Two good articles

A fair amount of what I read in editorials is writers on both left and right justifying their sides position or pointing out flaws or hypocrisy on the other side. It's not universal, but is pervasive. Today, however, I read two articles that bucked the general trend.

One is by JC Watts, former Republican congressman, who notes that spending is a bipartisan problem. It's easy on the right to point out the excess spending by Democrats, but Republicans spent like drunken sailors when they had the House, Senate, and White House during W's presidency.

The other is by Gretchen Morgenson in the New York Times, which points out the spin involved in GM's "repayment" of the bailout money. The Times is no adversary of the Obama administration, but at least (in this instance), they allowed sunlight to shine on the shady dealings and press of GM paying back taxpayer money with other taxpayer money.

I might get a bumper sticker

I went and saw Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, and William Bennett speak last night in Roseville. What they had to say was very familiar to what's on their radio shows, though without the commercials, and it was a good evening.

Dennis said he's making bumper stickers with the following statement, and I just might get one:

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

an inconvenient truth

Great article on Earth Day predictions from 1970.

A substantive health care reform proposal

Michael Tanner @ Cato injects some (free market) reality into the health care debate here.

A video is worth how many words?

The expansion of federal power via the unpopular health care "reform" has hit several stumbling blocks, including the senate filibuster. Democrats are now threatening to ram through legislation now without regard to the filibuster, in move called reconciliation. Not so long ago, however, Democrats were the minority party, and these same politicians (Obama, Hillary Clinton, Biden, and Reid, to name a few) had a very different view of bypassing the filibuster. I can't recommend this video highly enough.

Editorial of the day

A couple Utah state legislators make a very interesting proposal.

A modest proposal to the federal government: Let Utah do it

I've often thought that the federal government tries to do things better left to the states, though to be fair I think government at all levels is generally too big. The experiment they propose deserves consideration in DC, though I doubt it will receive it.

Seriousness of purpose

On the same day is posted this video, of Barack Obama stating that

"The people who sent us here expect a seriousness of purpose that transcends petty politics."

while his press secretary is busy ridiculing Sarah Palin.

Can anyone explain to me how ridiculing the other party lives up to your talk of a seriousness of purpose that transcends petty politics?