Last Tuesday’s primary elections across many states in the country showed, what I would call, interesting results.
We should say that it was a great night for women.
In Nevada Sharron Angle won the primary for the Republican Party. Let’s look closely at this candidate that will challenge the majority leader next November. She is the Tea Party candidate. She supports the elimination of the Department of Education and the elimination of Social Security. This last program is arguably the best program that the United States has, covering many senior citizens.
She defeated the chicken candidate, the woman who believed in bartering for health care with chickens.
In California two women were elected to the Republican Party, one to run for governor and the other to run for the senate.
Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay, who spent at an average of almost $50 per vote in the primary of her own money will be a formidable candidate against Mr. Brown, as she is worth almost 1 billion dollars.
Carly Fiorina on the other hand, who won the primary last Tuesday for the Senate seat, and who will run against incumbent Barbara Boxer, is a different story. She was arguably the worst CEO HP ever had, to the point that she was fired by their board. She outsourced to Asia over 5000 jobs. She merged HP and Compaq in what was questionably the worst decision during a period when other companies were shrinking in labor force. That was the reason why the board fired her. She is running as a very conservative in a fairly blue state, she is pro-life in a state that is very pro-choice. She will still be a tough candidate because of the mid-term election, and primarily because of a climate of uncertainty, high unemployment and apathy in the electorate.
In South Carolina Nikki Haley almost won the gubernatorial candidacy as she finished with 49%. There will be a runoff in South Carolina because no candidate reached the 50% threshold, and Nikki Haley will possibly win that primary, and therefore, will likely be the next governor, as South Carolina is a very conservative state.
And I left Blanche Lincoln for last. I did so purposely. She won easily in the runoff even though she had the unions, the White House and many progressives against her because she is considered a “corporate democrat”, and because she was one of the few democrats who voted against the public option. I was one of the ones who wanted her out because of that vote. She will have her work cut out for herself in a state that Obama lost heavily in 2008, and that in this midterm election is full of unhappy people voting against incumbents, so it is very possible that she will not be reelected to the Senate for Arkansas. Nevertheless she will have the party behind her including figures such as Bill Clinton, just like she did during the runoff election, and anything can happen between now and November.
Friday, June 11, 2010
FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010
Today the FIFA World Cup 2010 starts in South Africa. It will be the first time that the event takes place in the African continent. Soccer is the number one sport in the world. Possibly the only exception to that rule is the United States, where baseball is the number one sport.
It is the event with the largest following in the world. People across the globe will be connected watching the 32 national teams that reach the finals.
We always talk about the World Series for baseball, when there are only two countries playing baseball in Major League Baseball, and really only one team from the second country, Canada, that team being the Toronto Blue Jays. All the other teams are from the United States. Calling it the World Series is just as amusing as when we call the winner of the Super Bowl the World Champions. In Football it’s even more ironic as the teams are only Americans.
We also tend to think of the Super Bowl as the most viewed event of the world with a viewing of less the 200 million worldwide. The final game of the world cup on the other hand is viewed by more than 1 billion people.
You can draw your own conclusion with that comparison.
The only event with comparable viewership to the Soccer World Cup is the Summer Olympics.
Both events share the same sentiment of competitiveness and camaraderie.
Let us hope that these games are free of any terrorist incidents.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Israel and its power in the region
As we see the tapes and read what seemed to have happened off of the coast of Gaza we need to stop and take a step back before we have a rushed opinion.
It looks like the Israelis attacked a group of ships and boats with Turkish flags. They were in international waters. If that is the case and Israel had no proof that its security was being threatened the international community should be just as harsh on them as they are on the Palestinians when they blow themselves up.
Netanyahu says that it will stop any shipments sent to Gaza in order to avoid Iran arming Hamas. I agree that Israel should be able to defend itself, but there is a difference between defending itself and attacking ships from one of the nations that support Israel such as Turkey.
Israel’s policy sounds very much the same as former president Bush’s policy of attacking first. That is a dangerous policy and instead of gaining the support to its cause, you have the international community saying that what Israel did was not the right thing; instead of being more secure this will guarantee its insecurity.
Conservatives in the United States say that president Obama is not supporting the stability and security of Israel. Not only this is not true, it is just simple politics. We should support Israel when they are right and point out when they do things like they did the other day, or when they invade neighboring countries such as Lebanon. This is not anti-Semitism, it may be anti-Zionism. We should not confuse them.
The United States needs to start taking a position that is good for its citizens and not for the interests of Israel, unless they coincide.
It looks like the Israelis attacked a group of ships and boats with Turkish flags. They were in international waters. If that is the case and Israel had no proof that its security was being threatened the international community should be just as harsh on them as they are on the Palestinians when they blow themselves up.
Netanyahu says that it will stop any shipments sent to Gaza in order to avoid Iran arming Hamas. I agree that Israel should be able to defend itself, but there is a difference between defending itself and attacking ships from one of the nations that support Israel such as Turkey.
Israel’s policy sounds very much the same as former president Bush’s policy of attacking first. That is a dangerous policy and instead of gaining the support to its cause, you have the international community saying that what Israel did was not the right thing; instead of being more secure this will guarantee its insecurity.
Conservatives in the United States say that president Obama is not supporting the stability and security of Israel. Not only this is not true, it is just simple politics. We should support Israel when they are right and point out when they do things like they did the other day, or when they invade neighboring countries such as Lebanon. This is not anti-Semitism, it may be anti-Zionism. We should not confuse them.
The United States needs to start taking a position that is good for its citizens and not for the interests of Israel, unless they coincide.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
How wrong priorities hurt the people with no voice
A couple of months ago my wife and me, the case manager of the school where my son goes to, and the case manager of the district where we live had our annual IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting in which we go over the plans for what Ian will be trained and/or educated during the next school year.
Due to the fact that there was an issue with the 20 hours that the district has paid for the last 8 o 9 years we had to go to mediation. Now we are not talking about thousands of dollars, we are talking about around one thousand dollars.
So two weeks ago we had our mediation. Our next door neighbor is our attorney, she has for quite some time and we have been very happy. The district hired a very tough attorney. They probably spent more on the attorney than what that it would have cost to pay for the hours in august that he receives as re-enforcement. We decided not to pursue any legal action because the benefits would not have justified the cost of it.
This leaves a bitter taste in our mouths. The districts position is that they don’t have to go any further than what to law says.
What I find amazing is that the district has only one regional school shared by three towns with a superintendent, a principal, a vice-principal and a business administrator, all bureaucrats with high incomes. The superintendent makes $120,000, the principal makes over $133,000, the vice-principal over $115,000 and the business administrator makes $80,000. That is for the proposed budget 2010-2011. There are only 836 students under the umbrella of the school. That should insult most people’s intelligence. Without counting teachers we are already spending $448,000. That does not give those students anything. I can find $1,000 for my son’s 20 hours very easily right there.
The new Governor that the citizens of this state voted for, the flagship of the Republican Party, somebody who campaigned under the promise of not cutting teachers, has decided to do away with this promise and has gone after the teachers viciously. Just in Paterson almost 900 will be made dispensable as of July 01. This will only force more kids per classrooms, in a system that is already over burdened. Going after teachers that make $45,000 will not resolve the budget issues. There are many other places to cut. We have too many layers of government, too many bureaucrats that don’t produce anything.
Through my job as a realtor I have been exposed to people who live on section 8, and one of the institutions that coaches, protects them, the Passaic County Public Housing. We are not helping people by providing free or assisted rent. Many of the people that I have met are, in the words of Winston Churchill, disingenuous about the people that will live in the house. They only mention a wife with two small kids, and many times they have a husband or a lover living in the house, grown kids in age for living, all living at the taxpayers’ expense. I am a liberal who believes in a second, and third chance, but when we have people living who for many years at the expense of others, with excuses for not working, and/or not being truthful about their present marital conditions, they become a burden to the rest of us, and because of them we end up losing valuable resources that could be put to good use.
Due to the fact that there was an issue with the 20 hours that the district has paid for the last 8 o 9 years we had to go to mediation. Now we are not talking about thousands of dollars, we are talking about around one thousand dollars.
So two weeks ago we had our mediation. Our next door neighbor is our attorney, she has for quite some time and we have been very happy. The district hired a very tough attorney. They probably spent more on the attorney than what that it would have cost to pay for the hours in august that he receives as re-enforcement. We decided not to pursue any legal action because the benefits would not have justified the cost of it.
This leaves a bitter taste in our mouths. The districts position is that they don’t have to go any further than what to law says.
What I find amazing is that the district has only one regional school shared by three towns with a superintendent, a principal, a vice-principal and a business administrator, all bureaucrats with high incomes. The superintendent makes $120,000, the principal makes over $133,000, the vice-principal over $115,000 and the business administrator makes $80,000. That is for the proposed budget 2010-2011. There are only 836 students under the umbrella of the school. That should insult most people’s intelligence. Without counting teachers we are already spending $448,000. That does not give those students anything. I can find $1,000 for my son’s 20 hours very easily right there.
The new Governor that the citizens of this state voted for, the flagship of the Republican Party, somebody who campaigned under the promise of not cutting teachers, has decided to do away with this promise and has gone after the teachers viciously. Just in Paterson almost 900 will be made dispensable as of July 01. This will only force more kids per classrooms, in a system that is already over burdened. Going after teachers that make $45,000 will not resolve the budget issues. There are many other places to cut. We have too many layers of government, too many bureaucrats that don’t produce anything.
Through my job as a realtor I have been exposed to people who live on section 8, and one of the institutions that coaches, protects them, the Passaic County Public Housing. We are not helping people by providing free or assisted rent. Many of the people that I have met are, in the words of Winston Churchill, disingenuous about the people that will live in the house. They only mention a wife with two small kids, and many times they have a husband or a lover living in the house, grown kids in age for living, all living at the taxpayers’ expense. I am a liberal who believes in a second, and third chance, but when we have people living who for many years at the expense of others, with excuses for not working, and/or not being truthful about their present marital conditions, they become a burden to the rest of us, and because of them we end up losing valuable resources that could be put to good use.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)