Archive for June, 2009

Between my daughter having spinal surgery for kyphosis, an out-of-town obligation and just a really busy schedule, I haven’t been able to blog for a few days.

But I’ve been thinking.

It’s always an interesting phenomenon when a big-name celebrity dies.  The coverage of Michael Jackson’s death has been nothing short of absolutely ridiculous.  As a friend of mine said the day after Jackson died, the person most happy about it is Mark Sanford.  Yeah, remember that whole episode?  Memories are short.

My wife has been a trooper, staying at the hospital the whole time with my daughter.  With me out of town and juggling the watching of kids, I think her patience was thinning.  I got home tonight and on my desk was a target (it was a NRA official 50-yard small bore rifle target) with every shot but one in at least the #8 ring (for those of you who don’t shoot, we call this “tight grouping” and it is impressive).  It was from my wife’s recent shooting excursion with my son’s scout den.  She helpfully wrote a note on it that read, “This is just a warning… DON’T MAKE ME MAD! Just sayin’…”

Alrighty then…

My wife is a celiac, which means she has to have a gluten-free diet.  She related a little frustration from trying to find stuff from the hospital cafeteria that she could eat.  On multiple occasions she asked the cafeteria worker if something was gluten free.  “No, it’s $2.50…”

A walker (you know, the kind old people use? Or 15 yr-olds with spine surgery…) and a 2 yr-old boy are a disaster waiting to happen.

The immediate benefit of my daughter’s spinal surgery is that she is nearly three inches taller.  The downside for me is that she is sleeping in my bed, and I’m not.

Glad our playhouse got done…

Isn’t timing in life just so strange sometimes?

I’ve been insanely busy with work projects, my daughter Kinsey had successful back surgery this morning (I’m actually sitting next to her as she sleeps right now), and all this news won’t stop breaking!

SC Gov. Mark Sanford has an affair with a lady in Argentina and a really random turn of events that lead to the press conference announcing it. Farrah Fawcett dies.  Michael Jackson dies.  Congressional Democrats are pushing through the largest tax increase in the history of mankind with their Climate Change bill. Obama’s health care plan is really, really expensive and it’s going to be harder to pass than most people had thought.

Any one of those issues could warrant multiple blog posts.  Alas, the timing makes it tough.

I can’t not at least make some comment on Sanford.  I’ve known Sanford since he was elected to Congress in 1994.  He was one of the true revolutionaries.  He kept his personally imposed term-limits pledge and could arguably be the best conservative Governor in the nation.  I have long pined for him to run for President.  I have been devastated since his press conference – which was like a car accident – I couldn’t turn away.

I suppose no one really has control of timing – so I’m reserving the right to go back and blog about some of the topics above later.

Liberal Democrats know that they can’t their Climate Change bill to President Obama’s desk, because it will die in the Senate.  But Pelosi is so set on satisfying her liberal base, she is going to put dozens of her “moderate” Democrats at risk by putting a Climate Change bill on the floor this Friday.

It will be pretty instructive to see who ends up voting for it.  The discussion about getting Farm Belt Democrats on board is interesting, because they are not happy.  Pelosi, however, will figure out a way to buy their vote by the time it matters.  And you and I will pay for this HUGE tax increasing monstrosity.  Even more bizarre, is that Greenpeace and a bunch of other leftist greenies oppose the bill because it doesn’t go far enough!

It’s interesting to see Pelosi trying to satiate her base, and angering almost everyone in the process.

 President Obama’s approval is now just above 50%, the lowest it has been in his presidency.  In the Presidential Approval Index he is -2 – that is, there are 2% more people who strongly disapprove of his performance than those who strongly approve.

I believe that as more and more people start paying attention to the debate over health care reform his numbers are going to dip below 50% and it will become harder and harder for him to get what he wants on health care.  Why? Because what he wants is a fundamental government takeover of health care and the cost of government running health care is going to be unacceptable to most Americans.  They are also going to be suspicious of the claims made by Obama and Congressional Democrats about why the government should run health care.

The common theme that you hear from the White House and from Congress is that we MUST solve the problem of the uninsured and we have to get cost under control.  The problem for them is that Senate bill spends at least $1.5 TRILLION and only insures 16 million of the estimated 46 million uninsured.  And they cut Medicare and Medicade by more than $300 billion.  Seniors (and Senators) are not going to react well to having their care cut so the government can take more control over health care.

As I have pointed out before, Greg Patterson over at espressopundit is a really smart guy and has a great, great blog.

But he needs to put the crack pipe down and rethink what he wrote here:

The new schism in the Republican party is not Conservative or Moderate, it’s Conservatives who are part of the establishment versus conservatives who are part of the resistance and it looks to me like McCain, and to a lessor extent even Shadegg and Brewer, are vulnerable in Republican Primaries.

McCain vulnerable in a primary?  Maybe.  Depends a lot on who it is.

Brewer vulnerable in primary?  Uh, oh yeah – you know, the whole demanding a tax increase thing?  Yes, Greg, Brewer is vulnerable, very, very vulnerable.  No “lessor extent” about it.

Shadegg vulnerable in a primary?  What are you smoking?  Seriously.  Yes, McCain has not been the most solid of conservatives – you know, campaign finance, global warming, and, you know, immigration.  Yes, Brewer is following in George H.W. Bush’s footsteps.  But Shadegg?

This is a guy that conservatives (you know, like, Mike Pence, Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, et al.) begged to stay in Congress when he announced retirement last year.  This is a guy who consistently ranks among the most conservative in the U.S. House by Club for Growth, National Taxpayer’s Union, American Conservative Union and Americans for Tax Reform among others.

If the argument is that some elected officials are potentially vulnerable because they are not conservative enough, then I get it.  But saying that Shadegg isn’t conservative enough is a little bizarre.

Sometimes it is so obvious why politicians are despised by so many people.  I don’t even have the words for my reaction to this.

City Councilwoman Maria Baier has been picked to run the State Land Department.

Gov. Jan Brewer on Tuesday tapped Phoenix City Councilwoman Maria Baier to lead the Arizona State Land Department.

Baier, 48, a land-use consultant and former aide to Govs. Fife Symington and Jane Hull, has served on the council since January 2008. She replaces former State Land Commissioner Mark Winkelman, who resigned in May to return to the private sector.

As head of the Land Department, Baier will oversee about 9.3 million acres of state trust land, including sales and leases.

I have to be honest. My first reaction to this story was, “Maria is 48?!?!” I’d have never guessed.

Maria is eminently qualified to run the State Land Department.  She has dealt with those issues for years, and was Gov. Jane Hull’s point person on Growing Smarter, which took her on a state-wide tour talking to a variety of folks all over Arizona.  There are few people who know more about State Land and the issues surrounding it than Maria Baier.

Solid pick by Governor Brewer. 

Sen. John McCain is buying a Ford Fusion Hybrid to replace his Cadillac in Washington, D.C.

Now, a politician buying a car really isn’t news, is it?  And is it really news that McCain is buying a hybrid?

The most intriguing part of the whole story was this:

The Arizona senator said on his Twitter feed Monday…

McCain twitters?!?  Now that’s news.  Hit me anytime @snoble37, Senator.

I have been a long time fan of David Letterman. Back in the day when he was doing the late, late show and wearing tennis shoes with his suit.  I remember being outraged that NBC picked Leno over Letterman. Letterman represented a younger, more hip audience (or so I liked to think of myself as hip at the time, and yes, I was very wrong about how hip I was. It’s amazing how a hick from Show Low can even begin to think that he is hip in any way, shape or form.)

Now, I missed the early part of the ongoing saga between Letterman and Sarah Palin stemming from a rather crude joke that Letterman told about Palin’s daughter and a baseball player.  Needless to say, Palin reacted, Letterman reacted to the reaction (clumsily), more reaction from Palin, Letterman reacts again, etc.

It culminated in Letterman getting to a real apology excerpted here (video of apology here):

“And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer ‘Newshour’ - this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old girl, and I thought, ‘Oh, boy, now I’m beginning to understand what the problem is here. It’s the perception rather than the intent.’ It doesn’t make any difference what my intent was, it’s the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it’s not a very good joke. And I’m certainly - ” (audience applause) “- thank you. Well, my responsibility - I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception. And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It’s not your fault that it was misunderstood, it’s my fault. That it was misunderstood.” (audience applauds) “Thank you. So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I’m sorry about it and I’ll try to do better in the future. Thank you very much.” (audience applause)

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” –Helen Keller