Odds and ends no. 18

It’s time to clean out my “blog ideas” e-mail closet again.

Let’s start with something that I noted during the 2008 campaign but haven’t had the time to follow up on in the aftermath – the impact of political action committees and how well they supported candidates. I haven’t gone through and compiled their effects yet (it’s on my to-do list) but noteworthy is the formation of SarahPAC, named after guess who? Sarah Palin.

It’s actually a pretty site, with two types of scenery. But the aim of SarahPAC is:

Dedicated to building America’s future, supporting fresh ideas and candidates who share our vision for reform and innovation.

SarahPAC believes America’s best days are ahead. Our country, founded on conservative principles and the fight for freedom, must confront the challenges of the 21st century with integrity, innovation, and determination.

SarahPAC believes energy independence is a cornerstone of the economic security and progress that every American family wants and deserves.

SarahPAC believes the Republican Party is at the threshold of an historic renaissance that will build a better future for all. Health care, education, and reform of government are among our key goals. Join us today!

I’m not so sure that health care and education would be the goals I’d set unless it was to get the federal government out of both areas. But it’s yet another PAC that’s gearing up for the 2010 campaign.

Another sore spot of health care was considered as a victory by the American Cancer Society.

As many of you recall I participated in Relay for Life last year because I have family members afflicted with the disease. While I’m still planning on participating this year, I’m a little disappointed that the American Cancer Society saw this as a victory:

With the stroke of a pen, President Obama has signed into law a measure that will save lives by lowering smoking rates and reducing tobacco consumption while giving millions of uninsured children access to quality health care.

The new law expands the successful State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by increasing the federal cigarette tax by the largest amount ever, to a total of just over $1 per pack. The increase will prevent more than 900,000 smoking-related deaths, deter nearly 1.9 million children from smoking, and encourage 1.4 million adults to quit.

Is this like creating or saving 3 million jobs? Perhaps the numbers are correct, but one could look at this as a blow to the hopes of keeping Social Security and Medicare solvent too. Meanwhile the feds expanded SCHIP not by covering more poor children but by increasing the income and age thresholds for eligibilty. To me, SCHIP was a bad idea to begin with and proves that even a GOP-controlled Congress can make mistakes sometimes.

Something I don’t feel is a mistake was illustrated from this blog post from way back in January on the getliberty.org website. The piece by Robert Romano details the state of Michigan’s bid to restore their Tenth Amendment rights – similar bills have now sprung up across the nation.

Most of you know I loathe the unfunded mandates and withholding of federal funds if states don’t do as Fedzilla tells them they should. Combined with the “tea parties” we’re seeing across the country, hopefully this public chomping at the bit is a good sign of skepticism to come about what BHO is trying to pull.

Michigan is also home of a legislator that Isaac McMullen of that same website took note of earlier this month. If only some of our General Assembly could emulate this guy, Maryland might be a more well-run state. How much money do you think Big Labor will place into trying to sink this guy next election?

Unfortunately, at least one of our General Assembly has a not-so-good idea. State Senator Lisa Gladden is the sponsor of SB371, which would require schools and public buildings to have a photograph of the President prominently displayed. Believe it or not, there is a hearing on this slated for March 11.

I might go for it if there was one amendment made to the bill, which would be to require the law to become effective when the 45th President is sworn in. I highly suspect that the moment a Republican is sworn back in that the law would be quickly rescinded.

In the department of “how this didn’t get tried by Governor O’Malley first” comes this item from the NetRightNation website. Actually, I suppose that shell game has been tried but at least O’Malley hasn’t put citizens’ tax refunds at stake yet – although I suppose lowering the number who qualify through raising taxes sort of achieves the same goal.

Returning to the getliberty.org website, writer David Bozeman has a critique of conservatism from a working class perspective. In part he notes:

I understand (conservatives) underlying message of self reliance and optimism, but sometimes voters don’t want a lecture from their father, they want a hug from their mother — enter the Democrats. That is how they have dominated political discourse — it is not Big Brother that most of us fear, it is the Nanny-state we look to in troubled times.

I don’t quite agree. People may think the government needs to do something, but most know when the hand is too heavy on the till – witness the poor polling numbers on the bailout and the lack of a recovery by the stock markets. (By the way, there is a petition drive underway to stop the bailouts. At least there’s some substance to our symbolism.)

Besides, didn’t we already try so-called “compassionate conservatism”? By its nature, conservatism is compassionate and that phrase simply came to mean a federalized solution, one which took the success of Reaganomics 180 degrees out of phase.

Another petition comes from the Sunlight Foundation, who told me that:

Congress just passed the largest piece of spending legislation in history and no one Read The Bill. Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen again. Demand that they Read The Bill and sign our petition now.

And I did. I don’t see a 72 hour waiting period as an obstacle – after all, they want you to wait to buy a gun for about that long, so what’s wrong with a cooling-off period before we blow piles of money?

Avid readers may also remember that I’ve participated in a couple blogger conference calls which led my critics to conclude I was a shill for the oil industry.

Well, the good news is that one was held today and I didn’t call in because I was working on an appointment at the time. However, my full-time blogging friend Bob McCarty did participate and reports about a “worst-case scenario” due to increased dependence on foreign oil as the offshore drilling ban is restored.

I guarantee that someone will say, “of course a Chevron executive would predict this” but they may not remember that Chevron has been running an ad campaign about using less energy as well. So this warning maybe has a little more urgency than other energy companies would emote.

Finally, it’s not odds and ends if I don’t stick in a video. This one from the American Issues Project pretty much has a timeless message, but is particularly apt at the moment (h/t NetRightNation):

I could stick in a bunch of other videos as well, but I’ll leave the reader the opportunity to check them out for him or herself. They come from on-the-spot encounters at this weekend’s CPAC confab, and are conducted by (you guessed it) Americans for Limited Government.

With that another grabbag edition of cleaning out my closet comes to a close. From 40-plus items I cut things down to seven (didn’t use all of them), so I think the tidying up is sufficient for the time being!

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

4 thoughts on “Odds and ends no. 18”

  1. There is no ban on offshore drilling. The Department of Interior has been instructed to continue with the planned sale of 31 leases for offshore energy exploration from 2010-2015 in the Pacific and Atlantic. Just because some Chevron exec gives a theoretical worst case scenario doesn’t mean it’s true. You all should buy a ticket on Jindal’s fantasy land train that doesn’t exist either.

  2. I didn’t say it was, I reported the guy’s claim through Bob McCarty. However, it still seems to me that there are a lot of places we cannot drill despite the fact we can reckon with certsinty that oil or natural gas is present. While you may consider this a side argument, is this argument not like President Obama claiming that the recession will last a decade if we do nothing?

    Besides, buying a ticket on “Jindal’s fantasy land train” will probably be much less expensive than Harry Reid’s Vegas-to-Disneyland boondoggle (see page 9, and you’re welcome.)

  3. There is money for high speed rail in the stimulus, but it is not for any specific project.

    According to factcheck.org:

    A widely repeated claim that $8 billion is set aside for a “levitating train” to Disneyland is untrue. That total is for unspecified high-speed rail projects, and some of it may or may not end up going to a proposed 300-mph “maglev” train connecting Anaheim, Calif., with Las Vegas.

  4. While the implication may be that the $8 billion is for one project, it’s actually spread out among several regions of the country. But the point I wanted to make in writing the article for the Patriot Post was that we would spend (let’s say for sake of argument) $1 billion to save two hours of travel time. If the cost were $1 billion I’m sure that even if they were $1 million per mile, adeditional lanes on I-15 would be a comparative bargain, particularly if we ever adapted “autobahn” rules.

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