An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 28 October 2007
Fred Stuff
Thompson wary of long-term Iraq presence
Republican Fred Thompson warned Saturday that suggestions the U.S. could maintain a long-term presence in Iraq “would not be a good development,” and he conceded that mistakes were made that are only now being rectified.
President Bush has suggested there could be a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq, very similar to what the nation has in Korea. But Thompson, who has been a reliable supporter of the war in Iraq thus far, was leery of a long-term presence in an interview with The Associated Press.
Ok, now I’m confused. If we aren’t going to just walk away, and commit to win this thing, wouldn’t it be logical that we’d have a presence there for quite a while? I mean, seriously, we still haven’t left Germany or Japan. I sure don’t want to see our guys in Iraq anywhere near as long.
While Thompson said there are U.S. troops on long-term deployments in places like Germany and Korea, he said “of course not” when asked if a similar deployment should happen in Iraq.
“I don’t think that’s desirable,” said Thompson, though he did leave an opening. “What might be necessary in the future, you can never tell,” he said.
Ok, I’m sorry, but…….duh!
His described his definition of success in Iraq:
“The average person being able to go to worship without fear of being blown up. … Political leaders being able to meet without fear of being blown up. They key is stability, and that would signal a level of stability we haven’t had.”
Not being worried about ending up in pieces is definitely a good thing, but one type of bad guy is being replaced with another type of bad guy. I don’t see any indication of ‘stability’ in that at all.
Thompson has warned that the nation faces in Iraq “kids” who make improvised explosive devices, and it would be a bad signal to lose to such a foe.
The greatest fighting force on the planet can NOT lose to kids. Totally unacceptable.
“They are being made in large numbers by youngsters along the border there and they are doing a lot of damage to us,” Thompson said. “The perception that America could be defeated by this and these people, obviously not alone, for that to be such an integral part of the success of our enemies would be a very damaging thing I think to the perception of our will and our abilities.”
Huh? If anyone understands this, please translate, K?
He dismissed suggestions he runs a campaign that’s less intense than his rivals.
“I don’t feel the need to impress the national media with the details of my schedule,” said Thompson. “I do things my own way, at my own pace.”
I tend to agree. We shouldn’t be allowing the media to choose our next presidential candidates, yet, that’s exactly what we’ve done for a while now. I don’t care who Sean Hannity endorses, or Perky Couric, or any of the rest of them. I want to know where ALL of them stand, and I’d like them to tell me themselves.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has maintained a lead in most national polls among the Republican contenders, though his pro-choice and pro-gay rights stands are at odds with many in the conservative base of the Republican.
I get the impression that Giuliani has maintained that lead because people, even those serious conservatives, are afraid of another Clinton White House, and feel only he can beat her. How ’bout we stick without our values instead!
Things will change, Thompson argued, when voters begin to focus on the views of the candidates.
“Let’s just say there will be more focus on everyone and everyone’s positions,” Thompson said. “I’m sure there are a lot of voters out there who are really not clear on the positions of all of us, and that includes Mayor Giuliani.”
Die hards have already been focusing.
H/T: Elephant Biz
Competition is Good
Fond du Lac native mulls challenging Roessler for state Senate seat
Oshkosh Common Councilor Jessica King — a Fond du Lac native — has filed paperwork with the Wisconsin State Elections Board to explore a run for the Wisconsin Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. Carol Roessler.
King, a first term Oshkosh city councilor, has filed documents that allow her to form an exploratory committee and to begin to raise money for a possible bid as a Democrat for Roessler’s seat.
Roessler, R-Oshkosh, has been unopposed the last two times she has been up for re-election. She declined to say whether she would seek a seventh four-year term representing the 18th Senate District.
“I am focusing on the job that I have, which is what I do,” Roessler said. “My focus is on the priorities of my district and the budget and the vetoes and my legislative responsibilities.”
I don’t know Jessica King. If she is more conservative, which isn’t hard to do, than Roessler, I’d kick in a few bucks towards her campaign.
I can think of a few folks in the Fond du Lac area I believe would do a great job in that seat, but they don’t seem to have stepped forward…………………..yet.
Union Thuggery
Organized Labor’s Green Blackmail
James Sherk
Organized Labor has a long history with extortion and the mob. Federal prosecutors have put most of those mob bosses behind bars, but unions haven’t renounced using blackmail to get what they want. They simply use more sophisticated methods to do the same thing.
Take the way unions exploit environmental concerns through Project Labor Agreements. Under PLAs, businesses promise to hire only union members — or else. Why would businesses sign such agreements? Because unions threaten to use environmental regulations to shut them down unless they sign the PLA.
The law requires companies to get environmental permits to begin major construction projects. The process takes time, and community groups may object to awarding the permits.
Unions can misuse these laws to kill a project outright — or at least delay it for several years. They can file environmental objections, conduct their own environmental impact assessment that shows that letting it go forward would harm the Earth, and use their influence to block companies from getting the necessary permits. Many businesses face an offer they can’t refuse: Sign a PLA and hire more expensive union members to construct their buildings, or the union will use environmental laws to shutter the project.
Sound like blackmail? That’s because it is. Only this time unions use government bureaucrats instead of armed thugs to intimidate businesses. It happens repeatedly:
— Gaylord Entertainment planned to build a $1 billion hotel and convention center on San Diego’s waterfront. The San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council, however, insisted that Gaylord sign a PLA adding $100 million to the total cost or the union would tie up the project for years with environmental lawsuits. Gaylord pulled out, costing San Diego thousands of new jobs.
— The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 100 objected to a solar power plant being built in Fresno, Calif. Solar power plants are usually considered environmentally friendly, but this plant was being built with non-union labor. The IBEW discovered many environmental problems with the project and attempted to block it. Fortunately, the Fresno City Council saw through the attempted extortion and voted to reject the union’s complaints.
— Indeck Energy Services applied to build several co-generation power plants in upstate New York. The Building and Construction Trades Council also had environmental objections to this project and requested a meeting with Indeck’s president. At the meeting, however, instead of discussing the environment, the union bosses threatened to “stop every Indeck project in New York unless it went union.†Indeck capitulated, signed a PLA, and the union reversed its earlier objections, strongly urging the government to grant the environmental permits.
Morning Coffee 10/28/07
Homeland Security, New York agree on new driver’s licenses
The Bush administration and New York cut a deal Saturday to create a new generation of super-secure driver’s licenses for U.S. citizens, but also allow illegal immigrants to get a version.
New York is the fourth state to reach an agreement on federally approved secure licenses, after Arizona, Vermont and Washington.
Are there any grown ups in charge? Pure insanity.
GOP field’s hard turn to right has risk
They could reinvent the party, much as Barry Goldwater did in 1964 or Ronald Reagan did in 1980. They would reject the “compassionate conservatism” of George W. Bush, circa 2000, which appealed to suburban moderates but frustrated conservatives with a free-spending, big-government approach that expanded the federal role in education; created the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, the first new entitlement since Medicare itself in the 1960s; and sought to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country.
I’m all for reinventing the party. Heaven knows, what it has become is NOT my ideal. But then, that’s just me.
Obama Promises a Forceful Stand Against Clinton
Senator Barack Obama said he would start confronting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more directly and forcefully, saying Friday that she had not been candid in describing her views on critical policy issues, as he tries to address mounting alarm among supporters that his lack of assertiveness so far has allowed her to dominate the presidential race.
If I were him, I’d be worried about my safety and well being. The Clintons don’t like like it when folks confront. Reputations ruined, accidents, etc.
Minorities less likely to trick-or-treat
Two-thirds of parents say their children will trick-or-treat this Halloween, but fewer minorities will let their kids go door to door, with some citing safety worries, a poll shows.
The survey found that 73 percent of whites versus 56 percent of minorities said their children will trick-or-treat.
It doesn’t seem quite fair for a few animals to ruin a kid’s fun, now does it. Perhaps the so called leadership with stop coddling the thugs, and start looking at the childhood the kids are missing?
Venezuela Increasingly A Conduit For Cocaine
Colombian drug kingpins in league with corrupt Venezuelan military officers are increasingly using this country as a way station for smuggling cocaine to the United States and Europe, according to Colombian and U.S. officials. The Bush administration’s dismal relations with Venezuela’s government have made matters worse, anti-drug agencies say, paralyzing counternarcotics cooperation.
Umm….shouldn’t that be “Chavez’s dismal relations with the U.S.”? Who called who ‘diablo’? Odds are, ‘Ugo is making a few bucks of this deal too. Anything that could see the downfall of a democracy is just peachy with him.
Four months after Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton went public with explosive allegations that powerful businessmen tried to frame him in a sex sting, a criminal probe drags on.
Special prosecutor Joe Baugh said last week he has two Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents working the case and plans to subpoena records to help resolve the matter.
Jeez! Talk about your ‘tangled webs’!
Israel begins cuts in fuel supplies to Gaza Strip
Israel began cutting vital fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, following through on a promise to increase pressure on Gaza’s Hamas rulers in response to months of Palestinian rocket attacks.
Ahmed Ali, the deputy director of Gaza’s Petroleum Authority, said shipments of diesel fuel and gasoline were 30 percent smaller than regular deliveries. He warned the cuts would cause widespread hardship in impoverished Gaza.
Does Gaza produce anything? Do they grow food? Seriously, why are the impoverished? If Hamas can afford to buy rockets, why can’t they start putting those bucks into creating a better place for the folks?
Evacuations raise deportation fears
Flames were only one worry for some illegal immigrants in the fire zone. Equally scary were the crowded roads and evacuation centers, heavy with law enforcement officers, including U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Some wondered if they would be deported if they went to shelters.
“We decided that we wouldn’t go because they ask for your name and everything,” said day laborer Jose Salgado, waiting for work off the 5 Freeway near Rancho Santa Fe.
Shucks!
Gap Stores Using Child Labor in Indian Sweatshop, British Newspaper Reports
A British newspaper reported Sunday that it found children as young as 10 making clothes in a sweatshop in New Delhi, India, that the Gap fashion chain planned to sell in the West.
The Observer quoted the children as saying they had been sold to the sweatshop by their families in Indian states such as Bihar and West Bengal and would not be allowed to leave until they had repaid that fee.
I knew there was a reason I didn’t like the Gap. I can’t imagine any parent selling their kid, for any reason. I understand sometimes a family is so poor, they need to have their young ones work, just to survive. But using their kids as property, to be bought and sold? Inconceivable.
US: al-Qaida Presence in Baghdad Reduced
The threat from al-Qaida in several former strongholds in Baghdad has been significantly reduced, but criminals who have established “almost mafia-like presence” in some areas pose a new threat, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Sunday.
Gen. David Petraeus stressed, however, the terror organization remained “a very dangerous and very lethal enemy” and said the military would maintain pressure to keep them from regrouping.
Are they sure al Qaida isn’t just changing it’s tactics?
Having lawmaker on your side helps get state funds
Of more than 4,000 applications, nearly 3,000 lacked a legislator’s sponsorship, according to the analysis.
Secretary of State Riley Darnell was given discretion by the Legislature to award the money, but he said each of the sponsored requests had a “legislative history†and that he was “honor bound to try to deal†with the lawmakers’ requests first.
Somehow, that just doesn’t sound quite right.
