How Phoenix, AZ Got A Bite At The Apple

So Gov. Rick Perry seems to have gotten over the entire debacle that was his run for The GOP nomination and gone back to doing what Governor Perry does well. He’s on the phone swinging deals to bring jobs and power down South to The Rio Grande. Well not quite that far South, he’s targeting Austin, TX instead. The Austin American-Statesman reveals details.

Apple Inc. is proposing to more than double its operations in Austin over the next 10 years, creating as many as 3,600 jobs in what it is calling its Americas Operations Center. The proposal was announced Friday by Gov. Rick Perry, who said the State of Texas has offered Apple $21 million in incentives over 10 years from the Texas Enterprise Fund to win the deal.

He may not have been quite ready for the presidency, but back home in his milieu, Rick Perry makes it rain like Vince Young at a local strip joint. One thing stands in the way of Gov. Perry giving Texas a nice, healthy bite off the apple – Travis County Democratic Party leadership. According to the American Thinker, the Travis County Democrats are attempting to hold the entire deal up so that they can exert control over who Apple Computer hires.

Getting Apple to Austin, however, could hinge on the demand from some Travis County Democrats that Apple’s tax breaks be contingent on it hiring a certain percentage of economically disadvantaged residents. Local TV station YNN explained that Apple would have to “give preference to qualified applicants who are at or below the poverty line rather than those who may come across as the most attractive job candidates. Democrat Sarah Eckhardt, a Travis County commissioner, complained to YNN that Apple will thus have to change its hiring practices. “They will-hire the low-hanging fruit, and the low-hanging fruit in our community don’t need the hiring preference.

I assume the lovely and talented Mrs Eckhardt means “people who have their defecation in sequence and know how to work in an intelligent and reliable fashion” when she accuses Apple Co. of hiring “low-hanging fruit.” It’s almost as if these E-VIL Capitalist Pigs are involved in an iniquitous conspiracy to maximize their return on investment. Leave it to the Democrats to get all self-righteous while they attempt to horn in, steal some of the rake, and then hand it out to their followers in return for votes. Few things make me more nauseous than knaves who perceive a moral justification for their imprecations athwart decency.

So if the arrogant, class-warfare Democrats can turn off the Elizabeth Warren economic idiocy, here’s what they can help bring to their local community. The Austin-American Statesman describes what legitimate stimulus would look like below.

“We’re looking forward to building a new campus in Austin, which will more than double the size of our workforce there over the next decade,” Apple said in a statement. “Our operations in Austin have grown dramatically over the past decade, from less than 1,000 employees in 2004 to more than 3,500 today.” The city estimates that Apple would create between 650 and 3,635 full-time jobs if it builds its Americas Operations Center here. It estimates the average annual wages paid for new Apple workers in Austin would be $63,950. About 93 percent of the jobs are expected to be filled with local hires, the city said.

There is some good news out of this entire fiasco involving the Keynesian Cargo-Cult over on the left. It’s not good news for Texans who apparently prefer to chop off their own noses just to spite their faces. For people who like Apple Co products, the company has also entered into talks with Phoenix, Az. This would allow them to proceed with a slightly different take on an old famous saying about Texas. “We’ll go where our jobs are appreciated, and Texas can go straight to ____!”

Governor Perry will hopefully find ways to make the Travis County Democrats relent from their stupidity. He has a well-earned reputation as a governor who will stand up to the enemies of prosperity and growth. It’s time for him to get back to work and govern. Or else all the job-creators that have flooded into Texas will flood back out to escape idiots like Mrs. Eckhardt and The Travis County lunatic left.

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Derbyshire in 2003: I Am a Racist

Yesterday, the entire Internet was ablaze with well-deserved condemnation for National Review contributor John Derbyshire’s racist rant. If you haven’t yet read it, I suggest you take a moment to do so; it is truly breathtaking. However, to those of us who have followed Derbyshire’s career prior to this point, the only surprise is that it took him so long to say something so contemptible that people have finally noticed. After all, in a 2003 interview with RedState contributor Kevin Holtsberry about his book, Prime Obsession: Bernhard Rieman and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics, Derbyshire flatly declared that he was a racist.

I am a homophobe, though a mild and tolerant one, and a racist, though an even more mild and tolerant one, and those things are going to be illegal pretty soon, the way we are going. Of course, people will still be that way in their hearts, but they will be afraid to admit it, and will be punished if they do admit it.

Absolutely nothing that has happened in Derbyshire’s career since then has indicated that he didn’t mean exactly what he said to Kevin way back in 2003. This is the same man who once described welfare thusly:

Following the black riots of the 1960s, these concessions have also been seen by nonblacks as an implicit contract or treaty — that is, as nonblack America saying to black America: “We’ll give you this stuff if you promise not to break our windows.”

And also couldn’t understand all the fuss about the racist comments in the Ron Paul newsletters.

Derbyshire likes to pepper his racist rants with “facts” that generally consist of social studies that are subject to numerous interpretational biases. To me, the question as to whether these studies are accurate or correct is uninteresting and irrelevant – a central tenet of decency demands that every human being is entitled to be evaluated on his or her own merits regardless of what social science may say about any group (racial, cultural, religious or otherwise) to which he or she might belong. It is this very basis which Derbyshire rejects, and that is what makes him (and has always made him) a racist. He is not, as his defenders at the execrable Taki mag say, confronting the world with uncomfortable truths, he is proudly declaring himself to be a racist and arguing that it is correct to be racist. This, I submit, is something that all decent people should reject.

I like and respect the few people I know who are regular contributors to National Review.  I have on numerous occasions spoken to and emailed these people about the danger Derbyshire’s association presents to the magazine, and nothing has ever been done about it, presumably because the decision rests with editor Rich Lowry and others. I don’t know and haven’t ever met Rich Lowry, so I can’t speak to his personal qualities. But I can say that his response to this fracas last night, which sought to distance National Review from the controversy but didn’t declare that National Review was ending its relationship with Derbyshire, showed an absolute lack of leadership and conviction, as does the fact that Derbyshire has been continually allowed to write there for the last several years despite ample evidence of his racism. Derbyshire’s screed was so contemptible, especially in light of his lengthy history, that I cannot imagine a reason that Derbyshire should not have been summarily dismissed within the hour.

The longer this drags on without a definitive severing of the relationship, the more damage will be done to National Review. I cannot imagine what sort of deliberation is required to make this decision, but I hope, for National Review’s sake, that it can be completed before the weekend is over.

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Easter 2012: He Lives

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

Matthew 28:1-9

Happy Easter to each and every one of you.

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Bring Back Mark Davis!

It’s time to stand up for a friend.

For 18 years, Mark Davis has been a talk radio staple in North Texas. Over the last several, he has regularly filled in for Rush Limbaugh and had an ever-widening influence over the conservative movement. Through it all, he has been a faithful friend to conservatives, effectively articulated what we stand for and championed the TEA Party movement from day 1.

As of this week, Mark is off the air at WBAP. Cumulus bought the station and the parties were unable to reach an agreement on a new contract. While most of his listening audience assumes that he’s on vacation (since no formal announcement was made), Mark is left hanging in the wind.

Cumulus has a reputation in the talk-radio community for being cheap when it comes to salaries and they are trying to gut Mark’s now that they own the station. It also appears that station owners think that Americans are tiring of conservative talk radio and specifically of the style that Mark delivers.

I’ve been a loyal listener of Mark’s show for the majority of my life and have kept my dial tuned to WBAP in large part because of his influence. Even when we disagree on issues or candidates, Mark has always been kind, articulate and principled. He’s exactly the kind of man we need on the air, reinforcing conservatives and spreading our message.

Mark has been standing with us for 18 years and it’s time that we stand up and let his station owners know that we want Mark back on the air. I hope that you will sign our petition to get Mark back on the radio at WBAP!

We will be sharing your comments online and forwarding them to the station owners. With your help, I hope we can communicate an idea of the influence that Mark has had over the conservative movement and how badly we want him back on the air.

Visit TXAction.com to sign the petition and you can share our “Bring Back Mark” graphic on Facebook through our page.

Make no mistake, this is an attack on conservative talk radio as a whole. Today it’s Mark Davis. Who knows who it’ll be tomorrow. We need to make a concerted effort to fight for those who so eloquently champion our cause.

Whether you’re in Texas or not, it’s time that we stand up for one of our own!

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Is This A Subtle Bias At Reuters?

In a story about the White House in damage control mode over the President’s rather stupid remarks on the Supreme Court, Reuters reports the following:

“What he did was make an unremarkable observation about 80 years of Supreme Court history,” Carney told reporters during a White House briefing dominated by the topic.

and

The president, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, qualified the remark a day later by stressing he meant action by the Court on a matter of commerce, a legal distinction that cut little ice with his critics.

and

“Since the 1930s the Supreme Court has without exception deferred to Congress when it comes to Congress’s authority to pass legislation to regulate matters of national economic importance such as health care, 80 years,” Carney said.

What Reuters did not bother to report is that, in fact, the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a piece of legislation that passed with a bipartisan majority via the commerce clause just 17 years ago.

In referencing Carney’s spin twice and the President’s explanation, would it not have been worthwhile for the news organization to actually point out the undisputed fact that both Barack Obama and Jay Carney are wrong?

Heck, even NBC took time away from doctoring 911 tapes to point out that fact. You would think Reuters would actually, after three times broadcasting the White House spin, simply report an actual fact in contradiction to the spin.

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Re: Santorum speaks at Supreme Court about Obamacare

Santorum made a strong case yesterday at the steps of the Supreme Court that Romney cannot make the case against Obamacare in the general election since Romneycare was the blueprint for Obamacare. What a great move by Santorum on the first day that Obamacare is in the Supreme Court. I think for the first time his message that Romney is uniquely disqualified on this issue is getting heard by a much larger audience. Even with the bulls–t comment a couple of days ago, that was the argument he was making.

This one issue has now become his central issue, and it couldn’t be at a better time. Let’s hope people in Wisconsin are listening:

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In The Grave

H/t to Ben Domenech for this excellent quote:

“In perfect freedom, the Son become the goat become the Lamb of God is condemned by the lie in order to bear witness to the truth. The truth is that we are incapable of setting things right. The truth is that the more we try to set things right, the more we compound our guilt. It is not enough for God to take our part. God must take our place. All the blood of goats and lambs, all the innocent victims from the foundation of the world, all the acts of expiation and reparation … all strengthen the grip of the great lie that we can set things right. The grip of that lie is broken by the greatest of lies, ‘God is guilty!’ … God must die. It is a lie so monstrous that to suggest it invites instant annihilation–except that God accepts the verdict.”

– Richard John Neuhaus

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Does Harry Reid have the courage to boycott MSNBC over Lawrence O’Donnell’s bigotry?

It’s a valid question, I think, given the way that Lawrence O’Donnell viciously and insultingly went after Mormonism last night on that network. Goodness knows that I have my problems with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. And I have no intention of converting to the LDS faith any time soon, or indeed at all. But to say “Mormonism was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it” in the pursuit of crude partisan purposes is an insult that splatters far beyond its designated target (in this case, Mitt Romney).

I understand that Harry Reid was a boxer, when younger. If the Senator takes this punch without hitting back, then those days are long gone for him, indeed.

Via NRO.

Moe Lane

PS: I see Instapundit had the same reaction.

PPS: Sorry, but there is a certain point beyond which you cannot and should not accept taking one for your political team. You would not ask a Jew to tamely accept that someone on national TV repeated the blood libel; a Catholic is not expected to remain silent at a network anchor’s suggestion that the Pope is actually the Antichrist; and going on the air and telling a Muslim that – God, take your pick, but the point is that even members of that particularly prickly religion have a legitimate right to be offended when someone says something that’s legitimately offensive. If Reid is a better Lefty than Mormon… well, we’re about to see whether that’s true.

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Re: Santorum speaks at Supreme Court about Obamacare

Santorum made a strong case yesterday at the steps of the Supreme Court that Romney cannot make the case against Obamacare in the general election since Romneycare was the blueprint for Obamacare. What a great move by Santorum on the first day that Obamacare is in the Supreme Court. I think for the first time his message that Romney is uniquely disqualified on this issue is getting heard by a much larger audience. Even with the bulls–t comment a couple of days ago, that was the argument he was making.

This one issue has now become his central issue, and it couldn’t be at a better time. Let’s hope people in Wisconsin are listening:

View the original article here

Re: Santorum speaks at Supreme Court about Obamacare

Santorum made a strong case yesterday at the steps of the Supreme Court that Romney cannot make the case against Obamacare in the general election since Romneycare was the blueprint for Obamacare. What a great move by Santorum on the first day that Obamacare is in the Supreme Court. I think for the first time his message that Romney is uniquely disqualified on this issue is getting heard by a much larger audience. Even with the bulls–t comment a couple of days ago, that was the argument he was making.

This one issue has now become his central issue, and it couldn’t be at a better time. Let’s hope people in Wisconsin are listening:

View the original article here

Our Dangerous Dependence on Foreign Chocolate

From the diaries.

America is addicted to chocolate.  Foreign chocolate.

A majority of us consume chocolate each day.  Although the U.S. produces only 6% of the world’s cocoa, we consume more than 20%.

The threat is obvious.  It’s time for government to step in and promote alternatives.

Any day, President Obama will be barnstorming the country to tell us, “If we really want chocolate security and chocolate independence, we’ve got to start looking at how we use less cocoa and use sources that we can renew and that we can control, so we are not subject to the whims of what’s happening in other countries.”

Today, we are at the mercy of Africa, which produces over 75% of the world’s cocoa.  That’s an unstable source, which means our chocolate dependency undermines national security.

Each of us probably began with that first innocent M&M but now it’s an unsustainable $13-billion a year habit.  The average American eats 11 pounds of chocolate per year.  We gain weight from chocolate.  Pimples get blamed on chocolate.

Fortunately, alternatives exist.  With proper federal loans and subsidies these can relieve our cravings and wean us from our addiction to chocolate.

Every member of Congress should be ready to spend on Spree.  (And it’s a lot easier to pronounce than Solyndra.)  The economy would be stimulated by the outpouring of government-subsidized alternatives to chocolate.

Subsidizing LifeSavers is another way to demonstrate our commitment to health care.

We can re-affirm our commitment to children if we provide Dots for Tots.

Others would pull for taffy.  The ag sector might prefer Jolly Ranchers.

And why not switch over our ethanol subsidies to candy corn?

Some chocolate alternatives are no-no’s, however.  Promoting Sweet Tarts risks offending the National Organization for Women.  And no self-respecting Democrat would mimic Ronald Reagan by providing Jelly Bellies.

President Obama can lead the way by explaining how we should not rely on foreign chocolate anymore than we should rely on foreign oil.  Of course, we’ll hope he doesn’t mess up his chocolate numbers as he does when he claims we have “only 2%” of global oil reserves.  But he’s using the most restrictive definition possible.  Obama’s own Department of Energy reports that, “Proved reserves are a small subset of recoverable resources.”

As noted by Investors Business Daily, America’s actual oil reserves are 60 times higher than the President’s carefully-chosen number:  “The figure Obama uses — proved oil reserves — vastly undercounts how much oil the U.S. actually contains. In fact, far from being oil-poor, the USA is awash in vast quantities — enough to meet all our country’s oil needs for hundreds of years.”

Mr. Obama is using flimsy and misleading numbers to justify his anti-oil and gas energy policy, and his mega-billion dollar subsidies for “green energy” and “green jobs.”

So perhaps it’s time for him to pivot to another basic necessity, like chocolate.  If that goes well, he could move on to coffee, because we consume 16% of the world’s coffee but grow less than 1%.  And we manufacture less than 1% of the world’s TV sets, yet use 17% of them.  Then there’s olive oil:  We produce a tenth of one percent but use 8% of the world’s supply.  There are plenty of other examples of how we are dependent on trading with other nations,  just as they are dependent on trading with us.

But we have an over-abundance of politicians who are addicted to government subsidies and regulation but allergic to free markets.  After all, the free market could not have produced the $50 light bulb.  It took government to come up with that bright idea.

Former Congressman Ernest Istook is a distinguished fellow at The Heritage Foundation. 

  Follow Ernest on Twitter:  @ErnestIstook

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Democratic National Convention to be lobbyist/corporate funded, after all.

Repeat after me: YOU CANNOT GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS.

And anybody who tells you that you can get money out of politics is either deluded, lying, or possibly both. Exhibit A: the upcoming Democratic convention in Charlotte, NC. The Democrats piously declared that of course no dirty, dirty corporate/lobbyist money would be allowed to be spent on putting the convention together. And everybody cheered… only, it’s now 2012 and there’s potentially a looming shortfall in fundraising. And lo! – here are some lobbyist and corporate donors.

Sure, they can’t contribute… under the old rules. But rules are flexible things, are they not? A corporation can’t contribute directly. But it’s all right for their executives to write large personal checks, or contribute the equivalent in goods and/or services, or launder it through a corporate charity. As for lobbyists… well. The DNC likes to see its friends happy – friends being defined as ‘people who bundle together a lot of personal contributions and/or corporate in-kind donations’ – and if VIP access and nice hotel rooms make friends happy, then that warm, happy feeling would be its own reward, yes?

I’m actually not particularly upset at the idea that the Democrats were dumb enough to take a policy position that would inevitably force them to become hypocrites. Aside from the sheer pleasure of watching them tie themselves in knots like this, there’s also the opportunity to make the whole thing into a teaching experience. To wit: money cannot be gotten out of politics. It never has in the past; it’s certainly not out of politics now; and it won’t be in the future. As soon as one way of injecting money into politics goes away, another one opens up. Because people want to inject money into politics, and they rather outnumber the people who do not.

This fact annoys certain elements of the Left no end. But not as much as the fact that the Right has noted that the standard progressive response to speech that they don’t like is some variant of a lynch mob; which fact is the primary pragmatic reason why we’re not moving towards an environment of greater transparency in donations. I may think that anonymous donations may be a truly regrettable necessity, but that does not mean that I don’t recognize that it is, in fact, a necessity.

None of this excuses the Democrats for their hypocrisy, of course. If you’re going to take the position that a donation is not a form of free speech explicitly protected by the Constitution, then you really should live by the implications of your own belief system. If you cannot, please do not insist that I live by them, either.*

(H/T: Instapundit)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: You cannot get money out of politics.

*Mind you, I may not feel like living by the implications of your belief system even if you can, too.

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Welcome Back, Baseball

At last, the long winter of our discontent is over. America’s pastime has returned to its home fields. Tonight, the World Champion Cardinals take on the revamped Miami Marlins in the United States opener. Tomorrow, the other 28 teams return to work. Although the game has changed to a huge extent since the days when fielders (including catchers) played barehanded and pitchers threw underhanded from 50 feet, and although the game has become almost as international in character as soccer, as fans file into stands today and tomorrow bedecked in their favorite team’s gear, baseball remains an affirmation of the rebirth of spring and of our uniquely American sense of community and competition. And for fans of all 30 teams (except the Astros), it is a day of eternal hope.

May you be lucky enough today or tomorrow to be able to play hookey from work and spend it in a sun-drenched stadium, with a hot dog in one hand and a beverage in another, enjoying the pop of the ball against leather, the luscious green of cross-cut grass, and the exhilirating crack of the bat as science is put in motion.

With that, I leave you with a video from 2008 from George Will about the intersection of politics and baseball. Play ball!

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Daily Links – April 5, 2012

Today is April 5th. On this date in 1792, George Washington cast the very first Presidential veto, on a bill that would have increased the number of Representatives in the House from northern states. In a letter urging the veto, Thomas Jefferson wrote that apportionment should based on “arithmetical operation, about which no two men can ever possibly differ.” Man, Congress sure was different back then. Also on this date, in 1621, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth on her return voyage to England. The journey took so long that, by the time they docked in England, Plymouth Rock had switched formats and become Plymouth Top 40. On this date in 1869, Daniel F. Bakeman, the last surviving veteran of the Revolutionary war, died at age 109. His wife died 6 years earlier at age 105. They were married for 91 years, the longest American marriage on record. Little known fact: the traditional gift for a 90th wedding anniversary is metamucil. And finally, and most importantly, today is First Contact Day. Open Thread? Make it so.

Fmr Biden Adviser: Green Jobs Oversold | Washington Free Beacon
“The thousands of green energy jobs that President Barack Obama has widely touted after pumping billions into green energy firms rely mostly on short-term construction jobs.”

Healthy polar bear count confounds doomsayers | Globe and Mail
“‘The study shows that ‘the bear population is not in crisis as people believed,’ said Drikus Gissing, Nunavut’s director of wildlife management. ‘There is no doom and gloom.’”

Twitter gives the experience of Titanic, in real time | Twitchy
“This real time Titanic voyage recounting is a project of @TheHistoryPress, marking the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.”

Liberal Actor Don Cheadle Slams NBC for Selective Editing of Zimmerman Tape | Newsbusters
“As the Academy Award-winning actor’s Twitter feed shows, he has no use for liberal media outlets distorting the news through selective editing.”

Today’s Word of the Day comes via Merriam-Webster.
cockalorum (kah-kuh-LOR-um): noun 1. a boastful and self-important person 2. boastful talk

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The Maryland (and other States) Primary Results Open Thread.

Maryland’s getting pride of place because it’s a) where I live and b) has actual, non-Presidential primaries tonight.  Presidential primary results here: Maryland’s state results are going to be… here, I guess.  Looks like (as of 8:30 PM) Romney won DC & MD; Dan Bongino is ahead in the MD-SEN nomination; and the may-not-recognize-her-luck Nancy Jacobs is ahead in the absolutely vital* MD-02 race.  Polls close at 9 PM in Wisconsin.

Open election thread.

*Look, I’ve been stuck dealing with either Steny Hoyer or Elijah Cummings as a representative since I moved to Maryland.  This is the first time I’ve lived in a Maryland district that merely has a single-digit Democratic PVI: people can let me have this.

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Holy Saturday

Image: Andrea di Bonaiuto (1346-1379), Descent of Christ to Limbo

[He] suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell;

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