Today is Texas Independence Day. On March 2, 1836, the Republic of Texas declared independence from Mexico.
Here’s Ted Cruz’s message from last year.
And here’s “The Yellow Rose of Texas”:
Happy Texas Independence Day!
March 2nd, 2013California: More Boning
March 1st, 2013Naturally the day after I post my usual Texas vs. California update, I see this five part California in Crisis series by Conn Carroll in The Examiner.
The first part is a general overview.
In his state of the state speech, Brown claimed, “California lost 1.3 million jobs in the Great Recession, but we are coming back at a faster pace than the national average.” The first half of Brown’s statement is true, but the second half is not. California has only gained back 556,000 jobs since the recession ended, or 42 percent of those lost — well below the national average of 60 percent regained. As a result, California’s unemployment rate is still near double-digits at 9.8 percent. By comparison, Texas, which lost 427,000 jobs during the recession, has gained them all back and created an additional 265,000.
California is no longer a model that other states want to or should emulate. It currently has the nation’s third highest unemployment rate, its highest poverty rate and more than one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients.
What happened?
To make a long story short, the same political constituencies that have made Brown’s Democratic Party invincible at the ballot box have also made the state unable to compete economically. California public employees, who are represented by the nation’s most politically powerful government unions, benefit from some of the nation’s most generous compensation packages. These unions have made it nearly impossible to keep spending down, thus making debt and higher taxes inevitable.
These unions also make it impossible to improve how government services are delivered to taxpayers. As a result, while California once had the most admired education system in the nation, it now ranks near the bottom in almost every measured educational category.
The state’s powerful environmental lobby has secured a slew of green energy regulations, including strict clean air rules, the nation’s first carbon cap-and-trade program and an ambitious renewable energy mandate. As a result, energy prices have shot up, consumers now have less to spend on everything else they need to survive, and many manufacturers can’t stay profitable in the state.
Finally, wealthy urban environmentalists have completely inverted the infrastructure spending priorities that once made California an engine of economic and population growth. Endangered species of wildlife are now favored over farmers and food. Highways and suburbs are losing out to mass transit and urban centers. The emerging result is a disappearing middle class, and what’s left of the state is split between a highly educated, landed, wealthy and elderly elite, and a poor, government-dependent, uneducated lower class.
The second part goes into how Jerry Brown’s budget surplus is illusory: “Since the recession began, governors’ budget projections have overestimated revenue by an average of 5.5 percent. Apply that average to Brown’s 2013 projections, and California’s budget would suddenly go from $1 billion in the black to $3.9 billion in the red.”
Also:
California is controlled by the Democratic Party, and the California Democratic Party is controlled by the state’s government employee unions. You can’t win a statewide election there without at least the tacit approval of those unions. And for decades, the cost of their friendship has been protection from spending cuts in lean times and generous retirement package increases in good times.
Further:
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, government unions at the state level won huge increases in retirement benefits, including a lowered retirement age and more favorable benefit formulas. As a result, the state’s two biggest retirement funds, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS, and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, are both underfunded by $64 billion and $52 billion respectively. According to a recent report, Brown would need to spend an additional $4.5 billion per year just to make CalSTRS solvent.
The third part focuses on California’s expensive-yet-failing education system, while the fourth and fifth parts deal with green delusions. Including this gem: “fewer than 2,500 green jobs have been created in California since 2010.”
There’s not a whole lot that will be unfamiliar if you’ve been following my Texas vs. California updates, but it’s a very solid overview series. And yes, Texas gets a mention.
Read the whole thing.
Texas Vs. California Update for February 28, 2013
February 28th, 2013I’m running out of month! Here’s another quick Texas vs. California update:
Vetting the “Pro-Gun” Democrats: Senator Max Baucus of Montana
February 27th, 2013With hearings beginning as proponents of civilian disarmament gear up for their best chance since the Clinton years to erode America’s Second Amendment rights, now’s a good time to look a good, long look at some of those supposedly “Pro-Gun” Democrats. Let’s start with the Senate, where the anti-gun Washington Post has provided a handy chart of ratings for each Senator from both the NRA and Gun Owners of America.
Ranking highest among all Democrats is Senator Max Baucus of Montana. Baucus has been in the Senate since 1978 (disco was still alive, and LeBron James hadn’t been born) and is up for reelection in 2014. Baucus got an A from the NRA (just short of their top A+ rating), but gets a D- from Gun Owners of America. But the NRA A rating listed by the Post is out-of-date, since the NRA is now running attack ads against Baucus.
GOA seems to have based their ratings on a number of actual votes where Baucus voted against the interests of gun owners. Baucus has a record that seems to indicate support of gun-owner rights…except when it matters. In truth we already know that Baucus is willing to break his promises and betray gun owners, because he’s done it before. Back in 1993, “Baucus broke his promises and broke trust with the people of Montana by voting for both the Brady waiting period and the Feinstein semi-auto ban.”
Yet more proof that when push comes to shove, there’s no such thing as a pro-gun Democrat at the national level. Max Baucus is even less “pro gun” than Bart Stupak was “pro life.”
Is Baucus vulnerable in 2014? A late 2011 poll found that he was “one of the least popular Senators in the country with only 37% of voters approving of him to 51% who disapprove.” Sounds like a great Republican pickup target for me, especially given what a deep red state Montana is. Baucus is also one of Capitol Hill’s most notorious pork barons, writing reams of crony giveaways into law as part of the “fiscal cliff” deal. Interestingly, he’s also suffered an exodus of high profile staffers.
Montana gun owners should contact Baucus to let them know that any sellout of gun owner’s rights is unacceptable.
The Twitter account for @MaxBaucus.
Here’s his DC contact info:
United States Senate
511 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2602
DC Phone: 202-224-2651
DC Fax: 202-224-9412
Here are some of his staffers:
Chief of Staff: Paul Wilkins
Scheduler: Brenda Carney
Legislative Director: Heather O’Loughlin
Communications Director: Jennifer Donohue
And here is the contact information on his regional offices:
Billings
222 N 32nd St Ste 100
Billings, MT 59101
(406) 657-6790
Bozeman
220 W Lamme Ste 1D
Bozeman, MT 59715
(406) 586-6104
Butte
245 E Park St LL E
Butte, MT 59701
(406) 782-8700
Glendive
122 W Towne St
Glendive, MT 59330
(406) 365-7002
Great Falls
113 3rd St N
Great Falls, MT 59401
(406) 761-1574
Helena
30 W 14th St Ste 206
Helena, MT 59601
(406) 449-5480
Kalispell
8 3rd St E
Kalispell, MT 59901
(406) 756-1150
Missoula
280 E Front St Ste 100
Missoula, MT 59802
(406) 329-3123
Federalist Society Symposium at UT Featuring Ted Cruz
February 27th, 2013Attention UT students: The Federalist Society is having a Symposium Friday and Saturday, March 1-2 at UT on the subject of the federal Leviathan state. Ted Cruz will be the keynote speaker at BBQ on Saturday, and other legal heavy hitters includes Jeremy Rabkin and Richard Epstein. If you’re a UT student (or just interested in the subject) I’d encourage you to attend.
Profiles in Criminal Genius
February 25th, 2013This week’s criminal super-genius comes comes to use from Davenport, Iowa. Warning: The codeword for this caper is “Ewwwwwwwww!” I wouldn’t click that link before dinner, as the perp was a complete dumbass in more than one sense of the word.
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
LinkSwarm for February 22, 2013
February 22nd, 2013Enjoy your now-traditional Friday LinkSwarm:
Texas vs. California Update for February 21, 2013
February 21st, 2013Another Texas vs. California update! And I don’t even have a line item on how the Houston Rockets picked the Sacramento Kings’ pockets’ in yesterday’s trade.
Republicans Going Wobbly On Magazine Bans?
February 20th, 2013Bad news: There are signs that some Republicans are thinking of caving on magazine capacity bans. “An increasing number of lawmakers in both parties appear willing to compromise on high-capacity magazines, the one component of gun control legislation that seems palatable to Republicans who view a full ban on assault weapons as politically toxic.”
There’s also this report from last year that suggests some Republicans are thinking of caving.
Democrats in congress have already introduced bills to ban standard capacity magazines. In the Senate, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has introduced legislation (S.33) that would ban the manufacture and sale of magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds. In the House, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)’s H.138 would do the same.
If there’s a bright spot, it’s that neither piece actually names any Republicans. It could be the usual case of Democratic allies in the media trying to make a magazine ban look “inevitable,” when in truth it’s anything but.
But gun owners can’t take that risk. Democrats believe they can achieve gun control (and eventually a complete ban on civilian firearms ownership) incrementally, and a useless, cosmetic ban on easily machined pieces of metal and plastic is part of their divide and conquer strategy. We need to make a magazine capacity ban every bit as “politically toxic” as any other gun control measure. Gun owners should let their senators and congressmen know we’re having none of it. You need to tell them you absolutely oppose any magazine capacity ban.
I’ll even provide a sample letter:
Dear ENTER NAME HERE,
Since you’re my representative, I just wanted to write you today in opposition to the firearm capacity bans currently proposed in congress. Both Senate Bill 33 and House Bill 138 seek to ban firearm magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds. This is a foolish, irrational, and unconstitutional idea for many reasons.
First, several modern weapons are designed and shipped with magazines of higher capacities. Glock pistols, for instance, regularly ship with 17 round magazines. Second, like all gun control laws, it only penalizes the law abiding, as criminals will continue to use any capacity magazine they want. Third, with tens (if not hundreds) of millions of higher capacity magazines already in circulation, the ban would only penalize law-abiding gun owners purchasing from licensed firearms dealers. Fourth, the ban would be unenforceable for the non-law abiding, as magazines, being relatively simple mechanisms of metal and plastic, can easily be manufactured by anyone with basic machining equipment. Finally, such a ban violates not only the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, but also the 10th, as the Constitution nowhere specifies a role for government in regulating firearm magazine capacity, thus leaving the matter to the states.
This issue is very important to me, my family, my friends, and all other law-abiding firearms owners. We’re being scapegoated and hung out to dry by irrational appeals to emotion and knee-jerk legislation being pushed in response to the isolated actions of madmen. Instead of addressing the real root causes of mental health, liberals and their media allies seek to cow and stigmatize the sane and law-abiding over the actions of the criminal and insane as part of their long-term goal of completely eliminating civilian firearm ownership. As such, there can be no compromise on this issue, and any ban on 15, 20, or 30 round magazines must be categorically rejected as an irrational infringement of the rights of law-abiding Americans.
I urge you in the strongest possible terms to reject any magazine capacity ban bills.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME AND CONTACT ADDRESS
Here’s Dwight page of contact information for their Texas Congressional representatives, and here’s a link for any other congressional critters.
And the NRA-ILA just sent around a list of senate phone numbers to contact:
And after you’ve contacted your representatives, follow up. If they say they’re opposed, send them a thank you note. If they say they support such a bill, or waffle (“the Senator only supports reasonable firearms legislation”), keep after them. Ask them for a definitive answer and express your opposition. Tell them voting for a bill is cause not only for voting against them, but for backing both primary and general election challenges against them.
Gun banners only succeed when we fail to oppose them hard enough. Keep up the pressure.
Instapundit’s Favorite Word
February 19th, 2013See if you can fill in the blank for the following headline:
“Homebuilder Confidence in U.S. BLANK Fell in February”
Having trouble? Try again with the first sentence
“Confidence among U.S. homebuilders BLANK dropped in February from a more than six-year high, a sign the real-estate market will take time to accelerate.”
If you’ve been reading Instapundit for any length of time, you know exactly what the word replaced with BLANK is. And that word is “unexpectedly.”
Gee, how could anyone possibly have seen that continued high unemployment and an economy that is shrinking might negatively impact the housing market? (And of course, when the economy shrank, the shrinkage happened “unexpectedly.”)
Obama and friends keep trying and trying neo-Keynesian pump-priming and keep getting the same results: economic stagnation. While trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of madness, that doesn’t matter to them, since it allows them to continue the payoffs to cronies and interest groups that keep the Big Government Class in power (and rolling in taxpayer dough). Germany and Estonia performed no or minimal “stimulus” deficit spending and their economies are growing again. Obama and congressional Democrats have taken the opposite tack: Keep pouring money down the big government rathole and hope that results this year won’t be identical to the last four. My prediction: higher deficits, continued high unemployment and continued economic stagnation.
And each and every negative economic indicator the media will report as arriving “unexpectedly.”
Expect it.