Today is Fundraising Friday! [Whois the brainiac behind this, pls do tell]

The Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Immigration, formerly Warren Drew, has been replaced by a rising star in the A1 government, Maximus Ze Blah. It is understood that Chairman Fish originally wished for Mr. Ze Blah to take up the ministerial role, but owing to Mr. Ze Blah’s position also as High Justice of the High Court, was not constitutionally possible.

A number of other changes were also announced at the same time:

• The abolishment of the Ministry of Ideology and the  moving of all staff to a newly created Office of Information under the Ministry of Propaganda
• Amalgamation of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Health & Education
• The appointment of a new Governor of B27
• The appointment of the Permanent Secretary to the Office of the Chairman
• The moving of the current Permanent Secretary to the Office of the Chairman into the position of Permanent Under-Secretary to the Office of the Deputy Chairman

Chairman Fish said that these changes would “…further enhance the effectiveness and diversity of the government”.

it was intense, it was enlightening. Today marks the 105th day of the Governor Gordon Wetherell administration and today he along with chief Executive Mark Capes sat with our senior journalist David Hinds for a no holds barred interview.

This is the second in a series of special “Future Facts” on key policy issues facing Governor-elect Christopher J. Christie as he prepares to take office in January.

• New Jersey faces myriad transportation challenges, in both the near and long term. Replenishing the Transportation Trust Fund, which will run out of money to pay for anything other than debt service by 2011, will be the most immediate challenge confronting the incoming Christie administration.
• Longer-term issues include improving and expanding transit service; reducing traffic congestion by linking road improvements to good land-use plans; making it safer for everyone — walkers, bikers and motorists — to travel; supporting economic growth by locating more jobs and homes close to transit; and reducing vehicle miles traveled, a critical component in meeting the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.
• As a candidate, Governor-elect Christie responded to specific transportation-related questions posed by the media, nonprofits and advocacy groups, but did not offer a comprehensive platform on transportation issues. His positions generally focused on cost-containment and efficiency, rather than specific policy initiatives.

Christie’s Favored ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ Financing for Transportation Trust Fund Presents Challenge

The looming insolvency of the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF), which finances the state’s $1.6 billion annual capital program, should already be at the top of the list of issues under discussion by Governor-elect Christie’s transition team on transportation, headed by former state DOT Commissioner James Weinstein. After years of borrowing against revenues dedicated to the TTF (including New Jersey’s fourth-lowest-in-the-nation gasoline tax), the new governor and Legislature will have to find new revenue to meet the state’s most fundamental transportation needs.

During the campaign, Christie disagreed with both Governor Corzine and Chris Daggett on how best to meet this challenge. The Bergen Record summarized his position as follows: “[Christie] opposes borrowing money to extend the fund; favors a ‘pay-as-you’ go system that would force the state to spend money it has, then ‘reassess’ its funding resources later.” Christie proposed that this could be done without raising new revenues, including an increased gas tax. While we applaud his fresh approach to this issue, we hope the magnitude of the problem will keep all responsible funding options on the table.

On the link between transportation and climate change, Christie acknowledged the importance of addressing vehicle miles traveled (VMT). In response to New Jersey Future’s Smart Growth Questionnaire, he suggested reducing VMT by expanding mass transit. “New Jersey will decrease its dependence on automobiles only if we provide a meaningful alternative,” he noted. “I have outlined in my urban policy a series of improvements to our infrastructure that will reduce the number of new lane miles that we are building in favor of expanded mass transit systems.” This commitment to transit, and presumably keeping transit affordable to riders, sets an important policy direction for the state.

Christie’s commitment to improving infrastructure and reducing the number of new lane miles could open the door to other land-use strategies for reducing VMT — increasing density (putting destinations closer together), encouraging mixed-use development (putting different types of destinations closer together) and encouraging greater connectivity in the road network, so as to create shorter and more numerous routes between any given pair of destinations. All three of these strategies would create a development pattern that not only allows some trips to be taken by non-motorized means, but also makes trips much shorter for all the trips that will still be taken by car.

Christie’s primary emphasis on transportation issues in the campaign focused on cutting spending through improved efficiency. On his campaign website, ChristieforNJ, under the heading “Get New Jersey Working Again,” Christie pledges that his administration “will utilize innovative procurement methodologies like Design/Build/Operate/Maintain (DBOM).” According to the statement, “This will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in the cost of transportation and construction projects, making more projects possible without increasing spending.”

The more immediate $1.6 billion question, however, is what to do about the TTF. New Jersey Future is working with the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and others to advocate for a responsible and sustainable TTF reauthorization plan. A reliable, safe and efficient transportation system is critical to the state’s economic health, and the TTF is the fiscal engine that keeps this system moving. However Governor-elect Christie chooses to fund the TTF, it is imperative that a revenue source be dedicated to that purpose, and that the state stop piling up debt to meet its ongoing transportation needs. Finally, our transportation funding must be transparent and accountable to the public, and our transportation policies must complement other important state goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable land use.

In the past two days, both Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison have released proposals for improving the education system in the great state of Texas.  Both of these Republican party heavyweights are proposing things like greater use of technology in the classroom, more and better training for teachers and greater financial accountability for schools. All of these are wonderful platitudes and they all sound really positive.

The one difference between the two is that Rick Perry says the standards for education should reside with the state, KBH has not stated her position on the federal government’s role, but I suspect she would favor adopting national standards.  Both of our leading Republican Party candidates are wrong. They are stuck in a paradigm that promotes the needs and wants of the state over the needs and wants of the people.  There should be no argument, that in a free society, the state (by this I mean government, in general) has the responsibility to provide for the education of its citizens.  This statement is profoundly different than, “The state has the responsibility to provide the education to its citizens.”  Early action by the U.S. Congress under the Articles of Confederation recognized this distinction when it opened up the Northwest Territories, establishing a mechanism to fund public education, but no standards for the content of that education.

Just as in the Land Ordinance of 1785, the role of the state should be to establish a mechanism for funding the education of our citizens, the state does not need to play a part in what is taught in our schools. The content of our children’s education needs to reside with the community where we live.

I challenge the Governor and the Senator to consider a radical proposal:

Eliminate of the Texas State Board of Education as the curriculum setting body for every public school district in this state, and give that control back to the local school boards or even the individual schools.

Debra Medina apparently is open to this proposal. On her website, the principles she offers for guiding public education policy, “Promoting competition, local control, and guidance will allow Texas to reduce cost, increase performance, and improve the quality in our schools.” [Highlights mine]

Gov. Bev Perdue on Nov. 19th announced that North Carolina will join forces with Microsoft in an innovative, public-private partnership to provide free technology training to individuals across the state. Perdue joined Gail Thomas Flynn, Microsoft’s vice president of state and local government, at the Harris Campus of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte to applaud the unique partnership titled “Microsoft Elevate America.”

“This partnership will provide North Carolinians with another opportunity to retrain for today’s new economy,” Perdue said. “At a time when businesses are seeking a highly qualified, well trained workforce, Elevate America can provide potential employees with new skills to succeed.”

Microsoft is partnering with the N.C. Community College System, Commerce’s Division of Workforce Development and the N.C. Employment Security Commission to distribute a total of 23,700 training vouchers during the next 90 days across the state. Courses range from basic technology literacy to intermediate-level technology skills. A portion of the vouchers will be issued to North Carolina residents for Microsoft Certification Exams, all at no cost to the recipients.

On November 23rd, Gov. Perdue announced the creation of the first North Carolina Innovation Council.  The purpose of the Council is to foster strategic investments and policies in the growing knowledge and innovation economy.  Perdue made the announcement after touring a lab in the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem.
 
“To continue growing jobs in North Carolina we must make sure this state is poised to compete globally in the 21st century,” said Perdue.  “Innovation is North Carolina’s launch pad to success in the global economy, and it’s a primary way for us to maintain and sharpen our competitive edge.”

Executive Order No. 29 establishes the North Carolina Innovation Council and empowers it to advise the Governor on:

• coordinating public and private investments and policies to promote innovation;
• moving innovative ideas from the lab to the marketplace more efficiently; and
• strengthening collaboration among business, academia, state and local government.

The Council’s membership will draw on a broad spectrum of expertise in entrepreneurship, science, academia and government. It will be co-chaired by Steve Nelson, managing partner of the Wakefield Group, and Al Delia, senior advisor to the Governor.

“North Carolina has a rich history of innovation with its high-impact businesses, championed by world-class leaders and entrepreneurs. Yet the opportunity in front of us is to build on this strength.  I very much look forward to working with this distinguished group to encourage investment, bring jobs to North Carolina, and grow our economy,” said co-chair Steve Nelson.

The North Carolina Innovation Council is part of Gov. Perdue’s JobsNOW initiative.  Through JobsNOW, the state will work aggressively to create jobs, train and retrain our workforce, and lay the foundation for a strong and sustainable economic future.

Obama is taking politicking to a new low. Always he answers question without answering them. Wait, thats been done for years. The difference? When Obama does it, I feel as if someone just gaveled the logical portion of my brain with a cannister of oozing toxicity of twisted rhetorical slime.

Example,

Press: Mr. Obama, what are going to do about the economy?

Barack: I’ve been meeting regularly with experts from both sides to determine the best strategy in undertaking the discussion of the best strategical plans for attacking the economic difficulties at hand for the American people.

Press: Mr. Obama, what are you going to do about terrorists actions and plans for assault on American soil?

Barack: I think we need to keep in mind that Islam is a religion of peace. Terrorism can be perpetrated by any religious group. Yes, 100% of terrorist attacks against Americans have been acted out by Muslim radicals but to echo the words of  Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, speaking about the tragedy of Fort Hood, “If our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”

Press: Loss of diversity is worse than loss of life?

Barack: I think we both know what I meant.

Press: No, actually I don’t.

Barack: Next question.

Compare with response from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,

Press: Governor Schwarzenegger, what are you going to do about the economy in California?

Arnold: Get DOWN!!!

Press: Governor Schwarzenegger,  what are you going to do about terrorists entering our borders through Mexico?

Arnold: Get to the CHOPPER!!!

Hon. Luis G. Fortuño
Governor of Puerto Rico

Remarks at Georgetown University Forum
The Presence of Puerto Rico in U.S. Politics
November 23, 2009

I would like to express my thanks to all of the organizations who worked together to make this Forum possible. The Center for Latin American Studies, the PRSSA – Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association, the Latin American Students Association, Georgetown Unidos, and my alma mater, Georgetown University.

Today marks a personal homecoming, to a place where my interest and vocation to public service was cultivated well.

Like students at Georgetown now, I found that greater exposure to and interest in public affairs back then led to commitment, participation and action. Part of that was co-founding PRSSA 30 years ago.

The work PRSSA began back then has very much to do with the topic of today’s forum, the presence of Puerto Rico in U.S. politics.

What I would like to do is highlight Puerto Rico’s presence in U.S. politics up to our own time and offer an assessment of where we are today and a vision for the future.

For starters, I often point out that Puerto Rico’s presence here on the mainland goes all the way back to my 16th century predecessor, Juan Ponce de León. He was the first Spanish governor of the island. In 1513 – some 107 years before the Mayflower Pilgrims disembarked on Plymouth Rock, Governor Ponce de León launched an expedition that led him to discover, for European eyes, what is today the U.S. state of Florida. He’s the person who gave Florida its name.

So Puerto Rico had a role from the very inception of the European colonization, and the politics of the continent. And as a matter of fact, it had a role in its decolonization as well.

In 1777, the Puerto Rican port city of Mayaguez offered shelter to the vessels and crew of two American privateers who were being pursued by the British. Even more significantly, in 1781, under the leadership of the then Spanish Governor of Louisiana, several hundred Puerto Rican soldiers took part in the successful siege of the British stronghold of Pensacola.

Some 117 years later, in 1898, the tables turned. Spain and the United States were at war. The U.S. moved to end Spanish colonial rule in Cuba and take Puerto Rico and the Philippines.

From the outset, incidentally, the dynamic in Puerto Rico was quite different from that of the other two colonies. U.S. forces did not join an ongoing struggle by local freedom fighters, because at the time Puerto Rico was not the locus of armed rebellion. As a matter of fact, on the way over and when they came ashore, U.S. forces were actually accompanied by a group of exiled mainland Puerto Ricans, one of whom, by the way, was don Mateo Fajardo, the great-great grandfather of Nicole Guillemard, the Director of my Washington office.

Looking back, it is fascinating to reflect upon the fact that Puerto Ricans here on the mainland have always played a very significant role in forging their homeland’s future. We’re going to get back to that.

But first back to the genesis of the territorial relationship in 1898. What happened, essentially, is that the promise of a better future for the island as part of the United States was received at face value. The United States was seen – and it has continued to be seen ever since, with good reason – as the world leader, since 1776, for freedom, human rights, democracy and progress.

Back in 1898, local political leaders, virtually in unison, solicited the immediate concession of U.S. citizenship and the opportunity for Puerto Rico to be accepted within the Nation as a territory, on the way to the equal rights and responsibilities of statehood.

The island’s champion for equality, as part of the United States, was a young medical doctor who had also earned his degree here on the mainland. His name was José Celso-Barbosa, the founder of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico.

We’re not here to reflect inordinately on the past. We certainly can’t do it over. But it’s important to understand what is the context, to this day, for the presence of Puerto Rico in U.S. politics. The context is that this Nation has yet to fulfill that justified expectation of equality.

For these past 111 years, we’ve been on a long road towards enfranchisement and full democracy. From 1898 to 1948, my predecessors as Governor were not elected by the people, but appointed by the President.

To this day, as many of you here know, we are represented in this capital city, in Congress, by a single representative in the United States House of Representatives with votes only in its committees. Today, under that limitation, Pedro Pierluisi represents 4 million U.S. citizens, six times as many as any other member of Congress.

The decisive development for the presence of Puerto Rico in U.S. politics is the bond of all of us being citizens of this Nation. In Puerto Rico, we have been U.S. citizens since 1917. As I said in Congress this past summer when I testified in favor of passage of the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, the framers of the Constitution did not intend some American citizens to be deprived of rights that other American citizens enjoy.

A former Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, Miguel Angel García-Méndez, put it this way: “For an American citizen, there cannot be another political goal other than equality with his or her fellow American citizens. To seek other solutions – to repudiate equality – is to repudiate the natural destiny of American citizenship.”

García-Méndez, along with former Governor Luis A. Ferré, had a hand in writing the preamble of Puerto Rico’s present Constitution, which points in the same direction. The Constitution, ratified by the people in 1952, declares that “we consider as determining factors in our life our citizenship of the United States of America and our aspiration to continually enrich our democratic heritage in the individual and collective enjoyment of its rights and privileges; our loyalty to the principles of the Federal Constitution; and the coexistence in Puerto Rico of the two great cultures of the American hemisphere.”

Despite, up until now, the lack of Puerto Rico’s full participation in U.S. politics, over the years progress has been made on many fronts.

For the last 30 years on the island, we’ve participated in both Democratic and Republican presidential primaries. We’ve sent delegations to the national conventions since 1904 – and have come to have very substantial representation in the conventions in recent years, but the primaries certainly changed the dynamic.

For those candidates who have come to the island and who have engaged the people by mounting real campaigns, the record shows that it has been a positive experience, for both the candidate and for Puerto Rico. I think of the first candidate, in 1980, who did just that. George Herbert Walker Bush campaigned door to door in Bayamón, with his son Jeb at his side, on his way to winning the first-ever Republican presidential primary on the island.

President Carter and Ted Kennedy, may he rest in peace, also had a spirited primary contest on the island that year, although only Kennedy campaigned on the island at the time.

By the way, a fact that’s indicative of the lack of political empowerment of territorial status is certainly this. Puerto Rico has not received a real visit by a sitting president, in office, since President Kennedy visited in 1962.

This is a situation that hopefully will change very soon. Last year, when then Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton faced off for what was the last major primary of the season, we saw real engagement and interest, both from the candidates and from voters. The candidates made very substantial commitments to the people of Puerto Rico. And one of the commitments seems to be bearing fruit: Candidate Obama’s commitment to include Puerto Ricans in his proposed new health insurance subsidies program led to Administration support for substantial inclusion.

We are also hopeful that the commitments will lead to other economic measures. When he was in Puerto Rico, the President saw the pain of the recession first hand. The recession on the island started two years before the recession here on the mainland.

Additionally, as my administration came into office at the mid-point of Puerto Rico’s fiscal year, we inherited a budget deficit of $3.2 billion. The deficit was more than four times the amount that had been certified to us a year ago, during the transition period. And in proportional terms, it was higher than California’s, and for that matter higher than that of any other state or territory of the United States.

Let there be no doubt, within my sphere of action as Governor, my biggest immediate priority – from the outset – has been to put our fiscal house in order, spur private sector growth and establish a solid foundation upon which we can build a new era of economic growth.

It turned out that since June of 2008, the Government of Puerto Rico had stopped paying its electricity bills, as well as its water and telephone bills. It owed more than $1 billion to suppliers.

This January, Puerto Rico was on the brink of bankruptcy…its credibility on Wall Street was in shambles, and our credit rating was on the verge of being downgraded to junk status. In simple terms, we were about to lose the house. But as I told our people last March, I didn’t come to look back. I came to look forward and take action to overcome this crisis.

Thankfully, we saved our credit on Wall Street, by taking immediate steps of fiscal discipline. For starters, I cut my salary, and all cabinet secretary salaries. I eliminated 30% of government political appointee positions. I cut operating expenses across the government by 10% across the board. And I pushed through legislation to freeze all government salaries and benefits for two years…and put in place a plan to incentivize voluntary retirement, transition to the private sector, and as a last resort begin the difficult process of layoffs that’s currently underway, and that other states and jurisdictions throughout the country are also going through.

In Congress and with the new Administration here in Washington, Pedro Pierluisi and I hit the ground running to make sure Puerto Rico was part of the federal stimulus package. Puerto Rico was fortunate to have elected to Congress my running mate, Pedro Pierluisi. For those of you who may not be aware, Pedro is a Democrat. For Puerto Rico, we are a bipartisan team. And I would be remiss if I did not mention the role that members of the New York congressional delegation have also had from the outset, including but not limited to Congressman José Serrano, Congressman Charlie Rangel and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez.

As of this month, close to $1.5 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds have reached our economy, out of more than $6 billion total that we will receive. Hundreds of millions have gone directly to individuals, such as the Making Work Pay and American Opportunity grants that have gone directly to workers and students, along with funds to students through increases in Pell Grants. ARRA funds are being invested in programs like Head Start, Health Reform and Nutritional Assistance, along with improvements to the island’s schools, roads and other basic infrastructure.
To leverage that momentum towards economic recovery, we also launched a local stimulus program. This includes funds to help low-income families buy homes, the construction of new low-cost housing, municipal projects, and guaranteed loans to small and medium-sized businesses.
This past summer, we also pushed through the most advanced public-private partnership legislation in the Nation. The importance of these partnerships is that they will allow us to continue developing infrastructure and state of the art public services in a way that doesn’t cost additional money to taxpayers. And it’s important to emphasize: these partnerships do not involve transferring the title of any public assets…the assets continue to be owned by the people.
Now let’s turn our attention to an issue that relates to Puerto Rico’s current agenda in Washington. As we all know, enacting health care reform is the President’s biggest priority. And the American citizens of Puerto Rico need to be fully included.

All Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care for themselves and their families, regardless of whether they live in a state or a territory. It makes no sense, from a strictly policy perspective, to have a health care system where the same U.S. citizens who receive health care impaired by lesser federal funding can access better funding merely by moving to the mainland.
In that context, for Puerto Rico and the other territories, the legislation the House passed earlier this month represents a step in the right direction. It would be a major step to parity in Medicaid. We would have significant inclusion in the health insurance exchange program.
In comparison, the bill before the Senate is disappointing. We are excluded from the healthcare exchange, meaning that under the Senate bill, our American citizens at lower income levels who are not on Medicare, Medicaid or an employer plan would not have any subsidies like their counterparts on the mainland, to purchase health insurance.
The increase in Medicaid funding would be much less
Fortunately, we have supporters in the Senate who recognize the reality that national healthcare reform cannot really be achieved if millions of Americans are left out. We are hoping that amendments on the Senate Floor or a final bill produced by a House-Senate reconciliation will rectify these issues. President Obama made pledges regarding Puerto Rico’s participation in federal healthcare, and we look forward to his support in the Senate debate and as the House and Senate resolve their differences.
Once again, in this whole process, the voices of Puerto Ricans here on the mainland, along with those of fellow Americans throughout the country, has been essential. Thanks to grassroots support, especially in Connecticut and other Northeastern states, we have champions who have taken up this cause.

It’s no accident that the Puerto Rican population in those states is well established and politically empowered.

It’s also important to highlight the growing importance, over the last 20 years or so, of Puerto Ricans in Florida. More than half a million people from the island have followed in the footsteps of Florida’s founder, my 16th century predecessor, Juan Ponce de León.

Florida’s Puerto Rican community, concentrated in the I-4 corridor of Central Florida, has also exhibited unique electoral behavior. They have proven to be swing voters, with President Bush making major inroads in 2000 and 2004, and President Obama winning them over in 2008.

At the macro level throughout the country, Puerto Ricans have established themselves as the second largest subgroup within the U.S. Latino population. Moreover, there are now more people of Puerto Rican origin residing on the mainland than there are on the island.

Puerto Ricans are well represented at the top in key fields. To cite just one example, the University of Puerto Rico is the source of most of the Nation’s Hispanic engineers. Within that subset, for example, within the ranks of NASA are hundreds of Puerto Rican engineers and scientists. This year, one of them, Joseph Acabá, filled us all with pride when he became the first Puerto Rican astronaut to ascend to the heavens, on the Space Shuttle Discovery.

In the overall equation, Puerto Rico’s role in the U.S. economy is also surprisingly significant. Puerto Rico has become one of the largest high-tech manufacturing centers in the United States. 13 of the top 20 best selling prescription medicines in the United States are also manufactured in Puerto Rico.

As a corporate lawyer by profession, I can also attest to the fact that Puerto Ricans play a role in facilitating trade and business transactions throughout the Americas.

We continue to gain greater visibility through the contributions we make to American society at all levels, and across the professional spectrum. The island has long had one of the highest per capita participation rates in the nation in the Armed Forces of this country. And this year, the eyes of America were on a Puerto Rican from the Bronx who grew up to become the first Latina on the Supreme Court of the United States, Sonia Sotomayor.

Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party platforms in 2008 recognized that action is needed on the question of the island’s political status.

The Democratic Party platform pledge is for the White House and Congress to work to enable the question of Puerto Rico’s status to be resolved during the current four term that began this January. President Obama reiterated that pledge to the people of Puerto Rico in a letter he made public on the day of my inauguration as Governor.

The Republican Party platform supports, and I quote, “the right of the United States citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state after they freely so determine.” It also calls for status referenda.

The Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009, filed by Congressman Pierluisi this past May with over 80 Democratic and Republican co-sponsors, is designed to enable exactly the kind of fair and neutral process of self determination that both major party platforms envision. That’s why today, six months after its introduction, it has 182 sponsors and has been favorably reported out of Committee. The Puerto Rico Democracy Act is ready to go the full House.

The reasons to support the bill are so self-evident they should not have to be argued. Territorial status clearly offends the values of American democracy

The Puerto Rico Democracy Act is not a statehood bill. It would allow the people of Puerto Rico to maintain the current territorial status if they so choose or indicate their preference for one of the options for a form of government that is democratic at the national government level. If they vote for the status quo, there will follow periodic plebiscites to ask the question again, thus providing an opportunity to indicate a desire for a fully democratic status. If, at some point, the people of Puerto Rico opt for change, they can choose among the three alternatives: statehood, independence, and national sovereignty in association with the United States. No impossible smoke and mirrors proposals.

Ladies and gentlemen, the fundamental issue that the Puerto Rico Democracy Act brings before Congress and the American people is this: The people of Puerto Rico have a right to a form of government that would provide them with equal voting representation in the government that makes and implements their national laws and to determine their preference regarding the islands’ status among all of the possible options.

The urgency of this matter is not only Puerto Rico’s, but the Nation’s. As the President has reminded us, support for democracy begins at home.

I have a vision of Puerto Rico – and of America – where the citizens of the island are not separated by a wall of political inequality built upon the foundation of an interminable territorial status.

I see a Puerto Rico which finally takes its rightful place in the American family, with the same rights and the responsibilities as all the rest.

I see a Puerto Rico prepared to fulfill its potential for social, economic and political development, and that will enrich the Nation as a whole.

This is my vision of Puerto Rico and of America, and of a more perfect Union. I hope you share it. And I hope you will help me fight for it.

Panel charges Sanford with 37 ethics violations…

As a South Carolinian it is my profound sadness to report that our illustrious “nim cub poot” South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is charged with 37 ethics violations and impeachment of the governorship. After lying about going on a soul searching trek on the Appalachian trail the governor hopped on an Atlanta airplane and flew incognito to Argentina too the arms of his Latin mistress leaving a first lady and four boys on Father’s Day weekend. Do I need say more…The sooner he’s gone the better…His neo ultra conservatism political stance on every issue has alienated the governor and with unemployment at 12.1% he is all but toast and so is the state of South Carolina being dragged into this non sense and the state of affairs here in South Carolina is poor.

The STREAM…

TPM/—South Carolina’s ethics commission is investigating 37 allegations of lawbreaking by Gov. Mark Sanford in connection with travel and use of campaign funds — charges his lawyer described just last week as “minor, technical matters.”

Sanford is accused of violating ethics laws barring officials from buying high-priced airfare — including on trips to visit his lover in Argentina last year — as well as using state airplanes for personal travel, The State reports.

Sanford’s lawyers told The State that amid the investigation, the governor had added disclosures of flights he took on planes owned by friends and donors, as required by law.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan panel of South Carolina legislators are set to take up impeachment proceedings against Sanford on Tuesday. He has over a year left in his term.

SC State Ethics Commission Complaint Against Gov. Mark Sanford (11/23/09)

More @

**44-D Update**:
SC legislators begin Sanford impeachment hearings

Columbia, S.C. (AP) –

Legislators irked for months over Gov. Mark Sanford’s summertime vanishing act and his tearful revelation that he was in Argentina for a rendezvous with his lover plan to start debating a measure Tuesday that ultimately would remove him from office.

Read more:

Things are ramping up for the 2010 elections and the next legislative session which will be contentious because the tax increases passed this year will sunset in 2011. Revenues will probably be poor so cuts will need to be made and the first place to look will be salaries.

Before the elections and the next session a lot will be said and printed. State employee despisers will try to make their point that we are all worthless and overpaid. It is already starting.

To make my point, here are some recent comments I have lifted from the Internet about Nevada’s impending budget problems and state employees:

“… unsustainable wage and benefit increases for government workers …”
” … out-of-control spending on salaries and benefits …”
“… those salaries start to look obscene to today’s hard-working Nevadans…”
“The first cut to government and union pay should be 50% immediately and, if they don’t work a lot harder than they currently do for us,
then another 25% cut should be made within 6 months. These cuts should include both pay AND benefits.”
“… they’ll finally get serious about reducing the outrageous public employee salaries and benefits.”
“… union contracts can be nullified and we can start over with realistic wages being paid.”
“…but those salaries start to look obscene…”
“No, they ALWAYS looked obscene. And so did the benefits.”
“This is what we get when idiots vote and gov.unions take over our cities and states.It NEVER ends!”

The truth is Nevada state employees are not over paid and their average pay is about $44,000 a year and a fifth make less than $25,000.

“State Employee Pay for 2007 – less than you think! March 5, 2009

State employees have had benefits cut, salaries reduced through furloughs and have not seen any cost of living increases. They make less than a local government employee who belongs to a union. State employees do not have collective bargaining rights so they cannot negotiate salaries or work conditions.

Making up a deficit by reducing state employees salaries is impossible because it would mean a reduction of about 50 percent in the number off state employees to make it work.

————————-

References:

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/pay-cuts-70780007.html

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/stacked-deck-70779967.html

November 19, 2009 – New York City, NY – The Latino Commission on AIDS, a leader on HIV/AIDS and health related issues across the United States and its territories denounces the horrific murder of gay and trans Puerto Rican teenager, Jorge Steven López Mercado.

“We strongly condemn this brutal crime and urge the federal government to provide Puerto Rican authorities with assistance in this investigation. We cannot stand by and allow any more violence that targets any individual because of their race, ethnicity or sexual orientation or gender identity. The individuals responsible for killing Jorge must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of our new federal hate crimes laws,” stated Guillermo Chacon, President, Latino Commission on AIDS. “We call on the Governor of Puerto Rico, Honorable Luis Fortuño to make a public statement condemning this horrible crime”

“Homophobia and transphobia increases the isolation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and represents a real threat to public heath. Homophobia and transphobia should never be tolerated and the Latino Commission on AIDS condemns any and all violence against any sexual minority group,” stated Oscar Lopez, Director of Health Policy at the Latino Commission on AIDS. “This hatred and fear based on sexual orientation does not just affect the mental and physical health of the LGBT community, but also affect the health and well being of all Americans and it needs to be stopped.”

Your help is urgently needed to stem the wave of domestic and international violence against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people.

By taking just one or two of the actions listed below, you can take a stand for justice and help to protect the safety and lives of LGBT people.

Action #1
Join the Latino Commission on AIDS and its partners in supporting the Vigil, Memorial Service & Community Mobilization in memory of Jorge Steven López Mercado on Sunday, November 22nd at 5:00 pm at Pier 45 (corner of Christopher St. & West Side Highway) followed by a memorial service at the Church of Saint Luke in the Fields (487 Hudson St., By Christopher St). For more information contact: (212) 675-3288

Action #2
Write or call the Governor of Puerto Rico, Honorable Luis G. Fortuño and encourage him to make a public statement condemning this violence and ensure that local law enforcement fully investigate the possibility that the individual(s) responsible for this crime be charged with committing a hate-crime.
E-Mail: ecruz@fortaleza.gobierno.pr – Phone: (787)721-7000

Action #3
Join our faith based communities and make a commitment to pray for members of the LGBT community around the world who continue to face ongoing threats to their freedom, safety, health and well-being for no other reason than their real or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Pray for blessing and protection upon their lives, that they may find strength and hope in the midst of adversity, and that governments everywhere will treat their citizens with fairness, justice and compassion.

Action #4
If you are responsible for raising or mentoring children, be sure to lead by example. Telling is good, but showing is better. In order for your child to be comfortable around members of the LGBT community, you have to be comfortable around them as well. It is important that we to accept one another.

Action #5
The sexual and gender identity of Jorge and many LGBTQ teens is complex and should be celebrated and supported. Jorge needed, and other teens in Puerto Rico still need, support and guidance as they grow to adulthood. Please support the healthy development of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people.

Action#6
If you are Latino, please be aware that many members of our community struggle with homophobia along with machismo and sexism. We must stop homophobic, transphobic and sexist comments, jokes and behaviors at all times. A joke may seem harmless but it may impact a person’s self esteem and create a community of intolerance, which may lead to violence.

ABOUT THE LATINO COMMISSION ON AIDS
The Latino Commission on AIDS (LCOA) is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1990 dedicated to fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Latino/Hispanic communities. The Commission is the leading national Latino AIDS organization coordinating National Latino AIDS Awareness Day and other prevention and advocacy programs in more than 40 States and Puerto Rico. The Commission raises funds through its Cielo Latino annual fundraiser. For more information visit: www.latinoaids.org or www.nlaad.org.
UNIDOS PODEMOS / UNITED WE CAN

Sarah is a controversial person at this point. Supporters of the Pelosi-Reid-Obama health care bills are up in arms over her pointed comments. She isn’t even holding an office and yet she is seemingly feared above all the conservatives of whatever party. the AP dispatches 11 reporters to “fact check” her book, and yet there was no such effort for Obama’s  autobiography, Dreams from my Father, or the late Ted Kennedy’s book.

What I like about Sarah:

It’s not just the title of her book, she’s actually went rogue. She stood up to the establishment party to endorse a real candidate in the NY 23rd congressional district. It speaks a lot about a person when they refuse to bow to pressure and compromise the future of a country for mere “big tent” party unity.

Anyone who has suggested that Palin isn’t substantive or doesn’t discuss issues obviously hasn’t been on her public facebook page.

Sarah has been hard and to the point in her critiques of the current unconstitutional “reform” efforts to take over health care and run it as effectively and carefully as the run Recovery.gov.

http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin#/notes/sarah-palin/cancer-screenings-rational-advice-or-rationed-care/178333423434

One thing I didn’t like:

I really didn’t care for how the recent book signing in Columbus, OH was conducted, though I am not sure who is responsible. They had her in a curtained box, so that only the “official” photographer could take photos, the Border’s staff said you could take photos from a distance, but that was a laugh because they had her boxed in! It had the impression of separating her from the people, when one of her strongest traits is being one of the people.

Palin seems like a nice person, and I feel that such things, at least symbolically, detract from her folksy and open persona. I hope that if by some chance you read this, Palin, that you tell the staff to lighten up and let you be yourself.

Yet one more thing:

While waiting in line for the signing, they were only going to let in 500 people. However, after those people had finished, Palin, came running out the front, and told the multitude still waiting to come in. It really didn’t seem like they expected her to run, you should have seen the camera crew trying to keep up.

Final thoughts

Sarah Palin was the most exciting mainstream candidate in 2008. It was disturbing to see how threatened the MSM and leftist groups attacked her, hypocritically for a “lack of experience.”  She has handled it well, and while she’s not afraid to stand up to them, she does it in a polite way. I hope that, as she mixes and mingles in the lime light of fame with her best seller, that she surrounds herself with good advisers, and stays close to the Lord. And, if she seeks federal office that she doesn’t forget her base consists of constitutionalists and conservatives, and that they want her to fight to keep Americans a free people with a limited government caged by the constitution, yet not shackled with toxic international treaties.

This morning is the second time in recent months that I have been personally attacked by Senate President Bob Burns for stopping TAX INCREASES to my fellow Arizonans.

SB 1003 was written with enacting language to give unchecked authority for unelected appointees of the governor to raise taxes in the form of fees across a broad spectrum of our everyday lives.

It has never been good policy to give the governor and her appointees this absolute unchecked authority. Our Constitution is clear that taxing and appropriation authority rests solely with the legislature. SB1003 would not even have given the legislature minimal oversight over the increases OR the use of the funds raised.

I have made my position known for many weeks IN WRITING to the Senate leadership that I would not support any legislation that ceded this constitutional authority to the governor and her appointees. For example, if the governor wants to give 1 million dollars to his /her favorite cause, all he /she would have to do is raise the price of a duplicate driver’s license by “only” one dollar. The legislature could do little more than complain about it.

It is important to emphasize that once this authority is granted, it would be nearly impossible to return the authority to its proper place. All the Governor would have to do is veto the legislation.

Senate leadership complains about the Governor having authority to appropriate twenty BILLION DOLLARS in federal funds that come to the state without any legislative over sight and they complain about the abuse of Executive orders. Now, they have decided through SB1003 to expand the power of the Governor to raise and distribute funds without approval or oversight of the legislature. Their actions beg the question whether they have the will to either pass the increases themselves or cut the spending to deal with this budget deficit.

Finally, President Burns knows that SB1003 skirts around the intent of Proposition 108 which was passed by the voters. He knows that Prop 108 requires the legislature to get 2/3rd of the vote in both houses of the legislature to increase taxes and fees.

I find it disheartening that the President feels the need to attack me personally by misrepresenting the facts and timetables of what happened on this occasion. Please call (602) 926-5999 or email your Senator and Representatives. Ask them to Vote NO on SB1003 that would give fee (tax) setting authority to the governor and his/her appointed, unelected agency heads.”

State Senator Verschoor

Today, Governor Gregoire proclaimed that Friday, November 20, 2009 is “Thank You Farmers and Ranchers Day.”

The proclamation states:

Whereas, the holiday season is a time to be thankful for America’s abundant supply of safe, wholesome and affordable food; and

Signed this 19th day of November, 2009

Governor Sarah Palin: Rogue

This week the former Alaskan Governor and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate set out promoting her new book and answering questions about her plans for the future.  Sarah Palin takes on her critics and provides her side of the story in a biography narative and hopefully provides an insight into who she is and what she has to offer. 

The flip side of all this of course is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and the MSNBCs, Bloggers, and Liberal ideologues have been on a feeding frenzy, working overtime and AP and ABC News extending resources to investigate the “truths” in her book.  (Last I heard, naratives were to be from the perspective of the author.)

I believe that given the heated attacks that have come the Governors way from the likes of David Letterman, Tina Fey, and others; she is entitled to a little retribution.  The great delemma over Governor Palin is that she is a conservative female in a position to influence policy and direction and her very existence tends to undermine the feminist movement of the last 80 years.

As a father to a daughter, brother to two (2) sisters, a son to my mother, and husband to my wife – I am appalled that we would try undermine these attributes.  Governor Palin is a person of tremendous conviction and moral courage and shows the same characteristics, man or woman, that we so desperately need today from our leaders.  Do we not want to guarded on some level by our moral compass?  Has the conviction of principles that we call our faith stop at the congressional steps or court house?  Do we dare minimize the demonize a woman for choosing life over murder?  Are the ambitions of becoming the first woman President simply relogated to the candidate chosen by the elite media and acedemics?

I admit that I have yet to read this book but do intend to.  I do try and temper my hope of who she is with the reality that she just be given a fair chance to make an impression.  I hope I can do that.