Mayor Daley of Chicago Comes Callin' in Oregon

Ah, the effects of passing Measures 66-67 begin. The Chicago Sun Times reports that Chicago's Mayor Daley will be in Oregon shortly to court Oregon businesses for a move to the Windy City because of Measures 66-67:

"Chicago has been playing defense lately because of the exodus of trade shows at McCormick Place. But it looks like Mayor Daley is preparing to make the switch to offense.

Daley said Thursday he’s coming after businesses in the Pacific Northwest, emboldened by what he considers Oregon’s head-scratching decision to approve higher taxes on big corporations and big wage-earners.

“What happened in Oregon is not good news for Oregon. They believe that anybody who makes $125,000 or more [annually] or businesses or anyone who makes $250,000 — they’re gonna start taxing them. They call them ‘rich people,’ ” the mayor said.

“I’ve always thought America stands for [rewarding success]. You finish high school. You work hard, go to college and you hope to succeed in life. I never knew it’s a class war—that those who succeed in life are the ones that have to bear all the burden. I never realized that. It will be a whole change in America that those who succeed and work hard [that] we’re gonna tax ‘em more than anyone else.”

Daley said Oregon’s tax blunder spells opportunity for Chicago.

“It will help our economic development immediately. You’d better believe it. We’ll be out in Oregon enticing corporations to relocate to Chicago. I’ll be very frank. I make no bones about that. If those states want to do that, so be it,” he said.

Earlier this week, Oregon voters endorsed the idea of establishing a new and higher tax bracket of 10.8 percent for individuals earning more than $125,000 and families with annual incomes above $250,000. A tax rate of 11 percent would apply to a household income that tops $500,000-a-year.

Yet another increase would target Oregon corporations. A $10 minimum tax would be replaced by a sliding scale that ranges from $150-to-$100,000, depending on annual revenue.

And the tax rate for corporate income above $250,000 would rise to 7.9 percent. The tax rate for income below $250,000 would be 6.6 percent."

www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/2017137,mayor-daley-trade-shows-012810.article

Chicago picked up Boeing Corporate from Seattle a few years ago and now is looking to pick up some big names from Oregon - Nike comes to mind. Someone understands economics. Too bad it's not 54% of Oregon's voters.

Take a Load Off

The Wall Street Journal reports that:

"The Associated Press, however, reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will do whatever it takes to impose ObamaCare on America:

"We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we will parachute in," Pelosi said. "But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people."

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703389004575033274057092844.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

Nan - honestly, sit your keester down and take a load off! This American doesn't want you hauling your caboose through gates, over fences or anywhere else for health care "reform." Really - go back to San Francisco and drink some white wine and eat some brie. Relax. Enjoy. Really.

Even Though...

I've been thinking about faith. It started with reading Philip Yancey's new book, Reaching for the Invisible God. I like Yancey's thoughtfulness and willingness to wrestle with difficult questions of the Christian life, as well as his clear writing. What started out as an intellectual exercise, though, became more personal this week when I learned that an acquaintance has had a recurrence of cancer and the prognosis is poor. This individual is a fine Christian and has done much in God's service and the news started a flood of the "why" questions in my mind - why haven't you healed them, why do allow faithful servants to be stricken, why does the family have to go through this. Why?

Yancey helped answer some of the whys with a quote from George Everett Ross:

"... there are two kinds of faith. One says if and the other says though. One says: 'If everything goes well, if my life is prosperous, if I'm happy, if no one I love dies, if I'm successful, then I will believe in God and say my prayers and go to church and give what I can afford.' The other says though: ' though the cause of evil prosper, though I sweat at Gethsemane, though I must drink my cup at Calvary - nevertheless, precisely then, I will trust the Lord who made me.' So Job cries: 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.' "

Life can be hard, very hard at times. May we all seek "though" faith to answer it, as this is the faith that changes people and nations and honors Him who made us. It is the Rock on which we are made to stand.

Time to Put Jabba on a Diet

On Sunday the Statesman Journal ran a front page story that local governments are going to have to pony up an additional 6% or so to pay for PERS contributions and they are wondering where the money is going to come from. www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20101240345 Hmmm... let me think. Could it be the Oregon taxpayer? Mais non! C'est impossible! And what a coincidence that this story stays buried by state government until just a few days before the Measure 66-67 election.

This is the latest chapter in Oregon of a larger battle being fought nationally. Daniel Henninger writes an incisive piece in the Wall Street Journal about what went wrong for the Democrats in Massachusetts and frames it in terms of a national battle between the private sector and public unions. He says:

"The central battle in our time is over political primacy. It is a competition between the public sector and the private sector over who defines the work and the institutions that make a nation thrive and grow."

The public sector does not create wealth, it commandeers private wealth for its own purposes. When public employees were allowed to unionize in the 1960s, the Democrats formed an alliance with them. Like any contract there was consideration going both directions: you vote for us and we will make sure that you are very well compensated. Since that time, both state and Federal budgets have consumed an increasing share of total GDP. He goes on to note, however, that:

"But here's the party's self-destroying kicker: Feeding the public unions' wage demands starved other government responsibilities. It ruined our ability to have a useful debate about any other public functions.

Massachusetts' spending fell for mental health, the environment, housing and higher education. The physical infrastructure in blue states is literally falling apart. But look at those public wage and pension-related outlays. Ever upward."

In states with advanced cases of publicunionitis, it is hitting the fan: California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts. New Jersey elected a new Republican governor and the Democrats learned to their chagrin that even in Massachusetts, even with Ted Kennedy's seat, the voters have had enough. The citizens are sick of higher and higher taxes to fund the Democrats' Faustian bargain with public employees while the private sector is taking pay cuts, layoffs and worse because of the current recession. I think Senator Brown's election may be a sign of how America is beginning to redress the private vs. public equation.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704320104575015010515688120.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_BelowLEFTSecond


In Oregon, as I previously reported, state spending is up 64.2% in the 2001-2009 period while population growth is only up 10.8%. Private sector employment is actually lower in 2009 than it was in 1999, while public sector employment is up substantially. In other words, a decreasing private sector is funding more and more of the rapidly growing public sector of the economy. It is easy to predict that businesses will begin to flee the state for lower tax states like Idaho. Clark County, Washington in particular will see growth in this region because of no income taxes and proximity to Oregon and no sales tax - the best of both worlds! Eventually, though, if Oregon does not change direction, it will follow California's lead into a fiscal crisis where bankruptcy is the only answer. That would be a sad fate for a state that has always prided itself on its self-reliant pioneer spirit. I'd rather emulate Massachusetts and elect people who are committed to redressing the public/private balance and put Oregon on the path to a sound future for us and our children.

Sic Transit Gloria.

Aw, too bad.

content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/01/liberal-radio-network-air-america-files-for-bankruptcy/1

Sticks and Stones Can ...

Lucky for us the Obama Administration learned its lesson from the Christmas Day underpants bomber. Well, maybe not - look who they just allowed into the U.S., reversing a previous ban, apparently on the theory that sticks and stones can break our bones but words can never hurt us. How do they think all those folks with the sticks and stones get motivated to use them?

www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/victory-muslim-brotherhood

Goodbye to a Good Boy

Our oldest daughter Cristy and her family had to put their dog Duggan to sleep today. Anyone who has had to do this knows there are few things harder in life, but you cannot fix old age and his life had run its course. It was a life well lived.

He was a good boy, teaching Cristy and her husband Glenn how to care for someone else in their lives, which was great practice for their son Joey when he arrived several years later. He was a big dog, a cross between a Great Dane and a German Shorthair and in his prime he could run like the wind while looking like he was only loping along. He was smart and would "talk" to you to let you know what he wanted and he made his wishes known surprisingly well. He was Joey's big brother and kept a concerned eye on the new kid, tattling to "mommy" more than once when Joey was getting into trouble. If Joey got in trouble and mom was counting to three, Duggan was never quite sure who it was for and would scoot to sit in his appointed place on the stairs, out of harm's way. I will always remember the time at the lake when he followed our dog at full speed off a dock and into the water. Our dog was a water dog; Duggan was not. His eyes were very wide as he slowly sank out of sight until my wife ducked under, grabbed his collar, and hauled him sputtering back on to the dock. He was almost always good natured and rarely barked at other dogs or people unless really excised. When he reached this point he would let forth a deep "WOOF!" and then sit back quite satisfied that he had done his job well.

You did indeed do your job well, Duggan, and we will miss you. May you enjoy running in the fields of the Lord.

Don't Tread on Me!

Thank you citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts! That was a shot worthy of the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord! Congratulations Senator Brown! This old Union may have life in it after all.

Train Wreck - the U.S. Economy Off the Rails

I will grant you that the report below is dry stuff to read - but important. Basically, three former heads of the Congressional Budget Office from both sides of the political fence say that unless the U.S. gets spending under control in the next few years, we are heading for a train wreck with the economy. Look at the graphs for the quick overview of the debacle. And this is before healthcare or cap-and-trade gets added to the mix. We have met the enemy and he is us! We cannot keep spending more than we have.


www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=122416

Kudzu

Rumor has it that the Democrats are cooking up a bill that will register everybody to vote in the entire United States, whether they are here legally or not. This is in response to their losses in last November's elections and in anticipation of a shellacking this coming November. Think Cook County, Illinois on a massive scale. All this at a time when the public is seeing what "liberal" government is really about - we know better, so shut up and be quiet!

I think the Democrats are like Kudzu, the noxious vine infesting large parts of the South. Once it gets established, it's nearly impossible to get rid of the stuff. The picture above shows a healthy Southern hardwood forest. Below it is a photograph of a Kudzu-covered forest. It is stunted, gloomy and almost impenetrable, which is exactly what Democrats are doing to the United States. Americans are beginning to catch on and are getting out the political pruning shears. It can't happen soon enough! If we don't act quickly and decisively, the American landscape will never be the same.

A Bridge to Nowhere

The U.S. population is currently 308 million, give or take a few. Pretty much the whole population is mired in this recession. The article below reports that the recent $20 billion economic stimulus focused on road and bridge construction had no effect on unemployment numbers. I'm shocked! Let's see - we put say 10,000 people to work all over the U.S. out of a population of 308,000,000 and we pump in $20 billion into an economy of $15 trillion and we're surprised there's no effect. C'mon! A better way to think of this is as a rather large political payback for campaign support - that's the Chicago way!

I will believe that the Feds are serious about resurrecting the economy rather than getting themselves reelected when they reduce taxes across the board and leave more money in the hands of the rest of America. Only then, with millions of Americans making their own millions of economic choices with their money across the length and breadth of the United States, will the water level start to rise across the board and refloat this economy.

www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/stimulus_dollars_for_road_jobs.html

A Failed State

George Will often writes interesting columns and this one is a good illustration. It is about the death throes of the state of California and how it got there.townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2010/01/10/golden_no_longer

California is facing a $41 billion budget shortfall over the next 18 months. www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1870299,00.html We have never had a state fail, even in the Great Depression, but California may become a first:

"Kevin Starr, author of an eight-volume -- so far -- history of the (formerly) Golden State, says California is "on the verge" of becoming something without an American precedent -- "a failed state." William Voegeli, writing in the Claremont Review of Books, tartly says that "Rome wasn't sacked in a day, and California didn't become Argentina overnight."

He goes on to say that:

"It took years for liberalism's redistributive itch to create an income tax so steeply progressive that it prompts the flight from the state of wealth-creators: "Between 1990 and 2007," Voegeli writes, "some 3.4 million more Americans moved from California to one of the other 49 states than moved to California from another state."

"Voegeli says that if California's spending had grown no faster than population growth and inflation from 1992 to 2006, it would have been $65 billion less in 2006, and per capita government outlays then would have equaled not those of Somalia or Mississippi but of Oregon, which is hardly "a hellish paradigm of Social Darwinism."

Why this last quote is interesting is because Oregon is going the California route, although not as far down the road. I wrote in my 1/3/10 post that since 2001, Oregon government spending is up 64.2% while population growth was only up 10.8% in the same period. This is exactly what started California's problems. As Margaret Thatcher acidly observed, "The problem with socialism is that at some point you run out of other people's money." California has reached that point and Oregon is walking the same path. It's time to change it.

Statesman Journal Says "No" on 66 & 67

I believe in miracles!

www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100110/OPINION/1100328/1048

Neither Do I Condemn You

I did a post on 1/7/10 about Brit Hume and the heat he is taking for suggesting on air that Tiger Woods should try Christianity if he wants to put his life back together. Most often media types are talking heads and we really don't know what makes them tick. Here is an interesting interview with Mr. Hume that reveals some of who he is and why he said what he did to Tiger. I appreciate him stepping up to the plate and reaching out to someone who has to be pretty battered and bruised by now.


www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/januaryweb-only/11-42.0.html

On the Road Again

Hope is a Journey

Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3-4 NIV

(Credit: Dayspring, blog.dayspring.com/2009/12/a-different-kind-of-hope-part-three.html)

Bend Bulletin Says "No" on 66 & 67

Will the shocks not stop coming? Now the Bend Bulletin weighs in against Measures 66 & 67. Be still my heart!

www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100106/NEWS0107/301069999/-1/RSSNEWSMAP

Jobs Are Up! Not

When I woke up this morning and checked my Yahoo homepage, AP headlined that the jobs report due out today would probably show that jobs were growing once again - the corner was turned. Not so much. The AP headline at noon was an "unexpected" loss of another 85,000 jobs in December. Unexpected only to AP apparently.

News flash: IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID! It's not healthcare. 85% of the American public is happy with their healthcare. It's not even the war against the jihadists because our military has cooled the bad guys off considerably and will continue to do so given a decent measure of support from Washington. No, it's Congress and the Administration spending money like drunken sailors after a year at sea, threatening to raise taxes across the board, and showing no sign of letting up that has employers spooked. Employers aren't going to spend doo-dah until government sobers up and quits its monumental drunk. The longer it goes on, the longer and slower will be the recovery. AP, you are well advised to do some actual economic reporting rather than flakking for the Administration. Otherwise, there will be a lot of "unexpected" headlines in your future about the economy that are entirely predictable.

This Isn't How to Fight a War

I listened to President Obama's speech yesterday about the Underpants Bomber and to his credit, he clearly said that we are at war with al Qaeda on a global scale. So far, so good. But then he blamed Yemen becoming a birthing center for terrorists like the Underpants Bomber on Arab reaction to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq. Sigh. One of the key components in winning a war is knowing your enemy. He doesn't.

The U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. The reports on Abu Ghraib began coming out in 2004. If the President is right, then Yemen became a terrorist center after 2003-2004. Well, not exactly.

On November 7, 2002 a Predator took out some high level al Qaeda operatives. Where? Yemen.
www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1108-05.htm

In October, 2000, al Qaeda operatives blew a large hole in the USS Cole, a destroyer, killing 17 sailors. Where? Yemen.
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/july-dec00/cole_10-12.html

And has al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations been operating in Yemen well before 2003-2004, sometimes with the cooperation of the Yemeni government. Well, yes.
www.cfr.org/publication/9369/

So what are we to conclude? Probably that the President's head is slowly coming to the right conclusion but his heart definitely isn't there. His first impulse in response to the Underpants Bomber was to call him an "isolated extremist." Even the President has now backed away from that. When you capture an enemy combatant in war (his words), the first thing you do is interrogate him for useful intelligence about your enemy. But what did the Obama Administration do? It Mirandized him and gave him a lawyer, at which point he quit talking to us. Can you imagine doing the same thing with a Nazi commando in WWII? Probably not.

Austin Bay, a retired Army colonel, has coined a useful distinction: lawfare vs. warfare. Organized criminal activity requires lawfare, i.e. - Elliott Ness, Justice Department strike forces, etc. Warfare requires soldiers. If we really are at war with the Jihadists, and we are, then it's time we turned from lawfare to warfare - we need the soldiers and not the suits.

Coulter and Hume in the Lions' Den

Ann Coulter is a bomb thrower. I like her writing because she can be funny as all get out and antagonizes liberals in a single bound, but she is like rich chocolate - a little goes a long way. In this piece, though, she comes to Britt Hume's defense and presents as clear an exposition of the Gospel as I have read in a long time by a journalist. Hume has been trashed for having the temerity to suggest on the air to Tiger Woods that the way to start putting his shattered life back together is to turn from Buddhism and to Christianity. www.youtube.com/watch?v=szVYlDSb7nM Hats off to Mr. Hume for publicly standing up for Christ and to Ms. Coulter for her ringing defense of him and using it as an opportunity to so clearly lay out the great news of Jesus Christ!

townhall.com/columnists/AnnCoulter/2010/01/06/if_you_can_find_a_better_deal,_take_it!

Thanksgiving - Part Deux

In the last year, daughters of two friends of ours each delivered very premature babies of 1# 8 oz. and 2# 2 oz. respectively. The last of the two went home today with "no monitors, tubes, alarms or medications" as related by his ecstatic grandmother. Thank you Lord and thank you all you neonate specialists - doctors and nurses! Great work by all concerned!

Medicare Need Not Apply

President Obama has cited the Mayo Clinic as an example of cost effective medical care. Now one of its clinics will no longer accept Medicare patients because the reimbursement rate is too low. This is before Congress implements further Medicare cost cuts to pay for the new health care bill.
At the local level, private practice internists are abandoning their practices for the same reason and going to work for providers like Kaiser Permanente. These are precursors of the massive changes in health care that are about to occur courtesy of the Democrats. Please securely stow all movable items and fasten your seat belts - we are about to enter severe turbulence.

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHoYSI84VdL0

Oregonian Recommends "No" Vote on 66 & 67

I am shocked, shocked. Really. The Sunday Oregonian ran an editorial urging a "no" vote on Measures 66 - 67. I have the link below, but I am heartened that finally Oregonians may be coming together to deal with fiscal reality and seeking to improve the climate for business and employment rather than slowly killing the goose that laid (lays?) the golden egg.

www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/01/wrong_time_wrong_tax_hikes_vot.html

Measures 66 & 67

We just got our official Voter's Pamphlet on these measures and I assume that you did too. Here is an interesting analysis done by an Intel engineer on state spending since 2001 that may shed some light on the necessity for voting "no" on these measures and putting the brakes on state spending. The graphs are self-explanatory. Since the 2001-2003 biennial budget, state spending has gone up 64.2% while population has only grown 10.8%. There is some interesting back and forth with a pro-spending blogger, but the essential point is made: Oregon has been spending too much for too long and for the benefit of the state as a whole in this recession, it's time to leave more money in the private sector.

thinkoregon.squarespace.com/news/2009/11/28/state-of-oregon-budget-growth-versus-population-growth.html

What Goes Around Comes Around

Science is losing credibility because it has been hijacked by a bunch of dilettantes running around yelling "The end is near!" There is a crisis du jour, or at least per decade. Think I'm kidding. Consider this, as reported by the redoubtable Mark Steyn:

"According to the CIA’s analysis, “detrimental global climatic change” threatens “the stability of most nations.” And, alas, for a global phenomenon, Canada will be hardest hit. The entire Dominion from the Arctic to the 49th parallel will be under 150 feet of ice.

Oh, wait. That was the last “scientific consensus” on “climate change,” early seventies version, as reflected in a CIA report from August 1974, which the enterprising author Maurizio Morabito stumbled upon in the British Library the other day. If only the impending ice age had struck as scheduled and Scandinavia was now under a solid block of ice. Instead, the streets of Copenhagen are filled with “activists” protesting global warming, some of whom torch automobiles in the traditional manner of concerned idealists."

www.steynonline.com/content/view/2760/

Science is going to have to clean its own house if it doesn't want to become just one more arena for ideological conflict with no credibility with half the populace. There are very real problems out there that need objective scientific analysis and reliable answers for policymakers. Right now, though, it is debatable whether that is the case.