Fun With Dick & Jane

The first half of Tuesday’s show was all about Gatesgate, or skippyquiddik, depending on your preference. Dick was enraged at the political “stupidity” of the President’s remarks. I think his remarks about Sgt Crowley were pretty consistent with the class war I see being pushed by the Obama administration.

We talked briefly about the healthcare debacle – the latest revelation that Chris Dodd did indeed know he was getting special treatment on his mortgage, an ethical violation which like those of Rangel, Murtha and others will be ignored by the democrat congress.

We had our usual state politics jousting. Dick is in disbelief that Deval Patrick plans to run for re-election given his tanking numbers. I speculated that if it doesn’t work out there will be a place for him in Washington at the president’s knee. I announced the best news of the day Congressman Richard Neal has an opponant. Dr. Jay Fleitman helathcareof North Hampton has announced he is running against Neal. If you listen to the show you know I have an ongoing battle with Congressman Neal whose staff answers not questions on Neal’s positions nor do they answer any constituant mail – well mine at least. Perhaps Fleitman will be more responsive to his constituents.

There is more, but you will have to listen.

Health care dominated the beginning of the show this week. Neither Dick or I are thrilled with the current proposals, perhaps because we are subject to the closest thing to Universal Health care in the country, here in MA. Dick reminded me that we have “Romney care” made worse by the hand of Deval Patrick. I cited a comparison of costs between Georgia ($200 a month average premium) and Massachusetts (over $800 a month average premium) and wait to see your doc – (9 days in Georgia), and (53 days in Massachusetts).

I continued to stress my mantra that all elected officials should agree to be subject to any plan passed by this administration – with no exceptions.

We talked about the current head to head polling showing Obama at 45% in a dead heat with Romney at 45%, and Obama at 48% compared to Palin at 42%.

We talked a little about the Stimulus failure, MA unemployment and the President’s refusal to release the budget numbers due in mid July.

I then brought up my congressman, Richard Neal, who has now ignored my requests for information 5 times. Dick is “close friends” with him so he promised to deliver a number to reach him. I suggested that although that might get my questions answered, it would not get my neighbors questions answered. Dick then bragged that he had sent an email to Sarah Palin and had already received two responses.

Funny Governor Palin does not work for Dick, but Richard Neal is supposed to be working for me, and can’t give me the courtesy of a reply. Dick did not deliver the number.

There is more but you will have to listen.

I’m a huge proponent of the Tea Parties and have attended both local ones. My friend Carole and I prepared together for the first one – she made 10 signs which we handed out to the protesters on April 15th (I watched). When we went to the Tea Party in June we were happy to see three of the signs we handed out make a reappearance.

At any rate, Caro memorialized the experience here. You can find the rest of her art here.

The music is by Kathleen Stewart.

The show started today with Dick co-opting a discussion Peter and I were having about the unprecedented number of staff this First Lady has employed at our expense. Typically Dick said “they all do it” with no proof of same. I was referencing this piece which numbers Michelle Obama’s staff at 22 – nearly double that of Laura Bush. My issue is not so much with the staff but the times. If we are in such tough economic times that the President wants to tax us out of existence, the first family could be a little more judicious with our money.

This morning I heard from Fr Peter who maintains that the numbers in the above link are fudged. He actually called the White House spokesman who said Mrs Obama employs 15 people. The statement would have held more credibility for me if the person providing the info had not added: “This is the most transparent administration ever”.

Dick and I talked briefly about Sonja Sotomayor, and the hearings that were taking place while we were on the air. We both agreed that she has an almost inevitable chance of being confirmed given the number of democrats in the Senate. I noted that the infamous “Jane Roe” of the Roe v Wade decision (who has since become anti-choice) was thrown out on day one, while protesting the nomination.

We talked about the resignation of car Czar Steve Rattner, speculating that he is stepping down because the pay for play scheme his company Quadrangle Group is embroiled in appears to be widening to include him. He will be replaced by a union head who has no experience in the auto industry.

We talked about the current attempt to embroil Dick Cheney in a “scandal” involving the CIA’s failure to inform Congress of a program which was never implemented. I contend that this is a smokescreen geared to taking the heat off of Nancy Pelosi who last month alleged that the CIA often lies to Congress.

We touched on State politics briefly, or rather the ongoing corruption in state politics. The current issue on the table is the funding of two MA zoos. The democrat Governor says “no funding” and the democrat speaker in the overwhelmingly democrat congress says “yes we will fund”.

We talked a bit about the President’s latest world tour to Italy, Russia and Ghana. I am once again fairly amazed at what this president will concede to our enemies and demand of our friends. Dick is not bothered by that strategy.

And last but not least we discussed the latest on Governor Palin. Both Dick and I are fans, altho I suspect for different reasons.

Enjoy!

The first segment today was all about Sarah Palin. We talked about her resignation, what we think it means and what will be next for Governor Palin. I believe she represents those of us fed up with Washington, “Government As Usual” and the “Politics of Personal Destruction” – aka the tea party-ers. I reiterated Ross Douthat’s thesis:

Palin’s popularity has as much to do with class as it does with ideology. In this sense, she really is the perfect foil for Barack Obama. Our president represents the meritocratic ideal — that anyone, from any background, can grow up to attend Columbia and Harvard Law School and become a great American success story. But Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal — that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard.

We then talked about State Treasurer Tim Cahill who has switched parties (democrat to independent) to run for Governor against Deval Patrick.

We also talked about things happening in Iran, Honduras and Russia, and the President’s rather disconnected handling of each situation.

There is more – take a listen!

There was a lot to talk about today. MA just passed a $27B budget which adds an additional billion dollars in taxes on the Massachusetts citizens. Dick added that in addition to a 25% increase in sales tax, Governor Patrick still wants a 19 cent gas tax.

I wanted to talk about the Cap and Trade bill, including my experience contacting Representative Richard Neal’s office last Friday. Representative Neal is my representative in the 2nd District. When I inquired whether representative Neal would vote for the Cap and Trade bill, his staff member replied: “I don’t speak for Representative Neal.” I then asked if knew whether Representative Neal supported Cap and Trade and again he said “I don’t speak for him.” I was apparently under the mistaken impression that Representative Neal worked for me. Apparently accountability to his constituents does not include telling us where he stands on an issue.

We need some new politicians.

I mentioned Monica Conyer’s guilty plea to conspiracy to commit bribery last week. While she is awaiting sentencing, her husband, Representative John Conyers, in charge of ethics in the House, decided that he would halt any investigation into ACORN’s suspected use of the President’s donor list to funnel funds to the Obama campaign illegally. Now at least the people charged with sentencing representative Conyer’s wife will no linger have to worry about an ethics investigation of the executive branch. We will see if her sentence reflects the executive’s gratitude.

We talked about the President’s reversal on his pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class, as well as his immediate support for the Honduras dictator in consort with Chavez and Castro, and compared his response to how long it took him to come out for the Iranians.

We hashed over the Ricci decision, and the Court’s chastisement of Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor for her failure to avail the firefighters with due process.

There was more, but you will have to listen!

Enjoy!