Archive for January, 2011

A Bill in the Kentucky legislature has been introduced that would require a drug test for anyone on government assistance.
All I can say….BRAVO!!!!!
I hope this bill passes.
What I would like to see with this bill is if you have a drug problem and are on assistance and fail the drug test, you should be given the option to go to treatment free of charge.

Sioux Falls rep Hal Wick-R seems to not have a problem wasting taxpayer dollars introducing a bill that would require all South Dakotans over the age of 21 to carry a gun. He and his friends Reps Thomas Brunner, R-Nisland, Brock Greenfield, R-Clark, and Senators Tim Begalka, R-Clear Lake, and Bruce Rampelberg, R-Rapid City think this is a good way to protest government mandated health care coverage.
This is pathetic waste of time, energy and tax payer money. It is no secret that I am against Obamacare but there are other ways to protest this. Right off the bat this cost South Dakotans $101.75 in printing costs to print the bill for everyone.
In a time of budget crisis and other major issues that need to be talked about, these guys put this crap on the floor in protest. We should be taking time to figure out how we won’t have to make education cuts and still fix the budget problems in Pierre.
These republicans should be ashamed of themselves.

I thought you may find this interesting and less depressing than talk of what South Dakota should be cutting to get spending under control. In a Chinese Central Television story about China’s air force they used footage that was supposedly of a live fire exercise in which all targets were destroyed. Upon closer examination it was found that the footage looked a great deal like a final scene from the American classic Top Gun. Judge for yourself:

This seems to be a case of some lazy reporting, but it is pretty funny.

Enjoy the footage from a news CCTV story featuring China’s best beach volleyball team. I actually have an advanced copy:

Adam Feser

I’ll have more to say about State of the Union stuff on the morrow, but I just have to write about this, because it’s crazy. Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle is facing a recall vote because he has raised taxes. Omaha was facing an $11 million shortfall because of policies before his time, and people got pissed and wanted a recall. It’s stupid.

The election in 2009 was really close, and this just seems like their attempt to get him out before he completes his term. It sort of seems like sour grapes. I’m watching the news right now and some lady is saying this is the people’s turn to be heard, because their voice hasn’t been heard at this point. What she seems to be forgetting is that there was an election, and Suttle won. Then people want the budget balanced, but he inherited a problem. His response seems totally reasonable to me. From yahoo news:

The anti-Suttle effort picked up steam around a year ago when he announced plans to raise property taxes, charge a fee on restaurant tabs and increase a vehicle tax to combat a projected $11 million shortfall for 2011, largely because of policies by his predecessors.

As I write the tally is 28,351 against recall to 28,349 for recall. That’s right, the separation is TWO votes. There are loads of absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted, so this should be interesting.

Sorry to write about this and not the SOTU, but it’s pretty nuts.

Enjoy all the fun analysis.

Adam Feser

After President Obama’s speech, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan will deliver a rebuttal. It is a difficult job to do and is often only remembered if it is bad. It is expected that Ryan will focus on fiscal issues.

What I think is interesting is that Ryan’s won’t be the only rebuttal. Minnesota crazy person Michele Bachmann will also deliver her own rebuttal.

I am super excited about this. Who knows what she’ll say? Will she mention Kenya? Maybe she’ll go on a diatribe against Muslims and claim Obama is one of them. Perhaps she’ll talk about the dreaded re-education camps. Either way, I’m sure it will be awesome.

This should trouble Republicans, as it is more evidence of the rift between the Republican leadership and the Tea Party that is largely responsible for the mid-term success Republicans had. It may serve to demonstrate the differences between what Bachmann lovers and establishment Republicans believe.

I, for one, hope Bachmann is full out crazy. If she is, it will only serve to overshadow Ryan’s rebuttal and bring the focus to the fracture in the Republican party.

Of course, I could be reading this wrong. I guess there is a chance that Bachmann’s speech will bring more focus to the rebuttals in general, taking away from Obama’s speech. It’s even possible that Bachmann will dial it down (ha). Any way you look at it, it at least serves to make the night more interesting.

Enjoy the show.

Adam Feser

South Dakota Democrats are working on a plan to counter Governor Daugaard’s budget proposal. One proposal is to spread the cuts over three years. Democrats’ budget plan won’t be complete until there are more projections of tax collections in March, but they do have some ideas. From bloomberg:

Democrats want to use some reserves, extra earnings from trust funds dedicated to education and health care and about $37 million from the final installment of federal stimulus aid. They also suggest using some money from the state’s cash flow account, which they said holds more than $800 million.

They argue this would be favorable to increasing class sizes, closing nursing homes, and increasing property taxes in order to offset the cuts.

Republicans have also said they will not develop their budget plan until later, but they think the Democrats’ plan is flawed. It doesn’t solve the problem, they argue.

I wish I could say it’s shaping up to be a battle, but Democrats aren’t exactly in a position of power. I do hope their efforts can lead to some sort of compromise so that schools don’t suffer too much.

Adam Feser

Keith Olbermann stepped down on Friday, and reasons remain unclear. I haven’t watched the show in years (unless you count this hilarious sketch), but I guess a lot of people probably do.

I think Niall Stanage pretty much nails what I think about Olbermann: there was a time that he seemed relevant and necessary, and now he’s just annoying.

Enjoy Affleck’s impersonation, which is better than the real thing.

Does South Dakota have a budget crisis? Yes. Is it as bad as other states in the union? NO.

Yesterday, Governor Dennis Daugaard proposed an average 10% across the board cuts to the state budget. No department or agency was left off the list. Even the governors salary as did his executive members of the Governors cabinet took a 15% cut when they stepped into office.

The line item that most people are bringing up is the 10% cut to the local school districts or about $480 per student. While I understand that this is a crushing blow, the school districts have to understand that they aren’t the only one getting money from the state. With the other funding that districts get, they will lose about 5%. Still large, but in my opinion, manageable.

The governor did offer ideas and suggestions yesterday(not all I do not think he supported) to help balance the states budget. He told the school districts that they could go to the voters and try for an opt out. Some districts like Aberdeen said the history of opt outs in this county and city aren’t a very good option. Other ideas tossed out were to increase the state sales tax by 1 cent(I would support this) and then there is the idea of a state income tax (which I don’t support).
Last year, Gov Mike Rounds offered cuts to specific departments, but people raised holy hell about that idea…so in my opinion, Daugaard thought the fair way, and that was across the board cuts and I tend to agree…
Look on the bright side, we could live in Illinois where they are getting a 66% tax increase….

Politifact’s Obameter is a useful tool for seeing the progress the president has made on things he has pledged to do. Here is how it’s going so far:

The Obameter Scorecard

• Promise Kept 134
• Compromise 41
• Promise Broken 34
• Stalled 75
• In the Works 220
• Not yet rated 2

Of course, not all promises are made equal, and liberals may be upset at the fact that someone like Dick Cheney is pleased with Obama’s effort on national security. You could also argue that he has done enough good to offset the bad. At this point I would like to focus on one promise he made on which he still has a lot of work left.

Clearly I’m talking about an NCAA football playoff. I’ve written about this idea before, so you should know I’m all about it. But our president has been dragging his feet on supporting this necessary change to the NCAA football post-season, receiving a “Stalled” rating from politifact. I’m not a guy that thinks non-BCS conferences schools get screwed (try a conference schedule), but the BCS is garbage.

Enjoy checking the meter for more important things.

Adam Feser

Sarah Palin, ever the victim of the lamestream media (how clever she is), has now called them out for the lie that she uses the blood of children in her religious rituals. Or that she is responsible for the death of Jesus. Or some other thing jerks are always accusing Jews like Sarah Palin of doing. You know, blood libel.

Of course, it is entirely possible that Palin went a little too far when playing the victim this time. Obviously she has to act like everyone is out to get her, like she did nothing wrong. That’s been the theme of the crazier side of the right for awhile. People are always out to silence them. The media wants to practice something called “gotcha journalism,” in which they ask simple questions about what magazines poor conservatives read. Damned people are trying to make war on the over one month long celebration of Christmas, perhaps the biggest cultural phenomenon and holiday ever. And now, they want a woman to apologize for putting crosshairs on a site where the woman she wanted people to target was targeted and nearly killed.

I have said I don’t think she’s to blame, but does she not recognize that it was perhaps over the top to use crosshairs? Does she not see how that looks? Does she not see how some people were and are offended and how that insensitive act can be viewed by the families affected by the shooting? She doesn’t have to take blame for the shooting to admit that using crosshairs was wrong. That’s all it would take.

But instead she’ll welcome the liberal hatred (which indeed goes to far) so that she can play the victim to rally her supporters around her. Poor Sarah Palin. We should all feel bad for her now that someone callously made her callous use of crosshairs look bad by murdering a bunch of people. Hopefully she can make it through this trying time with her political career intact, because, you know, that’s why she resigned from being governor. Gotta help Alaskans out, or whatever.

Adam Feser