Archive for July, 2010

Steven Hutson

Call me Chicken Little.

The last tree from the Brazilian rainforest was felled this morning, and this giant structure that predates the birth of Christ will be milled into plywood for a Home Depot store in Fargo.  Factories, shopping malls, and housing tracts to follow.

The entire population of Chicago has died from the swine flu.

The Iranians just nuked the White House, and left a crater the size of the moon.

These are the headlines that I fully expect to read each day in the morning paper, and hear on the evening news.  Doom, gloom, pestilence, famine, war, death.

Ready for battle.

Indeed, the sky is falling.  Or at least, that’s what we’ve all been led to believe.

But then I received my June/July issue of Reader’s Digest.  (Apparently my 12-month subscription turned into eleven, when I wasn’t paying attention.)  And guess what?  There’s actually some good news going on out there. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Calabrese

With health care, they had to pass the bill so we could see what was in it. Now, with financial reform, they had to pass the bill so they could get the regulators started writing the actual rules that the bill facilitates.

Are you detecting a pattern?

Kings and queens.

When the current Democratic Congress passes a monstrous regulatory boondoggle (oh, sorry, I mean “landmark reform legislation”), the only thing the bill must achieve before being signed into law is to give the federal government control in the abstract. They can always work out the details later, preferably in the back offices of bureaucrats who can choose to apply the general framework in any way they see fit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Brett Noel

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

catoon

Large version for newspaper publication.

Greyscale version for newspaper publication.

Mark Watson

For the first time in recorded history, a Democratic leader has identified something that is not an absolute right.

Democratic leaders have usually been reliable proponents of identifying entitlements like the right of choice (limited to a woman’s right to choose abortion) and free food.

Before the recent, annual NAACP convention, First Lady Michelle Obama told a stunned audience that there are actual entitlement limitations in this country.

Dessert for me, but not for thee.

“There is no right to dessert,” Mrs. Obama said.

According to the First Lady, she enforces this negative right upon her own children. “They know that dessert is not a daily right,” she told concerned audience members.

Shareholders of Sara Lee and other well known dessert manufacturers sank in response to her remarks.

The Coalition Against National Dessert Yardsticks tried to call on legislators to keep their hands out of their kitchens. Unfortunately, most legislators were enjoying sugar free desserts by Splenda lobbyists

Read the rest of this entry »

Bruce Fisher

This weekend in Cleveland, the Great Lakes Urban Exchange is bringing 100 thinkers, activists, elected officials, and wonks to kick around ideas about how one of the richest but most challenged Great Lakes cities can turn itself around. It’s going to be a three-day sequence of sessions on the “urban laboratory” that is underway in Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Toledo, and other towns that are struggling with the prospect of global economic irrelevancy.

Can Cleveland rock . . . again?

The participants are going to describe their experiences with policy innovations like land-banking, with block-by-block reinvestment in distressed neighborhoods, with business plans that work, and with policy initiatives that still need work. The program is noticeably focused on how community-based organizations and small-scale investors are achieving increments of success in places that have been synonymous with economic distress for more than a generation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Bell

Earlier this week the co-chairmen of President Barack Obama’s deficit commission offered a bleak assessment of America’s fiscal future.

Co-chair Erskine Bowles, who was White House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, said, “This debt is like a cancer. It is truly going to destroy the country from within.”

That’s not news but his candor is refreshing. If an individual has cancer he will try to eliminate the disease. A physician will recommend any number of procedures, perhaps surgery or chemotherapy. Given their record, it is doubtful the current collection of Washington politicians has the will to address the nation’s economic distress with the urgency of a physician and a cancer patient.

The Spend-a-Thon continues

Bowles was correct when he said, “We could have decades of double-digit growth and not grow our way out of this enormous debt problem. We can’t tax our way out.”

Unfortunately this truth was coupled with error when he said the current economic crisis was largely unforeseen before 2008. That is untrue. For decades political observers warned of impending disaster.

In 1997 the Heritage Foundation released, “Balancing America’s Budget,” that chronicled the financial situation and offered recommendations to avoid the type of calamity that has arrived. No one saw this mess coming? Don’t believe it. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Calabrese

Apparently, there is some thought on the part of a certain group in Washington that federal spending is a bit out of hand. Hmm. You don’t suppose we have a problem here, do you?

Taking Washington absurdity to new heights, President Obama’s specially appointed “debt commission” has come back with a report stating – are you ready for this? – we’re incurring too much debt.

Dumbasses.

No. You don’t think. Really?

But in the absurd world of Governmentonia, no elected official (well, OK, Paul Ryan) can actually say what is as plain as the nose on your face to any even remotely engaged human being. So they task a cadre of retired government types to diligently study the numbers and come back with a report.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jill Ciminillo

SONOMA, Calif.—With the launch of the all-new 2011 Outlander Sport, Mitsubishi is chasing the holy grail of the auto world: a younger demographic.

And they just might have hit their mark. Especially considering the excellent fit and finish combined with a starting price around $19K.

I was able to take a brief first look at the Outlander Sport a couple weeks ago, and if first impressions mean anything, I think this new compact crossover has some serious potential.

According to Bryan Arnett, senior manager of product strategy at Mitsubishi Motors North America, the Outlander Sport is entering an emerging segment he calls the “lower crossover” segment—the compact, entry-level sort of crossover. So far you have cars like the Hyundai Tucson and the Kia Sportage playing at this level, but he expects it to grow 480 percent by 2013.

So, as far as Mitsubishi is concerned, this is the right vehicle at the right time for a right-sizing population.

I have to agree.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ashley Stinnett

The latest hearsay circling the politico rumor mill is that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin could be the perfect fit as the next chairwoman of the Republican Party. She does have an ability to raise money, as well as sellout venues. Plus she is the author of a nationally known bestselling book and has an enormous loyal following, particularly among Tea Party faithful. But are those kinds of credentials enough to qualify her to succeed Michael Steele?

A whole different ballgame.

Only time will tell. In the meantime, we know this:

The Republican National Committee is a completely different ballgame than what Palin is typically accustomed to. It is a business with a lot of fundamental planning, grassroots organizing and execution.

Read the rest of this entry »

Brett Noel

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

cartoon

Large version for newspaper publication.

Greyscale version for newspaper publication.