Monthly Archives: August 2015

King Coal

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Having learned how by stealing General Motors from stockholders like thee and me, Mr. Obama has now done the same to the coal industry: he broke it and is handing it to his supporters.

“Filings with the Securities and Exchange commission show that between April and June this year Soros Fund Management (SFM) bought more than 1 million shares in Peabody, the world’s largest private coal company, and 500,000 shares in Arch.”

In 2009, Mr. Soros pledged to spend $1 billion of his own money on renewable energy at Al Gore’s urging and funded the Far Green “Climate Policy Initiative” thinktank. At the time, he said: “There is no magic bullet for climate change, but there is a lethal bullet: coal.”

A spokesman for SFM declined to comment on the investments. Wotta surprise.

 

PreDICKtions

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A few weeks ago, I boldly predicted that the general election would be Trump v. Sanders.

The candidates the media pretends can’t win:
A Wall Street Journal editorial says Donald Trump taps into the worst of the electorate.

The harsher Des Moines Register editorializes that Mr. Trump should “pull the plug on his bloviating side show.” Bloviating?

WaPo asks “Was Bernie Sanders really lying about the effect of budget cuts?” Lying?

The candidates the media pretends can’t lose:
The NYTimes reports ever so hopefully that Gov. John Kasich is rising in the polls in New Hampshire, winning endorsements and drawing new voters to his appearances who were impressed with his debate performance.

The Atlantic calls Maryland’s Martin O’Malley “a Democrat’s dream candidate. In two terms as the governor of Maryland, he’s ushered in a sweeping liberal agenda that includes gay marriage, gun control, an end to the death penalty, and in-state college tuition for undocumented immigrants. He’s trim and handsome; he plays in an Irish rock band.”

“He has become ‘the distraction with traction’ — a feckless blowhard who can generate headlines, name recognition and polling numbers not by provoking thought, but by provoking outrage.”

Back to Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders.

One candidate attracts working class voters with caustic slander about entitlement and abortion and Iran and the economy and repealing the 2010 Unaffordable Care Act. He does not provoke thought, but rather provokes outrage.

Oh. Wait. I can’t tell if that list is Mr. Trump’s or Mr. Sanders’.

Mr. Trump can’t win. Except he got a better reception at the Iowa State Fair than Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, or George W. Bush.

And Mr. Sanders can’t win. He even schooled Chuck Todd on why he is nothing like Donald Trump. Except he’s wrong again; he’s exactly like the Donald, a blowhard who has tapped into the same sentiments for overthrowing the status quo.

The “feckless blowhards” might just win their primaries.

And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Back in 2008, I wrote

We need a loose cannon running for President, darn it. After all, the President sets policy, not the Vice President. The President writes pardons, not the Vice President. The President vetoes bills, not the Vice President. The President gets the glory and the barbs, not the Vice President.
Candidates who want to “change the system” don’t want to change the system; candidates who want to change the system actually want their own policies implemented in the system. A true loose cannon doesn’t care about the system. A true loose cannon will subvert the system and find a way to get some real work done.

Now for the Veep.
Getting the work done probably means having an actual politician around for those days you have to game the system. Elect a politician Vice President.

Messrs. Kasich and O’Malley both talk a good game. Both have achieved big political gains within their own states.

I think either would make a great V.P. for their respective parties.


Red States-Blue States
 None of this is a particularly good thing for the U.S. of A.

Swearing In

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This is the story of my second biggest contribution as a Republican Town Chair but first I have to give you some back story.

Back story 1: Fifty years ago, on August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, the sweeping law that assured the right to vote for all Americans by prohibiting the practices used to deny that right to racial, ethnic, and language minorities.

“Many people don’t understand that … the Voting Rights Act is under threat.” Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ said. “These voter ID laws which are being passed in many states have a disproportionate impact on poor folks.” The senator has introduced the Voting Rights Advancement Act aimed at preventing voter ID requirements.

I won’t comment on voter ID except to note that voting is our most important obligation and that the other advantages we have come to expect — driving our cars or picking up a book at the library — require identification.

Back story 2: In Supporting Parents I promised to tell what Vermont’s future governor and I were joking about on stage in 1984.

My friend Jim Douglas was Vermont’s Secretary of State then.

The office of Secretary of State pre-dates Vermont statehood in 1791.

The voter’s oath, formerly known as the freemen’s oath, is a citizen’s oath required to register to vote in the state of Vermont. Until 2007, the law was administered only by notaries public and similar officials.
The Freemen’s Oath was a part of the 1777 Constitution of the Vermont Republic, the first constitution in the Western Hemisphere to grant universal suffrage to all men. Until the early twentieth century all official state commissions and certificates were headed by the words “BY THE FREEMEN OF VERMONT.”

The agency manages the State Archives so he preserved all state records and made them accessible to the rest of us. The State Archives preserve documents going back to the state’s founding as the Vermont Republic in 1777. The office licenses 39 different flavors of professionals from accountants and acupuncturists to tattooists and veterinarians. They register businesses and oversee all of Vermont’s notaries public. Most important to this story, they administer all national, state and local elections in Vermont, register voters and coordinate the Voter’s Oath, oversee campaign finance reporting, and implement Vermont’s lobbyist disclosure laws.

You solemnly swear (or affirm) that whenever you give your vote or suffrage, touching any matter that concerns the state of Vermont, you will do it so as in your conscience you shall judge will most conduce to the best good of the same, as established by the Constitution, without fear or favor of any man.

Vermont is the only U.S. state with a voter’s oath.

My second biggest contribution as a Republican Town Chair was swearing in new voters. At that time, only a Notary Public could administer the Freeman’s Oath; that’s the only reason I was a notary. I carried voter registration forms in my car pretty much everywhere because one just never knew where a potential voter might lurk.

Gov. Dick Snelling, R-VTA lot of them lurked at our local high school so Jim Douglas and I cooked up a Voter Registration assembly and civics lesson. Today pretty much anyone over the age of 18 who fogs a mirror can administer the oath, including the potential voter but back then only Notaries Public (actual or de facto) could give the oath. Town Clerks are de facto notaries so they swore in voters all the time. Other elected officials are not which means they can’t.

About 20 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, we filled the school auditorium with the older kids and put a couple of Dicks on stage.

Dick Snelling was the 76th and 78th Governor of Vermont. He jumped at the chance to talk to the kids when I asked him to drive up.

I introduced him. He got the crowd worked up in a few minutes and then invited anyone who wanted to register to come up on stage with us.

Our plan was that he’d greet the kids and keep them a little amped while Jim and I did the grunt work of filling out the forms and administering the oath.

The Gov. had other ideas.

“I’m going to swear in at least the first kid,” he told us.

Dick Snelling was a lot of things, but the Secretary of State who knows these things knew he wasn’t a notary. The Secretary of State who knows these things also knew that you have to be a notary to give the oath.

Jim and I looked at each other. “You going to tell him?” he asked.

“Not I.”

I think we registered about 40 kids that day. Most of them still vote.

How do I register to vote [in Vermont]?
If you are registering to vote in Vermont for the first time by mail, you must include a photocopy of an acceptable form of ID. Acceptable forms of ID are: Valid photo ID (driver’s license or passport); current utility bill; current bank statement; another government document.

Am I required to show identification when I vote [in Vermont]?
No. In Vermont, only first time voters who have registered by mail have to show ID in order to vote. If you registered when you renewed your driver’s license, or as part of a voter registration drive, you will not be required to show ID.

What kind of identification do I need to bring to the polls [in Florida]?
When you go to the polling place to vote, you will be asked to provide a current and valid picture identification with a signature. Approved forms of picture identification are: Florida driver’s license; Florida identification card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles; United States passport; debit or credit card; military identification; student identification; retirement center identification; neighborhood association identification; and public assistance identification. If the picture identification does not contain a signature, you will be asked to provide an additional identification with your signature.

Can I still vote [in Florida] if I do not bring identification?
Yes. You should not be turned away from the polls because you do not bring identification. If you do not have the proper identification, you will be allowed to vote a provisional ballot.