03.05.12
Posted in Rod Young at 11:36 PM by Tanna K
(This article ran on the editorial pages of tinytowngazette.com) – hard copy and web)
by Rod Young
Although the syntax of the phrase “conflict of interest” is clear, this political No-No has been so narrowly defined over recent years as to be nearly meaningless. If a public servant or pol is not directly advantaged financially by his action or actions, then legally he or she is not in conflict.
For example, a pol whose property is located in the controversial “Cat Damn” wetland in Cohasset must “recuse” himself or herself from participation in any related issue, because property values can be affected.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
01.23.12
Posted in Rod Young at 11:42 AM by Tanna K
by Rod Young
Must be love, for it’s certainly not politics as usual, nursed by ‘mother’s milk ….’
It’s non generic Newt – older, wiser, and perhaps even quicker. Better than a laugh a minute.
Each of nearly 20 presidential debates has proven entertaining to record setting audiences, entirely because of the rhetorical brilliance of the former Speaker. Viewers only have been impatient that debate moderators put their questions to him rather than to Governor Rick Perry, former governor John Huntsman, Rep. Michele Bachman, or businessman Herman Cain, all now 2012 also-rans.
Romney’s fans appear inveterate Obama detractors, persuaded that only a liberal former Massachusetts governor will attract enough independents in the general election to defeat the President.
Septuagenarian Ron Paul delivers a populist libertarian philosophy – and stand-up often on a par with Gingrich – but along with quixotic gibberish about isolationism.
Few laugh lines attend ‘solid family man’ Rick Santorum’s sermons. Incredibly he preaches that he occupies the tepid middle – “just right” – between Mitt’s cold and Newt’s hot.
In a war of words, never would the poetic Speaker allude to temperature of porridge.
Following his blowout victory Saturday evening, Gingrich pooh-poohed left-handed compliments. Gingrich credited his prowess on the stump to staunch and uncompromising – and therefore eloquent – support of the beliefs and ideals of true Americans.
Can Newt’s 41% to Romney’s 28% and Santorum’s 13% in the South Carolina primary be a fluke? Pundits credit the SC contest as the infallible predictor of the Republican nominee for the past three decades.
Since punditry has proven remarkably off the mark regarding Gingrich’s prospects over three months, there must be new (old?) political maltose a flowin,’ other than $$Mom’s this go-around. It seems Obama might be as vulnerable to a clever laugh line by Newt – ridiculing presidential ‘unsuccesses’ – as to the predictable condemnations of businessman Romney or Cain.
Gingrich might well be up to the grandiloquence, the soaring rhetoric – or “grandiosity,” as Santorum opined – of a Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, or JFK, the most eloquent of all U.S. presidents to date. Strangely the lot of these (not excluding Lincoln) were abashed womanizers – glib then not for nothing. The Speaker appears akin.
Political themes stated ad nauseam become insufferable. John Edward’s “Two America’s” comes to mind. Gingrich is spontaneous – never telepromptered – and therefore perceived by a swelling constituency as authentic. His warts are becoming beauty marks.
A pedagogue who inspires is more a treat to the liberal establishment overall – that is, to costly Great Society fiefdoms – as to a sitting Democrat president. There can be little doubt from here on that the Democrat focus on Romney as the probable Republican nominee is but a ploy to dispel the advent of a more concerning philosopher phenom (king?).
Given that Gingrich prevailed among voters in all South Carolinian demographics – even moderates – his momentum can only intensify in Florida and beyond.
No advisor need instruct this man,
‘Be yourself.’
Permalink
11.28.11
Posted in Rod Young at 11:26 AM by Tanna K
by Rod Young
When candidates and/or their staff attend a really worthy electioneering course the novices find difficulty in believing that voter apathy is the most important reality. Issues are not king. Form generally prevails over substance. (Will Obama Prevail?)
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
09.06.11
Posted in Rod Young at 6:04 PM by Tanna K
by Rod Young
It may be only a statistical quirk hitting precisely net-zero job growth in a given month – the first such omen since 1945. However, the Obama administration chronicled the feat in August 2011.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
07.26.11
Posted in Rod Young at 12:17 PM by Tanna K
by Rod Young
Has the reality of the fiscal impasse on the Hill become painfully obvious?
Most want to believe that a well meaning right (Republicans) are contesting a well meaning left (Democrats)? Therefore, a compromise is in the offing, lest the “full faith and credit of the United States” be compromised.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
06.14.11
Posted in Rod Young at 11:53 AM by Tanna K
by Rod Young
It seems the American brand of charismatic leadership and statesmanship has waned over our nearly three centuries. Where’s the Jefferson, Washington, Adams, or Henry? Even technocrat Hamilton was flamboyant while very impolite.
The Roman Republic likewise started with towering likes of Caesar and Augustus and their huge followings, then dwindled over five centuries to a point when hapless Romulus Augustus squandered the last Denarii.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
02.27.11
Posted in Rod Young at 4:12 PM by Tanna K
The impressive show by tens of thousands of public-school teachers out to “Kill the Bill” in front of Wisconsin’s capitol might have gone unnoticed prior to the ‘Great Recession.’ Probably it would not have happened.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
01.24.11
Posted in Rod Young at 4:32 PM by Tanna K
What’s driving us fiscally bonkers?
by Rod Young
Highly regarded Austrian economist and philosopher Ludwig von Mises wrote from his professor’s chair at NYU during WWII,
“The terms bureaucrat, bureaucratic, and bureaucracy are clearly invectives. Nobody calls himself a bureaucrat or his own methods of management ‘bureaucratic’ … Nobody doubts that bureaucracy is thoroughly bad and that it should not exist in a perfect world.”
Times have changed, of course, since the war. Albeit still slightly derogatory, the root word “bureaucrat” is certainly no longer an “invective”. Professor Mises’ 1944 observation is inapplicable in the new millennium. Substitute “government official” and “government” for bureaucrat and bureaucracy and you’re talking about the most exciting growth industry since the Roman Empire’s final century of decline.
Remarkably many for-profit businesses are virtual institutions of government, created not by venture capitalists and demanding stock holders but by bureaucrats on the backs of clueless tax payers. Hence they’re not very profit motivated. Case in point, Evergreen Solar of Marlborough Ma. turned a $53-million state subsidy in 2008, supported by Governor Deval Patrick, into a $200-million debacle in 2009.
Evergreen – now a bankrupt ‘penny stock’ – is pulling up its shallow roots and departing for China, probably never to pay back Massachusetts or return the investment of private investors sold a bill of goods generated ironically by their own tax dollars.
Evergreen’s highly paid executives are opportunists to be sure, but not entrepreneurs. Economist Mises might dub them modern-day bureaucrats in a ‘public-private’ universe unheard of in 1944. Today progressive bureaucrats in control of state and federal government create and back designer industries using tax revenues and borrowed monies (future tax revenues) as never before.
While “[i]nnovation is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public,” Professor Mises opined, it used to be that an idea had first to be sold to “elite” investors, not to “elite” bureaucrats.
Individuals took on little risk in the design, manufacture, and marketing of the Chevy Volt, with Uncle Sam upfront as a whopping 30% co-investor. Sam’s not in the market to make money. He’s out to make friends influence people, accommodating grand visions that fail after enriching his chosen few at the expense of the many.
Like Evergreen’s top dogs, high Volt-age executives enjoy princely compensation, but when the lights begin to flicker jump easily to another boondoggle, or return to government to implement the next expensive sophistry. This week Obama appointed GE CEO Jeffry Immelt to succeed Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve Chair, to head Obama’s panel of economic advisers.
Revolving doors will be wearing out their bearings.
In President Obama’s state-of-the-union address upcoming, he’s expected to extol the virtue of government investment in education, research, infrastructure, and, of course, health care. How many thousands of new government guns will become his ardent supporters? The health-care “industry” alone is to be weighted at the top by hundreds of Obamacare committees costing some $400 million at the outset.
Illinois Senator and majority whip Dick Durbin, a strong Obamanomics advocate, wants to allocate $70 billion a year for five years for roads, bridges, and waterway projects as economic stimulus – or as a national security action – or as affirmative action – or … Where’s the pragmatic question and answer vis-à-vis national transportation failings?
Mises concludes, “The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.”
Permalink
