Legislators Must Close the Revolving Door

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Orig Post Date:  2014.01.13
Source:  Alabama Policy Institute
My Comments:
I have to agree with the author on this issue.  Resigning from office to take another job is a disservice to the voters who elected the official in my opinion.  Besides the two year limit on lobbing the legislature there should also be a limit on how soon the individual could run for elected office again, say ten years unless they pay the state for the cost of the special election to replace them.

W.C.

WASTEBOOK 2013

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Orig Post Date:  2013.12.17
Source:  coburn.senate.gov
My Comments:
Things our Congress seems to think are more important than our government's promise to those sailing, walking, and flying into harm's way to protect our country.
This also one of the reasons that our budget remains unbalanced.

• Suggestion:  No Presidential, Vice-Presidential, Cabinet Secretary, or Congressional pay, retirement pay, or benefits until the budget is balanced and not balanced on the backs of government workers, military retirees, or Social Security recipients. 

W.C.  

Progressives on the Take

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Orig Post Date:  2013.12.17
Source:  Robert Scheer on Creators.com
My Comments:
More of that promised transparency.  Talk about having the foxes guard the hen house.

W.C.  

Are You Consenting to Surveillance Right Now?

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Orig Post Date:  201312.17. 
Source:  Jacob Sullum on Creators.com
My Comments:
This one is pretty scary.  If the Supreme Court backs the Obama administration we have lost a majority of our once sacrosanct right to privacy.  And this from an administration that claims it exists to protect our rights.

W.C.  

Harvard-trained attorney sentenced to 28 years for Navy charity scam, Alabama donors among those targeted

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Orig Post Date:  2013.12.16
Source:  Leada Gore via AL.com
My Comments:
His sentence is way too short in my opinion.  If it was up to me they would throw away the key.

W.C.  

White House delayed enacting regulations to help get president re-elected, says Washington Post

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Orig Post Date:  2013.12.16
Source:  Debbie M. Lord via AL.com
My Comments:
Looks to me like someone knew all those promises about keeping plans & doctors was really a whopper.  It makes one wonder how many others we have been told.

W.C.  

Poll: Obama's health care overhaul seen as eroding coverage

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Orig Post Date:  2013.12.15
Source:  The Associated Press via AL.com
My Comments:
This poll seems to verify what many Conservatives and Libertarians predicted would happen but our Commander-in-Chief is still claiming that his program will reduce health care costs.

W.C.

comments Keep that oil pipeline away from our water supply

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Orig Post Date:  2013.12.15
Source:  Charles Hyland on AL.com
My Comments:
It amazes me that the simple solution of changing the route of this pipeline to avoid gthe watershed for the largest supply of drinking water for a metropolitan area with over 400,000 people in it is fought so successfully by this pipeline company.  Too much of this crony politics seems to exist in a government that is supposed to look out for the good of its citizens.

W.C.

comments New book tells what happened to Obama campaign's 'Julia'

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Orig Post Date:  2013.12.15
Source:  J. Pepper Bryars on AL.com
My Comments:
This new series of books looks to be interesting.  I'll have to read it and check its assumptions and conclusions against what I have observed in real life.

W.C.

Economic Reality and the Minimum Wage

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Orig Post Date:  2013.. 
Source:  Steve Chapman on Creators.com
My Comments:
An extremely accurate assessment of the effects of an increase in the minimum wage.
I can remember the high school kids that were hired for summer work at the plant that I was working at in Georgia back in the mid 70s.  When the minimum wage went up to $3.35 in 1981 the number of those summer hires went way down.
Another place where this effect really showed up was at filling stations.  I can remember making just over $1/hr at a station I worked at one summer.  We had more summer workers on the lot than we had gas pumps.  When a customer drove up we pumped their gas, checked the fluids under their hood, cleaned their windows, and it asked vacuumed their floor mats and checked the air in their tires.  All this with a smile and Green Stamps.  As the minimum wage ramped up over the years the number of filling station workers ramped down until with today's minimum wage we have to do all of that for ourselves and those jobs are no more.
I can also remember the large number of migrant farm workers that came into town to help harvest the potato crop.  Then the government started to ramp up the wages that they had to be paid.  One of my uncles was the first local farmer to buy a machine that took 4 men to operate but it dug, picked up, and graded potatoes by size and dumped them onto wagons to be hauled back to the barn for bagging.  4 men + that machine replaced several hundred migrant workers and removed the need for housing them.
The net result in each case was fewer jobs.  This has been documented time and again but our professional politicians never seem to grasp this.  Too many of them, our current president included have never had to run a business and make sure that business could make its payroll.  It's obvious that too many of them don't understand operating within one's means and on a realistic budget.

W.C.

Big trolls vs. small trolls: The real battle behind patent reform

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Orig Post Date:  2013.11.22
Source:  InfoWorld
My Comments:
Interesting article about how large technology firms want to be free to troll their patents and at the same time be protected from smaller patent troll firms.
Personally I have never understood software patents since I've never understood how one can patent a thought process.  When I write code I set down and analyze a problem and think of a way to calculate a solution to the problem.  For example many years in the past if I needed the average for three numbers I might have devised the formula,

A = ( v1 + v2 + v3) / 3

Since this was a new solution I apply for and get a software patent for:

 A = (v1 + v2 + v3 + ... + vN) / N

which is a general solution for solving an average.  Sometime later when another coder independently writes an equation to solve an average for three numbers,

vA = (s1 + s2 + s3) / 3

which is extremely similar to my general solution.  So I contact them and demand royalties for violating my patent.  Now I realize this example is extremely simple but that is the principal and it makes understanding software patent difficult for me.

W.C.

Did a Top Obamacare Tech Official Mislead Congress About the Decision Not to Implement Obamacare's Shopping Feature?

Link To Article

Orig Post Date:  2013.11.22
Source:  Reason
My Comments:
Interesting article on the accuracy of the statement by Deputy Assistant IT Director Chao that there was a technical reason for not allowing the "anonymous shopper" option on the Healthcare.gov site and that political reasons did not exist.

W.C.  

Democracy and the Filibuster

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Orig Post Date:  2013.11.24
Source: Creators
My Comments:
Interesting article on the real history of the filibuster and the fact that this so called "nuclear. option" does not really have any constitutional issues nor does the filibuster date back to the time of the founders.
I do remember that it was not that long ago that the Republicans had a majority in the senate and threatened to adopt this same rule change when the Democrats were using the same tactics to block nominations coming to a vote.  The thing Sen Reid needs to remember is that when the tide swings the other way and the Republicans again a the majority they will already have this rule change already in place to block filibusters by the Democrats.
It a lot like the line-item-veto.  Both parties are willing to trust their president with this power but neither is willing to trust a president from the other party with this power.  Well what kept the nomination filibuster in place when the Republicans were in power was the fear of not being able to use it when they needed it.
I tend to think Sen Reid and his friends lost sight of this and will be insisting that the filibuster rule be reestablished when their party is again a lame duck majority.  The problem is the Republicans will then be able to restore this new rule rightly claiming the last minute rule change was the work of a lame duck majority.  If not changed back  by Reid and company the new Republican majority will not have any reason to change it to allow filibusters by their opponents.

W.C.  

You call it "incentives"; I call it cronyism (Scott Beaulier)

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Orig Post Date:  2013.11.21
Source:  AL.com
My Comments:
The examples cited are in Ms and Al but the same events can be found in every state.  I tend to agree with the author.  Stadiums for privately owned teams should be built by those teams since they are used to generate the enormous cash flows those teams enjoy.

W.C.  

Today’s Wealth Destruction Is Hidden by Government Debt

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Orig Post Date:  2013.. 
Source:  Ludwig von Mises Institute
My Comments:
Interesting article about how current government policy is diluting the hard earned savings that those of us have put away for our retirement years.  We really need to look closely at candidates and their record before electing them to office.

W.C.  

Obamacare website not secure, vulnerable to hackers, technology experts tell Congressional committee

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Orig Post Date:  2013.11.19
Source:  AL.cp,
My Comments:
Another unforeseen side effect for Obama Care, using the Healthcare.gov website could be hazardous to your economic health and identity security.

W.C.  

Who Knows Best

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Orig Post Date:  2013.11.19
Source:  Creators.com
Sometimes I disagree with the lady but I always read her opinions as I respect her ability to analyze a situation and draw conclusions based on on the facts and her own value system.  She almost always exposes enough of the facts to allow me to apply my own value system and draw my own conclusions.  That last paragraph ending with "Worked last time." is in my opinion a fine prophesy of where we are heading politically.
National health programs, which started with the very conservative Otto von Bismark in the 1880s, may be a good idea if implemented in a slow and carefully designed method so as to insure that it does not destroy the national economy.  The problem is Obama Care was implemented in neither a slow or carefully designed method.  Like many medicines, too much, too soon with no consideration for side effects can be fatal to an economy.

W.C.  

Libertarians should take a seat at the Republican Party's table

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Orig Post Date:  2013.11.17
Source:  AL.com
My Comments:
An interesting and really logical idea in my opinion.  The Libertarians that are already in the Republican party (IE the Paul family) have had an effect on the party's positions and an increased Libertarian presence would tend to increase that effect, and maybe even become a major wing in the Republican party.  I for one would welcome this influence as I have tended to be a conservative who finds many things in common with Libertarian thought.

W.C.  

The Economics of ObamaCare

Link To Article

Orig Post Date:  2013.11.14
Source:  Ludwig von Mises Institute
My Comments:
Of particular interest to me is the secgtion titled, The “Unintended” But Entirely Predictable Effects, which explains how these "unintended" effects were entirely predictable, and But the President Said I Could Keep My Plan, which documents that administration officials were forecasting this outcome.  The Job Losses reiterates what anyone who has anyone with a modicum of understanding of economics expected to happen.
But the president continues to say these effects were not expected by him.  Either he is a total idiot or a bald faced teller of untruths.  Read the article and then you decide.

W.C.  

Monsanto’s Friends in High Places

http://mises.org/daily/6580/Monsantos-Friends-in-High-Places

Orig Post Date:  2013.11.09
Source:Ludwig von Mises Institute  
My Comments:
Interesting article on "politics as usual" and not just in the current administration.  How government policy is potentially shaped in ways that are not necessarily in the best interest of the American people.

W.C.