Month: February 2011

Feb. 27, 2011

COLUMBUS: The protests keep on going. Libya, Oman, Tunisia, Egypt… I saw a picture in the newspaper today of a poor little 6-year old girl holding up a big sign saying (in English), It’s About Freedom!

On television there was another sign comparing the leader to Hitler. Qaddafi must really be hated. Of course he’s been a dictator for 35 years, he bombed a Pan American airplane killing all aboard, and he has stolen billions from his countrymen.

Meanwhile, the debate here on government unions is hot on both sides. Paul Krugman, The New York Times, compared Madison to Baghdad in 2003. “It’s an attempt (by Governor Walker) to destroy the last major counterweight to the political power of corporations and the wealthy.” Meanwhile, Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, compares private company unions to government unions, “The capitalist knows that when he negotiates with the union, if he gives away the store, he loses his shirt. In the public sector, the politicians who approve any deal have none of their own money at stake. On the contrary, the more favorably they dispose of union demands, the more likely they are to be the beneficiary of union largesse in the next election.”

Here’s a quiz for you… If you had ten guesses as to what company or organization has these four words as their tag line could you get it? We Make America Happen.  Is it perhaps Exxon, or the steel workers union, or ABC News, or Facebook, or BNSF Railway, or Goldman-Sachs, or Farm Bureau? No doubt it is something we absolutely could never do without.

Meanwhile in Washington, a government shutdown is staring us in the face. Can’t blame that on the unions. Republicans say they want to cut the federal budget. Democrats say they want to cut the budget, too, just not as much. They all say that no essential government services will be shut down, even temporarily. Employees who are needed to write Social Security checks, the military, air traffic controllers, for example, will be at work next week. On the other hand, if you are in Commerce or Labor or EPA or in many other departments, you could be deemed non-essential. Taxpayers might see that as a hint on where to cut permanently.

Here’s one suggestion I received today: everybody receiving a government check takes a 10 percent cut for 2011. Everybody. Start with the President and Congress. Include the armed forces, firemen, teachers, professors, governors, city councils, contractors, and everything sold to governments. It wouldn’t be enough to eliminate the federal deficit, but it would sure help some states, counties and municipalities balance their budgets. Of course that’s a fantasy. No one in power would ever suggest such a common sense idea.

Speaking of fantasies, The King’s Speech won the Oscar. The way things are going in the world, by next week the King may be overthrown.

Oh, those two signs mentioned at the top… one was in Ohio, the other in Wisconsin.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“Being Governor is sort of a thankless job, after the applause is over.” WA #599, June 17, 1934

Feb. 20, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS: Protests in Wisconsin have knocked the protests in Egypt off the front page. In Egypt, they protested against a dictator because they want freedom to find a job paying more than $2 a day. In Madison, they are protesting against a governor because they don’t want to pay $2 toward their retirement. As for freedom, the Governor says these teachers and government employees are always free to look for another job.

Snow has shut down Minneapolis today (Sunday). Not completely, of course, but it closed the airport long enough to give me an extra day or two here. But I ain’t complaining. We had a fine crowd up in Staples last night and I’d a lot rather have my flight canceled after a show than before it. Minnesota poked fun at Oklahoma with their 20 to 30 inches a couple of weeks ago; now it’s Minnesota’s turn to show us how to deal with half as much. They’ll be plowing snow for awhile.

On the way to Staples I got to stop at the boyhood home of Charles Lindbergh. It’s at Little Falls, on the west bank of the Mississippi River. They have a museum, and even if you know a lot about this aviation hero you’re guaranteed to learn something new. For instance, he attended eleven different schools, and at the University of Wisconsin he quit after three semesters before they could kick him out for poor grades. But then he went to Flight School, and he did ok.

Wisconsin and Minnesota are more than neighbors. In 1928 I said, “A child born in Wisconsin is taught two things. One is to love LaFollette, and the other is to hate Minnesota. Wisconsin is never doubtful. You can always count on it doing just exactly what the other forty-seven states don’t.”

Governor Walker is never doubtful, and he’s got governors across the country, both Republican and Democrat, watching because many states need to do exactly what Wisconsin is doing. And if you asked these governors, I bet they are all irked by the President’s meddling in Wisconsin affairs. While Mr. Obama admits he’ll spend 40 percent more than he takes in, these governors are forced to balance a checkbook.

Mr. Obama is an intelligent man. No argument on that. And I bet that if you go back into his childhood, all through school, and on up to recent years you’ll find that he was in a lot of clubs and organizations. He was probably president of a few. But I bet out of all of them, he never once served as Treasurer. If he did, and he managed that account the same as he’s managing the one he’s in charge of today, the club would be defunct.

Minnesota’s Governor Dayton is using the old fashioned approach to balance a budget: raise tax rates. Dayton is counting on folks not leaving just because of higher taxes. But if General Mills, Target and the billionaire Pohlad family, for example, pulled up stakes and moved to Florida, he’ll face a deficit worse than Wisconsin. Illinois already raised their tax rates. The Illinois governor announced, “I haven’t heard of any rich men leaving, and I know for a fact we’ve added fourteen Democratic Senators from Wisconsin.”  Well, it’s a good thing he raised taxes; it can take a lot to feed and house a wayward Democrat.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“Somebody with a sense of humor built St. Paul and Minneapolis close together. They were born the “Twin Cities”, but since birth they have grown together. Now they are locked. One can’t do anything without interfering with the other… The Mississippi River is between them, but Lord, that don’t stop ‘em from cussing each other. What should separate them is the Pacific Ocean.” WA #152, Nov. 8, 1925Feb. 20, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS: Protests in Wisconsin have knocked the protests in Egypt off the front page. In Egypt, they protested against a dictator because they want freedom to find a job paying more than $2 a day. In Madison, they are protesting against a governor because they don’t want to pay $2 toward their retirement. As for freedom, the Governor says these teachers and government employees are always free to look for another job.

Snow has shut down Minneapolis today (Sunday). Not completely, of course, but it closed the airport long enough to give me an extra day or two here. But I ain’t complaining. We had a fine crowd up in Staples last night and I’d a lot rather have my flight canceled after a show than before it. Minnesota poked fun at Oklahoma with their 20 to 30 inches a couple of weeks ago; now it’s Minnesota’s turn to show us how to deal with half as much. They’ll be plowing snow for awhile.

On the way to Staples I got to stop at the boyhood home of Charles Lindbergh. It’s at Little Falls, on the west bank of the Mississippi River. They have a museum, and even if you know a lot about this aviation hero you’re guaranteed to learn something new. For instance, he attended eleven different schools, and at the University of Wisconsin he quit after three semesters before they could kick him out for poor grades. But then he went to Flight School, and he did ok.

Wisconsin and Minnesota are more than neighbors. In 1928 I said, “A child born in Wisconsin is taught two things. One is to love LaFollette, and the other is to hate Minnesota. Wisconsin is never doubtful. You can always count on it doing just exactly what the other forty-seven states don’t.”

Governor Walker is never doubtful, and he’s got governors across the country, both Republican and Democrat, watching because many states need to do exactly what Wisconsin is doing. And if you asked these governors, I bet they are all irked by the President’s meddling in Wisconsin affairs. While Mr. Obama admits he’ll spend 40 percent more than he takes in, these governors are forced to balance a checkbook.

Mr. Obama is an intelligent man. No argument on that. And I bet that if you go back into his childhood, all through school, and on up to recent years you’ll find that he was in a lot of clubs and organizations. He was probably president of a few. But I bet out of all of them, he never once served as Treasurer. If he did, and he managed that account the same as he’s managing the one he’s in charge of today, the club would be defunct.

Minnesota’s Governor Dayton is using the old fashioned approach to balance a budget: raise tax rates. Dayton is counting on folks not leaving just because of higher taxes. But if General Mills, Target and the billionaire Pohlad family, for example, pulled up stakes and moved to Florida, he’ll face a deficit worse than Wisconsin. Illinois already raised their tax rates. The Illinois governor announced, “I haven’t heard of any rich men leaving, and I know for a fact we’ve added fourteen Democratic Senators from Wisconsin.”  Well, it’s a good thing he raised taxes; it can take a lot to feed and house a wayward Democrat.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“Somebody with a sense of humor built St. Paul and Minneapolis close together. They were born the “Twin Cities”, but since birth they have grown together. Now they are locked. One can’t do anything without interfering with the other… The Mississippi River is between them, but Lord, that don’t stop ‘em from cussing each other. What should separate them is the Pacific Ocean.” WA #152, Nov. 8, 1925

Feb. 13, 2011

COLUMBUS: Except for Egypt, all the attention lately has been on Valentine’s Day. Chocolates, cards, roses, diamonds… that’s all we heard. Not a single mention that Saturday was President Lincoln’s birthday.

We could use a President Lincoln to tackle the budget. A President who saw  600,000 Americans die in the Civil War would not call a 4 percent spending cut a catastrophe. But that’s what they are facing in Congress. When a man can trim $0.15 Trillion from a $3.5 Trillion allocation he ought to be applauded, not crucified.

Mubarak finally stepped down on 02-11-2011, forced out by peaceful protests. Most news stories say the protests started after the protests in Tunisia.
But here’s another explanation, from my friend in Egypt: Last summer, a young man named Khaled Said was arrested at an Internet café in Alexandria by two plain-clothed policemen. He demanded proof of their identity and they beat him to death. The policemen attempted to cover up the murder, were tried, and received a light sentence. The public outcry never stopped.
Recently, a 31-year old Google executive, Wael Ghonem, created a site on Facebook seeking justice for the murder of Khaled Said. The government put Wael on a list of troublemakers. He and three other young Egyptians called for a demonstration in Tahrir Square on January 25. Hundreds of thousands showed up.

The army has taken temporary control of Egypt. Under Mubarak, the national police force numbered about 2 million, including 1.25 million for controlling riots, whereas all branches of the army totaled 400,000.  The police were intended to protect Mubarak and his regime, not the security of the citizens. These police will need to be retrained to focus on citizen safety, including patrolling highways. Being an optimist, I think Egyptians have a chance to transform to a constitutional government with individual rights.

These protests have spread to Algeria and Yemen, even to Italy. Italy? Yes, 100,000 Italian women protested against their President’s, uh, sexual habits. If they want to get rid of him, just pass a law that he can only have sex with a woman his own age. He’ll be out by nightfall.

The conservative wing of the Republican Party held a straw poll, and Ron Paul got 30 percent of the votes. If he ends up with the nomination for 2012, that’s about the percent he’ll get against President Obama. The Republican Party without Ronald Reagan is kinda like the Cleveland Cavaliers without LeBron James. Well, not that bad. They do have a dozen or so good prospects, but no one that stands head and shoulders above the crowd.

A lawyer plans to file a $5,000,000 suit against the National Football League on behalf of Super Bowl fans who were not allowed into the stadium because 400 temporary seats were deemed unsafe. So far this lawyer has signed up 2500 of those 400 ticket holders.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Papers today say, “What would Lincoln do today?” Well, in the first place, he wouldn’t chop any wood. He would trade his axe in on a Ford… Being in sympathy for the underdog he would be classed as a radical progressive. Having a sense of humor he would be called eccentric.” DT #2349, Feb. 12, 1934

“The budget is a mythical bean bag. Congress votes mythical beans into it, and then tries to reach in and pull real beans out.” DT #2047, Feb. 24, 1933

 “This relief thing is a hard thing to balance into your budget. You can’t sit down a year ahead and figure out who all is going to be hungry and how many of them there will be. It’s like sickness. It can upset the best family budget.” WA #656, July 21, 1935

Feb. 6, 2011

COLUMBUS: With twenty inches of snow at Claremore and Oologah, a lot of the Oklahoma home folks wish they still had a horse. Ford cars and ATVs got stuck in the drifts, but an old horse had no trouble at all. More snow coming.

That snow was from the same winter storm that froze Dallas during Super Bowl week, making Green Bay and Pittsburgh fans feel right at home. At least they played the game inside. The Packers beat the Steelers 31 to 25, and Aaron Rodgers escaped Brett Favre’s shadow.

My friend in Egypt sent me a first-rate report and analysis on the protest, including a couple of details you haven’t heard on the networks: “The present violence is the result of the damned dictatorship. The regime is so corrupt. Mubarak’s party netted all except 6 of the 498 Parliament seats in the elections last October!

“Many TV stations put the wealth of the president, his wife and his two sons at $52 Billion. The UN says 40% of all 85 million Egyptians live below the poverty line on $1 a day. The  government claims only 20%, or17 million Egyptians, are in poverty. [Folks, can you imagine the uproar if one of our Presidents amassed even $1 Billion while in office?]

“Party officials use the secret police and hired thugs to make us feel unsafe and force the protestors to return to their homes to defend them. They want us to choose between safety (and no democracy) under the present regime, or party-sponsored terrorism under any other regime. It is the classical birth pains of a new order in Egypt, painful but necessary!

“The protest focuses on the Tahreer (Liberation) Square in front of the Egyptian Museum, the Nile Hilton and the massive government office building. Protestors overflow into the square between the Museum and the Ramses Hilton, near the entrance and exit ramps of the October Bridge in the TV coverage. There are also many major demonstrations in other parts of Cairo and in other cities and towns around Egypt.

“Egyptians are safe as long as the army does not take the side of the government. This might have changed, however, after the army failed to protect the unarmed protestors from being massacred in the Tahreer Square (Feb 2) by government thugs and secret police.

“Our city, about 20 miles from Cairo,  has been relatively quiet during the current uprising. There were scattered serious incidents, however, in several other towns. When the national police vanished on Friday night, January 28, the country was terrorized by lawless bands that ran wild and unchecked, stealing, terrorizing and killing. It was no accident. The regime that withdrew the police most probably planned and organized the bands, consisting of undercover police, government-paid thugs, thousands of convicts who broke out (or were forced to break out), and criminals who simply took advantage of the situation.

“On January 29, our village owners association put in place an emergency protection plan using armed security groups during the curfew hours, 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. No serious incidents occurred to the village, except perhaps a couple. The armed guards were let go 4 days later.”

“The guards were placed inside and along the 3-mile long village fence about 100 yards apart. Each could see the groups on either side. They consisted of volunteer male residents and the village security, cleaning and landscape employees. Volunteer female residents stood watch high in their homes. The association also hired additional security guards, 10 with handguns and shotguns and 4 with automatic weapons; they started the following day and were posted outside the fence (not trusted inside the village!). A command center coordinated the groups by walkie-talkies, cell phones and the village land phones. I volunteered to patrol in my car inside the fence at least once a night around 3 a.m. I stopped often to talk to various fence groups. The tour took me some 90 minutes.

“The army appears now in force around the city. American-made tanks are stationed at the corners of the village and at nearby squares. Armored troop carriers are also present. We appreciate the army presence, stop often to visit with the troops and offer them refreshments. And the police started to appear gradually and reluctantly on the streets. Things are quieting down security-wise, maybe getting back to normal. We already let the hired armed guards go since Tuesday. I no longer have to patrol at night!”

President Obama is limited in what he can suggest or do with Egypt. We want democracy and elections, but not if the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood is likely to win. If we had supported the Iranian protesters last year, maybe the current situation would be more predictable.

In Egypt, half of all income for the average family is spent on food. By comparison, in the U.S. we only spend 10% for food, and half of that is in restaurants. If Mubarak’s $52 Billion were returned from Swiss banks and spread around, Egyptians could be well fed for a while.

Today was Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday celebration. He seems to have picked up a few more friends since he died, which offers eternal hope for the rest of us.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“Hurry up planes and start leaving here. I can’t walk in these snowshoes. Been run over by two sleighs today. Taxicabs are being pulled by dog teams and the weather man says there will be a blizzard tonight.” DT #2361, Feb. 26, 1934
“There’ll never be a time when the old horse is not superior to any auto ever made.” WA# 507, Sept. 11, 1932
 “Just passed thru Chicago. It’s not a boast, it’s an achievement. The snow was so deep today the crooks could only hit a tall man.” DT #1079, Jan. 9, 1930