Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
Anonymous
Census Results In: An Edge to Red States
Of seven states that have no income tax, Texas (4), Florida (2), Nevada and Washington picked up two-thirds of the redistributed seats. [Another two states, New Hampshire and Tennessee, do not tax wages.] (Other seats went to Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, and Utah.) During the last two Presidential elections, the GOP nominee won each of these states at least once and almost all of them have and/or elected Republican governors, with the exception of Washington. Of the states that lost at least one (two states, New York and Ohio, lost two), only a couple (Missouri and Louisiana) were won by McCain.
If Obama can maintain (unlikely) his 2008 coalition (the bloom is off the rose), a shift of a dozen electoral votes can't make up Obama's winning margin of 192 electoral votes. The additional seats do necessarily translate to (say) GOP Congressional seats. For example, Latinos in Nevada and Texas tend to vote Democratic (which is why Harry Reid in his reelection battle against Sharron Angle focused so much on pandering for the Latino vote, principally on the issue of unauthorized immigrants and why he spent much of the recently concluded lame-duck session on the DREAM act). The census also showed the lowest percentage increase of the American population in decades. I want to engage in serious immigrant reform, which goes far beyond the status of unauthorized Latino residents.
Hell Freezes Over: I Defend Sarah Palin
Parade has retiring TV daytime host, Oprah Winfrey, as their cover story this Sunday. Now I have been critical of Sarah Palin, but this kind of smarmy insult by someone whom aspires to build her own cable network is incredibly stupid: (You would have thought she had learned from the impact of her political activism on behalf of Barack Obama to her own ratings.)
Asked whether the thought of Palin's running for office scares her, Oprah said:I believe that the American public is intelligent, too, as in "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me", i.e., they won't reelect an inexperienced politician whom didn't walk the walk when it came down to compromise and an end to partisan bickering, whom still thinks months after he shoved a pushing-on-a-string, very unpopular health care reform down the nation's throat, that the reason for the law's continuing unpopularity was his communication skills (versus the fact the public just doesn't agree with him). I think that the American people won't forget his thin-skinned defensiveness, constantly attacking or bashing his predecessors in an unprecedented fashion. I think nobody is fooled by the fact while states, cities, and businesses were cutting costs and having to lay off people in a bad economy, Obama was hiring, creating new programs and entitlements, and setting up trillion dollar deficits far into the future, while the government has never earned $3T in a year. We have seen the weakest economic growth rate in decades following a recession, largely due to Obama's counterproductive ideology, which sought to target business and high-worth individuals only for sacrifice.
"It does not scare me because I believe in the intelligence of the American public."
Would I be scared of a President Palin? Not exactly. I just think that we need a leader whom rises above partisan bickering or red meat politics, demands common sacrifice (not class warfare), and talks straight with the American people and does not set unrealistic expectations. Ideally we need someone with a credible track record of managing large governments (or organizations) and big budgets, knows how to set priorities, under-promises and over-delivers, and can work with people whom don't share one's own preferences. Yes, of course, it is nice to be charismatic and likable (something both Obama and Palin clearly share). The issue I have with Palin (and with Obama) is the fact they lack that experience.
To a certain sense, Bush was also much the same way: it was very clear between 2004 through 2006 he wasn't second-guessing the staffing requirements during the occupation, holding the top defense department leadership to a short leash, or considering, say, counter-insurgency tactics on a more timely basis. Bush was also appointing cronies (like Gonzales and Miers), whom clearly weren't up for their high-profile nominations. Bush didn't share his father's fiscally conservative views and in fact a serious percentage of new jobs generated during Bush's two terms were from the government; he also set into motion these six-figure salaries and bonuses which simply are unsustainable.
Palin is so image-conscious that during the 2008 campaign she kept an eye on her approval ratings in Alaska. She has personalized a number of ethics grievances filed against her as a governor and tried to get a late night comic fired because of a single bad joke. It really surprised me because there were some very nasty shots taken at her during the 2008 campaign, and she seems to field it gracefully, including at one point going on SNL where she had been mocked in a way that was clearly over the top. If you're a President, you have to know, from day one, over 4 out of every 10 people voted against you. You simply need to shrug it off; it's not about you--it's about the nation.
I don't necessarily think Palin is unqualified because of the brevity of her experience. I think someone with an IQ of 180 could probably adapt and produce in whatever environment. But when Oprah makes the kind of judgment she did, based on very limited exposure to Palin, it doesn't reflect very well on Oprah as a person. She owes Ms. Palin an apology. I may criticize Sarah Palin frequently, but I'm not simply going to deliberately insult her in an unprovoked manner.
Political Humor
"It’s hard to imagine Donald Trump flying on JetBlue, kind of like it’s hard to imagine Sarah Palin flying on Air Force One." - David Letterman
[Well, now that Sarah is with Fox News, I guess she would sit in the press section. It's the only seat she's qualified to sit in... Well, JetBlue is trying to cut costs. The passengers probably didn't notice the "Trump 2012" ad on the other side of the plane. The Donald enjoyed his flight so much he offered to fire the pilots on his way off the plane.]
An original:
- The Chicago Elections Board decided that Rahm "Dead Fish" Emanuel, whom had resided in the DC area while serving as Obama's Chief of Staff, has, in fact, met the residency requirement (that the candidate be a resident of Chicago for the year leading up to the mayoral election). (Emanuel renewed the lease on his house to a family days before the incumbent Richard Daley announced he would not run for reelection.) When asked whom to credit for the decision, Emanuel credited the advice of ICE Director John Morton.
Musical Interlude: Holiday Tunes
"Mary, Did You Know?". Hands-down, my favorite modern original Christmas song (over the past 2 decades), and the following video clip is my favorite cover. To us Christians, it's the very heart of what Christmas is all about.
