by Alex Gimarc                                Mon., January 19, 2009

Interesting Items 1/19 -

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -

In this issue:

1. Correction
2. Obama
3. Taxes
4. Birth
5. Methane
6. Mexico
7. Bankruptcy
8. SCHIP
9. Begich

1. Correction. Last week I noted that four Republican senators had announced they would not be running for reelection. That number is actually five, with Mel M artinez (R, FL) choosing not to run in 2010 – which is why I talked about Jeb Bush. Thank you to a Valued Correspondent for pointing out this oversight.

2. Obama. Barack Hussein Obama will get himself sworn in as the 44 th President of the Untied States tomorrow morning. Limbaugh first said this last week and I will paraphrase him: While I wish him well, I do not wish for his success in executing the things that he said he wanted to do during the election campaign, as it will result in a loss of wealth, liberty and endanger us all as it will make this nation less safe from our enemies. To add to Limbaugh’s thought: I will treat him (Obama) with precisely the same sort of honesty, dignity, respect and reasoned opposition that the left, democrats and the media have given President George W. Bush over the last eight years. Fight’s On!

3. Taxes. Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner has a tax problem. Actually, he has several tax problems. One is that he did not pay income taxes for an illegal that he employed for several years. This is the same sort of oversight that got Clinton Attorney General nominees Zoey Baird and Kimba Wood dropped in 1993. It also got Linda Chavez dropped by President Bush in 2001. Apparently eight years later, it is not enough to get Geithner dropped. Geithner also failed to pay self employment income taxes for several years while working at the International Monetary Fund st arting in 2001. At this point, we do not know how many years of back taxes he owes. Apparently either does the IRS. Note that the Treasury Secretary oversees the IRS, and if the nominee cannot or will not pay what he owes for years before his nomination, how can he possibly understand what the IRS is up to? At best, Geithner’s tax problems are yet another indication that the tax laws are far too complex and wonderful for anyone to understand, much less follow. At worst, he is a tax-dodging crook. Geithner’s second problem was that as the head of the Federal Reserve in NYC, he oversaw the financial meltdown last fall. Apparently he did not see it coming nor was sm art enough to do anything about it as it took place. He did not see the Maddoff Ponzi scheme either. Are Wall Street insiders really this clueless? Our second tax problem comes courtesy of Charlie Rangel (D, Harlem), who for years took homestead tax exemptions for an ap artment in Washington DC. He also holds more than one rent-controlled ap artment in Harlem which he uses for his home and his offices. Rangel chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes all the tax laws. Either he doesn’t understand laws he has been writing, or he is simply yet another democrat living under different rules than he expects everyone else to live under. My guess is that he is both.

4. Birth. In a fit of political correctness, the MatSu Regional Hospital north of Anchorage announced that they would stop making birth announcements out of fear of child abductions. The hospital was responding to pressure from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children which put out new guidelines for birth announcements. Is this a real problem? Not really, as the last year the center has statistics showed only 12 babies being abducted out of over 4.2 million at 3,500 birthing facilities per year. The episode demonstrates yet again the power of the tax exempt public interest organizations and the spinelessness of administrators and their lawyers. ADN, Sun.

5. Methane. NASA announced some results from their continuing exploration of Mars. It appears that Mars has far more methane in its atmosphere than it ought to have. The question is where does it come from? The great debate breaking out is whether it is primordial or is it new, being produced by the actions of bacteria and algae. On this planet, we see both. The discovery of methane on Mars will trigger a very loud and festive debate on the source, as methane on small, rocky bodies has long been thought to be an indicator of life. Ought to be a fun subject to explore.

6. Mexico. DoD added Mexico to a short list of nations at risk of becoming failed states. The other nation on the list is Pakistan. The listing is p art of a planning document that tries to identify locations and threats that will lead to future conflicts worldwide. To have Mexico at this level of risk is not a large surprise to those that live along the border, as the actions of the drug gangs, corrupt Mexican military and now local anti-drug vigilantes are getting to be a real problem. The real race in Mexico is between the endemic corruption of the ruling families and the growth of the middle class triggered by NAFTA. I tend to agree with DoD that Mexico is at no small level of risk for some very bad times in the not so distant future. Hot Air, Thurs.

7. Bankruptcy. The financial collapse of California continued last week with the announcement that they would be sending out IOUs for tax rebates rather than checks. The failure of the greens, unions and democrats in the state is nearly complete, as they have managed to chase nearly every productive individual out of the state. The financial collapse is also st arting to hit student loans and welfare checks. Even CALPERS, the state retirement system, is having financial difficulty, having bet on the wrong horse in the months leading up to the recent financial collapse. California last did this in 1992, when banks treated the IOUs as unsecured bridge loans from the state. Given the economic difficulties of banks nationwide this time around, it is difficult to see that they will be doing the same thing they did in 1992. Hot air, Sat.

8. SCHIP. The House passed out the SCHIP legislation Republicans blocked last year. The legislation is intended as a wedge into universal health care, single payer health care, and will make free health care available to children and young adults with incomes up to three times the poverty level, incomes in the $80,000 range. There were some early indications that the House legislation would also make this new health care available to children of illegals and illegals themselves. I have looked at the legislation in Thomas and found a provision that specifically prohibited making this available to illegals. However, we can expect it to be reinserted either in the Senate or in conference when it is passed out. The Alaska delegation looks at this as a way to inject more federal money into the state. It is p articularly popular with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R, AK). Expect Begich to also support it. This is bad legislation. It will not be the worst legislation that will come out of the new congress.

9. Begich. Our Boy Senator, Mark Begich (D, AK) left office shortly after shoving through several new five-year long union contracts for police, firefighters, the IBEW and other unions. Increases in basic pay and benefits were very nice. Right after he left office, the new guys found a brand new, mysterious $17 million hole in the municipal budget. In the words of Gomer Pyle: “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!” Begich also distinguished himself last week by casting his initial vote as a US Senator for the release of the second half of the TARP funds - $350 billion of unaccountable money that didn’t work the first time around. It is gong to be a long six years with Senator Begich.

More later –

           - AG

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.