Bookie-Client Confidentiality

I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell:

Data reported in the news media and other sources show that the prices, or spreads, on California CDS wrongly brand our bonds as a greater risk than those issued by such nations as Kazakhstan, Croatia, Bulgaria and Thailand. The perception ofrisk could adversely affect the price of our bonds when we go to market. That makes the CDS market important to our taxpayers. That is why I want to fully understand the municipal CDS market in general, the market for California CDS, and [Goldman-Sachs'] role in these markets.

Lockyer is feeling the heat, but then again, anyone stupid enough to take the job of California State Treasurer deserves to roast in his own juices. California doesn't need Goldman-Sachs to ruin its prospects for funding and recovery; the majority of Californians have already mastered the art of economic destruction, and had been hard at work long before this Depression began to manifest.

The ship's going down, and they're arguing about the position of the deck chairs.

Withholding the truth

Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and we're stuck holding the bill:

Effective Sunday, expect less of a paycheck.

The amount of income tax withheld from your check is going to climb by 10 percent.

In the scheme of things, it's not a big hit, state officials and accountants said. But don't tell that to people who feel it's just another form of taxation to make up for an inept state Legislature.

No amount of taxation could make up for the spendthrift habits of our legislature. Also, it's not "making up" for squat: taxation is not the balancing force to a group of parasitic layabouts, it's symptomatic of their presence. There is no way to gently coerce someone out of their wealth.

"There's some perception that I've heard that this is a 10 percent tax increase ... that's absoslutely not the case," Palmer said. "This will, in no way shape or form, change anybody's tax liability. You owe what you owe."

And employees can always go to their payroll department and ask to withold less, officials said.

Whether it is essentially a tax or not was perhaps not even the greatest concern, the accountant Theisen and others said.

It's a concern about the potential for the state to again face the same woes it endured this year as it teetered on fiscal collapse.

"It's a fix to a problem that's not going to be fixed," Theisen said.

Taxpayers will get their refunds, but they might get IOUs before that, he said.

So, borrowing without permission, with no intention of repayment. Furthermore, what's to prevent the legislature from appropriating one's paycheck two years in advance? Three? Ten? And to what percentage? What are the absolute limits of the appetite of the State? Does anyone really expect them to make good on the IOU scheme?

If anyone required confirmation that one's paycheck is merely what the State allows one to keep after "wetting its beak", this is it.

When in doubt, empty the clip

- Somewhat aged, but as the target flotsam study floats around the confines of the Internet, this should serve to shut down mindless yapping to its affirmative: Eugene Volokh tears into the University of Pennsylvania study claiming that carrying a firearm increases the chances of being shot by 450%.

- Color me unsurprised: the proletariat in the PRK is unhappy with the situation in Sacramento, but is unwilling to remove the persistent source of the problems that plague the state.

- Unpossible; guns are illegal in Chicago! Perhaps if they made them double-plus-ungood-illegal, that would convince those that already disregard the laws to stop disregarding the law.

- Speaking of, guess what has reached a new low?

- It's popular for a reason.

- Wynn is full of win.

- If "recovery" is a new euphemism for "muddled financial cluster-screw", then this does indeed deserve the moniker "Recovery Act".

Another day in the PRK

WTS: Choppah, LNIB

It's a nice gesture, but that's about as far as it goes:

State officials estimate the giant two-day yard sale being held at a state warehouse will bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to clearing out office products, the state is also selling unclaimed property from state parks and items confiscated by law enforcement, said California Department of General Services spokesman Eric Lamoureux.

The prison department contributed dental chairs and surplus prison shirts and jeans.

"This is a win-win for the state and for shoppers," Schwarzenegger said in a statement Tuesday announcing that a selection of items also would be sold on eBay and Craigslist. "Together we are eliminating waste and providing great deals in this tough economy."

Quick math check: being excessively generous and estimating to a cool one million fiat-bills, out of twenty-six billion dollars of debt, that comes to four one-thousandths of one percent of the total state debt.

I'm really glad these modern, forward-thinking politicians are on the job, or else the Peoples' Republik might be in real trouble.

The stupid, it burns!

The goggles, they do nothing!

I hate this state.

The predictability of powermongers and the idiots that follow them

A succinct and scathing examination of the utter idiocy behind HR 2454:

Before the last few years, scholars used to say that we couldn't get a depression today because policymakers wouldn't make mistakes as bad as the ones they made in the 1930s. Though we've made some great moves in the last year — increasing the money supply and guaranteeing money markets funds — we're also repeating many of the same mistakes as Hoover and FDR (propping up failing industries; raising taxes; wasting money on unneeded public works projects; corruption; expensive new anti-business government programs).

Certainly, the Smoot-Hawley bill of 1930 was dumb; it imposed huge tariffs on foreign goods imported into this country, which backfired when those countries raised their tariffs too. In a sense, cap-and-trade looked like it would be even dumber; it seemed that it might impose a tariff on our own US manufactured goods, but not on foreign goods. But the House realized this and decided to require the administration to impose tariffs on goods imported from countries that don't restrict their own emissions to the same extent as the US (tip to Maguire and OandO. This 21st century version of Smoot-Hawley will probably take years before the tariffs will be imposed.

The cap-and-trade bill, if passed by the Senate and actually implemented over the next few decades, would do more damage to the country than any economic legislation passed in at least 100 years. It would eventually send most American manufacturing jobs overseas, reduce American competitiveness, and make Americans much poorer than they would have been without it.

In other news, America still has manufacturing jobs.

The commentary regarding the smug, self-satisfied masturbatory group-think regarding carbon-footprints, offsets, credits, et al from Matt and Trey in the South Park episode "Smug Alert" is both devastatingly funny (although, as one might expect, not safe for work) and tragically accurate; much to the misfortune of the nation, the Bay Area has already demonstrated that not only does it produce power-hungry fascists with questionable mental stability, it can bring the rest of its party to heel with its lunacy.

We are long overdue for a second discussion regarding the voluntary association of "these United States".

Shocked! Shocked!

Evidently, the "increased transparency" in governance has been extended to assertions made while under investigation:

The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee came to the defense of the National Security Agency today, saying that the federal agency didn’t commit flagrant abuses in its program to intercept American’s phone calls and emails — but stopped short of denying that the agency had overstepped its bounds or broken the law.

To quote Rick, "I don't mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one." One would think that the least Pelosi and Feinstein could do would be to share a successful strategy for working the press on their respective denials. Pathetic.

But wait, there's more!

Meanwhile, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized Attorney General Eric Holder, for refusing to declare that the warrantless wiretapping program started under the Bush administration is against the law. Holder testified before the committee today.

“I was disappointed by Attorney General Holder’s unwillingness to repeat what both he and President Obama had stated in the past – that President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program was illegal,” Feingold said in a statement. “For an administration that has repeatedly stated its intention to restore the rule of law, this episode was a step backward.

I suspect that realizing the importance of the case, they are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects.

A half-truth is a whole lie

For the many times I have seen this story posted, not once have I seen a clear distinction made between the Exploring and Boy Scouts, as many that have posted about it have failed to bother themselves with independent research or digging in the New York Times' rubbish-bins. To wit, Learning for Life (the parent organization for Exploring) recently posted a response to the article that addressed the deliberate obfuscation of that distinction:

Last, the article inaccurately describes Explorers as Boy Scouts. Exploring is a program of Learning for Life, a nonprofit organization that provides character and career education programs to participating agencies or groups. Learning for Life is affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America.

Overall, the complete piece was a weak, ineffectual reply to the article, but this is more of a reflection on its leadership, which cannot afford to be principled by nature of its relationship with a broad variety of national education-focused programs. This is not to say that I approve of the aims of the Learning for Life program; to the contrary, I neither approve nor condone the existence of a program so intimately involved with the State, and it is my sincere belief that the Boy Scouts of America would do well to totally disassociate itself from the program and focus its attention on Scouting.

This, of course, is the the point: lingering association with Learning for Life has damaged the reputation of the Boy Scouts of America, and it will continue to do so as long as the BSA continues to espouse its rights as a private organization. This has been the avenue of drift since I was in the Boy Scouts some years ago as a youth, during which traditionally-used buildings on military property at the Defense Language Institute (rest in peace, Uncle Paul) became increasingly unavailable due to the refusal of the BSA to adopt a "more inclusive attitude".

On a more personal note, and speaking for more than a few Eagle Scouts other than myself, involvement in the program has done infinitely more good by us than any of the public-schooling, forced volunteerism or feel-good "Rock The Vote" schema implemented by public do-gooders, even in their most fevered delusions. Indeed, much of this obligatory social-engineering has back-fired due to our Scouting experience, and many of us have become self-professed (and actively agitating) libertarians with a penchant for good-natured mayhem because of it.

It's not a perfect program, but I've yet to see better.

Endeavoring to persevere

Are you gonna pull those pistol-bans or whistle Dixie?

BELLEVUE, WA and REDWOOD CITY, CA – The Second Amendment Foundation, The Calguns Foundation and four California residents today filed a lawsuit challenging a California state law and regulatory scheme that arbitrarily bans handguns based on a roster of “certified” handguns approved by the State. This case parallels a similar case filed in Washington, DC, Hanson v. District of Columbia.

California uses this list despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer that protects handguns that ordinary people traditionally use for self-defense, and a recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments. The California scheme will eventually ban the purchase of almost all new handguns.

Attorney Alan Gura, representing the plaintiffs in this case, noted that California “tells Ivan Peña that his rights have an expiration date based on payment of a government fee. Americans are not limited to a government list of approved books, or approved religions,” he said. “A handgun protected by the Second Amendment does not need to appear on any government-approved list and cannot be banned because a manufacturer does not pay a special annual fee.”

Let me be brief in my analysis: the California Department of Justice can die in a fire for their "approved list", and I hope they choke on the ashes of their paperwork, cursing their mouth-breathing socialist overlords.

I am truly weary of this state being the laughing-stock of the nation.

By what power does the federal government operate? By the power of the sovereigns who chartered it. Arbitrary power exists nowhere in a free republic.

- Thomas Jefferson

When in doubt, empty the clip

- Just in case one needed more iron-clad proof regarding PETA members' mental instability...

- "The rationale goes like this: Vehicle AC units sap engine power and hurt fuel economy. If vehicle paint and glass reflect more heat, car interiors will be cooler. That means drivers will use their AC units less, the compressors won’t have to work as hard and auto makers will be able to use smaller AC units in the future."

... We're doomed, but at least the PRK has a new tag.

- Surprisingly, the answer wasn't Zimbabwe.

- Considering the rash of kidnappings in Mexico and the spill-over of related violence into the southern United States, I'm sure this will provide valuable instruction to the family members of the victims in the years to come.