Saturday, June 07, 2003

"If we ever demand the level of excellence out of education that we do out of football, we'll be fine." Guess this is another "more for your money" day. The quote above is from the GOP governor of Alabama an erstwhile anti-tax conservative who is now trying to push through a big tax increase in order to balance the budget and improve schools. What caught my attention, aside from the obvious man-bites-dog aspect, is that something very similar is happening in Arkansas. GOP governor Mike "Huck" Huckabee is trying to simultaneously balance the budget and tackle an order from the Arkansas Supreme Court to improve rural schools in Arkansas. (Yes, we do have standards here.) The state legislators, Dems included, have been dragging their feet because Huck's proposal to consolidate rural school districts have been unpopular with the consolidees. In a nutshell, a nominally conservative GOP governor is trying to drag Arkansas into the 21st century, and his Democratic colleagues aren't having it. Shades of Eisenhower, circa 1954. One fact that has come out of this whole mess is that Arkansas may spend in the neighborhood of $100 a million a year on prep sports. I say may because these things are meticulously muddled. Guy gets hired to coach football, and teach a little chemistry on the side. Gotta love the South. Woody 2:44:51 PM    comment []

Heard a comment on the radio (by Michael Feldman) to the effect that Kerry won't be able to use his wife's money. (Recall Haiku #1.) Couldn't find anything in the Washington Post, which usually pays attention to such things. It wouldn't surprise me if the GOP is  making this hypocritical argument in court. (Hypocritical because they are supposed to believe in family values, right?) Ever since the Lewinsky affair they have pretty much been ready to grab any argument they can to hit the Dems with. Hypocrisy aside, the argument seems absurd on its face. Bush can take money from big pharma, Ken Lay, and other paying customers (properly channeled, of course), but Kerry can't take money from his own wife?! What does it even mean to "give money to" own's spouse anyway? Don't they share bank accounts? Fortunately, the Kerrys can hire enough lawyers to take this all the way to the Supreme Court. Uh oh. Speaking of right-wing hypocrisy, there has been some murmuring from that side of the spectrum to the effect that filibusters violate the Constitution. To put it plainly, this is biggest crock I've ever heard in my life. First of all, the Constitution doesn't say much about how the Senate should be run. It certainly doesn't say anything about filibusters. Secondly, filibusters have been around for two hundred years. Aren't these guys supposed to believe in "original intent"? Filibusters were being practiced when some of the authors of the Constitution were still alive! Rumor has it Tony Scalia is of the opinion that filibusters are constitutional only when the majority party in the Senate starts with a a "D". OK, I made that up. Woody 10:58:33 AM    comment []

I have no idea how the the post below got here. Musta been a hacker or something. Kinda purty though, eh? Too bad she's an idiot. I mean, she can write and all, but what she writes is pure sophistry. Upscale Ann Coulter. Woody 7:45:55 AM    comment []

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The Apollo Alliance Interesting idea. Not clear what they're actually doing besides buying ads. There seems to be a pretty strong consensus on the Left that the best way for the Dems to approach the Bush tax cuts is to figure out something better to do with the money. Trying to balance the budget is clearly a sucker's game. Clinton balanced the budget and his reward was: 1) Being impeached and reviled 2) Seeing Bush hand the money to his wealthy donors. The GOP has had a good racket going for the last twenty years. First they  connived with the Dems in Congress to run up deficits, then they used the deficit as an excuse to cut social programs. The only bump in the road was when Clinton actually balanced the budget. Then they had to slightly alter their strategy. They had to come out and say, in so many words, that surpluses are bad, because surpluses mean that the government is overcharging taxpayers. The only rational strategy for the Dems at this point is to beat the GOP at it's own game. The Dems need to say, "Fine, you win. Deficits are good, because they provide liquidity to the US and world economies. We're going to take all that money and invest it in healthcare, energy independence, education, terrorism preparedness, and maybe even a few programs for poor people. We think that we can use government investment to make the country a better and fairer place." If the Dems can't win with that message, they can't win. Don't let the bastards grind you down, Woody 12:28:30 AM    comment []

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