• Highest marginal personal income tax rate
• Highest marginal corporate income tax rate
• Progressivity of the personal income tax system
• Property tax burden
• Sales tax burden
• Tax burden from all remaining taxes
• Estate tax/Inheritance tax (Yes or No)
• Recent Tax Policy Changes 2005-06
• Debt service as share of tax revenue
• Public employees per 10,000 residents (ed - Uh oh!!!)
• Quality of state legal system
• State minimum wage
• Workers’ Compensation costs
• Right-to-work state (Yes or No)
• Tax/Expenditure Limit
• Education Freedom Index

It takes a lot of public policy folly to persuade people to pack their bags and abandon California’s sunshine, 70-degree weather, scenic mountains, and beaches, but lately the politicians in Sacramento have proved themselves up to the task. The latest Census Bureau data indicate that in 2005, 239,416  more Californians followed Tiger Woods’s lead and left the state than moved in. That was also the case in 2003 and 2004. The native-born outmigration flows have become so systemic that the cost to rent a U-Haul trailer to move from Los Angeles to Boise, Idaho is $2,090—or some six times more than the cost of moving in the opposite direction.23
What’s gone wrong with the Golden State? A big part of the story is a tax and regulatory culture in Sacramento that treats rich people as if they were cash dispensing ATM machines.
The cost for businesses of complying with California’s rules, regulations, and paperwork is more than twice as high as other Western states.24
Perhaps this story is a sign of the times: One of the leading companies that manufactures surfboards, a quintessential California firm, closed operations in California due to fear of “fines, civil lawsuits, and even time in prison.”25
But the real growth killer is California’s steeply “progressive” income tax with a 10.3 percent rate applied to high-income residents—the highest in the nation outside New York City.  The richest 10 percent of earners pay almost 75 percent of the income tax burden in the state.  And most of these “evil rich” are small business owners, i.e. the people who create the jobs.26

Minnesota lawmakers have set a record in 2007 and the proof was in their paychecks.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned that last year, State Representatives and Senators took home more than $2 million above their annual salaries.
They are called per diems—money reimbursed to lawmakers for things like food, gas, and other expenses while on official state business. No receipts required.

Barack Obama, still fresh from his victory in Iowa last week and confident of another in New Hampshire tonight, has as his signature campaign theme the promise to "end the division" in America. Notice the irony: The scale of his Iowa victory, in a state that's 94% white, is perhaps the clearest indication so far that the division Mr. Obama promises to end has largely been put to rest.
Meanwhile, in Kenya last week a mob surrounded a church in which, according to an Associated Press report, "hundreds of terrified people had taken refuge." The church was put to flame, while the mob used machetes, Hutu-style, to hack to death whoever tried to escape. The killers in this case were of the Luo tribe, their victims were of the Kikuyu, and the issue over which they are bleeding is their own presidential election.
When foreigners assail Americans for being naive, it is often on account of contrasts like these. A nation in which the poor are defined by an income level that in most countries would make them prosperous is a nation that has all but forgotten the true
meaning of poverty. A nation in which obesity is largely a problem of the poor (and anorexia of the upper-middle class) does not understand the word "hunger." A nation in which the most celebrated recent cases of racism, at Duke University or in Jena, La., are wholly or mostly contrived is not a racist nation. A nation in which our "division" is defined by the vitriol of Ann Coulter or James Carville is not a truly divided one--at least while Mr. Carville is married to Republican operative Mary Matalin and Ms. Coulter is romantically linked with New York City Democrat Andrew Stein.

A study by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday backs up the view that undocumented immigrants sap more tax dollars than they provide, especially in education, health care and law enforcement...The report estimates there are 12 million undocumented immigrants nationwide. Of those, 60 percent are uninsured and 50 percent of the children are uninsured. Again using 2004 statistics from the Pew Hispanic Center the average income of undocumented immigrants was $27,400 while Americans earned $47,800. The difference puts undocumented immigrants in a lower tax bracket, thus reducing the amount of federal and state income taxes generated.
The study also showed that while undocumented workers represented just 5 percent of state and federal service costs, their tax revenue did not offset the amount spent by government. The authors of the study stated that, "the general consensus is that unauthorized immigrants impose a net cost on state and local budgets. However, no agreement exists as to the size of, or even the best way of measuring, that cost at a national level."

Horrendous diseases that long ago America had conquered are resurging. Horrific diseases common in Third World poverty and medical ignorance suddenly are appearing in American emergency rooms and medical offices. Along with the visible invasion of Illegal Aliens across our borders is an invisible invasion of deadly diseases.[4]
Many illegals who skulk across our borders have tuberculosis (TB). That disease had disappeared from America thanks to excellent hygiene and powerful modern drugs such as Isoniazid and Rifampin.[5] ,[6] ,[7] ,[8] ,[9] ,[10] TB’s swift, deadly return now is lethal for about 60% of those infected. The culprit is the new Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB).[11] Until recently MDR-TB was endemic to Mexico.[12] ,[13]
The mycobacterium tuberculosis is resistant to at least two major TB drugs. Ordinary TB usually is cured in six months with four drugs (that cost about $2000). MDR-TB takes 24 months with many expensive drugs with toxic side effects (that cost around $250,000).[14] ,[15] Each Illegal Alien with MDR-TB coughs and infects numerous people who will not show symptoms immediately. Latent disease explodes later, like a time bomb.
TB was virtually absent in Virginia until in 2002 it spiked a 17% increase, but Prince William County, not far from Washington, D.C., had a meteoric rise of 188%.
Public health officials blamed immigrants. Indiana School of Medicine in 2001 studied an outbreak of MDR-TB traced to illegal aliens from Mexico.

Throughout the fall, there was hot talk among DFL state senators that Larry Pogemiller needed to be dumped halfway through his first two-year term as the Senate majority leader.
But now, weeks from the opening of the legislative session, the discussion has cooled, and there likely will be no rebellion. The two senators who would have been in the most obvious position to lead a revolt, Steve Murphy of Red Wing and Tom Bakk of Cook, both have said in interviews with MinnPost that they aren't going after Pogemiller.

That's not to say they've developed fondness for the Minneapolis DFLer, who has been described as condescending, arrogant, rude and manipulative. (And that's just what DFLers say about their leader.)
"We made things more difficult, not better, for the DFL by electing Pogemiller,'' said Murphy. "But I don't think the majority of the members of the caucus are ready to make a change. As I look around the caucus, I don't see a consensus candidate at this point. There are some wonderful young members, but they're not quite ready yet. Soon it will be time to turn the reins over to the new members. But for now...."

Pogemiller, his DFL critics say, doesn't even attempt to work with the governor.
In the process, Pogemiller ends up making Pawlenty look good.
"When the two are in the same room, you can feel the contempt he has for Pawlenty,'' said one DFL legislator, who didn't want to be named for fear of antagonizing Pogemiller.

Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election this year because he has cancer of the esophagus.

Utah's new 5 percent "flat tax" income tax kicks in Jan. 1 and, if politicians' promises prove true, it will be cheaper and simpler for most residents.

But a new University of Utah study also says that - contrary to conventional wisdom - it also will be somewhat more progressive than the old sliding-scale bracketed income tax.
"Under the new system, upper income families will be paying a larger share of the tax", said Janis Dubno, author of the new study published by the Center for Public Policy & Administration.

Millions of people with arthritis, asthma and even heart failure will be urged to treat themselves as part of a Government plan to save billions of pounds from the NHS budget.
Instead of going to hospital or consulting a doctor, patients will be encouraged to carry out "self care" as the Department of Health (DoH) tries to meet Treasury targets to curb spending.
The guidelines could mean people with chronic conditions:
• Monitoring their own heart activity, blood pressure and lung capacity using equipment installed in the home
• Reporting medical information to doctors remotely by telephone or computer
• Administering their own drugs and other treatment to "manage pain" and assessing the significance of changes in their condition
• Using relaxation techniques to relieve stress and avoid "panic" visits to emergency wards.

The New York Times’ hiring of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to write for its op-ed page caused a frenzy in the liberal blogosphere Friday night, with threats of canceling subscriptions and claims that the Gray Lady had been hijacked by neo-cons.
But Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal sees things differently.
Rosenthal told Politico shortly after the official announcement Saturday that he fails to understand “this weird fear of opposing views.”

According to this report from CBS News, Mike Huckabee reacted to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto by expressing “our sincere concern and apologies for what has happened in Pakistan.” I'm hoping that Huckabee simply misspoke because otherwise he'll need to explain what the U.S. has to apologize for. Nothing comes to mind unless one is prone, in the fashion of Jimmy Carter, mindlessly to "blame America first." Huckabee also said that the U.S. needs to consider “what impact does [the assassination have] on whether or not there’s going to be martial law continuing in Pakistan.” But martial law was discontinued approximately two weeks ago.
UPDATE: The Huckabee campaign assures me that Huckabee definitely meant to say "sympathy" not "apologies."