As the national economic collapse causes Wall Street tax receipts to fall off precipitously from city coffers, New York City council members  plead poverty and demand more revenue.  They have already added roughly $20-$30 per night per guest to the cost of an average Manhattan hotel room.  So, holding a small or medium-sized convention or seminar in New York City of, say, one thousand attendees for three days would cost at least an additional $60,000 - that's $20,000 per day -- in taxes. 

Like all politicians, New York's city council members are resorting to the old "Welcome, Stranger!" rule of tax policy whereby politicians pass taxes on the people who can't vote against them in the next election.  When revenues fall short, you can pretty much expect that out of state residents and businesses will be the "first burned" by tax policy. 

A few days ago, as the Israeli counter-strike on the Palestinians in Gaza began, I was wondering how soon it would be before the oh-so morally superior U.N. and the oh-so morally superior world community starts bashing Israel for its “disproportionate response” against those poor innocent oppressed Palestinians. These are the same Palestinians who had been launching rockets unanswered into Israel from Gaza—land Israel gave up for the sake of peace, remember???—without a single peep from such bastions of morally superiority.

Well, the wait is over. And, luckily, Vice PM Tzipi Livni has a bigger backbone than many of her predecessors, saying before the Knesset:

Three times in the last five years Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Charles Krauthammer has lauded the idea of raising the tax on gasoline as a way of suppressing consumption, thus - according to the theory - lowering global gas prices and reducing dependency on foreign oil. His latest construct of an idea he is obviously smitten with, published this past weekend in The Weekly Standard, calls for this new gas tax hike to be "offset" with a cut in the FICA tax, creating a "net-zero" effect.

So goes the hypothesis.

He breaks down the numbers this way ...

The average American purchases 14 gallons of gas a week. Krauthammer proposes a $1 a gallon tax increase to consumers while giving taxpayers a $14 FICA tax cut. The Feds therefore will not be taking in any additional revenue, according to the plan - and to Krauthammer, that's the key. It must be revenue-neutral to work.

The idea, as he explains it, is that "cash can be spent on anything."

He writes:

You can blow it all on gas by driving your usual number of miles, or you can drive a bit less and actually have money in your pocket for something else. There's no particular reason why the individual consumer would want to plow it all back into a commodity that is now ... more expensive. When something becomes more expensive, less of it is bought.

Today the Commissioners of the NYC Board of Elections met and voted to affirm the previos decisions of the bi-partisan team of BOE employees to rule certain ballots in the 11th Senate race invalid. The 7-3 vote clears the way for the State Supreme Court to render a decision in this matter and likely uphold the decision of the Commissioners.

While it has not been determined that there would have been enough votes for Gennaro to swing the race in his favor, this should settle the matter with Padavan still ahead, although by a tight margin.

In spite of many errors by the Padavan recount team, who nearly cost the senator his re-election, it seems the long-serving senator from Queens will survive to fight another day.

As we enter another year, many in this country and across the globe have had cause to wonder if recent events herald the end of America. It's not hard to see why, given the ongoing difficulties we've had and the hatred and anger of people in many parts of the world directed against us. Our recent financial meltdown and the biggest economic downturn in generations haven't helped, while the solutions adopted by an outgoing Republican administration, and promised by an incoming Democratic one, involving massive government financial intervention, can only give one pause. If deficits count, then this looks deadly because we're shelling out (and planning to shell out) trillions of dollars to shore up financial institutions and bail out the auto industry and, presumably, not a few other businesses now waiting in line.

Has anyone noticed the MSM’s sycophantic swooning and drooling over Barack Obama, who has been showing off his “sun-glinted chiseled pectorals” while vacationing in Hawaii?

OK, fine, Barack Obama is in good shape. But isn’t George W. Bush, fifteen years Obama’s senior, also in very good physical shape for his age? Indeed, we have seen over the past eight years how Bush is an avid runner and biker. He has also shown his natural athleticism whenever the camera has caught him throwing a football or tossing the first pitch at a baseball game.

The inimitable Michelle Malkin has noticed both the media’s infatuation with Obama’s physique and goes back to archives to document their coverage of Bush’s. The conclusion: Can you say, “Liberal media bias”?

Aren’t we all lucky to have our mayor and governor enact legislation that will force us all to behave properly? After all, we can’t be trusted to eat right, watch our weight, and quit smoking without the government punishing our bad choices. I’ve come to the conclusion that perhaps we deserve the “nannies” since we haven’t risen up in outrage at these attacks on our independence. Liberal politicians are big on the word “choice” but only when it comes to a woman’s reproductive system not when it comes to personal behavior they don’t approve of.

Mayor Bloomberg, an ex-smoker, made sure that those still addicted to the “death sticks” would find it harder and harder, if not impossible, to smoke indoors anywhere in the city. His “Honor” also hates automobiles in Manhattan and was thoroughly miffed that his congestion tax plan was thwarted in the state legislature. So what does he do? He installs traffic medians on major avenues for latte drinkers and bike paths all over the city so we can ditch our cars, get it? Walking and riding is so much better than driving gas guzzling vehicles even if they’re necessary for getting to work or doing business. Nanny Bloomberg knows what’s best for us.

Not that Governor Paterson is a slouch in the nanny department. His proposed legislature is being dubbed “obesity taxes” because non diet sodas will be taxed at a higher rate than diet drinks. Supposedly all his new taxes are due to a budgetary crisis in the state and Democrats only know how to raise taxes rather than cut non essential services. That’s why film producers will still get state funds but non carbonated drinks and water bottles will now be charged deposits so that environmental programs will be funded. How green is your valley?

Mayor Bloomberg's run of good press continues, despite overturning a very popular term limit law, proposing oppressive levels of new taxation and picking fights with Albany's leaders, such as Sheldon Silver and Gov. Patterson.  In Today's NY Post, he's essentially given credit for holding the line on spending by proposing to withold pay increases for his Adminstration's managerial staff.

"In a tradition that dates back decades, managers' salaries follow the pattern set in new contracts with District Council 37, the largest municipal union...Last month, DC 37's 100,000 workers won raises of 4 percent in each of two years, retroactive to March 3."

I, like the Post, applaud the Mayor for saving the city $50 million in 2009 by witholding the pay increases for his managers, but the comparison is a joke.  Why are we not talking about the sheer idiocy of "DC 37's 100,000 workers won raises of 4 percent in each of two years, retroactive to March 3?"

He is the antithesis of cool, which makes him cool.

Cheney has a job to do and he gets it done.

His job is riding shotgun in the Bush administration. He has the president's back. So they call him Darth Cheney and he doesn't care because that's his job.

That's how Don Surber describes VP Dick Cheney, who gave his "exit" interview on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.

And I agree with him. Here is a key part of the interview:

CHENEY: We didn't set out to achieve the highest level of polls that we could during the course of this administration. We set out to do what we thought was necessary and essential for the country. That clearly was the guiding principle with respect to the aftermath of 9/11. I feel very good about a lot of the things we've done in this administration. I think that they will be viewed in a favorable light when it's time to write the history of this era.

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