Jim Doyle Funding Organized Crime? Or Worse?

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that Wisconsin, thanks to Jim “Pol Pot” Doyle, increased the cigarette taxes to $1.00 per pack “for our own good”. At what point does it become a Prohibition-like price point for smugglers?

Check out this article in today’s Wall Street Journal.

Last month, New York law enforcement authorities announced the arrest of Queens resident Rafea al-Nablisi for smuggling 12,000 cartons of cigarettes a week. It was not the first such arrest, and thanks to New York’s latest cigarette tax hike, it will not be the last.

On April 23, less than two weeks after Mr. Nablisi’s arrest was made public, Gov. David Paterson signed into law a $1.25 per-pack tax hike on top of the state’s $1.50 per-pack tax. That’s in addition to New York City’s own $1.50 per-pack tax. Come July 1, New York City’s smokers will be paying on average $9 a pack for legal cigarettes.

But if history is any guide, most cigarettes sold will actually be trucked up from Virginia, or shipped in from China, by “butt-leggers” who can make over $1 million on each tractor-trailer load of smuggled smokes. The blunt fact, which politicians of both political parties are determined to ignore, is that high cigarette taxes in New York have led to a bloody, decades-long smuggling epidemic.[...]

As you may recall, the first bust of Henry Hill in “Goodfellas” (the bio of Henry Hill, a mobster in New York) was for selling untaxed (smuggled or hijacked) cigarettes. How long will it be before the smugglers invade Wisconsin? I’m assuming they’re already here but have yet to establish an efficient sales network. Well so what? you say. Well, here’s what.

[...]As the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said in September 2002 of New York’s cigarette smuggling, “Traditional organized crime is involved, terrorist groups are involved, and street gangs are involved.” Rivalry among these groups has resulted in numerous shootings and homicides.

The connection to terrorism is no exaggeration. When New York police cracked another smuggling ring in 2005, they uncovered a multimillion dollar flow of funds from New York City to unknown individuals in the Middle East. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly gave voice to the obvious conclusion: Terrorists probably got the money.

Just a few weeks before that 2005 bust, Buffalo-area businessman Aref Ahmed had been sentenced to three years and a month for cigarette smuggling. The feds said he’d used the racket to fund “scholarships” at terrorist training camps in Afghanistan during the spring of 2001. Going back to 1993, counterfeit cigarette stamps were found in the apartment of the first World Trade Center bombers.[...]

Naturally, none of the above will stop Pol Pot from taxing smokes. After all, it’s for our own good.

Politicians continue to use the health of smokers as their excuse for higher cigarette taxes. This view is myopic. As Gov. Wilson argued three decades ago, high cigarette taxes are bad public policy because of their effect on the rest of us. In the 1960s and ’70s, organized crime exploited high cigarette taxes at our expense. Today we face an even deadlier adversary.

Another Reason to Leave

A new Badger Poll is out regarding health care. You can see the entire report here.

Here’s what’s really disturbing. According to the results of the poll, 61% (!!!) of the respondents favor a health care system that covers all Wisconsinites AND is run entirely by the Socialist Shithole State of Wisconsin!

Living proof the brain drain is alive and well in Wisconsin.

Hillary vs. The Coffee Maker

It’s 3:00am and the phone is ringing.

Had to Post It

Yeah, it’s all over the Cheddarsphere but I had to post it anyway. Frank Busalacchi, the terminally moronic transportation secretary in Madistan doesn’t think we’re paying enough at the pump. From Sykes.

Raising taxes is never an easy decision. For the good of the country, we have to make this investment.
- Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi, a member of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee. Busalacchi pitched the commission’s plan to gradually raise the federal gas tax by 25 cents to 40 cents a gallon. Busalacchi argued, “Our (national) infrastructure is in terrible condition. We’re dealing with it every day in Wisconsin.”

Well, Frank, nice to see you’ve completely ignored the fact that Pol Pot Doyle raided the transportation fund to balance the budget.

Tell me Frank, how is raising taxes at the pump going to benefit the state. Why don’t you get some stones and tell Doyle to cut unnecessary spending?

Let me join in the other Wisconsin taxpayers by saying “Kiss my ass”.

Let me say the same to the MSM, for not reporting this.

Why Worry When You Have Taxpayers? Part II

The “geniuses” in Senate are going to put their housing bill on the floor on Tuseday April 8. It won’t do much for the housing market but will make homebuilders and local politicos erupt with glee. The Wall Street Journal points out some of the highlights.

Like 1990s’ dot-coms that went public with nothing more than a concept, federal programs today can triple their budgets with a single word: housing. But unlike the tech craze, the taxpayer investment in this project will not be voluntary.

Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bipartisan “housing stimulus package” hits the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon, and what it proves is that, whatever their other differences, both parties can agree to throw good money after bad. The bill is a $15 billion list of subsidies that won’t do much for housing markets but will please the homebuilders, local politicians and other influential lobbies.

Among the largest items is $4 billion for notorious Community Development Block Grants. The money is intended to purchase and redevelop foreclosed properties. It’s hard to think of a less promising vehicle than the CDBG program, which is managed – after a fashion – by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A February 2008 report from the White House budget office calls the program “ineffective,” which is putting it mildly. On a 100-point scale of achieving results, CDBG scored a 27. In 2005 and 2006, the Government Accountability Office recommended more oversight and better methods of targeting grant recipients.

In June 2006 Senate testimony, HUD Inspector General Kenneth Donohue summarized the results of recent audits: “CDBG-related reports identified over $100 million in questioned costs and funds that could be put to better use. During the same time period, the HUD OIG indicted 159 individuals, caused administrative actions against 143 individuals, had 5 civil actions, 39 personnel actions, and over $120 million in recoveries . . . ‘Improper use of funds’ is the largest repeat audit finding in our CDBG reviews.”

Another finding is what HUD euphemistically calls, “Lack of policy or adequate management.” Reported Mr. Donohue: “The East Meyer Community Association of Kansas City, Missouri, squandered nearly $800,000 of its CDBG money on company picnics, Christmas Tree lighting ceremonies, luncheons, gifts and bonuses.” Remember, this program theoretically exists to counter urban blight and rebuild neighborhoods. Mr. Donohue found more than $2.6 million in management fees providing little or no benefit in a single loan program at the Los Angeles Community Development Bank.

To put it bluntly, this may be the worst-run program in Washington. So why are Senators making it a centerpiece of this week’s housing splurge? Because just about every dollar of the $4 billion will not remain at HUD, but will instead be routed to state and local governments, which can then share the wealth with “nonprofit” (i.e., politically favored) organizations. And while state and local pols will get the money ASAP – within 90 days of the bill’s enactment into law – there is less urgency to address the housing crisis once these recipients cash the checks. They don’t have to buy the foreclosed properties for another 18 months.

Senator Richard Shelby (R., Ala.), mindful of the program’s appalling history, was able to secure a partial rewrite of the bill last week. Any profits from the resale of homes bought in foreclosure must now be recycled back into buying other foreclosed properties. What remains unclear is exactly how much of the $4 billion will stick to the various fingers touching these dollars along the way.

This CDBG fiasco is consistent with other provisions in this stinker of a bill. The main Republican contribution (thanks to Georgia’s Johnny Isakson) is a $7,000 tax credit for those buying homes out of foreclosure. This means that Americans who behaved responsibly and paid their mortgage but are now trying to sell their homes will have to cut their offering price by $7,000 to compete with foreclosed properties nearby. Thus does the Senate contribute once again to tax fairness and personal responsibility.

There’s also a new property tax deduction for non-itemizers, plus authority for states to issue another $10 billion in tax-exempt bonds. The bonds will fund – of course – subprime mortgages. Having witnessed this disaster for investors, states will now run the experiment again, except with taxpayers eating the losses.

Previous government efforts to subsidize housing did nothing but encourage the real estate bubble. The best that can be said of the Senate’s ideas is that they may be more feckless than destructive.

So let me see if I have this straight. Congress is holding hearings because of the lending practices of companies that underwrote lousy mortgages. At the same time they’re going to give money to the states to do exactly the same thing. After all, why should Congress worry? The taxpayers will foot the bill for this crap, just like they always have.

Thanks for nothing.

.

l Wouldn’t Buy Her a Drink to Say Hello

I have standards when it comes to women. They have to look good, talk good and be entertaining. Of course those women won’t have anything to do with me until they need to get home in a hurry and can’t get a commercial ticket. Nothing like a four eyed fat man with an airplane.

For $3K/hour, they gotta sling it pretty good, too. Not that I’ve ever done that for a night. No effing way. Over a long relationship? That means they met the the aforementioned standards. Some call it marriage or living together.

To show you how stupid Spitzer is, not to mention his lack of a critical eye, here’s a high priced call girl. She isn’t worth a drink to say hello by my standards.

She doesn’t meet the AB standards, not by any stretch, yaknow? (Watch the vid.)

I have a question for women. Would you eff that guy (Spitzer) for $3K?
If so, how about $100?
Don’t tell me you would do it for $3K but not $100. Now we’re just negotiating.

Huh?

The libtards at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal are at it again. No surprise there.

Naturally, the MJS board is calling for more taxes, not to mention raiding the transportation fund (again).

But check out this idiocy.

As an October article by the Journal Sentinel’s Patrick Marley detailed, the eventual compromise then came just days before orders for the layoffs of 800 state employees. Such layoffs would have decimated government services, which is possibly what some folks would like to see.

Now, look at the Socialist Paradise State of Wisconsin’s Employment/Job page.

Welcome to Wisc.Jobs, the Official State of Wisconsin Government job site! Find out what over 40,000 dedicated employees have already discovered - interesting jobs, excellent benefits, and many advancement opportunities that allow you to touch the lives of Wisconsin’s citizens and Improve the State of your Career.

So the MJS would have us believe that getting rid of 2% of the state employees would have “decimated” services?

WTF? How stupid can you be?

No wonder the MJS has no credibility (other than most of the Sports Section).

My Tagline is Correct

Proving once again that the tagline of my blog is 100% accurate, Russ Decker (Leader-Brickheads) again shows why he is unfit for any type of leadership position in any capacity.

Besides, look at the bio of this clown. That’s Russ Decker….dumb as a brick and twice as dense.

Good Pharma at MJS

In what looked to be another fluff piece for Obama, an MJS reporter made this his opening line.

Jim Doyle got elected Wisconsin governor twice by being a cautious, middle-of-the-road Democrat.

Sandler, I have a question for you: What planet are you living on?

And the MJS continues to wonder why it has no credibility.

Nancy Pelosi Lives Up To Dems Platform

I’ve often stated the only true platform of the Democratic Party consists of two points:

1) We have everything it takes to take everything you have; and,
2) Is what we’re doing good for America and Americans? We don’t care!!

Point #1 really needs no further proof (although the proof never stops coming).

Point #2 is again proved today by the most ineffective Speaker of the House in the history of that institution.

“Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats appear to have decided that November’s election is a distraction from their effort to simply pull the plug on a sitting President. How else to explain what is happening in the House this week?

Democrats voted yesterday, for the first time in decades, to hold two White House officials in contempt of Congress. Hours later it emerged that Ms. Pelosi has apparently decided not to vote on the warrantless wiretap bill passed by the Senate days ago. This means that the Protect America Act — which conferred Congressional support to wiretapping suspected al Qaeda terrorists — will expire at midnight today.” [...]

Go read the rest if you want. I really wish this bitch would be on the wrong end of a horrific traffic accident or plane crash.