Despite being buried in a mountain of paperwork, she’s got a great real life example of government waste.  Or maybe that’s government-required waste. 

As I’ve often stated within these pages, timing is everything.

I’m coming up on two years of blogging here at CamEdwards.com. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, it’s been a great two years. But I’ve decided it’s time for me to get my own place. Cam’s been great, and I appreciate the opportunity he’s given me. I’ve enjoyed my blogging time here. I’d just like to try this blogging thing on my own.

So I’m taking my Bunnies and going to my new home - Raising Farrahzona.

I’ll still be posting here at CamEdwards.com - when I find something I think y’all would enjoy or when Cam’s on vacation. There’ll just be less of me here, and more of me there. If you enjoy my smart ass, snarky and often lame posts, then you’ll love Raising Farrahzona.

I hope y’all stop by and stay a while.

CamEdwards.com readers knew about the terrorist data mining project at the University of Arizona back in July. My paper, an Arizona paper, is just now getting around to it. News must still travel by Pony Express around here.

Not as cool as scooping the WaPo, but it’s the paper I get here at the house. Was kinda fun opening it up this morning and seeing an article about something I talked about months ago.

… you step onto the patio during the hottest part of the day (5 minutes ago) and say “Wow it’s a beautiful day” while the thermometer reads 97 degrees.

That’s just not the way human beings were meant to live.

They’re now covering Bushie’s speech to the American Legion today, and they’ve spent more time interviewing anti-war protestors than they gave to Bushie and the contents of his speech. At the end of the report, they quoted Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi for good measure.

I love the beach, but I really dislike California.

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I’m watching the KTLA 10pm news, and there’s a story tonight about a hospital company moving an ER to some other location. Naturally community activists are upset. They’re holding a press conference to complain about how this hospital is choosing profits over people, blah blah blah.

This woman is railing on and on about how the healthcare system in this country is lacking, etc. etc. What strikes me as insanely funny - this woman is at least 50lbs overweight. If she’s so concerned about the state of the American healthcare system, why isn’t she taking better care of herself? Is she waiting for the evil for-profit hospitals to do that for her?

Ok, maybe it’s not that funny. Maybe I just got too much sun today.

The latest load of crap from the IRS:

The NAACP did not violate the conditions of its tax-exempt status when its chairman gave a speech that criticized President Bush, according to a newly released letter from the Internal Revenue Service to the civil rights group.

[snip]

In his speech, Bond said of the Bush administration: “They preach racial neutrality and practice racial division. They’ve tried to patch the leaky economy and every other domestic problem with duct tape and plastic sheets. They write a new constitution of Iraq and they ignore the Constitution here at home.”

Unlike some of my collegues, I do not believe this investigation was politically motivated. Non-proft organizations, specifically 501(c)(3)’s, bring loads of cash. Cash that’s tax free to the receiving organization, and deductable by the donors. If any 501(c)(3) organization busts it’s non-profit status because they’re pushing the envelope with their political activity, there’s an easy source of revenue for the folks at the IRS. Donations are now taxable, and deductions are disallowed. All The Service has to do is collect the tax due. Fire off a few notices, and poof - instant revenue. To the IRS, it’s free money.

In my professional opinion, the IRS got this one wrong. The NAACP, as well as many right leaning ‘non-political’ non-profit organizations, blur the line between ‘voter education’ and advocacy to the point where it’s unrecognizable. The Service is too lax in their enforcement of this statute, on both sides of the political spectrum.

I’m really not surprised the ruling came down like this. The Service is run by human beings, can you imagine the backlash, browbeating and in extreme cases, phyisical threats they’d receive had they deciced otherwise? Somewhere in this process, someone must have calculated the additional tax revenue they’d collect, and decided the costs outweighed the benefit.

(via Tax Prof Blog)

Not that I want to brag or anything, but I blogged about the pro-ILLEGAL immigration protests planned for this holiday weekend months ago.

If you assassinate Bushie, even in your faux documentary style, or impeach him and remove him from office… guess who becomes POTUS?

I know you Bushie haters are public school graduates, so I guess I’ll have to tell you - The Vice President assumes the role of POTUS upon the death of a sitting president. Until 2008, that’s Dick Cheney.

Haven’t really thought this through, have you?

Just vacationing on the left coast. I have no idea what’s going on in the world - unless it involves California, because that’s all the news stations here seem to care about.

I haven’t selected a vanity plate yet, but thanks to all who submitted a suggestion. It’s still not too late. I’ll be choosing one at the end of the week.

I have tons to blog about the insanity that is the Golden State, but right now I have to find my wetsuit (or as it’s called around these parts - my sausage casing) and get ready for my surfing lesson.

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It’s been a long week, and it’s only Wednesday. Let’s lighten things up and do something different around here.

Vehicle registration is due for the ol’ Evil SUV. My current vanity plate is old and boring. I need a change. Problem is, I have no idea what I want. I can’t even come up with anything more exciting than my initials.

I’m hoping y’all can help me pick a plate, and something fun to say on it. Can you, dear blog readers, help me out?

Here are the restrictions:

- Regular Arizona license plates can be personalized with no more than 7 characters.
- Specialty plates vary. Some only allow 5, some 6. They also have other restrictions - like I can’t get the Pearl Harbor Survivor Plate, for obvious reasons.
- Can’t be obscene or offensive. Of course that’s subjective, but use the general rule of things you can’t say on TV.
- I absolutely will NOT get an Arizona State University license plate. No matter how much you beg, whine, cry, flatter or shower with gifts. I’m a U of A Wildcat through and through. I bleed red, white and blue.

Other than that, I’m open to anything!

No, this is not a joke.

The Mexican government has financed the creation of a “nature park” where, for the bargain price of $15, you too can live the ILLEGAL immigrant experience.

They’ve each paid 150 pesos, or about $15, for what is perhaps Mexico’s strangest tourist attraction: a night as an undocumented immigrant crossing the Rio Grande.

Advertising for the mock journey, which takes place at a nature park in the central state of Hidalgo, tells the pretend immigrants to “Make fun of the Border Patrol!” and to “Cross the border as an extreme sport!”

As strange as this is, I have to give the creators some credit. To me, it’s a sign of ingenuity and entreprenuership. If Mexico had more of this, perhaps ILLEGAL immigration would slow.

What I don’t get is the attitude of those who are flocking to this attraction.

Participants said they were lured by the realistic experience promised by the nearly six-hour nocturnal walk.

“It was like being in their flesh and bones,” marveled Oswaldo Martinez, 31, of Cuernavaca.

“It was cool. It was very fun,” gushed his friend Mauricio Palacios, 30. “I never imagined it would be like that.”

Until almost 2 a.m., the group scaled walls, hid in tunnels, jumped on the back of pickup trucks and followed a path through a cornfield. The trip ended with a ride in blindfolds

Fun? FUN? Then it’s not realistic, is it? I can’t imagine the folks dying in the desert out here are having fun.

Maria Garcia, a Mexican immigrant who founded the Hispanic Community Support Center in Duluth, Ga., said the mock crossing could be perceived as exploiting the suffering of migrants. “Someone crossing the border knows they could die,” she said. “Someone going on this tour knows they will have fun.”

Maybe if this attraction used real bullets, or held these patrons for ransom in safe houses with 100 of their closest friends, or left them in the desert for dead like real Coyotes do. Then maybe it would be realistic.

And of course, folks at the The U.N. love it.

“Anything that raises awareness in Mexico of the plight of undocumented immigrants is welcome,” said Jorge Bustamante, special Mexican representative to the U.N. for human rights of migrants. “But the indifference is very strong, and it’s greater as you ascend in social class.”

And what, praytell Senor Bustamante, shall I do with my awareness of the plight of undocumented immigrants? Pity them because it’s difficult to ILLEGALLY cross the border? Make it easier because it’s soooo tough? Wait! I know! You want the U.S. to give the U.N. some cash to set up a commission to fund/assisst/encourage ILLEGAL border crossing, with your management fee being 30% of the commission’s operating budget. I’m right, aren’t I Senor Bustamante?

Because The Governator and the California legislature have agreed to raise the state minimum wage to $8/hr. The highest in the country.

Schwarzenegger, a fiscal conservative and ally of business groups concerned about the cost of doing business in California, said the state economy had recovered and companies could afford to pay minimum-wage workers more.

“I have always said that when the economy was ready, we should reward the efforts of California’s hard-working families by raising our minimum wage,” he said in statement.

How hard working are these people if they’re only making minimum wage?

As a small business owner, I reward my hardworking employees with pay increases, bonuses and other perks. My slacker employees are at minimum wage, and only hanging around until I can find a good reason to replace them. Yes, Arizona is a right-to-work state, but having a good reason shuts the lawyers up. Slacker employees always give me a reason eventually. Give them enough rope, and they’ll hang themselves. I just sit back and wait.

All this minimum wage increase will do is force businesses to increase the pay of those underperforming employees. Nothing like rewarding failure - that’s a solid business practice, don’t you think? Wait - that policy really sounds familiar. I’ve heard that somewhere else…give me a moment and it will come to me.

I’m disappointed in Ahnold. He’s starting to sound like all those other nutjob Californian’s.

A Pima County Sherriff official accidentally sent a sensitive internal memo on terrorist activity on the Southern Arizona border to media outlets in Tucson.

Instead of an internal e-mail list, “he sent it to the DUI task force, which includes the media.” That list is intended to make the media aware of events such as checkpoints and special enforcements to catch drivers under the influence, he said.

Woopsie. Innocent mistake, I’m sure it’s happened to all of us. Of course it’s a little more serious if the contents of the email could cause widespread panic in Arizona if made public.

One local Tucson paper, The Arizona Daily Star has refused to publish the contents of the memo. No reason was given, but I’m going to give them major kudos for not doing so whatever their reasoning.

It’s refreshing to see a media outlet pause and think about these things once in a while.

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…that I think this would be really cool?

If Arizona can have a baseball stadium named Bob with a pool in right field, why can’t we have a football stadium named after a popular restaurant?

Yes, it’s California. And yes it would mean I would live too close to my parents for my sanity. But since I make less than $160,000 a year, the city of Santa Barbara would subsidize my housing.

The City Council is considering whether to use the property to build affordable housing, a condominium complex called Los Portales for families earning up to $160,000 a year.

Now, “it’s hard to get sympathy for people making $160,000 a year if you’re down in Texas or something,” said Bill Watkins, head of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Economic Forecast Project. Any household with that kind of money is in the nosebleed section of American earners, and “most of the country would think, ‘You’re going to subsidize that person’s house? You’re kidding me.’ “

Uh, yeah. The surrounding communities are more affordable, it’s not entirely unreasonable to assume they’d commute. Everyone else in Southern California does.

How could I not consider moving? A home in a beach community, paid for taxpayers? It’s a dream come true! Well I would consider it, except for that pesky self respect-pride in supporting myself thing.

The New York Times originally published this wiretap story.

They claimed they held the story for a year, and ultimately published it when they determined doing so wouldn’t harm national security.

The New York Times had not responded to Bush’s allegations that the paper endangered national security as of Saturday afternoon.

But in a Friday statement, Executive Editor Bill Keller said the newspaper postponed publication of the article for a year at the White House’s request, while editors pondered the national security issues surrounding the release of the information.

But after considering the legal and civil liberties aspects, and determining that the story could be written without jeopardizing intelligence operations, the paper ran the story, Keller said, emphasizing that information about many NSA eavesdropping operations is public record.

It’s reasonable to assume since this was a CLASSIFIED program, the ACLU hadn’t heard about it until the NYT published their story. And further, it’s reasonable to assume if the ACLU hadn’t known about this program, they wouldn’t have filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit that just ordered the program to stop.

So yes, the NYT did harm national security efforts by publishing this story. Again.

I’m starting to sense a pattern.

Because I’m around for all the breaking news.

Some asshatted judge in Detroit has just ruled the NSA’s terrorist wiretap program unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

What wire tap program, you say? You know, the program that helped foil that airline terror plot last week. The one that saved all those people from being blown over the Atlantic ocean - it was just ordered to stop. Stop saving people dammit, someone’s liberties MIGHT be infringed.

Ugh, the asshattery here is unbelievable.

Oh, and this asshat was appointed by Jimmy Carter. Ok, maybe not that unbelievable then.

I’m slowly starting to believe in term limits for the judicial branch.

Wizbang has an excellent round up.

This piece over at Redstate is fascinating.

For 82 days Jill Carroll was held hostage by terrorists in Iraq.
She’s now telling her story in a 10 part multi-media series over at The Christian Science Monitor.

Still wondering if we’re really at war? Go read it all.

Do you think there’s such a thing as negligence in reporting? That a journalist can be so careless with their reporting they can cause someone harm?

I do, and you will when I tell you about Eddie Johnson.

The problems started Tuesday when Edward Lee “Fast Eddie” Johnson — a former two-time NBA All-Star with the Atlanta Hawks who has had a history of legal problems since his retirement — was arrested and charged with the sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl.

But over the next 24 hours, Edward Arnet Johnson, the former Sixth Man of the Year with the Suns and popular broadcaster, was misidentified as the man arrested by at least three media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune and host Skip Bayless — substituting for the vacationing Jim Rome on Rome’s nationally syndicated radio show.

Woopsie. My bad. Sorry.

Eddie Johnson - the former Phoenix Sun a Chicago native, a Fighting Illini and his own hometown paper got it wrong. That’s not only sad, it’s almost criminal. Someone, somewhere on that paper’s staff neglected their job duties, and almost destroyed a man’s reputation in the process.

Either it was a lazy sports reporter and sports editor who didn’t bother to double check the facts of their erroneous article, or a hot shot reporter who thought he nabbed this squeeky clean athlete doing something horrible and wanted to be first with the story - their actions are going to cost the Tribune some serious money.

Johnson is trying to deal with it the best he can, and he cuts right to the root of the problem.

“This is why athletes have so many problems with the media,” said Johnson, 47, who is four years younger than the Eddie Johnson who was arrested Tuesday. “They don’t do their homework. They don’t bother to check facts before they write things or get on the radio and talk.

“I’m sitting here dumbfounded because 47 years of building a reputation is being destroyed in one morning by something I had nothing do with. I’ve been getting nasty e-mails all morning. It’s a nightmare.”

With everything we’ve seen this past week with the doctored photos, it’s obvious the media isn’t doing their homework. They don’t bother to check things. This time, they almost destroyed an innocent man’s reputation and career.

If that’s not negligence, I don’t know what is.

Michelle Malkin is your source for the latest and greatest on today’s terror bust.

If you were wondering if we were still at war, I think you just got your answer.

**UPDATE**

Counterterrorism Blog is a must read as well.

A few thoughts:

Al-Qaeda is known for sticking with the same plot and same targets over a prolonged period of time. Refining the plan of attack until it’s a reality. There is a school of thought out there that says the 1993 World Trade Center bombings were a practice run for 9/11. Was this a practice run?

In 1995, when U.S. and Philippine security services uncovered a plot by 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and his uncle 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to bomb over a dozen U.S. airliners simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean [Operation Bojinka], they quickly moved in and arrested their co-conspirators. One of the detained men, trained commercial pilot Abdel Hakim Murad, described Ramzi Yousef’s plans in detail — including his intention to travel to “France, Egypt, and Algeria after the activities here in the Philippines. The purpose was to train those Muslim brothers thereat, on using a Casio watch as a timing device, chemical mixtures to compound bombs, and to share his expertise in eluding detection on an airport’s x-ray machine, and eventually smuggling [onboard] this liquid chemical bombs. Furthermore, France has a lot of Algerians staying and that these Egyptians and Algerians ha[ve] no experience on making these bombs and [do] not know the basics of smuggling liquid bombs through the airport.”

Was this the final execution of this plot? I hope so, because it’s been foiled. But I doubt it.

**UPDATE, again**

This guy asks a really good question. Why are TSA employees taking all these assumed dangerous liquids away from everyone, AND THEN MIXING THEM ALL TOGETHER?????

Of course he does it with much more wit than I ever could.

While Senator Clinton and the rest of the lefties are carping about Big Oil and windfall profits, the facts threaten to get in the way of their issue.

According to a study by Ernst & Young, between 1995 and 2005, Big Oil invested more money in oil exploration and research and development than they took in as profits. Yep, you read that correctly. All those $100 bills Lee R. Raymond was blowing his nose with were being pumped right back into the economy, and then some (emphasis mine).

The study found that the top companies — including Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, among others — took in a mind-numbing $5 trillion in revenue from sales of oil and related products between 1995 and 2005. After subtracting the cost of equipment, leases, labor and other operating expenses, the companies posted whopping profits of $336 billion.

Over the same time span, however, the companies spent even more than they earned — $550 billion — on oil exploration and development. Some of them went deeply into debt to finance new ventures, especially during times of lean profits

Now I’m not an economist, nor do I play one on TV, but that sounds familiar. Where have I heard that before? Oh yes! Trickle-down anyone?

Big Oil isn’t actually making these huge profits the left and their allies in the MSM shout about. Well they are, but only on paper. Random numbers determined by accounting rules and regulations. Big fat oil executives aren’t sitting on huge piles of cash in the boardroom, it’s going right back in to R & D expenditures.

I have to wonder if Clinton and the rest of the lefties secretly know Big Oil is reinvesting their profits. As they continually point out to those of us on the right - they’re smarter than we are. So do they know?

Let’s pretend for a moment that Senator Dorgan’s Windfall Profits Rebate Act of 2005 bill (S.1631) didn’t die in committee and Bushie signed it. Big Oil would have to pay 50% of every dollar made over $40 a barrel. That’s what will get the headline, that’s what Dorgan will get props for.

The fine print of the bill however, exempts profits reinvested in R & D, and exploration for new sources of oil and gas. That won’t get printed. Dorgan and the lefties get the good press, for sticking it to Big Oil, but nothing really changes. Big Oil doesn’t pay a dime of excise tax, and gas prices don’t go down….The left still has their talking point.

Of course they secretly know. I told you they were smart.

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I’ve been rather blah lately. Blah on politics, blah on current events. Blah on everything. It’s been a struggle to churn out posts. It’s blogger burn out I guess.

Mid-term elections are coming up, and I can’t tell you who’s running for anything. I haven’t been paying attention, and I haven’t cared. I know I need to get on the ball, I know. I get paid the big bucks to blog here so I have to talk about something of substance. I just can’t get interested in a topic enough to blog about it. Not even The Bunnies. You know it’s bad when I don’t feel like blogging about The Bunnies.

But this evening on the way home I heard something that snapped me out of it:

If the Republicans don’t keep control of the House, Nancy Pelosi will be third in-line for the Presidency.

Oh.My.God.

I’d better get to work.

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The Jock Tax

Professional athletes must pay state income taxes in every state they earn income, in addition to their home state.
And if they happen to be playing in a city that has an income tax ( like New York City), they pay that too.

So let’s take baseball as an example…

In 2003, Illinois hosted the All-Star Game and required visiting players and other team em-ployees to pay the jock tax—Illinois’ state income tax—on the income they earned during the weekend of the game. Although the visiting players, coaches and support staff are just like anyone else whose work brings them to Illinois, the tax law treats them differently. It requires all visiting athletes and other team employees to pay state income taxes for the day of the game, as well as the rest of the weekend. The tax is due even if a player does not set foot on the field.

When the Dbacks head to Chicago to play the Cubbies on Saturday night, and only Saturday night, each Dback has to pay tax in both Illinois and Arizona on the income earned that weekend. Even if the Dback is stuck in the bullpen or riding the pine in the dugout, these athletes still have to fork over the cash.

It’s not just the MLB salaries that are taxed, it’s everything earned that weekend. Things like autograph fees, fees earned for promotional appearances, even endorsement deals if they can be traced back to a certain state. States love to go after athletes like this - it’s big money, and easy to track the activites of the athletes. Pulling up a MLB schedule and roster takes two seconds. Even state revenue agencies are smart enough to figure that out.

Sure lots of these guys are rich, and can afford to pay outrageous hourly fees for tax advice to minimize their tax burden. And generally there are state tax credits that will offset taxes paid to other states. But think of the administrative nightmare!

Of course, it’s job security for people in my profession.