Clearing the tabs…12/30/2012

Secretary of State Clinton hospitalized. I guess it turned out to be more than “Benghazi flu” after all… Prayers for Secretary Clinton and her health.

How to prepare financially for 2013 despite fiscal cliff. Step one: Don’t panic. Step 2: Prepare for the worst. That’s when I panic. Step 3: Turn investments into cash…Yeah, right.

Farmer cites religious issues in raw milk case. May be behind a “pay wall.” Sorry.

Immigration reform could get overshadowed in Congress. By what? Oh….yeah…forgot.

Red-light cameras run up $7.6 million in fines in first year. Look for this revenue stream to come to a community near you soon.

French court throws out Hollande’s tax on rich. America should be so lucky.

And last but certainly not least, Obama signs FISA warrantless wiretapping program extension into law. It’s nice to know that while the government might not be able to pay its bills, it will still be able to spy on its citizens. Kohl, Johnson and Sensenbrenner all voted “Yes.”

The McConnell Plan

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a new plan to allow the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions.

via McConnell: Give Obama New Powers on Debt Limit.

You can find the details here.

Basically it

allows the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions.

House and Senate could disallow these requests in 15 days and the president could veto any “disallowals.”

The Heritage Foundation argues against it. The Wall Street Journal seems to like it. Zogby says voters will blame the president.

Republicans had already been called out by The Economist:

IN THREE weeks, if there is no political deal, the American government will go into default. Not, one must pray, on its sovereign debt. But the country will have to stop paying someone: perhaps pensioners, or government suppliers, or soldiers. That would be damaging enough at a time of economic fragility. And the longer such a default went on, the greater the risk of provoking a genuine bond crisis would become.

The Journal op/ed sees what’s happening:

Mr. Obama is trying to present Republicans with a Hobson’s choice: Either repudiate their campaign pledge by raising taxes, or take the blame for any economic turmoil and government shutdown as the U.S. nears a debt default. In the former case Mr. Obama takes the tax issue off the table and demoralizes the tea party for 2012, and in the latter he makes Republicans share the blame for 9.2% unemployment.

The McConnell Plan avoids both of these.

It may work…

Todd Kolosso is running against Jim Sensenbrenner

Yeah, it took me awhile to quit giggling also. Democrats have been throwing themselves on their swords ever since I moved here (and probably before that) trying to unseat the long serving Republican congressman. You’d think they’d learn.

Mr. Kolosso put out a press release recently (h/t WisPolitics.com) which declared,

“When the people of the 5th Congressional District vote for me in November,” said Kolosso, “they can be confident that I will honor my pledge to conduct myself according to the highest ethical standards and that I will not put personal profits over the interests of my constituents or my fellow citizens.”

I don’t want to tell Democrats how to campaign, but the last few challengers have tried to nail Sensenbrenner because of his stock holdings and it hasn’t taken.

Come to think of it, pretty much any thing any challenger has thrown at him has managed to unseat him.

Oh, well.

Now Nick Schweitzer says he would vote for Kolosso over Sensenbrenner, and Nick’s a very smart guy, but I don’t see the majority in the 5th CD doing it.

Kolosso for Congress site.

Sensenbrenner for Congress site.

Legislators legislating legislation

I’m talkin’ about the whole kit and kaboodle. US House, US Senate, Wisconsin legislature. Probably yours. Could include county supervisors, city councils, school boards. Go ahead take your turn at naming one.

What most of these have in common (I can’t say all, because some one would say, “Prove it!” and I can’t) is the propensity to invade into areas that don’t really concern them or that are a waste of time and they wouldn’t have thought about it except for the fact that some lobbying group is telling them how many votes they would get if they would co-sponsor this wonderful bill that is really non-controversial.

Right.

OK, let’s look at some particulars:

The first is the most recent of Wisconsin state symbols–cheese as the official state snack.

Cheese would become Wisconsin’s official state snack under a bill up for public hearing on Thursday.The proposal by Democratic state Sen. Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa doesn’t differentiate between cheddar, blue or Swiss. And it also doesn’t say anything about curds.

Yes, folks a state snack. I’m sure you also remember hearing that the Wisconsin legislature is debating the state microbe and state motorcycle:

But a pair of contenders hoping to join the state symbol club would honor two equally famous Wisconsin traditions: cheese and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

One bill, introduced last week, aims to celebrate Lactococcus lactis, a tiny organism that makes the state’s estimated $18 billion per year cheese industry possible, by naming it the official state microbe. The other, introduced in the Senate on Wednesday, would designate Harley-Davidson the Wisconsin state motorcycle.

No time for less important issues like school funding and the budget deficit.

Congress, of course, gets in on the act. Now that they have successfully given us the 2,000+ page health care bill, they have time to tackle important things like probing NFL  concussions.

These are not the only examples. Most states have symbols ranging from amphibians to trees.

It’s mostly harmless cheerleading. And it keeps them away from serious legislation that might screw with my life some more.

Gee, I wonder why?

Politics – Senators found unwilling to share tax info

Most U.S. senators are unwilling to share the kind of personal tax information they demand to confirm Cabinet appointees, a survey indicated.

Even as such senators as Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, grilled Obama administration appointees on lapses in paying their taxes, they were among 55 senators who either failed to respond or gave generic answers to Politico’s survey asking all 99 senators whether they or the Internal Revenue Service have ever discovered an error on returns they’ve filed, and whether they’ve ever had to pay back taxes.

Let’s try something novel; hold every one to the same standards.

April 7 election set for Emanuel’s seat

Politics – April 7 election set for Emanuel’s seat – ArcaMax Publishing

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Monday set April 7 for a special election to fill the U.S. House seat Rahm Emanuel gave up to join the Obama administration.

Blagojevich, who is facing federal corruption charges, issued a Writ off Election from his Capitol office in Springfield that also set March 3 as the date for a special primary election, if one is needed.

Wait. Wait. So they’re going to have a special election for Emanuel’s house seat, but he wants to appoint someone to fill Obama’s Senate seat?