Letter From Home: “PowWow Wild Berry” 1/10/12
Today our mail was delivered by a postman wearing shorts.
It is January 10th, and I live in Madison, Wisconsin. The thermometer read 51 degrees at our isthmus home.
For the past many days I have seen a twenty-something in shorts taking a ride on his skateboard out on our street. Convertible tops are down as folks run errands, and there is a light-hearted mood just about everywhere. Over the past three days I have noted more than one person raking their lawn. Can a grill and some charcoal be far behind?
The morning newspaper had a cartoon of a young boy pulling a sled up to the door of the Bureau of Missing Persons. The man sticking his head out of the door informs the lad that “We’ll need a better description than “ol” man winter”.
Some are lamenting the lack of winter, but it seems many more are enjoying this unusual weather.
Our mailbox over the past two weeks has been filled with seed catalogs showing the bright array of flower possibilities and greenery just waiting for spring planting time. Burpee, The Cook’s Garden, and Wood Prairie Farm all showed up today.
The Wood Prairie Farm catalog is filled with lots of potatoes, and one great novelty item. They recall that in the early part of the last century fruit boxes were adorned with grand pictorial depictions. There was a term for such art that came to be known as “Fruit Crate Label Art”. Now Prairie Farm is selling postcards in that style of art for the potatoes they advertise.
With all this mild weather it is easy to be lulled into a sense that perhaps this will just continue until the real season of mild weather takes over. I must say….and this is a real change of heart for me as I love winter…but this year the mild winter is just fine.
It has been nice not to have salt all over our car, or need to think about shoveling snow. I have rarely used my winter coat this season, and find my heavier fall jackets more comfortable.
I admit there is a shortage of those wintry days when I hunker down and get certain desk type projects done as the winds howl and the snow piles up. But I must say that I am OK this year with a longer to-do list. Perhaps if we have a rainy spring the desk projects will finally be completed.
After all, for now there are too many seed catalogs to look at, and warm weather to get out and enjoy.
But with mild weather also comes new questions.
Where will the PowWow Wild Berry coneflowers go this year? The seed catalog says they bloom “shockingly brilliant” with extra-large rosy, fuchsia dark rose buttons. I swear some of the most enticing writers work for seed catalogs. One thing is for sure, this item from Territorial Seed Company will be blooming this summer in our yard.
How about the Tomato Soup flower? It is described as “an attention grabber” and a “true work of art” that blooms with gargantuan 5 inch blooms in lusty spiced scarlet. Lusty flowers? Make that two items to order.
I suspect the Tomato Soup flower should be planted away from the sidewalks so not to have drivers divert their attention from traffic.
Now where is the rake? Do we have ice tea in the house? Time is a-wastin’.
So many things to ponder when ‘ol’ man winter is nowhere to be found.
I Take Issue With Wisconsin State Journal Editorial On National Debt
We all understand that our nation’s fiscal affairs need some attention. Some serious attention. There is no one on any side of the political divide that will not agree that spending needs to be curtailed, and changes must be made to our tax policy. But there needs to be recognition of when action can take place, and what national priorities must be first established.
We can all agree that voices such as the editorial page of the Wisconsin State Journal are important when illuminating the need for fiscal discipline. But while honestly addressing the need for attention and action to be taken for debt relief, there also needs to be an understanding that government cutbacks during an anemic economic recovery is not sound policy.
While the WSJ did not suggest that deep cuts be made but only a slow-down in the rate of spending take place, the paper’s lack of making it clear that such cuts at this time would hinder the recovery is to me a glaring issue.
The first goal of our government at this time is not debt relief, but restoring jobs for the unemployed. So any cuts in government or by government at this time reduces spending on domestic goods and services which slows the economy and hurts our ability to recover. That means it is harder to create jobs.
If we can get our economy back to employment numbers which will allow for a healthy tax base to occur, in other words create an economy where our tax base grow faster than our debt, we will then be able to work for reasonable, and needed debt reform ideas.
While I am still all in favor of the Simpson-Bowles plan I am also mindful of not placing a debt relief plan ahead of steering employment out of the ditch and back onto the road. That must be our main goal at this time. If it takes more government spending to achieve that needed end, then that is what we should do.
I wish the WSJ would have made the same case today.
Mitt Romney Needs To Confront The Bain Bomb
It is amazing to watch as the issue of Bain starts to drag Mitt Romney down in the polls. The fact so many of the jobs in question were out-sourced, or eliminated is of consequence to the voters, and therefore a major reason for all-out concern within the Romney ranks.
While conservatives look unlikely to unite around one alternative to Romney, the campaigns themselves are uniting around the theme that the former head of Bain Capital looted companies, tossed people out of jobs and is now exaggerating his success at the venture capital firm.
In the context of this moment in American politics, in which frustration with the privileged is boiling hot, the attack, from Republicans on one side and the Obama campaign on the other, will test Romney. If he ends up looking more like an opportunist who profited for the few than like a man who created jobs for the many, it’s hard to imagine his polls numbers won’t drop.
Inadvertently, Romney created a new opening on the topic here Monday morning as he tried to explain his health care position with a comment almost custom-made for endless repeats in attack ads — and a Web video the Democratic National Committee already has up.
“I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy,” Romney said. “It also means that if you don’t like what they do, you could fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone isn’t giving the good service, I want to say, ‘I’m going to go get someone else to provide this service.’”
Which Candidate Wins In Google Searches?
Rick Santorum can not even win in cyberspace.
The Google Politics & Elections team looked at Google’s internal search trends for New Hampshire to rank the candidates based on two metrics.
We compared search traffic for each of the candidates on Saturday to searches for their names on Monday during the same time period. Though there are fewer searches on weekends, we found a wide variation in the degree of search volume for each candidate. As you can see in the first graph below, Jon Huntsman saw the sharpest increase in search traffic at 50%. He was followed by Newt Gingrich (+21%), Mitt Romney (+18%), and Ron Paul (+8%). Rick Santorum was the only candidate who actually saw a decrease in search traffic (-35%).
Dixville Notch Votes a Tie For Jon Huntsman And Mitt Romney
Republican voters in Dixville Notch, the New Hampshire town with a registered population of 75 people, are doing what at midnight what they always do on Election Day.
Voting at the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman each won two votes of the nine cast in the contest. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) each received one vote. Three Democratic ballots were cast for President Barack Obama.
Readers may be interested in the prediction I made for the New Hampshire primary late Sunday night.
Dixville Notch has voted first in the state’s primary election since 1960.
How Did I Get On Scott Walker’s White List?
Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I discovered in my mailbox a request from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for me to send him money for his fight in the upcoming recall election.
Given the opening sentence I was almost certain that the college drop-out-of-a-Governor had written the letter all by himself.
“The Wisconsin Democrat Party is following through on their months-long threat;they’re launching a recall election against me.”
I know that if I was about to get my ass handed to me I sure as heck would want to know precisely who was making the delivery. In this case let me inform our public employee bashing Governor that it will be the Democratic Party that will be ushering him and his family off the grounds of the Maple Bluff mansion later this year. (Get some nice sunset views while you can, Scott.)
Furthermore, there was never any threat made by anyone in this state against Governor Walker.
No, it was a promise.
One that we intend to keep. (See we can all use bold lettering in our writings.)
The letter that urges me to help stop out-of-state liberal interests failed to mention that Walker himself has crept into the political bed of some very conservative fat cats that live outside of the Badger State. It is amusing how soon one forgets little things like that when urging recipients of the letter to help raise a quick $600,000.
The signature from Scott Walker at the end of the two-page letter is more a hen scratching than a legible name. I will just assume that Walker was clubbing a public employee, and could not pay full attention to the signing.
Oh yeah Scott, my check has already been mailed out—to the recall organizers.
I intend to make sure the next mailing to the White List will be about Walker needing funds for moving boxes.
Bain Capital And Mitt Romney
Even the Wall Street Journal can not make this story look good for Mitt Romney.
The concern I have had about the investment firm Bain Capital and the role Mitt Romney had in it, is the lack of investigation and vetting of the candidate over this matter. While I am glad some of this about Bain and Romney are coming out now, as in the case of the Wall Street Journal placing this story above the fold, it still must be asked why it took so long.
Amid anecdotal evidence on both sides, the full record has largely escaped a close look, because so many transactions are involved. The Wall Street Journal, aiming for a comprehensive assessment, examined 77 businesses Bain invested in while Mr. Romney led the firm from its 1984 start until early 1999, to see how they fared during Bain’s involvement and shortly afterward.
Among the findings: 22% either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, sometimes with substantial job losses. An additional 8% ran into so much trouble that all of the money Bain invested was lost.
Another finding was that Bain produced stellar returns for its investors—yet the bulk of these came from just a small number of its investments. Ten deals produced more than 70% of the dollar gains.
Some of those companies, too, later ran into trouble. Of the 10 businesses on which Bain investors scored their biggest gains, four later landed in bankruptcy court.
More Americans Identify As Democrats Than As Republicans
But a record high of 40% identify as independents.
The percentage of Americans identifying as political independents increased in 2011, as is common in a non-election year, although the 40% who did so is the highest Gallup has measured, by one percentage point. More Americans continue to identify as Democrats than as Republicans, 31% to 27%.
In recent decades, Gallup has observed a pattern of increased independent identification in the year prior to a presidential election, and a decline in the presidential election year. The only exception to that was in 1992, when independent identification increased from 1991, perhaps the result of President Bush’s high approval ratings in 1991 and Ross Perot’s independent presidential candidacy in 1992.
Upset Predicted For New Hampshire Republican Primary
Independents and restless conservatives will create chaos for some, and excitement for others come Tuesday night in the New Hampshire Republican Primary. I am going out on a limb and predicting a major upset.
For the past week the numbers for Mitt Romney in New Hampshire have been falling, as has those for Rick Santorum. Meanwhile the poll numbers have trended upwards for Jon Huntsman, along with favorable movement for Ron Paul, though there was some leveling off for a period with Paul.
I think the Sunday morning debate for Mitt Romney was horrible, and the main beneficiary of that will be Hunstman. If the trend lines continue down for Romney, and the upward steam continues with independents flocking to Huntsman then there will be fireworks come Tuesday. That the Paul campaign is now attacking Huntsman is also a clue as to the movement in this race.
By all accounts the undecideds number somewhere around 15%, and most analysts place those voters as independents and moderate. If they break for Huntsman in the same percentage as the overall electorate seems to be turning for his candidacy then there is good reason to think that New Hampshire is going to do what it often does.
That is make for one heck of an Election Night.
Rick Santorum proved why a national campaign needs to be in place and ready to unfold when the time comes to make the big push. This week was one of the worst attempts at offensive positioning in politics that I have witnessed in a long time. Santorum was unable to move up his game and take advantage of what was handed to him in Iowa. Debating a high school kid in New Hampshire about gay marriage was just one of the low points from this dismal and morally incorrect candidate. Tuesday night will serve him right.
I think the names will line up come early Wednesday morning in the following order.
Huntsman (remember predictions are one of the fun parts of politics)
Romney
Paul
Santorum
Gingrich
Perry (I will send troops back into Iraq…..will someone please just yank this guy back to Texas!)
Mitt Romney–Then And Now–On Cover Of Time Magazine
In early December 2011 Time ran a cover story by Joe Klein about Mitt Romney asking the question “Why Don’t They Like Me?” This week Time’s David Von Drehle asks about Mitt Romney “So You Like Me Now?”
The two covers are unlike anything I have seen (or recall) from a magazine concerning a political race for the White House.
OMG–the gay couple is interracial too!
I am sure there is a run on pitchforks at the local hardware store as torch-wielding villagers plan a revolt.
Forty years ago when I was reading comic books there is no way that anyone could have predicted this plot line. It took a long time to get here, but progress can be made.
Riverdale’s first gay character, Kevin Keller, joins the military, meets his partner and walks down the aisle in Life with Archie #16, released in comic book stores today. The series, which follows the lives of Riverdale High School students a few years after graduation, focuses on Kevin and his life as a young adult in its January issue.
In this issue, readers discover that Kevin decided to follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the military, and following an injury in Iraq, he meets Dr. Clay Walker at a hospital’s rehabilitation unit. While Dr. Walker helps Kevin regain his ability to walk, the two develop a friendship. It’s not until a chance encounter at an airport that they start dating, which eventually leads to their marriage in Riverdale.
Nearly Full Moon Over Waunakee, Wisconsin
Thanks to RailPro
