.

Here’s the gist:

”Based on a new federal ruling, some public school employees will no longer be able to pay into Missouri’s popular Public School Retirement System in lieu of Social Security – instead they will have to pay into both but receive reduced benefits….”

Ah, but I do know the answer to that question.  You see, they don’t care about my right to choose.  Only the teacher’s unions.

Next In Line Begging for a Bailout

the National Conference of State Legislatures:

The president of the NCSL wrote a letter this week to President-elect Barack Obama asking for federal aid to states.

How bad are states off? Says the NCSL:

So far this year, 31 states have reported that they have collectively addressed a $40 billion shortfall in their FY 2009 budgets, more than triple the amount reported by states in FY 2008. State and local governments are economic engines in that they employ more than 20 million workers or roughly 14 percent of the nation’s workforce.

Just where do they think all this money comes from?

Fannie Mae Eats Freddie Mac and Cheese

h/t Freakonomics blog

Flake for Appropriations Committee

This must happen.

Dear Republican Leader Boehner:

I am contacting you regarding my interest in being considered for a seat on the House Appropriations Committee in the 111th Congress.

One of the major factors in our loss of the congressional majority in 2006 and subsequent losses this month is that HOuse Republicans have made ourselves indistinguishable from Democrats on federal spending. Voters simply no longer associate us with limited government.

Earmarks make up a small fraction of the federal budget, but they receive an inordinate amount of public attention. It is difficult for Republicans to convince voters that we have turned a corner on spending if we continue to use the House Appropriations Committee as little more than a vehicle for securing earmarks.

With the executive and legislative branches under Democratic control, the primary focus of Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee needs to be the oversight of federal expenditures, rather than merely the dispensation of them.

As you know, as soon as a member of the Appropriations Committee accepts an earmark from the Committee, he or she essentially forfeits the opportunity to challenge other earmarks. Consequently, tens of thousands of earmarks are approved by the Appropriations Committee annually with minimal, if any, scrutiny. Wouldn’t it make sense to have at least one member on the Committee who doesn’t seek earmarks?

Thank you for consideration of my request.

Sincerely,

/s/

JEFF FLAKE Member of Congress

You can contact Boehner’s office in Washington, D.C. to voice your support. Just call (202) 225-6205.

Missouri (Finally) Goes for McCain

And with that Missouri may have just lost its status as a bell weather state. Changing demographics have made this inevitable (Missouri lags the rest of the country in Hispanic population).

Al Franken Thinks This Vote Was For Him

I think Al Franken needs to go quietly to wherever failed comics go after their career is over.

h/t American Spectator via Ace of Spades HQ

The Tax Foundation has created a map of state sales taxes.

Well, I guess Missouri has to be in the top 15 on something.   Although I doubt that this is one of the lists that politicians would want to brag about.  Geez, we almost are as high as the taxaholics in California.

Racial Disparity In Eminent Domain Rears Its Ugly Head Again

A few months back I wrote about an David T. Beito and Ilya Somin op-ed that appeared in the Kansas City Star about how the battle over eminent domain has become a civil rights issue. In that piece they quoted an amicus brief filed by the NAACP in Kelo v. New London:

“[t]he burden of eminent domain has and will continue to fall disproportionately upon racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, and economically disadvantaged.” Unfettered eminent domain authority, the NAACP concluded, is a “license for government to coerce individuals on behalf of society’s strongest interests.”

That burden continues unabated. A few days ago the AP highlighted one of the projects in San Francisco where race was a factor in declaring the area a blighted district:

A half-century ago, this neighborhood was nicknamed “Harlem of the West” and hundreds of black-owned businesses thrived here. At night its gritty streets were filled with the sounds of jazz and blues drifting from nightclubs.

Then the government, using race as a factor in its decision, decreed the area blighted and forced thousands of people, including King, from the neighborhood by way of eminent domain. The din of bulldozers and wrecking balls replaced the saxophones and snare drum-raps with the promise of a better neighborhood.

To understand just how devastating this was to the black community in San Francisco just soak in these following passages.

Holding her cane and shuffling carefully down the sidewalk in the city’s Jazz Preservation District, 88-year-old Leola King stopped and looked at the words stamped in concrete: Leola King’s Birdcage, 1505 Fillmore.

Today, the site of King’s 1960s nightclub is a Starbucks on the ground floor of a condominium tower.

~snip~

“In her day, she was one of the wealthiest women in San Francisco and that’s no joke,” said San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, whose district includes Western Addition. “They took a self-made woman and basically subverted her stature.”

Documents show that King lost businesses — two nightclubs and a barbecue restaurant — and numerous residential properties. She spent decades in a losing battle with the agency that ended in bankruptcy after she defaulted on real estate loans.

She now lives in a garage that was converted into an apartment, surrounded by gilded mirrors and chandeliers that once decorated her clubs.

You can read more in the article about how King would move to new areas with her businesses (areas that were supposed to be safe according to government officials) only to have her new locations condemned also and torn down for “upscale” projects.

The city’s black population was growing rapidly when redevelopment began in the 1950s. By the mid-1970s, however, blocks sat vacant and the black population had started its decades-long slide from about 13 percent to half that in 2005 — the biggest percentage decline of any major city.

The project is set to come to an end at the close of this year. Let’s hope that no new projects start up in its place.