Archive for January, 2010

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

● Bush. Bush. Bush. It’s all Bush’s fault. Man up, Mr. President. You own it now. You’re not a facilitator leading a government seminar, nor a deal-detached observer, with no responsibility for the Louisiana purchase of Sen. Mary Landrieu or the Cornhusker Kickback to Sen. Ben Nelson. If it’s bad, he inherited. If good, he did it.

● President Obama listened to those on the left in drafting his State of the Union. More government. More spending. More hyper-partisanship. More cap-and-tax. More health care cram-down. No move to the center. Another year of deep national divisions loom.

● State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver of DeKalb County uses the recent troubles of former House Speaker Glenn Richardson as opportunity to push a bill to limit the value of gifts from lobbyists to $25, which is fine with me. But she also leaps to propose public financing of judicial races. That’s incumbent-protection. A challenger …

Continue reading Meaningful ethics reform a must »

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

● What a difference a week makes. The Massachusetts uprising against Congress and this administration lifts the spirits of those, like me, who are concerned that we’re weakening America and stealing from future generations to fund current consumption. And then a conservative Republican wins the “Kennedy seat” in ultra-liberal Massachusetts. Blow me down. The health-care cram down is over. Over-reaching Democrats are in shock.

● The nation wants jobs, economic recovery and national security. The Left wants control of energy, autos, financial and the health care and insurance industries. They win. We lose. Example: The Environmental Protection Agency proposes stricter standards for ground-level ozone — stricter than standards just imposed in 2008. There’s a cost, certainly, that industry and utilities pay that they pass on in the form of higher consumer prices. But the real value of the stricter standards is …

Continue reading Health care cram down is over »

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

● The post-partisan president has the country divided 50-50. No end in sight. Gotta tell you. I’m coming to hate politics as exemplified by the deal with U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) to exempt that state forever from the higher taxes imposed by the new health care legislation now being hashed out in Congress. The Georgia Department of Community Health estimates that Georgians would be forced to pay up to $200 million in higher taxes for an expanded Medicaid program starting in 2013 and increasing to $500 million per year over the following six years. We pay for Georgia, plus Nebraska. That’s bound to be unconstitutional.

● I am becoming so radicalized by the direction this country is being taken that, much as I hate cold weather, I’d fly to Massachusetts to vote in Tuesday’s special election to replace Sen. Ted Kennedy if that state allowed same-day registration and voting. It’s a solidly Democratic …

Continue reading We pay for Nebraska’s Medicaid? »

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

● Finally, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledges reality. Says she of our president: “There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail.” At issue was whether negotiations over the final health care legislation would be opened to C-SPAN cameras, something the president embraced as a candidate. They won’t.

● Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel says the men running against her can’t clean up a culture of “sex, lies and lobbyists” under the Gold Dome because they “created the mess.” Men, as the lady knows, are not monolithic. That’s the view of liberals. The men running against her were not born when the culture of “sex, lies and lobbyists” took root under the Gold Dome. Their sin is that they and the women, too, perpetuated it.

● Economists gathered in Atlanta debate why so few of them saw this economic meltdown coming. Why? Because they were of follow-the-pack consensus, …

Continue reading Farewell to a darn good judge »