Do Presidents Control the Economy?
Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: football
Topic: Economy
Interestingly enough, this Sunday's Journal Sentinel had an article in the Busines section that is related to two earlier posts of mine (here and here--Ben's comment here is good also).

The article is from the Wall Street Journal and quotes Brad DeLong, a former Treasury official now teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. He says,

"'Is George W. Bush responsible for the fact that the employment situation is lousy?' asks Brad DeLong, a former Clinton Treasury official who teaches economic history at the University of California at Berkeley. 'No,' he says. 'Presidents influence the economy. They don't control it.'"

Now he doesn't let Bush off the hook, but as a conservative, I think he overstates his case by saying that "nearly every major Bush economic decision will hurt the U.S. economy."

The article goes on to mention things that presidents can control and others may agree or disagree with those things.

My 200th Post
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: football
Topic: Blogging
This is my 200th post since starting this blog in November of last year. Interest in bloggers is increasing. Bloggers are being interviewed on news programs. And everyone has heard the part bloggers have played in Memogate. Main stream media is joining in by having their own blogs.

Health Care Costs
Mood:  rushed
Now Playing: baseball
Topic: Social Issues
The Journal Sentinel carried this interesting article on how neither Bush's nor Kerry's health care plans reins in health costs. The problem is stated:

"Neither presidential candidate deals with the central issue of cost containment, which is at the heart of any solution. It's about the costs, stupid. Both gloss over that reality and talk about who and how to pay."

Mr. Torinus then says:

"Both candidates have to come to understand that no plan can be successful financially unless it promotes responsible health care behavior on the part of each and every American. That means some of the medical expenses have to come from the pockets of the patients, whether from a health savings account or elsewhere."

There can be competition without the involvement of health care recipients in the cost of health care somehow. Most people's medical bills are paid "by the insurance company," so people hardly ever see a bill. No "shopping around" is possible. Mr Torinus adds that people

"can't really act like consumers and reward the 'cheaper, better' providers until they have transparent information about hospital and doctor pricing and quality. They need a "consumer report."

Competition is what keeps costs down. No amount of government "planning" can. Health care insurance is one thing keeping competition from happening.

Kerry Takes the Gloves Off
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: football/baseball
Topic: Politics
Again.

Memogate - Rather "Apologizes"
Mood:  cheeky
Now Playing: baseball
Topic: Media Bias
Dan Rather gave this statement:

"Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a '60 Minutes Wednesday' story about President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question-and their source-vigorously. And we promised that we would let the American public know what this examination turned up, whatever the outcome.

Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically. I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers. That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point where-if I knew then what I know now-I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.

But we did use the documents. We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry. It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.

Please know that nothing is more important to us than people's trust in our ability and our commitment to report fairly and truthfully."

Rather sticks by the truthfulness of the story, but if we can't trust them in this, how can we trust the story? Not that the story is outside the realm of possibility. Bush, as well as Clinton, Kerry and many others including me, sought to avoid the conflict in Vietnam, each in their own way.

Sheesh
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: news
Topic: Wisconsin
Get a load of this archaic law.

Thanks to Owen at Boots and Sabers.

The Rest of the Story (with apologies to Paul Harvey)
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Red Sox-Yankees
Topic: History
Scott was an enterprising young lawyer who lived in Georgetown. He wouldn't be considered a patriot, in fact, he was against the current war. The war had started, after all, over trivial issues. In spite of that he had served briefly in the American Army.

After mustering out, he became involved in negotiations for the release of a doctor being held captive by the enemy. During the negotiation, the enemy staged an attack against American positions. The bombardment continued through the night, artillery furiously firing from both sides, but toward morning the enemy batteries fell silent and American cannon could not be heard. Had the American position fallen?

Scott eagerly looked toward the American lines for any sign. There! Larger than life, a gigantic flag flew!

His heart filled with patriotic pride and he started writing a poem. He had the poem printed and distributed and soon it was put to music. One of the verses contained what would become the motto of the United States, "In God we trust."

The title of the poem? It was called "Defence of Fort McHenry." But you don't know it by that name. You know it as "The Star Spangled Banner." Yes, Scott was Frances Scott Key and the poem he wrote was first published 190 years ago yesterday, and now you now know the rest of the story.

Read all the lyrics here.

Abortion
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Cable news
Topic: Social Issues
Carolyn posted a comment to a post of some months back that I did on the death penalty. She questioned the lack of concern over the millions and millions of "death penalties" that have been handed down over the past years by women aborting their babies.

Carolyn certainly brings up an interesting point--the courts have created a dictatorship of the woman over anything pertaining to her body. But I think most people would consider that "dictatorship" a right. I believe we have rights that the government should not infringe upon which gives us an aspect of dictatorship over that area of our lives. The right of privacy, which, if memory serves, is the one that was used in Roe v. Wade to grant abortions, is a hotly contested right.

I have for the most part refrained from posting on abortion, homosexual marriage, among others because I don't know that there is a right position.

I'm not a moral relativist. And I would describe myself as a pro-life conservative. But the question is when does life begin? Babies are viable outside of the womb as early as 20 weeks, I believe, so life certainly begins before then. Some insist that life begins at conception. Scientifically and politically, I don't know that I could go that far back. Personally, that's when I believe life begins.

So how do I reconcile my personal belief with what I think is viable politically or verified scientifically? That's my quandary. I'll probably expend several posts exploring this as well as other subjects in the coming days.

Comments, as always are greatly appreciated.

Kerry Konfusion
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: D-Rays-Red Sox (watching Brewers-Giants)
Topic: Politics
If John Kerry is to win in November, some thing will have to change. Criticism has been coming from fellow Democrats (here and here, for example) and the media is starting to opine (like here and here) that he is in trouble.

Kerry has been knocked for a loop by a one-two from the Republican Convention and ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. He tried to get back on message but now Memogate strikes and keeps attention on the Vietnam War.

The only thing I can conclude is that Kerry can not answer the charges. He's had ample time.

More Memogate
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: D-Rays-Red Sox (and keeping tabs on Brewers-Giants)
Topic: Just for Fun
This guy sure doesn't look like Dan Rather ....

Memogate
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Red Sox-D-Rays
Topic: Just for Fun
Perhaps the forger should have looked on eBay first, like here or here.

Zell Miller strikes back
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Packers-Panthers
Topic: Politics
Zell Miller responds to his critics.

This was interesting ...
Mood:  smelly
Now Playing: Packers-Panthers
Topic: History
USA Today also posed a question, "Do the greatest presidents pose the greatest danger to liberty?"

"Mention the names of John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt to historians, and they will tell you that these are some of our greatest presidents.

"Mention the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798; the revocation during the Civil War of the writ of habeas corpus, which protects Americans from false imprisonment; the Palmer raids of 1918, which swept up scores of political dissidents; and the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and those same historians will tell you that these acts constitute some of the worst assaults on American liberty."

It went on to describe Bush and The Patriot Act. I admit I haven't studied it much (yet). I know the ACLU is against it, which, of course, is a plus for it :^).

Not to minimize the situations cited, but the main point is that this has happened before and has not impacted the greatness of the president involved. The Constitution and the country's freedom survived.

Electronic Voting
Mood:  loud
Now Playing: Packers-Panthers
Topic: Politics
The USA Today had two editorials on electronic voting today. In taking one side of the debate the con opinion contends that electronic ballots have failed to gain the confidence of voters.

"In Nye County, Nev., last week, one of the new, highly touted electronic-voting devices bought to replace discredited old-technology machines malfunctioned. When the polls closed in the state primary election, it refused to display the results, threatening to disenfranchise everyone who'd used it.

"Fortunately, there was a backup. For every vote cast electronically, there was a paper trail, a printout that could be manually counted so no one's vote would be lost.

"About 30% of the nation will be voting electronically this November, up from 13% in the disputed 2000 election that set off a wave of voting reform. But for the vast majority, there's no way of checking whether the devices worked accurately. Nevada is the only state with paper backup for every machine. For millions of votes cast on most of the 100,000 new devices in other jurisdictions, there will be none."

The "pro" opinion contends that e-voting works.

"Now we are told that two consecutive incident-free elections, one in Florida, the other in Nevada, are not enough to alleviate the concerns about electronic voting....

"DRE machines have become scapegoats for every election woe, from misplaced disks to power plugs switched off. In a well-administered election with formal processes and well-trained poll workers, e-voting works, and it works much better than the technologies it is replacing."

I've commented on current e-voting trends and concerns here and here.

A paper trail is a necessity with machines, but many will not have this paper trail. If this election is close, it will be an eye of contention for the next four years.

UPDATE: Another setback for electronic voting machines.

9/11 Recollection
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Football
Topic: History
I admit that things about 9/11/2001 are in a blur. I remember being awakened by my daughter about the time the second plane struck. We were in Nashville at her house on vacation. I quickly got out of bed and watched as the news unfolded. I watched as the two towers collapsed, the fire at the Pentagon and the confusion on the faces of everyone involved. I heard the reports about Flight 93 going down in Pennsylvania and later viewed the vidoe of the scene. I watched as news people and pundits pieced together the bits of information gathered and tried to make sense of it all. News junkie that I am, I stayed glued to the TV for most of the next few days.

I was impressed with the response of the fire and police workers, the horror of what the people faced and the stories of courage by common citizens repeated many times over the next weeks and even months.

We heard about the terrorists' operation--flight training, box openers for weapons, threats of bombs, their access to the cockpits. Some of the intelligence failures were disclosed. In the days that followed, steps were already being talked about to prevent this from happening again.

I was moved by the memorial service and shed tears as I listened to tales of heroism recounted. My heart burned for revenge on those who planned this and carried it out.

No, we will never forget.

Third Anniversary of 9/11
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: football
Topic: War on Terror
We will never forget.

Chad at In The Bullpen is memoralising the day by posting people's recollections and encouraging bloggers to post theirs. RIGHT ON RED posted a Moment of Silence at the time the first plane hit. Those who have posted their remembrances:

In the Bullpen
Diggers Realm
Political Musings
In Search of Utopia
Six Meat Buffet
The Politicker
Backcountry Conservative
MartiniPundit
Poliblog
Mark the Pundit
Guest Commenter Chris
Duke Deland of Pekkin Prattles
Blogs for Bush is running stories all day
Overtaken By Events
KevinDonahue.com
The Talk Arena
Professor Chaos
Stumax
Slant Point

(tip from Jeff at Backcountry Conservative)

Kerry's Campaign Shakeup
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Tough Crowd
Topic: Politics
Bush takes a double-digit lead as Kerry campaign struggles to regroup. It's amazing what one poor poll showing will do to the Democrats. I thought that Kerry touting his Vietnam record was a mild gamble. It appears that others disagree with that strategy.

Media Bias?
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Tough Crowd
Topic: Politics
Two points about this AP article, Lawsuit Uncovers New Bush Guard Records

"Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard has become an issue in the presidential campaign as the candidates spar over who would make the best commander in chief. Supporters of Democratic nominee John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, have criticized Bush for serving stateside in the National Guard."

Doesn't the AP have this backwards? Isn't it Kerry's Vietnam record that has been under attack lately?

And there's this:

"The Pentagon and Bush's campaign have claimed for months that all records detailing his fighter pilot career have been made public, but defense officials said they found two dozen new records detailing his training and flight logs after The Associated Press filed a lawsuit and submitted new requests under the public records law."

One wonders if the AP has filed a lawsuit and submitted requests for Kerry's records.

Teen Sex and TV Viewing
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Brewers-Pirates
Topic: Social Issues
A recent study links TV viewing to teen sex.

"Teenagers who watch a lot of television with sexual content are twice as likely to engage in intercourse than those who watch few such programs, according to a study published today.

The study covered 1,792 adolescents aged 12 to 17 who were quizzed on viewing habits and sexual activity and then surveyed again a year later. Both regular and cable television were included.

"This is the strongest evidence yet that the sexual content of television programs encourages adolescents to initiate sexual intercourse and other sexual activities," said Rebecca Collins, a psychologist at the RAND Corporation who headed the study."

Strongest evidence yet. Admittedly not proof but strong evidence that what we watch influences our thinking. And, after all, isn't that why advertisers spend big bucks?

Other items of interest in this study:

"The RAND study identified other factors that increased the likelihood that adolescents would initiate sexual intercourse, including: being older, having older friends, getting lower grades, engaging in rule-breaking such as skipping class, and sensation-seeking.

Adolescents were less likely to initiate sexual intercourse if their parents monitored their activities, if their parents had more education, if they lived with both parents, if their parents did not approve of them having sexual relations, if they were religious, and if they were in good mental health. Adolescents with these characteristics also were less likely to see sex on television, but television viewing was related to sexual behavior even after these differences were taken into account."

Parental involvement has the result of the teens being less likely to have sex.

Finally,

"A key period of sexual exploration and development occurs during adolescence. During this time, individuals begin to consider which sexual behaviors are enjoyable, moral, and appropriate for their age group. Many teens become sexually active during this period; currently, 46% of high school students in the United States have had sexual intercourse. Although intercourse among youths is common, most sexually active teens wish they had waited longer to have sex, which suggests that sex is occurring before youths are prepared for its consequences. Additional evidence of this is provided by public health data. Each year, 1 case of a sexually transmitted disease (STD) is diagnosed for every 4 sexually active teens in the United States, and the US rate of teen pregnancy is among the highest of all industrialized countries. Unplanned pregnancies and STDs are more common among those who begin sexual activity earlier."

Waiting for to initiate sex is not a bad thing.

Obviously more studies are needed and one characteristic of studies is that one will come out (if not out already) which comes to the opposite conclusion. The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Too Right, Mate
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: Brewers-Pirates
Topic: Just for Fun
Did the first Americans come from Australia?

"Anthropologists have stepped into a hornets' nest, revealing research that suggests the original inhabitants of America may in fact have come from what is now known as Australia.

Silvia Gonzalez from John Moores University in Liverpool said skeletal evidence pointed strongly to this unpalatable truth and hinted that recovered DNA would corroborate it.

She said there was very strong evidence that the first migration came from Australia via Japan and Polynesia and down the Pacific Coast of America."

Crikey!