Bizzy’s AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links (071806)

Free Links:

• California universities, supported of course by California taxpayers, have paid out millions of dollars in severance pay and other perks with little fanfare and or disclosure.
• An Arizona idea that is truly awful — You get entered into a lottery for a $1 million prize if you vote. A measure allowing a voters’ lottery is on the ballot this fall. And there’s more:
  

  But the measure is worded in a way to actually encourage people to vote both in the primary this September as well as two months later when the actual initiative will be on the ballot. If it is approved in November, it will be retroactive: One lucky person who voted in this year’s primary and another who cast a ballot in the general election each will get $1 million.

  Anyone should see that the result of the passage of such a measure would be to bring more of the ignorant, who are unlikely to study an election’s issues before voting, to the polls. This would not be an improvement. If any voter intiative should get thrown out by the courts even if it wins, this would be it.

• They so don’t get it — CBS anchor-to-be Katie Couric would like see her evening news broadcast “be more solution-oriented.” Just tell us what’s happening in the world, oh Perky One, without spinning it. (Fat chance.)
• Buckeye State Blog has an interesting post on the vulnerability in different parts of the country to economic disruption due to the expiration of low-payment interest-only mortgages — It’s good as far as it goes, but keep in mind that the percentages presented are of 2003 originations, not of all mortgage loans outstanding. A counterpoint would be that, compared to 2003, interest-onlys were probably a higher percentage of new mortgage originations in 2004 and 2005.
• “Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” Department — Evidence of organ harvesting in China.
  

  The report, prepared by former Alberta MP David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas, included transcripts of recorded conversations in Mandarin with hospital and detention-centre officials who admitted they had organs available for transplants from Falun Gong prisoners.

  Canada’s government is investigating.

• The next time somebody waxes conspiratorially about the conservative Council for National Policy (CNP), ask them what they think of Democracy Alliance (DA):
  

  An alliance of nearly a hundred of the nation’s wealthiest donors is roiling Democratic political circles, directing more than $50 million in the past nine months to liberal think tanks and advocacy groups in what organizers say is the first installment of a long-term campaign to compete more aggressively against conservatives.

  A year after its founding, Democracy Alliance has followed up on its pledge to become a major power in the liberal movement. It has lavished millions on groups that have been willing to submit to its extensive screening process and its demands for secrecy.

  These include the Center for American Progress, a think tank with an unabashed partisan edge, as well as Media Matters for America, which tracks what it sees as conservative bias in the news media. Several alliance donors are negotiating a major investment in Air America, a liberal talk-radio network.

  But the large checks and demanding style wielded by Democracy Alliance organizers in recent months have caused unease among Washington’s community of Democratic-linked organizations. The alliance has required organizations that receive its endorsement to sign agreements shielding the identity of donors. Public interest groups said the alliance represents a large source of undisclosed and unaccountable political influence.

  If there’s a difference it’s this: From what I can tell (and I have seen their 2003 tax return, which was a real snoozer), CNP essentially has quarterly meetings where leading conservatives and wannabe leading conservatives talk strategy, issues and philosophy, and then go on their merry way. It is not a big repository of money or ongoing advocacy. Democracy Alliance is attempting to be much more pervasive, all-encompassing, and intent on being influential (yet unaccountable) to the point of being dominant. While both have the potential for mischief, if I had to pick the bigger threat to representative, open, and honest government, DA wins hands-down.