Right Opposition

Alabama Governor Bob Riley is fighting back against electronic bingo in the state. The Republican Governor sent a message via the Alabama Republican Party. After charges were leveled against gaming task force head John Tyson of Mobile that Tyson accepted campaign funds from gambling interests, Riley responded with a broadside against his opponents. You can read the letter here.

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.

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The 5.7% jump in the 4th quarter 2009 has excited many who claim that this is evidence that government intervention in the markets has worked. Some think we are saved because of the government’s intervention via the stimulus prorgrams of the past year. But let’s look at three important points.

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.

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There is a surprising but welcomed story in the papers this morning. Some people in Haiti are beginning to rebuild their homes without waiting on government help. The government is opposing their efforts.

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.

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The leftist green movement continues to suffer from its own dishonesty.

The much hailed Copenhagen Summit, which failed to achieve any of its lofty goals, was acting on bad science. Word comes today  that the head of the UK’s climate change watchdog group knew before the summit that data on glacial melting was just wrong. You can read about it at the The Times website.

Science is supposed to be about facts. But what we are seeing is a deliberate attempt to craft science as a propaganda tool. What a mistake. Science, which has generally been widely accepted on both the left and right, is proving itself unreliable. We are left to wonder how much, if any, of the left’s agenda is also based on fantasy.

Meanwhile an investigation into the first Climategate fiasco has determined that the scientist broke the law by refusing to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests. The statute of limitations has passed so no one will face criminal charges. The story  is in The Mail.

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