You’re a great American except…

Yea, I do have some issues with health care and coverage for the poor, etc but then this am I read the WSJ. On the editorial page a Betsy McCaughey  cites that on pages 297-299 of the bill it states Americans have to report on their income tax submission that they are in a government sanctioned plan or they will be taxed.

Illegal aliens are exempt.

What a deal.

Often wrong but seldom in doubt.

My.

The GOP drubbed the D’s on Tuesday. Yea, yea NY 23 was a mess because it was a mess, but we when win NJ that says it all.

From 98 on the GOP in DE has been beaten up. W didn’t help and we were all crying in our Budweiser. Meeting after meeting we implored/explored and asked ‘why” – what we’re we doing wrong? We had hubris and remorse. We attended Mass and went to Confession looking for the answer as to why the public had dumped us. We knew we were out of favor and wondered why. We had self doubt. 

Until Tuesday.

 However, we were contrite. They are not. We were casting self aspersions. They say, “it’s nothing.” We examined history. They ignored it.

Come 2010 when the elephant march starts anew they will still be in denial. Lacking hubris, lacking modesty, lacking awareness.

The GOP grew fat and happy and were cut off when their arrogance elevated them from the people.

The Pelosi people are poised to make the same mistake.

Republicans need to focus on one word: jobs. Prolife/prochoice, progay/antigay need to be be set on the shelf.

We do that and we win because they are wrong on many issues but have great confidence they are right.

Ignorance is indeed bliss.

Lt. Governor inventing excuses as to why “stimulus” webpage is not being updated

WBOC 16, a Southern Delaware News Station, had an interview with the Lt. Governor a week ago about Delaware’s “stimulus” spending (The original web page can be found here). The report starts with video footage from earlier this year in which the Lt. Governor states that information would be going up on the site in “real time”. However, Jeremy Tucker, the WBOC reporter, notes that a recent report from the Lt. Governor shows that data is not going up in “real time”. The Lt. Governor’s excuse?

“Every state agency is trying to do the same stuff with fewer people.”

However, according to the Delaware Department of Labor’s own data, the State employed 31,100 employees last September and is employing 30,800 employees this September (The full report can be found here). The grand difference of 300 employees. Did the Lt. Governor’s office, as he is the “Stimulus Czar”, shed workers? Only if you count the Lt. Governor is himself as he is only a part time worker (although he still pulls down his full time $75,000 salary plus benefits). His day job can be found here. So, maybe the parttime employee that is not updating the website is the Lt. Governor, himself. However, I think that he is just making it up because he got caught on camera.

To give the Lt. Governor some coverage, though, maybe he was referring to former Secretary Vince Meconi. We have blogged about him before regarding “stimulus”. That post can be found here. The short story is that he has been hired by the Lt. Governor to do the “stimulus” work, but that no one in the Governor’s office seems to know how long Mr. Meconi’s contract is for or what he is actually doing.

In short, the “stimulus” oversight and implementation in Delaware is a failure. But never fear, the Lt. Governor points out that it will be fixed in “weeks rather than months because this is a priority and once we identify problems we try to jump on them pretty quickly.” Of course the last time I heard that a project was going to be solved in “weeks rather than months”, that was the Governor’s effort to make Delaware’s government more efficient. It has been a year since he was elected, and as I pointed out above, State Government is less than 1% smaller (the private sector is over 3% smaller). Anymore government efficiency, and we’ll become New Jersey.

 

The suburbs are back.

Tuesday’s election proved one thing: the GOP leaning suburbs have returned home.

In from 04 to 08 they were sick of war, well educated suburban moms especially were sick of war as were well educated Independents. They live in the suburbs.

After a year of Obamaism they have  have looked at their pocketbooks and decided that the party of personal prosperity aka the GOP is the way to go.

Christie won by 4 times that of Whitman in NJ in ‘93. 4 times. When a Republican wins by that much depsite being outspent 4 to 1 it tells you the so called soccer moms have returned.

Free Private Health Care to be passed by the Federal Government (of Britain)

While Nancy Pelosi and the big government types have decided that a robust “public option” is a requirement and Rahm Emmanuel, the President’s Chief of Staff, has said that government-run healthcare is the ultimate goal, I find it ironic that the British are about to mandate a “private option”. Why? I’ll let The Times of London explain (the whole article can be found here):

Patients who do not get the treatment that they need from the NHS within 18 weeks are to be given the legal right to free private care.

The Cabinet agreed this week that the legislation, placing maximum waiting times on the statute book for the first time, should be rushed through Parliament before the next election.

This will be very interesting to see. First, the Labor Party is going to “rush” through a private option. Will their private option rush through faster than Speaker Pelosi’s “public option”? Second, what is “free private care”? There is no such thing as “free” only subsidized. To do that, they’ll have to take money from the regular government system (which is already growing at the same rate as costs in the United States).

So, costs are growing too fast in the British government run system at the same time as service levels are unacceptably low. The answer? Free private health care.

Oh yeah, that’s just what I want — the British system.

It is the economy, stupid.

I have said and written this numerous times — President Obama got elected because he promised that 95% of Americans would receive a tax cut, and because he was cool under pressure while Lehman & the economy collapsed. The 40% of the country that are in the Center-Right heard this message and voted for it. (The two major parties each pull about 30% of the electorate, and the general election is then decided by this 40% in the Center-Right — NB: the Battleground poll, which has been conducted ~13 times over 20 years, consistently finds that 33% of the country considers itself to be moderately to strongly liberal and 66% of the country considers itself to be moderately to strongly conservative, that is why elections are decided by the center-right).

What has happened since then? $1.3 trillion in new deficit spending — quadrupling George Bush’s deficit with soon to be double digit unemployment.

I don’t say this to be partisan or negative. I say it because it is what people are feeling right now. My proof? Corzine dumps $30 million into a re-election campaign against Christie (a mildly chubby, uninspiring candidate who spent $11 million). Even with a 3rd party candidate (usually the death-knell for the challenger), Corzine and his Goldman-Sachs millions failed to win re-election in a State that the President carried with high double-digits.

You want more proof? While the results aren’t final, it looks like over 50% of New York’s 23rd Congressional District did not vote for the winner. While there was a lot of “Main Stream Media” teeth gnashing about the “Conservative Party” candidate being too conservative, he almost took the race even with the Republican candidate Scozzfazza’s last minute endorsement of the Democrat (who is arguably more conservative than Ms. Scozzafazza). The center-right’s influence on this election cannot be missed in these results.

All politics is local, but the country is in the midst of a serious, serious economic problem. This country-wide problem is being played out locally. In short, the majority of Americans are angry and their problems are being ignored. Let’s get back to what the 2008 election was about — 95% of Americans want more money in their pocket and they want the economy back on track.

The Democrats who are running the Country, Delaware, New Castle County, and the City of Wilmington ignore this simple message at their own peril. The more time spent counting mythical “saved” jobs; the more time spent socializing 20% of the economy; the more time spent creating carbon taxes; the more increases in property/gross receipts/Income/Death taxes; the more increases in government fees; the more Democrat losses in 2010.

(NB: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said within the last 24 hours that it is doubtful that there will be a healthcare bill this year. Looks like some of the Democrats are getting it — See the ABC News story here).

New Castle County Republican Committee is preparing for the battle

Great stuff coming from the newly-energized New Castle County Republican Committee. Please check out their website at http://www.nccgop.com. Michael Fleming is doing a super job organizing and directing this organization. While it is a Republican organization, Michael is no shill for the Republican “status quo” (and with our Win/Loss record that is a darn good thing). In fact, prior to taking on this effort, he led a public effort by disillusioned Delawareans to condemn questionable ethics practices by several former Republican lawmakers while those people were still in office. In other words, he let his beliefs in ethics, effectiveness and openness drive his actions not Party politics. Kudos to Michael.

Today, the New Castle County organization released its platform for 2010 — a year and a day before next year’s general election.

“At a time when every major institution in American life is undergoing dramatic transformation, its high time our government too, adopts new ways of working and organizing in line with the dynamic public it serves,” said Michael Fleming, Chairman.  “We have an extraordinary opportunity — and an obligation — to bring some imagination and forward-thinking to the way our County operates, and works with other governments.  Importantly, New Castle Countians must also be confident their government is functioning transparently and with the highest ethical standards, particularly at a time when we’ve all been asked to shoulder a massive 25% tax increase.”

The overall agenda covers 4 basic County Government areas:

• Impeccable ethics and transparency
• Improved government service and accountability
• Enhanced quality of life, and
• Economic growth

A few specifics of the 2010 agenda are:

All members of Council, and senior administration staff, should be required to publicly report and fully disclose any and all personal and family member business interests and dealings in relation to land-use and other areas of county business where conflicts of interest may arise.  This information should be regularly updated and easily accessible on the County website…

[A]ll governments in New Castle County should undergo a top-to-bottom review with the aim of merging/consolidating major functional services where it makes sense.  These include, but are not limited to, major overlapping public services and functions across both county government and the 15 independent municipalities in New Castle County.  Ours is a relatively small county – 500,000 people.  Much larger counties have successfully implemented changes in the organization of back-office functions like payroll, finance, human resources, purchasing, and information services…

[C]ompensation packages should be designed to reward performance and encourage innovation and effective stewardship of precious taxpayer resources.  Excellence should be recognized and rewarded, but compensation and benefits should not be out of alignment with standards in the private sector.  As we have seen, contracts guaranteeing annual salary raises of up to 8 percent were and are not financially sustainable.  Nor are benefits such as the “sick leave” policy that allows employees to bank up to 100 days of leave, payable at retirement.  Currently, the County is obligated to fund over $20 million in sick leave pay…

Laying it all out there for everyone to see. Let’s see how the status quo responds (that is the status quo that has left New Castle County with no economic growth for a decade). Or will they just continue with the same old, same old.

Two new charter schools for 2011

Two friends heavily involved in starting a two new charter schools asked me to share this with all of you.

The first one will be named after Hon. Rosalie OBara who was the longest serving GOP female office holder (they think) as Clerk of the Peace. It will be in Browntown at the now closed St. Hedwig’s school.  It will be an elementary or middle school.

The second is DITcharter. www.dithcharterorg  It’s website provides information.

Gov. Pete duPont said in the fall of 1990, “that the day will come when parents demand choice in their son or daughter’s education. Charters, vouchers, and choice will become a common practice one day for parents who are realizing that they have choice in every aspect of child rearing except education. It’s discriminatory for only the well to do to be able to buy choice for their son or daughter.”

He’s right. 

(Please note that DOE needs to approve the applications being submitted next month.)

A weighty matter.

Drumroll please, after intense demographic analysis I am opining that Chris Christie will win on Tuesday.

Here’s why: Corzine’s moronic ad poking fun at Christie’s weight insulted 2 0ut of every 3 Americans.

Dieting is a huge issue. Schools have banned soda and sugar products. The Nemours Foundation does workshops for schools to promote a healthy  lifestyle. Drug stores have entire rows of lose weight now supplments. Jenny Craig is a household name, a former FOOTBALL player hawks a weight loss where you can still “eat like a man’.

An ad that repeatedly shows Christie’s backside while the voice talks about him throwing his weight around will go down as the stupidest ad in a generation.

Christie will win by more than 4 points because no overweight person would ever admit to voting against Corzine because he insulted them. 

But in the booth they will make their opinion known. Overweight people are very sensitive about weight, Plus size dresses for women, the fat kid is always picked last in gym class. People grow up to be voting adults very self conscious about their weight.

Back in the eighties a candidate was admonished for wearing a shirt that made them look “fatter.” I heard the consultant say the word. The candidate turned green and said nothing but a meek ok. Fat people think that the thin people think, “well if they just exercised and cut out beer and pizza, it’s all a matter of choice, they’d be thin like me.”

When the New York Times busts on Corzine for the ad it’s bad for him.

Come Tuesday we’ll learn by how much.

The expectations game.

Hmmm, poor put upon Bobby Gibbs, the White House defender of the truth now says Tuesday’s elections “don’t portend anything.”

Translation the GOP rocks in VA and nips the Wall Street banker in NJ.

This will be viewed as a rejection of state run socialism that The President, the former boxer turned Majority Leader and the San Francisco treat, Queen Pelosi are hell bent to give us.

Because I am cyncial I suspect the WH has it’s own internal polls which shows their in trouble.

To cry defeat before the game is over bodes poorly for them.