DAS Commissioner Linda Hodgden has provided additional information on our report on the 2008 Hiring Freeze. We’re happy to publish her letter here.
DAS Letter on Waviers 09-29-09

Flu shot may increase your vulnerability to swine flu.
Ingestible chip reminds you to take your medicine.
What if air travel worked like health care? Both funny and sad (HT to Marginal Revolution).
Can new doctors be harmful to your health? Yes. 

The PA Farm Bureau recently released an article in the September edition of Country Focus illustrating the stifling effects Waxman-Markey legislation will have on rural farming communities across Pennsylvania.

While Cap-and-Trade will dramatically raise the cost of every household’s energy bills, farmers are especially hard hit by skyrocketing fertilizer prices and higher operating costs for their equipment. The Farm Bureau also notes that without any alternative energy sources in place to power America’s farms, Waxman-Markey is putting the entire agriculture industry in jeopardy. Moreover, putting a cap on carbon emissions without ensuring the same in high-carbon output nations like India and China will accomplish nothing but place a virtual tariff on American goods.

With family farms already in danger due to the unstable economy, can we really afford to increase their burden?

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation has announced it will not apply for federal funds for a high speed rail project, placing the blame on Pan Am Rail Systems.

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) has decided not to apply for $300 million in federal funding under the “High Speed Passenger Rail Program” that would have helped make possible passenger rail service along 39 miles of upgraded tracks from Nashua to Concord. The deadline for “Track 2 corridor service development and improvements” program applications is October 2, 2009.

“It’s very unfortunate that we are not able to take advantage of this huge window of opportunity for passenger rail in New Hampshire with any prospect of success at this time due to the lack of cooperation and involvement of Pan Am Railways, the host railroad along the corridor,” says NHDOT Commissioner George Campbell. “By walking away from this unique and exiting initiative, Pan Am has effectively closed the window on strengthening New Hampshire’s economy. Our citizens and businesses along this corridor deserve better transportation choices than they have today.”

Pan Am Railways announced on June 30 that it was no longer interested in either operating or hosting passenger rail along the rail corridor it owns. The State of New Hampshire is discussing with Amtrak its interest in operating passenger rail along the “NH Capital Corridor” (NHCC). Amtrak has successfully run the Downeaster service for the last decade and offers intercity rail service extensively across America.

The high-speed rail project is a boondoggle of the first magnitude. Had New Hampshire received the federal grant under the stimulus, it would have committed state taxpayers to a long-term subsidy for a rail line guaranteed to lose money on every ticket sold.

Lisa Snyder watches her neighbors’ children for less than an hour every day while they wait for the school bus. She is a stay-at-home mom and she does not accept any money in exchange for doing this. According to the Department of Human Services in Michigan, however, she is running an illegal daycare center. Department [...]

ACORN has lost most of their politician pals, or have they? Today’s Washington Times reports  “Defunding ACORN faces surprise hurdles.”

Congress is rushing to defund the controversial group ACORN, but its efforts might have unintended consequences: Some argue that one version of the effort violates the Constitution….

The “some” who argue seem to be the Congressional Research Service (yes, they work for Nancy Pelosi) and a group called the Project on Government Oversight. Both claim that legislation defunding ACORN might be unconstitutional “bills of attainder.”

“The Senate language, I think, is plainly unconstitutional,” said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.

Ms. Brian is not an attorney, and her supposed legal conclusion is just flat wrong. The Constitution does prohibit bills of attainder both by Congress (Article I, section 9) and state legislatures (Article I, section 10). A bill of attainder is a legislative act that subjects a person or group to punishment, a legislature acting like a criminal court. Because ACORN has no right to future government funding, Congress’s decision not to provide funding is not the same as a criminal sanction. It’s simply a congressional determination about how they are going to appropriate money. The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky provides additional analysis.

 
But why is a government oversight group that usually opposes questionable government spending now pushing sticks into the spokes of the effort to defund ACORN? Turns out the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) is funded by some of the same people who fund ACORN, including George Soros (Open Society Institute) and the Tides Foundation. In their last annual report, POGO called on government to “be free from conflicts of interest that undermine the integrity of their decisions.” Maybe POGO needs a dose of that same medicine?

 
Related news: ACORN cashes in at FEMA

Raleigh has a government enforced beggars cartel. That's right entry into the beggars market, and therefore competition among beggars, is controlled by a licensing law, which is the way cartels are traditionally enforced. And this cartel is indeed enforced. People are arrested for begging without a license….

Like a pop star must do periodically to stay relevant in a changing music market, military history reinvented itself. It is now influenced heavily by social historians and their concerns. That is why more books emphasize various aspects of war, including the homefront and the role of minorities in conflicts.
Which leads me to ask: what is military…

The horrific legacy of Communism is the 800-ton gorilla in this grotesque idea of the Empire State Building honoring the anniversary of the Communists seizing power in China. Used to be the only time the Empire State Building would be under the stinking feet of primitive barbarism, it was cinematic fantasy….