In a four minute audio snippet from NPR, Montana's governor goes off on the Federal Government and their threatened encroachment on state's rights pertaining to the use of the Real ID card.
I cannot believe this is an actual United States governor talking. This type of cavalier dismissal of the Feds by a high ranking politician is remarkable in today's fear environment. What's next? Talk of secession?
From Andrew Sullivan yesterday,
In a bunch of conversations - all casual, random, varied - with fellow journalists in Washington this past week, I'm struck when the talk moves to Iraq by one thing. I know no one who believes that either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will actually remove any troops...
...Withdrawal in any meaningful way is off the table, as far as Washington is concerned. And when I have raised the serious possibility that this should happen, I am greeted with That Unserious Look.
And they can get away with it as long as a) Americans are not drafted into the military and b) Americans are financially secure with comfy little jobs and warm homes.
Of course, part b may be coming to an end in the next year or two.
As in the unavoidable Laws of Economics. John Robb lays out a brief synopsis of where America's multi-trillion dollar war is leading us to.
American's are starting to ask: for all of this investment, how do I benefit? How does it help me put food on the table, heat my home, or send my kids to college?
Even statist loving columnists like Barry Rascovar understand the damage that the new 6% tax on computer services companies residing in Maryland will do.
...now, computer services will cost an additional 6 percent, which will make Maryland companies providing these services non-competitive. Their rivals in Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and elsewhere just gained a 6 percent edge in bidding on contracts.
Try stripping away 6 percent from a company’s margin. For many smaller companies, that could send them hurtling toward insolvency. No wonder firms already are making plans to move their jobs and locations to other states.
What lawmakers forgot is that information technology is the most mobile industry that exists. Maryland IT services firms have been trying to match the low, low prices of offshore competitors in India and the Ukraine. This new tax will shut local firms out of huge numbers of business opportunities.
When it comes to nations smaller is better.
Europe seems intent on slicing itself up into ever smaller pieces. In the next month, Kosovo is likely to declare independence – making it the seventh new country to emerge from the wreckage of Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union has given way to 15 new states. Even in western Europe, there is talk of Belgium dividing in two, while a pro-independence party has taken power in Scotland...
But if the formation of new countries can be achieved peacefully, it is usually a cause for celebration. This is the age of the small state.
From the new TV series Junk Food Lobbyists Don't Have Enough Money comes this exciting episode.
Federal lawmakers are considering the broadest effort ever to limit what children eat: a national ban on selling candy, sugary soda and salty, fatty food in school snack bars, vending machines and cafeteria lines.
Stillwell notes that some talking heads are beginning to question whether or not American troops should occupy Korea, Japan or Germany indefinitely. This is a new development for Washington Insiders to broach such a sacrilegious idea because it aims a stake at the heart of where our Federal masters draw so much of their influence and power.
While some of the reason probably is the Ron Paul effect, I think a bigger reason is the dawning realization that the American economy is teetering on the brink of suffering a dramatic downturn. The costs of maintaining a huge military presence in the three countries noted above and the continuing fiasco in Iraq will quickly become too much to bear for the quickly devaluing dollar.
If the economy goes in the tank in '08 the easiest place to look to in the Federal budget to cut will be on the Empire Maintenance line.
Americans will ask, What is the Empire doing for me? And they'll answer, Well, not too much.
Then they'll ask, Do I want to maintain my social security disability pay/my soak the young medicare coverage/my daughter's ability to get Federal loans for college so I don't have to ante up? And they'll answer, Hell yes!
Luckily for the Democrats the only people that will move to Pennsylvania and Delaware due to the newly passed tax bill increase are voters who would vote for less government. This demographic movement, which began in the 1950's with flight from Baltimore City into the neighboring counties and then from the neighboring counties into Delaware and Pennsylvania starting in the 1980's, allows the Democrats to continue to hold both houses of the legislature with fillibuster-proof majorities.
Oh, and they slipped the computer services tax back into the bill.
Maryland's sales tax would rise from 5 percent to 6 percent. The sales tax also would be extended to computer services - a key change that would raise an estimated $190 million. The computer services that would be affected include support services for computer systems or data processing facilities, custom computer programming, consulting services regarding computer systems design, and computer disaster recovery services.
Damned if we, our accountant or the Supreme Court will be able to tell if all, some or none of the family business will be subject to this new tax.
Ahhh, but that's exactly the point. The ability to make arbitrary rulings as a result of unclear laws has always been a great tool for those in power to employ.
All the better for the world (including Americans) if Scotland and England break apart. With America's most powerful ally split in two, it's never-ending quest for world domination would be taken down another notch.
Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister, has predicted that Scotland would be independent within a decade.
The surprise forecast is the first time the SNP leader has set a concrete deadline for the break up of the 300-year Union since his party took power six months ago.
A perfect example of the immorality of taxing authority occurred in Maryland over the weekend. Down in Annapolis the Democratic-dominated legislature was trying to finagle the Democratic Governor's $2 billion tax increase past the voters. For a state with a budget around $30 billion that's quite a nice increase for those pigs.
Anyway, there was a controversial tax on landscaping companies and computer service businesses that was set to be passed. The computer service tax rose the eyebrows of my wife and I since she has one of those evil computer service businesses. Well, someone (i.e. influential and vocal citizens/business leaders) got to the legislators before both of those were passed and they were stricken from the tax bill.
Great then! Whoops, not soooo fast. They quickly replaced those two newly stricken tax sources with a brand new one - a tax on all automobile repairs.
The legislature wised up and figured that old people that depend on landscapers as well as regular people might get a bit steamed about the tax increase and choose to lessen their reliance on those businesses. Over the long-term this might decrease tax revenue as Maryland citizens would scale back their use of these services. And in regards to the computer services tax that puppy would strike right at the heart of one of the most dynamic parts of the economy and surely raise the ire of businesses since those types of services can relocate to Pennsylvania or Delaware.
But the auto repair industry? That's an easy one for the politicians. It's a guaranteed consistent revenue stream. Auto repair shops can't easily relocate to nearby states and unlike computer services or landscaping, auto repair is an absolute necessity for consumers. Most people can mow their lawn and some can shop for computer services out of state. But in the case of one's car you gotta have wheels to make money, get those groceries and take grandma to her doctor appointments. Plus, what do the auto repair shops care? They know that their revenue stream is safe because people gotta have them wheels. Therefore, they don't really have a reason to lobby Annapolis and scare the politcians into moving on to some other industry to extort from.
So in the end, Maryland consumers are stuck and the politicians get to stick the tax bill right up their asses.
Two of America's major secessionist groups lead a conference to discuss secession from the United States.
Vermont, one of the nation's most liberal states, has become a hotbed for liberal secessionists, a fringe movement that gained new traction because of the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation of several pro-secession groups.
My question for the leftist Vermont secessionists is whether they'll tone down their secessionary rhetoric if a Democrat wins the presidency. Because, you know, a Democratic President will bring us home from Iraq.
*wink*
The Senate approved a new $150 billion Iraq/Afghanistan War funding package by the vote of 92-3. That means that some Democrats came along for the patriotic ride. Terrified of a backlash by the 30% of Americans who still support the wars, the Democrats who oppose the wars but just voted to continue funding them are, quite simply, capitulators of the worst kind.
The tired argument that if the troops aren't funded then they will starve on the battlefield is non-sensical. Cutting off funding for the troops would cause field commanders in-theatre to immediately re-deploy their forces out of harms way. They'd use the remainder of the funds in the pipeline to fold up shop and retreat to safer territory in Kuwait or Saudi Arabi and await their return home to the United States.
Using the logic that we can't cut funding off to the troops essentially takes all power out of the hands of the Congress and provides the Imperial President the power to decide on all matters relating to war. That is a dictatorship, no?
His article is a bit tounge 'n cheek, but as a believer in the American Greatness Doctrine I take him at his word when he presents his wishlist of where the next five American states will come from. Never has meglomania been so humorous!
Philip Giraldi wargames World War III. Depressing as hell but, hey, it may not happen.
In the space of a paragraph Andrew Sullivan effectively describes who Hillary is...and Bush and the rest of the Washington Elite -- regardless of political affiliation -- at his blog today. Here's his closing,
The conservative Washington Establishment is swooning for Hillary for a reason. The reason is an accommodation with what they see as the next source of power (surprise!); and the desire to see George W. Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq legitimated and extended by a Democratic president (genuine surprise). Hillary is Bush's ticket to posterity. On Iraq, she will be his legacy. They are not that dissimilar after all: both come from royal families, who have divvied up the White House for the past couple of decades. They may oppose one another; but they respect each other as equals in the neo-monarchy that is the current presidency. And so elite conservatives are falling over themselves to embrace a new Queen Hillary, with an empire reaching across Mesopotamia, a recently deposed court just waiting to return to the salons of DC, a consort happy to be co-president for another four years, and a back-channel to the other royal family. She'll even have more powers than Clinton I, because Cheney has given her back various royal prerogatives: arrests without charges, torture, wire-tapping, and spy-ware on your Expedia account. Only the coronation awaits.
One can imagine the fear that the Establishment would have if Ron Paul became a major player in the upcoming election year. In much the same way the Establishment deals with the current Iranian "problem", I truly believe nothing would be taken off the table in combating a surging Paul candidacy.
Nothing.
The next country where secessionary forces may win out could occur in the country where the European Union is headquartered. Open talk of a break-up of Belgium abounds in the northwestern European state and would probably occur along the lines of the French-speaking Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemings. The scenario seen in the picture below shows three new countries being formed. There are other possible scenarios that could unfold during a break-up of Belgium. Some of those include pieces of Belgium linking up with France, Germany and Luxemburg. Let's hope that doesn't happen and they eventually split into a bunch of new countries. The more the merrier for the cause of liberty.
Here's a nugget from Hans Herman-Hoppe on one of the differences of being ruled by a King or a President.
Both kings and presidents will produce bads, yet a king, because he "owns" the monopoly and may sell or bequeath it, will care about the repercussions of his actions on capital values. As the owner of the capital stock on "his" territory, the king will be comparatively future-oriented. In order to preserve or enhance the value of his property, he will exploit only moderately and calculatingly. In contrast, a temporary and interchangeable democratic caretaker does not own the country, but as long as he is in office he is permitted to use it to his advantage. He owns its current use but not its capital stock. This does not eliminate exploitation. Instead, it makes exploitation shortsighted (present-oriented) and uncalculated, i.e., carried out without regard for the value of the capital stock.
So which evil would you support?
Over the years I have yet to read a pundit who knows more inane as well as interesting political information than neo-con sympathizer Michael Barone
Here's his full breakdown of the Iowa GOP Straw Poll results. The vitriolic Paul blurb is a dandy.
I didn't know that Greenland is an autonomous province of Denmark. Oh yeah, and the Russians are claiming a spit of land just to the north of them that may net them 10 billion gallons of oil.
