Flag Day 2011
This song brings back fond memories of Shaw Junior High from the air force base near Sumter, SC. We started each school day with the song over the loudspeakers. The soundtrack here is from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which is great (but I wish I could find the version I heard at school every day--there was something inspirational, a great way to start things off...)
Quote of the Day
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.
The last is to say thank you.
Max DePree
Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds
Collective Bargaining Reform
Thumbs UP!
The Supreme Court overturned 4-3 an obviously activist decision by liberal jurist Maryann Sumi whom had overruled necessary collective bargaining reform. The concurrent opinion was issued by Justice Prosser, whom barely won a recent reelection, which had become a proxy fight over collective bargaining reform. It's very clear what the Democrats' game plan was: try to overturn the bill on a technicality (e.g., the Open Meetings requirement), play for time to launch recalls to flip control of the Senate, essentially killing collective bargaining reform. I'm a huge supporter of transparency and the like, Open Meetings, etc. The fact of the matter is, collective bargaining reform never required a budget bill which was the only thing that allowed the Democrats to stonewall passing. It was never clear to me why this reform was in the budget bill in the first place. (Maybe they thought the anti-reform/pro-union outcry would backfire on the Democrats.) But the quorum count for standalone legislation was not an issue. It's total nonsense that there was need to debate collective bargaining reform: everybody knew what it meant and it's just a case the GOP had the votes to pass reform.
Trump, the GOP Debate in NH, Bachmann, etc.
Yet again, Trump (in an interview with Sean Hannity) heavily suggests that he will run if the GOP runs the "wrong" candidate. I wonder whom he is referring to? Sean Hannity still can't guess, so let's give him a little help: (1) he implies there's a strong chance the 'wrong' person will be nominated: who could he possibly be referring to? Let's see: who's the only candidate now consistently polling above 20% with a 10-point advantage? (2) he criticized Tim Pawlenty for not putting away a question involving ObamneyCare (i.e., Obama claims his ObamaCare legislation was based on the Massachusetts reform); (3) he has pointed out that while one candidate is a multi-millionaire businessman, he is a billionaire businessman. Oh, the great one Sean Hannity: how will you ever figure out this mystery? My head hurts from thinking so much:
ROMNEY...ROMNEY...ROMNEY. I do not know what the source is of Trump's obsession with Romney, but it's beginning to wear thin with me. He keeps on insisting he was leading in the polls when he left the race; that's simply not true. Most of the polls I looked at late in his candidacy showed that he had become a fringe candidate polling in the single digits after starting over 20%. When Sean probed the salient issue of his viable candidacy splitting the anti-Obama vote, Trump preposterously insists once he enters the race, all the anti-Obama vote will go him. This is simply a departure from reality. First, on every head to head Obama beats him with over 50% of the vote, primarily because he has very high unfavorable ratings, similar in nature to Sarah Palin. I will never vote for Palin or Trump. Second, there is no chance he will win a single state. When any anti-Obama voter sees that Romney is competitive with Obama but Trump is not, they are not going to throw away a protest vote when they realize they would be allowing Obama to sneak into a backdoor reelection. Third, Trump has no clue about the reform of Medicare, which he constantly knocks. He simply says it's a popular program, and it's stupid to try to reform a sacred cow. Let me remind Trump that the unfunded liabilities of social security and Medicare are over $50T--over 3 times the national debt.
I have not reviewed the full debate yet, but I want to comment on the Bachmann impending President bid and debate performance. My patience is wearing thin with what I call "bumper sticker politics": Palin has delivered so much it's ridiculous, but Herman Cain's did his "how-are-experienced-elected-officials-in-Washington-working-for-you" and now Michele does her "Obama-will-be-a-one-term-President". Maybe uninspired minds like political spin and pretty wrapping paper, but I want to hear more than predictable responses to the implicit question: "how bad is President Obama?"
Coburn's Attempt For Ethanol Reform Fails: 40-59:
Thumbs DOWN!
You would think Democrats would be against giving a 45-cents subsidy to refiners to add ethanol to the fuel mix and stripping the tariff on Brazilian suppliers of ethanol. Among other things, corn-based ethanol competes with food, resulting in food inflation. Most of the votes against results from Democratic senators, seemingly on a procedural basis: he did a bait-and-switch on a procedural matter to bring the matter up to vote. I'm suitably annoyed at Americans for Tax Reform, which wants to portray the end of crony capitalistic subsidies as an implicit tax increase and wants the Coburn amendment paired with a DeMint amendment which repeals the ethanol mandate and the death (estate) tax. Oh, and by the way, it claims it really against ethanol subsidies...
Killebrew Moment: 3 Future Hall of Famers
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| Frank Robinson, HK, Reggie Jackson |
Chicago/Peter Cetera, "Do You Love Me That Much?"
