George Rebane

• Minimum wage and American Samoa bailout;
• Taxpayers bailing out union pensions;
• David Crane (Arnold’s adviser) – diversify energy sources by diktat;
• And more …

All conservatives and the progressive elite know that the minimum wage is a populist ploy for buying the votes of the ignorant.  Them that use it, get elected.  And them that voted for it lose twice – higher prices for the stuff they buy, and fewer places to find work.  Oh yes, the rest of us also lose.  The evidence is overwhelming that jacking up minimum wages hurts most the very people that the snake oil sellers claim it helps.  Now there is a simple little test case that may even enlighten the adamantly ignorant (but only if the word gets out).

For American Samoa there is a hidden little $18 million lollipop in the next stimulus bill cynically named the ‘Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act’.  You see, when the Dems raised the min wage to $7.25 in 2007, the Samoans pleaded for their usual exemption for all the obvious reasons.  This time the unions – after all it’s their party, bought and paid for – put the screws to their hacks, and the exemption was denied.  The result was that tuna canners like StarKist and Chicken of Sea chickened out and cut jobs, left, or are about to leave American Samoa for more competitive labor markets.

The Samoans think that the minimum wage is a horrible idea, and would much rather have jobs at $4/hr than be unemployed at $7.25/hr.  Not to worry, Washington DC (stands for Dufus Colony) to the rescue with the hidden handout.  But you gotta promise not to tell anyone, because no one in The DC knows what to do after that $18M runs out.  Progress to the people.  (more here)

And I’m not done with the unions and the ‘Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act’, not by a long shot.  As reported on these pages from the gitgo, the unions and their famous pension ponzis have laid low many a company and are making good progress in bringing down government jurisdictions that can’t print their own money.  (All of this to the chorus of progressive denials and accusations that people like me are unjustly shining a light on that corruption.)  So what’s a union to do if its pension plans are now sucking on a dry straw.  Not a problem when you own The DC, you simply get them to pass a few laws that transfer your pension liabilities to the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (which is broke), and voila! the idiot taxpayers will pick up the bill.  And that’s ‘bill’ like in $165 billion.

Next, we have one of the Governator’s frontal lobes, David Crane, who must be a power behind the throne convincing Arnold that CARB’s implementation of AB32 (California’s cap ‘n flee version of the national cap ‘n tax) is what will prevent $150/bbl oil from returning.  You know, he may be right.  Destroyed economies don’t buy much high priced oil, in fact, they don’t buy much oil at all.  Crane says since he can’t get guarantees “that oil will forever be available at reasonable prices, (California) will focus on diversifying (its) fuel supply and thereby assure (its) economic security.  And while we’re at it, we’ll gladly earn the profits and jobs arising from helping transform the world’s $6 trillion energy market into a clean one.”  Meaning what? that we’ll have to destroy our economy in order to save it.  Have we heard that somewhere before?

Then there’s Obama sicking his legal dogs on BP while the company is doing its best to plug the leak.  Robert Gibbs is telling reporters every night “… what WE are doing …” to continue the myth that big government can handle all problems.  The feds have absolutely NO EXPERTISE in handling this crisis, and BP et al, who do, have every motivation to stop that leak as soon as possible.  I wonder what would happen if the BP technical experts quit en masse saying that they now had to start talking to their lawyers to prepare for Eric Holder’s grandstanding legal onslaught.  What are they worried about, that the BP guys will escape? Talk about timing and incompetence in governance.

Israel has its own flotilla fiasco.  Hamas clearly won this go around, and they will try another.  I was surprised that the Israeli incident commander did not order the clearing of the Landing Zone as his commandos rappelled onto the deck of the ship full of waiting combatants armed with pipes and knives.  There is always that awkward moment where the rappelling commando is within reach of the bad guys while his hands are still busy with his ropes.  If he’s wearing a side arm, that will be taken from him.  I bet, countering the next flotilla, the commander will clear the LZ with canisters of CS gas while his commandos wearing masks deploy.  Meanwhile, the world will see videos of confiscated Hamas wheel chairs, medicines, and other humanitarian supplies Israel stopped from reaching Gaza.  Not good.

Yay! we killed another #3 leader of al Qaeda.  Well, we actually got him and his entire family, and close relatives; Hellfire missiles are not very discriminating.  Mustafa Abu al-Yazid was about the eighth raghead in that position we have snuffed from a high flying Predator.  And before the smoke cleared, al Qaeda had announced a replacement.  These guys must be standing in line, and I’m sure every one of them knows the number of the Predator hotline to call whenever they want a promotion.  Hard to tell whether we’re making progress.

Washington state is the current poster child for a state suffering high crime rates from illegal entrants.  Many of these guys have been deported five or six times, and they’re back within three weeks to continue robbing and killing.  They’re even in and out of jails operated by a justice system that failed years ago to perform its most fundamental functions.  Meanwhile, Washington is condemning Arizona for its efforts to stop the flow of this human detritus that devastates the very fabric of a sovereign nation-state.  Can you say ‘internal corruption and collapse’?

Finally, those who have been extolling the virtues of the Canadian healthcare system as an exemplar for our own should now feel a little embarrassed by the Canadian government announcing that, in about four years, their healthcare will eat up 70% of Canada’s federal budget.  If you thought they rationed healthcare before, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.  And our progressives are still recounting the benefits of Obamacare after being told by the CBO that, instead of cutting deficits, that legislative catastrophe will now cost more than double – add another $1T – in its first full decade of rationed healthcare, and then we’re off on to the races on the Canadian plan.  Exit question: what’s another word ‘we told you so’ (OK, use two words)?