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Thingish Things

New York’s Big Problem

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 11•11

A small story this weekend in the New York Post spells out New York State’s big problem.  City municipal unions are waiting out Mayor Bloomberg’s term to renegotiate their contracts.  They would rather wait for a union-friendly Democrat than deal with independent Bloomberg.

Some of the unions are without contract now.  So how can they wait until 2013-’14 for a new one?  Don’t their members lose all negotiated guarantees?

The answer is no.  Not in New York State.  And therein lies the problem.

Under New York’s Taylor Law – specifically its Triborough Amendment – the benefits provided in public service union contracts remain in place until a new contract is signed.  Even after a contract expires.  That includes “step” salary increases.

So why on earth would union leaders negotiate for anything less than what they already have? They should always hold out for more, which is what they do.  It’s why we have exorbitant benefit packages – like cosmetic surgery for Buffalo teachers – and pension rules that allow workers to calculate final-year overtime in retirement pay.  Every time contracts are renewed, the benefits gets sweeter, and there is no law – rather it is illegal under current law – to claw them back.

These rules apply not just to state workers, but to county and municipal workers in towns and villages across the state.  The municipalities have to pay and pay – with pension costs being the most expensive element – and their only recourse heretofore has been to raise taxes.  But now, with a citizenry taxed to the max, they are forced to cut — waste at first, but eventually programs that people have come to rely upon.

Taxing the “rich” will not cure this spiral.  The “rich” are only so rich — even if you robbed them they wouldn’t have enough money to fix the problem — and besides, they can move to different states, which many have. New labor contract rules are the answer.  It is a necessity. Because today’s system is rigged. 

Bad Mannered Politics

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 09•11

There was a rule in college football called the Halo Rule that protected punt returners from getting killed. It requires defensive players to allow a punt returner to actually catch the ball before creaming him. It didn’t just protect lives, it was considered good sportsmanship.  

The New York Times writes today about the Democratic Party’s vast network of trackers – paid young people equipped with every conceivable electronic video device who stalk Republican candidates wherever they go, looking for an embarrassing unscripted moment that can be made into a television or YouTube commercial. Republicans use trackers, too, but not nearly as much.

I am generally nice to trackers when they follow my campaigns. “Just some kid doing his job,” I typically say to young campaign workers irked by the invasion of space. But privately, I want to kick the tracker in his teeth and stomp on his gadgets (the electronic ones too) – not because he may record some silly gaffe, but he because is exhibiting bad manners – bad sportsmanship – in a field that used to have some unwritten rules.

I recently accompanied to an event a high-profile political figure who was attacked, literally, by a crazed radical screaming inane questions with a Flip camera. Security had to drag her away.  But she did not represent the Democratic Party.  She was on the fringe. There is nothing that can be done about that in the electronic age. 

The stalker squad described in today’s Times story, though, is led by an employee of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada.) That something can be done about. Sponsoring that type of activity should officially be considered bad cricket — before it gets worse. 

When a candidate loses on Election Night he telephones the victor and the victor accepts the call.  No matter what.  Family members are out of bounds in campaign hits.  No matter what. Off-the-record communications between campaigns of off the record.  No matter what.

We need a Halo Rule rule in politics.

Campaign Ad, Reagan ’84

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 08•11

http://youtu.be/EU-IBF8nwSY

This is the best campaign ad I’ve ever seen. It was pitch-perfect when released.  “Morning in America” was written by ad man Hal Riney, who also did the voice-over for the spot. 

I remember exactly where I was sitting when I first saw it. It actually choked me up. My then girlfriend made fun of me for it, and I snapped at her.  Ah, memories… 

I hope to live long enough to see another ad like this one feel so right. 

 

Cookin’ Canucks

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 08•11

Canada created 10,000 more jobs than the U.S. did in June, according to jobs reports released today. The nation of under 34 million people reported 28,400 new jobs in June, while the 312 million person U.S. created just 18,000.  That is a striking statistic. Canada’s unemployment rate is now almost two full percentage points lower than ours, 7.4% compared with our 9.2% 

President Obama cancelled another family vacation he had planned for this weekend, this one to Montana. Probably a good idea. Three electoral votes, but too close to Canada. The population may be thinning. 

 

Giddyup!

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 08•11

Rick Perry cometh.

The brash Texan – who ignored President Obama and his old boss, George W. Bush, in executing a Mexican national last night for rape and murder – just filed a federal campaign committee, or at least his supporters did, National Journal reports this morning.

Last night’s execution is ironic, as then Governor Bush also carried out a controversial execution just prior to entering the presidential race.  In that case, Bush refused to stay the execution of a man of questionable intelligence.  Just like Perry, Bush was accused of trying to look tough on the national stage, although he was consistent in his approach to the death penalty throughout his time in Austin. Adding further irony to the mix, Governor Perry, who had served as Bush’s Lt. Governor, passed a law after Bush became president outlawing the execution of the mentally retarded in the Lone Star State.  

These two have an interesting history…

In any event, Perry looks poised to jump into fray. Does he catch fire like the last Texas governor to run for the White House or fizzle like a Fred Thompson, who could not meet his own hype?  Time will tell.  I reckon’ so. 

Ames Straw Poll Ads Begin

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 07•11

http://youtu.be/3Cc5q8PKk8c

Michele Bachmann went up on the air today in Iowa with an ad aimed at August Ames Straw Poll voters. The message is that Bachmann is Iowan through and through — and that she won’t compromise on the debt ceiling. 

It will be interesting to see if Mitt Romney goes up with ads in Iowa, too. He is not competing in the Straw Poll this year to conserve resources, but will he leave the airwaves to Bachmann alone?  What he does will be a good indicator of how much he fears the dark horse upstart. 

 

For the Love of a Little Girl

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 07•11

12-year-old Mumpy (from maars.net)This may be the saddest story I have ever read.  If you cannot bear sadness, do not read it. I mean it. Do not.

If you can, please read it and pass it around. This 12-year-old girl’s sacrifice cannot go for naught.

The story is getting plenty of pick-up – it’s on Drudge today – but there is no action item accompanying it. There needs to be. It would be monstrous to accept the ending of this story as it now stands.

Anyone know doctors in India or the U.S. willing to do some work for free? Or someone at Air India or another transcontinental airline who can arrange a couple of free roundtrip tickets to a hospital with a big heart and good PR sense? And does anyone know of an organization within India that can make this girl’s plan a reality with the help of foreign donors?

Certainly some gadgillionaire reading this story – or enough thousandaires touched by this girl’s intentions  — would be willing to step forward and make this right if a fund were set up. I fall into the latter category, and I am happy to be its first donor.

There has to be a way to change this story’s ending.

 

UPDATE: There is a new ending. Officials in India have pledged to pay for the surgeries this girl so badly wanted for her father and brother.  Her death was not in vain after all.   Mumpy Sarkar. That is a name to remember. RIP. 

 

Update II:  This note from my brother Gerry who has a great memory for literature, although he cautions that this probably is apocryphal: 

Reminds me of this.  Saw it in a book once – “Bird by Bird” – but it seems to have kicked around a while:

Here is the best true story on giving I know, and it was told by Jack Kornfield of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre. An eight-year-old boy had a younger sister who was dying of leukemia, and he was told that without a blood transfusion she would die. His parents explained to him that his blood was probably compatible with hers, and if so, he could be the blood donor. They asked him if they could test his blood. He said sure. So they did and it was a good match. Then they asked if he would give his sister a pint of blood, that it could be her only chance of living. He said he would have to think about it overnight. 

The next day he went to his parents and said he was willing to donate the blood. So they took him to the hospital where he was put on a gurney beside his six-year-old sister. Both of them were hooked up to IVs. A nurse withdrew a pint of blood from the boy, which was then put in the girl’s IV. The boy lay on his gurney in silence while the blood dripped into his sister, until the doctor came over to see how he was doing. Then the boy opened his eyes and asked, “When do I start to die?”

UN Jumps the Shark

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 07•11

The League of Nations and then the United Nations was a noble idea. But the entity that exists today off Dag Hammarskjold Plaza is a cruel joke on anyone subscribing to a one-world, kumbaya vision.

There have been 1,000 instances demonstrating the UN’s fecklessness and downright idiocy, but none more jarring than North Korea assuming the chairmanship of the UN Conference on Disarmament. It is akin to Stalin chairing a commission on political freedoms.

North Korea is the most dangerous country in the world.  It has lied repeatedly, breaking solemn pledge after solemn pledge, in order to develop nuclear weapons. And there is huge international concern at this very moment — as Kim Jong Il  chairs the UN Conference on Disarmament — that North Korea, in dire economic straights, might be shopping its nuclear technology for cash. 

The Australian puts it perfectly in this morning’s headline: “Is the UN Stark Raving Mad?” 

Worse than that, I’m afraid, it is irrelevant. It has become Wilsonian performance art, a lesson in unilateralism. 

Obama Could Lose in 36 States

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 06•11

The Final 2008 Electoral Map

There isn’t a single state that John McCain won in 2008 in serious jeopardy of voting for President Obama in 2012. But 10 or more states that the President won in the last election conceivably could move over to the GOP column.  Six – Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Indiana are likely to do so.  If those states alone vote Republican, the GOP candidate will win in 2012. That math must be keeping Team Obama up at night.

The President could lose as many as 36 states if the economy does not significantly improve.  His only rock-solid reliable states are California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine, Delaware, Maryland, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia.  Those would give him 188 electoral votes, 82 short of that 270 magic number. New Jersey would give him 14 more, but that’s not necessarily a given.

Mr. Obama will have to sweep the Midwest, including Indiana or Ohio – an extremely unlikely scenario given the 2010 results in that region – and hold onto Colorado and Nevada to win enough electoral votes to be re-elected. And every one of those states, including Wisconsin and Minnesota are going to cost him a lot of money. (Here is an interactive map to toy with.)

Candidate Obama famously employed a 50-state strategy in his Primary win over Hillary Clinton.  No way he does that in 2012.  The real race will take place in fewer than a dozen states, at least half of them surrounding the Great Lakes.  Three current Republican candidates hail from that area.  Should be interesting. 

Willfully Tuned Out

Written By: William F. B. O'Reilly - Jul• 06•11

Dumb question. Who the heck is KC  Casey Anthony?

I know I’m supposed to know that, but I really don’t care to. For a solid month I’ve been seeing her and her father on a witness stand on cable news channels, and each time I have, I’ve flipped the channel as fast as humanly possible.

From what I gather interest in her involves her dead little girl. Why on earth would anyone want to focus on that? I’d sooner run screaming from a room than tune in for more of that story. The world is depressing enough. Do we need to be brought down farther?

Yesterday all the headlines were of Anthony being found not guilty of killing her daughter. That was a surprise verdict evidently.  But does that materially change the fact that a little girl is dead? That mother’s life is over whether she did whatever it was that was done or not. Nothing can change that fact. The spotlights will be put away, the courtroom will be shuttered for the night, and the court dockets will be filed away in a drawer.  But that girl will be gone forever and her mother will slowly die from that knowledge.  No matter what. Even if she were guilty, there is nothing you could do to that mother worse than what already has happened.  Nothing. 

I wish I knew even less about this case. 

Cable news owes us one helluva happy story.

PS: As I write this, I am sitting on a train across from a mother with two children. They are heading for a day in the big city. Sprawled across each child’s hand in indelible marker is their mother’s cell phone number. Somehow seems worth mentioning.