Based on the results in this poll reported in USA Today, it's almost impossible for me to figure out exactly what the majority viewpoint is in this country. There's a good chance that people don't really know what they want, and I guarantee the political parties don't.
Added 1:38 pm, same day:
This column in the same edition of USA Today is as good as anything I've read explaining what's going on with Republicans these days, and confirms my belief that they're mainly interested in GOP dominance for years to come. Both parties are guilty of overreaching, and voters eventually punish them for it. Right now, conservatives seem to be overreaching.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
The Public Sector
In Wisconsin and many other states where Republicans are the governing majority, the primary goal these days is to chip away at budget deficits by making life as miserable as possible for the public labor force. The GOP recognizes an opportunity when it sees one, and isn't about to let a chance to demolish labor unions pass when they can claim it's necessary to protect public interests. My interest in most American political controversies is purely academic, but this time I have a dog in the fight.
My first job was mowing lawns for ladies in my neighborhood when I was in junior high. During my senior year in college, I was a courier for Western Union and delivered telegrams about twenty hours per week. Those two jobs were the full extent of my employment in the private sector.
I worked in cotton fields in the summers following my junior and senior years in high school, earning roughly 76 cents an hour. The labor was necessary for breeding experiments, and I was paid with a government check. Every other paycheck I received thereafter was issued by the federal government, the state government, or a local independent school district. After college, I was a public school teacher, an army officer, a GA in graduate school, then a caseworker in the state public welfare department and a unit supervisor in the same agency. All some form of government work, all paid from some public treasury or another.
I was never a member of a labor union, never a party to a collective bargaining agreement, and always earned considerably less than my friends working in the private sector for companies like Brown and Root or Halliburton. Except for the ones from the U.S. Army, every check I received had a deduction for both FICA and state retirement. In jobs offering health coverage, insurance premiums were also deducted. Federal income taxes were withheld, and nearly every dime I earned was circulated back into the economy. All the jobs were demanding and required variable amounts of uncompensated overtime, and I was always pissed off when some piss-ignorant fucking yahoo wrote a letter to a newspaper bitching about public employees slopping at the taxpayer trough and freeloading in general.
My father and my wife spent most of their careers in state employment also, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that in many ways my life has depended on government jobs... so excuse me if my empathy with public employees in Texas and other places is offensive.
My first job was mowing lawns for ladies in my neighborhood when I was in junior high. During my senior year in college, I was a courier for Western Union and delivered telegrams about twenty hours per week. Those two jobs were the full extent of my employment in the private sector.
I worked in cotton fields in the summers following my junior and senior years in high school, earning roughly 76 cents an hour. The labor was necessary for breeding experiments, and I was paid with a government check. Every other paycheck I received thereafter was issued by the federal government, the state government, or a local independent school district. After college, I was a public school teacher, an army officer, a GA in graduate school, then a caseworker in the state public welfare department and a unit supervisor in the same agency. All some form of government work, all paid from some public treasury or another.
I was never a member of a labor union, never a party to a collective bargaining agreement, and always earned considerably less than my friends working in the private sector for companies like Brown and Root or Halliburton. Except for the ones from the U.S. Army, every check I received had a deduction for both FICA and state retirement. In jobs offering health coverage, insurance premiums were also deducted. Federal income taxes were withheld, and nearly every dime I earned was circulated back into the economy. All the jobs were demanding and required variable amounts of uncompensated overtime, and I was always pissed off when some piss-ignorant fucking yahoo wrote a letter to a newspaper bitching about public employees slopping at the taxpayer trough and freeloading in general.
My father and my wife spent most of their careers in state employment also, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that in many ways my life has depended on government jobs... so excuse me if my empathy with public employees in Texas and other places is offensive.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
127 Hours
To me, a great movie is one that shows me people, places or events I would never see otherwise, and affects me emotionally and makes me think in the process. Great movies like Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List or Lawrence of Arabia help me visualize history more clearly than the text printed on pages.
This afternoon we saw a movie called 127 Hours, which dramatizes the experience of a young man named Aron Ralston in 2003. His story received a lot of news coverage, and eventually Ralston wrote the memoir this movie is based upon.
I remember parts of the Ralston story from headlines at the time, and was surprised when I heard someone was making a movie about it. I was even more surprised to discover the film met the criteria for greatness mentioned earlier.
Because of the subject matter, I can't recommend 127 Hours to everyone. Parts of it are extremely intense, to put it mildly, and there are probably many people who should see it and won't because of that aspect. For me, though, it was 94 minutes well spent.
This afternoon we saw a movie called 127 Hours, which dramatizes the experience of a young man named Aron Ralston in 2003. His story received a lot of news coverage, and eventually Ralston wrote the memoir this movie is based upon.
I remember parts of the Ralston story from headlines at the time, and was surprised when I heard someone was making a movie about it. I was even more surprised to discover the film met the criteria for greatness mentioned earlier.
Because of the subject matter, I can't recommend 127 Hours to everyone. Parts of it are extremely intense, to put it mildly, and there are probably many people who should see it and won't because of that aspect. For me, though, it was 94 minutes well spent.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
One man's pork, another man's gravy
Froma Harrop has written a good column about earmarks that reinforces my own thinking on the subject. A lot of people who piss and moan about pork and earmarks are really just chapped off about federal spending on projects that benefit someone else or that they don't agree with. If all earmarks are abolished, there's a good chance voters will be reminded of an old saying: Be careful what you wish for because you may get it.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Opportunism
Never say Republicans can't recognize an opportunity when they see one. They've revealed a deficit reduction plan made of spending cuts to the tune of about 35 billion dollars. For example, they plan to cut the EPA budget and eliminate funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The GOP wanted to shut off funding to these agencies and programs when we had budget surpluses, so this plan isn't what you'd call a profile in courage. Wake me up when they eliminate subsidies to ethanol and agribusiness, and cut foreign aid to the bone.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Accurate Observations
I like Ron Reagan a lot more than I ever liked his deceased father, and he definitely has Sarah Palin figured out.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Judicial Activism
When I have fantasies about the ideal federal government, I imagine the executive branch in the control of one party, with the other party controlling at least the House or the Senate. In my fantasy, the judicial branch is non-partisan, meaning a judge's decisions couldn't be predicted based on his/her party affiliation. Remember, I said we're talking about dreams, not realities.
What we have now is a reasonable approximation of my divided government ideal, except the judicial branch isn't free of partisanship. It's obvious the GOP is counting on their 5-4 advantage in the US Supreme Court to abolish health care reform legislation. Nothing has changed: Judicial activism is still defined as any court ruling one party doesn't agree with.
What we have now is a reasonable approximation of my divided government ideal, except the judicial branch isn't free of partisanship. It's obvious the GOP is counting on their 5-4 advantage in the US Supreme Court to abolish health care reform legislation. Nothing has changed: Judicial activism is still defined as any court ruling one party doesn't agree with.
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Point at them and laugh
Summer walks in Texas
Judging by the amount of water on driveways and sidewalks and in the street, some Texans seem to think you can grow concrete and asphalt using lawn sprinklers.
Six-Word Memoir
Most of my balloons were popped.
