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Archive for July 20th, 2010

A rare case of good bipartisanship

Posted by Richard on July 20, 2010

As a general principle, I assume that when the Stupid Party and the Evil Party embrace bipartisanship and work together on a bill, the result will be both stupid and evil. That's a useful, but over-broad generalization, and S.3518 is the exception that proves the rule. Jacob Sullum explained:

The SPEECH Act has all the earmarks of bad legislation, starting with the strained acronym in its name (which stands for "Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage"). Its chief sponsors in the Senate include Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Worst of all, it passed the Senate unanimously yesterday and is expected to win easy House approval within a few days. Has anything good ever emerged from such circumstances?

Well, now something has. The SPEECH Act, aimed at discouraging "libel tourism," would let Americans block enforcement of foreign defamation judgments on First Amendment grounds. The law was championed by Israeli-American criminologist Rachel Ehrenfeld, who faced a British lawsuit by Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz over her 2003 book Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed—and How to Stop It. …

The First Amendment Center has more about the Ehrenfeld case and New York's 2008 passage of the Libel Terrorism Protection Act, a.k.a. "Rachel's Law." It provided protection for journalists and authors at the state level similar to what will be afforded by the SPEECH Act. Within a year, Florida and Illinois had also adopted Rachel's Law, and it was introduced in several other states and the US Congress.

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is president of the American Center for Democracy and on the advisory board of Brigitte Gabriel's American Congress for Truth. ACT's activist sister organization, Act! for America, has been instrumental in this fight, and has lots of information about it.

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A tale of two governors

Posted by Richard on July 20, 2010

I supported the successful gubernatorial campaigns of both New Jersey's Chris Christie and Virginia's Bob McDonnell. I'll support the former again in the future. But not the latter. Both governors are Republicans who claim to be fiscal conservatives, and both came into office facing budget crises. The difference in how they handled them is highly instructive, and it's a reminder that there's still plenty of rotten fruit in the GOP barrel.

Gov. Christie faced an $11 billion budget deficit, and all the powers that be in both parties declared that closing it would require a combination of "painful" cuts and tax increases (ever notice that tax increases are never described as "painful"?). Christie would have none of it. He insisted that the people of New Jersey were already overtaxed. He took on the teachers, firefighters, and police, among others, challenging their generous pensions, pay, and other benefits. He vetoed every tax increase the Democratic legislature sent him. He faced down the special interests, entrenched bureaucrats, and career pols. The result? He's immensely popular, and his balanced budget passed virtually unchanged. It's the lowest state budget in four years. 

Now, Christie is pushing a Constitutional limit on property tax increases (he's highly likely to win this fight, too). And his next big push will be for major public employee pension reforms. Christie is uncompromising, true to his word, and refreshingly direct and honest. Scores of YouTube videos of him at public appearances, addressing the legislature, etc., make it clear why some people are calling him a political "rock star." Here's a recent interview with Paul Gigot.


[YouTube link]

Meanwhile, in Virginia, Gov. McDonnell faced a $1.8 billion budget deficit. He recently crowed about turning it into a $220 million surplus. Did he, too, stare down the special interests and big-spending pols? Did he, too, cut spending by 10%? Um, apparently not. Apparently McDonnell's approach was more "go along to get along," and the surplus is being called a fraud.

It seems that McDonnell balanced the budget by borrowing from the pension fund. And by forcing retailers to remit sales taxes for July in June, before they'd even begun to collect them. And by raising taxes on manufacturers and increasing a plethora of "fees."

So, about that $220 million surplus — surely, the guv used it to partially repay the pension fund (since unlike Christie, he doesn't seem inclined to take on a pension reform battle). Or maybe he set it aside to cover the lack of sales tax revenue in July of the new fiscal year. Or maybe he just saved it for a rainy day, since Virginia's tax revenues are still declining.

None of the above. He immediately spent it:

McDonnell told a news conference that the money will go to a $82 million, 3 percent one-time bonus for state employees, to local school divisions, to the Water Quality Improvement Fund and to the transportation trust fund. 

I'd like to see Chris Christie become President. And I'd like to see Bob McDonnell recognized as the poster child for what's wrong with the Republican Party. 

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