Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/09/2010 12:29 ||
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#1
I believe I have a solution to this vexing problem the blue states are having. In my opinion the indigenous Indian tribes should be offered first choice should they wish to reclaim said areas. I understand reparations would be of interest to democrats.
#2
The Indians should get a new deal. Dump the Bureau of Indian affairs and create an non-congruous Indian state with Senators and all. The new state should also have the option to buy up lands neighboring reservations to increase the size of the new state.
#4
tribal politics in San Diego County range from very good (Viejas, Sycuan, Barona) to very bad (Jamul) with the upstart small bands looking at casino cash, usually the worst, IMHO
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 21:57 Comments ||
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#5
My only experience is second hand from the San Diego Sheriff's who had to spend a lot of money to keep two biker gangs from killing each other after one was invited to one of the casinos. I'm still not entirely sure why it was anyone but the Indian's problem but there you have it.
Still, I'm sure there are states that are prone to bad governance and we haven't considered yanking their status.
#6
Anybody else here had much experience with Indian politicians & governance?
The Isleta and Sandia pueblos, respectively bordering Albuquerque on the south and north, have done a far better job of improving their lands in the last 12 years or so than they did in the prior 50 with the BIA. They've plowed casino money into housing, community facilities, new fire departments, etc. The Isletas provide housing based upon employment income. You 'earn' your keep.
On the other hand, the Navajo in the western part of the state which has until just recently avoided getting a casino has a long list of tribal governing members who've faced or have been convicted of various violations of handling resources and influence. Not much different than Detroit or other places.
As for land reparations, the Isletas are quietly buying up land from the area around the reservation. When they get a large enough contiguous track, they'll apply for incorporation into the reservation. The No Development/No Growth crowd in the county are going to be facing higher property taxes to cover just existing functions as more of such land is transferred off of the assessor's books.
House Democrats have voted to block President Obama's controversial tax cut plan from coming to the floor in its current form, a move one Democratic leadership aide said "shows how much the White House screwed this up."
Brilliant. The Democrats have screwed this epically. It reminds me of how John McCain torpedoed his campaign on a fateful day in September, 2008.
Look, Dhimmicrats: in less than one month you're going to be in the minority in the House. Remember those days? Don't worry, Eric Cantor will remind you. When January 3rd rolls around, you will have virtually no influence in the House. You won't set the agenda.
The Pubs will then pass their version of the tax bill. It will extend the 2002/3 tax cuts and won't include a single thing you want right now. Repeat that to yourselves: no estate tax. No extension of unemployment benefits. No sneaky-shit goodies slipped in at the last moment.
Obama is trying to help you get one last, long slurp at the trough, but you have to play ball with the man, and that means giving the Pubs some of what they want. They're the establishment Pubs, not the new-fangled Tea Party types who, when they get into the House, will do all sorts of strange things like read the bills and demand accountability. You think you're going to get your sneaky-shit done then? Dream on -- and that's dream, not D.R.E.A.M., which also isn't going anywhere in January.
If you insist on committing sepuku, however, at least allow us Tea Party Pubs to clean the knife afterwards. We're going to need it when we see you again in January.
#4
My guess is that they're trying to bluff for a better deal...armyguy has it right...tough to bluff when you're not holdin' trump and you're being dealt out for the next hand...or in this case the entire game next year
#5
Does present a problem for GOP tho. Assuming an honest GOPer who believes retaining the tax cuts are critical, does s/he let them die rather than give into Dem wishlist - Amnesty, etc. etc. Or stand on principle and refuse, costing the country another few hundred thousand jobs? Dems probably think this is clever politics, but they've cut their own throats. Regardless of outcome, the Dem Party has made itself anathema. Many moderates, myself included, will be working to guarantee that in 5 years, it'll be a fringe cult ala CPW (Communist Worker's Party).
#9
I've always seen socialism and Marxism as a form of feudalism, actually. You are chained to a country (piece of land) and so dependent on the government (lord) that you can never move and have to work that area for all generations.
In some ways, the most surprising part of the Climategate files was how well they confirmed the dark suspicions of climate skeptics: there really were problems with replicating some of the most quoted results, there really had been some questionable manipulations made so the data would present the "right" picture, and there really was a somewhat covert group, composed of scientists on the "human agency" side of the argument and certain "reliable" environmental journalists, who were working together to suppress counter-evidence and assassinate the reputations of the skeptics.
Almost exactly a year later, Julius Assange and the WikiLeaks website revealed another collection of similarly purloined data. This time, the data was a collection of diplomatic cable traffic among American diplomats all over the world, some of it considered very sensitive -- classified SECRET. Again, the purloined messages proved very embarrassing to the authors, although in this case the damage wasn't just to egos and reputations; the cables did damage to American interests, even to national security.
On December 3rd, the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom published one of a series of stories based on the cables, this one titled "WikiLeaks cables reveal how U.S. manipulated climate accord." The United States really was applying considerable political and diplomatic pressure on other players; the scientific "consensus" had long since been subsumed by the pressure to score a political win. As the Guardian put it:
Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.
The bribes -- sorry, I mean promised aid -- was no mean amount of money. The Guardian reports amounts in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. The government of the Maldives set their price at $30 million. With a population of roughly 300,000, that is $100 per person in a country where the average household gets by on $450 a year. More stomach turning crap at link.
The first item on this election campaign's Contract with America was that, if elected (as they have been), the House Republicans would require that all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress. We'll see if that and the other promised reforms materialize, but it does raise yet another issue in the context of Obamacare.
As my colleague Michael Cannon pointed out to me, the new health care law kicks congressmen out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. (The current FEHB is no different from the health coverage provided by any private employer --- federal employees choose from a series of private plan options (none of which is run by the government), and receive a subsidy from the federal government acting in its role as an employer.)
My first reaction to hearing this was: Good -- if the rest of us lose our health care freedom, so should those who forced this new atrocity on us. But apparently this result was not intended, so the Obama administration has decided to ignore that part of the law.
No joke. Here is the Congressional Research Service report on the provisions that oust members of Congress from their health insurance. And here is the letter in which an Obama appointee announces that the administration will ignore the law. These two New York Times articles also provide important information. Hit the link for the rest of the info. Makes me want to reformat Washington and start over.
#1
Makes me want to reformat Washington and start over
Ummm, we just finished doing exactly that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/09/2010 18:07 Comments ||
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#2
Ummm, we just finished doing exactly that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim
We just over-wrote a few operating system files with a newer version. I'm talking about a complete wipe and reinstall with just the Constitution OS and no added bloatware. No extra laws, no extra agencies, just start from scratch with new everything and everyone. Maybe it will take another 200 years to fuck up again.
#3
Yes Darth; I guess its alright to call you by your first name. Well anyway I suggested that we simply defund. Well maybe reduce funding to start. "bloatware" now thats a keeper. The repercussions could be staggering.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2010 15:22 Comments ||
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#2
'Be interesting to see what the official/gov''t/police/judicial response to this will be now that it''s the funeral of somebody "important" being trashed, not just some military type.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
In some ways, the most surprising part of the Climategate files was how well they confirmed the dark suspicions of climate skeptics: there really were problems with replicating some of the most quoted results, there really had been some questionable manipulations made so the data would present the "right" picture, and there really was a somewhat covert group, composed of scientists on the "human agency" side of the argument and certain "reliable" environmental journalists, who were working together to suppress counter-evidence and assassinate the reputations of the skeptics.
The first item on this election campaign's Contract with America was that, if elected (as they have been), the House Republicans would require that all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress. We'll see if that and the other promised reforms materialize, but it does raise yet another issue in the context of Obamacare.
