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- So we are to have a French health-care system without a French tradition of political protest. It is odd that American liberalism, in a veritable state of insurrection during the Bush presidency, now seeks political quiescence. These "townhallers" who have come forth to challenge ObamaCare have been labeled "evil-mongers" (Harry Reid), "un-American" (Nancy Pelosi), agitators and rowdies and worse.
- A political class, and a media elite, that glamorized the protest against the Iraq war, that branded the Bush presidency as a reign of usurpation, now wishes to be done with the tumult of political debate. President Barack Obama himself, the community organizer par excellence, is full of lament that the "loudest voices" are running away with the national debate. Liberalism in righteous opposition, liberalism in power: The rules have changed.
- It was true to script, and to necessity, that Mr. Obama would try to push through his sweeping program—the change in the health-care system, a huge budget deficit, the stimulus package, the takeover of the automotive industry—in record time. He and his handlers must have feared that the spell would soon be broken, that the coalition that carried Mr. Obama to power was destined to come apart, that a country anxious and frightened in the fall of 2008 could recover its poise and self-confidence.
- Historically, this republic, unlike the Old World and the command economies of the Third World, had trusted the society rather than the state. In a perilous moment, that balance had shifted, and Mr. Obama was the beneficiary of that shift.
- So our new president wanted a fundamental overhaul of the health-care system—17% of our GDP—without a serious debate, and without "loud voices." It is akin to government by emergency decrees. How dare those townhallers (the voters) heckle Arlen Specter! Americans eager to rein in this runaway populism were now guilty of lèse-majesté by talking back to the political class.
- U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has scheduled a hearing Thursday afternoon in Batavia to discuss the milk pricing system.
- Reps. Eric Massa and Chris Lee are also scheduled to attend the hearing, at 2 p.m. in the Forum at Genesee Community College, 1 College Drive.
- Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee, has invited a panel of milk producers and a panel of economists and farm experts to discuss the pricing system. After a couple of bumper years for dairy farmers, the prices this year have fallen to a level below the production cost for many farmers.
- The panel of milk producers and processers will include Barb Hanselman, a dairy farmer from Delaware County; Robert Church, herd manager of Patterson Farms in Cayuga County; Robin Keller, a Byron, Genesee County, dairy farmer; Kim Pickard-Dudley, dairy economist for Upstate Niagara Co-op; and Bruce Krupke, executive vice president of the Northeast Dairy Foods Association.
- The other panel will include Dean Norton, president of the state Farm Bureau; Andrew Novakovic, director of the Cornell Program on Dairy Markets and Policy; Bob Wellington, chief economist for Agrimark; Ron McCormick, former representative to the National Dairy Board; and William Magee, chairman of the state Assembly Committee on Agriculture.
- Others who attend the hearing may offer testimony at the hearing, or submit it by e-mail to dairyhearing@gillibrand.senate.gov or mail to Gillibrand’s Rochester office at Kenneth B. Keating Federal Office Building, 100 State St., Room 4195, Rochester, NY, 14614.
- Gillibrand’s office said written testimony received within five days of the hearing will be made part of the official record of the hearing.
- The amusement here is how most states compute sales tax (charged when you register the vehicle.)
- When you buy a new car you pay tax on the difference between the new car's purchase price and the trade-in you present to the dealer.
- This is an intentional distortion in the law that is intended to favor dealers over private-party used car sales.
- If you sell your used car privately the new buyer pays sales tax but you do not get the offset on the purchase of your replacement vehicle - the only way to get that is to trade the car.
- Dealers use this, of course, in negotiations, effectively pocketing the sales tax.
- But the 'cash for clunkers' is not a trade-in. That's a $4,500 check from the government, basically," and that's in income that you have to pay tax on.
How's that "Hopeless" Change Workin' For Ya Now??
A-w-w-w-w.....Too Bad!! A Life of Special Treatment Edward M. [Ted; Phatt; Fat] Kennedy kicked off early on Wednesday, 08/26/009; with a rotten brain..... no really-NOT philosophically or politically.... cancer ate it up!! Having grown up in a priviledged family and their upper-crust society, Phatt always projected a feeling he deserved all the special consideration he demanded and got. Some highlights and lowlights from a life of priviledge: Kennedy earned C grades at the private Milton Academy. Admitted to Harvard as a "legacy" -- his father and older brothers had attended there, so the younger and dimmer Kennedy's admission was virtually assured. While attending, he was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England, pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea, where a war was raging. Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. He passed the bar exam in 1959, and two years later was appointed an Assistant to the District Attorney in Massachusetts' Suffolk County. In 1962, at age 30 (constitutionally, the minimum age to hold a Senate seat) he ran for the Senate. His timing was perfect -- his brother John had given up the seat to become President, and Kennedy easily won the office. He was re-elected eight times to the office. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. On 19 July 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond. He swam to shore and walked back to the party -- passing several houses and a fire station -- and two friends returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew, that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning. By then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began pulling strings, ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne, and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. In versions closer to the probable truth, it is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, Kennedy was having an affair with Kopechne, Kennedy held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy's political enemies have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick, or worse. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a suspended sentence of two months [with that sentence, why bother??]. Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court. Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills. In 1973, at the height of Nixon's Watergate scandal, Kennedy thundered from the Senate floor, "Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?" In 1980, Kennedy challenged Carter, his own party's sitting President, for the Democratic nomination. Kennedy's bid was hampered by questions of Chappaquiddick. During an interview with CBS Newsman Roger Mudd, when asked the straightforward question, "Why do you want to be President?" Kennedy couldn't come up with a straightforward answer. To his credit, Phatt Kennedy was instrumental in Ronald Reagan winning the White House. In a late-1980s media profile, Kennedy was succinctly described as someone who "grew to manhood without learning to be an adult". He is rumored to have had several affairs while married to his first wife, and had often been seen in public while thoroughly tanked and/or behaving obnoxiously.In 1987 he was caught in flagrante delicto [boinking; screwing in public] with an unidentified woman on the floor of a restaurant.
His public image since the early 1990s and during his second marriage has been more conservative and restrained. In 2001, Kennedy worked with President Bush to enact the No Child Left Behind Act. He later complained publicly that he had been hoodwinked, because the legislation did not include funding to pay for its requirements. Kennedy voted against the Iraq war in 2003Kennedy said of it: "There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud."
In 2004, Tom Ridge's Department of Homeland Security put Kennedy's name on the secret national "no-fly list", and he was barred from a shuttle flight from Washington to Boston. After a flurry of phone calls to Ridge's office, Kennedy's problem was described as "a clerical error [to protect stewardesses]", and solved within a few days.
Til Nex'Time....
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