What Governor Romney just said is that government-run top-down medicine is working pretty well in Massachusetts, and he supports it. Now, think about what that means — going up against Barack Obama…you are going to claim, well, top-down government-run medicine on the federal level doesn’t work, and we should repeal it. And he’s going to say, wait a minute, Governor. You just said that top-down government-run medicine in Massachusetts works well … Folks, we can’t give this issue away in this election. It is about fundamental freedom.
– Rick Santorum, responding to Mitt Romney in the GOP debate, 1/26/12
What results is a society built not on mutual benefit, as with capitalism, but mutual contempt, whereas one is endlessly forced to sacrifice for “the public” with the only hope that one day others will be conscripted to sacrifice themselves for you. Social Security and Medicare are just two examples of this multi-generational feudalism.
– Jonathan Hoenig (Capitalist Pig blog) gives the libertarian response to the State of the Union address and his solution to what ails America. http://sm.wsj.com/xg18kwGovernor Mitch Daniels (R-IN) articulates the conservative message on the economy and our country in his own thoughtful and serious style. Daniels is knows for writing all his own speeches.
The (head)band is back! Could this return to her youthful hairdo represent a play for the vice presidency? Watch out for Hill.
Your “National Park Service” is cleaning out port-a-potties for OccupyDC 3x/week. Enjoy Rep. Joe Walsh schooling NPS in House committee today. #tax$$atwork H/T MarathonPundit
The trouble with a bad show,” he sighed, “is that you can make it better but you can never make it good.” The Romney candidacy is better than it was four years ago, but it’s not clear that it’s good. Mitt needs to get good real fast: A real speech, real plan, real responses, and real fire in the belly. Does he have it in him?
– Mark Steyn, National Review, The Corner. http://bit.ly/zCMcXz
The portrait of the first couple in Jodi Kantor’s new book, “The Obamas,” bristles with aggrievement and the rational president’s disdain for the irrational nature of politics, the press and Republicans. Despite what his rivals say, the president and the first lady do believe in American exceptionalism — their own, and they feel overassaulted and underappreciated.
We disappointed them… They still believed, as their friend Valerie Jarrett once said, that Obama was “just too talented to do what ordinary people do.”
– Maureen Dodd in the New York Times, http://nyti.ms/x1dlEj.Why Tea Party conservatives understand we need #NotRomney.
Newt Gingrich probably is as surprized as anyone to find himself the victor in the South Carolina Republican primary. The coastal pundits are tearing their hair out to undermine his win over the well-primed Mitt Romney: Democrats, because Newt undermines their master campaign plan (a.k.a. Occupy Wall Street/class warfare); establishment Republicans because Newt challenges the conventional wisdom (three decades out-of-date) that only a moderate candidate is electable.
Interesting that Sarah Palin (who did not endorse Gingrich but whose husband did) is now on Netflix - the campaign-ish documentary, The Undefeated, is available to rent or stream into your home TV. It’s definitely worth viewing as it chronicles her rise to the governership of Alaska, her partnership with John McCain, and her eventual resignation from office. Palin single-handedly went from pioneer mom to politician in Alaska, facing down a corrupt and powerful combine that has a lot in common with the state of Illinois. She managed to keep her spirit in the national campaign while McCain’s staff and the media attacked her personally and mercilessly. And then she returned to Alaska to face an endless series of meritless law suits that made it impossible for her (or her state government) to function. Small wonder that she jumped passionately into the Tea Party movement.
Newt Gingrich talked about Alinsky tactics during his victory speech in South Carolina. Sarah Palin has lived the Alinsky tactics - and Tea Party conservatives understand better than establishment/moderate Republicans that our Chicago-style community-organizer POTUS will be very adept at implementing Alinsky during the presidential race. They understand that we are going to need a candidate who is smart and thick-skinned and nimble on the issues. #NotRomney.
Some Democrats come around to the need to stop the monopoly power of the teachers unions.
Chicago Public Schools still fight for the bottom of the heap - aided and abetted, as always, by the teachers’ unions. While Mayor Emanuel appears to be taking the high road by challenging the established bureaucracies running the (failing) city public schools, the forces for the entrenched unions always seem to find new ways to put students last. Two years ago, a movement began to unionize charter schools -undermining progress at what represents at least a half-hearted attempt to put school choice for parents on the table. ASPIRA charter schools led the way, and now 16 charter schools are in the process of being organized (read more: http://bit.ly/x0KXtK). The new union, the Chicago Alliance of Charter School Teachers and Staff (Chicago ACTS) is an outgrowth of the regular local unions, the CTU and IFT.
Check out (below) the good things that can happen when school choice (charter schools) operate outside the political patronage system of teachers unions, even in Chicago.
Even the Democrats see the light on school choice. Juan Williams and Rahm Emanuel make up an odd coalition for charters in Chicago.
About Me
Bringing conservative values back to Illinois . . . one Republicrat at a time.Conversation and connections on the world according to Eva Sorock from a (mostly) local perspective - Wilmette, Illinois, USA. Acquired my conservative credentials at Mount Holyoke College, as an intern for then-Rep. Don Rumsfeld, and with an MBA from the University of Chicago. Two terms on the Wilmette Board of Education. Life influences: husband, Herb from Chicago (heard regularly on Dennis Miller radio) and three virtually grown up kids: one conservative marketing director, one conservative attorney in Manhattan and one libertarian attorney in Chicago.
Email me at e.sorock@gmail.com
