Somehow the ship of state steered off course and life’s niceties morphed into rights. A goal listed on President Obama’s website: “Assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans.”

Assure. The founders had a quite different view of what government was to “assure.” It certainly wasn’t a hospital bed or cough medicine.

We have a terrific column running this weekend by Richard E. Ralston on the destructive presumptuousness of over-reaching government. Forty years ago the government accounted for 10 percent of health care. Today, about 50 percent. And the remaining 50 percent has been made hugely more expensive by government’s costly regulations and mandates.

The administration’s solution? Squeeze out the remaining 50 percent.

Then there’s this, courtesy of another column, this one by Larry Elder: “When Medicare was set up in 1965, the politicians projected its cost in 1990 to be $3 billion — which is equivalent to $12 billion when adjusted for inflation to 1990 dollars. The actual cost in 1990 was $98 billion — eight times as much.”

Rights, it seems, can be expensive. Especially the man-given ones.

Happy Independence Day. Or should we make that, Dependence Day?

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Post from: Orange Punch

Post from: Orange Punch

President Obama recently proclaimed: “Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change.The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear.”

And the press dutifully recorded his words to repeat them to the awaiting public. Like good stenographers.

But our friends at the Cato Institute bothered to point out: “With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true”

Then listed more than 100 PhDs who signed on to this statement:

“We, the undersigned scientists, maintain that the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated. Surface temperature changes over the past century have been episodic and modest and there has been no net global warming for over a decade now. After controlling for population growth and property values, there has been no increase in damages from severe weather-related events. The computer models forecasting rapid temperature change abjectly fail to explain recent climate behavior. Mr. President, your characterization of the scientific facts regarding climate change and the degree of certainty informing the scientific debate is simply incorrect.”

Aw, whatta they know. Al Gore got an Oscar, after all.

To check out who signed this statement, go here.

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The most telling part of the court decision is the straightforward explanation of the events that transpired. Agran and his cronies had a nationwide search for a CEO and low and behold the only candidate that the committee suggested should be interviewed by the board was a longtime friend of Agran, whose brother had been an Agran aide in the past. What a coincidence! After he declined, the second choice already worked for the Great Park. Yet Agran and company wouldn’t provide any info to his fellow board members. Finally, the board consented and provided the info — but only after Shea/Choi had run up 80K in legal expenses. The board then refused to pay the expenses and got a superior court judge to agree. But the appeals court found it entirely appropriate that legal fees be paid given that there was not a “whit” of evidence that the Agran board would have provided the info had Shea and Choi not pursued legal action, and the court agreed that the action was in the interests of the public, as Shea/Choi took seriously their role as guardians of the public trust.

Here is the Register news story. Don’t expect the arrogant and self-interested Agran to be in any way chastened by the words of the judge.

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The L.A. Times itemized the job losses:

1.8 million in manufacturing

1.4 million in trade, transportation and utilities

1.4 million in professional, business services

1.2 million in construction

0.4 million in leisure and hospitality

That’s a whopping 6.2 million jobs lost since 2007!

But wait. How about the government sector?

300,000 jobs gained.

Tell us again how much we are supposed to feel for those government workers who must take a day off without pay.

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Post from: Orange Punch

But what’s also good is our emphasis on global warming here at Orange Punch.

If ever anyone doubted it, all it takes to recognize the magnitude of this farcical and fraudulent global warming scam is to read the newspaper, which you can do by clicking to linked pages here at Orange Punch.

For those who have, they have seen that billions if not trillions of dollars and every aspect of human activity stands to be affected by global warming. More precisely, affected by the schemes concocted to micro-manage everyone’s lives, to confiscate everyone’s money and to dictate everyone’s behavior because of so-called global warming.

If you think the state of California’s paltry $24 billion budget deficit is a big deal, you’re right. We write about that here too.

If you think the federal bailouts are a big deal, you’re right. We write about that here too.

But all that stuff is small potatoes compared to what Gore-Obama-IPCC and their ilk have in mind by advancing their global warming fiction. Tiny, tiny potatoes. And that is why we write about global warming here too. A lot.

P.S. We’re grateful for those who complain about our writing too much about global warming. It means you’re reading the stuff, and clicking and viewing pages. Danke schoen.

P.S.S. By the way, our boss here has asked us to write a bit more about global warming every week. You can find those extra blog posts at our sister blog, FreedomPolitics.com. Please click through. We appreciate the page views.

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OK, it’s not as good as it sounds. The California Citizens Compensation Commission ordered these cuts  to begin Dec. 1. Yeah, we know. It’d be better if it were last Dec. 1.

But even so, it’s a year earlier than the pay cuts they imposed. It seems these citizen overseers don’t have the authority to act instantly. Delayed gratification, we suppose is better than denied gratification.

The cuts in benefits, per diem and cars also apply to constitutional officers of the state. Ever wonder why anyone would want to be an assembly member or state senator? Well, the perks alone are pretty perky. The daily per diem can total $35,000 a year. Tax free.

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For example, they continue to call it global warming, even though the globe hasn’t warmed for more than 10 years. Go figure.

And for example, one reader recently complained that we (meaning moi) must be advocates of pouring chemicals into the atmosphere. I don’t have complete recall, but when exactly have we advocated that? If you guessed “Never,” you’re right.

Apparently some people confuse CO2, which is a harmless and indeed life-sustaining natural gas, for a harmful chemical. Go figure.

That brings to mind others’ comments on that very subject. People even more intelligent than we and perhaps even than our readers:

“Our best current data sets do not support the idea that CO2 is causing a global warming problem,” writes professor Ross McKitrick, of Canada’s University of Guelph and one of the people who worked on the (in)famous IPCC paper on “global warming.”

Hey, doesn’t he disagree with that IPCC paper’s conclusion? Well, yeah.

“The reality is they never asked us if we agreed with the conclusions, and only a handful of authors had a say in the final summary,” McKitrick explains.

The IPCC, for the uninitiated, is a political body. It is, afterall, the InterGOVERNMENTAL Panel on Climate Change. Not the InterSCIENTIFIC Panel.

That’s because the work of researchers like McKitrick was EDITED and SUMMARIZED by others.

As McKitrick noted, “they never asked us if we agreed…” Go figure.

That’s how harmless, indeed life-sustaining natural gases like CO2 become harmful chemicals. 

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I’m reminded that some people predicted that Rush Limbaugh would fade into oblivion when Clinton was elected and Rush didn’t have a friend in the White House any more (which tells you something about how long I’ve been observing the circus of politics). For Rush it was (and is) far better to have a target in the White House.

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It is developing, however, that perhaps Sanford’s best insurance against real pressure to resign as governor is South Carolina’s Lt. Gov., one Andre Bauer, who may make him look like a mature patriarch. He’s single, has been ticketed for speeding (once getting so belligerent the officer pulled out his gun), and seems to revel in rumors that he’s gay. An insurance policy for Sanford, as Cheney was for Bush?

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That got us thinkin’. How about this?

Heck, fall half a billion dollars short of making Department X’s budget? Just tax Department X’s employees to make up the difference. Who has a more direct standing? Who stands to gain more? Well, why not let them prop themselves up?

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The calculator shows how much a household can expect to shell out based on a study conducted by the foundation.

The average family’s burden would be $1,218 or about 2 percent of its average household income, the foundation tells us. Oh yeah, one other thing. That’s 2 percent on top of all the taxes and do-good burdens you already pay.

Ah, what the heck. A measley 2 percent. You didn’t need that dough anyway, huh?

Go here for the calculator. Then go here  or here or here to complain about it.

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Kimberley A. Strassel rattles off an exception or two, or several thousand, to that convenient “truth” in her Wall Street Journal column:

• Debate’s roaring on whether global warmign is or isn’t in Australia, Europe, Japan and even the U.S. of A.
• The Polish Academy of Sciences has challenged man-made global warming. Perhaps because in the Czech Republic only 11% of the population believes humans play a role.
• In France, Claude Allegre is in line to be the new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago he was a global warming hawk. Today he has “recanted.”
• In New Zealand a new government suspended the cap-and-trade program.

Says Ms. Strassel, “The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling.”

More than 700 scientists have gone on record disagreeing with the U.N., which is a tidy 13 times as many who authored the U.N.’s 2007 climate summary.

Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report says manmade warming is “the worst scientific scandal in history.”

And the beat goes on, and on, and on. Read her column. There’s much more. And of course, as we’ve said for years, there are many, many more than that who haven’t partaken of the Kool-Aid.

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Well, we all know what happened next. The Terminator got spanked at the polling booth when his reform measures were shot down, largely due to goverment worker unions mounting expensive campaigns against them. Since then, the Guv’ has sounded more like Gray Davis.

But have you noticed lately? Is it deja vu all over again? Has Mr. Schwarzenegger relapsed?

“I will veto any majority vote tax increase bill that punishes taxpayers for Sacramento’s failure to live within its means,” Schwarzenegger said.

Wow. Sounds like vintage ‘03, hm?

And there’s this, which we’ll be applauding soon on the editorial page:

California public employee unions already reeling from pay cuts have been dealt a new blow by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – a push to lower pension and retiree health care benefits for state workers hired after today.

Schwarzenegger’s call for creation of a two-tier system of retiree benefits was part of a package of proposals submitted to Democratic leaders Saturday in tense negotiations over the state’s $24.3 billion shortfall.

Dare we say, “Wow” again? Maybe, just maybe, the governor will wind things up the way he began. What’s the likelihood of that?

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Glenn Garvin, now a TV writer in Miami, spent years in Latin America as a reporter and has a more nuanced view. The Supreme Court, not the military, declared Pres. Zelaya’s declaration of a referendum unconstitutional. Where were the defenders of democracy when Zelaya was violating the constitution? Matt Barganier at Antiwar.com also has some provocative thoughts.

Not a lot of good guys there. The new government is likely to be as ruthless as the old, and it could result in outright military dictatorship.

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Tell me again why we didn’t let GM go the way of Montgomery-Ward?

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[Deputy] Abbott approached hostess Shari Barman to inquire about the complaint. No doubt thinking of the polite fellow who had hurled epithets at the gathering earlier, Barman replied with an epithet of her own.

Abbott asked Barman for her birth date. Puzzled by the question, Barman asked why that information was necessary, not understanding that under the martial law mind-set prevailing today, anything other than immediate, docile obedience to any directive issued by a goon in a government-issued costume is considered a crime. 

Deputy Abbott “told me I was under arrest, grabbed my right arm, twisted it behind me and threw me on the ground,” Barman recalled later. When 55-year-old Jane Stratton urged Abbott to take care because the 60-year-old woman had recently had shoulder surgery, the heroic deputy “knocked her to the ground,” continues Barman.

Abbott also displayed his martial prowess by attacking several other guests with pepper spray. Sure, it was unnecessary,  but that’s just the way Deputy Marshall Abbott rolls, man. Just deal with it.

Yet expect the normal chorus of law-enforcement supporters who don’t mind the erosion of protections for average citizens and the expansion of power for those representing the state.

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First, on the pie-in-the-sky, hand-in-your-wallet concept of subsidizing “renewable” energy:

“There’s an unavoidable problem with renewable-energy technologies: From an economic standpoint, they’re big losers. …The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in early 2008 that the government subsidizes solar energy at $24.34 per megawatt-hour (MWh) and wind power at $23.37 per MWh. Yet even with decades of these massive handouts, as well as numerous state-level mandates for utilities to use green power, wind and solar energy contribute less than 1% of our nation’s electricity.

“Compare the subsidies to renewables with those extended to natural gas (25 cents per MWh in subsidies), coal (44 cents), hydroelectricity (67 cents), and nuclear power ($1.59). These are the energy sources (along with oil, which undergirds transportation) that do the heavy lifting in our energy economy.” - Manhattan Institute’s Center for Energy Policy and the Environment

 This is the part we find most illuminating:

“The alternative technologies at the heart of Mr. Obama’s plan, relying on mandates and far greater handouts, will inevitably raise energy prices — and high power prices are job killers.”

 And this is the second of our Global Warming Quotes of the Day describing the cap-and-trade bill:

“A great big tax.” - Michigan Democrat John Dingell

“A huge tax … and a fairly regressive one.”  - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett

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Altogether now: That’s too incredible to believe!

So much for sarcasm. The fact is, an administration that bullies congress into rushing through a 1,000-plus pages of global warming fix-it legislation before anyone in the building could even read everything it says probably isn’t beyond bullying mid-level bureaucrats into silence if they don’t toe the party line.

This from FOXNews.com:

“The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the prospect of regulating gases like carbon dioxide as a way to reduce global warming. Carlin’s report argued that the information the EPA was using was out of date, and that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, global temperatures have declined.

“”He came out with the truth. They don’t want the truth at the EPA,” Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, a global warming skeptic, told FOX News, saying he’s ordered an investigation. “We’re going to expose it.”  

Don’t government public servants get a long leash in pursuit of the truth? Says the story:

“According to internal e-mails that have been made public by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Carlin’s boss told him in March that his material would not be incorporated into a broader EPA finding and ordered Carlin to stop working on the climate change issue. The draft EPA finding released in April lists six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, that the EPA says threaten public health and welfare. . .

“Carlin told FOXNews.com on Monday that his boss, National Center for Environmental Economics Director Al McGartland, appeared to be pressured into reassigning him. 

“Carlin said he doesn’t know whether the White House intervened to suppress his report but claimed it’s clear “they would not be happy about it if they knew about it,” and that McGartland seemed to be feeling pressure from somewhere up the chain of command. Carlin said McGartland told him he had to pull him off the climate change issue. 

“It was reassigning you or losing my job, and I didn’t want to lose my job,” Carlin said, paraphrasing what he claimed were McGartland’s comments to him. “My inference (was) that he was receiving some sort of higher-level pressure.” 

Gee, we’re shocked, shocked to find the Obama Administration playing hardball when someone dares dispute the holy alarmism.

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The one big factual issue I take with the Moorlach rebuttal, however, is his insistence that he did not refer to Norby as a demagogue. When I asked about Moorlach’s reluctance to air disagreements in public with regard to the CCW issue, he told me that “Norby-style demagoguery is not the answer.”

Moorlach also accuses me of having a visceral hatred of the sheriff. I absolutely don’t hate her (or anyone who I can think of.) I just don’t think she is doing a very good job. Moorlach accuses me of “run[ning] over other people to get at her.” I don’t see it that way given that Moorlach and Mainero helped her become sheriff and have remained her staunchest defenders even as she has done some terrible things. They aren’t exactly bystanders here.

Here is the Moorlach rebuttal:

I was complimented on Sunday with a column devoted to me by Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut.

Since he was both complimentary and critical, what can I take away from his investment in analyzing the job I’m doing as your Supervisor?

Let’s see. I shouldn’t have my Chief of Staff ask budget related questions of my District Attorney. I should be very upset with my Sheriff and should hammer her in Board meetings (demagogue). (I did not call my colleague a demagogue, I simply stated that I did not prefer to “demagogue.”) And I shouldn’t assist in cleaning up the County’s campaign finance ordinances.

The issue of debating the cost of the death penalty only became public news thanks to Greenhut. It occurred in a staff briefing. If I need to censor staff, I’ll have to figure out how that would make me more conservative.

Stopping efforts to clean up an ordinance is easy enough. But, I’ll have to figure out how leaving something in place that even contains unconstitutional provisions makes me a better conservative.

And publicly attacking a Sheriff who is doing an admirable job under the circumstances doesn’t strike me as a conservative gesture. The last Sheriff was a reputed conservative. The current Sheriff claims to be a Republican. She may have made some missteps, but who doesn’t when adjusting to a new role? Am I happy with everyone of her decisions? No. Am I going to maintain a public grudge and criticize her at every turn and opportunity? No. I’m going to help her “grow” in office.

She’s made a decision on CCWs (carrying concealed weapons permits). That’s her right. She has made a determination of “good cause” and has administered it fairly, in accordance with existing law and Attorney General opinions. If some want a more liberal policy, then they should work with the State Legislature to pursue “shall issue” legislation (AB 357 comes to mind). Or ask our current AG to issue a more accommodating policy statement.

It’s too bad that Greenhut’s visceral hatred of our new Sheriff motivates him to run over other people to get at her. At least we know how deep his feelings run. And, we can also report to many that Greenhut is not someone in my pocket (a reference made by many uninformed bloggers).

As to Sheriff Hutchens, today’s Mickadeit column should make it very clear on where I stand. Next June’s election cycle may be more dramatic than many of us had expected.

As to my Chief of Staff, Greenhut doesn’t hesitate to contact Mario for background assistance on a number of issues impacting the County. Mario has been an invaluable addition to the Fifth Floor and to the County’s workforce. His legal background has been an amazing time saver and cost reducer in a number of areas. To describe him I’d say he’s eight parts Chapman Law School Dean John Eastman and two parts UCI’s Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. And, intellectually, Mario’s in their league. The taxpayers have benefited greatly from his being on my staff. And I’m lucky to have him.

So, I guess I can say thanks for the criticism, but getting things done is my preferred role. Crying and screaming about the things I can’t change is unproductive and unseemly. But, I am addressing them and I’m doing it in a management style that is comfortable to me.

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Eight Republicans voted for it — they must have gotten some nice goodies for some of their constituents — and 44 Democrats voted against.

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Some will find this reassuring, of course, perhaps even brave and idealistic. I’m inclined to think it’s foolish, that it will actually lend some credib ility to charges by the regime that the opposition is nothing but a bunch of stooges for the U.S. Obama could have made a point of saying he was canceling these grants — in part to save money to fund health care? — but while his emhpases and concerns are somewhat different from Bush’s, he still sees the U.S. as properly an empire with interests everywhere. Note he is funding the Somali government – not to stop the pirates but to go after some alleged al-Qaida affiliates.

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