The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a group of White firefighters in Conn. were discriminated against when their testing results for promotions were set-aside after it was discovered that no black firefighters were among the finalists.
While not presented as a major change in the law, this ruling is drawing attention as the lower court ruling that was overturned involved Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
I expect a lot of media attention on this issue, attempting to paint the current Supreme Court as "too conservative."
_________________________________________
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Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Finding Reform in St. Paul: behind every door and around every corner
The word "reform" is an often overused term in politics. A google search of "reform in politics" turns up over 48 million hits. Sometimes the concept of reform is repackaged into another term, say "change in politics" at 190 million google hits; 62.5 million for "Obama Change in politics."
While I mostly disagree with Obama's change or reform attempts, I cannot criticize him for his aggressive search for a new way of doing things. I like to say that there is reform behind every door and around every corner. Right now, the Obama presidency is seeing an unprecedented ability to open doors and get around corners that never were before thought possible. Ultimately, history will determine whether or not he is using his pulpit to force open the right doors.
In contrast, as an observer this past legislative session, I saw very little progress in finding real reform in St. Paul. Instead, the leadership of the majority party perfected the role of closing doors, dispensing political rhetoric and finger pointing. Education and health-care are the two opportunities for reform that I have blogged about previously.
http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html
Given that these two areas account for almost 70% of the budget, reform in other areas becomes irrelevant from a numbers perspective. The attached link shows a great pie chart of the State's budget. http://budgetforum.senate.mn/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/slide93.gif
The Democrats' door slamming episode ended with few new ideas even making it out of committee or being quickly killed on the floor. Even attempts to close loopholes on outright fraud and abuse of the welfare system were thwarted. To the D's anguish, they unintentionally left the door open a crack for Governor Pawlenty to utilize the unallotment process.
No one claims that unallotment is the preferred method of obtaining reform. Reform using a blunt object is always more messy than the scalpel. Yet, the Democrats posturing at the Capital left all the doors locked and the hallways blocked.
The legislative master that he is, Pawlenty remains a step ahead of his opposition. Many of his unallotment cuts are deferred until 2011, meaning that the legislature has next year to actually make reforms. If the Democratic leadership in the legislature cannot get their act together and implement "change", then the bulk of the Pawlenty cuts go into effect.
In effect, the Governor has established a new end game. Normally, the first year of session sets the budget for two years and government shut down occurs on July 1 in an impasse. This time around, Pawlenty avoided a shut down and set the rules for what will happen next July 1st if Democrats cannot perform. As much as they will posture, Democrats will not be able to avoid responsibility for a meltdown and the "No Reform" label can be placed on their candidates foreheads.
A well reasoned, disciplined approach from the minority should be able to capture this opportunity and broker reform opportunities while the Governor watches from the national campaign trail. Governor Pawlenty has handed House and Senate Republicans a set of keys that will open many doors that are normally unavailable for a party with minority status.
I hope that our caucuses can use the keys that have been handed to them to promote real reform, not just old worn-out agendas.
While I mostly disagree with Obama's change or reform attempts, I cannot criticize him for his aggressive search for a new way of doing things. I like to say that there is reform behind every door and around every corner. Right now, the Obama presidency is seeing an unprecedented ability to open doors and get around corners that never were before thought possible. Ultimately, history will determine whether or not he is using his pulpit to force open the right doors.
In contrast, as an observer this past legislative session, I saw very little progress in finding real reform in St. Paul. Instead, the leadership of the majority party perfected the role of closing doors, dispensing political rhetoric and finger pointing. Education and health-care are the two opportunities for reform that I have blogged about previously.
http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html
Given that these two areas account for almost 70% of the budget, reform in other areas becomes irrelevant from a numbers perspective. The attached link shows a great pie chart of the State's budget. http://budgetforum.senate.mn/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/slide93.gif
The Democrats' door slamming episode ended with few new ideas even making it out of committee or being quickly killed on the floor. Even attempts to close loopholes on outright fraud and abuse of the welfare system were thwarted. To the D's anguish, they unintentionally left the door open a crack for Governor Pawlenty to utilize the unallotment process.
No one claims that unallotment is the preferred method of obtaining reform. Reform using a blunt object is always more messy than the scalpel. Yet, the Democrats posturing at the Capital left all the doors locked and the hallways blocked.
The legislative master that he is, Pawlenty remains a step ahead of his opposition. Many of his unallotment cuts are deferred until 2011, meaning that the legislature has next year to actually make reforms. If the Democratic leadership in the legislature cannot get their act together and implement "change", then the bulk of the Pawlenty cuts go into effect.
In effect, the Governor has established a new end game. Normally, the first year of session sets the budget for two years and government shut down occurs on July 1 in an impasse. This time around, Pawlenty avoided a shut down and set the rules for what will happen next July 1st if Democrats cannot perform. As much as they will posture, Democrats will not be able to avoid responsibility for a meltdown and the "No Reform" label can be placed on their candidates foreheads.
A well reasoned, disciplined approach from the minority should be able to capture this opportunity and broker reform opportunities while the Governor watches from the national campaign trail. Governor Pawlenty has handed House and Senate Republicans a set of keys that will open many doors that are normally unavailable for a party with minority status.
I hope that our caucuses can use the keys that have been handed to them to promote real reform, not just old worn-out agendas.
________________________________________
Welcome to Tilting Against! If you have not subscribed to receive posts via e-mail, you can do so by clicking on the following link: http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html
A reminder of God's power and mercy
I was in Austin, Minnesota last night for the Cedar River Watershed District meeting. These monthly meetings are held at the Hormel Nature Center. Well, this location happened to be in the path of last night's tornado that hit Austin. http://www.albertleatribune.com/news/2009/jun/17/tornado-touches-down-corning-austin/
We heard the sirens and then the news came that a twister was hitting the NW side of Austin and heading our way. We watched the clouds begin to rotate and the debris starting picking up. Small "fingers" of twisters snuck out of the side of the massive cloud and then we could see the large rotating cloud heading our way.
Our group of about 15 went to the bathrooms and utility rooms as there was no basement. The men's room has a small window that we could see out. All I could see was trees being flattened or completely sideways. The interpretive center is about 20 feet away and we lost site of it when all we could see was downed trees and roots sticking out of the ground. We were waiting for the "train sound" that everyone describes when a tornado hits. Lucky for us, we never heard that sound.
Outside, the photo below is what we saw. These were the trees that we could see out of the bathroom window.
The roof of the interpretive center was torn-off as shown below.
The photo at the very top shows the path of the destruction after it hit the interpretive center, only 20 feet from our bathroom shelter. We then started to get the terrible news about other parts of town and homes that had been hit. After the chainsaws arrived, I was thankful to be heading back home to my family. Last night, I certainly said extra prayers of thanks.
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009
A tale of three parks!
Camping season is here!! My family enjoyed the pre-summer ritual of cleaning out the camper, taking inventory and preparing for another season. It doesn't take long to remember why we enjoy this so much: no distractions, yard-work or house work and quality time with family and friends.
For some reason, I've been intrigued by my visits to the various parks we've visited. Likely, the fact that I spend a lot of time there chasing my 4-year old (5 years old today) and 7-year old around has a lot to do with it. My observation has been that a good park has a life of its own. I'm not talking about a water park or the monstrosities that often appear in today's super sized world, just a the good old fashioned jungle gym ("JG"). These parks take on the life of who's there. A lonely teenager swinging alone, a slew of kids laughing, or fighting. At night, perhaps some beers from the neighbors cooler (last year, we were the "neighbors" whose cooler of beer disappeared in the night -- more about that later).
This year, it seems that whenever I arrive at a park with the kids, its just us and the JG. Nice, I think, just the kids and I and some good bonding. Let's play a friendly game of tag! Literally, within moments, the kids are pouring out of every nook and cranny in the area. It was almost as if they have been hiding in the bushes all day waiting for some unsuspecting mom or dad to show up. Suddenly, you become the center of their "you're it" world.
Even the older kids (over 10), who initially act too mature to stoop down to boring old tag, seem to come around when there is an adult figure on the JG. The first park I observed this was in South Dakota. We started a game of dodge ball tag. Hit them with the ball, without them catching it, and their it. I think we played for ten seconds before everyone wanted in. The traditional animosity between the age groups quickly evaporated. For a good forty-five minutes, the park was crazy-fun. Dinner time arrived and I announced that we had to leave. As quickly as they arrived, the throngs of kids were gone. It happened so quickly, I wondered if I had imagined it.
Next, we visited a campground in the Canby area. Their JG was an antique Rainbow Play set. Built like a tank. Again, tag with the kids on an empty JG turned into a ten-kid free for all. Melissa, a three-year old, was at first afraid to play. She was clearly afraid of the older kids and I finally was able to "catch" her and she was it. She then proceeded to chase me around the JG at least three times. The older kids were trying to let her catch them, but I finally realized that I was her only target. "Watch-out" all the kids shriek when it's my turn. This time, I tried to slowly disappear to the side and let the games go on. Fun to watch, but the proverbial dinner bell again ended the fun. I felt 10 again for a moment and could almost hear my mom yelling, "kids, time for dinner." Of course, I was the one yelling
Finally, last weekend, we went to our "home" campground and set-up shop across from the park. I asked the kids, to help me describe this park to someone. They immediately answered, "space rocket ship." Not what I expected, but soon I was the alien who had to recruit an army of my evil friends to attack the space ship and overrun the "good guys" and take over the ship. In the end, my army was defeated as we did not know that the good guys had a self-destruct button that blew up the ship as soon as we were all on board. I WILL remember that one next time.
____________________________________
Welcome to Tilting Against! If you have not subscribed to receive posts via e-mail, you can do so by clicking on the following link: http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html
Make sure to watch for the confirmation e-mail.
For some reason, I've been intrigued by my visits to the various parks we've visited. Likely, the fact that I spend a lot of time there chasing my 4-year old (5 years old today) and 7-year old around has a lot to do with it. My observation has been that a good park has a life of its own. I'm not talking about a water park or the monstrosities that often appear in today's super sized world, just a the good old fashioned jungle gym ("JG"). These parks take on the life of who's there. A lonely teenager swinging alone, a slew of kids laughing, or fighting. At night, perhaps some beers from the neighbors cooler (last year, we were the "neighbors" whose cooler of beer disappeared in the night -- more about that later).
This year, it seems that whenever I arrive at a park with the kids, its just us and the JG. Nice, I think, just the kids and I and some good bonding. Let's play a friendly game of tag! Literally, within moments, the kids are pouring out of every nook and cranny in the area. It was almost as if they have been hiding in the bushes all day waiting for some unsuspecting mom or dad to show up. Suddenly, you become the center of their "you're it" world.
Even the older kids (over 10), who initially act too mature to stoop down to boring old tag, seem to come around when there is an adult figure on the JG. The first park I observed this was in South Dakota. We started a game of dodge ball tag. Hit them with the ball, without them catching it, and their it. I think we played for ten seconds before everyone wanted in. The traditional animosity between the age groups quickly evaporated. For a good forty-five minutes, the park was crazy-fun. Dinner time arrived and I announced that we had to leave. As quickly as they arrived, the throngs of kids were gone. It happened so quickly, I wondered if I had imagined it.
Next, we visited a campground in the Canby area. Their JG was an antique Rainbow Play set. Built like a tank. Again, tag with the kids on an empty JG turned into a ten-kid free for all. Melissa, a three-year old, was at first afraid to play. She was clearly afraid of the older kids and I finally was able to "catch" her and she was it. She then proceeded to chase me around the JG at least three times. The older kids were trying to let her catch them, but I finally realized that I was her only target. "Watch-out" all the kids shriek when it's my turn. This time, I tried to slowly disappear to the side and let the games go on. Fun to watch, but the proverbial dinner bell again ended the fun. I felt 10 again for a moment and could almost hear my mom yelling, "kids, time for dinner." Of course, I was the one yelling
Finally, last weekend, we went to our "home" campground and set-up shop across from the park. I asked the kids, to help me describe this park to someone. They immediately answered, "space rocket ship." Not what I expected, but soon I was the alien who had to recruit an army of my evil friends to attack the space ship and overrun the "good guys" and take over the ship. In the end, my army was defeated as we did not know that the good guys had a self-destruct button that blew up the ship as soon as we were all on board. I WILL remember that one next time.
____________________________________
Welcome to Tilting Against! If you have not subscribed to receive posts via e-mail, you can do so by clicking on the following link: http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html
Make sure to watch for the confirmation e-mail.
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