Rules for fools

The Economist:

In the 1950s, when organisation man ruled, fewer than 5% of American workers needed licences. Today, after three decades of deregulation, the figure is almost 30%. Add to that people who are preparing to obtain a licence or whose jobs involve some form of certification and the share is 38%. Other rich countries impose far fewer fetters than the land of the free. In Britain only 13% of workers need licences (though that has doubled in 12 years)...

...The list of jobs that require licences in some states already sounds like something from Monty Python—florists, handymen, wrestlers, tour guides, frozen-dessert sellers, firework operatives, second-hand booksellers and, of course, interior designers—but it will become sillier still if ambitious cat-groomers and dog-walkers get their way...

America’s Licence Raj crushes would-be entrepreneurs. Consider three people who come from very different states and occupations. Jestina Clayton is an African hair-braider with 23 years of experience. But the Utah Barber, Cosmetologist/Barber, Esthetician, Electrologist and Nail Technician Licensing Board told her that she cannot practise her craft unless she first obtains a licence—which means spending up to $18,000 on 2,000 hours of study, none of it devoted to African hair-braiding.

Justin Brown is an abbot at a Benedictine abbey that supplements its meagre income by making and selling simple wooden coffins. But the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors has ordered him to “cease and desist”. Heaven knows what harm a corpse might suffer from an unlicensed coffin. Barbara Vanderkolk Gardner runs a flourishing interior-design business in New Jersey. But when she tried to expand into Florida, the state’s Board of Architecture and Interior Design ordered her to delete all references to “interior design” from her website and stop offering “interior design services” in the Sunshine State...

You might imagine that Americans would be up in arms about all this. After all, the Licence Raj embodies the two things that Americans are supposed to be furious about: the rise of big government and the stalling of America’s job-creating machine. You would be wrong. Florida’s legislature recently debated a bill to remove licensing requirements from 20 occupations, including hair-braiding, interior design and teaching ballroom-dancing. For a while it looked as if the bill would sail through: Florida has been a centre of tea-party agitation and both chambers have Republican majorities. But the people who care most about this issue—the cartels of incumbents—lobbied the loudest. One predicted that unlicensed designers would use fabrics that might spread disease and cause 88,000 deaths a year. Another suggested, even more alarmingly, that clashing colour schemes might adversely affect “salivation”. In the early hours of May 7th the bill was defeated. If Republican majorities cannot pluck up the courage to challenge a cartel of interior designers when Florida’s unemployment rate is more than 10%, what hope has America? The Licence Raj may be here to stay.

Florida House votes to deregulate many businesses

From the Orlando Sentinel:

The Florida House voted Thursday to strip government oversight of more than a dozen professions, including auctioneers, yacht brokers and talent agents.

Some of the regulated professions generate thousands of consumer complaints annually.

The bill, HB 5005, would dump licensing, surety bonds and other consumer safeguards required of telemarketers, travel agents/vacation-package sellers and auto-repair shops.

Those industries ranked first, fourth and fifth, respectively, on the 2010 Top 10 Consumer Complaint List compiled by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. There were 8,599 filings on telemarketers alone.

I guess we know the reporters opinion, but that's for another day. Professional licensing is mostly pushed by the industries themselves to reduce competition, increase profits and add false prestige and credibility through a state stamp of approval.

As a result, we have dozens of boards, departments and a plethora of arcane rules that mostly serve to employ regulators and don't really do much to protect the public while making it expensive and time consuming to enter numerous professions. And there's no evidence whatsoever that licensing reduces consumer fraud or abuse. In fact, it gives the public a false sense of security since the state doesn't and can never have enough resources to police all these businesses as promised.

This vote was passed along party lines with Democrats predictably voting against economic freedom. Of course, the usual hysteria followed:

“Should we stop registering sex offenders because that’s all we do is register them?” asked Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek. “There comes a time when registration is critical.”

Leave it to a liberal to liken yacht brokers and interior designers to child molesters. That's how they view the private, productive and - gasp! - for profit private sector.

Florida's Public Option For Homeowners

A national public option in health insurance would work out in much the same way:

"Unlike private companies, when the government can't cover its costs, it does not go out of business; it just finds ways to tax someone else. So it is for Citizens. Unlike real businesses, Citizens' financial shortfalls are made up by charging "assessments" to all of the remaining homeowners, auto, boat, motorcycle and business insurance policies - including policies of competing private insurance. The bottom line is that well-managed and financially solvent private companies cannot compete against state-sanctioned and subsidized operations.

It means a slow death of the private insurance market, but a painful and costly one for consumers. As Citizens grows and charges the customers of private insurers for its financial misdeeds, more customers leave for Citizens, which pushes private insurers out of the market and increases the market share of Citizens.

It's an endless cycle. It's the public option. But the scheme will soon leave Citizens fewer privately served citizens to level its assessments upon and leave Citizens as the state's high-cost monopoly...More from TBO.com

The notion that government can fairly and efficiently compete with the private sector in any business is as preposterous as allowing a home sports team provide its own referees, change the rules at any time and take points away from the opposition when they fall behind.

After one-year blip, Florida's population to grow again

Florida's population should rebound this year from its first loss in more than half a century, according to new estimates from the University of Florida.

The state is expected to add about 23,000 residents between April 1, 2009, and April 1, 2010, following a loss of almost 57,000 residents the previous year, UF's Bureau of Economic and Business Research reported Tuesday.

They are probably right on this one. As more people find ways to unload their homes and escape overbearing and failing states e.g. New York, Michigan, California - the long term domestic migration trends will continue. The good news for Florida is that most of these people are the productive ones who are fed up with paying the bills for insatiable state governments and their union allies.

Central Florida Rail: Region's game-changer?

It sure is. But not in the way Alex Martins thinks. He is the Chairman of Central Florida Partnership and CEO of the Orlando Magic. But that doesn't make him immune from having misguided opinions:

High-speed rail can make the difference when it comes to our ability to compete on the global stage. Tampa Bay has a population of 3.75 million and Central Florida has a population of 3.46 million. As a combined super region, we are the seventh most-populated region in the country, and the 10th-largest economy in the United States...

...We know that you build a professional basketball team by making strategic decisions over time. Likewise, we understand that Florida is committed to building a safe and efficient multimodal transportation network to serve residents and visitors. High-speed and commuter rail are just the first links in the transportation system that will better connect our communities.

...I couldn't agree more. Growing up in the New York metro area, I used the rail system to attend sporting events and Broadway matinees. That system grew to become the easiest, most direct transportation source for work and play. From my experiences, I know that high-speed rail will be a real game-changer for Central Florida.

That last paragraph is where Mr. Martins' argument runs off the rails, so to speak. The New York transit system, like those in Boston, Chicago and elsewhere, were built in densely populated areas that came of age prior to the advent of the automobile. Dense suburbs grew up close to them as bedroom communities for those downtown areas. So it was relatively easy to place stations within convenient reach of large numbers of people.

And lets remember that those systems were started as private companies with money raised from investors who thought they could make a profit. No private concern will do that in Central Florida because it makes no economic sense.

The population density of the N.Y. Metro area is 2,792 people per square mile, whereas the Tampa Bay and Greater Orlando Metro areas are 521 and 494 people per square mile respectively. There is no way to have enough stops to make rail work conveniently or efficiently under those circumstances. How will people get to those distant stations and what will they do when they get to their destination? Answer: They won't bother. One only has to look to places like Los Angeles and Seattle, where taxpayer funded rail schemes have failed, to see what will happen here.

Additionally, most people in places like Central Florida commute from suburb to suburb, not a central downtown location. There's no way to easily get around those places without an automobile.

Simply put, this will fail to attract any significant ridership just as it has in other places that were developed around the automobile. People can complain about living in a decentralized area while enjoying its benefits as much as they want. But pretending you're something you're not in order to justify building a wildly expensive white elephant, just creates more problems while solving nothing.

Lawsuit accuses Obama administration of failing to protect Florida panther

SARASOTA — A coalition of environmental and civic groups sued the Obama administration Thursday over its refusal to declare 1.3 million acres as critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther...Panthers once roamed the Southeast, but now about 100 panthers remain in the wild, prowling the swamps and forests south of the Caloosahatchee River in South Florida.

...In 2002 a group of panther and habitat mapping experts recommended the federal agency declare the area where the panthers now live as critical habitat. Doing so would subject any plans to alter that habitat — by development, farming or mining — to increased scrutiny and additional requirements to make up for the loss of land.

Instead the agency is now working with a separate coalition of environmental groups and major landowners to craft a cooperative plan to protect some habitat while still allowing development

...The lawsuit seeks enhanced protection of more than 3 million acres in fast-growing Collier, Lee and Hendry counties.

This is how radical environmentalists essentially steal property from individuals through government force by prohibiting its use. In this case, the Eco-Marxists seek to provide 30,000 acres per Panther of others land without paying one dime for it. This destroys wealth while increasing the cost of available land remaining.

No honest cost-benefit analysis can make this insanity pencil out. But it doesn't have to apparently, when you're hiding your uncompromising anti-private property agenda behind a furry feline. That agenda is vividly revealed in this unreasonable litigation.

Mother nature kills off dozens of species of flora and fauna every day. In fact, over 90% of all species that have existed are now extinct due to natural causes. Of course, there are many ways to preserve the Florida Panther without throwing a monkey wrench into private property rights. But the Panther is secondary to the fanatical nihilism of the enviros.

Drilling Bans Cost Trillions

Do the Hands Across The Sand knuckleheads know this or even care? Probably neither. Math is hard, but it will be illustrated perfectly when no one can afford to come to Florida's beaches. We're the only country in the world that deliberately leaves energy resources in the ground and off limits. Countries from Canada to Saudi Arabia are more than happy to enable our stupidity by selling us theirs:

"From trying to stimulate jobs in nonexistent ZIP codes at great expense to worshiping the false gods of climate change, our biggest deficit these days may be in the area of common sense. A new study shows that many of our wounds are self-inflicted as we forgo the wealth and jobs to be found in our waters and under our feet.

The study by Science Applications International Corp. at the request of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the Gas Technology Institute and others shows the U.S. economy will suffer $2.3 trillion in lost opportunity costs over the next two decades, monies that would go a long way to reining in runaway deficits and creating economic growth.

Critics will say this is another self-serving study paid for by oil industry groups, but unlike the climate change fantasies concocted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Britain's Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, the study's data can survive fact-checking and the conclusions are rooted in reality.

Drilling restrictions in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in offshore areas such as the Chukchi Sea and Outer Continental Shelf, the report says, are denying us access to at least nine years' worth of total U.S. oil and gas consumption...

...These are not climate fantasies derived by running faulty assumptions and bad data through inaccurate computer models. This is simple math, common sense and Economics 101. Energy is expensive. We're leaving vast amounts in the ground while importing it from others. In a word: duh."

Man accused of turning foreclosed homes into rentals

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing:

NEW PORT RICHEY — The homes had been vacated due to foreclosure when Stephen Bybel discovered them.

Authorities say Bybel attempted to seize the properties through an obscure state law, then posted the properties on Craigslist and filled the homes with tenants...But the Pasco County Sheriff's Office says Bybel was simply helping himself, collecting rent on dozens of homes he didn't own or legally control. In January alone, authorities say, Bybel pocketed $16,780 in rent...

...When Bybel found a foreclosure property, authorities said, he posted a notice on the home alerting the owner he would take "adverse possession" of the property unless the owner contacted him in seven days.

The notice cited chapter 95 of Florida Statutes, which spells out how someone can take possession of a property through squatter's rights. The law requires a person occupy the property for at least seven years and fulfill other legal requirements.

Had Bybel or this reporter taken my class, I would have told them the following:

First of all, adverse posession is not an "obscure state law" and it exists in various forms in all fifty states. Without getting too deep in the weeds, the history and purpose of adverse posession goes back centuries and is designed to place a statute of limitations on ownership of disputed property. In other words, a property owner has a certain amount of time to remove a hostile trespasser or they will lose that right.

Florida law not only requires a seven year waiting period, but also requires that the would be possessor pay the property taxes during that time. Among other things, it also says that you have to show evidence of some legitimate claim to the property, whatever that may be.


Nevertheless, you have to admire this guy's inventiveness, if not his stupidity. I'm impressed that he managed to take 71 houses and rented over 30 of them. If anything, this shows just how unmanageable these foreclosures have become.

Cold is Devasting Manatees

Global Warming can certainly be ironic:

So many manatees are turning up stressed from the extreme cold temperatures this winter that it's putting a strain on the statewide system for caring for the injured marine mammals.

Some facilities have become overcrowded, while others are making room by releasing back into the wild manatees that have been in captivity.

Yeah, I know weather is not climate. But since the Church of AGW has been ignoring that fact since day one of this hoax, turnabout is fair play. Besides, now they're telling us that cold weather is a sign of warming. Heads I win, Tails you lose science is anything but.

The Biggest Jerk in Congress

From Human Events:

“Every school, club, or company has a loudmouth whose outrageous statements and failed attempts at humor cause his friends to shy away, feigning laughter and everyone to think ‘what a jackass.’ Congress always has more than its fair share of such people, and suffers them gladly. Well, most of them. But this congress contains a man who rises above the rest, distinguishing himself beyond all others as this session’s ‘Biggest Jerk In Congress.’ He is Representative Alan Grayson, a first-term Democratic Congressman from Florida’s historically Republican 8th Congressional District, which includes Orlando.”

I disagree. Grayson's world class jerkiness is merely a symptom of his underlying insanity.

Crist, Rubio Spar Over Counting illegals in Census

The argument is academic at this point, since the census has already begun. Nevertheless, Charlie Crist is taking the opportunistic stand as opposed Rubio's more principled one:

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio has come out against including illegal immigrants in the national census — even though doing so could significantly reduce Florida’s political power and share of federal funding. …

But, later, a spokesman for Rubio’s Senate campaign said that Rubio did “not support a congressional reapportionment process that counts illegal immigrant populations when allocating seats.” Alex Burgos said Rubio’s position “stems from a concern about rightful representation in Congress and ensuring that every voter has an equal voice.” …

Crist went to North Miami on Tuesday to urge everyone to participate in the census.

“The people of Florida represent a rich legacy of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experiences, and want to be represented accordingly,” Crist said. “Florida families should participate in the 2010 census to ensure our state receives the funding necessary to meet the needs of our citizens.”

Illegal immigrants are not citizens but Crist wants to redefine the word while resorting to the usual "diversity" pandering. He then goes a cynical step further in his criticism of Rubio:

“Florida deserves to have her fair share. And I think making sure that we count every single Floridian is vitally important. That’s why I went to the school yesterday in North Miami,” Crist said.

“It is important. It’s important to our state, it’s important to our people. And the notion that you would not want to accept federal funding to make a political statement is absurd.”

It's not just a political statement, it is a defense of the rule of law and the Constitution. What's absurd is Crist's acceptance of an overbearing federal government that forces states to beg Washington for the return of its citizens money in the form of pork. What's more absurd is the notion that illegal immigrants should be counted in the census in order to get more of that pork.

Perhaps if states didn't receive funding for illegals, they would be less accepting of the problem and would lobby Washington to do its job and protect the borders.

More from Hot Air:

But there is also $400 billion in federal programs available to states, allocated in large part on the basis of population. Crist wants a bigger piece of that pie, and Rubio also acknowledged that those kinds of considerations are not unimportant. That should demonstrate how federal programs distort political processes, though, and not give an excuse to pork feeders at the trough. The Constitutional requirement for a Census every ten years is to make sure that Americans have fair representation in the House, not to determine which little piggy gets the most slop.

Obama Railway

">President Obama arrived in Tampa today with federal taxpayer cash to build yet another railway that no one will use and cost far more than any benefits derived.

"Speaking at the University of Tampa, Obama called high speed rail "building our infrastructure of the future… We want to start looking deep into the 21st century. There is no reason why other countries can build high speed rail lines and we can't."

Well, we can build it but that doesn't mean we should. Rail projects like this have been built all over the country and have almost invariably suffered from low ridership and have required massive subsidies (federal, state and local) to keep them running. The main reason people don't ride them is population density.

Mass transit works in older, densely populated, vertical cities that came of age before the invention of the automobile e.g. Boston, New York Chicago. Much less track is needed to conveniently reach the amount of people required to make those systems viable. Not so in cities that have experienced most of their growth in the last century. The automobile allowed people to live further apart and on more land. Tampa, Orlando and most of Florida falls in that category and no rail system here can efficiently have enough stops conveniently close to make it an attractive alternative. Simply put: If you drive your car 10 miles to the Tampa station and ride to Orlando, what do you do when you get there? How do you get around that sprawling metropolis?

As for other countries with high speed rail, population density and other factors make them poor comparisons. Robert Samuelson explains:

"What works in Europe and Asia won't in the United States. Even abroad, passenger trains are subsidized. But the subsidies are more justifiable because geography and energy policies differ.

Densities are much higher, and high densities favor rail with direct connections between heavily populated city centers and business districts. In Japan, density is 880 people per square mile; it's 653 in Britain, 611 in Germany and 259 in France. By contrast, plentiful land in the United States has led to suburbanized homes, offices and factories. Density is 86 people per square mile. Trains can't pick up most people where they live and work and take them to where they want to go. Cars can.

Distances also matter. America is big; trips are longer. Beyond 400 to 500 miles, fast trains can't compete with planes. Finally, Europe and Japan tax car transportation more heavily, pushing people to trains. In August 2008, notes the GAO, gasoline in Japan was $6.50 a gallon. Americans regard $4 a gallon as an outrage. Proposals for stiff gasoline taxes (advocated by many, including me) go nowhere."

The only way to get people into trains they don't want to ride is through a combination of bribes through taxpayer subsidies, and force through heavy taxation of gasoline and air travel.

There's a reason why no private concern has ever proposed a project like this: It's an inefficient loser. If no one is willing to risk their own money on these boondoggles, then why should taxpayers do it through government force? This is just one more reason why government spending doesn't stimulate anything other than politician's careers.

More on this subject: American Thinker, Cato Institute, Reason.

Cuba Claims Huge Gulf Oil Reserves

BBC-The state-owned Cuban oil company says the country may have more than 20bn barrels of oil in its offshore fields - more than double the previous estimate.
Cubapetroleo's exploration manager said drilling in the offshore wells would
begin as early as the middle of 2009. Such reserves would place Cuba among
the top 20 oil producing nations. MORE

No word yet on whether US enviro-nuts will be running to Havana and filing lawsuits to stop the drilling. Don't worry. Nancy Pelosi is going to save the planet by preventing drilling on our side of the Gulf.

How Not to Balance a Budget

From the Wall Street Journal. No further comment necessary:

"Anyone who thinks the path to "fiscal discipline" is through higher taxes ought to look at the current budget spectacles in New York and California. The two liberal states have among the highest tax burdens in the country, yet both now find themselves with huge budget deficits and are debating still higher taxes to close the gap. . .

...Every time the politicians raise taxes, they merely lift their spending by as much or more, and then plead poverty and demand another tax hike during the next economic slowdown.

The "progressives" who dominate politics in these states target the rich on grounds that they have the ability to pay. They also have the ability to leave. From 1997-2006, New York State lost 409,000 people (not counting foreign immigrants). For every two people who move into the state, three flee. Maybe the problem for New York is merely bad weather, not high taxes.

Except that sunny California is experiencing a similar exodus. Over the past decade 1.32 million more native-born Americans left the Golden State than moved in -- despite beaches, mountains and 70-degree weather. Mostly the people who have fled are the successful, the talented and the rich.

If taxes don't matter, then maybe someone can explain the divergent economic paths of California and New York and America's two other most populous states, Florida and Texas. The latter two states have no personal income tax. Personal income has been growing about 50% faster in Florida and Texas than in California and New York. (See chart.) This year Texas became the No. 1 state for Fortune 500 corporate headquarters. About a dozen of those 58 corporations once called New York or California home, and taxes are one reason they departed.

Anti-Business States Awash In Red Ink

I've been writing for a while now (LINK, LINK) about the mass migration of economic refugees within the United States from oppressive states to more free ones. Now we have more evidence of the damage an out of control state (or country) can do to itself and its people. Those heavy handed governments still don't want to face their economic and moral failures. They are still doing their level best to chase away those who pull the cart; leaving behind those who just in it and whine.

"Shortly after he was confirmed as governor of New York earlier this year, David Paterson told a group of business executives that when he received congratulations from old friends he hadn’t heard from in years, he was surprised how many no longer lived in New York. "All of them basically said the same thing," Paterson told the group. "'Good luck in New York state, but we can't pay the taxes. The opportunities aren't there.'”

After that experience, Paterson presumably can understand the complaints of corporate executives recently surveyed by Development Counsellors International, which advises companies on where to locate their facilities. More than four in ten of them have ranked New York as the worst state to do business in--second only to California in unfavorable mentions. The most common gripes included high taxes and anti-business regulations. Joining New York and California on the list of most unpopular states were New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts...

Of the approximately $48 billion in accumulated budget shortfalls that the 29 states with projected deficits are facing, $33 billion, or two-thirds of the gap, is concentrated in those five states considered by corporate executives to be the least friendly to business. Meanwhile, among the five states ranked as having the best business environment, Texas and North Carolina have no projected budget gaps, and Georgia, Tennessee and Florida are facing shortfalls amounting to about $4.1 billion, or less than one-tenth of the states’ total."

What's the answer? Higher taxes that will chase even more businesses and individuals away. The stupidity and insanity of these socialist hacks never ceases to amaze me.

"Paterson’s former colleagues in the state legislature are lobbying for a new tax on millionaires, while across the country California’s legislators have called for boosting the state’s top tax rate from 9.3 percent to 11 percent. Since many firms, especially small ones, are organized corporately in such a way that they pay taxes on profits at their owners’ personal income tax rate, any increase in the top rate of income taxes will hit small firms hard, to say nothing of the impact on the personal taxes of executives at big firms."

But they also expect the rest of us to pay for their irresponsibility and corruption:

"...Paterson argued creatively that the rest of the country should come to his aid because the Empire State is home to the country’s financial markets and thereby contributes disproportionately to the America economy--although I can imagine that there are many states that would gladly take those financial institutions off of New York’s hands if the governor considers them such a burden."

Damn right we'll take them and we already are. Last one out, please turn off the lights.

A Letter To My Congressman

The following was emailed to my congressman, CW Bill Young, serving Florida's 10th District in Pinellas County, Fl. Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez were CC'd.

Dear Congressman Young: If you are already on the house floor this week, please disregard this mail. If not, then I urge you to go there immediately. I am expecting your support of increased drilling for oil and natural gas throughout the United States, wherever those resources may be found. That includes The Gulf Of Mexico up to 25 miles from our shore, which is well over the horizon. As a resident of your district who lives on the Intracoastal Waterway and a stone's throw from the Gulf, I obviously have a direct interest in this matter. However, I can find no rational basis for opposition to exploration and drilling in our waters and remaining the only country that places its oil and gas resources completely off limits.

The hundreds of rigs already in the Gulf have proved to pose almost no environmental threat, despite being battered by numerous storms. Indeed, far more oil and other pollutants enter the Gulf every day due to mere runoff from everyday activities on shore. Our tourism industry would not be harmed but helped, in that people could actually afford the fuel to get here. Additionally, oil exploration in our waters would not only provide greatly increased economic activity at the Port of Tampa, it would bolster our commercial and recreational fishing stocks as these rigs invariably become huge havens for marine life.

We must couple this with exploration and drilling throughout the Outer Continental Shelf and ANWR, additional nuclear power, coal to liquid, shale oil and any other technology that will increase domestic energy supplies.

This is not only an economic issue but one of national security. It is inherently dangerous to depend on oil supplies from governments that at best don't like us very much and in many cases are outright hostile toward the U.S. I'm old enough to remember what happened to this country during the Arab oil embargo of the 1970's. No matter how much we conserve at home, countries like China and India will continue to increase their energy usage at a rapid pace. That's over 30 per cent of the world's population. World demand for oil will go up drastically, no matter what we do or wish would happen. It will also go up here if we still want to grow our economy. Alternative sources such as solar and wind are at least decades away from becoming an efficient substitute for current technologies and as of now are nothing more than a pipe dream and a distraction.

Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat Party have obviously been co-opted by Eco-Marxists whose goals have far more to do with damaging our free market economy than protecting the environment. Democrats are unwilling to do anything that will help the little people they purport to care about and are just insulting our intelligence with silly platitudes and scapegoats.

Pelosi is vulnerable in that her refusal to allow a vote on this issue reveals an admission on her part that she will lose when many Democrats defy her will for their own political survival. As you are well aware, this is winning political issue for your party.

As a congressman whose district is literally on the front lines of this issue, your vocal and unqualified support will prove invaluable in moving this issue forward. I am confident that you have the courage to do what is right for Florida and the Country.

Very Truly Yours,
Cliff Waldron http://www.radclown.com/

Florida Tomato Growers Due Amends

The Tampa Tribune
Published: July 25, 2008
Florida's tomato farmers were not to blame for the
salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 1,200 people this summer, but they
have suffered the brunt of the economic consequences. They want compensation for
their estimated $100 million in losses, and they deserve it.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the nation's poor food
surveillance system is to blame for the ruin that hit the industry after the FDA
warned people in early June to not eat tomatoes grown in Florida.

This is what happens when you give that kind of power to nameless, unelected government hacks. At the very least, someone shuld be accountable for this reckless, shoot first and ask questions later bungling. But since we're talking about all too common government incompetence, those responsible will probably be promoted.

Florida Government Looks at Bull Testicles

A state legislator wants to outlaw those bull nuts you see on the back of trucks. Explaining his position, Carey Baker said "he fears the bumper displays could become more graphic in the future. 'I think this is the proper place to draw the line' " I know this whole thing is stupid, but it brings up a larger point. Mr. Baker and the government have no moral authority to draw any line on private behavior that doesn't forcibly or fraudulently infringe on the rights of others.

This nonsense stems from the same intrusive philosophy that government uses to dictate when you can smoke on private property, eat transfats or what kind of light bulb you're allowed to buy. It's a zero-sum game. The more power government has, the less freedom you have and vice versa.

If passed, this would go down with all the other dumb laws low rent tyrants have passed over the years to micro-manage what individuals choose to do. It's also illegal in Florida to fart in public after 6 P.M. If that law were enforced, every mexican restaurant in the state would have to close down.

Side Note: In the same article we have this nugget:

"This may be more a reaction to a worsening economy than an expression of manliness, said cultural anthropologist Allan Burns, who teaches at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
"In these times when people are not having fun and houses are being foreclosed upon and the economy is so bad," Burns said, "the fact that people can be a little cheerful may be a good thing."

Only a pinhead who's been sheltered his whole life in the hothouse of academia could make a reach like that. It's so stupid on so many levels my head hurts just thinking about it. That my tax dollars pay this dope's salary just makes it worse.

The Cities (and states) that Liberalism Ruins

NRO's Rich Lowry comments that "Detroit is a stark statement on the failure of urban liberalism". Now we learn that Detroit has earned the distinction of having the lowest high school graduation rate of the fifty largest cities in the country, coming in at a disgraceful 24.9%.

It goes beyond that. Looking at domestic migration rates i.e. how many people move from one state to another, a pattern emerges that is an illustration of why the Berlin Wall was built. People are moving from high tax and regulation states to lower ones. It comes as no surprise to anyone but the left that states like Michigan, Illinois, New York and New Jersey have the highest amount of residents leaving for greener pastures. When the Hawaiian government can chase out 12% more residents than it gained in less than fifteen years, you would think a light bulb would go off in someone's head. The Tax Foundation posted a great April Fools send up of clueless governors on this subject.

These people are moving to places like Florida, Texas, Nevada and New Hampshire. Those four states are some of the few that have no income tax, among other benefits to the productive. And many of them aren't moving that far. New Hampshire gained 6.1% in net domestic migration from 2000-2004 while Massachusetts lost 6.6%. Visit the fast growing town of Nashua that sits on the northern border of Massachusetts and is within commuting distance of Boston and the high-tech I-128 corridor to see how incentives matter. The same trend can be seen in Nevada and Arizona as they accept more and more California refugees.

Unfortunately a lot of liberals are moving too and taking their bad ideas with them. They're also oblivious of what caused them to move in the first place.

It took Rudy Guilani, a conservative by New York standards, to repair some of the damage done by his predecessors. But even he couldn't solve the city's systemic problems that cause taxpaying citizens and businesses to flee, leaving behind an even higher percentage of New Yorkers living off of the public teat. Detroit is just the latest and most glaring example of liberal failure. Conservatives and Libertarians need to spend more time pointing out the empirical evidence that's right in front of everyone's nose.

WalMart the latest victim of Mob Rule

Free enterprise and the rule of law took a hit today as WalMart caved to public outcry generated by the anti-business trial bar and the usual socialist suspects. Actually, the trial bar does like business as long as it's them doing it by producing nothing through publicly funded courts.

Typical of this attitude is John Cummings, a Texas personal injury lawyer who was "seething" in December that WalMart would have the gall to enforce its contractual rights in court. Mr. Cummings apparently believes that some are more equal than others under the law. One wonders how much he and other WalMart critics donated to the Shank family.

I dont know Mr. Cummings and I'm sure he thinks he means well, but the notion that success and productivity is prima facie evidence of evil intent unless you bow to the extortionist left is an assault on basic fairness and common sense. In short, it's Un-American.

The crux of this case was Subrogation. Something that Cummings and others believe "screw the little guy" No, it's a concept that prevents double dipping in insurance claims and protects all of us. That's exactly what happened here. WalMart paid Mrs. Shank over $400,000 for medical expenses which were reimbursed to her by a third party. WalMart then wanted their money back. Not too hard to figure out, is it? This is the kind of thing Judge Judy disposes of in about fifteen minutes in $500 auto accident cases with no complaints because it's fair and equitable. But because WalMart is a big bad corporation that has committed crimes like employing 1.3 million people and offering low priced products to average Americans, then fairness be damned.

The fact that Mrs. Shank contractually agreed to this and that the courts sided with WalMart matters not to left wing demagogues and if you bring it up, then you're obviously a heartless bastard.

One of the more nonsensical arguments I've heard is that WalMart should pay because if they don't, then taxpayers would have to through Medicaid. First of all, since when is it incumbent on a private concern to mitigate the losses of the federal government? And where do people think this money is coming from? The employees, customers and most important, the shareholders of WalMart. Most of those shares are owned by individuals, pension and mutual funds which are owned by...you guessed it. You and me.