HOW TO SECEDE IN POLITICS

THE 

FEDERATED 

STATES OF 

AMERICA

In a fascinating New Yorker article of May 4, 2009,  

So Long Pardner, writer Hendrik Hertzberg gave reality to Gov. Rick Perry's suggestion that Texas might end its association with the United States of America and strike out on its own.

Hertzberg called the potential affiliation of Texas and, "any other parts of the old Confederacy that might wish to accompany it - the Federated States ("Confederate"being a word that remains a little too provocative)." 

So Long Pardner is a must-read article,humorous and scary.

Perhaps Gov. Perry's April 15 "tea party" speech was prompted by prior legislative action in two other states, Georgia and Alaska.

On April 1, 2009, the Georgia State Senate passed Resolution 632 (SR632)[status “Affirming states’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.” The vote was a resounding 43-1, with 12 not voting or excused.

On April 6, 2009, the Alaska House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed House Joint Resolution 27 [HJR27][status page] which “claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States” The final vote was 37-0, with 3 not voting.

If that piqued your interest you will enjoy these news items. Somewhere in this same time frame the South Dakota house passed a similar resolution, 51-18, and an Oklahoma version passed that state’s house, 83-13, and its state senate, 25-17. Oklahoma’s Democratic governor, Brad Henry, vetoed it, noting dryly in his veto message that it “does not serve the state or its citizens in any positive manner.”

Now for the fun part. From Hertzerg's article, "Although Texas itself has been a net contributor to the Treasury—it gets back ninety-four cents for each dollar it sends to Washington—nearly all the other potential F.S. states, especially the ones whose politicians complain most loudly about the federal jackboot, are on the dole. (South Carolina, for example, receives $1.35 on the dollar, as compared with Illinois’s seventy-five cents.)"

These figures came from The Tax Foundation, a non-profit organization that explains these  numbers as, "Federal Taxes Paid vs. Federal Spending Received by State, 1981-2005."

Further, The Tax Foundation explains, "States send federal taxes to Washington and receive federal spending in return. However, some states benefit more from federal taxing and spending policies than others. Some "beneficiary" states receive a positive return from Uncle Sam, making other states "donors" who pick up the tab. The most important factor determining whether a state is a net beneficiary is per capita income. States with wealthier residents pay higher federal taxes per capita thanks to the progressive structure of the income tax. Other factors include whether states have powerful Members of Congress, the number of federal employees present in a state, and the number of residents receiving Social Security, Medicare and other federal entitlements."

I was concerned that the 2005 figures would surely have changed during this calamitous calendar year so I called William Ahern, Communications Director of The Tax Foundation for help.

His answer: "(In short, we haven't updated the study.)"

 

"The annual project got derailed when the Census went almost 3 years without publishing the Consolidated Federal Funds Report (our source for spending by state). Now they've made up the time with rapid-fire publication of 2 issues and a third to come out shortly. But in the meantime, the economist here who had taken ownership of that project took a job at PriceWaterhouse, and the remaining staff is preoccupied with other projects. However, because those ratios change at a glacial pace, essentially reflecting demographic changes on the spending side, and slowly rising progressivity on the tax side, the '05 data are probably correct for fiscal 08 within a few cents."

10 Biggest Receivers (I added 5 more)

1. New Mexico $2.03

2. Mississippi $2.02

3. Alaska $1.84

4. Louisiana $1.78

5. West Virginia $1.76

6. North Dakota $1.68

7. Alabama $1.66

8. South Dakota $1.53

9. Kentucky $1.51

10. Virginia $1.51

15.Oklahoma $1.36

16. South Carolina $1.35

31. Ohio $1.05

31. Florida $1.04

34. Georgia $1.02

10 Biggest Donators

1. New Jersey $0.61

2. Nevada $0.65

3. Connecticut $0.69

4. New Hampshire $0.71

5. Minnesota $0.72

6. Illinois $0.75

7. Delaware $0.77

8. California $0.78

9. New York $0.79

10. Colorado $0.81

THE BEST FISH STORY OF THEM ALL

ENGLISH DOVER SOLE

This is about one of the best tasting meals in the world - if you can find it? Dover Sole, actually English Dover Sole, is expensive and you won't find it in your local fish market unless you live in a large coastal city. If you can find the real thing in a fine restaurant it will be the most expensive entre on the menu ($40-60).

In America, flounder is often mislabeled as fillet of sole- a misnomer because all of the fish called "sole" (except for imported European Dover Sole) are actually varieties of flounder. 

Dover Sole, technically speaking, is the only authentic member of the sole family sold in this country. The name derives from the English port of Dover, a major market for the thick, meaty fish. Dover Sole used to be sold frozen, but jet transportation now makes it available fresh in restaurants and markets, although for a hefty price.

In my opinion, the only way to cook the real Dover Sole is Sole Meunière. Since I doubt that you can find Dover Sole in your local fish market, I include these cooking tips only to show you how a good restaurant will prepare this simple, elegant meal.

Don't let this toney title turn you off. Sole Meunière is a classic French dish consisting of a filet of sole served with a brown butter sauce and lemon. Sole has a light, flaky texture when cooked and has a mild flavor. Since sole is a flatfish, a single fish will yield four filets rather than the two filets that a roundfish will produce.

The basic recipe is hardly a recipe at all. It's just a simple saute (sometimes called pan-frying in English). After dredging the fillets in flour, pan fry in olive oil and butter. You can add lemon, capers and shallots if you wish. The brown, roasty flavours on the outside go beautifully with the delicate, nutty flavour of the sole.

The cooking process will be quick. Because there are so many variables (heat, size of pan, thickness of fillets), more specific guidelines are almost useless. For home cooks, the challenge will be to dare to get the pan hot enough to brown the fish evenly without overcooking.

(Dover) Sole used to be one of the least expensive dishes on European menus. It was, when we drove through Belgium 20 years ago. When I discovered that plain "sole" on the menu was Dover sole, I ate nothing else. Overfishing and skyrocketing popularity elevated this ugly flatfish to it's current exalted pricey position.

Vladimir Horowitz, the late piano grand master, married to Arturo Toscanini's daughter, would eat nothing but Dover Sole for dinner.

According to Peter Gelb, at that time , President of Sony Classical Records," his (Horowitz) fears about his diet appeared to be the major hurdle to realizing his dream of returning to Russia. At the time, his evening meal consisted of fresh Dover Sole and asparagus, a routine repeated night after night for several years, all faithfully recorded in his bound red book."

"Horowitz only agreed to his historic return to Moscow after I had set up a highly commercial worldwide television broadcast of his concert (and promised to air lift to him a daily supply of fresh Dover sole—the only food he would eat for dinner)."

"Ambassador and Mrs. Hartman offered to turn over their spacious living quarters in Spasso House to Horowitz and, even more crucially, agreed to engineer the first Dover Sole and asparagus airlift into Moscow. Hartman organized his fellow ambassadorial corps -- the British ambassador was to be responsible for the sole, the Italian ambassador for the asparagus, the French ambassador for the Dom Perignon rose that Mrs. Horowitz preferred -- and the Hartmans' chef was in charge of obtaining copious quantities of fresh caviar on the black market. Members of Hartman's staff who greeted the arriving food flights wore T-shirts imprinted with the words "Dover Sole Air Lift." 

COLONEL "BERTIE" McCORMICK & THE 1934 CHICAGO TRIBUNE CARTOON

There they are, in a cart, careening down a cash covered road while

 Democrats: Ickes (Herald Sr.), Henry Wallace, and Donald Richberg shovel more sacks of money out of the donkey-powered cart. 

Rex Tugwell, head Brain Truster flails away at the Democratic donkey symbol. 

A Trotsky-esque figure completes a Plan Of Action For U.S. Poster. SPEND!SPEND! SPEND!

WHY DID THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE JUST PUBLISH THIS 1934 CARTOON AGAIN?

OK, I get it. The Democrats are screwing up "the soundest government in the world" while the "pinkies" from Harvard wield the power bottle. We used to call them "commie-pinkos" when Sen.Joe McCarthy was around. He hit the power and the bottle. It destroyed him.

This cartoon has been e-mailed to me several times by my concerned conservative friends. There is a tag line at the end of the e-mail, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905.

That got my interest so I looked up "the past".

WHO PUBLISHED THE CARTOON?

Colonel Robert "Bertie" McCormick owned The Tribune for most of the first half of the 20th century. He was, like Warren G. Harding, a good newspaperman, but his personal viewpoints often were at odds with the rest of the world. Harry Vaughn, actually General Vaughan, President Truman's Military Aide in the White House said this about Bertie:

VAUGHAN: Bertie was, yes. He was a little to the right of Louis XVI. You know it was his paper (The Chicago Tribune) that had that headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN." I got a copy of it on the wall there.

Perhaps we should include the famous photo of Truman holding up the Tribune with that headline beside the Santayane quote.

McCormick disliked Truman but he hated FDR. Franklin Roosevelt was a prep school classmate and nemesis of Bertie. FDR's New Deal politics and global ambitions represented nearly everything McCormick abhorred.

There are those who said that Bertie bought his military commission in the Illinois National Guard. McCormick’s military title was fully earned, according to a fascinating book, The Colonel: The Life & Legend of Robert B. McCormick, 1880-1955, by Richard Norton Smith.  The book also states that he fought bravely and successfully on the Western Front with the First Division. Indeed, he renamed his family home for a desperate battle in which he and his troops withstood a massive German attack (at Cantigny, France). When he died, he was buried in his faded khaki uniform. Cantigny is also a must-see museum with super-detailed life-sized dioramas that you can walk through. The reconstruction of the World War I Cantigny site is particularly impressive

After his military service, Bertie became an "Isolationist". (From the book) He resolutely opposed American action, except in defense of the homeland. He was an imperious, at times capricious, employer, capable of extraordinary rudeness and generosity. He was, at once, comically self-important and self-deprecating. Never happier than when riding to hounds, he championed, indeed romanticized, the American yeoman, and bemoaned the snobbery and decadence of the rich. A stalwart advocate of what we would today call family values, he had the lifelong habit of pursuing married women. So much for the publisher of the cartoon.

WHO DREW THE CARTOON?

"The one-eyed Cartoonist, Carey Orr, does not hate Franklin Roosevelt either, simply considers him "despicable like a snake." He likes to picture the President as a Red, a would-be Hitler, a gorilla-like monster of Fear, Doubt and Ruin. Other cartoonists consider Carey Orr an exponent of "brute force, which gets reaction not converts." Nevertheless Publisher McCormick continues to play his product day after day on the front page." Oct. 26, 1936 Time Magazine

Orr was a semi-professional baseball player while a teenager, and he worked as a player long enough to save enough money to put himself through art school in Chicago. After working in Nashville, Tenn., Orr came back to the Chicago Tribune where he stayed for 50 years. He taught night classes at the Chicago Institute of Art where one of his students was Walt Disney. Disney never made it as a cartoonist but he did scribble "apologies to Orr" on a panel of rough sketches.

Carey Orr (1890-1967) was always a conservative editorial cartoonist blasting FDR and Communism. 26 years after the "flying money cart" cartoon and toward the end of his career, he received a Pulitzer Prize for an editorial cartoon, "The Kindly Tiger" (published in 1960). In that cartoon about the "Congo crisis", a tiger whose stripes spell Communism licks his chops as he watches an approaching black African on "a long trek to freedom". Attached to his tale is a tag, "Krushy's Kat". "May I Give You A Ride?" he asks.

COULD ANYONE COME UP WITH 

A MORE FITTING DESCRIPTION 

OF WHAT IS GOING ON NOW?

(this was the question attached to the top of the e-mailed 1934 cartoon)

Of course. First, tell me exactly what is going on now, or better, where it will end? If you can, we will be wealthy beyond our wildest dreams. I don't trust the Democratic or Republican spinmeisters. Copy these loaded words from the 1934 cartoon like "broken (busted) government","capitalist failure", "junk the constitution" and "dictatorship". And don't forget "the resources of the soundest government in the world" Give the words to Pat Oliphant, Mike Luckovich, Glenn McCoy, Mike Ramirez, or Mike Peters to name a few of our best Editorial Cartoonists. Tell them to take the events of 2008/2009 and combine with these words to make a new political cartoon. Watch out, right, left and center.

Read my earlier blog on editorial cartoons: 

OBAMA IS A CARTOON

THE PARTY'S OVER

A DATE WITH SARAH PALIN, ARLEN SPECTER & PEGGY NOONAN.

"The Party's Over, it's time to call it a day.

They've burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away. 

It's time to wind up the masquerade.

Just make your mind up the piper must be paid.

The Party's Over.The candles ficker and dim. 

You danced and dreamed through the night, 

it seemed to be right just being with him.

Now you must wake up, all dreams must end.

Take off your make up, The Party's Over.

It's all over, my friend."

("The Party's Over" is a popular song composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.It was introduced in the 1956 musical comedy 

Bells Are Ringing by Judy Holliday.)

In 2008 less than two hours after Peggy Noonan and former McCain advisor Mike Murphy appeared on MSNBC, a YouTube video appeared of their candid exchange in which they dismissed Sarah Palin’s viability as a VP pick. 

Off camera, in reference to Sara Palin, Noonan said,"It's Over" and discussed the "Political Bulls--t" that had occurred. Palin and Specter, at that time, were members of the GOP. Palin is still a favorite of the party right wing. Specter is gone. One less Senatorial vote for the grand old party.

I like Peggy Noonan's comments - the same way I enjoy Dowd, Krauthammer, Krugman, Rich, and Robinson. Her WSJ column of 5/2/09, "Shrink to Win' Isn't Much of a Strategy" goes straight to the point:

"I am wondering once again if Republicans in Washington fully understand what they are up against. They have had a hard week. Someday years hence, when books are written about the Republican comeback, they may well begin with this low moment, and the bolting of Arlen Specter to the Democrats. It is fine to dismiss Mr. Specter as an opportunist, but opportunists tell you something: which side is winning. That's the side they want to be on."

I was a gung ho young Republican in college and a believer into the Nixon years when he targeted a group of Americans who identified with the concept “silent majority” as part of its drive to create a new center-right electoral coalition. It marked the first time a presidential administration had used survey research to disaggregate the electorate for the purpose of coalition building. The silent majority’s members shared a common set of political attitudes, particularly on social and cultural issues. This was the entry point for a set of moral and religious judgements that would fragment the party. It won the election for Nixon. A new GOP coalition entered the party. I left. 40+ years later so did Arlen Specter. Sarah Palin is still there.

 "The party has shifted very far to the right," Specter said, explaining that he isn't ditching the GOP so much as the Pennsylvania GOP is ditching him. The political reality is that he could not win a Republican primary in his home state next year.

Noonan's  column continues," Republicans need less enforcement and more encouragement. The people inside can't always be kicking people out of the tent. A great party cannot live by constantly subtracting, by removing or shunning those who are not faithful to every aspect of its beliefs, or who don't accept every pole, or who are just barely fitting under the tent. Room should be made for them. Especially in those cases when Republican incumbents and candidates are attempting to succeed in increasingly liberal states, a certain practical sympathy is in order.

In the party now there is too much ferocity, and bloody-mindedness. The other day Sen. Jim DeMint said he'd rather have 30 good and reliable conservative senators than 60 unreliable Republicans. Really? Good luck stopping an agenda you call socialist with 30 hardy votes. "Shrink to win": I've never heard of that as a political slogan.

Is it fully mature, and truly protective toward America, to be so politically exclusionary?"