Write to be understood,
speak to be heard,
read to grow.
Lawrence Clark Powell
Romney Veep Speculation and My April Post
I saw news blurbs today citing Ann Romney, whom said at least one female candidate is being considered for the Veep position on the ticket. The only female candidate I've seen suggested by the mainstream media has been first-term Senator Kelly Ayotte (NH); most recent speculation has been over first-term Ohio Senator Bob Portman (OH).
This may explain why my post suggesting retiring Texas senior US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison got its highest page visits in weeks. I will say that I sent the Romney campaign a link to my post several weeks back. The only communications I've ever gotten from the Romney campaign are fund appeals. (In fact, I did find my PC's IP blocked from at least one webpage at the site, which puzzles me because I've never posted on the website.) I'm still puzzled why Senator Hutchison's name hasn't been raised by others; I remember in 2008 I and others had speculated on her before the Palin announcement, and I remember hearing an interview where she denied being McCain's selection. Kay is a multi-term Senator from a red state; she rates well with the conservative base. If you haven't read my post, I think it's a good one. Because of blog statistics anomalies, I only see pageview counts for some 1300 posts since the beginning of the year; the Hutchison one rates #4 overall as of tonight. (In case you're wondering, my Valentine's Day post is #1, although it hasn't had a pageview in weeks.)
The First Lady Panderer Discovers
Big Occupation Protectionism...For Military Spouses
Pick and Choose Economic Liberty...
When Michelle Obama isn't cheering on government intervention in school lunch programs, she panders to military families. (This is part of Democratic ideology for trying to win political support of the military and their families, e.g., "we honor the men, just not their mission".) I'm not really sure how many people buy the pandering; no doubt Obama has considerable support among troops of color; RT, for instance, reported that "the little people" in the military and DoD contributed to Ron Paul's campaign than any other candidate by January, including Obama by over 20%--and Paul is against involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Big Defense, however, has been a generous donor to Obama. Gallup a few weeks back showed Romney with a whopping 24-point lead over Obama among military vets--more than twice the gap former POW McCain had over Obama in 2008.
Don't get me wrong; I think all active military are appreciative of their communities back home supporting their loved ones. I remember around the holidays back when I was in eighth grade and my Dad was stationed in Southeast Asia, a group of families from Schilling Manor, including ours. went to a television studio in Wichita; we, like the other families, did a brief video (I think on 8MM tape); my blond baby sister was just starting to walk, and the video ended with her wobbling towards the camera (it's still one of the most charming things I've ever seen). I was afraid the slightest breeze would topple her over and I'm in the background boosting my hands up and down (as if that did any good!) I think that the television station was going to feature our video on their news telecast until they found out my Dad wasn't in the Army but the Air Force. I think my baby brother has a copy of that video. Of course, with today's technology, families can exchange video clips almost instantaneously. But I remember visiting the studio where they filmed a local kids show, and the event organizers did a good job (I seem to recall a nice shared lunch with picnic tables and everything).
Mark Perry of Carpe Diem has published one of his classic mark-up pieces where Michelle Obama has discovered that various occupational licensing requirements are onerous for military spouses (Perry thinks, as do I, the issue is broad-based and not just an issue for military spouses). This is one of those policies (e.g., like employment preferences for military vets) which I find particularly galling. I think most of us who come from that background are not looking for special privileges: we believe in the principles of our country, including equal protection under the law. Most military people and their families just want their equal, fair chance to prove themselves.
On the Big Medical Doctor Trade Union/Cartel
On a different occupational protectionist issue, Mark Perry looks at the AMA; the number of doctors has been largely level since the early 1980's (from about 16,000 to 17,400) after more than doubling the prior 30 years. We should have had another 4000 doctors just to accommodate population growth. An inconvenient fact for the megalomaniac central planners of the health care sector.
As for the recently SCOTUS-approved ObamaCare tax law and those incentives by the federal government to fix prices for Medicare/Medicaid services below market (not to mention twice the hassle and paperwork), you'll probably need to schedule your next "free preventive care" a year in advance (not to mention reserving your emergency operating room table weeks ahead). In the future, no doubt greasing the admissions personnel's palms will help...
The Little Train That Couldn't...Pay For Itself
Hotel Americana
The Last Train From Obamaville (Election 2012)
Were the Eagles singing about tackling the federal budget deficit and a future free from an insurmountable national debt which a spendthrift Congress will never pay down?
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "
Yes, let the government show the private sector how to run a business... Just like USPS (whoops!). Just like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (whoops!). Just like Amtrak (whoops!). And Nancy Pelosi still wants the "public option" for ObamaCare...
A California Judge Gets One Right:
Thumbs UP!
Parents and Students v. Big Public Schools
IBD, "Teaching For Results Gets Boost From Los Angeles Judge"
A takeaway from the editorial (my edits):
According to a 2011 report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, 24 states required teacher evaluations to have "objective evidence of student learning." California was not among those states. A group of parents and students filed suit to force the Los Angeles city schools to follow the law in California that requires school districts to take student progress into account when they evaluate teachers. The statute goes back 40 years; language specifically prescribing the use of statewide tests was added to it in 1999. On June 12, Superior Court Judge James Chalfant ruled for the plaintiffs. He noted that the current system of review gave 99.3% of the district's teachers the highest possible rating in the 2009-10 academic year, when only 45% of students performed at grade level in reading and 56% did so in math. at the time, but last week's ruling should push it in that direction.What is WRONG with the 26 states that don't require objective evidence of teaching performance? What we do know is that teacher union-favored credentials of "seniority, course work and credentials" isn't working out. (Who could have ever predicted that "you-scratch-my-back, I'll-scratch-yours" peer evaluations would result in 99% of teachers rated in the upper 1%? OWS must be so impressed!)
It reminds me of my comme ci comme ça Navy fitness report before being honorably discharged. (I worked at the Staff Judge Advocate's office in Orlando before leaving. He asked to look at it and advised me to appeal mine because my superiors violated guidelines.) There's nothing particularly distinctive about this DTIC study; inflated fitness ratings are well known among active military, and I was simply looking for sample data to illustrate the point:
Block 51 of the fitness report contains the commanding officer's overall evaluation of the officer's performance. Scores may range from I (for the highest rating) to 9. Table 2 presents the frequencies of each score and the means for women and men in each of the designators studied. Consistent with the findings of Kozlowski and Morrison (1990), virtually all (98%) of the officers received the highest possible overall rating.
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| Courtesy of DTIC |
I referenced a while back Wellesley High School favorite English teacher David McCullough, Jr. 's controversial "You Are Not Special" commencement address (yes, David is the namesake son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Presidential historian):
But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not. The empirical evidence is everywhere, numbers even an English teacher can’t ignore.You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.
We need transparency and accountability of the public teaching profession: teacher unions have failed to police their profession, and they failed to accept responsibility for stagnant student performance outcomes over the past 4 decades despite massive public investment. They make as many excuses for the failures in their sorry collective effort as Obama makes in rationalizing his own abysmal failure as a President. (No wonder they support him; they have a lot in common!) In short, they are part of the problem, not the solution.
IBD, "Obama's Reset Speech Is Just a Summer Rerun":
Thumbs UP!
Last month marked the end of the first 3 years of the "Obama Recovery": we are still 5 million jobs below the total in January 2008, Obama has doubled the cumulative publicly-held debt, and Obama has one of the highest average unemployment rates since the Depression, the lowest labor force participation rate in decades, and historic levels of long-term unemployment, despite record spending, deficits, near-zero interest rates and huge expansions in money supply. And his ideas to fix the economy? The same kind of state/local bailouts and project boondoggles marking the massive, ineffective 2009 stimulus. Clearly, the Obama record of government intervention in the economy hasn't worked, and he doesn't have a freaking idea what he would do in a second term in office beyond "more of the same" provably failed policies.
Some inconvenient truths:
- The Obama record: "stagnant growth, chronic unemployment, massive deficits and a president who is utterly clueless about how to fix any of it"; NOT the Obama lying spin: "imposed fewer regulations than Bush, cut taxes more than a dozen times and was not a big spender"
- "The financial crisis that caused the recession was not the result of too little government, but of far too much government intervention in the banking industry" NOT the Obama failed spin: "the policies of the last decade", "return to the same practices that got us into this mess", " jeopardize our future by repeating the mistakes of the past" (unless, of course, he's been really referring to the failed Bush/Obama government intervention policies since 2008)
- Bush was an ideological deregulator responsible for the tsunami: "The nation's regulatory budget nearly doubled in his eight years, and regulatory staffing climbed 42%"
- Bush's tax cuts (to big taxpayers) were a key failed policy: "revenues as a share of gross domestic product hit [an above-average] 18.5% in 2007", "deficits fell three years in a row to a low of $160 billion", "unemployment dropped to 4.4%"
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, "You Don't Know How It Feels"
