Jim Bunning – Asshole
Mar 1st
I hate to be blunt but the sad excuse for a human being known as Senator Jim Bunning screwed over a whole bunch of people when he blocked legislation to extend benefits to the unemployed. It also is going to result in 2000 federal employees going on furlough.
His actions are unacceptable in any economy and show why people in his own party have had enough of him.
Evan Bayh
Feb 17th
Evan Bayh announced he was not going to run for re-election and the political folks are writing about how he is leaving D.C. because it is just too partisan. While that may be true, I think there are a host of other reasons that he is leaving D.C. at this time. First, he has never seem comfortable as a United States Senator. Some members of the Senate seem to relish the role. Senators such as Ted Kennedy, Orrin Hatch, Dick Durbin, and Robert Dole are all people who seemed to enjoy being a Senator in spite of having aspirations to a greater office. Evan Bayh did not seem to enjoy the Senate. He always seemed like a man who preferred having more control than a single vote in the Senate. I suspect he enjoyed his eight years as Governor of Indiana more than the two terms he served in the United States Senate.
Another reason I think Mr. Bayh is leaving the Senate is that he’s tired of the family business. His father was a memorable Senator while Evan Bayh does not seem to leave any legacy or imprint upon the institution. His father was dynamic while he is milk toast. At some point, I suspect one tires of the comparisons.
While I take him at his word that he wants to spend more time with his family, I also think that he wouldn’t mind being the Governor of Indiana again. By leaving D.C. at this time he has set himself up for either a national run for the Presidency (which he has denied any interest in undertaking) or another run at the top executive office in Indiana. He may also be sincere when he says he would like to run an institution of higher learning. The things that he has mentioned doing tend to have one thing in common and differ from being a United States Senator in one important way – they all involve him being in charge. I believe that the desire to be the chief executive is at the root of Evan Bayh’s departure from the Senate more than any reason offered by him or those close to him.
How to take back Washington – Have taxpayers finance federal elections
Feb 14th
Every year it seems like more and more people talk about the ills of Washington and how the house and the senate move further away from doing the job of the people and instead seem to be doing the job of the lobbyists. As a result, some have proposed that we put forth term limits on their service. The thought is that we will somehow get better representation. I think it is a hopeful argument based in faith rather than in reality. Given the present system, politicians would remain bought and sold by lobbyists but the names would change more often.
Others have argued that campaign finance reform represented the real solution to all of the ills with the ever growing influence of lobbyists. Alas, the supreme court seems to have ended the attempts made by Mr.’s Fiengold and McCain. The attempts of their legislation was a nice first start but came up short in addressing things like 527 groups. It ended up simply moving around the money more than fixing the problem.
So what are we left with? It seems like the only remaining solution is to mandate that all federal elections are financed directly by taxpayers while banning any funds from any other source. Given that our supreme court has ruled that corporations can’t be limited on their donations, it stands to reason that the only way to guarantee fair elections at the federal level is to pass legislation that stipulates that the ONLY funds that may be used during the election cycle will come from the taxpayers. The Supreme Court would have a hard time deciding against this as it provides the most level playing field of competition for all parties. Each opponent would receive the same amount of funds to spend during the election cycle. Since corporations and individuals both pay tax an argument could not be reasonably made that either party is being disenfranchised from the process. And hopefully, we the taxpayers would finally see a decrease in the power that lobbyists have in Washington.
It’s not just about global warming
Feb 12th
I have been amused this week to see a host of global warming deniers prattling on about how snow storms and cold weather prove that the science behind the theory of global warming is wrong. A single event or even two doesn’t mean that one can jump to concluding that something is true or untrue in the scientific sense. Let’s take the example of air travel. Let’s say that there is a plan crash – does that then imply that air travel is the least safe way to travel? Not at all. We have mountains of evidence that shows otherwise. The same argument can be made about global warming. A cold spell doesn’t mean the theory of global warming is wrong. A cold spell in D.C. hardly takes into account the larger picture of weather and climate change. Only fools would make such an argument and as we all know, there are a lot of fools out there.
Like everything lately, the snow storms out east have become a chance to score political points. The right has had a field day pointing at a single factor event and then making fun of Al Gore. What they don’t get is that most of us recognize juvenile behavior when we see it and that most of us aren’t in 6th grade anymore. Most of us also understand that there are a number of very good reasons to treat the planet with care. First and foremost, it comes down to the fact that this is where we live. There are good reasons to want clean air and water and there are good reasons to want less emissions in the atmosphere beyond the hopeful benefit in regards to warming.
Science has shown us that there are a number of substances that are emitted by power plants, cars, and industry that aren’t healthy for humans. Newspapers have been full of well documented stories about toxic pollution sites that are responsible for abnormally high incidences of cancer and other terrible diseases. The evidence about the dangers posed by substances such as Mercury are well documented as well. Health reasons represent one very good argument for why the United States should strongly embrace clean energy solutions.
But there’s another argument about why the United States must embrace clean energy. It comes down to the fact that a lot of energy is generated with oil which is a finite resource. Some have argued that we should put more resources into approving nuclear energy. While I think nuclear energy has a place in our solutions, it seems to me that we can bring up a lot of wind turbines and other forms of “clean” power generating before any power company can get through the approval process to build a new power plant. Even if someone started the process today it would take at least seven years for the plant to come online. I’d rather put those billions into wind turbines instead of waiting.
This country is known for innovation. The innovations over the next twenty years is going to be based around ways to generate and store electricity. Innovations will be coming out of necessity as the cost of oil will rise. This all comes to simple economics and the theory of supply and demand. The supply of oil is not increasing but the demand continues to grow. This means that over the long term the price of oil will increase and that also means that wise countries will have invested time and resources into alternative energy productions.
One final thought for my oil loving conservative friends. If you want to make a serious dent in terrorism and terrorists that emanate from the middle east. Invest in ways that dry up the money supply of that region. Embrace the ideas and solutions of solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro. You’ll be helping the country and taking away a funding source of some very dangerous people.
Health Care Reform – The Message to D.C. is keep trying
Feb 10th
There is a new Washington Post-ABC News poll out that shows that 63 percent of Americans think that the congress should “keep trying” to pass health care reform. The number that stood out to me more than any other was that of Independents, who came in at 56 percent in favor of “keep trying”. Here’s the poll:
So now the question is what does common sense reform look like? I would argue that health care reform needs to contain the following items to be considered successful and meaningful reform.
The elimination of the pre-existing condition clause.
The establishment of a set of guidelines that allow carriers to compete nationwide rather than just on a state by state basis. This would allow greater competition which should lower rates.
Provisions which limit the size of carriers in order to ensure long term competition in the market.
Some nice to haves in reform would include:
The elimination of price structures that penalize small companies. Small businesses should not be charged more than a larger company for insurance. After all they are all part of the same pool as the risk is spread across all of the insureds by a given company. If this doesn’t happen then small business should be given the option of pooling their employees into larger pools in order to reduce their rates.
Either allow very small companies to buy into the insurance pool that the federal government presently offers their employees or allow employees of small companies or those who are self employed to buy into that pool. These companies or individuals would then choose from the same insurance offerings that are presented to federal employees. They would pay for the complete premium as well as a small handling fee to the federal government.
The average American is not getting a fair shake or a fair product on the whole from the American insurance companies. It is disgraceful that Americans pay more money for less service than do the citizens from most other first world nations.
Obama offers Half Day Summit on Health Care to Republicans – Why Republicans Can’t Win
Feb 8th
During the Super Bowl, President Obama offered to have a half day bi-partisan summit. Eric Cantor, the republican House Minority Whip from Virgina, suggests that republicans won’t show “unless the President and Speaker Pelosi are willing to scrap their government take over and hit the reset button, there’s not much to talk about”. Eric Cantor you’ve been pwned by the White House and it did not even take a day.
Here’s why the Half Day Summit is a lose-lose for the republicans:
They can choose to show up and illustrate how they are the party of “no” in the flesh. Outcome – the President wins.
They choose to not show up and then the narrative in the press is all about how they wouldn’t even come to the table. Outcome – the President wins.
At best, they can appear cooperative and come to the summit and even be constructive during the summit. They return to their chambers out the the glare of the cameras and revert to the party of “no”. Outcome – the President wins.
Even if they fully cooperate during the summit and through the legislative process the outcome is the same. Because, they will then be giving the President a major legislative victory. Hence . . . Outcome – the President wins.
The present strategies of the republican party are hurting Americans and as a result it appears that a series of slap downs of the republicans by the President are in order. This seems to be the only way to get back to some small level of bi-partisanship in D.C. It is a modern implementation of the Teddy Roosevelt Axiom to “speak softly and carry a big stick”. It’s quite obvious that the President is not one to yell and scream but in this case the “stick” is a political loss to the republicans. What the republicans don’t get is that regular Americans want to move beyond the destructive personal politics that we’ve been saddled with for the last twenty or so years. They have failed to understand that their present strategy does little heal the great mistrust that most Americans have in the Congress. Another way to put it is that they are managing to damage their own damaged reputation.
Sarah Palin Resorts To Crib Notes
Feb 7th
Sarah Palin has failed yet again in her efforts to convince average American voters that she is not intellectually challenged. During her speech to the tea party convention yesterday she resorted to a method she may have used in high school and college – writing notes on her hand. I’m trying to think of the last prominent American politician to resort to crib notes but alas I can’t think of one.
Beyond the use of crib notes, the speech yesterday was amusing on multiple levels. She took the time to criticize the President for “lecturing” America while ignoring the rather obvious irony that she was lecturing the President and the country for most of her speech. The tone of the speech seemed more intent on setting her up as a candidate for higher office than hitting on the themes central to the tea party movement. Her speech was a rehash of the same conservative ideas we’ve been hearing about for the last twenty plus years. In other words, she did nothing to appeal to a broad spectrum of American voters nor did she espouse many ideas that would receive acceptance by most Americans. At times, the stagecraft resembled a Saturday Night Live skit of her.
The All Powerful First Dude Versus Hillary Clinton
Feb 7th
This week the a large batch of emails that Todd Palin exchanged with Alaska officials were released. A quick glance through them shows a man who was extremely involved with the process of governing Alaska. That might have been a good thing had Todd Palin been an elected official. Instead, we have Todd “First Dude” Palin called an unpaid advisor to the Governor of Alaska . . . his wife. There’s still 243 juicy emails that are being protected at the moment that I think will be more damning than anything released yet.
Now some may argue that it should not be any big deal that Todd Palin advised his wife during her short term as Governor. That’s an interesting argument but so far it is mostly coming from pundits and political operatives who roundly criticized Hillary Clinton for “advising” her husband Bill Clinton when he was President. During the Clinton White House years, I recall derisive comments from some conservatives saying that all Hillary should not be doing anything other than picking out China for state dinners. Yes, it was harsh and truly exemplified the darker elements of the conservative keep them bare foot and pregnant branch of the republican party and social conservative movement.
Let’s move over to Todd Palin for a moment. These same folks (at least the ones who are still breathing) seem to think it is great that Todd Palin was so involved. It begs the question – why? Was it because Sarah Palin needed the help? Was it because they really thought that a woman shouldn’t be running a state? Was it because they had questions about the competence of Sarah Palin? But the real question is what the difference between Todd Palin being involved and Hillary Clinton being involved? I suspect that the answer comes down to mostly one thing – politics. Yes there was small mindedness as noted earlier. It was also a cold political calculation that they could score political points in the short term by denigrating the first lady of the United States.
It is inevitable that a spouse is going to play some role behind the scenes in a political career. We’ve seen powerful spouses like Jenny Sanford basically run the campaign of her husband to a countless number of spouses who have assumed the office their recently deceased spouse held. Todd Palin is different though. He went beyond the accepted role of a spouse in a political career. He went far beyond anything our present Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did while first lady. He was active in judicial appointments, board appointments, and a host of other officials matters of state business across a wide range of topics. People wouldn’t be so interested in this if it weren’t for the fact that Todd Palin belonged to a fringe organization that believes that Alaska should be unto itself and should not be a part of the United States of America. So the question comes down to judgement and what types of causes and individuals was Todd Palin advocating to his wife. Furthermore, it begs the question as to the involvement he might have were his wife ever elected to higher office. This should be of major concern to those who are behind the Sarah 2012 movement.
In November 2008 according to Michael Nizich, Sarah Palin’s Chief of Staff “There is nothing unusual, untoward or inappropriate for a spouse of a chief executive to provide guidance, input and hands on assistance.” That is unless it is Hillary Clinton apparently.
The Extortion of The American Taxpayer by Senator Richard Shelby
Feb 5th
Senator Richard Shelby wants 40 billion dollars for his state. He also wants another 45 million on top of that for another project. That’s not uncommon in politics. Most Senators want money for their state and use a variety of processes to get funds included in appropriation bills and other pieces of legislation. Sometimes they use the increasingly unpopular earmark system. Richard Shelby has decided on a new tactic. Extortion.
Senator Shelby has placed a hold on all of the executive nominees of President Obama. Not just one or two of them because of a philosophical concerns about their background, or due to some questionable event in their history, but instead has placed a hold on all of them so that he can get 40 billion dollars for an air-to-air tanker refueling program that would benefit his state by taking a contract that is scheduled to go to the American company Boeing and instead award it to the German company EADS because they would do a portion of the manufacturing in Alabama, and another 45 million dollars to build an improvised explosive device testing lab at Redstone Arsenal that the Obama administration does not want to build. According to multiple Senate experts, no member of the Senate has ever resorted to such a blanket hold in the history of the Senate. The actions of Richard Shelby represent a low point for Senatorial conduct.
To put this into a different kind of perspective, Richard Shelby is extorting the taxpayers of the United States to the tune of slightly more than $133 on a per capita basis. It is no different than a common street thug extorting the local mom and pop grocery store for “protection” money except that the mom and pop grocery store being held up is the American tax payer. This is the same Senator Shelby who said on March 22nd during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, that President Obama needs to cut his proposed federal budget due to deficit concerns. So from that appearance one could surmise that Richard Shelby is a deficit hawk. Maybe even a fiscal conservative. That would be an incorrect conclusion to draw about the Senator from Alabama. He’s the type of republican who all Americans should fear. He’s the prototypical fat cat Washington Senator who only cares about his interests and serves a series of corporate masters instead of the people of the United States. He’s opposed to sensible banking reforms. Opposed both stimulus bills. Opposed the bailing out of the U.S. auto makers since it would have had a potential negative impact on the foreign auto makers who have plants in Alabama, and he’s presently none too pleased that President Obama has cut space programs that will have an impact on his state. It is surprising that his extortion hasn’t been extended to the space program cuts that he opposes . . . but maybe we should just give him some time. In 2008 Shelby had the third most earmarks of any Senator in the United States Senate at 465 million dollars according to the congressional watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste. He was only able to grab 267.4 million dollars from the taxpayers in the fiscal year 2009. Not surprisingly the Senator from Alabama is a multiple winner of Citizens Against Government Waste’s “Poker of the Month”. Since assuming office in 1987 he has appropriated billions of dollars in tax payer funds for pet projects.
So when will the extortion of the American tax payer end from Senator Richard Shelby?