Remember when the nation went nuts after a Latino white man profiled another man child based on the color of his skin and the fact that he was wearing a hoodie?
I’m waiting for the same outrage when a black kid wearing a hoodie profiled a Latino man wearing a purple shirt and shot and killed that man’s one year old child.
Although the victim’s father was not a gang member, he may have been mistaken for one because he was wearing a purple T-shirt, witnesses and area residents said.
…
Purple had become a dangerous color since last summer, when the area experienced a number of shootings involving a black gang known as Fudgetown and a rival Latino gang, called Barrio Grape Street, which uses the color purple.
Based on his race and clothing, one man’s child is dead.
Outrage?
I was listening to my 2nd favorite talk show host, Jason Lewis, on the way to Charlotte last night. During his show, he mentioned the news concerning the killing of Al Qaeda’s #2 guy. I’ll get to Mr. Lewis’ main point in a second, it has to do with the double standard in the war on terror. But first, I wanna more fully clarify my stance on “enhanced interrogation techniques”, oftentimes known as “torture.”
As I type this it strikes me as possible that people hear “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the same way that I hear “kinetic military action.”
Posted in Diplomacy, Politics: International, War
Tagged Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Enhanced Interrogations, George Bush, Terrorism, Torture
I predicted a 2-4 point loss. The emotional game goes to the challenger in recalls. Further, the unions that are dependent on this election have decades of built in ground game. I was listening to the radio and I heard that they knocked on thousands of doors and called even more. Walker was ahead in the polls, but he was slowing down in the final days.
I had the ill luck of having to drive to Charlotte tonight, so I wasn’t able to watch the election results at all. I tried keeping track on my phone, but that proved to be untenable on the road. So I called family and friends and asked them to keep me up to date via texts.
What a great trip!
Walker took a massive lead early and never really was challenged. Fox called it when 25% of the vote was in, the rest soon followed suit.
Wisconsin has now elected their governor twice. Twice, and he still has another term to run for. Mr. Walker was clear about what he was gonna do when he ran the first time. Then, when in office, he did them. Rather, he TRIED to do them. When faced with a vote that they didn’t like, the Democrats ran from their job, ran from their capital and even ran from their state. All to prevent a vote.
An interesting functional filibuster don’t ya say?
Then, when the democrats tried to take control of the senate by recalling a number of members, they lost. The senate remained in control of the republicans. Finally, after the requisite number of months in office, the democrats tried to recall him. While they were successful in forcing the election, they were unsuccessful in their bid to unseat him.
The people have spoken. Spoken at least three times. They want this governor, they want this senate, they want these reforms and they are tired of the status quo.
The reforms that the legally elected republicans moved into law through a legally sanctioned vote have worked for the state. Budgets have seen significant relief, many have been balanced. School districts have been able to obtain fiscal flexibility while not having to lay off teachers. In short, Walker works.
Finally the people of Wisconsin are not pleased that the recall election even took place. The recall process is meant to force out a governor that has been guilty of some crime or of some ethical lapse. Mr. Walker is guilty of neither. The only thing he did was pass legislation that made the liberals mad.
So they sulked and pouted and wanted a redo.
And the good folks of Wisconsin didn’t appreciate that.
I don’t think so. I think that Wisconsin remains steadily blue. The folks there are liberal at heart but simply found that they need a dose of fiscal reality. The continued spending and taxing of the past finally caught up. They’ve had enough.
As I’m listening to the news now I am hearing that a large number of folks who voted for Walker will continue to support Obama in the upcoming election in November. I think the number is 18%.
That’s big.
Wisconsin will roll blue for the President this fall.
Posted in Elections 2012, Government, Liberty, Politics: National
Tagged Barack Obama, Colle, Scott Walker, Union, Wisconsin
On almost double the volume today Intrade has Walker at 93% and going away …
Maybe the good people of Wisconsin really do understand that what he did has helped the state save money and save jobs. Let’s hope so.
Posted in Elections 2012, Government, Liberty
Tagged Scott Walker, Unions, Wisconsin
There’s been a lot of discussion surrounding the mobility between classes here in America. At the same time, there’s been a lot of discussion surrounding the importance of education. Not only getting a high school diploma but on getting a college one as well. In fact, it’s gone so far as to have people calling for free college education for all Americans. The argument is that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. That income mobility in America is restricted. That attaining wealth is more and more becoming reserved for the pre-existing well to do’s.
For a long time I’ve fought this belief. I’ve fought the idea that America is not the land of opportunity. That we’ve somehow lost the idea that if you work hard enough you can do anything.
I’ve fought it.
And now I’m reading a book, The Bell Curve, and I’ve seen some interesting data. For example, it seems to be important where you come from if you wanna avoid poverty:
If you’re born to a family with very low socioeconomic class, you have an 8 times better chance to find yourself in poverty than if you were born to a family with a very high socioeconomic status.
It would seem that class matters.
Further, when it comes to wages, the data suggests that there is an education gap that would strengthen the argument that we need to increase college degrees to our kids:
It’s hard to argue the numbers. High school droop-outs are seeing their wages drop by double digits while college graduates are seeing double digit increases.
Interesting data to be sure.
Posted in Economics, Education, Middle Class, Politics: National
Tagged Class Warfare, College Degree, High School Drop Out, Poverty, Socioeconomic
Tonight is Wisconsin Eve. The whole nation is watching the freakin’ Cheese Heads to see which way they’ll go. Tomorrow is the recall election of Governor Scott Walker.
We all know the issues, we’ve all listened to the talking heads from both sides and most likely, we’ve all made up our minds. I know I have; it was over before it started. But what interests me is not only who SHOULD win, but who WILL win.
And I think I gotta give the edge to the Democrats.
The unions are going to be out in full force. They’re gonna have every member from Green to Bay out shaking voters from anywhere they can find ’em. Walker’s going away in the polls, but Barrett has the built in “feet on the street.”
I give it to the Unions by 3 points.
Sigh.
Posted in Elections 2012, Liberty, Politics: National
Tagged Governor, Scott Walker, Unions, Wisconsin
It’s not even really a question at this point anymore. California doesn’t have any money and is losing more every year. In fact, the situation is getting worse and not getting any better, it’s not even slowing down:
California’s budget deficit will swell to nearly $7 billion greater than expected due to weak tax revenues and slow progress in cutting spending, Governor Jerry Brown said on Saturday.
Brown said the shortfall for the state’s 2012-2013 fiscal year now stands at $16 billion, up from a previous estimate of $9.2 billion made in January.
“We are now facing a $16 billion shortfall, not the $9 billion we thought in January,” Brown announced in a video posted on YouTube. “This means we will have to go much further and make cuts far greater than I asked for at the beginning of the year.”
There’s little reason to believe that this trend isn’t going to continue. Individuals from California earning incomes in the top 1% are delivering less and less tax revenue:
In 2007, the top 1% of California earners paid about half of the state’s income taxes. Now it’s around 37%
Is this because salaries are dropping for the very rich or is it because they are leaving the state? It’s hard to say.
Whatever the reason, the top 1% are no longer the cash cow they used to be. Going from 50% to only 37% is going to massively impact balance sheet. But is that the only cause for California’s current condition? Not at all. Committed spending on public pensions is also to blame:
(Reuters) – A radical plan to slash public employee pension benefits gets voted on by the residents of Silicon Valley’s San Jose on Tuesday – a decision that could set an important precedent for many other cities, not only in California but across the nation.
The nation’s 10th-largest city is also one of the wealthiest, but over the past several years it has cut its municipal workforce by a quarter, laying off cops and firefighters, shuttering libraries and letting street repairs fall by the wayside.
The problem? Mayor Chuck Reed says it’s simple: Retiree benefit costs eat up more than a quarter of the city budget – and are growing at a double-digit rate.
So, the mayor has identified a problem specific to San Jose. Is this systemic across California?
Public finance woes are nothing new in California. The state budget deficit stands at an estimated $15.7 billion for next year, requiring further cuts in state services and, if Governor Jerry Brown has his way, higher income and sales taxes. Local governments and school districts have struggled for years to make ends meet.
The pension problem, though, may be the mother of all budget issues – for California, for its cities and counties, and for other states and municipalities across the nation. The main California state retirement systems have a total shortfall in pension-plan funding of close to half a trillion dollars, a Stanford University study estimated. The bill is not due at once, but payments on it grow steadily and can eventually squeeze out even basic services. Public officials like Reed, and academics who have studied the issue, say the day of reckoning is nigh.
Yes. California has created a condition that is set to consume public budgets very soon. In efforts to pander to the unions and the public employees, the state and her cities have engaged in reckless commitments that is has no hope of meeting. There is only one solution in sight:
The solution he is pushing at the ballot box, after city council approval, would slash benefits for workers, increase employee contributions – and almost certainly prompt a precedent-setting legal challenge from the public employee unions.
“The best metaphor is cancer,” said Reed, a Democrat known as more of a technocrat than a firebrand, who is now cast as public enemy No. 1 by public employee unions. “It started a long time ago, it goes for a long time, and then it becomes life-threatening.”
Of course that’s the solution. California is already taxing her people so much that the freakin’ Buffalo is puking* I don’t know how much of a leftist/statist individual Governor Brown is out there in California, but if he’s at ALL interested in fixing his state he should gaze east and look and see what a government can do as exemplified in Wisconsin.
* This is an old reference to someone who is so cheap in the days when the buffalo adorned the nickel.
Posted in Debt - Deficit, Economics, Economy, Government, States Behaving Badly
Tagged California, Government Employees, Jerry Brown, Pension, Unions
For 8 glorious years he was all ours. Then it was gone and the wind blows cold in Minnesota.
What stood between the Mets and their first no-hitter in their 50-year history was a matter of inches, Carlos Beltran and one deceiving baseball. Johan Santana was supposed to have a pitch count, but his left shoulder was not supposed to be this healthy, and for how well he danced with fate all night, it would not have mattered how many pitches he threw.
But in the sixth inning, on his way to no-hitting the St. Louis Cardinals, Santana left a pitch where Beltran could pull it down the left-field line. It appeared to be a fair ball, what would have been a double, what would have ended the no-hitter. The third-base umpire, Adrian Johnson, called it foul, and Beltran then grounded out.
Santana ran the count full against the next hitter, Matt Holliday, only to dip out of danger again by striking out Holliday on a chest-high changeup. All night it went like this, until Santana had completed his no-hitter, throwing 134 pitches even though Manager Terry Collins had said his limit was 115, and walking five batters. The Mets won, 8-0.
Santana was amazing to watch. It appears that still is the case.
Roll on Johan, roll on!
The image above is making its way around the internet and for me, Facebook. The idea, of course is to make the point that someone making minimum wage isn’t able to afford even rent, much less eat. However, the chart fails to examine some deeper truths about minimum wage:
To be sure, we all want an environment where anyone who wants work can find work. But we have to agree that we live in a world where people bring different levels of value to the table. Further, that these people travel a graduation of value. We start out with no work experience and are compensated poorly. As we grow in experience and knowledge, our productivity rises and our compensation likewise increases. By changing this, the only thing that will occur is less employment.