Common Sense Political Thought

As usual, our poor site wasn’t nominated, but there are a couple of sites I’d appreciate votes for. Patterico doesn’t campaign for these things, but they were nice enough to give us a real boost on the Delaware Liberal’s voting. And it’s a top-notch conservative blog as well. Finally, its closest competitor is the very liberal Pandagon! So, if you are inclined, you can vote here for Patterico’s Pontifications.

Another one of my fave’s is Sister Toldjah, also in the running in another category; you can vote for her here.

It truly was too much to ask that Queen Pelosi allow the peasants to have a say in how legislation is written. That would be the reason for rules changes designed to silence the minority. Remember, Queen Pelosi said that the election of more Democrats would create more bipartisanship. I guess shutting up debate is her idea of bipartisanship.

Why, exactly, is Queen Pelosi changing the rules? Because she didn’t get to raise taxes enough over the last two years. Republicans effectively used procedural rules to block several tax increases on businesses (which, of course, get paid by consumers) totaling $81.5 billion.

As RedState notes, there’s little Republicans can do to block the measure. But what this shows is that “bipartisanship” means “obeisance” to Democrats.

Cross-posted at Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels.

Developing…

Hat tip to Gretchen

I finally got started on my December project of building cabinets for the kitchen, starting with the base unit radiator cover. I used my cabinet door router bit set to mill the round-over and groove on the rails and stiles. Unfortunately, my dust collection system — a small shop vac — isn’t exactly the best in the world, so I got covered with sawdust.

The router bit set in the picture at the left isn’t the same brand I have — I couldn’t find their site — but they’re the same bits, except that mine are blue rather than red on the painted areas. I still have to cut the mortises on the ends of the rails, but those have to be perfect, or the project will not look right. That’ll take some patience to set up and get exactly right.

Mrs Pico and the older Miss Pico arrived home at around 6:00 PM, and the reality of my older daughter heading for basic training hit: she went and got her haircut so that she wouldn’t have to fool with putting it up. She leaves for Fort Jackson, South Carolina on January 20th.

Daddy is worried.

Our professional politicians often fall into the category of people who know no other trade nor profession but do prosper. Quite often, the entry role involves a ‘city job’ that is obtained through patronage. Many ‘government jobs’ are mere sinecures and are awarded to loyalist who will deliver the votes of family and friends and contribute to campaign funds. Such cozy arrangements gave birth to big city machines that were scarcely distinguishable from criminal enterprises. Boss Tweed was one of the most rapacious but Boss Pendergast was more attuned to mobster violence. They are not the last of the breed. Such organizations can produce their share of local officials who may rise to state legislator and even members of the House and Senate.

Our esteemed first president was no stranger to local and state politics and had successfully campaigned to be elected to the House of Burgesses while still a loyal subject of the Crown. He did so not as a careerist but as a citizen-legislator. His primary income was from farming and distilling whiskey. This concept of citizen-legislator embodied the spirit of Cincinnatus, the Roman who took on the duty of Dictator during a time of trouble but voluntarily returned to the plow after the crisis subsided.

Joe Biden and Barrack Obama played at the law while lusting for their entry to the public trough. They are a common type and may be the cause of the demise of the New and Last Rome. Are they motivated by ideology, ego, or greed? The Gore family attained wealth through a variety of hustles that involved help of the sinister Armand Hammer. LBJ never had a job in the private sector but died a multimillionaire. While both Roosevelts came from old money, the family fortune did not seem to be improved by their careers in pubic office. Many a president required a ‘bail-out’ to survive.

We seem to have been indoctrinated to equate time with a snout in the public trough as indispensable experience.

While we do value experience in the legislative and executive spheres of government as valuable, we should give more than equal weight to time in the private sector. Not every problem is overcome with more legislation, litigation, and regulation. This should make us wary of voting for the third-rate lawyers who seem to infest our legislatures at all levels.

Sarah is looking a lot better.

A bulb that can be “forced” or made to grow indoors for Christmas.  These were also at Longwood Gardens.

Obama Eyes $300 Billion Tax Cut.

President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer about $300 billion of tax cuts to individuals and businesses, a move aimed at attracting Republican support for an economic-stimulus package and prodding companies to create jobs.

The size of the proposed tax cuts — which would account for about 40% of a stimulus package that could reach $775 billion over two years — is greater than many on both sides of the aisle in Congress had anticipated. It may make it easier to win over Republicans who have stressed that any initiative should rely more heavily on tax cuts rather than spending.

The Obama tax-cut proposals, if enacted, could pack more punch in two years than either of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts did in their first two years. Mr. Bush’s 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut of 2001, considered the largest in history, contained $174 billion of cuts during its first two full years, according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation. The second-largest tax cut — the 10-year, $350 billion package engineered by Mr. Bush in 2003 — contained $231 billion in 2004 and 2005.

Wait a second. I thought tax cuts for the rich did nothing to stimulate the economy and caused the recession? Can it be that Barack Obama is trying to outdo George Bush with tax cuts?

Liberals are mad at Obama for wanting to cut taxes. We need more spending, they say, which includes forcing everyone into a single payer health care system and buying up insurance companies (I’m sure all those insurance salesmen won’t mind being laid off). Oh, and extend unemployment benefits and create a bunch of We Piddle Around programs just like the Great Depression. Because tax cuts only reward Teh Rich.

Cross-posted at Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels.

It was an interesting juxtaposition in the print edition of today’s Philadelphia Inquirer: while this story began on page B-1, it ended on B-8, beside the obituaries.

Rendell: Eliminate parole for repeat violent offenders

By Dianna Marder, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

“It works for nonviolent offenders,” he said. “In 2007, 95 percent of the state’s nonviolent 31,000 parolees were not rearrested.

“But not for this dangerous group of individuals . . . who learn to game the system.”

There’s much more available at the link, but while we can’t say that Governor Rendell was closing the barn door after the horse had escaped, at least some of the horses had gotten out — and killed people.

That’s what caused the governor to review the parole system in the first place: three dead police officers, two of whom were gunned down by men who should have still been in prison, were it not for early release. The truly sad part is that it took a study to tell our elected leader, the governor of Pennsylvania, what to do. Given that Mr Rendell served two terms as mayor of Philadelphia (January 6, 1992 - January 3, 2000), he ought to have been well-acquainted with the city’s abysmal murder rate and the fact that most of the murderers — and most of their victims, as well — were previously convicted felons.