I apologize for calling all those who collaborated on getting Elian Gonzales back to Cuba liberal, thug-loving morons. That kid has it made now:
Blogger extraordinaire Alan Vanneman points to this article from The New York Times about how the tyrannical government of Cuba is finally allowing its prisoner-citizens to see Beatles cover bands only about 45 years after Beatlemania has bitten the dust:
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Who says Congress can't get serious about making meaningful spending cuts? House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have just announced a plan to cut $5 million a year -- yes, that's right, $5 million; I can hear you gasping out there -- by eliminating a program that has been in existence for more than 200 years. The House page program will be no more, and the cost savings isn't the only reason:
Recently, courts in Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Idaho and New York have allowed therapy dogs to sit with witnesses, many of whom are children, as a way of relieving the witnesses' stress. Defense lawyers of a man convicted in New York, objected:
No one denies that Rosie, a New York therapy dog who works with witnesses in criminal cases, is very cute. However the defense lawyers of a man convicted of raping his daughter claim that the golden retriever's cuteness swayed a jury too much.
Omigod! The debt-ceiling deal might hurt Indiana! Quick, undo it! We take back all the mean things we said! Hurry, hurry, hurry!
We've had candidates before who promised to work "for a Better Indiana," and there have even been organizations such as Taxpayers for a Better Indiana and the Association to Build a Better Indiana. But now, merely "better" apparently isn't good enough:
A downgrade for "No Child Left Behind"?
State and local education officials have been begging the federal government for relief from student testing mandates in the federal No Child Left Behind law, but school starts soon and Congress still hasn't answered the call.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he will announce a new waiver system Monday to give schools a break.
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News outlets searching through 2010 Census data have made the biggest deal about the increase in the number of same-sex households. ("States gay household tally up 61%," blares The Journal-Gazette, but the current actual number of 16,428 isn't all that impressive.) There are also other intersting things in the numbers that shouldn't be overlooked:
The latest information places Indiana's median age at 37.
I love milestones, don't you?
The U.S. debt surpassed 100 percent of gross domestic product after the government's debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday, according to AFP.
The debt, which had been in somewhat of a holding pattern over the past several weeks, rose $238 billion after President Obama signed the debt-ceiling deal into law Tuesday to avoid the country's first-ever default.
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I may have been premature to praise Texas Gov. and likely presidential candidate Rick Perry for his commitment to the 10th Amendment and federalism. He and several other Republican candidates speak a good 10th Amendment game, but when "there is a conflict between state sovereignty and conservative policies, their reverence for the 10th Amendment abruptly goes by the wayside."
The News-Sentinel and Journal Gazette editorial pages might disagree on the worth of right-to-work laws (go ahead and guess which paper holds which position), but I think we'd agree with at least one part of the JG's editorial:
The committee did not hear testimony from the public at its meeting last week, but is expected to do so later. Hoosiers need to consider the repercussions of a right to work law and let lawmakers know what they think. The 2012 session will be too late.
