Necessary Roughness

Initial Reax to the State of the Union Address
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:18 pm

First impressions having heard the State of the Union speech without an advance script:

Good comments on earmarks, showing just how undemocratic they are, when some aren’t voted on the floor and signed by the President.

Democrats were pretty slow to stand up on national security topics; they were clearly watching Speaker Pelosi for cues.

The President really doesn’t have that much credibility on border and immigration issues, and the abandonment of amnesty would be a significant change to what he has proposed in the past.

Health care should be affordable and available, yes, but you’re only going to get both in the free market. “The best health care decisions are not made by government but by patients and doctors.” Good line, but when government subsidizes activity and dictates policy in this area, government is calling the shots.

It is going to be a corn producer’s paradise, with subsidies for bio-fuel and the skimming $9/bbl from oil companies to alternative fuel research and producers. I just hope we don’t burn the ground out.

Higher fuel standards are nice, but they result in lighter car and truck frames. Unless you’re ready to pay for titanium, this means new vehicles won’t be as safe.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was originally constructed to store fuel for the country’s military. Even when you do double its capacity, its ability to affect the price of gasoline will be short-lived and not very large.

The President can ask all he wants for fair treatment of judges, but as long as he supports RINOs like Arlen Specter, this isn’t gonna get done.

We’ve known about the drawdown of American military personnel for sometime. Clinton had done it, and former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld had revised policy so that we went from a military able to fight on two fronts to one fighting “one and one-half” fronts. Technology is a wonderful force multiplier, but we need the force that gets multiplied.

Honoring the citizens was good. Do note Dikembe Mutombo. He bought built his own hospital in the Congo with the money he made playing basketball. That’s the way to help people. Good for him. Props to Julie Aigner-Clark, who has made all the money she can from us with her Baby Einstein line. Kudos also to the subway hero and to the military gunner.

And no, I don’t care about the Democratic rebuttal.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 10:18 pm and is filed under government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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5 Responses to “Initial Reax to the State of the Union Address”

1. Scott Says:
   January 25th, 2007 at 10:13 am

   It will be a corn producers’ paradise. It will be a corn eaters hell. It will be so much more lucrative to grow the non-eatin’ corn that it will become expensive.

   I don’t think we can grow enough and convert enough, and do it cheaply enough to make corn-based fuel feasible. This too should be a free market opportunity, not a corporate welfare windfall.

   I didn’t watch. With me, the Prez has lost credibility on a lot more than just immigration.

2. Lawrence Says:
   January 25th, 2007 at 11:41 am

   “Democrats where slow to stand up / Watching Pelosi for clues.”

   Those that were mezmerized by her eye blinking? or those that were not?

3. Barb the Evil Genius Says:
   January 25th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

   She was sending out secret Morse code messages with her blinking, so I’d say those that were (watching her.)

4. Dan Says:
   January 26th, 2007 at 11:07 am

   Business Week takes a look at the effects of pushing corn to fuel:
   

   Greg Boerboom raises 37,000 pigs a year on his farm in Marshall, Minn. Those hogs eat a lot of corn—10 bushels each from weaning to sale. In past years he has bought feed for about $2 a bushel. But since late summer, average corn prices have leapt to nearly $4 a bushel. To reduce feed costs, he sells his pigs before they reach the normal 275 pounds, and keeps them warmer so they don’t devour more food fighting off the cold. Still, Boerboom hopes just to break even. “It’s been a pretty tight squeeze on pork producers,” he says. “The next eight months will be really tough.”
   
   The spike in the price of corn that’s hurting Boerboom and other pork producers isn’t caused by any big dip in the overall supply. In the U.S., last year’s harvest was 10.5 billion bushels, the third-largest crop ever. But instead of going into the maws of pigs or cattle or people, an increasing slice of that supply is being transformed into fuel for cars. The roughly 5 billion gallons of ethanol made in 2006 by 112 U.S. plants consumed nearly one-fifth of the corn crop. If all the scores of factories under construction or planned go into operation, fuel will gobble up no less than half of the entire corn harvest by 2008.

5. Dan Says:
   January 27th, 2007 at 3:14 pm

   Still more corn effects, reports UPI:
   

   MEXICO CITY, Jan. 27 (UPI) — Rising international corn prices have pushed Mexico into a nationwide tortilla crisis, making it harder for the poor to eat, a report says.