Banning little bags: What passes for doing something in the world of Liberals.

Everyone has heard the charge that liberals engage in symbolism over substance on nearly every issue, touting feel-good measures as opposed to actually addressing the underlying problem.  Well, if there is a better example of this phenomenon than what Alderman Robert Fioretti is proposing to do in Chicago, we haven’t heard of it.

Fioretti is proposing a city-wide ban on tiny baggies because they are often times used to sell drugs.  Sadly, the measure has support.

Health Committee Chairman Ed Smith (28th) said the ban is part of a desperate effort to stop what he called “the most destructive force” in Chicago neighborhoods.

Desperate isn’t the word for it, pathetic is. 

Why not just ban criminals from selling drugs?  Or make it illegal to possess drugs?  Oh, wait, that’s right.  Never mind. 

Since law abiding drug dealers wouldn’t have the means by which to sell their product, looks like the crack problem in Chicago is solved!  Congratulations. 

“Pain Don’t Hurt” – James Dalton aka Patrick Swayze

If you’re an avid First Friday Podcast listener (which I hope you are) you know that we hold Patrick Swayze and his acting career in high regards – especially his efforts in Road House and Red Dawn. 

It was no less than a shock to us this week to learn that Patrick has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.   Despite reports from the well regarded and always accurate National Enquirer (Let’s be honest – have they ever reported on a story that didn’t prove to be true?) that Swayze had only 5 weeks to live his doctor is optimistic about his prognosis, saying he has a “very limited amount of disease and appears to be responding well to treatment.”  Dr. George Fisher, Swayze’s doctor went on to say that “All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue.  We are considerably more optimistic.”  

Patrick, know that we at First Friday are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers and look forward to you making a full recovery and of course filming sequels to Road House and Red Dawn.

 

Big Government, not NAFTA, Responsible for Ohio’s Decline.

During the Democratic primary in Ohio, both Clinton and Obama condemned free trade – specifically asserting that NAFTA was bad for the state’s economy. The Wall Street Journal exposes this fallacy in a column comparing Texas and Ohio. Texas is prospering, in part because there is no state income tax and people have more ability to compete. Click here to read the whole thing; excerpts below.

There’s no doubt times are tough in Ohio. The state has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, home foreclosures are soaring, and real family income is lower now than in 2000. Meanwhile, the Texas economy has boomed since 2004, with nearly twice the rate of new job creation as the rest of the nation. ….Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, a Democrat who supports Mrs. Clinton, blames his state’s problems on President Bush. But Ohio’s economy has been struggling for years, and most of its wounds are self-inflicted. Ohio now ranks 47th out of 50 in economic competitiveness, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Ohio politicians deplore plant closings even as they impose the third highest corporate income tax in the country (10.5%) and the sixth highest personal income tax (8.87%). A common joke is that Ohio lays out the red carpet for companies — when they leave the state. By contrast, Texas has no income tax, a huge competitive advantage. …Texas embraces free trade, keeps taxes low, doesn’t impose unions on business and has tooled itself for 21st century global competition. Ohioans may not like to hear this, but for any company considering where to locate a new plant or move an existing one, the choice between Ohio and Texas isn’t even a close call.

More on the global warming debate. (Yes, there is one.)

Beware the politician posing as a scientist.

Did top Obama donor and “slum landlord” Tony Rezko try to bribe his way to $50 million in Iraq money?

In quite possibly the most ignored political story of the year, Tony Rezko, Barack Obama’s big time donor and “Slum Landlord,” is facing some serious charges, and he’s denying them all, naturally. 

Is he guilty?  Time will tell.

Was Barack Obama involved?  Time will tell, too.

But one new charge, dismissed as old, is that he offered a $1.5 million bribe to former Iraqi Minister of Electricity in an attempt to secure a $50 million contract. 

We’ll see what happens with this latest charge, but it is a bit odd that Barack Obama, who was a “community activist” would have had such close, personal ties with someone with that kind of money to throw around.  Especially since Obama took more money from Rezko and his associates than any Republican took from Jack Abramoff, something yet to be mentioned in the press.

Democratic leaders attempt to cover up their fears over the primary situation.

 Nancy Pelosi is worried, and so is Rahm Emanuel.  On what do we base that?  Well, their statements of confidence are a dead give away.

Speaker Pelosi told The Hill: “I was never among those who thought this would be resolved by now.”

Congressman Emanuel said of their primary process: “This is a good process.”

So the Speaker has a magic 8-Ball that let her, and only her, know this was going to be a long, drawn out process?  And Rahm thinks the mess in which they currently find themselves is “good”? 

There really isn’t a conservative that thinks the situation in which Democrats currently find themselves is anything other than great.   Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are going to have to spend a fortune fighting with each other to essentially end up tied and find themselves in a situation where they’re going to have to beg and bribe superdelegates for the nomination, and Democrat leaders think it’s a good thing? 

No matter what happens, short of one of them dropping out, whoever the Democratic nominee is will have been selected by superdelegates.  WE think that is GREAT!  We don’t, however, believe anyone with a D after their name saying the same thing.

What is Hillary Clinton hiding in her tax returns? Enquiring minds want to know, Barack Obama wants to know.

Did anyone really believe the mud wouldn’t start flying the day after Hillary Clinton’s campaign pulled as Lazarus?  Well, if you did, put down the crack pipe and read this.

The Obama campaign is searching for the deathblow against Hillary, but just like Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, she keeps coming.  And, just like the person in those movies who says something like, “There’s safety in numbers, let’s split up,” the Obama camp keeps hitting Jason rather than simply running. 

The latest attempt to put down Jason is this story from CNN that quotes the Obama chief strategist David Axelrod asking what Hillary is hiding by not releasing her tax returns.  (The Clinton campaign did announce they would release them, on April 15th.)

“What does Clinton have to hide?”

“In the face of her unwillingness to release her tax returns, Hillary Clinton has made the false case in this campaign that she is more electable because she has been fully vetted,” the memo stated. “When it comes to her personal finances, Senator Clinton’s refusal to release her taxes returns denies the media and the American people the opportunity to even begin that process.”

What Axelrod and the Obama campaign don’t seem to realize is this is standard operating procedure for the Clintons and, more importantly, it doesn’t work. 

There aren’t very many people in this country that don’t realize, or at least suspect, that the Clintons are corrupt, that they hide things, then deny them, then release the information that proves what their critics have been saying all along and they dismiss it as old news.  The Clinton 2-step worked for 8 years, does he really suspect they wouldn’t keep doing it?

We didn’t even know MTV still played videos…

Gnarls Barkley’s video for their newest song, “Run,” has been banned from MTV because it might cause someone to have an epileptic seizure.  We didn’t know MTV still played music video, aside from clips of a few of them during the credits for The Hills, the Real World and whatever other crap shows they play (though Jackass rules). 

Since the song is good and MTV doesn’t really show videos any more, we thought we’d post it here to see what you think.  If you have epilepsy you may or may not want to watch it.  We, unlike MTV, have faith that you can make your own decisions in life and know what’s best for you.