That’s the Ticket…
Posted in: Elections & Voting | Comments (0)
Massachusetts Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker has selected state Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei as his running mate in the 2010 election. As Boston Phoenix political reporter David Bernstein notes, “I think this pretty much makes this the most socially moderate Republican ticket in the history of ever. We’re well past the classic ‘Rockefeller Republicans’ here.”
This selection isn’t sitting well with everybody. Tisei certainly seems qualified and competent–far more competent than some past candidates for lieutenant governor, to be sure. However, one wonders if the controversy (such as it is) over Tisei’s personal life will be an issue in this campaign.
I will say this: Tisei on his worst day will likely be better than Tim Murray on his best day.
D. R. Tucker @ November 23, 2009
Palin’s “Going Rogue” – Nicole Wallace hearts Katie Couric
Posted in: Elections & Voting | Comments (0)
Mthinks I know who spread those scurrilous and truly nasty rumors (the wardrobe, credit card, diva,etc.) The excerpts below indicate Nicole Wallace, among others…
S.M.D @ November 15, 2009
Breaking News: The religious left; terrorism infests U.S. military?
Posted in: Media Rites | Comments (0)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:09 — 25.2MB)
Welcome to the Friday, November 13, 2009 edition of Patriot Games Radio. We broadcast weekly on the RFC Radio network. My guest was DR Tucker, proprietor of The Notes website. Topics discussed:
The emergence of the “religious Left“, particularly as seen in the ongoing “stealth care deform” debate. Cliff Kincaid chronicles the Vatican’s influence on U.S. politics and the absence of church-state separation alarmist rhetoric ( by the media). J.F.K’s seminal 1960 speech on church-state separation below. (Please don’t accuse me of anti-Catholicism. It’s totally not the point).
Apparently, Nancy Pelosi and Jason Altmire disagree with J.F.K.:
The Los Angeles Times reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic, not only “conferred with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to be sure the new restrictions were acceptable” but “consulted by telephone with a cardinal in Rome.” CNN reported that, as a deal was being made between Pelosi and Catholic lobbyists, “Several Democrats, including Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pennsylvania, said they are in touch with their Catholic Bishops back home. Altmire said he must have the approval of his bishop in Pittsburgh before he can vote yes.”
Does the Fort Hood murder spree reflect the presence of terrorist elements within the U.S. military? Is Major Nidal Malik Hasan a terrorist or a simply an overwrought soldier? Is/has political correctness wreaking/wrought havoc on this country?
RFC Radio (Radio for Conservatives), is running a terrific contest to send a fortunate winner to the 2010 CPAC conference. The winner receives 2 nights at the Omni-Shoreham hotel (directly across the street from the conference venue), and a conference pass. Contest ends December 4,2009.
S.M.D @ November 13, 2009
Breaking news: Massachusetts economic “stimulus” claims exaggerated
Posted in: Education, Public Fisc | Comments (0)
To those of us who understand the inherent wastefulness and inefficiency of public bureaucracies (i.e. gubimint), today’s Boston Globe story on the “stimulus” is hardly surprising. The same people who brought you the ” stimulus” want to “stimulate” your health care. Fight them. Here are some story excerpts; they speak for themselves.
Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.
One of the largest reported jobs figures comes from Bridgewater State College, which is listed as using $77,181 in stimulus money for 160 full-time work-study jobs for students. But Bridgewater State spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the college made a mistake and the actual number of new jobs was “almost nothing.’’
“There were no jobs created. It was just shuffling around of the funds,’’ said Susan Kelly, director of property management for Boston Land Co., which reported retaining 26 jobs with $2.7 million in rental subsidies for its affordable housing developments in Waltham.
Massachusetts property owners received $75.5 million in rental subsidies from the stimulus bill, for a reported total of 437 jobs. Recipients of 27 of the 87 contracts reported zero jobs. The others, meanwhile, simply reported the number of employees working at the property. If they received two contracts, for a larger property, they reported the employee figure twice.
The only good thing to say about this is that the respondents appear to be honest about the shortcomings of this scam.
S.M.D @ November 11, 2009
Breaking news from Beacon Hill – incompetence rewarded
Posted in: Public Fisc | Comments (1)
This story comes to us courtesy of the folks at Deval Patrick Watch. It pertains to the state’s Division of Administrative Law Appeals. It’s former head, Shelly Taylor, was forced to resign her $108,000/year job amidst allegations of incompetence. Excerpts from D.P.Watch follow:
The former head of the state Division of Administrative Law Appeals, forced to resign in August amid allegations of mismanagement, continues to draw $6,300 a month in consultant pay for work she failed to complete during her two-year tenure.
A former prison guard who has waited 16 months for Taylor’s decision on his request for a disability pension said she does not deserve additional pay or extra time to finish her work.“As a taxpayer, I am furious,’’ said Jeff Waite, 49. “I worked for the state. They paid me to do a job. They paid her to do a job; now do it.’’
In many of Taylor’s cases, litigants have been waiting a year or more for rulings.
Big gubimint in Massachusetts just keeps gettin’ bigger.
S.M.D @ November 6, 2009
Breaking News from D.C. – Vote Alert on Gitmo Detainees
Posted in: Civic Matters | Comments (1)
- Image via Wikipedia
My D.C. sources say:
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Jim Webb (D-VA) have an amendment to an appropriations bill which would prohibit any federal funding to bring 9/11 co-conspirators like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to the United States for trial in civilian courts. The idea is to return those cases to the military commissions Congress created on a bipartisan basis, where they belong, and keep detainees out of the United States.
The problems with trying terror detainees in civilian courts are well documented. Such trials have inadvertently leaked sensitive material, tipped off terrorists to a communications link, and even unintentionally provided intelligence information to Osama bin Laden. Last month former attorney general Michael Mukasey wrote an excellent op-ed for The Wall Street Journal explaining why his experience has shown civilian courts to be the wrong venue for such trials. Sen. McConnell also explained the necessity of this amend
150 family members of 9/11 victims have written a letter to the Senate urging the passage of this amendment. They write in part, “We adamantly oppose prosecuting the 9/11 conspirators in Article III courts, which would provide them with the very rights that may make it possible for them to escape the justice which they so richly deserve.”
Keep an eye out for a vote on this amendment later today.
Please retweet/Facebook/talk this up.
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S.M.D @ November 5, 2009
Must reads: Boston & school busing; the liberal paradigm
Posted in: Civic Matters | Comments (1)
Having come of age in the era of busing in Boston (yet another dumb idea hatched by liberals), this article by Washington Times reporter Justin A. Rice is particularly salient. Liberals make promises they can’t keep. They cited the objective of “integration” to justify the busing program. Today (2009), Boston schools are overwhelmingly non-white. Bear this in mind when they extol the virtues of single payer/gubimint run/public option/delay trigger health systems. Here’s an excerpt:
Boston schools still let parents pick schools, but only within three enormous and controversial geographical zones. Buses carting only one student often crisscross the city – contributing to next year’s nearly $80 million transportation budget at a time when the district faces a projected $100 million budget shortfall.
“Buses carting only ONE student….” Stupid, stupid, stupid AND expensive AND wasteful. And it only comes with a 27% dropout rate.
John Steele Gordon does an excellent job of reaching into the heart of the liberal to ascertain why he/she thinks,does and says the things he/she does:
We all use paradigms to make sense of what we see around us and couldn’t get along without them. Unfortunately, the basic liberal paradigm hasn’t shifted in a hundred years, while the world we live in has changed utterly since the late 19th century, when modern liberalism was born.
Charles Kesler’s interview with Peter Robinson does an excellent job of explaining the waves of modern liberalis, the implication of each wave, and the inherent dangers posed by liberalism.
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S.M.D @ November 4, 2009
Stealth care deform – Paul Krugman and the public option
Posted in: Health | Comments (1)
Courtesy of my good friend and colleague Elizabeth Krum:
Interesting new audio of Paul Krugman is up at Breitbart’s Big Government:
Background (excerpted):
In this audio, Krugman is speaking on health care reform at Hunter College on July 16, 2008. It’s a 5:00 clip (unedited). If you want to know why liberals are continuing to fight tooth and nail for the public option, here it is in astonishing detail.
Most striking was Krugman’s admission that even without a public option the system would largely look like a single payer system – based on the subsidies for lower wage earners and the fact that everyone else is paying for these with taxes on top of their insurance premiums.
The “Rube Goldberg device”, which Krugman used as a metaphor, is a term for an over-engineered solution to a simple problem. In this case, designed to obscure the solution they are actually looking for, i.e. single payer.
The critical point in all of this is the sheer scope of this deception on the part of the Administration – with help from the media. Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein have been two of the most prominent media advocates for health care reform…with numerous appearances on television and their blogs at the New York Times and the Washington Post, respectively.
(Klein has recently added a whole new layer of deceit.)
Link up and Tweet at will.
S.M.D @ November 3, 2009
Patriot Games Radio – October 30,2009 Stephen A. Moses interview
Posted in: Public Fisc | Comments (2)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:22 — 27.2MB)
Mr. Moses is president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform based in Seattle, Washington, and the Ocean State Policy Research Institute Fellow on Healthcare Reform. In this interview, he discusses the impending fiscal, monetary and social disaster that is soon to overtake and weaken the United States. Of particular concern: runaway spending at state and federal levels, Medicaid spending bankrupting the states, the coming “welfare-ization of Social Security and means-testing for Medicaid (to say nothing of anti-growth fiscal policy.
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S.M.D @ October 31, 2009
Patriot Games Radio October 26,2009 – DR Tucker interview
Posted in: Editorials, Health, Transparency | Comments (1)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:38 — 22.7MB)
Sorry it took me so long to post, but this is yet another great interview from The Notes proprietor D.R. Tucker.
S.M.D @ October 30, 2009