The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

New York Times to Herman Cain: ‘Hey, You’re Kind of Black, Aren’t You?’

Posted on | July 1, 2011 | 7 Comments

They sent a reporter to interview Herman Cain during the Right Online conference, and the first four questions in the interview are about race.

Not like they’re obsessed or anything.

Meanwhile, here’s the last video from the Cain campaign:

HERMAN CAIN for PRESIDENT
Because The New York Times Would Go Nuts

Category: Election 2012, Herman Cain, New York Times

Nothing Jeopardizes My Pawlenty Support Like The Thought Of McCotter Running For POTUS

Posted on | July 1, 2011 | 20 Comments

by Smitty

Hot damn!, via Hot Air. I’m totally a fan of this guy: a wonkish chap who serves up a pure stream of liberty-oriented thinking with dry, understated humor. Probably there would be some of the usual politician ego (UPE) in him somewhere, but one suspects you’d have to look harder than in most people to discover UPE in him.
I admit that I have not read his book, Seize Freedom for two reasons:

  1. Not available on Kindle yet.
  2. Too busy Enduring Freedom to seize it, IYKWIMAATYD.

Mad pr0pz to teh Thad!

Category: Uncategorized

Jeff Bezos Is John Galt

Posted on | July 1, 2011 | 26 Comments

Following up on California’s blunderheaded Internet sales tax — motivated by “typically short-sighted, money-grubbing desperation,” says the Orange County Register — I found this video in which Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos explained why this tax is not merely idiotic, but unconstitutional:

What it is, really, is an attempt by state governments to impose a tariff on goods sold by out-of-state mail-order vendors, thus usurping the power to regulate interstate commerce, which the Constitution specifically delegates to the federal government.

Whether individual customers order by mail or over the Internet, the transaction is the same, and there is extensive legal precedent that out-of-state mail-order vendors cannot be compelled to collect state sales taxes on such transactions.

What California authorities are trying to claim is that the California-based operators of Web sites which have affiliate programs with Amazon (or other online vendors) constitute a resident “nexus” that permits the state to collect sales tax. But this claim is demonstrably absurd.

The Amazon links on my blog are merely advertisements, for which I collect a (small) commission based on the sales generated by readers clicking through. California’s argument is like saying that, if a magazine based in New York published an advertisment for a Texas-based mail-order company, this advertisement constitutes a basis for making the Texas company collect New York sales tax.

A person who clicks on an Amazon ad might be in Florida or Oregon, so why does the fact that the Web site operator resides in California create a basis for collecting California sales tax on what would otherwise be a mail-order transaction exempt from state income tax?

People warned California Gov. Jerry Brown what he was risking by signing this idiotic Internet tax:

Rebecca Madigan, Executive Director of the Performance Marketing Association, stated, “The devastation is immediate, because the law went into effect upon signing. We tried to communicate to the Governor that this bill would only lead to dramatic income loss of small businesses and job loss, and he signed the bill anyway.”
Similar legislation has been proposed in numerous other states, only to be rejected because those elected officials recognized these proposals do not generate any additional sales tax revenue and, in fact, harm small businesses. When out-of state retailers stopped advertising on in-state websites, the states collect no new sales tax, and in fact lose income tax revenue.

So Amazon shut down its affiliate operations in California, which immediately deprived Bill Quick of more than $3,000 in annual income from Amazon. (That’s waaay more than I collect off Amazon sales, but then again, Bill’s the guy who named the blogosphere.) Jimmie Bise is amazed by the sadism of Democrats.

While the shutdown of thousands of California affiliate accounts was a drastic measure, Bezos was right to do what he did because if he didn’t, every other state would be tempted to try the same unconstitutional tax scam. By putting the economic power of his company decisively in the balance against this scam, Bezos is doing all he can to encourage the repeal of the California law and prevent other states from dogpiling.

Meanwhile, smart people in California are doing the only thing smart people in California can do: Get the hell out of California!

One affiliate, Ken Rockwell of San Diego, the owner of a 12-year-old photography website, said he planned to move out of state. “Will it be Las Vegas or Scottsdale or Ensenada?” he said. “It’s a question of where, not if.”

Like I said, California is Zimbabwe, U.S.A.

Category: California, Taxes

LIVE AT FIVE – 07.01.11

Posted on | July 1, 2011 | 2 Comments

TOP NEWS
Senate Cancels July 4 Recess

President pauses for thought during Tuesday's press conference

Senate returns to work July 5 as debt ceiling looms

Abortion Provider Sues To Halt New Kansas Clinic Rules
Seeks Federal injunction against state’s new abortion clinic regulations


Chavez Admits To Having Cancerous Tumor Removed
Still under treatment in Cuba for “diverse cells”



POLITICS
Fire Menacing Los Alamos Lab Grows To Record Size

Sunset through smoke of the Las Conchas fire in Los Alamos

Nearly 93,000 acres of pine forest burned so far

Michelle Obama Hits Boston Up For Re-Election Cash

Minnesota State Gov’t Shuts Down As Budget Talks Fail; No Special Session Planned

Romney Keeps Sights On Obama, Economy

Unfunny Dork Gets Vanity PAC Approved; FEC Also Limits Candidates’ Donations To “Super PACs”

Gov. Huntsman Raises $4.1 Million In First Days Of Campaigning

SecDef Gates Retires, Gets Medal Of Freedom As Parting Gift

Obama Whines About Tone Of Early Campaigning



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Geithner Quashes Departure Rumors
BOJ Quarterly Survey Shows Japan’s Manufacturers Still Depressed
FCC Probes Twitter For Antitrust Abuses
Corn, Wheat Futures Fall As USDA Raises Crop Prospects & Stock Levels
Amazon Won’t Collect California Sales Tax, Turns California Affiliates Loose
Nikkei Index Rises As Greek Worries Recede
ROK Inflation Hits Three-Month High
Nine Reasons To Switch From Facebook To Google+
Mossberg: TouchPad Needs More Apps And A Reboot To Rival iPad
“Indestructible” Rootkit Enslaves 4.5 Million PCs In Three Months
IBM Announces Computer Memory Breakthrough
A Tablet That Wants To Take Over The Desktop



SPORTS
NBA Lockout Begins

NBA commissioner David Stern

Commissioner claims 22 of 30 teams unprofitable. (Yeah, right.)

Sharapova In The Finals After Beating Lisicki

LA’s NFL Stadium Effort On Track


NFL Lockout Talks Stretch Into The Night

O’s Send Struggling Matusz To Minors

Astros’ Magic Wandy Shuts Down Rangers

Dodgers Staff Checks Bounced When Accounts Frozen

Tigers’ Verlander Can’t Find Rhythm But Finds A Win To Avoid Sweep



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Cops Avert Suicide Bid By Tudors’ Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Too many bottles and too many pills; back to rehab?

Lindsay Lohan Stumbles On First Night Of Freedom

Angelina Jolie & The Kids Go Bowling

Gwyneth Paltrow Nearly Nude For VF Calendar

All Four Judges Returning To “The Voice” After Finale Spikes Ratings

Starz Declines “Camelot” Renewal

Charlie Sheen Talks Steroids, Baseball, “Major League” And More

“White Devil” Amy Winehouse’s Website Hacked

Heidi Klum: You’re Never Too Old For Topless Tanning

Anderson Cooper Discusses Kim Kardashian’s Butt, An Issue Of Vital National Importance



FOREIGNERS
Libyan Opposition Leader Looking For Guns & Money
Apparently has enough lawyers already
CCP Celebrates 90th Anniversary
International Tribunal Indicts 4 In Assassination Of Rafik Hariri
Pakistan Claims 40 Militants Killed In Tribal Belt
UK Public Sector Strike Has Uneven Impact
Poland Set To Assume EU Presidency
Italy Approves Austerity Package
Egyptian Fenugreek Seeds Responsible For Deadly E. Coli Outbreak?



BLOGS & STUFF
Allahpundit: Surprise, Thad McCotter To Announce Presidential Run Saturday
Lonely Conservative: I Wonder How Much Chuck Schumer’s “Jobs” Plan Will Cost Us
Troglopundit: “I Feel Like George Bailey In ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ – God Bless You, You Good Old Federal Election Commission!”
Clayton Cramer: If An Opponent Of Same-Sex Marriage Said This, It Would Be Bigotry
Weasel Zippers: Harvard Study Says July 4th Parades Only Energize Republican Voters, Increase Likelihood Kids Will Vote For GOP
Moonbattery: How To Have An Environmentally Sanctimonious 4th Of July
American Thinker: A Dangerous Point Of View, Indeed
Randy Barnett: Eight Things to Know About Yesterday’s Sixth Circuit Decision
American Spectator: An Obsession With Corporate Jets
Maggie Gallagher: New York’s GOP Lets Down The Base

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

Self-Proclaimed Pagan Rob Taylor Lectures Conservatives on Morality?

Posted on | June 30, 2011 | 42 Comments

In January, I took note of Rob Taylor’s post calling for conservatives to “outreach” to the . . . er, Pagan community:

“As a Pagan I can tell you that I, like many others, strongly support economic freedom, limited government, a strong nationals defense and law and order. Many Pagans are also pro-life, anti-drug and pro-traditional marriage. Should Pagans be turned away because they aren’t Christians?
“The Pagan Right is a vigorous defender of conservative values and classical liberalism in an arena that few other conservatives have access to. It is time the movements were linked together so that both are strengthened.”

Taylor’s argument was highly unusual, advocating a policy unlikely to yield much in the way of electoral addition, as it seems to me Democrats have a pretty solid hold on the idolators of Moloch and Ashtoreth who, as Lisa Graas noted, are not particularly numerous in America anyway.

Readers can perhaps imagine my surprise today when Donald Douglas called my attention to a diary that Rob Taylor posted at Red State:

The Death of Morality and the End of America
. . . The left has long embraced the view that our morality was not only subjective, but a barbarous relic of the past best left behind like all the other great and noble ideas of Western Civilization. The left has promoted the myth that others have no right to judge you no matter what you’ve done, that you should feel no shame no matter how depraved your actions are. And all Americans have to one extent or another embraced that notion. We wallow in our pens of decadence covered in the filth we pretend is freedom and watch the world built on 5,000 years of Western morality burn around us. . . .

What was so striking about Taylor’s sudden emergence as a defender of the “great and noble ideas of Western Civilization” was that, in the process of proclaiming himself a Conservative Moral Arbiter, the pagan decided once again to grind his ax against me. Read more

Category: Rule 4

Amazon Goes Galt, Cuts Off California to Avoid Internet Tax in Zimbabwe, U.S.A.

Posted on | June 30, 2011 | 38 Comments

It was in February 2009 that I first compared the situation in California to Mugabe’s bankrupt kleptocracy. And the situation is only getting worse:

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law California’s tax on Internet sales through affiliate advertising which will immediately cut small-business website revenue 20% to 30%, experts say.
The bill, AB 28X, takes effect immediately. The state Board of Equalization says the tax will raise $200 million a year, but critics claim it will raise nothing because online retailers will end their affiliate programs rather than collect the tax.
Amazon has already emailed its termination of its affiliate advertising program with 25,000 websites.

In essence, Amazon has “gone Galt” rather than submit to California’s Internet tax. The immediate victims? California bloggers like Donald Douglas at American Power.

For the benefit of anyone too stupid to understand why the California Internet tax is a bad idea: All the revenue from sales commissions to California’s 25,000 Web site operators who had participated in the Amazon Associates program was taxable as income.

Now? Zero income. And also zero sales.

Ergo, nothing to tax.

It is astonishing to see how California, where venture capitalists once made Silicon Valley the world capital of technological innovation, has now turned anti-capitalism, anti-technology and anti-innovation, driving the world’s largest Internet retailer out of America’s most populous state.

Category: Amazon, California, Taxes

Labor Unions Kill Jobs. Period.

Posted on | June 30, 2011 | 9 Comments

Sean Higgins of Investors Business Daily reports:

The business world is abuzz over the National Labor Relations Board’s complaint vs. Boeing’s new South Carolina production line. For NLRB critics, the case boils down to one thing: “right-to-work” laws.
Right-to-work states have generally lower unemployment, higher job growth, lower taxes and better business climates. They have growing populations and have been attracting businesses from other states.
In most states, once a workplace is unionized, employees are required to join the union or they can’t work there. But 22 states, including South Carolina, have passed laws that give employees the right not to join. Hence the term “right-to-work.”

The facts are beyond dispute:

Category: Economics, South Carolina, Unions

Divisive

Posted on | June 30, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

The Pledge of Allegiance is a simple, yet ironic litmus test in contemporary America. Protein Wisdom notes that the Pledge, designed to bring Americans together, is divisive.

And who is rejecting this pledge? Is it those who want to preserve liberty?

Why, no. No, it’s not. The people rejecting the Pledge are those who would take liberty, binding Americans together with laws, to quote Zappa

. . .carefully described in tiny paragraphs, so as not to conflict with the Constitution . . . which, itself, is being modified, in order to accomodate The Future!

When a Progressive gripes about the pledge, it’s just another superficial attempt by liars to distract from their subterfuge. I think they seriously believe people are stupid, sheepish, and incapable of seeing through the distraction offered.

It would probably be funny, if not so corrosive and threatening to the moral fiber of the country.

Category: Uncategorized
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