The myth of conservative strength: Several not-so-conservative conservative ideals proven wrong when given the chance

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There are many examples of the failed philosophy of neo (new) conservatism, such as the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute , the Project for New American Century, and last but not least, financial ‘innovation’ in the economy.  You can argue until you are blue in the face about philosophy and theory, but some evidence is empirical.  It just can’t be argued.  The outcome, or the results, of particular programs and policies in action speak for themselves, similar to how if you mix water, milk, eggs, and Bisquick just right you get pancakes.

The WPRI was a group that had advocated for school choice vouchers in Milwaukee.  After the program was instituted and studied, they issued this report which said, among other things:

“The report you are reading did not yield the results we had hoped to find,” George Lightbourn, a senior fellow at the institute, wrote in the paper’s first sentence. 

On the same topic of vouchers but not from the same report, I spent a day in Jefferson City speaking with a local Republican State Representative at the time named Jim Lembke.  It was a very cordial conversation on education policy in the Missouri.  However, the conversation ended quite abruptly after I said to him:

My grandfather was a conservative.  (I like to call him an Eisenhower conservative.) And as I understand it, in his day, they believed that public tax dollars should not be used for private purposes.  In relation to vouchers, what ever happened to that conservative ideal?

Then there is The Project for a New American Century, a conservative think tank formed during the Clinton Administration and whose membership included the likes of Steve Forbes, Bill Kristol, William J. Bennett, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Robert Kagan, Richard L. Armitage, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, “Scooter” Libby, Dan Quayle, and more. They penned a letter that said some of the following (keep in mind, this was before 9/11 and a few years before W. was ever elected POTUS):

“That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power.”

“Our ability to ensure that Saddam Hussein is not producing weapons of mass destruction”

“Such uncertainty will, by itself, have a seriously destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East.”

“a significant portion of the world’s supply of oil will all be put at hazard…”

“…removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.”

“…If you act now to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. or its allies, you will be acting in the most fundamental national security interests of the country. If we accept a course of weakness and drift, we put our interests and our future at risk.

Of course, we know how all of that worked out.  $150 a barrel for oil, $10 billion a month in Iraq Afghanistan, oh, and no Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Notice how almost all of the people mentioned in the letter to President Clinton seen here ended up in the Bush Administration.

The phrase that freaks me out the most from the Project for a New American Century is an excerpt from the following paper:

Further, the process of transformation,
even if it brings revolutionary change, is
likely to be a long one, absent some
catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a
new Pearl Harbor. Domestic politics and
industrial policy will shape the pace and
content of transformation as much as the
requirements of current missions.

And last but not least, the financial market.  So far, we have talked about two of the items that the conservatives are traditionally given credit for as their strength.  Taxes, Defense, and now Finance.  It is clear that their strength in these areas is nothing more than a myth, and a very damaging myth at that.  Here is the latest from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke:

“One would be forgiven for concluding that the assumed benefits of financial innovation are not all they were cracked up to be,” the Fed chairman said today in a speech at the central bank’s community affairs conference in Washington. “The damage from this turn in the credit cycle — in terms of lost wealth, lost homes, and blemished credit histories — is likely to be long-lasting.”

Bernanke Says Crisis Damage Likely to Be Long-Lasting (Update2) - Bloomberg.com

Mo. House passes bill allowing drug testing of some state aid recipients | Political Fix | STLtoday

I feel sorry for the innocent victims of desperation that will come as a result of the short-sighted ignorance of the Missouri General Assembly.  Unintended consequences are on they way if the Governor signs this in to law.  There are more reasons for welfare than altruism.  Governments and modern societies also provide welfare because the cost of doing nothing is much worse - in terms of both financial cost, as well as safety.  Not to mention, while the children of those in poverty are suffering anyway, this will pretty much do them in…only contributing to the cycle of poverty the writers of this terrible piece legislation are trying to avoid.

Of course, the people writing this junk only make $32,000 a year to do it.  We Missourians gets what we pay for, I guess…

The Missouri House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow drug tests for recipients of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Recipients who test positive would be referred to a substance abuse program and be ineligible for TANF benefits for a year.

Sponsor Ellen Brandom, R-Sikeston, said taxpayers’ money shouldn’t go toward drugs.

Taxpayers “feel like this is a misuse of their hard-earned money, to subsidize somebody who is misusing drugs,” she said.

But opponents, mostly Democrats, said the bill would ultimately hurt the children. They suggested funding treatment programs would be a better solution.

“We’re standing between hungry children — who are the children of drug-addicted parents — and their next meal,” Rep. Jeff Roorda, D-Barnhart.

But Rep. Bryan Pratt, R-Blue Springs, said the parents have options.

“If you are a drug user, and you want welfare benefits, guess what? Stop using drugs,” he said.

The bill is HB30.

UPDATE: An official estimate put the cost to the state at about $4 million for FY10, and a bit more for the two years after that.

Mo. House passes bill allowing drug testing of some state aid recipients | Political Fix | STLtoday

Seventh grader outsmarts standardized testers in Missouri – Who says public education isn’t working?

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 This kid has a future in quality control at NASA. 

Thirteen-year-old Adam Diehl will be the first to tell you he wasn’t always such a good student.

"It stated in second grade, that’s when I started getting good at the academic stuff," said Diehl. "In first grade I couldn’t even spell orange."

But those days are behind him, and this year Diehl began his seventh grade Missouri Assessment Program or "MAP" test with a streak of several years of advanced scores.

"It was multiple choice, so it wasn’t that hard," he said. "All the other answers matched up anyway."

All the answers but one, in the math section, near the end of the test.

"I got my answer and it didn’t match any of the choices on there, so I double-checked it," and triple-checked it, he said, and still, no match. He finished the test convinced there was a mistake.

"It was like, come on, where’s the right answer," said Diehl.

Seventh grader finds MAP test mistake | ksdk.com | St. Louis, MO

DaddyHogwash.com Prediction – Claire McCaskill to be next Democratic presidential nominee

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While watching Claire McCaskill today on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, I got a gut feeling that she will be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.  Click here for a small clip of today’s show

Whether or not it happens is probably dependent on the re-election of Barack Obama in 2012.

I have known Senator McCaskill for awhile (although she probably doesn’t know me from a hole in the wall) when I worked on her campaign for Missouri Governor doing a large portion of her information technology work.  I only mention that because while I supported her, I think I may have under-estimated the superiority of her political competence.

She has come a long way since 2004 when she lost her bid for Governor.  As we were sitting there in her war room waiting for the results to come in, her campaign manager whispered in to her ear early in the evening that it was over, but she refused to believe it.  She labored over the results at the Renaissance hotel until the wee hours of the morning.  It was painful to watch.  I thought she was done politically, but I was wrong.  Her hard work in rural Missouri paid off two years later when she ran for Senator and won.

I maintain that her election in 2006 was the tipping point for the Democratic Party, and maybe even for Barack Obama.  It took an enormous amount of political courage for the female Senator McCaskill to endorse Barack Obama for President months and months before it became apparent that he would even be a worthy challenger to the previously anointed Hillary Clinton.  McCaskill’s entire political career was probably riding on that endorsement back when most of the country still had no idea who this Barack Obama guy was:

But it was not her endorsement alone that made the difference, it was her substance, as well as her style.  She started to put her political competence on display for all to see on shows like “Real Time with Bill Maher” when Maher appeared to be shocked at her refreshing candidness.  (I am looking for the video but can’t find it.)

As I was looking for the video of Claire on Real Time, I cam across this video of Claire McCaskill calling out the GOP’s hypocrisy on earmarks when she says, “Six of the top 10 earmarks in this spending bill come from the GOP.”

Here she is on the Rachel Maddow show discussing Afghanistan and her role on the Armed Services Committee.  The significance of this is that she is building her foreign policy experience.

Here she is calling out bailed-out executives on their “idiot” compensation packages:

And last but not least, Claire McCaskill speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008:

The bottom line is that McCaskill is perfectly positioned for the 2016 candidacy, and no-one will be able to say she is riding her husbands coattails to get there.

Does Obama deserve a street name honor in St. Louis

There is a lively debate going on right now in my home town of St. Louis about whether or not Alderman Kacie Starr-Triplett’s bill to name Delmar Street, Barack Obama Boulevard should happen.  KSDK.com is covering the story here, and you can get a gist of some of the comments being made.  I will let you judge for your self the state of race relations in Missouri.  (As a side note, Missouri has historically been a bellwether state in Presidential elections, meaning that whoever Missouri votes for president, usually wins the presidency.  Until this year.)  The debate is rather silly, if you consider we had no problem naming a major interstate after a man who hit a whole lot of home runs for our beloved Cardinals.  Here are my comments in the discussion:

I don’t understand how anyone can say that Obama hasn’t done anything yet.  Even if you don’t like his politics, any clear thinking person should be able to acknowledge his accomplishments as extraordinary.  The American measure of success is gauged by what you overcome, not just what you accomplish.  From food stamps, to Magna Cum Laude graduate of Harvard to Professor of Constitutional law, to United States Senator, to overwhelming victor, and first African-American President of the United States.  If that doesn’t qualify you for a street name in America, I don’t know what does.  What do you have to do in this town, shoot up on steroids and hit home runs? DaddyHogwash.com

Some of the other include statements like:

“We should name a street after Chuck Berry. At least he’s DONE something.”

“seriously people have gone mad. They are just over excited because we will have a “black” president but think about it he is biracial so he is both black and white. This is ridiculous. I think a lot of people simply voted for him because of the color of his skin and nothing to do with his views on things.”

“This Alderman with the bad hair should be terminated immediately. Not for suggesting that a street be honorarily named after a future president, but for the shear fact of wanting to place 6 signs to commemorate the event”

“This has got to be the stupidest idea yet. Barak Obama is considered by too many to be the second coming of God. When will it end? We will have to have another national holiday in honor of him right before we rename the United States of American … The United States of Barak Obama.”

That pretty much says it all.  Feel free to join us in the conversation.  But if you are not white, Catholic, and Republican, BEWARE!