Is the president seeking intelligent life? I notice the telescope is NOT aimed at the Capitol…
A few topics:
- County may pay ex-Maj. Gen. Turner $194,000 for flood relief — Abraham Turner was an impressive general officer, who I suspect would have inspired confidence on a battlefield. But while it pales in comparison to what Steve Spurrier is pulling in, I fail to see how he qualifies for this sort of remuneration from a county in need. Richland County Council is apparently discussing this tonight. John Crangle says the proposed contract “doesn’t smell very good.” No kidding.
- Jim Webb drops out of 2016 Democratic primary — You know what this means, don’t you? It means he’ll have to wait even longer to be called on in the next Democratic debate. And he’s contemplating an independent bid, which I suppose means we may never hear of him again.
- Pierre Trudeau’s kid elected to run Canada — It’s morning again in Canada, as the new Liberal PM touts his “sonny ways.” I mean, “sunny ways.” Well, good luck, Justin. Oh, and Mick Jagger says to say “hi” to your mom. Me, I’ll just be sitting here thinking about our largest trading partner being run by someone who was born the year I graduated from high school.
- US and Russia sign deal to avoid Syria air incidents — Here’s hoping our forces stay separated by something more than a “red line.”
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So, County Council voted against the contract. Good to know that there are some limits, even if those limits are in the million dollar range for a noncompetitive contract with no accountability, to do what is already being done by others.
Yes, that’s a relief. I wonder whether The State reporting it hours before the meeting had an effect n the outcome, or was it always doomed?
From other sources, Councilman Washington was behind the effort- and was cursing at other members in their closed door meeting.
“Washington then went to work for South Carolina State, his alma mater, in their transportation center before leaving to be a business consultant. He is the son-in-law of former longtime Richland County Councilwoman Bernice Scott. He currently owes $75,100 to the S.C. Ethics Commission and has been publicly reprimanded by that body.”
http://thenerve.org/news/2015/10/26/richland-county/
Crazy idea- but why don’t they let their emergency management folks do their jobs and trust them to do it correctly?
I know I know- crazy talk.
No graft in that.
Where is everybody today? Where y’all at?
I would have posted today, but I’m in mourning today because my man Joe’s not going to run. It’s a tragedy. He was SO full of Joe-ness… https://bradwarthen.com/2008/05/our-joe-cup-ove/
You have to consider the thought process of a politician that arrives at the decision to pursue paying an external company a million bucks to perform a job that is not well defined and not accountable to anyone. What do you think motivates that decision? It’s certainly not motivated by being a good steward of scarce funds. Gee, I wonder what might be driving that behavior? Let me “kickback” for a while and ponder it.
all the while they have emergency management professionals already on their payroll as county employees- including supervisors and department leaders – any of which could likely head up such an effort (and if they can’t, they shouldn’t be on the payroll).
I agree with you Doug, the “thought process” of politicians like that is really scary.
OK, to be fair, this summary does not state the case: “You have to consider the thought process of a politician that arrives at the decision to pursue paying an external company a million bucks to perform a job that is not well defined and not accountable to anyone.”
Not this time, anyway.
This wasn’t proposed by any of the politicians — that is to say, by anyone on county council. It was an unsolicited pitch to council, from what I read. And to their credit, council rejected it.
It was worth The State raising the alarm on it, just in case it DID have support on council. But it was rejected, so it all worked out this time…
That said, we don’t know EXACTLY what happened, or why, because we don’t have open government in South Carolina:
I’ve been back home in South Carolina 28 years now, and I still can’t get over the fact that public bodies regularly conduct public business behind closed doors. They could not do that in Tennessee, where I started my career, except under very limited conditions, such as receiving legal advice from their attorney (if I recall correctly)…
“The people of South Carolina liked their political leaders to conduct all the secret, back-room dealing right up front in publicly announced secret sessions, for everyone not to see.”
-Something that Joseph Heller could have written
I see everything twice!
Or rather, I don’t see everything twice!
Nice allusion there, Bryan.
Meanwhile, on the federal level, I see that “almost 100 Homeland Security employees have been paid to stay home for over a year.” Which evokes this:
“Councilman Kelvin Washington, who represents District 10 in Lower Richland, said he recommended Turner’s group to the county administrator because of Turner’s military expertise and disaster experience.”
Isn’t that what led to the proposal being submitted? Would it have reached the Council to even vote on had Washington not been involved?
“Washington declined any further comment once he learned The State had obtained a copy of the proposed contract with AT Consulting Group.”
Yeah, that sounds legit…
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article40489401.html#storylink=cpy
You’re right! Obviously, I read it too quickly! I was going by this: “The contract was an unsolicited proposal to the county, Council Chairman Torrey Rush said.”
I didn’t get to the Kelvin Washington part…
And what on Earth did this even mean?
“…he recommended Turner’s group to the county administrator because of Turner’s military expertise and disaster experience.”
Huh? Was he with the Corps of Engineers? I’ve seen no indication of that…
I’d take a reasonable sized bet that had this contract been approved, one or more of the positions would be filled with people who might not know a whole lot about disasters but be welcomed at a certain council member’s family reunion. That’s how it works.
I agree – sadly that is the way it works too often.
The contract had a huge salary for Turner, and also had proposed salaries for an executive director under Turner, several other well paid positions in the $80,000+ range- including a “media spokesperson”
Yeah- this sounds real legit alright.
Well, they needed a media person, because they were gonna have to do some fancy ‘splainin’…
Lovely. We sign a deal with Russia that keeps our fighters from fighting each other (I hope), and Putin immediately host Assad. Why do I get a bad feeling about this?
Because it’s a VERY bad situation…
Yeah, wait until Luke finds out that Han and Chewie have been smuggling supplies to some of the less reputable rebel factions in Syria…
Interesting poll out of Iowa for the Republican primary. Carson, Trump lead the poll. Jeb is tied for SIXTH, behind Rubio, Cruz, Paul, Carson, and Trump.
Lindsey got below 1% (along with Gilmore and Pataki) but the funny thing is he is THIRD (15%) behind Trump (30%) and Bush (21%) on the question of who voters would definitely NOT support for the nomination. So people know him enough to by a 15:1 margin to NOT vote for him.
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/iowa/release-detail?ReleaseID=2291
I’m thinking that might be a function of Trump’s popularity. Graham has been most adamant in criticizing Trump, so people who like the Donald don’t like the Lindsey.
Trump comes in first among those people would definitely NOT support because anyone who favors Bush, Rubio, Pataki, Kasich, Christie or Graham are all likely to say that. They don’t have much support individually, but it adds up.
But Trump has so MUCH support that anyone who criticizes him, or (like Bush) is seen as the anti-Trump, gets a big negative score, too.
By the way, before we go and write the obituaries of the Bush and Rubio campaigns, remember that a little over 8 years ago, everybody was writing off John McCain. He had started out as Mr. Inevitable, Whose Turn Had Come, and he had fallen in the polls to where his SC campaign had been reduced to one or two staffers, as I wrote here.
Then fast-forward four years, and remember that in the fall of 2011, polls showed ANYONE but Romney getting the nomination, with various fringe candidates swapping the lead back and forth in the polls.
So there’s a good chance that once again, the more mainstream guy (maybe Bush, maybe Rubio), will end up with the nomination.
But take note, Republicans — after flirting with the fringe before settling on the sensible candidate, you lost both elections…
Of course, members of the Freedom Caucus would respond to that by saying that “obviously, we shouldn’t have settled for the mainstream guy.” I, of course, would say it was the flirting with the fringe first that doomed the party’s chances. Or rather, it was the deep-seated problems in the base that that flirting represents that did the GOP in.
The Tea Party types are delusional about a lot of things, chief among them the fantasy that their first choice could win a general election.
They think THEY are “the people,” and their choice IS the popular choice. They like to forget that those awful liberals out there, and we moderates in between, also get a say…
A Republican from Pennsylvania called the Freedom (Fantasy) Caucus out last night on cable news for their hypocritical stance: refusing to accept the idea that Rep. Ryan has some set guidelines for being willing to run for Speaker – while at the very same time letting everyone know they are unwilling to compromise on their own rules.
Apparently for the Freedom Caucus- everyone else has to be willing to work with them. Only their caucus gets to have non-negotiable rules.
The Republicans are in a mess.
I was someone that was seriously considering Jeb Bush a few months ago. But the way he’s responded lately to some of the Trump garbage has showed me he’s either 1) not a serious person or 2) incapable of being a serious candidate.
His responses and his entire persona has been very disturbing to me. I was hoping he was going to be a statesman about things for a few months before getting down to specifics. I was hoping he would be man enough to be willing to be critical of his brother – at least mildly critical.
He seems incapable of being critical- and as someone that voted for George Bush twice, I find that unappealing. I can be more critical of my own 12 year old son than Jeb can of his 60 something year old brother. Apparently my 12 year old has thicker skin and can take it. Apparently Jeb thinks George can’t. Therefore, I can’t support him now.
At this time, my wife and I will be sitting this presidential election out. While we both personally like Ben Carson, we do not feel he is qualified to be President at this point and time (meaning not this cycle) – and there is no Democrat running for President that I could vote for and still look at myself in the mirror and feel good doing so – (and I proudly voted for Vincent Sheheen twice)
“Apparently Jeb thinks George can’t.”
I don’t think that’s it. It’s not about what George can take. It’s about what the mainstream Republicans who are his true base can take. And after eight years of Democrats blaming everything bad that happens on Bush, they would not tolerate any disloyalty from younger brother. The people he HAS to keep appealing to — while figuring out how to appeal to others as well — want him to stick up for the team. Set aside that it’s his brother. I don’t think the GOP mainstream would tolerate their candidate criticizing the last Republican president no matter who it was…
I’m talking about REAL Republicans here, people who believe fervently in Reagan’s 11th Commandment.
I’m talking about the people the upstarts in the party call RINOs — which is 180 degrees from the truth. The people they say that about tend to be the real Republicans, the people who were Republicans long before the upstarts were even paying attention to politics…
If Jeb’s plan is to run on George W’s record he may as well just quit now. Even among Republicans that is a losing strategy.
Can Bush survive a 6th place or lower finish in Iowa and NH? McCain didn’t finish that far back in the pack. He’s NOT going to win SC either. Thankfully.
No, he didn’t finish that far back, but McCain had largely bounced back by then. January is not October.
But… all of those references to recent history aside, I think this election is different. It’s really beginning to look as though it’s feasible that one of the completely insane options — Trump or Carson — could come close to actually getting the nomination. Which would mean that Hillary Clinton becomes president by default. She wouldn’t WIN the election under that hypothetical; the Republicans would lose it.
In years past, the different fringe candidates would briefly rise, and then sink as more attention is paid to them and voters get to know them. This time, no matter how much Trump is exposed, he remains popular. And THAT is different.
If this continues — and it has continued WAY longer than any sensible person would have predicted — the Republicans’ only hope will be a brokered convention, that can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It will be a moment for the smoke-filled room. But is that even possible any more?
And then, if the mainstream succeeds in asserting itself strongly enough to give the nomination to someone electable, we’ll likely see a real schism, with the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus types roaring off to start their own, actual party…
Let’s assume Hillary loses Iowa and NH to Sanders, which is the most likely scenario right now. Are we SURE she is the eventual nominee? Does she win California, Florida, and New York easily? What about Oregon?
As much as the Republican Party is divided, it is also “put up or shut up” time for Democrats. Obama was supposed to be the hope and change guy that liberals had been waiting for. He turned out to be less than Bill Clinton in terms of performance. Is Hillary going to be MORE liberal than Obama? She doesn’t sound like it. Does any Democrat seriously think that she would move the bar on income inequality, the War On Terror, or single payer healthcare? If Democrats want four or eight more years like the last two terms, I guess they’ll vote for Hillary. But then any claim of wanting true Democratic principles to be implemented is just hot air.
Doug, other than offering the standard, false platitudes about the failures of the Obama president why don’t you actually produce some facts beyond the usual labor participation rate nonsense and foreign affairs “chaos” bromide. As Sgt. Joe Friday would say, “just the facts”. Here are a few.
Obamacare has produced far more positive reform that any other president on the healthcare front. The result if more coverage and lower overall spending.
Obama’s tenure has been characterized by 70+ months of positive job creation. And that’s a record.
The stock market has soared over the last 6 years.
There are far fewer Americans getting killed overseas than was the case during the previous president.
There has been no major terrorist attack on the homeland.
Inflation remains low. Marijuana is legal in far more places than ever before, a positive sign for freedom.
Gasoline prices are at the lowest real price since the early 70s.
Low interest rates have allowed millions of families to refinance their homes at historically low rates thus creating a huge amount of wealth.
The annual budget deficit is about 1/6 what the last Bush budget was.
We are finally making some progress on renewable energy sources that will result in a clean environment and reduced electricity prices.
I would say that Obama has delivered some very positive results for the American people. Not that there aren’t still challenges. Income inequality MUST be addressed otherwise the gilded class will bring the economy crashing down around us. And we absolutely must get all our troops out of the ME.
Please align Obama’s policies with the results you claim. Obamacare is still in its infancy. Are costs affordable yet?
Obama has done nothing that impacts the stock market, the deficit, or legalized marijuana. It’s the gridlocked congress and sequestration that has done more.
Obama has been a dull president, not a leader. He’s nothing like the guy who ran in 2008.