Tom Donohue at the Journal has a fine piece on the shortcomings of the Obama plan. It’s worth your time.

His next big project seems to be a reconfiguring of the elementary and intermediate schools in the county to drop student/teacher ratios. In some cases class sizes for a single teacher would drop from 35 to 22. That’s a 37% drop in the ratio. He deserves much praise if it pulls it off. It will take a year and you can bet there will be extreme controversy over the plan. Attendance zones will have to be reconfigured. Watch for loud complaints about this one. But in the end, Lee’s plan should be approved.
Leadership is never easy and it always brings trouble. We think Lee is to be applauded for his work.

This is similar to DOJ’s decision to drop prosecution of a black activist who was caught on tape shouting racial epitaphs and taking a confrontational stance against white people while standing in front of a polling location.

It’s time for the President and Attorney General Eric Holder to read a few lines of the country’s founding document. The Constitution proclaims equal protection under law – not just protection for those who most supported the President in the last election.

What do you think?

What happened to bring this sudden cease to military actions?

It wasn’t the United States. We have been content to ride along in the backseat of the car while Britain and France led the way toward a military no-fly zone. We were happy to let the most ineffective organization on earth, the United Nations, declare that force could be used to enforce the no-fly zone.

It wasn’t President Obama’s leadership that stopped Qaddafi in his tracks for there has been no leadership. Aside from a late speech to two our President has not stepped up to the plate. He made no decision and waited for someone else to lead.

Now here is the burning question: What if our President was a leader and stepped up two weeks ago and ordered a unilateral no-fly zone? How many lives would have been saved? How quickly would this human disaster has ended if Barack Obama could make a decision?

Does this mean that Britain and France are in the ascendancy or that America is in the decendancy?

Politico has the mosque story.

While the government should and must stay out of the fray officially, it can and should point out the obvious. Building this mosque near the World Trade Center is mean, divisive and a slap in the face to the memory of those who died at the hands of Muslim terrorists. Politicians and community leaders should point out the obvious and demand a stop. Not because the government stops it – it cannot – but because it’s just wrong.

President Obama has again shown his naivete. With his stumbling retraction he appears more and more silly. He no longer has any appearance of wisdom or leadership. He is just silly and embarrassing.

Politico reports that Congress approved the record $1.9 trillion debt ceiling increase Thursday together with legislation to reinstate “pay-as-you-go” rules credited with helping to rein in deficits during the 1990s. CNN reports that the total U.S. Federal debt now stands at a staggering $12.3 trillion.

Earlier Alabama’s Senators Sessions and Shelby voted against the debt resolution in the upper chamber. Joe Bonner of Alabama’s 1st voted against it in the House.In fact, every single Republican in the House voted against the debt increase – every one. 37 Democrats voted against it.

This isn’t the end either. Remember the Obama budget? It is full of even more red ink and continues to ignore the economic reality that government cannot spend us out of debt. The roost is ready and the chickens are on their way in.

Oh and by the way, only one Alabama Congressman voted to raise the debt ceiling: Artur Davis (D-Birmingham). Davis is a leftist who has introduced a bill to provide federal loans to small businesses. Davis should remember that such loans are the province of banks. If left alone the banks will lend to any credit worthy organization or business. Fortunately Davis is the only Democrat among Alabama’s entire delegation.

Full vote results from the House are here:

Riley has all but broken with his own Attorney General who warns that Riley actions could put the state in an expensive legal position. The two feud regularly about electronic bingo and every couple of days that feud breaks out in the public.

Riley appointed Mobile DA John Tyson as the commander of his gambling task force. The bombastic Tyson has vowed to eliminate electronic bingo from state regulated areas and has even gone so far as to declare he would remove them from the Indian Reservations that are under Federal control and jurisdiction.

But then we learned that in 2006 Tyson asked Milton MacGregor, the top gamer in the state, for $200,000 dollars for  his race to become Alabama Attorney General. He got a paltry $100,000. Don’t forget that Tyson is the Governors handpicked replacement because he didn’t like the current AG, Troy King, who beat Tyson in the 2006 race.

We wonder how a man running for AG could take that massive sum of money? At the very least there is an appearance of undue influence.

Gambling is not good; I have written about it before on another blog. It doesn’t solve all the problems people think and it does create serious social ills. But if the state has a compelling interest in controlling gaming then the principles all need to get on the same page. You guys are an embarrassment!

It is curious to note that the Governor used the Alabama Republican Party as a mechanism for distribution of the email. You’ll see at the bottom the line “paid for by the Alabama Republican Party. It doesn’t seem wise to further politicize an ugly, ongoing battle over law enforcement. It is especially odd given the attempt in the email to make this a bipartisan issue.

“While 8 of the 9 members on the Supreme Court are Republican, this is not a partisan issue. One Democratic federal judge in Huntsville and three Democratic state court judges in Birmingham have also recently held that so called “electronic bingo” is not bingo at all and is illegal.”

A couple of paragraphs later he continues:

“In 62 of our 67 counties, Democratic and Republican prosecutors have stopped numerous slot machine gambling operations that said they were only playing “electronic bingo,” but these illegal facilities remain in a few counties because some public officials refuse to enforce the law. This inaction has allowed gambling bosses to operate their illegal casinos with impunity.”

The Governor also repeats allegations against one of the casino owners who he is trying to shut down. There are serious allegations that are being investigated but it does appear that Riley is having a bit of partisan temper-tantrum.

What are your thoughts? Please comment.

GDP Is Still Low

The actual GDP in the 4th quarter stood at 14,463.4 billion dollars. The high was in the 3rd quarter of 2008 and we aren’t back there yet. The number may be an improvement but we are still below where we were. This is not surprising because we know unemployment is still high.

GDP Report is Incomplete

The 5.7% report is “incomplete” according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Most economist expect that the number will drop when all factors are finally factored in. Don’t count your chickens just yet.

GDP is Built on Government Deficit Spending

The present economy is growing, in part, because of deficit government spending. Every penny of the stimulus comes from taxpayers. But much is deficit. That means we have a massive federal debt hanging over our heads which must be repaid.

The number is good and is a slow improvement but keep it in perspective.

The Associated Press says the Haitian government opposes the self-starting re-builders. The Culture and Communications Minister said the rebuilding “wouldn’t be tolerated.” She said, “the governemnt wants to develop and implement a comprehensive reconstruction plan that might feature building codes…”

The people of Haiti are not waiting. They are collecting pieces of wood and tin and rebuilding their own homes instead of waiting.

That is just like government. Oppose people who are hard working and force them to accept layers of government bureaucracy. These hard working people who desire to be self-sufficient should be encouraged. That is a nugget of freedom that shouldn’t be ignored.

The island nation has been suffering under ineffective and corrupt governments for generations. The recent earthquake with the staggering loss of life has brought the Haitian troubles squarely into the view of the entire world. There has been a massive outpouring of support, led by the United States, which so far has proven woefully inadequate to relieve the suffering there. The aid is necessary and ought to continue but it shows that the government is simply unable to respond fast enough to such disasters. That is a lesson we learned after Katrina.