Archive for April 9th, 2008
The New York Times expose Sheriff Joe to the rest of the US
Despite what J.D. Hayworth says on KFYI and the O’Reilly Factor, Sheriff Joe is more trouble than he’s worth. There are far better ways to rid a community of crime, instead of gorging our prison system with convicts eager to get out of his jails and into a prison. I’m traditionally a hardliner on crime, I just like well-defined limits on what constitutes crime, a fair element to sentencing of violent vs. nonviolent crimes and a cost effective penal system. I’d much rather someone steal my stereo than steal my tax dollars for the next decade.
This New York Times op-ed was a clear account to the rest of America about how business is conducted in Arizona. Numerous accounts of misconduct have flashed across my TV over my years in Arizona, but few as economically sensible as this one. I will say this, I am more cautious because I know about Sheriff Joe and his hardline stance. It is very effective to reasonable people. I know people who drive drunk 200 days a year but have also had no trouble with Sheriff Joe and his posse.
Here’s the original New York Times article.
NEWS FLASH: YOU just gave $300 to JP Morgan Chase -Jason Kolb
Jason Kolb has written a couple of my all-time favorite blog posts, if I actually kept track. His response to the JP Morgan Chase corporate pork buyout was dead-on. This is not a free market. This misconception that any spending by the government under a Democrat is wasteful and welfare and Republicans are automatically fiscally conservative is absurd.
President Reagan’s administration even raised taxes each of the last 7 years following a large cut the first year. At this rate, any of the candidates could come into the White House and crack down on just a few of the leaks in our public cashflow and lower taxes quite a bit. The problem is that our current war is not being funded by us, it is being funded by our children and grandchildren in the form of loans. A war on borrowed money, could you imagine such an evil plot?
We bail out banks like JP Morgan Chase, in 2001 we bailed out the airlines to the tune of $15 billion. Today we have some 9/11 first responders with major illnesses amidst health budget cuts. I’ve seen some great mom and pop businesses go under, where was the federal government then? I’m cool with businesses collapsing, creative destruction, I truly am. I just can’t stomach how uneven the playing field is at this point. The federal government shouldn’t be bailing any business out. Any bailout measures, for people or business should be carefully considered, but the problem with denying hardworking families and instead giving that money to corporations and banks is that you create people who truly have nothing left. As Bob Dylan said “when you’ve got nothin’, you’ve got nothin’ to lose.” Soon the same people will be complaining about crime and poverty.
Astronomers tell us what smarter humans might be exploring in 50 or 100 years
“Astronomers have discovered a distant “twin” solar system which looks very similar to our own. So far researchers have identified two planets very similar to Jupiter and Saturn, which orbit a star about half the size of the Sun around 5,000 light-years away.”
I know President Bush unveiled a plan for an extended human presence on the Moon back in January of 2004, but it would take a far more capable brain to implement such a plan. His “vision” had completion dates from 2010-2020, which baffles me because we’ll be free and clear of his administration on January 20, 2009 at noon. The beautiful prospects some of the most brilliant researchers in the astronomy community have brought to light could never be brought to fruition during an administration that sees war as a solution for anything, beating the war drum as a way to rally the population and partisan politics run rampant as a way of getting things done.
We need an administration that places progress before redress, to peace as the solution and diplomacy as the path. For any believers, think of this as leading by example. Nobody is swayed by believer with pushy views and extreme dogma, we just want to feel better in life. If religion, or democracy, will bring that to people it will be through an example set. No amount of force or policy can change that reality.
We need an administration that doesn’t think exporting democracy means establishing pro-West regimes in every nation that has drastically different views than we do. Keep in mind, the world’s two largest Muslim nations have already had female leaders (Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia). That should tell us they have already opened a bit to some changes. Time will tell on many others.
We need an administration capable of balancing the budget, cracking down on excessive spending, fixing the tax structure and re-evaluating agencies under the federal umbrella with no jurisdictional claims whatsoever. We must have better government, or consider having those astronomers deliver their findings in cartoon format. Learning from history seems to be too much to ask.
‘Millions Wasted On Government Credit Cards’ – another argument for transparent government
“Federal employees charged millions of dollars for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and other questionable expenses to their government credit cards over a 15-month period, congressional auditors say.”
Just the numbers alone in this report make me understand why people hate and distrust the government to the point of not voting. If not paying taxes were an acceptable protest, the government wouldn’t receive 30% of the current revenues. Those Government Accountability Office reports seem to be the only thing worth our tax dollars anymore. Everyone should read this story, wake up and demand more from their government.
I actually agree with Bill O’Reilly on something
I think I remember most of the times I’ve fully agreed with Bill O’Reilly and his wish for a homogeneous society. Sometimes it happens, the man reveals he got his post by having some intelligence. I enjoy his interesting perspective when he stops pandering to his niche audience and speaks more of the truth. More often he is playing armchair quarterback on the way he would do other’s jobs. In a way that’s what I’m doing here, but I’m not a prominent anything using a national television show to tell judges, doctors and scientists how to do their jobs. I’m glad he did choose to address how a Vice President should do his job.
From transcript:
O’REILLY: When that question was put to Dick Cheney a couple weeks ago by an ABC News correspondent, he said so? Wasn’t that a bad answer?
ROVE: No, I think it was a different question that was put to him. The question was put to him, basically the implication, the question was shouldn’t you be making decisions based on what the polls tell you?
O’REILLY: No, no, no. The question, Mr. Rove, with all due respect to you, was here’s the polls. 66 percent don’t like Iraq. What do you think and he went so. Look, I don’t want to debate the issue about that. I’m saying that was bad PR by Dick Cheney.
ROVE: Well, there may have been a better answer to it. But the fundamental implication to the question was shouldn’t you be making decisions based on the latest poll run by our news organization.
O’REILLY: No, I would say no.
ROVE: Yes.
O’REILLY: But I think you can’t just dismiss the folks.
ROVE: Oh, no. And that’s right. Abraham Lincoln said, you know.
O’REILLY: I think Dick Cheney dismissed the folks with the “so” remark. You know, he was a wise guy, was he not?
ROVE: Well, I think he was not dismissing the folks. What I think he was dismissing was the direct implication. I question what that — you ought to be making decisions based on –
O’REILLY: All right.
ROVE: My news organization’s poll, which is –
O’REILLY: We see that a bit differently.
ROVE: Yes, sir.
How is ‘warmonger’ a sensitive term to John McCain?
My recent post on that Iraq veteran who introduced John McCain with ignorant chiding of Barack Obama made reading this article on CNN Political Ticker that much more interesting. In the same day, the McCain camp said Obama’s response/apology/required denunciation was not enough when fellow Senator and Obama supporter Jay Rockefeller called McCain a warmonger and Senator McCain himself laughs and warmly embraces his introducer who says “You can have your Tiger Woods, we have Senator McCain.”
A thought…
Reporter: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for fifty years.
McCain: Make it a hundred.
Are we talking about the same person? Granted that quote was taken out of some context, but not much. At a time when he finishes a biography tour about his military life, where he tells stories of military glory. I wish someone would ask the Senator to imagine his life had we had no war in the twentieth century. Hypothetical scenarios generally aren’t worth it, but I am truly curious about what classifies Sen. Rockefeller’s statements as out of line?
I’ve admired and respected John McCain my entire adult life, but respecting someone and trusting them to lead my country are two different things. Despite his best efforts at spinning the story, all of his own indicators say he is running for a 3rd Bush term. His economic and foreign policy would almost mirror that of the Bush administration. He might be more of a stickler on pork-barrel spending, but I would just say:
