The OC Register has a strongly Libertarian bent and their political columnist, Stephen Greenhut, switched his registration this year from Republican to Libertarian after voting for Ron Paul in the Primaries. In today's paper, Greenhut gives his closing arguments. They focus on CA-46, Rohrabacher and Cook.
Gary Pritchard is running for California State Senate in the 33rd district. The 33rd is located in Orange County, CA, birth place of Richard Nixon and home of John Wayne Airport and Ronald Reagan Federal Building.
The 33rd Senate District includes Anaheim, Anaheim Hills, Fullerton, Villa Park, Orange, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Aliso Viejo, Buena Park, Tustin, Silverado, Irvine, Santa Ana, Lake Forest, Coto de Caza and Foothill Ranch.
Because of the OC Register, I hate being alive. I hope they're happy.
In a column from last week that would have escaped me if Jesse from Pandagon hadn't seen it, Hank Adler decides that the best way to attack Barack Obama's spending plan is to remind everyone what professional athletes will lose out of the deal.
It was fortunate for Tiger that his most-recent U.S. Open win occurred in 2008. Under twin tax proposals from Obama to 1) remove the "cap" from Social Security taxes for individuals earning over $250,000, a plateau Tiger has long since surpassed in 2008, and 2) eliminate the "Bush" tax cuts, thereby raising the top marginal federal income tax rate to 39.6 percent, Tiger's taxes on his winner's check would have increased to approximately $776,000, a boost of almost $190,000. Instead of Tiger keeping 57 percent of his earnings and the government taking 43 percent, under the twin Obama tax proposals, Tiger's federal and California taxes would have amounted to 57 percent of his winnings, leaving Tiger with just 43 percent.
I know when California families are deciding between air conditioning or meat, when they muse about using a rickshaw to get to work because gas is as out of reach as gold, they are actually upset because they know Tiger Woods is being deprived of $190,000 out of the eleventy billion in his bank account. What, his new baby has to get silver-plated starter clubs now instead of the expected gold? Can you look yourself in the eye and say that doesn't eat you up inside?
Adler continues:
Prefer baseball to golf?
The New York Yankees have a 2008 payroll of approximately $208 million. Under the twin Obama tax proposals, the 24 Yankee players would be hit with an aggregate increase in federal income taxes of just over $22 million, with slugger Alex Rodriguez single-handedly getting dunned with $2.6 million in additional federal taxes.
The owner of the Yankees would owe an additional $7.5 million of federal taxes. Ticket prices would need to be increased by about $65 million so that the owner and players could have the same after-tax income as before. The increase in ticket prices would amount to an average $16 per ticket. Given that the least-expensive ticket in Yankee Stadium currently is $14, this would more than double the cost of a seat in the bleachers.
Adler hit upon the two most sympathetic characters in all of sports, maybe all of Christendom, to single out as martyrs: Alex Rodriguez and George Steinbrenner. Incidentally, with the Yanks 7 1/2 games out of first, I don't think anyone's going to feel too bad about them losing money. Then there's the part where Steinbrenner is entitled to his after-tax earnings and simply must fleece the hardworking fans, because the Yankees have no other revenue streams to speak of.
You can go on to dispute Adler by mentioning the top-level tax rate in 1960 (it was 90%), the tax rates under Clinton which Obama would restore and how that affected business (the largest peacetime expansion in history), etc., etc. But someone with the insight to use the plight of enormously wealthy ballplayers to rally the middle-class public to his cause isn't really worth the time. Only the mockery.
The Orange County Register is pretty despondent about Californians rejecting Prop 98, a deceptive little scheme using eminent domain as a stalking horse for the installation of a totally new system of property rights. A system where ownership is absolute and sacrosanct, the needs of the community be damned. In the end, Californians rejected this ruse by about 61% of the vote. So, the Register thinks you are an idiot, as they pretty much tell you with this headline:
"Editorial: Voters give away some of their rights"
Now, the Register isn't your garden variety, James Dobsian, Right-wing paper. It's "libertarian" in a Grover Norquist kind of way; they'd pretty much love to see the Orange County staff consist entirely of 3 cops and a security fence to keep the poor people away from the rich ones. They rarely editorialize in favor of propositions, as to the Register, all government action is bad. Every so often they get behind one, typically one that would gimp government some how. Prop 98 was right up their alley.
And boy did you make a bad decision. The Gum-a-ment is going to take all of your stuff! Boogy, Boogy, Boogy.
Expect cities to become particularly aggressive in using these police powers in ways detailed in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 Kelo decision. Don't say we didn't warn you.
The problem with this analysis? Kelo has been in effect since 2005, and the number of eminent domain proceedings hasn't skyrocketed. We haven't been just steamrolled with gentrification across the landscape and people wailing and gnashing their teeth. The truth is that eminent domain is very rarely invoked. Statistics are a bit murky because typically these issues are resolved through settlements, but the number of eminent domain incidents is so low as to be statistically insignificant.
The Register will whine about now that they know they've won on 99, cities will run amok. But they have no evidence or reason to suggest that, when boiled down, all you find is naked supposition.
Now, stoopit voters, would you please quit voting so we can get back to the business of plundering the state?
Stockton Record, "Awarding California's electoral votes based on the outcome in each congressional district is unfair, harmful to democratic precepts and a blatant political power grab."
OC Register, "A proposed change, which could be on next June's ballot, in the way California's votes are allocated in the presidential election might have a sheen of fairness, but it is nakedly partisan and profoundly subversive of our constitutional system."
This morning, I've been leisurely perusing through The Register. I may not always agree with their opinions (OK, so it's more like ALMOST NEVER, but whatever), but I like their local news and I like their columnists. Well anyways, I was reading Gordon Dillow's column today and I was stopped in my tracks!
I was driving along an open stretch of Pacific Coast Highway the other day, at or just under the posted speed limit of 50 mph, and every hundred yards or so I was passing groups of two or three or a dozen bicyclists pedaling along in the bike lane. And that's when it occurred to me:
I don't want to share the road. More specifically, I don't want to share a high-speed road with bicycle riders – not because it's that big of a problem for me, but because it's too dangerous for them.
Now in case you haven't heard, "Share the Road" is the slogan that's here to encourage motorists to be more aware of bike riders while on the road, and to cooperate with them. Now this sounds like a good idea, but is it really? Or are we just asking for accidents on places like PCH? Gordon Dillow thinks so, and I think he might be onto something.
Here are today's wild and wonderful OC stories that you just have to see to believe!
- TABOR for All? In yesterday's OC Register, Rep. John Ken-doll Campbell offers us an "American Taxpayer Bill of Rights" to fix all the fiscal woes that those "tax and spend Democrats" are already creating:
The road back to fiscal sanity in Washington is likely to be a long slog, unless Republicans are willing to boldly recommit ourselves to the principles that earned us the reputation as the party of lower taxes and less government. Today the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of approximately 100 fiscal and social conservatives in the House, will do just that when we unveil the American Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Unfortunately for Ken-doll Campbell, Dan Chmielewski ain't buying any of this "TABOR talk".
But Republicans are hardly the party of less government. The size of the California government rose under Ronald Reagan. It rose under Pete Wilson. And it's risen under Arnold Schwarzenegger. The size of the Federal Government grew under Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
The president who actually reduced government: Bill Clinton, under the RE-GO initiative led by then VP Al Gore shrunk the size of the Federal Government to the lowest point since the Kennedy Administration.
- And you say only Iowa and New Hampshire have town hall meetings? Nope, not true... 'Cuz we'll be having a series of them in Santa Ana over the next month. OK, OK, we won't have anyone "famous"... We'll just be talking with our city leaders about youth issues, business development, neighborhood concerns, and more. Ryan Gene has more about it at Orange Juice.
- Advantage Janet? In case you forgot, our Special Election for County Supervisor is still in court. However, there was an interesting turn of events inside the courthouse yesterday. Peggy Lowe has the latest in Total Buzz. And finally...
- "Do I stay or do I go?" Ellyn Pak talks about that grueling decision that thousands of Anaheim Hills and East Orange residents had to face as the threat of fire loomed over their neighborhoods in today's OC Register.
Dena Bunis at The OC Register spoke with CDP chair Art Torres in DC during the DNC winter meeting and shared a few nuggets.
The most notable, although perhaps not terribly surprising, revelation, is that Rep. Gary Miller (CA-42) is on the CDP's hit list in 2008 (h/t CMR.)
I asked Torres if he thought the party had any chance to get Sanchez any Democratic company in the Orange County congressional delegation.
The chairman does have one possibility.
He mentioned the recent FBI probe of Rep. Gary Miller's land deals, and said that depending on the outcome, it could make the Diamond Bar Republican vulnerable in the 42nd District.
We already knew this race is on the DCCC's radar. Good to know they're on the same page.
And who does Torres cite as his dream challenger to Miller? Joe Dunn.
