Sitting Out the Final Period

Posted on 2008-03-29 by David

Seeing all the recent commentary on the Democratic Primary contest I have seen the pattern of less and less substantive discussion and more and more trash talk (by trash talk I’m not referring to the tone of the “discussion” but rather the way that it looks just like trash talk in sports – it has nothing to do about athletic ability and everything to do with getting in your opponent’s head).

Democrats have been saying for most of the primary season that they were thrilled to have such a large slate of well qualified candidates. Now that their contest has been narrowed to two candidates and no room for substantive discussion I’ve decided to quit paying attention to the primaries. Once we get into the general election I’m sure I’ll have some opinions to offer on the candidates, the issues, and the election process. Until then – I’ll focus on more local politics.

Posted in National | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Initiative vs Policy

Posted on 2008-03-27 by David

It’s easy to find people describing the moral argument against government run social programs (forced charity encourages selfishness) but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more compelling logical argument for the negative consequences of substituting an institutional approach to a problem for a solution based on individual initiative than this one.

With no hint of bias in his tale, Scott relates his observations of the changes that took place as a charitable action by some individuals employees at the IRS to help one of their co-workers became institutionalized. Soon employees began to actively opt out of participating inbecause of the changes that came from trying to make the program fair for everyone.

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Thwarted

Posted on 2008-03-26 by David

I had planned on participating in last night’s caucus meetings, but life intervened and I was not able to. That being said, I am still interested to learn what happened in those caucus meetings for my precinct (Lehi-08). I would love to know the outcome of the Republican and Democratic caucuses, especially the Democratic caucus I planned to attend. If anyone was at one of those, or knows how to get information on who was elected to positions in either party in this precinct please let me know.

Posted in life, Local | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Bill Clinton Endorses Obama

Posted on 2008-03-22 by David

I chuckled at the NBC report that Bill Clinton said the following about a general election campaign between Hillary Clinton and John McCain:

“I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country,” said the former president. “And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.”

Bill must not have spent much time in this country to honestly think that any election with the name Clinton on the Democratic ticket would be focused enough to allow people to “actually ask themselves who is right on these issues.” Then I got to this part:

Bill Clinton spokesperson Matt McKenna clarifies the former president’s comment: “Actually, as is indicated by the quote itself, President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues, rather than falsely questioning any candidate’s patriotism.”

I’ll take McKenna at his word. If President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues then he was endorsing Obama because an election with Obama leading the Democratic ticket has a much better chance of being allowed to address issues than one with Clinton.

Posted in National | Tagged , | 37 Comments

A Timely Request

Posted on 2008-03-21 by David

Kip, at the Wide Middle, invites others to share Questions for the Candidates. This comes the very day that I have a question that I would ask any congressional candidate.

What part, or parts of the Change Congress movement would you pledge to support (if any). The four principles of the movement are that:

  1. Candidates and congressmen should accept no money from lobbyists or PACs
  2. Congress should vote to end earmarks
  3. Candidates should agree to run publicly-financed campaigns
  4. Congress should support reform to increase Congressional transparency

Candidates and citizens can pledge to support any combination of the above principles and citizens should hold candidates responsible for their campaign promises (this pledge and others).

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The Wide Middle

Posted on 2008-03-20 by David

I just discovered The Wide Middle today and I think that the concept of “open source public policy” is an example of how more political discourse ought to take place – based on the assumption that we agree on more things than we disagree on and that we can find solutions where we identify problems. I hope that the discussion takes off – I certainly plan to contribute where I can.

Posted in General | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

High Priced Entertainment

Posted on 2008-03-19 by David

I have to say that SUPERDELL events sound very entertaining.

Fear not, my fundraising events will be worth their ticket if merely for entertainment value to the sceptics:). We are going to have some serious fun in Utah. I’m already working on my first event. I’m looking for acrobatic aircraft, base jumpers, powered skydiving pilots, helicopters, race cars, monster trucks, pyrotechnics . . .

For anyone who would go for the entertainment value, just remember the cost of admission is going to fund a political campaign so you’ll probably get an earful from the radio and an eyeful from the TV for your investment. And these would come from a candidate who has not said one word about an issue in his campaign.

Posted in State | Tagged | 4 Comments

Ridiculous

Posted on 2008-03-18 by David

Last week his boss had his career sunk by revelations of participation in prostitution. Now the new Governor of New York starts his term by confessing his past affairs. I’m not here to criticize Gov. Paterson – his affairs hold no interest for me (especially since he’s not my governor). What I think is ridiculous is our cultural obsession with this topic.

The reason he is making this confession is that he knows that it won’t hurt him politically unless someone else reports it first. The newspapers cover this on the front page when it really deserves nothing more than to be buried in the archives for historic reference. This front page coverage serves to reinforce the perception that every marriage encounters infidelity and therefore it’s not a big deal. Is this the message we want to send to the rising generation?

Posted in culture | Tagged | 4 Comments

Anti Universal Coverage

Posted on 2008-03-17 by David

This came along before I started reading the Cato blog regularly but I am definitely a member of The Anti-Universal Coverage Club.

  1. Health policy should focus on making health care of ever-increasing quality available to an ever-increasing number of people.
  2. “Universal coverage” could be achieved only by forcing everyone to buy health insurance or by having government provide health insurance to all, neither of which is desirable.
  3. In a free society, people should have the right to refuse health insurance.
  4. If governments must subsidize those who cannot afford medical care, they should be free to experiment with different types of subsidies (cash, vouchers, insurance, public clinics & hospitals, uncompensated care payments, etc.) and tax exemptions, rather than be forced by a policy of “universal coverage” to subsidize people via “insurance.”

That does not mean that I am opposed to everyone having access to health care, but a mandate that every person buy insurance or that the government will pay for insurance (by taxing “the rich” naturally) is contrary to the principles of individual liberty and personal responsibility.

Posted in National | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Open Congress

Posted on 2008-03-15 by David

It becomes more and more clear each day how powerful the internet can be as a tool to improve our political process by enabling citizens to be informed. A great example of that is OpenCongress.org. The purpose of the site is to provide information on bills and members of congress. It only took me about two minutes to find 9 feeds on the site that any serious political blogger should have (of course the 9 feeds vary depending on where you live). For each member of the House or the Senate there are feeds for every roll-call vote (voice votes can”t be accurately tracked), for blog entries related to that person, and for news stories related to that person. The nine feeds are those three feeds for each of your senators and your representative. Everyone who is serious about politics should be aware of the members of congress who they have the chance to elect. For the Utah 2nd Congressional District those feeds are:

I have long admired the way Misty Fowler has widgets showing the recent votes of her representative and senators in her sidebar. I don’t know if I will display this kind of thing in my sidebar, but I will definitely be following them in my feed reader. Now I wish I had a site like OpenCongress at the state level.

Posted in National, technology | Tagged , | 3 Comments