Apparently the left-wing Seattle Moonbats did not pause in their march for social justice to ask or evaluate SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle, where their $15 wage began earlier this year.    Here’s a brief snippet of some conversation with a SeaTac employee:

SURPRISE !  15 minutes south of Seattle, near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, employees are already seeing the negative effects of such a hike. A February report from the Seattle Times revealed:

At the Clarion Hotel off International Boulevard, a sit-down restaurant has been shuttered, though it might soon be replaced by a less-labor-intensive cafe…

Other businesses have adjusted in ways that run the gamut from putting more work in the hands of managers, to instituting a small “living-wage surcharge” for a daily parking space near the airport.

That’s not all. According to Assunta Ng, publisher of the Northwest Asian Weekly, some employees are feeling the pinch as employers cut benefits. She recalls a conversation she had with two hotel employees who have been affected by the wage hike: (more…)

After meeting with several Horry County elected officials about the fatal shootings during Memorial Day weekend in Myrtle Beach, Gov. Nikki Haley bluntly said Friday that the Atlantic Beach Bikefest event must end.

“This is no longer a law enforcement issue”.

Haley said the shootings and violence during the weekend hurt tourism and the potential for new industry and jobs to move into the Grand Strand because of the national attention it received. (more…)

(Via Breitbart)  The Justice Department’s “Operation Choke Point” is so flagrantly illegal it cannot continue in any form under the law, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Charman Darrell Issa’s staff said in a new report, setting up a constitutional confrontation between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government.

“In light of the Department’s obligation to act within the bounds of the law, and its avowed commitment not to ‘discourage or inhibit’ the lawful conduct of honest merchants, it is necessary to disavow and dismantle Operation Choke Point,” the report said.

The controversial Obama administration initiative known as Operation Choke Point was launched in 2013.

DOJ has said the program is targeted at fraud, but the oversight committee report provided evidence the program was “was created by the Justice Department to ‘choke out’ companies the Administration considers a ‘high risk’ or otherwise objectionable, despite the fact that they are legal businesses.” (more…)

The United States GDP shrank at an annual rate of 1.0 percent in the first quarter of 2014, according to the second estimate released by the Commerce Department.

(Via WSJ) The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter of 2014, the latest stumble for a recovery that has struggled to find its footing since the recession ended almost five years ago.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, contracted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.0% in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Thursday. It was the first time economic output contracted since the first quarter of 2011, when it declined at a 1.3% pace.

Government economists had previously estimated GDP slowed to a 0.1% growth rate in the first quarter as harsh winter weather disrupted work sites, curtailed foot traffic at retail stores and snarled transportation networks across much of the U.S. The newly revised estimate incorporates additional economic data released in recent weeks. (more…)

Two things to remember as you read this result.   #1 The daily Mail is (like the New York Times) a liberal outlet;  so when they use the words “extreme” and “radical” they are using them in the same context as the NYT and WaPo describe the Tea Party.

#2)  Marine Le Pen can be conceptualized in the same vein as French version of Sarah Palin.    Strong, commonly attractive, conservative principles embodied in a nationalist (exceptional) outlook.

(Via Daily Mail) The far-right National Front has topped polls in France as countries across Europe turned to extremist and anti-EU parties.

Exit polls suggested the anti-immigrant party led by Marine Le Pen had taken more than a quarter of votes, pushing President Hollande’s Socialist Party into third place with just 13 per cent.

It is the first time that the party – which wants to drastically cut immigration and reduce the influence of Islam – has come first in a nationwide French election in its 40-year history. Projections suggest it could take 25 Euro seats out of 74. (more…)

Yes you read that correctly.   The United States Secretary of State is introducing a Greek socialist headliner….  Just let that sink in a bit.

All of them are lifetime Fabian Card Holders…

(Via Washington Free Beacon)  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will introduce liberal megadonor George Soros at an open forum on Tuesday, the latest evidence of the billionaire using his political connections to benefit his investments and foreign policy goals, critics say.

Kerry will introduce Soros at the 1:30 p.m. forum on May 13 at the George C. Marshall Center, the Germany-based security and defense studies institute jointly operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and German Defense Ministry, according to a State Department event notice.

Soros will discuss “strengthening civil society, democracy and the world economy” with Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Douglas Frantz following Kerry’s introduction.  (read more)

Alternate headline to replace: “The Obama White House Requests Cabinet Members Lie to Create False Narrative”; would be something like:

…”Shock Study – Water is wet and fire burns“.

(Via Daily Mail)   The White House wanted Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to lie on Sunday talk shows to downplay the part Social Security played in driving the deficit, it was revealed today.

Geithner writes in his memoir Stress Test, out today, that the White House communications director asked him to downplay the long term cost of Social Security spending to mollify the Democratic Party’s base.

‘I remember during one Roosevelt Room prep session before I appeared on the Sunday shows, I objected when Dan Pfeiffer wanted me to say Social Security didn’t contribute to the deficit. It wasn’t a main driver of our future deficits, but it did contribute,’ he says.

‘Pfeiffer said the line was a ‘dog whistle’ to the left, a phrase I had never heard before. He had to explain that the phrase was code to the Democratic base, signaling that we intended to protect Social Security.’ (more…)

There’s a strong case to be made for a fiscal comparison between loud Chris Christie, and less boisterous, but ultimately more effective, Scott Walker.   Christie might be louder and more visible, but “conservative”, not so much.  

While Wisconsin has a budget surplus and improving bond rating, New Jersey, via Christie, is going in the exact opposite direction.

NEW JERSEY – Here’s how drastically Chris Christie’s political fortunes have turned: Bridgegate might not be his biggest problem.

Just as the New Jersey governor is trying to turn the corner on the traffic scandal and restore his national luster, now he’s getting blamed for a yawning budget deficit and recent downgrade of the state’s debt.

Christie and state lawmakers have less than two months to close a sudden budget hole. Analysts say the governor’s administration brought on the problem by projecting the state would collect much more in tax revenue than it did; Christie’s aides insist the Legislature bears some of the blame. (more…)

Remember all of the doomsday pontifications from Democrats about the massive layoffs from the sequestration and mandatory budget spending cuts ?    Yeah, not so much…

WASHINGTON DC – A new government report has found that last year’s sequester led to only one federal layoff, a conclusion that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Wednesday was an outrage.

Coburn said the finding from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is more proof that the Obama administration and its allies overhyped the effects of the automatic budget cuts, and in a letter to Obama budget director Sylvia Burwell, he demanded an official report on the government’s sequestration response.

“The Budget Control Act is the law of the land until Fiscal Year 2021, so it is essential to have a complete understanding of how agencies manage their workforces and operations in this constrained fiscal environment,” Coburn wrote. (more…)