These are classic discussions published back in December 2010
Change We Can Believe In
Fooled you with the title. It’s not actually about President Obama. At least not exactly. This post is about voters repeatedly throwing out the bums, until they get what they actually want. Many voters are realizing they were snookered 2 years ago, and, no doubt, in many cases voters who were triumphant this time around will realize the same thing over the next 2 years.
It’s looking like tea party darling Kristi Noem will fight to keep ethanol subsidies, because it is pork that her state can believe in. “In the long run it will get the economy back on track faster.” Right, of course it will. Such a position, of course, would be grossly at odds with her campaigning/pandering. In 2 years, I expect that she will be asked to account for that change.
We are living the second American Revolution right now. It’s neither conservative nor liberal. It is simply people powered. Because of the amazing availability to broadcast messages... (read more)
Hey, Gulf Coast, Welcome to the West
Every time a Democrat administration occupies the White House, it bans oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Intermountain West, as a gift to environmental special interests. (Most of the land in the West is still owned by the federal government; thus, federal permitting is required). As a result of the stoppage, jobs leave, economies struggle, and education funding suffers. The stoppage doesn’t really mean much for the sage flats involved, but it’s awfully good for votes on both coasts.
Now, the Gulf States will get the same treatment. The Administration has ended domestic, offshore oil production. Not officially. Just effectively. Having legally failed to establish a moratorium, the administration now simply will take forever to review and review and review and study and review drilling applications. And permits will not be issued. And jobs will leave, economies will struggle, and education funding will suffer.
The result for the Earth’s environment? Horrible. Oil production simply will be shifted to parts of... (read more)
New Media Significantly Improves Government
I enjoy Twitter volleys with KSL media celebrity Ethan Millard (I have to identify him that way, because of his now-withering blogging roots). Because 140-characters does constrain expression (here’s looking at you, Neal Gabler), I’ll flesh out my thoughts from last night’s volley: new media improves citizen participation in government and, therefore, will improve American government.
In American government, citizens are the boss. Well, in theory. In actual practice, elected and appointed officials do most of their work without the citizens knowing much about it. But that is changing for the better. When I was elected to the Utah House just 10 years ago, it was extremely difficult for a citizen to know how a legislator voted on a particular item. A few years before that, citizens hardly knew what items were voted on or what the specifics were. Their main, and almost only, accessible sources of information were mainstream media (MSM) and organized special interest groups. MSM only reported on... (read more)
“Wilderness”