THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Empire State Repubs Rise Again: Hiram Monserrate, one of the two turncoat Dems who helped the Repubs flip control of the NY State Senate last week by giving them a 32-to-30 majority, has now done a reverse turncoat by reaffirming himself a member of the Dem caucus – which has created , a 31-31 tie in the legislative body and “its leadership picture more confused than ever,” reports The New York Times:
Democrats moved swiftly to offer Republicans a power-sharing arrangement but were rebuffed. The two sides are due in court Tuesday morning, though a judge has implored lawmakers to try to work the dispute out themselves.
By Monday night, no one really knew who was in charge of the Senate, and an air of unreality continued to prevail in Albany. No legislation was taken up in the Senate, with only four days remaining in the session and several major issues unresolved. …
Democrats chose Senator [John] Sampson as the leader of their caucus, a move that was a concession to Mr. Monserrate, who had insisted on the ouster of Malcolm A. Smith as majority leader. But because they no longer had the 32 votes needed to install Mr. Sampson as president of the Senate and majority leader, Democrats named Mr. Sampson “caucus leader” and left Mr. Smith as their titular leader. …
Even if senators came back, it could be difficult to get much done. The lieutenant governor breaks ties in the Senate, but that office was left vacant when Mr. Paterson ascended to the governorship last year amid Eliot Spitzer’s prostitution scandal.
And that’s not the half of it, according to The Times: Among the casualties of State Sen. Pedro Espada’s switcheroo is a bill already passed by the state Assembly that would result in “the most significant expansion of rent regulation and tenant rights in a quarter-century.” Now that he’s a Repub, Espada opposes the legislation.
† What Al Gore Hath Wrought (second item): Endless appeals of court rulings to settle disputed elections may be fine for states like MN (second item), but in AZ they do things the old fashioned way, pardner. The New York Times reports:
Adam Trenk and Thomas McGuire, both in blue jeans and open-collar shirts, strode nervously into Town Hall with their posses. There stood the town judge. He selected a deck of cards from a Stetson hat and shuffled it - having removed the jokers - six times.
Mr. McGuire, 64, a retired science teacher and two-term incumbent on the Town Council, selected a card, the six of hearts, drawing approving oos and aws from his supporters.
Mr. Trenk, 25, a law student and newcomer to town, stepped forward. He lifted a card - a king of hearts - and the crowd roared. Cave Creek had finally selected its newest Council member. …
In traditional balloting last month, the voters in Cave Creek could not decide between Mr. Trenk and Mr. McGuire the conventional way, giving each man, even after a recount, 660 votes in a runoff for a seat on the seven-member Council.
So, as the state’s Constitution allows, a game of chance was called to break the deadlock. The two candidates agreed on a card game (alternatives from the past have included rolling dice; gunfights were quickly ruled out).
As The Times puts it: “now and then, the state’s Western heritage comes storming through the saloon doors to remind one and all just what this place was like not so long ago.” (The item below is another example.)
† The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II: One day after a 14-14 tie defeated a measure to permit people with concealed-carry permits to take handguns into restaurants that serve alcohol, the AZ Senate approved the bill 18-10 and sent it to the House, reports The Associated Press:
Under the bill, a permit-holder carrying a weapon into a restaurant serving alcohol would not be allowed to drink. The measure would allow restaurants to deny entry by gun-toting citizens by posting a sign.
It also would reduce the misdemeanor penalty for bringing a gun into a restaurant that doesn't allow the weapons.
† Allegation That There Are Jobs “Americans Won’t Do” Being Examined (second item): Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center For Immigration Studies, refers to this article in The Pueblo (CO) Chieftain and asks pointedly, “You mean Americans will do farm work?” It seems that because of the state’s 8 percent unemployment rate (double what it was a year ago), the number of farmers requesting visas for foreign workers dropped nearly a quarter as unemployed Americans vie for those jobs. Krikorian adds:
When (if!) the economy improves, many of these legal workers may well return to being "not much interested in these seasonal farm jobs" - unless the wages, benefits, and working conditions improve, kind of like you'd expect in, you know, a market economy.
What a concept (second item): Obey wage and hour laws, as well as applicable health and safety regulations. Any employer who claims his or her enterprise will not be a going concern without flouting applicable laws should not be in business in the first place.
† Sexists And The Feminists Who Enable Them: Having cost CBS an advertiser, David Letterman offered an apology (video link) to Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) that she could accept. It’s pretty rambling and verbose, so The Stiletto condensed a bit:
[T]here was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There’s no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can’t be defended. The next day, people are outraged. They’re angry at me because they said, ‘How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?’ … I had no idea she was there. … I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself. …
It doesn’t make any difference what my intent was, it’s the perception. And, as they say about jokes, if you have to explain the joke, it’s not a very good joke. … I take full blame for that. I told a bad joke. … I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke. It’s not your fault that it was misunderstood, it’s my fault. That it was misunderstood.” … So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I’m sorry about it and I’ll try to do better in the future.”
This is all well and good, but The Stiletto is still curious as to what Letterman’s intent was in telling that joke - which, BTW, made A-Rod out to be a child molester, and he’s not quite that despicable (last item) yet - as well as the one calling Palin “a slutty stewardess” - which demeans not only her, but all flight attendants.
As far as Letterman is concerned, the joke was just plain wrong and he gave a very decent, humbling apology that Sarah Palin graciously accepted. (Although it took him a little while to do it.) She's moved on and I think everyone else should, too.
There's no place for me to comment on your "About" section so I just wanted to add that I had your reverse upbringing. My family consisted of white, Republican, upper-middle class snobs. (Big fish in a very small pond.) What I learned was that conservatives only like people who are like themselves and hate most everyone else. (Whether that's true or not, that's what I saw.) I went to an all white school and walked there every day. For me, school was like a vacation. As I got older,I finally decided that hatred and morality shouldn't be legislated and I've been a democrat ever since. Personally, I'd like to see a party with the fiscal leanings of the Republicans and the moral leanings of the Democrats.
Reply to this
The Stiletto is a recovering liberal. When the Berlin Wall came down as a result of Ronald Reagan's policies and 200 million people were freed without the U.S. firing a shot, The Stiletto realized that that the Dems had left her behind years earlier by remaining mired in past grievances and victimization rather than moving forward and dealing with current challenges.
Having said that, The Stiletto is not a Repub hack and disagrees with much of what Bush did in his second term. Bush lost focus and resoluteness in his foreign policy objectives, and his utterly inept (and un-Reaganesque) handling of the economy proved what The Stiletto had suspected about him all along - that he's no conservative.
As to your wish for a perfect party that is fiscally conservative but morally liberal, the two are in direct opposition. Actions have consequences, but liberals want to protect people from those consequences so they can have their cake and eat it, too. That costs money. Taxpayer money, since study after study shows liberals do not contribute to churches and charitable organizations as generously as conservatives do. Liberals like to put your money where their mouth is. No thanks.
Reply to this