RAG Perspective: An American Pro-Liberty Conservative: Miscellany: 5/23/11

Monday, May 23, 2011

Miscellany: 5/23/11

Quote of the Day

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

Albert Einstein

Tim Pawlenty: Promising Start in Iowa

I like the revamped "straight talk" message, although a caution here: inevitably someone (if not his GOP rivals, certainly the Democrats) will press him on the need to raise revenues (i.e., taxes) because we can't cut ourselves to a balanced budget. It's the old joke: "Would you sleep with me for a million dollars? For $20? We've already established what you are; we're just haggling over the price..." The Democrats are going to try to co-opt Pawlenty, posturing no fundamental difference between a GOP $400B deficit deficit and a Dem $1.65T deficit. My suggestion: show a certain flexibility in shared sacrifice but insist that the federal government must sacrifice in a manner similar to what state and local governments have had to do to scale back spending.

A second point: Cut out all the qualifiers, conditions, phases, etc. Below I mention Obama's overly nuanced explanations of everything. I think it's admirable Pawlenty is willing to tackle ethanol subsidies in Iowa--something I've been arguing for years. But there's no need to soften the blow, talk about phasing them out, etc. Keep your message simple; legislatures have ways of trying to water down reforms without your telegraphing your response. Once you telegraph your response, you change the goal posts and weaken your reform even further.

Real Clear Politics has a video excerpt of Pawlenty's remarks which you can watch in a separate browser tab or window.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge Prosser Reelection Certified

The reelection of Prosser, who won over half of the primary votes over liberal state assistant attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg, was certified Monday after Kloppenburg's requested recount of a narrow Prosser victory in a 1.5M vote general election; the election last month became a surrogate battle between conservatives and liberals/labor unions after the controversial collective bargaining reforms for public sector employees were passed.

The Obama/Israel 1967 Borders Kerfuffle

This older woman on an "America Live" discussion panel late last week raved about Obama's 1967 Israel borders statement in the Mideast address, tapping herself on the head, claiming that Obama was playing a cerebral game of diplomatic chess. Talk about hubris! Obama subsequently pulls this disingenuous, innocent "what did I do?" political spin; the White House does pathetic political posturing, insisting that Obama's position isn't really any different than that for any other President over the last 40 years or so--everyone has started negotiations making reference to the 1967 borders; Obama was simply being more honest and open about it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently joined President Obama at the White House in a press conference and promptly took the President to the wood shed with a 10-minute lecture on the unrealistic nature of Obama's rhetoric.

One of the recurring lines in this blog is "if there is one thing Obama knows, it's symbolism". The recently renewed "armed resistance" by an unrepentant Hamas, recently reconciled with Palestinian rival Al-Fatah, against Israeli civilians, didn't exactly create the right conditions for Obama to publicly pressure and isolate Israel on a demand Israel has consistently noted over the past few decades is tantamount to national suicide, which is unconditionally a non-starter. There are certain circumstances I have heard something when the second I heard it, I know a President has just stepped into it: the classic example is when Gerald Ford insisted that Poland was independent and autonomous from the USSR during a debate with Jimmy Carter. My brother and I, who, during the salad days as pro-life Democrats, were both Carter supporters, were watching the debate in my UT graduate student dorm room, and we both started laughing as soon as we heard that. This gaffe by President Obama is comparable in nature.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. Obama had to know the second he mentioned "1967 borders" what the reaction would be. When you have to start explaining you didn't mean to say what everyone thinks you said and what you mean by 'land swaps', Obama starts sounding like a hair-splitting lawyer, not a leader. In yesterday's post, I made a point about usability of information, and there is no point whatsoever to saying "the world is complex". Everyone KNOWS the world is complex. When we ask a question, we don't want a core dump of every nuanced fact Obama knows about a policy matter; he loses his audience when he does that, and it really seems to be oriented towards impressing people with allegedly how smart he is. OH, PLEASE! We could go through dozens of examples, but what about the time on a prior visit Prime Minister Netanyahu found Obama leaving him in order to eat dinner with his family? What about the time he went to the economic summit and unsuccessfully tried to convince all the other nations to engage in similar mass stimulus spending bills?

"The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers"

William Shakespeare, Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4, scene 2, 71–78

Never annoy a lawyer; in 1987, there was a mock trial where the late Bard of Avon's authorship of his plays was disputed by plaintiff on behalf of a contemporary, Edward de Vere, some 4 centuries later. No word on whether the 3 Supreme Court justices, who eventually upheld the defendant, ruled the quote hearsay.

The small business featured in this story, a vignette on the homepage of Faces of Lawsuit Abuse, had to spend $10K in legal bills to defend itself against a customer whom purchased a $6K mower in the spring and used it all through the summer, brought it in for minor warranty work and then informed the seller (through his lawyer) he no longer wanted the mower, demanding a full refund. (In the end, the business ended up having to refund the plaintiff, on top of its own legal bills.) No word on whether the customer also brought his newlywed bride back to her folks after the honeymoon, demanding an annulment...

I encourage you to visit the lawsuit abuse website and vote You have an ability to select the most egregious lawsuit of the month; just a fair warning: there are so many ridiculous lawsuits and it can be hard to pick. I think the one leading so far is the mother suing McDonald's for including toys with its Happy Meals. (As the immortal Meat Loaf sings, "There ain't no Coupe de Ville hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box.") My vote goes to DUI attorney Mark Gold, who advises potential clients not to trust their drivers license to somebody fresh out of law school; he claims that the Miami-based Gold Rush strip club had knowingly plied him full of alcoholic beverages degrading his judgment that he shouldn't be held legally responsible for running up $18,930 on his credit card one evening. (I guess if you run up a big enough bill, they'll even name the joint after you...) I guess it's not fair to expect a DUI attorney to hold his liquor...

Political Potpourri

Obama job approval up to 50% in Gallup, 49% in Rasmussen. The CNN poll in New Hampshire shows Romney at 32%, a 23-point lead over second place Ron Paul. Remember shirtless former Congressman Christopher Lee (R-26)? The GOP candidate, Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, is trailing County Clerk Kathy Hochul by a percentage handful according to 2 polls over the weekend. There is an imposter "Tea Party"/Independent candidate Davis whom is the spoiler right now. Davis has lost recent momentum, but Hochul has gotten almost of his support.

Political Humor

"At a campaign stop, someone threw glitter on Newt Gingrich to protest his stance on gay marriage. I understand the whole episode is being nominated for a Tony." –David Letterman

[No, David. Newt Gingrich isn't interested in a Tony. Maybe a Toni...Tennille...Braxton...]

"You know what's going to happen. Arnold will check into a sex addiction clinic, and next season the maid will go on 'Dancing with the Stars.'" -Jay Leno

[Well, I think it's what happened after the maid danced with the movie star that got her in trouble...]

Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update

The Hiroshima Syndrome blogger does the first of his thrice-weekly posts. He initially points out that the hydrogen explosion at the reactor 1 building early in the crisis may have resulted from violation of specified operating procedures where pressure was to be manually released hours earlier (if automatic venting didn't occur). TEPCO seemed to believe Prime Minister Kan had also demanded stoppage of seawater injections to the reactor 1 RPV based on speculation regarding irradiated seawater; Kan's criticized performance during the natural disasters and Fukushima Daiichi has led to calls for the PM's resignation or a vote for no confidence. Any melting ("corium") of the 3 reactors is adequately controlled; reactor 1 core is considered almost all in melted damage status, and TEPCO estimates all or part of the cores in the other 2 reactors are hypothesized at be at least partially uncovered (recall water-level instrumentation problems), but in a stable condition.

Killebrew Memorial Service Photo