Month: September 2010

Tea party movement: Writer says old whine in new bottles

Posted by dcrim – September 30, 2010

Kevin Drum, writing for Mother Jones, says there is a misconception that the tea party is something new.

The growth of the tea party movement isn’t really due to the recession (in fact, polling evidence shows  that tea partiers are generally better off and less affected by the recession than the population at large). It’s not because Obama is black (white Democratic presidents got largely the same treatment). And it’s not because Obama bailed out General Motors (so did  George W. Bush). It’s simpler. Ever since the 1930s, something very much like the tea party movement has fluoresced every time a Democrat wins the presidency, and the nature of the fluorescence always follows many of the same broad contours: a reverence for the Constitution, a supposedly spontaneous uprising of formerly nonpolitical middle-class activists, a preoccupation with socialism and the expanding tyranny of big government, a bitterness toward an underclass viewed as unwilling to work, and a weakness for outlandish conspiracy theories.

Drum cites how the Liberty League was formed in the 1930s to combat FDR’s New Deal, the John Birch Society opposed JFK and talk radio fueled the Arkansas Project to battle Bill Clinton. The tea party has become larger than those other groups, but Drum says the sheer size of the movement may be as much a curse as a blessing.

An insurgent movement can retain its vigor if it remains limited to true believers, but once it takes the reins of power, it has no choice but to offer a winning platform if it wants to keep its influence. The tea partiers are thus likely to be victims of their own success: When everyone’s a tea partier, then no one’s a tea partier. Right-wing extremism may win majorities in Arizona and a few other basket-case states, but it doesn’t win national elections, which means the tea partiers will either move to the center or die.

Ten games that caused the Cardinals’ season to unravel

Posted by dcrim – September 29, 2010

Now that the Cardinals have been eliminated from the National League Central playoff chase, here is a list of 10 games, courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, that meant the season. Click here.

The mystique of Notre Dame football no longer exists

Posted by dcrim – September 29, 2010

Days after the Fighting Irish endured  a whipping administered by mighty Stanford, David Whitley, national columnist for Fanhouse, suggests that Notre Dame football is fighting a lost cause.

Notre Dame hasn’t done anything to deserve special treatment in almost 20 years, but the BCS and TV perpetuate its delusions of grandeur.  … Sorry folks, this isn’t the 1980s, much less the ‘50s. The best Notre Dame can ever hope for is an eight or nine-win season.

George Blanda was one of a kind in National Football League

Posted by dcrim – September 27, 2010

For those of us who remember the improbable 1970 season, George Blanda was something special. During a five-game stretch, the 43-year-old Blanda, his chiseled jaw framed by salt-and-pepper sideburns, led the Oakland Raiders to four victories and one tie with late touchdown passes or field goals.

Are Republicans pledging or pandering to Americans?

Posted by dcrim – September 26, 2010

House Republican leaders unveiled a 21-page “Pledge to America” Thursday, a campaign document that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said raises an important question: “Is this the best you’ve got?”

The Los Angeles Times: If the “Pledge to America” unveiled Thursday were a genuine attempt to solve the country’s economic troubles by living up to GOP principles of low taxation and spending, we might find more in it to like. Instead, it’s a manifesto of meaningless bromides served up to please “tea party” activists, disingenuous attacks on Democrats and President Obama, and policy prescriptions that are at best impractical and at worst deeply counterproductive.

The Washington Post, in an editorial, said the pledge mixes irresponsible tax cuts with implausible spending caps and unspecified actions to control entitlement spending. The resulting concoction is a profile in cowardice.

The Detroit News: The GOP’s document is obviously 100 percent about the current election campaign and ties in to the anger and frustration expressed by voters. But that doesn’t dampen its usefulness.


Cardinals stumbling toward finish line of disappointing season

Posted by dcrim – September 25, 2010

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz called the Cardinals’ effort “embarrassing” before they lost to the Cubs on Saturday. The Redbirds, everybody’s pick in the NL Central, could be officially eliminated from the playoff race this weekend. St. Louis has not won a playoff game since capturing the 2006 World Series. Walt Jocketty has to be smiling.

In the end, it was lack of depth that did in the Cardinals.

Is the tea party pulling a fast one on country, media?

Posted by dcrim – September 25, 2010

E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post asks the question: Is the tea party one of the most successful scams in American political history?

Writes Dionne:

Before you dismiss the question, note that word “successful.” Judge the tea party purely on the grounds of effectiveness and you have to admire how a very small group has shaken American political life and seized the microphone offered by the media, including the so-called liberal media.

But it’s equally important to recognize that the tea party constitutes a sliver of opinion on the extreme end of politics receiving attention out of all proportion with its numbers.


It’s re-run season when it comes to Quincy education saga

Posted by dcrim – September 24, 2010

Below is a repeat of a post from March 26. Unfortunately, much hasn’t changed in six months.

The Quincy Federation of Teachers last week voted down a contract proposal from the Quincy School Board, apparently, in part, because the salary and benefits package being offered wasn’t good enough. We say “apparently” because neither side is releasing any details of the proposal for us to judge. Another round of negotiations has been scheduled for Tuesday.

School Board member Bill Daniels outlined the plight of the district’s self-insurance fund in a story in Thursday’s Herald-Whig. Perhaps the report will silence those who like to stand on their anonymous soapbox on local websites and question where the surpluses went. Perhaps it won’t, given that some never let facts stand in the way of a good rant.

One of the biggest problems facing the Quincy School District — even before economy tanked and the state of Illinois quit paying its bills on time — is $1.84. That’s the education fund tax rate here, the lowest allowable by law. That rate is now in its third decade on the books. Quincy voters continue to elect Melvin “No” Niekamp but won’t budge on the education fund tax rate (which may be the only explanation needed for why we are where we are), and it continues to strangle the district financially.

Name something that hasn’t increased in price or value during that time?

Now name something more important than an education?

The post from March 26:

So here we are. The Quincy School Board has been forced to slash another $4 million from its budget because the state of Illinois cannot pay its bills. For those keeping score at home, that’s more than $8 million in reductions the past three years combined because the folks in Springfield can’t balance a checkbook.

And yet, if you read some of the comments posted on whig.com, it’s not enough that more than 100 full- and part-time employees will be losing their jobs. It’s not enough that schools will be closed. It’s not enough that kids who have trouble learning to read won’t be given the necessary one-on-one instruction so they can have a chance in life.

No, a community that has not supported a referendum to raise the education fund tax rate from the lowest allowable by law in more than three decades would like to see more pain. They remember when schools were built and then closed and sold. They remember when former Superintendent Michael Anderson was paid $190,000 to walk away and not say why. They remember when there were insurance and pension perks not available to most people.

The problem is, that was then and this is now. Mistakes no doubt were made in the past, given that we are an imperfect people living in an imperfect world, but there should be a statute of limitations on sins of the fathers, whatever they were. After all, we’re talking about the education of our children, not Enron.

This School Board, and the ones that immediately preceded it, and this administration have worked to be good stewards of taxpayer money. They have identified problems, such as the financially draining self-insurance fund and the state-sanctioned pension padding, and worked with employees to correct them. They have tried to do more with less — a popular corporate slogan that, by the mere definitions of those words, is impossible to accomplish.

So when is enough enough? What is it going to take for us to believe in people to make the best decisions for our school system and trust their judgment? When are we going to put aside grudges and misconceptions and a little paycheck envy, and realize that our future rests on our children and grandchildren being more successful than we are?

It’s time to put aside differences, quit the finger-pointing and start believing in education again.

Unfortunately, details are in short supply in race for Illinois governor

Posted by dcrim – September 23, 2010

The AFSCME deal brokered by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun-Times puzzled, but he sums up the the race between Quinn and Bill Brady, a Republican state senator from Bloomington:

Is it any wonder that Quinn finds himself looking up in the polls at a right-wing slacker who looks the part of a pleasant businessman and promises to cut the state budget, even though he can’t actually explain how he plans to do it either?

Let me answer that. No, it’s entirely understandable, and it’s a shame, because Pat Quinn is a good man who wants to do right by the people of Illinois. But he continues to show he just doesn’t get what the world of state government looks like to those outside it.

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows Brady, who has said he will provide details on how he will tackle the state budget mess only after he is elected, with a commanding 13-point advantage. Like Jim Thompson, another GOP gubernatorial candidate from years gone by, will Brady discover how unrealistic his campaign trail no-tax pledge is should the crisis becomes his?

Woodward offers up-close look at Obama administration

Posted by dcrim – September 22, 2010

Another president, another Bob Woodward book.

The Watergate legend is out with his 16th book on Monday, “Obama’s Wars,” this time after being granted access to the Obama White House. Politico reports that administration officials hope their cooperation will lead a largely sympathetic portrait, although President George W. Bush was hoping for the same thing, gaining mixed results.

The New York Times says the picture that emerges is of an administration grappling with tough questions of war and peace, but doing so amid the palace intrigue of who’s up, who’s down and who’s not on speaking terms.

The Washington Post says the book reveals President Obama urgently looked for a way out of the war in Afghanistan last year, repeatedly pressing his top military advisers for an exit plan that they never gave him. The Post notes that the book focuses “on the strategy review, and the dissension, distrust and infighting that consumed Obama’s national security team as it was locked in a fierce and emotional struggle over the direction, goals, timetable, troop levels and the chances of success” in the Afghanistan war.

The book notes battles with former military commanders — and with Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, the Post said in a story.

Guess I will have to make room for another volume on the Woodward shelf in the mancave, just below the David Halberstam shelf.