Lucid Links (040909, Morning) <http://www.bizzyblog.com/2009/04/09/lucid-links-040909-morning/>
Filed under: Lucid Links <http://www.bizzyblog.com/category/lucid-links/> --- TBlumer @ 8:20 am Noteworthy Net-Worthies: "Open Blog" at Ace's place <http://minx.cc/?post=285496>* suggests quitting smoking as a way of going Galt on SCHIP.* Last week at the Wall Street Journal <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123837553079768121.html#mod=djemEditorialPage>, David Rivkin and Lee Casey made a strong case arguing that *"card check" legislation that would short-circuit secret-ballot elections in union organizing situations is unconstitutional.* It's also a stark betrayal of one of FDR's core legacies by the people who supposedly admire him. Previous BizzyBlog commentary is here <http://www.bizzyblog.com/2006/10/28/weekend-question-1-why-should-the-card-check-idea-be-chucked/>, here <http://www.bizzyblog.com/2006/12/30/weekend-question-2-whats-wrong-with-allowing-card-checkoff-in-union-drives/>, and here <http://www.bizzyblog.com/2007/01/10/usa-today-reporter-card-check-in-union-organizing-is-an-open-process/>. Repeating a point from March 5's Lucid Links <http://www.bizzyblog.com/2009/03/05/lucid-links-030509/> about *Mike Quigley,* who won the special election yesterday <http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2009/04/il5_quigley_wins_special_elect.html> *for Rahm Emanuel's former Chicagoland congressional seat* --- /"Mike Quigley, the out-of-nowhere (primary) winner, who is almost assured of a general-election triumph, not only defeated union-favored candidates, he is also a de facto Tea Party sympathizer. He 'fought the Old Guard on the (Cook) County Board and built an opposition bloc that voted down tax increases.' He is also not in good graces with Mayor Dictator for Life Daley. Apparently voters saw that as a good thing."/ I don't think Democrat Quigley will be an Obama rubber stamp, as Chicago's North Side has a lot well-off folks who would get stung badly by Obama's tax increases just as their high-rise condo values have gone in the tank. Cuba has just undergone an old-fashioned, control-centralizing Communist purge <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/world/americas/06cuba.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=castro&st=cse>. That hasn't prevented a delegation of Congressional Black Caucus congresspersons, including Ohio's Marcia Fudge, from providing the island dictatorship propaganda cover <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/07/black-caucus-members-meet-fidel-castro/>. Fudge fudged on the nation's horrid human rights record, saying that "You don't go into someone's house and insult them." *Well, you also don't let yourself get used by a 50-year family tyranny* --- unless human rights really aren't that important to you. NOT a Positivity story <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090329/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_orchestra>, from March 30 --- "Authorities in an impoverished Palestinian refugee camp have shut down a youth orchestra, boarded up its rehearsal studio and banned its conductor from the camp *after she took 13 young musicians to perform for Holocaust survivors in Israel,* an official said Sunday." That'll teach 'em to do something nice. Procter & Gamble <http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090330/BIZ01/303300078/-1/NLETTER06?source=nletter-breakingnews> is not happy with one of Obama's tax proposals. "U.S. companies now are allowed to defer payment of taxes on foreign income until those funds are brought back into the country. Requiring immediate payment of taxes would give an edge to foreign competitors, such as L'Oreal, Unilever, Nestle and Kao, (P&G Chairman) Lafley said." *In essence, Obama wants companies like P&G to pay taxes on money not yet received.* It may be sacrilege to say this in Cincinnati, but P&G does not have to be headquartered in the US. Further, if you think P&G sees itself as a US company selling to the rest of the world, you are sadly mistaken. For better or worse, it thinks of itself as a multinational company that happens to have the US as its headquarters. Hmm --- On March 30, Rasmussen reported a poll result <http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/taxes/81_say_middle_class_tax_cuts_important_for_budget_plan> *claiming that "81% Say Middle Class Tax Cuts (Are) Important for Budget Plan."* One problem: the cuts apparently aren't in congressional drafts <http://www.gopleader.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=116473> of the budget plan. Look for this to be one of the most invisible stories of the year. In Ohio and much of the rest of the nation, the healthcare sector has been about the only one that has seen job growth during the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy <http://www.bizzyblog.com/2008/07/03/the-pelosi-obama-reid-recession-porr-may-have-begun/> that dates back to June of last year. *So how does Ohio Governor Ted Strickland handle it? He wants a hospital "franchise tax." *A Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial <http://blog.cleveland.com/pdopinion/2009/04/stricklands_sneaky_tax_on_ohio.html> calls it "Strickland's sneaky tax," describing it as *"a 'franchise fee' of 1.27 percent in 2009 and 1.37 percent in 2010 levied not on each hospital's income, /but on its spending./"* It's a rough healthcare equivalent of Ohio's awful Commercial Activities Tax <http://www.bizzyblog.com/2005/11/14/this-cat-should-be-killed-ohio-commercial-activities-tax/>, but on steroids. Now, many Greater Cincinnati hospitals <http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090407/NEWS/304070134> "are delaying capital projects. .... laying off employees or freezing hiring." I don't think that is an unrelated development. Given that the Ohio Legislature's resistance to Strickland's 2009-2011 budget seems to be mostly procedural and not substance-based, and given that it waved Strickland's 2007-2009 budget through without a fight, you can't blame hospitals for bracing for the worst. Comments [moderated] (0) <http://www.bizzyblog.com/?comments_popup=8259> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
