An Inconvenient Truth

Well...I saw the movie last night. It wasn't too bad and obviously did have some good points. I felt that it was a good way to get a complicated idea across. Unfortunately for Al Gore, it is a bit inconvenient that probably 90% of the folks viewing the movie already agree with the premise.

But I was thinking about this, suppose this was a good way to get a certain message across to the general public, what documentaries would conservatives produce?

Some that popped into my head:

Newt Gingrich on healthcare.
Dick Armey on the Flat Tax.
A younger Milton Friedman (though he is still quite sharp!) on liberalism (in the classical sense).
Maybe John Stossel on education.

Who would you choose to get a message out on an issue that is important to you?

Culture of Corruption???

You have to love this. As the Democrats anticipate painting this year's midterm elections around a Republican culture of corruption, one of their own is about to get nailed for bribery. Sorry folks, corruption is (unfortunately) a bipartisan issue. Has been and likely will continue to be, especially without term limits.

Upon searching the home of Rep. William Jefferson, D (La), FBI Agents found nearly $100,000 in his freezer. The same $100,000 that they have taped the esteemed Congressman receiving from an FBI informant to bribe a Nigerian official. Jefferson told the informant that he gave the money to the Nigerian, but it seems he decided to keep in for himself.

Too bad for Howard Dean, maybe y'all can run on Nancy Pelosi impeachment platform?

WOW! Why hadn't I heard of this?

COPYRIGHT: 1987 (AP Photo/Gary Miller)

Who is this guy and why does he have a gun? His name is Budd Dwyer and he is about to commit suicide at his own press conference. Yes, I am totally serious. You can read the entire account here. To summarize, Dwyer was State Treasurer in Pennsylvania during the 1980s. Eventually he became embroiled in scandal and called a press conference as pressure to resign mounted. While most at the conference expected him to resign, he proclaimed innocence, gave a few envelopes to his staffers, and pulled a gun out, all on live television. Dwyer then asked anyone in the room who might be offended to leave and well, I'll spare the details.

Mexico threatens lawsuit against U.S.

I don't know about you, but the threat of this lawsuit makes me support National Guard troops on the border even more...

Bad Luck and Poor Taste

Ted Kennedy's plane was struck by lightening and lost all electric power last night. He had delivered the commencement speech in western Massachusetts earlier in the day. Here is what I don't get, he was headed to his home on Cape Cod at the time...But was scheduled to deliver another commencement address in western MA today. Are there no hotels good enough for a Kennedy in western MA? Can't he spend a more than a few hours with his constituents in this part of the state? I would find it slightly insulting. I am not going to mention the amount of jet fuel that this aborted attempt would have burned either.

On a side note, I flew in a Citation (the plane that was struck) a few weeks ago and this had to be quite scary.

Trouble on the Horizon...

What keeps you up at night? For me, it is the following:

In 1954 defense accounted for 69.5 percent of federal spending and "human resources" (programs such as Social Security, Medicare, job training and food stamps) only 18.5 percent. In 2005 defense was 20 percent and human resources 64.2 percent.

Robert Samuelson included those very scary statistics in a wonderful column today. Trouble on the Horizon isn't the best title, in fact it is a bit misleading. Folks, the trouble is here and has been here for a while. To be sure, my concern is NOT that defense spending is so low as a percentage of government spending. The scariest part is that this trend will continues as the Baby Boomers grow older.

The rest of Samuelson's column, titled "Affluence and Its Discontents" is worth a gander. The title is a play on the recently deceased John Kenneth Galbraith's book "The Affluent Society" which was partially used as justification for much of that social spending. As Samuelson points out, the problem with many of Galbraith's ideas is that the public would grow to demand more from the government as it gave us more. Today we are at a point where our appetites (for government assistance AND material goods) are difficult to satisfy and the current economic growth and record unemployment isn't enough to make us content.

Best Daily Kos post yet..

I was bored today so I decided to hop over to Daily Kos for some amusement. I came across this post:

Why do so many Democrats listen to NPR? It's obvious that they're just another
lying right-wing so called media organization.

Regardless of the context, this might be the funniest one yet. Loss after loss must be adding up as these folks become loonier.

Partial Solution to Gas Prices?

When politicians discuss the increase in gas prices, they often cite varying standards in gasoline in different states. I am not sure if there is any concrete evidence that this comprises a significant part of the increase. If it does, I thought that perhaps it would make sense for states to pact together and create one standard.

For instance, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, and Michigan could all agree to the same gas standard. Would this make an impact? How much of an impact? I would say that if the impact were only 10 cents it would be worthwhile. If it did change prices in those states, perhaps others would join and drop the price further.

Is this practical or would this make a miniscule difference?