Texas Is Safe Again

Texas Lege Special Session has adjourned, having done the 'bare bones' things to keep agencies alive until 2011. And so we bid Farewell to the lege until 2011. Texas Is Safe Again.

Kudlow: June Jobs Tell a Bad Story

When Larry "Economic Sunshine" Kudlow says its bad ... we are looking at grim jobs numbers, another 467,000 jobs lost this month, near double-digit unemployment. The economy has bottomed perhaps, but shows little tendency to get up off the mat - the "L" shaped economy. The road to 4 million jobs is going in reverse, with 3 million jobs lost since inauguration day.

The Stimulus Bill has been a 'miserable failure':

TCR: Double Standard For Harris County Republican Office Holders GOP

TCR latest article: Double Standard For Harris County Republican Office Holders:

In the media it's déjà vu all over again with the 2010 elections coming soon, we now have an attempt to replay the themes of the 2008 election cycle. The Houston major media never misses an opportunity to rip Republicans, while Democrats operating similarly are left alone. The recent story of alleged voter registration irregularities continues and now an assistant to Tax-Assessor Collector Leo Vasquez is attacked because on his own time he sells voter lists, while at the same time one county-wide Democratic office holder employs a well known Democratic consultant, and another one has an experienced political operative on the payroll. So do we have a double standard? Seems so.
TCR Comment: What's the big deal? One thing's for sure, don't criticize one side and let the other off the hook.

The Problem with Health Care in One Picture

Drum Roll: The Problem With Health Care Is…

Consumers Turning Nose at Government Car Makers

Today's WSJ news -- that "The three biggest car makers in America called a bottom to the long decline in U.S. auto sales" based on June sales -- contains a nugget of information that may be interesting to watch in the future.

Namely, GM and Chrysler -- the two U.S. government and union owned automakers -- reported reeling sales.

GM said its sales fell 33% to 174,785 vehicles, Chrysler Group LLC's declined 42% to 68,297 and even Toyota's were down 32% at 131,654.

Ford, the only one of the Big Three Detroit auto makers that didn't require government bailout loans and stayed out of bankruptcy-court proceedings, reported its sales declined just 11%, to 154,873 cars and trucks. That total allowed Ford to outsell Toyota for the fourth straight month.

Hmmm...me thinks Americans already may be suspicious of the prospects for government owned autos. No warranties, poor workmanship, service desk run arounds (even more so than now). They don't want to own anything that the government and unions will have future control over. Who's going to trust government workmanship?

Indeed, rental car companies don't want any part of the GM/Chrysler vehicles:

The sharp declines at GM and Chrysler were caused in part by significantly lower sales to fleet customers such as rental-car companies. GM's fleet sales were down 49% and Chrysler's 95%.

We'll have to watch sales the next few months to see whether this is just a one-month market reaction or general skepticism.

Todd Herman and TechRepublican At PDF 2009

Personal Democracy Forum or PDF is a Forum about how the internet and social media impacts politics and vice versa. It bills itself as "the world's largest and best known conference on the intersection of technology and politics." They just held their 2009 forum.

Some TechRepublican blog posts on the forum: 5 Things I Learned at PDF from Joe Mansour, including how the Pickens Plan recruited 1.5 million volunteers in 8 months.Todd Herman (from RNC) discusses GOPs next steps in web development. "45 days" to relaunch on GOP.com. Which notes:

“Despite the Dem’s recent success in using the internet, Republicans as a whole (68%) are actually more likely to be online political users then Dem’s (53%). 84% of Republicans go online and of that group 79% are online political users. Only 40% of Republicans engage in online activism. (Online activism is defined by three components; 1) going online for political news and information 2) communicating with others about politics online and 3) using social media tools (FBOOK, Twitter, Email) to interact with other voters/campaigns.)”

Wait a sec - only 40% of Republicans? That actually sounds huge, it could mean 32,000 Republican online activists in Travis alone. Republicans need facebook but maybe they need MySpace too to reach the 'other half' of social media consumers.

PS. Rick Perry does social media. New twitter slogan - "So easy, an Aggie can do it!"

Austin and Texas July 4th Tea Parties

If you were wondering "what next" for the  Tea Party movement that rallied 700,000 on April 15th: They are doing it again.  There are rallies locally in Austin and across Texas in the patriotic spirit of America's Declaration of Independence.

The Dallas July 4th Tea Party event is being planned and billed as an extravaganza:

Nationally-known speakers – World-famous musicians – Fantastic fireworks extravaganza – Food, fun and more! 

Tens of thousands of citizens from Texas and around the region are expected to turn out from 3pm to midnight on July 4, 2009 for America’s Tea Party, a FREE rally and fireworks show to be held at the famous Southfork Ranch near Dallas, TX. Southfork is internationally known as the film location for the legendary “Dallas” television series.

Here are the Austin Tea Party Rallies with special guests at a Friday rally and a July 4th rally:

July 3rd, 9:00am to 11:00am, Austin Tea Party
Zilker Park Polo Field [Barton Springs Road and MOPAC]
Special guests: Joe the Plumber and KLBJ morning talk show host Sgt. Sam Cox
More info at http://www.havinganaustinteaparty.com

July 4th, 2:00pm to 4:00pm, Austin Independence Day Tea Party
Texas State Capitol South Steps/Lawn
Special guests: U.S. Senator John Cornyn, U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert, State Rep. Wayne Christian, others
More info at http://austinreteaparty.com/default.aspx

After July 4th comes 9/12 March on Washington DC.

ACES Massive Failure: No Nukes

Betting Blind on ACES describes the sausage-making process of side-deals and payofss used to make the cap-and-trade-and-tax-regulate Waxman-Markey bill, also known as ACES. Among the many dangerous provisions of this assault on the middle class and working families was this:

Among other things, Waxman-Markey would impose a federal renewable-portfolio standard, requiring 15 percent of electricity from each utility to come from renewable energy sources, and an additional 5 percent to come from conservation and efficiency improvements.

Here's the problem: That's an expensive and wrongheaded way to address CO2 emissions. Only certain 'renewables'? The smart way would be to look at ANY ALTERNATIVE THAT REDUCES CO2 EMISSIONS and treat them according to the CO2 reduction. (That is, if your goal is CO2 reduction and not some other hair-shirt eco-extremist de-industrialization goal.) Accordingly, you wouldn't have a renewable mandate so much as alternative or GHG-free energy mandate. That would include 'clean coal', nuclear, hydro, as well as the much-subsidized wind and solar.

Now, Rep Bilbray had an interesting amendment that if enacted could have solved the US contributation to the hypothesized global warming problem. Rep Bilbray extended the definition of 'renewable' to include nuclear and then increased the renewable mandate percentage so the mandate would have a truly significant impact on reducing CO2 emissions from power plants. This one simple provision, which probably is only a few pages could replace this entire 1200 page monstrosity and yet do more to reduce CO2 emissions. You see, almost half of our CO2 emissions comes from power plants; the CO2 emissions are directly linked to the type of power plants built. Build coal plants, get lots of emissions; build gas-fired, get less; build nuclear, get zero CO2 emissions. Nuclear energy is responsible for more CO2 emissions reduction than any other form of non-fossil-fuel energy. I have stated previously on the blog that the solution to global warming was simply to build 400 nuclear power plants. Change 70% of our baseload electricity generation to nuclear, and we will have cut US CO2 emissions almost in half, a more than adequate goal for 2050.

I have described this bill as a "all pain, no gain" bill. It will create huge regulatory overheads, massive cost-shifting, incentivizes shipping industrial jobs overseas (refinery companies have said directly that this bill will make us import refined fuel instead of processing it here, in effect exporting the oil refinery business). And what's the 'gain'? To global CO2 emissions, almost nothing. ACES is a failure on many levels, but its failure to even do the job the bill is supposed to is perhaps the worst. Fixing the renewable mandate to include nuclear would be a major improvement that would go a long way

This Pelosi Congress is incapable of doing anything right, so the best hope is for this bill to hit a quagmire in the US Senate. Unfortunately, that is less likely now that the Senate Democrats have 60 Senators, a filibuster proof majority.

Obama's Two Clocks

On Iran, The Fierce Urgency of Let's Not Rush Anything, but on his expansions of Government power like the Waxman-Markey travesty, he couldn't even wait the promised five days for public review of the legislation. Indeed: "a physical copy of the final bill didn’t yet exist when it passed", yet CO2 impacts climate at such a slow pace that even the IPCC estimates of global warming are measures in tenths of a degree per decade.

Obama is engaged in the fierce urgency of doing something before the political pendulum swings back. And it is starting to swing, it's just a matter of how much liberalism Obama will rush to implement before it does.

Winning Against the Odds

A Malcolm Gladwell essay "How David beats Goliath" shares lessons on how underdogs win.

Rule #1 - Change the rules of the game: Gladwell talks of how a teenaged girl's basketball team of no particular ability achieved success by upending the usual protocols of the game - executing a full-court press with such vigor that his team would end up denying inbound passes from the other team, defeating them. He recounts T.E.Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia", and how in World War I he defeated the Turks using unconventional tactics, including his famous and unexpected attack on Aqaba.

Rule #2 - Relentless effort beats ability:

"Effort can trump ability—legs, in Saxe’s formulation, can overpower arms—because relentless effort is in fact something rarer than the ability to engage in some finely tuned act of motor coördination. ....

Rule #3 - Don't be afraid to defy conventions:

Insurgents work harder than Goliath. But their other advantage is that they will do what is “socially horrifying”—they will challenge the conventions about how battles are supposed to be fought. All the things that distinguish the ideal basketball player are acts of skill and coördination. When the game becomes about effort over ability, it becomes unrecognizable ...

Breaking the rules is so unexpected because it is also so hard. It is hard because it requires tremendous effort and it breaks socially acceptable conventions. Gladwell concludes that when David breaks the rules, he can beat Goliath more than we might expect. But would-be Davids often don't "think outside the box", often cannot or will not execute the difficult or challenging unconventional strategies that will enable them to win. But when they do, the 'impossible' becomes possible.

PS. Wellstone Action folks think these lessons are true in political campaigns. They are probably right.

PPS. A David-v-Goliath political story, or how Eric Odom and Allen Fuller used twitter to kick-start #dontgo last summer. But using social media to beat traditional media is not David v Goliath, it's more linke Agincourt's longbowmen beating the French Knights.

OpToons: Escalating Skepticism Crisis Forces Quick Cap-and-Trade vote

OpToons latest satire on cap-and-trade:

“In Europe, Japan, and Australia, there is increasing doubt that drastic cuts in energy use are warranted, as the evidence of human-caused global warming proves lacking,” said Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. “If we don’t enact draconian policies now, this window of misinformation might be closed forever.”

July 4th Tea Party Patriot Rallies

Texas July 4th Tea Party Rallies planned, includes 2 events in Austin.

News From Fairfax VA

Fairfax County, not as blue as you think:

"Two years ago, 14 of 17 districts went to the Democrat … including 10 gimmes because no Republican ran. Contested races broke 4 to 2 in favor of the Democrats. ... This year: The GOP has 15 very good candidates for the 17 districts and partial districts in the County. "

More candidates mean more opportunities for seat wins:

I’ve set off one candidate in particular, he being Jay McConville in the 44th District. I pay special attention to Jay because events of the past few days put him in a very good position to take this seat from the Democrats. I will post a diary on Jay in the next day or two … but let it suffice to say that the 6-term Democrat incumbent, who was also a member of the Democrat House leadership, QUIT THE RACE!

Fairfax, VA is similar to Travis, TX in some ways: Government workers, tech jobs, and suburban growth. Both counties have trended to Democrats in the past 4 years. How Fairfax plays out in 2009 may indicate how Travis trends in 2010.

Doggett votes to destroy American jobs

So the House voted 219-212 for Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, with 8 quisling Republicans joining 213 Democrats. The roll call shows Rep Doggett and Rep Gene Green voted aye to destroy American jobs, while Rep Ciro Rodriguez and Rep Chet Edwards, feeling heat from his district no doubt, voted no.

LGF comment: "... don't underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

That could explain how this dangerous, non-workable, corrupt bill got this far. The bill wasn't even written properly and deals were made on the floor of the House to buy votes for it.

Cap and Trade is bad for Texas:

Texas could lose 135,000 to 277,000 jobs in 2012, the first year of the proposed cap-and-trade regulation. The average Texas household could pay up to an extra $1,136 on household goods and services over a year with a total potential cost to Texas families of 6.9 billion.

The bill is a con:

The ACES bill allows polluters to purchase up to 2bn tonnes a year in carbon “offsets”, over and above the total allowance provided by the permits of the Cap & Trade scheme. This 2bn-tonne annual offset allowance exceeds all the CO2E emission reductions envisaged between now and 2040! ...

The political economy of the birth of this demented carbon credit/offset scheme was the perception in the rich industrial countries that the developing countries had to ‘get something’ out of the war on global warming. Perhaps they should. Carbon credits/offsets, however, are not the way to do it. An elaborate con, employing mainly consultants and specialised businesses from the advanced industrial countries, is not a solid foundation for economic development.

... The American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act of 2009 is worse than nothing: it is a con and a fraud. It pretends to be a vehicle for reductions in CO2E emissions. In fact it is designed to permit increases in CO2E emissions.

The Democrats and Pelosi Congress passed a bill that: attempts to solve a crisis that really isn't a crisis (global warming is not a crisis); fails to achieve what it claims to achieve, but is in fact a con that will not reduce emissions to targets; will add enormously to energy costs and in the process ship industrial production and industrial jobs overseas to competitors like China. And will leave American energy consumers poorer.

God help us all if the Senate takes up this "all pain, no gain" bill.

Outrage - Kneecap-and-tax bill gets midnight rewrite

Another very bad bill that nobody has time to read is being shoved through the House. They rewrote 300 pages of giveaways to buy votes. This is corruption. This is the worst of politics. It is happening because Pelosi and Obama want a very bad bill passed, and will do very bad things to flex their political muscle. As of right now, we have NO IDEA what was put in those 300 pages. In all likelihood, they will pass it now, and only later will we find what waste, fraud, corruption and self-dealing was put in this 1200 page NannyState Monstrosity.

H/T Instapundit, an IBD Editorial Gem:
“The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump.”

Want to do something about this? Here are your marching orders.

PS. Sen Reid says nope to giving people time to read Nanny State Care bill - they keep making a liar out of President Obama - "Obama promised at least 5 days for the public to be able to read the legislation coming from Washington" ... except for the 3 most important and dangerous bills in our generation!

If you are not outraged, then you are not paying attention.