The guy who only three years ago thought he’d be a confirmed bachelor for the rest of his life is getting married today. I’ll see you all after the honeymoon.
I Love You Christine.
I’m sure this is the first of many.
Washington- U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette’s last-minute flip-flop on the Central American Free Trade Agreement has caused no shortage of embarrassment.
But the Lake County Republican may be getting something for his trouble.
Tonight, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, President Bush’s chief emissary on CAFTA, will co-host a political fund-raiser for LaTourette. Donors who put up $500 to $2,500 to see Portman at the Capitol Hill Club will be benefiting LaTourette’s political treasury.
It’s common for political stars to lend their help to Congress members seeking re-election, but the LaTourette event is unusual in two regards.
First, it’s the only congressional fund-raiser among dozens scheduled through next April that lists Portman as an attraction, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s online schedule.
Second, it shows that LaTourette and Portman are still allies, despite any lingering discomfort over the CAFTA matter.
LaTourette, of Concord Township, voted for CAFTA in July after telling people that he was against the trade pact. He said he changed his mind after being contacted by Kraftmaid, the Geauga County-based cabinet maker, and being told that passing CAFTA was necessary to eliminate costly tariffs and preserve company jobs.
But The Plain Dealer revealed that those tariffs were already exempt under other trade rules, making it impossible for Kraftmaid’s jobs to be at risk.
LaTourette then said through his office that he had relied on Kraftmaid and Portman’s office for his information, leading some to suggest that LaTourette had been duped.
Any lingering anger over the matter is unlikely to be on display tonight. But critics of Portman and LaTourette nonetheless are taking notice.
Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, called the LaTourette fund-raiser “a corporate CAFTA payoff party, a block from the U.S. Capitol.”
Portman’s offices did not call back a reporter seeking comment. LaTourette’s office issued a “no comment.”
Hopefully someone strong runs against him next year.
Over the next four or five days, I’ll probably be scarce around these parts. It’s kind of hard to blog when you’re getting ready to be married. Yes, Christine and I are getting hitched on Saturday. So needless to say, I’ll be a wee bit preoccupied. The wedding is large and should be a great time. Next week we’re going on our honeymoon to Mexico. So while I’ll pop in from time to time this week, I won’t return to regular blogging until October 4th. More later.
My first experience with the Regional Income Tax Agency came with my first job. For the uninitiated, RITA is the local tax collection body for Cleveland area cities. The way they operate is just terrible. Direct withdrawal from paychecks is left up to the cities, and most of them never instituted the process. That means its left up to RITA to collect the amount in total. The bad part is how RITA estimates your yearly taxes, regardless of if you keep the same job or not, and then sends you and estimated bill. All this before the end of the year. Then it’s up to the individual to call RITA, inform them of the correct income level, and then either pay the whole bill or set up payments. It’s a tremendous hassle. And now that I live in northern Summit county, RITA is an experience that no longer bothers me. That said, I’m not sure Lakewood will do a better job at collecting their taxes.
Next year, Lakewood will drop out of the area’s largest income tax collection agency to go independent.
City officials say that leaving the Regional Income Tax Agency will save money in the long run and catch more tax cheats.
They acknowledge, however, that independently collecting taxes will be more costly in the next few years. The city must buy computer software and hire as many as five more workers to process 31,000 annual tax returns.
Overall, the taxes go towards important city services. However, until they institute a direct withdrawal method from paychecks, it will continue to be a real pain.
In cathedrals and state Capitols, mosques and synagogues, Americans joined Friday in a national day of prayer for the communities and lives lost to Hurricane Katrina.
However, many houses of worship did not participate or drew few people, partly reflecting disillusionment with how the federal government responded to the disaster.
President Bush scheduled the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance as he tried to recover from his administration’s early missteps. He attended a service at the Washington National Cathedral with other leaders, along with evacuees and rescue workers from New Orleans.
But in Ohio, no one attended an hour-long prayer meeting at the Statehouse in Columbus, leaving the ministers and a few organizers to pray on their own before about 180 empty chairs. An organizer said the event had been publicized only the night before.
Several other pastors around the country said the government was, once again, too late. They had already held services in honor of Katrina survivors immediately after the tragedy nearly three weeks ago or had been mentioning the disaster at regularly scheduled worship.
Precisely the reason why it will be next to impossible to spin this one Rove’s way.
Now it begins: America’s biggest relief and recovery program since the New Deal. And the omens aren’t good.
It’s a given that the Bush administration, which tried to turn Iraq into a laboratory for conservative economic policies, will try the same thing on the Gulf Coast. The Heritage Foundation, which has surely been helping Karl Rove develop the administration’s recovery plan, has already published a manifesto on post-Katrina policy. It calls for waivers on environmental rules, the elimination of capital gains taxes and the private ownership of public school buildings in the disaster areas. And if any of the people killed by Katrina, most of them poor, had a net worth of more than $1.5 million, Heritage wants to exempt their heirs from the estate tax.
Still, even conservatives admit that deregulation, tax cuts and privatization won’t be enough. Recovery will require a lot of federal spending. And aside from the effect on the deficit – we’re about to see the spectacle of tax cuts in the face of both a war and a huge reconstruction effort – this raises another question: how can discretionary government spending take place on that scale without creating equally large-scale corruption?
Attempting to lower taxes in a time where federal spending skyrockets by the day is disingenuous at worst, morally bankrupt at worst. Even Ronald Regan, the godfather to all modern Republicans, raised taxes in the face of huge deficits. The once mighty GOP will fracture over the proposed spending. Bush’s presidency will have two disasters as bookends. The first created enourmous goodwill and politcal capital. Then he managed to completely waste it all on the Iraq endevour. By the time Katrina happened, Bush’s legacy was already in doubt, and it began to sink as fast as the waters rose in New Orleans.
WIll Karl Rove be remembered for cementing a Republican majority? That looks less and less likely every day.
Josh Marshall makes a good point.
Then there’s the president’s great line from the speech: “It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces.”
No, it’s not. Actually, every actual fact that’s surfaced in the last two weeks points to just the opposite conclusion. There was no lack of federal authority to handle the situation. There was faulty organization, poor coordination and incompetence.
Show me the instance where the federal government was prevented from doing anything that needed to be done because it lacked the requisite authority.
This is like what we were talking about a few days ago. This is how repressive governments operate — mixing inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies.
You don’t repair disorganized or incompetent government by granting it more power. You fix it by making it more organized and more competent. If conservatism can’t grasp that point, what is it good for?
I’m starting to believe that the term “conservatism” no longer applies to modern conservatives. After last night’s speech, every moderate fiscal conservative and libertarian must have spontaneously combusted. All my life I’ve been told that small government is a pillar of Republican belief. Only the fringes in both parties believe in reckless federal government spending. Fiscal responsibility has always been part of my own belief; living side by side with my social liberal ideals.
When it all gets boiled down, we see a failed presidency trying desperately to regain the foothold it so strongly grabbed on to for over four years. People are beginning to see that the modern Republican Party does not a smart government make. Why else would President Bush appoint Karl Rove to oversee the Gulf Coast reconstruction?
The GOP should be shaking in their boots. In fact, I’ll say right now that on election night 2006, I will be watching Fox News for the first time in years. Seeing Sean Hannity have an aneurism on live television will be a cool thing.
Really, Bob, answer that question.
Columbus- Gov. Bob Taft said Wednesday that an Ohio high school diploma is not proof that a student is ready for college or even a job.
During the inaugural meeting of the Ohio Partnership for Continued Learning, which he chairs, Taft noted that the state’s system of academic standards does not extend beyond the 10th grade.
“You cannot say in Ohio that a high school diploma is certification that a student is work- and college-ready,” Taft said to the 20-member group of education and business leaders and politicians.
Let me know, Mr. Lame Duck.
So far, this one has flown under my radar. Nonetheless, I am always amazed at what Buckeye Republicans will try to accomplish.
Columbus – A proposal to restrict professors’ political speech in college classrooms will be dropped for an agreement among Ohio’s higher education institutions to police themselves on the subject.
The presidents of Ohio’s universities agreed this week to review and more vigorously promote campus policies on accepted speech.
“We’ve committed to reviewing student rights and grievance procedures and committed to an environment where those rights are broadly disseminated,” said Jim McCollum, executive director of the Inter-University Council of Ohio.
The lurking alternative was controversial Senate Bill 24, proposed by Sen. Larry Mumper, Republican of Marion. He said most Ohio professors are liberals who could be prone to imposing their political ideologies on students.
“I think the majority of professors have the honesty and integrity to conduct their classes, but there are some who do not,” said Mumper, who said he estimates that more than 80 percent of professors are liberals.
Talk about contradiction in terms. If the 80 percent of professors are liberal, thereby being a majority, I guess that makes them the ones who have “honesty and integrity.” Right? And enough already with the idea that liberal ideas are being broadcast far and wide in Ohio; virtually blacking out conservative values. I mean, isn’t it enough that conservatives control the executive, legislative, and judicial branches or gorvernment? Or that the Christian conservative “intelligent design” platform has made it into Ohio public school’s curriculum?
Whaa, whaa, whaa. Freakin’ cry me a river.
Ken Blackwell is using Jerry Spring as a fundraising tool.
In a pre-recorded telephone survey, Blackwell says Springer “will likely be the Democratic candidate for governor.” He warns that Springer “will likely spend his personal fortune” to get elected, then asks for a contribution “to help me fight Jerry Springer’s attack.”
That’s funny. And I don’t mean ha-ha funny. If anyone is attacking Ohio, it’s Blackwell. I mean, who else is more responsible for the election debacle in 2004? Blackwell doesn’t have a prayer.