All posts by Chief

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Fed I.G.’s Now Subjected to Political Review

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The RAT hiding deep inside the stimulus bill

…you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated — or not investigated — throughout the federal government.

The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.

In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.

If the Chief were a gambling man, he would bet that the Donks who were SO fast to weep and wail about the possible political abuse of the Patriot Act will be only noticeable by their silence about this. Hmmmmm. Come to think of it, maybe it WOULDN’T be a gamble at all to bet on it!

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Human Rights? What’s That?

Activists ‘shocked’ at Clinton stance on China rights

Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.

Paying her first visit to Asia as the top US diplomat, Clinton said the United States would continue to press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet.

“But our pressing on those issues can’t interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis,” Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing.

An old American tradition: money trumps blood.

For a notable previous example of this kind of economic realpolitik, Google “Loral” and “Clinton Administration”.

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Change – Can You Believe It?

The Day the Muzak Died

Not really political – except that almost anything economic can be political at some level – but surely this deserves some recognition as being a sort of cultural watershed of some kind.

There were mixed feelings when Muzak Holdings LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month. Most reactions ranged from surprise (does Muzak still exist?) to snobbish relief (they should have driven a stake through its canned heart long ago). But some of us felt a real pang, as memories flooded in on the wave of news about the possible disappearance of yet another pipeline to the past.

Not to fear…the probable reason for the demise is the massive inundation of background noise, far in excess and variety compared to Muzak. This is NOT necessarily an improvement…a thought that is noted in the cited article also.

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BOHICA!

Another massive spending bill on the agenda

After a week off taking a victory lap for passing an economic stimulus, Congress’ Democratic leaders return to Washington on Monday for a second race against the clock to pass another massive spending package.

This time it is a roughly $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill that would fund most of the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, replacing stopgap funding that expires March 6.

KEEP THE PRESSES ROLLING! That’s the only way they’ll ever come up with the money to even come close to meeting their stated goals.

Of course B.O. says we’ll raise taxes on…you know who…the job creating class, known to the Donks as the “filthy rich”, who already pay an excruciatingly high percentage of the entire income tax loot total.

(If you’re curious about the acronymic header on this post, refer to the “Site Jargonology” link – warning: it ain’t that pretty at all, but IMHO it DOES fit right in!)

National Insecurity

B.O.: Foriegn Policy? What’s That?

Obama Flunks First Tests On Foreign Policy

The Biden prophecy has come to pass. Our wacky veep, momentarily inspired, had predicted last October that “it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama.” Biden probably had in mind an eve-of-the-apocalypse drama like the Cuban Missile Crisis. Instead, Obama’s challenges have come in smaller bites. Some are deliberate threats to U.S. interests, others mere probes to ascertain whether the new president has any spine.

Preliminary X-rays aren’t encouraging. Consider the long list of brazen Russian provocations:

(a) Pressuring Kyrgyzstan to shut down the U.S. air base in Manas, an absolutely crucial NATO conduit into Afghanistan.

(b) Announcing the formation of a “rapid reaction force” with six former Soviet republics, a regional Russian-led strike force meant to reassert Russian hegemony in the Muslim belt north of Afghanistan.

(c) Planning to establish a Black Sea naval base in Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia, conquered by Moscow last summer.

(d) Declaring Russia’s intention to deploy offensive Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad if Poland and the Czech Republic go ahead with plans to station an American (anti-Iranian) missile defense system.

There are more gory details concerning the consequences of these situations: it ain’t that pretty at all!

But wait! There’s more!

New U.S. Diplomacy Getting No Respect

President Barack Obama’s first TV interview was with the Dubai-based, partly Saudi-funded Al Arabiya satellite channel. In passing, he faulted past American policy for too readily “dictating” in the Middle East. He had better things to say about Saudi King Abdullah’s “courage” in trying to solve the Middle East crisis.

Vice President Joe Biden likewise has promised the world a sharp break from the prior Bush administration that, from his references, was apparently to blame for bouts of anti-Americanism abroad. He assured the Europeans at the Munich Security Conference that it was time to press the reset button in foreign policy, and pledged a new chapter in America’s overseas relations.

On her initial tour abroad, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton re-emphasized the Obama and Biden message, announcing that she would follow an approach that “values what others have to say.” And then Clinton elaborated on this now well-worn “blame Bush” theme: “Too often in the recent past, our government has acted reflexively before considering available facts and evidence or hearing the perspectives of others.” America, Clinton promised, from now on would be “neither impulsive nor ideological.”

Contrast such admirable talk with events:

North Korea has just announced that it plans to launch a new Taepodong-2 missile capable of reaching the United States.

China, which holds hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. Treasury bonds and will be asked to loan us billions more, advised the Obama administration to drop the “buy American” talk in the new Democratic stimulus program.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently bragged that his country would soon go nuclear, and that President Obama’s offer to talk without preconditions revealed a new passivity in the West.

Russia just announced it had developed new strategic ties with Iran, and warned that American-sponsored missile defense for Eastern Europe was unpalatable.

About the same time, the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, on Russian advice, disclosed that it may no longer allow Americans to use a base in the country to supply the war effort in Afghanistan.

Pakistan just released from house arrest A.Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, who had sold nuclear technologies to the likes of Libya and North Korea.

All of which points to what can only be described as a lack of situational awareness.

In simpler terms, B.O. and company are clueless in foreign affairs.

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Enjoying preparedness:

Shamelessly borrowed from GeekWithA.45

$25.00      50 lbs of rice
$11.00      10 lbs of peanuts
$12.00      25 lbs of sugar
$27.00      60 lbs of flour
$34.00      50 lbs of dry beans
$14.00      05 lbs of dried milk
$18.00      6 #10 cans of misc veggies
========================================================
$141.00      An additional 3 +/- months of grim eats emergency rations

The look on checkout girl’s face when she figures out what’s up….

Priceless.

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Schumer Hoist on Own Petard!

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Schumer’s Second Thoughts (Or: This Is Why Reading Legislation Before Voting Is a Good Idea)

Sen. Schumer has pledged to undo a provision included in the stimulus package that will make it nearly impossible for New York’s banks to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program….

According to a report released last year by the Partnership for New York City, roughly 13,000 workers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are here on H-1B visas. The top visa sponsors in the area are the very same banks that have received TARP money. Those banks also have significant overseas operations, says Kathy Wylde, and this provision will hurt most when the economy turns around and the banks look to hire talent to tap new markets.

“When they require someone with a language or other skill who they feel is the best person for the job, if they can’t bring them to New York, they will move the function,” says Wylde. “That’s what’s happened in the past when we’ve had a shortage of the H-1B visas.”

Too bad. Schumer outsmartassed himself this time! His karma ran over his dogma.

National Insecurity

B.O. Lifts Syria Sanctions

Obama approves aerospace system for Syria

Not only does this represent a de facto lifting of sanctions on Syria, a terrorist supporting state, but the business is going to the Saudis.

You might say, “Hey, it’s only for airliners, no big deal?

Two comments on that:
•  Remember 9-11?  Didn;;t that have something to do with airliners?
•  How many rockets per plane load can you fly from Iran to Lebanon in a 747?  Quite a few one would (correctly) guess.

Hezbollah gives its thanks!

It’s just nuts to support these guys.

SD Politics, Uncategorized

Salary Salvage in the Dump, etc.

A few observations on the proceedings of our legislature:

Some Lawmakers Want ‘Salary Salvage’ Scrapped

Salary salvage: don’t fill job positions so the money can be spent elsewhere.

Sort of a way of doing an end run around what the legislature has actually voted to spend money on.

Not a good practice. This deserves to be dumped.

Senate approves change in school aid

Under this scheme, when state revenues are down, school aid will be down. When revenues are up, the aid will likewise go up. A big problem is that when state revenues are down, school expenses stay the same, regardless, something’s got to go.

As happened recently with Gettysburg, Rutland, and elsewhere, sometimes it’s teachers…who leave behind the same number of students to be taught, with a smaller faculty to carry on and do the job as best they can.

Another very real possibility is that later on, legislators may change the formula again if someone starts squawking that schools will get too much of an increase when the economy DOES finally start improving again.

No solution is perfect…maybe this one will ultimately help. Time will tell.

Misc. Ed. Bill Hearings Postponed

Hearings were scheduled for Wednesday on HB1234, the latest iteration of a Small Schools Kill Bill, HB1293 requiring school administrative consolidation (a defacto educational bureaucracy implementation act, and HB1198 allowing schools to charge activity fees for extracurriculars.

The Chief knows of a number of groups of concerned South Dakotans who had arranged their lives to be able to attend and offer comments to their Solons at work, but it seems said Solons decided not to cover those issues at that time…so those concerned could either rearrange their situation to go to Pierre on Friday, or forget the whole idea.

Perhaps I’m too cynical any more, but it does seem like a handy way to dodge slings, arrows, and mudballs from pesky constituents concerning these issues.

HB1254 and HB1293 both force centralization, and move things farther away from direct local control. HB1198? A mixed bag at best, which given the direction of things at Pierre, would eventually be used as a bludgeon to push for school aid cuts to districts who were unwilling to charge fees…thereby using other funds to support what the local communities felt was a positive (even if extracurricular) part of their school program.

Committee Sends Smoking Ban To SD House Floor

As a matter of principle relating to property rights, the Chief opposes this sort of thing in general.

If someone wants to have a smoking environment on their property, so be it. If you don’t like the smoke, take your custom elsewhere. This is NOT hard to figure out.

By the way, I do not smoke or use any tobacco products, and I do not especially like 2nd hand smoke, but property rights SHOULD BE property rights, irrespective of the irresistable urge of legislators to play nanny.

SD Politics

HB1278 – Carry Rights Protection On Target

House Wants Uniform Local Gun Laws

The South Dakota House says local governments should be barred from adopting ordinances restricting possession of firearms. The House voted 46-20 on Tuesday to pass HB1278, which prohibits townships, counties and cities from adopting general restrictions on firearms.

Supporters said the goal is to make laws dealing with carrying firearms uniform across the state. They said people with concealed weapons permits should be able to go from one community to another without fear of violating a local law.

On principle, anything that extends protection of one’s right to exercise the 2nd Amendment is a good thing as far as the Chief is concerned. Obviously all won’t agree…but then again, there’s lots of laws that the Chief doesn’t agree with. This isn’t one of them.

National Insecurity

More Financial Follies

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Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown

With Americans from President B.O. on down focused on our own fiscal and economic woes, it’s easy tio forget about what might be transpiring in the rest of the world. Unfortunately, dire circumstances across the pond can impinge severely on what can happen here.

Like it or not, the United States has always been involved in global economics, even before the turn of the century – of 1800 no less – with Yankee traders actively involved in trade with China, Europe, the Mediterranean (remember the bit about the North African Barbary pirates?), and Africa. The more things change, the more they stay the same, and U.S. business is still up to its eyeballs in international trade.

As a result, severe problems overseas inevitably will have a kickback to us here, so the possible critical mass chain reaction setting up from Eastern Europe into the heart of the E.U. could do nothing at all beneficial for our own situation. Just what we need…something else to be worried about…not even that we are in a position to DO anything to help the situation.

So what’s it mean to South Dakota?  Anyone ever hear of ag exports?

The unfolding debt drama in Russia, Ukraine, and the EU states of Eastern Europe has reached acute danger point

If mishandled by the world policy establishment, this debacle is big enough to shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial Götterdämmerung.

It’s worth noting that there is an alternate way to communicate the concept involved in Götterdämmerung – Armageddon.

SD Politics

“Pay to Play” at Schools?

Bill Would Allow Student Fees For Activities

A bill in the South Dakota Legislature would give schools the option of charging students to participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities. Republican Representative Mark Kirkeby of Rapid City says his bill would give school districts a chance to spend more of their money in the classroom.

This idea may have some merit, but it would depend a lot on what the details were. If for example, football were REALLY that important in a community, then why wouldn’t the community be willing to support it? Or, many other activities.

The bill does not set guidelines for how much the fees would cost.

Ooops. What details? If Kirkeby and the legislature wants to go down this path seriously, they need to do the heavy lifting and really figure our pretty explicitly how it all would work. Of course, then they would have to take the heat if it DIDN’T work out well too. Maybe that’s biting off a bit more than they want to chew. The Chief would contend that community responsibility begins at Pierre, as far as setting up some sort of orderly framework for something like this is concerned.

Mary Stadick Smith in the state Education Department says extra curriculars are an extension of the classroom and should not be subject to extra fees.

This is another whole argument in itself. Certainly putting on a play, debate, declam, science fairs, bads, ag judging, etc are obviously an “extension of the classroom”. It’s less obvious to the Chief that this is the case in the case of team athletics, but the Chief is willing to bet that this is another aspect of the question that Kirkeby and Pierre are reluctant to tackle. It’s easy to throw this stuff into the legislative hopper like a drive-by shooting, but another thing all together to deal with it thoroughly and thoughtfully. For evidence of this, all one needs to do is look at the greatest irresponsible piece of drive-by legislation in history…the B.O. Bail-out Bill just approved by Congress.

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RINO Joins Socialist Caucus

Sen. Graham Open to ‘Nationalizing the Banks’

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina of the Senate Budget Committee said today on “This Week” that he is open to “nationalizing the banks.”

“I think if you put most of our major banks under a ‘stress test,’ they’re going to fail,” Graham told me.

“This idea of nationalizing bank is not comfortable but I think we have got so many toxic assets spread throughout the banking and financial community throughout the world that we’re going to have to do something that no one ever envisioned a year ago, no one likes,” he said.

“To me banking and housing are the root cause of this program,” Graham said. “I would not take off [the table] the idea of nationalizing the banks.”

With RINOs like Sen Lindsey Graham-cracker, who needs Donks?

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Latin Dictatorship Alive and Well

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Vote will let Chávez run again

President Hugo Chávez scored a major victory Sunday when Venezuelans lifted term limits so he can run for reelection in 2012 and perhaps beyond.

Chávez’s measure won 54.3 percent of the vote, according to the national election board. Televised images showed Chávez supporters celebrating while fireworks boomed across the Caracas sky.

”Chávez, friend, the people are with you,” the president’s adoring supporters, wearing their trademark red T-shirts, chanted outside the presidential palace. Standing on a balcony, Chávez led the festive crowd in singing Venezuela’s national anthem. ”It is a clear victory for the people!” an exultant Chávez said. “It is a clear victory for the Revolution!”

Poor Venezuela.

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Religion of Peace Doing It’s Thing…

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Prominent Orchard Park man charged with beheading his wife

Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.

Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder.

Apparently she had filed for divorce, and had a protective order out against her husband…for all the good it did.

Can you say B-A-R-B-A-R-I-S-M?

And then there is this item from Oz:

Australian fires: Police release suspect photo

Victorian police release composite photo of man wanted for questioning over Australian bush fires.

090213australianfires.jpg

This comes after an earlier report:

Islam group urges forest fire jihad

AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for “forest jihad” by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.

US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to “start forest fires”, claiming “scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands”.

The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the “eye for an eye” doctrine.

The posting – which instructs jihadis to remember “forest jihad” in summer months – says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that “this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time”.

Like Rod Stewart sang: “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”

…and again, from the Great White North, a mini-kristalnacht staged against the evil Jews (Who else?):

Muslim Mob Attacks Jewish Center At Toronto University. Police Respond By Shutting Down The Center

It’s so weird how a country where multiculturalist tolerance is enforced via elaborate micro-fascism could slip into something that seems very much like a pogrom:

Another anti-Semitic incident took place in a Canadian university Thursday when over 100 anti-Israel activists surrounded a campus building belonging to the Jewish student club ‘Hillel’ at York University, Toronto. The activists pounded on office doors while yelling out racial slurs. Campus security was forced to alert police to restore order and the latter demanded that the offices be shut down. An anti-Israel march is also scheduled for Friday, and ‘Hillel’ leaders have called on Jewish students to arrive with Israeli flags in order to show support for the country. But anti-Semitism also took its toll outside of the campus. A Jewish student reported receiving a phone call during which an unidentified person threatened his life and those of his family members if he were to continue his pro-Israeli activities in the university.

Remember, Mein Kampf in Arabic is al Jihad.

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SD School Formula Change?

This has been an idea under discussion for years…and has even been the subject of the ongoing Davis v. SD lawsuit which is premised on the demonstrable proposition that the SD aid formula for schools has been consistently deficient.

Senate panel approves school aid change

This COULD be an improvement down the line, although it would be tight for the first couple years.  Of course there is no guarantee that subsequent legislootive sessions wouldn’t change things again before any increase actually took place.

The way things run, the outcome is a total crapshoot.  In any event, time will tell.

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A Test – Just for Fun

I’m a Mandarin!

“You’re an intellectual, and you’ve worked hard to get where you are now. You’re a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world’s problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you’re determined to try.”

Talent: 49%
Lifer: 36%
Mandarin: 54%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

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Newsweak Lets Cat Out of the Bag

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Joe the Plumber was right. B.O. is a liar, based on campaign-era denials of socialism, and the hidden lumps of totalitarian government intrusiveness packaged up under the veneer of “economic stimulus”.

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AT LAST! MSM honesty! All along we knew what we were up against, and now the LibDonk side has admitted it, and the new name the Chief proposed for the jackass party turns out to be all too true: National Socialist Democratic American Party (N.S.D.A.P.)

P.S. to Newsweak: YOU’RE PREMISE IS WRONG – We are NOT all socialists!

Lock and load!

SD Politics

SD County Roulette Killed

House panel rejects county consolidation plan

A South Dakota House committee has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have started the process of reducing the number of counties in the state.
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HJR1002 sought to amend the constitution to limit counties to no fewer than 25,000 residents or 5,000 square miles, whichever is less.

The Chief noted this in a previous post. If he was a betting man, his bet would have been that this bill was pretty much a no-go from the get-go, and that’s where it went.

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Daschle’s Totalitarian “Health” Plans

So, what does anyone care about Daschle’s plans for anything any more?

Well, he night be gone, but his ideas for health care are part of the aforementioned B.O. B.S. B.O. Bill.

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan

Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy. Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors

“So far, everything’s OK”. (in the words of a man falling from the Empire State Building, as he passed the 50th floor.) Then it gets really messy:

One (emphasis added) new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446).

NOTE: “…what the government deems appropriate and cost effective.” Not you and your doctor…THE GOVERNMENT. So much for any remnant of medical independence, but wait!  It doesn’t stop there:

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal…is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He [Daschle] praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

And the practical effect: Welcome to the U.K.! (or worse.)

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt. Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

Like Hitler did with Mein Kampf, Daschle has published his own vision vision of this brave new world.

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly…

In other words, once your usefulness to society is done, then you should welcome this 21st century version of the tribal elderly being cast out into the blizzard when their day is done. So much for compassionate care.

Herr Himmler, and his pet Dr. Mengele would have heartily approved of this scheme to cut out support of such “useless eaters” as the infirm elderly.

The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined(90-92, 174-177, 181).

!!!?

Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”

Right to life? What’s that any more? Nothing…that question was settled by Roe v. Wade. This is merely an all too logical extension of that attitude. The Chief isn’t a Catholic, but Pope John Paul was spot on when he warned against a culture of death.

As the cartoon character “Pogo” observed: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Uncategorized

B.O.’s BS B-O Bill Passes Senate

Senate passes $838 billion stimulus bill

Well, the formless legislative blob of the Gigabuck omnibus banking, finance, and industrial nationalization act has entered the maw of the Senate, moved into the inner digestive processes of lawmaking, and inevitably, appropriately (to according to the Great One and his DonkCong adherents) completed its passage through the belly of the legislative beast and emerged as…what can described as noted above: B.O.’s B.S. Bailout Bill.

Senate passage of an $838 billion stimulus bill triggered an intense round of late-night bargaining on Tuesday, with the White House and key congressional Democrats seeking agreement on a final compromise aimed at combatting the worst economic crisis in decades.

If you don’t like it, don’t worry, your grandkids will get to pay for it, and you won’t have to be bothered…that is, unless you think rationally, and still have a functional conscience.

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Chicago School Problems: The Heritage of the New Ed. Secretary!

‘Painful Lessons': Abuse At Chicago Schools
Hundreds Of Kids Beaten, Whipped, Even Choked By Teachers, Coaches

A couple of weeks ago there was news of $67,000 being spent on a no-bid deal for cappucino machines for Chicago schools, most of which hadn’t requested them, and weren’t even using them once they were delivered.

Now, comes another installment showing how the Chicago school system has been in the habit of operating.

Treveon Martin, 10, is afraid of a teacher at his school. “I’ve seen him hit five of them in the classroom,” Martin said.

Martin says he and others have been hit, grabbed and even struck with a belt. “He’s threatened almost all the kids in his classroom,” Martin said.

He says it happened at Robert Emmet Academy in November but a Chicago Public School investigator didn’t talk to him until last week – 70 days after the case was reported, and not until after we started asking questions.

“He holded my arms and he picked my body up, and then he just slammed me on the desk,” Martin said.

An exclusive CBS 2 investigation discovered Treveon Martin is one of at least 818 Chicago Public School students, since 2003, to allege being battered by a teacher or an aide, coach, security guard, or even a principal. In most of those cases – 568 of them – Chicago Public School investigators determined the children were telling the truth.

So, just another local issue? It shouldn’t be.

These sorts of incidents don’t spontaneously appear in a large organization. They won’t appear at all where competent, engaged, hands-on management is not afraid to set and enforce rigorous standards of professional conduct at all levels.  In order for this pattern of mismanagement to have arisen, those in charge are prima facie guilty of failure to exercise due diligence in the performance of their responsibilities.

The REAL question at this point is where is the media’s questioning of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about his prior and  apparently poor performance as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, under which the above noted financial, (and even more seriously) physical abuses occurred.

From the Department of Education website we find the following:

Prior to his appointment as secretary of education, Duncan served as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, a position to which he was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley, from June 2001 through December 2008, becoming the longest-serving big-city education superintendent in the country. (emphasis added)

Seems to the Chief that Duncan SHOULD have some ‘splainen’ to do!

DOE’s bio blurb goes on:

As CEO, Duncan’s mandate was to raise education standards and performance, improve teacher and principal quality…

If that was Duncan’s mandate, based on the evidence, he failed to live up to expectations…and now he’s the man that B.O. (The Exalted One) himself has picked to lead the rest of the country’s educational establishment ever onward and upwards beyond the realm of “no child left behind”.

(Eeeeeuuuu!)

Better the Department of Education was eliminated than to turn it over to Duncan’s apparently incompetent management.

SD Politics

Technophobes Dominant in Pierre

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Panel kills plan for online public notices

South Dakota law should continue to require government public notices to be placed in newspapers, not on the Internet, a legislative committee says.

The House Local Government Committee voted 7-5 on Thursday to kill HB1135, which would have given state and local governments a choice of using newspapers or Internet web sites to publish minutes, bid offerings and other official notices.

OK. They don’t want ot put public notices on-line.

Supposedly this is so it’s more accessible to print in local newspapers, but how many people have on-line access virtually 24-7 at their home compared to taking the additional expense and hassle of either subscribing to a paper and/or making an extra trip to get one in the town where it is available…but which is off the beaten path, and NOT a normal destination point?

Of course a lot of the opposition to this comes from the dead-tree media, so what else could they say?

The bill would have allowed people to request that they receive government notices by mail, rather than through the Internet. That feature of the bill would increase public notice costs to local governments, said David Bordewyk of the South Dakota Newspaper Association.

“I would suggest you are creating quite a cost,” Bordewyk said.

IF anyone wanted a paper copy, it is one heck of a lot handier to jut print it from the computer than demand snail mail.

He also questioned whether digital records could be altered, either maliciously or unintentionally.

“Putting information online does not equate to ink on paper,” Bordewyk said.

Apparently no one at the newspaper association has ever heard of, or understands, or is willing to admit that they know how Acrobat PDF files are set up.

Rep. Darrell Solberg, D-Sioux Falls, questioned whether Internet postings would be accessible to as many people as are local newspapers.

“Readership on the Internet, in terms of legal notices, is meager,” Solberg said.

So he thinks that lengthy legalese notices, printed in a newspaper in microscopically small print is a hot item for readership? The Chief thinks it more likely that readership of legal notices in a newspaper, even among newspaper readers is “meager”.

Besides, if no one looks at stuff on the internet, why do ALL the newspapers have websites with their leading news coverage? Surely a lot of someones are looking at the sites, or else the newspapers themselves are themselves “creating quite a cost” to no good result.

Give me a break.

This just fits the trend of government at all levels dragging its feet at moving into the e-information age….If they did that, maybe they would even have to account more to the voters for what they do when most people aren’t looking over their shoulders.

SD Politics

Nanny-state Takes a Blow

Adelstein: Smoking ban faced “tremendous amount of pressure”

Sen. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, said he’s disappointed the Senate failed to pass a statewide smoking ban this week. “There was a tremendous amount of pressure,” said Adelstein, who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services committee.

The Senate voted 18-17 on Tuesday to kill SB83, which would have banned smoking in all indoor public spaces, including bars, restaurants, casinos, hotels, video lottery establishments and tobacco shops.

Disclosure: The Chief does NOT smoke or use tobacco products, and if asked, would discourage anyone from doing so, for both obvious and personal reasons.

Having said that, the state really has no business telling someone that they cannot engage in a legal (and taxed!) activity on private property, if that’s what the owners and customers are willing to accept. If someone doesn’t want to be around the tobacco use, then there is freedom to find somewhre else to take one’s business.

Somehow the Chief is not surprised that stealth Democrat RINO Sen. Adelstein has his paw prints all over this idea. It’s the old lib conceit that governmental meddling can engineer and force us into meeting someone else’s idea of more desirable activity.

Once one goes down this trail, where’s the stopping point? No tobacco? OK. What about no…hamburgers, sugared pop, unsugared pop, butter, steaks, beer, wine, coffee, tea, meat, leather, dairy herds, etc…the list is endless of something that some faction or group claims results in Bad Things happening to us, or being caused by us.

Forget the whole idea…allow folks to make up their own minds about such things. Otherwise, we could end up with a system so intrusive that it  would make “1984” look like a New England town meeting.

’nuff said.

Uncategorized

Obamanation Abomination

Agreement Reached on Economic Stimulus, Senators Say

Senators agreed on an economic stimulus plan of at least $780 billion to rescue the U.S. economy from sinking into what President Barack Obama warns would be an even deeper recession if Congress doesn’t act.

Three Republicans agreed to join Democrats who control the chamber in supporting the measure. A Senate vote, possibly this weekend, would move Congress closer to Obama’s deadline of sending a bill to him by mid-February.

Words seem to fall short at describing this quivering gelatinous legislative toxic blob, that will surely draw us along the path of B.O.’s National Socialist Democrat American Party (N.S.D.A.P.)

Unfortunately the Senate apparently can always be counted on to find at least a few Republocrats (also known as RINOS) to join with the party of the jackass and give them cover from bearing the full responsibility for their constitutional malpractice. In this case the Republocratic caucus is made up of the Maineiac senators, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe(-job), and the Pennsylvania RINO spook Arlen Spectre Spector, may their names live forever in the annals of political infamy.

SD Politics

Legislative Wrap – Consolidation Edition, & More

First note would be the previously posted comment on HB1182 which the Chief has Officially Designated as the Small Schools Death Act, imposing a mimimum size limit of 195. This was sent to the hypothetical after-life of the much noted but non-existent 41st Legislative Day of the session.

Then comes HB1298, which would start the theoretical ball rolling towards shutting down one of the SD University campuses. There MAY be some merit to this, depending on how it was done. (Of course there’s still no need for a full campus at Sioux Falls where there are more people concentrated, but hey, what does THAT matter?)

…and now that the consolidation juggernaut is starting to roll for schools, why stop there? All those pesky COUNTIES could consolidate too, according to HJR1002. Of course only 43 counties would probably mean more virtual distance between the Legislooters and those they represent, and that would be a disadvantage…or would it…Hmmmm…from the Legislooter’s point of view, maybe it wouldn’t be a disadvantage at all.

In the never ending search for fresh blood more money comes SB171 to tax pipelines…er…to levy a fee to protect us against pipeline spills (which are SO everyday, aren’t they?).   This would set up a fee per unit of volume passing through the state.  Pretty slick, eh?  Historically, reminds the Chief of the ORIGINAL “robber barons”  in their castles on the hills dominating the Rhine River…where they could and did collect fees on everyone and everything that sailed past them on the river.

It’s even better than road use fees on truckers since the state doesn’t even have to build or maintain the pipelines.

It just goes to show, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Finally, after losing their attempt at ending term limits, they’ve brought it back from the grave, like a bad vampire movie or something:

A state Senate committee has recommended lengthening the term limits that apply to South Dakota lawmakers.

Current law provides that a Senate or House member can serve no more than eight consecutive years in a chamber, although a lawmaker can switch and run for another chamber after being term-limited in one.

The State Affairs Committee voted 5-4 Wednesday to endorse SJR3, a proposed constitutional amendment that would extend term limits to 12 consecutive years in a chamber. It also would change the current two-year terms in the Senate to four years.

Bringing this back indicates that they just don’t get it.

SD Politics

Legislative Wrap – Gambling Edition

It’s the high legislative season in South dakota, and the Chief has taken cognizance of some pithy items that have inspired some commentary:

Democrats push higher state cut of gambling

DISCLAIMER: The Chief is opposed to state-run lotteries or gambling to raise government money. Personally, the Chief considers lotteries and gambling a self-assessed voluntary tax on stupidity. You decide for yourself how stupid you are, and pay accordingly!

If something the government does is important enough to people, they they had darned well be willing to face the reality that things cost money, and somehow contrive to raise enough taxes to get the programs they want. If raising taxes to do this is too onerous, then it may be supposed that the programs maybe aren’t that important to people after all, and deserve to go away (or not get started as a means for Legislooters to bnbe the constituency for votes).

A group of Democratic legislators want state government to take a bigger cut of the South Dakota video lottery revenue.

Rep. Peggy Gibson, D-Huron, is prime sponsor of HB1290, which would give the state 60 percent of the net machine income from video lottery. The state currently takes 50 percent. The higher state cut would last only until July 1, 2010.

What else can be said, except to note that Legislooters do what Legislooters do…try to figure out how to extract rvrtmore money from us to give us stuff that we get to pay for, to impress us so we vote for them again.

(Am I REALLY that cynical about it? Yeah…maybe so.)

Senate panel endorses plan to block Iowa casino

A proposed constitutional amendment that could lead to a huge casino in Sioux Falls was approved Wednesday by a South Dakota Senate Committee.

The measure’s main sponsor, Senate Democratic Leader Scott Heidepriem of Sioux Falls, said SJ1 is not aimed at building a Sioux Falls casino but is intended to be a threat to prevent construction of a casino in Larchwood, Iowa, only a few miles from Sioux Falls.

The mind is boggled by the prospect of amending the state constitution to allow more gambling…in order to prevent…more gambling! (Dang! More gambling Means Less Gambling! That fits right in with WAR IS PEACE, SLAVERY IS FREEDOM, etc. I had NO idea that George Orwell was still alive and had moved to Pierre!)

In the short term it might actually slow the wascally Iowegians in Larchwood, but you just KNOW if the authorization is written into the SD Constitution, somewhere down the line there will be an oh-so-vital need to exercise it.  Just put the two items together:  more money and more (potential) gambling…and then it’ll be Katie bar the door to stop S.F, Rapid City, etc. from getting a taste of being mini-Vegas.  What legislooter could resist the combination?

Glowbull Warming

Glowbull Warming Underway In Britain

1 Comment

Britain faces another 10 inches of snow as grit supplies run low

Relatives in the south of England told us that a 2 or 3 inches of snowfall was occasionally a part of the winters there…but not much more than that. In fact they came over to visit us here in South Dakota in FEBRUARY one year, just to get into some real winter weather for a change. (The Chief is STILL wondering about that one…but hey, they liked it, and we all had fun, so why not?)

This year has been far from that circumstance, as the latest round of Glowbull Warming has delivered more than 10″ to London, and other areas of the U.K.

Britain faces a fresh bout of travel chaos after councils began running out of grit as a further 10 inches of snow was forecast.

Britain braced for another eight inches of snow

Up to eight inches could fall on high ground tonight, with several inches across low ground in Wales, the Midlands, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

Forecasters said the UK faces a “pincer movement” with another band of snow moving across Scotland and into Northern Ireland. A Met Office spokesman said: “It’s the second significant snow of the week. Through the weekend it’s going to be wintry with a mix of rain, sleet and snow.”

The bad weather will sweep across south-east England again on Friday bringing sporadic snowfalls in the Home Counties.

Yep – definitely more of that Glowbull Warming!

SD Politics

Killed: Small Schools Death Act

This occurred as the SD Legislature continues its annual session. It indicates to the Chief that there is evidence of at least some reason being present this year at the session.

Panel kills plan to raise minimum school size

A bill to make more small schools in South Dakota reorganize is premature, a House committee says.

The House Education Committee voted 12-3 on Wednesday to kill HB1182, a bill that would have required schools with fewer than 195 students to reorganize with other districts. Two years ago legislators passed the current law, which requires reorganization for schools with fewer than 100 students.

The Legislature should see how the current law works before raising the reorganization bar, opponents of the higher minimum size said.

This is a perennial proposal that bubbles up like an unpleasant gas released from the bottom of a slough while duck hunting. It doesn’t help in accomplishing anything, but just gives evidence that something (or someone, in this case) has gotten stirred up.

The given reason for this is of course (genuflect appropriately!) is to save money, which as a general principle is ALWAYS a laudable, if too rare, a thing for any governmental body to contemplate. In this case however, earlier testimony indicated that this would not be the result of this scheme.

State education officials testified earlier that reorganization wouldn’t necessarily save money because the state-aid formula is based on a per-student cost.

So, what’s the point then?

Given that there may be occasional cases of smaller districts being educationally deficient, in most cases this is not a problem, based on testing results. If local communities are willing to support their schools of whatever size, and the school district is able to work our a modus operandi that meets the needs of the students and community, then WHY IN THE HECK ARE SOME LEGISLATORS FROM OTHER COMMUNITIES SO BOUND AND DETERMINED TO IMPOSE THEIR IDEA ON THEIR FELLOW SOUTH DAKOTANS, WHEN THERE IS NO OBVIOUS GAIN IN DOING SO?

Maybe somebody knows, but the Chief sure can’t see the reason in it, so for that reason it is a good thing that H.R. 1138 seems to have met its doom, at least for another year, and community based schools like Rutland, Oldham-Ramona, and others will be able to continue serving the educational (and yes, also social) needs of their areas, just as do the schools of Brookings, Sioux Falls, Tea, Canton, or anywhere else.