Monthly Archives: June 2009

Obama clueless yet again

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Barack Obama: An American Portrait
Image by tsevis via Flickr

This time it’s on Iran.  A brilliant piece by Charles Krauthammer. (H/T – Charlie Sykes via Silent E)

Millions of Iranians take to the streets to defy a theocratic dictatorship that, among its other finer qualities, is a self-declared enemy of America and the tolerance and liberties it represents. The demonstrators are fighting on their own, but they await just a word that America is on their side.And what do they hear from the president of the United States? Silence. Then, worse. Three days in, the president makes clear his policy: continued “dialogue” with their clerical masters.

Dialogue with a regime that is breaking heads, shooting demonstrators, expelling journalists, arresting activists. Engagement with — which inevitably confers legitimacy upon — leaders elected in a process that begins as a sham (only four handpicked candidates permitted out of 476) and ends in overt rigging.

Then, after treating this popular revolution as an inconvenience to the real business of Obama-Khamanei negotiations, the president speaks favorably of “some initial reaction from the Supreme Leader that indicates he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election.”

Where to begin? “Supreme Leader”? Note the abject solicitousness with which the American president confers this honorific on a clerical dictator who, even as his minions attack demonstrators, offers to examine some returns in some electoral districts — a farcical fix that will do nothing to alter the fraudulence of the election.

Moreover, this incipient revolution is no longer about the election. Obama totally misses the point. The election allowed the political space and provided the spark for the eruption of anti-regime fervor that has been simmering for years and awaiting its moment. But people aren’t dying in the street because they want a recount of hanging chads in suburban Isfahan. They want to bring down the tyrannical, misogynist, corrupt theocracy that has imposed itself with the very baton-wielding goons that today attack the demonstrators. (Source – Obama clueless on Iran – Real Clear Politics)

Go to the source and read the whole thing.

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“Red Fred” gets challenger

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Good luck to Sam Hagedorn.

Today I filed my papers to become a candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly – 12th District. This is the seat currently held by Rep. Fred Kessler.

I’m running on who I am – a conservative.

I think the state government should lower taxes. How? Well first by looking for duplicate services and eliminating them. Those who receive money should be held to the highest standards and if they don’t meet those standards, they should stop getting the funds.

This budget and previous one’s have been put together behind closed doors. Our legislators need to be held accountable, especially when deciding on how to administer money. No budget should be voted on until the citizens of the state have a say in it. We need a daylight budget process.

I also believe that education is priority. The state should encourage the best in schools, no matter if it is a public, private, charter, choice, virtual school or home schooling. What matters is the education received.

In this economy and really at all times, job creation is important. Private industry provides the best avenue for job growth and entrepreneurship. The state should not stand in the way. Less government allows for more freedom to grow in all areas of life including the business climate. (Source: Now a Candidate – yoSAMite says)

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Meeting in secret yet again

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Apparently the Dems in the Wisconsin Legislature don’t have the guts to publicly negotiate how to stick it to Wisconsin businesses and taxpayers.

There will be no formal action on the state budget until Tuesday, a delay that allows legislative leaders to meet privately to try to resolve major differences between the spending plans of the Assembly and Senate.

That would continue what has been a pattern of secrecy surrounding the $62.5 billion two-year budget.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle kept his proposed budget secret until he gave it to the Legislature in February. And Democratic lawmakers at the next three steps in their process – the Joint Finance Committee, Assembly and Senate – also made their decisions behind closed doors.

Leaders of watchdog groups criticized the continued budget secrecy.

“Politicians never seem to learn that operating in secrecy only convinces the public that they are hiding something and makes people that much more suspicious of all politicians,” said Mike McCabe, head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

“If informal, secret negotiations over the weekend end with agreement between the state Senate and the Assembly, citizens will wonder how they arrived at that agreement and what was changed or promised in order to get there,” said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin taxpayers and businesses beware when you hear this type of talk.

It is customary for a Senate-Assembly conference committee to be called to work out final differences in public. But Senate President Fred Risser (D-Madison) said such a committee would not be needed, if differences can be worked out informally.

For instance, he said, the Senate could reconsider its 17-16 vote for the budget, add any compromises negotiated privately, repass the budget and send it to the Assembly, which would OK the deal. (Source: Senate, Assembly may resolve differences in private, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal)

Perhaps residents of the 30th Senate District and the local media in Green Bay should ask Senator Dave Hansen why he supports these secret meetings a member of leadership.

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