Chris Christie vs. Teachers Unions

Why he is the baddest man in town. He makes too much sense, that's why the NJEA hates him. He doesn't look like he will be backing down to their thuggery anytime soon.

The Opportunist Running Out Of Opportunities

Knowing that his only chance is to peel away votes from Kendrick Meek, the Democrat, he has to pander. How pathetic. Charlie would it be too hard to stick to any principles, you are exactly the type of politician people are sick of (see Specter, Arlen).

Charlie Crist changes his tune on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Naked Politics

A Different Perspective

From another conservative whose writings I respect, Yuval gives another angle on the "failure" of government in response to disaster. I tend to agree with him in the fact that I am glad we do not have a federal government apparatus that "would have such total control over every facet of every industry that the potential for industrial accidents would be entirely eliminated" but I do believe the federal government has some responsibilities in its response to such disasters. It cannot prevent them and no government is perfect but we do need them to lead on certain issues.

'Obama's Katrina' - Yuval Levin - The Corner on National Review Online

Off Topic

The topic: Music of twenty years ago. Sitting in a bar last night after my softball game I heard a song that reminded me of first year in college,which after further review was actually released 19 years ago but I digress. So I went poking around the Interweb looking for the Top Billboard hits of 1990 (which really is 20 years ago) and my senility really set in, I completely forget the existence of almost half of the songs and corresponding artist. Is my memory that poor? Or more accurately is it a reflection of the disposable nature of some music? Anyways I'll list the top ten here and link to the final ninety. If anything it will jog some memories for ya...

01. Hold On » Wilson Phillips
02. It Must Have Been Love » Roxette
03. Nothing Compares 2 U » Sinead O'Connor
04. Poison » Bell Biv Devoe
05. Vogue » Madonna
06. Vision Of Love » Mariah Carey
07. Another Day In Paradise » Phil Collins
08. Hold On » En Vogue
09. Cradle Of Love » Billy Idol
10. Blaze Of Glory » Jon Bon Jovi

The other 90

Follow Up On Spill

This Via Left Coast Rebel, it is the latest on BP's attempt to seal off the well. Interesting stuff:


Left Coast Rebel: BP Oil Spill Live Feed, What is the 'top kill' Procedure?

Breaking News!

The President to actually take questions from the press in a stand alone press conference, it's only been 308 days since his last time taking questions in this format and the first time he will be grilled about the oil spill:

President Schedules Press Conference

Should be some excitement. Over/Under on when he exudes smugness: 3.5 minutes in

The Reform Agenda: Changing Course in N.J.

Hope Congress reads this and takes notes....

The Reform Agenda: Changing Course in N.J.

I'm Baaaaaaack

Yes I have been silent the last couple of weeks, but am trying to find more time to write. As most of you know I am in the middle of studying for the LSAT, which I am taking on June 7th. The focus on my stress level the last month or so has severely cut into my spare time of reading and yes writing this issues based blog. I guess if I was writing about my personal life I may have had time to drop in and share a pointless anecdote of how I changed toothpaste brands or some other crap. No sir not this guy, I do serious stuff here (sarcasm).

Anyways the last couple of weeks have been fairly eventful in the news. In this day of the 24hr news cycle I am woefully behind on analyzing some things so I'll spare you the rundown. Two big issues lately though have caught my attention. One is more local to NYC, the other of course being this oil spill mess in the Gulf (sorry I will be the thousandth guy talking about it). The New York issue is last night's Community Board 1 decision to approve the Cordoba project in lower Manhattan. For those unfamiliar with the project, it is a proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center a stones throw away from where 3,000 people lost their life in the name of that religion. It passed by a vote of 29-1, I would like to buy the lone dissenter a drink because he/she obviously gets it.

Here's the thing, quite honestly I do not have an issue specifically with a mosque or house of worship being built anywhere as long as it adheres to local zoning laws. What I do have a problem with is the gentleman who is proposing this site. The Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has insisted that his project will "bridge the great divide" between Muslims and the rest of America. Until he answers specific questions about his organization and what type of cultural center will be there he should not be given the benefit of the doubt. He says it will reflect "moderate" Islamic views and promote tolerance of Muslim views in America. No one is asking serious questions though, as Bret Stephens over at the Wall Street Journal pointed out in a great item yesterday. Until we get an answer as to how they plan on funding this $100 million center, when Rauf only has $18,000 in the bank; until we know what aspects of Sharia law they repudiate, if any; and until we know if he really wants to stand by his earlier statements that it wasn't Muslims who perpetrated 9/11, the city and it's residents should oppose this fallacy of his "moderateness" and the construction of the mosque. The idea of this being in the shadows of the WTC is despicable. He should be taking his moderation to Riyadh and Tehran and "moderating" his fellow Muslims as it seems THEY are the ones who need to be tolerant and "bridge the great divide"...the great divide between the Middle Ages and 21st Century.

'Deepwater Horizon'

That term could very well describe the location of the latest poll numbers for President Obama, but in this case I am referring to the oil rig in the Gulf that exploded and killed 10 workers on April 20th. I am not going to sit here and blame the oil spill on the President, that is just plain silly but the response of the White House has been a microcosm (although not so micro, as it is in its 37th day of spilling) of how they operate, arrogant and aloof. Even James Carville had a total outburst with George Stephanapolous about the response. There are a couple of memes (the most overused term on the Internet, by the way) that seem to be prevailing over the narrative of the story. One is that it is totally BP's fault, the other is that it is George W. Bush's fault. The one that seems to be missing is that it is exhibit #56,987 on why big government - of either party - is generally a failure. It is the only entity that has any oversight authority in waters that effect five different states. Some people have as gone as far as calling this Obama's Katrina. I respectfully disagree with this assertion, the comparison has one huge logical leap that cannot be made easily. I actually believe Obama's administration's response is egregiously worse. Let me explain what I mean by this.

In the case of Katrina the responsibility of first response and triage of an in state disaster is quite clear. It is the responsibility of the state's resources and it was obvious after only a day or two that their effort was lacking and not very planned out. Did the Bush Administration (FEMA) drop the ball in some regards to Katrina, yes but certainly not to the extent that the media narrative at the time would have you believe. It was not the federal responsibility to step in until the state asked for help, which it did by asking Bush to declare a State of Emergency two days before landfall...the administration complied. The resources were in place but tragically not for the unforeseen tragedy of the levees breaking around the city. And this is where the complex failures of Mayor Ray Nagin, Governor Blanco and head of FEMA Mike Brown all converged. So while we were brought the dramatic pictures of people sitting on their roofs waiting to be rescued, the narrative that it was all Bush's fault took hold and perception became reality. Having been through the previously worst natural disaster, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, I can attest that it is the state and local authorities who are best equipped to assist residents evacuating and acquiring quickly the supplies necessary. The flip side here is the Deepwater Horizon disaster, from minute one in the Gulf it is a federal issue. They regulate the rigs from the obviously inefficient and lazy Mining Management Service, so how is it not the responsibility of theirs to manage the safety? Well as we have found out BP had no Plan B, and the federal government had no Plan A even. It has been the assumption of BP that "Nothing will happen to the rig", and apparently that explanation was just fine to the regulatory body of MMS. Which can also be illustrated by the fact that they are continuing to approve mining locations even though it is clear they don't have oversight capabilities. A possible solution, let's have a real moratorium on new drilling for now as we figure out this mess and go from there. Re-inspect all rigs and make sure they all have operational emergency shutoffs. There is no 'failsafe' in this instance but a reasonable expectation would be to have a decent alternative plan. We will continue to need domestic drilling operations for natural gas and oil so an all out ban would be foolish and reactionary.

Why the White House cannot craft a cohesive message on this in 37 days is beyond me. Did they figure it would just go away, that BP would take care of it? They do shoulder some of the responsibility of the cleanup obviously but the feds should have been on this immediately, there was no bureaucracy in the way except themselves which of course is part of the problem. The federal government gave them permission to drill there, did the administration not think there are repercussions to that effect and that they wouldn't be called to the carpet on a problem occurring during a federally sanctioned endeavor? It is amazing that only after the mainstream media started carping on this did the administration see fit to respond accordingly. It is just sad that the media took this long but it is just irresponsible and lazy for the administration to not pay attention to it. This incident is becoming the icing on the cake of America's growing distrust for government to do the things it is actually supposed to do, and its growing discontent with the government trying to get into things it has no business doing.

So while yes it may be the Katrina equivalent in the image damaging perspective, it just is not apples to apples comparison in the scope of how an administration fails in a response to disaster.

The Man Is On A Roll

Via Hot Air:

Via Ace. Dude, I’m starting to think this might be the guy. A solid first term, then reelection in 2014, and suddenly the wide-open 2016 primaries are right around the corner…


Elsewhere today, thanks to Christie’s support, the Jersey state senate pushed through a school voucher bill over the objections of the teachers union. Quote: “Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, the committee chairman, then ordered the hearing held on the Annex steps in front of hundreds of cheering private-school students who had been bused in to rally for the measure.”

Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his 'confrontational tone'

N.J. Gov. Sets Tone for U.S.

Some more respect to the Governor of NJ. People have to realize this is how things need to get done, government can no longer just spend willy-nilly. The bill eventually comes due, and years of Corzine and McGreevey sucking up to the public service unions has reared its ugly head. If you had some fiscal conservatives actually operating the government at any level, this grand scale of spending cuts would never be necessary.

N.J. gov. sets tone for US - TheHill.

For A Good Laugh

Thought this was funny and worth reposting. Completely off topic I know, but it does contain some NSFW material. Enjoy :)

60 Unintentionally Offensive Business And Product Names

If You Want To Know...

...what our enemies look like and what is wrong with Universities across this country take a look at the video embedded in the link below. This kind of stuff needs to be out there, because sadly these people are active on just about every large campus. We need to call them out for what they are, but in these days of never wanting to "offend a Muslim" it seems people want to sweep it under the rug and hope that it goes away. From the Times Square bomber to the mosque being erected in the shadows of the World Trade Center it makes me sick to my stomach that we as a country are not more vocal about such issues. Although with a President who apologizes for everything this great nation has done, and feels its his "responsibility as President of the US to fight against Muslim stereotypes" I cannot expect too much.

“For It”: MSA Student Confesses She Wants a Second Holocaust

Faisal Shahzad, Subprime Terrorist? - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

Another good read on our "amateur" terrorist....

Faisal Shahzad, Subprime Terrorist? - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

Figures..

I mean what else is new with the "offended" class in this country and to no one's surprise it's a Democrat. Let me put this in a language Mr. Menendez can understand : Vete pa' carajo

Sen. Robert Menendez urges MLB players to boycott Arizona All-Star Game - ESPN

Breaking Down The Uni-Brow Bomber

That would be Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square terrorist. Where to begin really. First you have the cacophony of idiots who immediately wanted to insist it was a "lone wolf" attack before they even had any information. I include our Homeland Security chief Janet "Butch" Napolitano, Mayor Mike "I Want to be Mayor In Perpetuity" Bloomberg, and Sen. Chuck "Gillibrand Is My Puppet" Schumer in this group. They all were quick to say it was a one off. Why is Islamic terrorism so inconvenient for these people? Ever since this administration reared its ugly head, the War on Terror is so retro....its soooo Bush. Terrorism is a distraction to the Obamabots, it takes away from the domestic agenda they are so invested in. Never mind that these people want to kill us or that once again we got lucky. They are wholly disinterested in the exercise. Witness Baghdad Bob Gibbs explaining the incident to the press: “I would say that was intended to terrorize, and I would say that whomever did that would be characterized as a terrorist.” Was it too freaking hard to say "Shahzad is a terrorist engaging in terror"?

Let me continue on the lack of seriousness for a second. As more things are found out about this man and from what he is saying, this administration cannot connect dots. This excerpted from AJ Strata at Strata-Sphere:

As we learn more and more about Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square Bomber who is also a naturalized American citizen, we also are seeing signs that something is going horribly wrong inside the classified halls of the Obama administration's war on terrorists. As I noted in previous posts, news reports that emerged since the Ft. Hood bombing and Christmas Day bombing attempt late last year show a pattern that indicates AG Holder (presumably with the backing of the President) began to roll back surveillance of suspects with potential terrorist ties. It was part and parcel of the debate to close GITMO and focus our national security efforts only on certain regions and people with established ties to terrorist groups. New leads were to be treated differently, and Bush era investigations were to be shut down. . . . The nexus of the last three attacks (Ft Hood, Christmas Day bomber and now Times Square bomber) appears to be American citizen turned traitor Anwar al Aulaqi. As the NY Times notes today, he is the common 'red dot' connecting all three incidents. . . . What is stunning about this whole story is how apparently the surveillance of people tied to al Aulaqi were shut down last year. To me that indicates it was really the monitoring of al Aulaqi that was shut down, causing a cascade of blindness related to anyone (like Major Hasan) tied to him. This affected surveillance actions and investigations initiated during the Bush administration and apparently active when team Obama took office. It was a horrible blunder which we know killed 14 people at Ft Hood and injured dozens of others.

So I get back to my original observation what is it that makes these Islamists so inconvenient. Oh maybe because they AREN'T some lone wolf white guy mad at health care? That would be easy then, they could just blame Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, etc. Or if it was just one guy they could treat it as a criminal enterprise and wouldn't Attorney General Holder just love that. For more on this check out Mark Steyn's post at NRO Corner. In his humorous way quickly dressing down the situation.

UPDATE (5/8): Follow up, interesting Bret Baier interview on radio the other day regarding this topic and of course Baghdad Bob Gibbs' latest diatribe against Fox News:

Seis De Mayo

At first glance this story about the kids in California getting sent home for wearing American flag t-shirts reeked of political correctness. And why yes it is the reason the school reacted the way they did, it is not the reason 200 Mexican-American kids walked out of class in protest on the 6th of May. What is their motivation, you ask? Here is where the causality of years of political correctness and the liberal way of dividing us into identity groups reaches a nexus.

Imagine if you will, you are taught that you are a hyphenate first and an American second. Well that is what liberalism passes down through our kids in history and civics classes all across this country in the public school system. They teach ultimately that every group at some point has been a victim to America and our progress as a country, so therefore we are "less" of a Nation. I have read a lot of history and I can honestly tell you there are two and only two that have a legitimate claim to that status. That would be the Native Americans who experienced the European push on multiple fronts (Spaniards, French and English all taking claims), and the African slaves. The African slaves, while they were sold-out by their own people in Africa for money, does not excuse this country's participation in such. Even with those pockmarks on our history, not many societies while oppressing a certain group eventually welcome that group in the ultimate progression of that society. You can certainly make an argument for women but that is a whole other topic, gender equality. Let's stick to the scope of one discussion for this post :)

Eventually slaves were freed, hell this country went to war over that fact. That in and of itself proves the type of American Exceptionalism that is so lost on modern liberals/progressives. The Romans would have never gone to war over their slaves or any European society for that matter, the fact that a good chunk of this country saw it as morally wrong and willing to die over it shows the true nature of our Republic. Without the words "all men are created equal" ingrained in our DNA, that fight would have never come to pass. And it was a fight that the framers knew would come to light at some time in our history. One only needs to read the words of Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union speech to illustrate that to you.

So what does all this have to do with a bunch of stupid kids in California? Well as a first generation American I was instilled with a grander embrace of all that is this country, warts and all. My parents escaped tyranny and oppression themselves to come here, not Spain and not France. Both countries that my family has some blood (the French is minuscule by the way, thank God....i kid) ties to. These little punk Mexican-Americans have been taught that trashing America is cool, assimilation is not necessary. Liberals in this country through their policies of affirmative action have all but eliminated any incentive to consider yourself an American first. There isn't even an option for that when you get a form. These kids, to get "respect" as they say, stood up and walked out on class. First off, high school is where you learn (or at least attempt to)...you wanna be all protesty go to college and do it on your own time. It disrupts the day for the rest of the kids who are all there on some taxpayer's dime. Secondly, what is this idea of "respect" anyways? You are an American why are you offended that kids wore American flags? Adding insult to injury, I would venture to guess that most of these kids were born here anyways.What the hell are they so angry about? Kids wore a t-shirt with a flag of the country you live in and provides you the freedom to go to school and learn something (or at least attempt to). I once again guarantee that if one of these vatos walked into class, with a t-shirt, with a Mexican flag on it, they wouldn't get sent home.

Look I am not advocating that us as melting pot Americans forget our heritage or where we come from, quite the opposite. Embrace your cultural heritage, love where you come from but ultimately you are now an American. Whether it is by birthright as I am, or naturalized like my parents our allegiance and our respect goes to America first. My family, as many others, would not exist if not for the greatness and yes exceptionalism of this country. So bottom line, the irony is these are exactly the types of kids that should be embracing their freedom and this country, not stifling others and wanting "respect". We have lost that though in this culture of identity politics. There is no individualism, there is no exceptionalism. You are just lumped into some group that was wronged at one time or another. Just get angry, boycott something and offer nothing to this culture but angst.

"Present"

Well two things with this story. One, it solidifies the fact that just about everyone in this administration is a hack. They sure do run a nice campaign, as for running our country...eh not so much. Secondly it illustrates the fraud that is the UN. Iran voted onto the Commission on the Status of Women? Are they serious? Their current record on women's rights (as is any theocratic Muslim society) borders on pure evil. Makes me nostalgic for the days of John Bolton, who consistently put on record America's defense of liberty loving peoples and human rights at that glorified debate club.

She Wasn’t Even in the Room - Richard Grenell - The Corner on National Review Online

Beyond Schadenfreude

This is just fantastical. Watching that misogynistic, illogical, pea brain of a man self-immolate on a Sunday morning news show...priceless. According to his logic I can say this: If you are an idiot, you must be watching Real Time with Bill Maher.

Beyond Schadenfreude: What George Will's Crucifixion of Bill Maher Really Means

Well..Duh

Federal Government Outpaces Private Sector in Job Creation


It's always nice to have statistics back up the obvious. I see our future and it looks a lot like this:

Image: AFP - Louisa Gouliamaki

This is what happens when public employee benefits run amok and no one can pay for them anymore.

More Jobs Americans Won't Do...

I am constantly told by advocates of illegal immigrants that illegals will perform job duties Americans have no interest in, so therefore it is in our best interest to offer amnesty to keep them here. Really? I am just glad that they busted this company and now legal and tax paying citizens can have a real opportunity for a job in this tough economy.

Hundreds seek to fill vacant positions at Pro's Ranch Market Phoenix News Arizona News azfamily.com Arizona News

Chickens Coming Home To Roost

I just wanted to borrow a line from President Obama's favorite preacher. In any case today's March 2010 inflation report is one of the first chickens that we will start to see. It is a consequence of printing money like nobody's business in the last year, whether it was stimulus or continuing to pour money down the Fannie/Freddie sinkhole, this administration shows its blind adherence to ultra-liberalism at the risk of setting back the economic growth of this country. Did he inherit some issues? No doubt. But The One's solution to just ram down any liberal POS legislation without debate or addressing the American people's concerns is contemptible and history will remember. This is just the beginning of course. If Obamacare continues to become a reality your healthcare costs will rise, your taxes will rise oh but more Americans will be covered with health insurance. Even though he told everyone he would never raise taxes on anyone making under $250,000....ha. I can't believe these Obamabots actually think this man tells the truth, ever. Well at least now I will be able to sleep better at night knowing that getting those people insurance just destroyed any future possibility of a robust economy.