In the video below, Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute explains how tax competition is spreading around the globe and working to lower taxes and create prosperity. And how politicians are fighting against it.







*This is a new regular segment here at the show. Stay tuned every week for more.

Now is it just me or is this a really BAD IDEA! I mean come on, Mayor Bloomberg (a RINO if I ever saw one) is really going to force the men and women of the tri-state area, who work hard to earn a living in NYC, pay a fee for going to work in their own cars just because they happen to be traveling during "Peak Hours"?
This is just another ploy by statist politicians to take away more choices from individuals.
And I call bullshit!
Remember folks; Politicians can never be trusted to do what's right for the individual, all they really want is power.

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg's congestion-pricing scheme has cleared its first major hurdle, the City Council, and is now headed to Albany - where it faces an infinitely more formidable roadblock: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

The council passed the legally required home-rule message by a 30-20 vote (by Council standards, an unusually slim margin). Now the Legislature must give its final approval by next Monday - the deadline for $350 million in federal transit funds needed to offset the program's startup costs.

But Silver is in no rush to get anything done - even though the Senate's GOP majority is ready to take up the issue right away.

In fact, the speaker says he won't even begin considering the matter until both houses have passed the state budget - which likely will take until Friday.

This means that congestion pricing would come before the Legislature as a stand-alone item, rather than as part of the budget process - making it much more difficult to pass.

More here.

And from the NY Daily News:

In voting to endorse congestion pricing, the City Council recognized the plan for what it is: the biggest boost for New York mass transit in decades.

The Legislature must show the same wisdom. Albany lawmakers - notably Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Democrats - should approve pouring the billions of dollars that would flow from congestion pricing into transportation improvements.

The Council stepped up big-time. Led by Speaker Christine Quinn, members voted, 30 to 20, to require drivers to pay $8 (minus tolls) to enter Manhattan below 60th St. on weekdays.

That means tolling the four East River bridges, a step long viewed as akin to touching a political third rail. What made it smart and do-able was the commitment to dedicate revenue for transit improvements that would benefit the majority of New Yorkers.

Amazingly, two-thirds of Council members who voted yes represented the outer boroughs. Some of their constituents would be hit with the charge, but commuting would get easier for many more.

More here.

I'd just like to end this post with a quote that is usually attributed to Ben Franklin:

"Democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

Here's an excellent cartoon video of the Beatles "Come Together".



*sorry folks, had to take the player down, too many complaints.

Just had to share this Field Guide with all of you:

The Venomous Blotoad:


The Tone-Deaf Bloviator:


The Preconclusive Bulsheep:


The Meandering Panda:


The Imperious Oneway:


The Couching Tiger:


Visit Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller(the creator of the above comics) here.

From Cosmos:

Nuclear energy produces no greenhouse gases, but it has many drawbacks. Now a radical new technology based on thorium promises what uranium never delivered: abundant, safe and clean energy - and a way to burn up old radioactive waste.

More here.

Now there are no excuses to fear and/or hate nuclear energy, you eco-nuts, i mean environmentalists.

Visit this site to see where you land on the "political compass".


My score is here.

More from TED here.

From the LA Times:

Susan Maguire tells jury she paid the private eye nearly $1 million to locate her estranged husband's assets.

The ex-wife of prominent Los Angeles developer Robert Maguire testified Thursday that she paid former private eye Anthony Pellicano nearly $1 million to locate her estranged husband's assets during a divorce and heard numerous wiretapped recordings of Maguire's conversations with his psychiatrist, onetime mistress, world-famous architect Frank Gehry and others.

The account by Susan Maguire represented the first time in the two-week-old trial that a former Pellicano client had acknowledged listening to the alleged wiretaps, which federal authorities contend were a key part of the private detective's lucrative business.

Maguire's testimony overshadowed the long-anticipated appearance of Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey, who was among Pellicano's most famous former clients. Grey said he had no knowledge of any illegal activity by the onetime investigator.

From TPM's Election Central:

A McCain campaign aide actively pushed an incendiary, racially-charged video that uses the controversial words of Barack Obama's pastor to tar Obama as unpatriotic -- despite the fact that McCain himself has suggested that Obama shouldn't be held accountable for Wright's views.

The aide, Soren Dayton, who works in McCain's political department, has been suspended from the campaign, a McCain spokesperson, Jill Hazelbaker, confimed to me.

The move by McCain's aide could create controversy for the McCain camp, because the video itself is thoroughly reprehensible -- it interweaves footage of Obama explaining why he won't wear the American flag pin, Wright saying "God damn America," Malcolm X, and Obama's wife saying that his candidacy has made her proud of America for the "first time."

More here.

Gov. Bill Richardson, declaring that Sen. Barack Obama is an "extraordinary American," endorsed Obama for the Democratic nominee for president on Friday.

Richardson -- who sought this year's Democratic nomination for president himself -- joined Obama at a rally in Portland, Oregon, where the senator from Illinois is campaigning.

"Barack Obama will make a great and historic president," Richardson said, Obama standing at his side. "[It] is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our nation and you are a once-in-a-lifetime leader."

Obama said, "I am extraordinarily grateful to have the support of one of the great public servants of these United States."

More here.