March 31, 2011
Mar 31 05:57 Gun-Slinging Harry Returns Mar 31 11:43 Judge Sumi vs. Secretary Mike Huebsch, Judge Sumi Mar 31 13:20 Arne Carlson's Fantasyland
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Gun-Slinging Harry Returns
The gun-slinging version of Harry Reid has returned as negotiations heat up over a CR that will fund government the rest of this fiscal year. Yesterday, Reid's less-than-intelligent side returned during a floor speech:
Speaking on the Senate floor today, Reid cited a new CNN poll showing that the Tea Party is viewed just as negatively as the Republican or the Democratic parties, the Washington Post reports. Reid said Republicans shouldn't let "let the Tea Party call the shots" in the budget negotiations.
"The people who care about the Tea Party are a very small number who care about them positively," Reid said. "Those who care about them negatively is very high; it's 50 percent."
In the CNN poll, 47 percent said they had a negative opinion of the Tea Party while 32 percent said they had a positive opinion and 14 percent had no opinion. Both the Democratic and Republican parties received 48 percent unfavorable ratings.
The poll Reid cites is an outlier. Anyone that thinks the TEA Party movement is unpopular should check last November's election results. Those results were the direct result of the TEA Party movement energizing Americans from border to border and from coast to coast.
The TEA Party movement should be credited with causing the landslide election that helped Republicans gain 63 seats in the U.S. House, 6 seats in the U.S. Senate, 5 governorships, 680 state legislative seats and 19 legislative chambers to flip from blue to red .
That said, Michael Barone is right in insisting that the TEA Party must continue making its case to the nation :
Christie and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, both elected in 2009, have won public acceptance of major spending cuts by making the alternatives and the facts clear.
Republicans in Wisconsin and other states, and Republican leaders in Washington, need to do the same. Given their druthers, voters oppose tax increases and spending cuts. But they're responsive to the message that in these hard economic times it's not possible to have all good things.
They have seen that vast spending increases haven't generated jobs, and they understand that tax increases can choke a sputtering economic recovery. Given the facts, they understand that public employee unions inflate spending, reduce accountability and operate as a mechanism for the involuntary transfer of taxpayer money to one political party.
The press won't make that case. Republicans and tea partiers need to do it themselves.
I've started a rallying cry for TEA Partiers to rally around:
NO MORE!!!
NO MORE!!! says that we won't tolerate Harry Reid's Democrats spending us into oblivion. NO MORE!!! says that we're tired of Harry Reid's Democrats unwillingness to pass a budget.
It's been a year since Harry Reid's Democrats should've started working on the FY2011 budget. Harry Reid's Democrats decided that they'd rather play political games than do what's right. Harry Reid's Democrats decided that playing political games was more important than solving America's problems.
I wrote yesterday that Gov. Dayton's budget was orphaned . I can't say that about Harry Reid's budget because I'm certain it's never existed. I'm certain of that because Speaker Boehner spoke out about it:
House Speaker John Boehner today has this message for Senate Democrats who say they've got a plan to cut spending for the rest of the year:
"Well, great, pass the damn thing, alright? And send it over here, and let's have real negotiations, instead of sitting over there and rooting for a government shutdown," the Ohio lawmaker said as the House GOP leaders met with reporters.
Harry Reid's Democrats won't pass a budget. They've had a year to prove that they care about fiscal discipline. For a year, they've proven with their inaction that they're mostly interested in carping from the sidelines. They aren't interested in providing real solutions. They're only interested in accumulating political power.
Thanks to the TEA Party movement, that isn't good enough. More people than ever are demanding that real spending cuts are passed, that autopilot spending isn't acceptable.
Like Mr. Barone said, "Given the facts, they understand that public employee unions inflate spending, reduce accountability and operate as a mechanism for the involuntary transfer of taxpayer money to one political party."
The TEA Party must continue talking about the virtues of limiting government's authority, giving people greater decisionmaking authority and spending money on things we need rather than on items on the Democrats' wish list.
When properly explained, like it was last year, the TEA Party movement is the most powerful political movement in a generation.
Finally, let's remember that Harry Reid's declaration that the TEA Party isn't popular is likely to become as ridiculed as Reid's declaration that "this war is lost."
Gun-slinging Harry's track record on predictions isn't exactly stellar.
Posted Thursday, March 31, 2011 5:57 AM
Comment 1 by thebardofmurdock at 31-Mar-11 11:45 AM
Budget Pharmacology
Way over in the corner,
Beset by fits and starts,
The trouble-makers loiter
And practice their black arts.
They just don't keep their focus,
At least like you and I.
Their minds begin to wander;
Their thoughts go all awry.
When jolted by a crisis
They go into a state,
Unable to face problems
That make them concentrate.
Just take a look at Durbin
Whose thoughts have gone askew,
Ignoring our debt crisis
And lecturing on chew.
And how 'bout Charlie Schumer's
Extremist conference call?
I'm worried 'bout that fellow;
He needs his Adderall.
Of course, there's good old Harry
A Leader, sure as sin,
With poetry for cowboys:
Rush in the Ritalin!
And then we have odd Barney
The Bay State's figurine,
Who's introducing ENDA;
He's out of Dexedrine.
We need the pharma lobby
To generate a pill,
That brings a little focus
To members on the Hill.
I know it's hard to get there
For those with ADD,
But please just pass a budget,
That ends the spending spree!
thebardofmurdock.com
Comment 2 by walter hanson at 31-Mar-11 02:01 PM
I got a different slogan.
Two cents aren't extreme!! Keep in mind the democrats are trying to label the proposed $61 billion in budget cuts as extreme. That's just 2 cents out of every dollar of federal spending.
To get the budget balanced we have to cut spending by something like 44 cents. Given the scope of the problem two cents is nothing and shouldn't be complained about.
Harry how about you come up with the 44 cents before you complain.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Judge Sumi vs. Secretary Mike Huebsch, Judge Sumi
Judge Sumi, the Wisconsin judge that ordered Wisconsin's Secretary of State Doug La Follette to not publish Wisconsin's new collective bargaining law, is upset because she screwed up. This article does a nice job outlining Judge Sumi's mistake:
Huebsch's latest comments raise questions about whether he or others could face sanctions following a hearing Tuesday, when Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said any further implementation of the law is prohibited under a temporary court order.
"Now that I've made my earlier order as clear as it possibly can be, I must state that those who act in open and willful defiance of the court order place not only themselves at peril of sanctions, they also jeopardize the financial and the governmental stability of the state of Wisconsin," Sumi said Tuesday.
Sumi was referring to a March 18 ruling that a legislative committee likely violated the state's open meetings law when it rushed passage of the bill earlier this month. That order also barred Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law.
But the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau, which wasn't party to the case, published the law on the Legislature's website Friday citing a separate statutory obligation to publish laws within 10 days of being signed by the governor. That has prompted the administration to declare the law is in effect.
I can't help but highlight the unions' lawyering was sloppy, too. Their omitting the Legislative Reference Bureau from their TRO application is stupefying. It's the unions' attorneys' responsibility to stop the law from being published. That means knowing that the Legislative Reference Bureau had the affirmative legal obligation to publish the law.
Judge Sumi can't change her ruling after the fact. Her TRO didn't mention the Legislative Reference Bureau. Joining them to her ruling after her initial ruling would essentially represent Judge Sumi arguing against her own ruling.
At this point, the unions' attorneys are a laughingstock. They didn't do their proper research. Had they done their research, they would've found out that the Legislative Reference Bureau also publishes the laws. At that point in their due diligence, they could've added the LRB to their TRO.
Any attempt by Judge Sumi or the union attorneys to change her ruling to include the LRB would almost automatically trigger a due process appeal. If a due process appeal is made, that appeal isn't a Wisconsin state court matter because due process rights are part of the federal Constitution. That means that potential lawsuit would be decided by SCOTUS.
The minute this litigation leaves the unions' home court of Wisconsin state courts, they're history.
If Judge Sumi or the Wisconsin Supreme Court cared about Wisconsin state law, this case would've been history by now. Wisconsin's open meetings laws don't apply to special sessions. That's what the legislature was operating in.
This is long-settled law. If the unions don't like Section 19.87, their remedy is to get legislation written, passed and signed into law. In fact, this lawsuit should've been thrown out before the hearing.
Judge Sumi doesn't have the right to ignore the laws she doesn't like. Writing new laws that support her policy preferences isn't administering justice. It's the opposite of justice because it substitutes codified law with personal preferences.
Her attempt to skirt this law is proof that she's unfit for the bench. Society can't tolerate jurists who ignore laws they don't like. That's a form of low-profile anarchy.
It isn't even-handed justice.
Posted Thursday, March 31, 2011 11:43 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 31-Mar-11 01:50 PM
Gary:
Keep in mind she's trying to stall until April 5 when she expects a rational Wisconsin supreme court judge to be kicked out to replaced by a liberal that will support the left.
She'll look even more silly when it does get held up as legal since that rational judge won't be kicked off the bench.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 31-Mar-11 03:31 PM
Word is that they're expediting the case.
Arne Carlson's Fantasyland
If ever was a question whether Arne Carlson was an egotistical elitist liberal, this post should put that question to rest. The post also provides a fun-filled trip through Arne's fantasyland:
In any type of struggle involving a Governor versus the Legislature, a Governor will almost always prevail. First of all, a Governor is the sole leader of a vast statewide management system; can move with speed and flexibility; and has the ability to instantly communicate to the media and the public. Secondly, he has the full muscle of the veto.
Governor Dayton's letter suggests that he fully understands the powers of his office and is prepared to use them.
Technically, Arne's right in that Gov. Dayton is the "sole leader of a vast statewide management system." Certainly, Gov. Dayton has veto authority. These things don't necessarily mean, however, that he'll win many fights.
Vetoing bills because he's insisting that Minnesota has to spend money it doesn't have on things that are operated on a 1970s business model is stupid.
For instance, Gov. Dayton isn't interested in real health care reform that lowers costs. Instead, Gov. Dayton signed an EO enrolling us in Early MA, a plan that Democrats are now admitting don't address runaway costs :
"The real issue that was not addressed, Laura, that you've raised now, and I think appropriately, is the cost, the cost to both the government and to your listeners. We need to take steps now to get the costs of health care under control. That was not dealt with really in an aggressive way in this legislation. I think it now needs to be," Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) told Laura Ingraham.
I'm betting that Minnesota's taxpayers won't side with Gov. Dayton when they discover that he's enrolled them in a program that drives health care costs up.
Institutional authority doesn't help when it's used to support unpopular policies. On issue after issue, Gov. Dayton is positioned opposite the will of the people. Institutional authority won't help him win those fights.
The specific situation as it pertains to Republicans and their control of both houses has additional burdens including:
1 - They are locked into their own campaign rhetoric which railed against any form of 'revenue enhancement' and this includes debt.
2 - The expectations held out by their leaders during the campaign, Emmer, Pawlenty, Sutton, to the effect that either there are no deficits or that they will be easy to manage.
3 - The increasing pressure from Tea Party supporters demonizing 'revenue enhancement' and all the tools normally employed by political systems to resolve conflict such as compromise, negotiating, or even meeting with the other side. In Minnesota, this pressure increases as Michelle Bachman's presidential campaign gains strength.
First, Tom Emmer didn't hint that deficits would be "easy to manage." What he did say is that deficit disappeared if we decided to spend only the money that was projected to come in.
