Government Employees & Salaries Growing
The Washington Examiner and NRO, among others, criticize the growing number of employees on the government roll. I think the NRO piece does a better job of going after the real problem covered in the USA TODAY- not that the government is adding employees (yes, it’s a problem, but let’s allow the liberals to do their Depression-era employment strategy until the recession ends) but that in 18 months the number of Department of Transportation employees making $170,000 or more has gone from one (uno, a singular individual, whatever you want to call it) to over 1,600. That’s quite a jump, and it’s not the the only excessive pay jump analyzed at all three links above.
Of course, the same people adding to the government rolls (i.e., Democrats) killed the D.C. Voucher Program recently, even though it not only saves millions of taxpayer dollars but also educates its students- poor minorities, by and large- better than the horrific D.C. public school system. The Washington Post has the depressing story.
Senator Reid Is Going To Bite The Dust- Again
You saw it here first (or second, or third (twelfth?)- the point is, you saw it here). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is going to lose on the public option, and it’s going to crush health care reform, his ability to effectively lead the Democratic caucus and possibly his already-tough reelection. Here’s what’s going on:
On October 21, a delayed cloture vote on the so-called “Doc Fix” failed miserably in the Senate. Watching the vote happen with trepidation, I was very pleased that the vote went against the bill, which the CBO estimated would have cost over $240 billion?for the next?ten years. The vote was 47 in favor and 51 against, something of a surprise given Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) expectations of a victory in the vote. As David Frum and The Heritage Foundation explained, Democrats wanted to pass the bill outside of the final health care bill because doing so would?allow the a deficit-neutral bill to pass without noting the cost of the “Doc Fix” in the final legislation.?After the vote, it became clear that the most likely method of including the “Doc Fix” in this year’s health care bill would be to put it in the final bill, adding $247 (or so) billion to the final cost of the bill (or some variation thereof).
Normally, this wouldn’t be a huge blow to Reid- after all, losses happen all the time in Congress. However, he delayed the vote at least once (it was originally supposed to be held on October 19), and by putting?up and losing out on the?cloture vote, it’s becomes clear Reid was blindsided. Embarrassingly, just before the vote, Reid blamed the AMA for misleading him, which is a very unseemly way to act as a leader.
Now Reid is claiming he has the votes to pass the public option. Or, as is also claimed, he has the votes to pass the procedural step of getting the 60 votes necessary to move it forward, before only getting the required 51 to push the final bill through. To me, this smacks of desperation, making the claim so soon after the major loss regarding the “Doc Fix,” where he also thought he had the votes. Remember, too, that numerous Democrats have claimed opposition to the public option, and so has Republican Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), possibly the only Republican who will support a final Democratic health reform bill.
In the end, I suspect Reid will end up looking as bad as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) did after miscalculating the first House bailout vote last fall. Boehner barely held onto his leadership slot, but given the criticism of Reid offered by the influential Daily Kos (see here, for example) and other popular liberal voices in and out of Washington- in addition to the support for the public option by Senators such as Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Charles Schumer (D-NY)- I think Reid is setting himself up for a huge loss in leadership support.
In short, the public option will probably not make it into the final Senate bill, showing Reid’s inability to lead his caucus, costing him support from Senator Roland Burris’ (D-IL) and other Democrats for the final bill. This will shut down health reform, showing his caucus it may be time for “change” within the party leadership and also setting up a race in Nevada where Reid’s constituents may very well decide it’s time for “change” to come to Washington from their state.
Heritage Foundation Holds Event for DC School Voucher Program
Yesterday, The Heritage Foundation blog?advertised its new video, “Let Me Rise.” The video, described as “a 30-minute film about the school choice debate in our nation?s capital and around the country,” will continue the fight for school choice that teachers unions are so against, and that our nation’s children so desperately need. In particular danger right now is the DC School Voucher Program, which for a fraction of the normal cost of a DC public education ($7,500) students are put through an educational system that is safer for them, gives them a better education and saves the public millions of dollars. Unfortunately, most Democrats are so beholden to teachers unions they are trying to shut the program down.
Here’s the kicker: the students are mostly minorities. I thought Democrats wanted to bring minorities up.
Conservatives Just Don’t “Get It”
You’ve heard this right? Conservatives just don’t “get it” when it comes to technology, social networking, and Internet marketing.
Really?
I’m so sick of hearing this. What secret technology recipe do Dems and liberals hold in this medium? What have they done that is so damn special? Everywhere I turn I’m being fed this line about how liberals have cornered the market on online politics. Why? Because the Obama campaign used Twitter, Facebook, and put a donate button on their campaign website? Please…
MoveOn.org is certainly a big player in some areas of webspace, and they have no equal in the conservative cybersphere…yet. TheVanguard.org argues that they will be the conservative answer to Moveon. This is a promise we have heard before, so I will remain cautiously optimistic. But while we are on the subject, what is it that MoveOn has on it’s website that is so mind blowingly special?
I circled it for you in case you are a conservative/libertarian that just doesn’t “get it”:
The MoveOn page is filled with rhetoric and articles. As an aside if you look closely you will pick out blatant misleading numbers all on one page. Their email sign up claims 4 million members. The article under “Success Stories” claims 5 million members in the title. While just under the title the actual story print claims 4.2 million members. I wish my boss paid me an extra 80% on every 20% of the dollar I made. But I digress.
The big FTW that liberals all other the Internet sipping their techno-lattes are getting all worked up about is how many email addresses MoveOn has collected via what boils down to a newsletter sign up box, a donate button, and a graphic icon link to their Facebook and YouTube fan sites. That’s it folks. That’s what the big liberal Net geniuses are walking around heads in the clouds over. High-five guys! You conquered the Internetz!
What is the actual gain from this? MoveOn had close to $60 million in donations in 2004, and unless usual donors took their money straight to Obama, it’s safe to assume that the number was close to that in 2008.
While not in direct competition, The Heritage Foundation had a similar endowment in 2008 and also holds a similar size contact list. Being that Heritage is a think tank, and not a social club, many of their priorities are different. But there endowment certainly allows them to compete in the same spaces that a group like MoveOn is battling for ground in.
But what are the real numbers here? Why can’t conservatives compete in the webspace like they do in talk radio in meatspace? Why don’t we get it? What aren’t we getting?
WHAT WE DON’T GET IS THAT WE HAVE BOUGHT INTO A LIE THAT WE “DON’T GET IT”.
… in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.
?Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X
Look at the numbers:
MoveOn is winning the Facebook war. That’s pure Paris Hilton “hot” right there. You guys can trade pictures and make cute references to the Messiah’s newest portrait in your status bar. But Facebook isn’t the only application in webspace. Liberals claim to be controlling everything. But the numbers don’t add up. The DNC less than half the subscribers or channel views than the much webspace belabored RNC on YouTube. And the RNC easily rivals MoveOn in YouTube channel subscribers, falling behind by only 500 subscribers, but actually having 65,000 more views of channel content. And Twitter, the Internet rage that is constantly talked about by liberals like they invented it is completely dominated by conservative and libertarian organizations! In fact MoveOn and the DNC don’t even have representation on Twitter. And let’s not even discuss individual members of Congress’ Twitter or Facebook adherence. They all have them. No one has an advantage.
So why are liberals and media outlets always saying that conservatives “get it”? Because of Obama.
The Obama campaign’s technology effort which receives ravenous attention didn’t invent these applications or even use them any differently than anyone else in the conservative movement, with the exception of my.barackobama.com which allowed individuals to organize local events online. Ultimately a brilliant strategy. But It is no secret that Obama implemented an 18 month online social networking strategy, while John McCain simply pushed hard at the end, running what amounted to be a 72 hour “get out the vote” train wreck. The reality of what happened last year was that Obama’s team produced an in depth Internet strategy from the very beginning. The Internet was not just a webpage used to promote his candidacy and explain his policies. It was used to connect like minded individuals through various ranges of social networking.
This isn’t something new to conservatives and libertarians.
It was new to John McCain’s campaign staff and John McCain. And by the time McCain got on board with a decent Internet strategy, that ship had sailed, and Obama’s web presence was rolling down a mountain like a Mac truck with no brakes. When liberal pundits are issuing their insults toward the other sides comprehension and use of Internet applications, they are thinking of the Obama campaign specifically, and not the broad strokes. What Obama did with technology and did early was a great move. But the uses of tech in his campaign was not some secret cauldron of witch brew which only liberals had the necessary skills to use. Conservatives have been using the same tools for years. And when we saw them being used by Obama and used successfully, we were sitting around all thinking, “This stuff should be obvious, we are all using it, why isn’t McCain.” Conservatives have it right. They’ve “got it”. In fact if you want a closer look at how well they get it, look to efforts like CEI’s openmarket.org, bureaucrash.com, globalwarming.org, or the Heritage Foundation’s stopspendingourfuture.org, 33-minutes.com or their joint venture ReadTheStimulus.org. Or try RedCountry.com, RedState.com, TopConservativesOnTwitter.com (#tcot), atr.org (Americans for Tax Reform), netrightnation.com; these go on forever.
The RNC’s loss of Cyrus Krohn is a tough blow. But you can’t build an empire with one hammer. And furthermore, the duties of the RNC specifically does not necessarily need to be creating and implementing new widgets and whatzits. It needs to be making sure that the next candidate is. If the RNC was behind at some point then let’s be clear, the RNC is not the conservative movement.
Realistically, there is also more to the story. While conservative get technology and use it effectively, the last campaign was riddled with problems. Mixed messages and feelings over the Bush policy, the party being sporadic with their message, and many conservatives feeling like they were being left behind and no strong voice to represent their political ideology. At the same time, Democrats were very united. Not by Twitter or Facebook, but by a common theme, ‘Paint McCain as another Bush — No more Bush!”
For conservatives to rebound, and additionally re-capture the votes of moderates and libertarians they don’t need to just use technology well. Getting a lot of followers on Facebook or Twitter will not win an election. Conservatives need a unified voice, a return to traditional conservative values, and a common theme.
Which they have found, in Obama.
-nick
?I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!?
