Archive for August, 2009
My car accident and losing a spleen got spoofed at a talent show Saturday night. One of the hilarious skits was a person totally covered by a sheet being wheeled in on a gurney by two doctors, talking about “this guy Sean Noble flipped his car, we need to fix him.”
The person under the sheet pops up and he’s a dead ringer for Michael Jackson. Then the music to Billie Jean starts, and he starts to sing:
It was just like a horror scene on a movie screen
The sky was black it was raining hard
On my way home…
It was dark, it was wet, on the road…
They claim I USED THE PHONE
It was dark, it was wet, on the road…
For three long days and for three long nights - Hadn’t slept at all
Leavin’ Youth Conference when the night
Started to fall
It was dark, it was wet, on the road…
People always told me, be careful what you do,
Don’t go around drivin’ late at night
And Mother always told me, no texting while you drive
I wasn’t doing that… but look at where I’m at
I got a -
Chorus:
Busted Spleen, it’s not my Liver
I flipped my car and lost my phone on the road
It was dark, it was wet, on the road…
They claim I USED THE PHONE
But, DON’T blame it on my thumb
So take my strong advise, don’t roll your car over twice…
Groovy Dance Moves…
People always told me, be careful what you do,
Don’t go around drivin’ late at night
And Mother always told me, no texting while you drive
I wasn’t doing that… but look at where I’m at
I got a -
Chorus:
Busted Spleen, it’s not my Liver
I flipped my car and lost my phone on the road
It was dark, it was wet, on the road…
Al Gore says that we have “moral duty” to pass health care reform.
Bill Clinton says he “isn’t a very good politician anymore.”
Al talking about moral duty and Bill talking about not being a politician… the world has been turned on its head.
The Liberal Lion of the Senate will be laid to rest today. With the numerous retrospectives in the papers, online and on TV, there isn’t much that I can add, other than the Left has lost its most effective and committed champion.
Senator Edward Kennedy, RIP.
In typical Democrat fashion, they prove they don’t have original ideas, they just steal them from Republicans.
Recall this post about Shadegg’s LD, Paul Edatell barely missing the “50 Most Beautiful” list by coming in 51st (or so, that is the claim).
Now, the totally unoriginal folks at the DNC stole the idea for to show their press secretary how much they missed him.
So, the Republican Party continues to be the party of ideas, while the Democrat Party is just a bunch of copycats (but they do it bigger! See below)
Cows in Britain are killing people. Why is it that some of the weirdest news in the world comes from across the pond?
It occurs to me that England needs more cattle guards. Growing up in rural Arizona, cattle guards were a way of life. Just thinking about the familiar “thrrummpp” as you drove over them brings back memories of childhood.
And it reminds me of a classic government out-of-touch story, the veracity of which is in question because I’ve heard versions with different Administrations involved. As I remember it, under LBJ’s administration, someone at the Department of Agriculture decided to ask Arizona and New Mexico how many cattle guards they had. The folks on the ground, obviously perplexed by how they might actually count all of them reported back that there were many, many thousands of cattle guards. To which they were told that there were way too many people employed to guard cattle.
Old wives tale? Maybe, but believable.
My prayers go out to the Kennedy family. The death of Senator Edward Kennedy has resulted in a wave of retrospective pieces about his influence in the U.S. Senate and the public policy of the United States. As one of the longest serving Senators (he ran and won in 1964) he was a fierce liberal partisan, but also someone who worked across the aisle to get things done. One of his most sweeping legislative accomplishments, No Child Left Behind, was passed under a Republican Senate and signed by a Republican President. A pragmatist indeed.
But pragmatism, when put above principle, can come back to haunt you. When Sen. John Kerry was running for President in 2004, Kennedy put significant pressure on the Massachusetts legislature to change the law for the filling of a Senate vacancy. He did not want to give Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, the chance to appoint Kerry’s successor if he won the Presidency. So, the legislature changed the law to require a special election.
Now, five years later, there is a Democrat Governor, and had Kennedy left well enough alone, there would be someone appointed to his seat within a couple weeks. As it stands now, Kennedy’s seat will remain vacant until January.
The irony of this is that one of Kennedy’s life-long passions was health care policy. And his death, and the inability of quickly filling his seat, means that there are 59 Democrats in the Senate and that Obama and the Democrats will NOT be able to pass cloture (60 votes) on health care legislation without getting a Republican vote.
It may be that Kennedy’s “pragmatism” killed his dream for universal, government-run health care. Thank you, Senator.
The problem that big-spending liberals run into when they are actually in charge is that the bill does eventually come due.
Following the spending orgy of Obama and Congressional Democrats so far this year, the new deficit numbers are out, and they don’t look good. The cumulative deficit for the time frame 2009-2019 is a eye-popping $9 TRILLION. That is a staggering number.
In a cheap attempt to bury this bad news, Obama announced today that he was going to reappoint Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve. That’s news? I don’t think so.
Obama now owns the recession – whether he wants to or not, because most Americans rightly see the spending spree from Washington as contributing to the problem. There is nothing “stimulating” about it.
Remember the year 1952. As you read about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his reelection prospects, remember 1952.
1952 was the year a relatively young and unknown upstart businessman (who only had a few years experience on a city council) challenged the sitting Senate Majority Leader and won.
The challenger was Barry Goldwater and he beat Earnest McFarland – in a state in which Democrats outnumbered Republicans nearly 5-1. McFarland was seen as too out of touch with Arizona, too much a part of the “inside the beltway” problem. Reid seems to have a lot in common with McFarland – and that could prove to be a problem for him.
If 2010 repeats 1952, it will be the first time in 58 years that the sitting U.S. Senate Majority Leader is defeated in an election. Couldn’t happen at a better time.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller (as written by John Hughes)
“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April 15.“ – Ronald Reagan
