Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Surf's Up!!

Some of today's waves

If you are a politician and you are going to have a sex scandal, don't pull a Bill Clinton and hide it with one woman, make sure your sex scandal is as salacious as possible.  Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is under investigation not for just having sex parties but doing it with underage girls.

Most people, rightfully, think that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a proponent of peaceful change, but he also believed in protecting his family.  A little known fact, until now, is that King had not only armed guards protecting his family and home, but had at one time applied for a conceal carry permit because of death threats.  Guns are not just about slaughter but also about protection.

Speaking of Dr. King, Meira Levinson raises the question of whether or not we teach the right lessons to school kids about Dr. King.  Prof. Levinson believes we should be talking more about Kings methods, methodologies and collective civic action.  I have some thoughts on the matter as well.

Even though we are some 20 months from the 2012 elections, some long serving Senators are heading for the door.  Sens. Joe Lieberman, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Kent Conrad are all exiting.  One Independent, one Republican and one Democrat.  Jennifer Rubin looks at Hutchison and Conrad and the differences between the two.

A week ago or so, the Illinois Legislature voted a 66% increase in taxes for that state on some taxpayers.  Wisconsin is not actively courting businesses to come to the Badger state.  Newly elected Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is now on the defensive, claiming that Illinois is still the economic engine of the Midwest.  Maybe, but for how long?

Close to my home, we are seeing in the Maryland Republican Party, an endangered species as it is, a rather stupid implosion over the former State Senator Minority Leader Allan Kittleman resigning over his support of a civil union bill.  The talk is about "litmus" tests and how ridiculous it is for a party that is in critical condition in the state to force the resignation of a man who campaigned heavily for Republicans of all stripes in the last election and still stood up after the party got kicked in the teeth.  There are lots of different takes on the matter, from a political viewpoint, a concern about "litmus" tests, and of course, a failure of Republican "leadership" to see the larger picture. Seems pretty stupid.  My advice to Republicans--focus on economic and government spending and let everything else wait.



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