This might be the single most incoherent raving by a political figure I've seen in the last six months:
America is about to revisit one of the most turbulent decades in its history, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told a religious conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. "We're about to enter the '60s again," Dean said, but he was not referring to the Vietnam War or racial tensions.
Here's news Republicans will love to broadcast and Democrats will love to rally against. Mitch Daniels has cracked the Top 10 list of conservative governors as chosen by Human Events, the "national cosnervative weekly." Here's what the political editor said about Daniels:
It's nice that the president has put the White House on record as being opposed to the use of eminent domain strictly for economic development purposes. But critics are right that this is mostly window dressing and that much more is needed:
Make no mistake. This isn't about "protecting the consumer" and making sure all services are delivered. It's a move to hold down competition, plain and simple:
A new state law will require Indiana real estate agents to provide a list of services that may seem like the basics to those who've bought and sold a home:
Answering questions, handling offers and counter-offers, and assisting with the transaction paperwork.
First of all, the headline on this item -- "Minimum wage increase in Indiana voted down" -- is a tad sloppy. A minimum wage increase for the whole country was voted down -- Indiana is perfectly free to raise its own minimum wage if our legislators are that stupid. Second, we learn here one of the ways Sen. Richard Lugar is not a conservative:
Indiana Senators Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh supported the amendment to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.
If county government salaries are "too low compared with comparable local governments," the answer is easy, right? Just raise those salaries, and be quick about it. But not all county departments are equal -- some have higher-than-average salaries, some lower. It makes sense to target raises where there is a specific problem:
I used to read all these stories about how George Jones, one of my favorite country singers, had gone on the wagon and was finally turning his life around. There would be a new story every year or so, always by a different reporter who hadn't read the other stories (no Internet back then to make research easy) and hadn't realized that George kept falling off the wagon told that turning-his-life-around story every time he got back on -- "for good this time!"
Now, that Karl Rove has been cleared, I have to remind you of the scientific experiment I conducted way back in July proving that he would, in fact, be exonerated.
I know someone who has been in negotiations with the VA over his World War II disability payments. This guy was a Marine and was too close to a blast, and it affected him just about all over his body -- loose teeth, hearing loss, shrapnel wounds. You should see all the paperwork, the letters, the comments of the doctors doing physical exams. All of this is for a pittance, a difference of a few hundred dollars a year. Does the hearing loss qualify for a 10 percent disability or a 20 percent one?
Columnist Pat Buchanan is not impressed with Indiana U.S. Rep. Mike Pence's illegal-alien offering, which he calls a stealth amnesty plan:
Which brings us to the Pence plan, named for the conservative congressman from Indiana who heads the House Republican Conference and was the 2005 Man of the Year to the conservative Human Events weekly.
