Jan 6, 2009 | 10:53 PM
Category:
Political
Oh, so I guess it’s okay if you apologize.
I was not a big fan of California Senator Feinstein when she won office in 1992, but she has made a habit of speaking her mind to the detriment of Democratic Party stupidity for years.
Further, she has had the luxury of the junior senator from California being the Senate’s dimmest bulb: Barbara Boxer. Hard to look stupid when compared to “Babs”…
No wonder I find myself agreeing with her on this subject. Nevertheless, Senator Feinstein was correct in her original conclusion that Leon Panetta is unqualified for the CIA, and apologies by Obama for non-consultation should mean nothing.
Jan 4, 2009 | 2:34 PM
Category:
Political
Marks Note: My formula above is absolutely untrue given how history shows that politics and business seemingly can't exist without each other, but thought I would give it a try...
Looks like New Mexico Democratic Governor Bill Richardson will have to leave his dream of being Commerce Secretary right where his dream of a Major League Baseball career ended up - erroneously on his resume. He withdrew his name from consideration after citing a pending investigation for "pay-to-play" - something his Democratic Illinois counterpart has been accused of recently.
Didn’t I hear every day for the past two-and-a-half years from some bloggers occupying the left side of the political spectrum that Republicans were the only ethically-challenged politicians? Perhaps I misunderstood...
Care to speculate on which big name nominee bites the dust next?
Jan 2, 2009 | 11:53 PM
Category:
Political
So this is how they do it…
The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin -- all Democrats -- said the initiative for the two-year aid package was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on President-elect Barack Obama to help them maintain services in the face of slumping revenues.
Gov. David Paterson of New York said 43 states now have budget deficits totaling some $100 billion as tax revenues plunge.
"It's clear that the federal government needs to step in and jump-start the economy," said Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.
Is there any way we can turn back the clock and get our $700 billion back from the earlier bailout? Of course not. So with another $1 trillion getting flushed down the government toilet, when will we wake up and realize government is a dumb answer to an equally stupid question: How to stimulate the economy.
Indeed, I would argue that our very weird and totally unconstitutional government meddling has led to our present economic state.
If congress would simply do anything short of attempting to control the market, and at the same time stop spending taxpayer money faster than my drunken sailor buddies (a wholly incompatible idea for a congress consisting of worse drunkards, I‘m sure - and I apologize to all my sailor buddies drunken or not), we might have a real solution to this “crises” - meaning we would not be here today. Our political “leadership” in the congress and White House should have been fired 50 years ago, but we keep electing idiots.
What does that say for those who are voting for these fools?
Tell me I’m wrong. I need a good laugh.
Dec 30, 2008 | 8:10 PM
Category:
Political
Let me just say this up front in case I get long-winded: The appointment of African-American former Democratic Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to Barack Obama’s Senate seat by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich
will stand up in any court of law due to the current law the State of Illinois has which allows the sitting governor sole power to make such an appointment. The only way this appointment might be reversed is if the Illinois legislature passes a new law requiring a special election for unfilled senate seats.
But guess what? Mr. Burris will still remain the junior Senator from Illinois until next election because the law for a special election would have been passed after Blagojevich already exercised his constitutional obligation. Therefore anything the legislature does subsequently cannot apply to this appointment due to ex-post-facto issues - you cannot change the rules and make them apply retroactively.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (not known for political acumen) recognized this problem, and went on to issue this gem: Under these circumstances, anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.
Notice it is not “be seated in the Senate” but the "Democratic Caucus". You are about to see Senate Democrats fold faster than a cheap lawn chair. Mr. Burris will be seated in the upper chamber, and it will take less than a day or maybe two before the Democratic Caucus votes to allow him to join the membership in the Democratic Caucus. Why? I’ll let you figure it out…
As for how this transpired, all you have to do is look back on the specifics: Sen. Dick Durban called for a special election to fill the vacant seat on December 9th - the day “Blago“ was arrested. This was echoed by Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn. Yet the very next day Quinn reversed his earlier support and called for Blago’s impeachment. That way, Quinn would become Governor and he could appoint a Democrat to serve out the final two years of Obama’s term.
Oh my, how the plans of bad people go awry when a worse person is more powerful.
Had the state legislature simply written the new law requiring a special election, I feel marginally certain Blago would have honored his commitment to sign it. All it would have taken was this line added to the Illinois code: "In case of a Senate vacancy for any reason, a special election is required to fill the seat."
Instead, the legislature pursued impeachment in order for Mr. Quinn to make the appointment of a Democrat. Democrats are deathly afraid of allowing voters make a decision when the Democratic governor has a scandal and subsequently winds up with an approval rating worse than head lice.
Blago did the deed and now I see no capability for it being reversed. Message from Blago to Illinois Democrats: “Poke me with a stick? I have a bigger one…”
Illinois had a habit of electing Republicans once. Then Republicans in Illinois started acting like national Democrats - or at least like Chicago politicians. Republicans were swept from Illinois office. Blago seems to have assured a reassessment of that idea. Al Capone would be proud, and the pendulum swings...
Dec 29, 2008 | 10:32 PM
Category:
Political
Hmmm, seems Governor Spitzer Blagojevich must set a special election for his old congressional seat…a seat currently - and ironically - held by “Rahmbo” Emanuel…the guy who will hold the powerful Chief-of-Staff position for that other Chicago politician recently elected President (er, that would be Barack Obama).
Curiously, Rahm Emanuel was the only person in Barack Obama’s “Office of the President-Elect” to have contact with Governor Spitzer Blagojevich on the subject of Senator/President-elect Obama’s successor to his former office.
(Duh, why would Illinois require a special election for "Rahmbo's" seat while allowing an appointment for Obama's Senate seat? Eeewww!)
Change I can believe in…and not positively. If this stuff continues, I would conclude we are indeed under President Clinton, Part II...
Dec 28, 2008 | 9:45 AM
Category:
Political
Looking back on this year doesn’t have to be a painful exercise, as illustrated by this Dave Barry column:
On the Democratic side, the surprise winner is Barack Obama, who is running for president on a long and impressive record of running for president. A mesmerizing speaker, Obama electrifies voters with his exciting new ideas for change, although people have trouble remembering exactly what these ideas are because they are so darned mesmerized. Some people become so excited that they actually pass out. These are members of the press corps.
Enjoy the entire article, and may your 2009 be a better year.
Dec 22, 2008 | 5:53 PM
Category:
Political
This is how you lose after you win: someone stacks the deck against you. I remember well the 2000 Florida debacle, when boards were attempting to “divine” voter intent on punch-cards and using different standards to do so. Surely they could do better when the voter is using a pen and paper, right? I don’t know, look at some of the ballots examined in the article and square that with what this board has determined.
Were I Norm Coleman I would be readying my court case in two directions: hiring private investigators to research the political background of each Canvassing Board member making these divination's, and noting the way the board “divined” voter intent in so many different ways with so many similar ballots. Equal protection under the law doesn’t mean setting different standards for one verses another, it means the same standards apply. This board apparently forgot that portion of Constitutional law.
Dec 20, 2008 | 12:27 AM
Category:
Political
One can look back on their own impression of President Bush and make a determination of how good or bad his administration might be viewed by history. My own opinion is that President Bush might be more recognized with our financial collapse than any action he took in our war against terror.
I’m very sorry that the President is taking the course of action of using taxpayer dollars - indeed dollars that have yet to be printed and therefore yet to be earned by/from our progeny - in order to prop up something that would be more capable of recovery without roaming into the realm of socialism.
That said, I found this exchange quite telling regarding President Bush and his competence. Indeed, the Iraq “war“ is going so well we are already looking toward the sinkhole that is Afghanistan and thinking about surges. The history of Afghanistan is riven with the broken armies of former occupiers. The Soviet Union collapsed in part due to their own occupation of that barely hospitable land which is controlled by power-squatters called “warlords” who control most sectors of that never-quite nation.
No, I am not saying we should pull out of Afghanistan. I am saying that the power of our US Armed Forces may prove unequal to the task required even with some form of surge. When fighting rock and ravine, cliff and mountain, no amount of high-explosives will eradicate the poppy-lords. That is what Afghanistan is about, and no level of diplomacy will alleviate the fact that mortal enemies called warlords will unite when confronted with a common enemy determined to shut their livelihood down. How many news stories have you read about opium curtailment in that country? Not many I’m sure.
Anyway, this began with President Bush and I will end with a sober view at how he might fare as a wartime commander-in-chief regarding his control over wartime decisions.
President Bush has a bad economic record during the last two years. His legacy may not be predicated upon Iraq and Afghanistan, and success there may not be attributed by historians to his policies. That is the nature of history…the political winners decide who won, and we may see Obama take credit. I care not who takes credit, but as a citizen I am tired of our Congress placing our future in the hand of some hedge fund…
Dec 19, 2008 | 10:19 PM
Category:
Political
Had enough yet under two years of Democrat congressional rule? No?
This should set you off bigtime.
If it doesn’t, you’re a Democratic hack…
Dec 11, 2008 | 8:27 PM
Category:
Political
The highest bidder happens to be voters...
Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has renewed a discussion on the idea of elected officials appointing their buddies (or highest bidders) to typically elected positions. Why can anyone from a state be appointed when the people should be deciding via elections?
In reality, I find the idea that a governor can appoint his/her crony to a position of national prominence just shy of criminal. Then Blago came along and verified that notion…
I do not care that special elections cost money. They are the fairest arbiter of democratic action. You and I can cast a vote and someone will win the seat. More to the point, the voters are given a choice to decide who is best to serve in such position, not some governor who might actually be selling the seat.
In terms of today, I don't trust any of them no matter what party label they claim, and certainly not in a category where voters should be the ultimate arbiter...
Dec 9, 2008 | 6:18 PM
Category:
Political
Fresh from his stint as Special Prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case - which resulted in the successful prosecution of VP Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff “Scooter” Libby - Fitzmas returns to Chicago and takes down current Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich (Democrat).
While the breadth of Blago’s criminal corruption is appalling, it is only a symptom of what Chicago politics really is: a machine built upon the backs of taxpayers to keep a thugocracy in place. Remember Al Capone? His successors are found in government, elected by the very taxpayers they are supposed to represent.
As for President-elect Obama, there is not any evidence he had any involvement in this scheme (other than cutting his political teeth on Chicago’s political machine). However, we do know that the media has fallen down on their job of real reporting, and is now playing catch-up. We find a fine example of their caprice here. I can only hope they continue to realize their responsibility is to report news (via investigative techniques that most journalists seem to have relegated to the theoretical realm) no matter who it is that is being investigated.
I’m not holding my breath, but I am minimally optimistic that national journalists might regain their ethos…
Dec 8, 2008 | 8:24 PM
Category:
Entertainment
In bizarre irony, I am heading to Wall Street next week to do my corporation’s part for the bailout. No, I will not be carrying bucket-loads of cash to be airdropped over the NYSE, but I will be ensuring there is communications coordination during those airdrops (I‘m a telecommunications engineer).
I haven’t been to NYC aside from brief layovers as I headed to points beyond. I will need to pick my after work visits carefully. I am not likely to visit Ellis Island, even though my grandfather on my mother's side spent some time there, nor Liberty Island and that famous statue (apparently an $8.00 package deal - not bad in my opinion - but time is not on my side).
No, I’ll probably head up to the Empire State Building, then I‘m going to visit a dinosaur in need of her own bailout - just to take a photo of it (don‘t need no stinkin‘ tour), followed by a visit to Ground Zero. All three are on my agenda. If I have time, I’ll follow this up with a visit to the Intrepid Museum. If I had any real time, I’d do Ellis and Liberty, but I doubt time is on my side unless I am working with union labor.
Hmmm, maybe I do have time…NYC is the union capital of the world. Then again, if (as I have been led to believe) time is of the essence and overtime will be authorized...dang it!
Dec 4, 2008 | 8:27 PM
Category:
Political
President Ronald Reagan came close to his goal in 1987, with 594 active duty ships. The rapid decline in 21 years is breathtaking.
Pardon me as I shed a tear or two for the USS Tarawa, LHA-1. I knew more about that ship than I cared to, but she served a mighty purpose, mainly the projection of the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU).
Any idea how many ships the US Navy now has operational? As of today, not nearly enough. Goodbye, USS Tarawa. I’ll buy you from Gillette in a couple of years.
*Also, I would like to say Happy Saint Barbara's Day
to all of our current and former ordinance brothers and sisters (and you too, Dad - how is it that the Navy is not represented with this Order?).
Dec 4, 2008 | 7:28 PM
Category:
Political
I have not bought a new firearm in years. Hey, when something works you stick with it, and when you know how to take care of this type of product it will last indefinitely - certainly many years, probably several decades. However, it seems there may be a good reason to look into which type of gun I might want to complete my arsenal before the coming government gun-grab.
I have no idea if a President Obama might actually seek to ban such products, but I do not doubt the will of a Democratic Congress. I remember quite well what happened last time there was a Democrat president coupled with a Democrat Congress, and it was one of the major reasons that caused me to seek out the person challenging my (at the time) congressional representative, Lynn Schenck. I helped Brian Bilbray defeat her in 1994 by volunteering to do phone banks, install yard signs, and walk precincts. Actually, that last one probably had a negative affect, but he still defeated her.
If I could provide any advice to President-elect Obama, it would be to steer clear of this issue. If Congress bows to their agenda-setters, veto the resulting bill.
Knowing full well that President-elect Obama isn't seeking my advice, I will simply go the cautious route: Hmmm, do I want a shotgun or might I finally break down and buy a respectable 7.62 mm rifle? Aw, heck - maybe I’ll do both…
Dec 3, 2008 | 8:54 PM
Category:
Political
Pardon my crocodile tears over this. I am looking at more than a 35% loss for my 401K - you know, that device in which my retirement is coming from. Social Security has been a losing proposition for years and even Democrats know this. When the meltdown hit, I simply let my 401K ride as every economic adviser advised. I did not touch it.
I watched my retirement bottom line erode.
I am, thankfully, many years from retirement. I have the luxury of wading through the tough times. That is why I lost more than Harvard in terms of percentage…I am a bit more aggressive in my portfolio. Still, I am a bit mystified as to why Harvard is feeling any sort of pinch with $29 Billion in their endowment fund.
My prescription is simple: Since we have nationalized everything else, why not appropriate this endowment fund and give it to the UAW and the big three automakers? After all, given the track record of Ivy League college graduates who run this country we couldn’t do much worse. Actually, doing so would alleviate real taxpayers doing the ugly deed, and we can sit back and watch to see if either institution might regain common sense.
I’m being facetious of course...
A little,
maybe…
