First, tonight is the first time I have blogged on this site using Google Chrome. Let me know if you notice the difference. So far, I do not. But it is a good alternative if you have Microsoft Derangement Syndrome.
Jim Matheson has caved. Simply by removing only 100,000,000,000 out of the 1,000,000,000,000 dollar health care bill, Matheson is on board. Matheson, who runs on being a fiscal conservative, considers it imoral to go a trillion in the hock for healthcare, but is OK with only 9 hundred billion. And then he immediately announces that he is running for re-election. Well, let's see if the GOPs in SL County can take advantage of this blunder.
And it now looks like they are trying. Well, they will have to find an acceptable alternative to Matheson in the state. There are plenty of Republicans in the district that Jim represents, but the 2nd district GOP has a history of falling on their own swords. Here are some that I can list by memory.
Alan Howe--thought he was soliciting a prostitute on 300 South, but it turned out to be an undercover cop.
Merrill Cook--Can't decide if he is really a Republican or a Libritarian
Enid Greene--Nice lady whose Ex- got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Dave Monson--Was the Lt to Jim's Dad as gov. Couldn't stand on his own.
Dan Marriott--Left congress just to loose the nomination for gov to a guy named Bangerter.
So, as you can see...the GOP in Utah's 2nd district does not have a good track record. Hopefully, there can be better days ahead.
This letter to the Deseret News bothers me and makes me upset. The author of this letter is clueless and the D News editors should be ashamed by publishing it.
1. Sean Hannity is not the Republican Party, KSL or the LDS Church. He is a registered Conservative, which in the State of New York is an option. He is not a registered Republican. He is from Long Island and is a Roman Catholic.
2. The only reason he is on the air is because people listen to him. He connects with enough people to sell commercial time. If this was not the case, he would not be on the air.
3. What bothers me the most is that so many people call speech that disagrees with them hate speech. Just because you do not agree with what is said does not mean it is hateful.
Last week, Glen Beck went viral on a caller. She berated him. She wanted to know why he was against spending all of this money on health care reform when he was OK with the financial system bailouts last fall. Glen told the "pin head" to "get off the phone."
Brother Beck was wrong to yell at this woman, but I understand why he got upset. Beck WAS very critical of the bail-outs last fall. He was upset, extremely upset at the bail-outs last fall. That was when he gave his famous, "wake up America!" message on the phone.
This caller was trying to paint Beck into the same corner that Hatch, Bennett and many Republicans belong. There were many, including both of our Senators and Congressman Cannon who voted wrong on this issue. Even I thought it that the government needed to do something. But NOW these guys are being fiscally conservative. Why? Just because the Dems are in charge? But this label does not belong to Beck.
So take offense if you want to. But give people the same right that you have. To speak. That is their right. You also have the right to take offense, to take it as hate. But that hate belongs to you, not to the authors of talk radio. The thing about talk radio is that if their listeners go away, they will too. Offer the listeners something else, something better. Then Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck and everyone else will disappear.
So...Orrin Hatch for the first time in his career will oppose a Supreme Court nominee. Here are all of the Supreme Court nominees he has supported, some of which are more liberal than the current nominee.
Nominated by Jimmy Carter none
Nominated by Ronald Reagan Sandra Day O'Connor William Rhenquiet (For Chief Justice--already sitting) Antonin Scalia Robert Bork (Rejected by the Senate) Anthony Kennedy
Nominated by George H. W. Bush David Souter Clarance Thomas
Nominated by Bill Clinton Ruth Bader Ginsberg Stephen Breyer
Nominated by George W. Bush John Roberts Samuel Alito
When Alito was up for a vote in the full Senate, a filibusterer was attempted by the Democrats in the Senate. In explaining why he thought that Alito deserved an up or down vote, he explained that elections have consequences and the president had the right to nominate who he chose.
So, he knew what we were getting in Ginsberg. Far more liberal than "Whizzer" White. Whizzer desented on Roe v. Wade, but supported Civil Rights cases. Ginsberg was not a replacement. It was a liberal replacing a moderate back then. But Hatch did nothing to stop this woman from reaching the highest court in the land.
I am NOT saying that Sonia Sotomeyor is a great nominee for the court. Every indication is that she will be similar to the man she is replacing. I am saying that Mr. Hatch needs to be consistent...that is what Utahans deserve. Why make a stand now?
First, condolences to the family of Walter Cronkite. I know that no one will miss him more than you will.
Now, the truth about the talk about the potential of a second stimulus. It is mostly Wall Street Journal propaganda. The Obama administration did not bring it up and neither did the Democrats in Washington.
The truth is that most of the money has not yet been spent. Most of it is in the pipeline for next Spring and Summer. Why? Because there is an election next fall and the Democrats want to be sure that the economy is on the upswing when you and I and all of our neighbors enter the voting booth next year. The stimulus is nothing more than a catalyst to increase the majority of the Democratic party in Congress. We all should see through this as it is very transparent.
What Jon Kyle, the other senator from Arizona, has proposed is that the remainder of the stimulus be canceled and reworked. Good idea. With unemployment charging toward double-digits, we need to change the focus to getting people back to work ASAP. That means that the stimulus needs to be directed at small business, the engine that employs most people in the country.
About health care. It is a supply and demand issue and nothing will be resolved if the government takes over. If demand is inelastic, meaning that little will change the demand for medical services, then the focus needs to be on supply. Increased supply means lower prices. Lower prices means that more people will be able to afford services and more people will be able to get insurance coverage. Why do hospitals charge 10 bucks for an aspirin? Are you going to hop out of bed and run to Wal-Mart while you are in the hospital? Focus on policies that will increase supply and provide patience with options so that there is real competition in the medical industry. Then the free enterprise system can work.
Second, the reason that patients are no longer the focus is because patients do not directly pay their doctors. It is funneled through the insurance company or through the government. Remember the Golden Rule, he that has the gold makes the rules. If patients pay then patients become the focus. If the patient has more choices, if there is real competition and lower prices then the patients can pay more out of pocket and then the patient wins.
Third, no one is saying that there is not a problem right now and that nothing should be done. The debate is over how it should be done. The Obama administration is trying to push it through quickly. This needs to be done right and not fast. Not the other way around.
Finally, there are a lot of people in the medical industry getting very wealthy who never, ever put on a white coat and see the patient. While this is true in a lot of industries, it is more harmful in the medical industry. In this economy, these are the people getting laid off. This is a good place to cut the fat in medicine as well.
No college football fan really loves the BCS. Do you remember how it came about? No, it was not because BYU won the National Championship in 1984. It was because the Holiday Bowl decided the National Championship that season. It was the only time outside of World War II where the National Champion was not given to the winner of the Rose, Orange, Cotton or Sugar bowl games.
In 1986, the Fiesta Bowl figured out what people wanted, and created a game that pitted Miami against Penn State for the National Champion that year. That is how this bowl got into the mix in place of the Cotton Bowl. And this arrangement led to what is now known as the BCS.
It is not really about protecting tradition. Look at the Rose Bowl, for example. Do you think that the City of Pasadena could afford a big parade, a ball, a pageant and all of the other New Years Day traditions if it didn't rake in tens of millions from the football game? If the NCAA drops the BCS for a playoff, then the Rose Bowl becomes the NIT of College Football. Instead of matching the champion of the Big 10 against the champion of the PAC 10, the game then become a battle to the third place team from each conference.
The big conferences would still rake in tons of money from a college football playoff. In a 32 team playoff, more than two thirds of the field would be from the big 6 conferences, with some conferences getting four teams. But instead of having USC and Penn State in the Rose Bowl, you would have had Michigan State and Oregon State. Instead of Utah and Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, you would have BYU and South Carolina. Instead of Texan and Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, you would have had Nebraska and Boston College. And the Orange Bowl would have had Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh instead of Virginia Tech and Cincinnati.
And the smaller bowl, well they will all but disappear. There will be no New Mexico Bowl or Armed Forces Bowl. With a playoff, you can say goodbye to almost every bowl that is not currently played on New Years Day. In addition to the Rose, Cotton, Orange and Fiesta Bowl games, the Cotton, Gator, Holiday and Sun Bowls may survive. There will certainly be only one or two if any named-by-a-sponsor bowl. Some bowls my even have to invite some FCS subdivision teams.
Not very many people will miss these smaller bowl games. And the major bowls will not be so big. But what will we get in return? There will be some negatives, no doubt. Look at the NCAA basketball tourney. There will be people complaining about seeds. But there will also be teams whose bubbles will be burst in big rivalry games and in conference championship games. There will be holiday parties scheduled around big playoff games. Kids will put off spinning the dradel until after game winning field goals are attempted. There will be bracket pools with holiday eggnog. Cinderella's slipper will have rainy turf cleats.
Yes, I can imagine that some high school band somewhere will have to work a little harder to earn more money to pay for the higher entrance fee for the Tournament of Roses Parade. I suppose that someone will blow all of his "Santa" money on an office pool. But there will be more college football games played after the first of December that will mean something than there are now. There will be a diversion of our holiday stress. There will be more to talk about around the water cooler than who was under the mistletoe at the office party. And a little more light on the shortest days of the year. But I for one will not miss the Mineke Bowl, and I doubt that there will be many who will.
I do not know why the Alaska Governor has quit. The argument, how can a person be president when that person can not hack the job of being the governor of one of the lesser-populated states is one that should permanently kill her presidential aspirations. I think that it is too bad that people attempt to make her the scapegoat of the McCain campaign. The real scapegoat should be George W. Bush, McCain's colleagues in congress and unscrupulous bankers.
Is it too early to talk about who could be the GOP nominee in 2012? No, not in my humble opinion. Anyone wanting the job from the GOP side had better be doing their current job as if they will be the nominee. They will get a background check like they have never had before. You had better know the name of the dog of the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, too.
The names that are almost certainly mentioned now are Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty.
Here are a list of other things that the GOP does not need right now.
1. Congressmen making tirades about the alleged sins of Michael Jackson. By now, he has already had to make an accounting of such. Let the Almighty take care of that now.
2. Junkets to exotic locations for summer vacation.
3. More affairs...perhaps we aught to have a politician come clean day in the near future.
I'm sure that we could go on and on.
One more thing. I had a call from a Senator Bennett campaign staffer today. Please retire, Mr Bennett.
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