Prime Buzz:

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced the settlement this afternoon in the long-running legal battle between Scott Eckersley, former aide to Matt Blunt, and Blunt and other members of the former governor’s office.

Eckersley will get $500,000.  In a joint statement, all parties said they believe their cases are strong but settled to avoid future expenses.

Eckersley claimed defamation when he was fired from the governor’s office, allegedly because he warned the governor about improper destruction of internal e-mails.

The text of the settlement statement here.

AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accused the CIA and Bush administration of misleading her at a secret 2002 briefing on the use of harsh interrogations in the war on terror.

CIA records suggest that Pelosi, D-Calif., was told at that time that the Bush administration was using waterboarding - a simulated drowning. Pelosi, however, said on May 14 that spy agency officials specifically informed her at that session that the practice was not used.

Greg Mankiw:

From a Obama-Biden campaign position paper:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s cap-and-trade system will require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100 percent auction ensures that all large corporate polluters pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these emission rights away for free to coal and oil companies.

From today’s newspaper:

Under the House bill, only 15% of the emission permits will be auctioned initially. The rest of the permits will be given away — 2% to oil refiners, 5% to free-standing “merchant” coal plants, 9% to regulated natural-gas distributors, and so on.

So, Mr President, the bill now being considered in Congress is in direct contradiction to your campaign pledge. Will you now please stand up for principle and issue a veto threat?

JCCC leaders appear unable to tell the truth about anything these days.  The property tax rate is being increased, and that’s a fact.  But JCCC leaders are trying to pretend that this is an opinion that is up for debate.

At Thursday night’s monthly JCCC Board of Trustees meeting, chair Shirley Brown-VanArsdale said that she didn’t “agree” with Trustee Benjamin Hodge that JCCC is increasing taxes.  But The Kansas City Star reported that, Johnson County homeowners will, in fact, pay a higher percent of their property taxes this year to JCCC, when compared to what trustees approved in last year’s budget.  Jim Sullinger reports:

In other action, trustees approved a $134.3 million budget for the next school year. It includes a $4 increase in credit-hour tuition for students living in Kansas and a property tax levy equal to the amount levied last year - $8.77 on each $1,000 of assessed value.

However, Benjamin Hodge, a trustee, pointed out that the proposed levy was not the same as trustees approved a year ago. That amount was $8.75 cents on each $1,000 of assessed value.

He noted that by October the county had increased that levy amount by .019 mills or about 2 cents on each $1,000. Don Perkins, the college’s budget director, said the 2-cent increase was caused by a rare reduction in the county’s overall assessed value amid a worsening economy and slumping real estate values. To collect enough tax money to fund the college budget, the county made the 2-cent adjustment.

Hodge asked the board to roll back the $8.77 levy by 2 cents. His motion failed for lack of a second. He then voted against the budget.

After the trustee meeting, Perkins said the county could increase levies this coming October if the economy and home values do not improve.

In Kansas, local governments rarely actually vote on a property tax mill levy.  Rather, based off of the county appraiser’s office, local governments make assumptions of the total value of private property, and then elected officials vote on a dollar amount for the budget.  In the rare occurance of the assumptions being lower than expected — if property values decrease more than expected — because the total budget stays the same, what necessarily occurs is an automatic tax increase on property.

That’s what happened last year at JCCC.  The county appraiser’s office was incorrect and assumed a too-high total property value across the county.  And because JCCC wanted the same total dollar amount, an automatic (without any votes) increase occurred in the property tax rate.

As Sullinger reported, JCCC’s financial director Don Perkins said that an automatic tax increase may may AGAIN happen this year.

At last week’s board meeting, Trustee Hodge pointed out that the property tax rate had increased above what trustees had voted on in 2008.  Therefore, Hodge was not trying to decrease taxes, but he was merely attempting to restore the mill levy (which is a percent of a homeowner’s property value) to the original 2008 tax rate.

From K-State:

News release prepared by: Katie Mayes, 785-532-6415, kmayes@k-state.edu

K-STATE’S COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND DESIGN SELECTS WINNERS OF ANNUAL PHOTO COMPETITION

MANHATTAN — Students in Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning and Design have been recognized for their skills as photographers through the college’s annual photography competition. (more…)

From K-State:

News release prepared by: Kristin Hodges, 785-532-6415, khodges2@k-state.edu

K-STATE STUDENTS EXPERIENCE ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM THROUGH SEMESTER RESEARCH PROJECTS

MANHATTAN — A group of Kansas State University students spent the semester as environmental activists through applied research projects addressing subjects including overconsumption, meditation and water preservation.

Valerie Carroll, instructor in women’s studies at K-State, teaches a women and environmentalism course where students conduct a lived experience class project and blog about the progress of their experience at http://www.womst480.blogspot.com. (more…)

HT Club for Growth.

We had incorrectly written that Republican Lynn Jenkins, along with Democrat Dennis Moore, supported the earmark; rather, it was Republican Todd Tiahrt who joined Dennis Moore in supporting Jack Murtha’s earmark.

Lynn Jenkins and Jerry Moran voted against the earmark, by voting for an amendment that would have removed the earmark.

See the final vote tally here.

Jim Geraghty:

I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t have the video. David Paul Kuhn of RealClearPolitics was the first to spotlight this jaw-dropping comment from the president’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs:

“I think he’ll say this tomorrow, that we’ve made some hasty decisions that are now going to take some time to unwind, and closing Guantanamo Bay, obviously, is one of those decisions.”

The Fix:

Barbour will headline a Republican Party of Iowa fundraiser on June 25, according to a report on the Iowa Republican blog.

Barbour’s decision to travel to the Hawkeye State indicates that rumbles that he has not ruled out a presidential bid in 2012 are justified.

Barbour allies insist that this trip is one of many he will make to states with competitive gubernatorial races in 2010 and nothing more should be read into it.

No matter what Barbour or his people say about the trip, however, always remember the Fix mantra about presidential politics: No politician — we can’t emphasize that strongly enough — goes to Iowa by accident. Doesn’t happen.

Barbour is widely seen as one of the most able — if not the most able — political strategist within the party and is being looked to in the wake of two straight devastating electoral defeats as the man with a plan to bring Republicans back from the brink of powerless minority status.

The Fix:

One day before visiting Iowa to raise money for the state party, Gov. Haley Barbour will do the same in New Hampshire, a stop that should clear up any doubt as to whether the Mississippi Republican is weighing the possibility of a run for president in 2012.

Barbour will make a stop in New Hampshire on June 24 to raise money for the state party.

Washington Times:

ANNAPOLIS | President Obama on Friday promised the U.S. Naval Academy’s graduating class that he will not send them into combat unless absolutely necessary and will always make sure they are properly prepared and equipped, in an apparent swipe at the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

Capping a week in which national security disputes and controversy over his promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay engulfed his domestic agenda, Mr. Obama began the long Memorial Day weekend with an address to the 1,036 graduates who will be sent off to war as Navy and Marine officers.

Theage.com:

Dozens of cars have been smashed, 14 people injured and 46 arrested in riots by Muslim migrants over the alleged defacing of a Koran by a policeman.

Police fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of protesters outside Parliament in the city centre.

Police said they would investigate the allegation that an officer tore up an Iraqi migrant’s Koran while checking his identity papers in Athens last week. “But this isolated incident cannot justify these acts of violence,” said Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis.

Bloomberg:

May 22 (Bloomberg) — Two Illinois banks with combined assets of almost $1 billion were closed by regulators, pushing the toll of failed U.S. lenders to 36 this year amid the longest recession since the 1930s.

Strategic Capital Bank in Champaign and Citizens National Bank in Macomb were closed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver of both, the FDIC said. Strategic Capital’s deposits were assumed by Midland States Bank of Effingham, Illinois, and deposits at Citizens National were purchased by Morton Community Bank.

“Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage,” the FDIC said.

Drudge:

SCULLY: William Howard Taft served on the court after his presidency, would you have any interest in being on the Supreme Court?

OBAMA: You know, I am not sure that I could get through Senate confirmation…

Drudge:

In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: “We are out of money.”

C-SPAN host Steve Scully broke from a meek Washington press corps with probing questions for the new president.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we’ve made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we’ve seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we’ve got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it’s putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don’t reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can’t get control of the deficit.

NRO:

What he did was he outlined the five categories of prisoners in Guantanamo, an interesting exercise that you would expect out of a graduate student, in which you have got those who can be tried in regular courts and those who have to be in military tribunals, and those that will not be taken by allies, as if any allies are taking them, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, a freshman in college could tell you that.

And then he says the fifth category, those whom you cannot try, either because the crimes are committed but the evidence is tainted, or because they have not yet committed a crime but they sure as hell will if released, there are those whom you cannot try and you cannot release. And then he says, “And that’s the really difficult issue.”

No kidding. I mean, who would have thought that was the problem about these prisoners? Of course everybody knows that.

So what was his answer? He doesn’t have an answer.

NRO:

I continue to be baffled by this: If President Obama truly is the transformative, transcendent figure all the hype tells us he is, why can’t he “cleanse” Gitmo of its purported terror-driving taint by his personal certification that it’s now a top-notch detention center - “rule of law” compliant, consistent with “our values,” and otherwise worthy of The One’s very own seal of approval? Why is that straightforward, cost-free alternative not an option? After all, he’s maintaining Bush policies like rendition, state-secrets, and military commmissions. We are now told we can trust that these former atrocities have been purged of their Bushie taint because Obama has personally scrutinized them and decided to keep them after an oh-so-thoughtful nip here and tuck there. Why does that rationale not work for Gitmo?

NRO:

I’ll leave the broader issues to Lisa and Andrew, but this certainly seems emblematic of something:

Tax authorities in Germany are poised to claim 50% of the money that a teenage student earned for ‘auctioning’ her virginity because they claim it was “tantamount to prostitution.”

Romanian-born Alina Percea, who is a student in Germany, was paid £8,800 in cash for a weekend of sex with the Italian businessman after she auctioned her virginity online…

It also emerged that, because Alina earned so much in such a short time, she may even be liable for a hefty VAT bill too. VAT in Germany works out to 19%, meaning the sale of her virginity could land her with just over £3,000 in the end.

Silly girl. I got Timothy Geithner to buy a 55 per cent stake in my virginity as a toxic asset bailout. That’s the way to do it.

The Hill:

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) may be surrounded by controversy these days, but he remains chairman of one of the most powerful appropriations committees in Congress and the defense industry is not about to forget that.

Many are lining up to attend and sponsor an industry show that Murtha conceived two decades ago. The Showcase for Commerce has become an annual draw for those in defense circles who know that Murtha, chairman of the defense appropriations panel, has influence that in some cases could make or break their business.

Economist:

AL GORE calls it “one of the most important pieces of legislation ever introduced in Congress”. Joe Barton, a Republican congressman and global-warming sceptic, says it will put the American economy in a straitjacket. For something that practically no one has read, the American Clean Energy and Security Act provokes heated debate. It would establish a cap-and-trade system for curbing carbon-dioxide emissions, thus transforming the way Americans use energy.

President Barack Obama has long argued that America should join Europe in regulating planet-cooking carbon. But he has left the details to Congress. And the negotiations to craft a bill that might actually pass have not been pretty. The most straightforward and efficient approach to reducing carbon emissions-a carbon tax-was never seriously considered. Voters do not like to hear the word “tax” unless it is followed by the word “cut”.

WSJ:

‘Minnesota nice” comes in two forms: the first, gracious hospitality; the second, smiling stubbornness. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty this week delivered his spendthrift legislature a humiliating taste of the latter. You betcha.

If Republicans are looking to get back their conservative groove, they could do worse than study Minnesota’s budget brawl. Mr. Pawlenty deftly (and amusingly) outmaneuvered his Democratic opposition, not only saving his state from huge tax increases but clearing the way to cut government spending. Call it a refreshing break from the financial-crisis norm.

Like most states, Minnesota has been facing a huge budget shortfall — an estimated $4.6 billion over two years. These dire financial straits didn’t deter the DFL-controlled legislature (the DFL is Minnesota’s chapter of the Democratic Party), which got to work on big new spending bills. Included were not just the usual increases in appropriations but gems like $1.2 million in grants for TV and film producers and $200,000 for a youth environmental education program. Recession? What recession?

Union-Tribune:

I found it on Nexis in an Associated Press round-up of California editorials. Go here to see it and be flabbergasted. (It was distributed by AP; the U-T is an AP client, so it’s OK for us to link to a full version of it.)

Here’s a part:

HEADLINE: “You did it! Uh, so what now?”

TEXT: Good morning, California voters. Do you feel better, now that you’ve gotten that out of your system?

You wanted to show the state’s politicians just how mad you are at them. And you did. Boy, did you ever. …

… you’re sick and tired of all this political mumbo-jumbo. So you showed those politicians who’s in charge. You. You’re now officially in charge of a state that will be something like $25 billion in the hole for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

So, now that you’ve put those irksome politicians in their place, maybe it’s time to think about this: Since you’re in charge, exactly what do you intend to do about that pesky $25 billion hole in the budget?

I remain astounded at the sheer stinking arrogance of this editorial, by its undisguised contempt for voters, as I first commented here.

I was told its mild replacement editorial was the one in the actual newspaper this morning. So how did the vicious screed make it online? I saw it there at 12:30 a.m. this morning. It was still up after 9 a.m.

Are heads gonna roll? The Bee edit board already has a vacancy.

IBD:

Long considered a deep-blue state grown tolerant of high taxes, California surprised the political class and media by easily defeating all but one of the six propositions intended to close a $21 billion deficit.

Voters saw right through the weasel words of Proposition 1A, which described a set-aside for a “rainy day fund” to balance the budget. They also brushed aside politicians’ threats to lay off police officers, teachers and firefighters (but not abundant bureaucrats), in effect making them human shields in an attempt to scare voters into going along.

It was nothing but a slyly disguised mandate for slush funds to finance new pork-barrel projects such as those that have made a mess of the state’s finances. Four other initiatives failed for the same reason.

The defeat of these measures holds politicians accountable after they’ve had a long stretch at the trough. It’s consistent with the spirit of 1978’s Prop 13 tax revolt, which carried forward to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. With similar conditions now, Californians are again standing up to a runaway tax train telling its political drivers to stop.

“Today, a blue state turned red,” an exuberant Michael Reagan told IBD at an election night celebration. From his radio perch, he helped draw attention to the issue. But he attributed the movement’s muscle to the tea parties that spread like brushfires through the state in recent months.

The editors at NRO:

Tuesday night was tough for Sacramento: State lawmakers were handed a decisive defeat as voters rejected a series of ballot initiatives that would have allowed lawmakers to raise taxes and raid designated state funds to close a massive hole in the budget. Now the state legislature must work with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to craft a budget that reduces spending to levels that neither wants to accept. Their only alternative is to beg President Obama for a bailout on top of the stimulus funds Congress has already approved.

Proposition 1A offered the carrot of a spending cap in exchange for the stick of more than $16 billion in tax increases. Voters realized, however, that the spending cap was toothless, designed to allow lawmakers to forgo meaningful cuts. Voters also rejected propositions that would have allowed lawmakers to borrow against the lottery and to take money from specially designated education and health-care funds. The only proposition voters supported was a measure forbidding lawmakers from raising their own pay during deficit years.