One thing that stands out about Dan Mitchell is that is not a Democrat or a Republican but a lover of freedom like Milton Friedman was. Take a look at this article of his below.
Thanks to several years of fiscal restraint during the 1990s, the burden of federal spending dropped to 18.2% of gross domestic product by the time Bill Clinton left office. The federal budget today consumes more than 24% of economic output, a one-third increase since 2001 in the share of the U.S. economy allocated by politics rather than market forces. That makes the Republican House budget, which would reverse this trend, extremely important for the economic health of the country.
Both political parties deserve blame for the spending spree that’s put America in a fiscal ditch. President George W. Bush was a big spender and President Obama has compounded the damage with his stimulus spending and other programs.
But the era of bipartisan big government may have come to an end. Largely thanks to Rep. Paul Ryan and the fiscal blueprint he prepared as chairman of the House Budget Committee earlier this year, the GOP has begun climbing back on the wagon of fiscal sobriety and has shown at least some willingness to restrain the growth of government.
The Ryan budget has generated considerable controversy in Washington, and it will become even more of an issue now that Mr. Ryan is Mitt Romney’s running mate. So it’s an appropriate time to analyze the plan and consider what it would mean for America.
Chad Crowe
The most important headline about the Ryan budget is that it limits the growth rate of federal spending, with outlays increasing by an average of 3.1% annually over the next 10 years. If spending is left on autopilot, by contrast, it would grow by 4.3% (or nearly 39% faster). If President Obama is re-elected, the burden of spending presumably will climb more rapidly.
This comes as a surprise to many people since the press is filled with stories about the Ryan budget imposing trillions of dollars of “savage” and “draconian” spending cuts. All of these stories, however, are based on Washington’s misleading budget process that automatically assumes an ever-expanding government. The 4.3% “base line” increase is the benchmark for measuring “cuts”—even though spending is rising rather than falling, and it’s only the rate of spending growth that is being slowed.
Even limiting spending so it grows by 3.1% per year, as Mr. Ryan proposes, quickly leads to less red ink. This is because federal tax revenues are projected by the House Budget Committee to increase 6.6% annually over the next 10 years if the House budget is approved (and this assumes the Bush tax cuts are made permanent). Since revenues would climb more than twice as fast as spending, the deficit would drop to about 1% of gross domestic product by the end of the 10-year budget window.
To balance the budget within 10 years would require that outlays grow by about 2% each year. Spending in the Ryan budget means the federal budget reaches balance in 2040. There are many who would prefer that the deficit come down more quickly, but from a jobs and growth perspective, it isn’t the deficit that matters.
Rather, what matters for prosperity and living standards is the degree to which labor and capital are used productively. This is why policy makers should focus on reducing the burden of government spending as a share of GDP—leaving more resources in the private economy.
The simple way of making this happen is to follow what I’ve been calling the golden rule of good fiscal policy: The private sector should grow faster than the government. This is what happens with the Ryan budget. The Congressional Budget Office expects nominal economic output (before inflation) to grow about 5% each year over the next decade. So if federal spending grows 3.1% annually, the burden of federal spending slowly shrinks as a share of GDP.
According to the House Budget Committee, the federal budget would consume slightly less than 20% of economic output if the Ryan budget remained in place for 10 years. This would be remarkable progress considering that the federal government is now consuming 24% of GDP vs. Mr. Clinton’s 18.2% in 2001. If Paul Ryan’s policies are social Darwinism, as Mr. Obama and his allies allege, one can only speculate where Bill Clinton ranks in their estimation.
Spending restraint also creates more leeway for good tax policy. Regardless of what you think about deficits, the political reality is that it is difficult to lower tax rates if government borrowing remains at high or rising levels. If deficit spending continues at current levels, then higher tax rates are almost sure to follow. And higher tax rates can’t create an environment conducive to more investment and jobs.
The Ryan budget avoids this unpleasant outcome by addressing the problem of excessive government spending. This makes it possible to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax-rate reductions. It also clears the way for other pro-growth reforms, such as Gov. Romney’s proposed across-the-board 20% income tax cut, a more competitive 25% corporate tax rate, and less double-taxation of dividends and capital gains.
One of the best features of the Ryan budget is that he reforms the two big health entitlements instead of simply trying to save money. Medicaid gets block-granted to the states, building on the success of welfare reform in the 1990s. And Medicare is modernized by creating a premium-support option for people retiring in 2022 and beyond.
This is much better than the traditional Beltway approach of trying to save money with price controls on health-care providers and means testing on health-care consumers. Price controls are notoriously ineffective—because health-care providers adapt by ordering more tests and procedures—and politically unsustainable due to lobbying pressure. Means testing imposes an indirect penalty on people who save and invest during their working years. That should be a nonstarter for a political party that seeks to encourage productive behavior and discourage dependency.
But good entitlement policy also is a godsend for taxpayers, particularly in the long run. Without reform, the burden of federal spending will jump to 35% of GDP by 2040, compared to 18.75% of output under the Ryan budget.
Assuming the GOP ticket prevails in November, Mitt Romney will make the big decisions on fiscal policy. But there is no escaping the fiscal math. If Mr. Romney intends to keep his no-tax-hike promise, he has to restrain the growth of spending. This doesn’t mean he has to go with every detail of the Ryan budget—but it’s certainly a good place to start.
Mr. Mitchell is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
A version of this article appeared August 16, 2012, on page A11 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: What’s Really in the Ryan Budget.
I guess the reason I have spent so much time on Woody Allen is because in so many films he discusses the big questions in life. His movie “Crimes and Misdemeanors” is a perfect example. Check out my earlier post Nihilism can be seen in Woody Allen’s film “Midnight in Paris” .
September (1987)
The director famously re-wrote, re-cast and re-shot this film after seeing his original finished product. The second go-round starred (from left) Jack Warden, Elaine Stritch and Mia Farrow (with Allen, second from right). “I usually reshoot tons of material,” he explained at the time. “The fact is, I’d like to shoot September a third time.”
__________________
It is my view that this next movie is Woody Allen’s best by far:
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Roger Ebert called this flick one of Allen’s best. The director, pictured with cinematographer Sven Nykvist on set, was nominated for three Academy Awards, including best director and writing. “Who else but Woody Allen could make a movie in which virtue is punished, evildoing is rewarded and there is a lot of laughter – even subversive laughter at the most shocking times?” wrote the famous reviewer.
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Mira Sorvino won an Oscar for her portrayal of a hooker in this comedy. “Woody does not care if you say his lines,” she has said. “For our greatest comedic film writer, I think that’s incredible. I said them anyway, but I had the leeway, if I wanted, to ad lib.”
Stardust Memories features Sandy Bates, a successful filmmaker played by Allen, who expresses resentment and scorn for his fans. Overcome by the recent death of a friend from illness, the character states, “I don’t want to make funny movies any more” and a running gag has various people (including a group of visiting space aliens) telling Bates that they appreciate his films, “especially the early, funny ones.”[34] Allen believes this to be one of his best films.[35]
Allen combined tragic and comic elements in such films as Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors, in which he tells two stories that connect at the end. He also produced a vividly idiosyncratic tragi-comical parody of documentary, Zelig.
He made three films about show business: Broadway Danny Rose, in which he plays a New York show business agent, The Purple Rose of Cairo, a movie that shows the importance of the cinema during the Depression through the character of the naive Cecilia, and Radio Days, which is a film about his childhood in Brooklyn and the importance of the radio. Purple Rose was named by Time as one of the 100 best films of all time and Allen has described it as one of his three best films, along with Stardust Memories and Match Point.[36] (Allen defines them as “best” not in terms of quality but because they came out the closest to his original vision.)
Woody Allen, the film writer, director, and actor, has consistently populated his scripts with characters who exchange dialogue concerning meaning and purpose. In Hannah and Her Sisters a character named Mickey says, “Do you realize what a thread were all hanging by? Can you understand how meaningless everything is? Everything. I gotta get some answers.”{7} […]
I have gone to see Woody Allen’s latest movie “Midnight in Paris” three times and taken lots of notes during the films. I have attempted since June 12th when I first started posting to give a historical rundown on every person mentioned in the film. Below are the results of my study. I welcome any […]
Looking at the (sometimes skewed) morality of Woody Allen’s best films. In the late ’60s, Woody Allen left the world of stand-up comedy behind for the movies. Since then, he’s become one of American cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers. Sure, he’s had his stinkers and his private life hasn’t been without controversy. But he’s also crafted […]
In one of his philosophical and melancholy musings Woody Allen once drily observed: “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Life tortures Woody Allen posted by Rod Dreher […]
Midnight in Paris – a delightfully entertaining film of wit, wonder and love Have you ever thought that you were born in the wrong time? Since I was a child, I found my love for MGM musicals set me apart from my friends. Are we really out of place, or is a sense of nostalgia […]
Five favorite Woody Allen classics Add a comment Sean Kernan , Davenport Classic Movies Examiner June 11, 2011 Woody Allen’s new film “Midnight in Paris” starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard opened Friday, June 10th at Rave Motion Pictures in Davenport, Iowa. “Midnight in Paris” stars Owen Wilson as a blocked […]
I have been hoping that Arkansas could win the SEC Championship game but after 20 years we still haven’t done so. Wikipedia reports that four times have appeared at least five times. They are Florida (10), Alabama (7), LSU (5) and Tennessee (5). Arkansas does have 3 appearances but no wins. Florida has the most wins with 7, LSU has 4, Alabama has 3 and Tennessee has 2. Before Houston Nutt haters get cranked up you have to admit that Houston got us there on the dance floor twice and tied for the SEC West Championship in 1998 too. SEC West Champs 3 out of 10 aint so bad after all!!!!
History
The SEC was the first conference in the NCAA to hold a football championship game made possible when the conference expanded in 1991 to twelve members with the addition of the University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina. The format has since been adopted by other conferences to decide their football champion (the first being the Big 12 in 1996).
In 2009, Alabama and Florida met in the SEC Championship Game for the seventh time in the eighteen year history of the game, the record for the most times any two teams have faced each other in the Championship game. The only other matchup in the SEC Championship played more than twice is Georgia and LSU, which has been played three times. Alabama has faced Florida in each of their seven SEC Championship game appearances. In addition, the 2009 game marked the second consecutive year that the number 1 (Florida) and number 2 (Alabama) ranked teams in the AP Poll met in the SEC Championship game. 2009 was the first time any conference championship game had featured two undefeated teams. Alabama won 32-13 and earned a berth in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game.
Arkansas Sports 360 has a good article on those 3 appearances that Arkansas made in the championship game and it is a shame that we lost that game in 2006 with those turnovers to Florida.
For a second there, Florida head coach Urban Meyer almost looked worried in the 2006 SEC Championship Game. That feeling didn’t last long, needless to say.
This football season marks the 21st for the Razorbacks as members of the SEC. Having completed two decades in the league it seemed worth reflecting on how far the program has come. Which victories over the last 20 years were the sweetest? Were there losses that hurt more than others? What coaching decisions still have folks scratching their heads? ArkansasSports360.com assembled a panel aimed at answering these questions. We have our list and we’d love to hear yours.
No. 9 on our moments you would love to forget …
Razorbacks Make Three SEC Title Games, Can’t Win When It Happened: 1995, 2002, 2006 Who To Remember: Danny Ford, Houston Nutt, Reggie Fish, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs
Why You’d Like To Forget: All Reggie Fish had to do was let the punt roll into the end zone.
Pretty simple, really. Don’t field the punt. Anything would have been better than fielding the punt. Instead, Fish tried to make a play inside the 10 — a huge no-no in the return game — and he mishandled it. Florida recovered, reclaimed momentum, won the game 38-28 and sent the Razorbacks to yet another loss in Atlanta.
Instead of a trip to the national title game (which Florida got) or the program’s first BCS bowl, the Razorbacks wound up playing Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl. Deflated by the title game loss and decimated by internal strife the Razorbacks came out flat against the Badgers and lost 17-14.
Maybe it would have been easier to handle if the SEC title game loss had been lopsided as usual. Arkansas’ other trips to the SEC championship weren’t close losses and, quite honestly, were worse beatings than the final scores indicated.
Florida handled the Razorbacks with ease in 1995, winning 34-3. Georgia posted a closer, but no less convincing, 30-3 victory against Arkansas in 2002.
Each trip to the SEC championship began as cause for celebration, but ended with the program being reminded how much further there was to go.
Before a 10-game winning streak in 2006 came to an end in Atlanta, it looked like the UA might be ready to break through and join the league’s elite list of SEC champions.
Arkansas led 21-17 thanks to an interception returned for a touchdown and the defense held strong to force a punt. No more SEC West title rings, the Razorbacks were on their way to the real thing this time.
If only the return man had let the dang ball roll into the end zone.
Former player Lester McClain, is honored as the Legend of the Game before the start of the Tennessee Akron game at Neyland Stadium on Saturday. McClain became the first African-American player to wear an orange jersey and first in the SEC to see significant playing time.
____________
Vols Highlight Video, assorted time periods
(This video clip above shows Lester Mcclain against Memphis St in 1969.)
Kenny Chesney and former Tennessee Volunteers’ Quarterback Condredge Holloway give you an exclusive look at their new ESPN Documentary – “The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story”.
I got to see Lester Mcclain play in Jackson, MS in 1968 against Ole Miss. I went with my grandfather who was a big Ole Miss fan. My uncle Blythe was there too to see his #3 ranked Vols play.
Lester McClain, who is UT’s first black player (1968) also was a part of it. The quote he gave was very telling and I’ll paraphrase it because I’m not sure of it word for word but: “My daddy was 50 years old when I was born, and his daddy was 50 years old when he was born, my grandfather was born a slave. 50 years isn’t a long time.”
Georgia and I had already done these things several times in the preceding three hours, but like Tennessee, I didn’t think I had anything left to counter this time. Late — very late — in the fourth quarter, our offense had gone ice cold, we were down by 8, and my temperature was red hot, up by 2. The governor, the first Sen. Al Gore, a gaggle of congressmen and even the head tire kicker at Goodyear, whose blimp hovered above, were watching from various swell box seats. Millions were watching on TV, and even ABC’s saccharine Chris Schenkel (this guy makes Jim Nance sound like the grim reaper) thought Uga had this one all wrapped up.
I was watching from the couch in the ATO house tube room, alternating between teeth-rattling chills and wind sprints to the john, all wrapped up in a blanket.
It was the first and only home game I would miss in my four years at the University of Tennessee. It was the first and only home game UT wouldn’t win during those four magic years. It was our first game played on artificial turf, dubbed “Doug’s Rug” for Coach Dickey. It was the very first game and the very first catch for No. 85 in your Tennessee program, a shy sophomore from Nashville named Lester McClain.
It was a remarkable game.
Bubba Wyche (is that a good quarterback name, or what?) was staring at fourth down. Fans poured from Neyland Stadium, resigned to loss, and the clock ran faster than any of our backs had all day. He let the pass go, and Lester McClain pulled it in at the Georgia 48.
First and 10, Tennessee. First ever, SEC.
That pass gave us a chance, gave us hope. It changed the game and the way the game is played. Lester McClain is black. Two black players had gone before him at Kentucky, but neither had lettered, since you couldn’t play varsity as a freshman, and their careers were ended by injury and heartbreak. Lester’s roommate his freshman year, also black, didn’t come back his sophomore year. So, with that catch, Lester McClain broke through the varsity football color line in the SEC and moved the chains.
It was an amazing game.
Later in the drive and facing another fourth down, Bubba moved the Vols to the line quickly and fired a touchdown pass to Gary Kreis as the clock rolled up all zeros, and I knocked over a pitcher and fell off the couch. Bubba then hit Ken DeLong for the two-point conversion, and Tennessee tied Georgia as Chris Schenkel and I — and those loyal, hopeful fans still in the stadium — all went insane. I charged to the front porch, blanket flapping and heaves forgotten, and screamed at the throngs headed to their cars, completely unaware of the final result and staring unbelievably at the leaping, ragged frat boy specter before them bearing the improbable news in boxers and blanket.
It was a miraculous game.
From the east upper deck, student seats in my day, the world looks promising. On one side, sheer cliffs rise from a river dotted with boats in a moored parade, and distant blue-green mountains form the backdrop. On the other, the buildings that house the means to be any and everything stand watch over dreams on a hill. Below, a contest unfolds that is no more serious than a game but every bit as serious as things that have gone before and are yet to come.
For more people than any other sport, I think, the beginning of football season is about hope and renewal, a slate wiped clean for whatever’s next, shared in mass mutual anticipation on a huge stage or by just one sick kid on a couch.
1968 was the symbolic year of the tragedy of Martin Luther King in the spring, of Bobby Kennedy in the summer, and of the hope symbolized in one young man catching a ball in the fall.
When Lester McClain caught that fourth-down pass, he wasn’t black or white. He was orange. And he was red, white and blue.
– – –
Dan Conaway graduated from UT Knoxville in 1971 with a B.S. in communications, a major in advertising, a strong like of Smoky Mountain Market cheese dogs and a strong dislike of threedraw plays and a punt. He lives in Memphis and is a communication strategy consultant and freelance writer. Visit him atwww.wakesomebodyup.com.
__
Archie who
I went to see Tennessee play Ole Miss in Jackson in 1968 and all my Mississippi relatives were coming up to me and saying “Archie Who!!” I didn’t know what they were talking about until the game started. Below is the rest of the story from Sports Illustrated.
All week Tennessee fans taunted Ole Miss with cries of ‘Who’s Archie?’ On Saturday Archie Manning showed them
You’d have thought those folks from Tennessee would have known better, being neighbors and all. Shoot, any 10-year-old kid who ever got his button nose past the cover of a history book can tell you it doesn’t take all that much to rile Mississippians. Remember when old Abe got up and started off his inaugural speech by saying cotton underwear itched? Bam: a civil war. And you know how easily upset the traffic cops there get when they see a rich Yankee tourist driving 38 miles an hour in a 45-mile-an-hour speed zone.
So what does Steve Kiner do? Steve Kiner, he’s one of Tennessee‘s All-America linebackers, and one day he’s sitting around jawing with some of the boys about the horses they got playing football at Ole Miss. “Hee-haw,” says Kiner, “them’s not horses, them’s mules.” You can guess how gracefully that was received in Oxford and Biloxi and Vicks-burg, where they hang pictures of Archie Manning, the Ole Miss junior quarterback, on the living room wall, right next to the ones of Robert E. Lee and, lately, of Spiro T. Agnew. “Mules, huh?” was the word. “Well, old Archie will show them who’s mules.” In Tennessee, where everybody was feeling good about being unbeaten in seven games and being ranked No. 3 in the nation, they laughed and started handing out ARCHIE WHO? buttons. And, baby, that really tore it.
All this, of course, was greeted with secret delight by Johnny Vaught, the Ole Miss coach and a man who would welcome a Greek bearing gifts, just as long as they could be used as psychological weapons. And should the gifts be less than needed, Vaught, it is suggested, is not opposed to fattening them a bit. Last Wednesday, three days before he would send his troops out to destroy Tennessee 38-0 at Jackson, Miss., the gnarly old oak of a coach never so much as glanced up as a small plane came roaring over his practice field spewing enemy leaflets. But the pilot turned out to be a strange breed of propagandist. On his third pass—after dropping such pleasantries as “Archie who? Archie Mud” and “Wreck the mules, the Vols are No. 1,” and all supposedly signed either by Kiner or Doug Dickey‘s Vols—the pilot cut his motor and yelled, “Go get them. Rebels! To hell with Tennessee!”
While the fires were raging in Mississippi, Vaught was making certain that no fuel was getting back to Tennessee. He closed off all players, most especially Manning, from interviews. Practices are always closed. Vaught once ran the president of the alumni association off the practice field. Another time, when a small plane circled the field, Vaught suspended the drill, called the FAA and had the plane grounded. When it turned out to be a member of the faculty showing off the campus to friends, Vaught told him to go fly someplace else. He did. “Once, just as a joke. I asked him if I could watch one of his redshirts take a shower,” said a veteran Mississippi reporter. “He figured I must be up to something, glared at me and said no I couldn’t, that the shower room was off limits.”
But then, Vaught has always been a suspicious man. When he arrived in 1947, his first move was to call in the state highway department and have them bulldoze a new practice field—eight feet deep. Deciding then that this wasn’t secluded enough, he called the bulldozers back and had them dig a second field, this one even deeper, and he had it surrounded by thick bushes and burly campus cops armed with walkie-talkies. One player suggested that if Vaught thought God was looking down on a practice, he’d put a roof over the field.
In the midst of all this tight seclusion was Archie Manning, big (6’3″ and 205 pounds) and redheaded and wondering why in hell he isn’t able to grow sideburns like everybody else. “But then,” he says, “I guess it’s because I only shave twice a week, sometimes.” He makes up for his lack of sideburns in other ways. Like throwing passes. In Ole Miss‘ first eight games—before walloping Tennessee—he completed 128 of 222 for 1,394 yards and six touchdowns. And like running: 100 carries for 363 yards and 11 touchdowns. Which makes it hard to understand how Mississippi managed to lose to Kentucky, Alabama and Houston, the first two by one point each. And after that they beat Georgia when the Bulldogs were 3-0 and ranked sixth, and after that they beat LSU when the Tigers were 6-0 and also ranked sixth.
“I guess it’s because all the games we won, we played in Mississippi in the daytime,” said Billy Gates, Ole Miss sports information director. “And the three games we lost were out of the state at night. Do you know of any bowls played in Mississippi in the daytime?” Against Kentucky, Ole Miss was looking to Alabama, which came the next week. Ole Miss‘ game plan was to run, mostly not to show off Manning’s passes to ‘Bama scouts. And so they ran, and Manning passed but 13 times for 84 yards and no touchdowns, and Kentucky won a shocker 10-9. And then against Alabama, Mississippi geared its defenses to stop a running attack—and Alabama came out throwing and won 33-32. “Those we should have won,” admits Vaught, holding up one finger. “Just one point each. But the kids knew we should have won and they didn’t get down. We have a thing here called matter-of-fact pride. We never lose it.”
Whatever it is they have at Ole Miss, they had it all against Tennessee, which came in favored anywhere from 11 to 6� points. Upstairs in the press box, Orange Bowl scouts were smiling and saying all they were afraid of was Tennessee losing in a rout—and you know that can’t happen. And downstairs the Ole Miss players were thinking that if they won, Vaught had given them the night to stay in Jackson—something he had done only once before in his career—and didn’t they already have the $5 traveling money to get back to Oxford the next day? Sure it could happen.
“Boys, what it’s going to take out there today is a great team effort, so let’s go,” said Vaught, knowing the boys were so high he didn’t have to say anything else.
And did it ever happen. After the opening kickoff, Manning took Ole Miss 82 yards in 11 plays, mostly on the running of Randy Reed and Bo Bowen, and then himself three times for the last three yards and the touchdown. Vaught had told him to open with a running game and then, when Tennessee stopped it, to go to the air. Tennessee never was to stop it.
On the second drive, after a short Tennessee punt, Ole Miss went 38 yards in eight plays, with Reed recovering Manning’s fumble in the end zone for the score.
The third drive was 16 yards in five plays after a 49-yard return of a punt by Bob Knight. Manning passed five yards to Riley Myers for that one. It was 21-0, and they were just moving into the second quarter, and Ole Miss players were saying things like “Where’s Kiner?” and “How do you like them mules?” and a few other things.
The rout was on. Upstairs one Orange Bowl scout said something about being sick and left. “They can’t do anything wrong,” another moaned. Just then, Ole Miss‘ Cloyce Hinton kicked a 42-yard field goal to make it 24-0. The kick sailed low, fluttering, swooping and, just as it was about to die, it struck the crossbar and bounced over. “Dang, I never saw such a gosh-awful lousy field goal in my life,” said Heywood Harris, Tennessee sports information director, “but, dang, I guess it counts.”
Early in the third quarter, all hope of a Tennessee recovery died when Reed went a yard for a touchdown, making it, after the kick, 31-0. That’s the same score the Vols beat Ole Miss by last year. No longer was anyone in orange clothing yelling “Archie who?” The last score, a one-yard dive by Bowen in the fourth quarter, just rubbed it in a bit.
When it was over and they added it all up, Manning had completed nine of 18 passes for 159 yards and one touchdown, and had run for another score. He and the rest of the team had earned a night on the town.
_____________________________________
This is part of a series that I call “Famous Arkansans.”
(b. 1976) – Rogers native, Joe Nichols, found his love for country music at a young age listening to his family pick on their guitars. He made his debut at age 20 with a self-titled album on the independent Intersound label. His 2002 single “The Impossible” gained him recognition and critical acclaim for his neotraditionalist country style. The single peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and was followed by his No. 1 single “Brokenheartsville” from his platinum-certified second album, “Man With a Memory.” His albums include “Revelation” (2004), which included the Top 10 hit “If Nobody Believed in You,” “A Traditional Christmas,” “III” (2005) gold-certified that produced his biggest hit to date the No. 1 single “Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,” “Real Things” (2007) which produced the Top 20 hits “Another Side of You” and “It Ain’t No Crime.”
A new undercover video by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe shows a man being offered Attorney General Eric Holder’s District of Columbia ballot. The poll worker caught on film tells the cameraman that he doesn’t need to see identification.
The video, released Monday, contrasts clips from the “sting” with quotes from Holder saying that voter fraud is generally “a problem that does not exist.” Holder’s Justice Department has blocked voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas on grounds that include the supposed superfluity of those laws.
O’Keefe’s Project Veritas has targeted voter fraud in previous videos. One project, released last month, shows undercover filmmakers registering to vote in Minnesota, where the governor has attempted to block a voter ID bill, using the names of NFL quarterbacks Tim Tebow and Tom Brady.
_______
Registering Tim Tebow and Tom Brady to Vote in Minnesota
ProjectVeritas.com Investigation. Election officials advise no ID necessary to register Timothy Tebow and Thomas Brady to vote in Minnesota. Absentee ballots are discussed, voter registration forms are given out, and Election officials blow the whistle on potential fraud in their own state
_________
While that project had more local focus, the latest Veritas video strikes at the heart of DOJ’s continued opposition to voter ID laws.
Meanwhile, another undercover video highlighted by Scribe last week shows that some of the most vocal opponents of voter ID laws require that visitors to their Washington D.C. offices present ID at the door. That video looks to undercut claims that ID requirements are excessively burdensome and unwarranted.
_______
Undercover Voter ID Investigation: You Will Never Guess Which Liberal
What’s wrong with showing identification when you vote? That’s an egregious civil rights violation if you ask the Obama Administration and liberal groups like the Center for American Progress, and the Advancement Project. So what happens if you show up at the front door of these groups without ID? Find out on this PJTV undercover investigation.
______________
It is worth pointing out that the Supreme Court just recently weighed in on voter ID, and found its detractors’ arguments lacking.
The court ruled in 2008 that Indiana’s voter ID law, which the National Conference of State Legislatures says is one of the strictest in the nation, did not constitute an overly-burdensome restriction on voting, and was perfectly justified in the face of potential fraud.
_______
Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is. I also appreciate the fine family that you have and your commitment as a father and a husband.
Sincerely,
Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733, lowcostsqueegees@yahoo.com
Mark May, college football studio analyst for ESPN, spoke at the Little Rock Touchdown Club luncheon today and was very direct in his remarks, including the BCS National Championship game.
He said Southern Cal will play it, not because they are that good — he even said they are over-rated and don’t have enough depth, especially on defense — but because of their schedule.
He predicted they would play the winner of the SEC West for the championship and that Alabama will school them.
He said the Razorbacks have a chance to have a special team but they won’t be favored against Alabama or LSU at home, and not on the road at South Carolina.
In my opinion, going into the ninth year of the LRTC, Mark May was one of the best speakers ever.
I got to see Mark May play in 1980 against Tennessee in Knoxville and they had their way with the Vols that day 30-6.
I went with my Vol relatives uncle Blythe and Mack Hatcher. We sat in the season ticket seats that they had over 40 years. It was funny that so many people around them were so used to who sat where that many of them would come up and introduce themselves to me since they knew I was a vistor to this game. Another thing I noticed was that the fans got their earlier than any other fans I had noticed before. Many had traveled from all over the state to get there and it as an all day event.
After losing just by 1 to eventual national champion Georgia Bulldogs and by 3 in a miracle comeback to top ten USC, I thought that Tennessee would come back and play well against Pitt but it did not work out that way.
Jackie Sherrill was the coach of the Pitt Panthers and Johnny Majors was Tennessee’s coach. Both Majors and Sherrill had coached together under Frank Broyles at Arkansas and Majors had taken Sherrill with him to Iowa State when he got that job and then on to Pitt where they won a national championship in 1976.
This year’s Little Rock Touchdown Club speakers are very exciting and I am really excited about the first one being Mark May. Below that are some of the posts about past speakers. Here is more about Mark May from Wikipedia: Mark Eric May (born November 2, 1959) is a former American college and professional football player who was […]
This year’s Little Rock Touchdown Club speakers are very exciting. Below is this year’s list followed by some of the posts about past speakers. Mark May – ESPN ESPN College Football Analyst teaming with Lou Holtz for the popular College Football Scoreboard. Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005, May was a 1st Team […]
I enjoyed the Little Rock Touchdown Club and have posted a lot about it all fall. I have links below to earlier posts. Yesterday Wally Hall and Steve Sullivan had some good insights. Below are some of the thoughts of Jim Harris that he shared at the lunch. BUILDING THE DEFENSE: How nice it would […]
I saw the end of the Tennessee/Vandy game on tv and my brother-in-law went to the game (pictures from him below). I have written about the game earlier on this blog so I will not go into that again. I just wanted to comment on the video clip above. I think it is fine that […]
They both lost to #1, 2 and 3 ranked teams in the same year (Iowa St in 1971 and Tennessee in 2011). As an Arkansas fan I take great pride in other schools complaining about having to play us. Did you know that Iowa State’s staff included head coach Johnny Majors who had left the Arkansas […]
Uploaded by TheMemphisSlim on Sep 3, 2010 Johnny Majors from Huntland, TN tried out for the UT Football team weighing 150 pounds. His Father, Shirley Majors his HS Coach,encourage him and then 4 younger brothers all to be Vols. Johnny Majors was the runner-up in 1956 for the Heisman Trophy to Paul Horning, on a loosing Notre Dame […]
Interview with Johnny Majors after 1982 Kentucky game Below is a picture of Lane Kiffin with Johnny Majors. I enjoyed hearing Johnny Majors speak at the Little Rock Touchdown Club on 11-7-11. He talked a lot about the connection between the Arkansas and Tennessee football programs. It reminded me of what Frank Broyles had said […]
FB: The Best of Johnny Majors at Iowa St I got to hear Johnny Majors talk on 11-7-11 and he talked about the connection that Arkansas and Tennessee had with their football programs. Two years ago I got to hear Frank Broyles speak at the Little Rock Touchdown Club and he said that too. As […]
Rex Nelson mentioned this story below before former Tennessee coach Johnny Majors was introduced at the Little Rock Touchdown Club on 11-7-11. Here is the story below from Yahoo: It was 6:10 p.m. when University of Tennessee student Derrick Brodus got the call. He was lying on the couch in his frat house, waiting for […]
John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles (three at Wimbledon and four at the US Open), nine Grand Slam men’s doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. McEnroe also won a record eight season ending championships, comprising five WCT Finals titles and three Masters Grand Prix titles from twelve final appearances at these two events, a record he shares with Ivan Lendl. He posted the best single season win-loss record in the Open Era in 1984 at 96.47% (82/3). In addition he won 19 Championship Series top tier events of the Grand Prix Tour that were the precursors to the current Masters 1000.
He is best remembered for his shot-making artistry and superb volleying; for his famous rivalries with Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl; for his confrontational on-court behavior which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities; and for the catchphrase “You cannot be serious!” directed toward an umpire during a match at Wimbledon in 1981. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999, and is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.[2]
McEnroe is the older brother of Patrick McEnroe, who is also a former professional tennis player and the former Captain of the United States Davis Cup team, a position in which John served previously. They also both are now often commentators for Grand Slam tennis television coverage in the United States, and John McEnroe is also a commentator on Wimbledon for the BBC.
McEnroe was born in Wiesbaden, West Germany, to Kay (née Tresham) and John Patrick McEnroe, Sr.[3] His father, who is of Irish descent, was at the time stationed with the United States Air Force.[3] In 1960, the family moved to the New York City area, where McEnroe’s father worked daytime as an advertising agent while attending Fordham Law School[4] by night. He has two younger brothers: Mark (born 1964), and former professional tennis player Patrick (born 1966).
McEnroe grew up in Douglaston, Queens. He started playing tennis when he was eight years old at the nearby Douglaston Club with his brothers. When he was nine, his parents enrolled him in the Eastern Lawn Tennis Association, and he soon started playing regional tournaments. He then began competing in national juniors tournaments, and at twelve—when he was ranked seven in his age group—he joined the Port Washington Tennis Academy, Long Island, New York.[5] McEnroe attended Trinity School and graduated in 1977.
Have you been waiting for the next debt ceiling debate? Will the conservatives punt the ball? I am afraid that they already have. Look at this quote. “Mr. Boehner and Mr. Reid, you might not have built our country but your lack of guts is destroying it,” said Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots.
The emerging deal is a sharp contrast to previous occasions when House Republicans used the approach of a spending deadline to insist on deep spending cuts in exchange for their votes, once avoiding a shutdown by a matter of hours. But with the Oct. 1 deadline for enacting spending bills for 2012 coming so close to the election, Republicans leaders were eager to avoid a government crisis that they could be blamed for by voters at the polls.
Under the agreement that takes the spending fight off the table before the presidential and Congressional elections, lawmakers have agreed to continue the current rate of spending into early next year despite a call by some conservative Republicans for a lower rate. By pushing the spending into next year, the House and Senate would also eliminate it as a bargaining chip in post-election negotiations over what to do about expiring tax cuts.
The rate of spending will be consistent with the $1.047 trillion agreed to in the debt limit deal last year. Harry Reid added that there are no riders in the bill. It’s just a budget deal to keep the government running through March 2013, at the level Democrats wanted, with no concessions to Republicans.
This means that the elections will determine the future of the budget, as per usual. But it represents a real retreat from the hard-charging rhetoric of Republicans on budgetary matters.
However, there’s still time for this to blow up. While the agreement was announced today, voting will not take place until after the August recess. That means that conservatives, seeing that they gave away all their leverage on this issue, may whip up the far right of the party and force changes. That’s certainly something we’ve seen happen before. Five weeks is a long time.
The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 26) This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, […]
Uploaded by RepJoeWalsh on Jun 14, 2011 Our country’s debt continues to grow — it’s eating away at the American Dream. We need to make real cuts now. We need Cut, Cap, and Balance. The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 25) This post today is a part of a series […]
The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 23) This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, […]
The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 22) This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, […]
The Price of a U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade Uploaded by catoinstitutevideo on Aug 5, 2011 http://www.downsizinggovernment.org The federal government’s debt may soon be downgraded by major credit rating agencies. What would that mean? Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg __________ Looks like the politicians in Washington better cut spending or another downgrade […]
The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 21) This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, […]
The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 20) This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, […]
Senator Mark Pryor wants our ideas on how to cut federal spending. Take a look at this video clip below:
Senator Pryor has asked us to send our ideas to him at cutspending@pryor.senate.gov and I have done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
On May 11, 2011, I emailed to this above address and I got this email back from Senator Pryor’s office:
Please note, this is not a monitored email account. Due to the sheer volume of correspondence I receive, I ask that constituents please contact me via my website with any responses or additional concerns. If you would like a specific reply to your message, please visit http://pryor.senate.gov/contact. This system ensures that I will continue to keep Arkansas First by allowing me to better organize the thousands of emails I get from Arkansans each week and ensuring that I have all the information I need to respond to your particular communication in timely manner. I appreciate you writing. I always welcome your input and suggestions. Please do not hesitate to contact me on any issue of concern to you in the future.
I just did. I went to the Senator’s website and sent this below:
Below is an excellent plan to balance the budget through spending cuts from Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute written in April of 2011. Here is the first part.
Federal spending is soaring, and government debt is piling up at more than a trillion dollars a year. Official projections show rivers of red ink for years to come unless policymakers enact major budget reforms. Unless spending is cut, the United States is headed for economic ruin.
The results of the 2010 elections made clear that Americans want an end to the spending spree in Washington. People fear that today’s spendthrift policies may lead to large tax increases and a lower standard of living for themselves and their children. The public has given Congress marching orders to start cutting spending and rein in debt.
Policymakers should implement an emergency plan of cuts to defense, domestic, and entitlement programs. This essay proposes spending cuts of more than $1 trillion annually by 2021, which would balance the budget without resorting to damaging tax increases. Federal spending would be reduced to 18.0 percent of gross domestic product by 2021 under the plan, which compares to President Obama’s projected spending that year of 24.2 percent of GDP.
Each of the spending cuts proposed here would make sense whether or not the government was running deficits. That’s because many federal programs reduce individual freedom and cause economic distortions. If these programs were cut, resources would flow from lower-return government activities to higher-return activities in the private sector.
In recent decades, the federal government has expanded into hundreds of areas that should be left to state and local governments, businesses, charities, and individuals. That expansion is sucking the life out of the private economy and creating a top-down bureaucratic society that is alien to American traditions. Cutting federal spending would enhance civil liberties by dispersing power from Washington.
The need to cut spending and debt is urgent. Numerous committees, think tanks, and members of Congress have proposed plans to tackle ongoing deficits, including the House Budget Committee, the House Republican Study Committee, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), and President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The various plans are not in agreement about the role of taxes in reducing deficits, but there is fairly broad support for substantial spending cuts, particularly cuts to entitlement programs.
The plan presented here does not include tax increases. Official budget projections show that federal debt is exploding because spending is at abnormally high levels. With the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in place, and with continued relief from the alternative minimum tax, federal revenues are expected to rise to at least 18 percent of GDP in coming years, which is about the average over recent decades. By contrast, it is federal spending—currently at more than 24 percent of GDP—that is above normal levels. During the last two years of the Clinton administration a decade ago, federal spending was just 18 percent of GDP.
Some analysts claim that cutting government spending would hurt the economy, but that idea is based on faulty Keynesian theories. In fact, federal spending cuts would shift resources from often mismanaged and damaging government programs to the more productive private sector, thus increasing overall GDP. Consider Canada’s experience. In the mid-1990s, the country faced a debt crisis caused by runaway government spending—similar to our current situation. The Canadian government changed course and slashed total spending 10 percent in just two years and then held it roughly flat for another three years.1 The Canadian economy did not sink into recession, but was instead launched on a 15-year economic boom.
Policymakers shouldn’t think of spending cuts as a necessary evil needed to reduce debt. Rather, the government’s fiscal mess is an opportunity to make reforms that would spur growth and expand individual freedom. The plan below includes a menu of spending cut options for Congress, and further reforms are described at www.DownsizingGovernment.org.
This section illustrates how a reduction in spending could eliminate the federal budget deficit over 10 years. It shows projections of revenues and spending as a share of GDP based on the March 2011 Congressional Budget Office estimates.2 My projections for revenues assume the extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax cuts, extension of alternative minimum tax relief, and repeal of the tax increases in the 2010 health care law.3 My projections for spending adjust the CBO baseline to include more realistic assumptions regarding troop reductions in Iraq and Afghanistan and the extension of the Medicare “doc fix.”4
In Figure 1, the bottom line shows that federal revenues with tax relief in place are expected to rise to 18.0 percent of GDP by 2021 as the economy recovers and resumes normal growth. The top line shows President Obama’s proposed spending based on his fiscal 2012 budget.5 As a share of GDP, spending is expected to dip the next few years as funding from the 2009 “stimulus” bill peters out and war costs fall, but spending is expected to start rising again after that. That high spending path would lead to higher taxes, higher debt, or both.
Figure 1.
Projected Federal Revenues and Spending Percent of GDP
The middle line in the chart shows spending under the balanced budget plan. Under this plan, spending cuts of more than $1 trillion annually by 2021 would be phased in over 10 years.6 Those cuts would generate substantial interest savings by 2021, and total federal spending would fall to 18.0 percent of GDP—the same level as federal revenues that year. With those cuts, federal public debt would peak at 75 percent of GDP in 2013 and then fall to 64 percent of GDP by 2021.
To Mitt Romney, Box 96861, Washington, DC 20090-6861, From Everette Hatcher of www.thedailyhatch.org 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002
Did we forgive George Bush in 1988 for being pro-choice originally in 1980? We sure did. In fact, my former pastor, Adrian Rogers, had a chance to visit with Bush several times. He told him that the Religious Right did not have enough votes to get him elected on their own, but if he ever went against the pro-life view then they could definately derail his election bid.
Today I am writing you to remind you of the same thing. We in the pro-life movement are firmly behind you but we want to know some of the reasons are passionately pro-life.
We really need some prolife judges appointed soon that will respect the sanctity of human life including that of unborn children. It is truly a holocaust now in the USA.
The following is an excerpt from article DA375 by Hank Hanegraaff. The full article can be found by following the link below the excerpt.
For hundreds of years the Lord had warned the Israelites through His prophets. Now it was too late! Darkness had descended upon the Promised Land. The people of Israel had become the slaves of the mighty Assyrians. Although the tribe of Judah to the south had miraculously survived the initial onslaught, they somehow blithely managed to ignore the lesson of history.
2 Kings tells us that Ahaz, king of Judah, “walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites” (16:3).
The nation of Israel had indeed become a mirror reflection of the pagan culture by which they found themselves surrounded. True prophets continued to warn God’s people that their wickedness would inexorably lead to destruction, but their words fell on deaf ears. The rulers of the land had become so corrupt that they even hired false prophets to tell them what their itching ears wanted to hear.
Finally, the inevitable occurred. The ax of God’s judgment fell. Babylon leveled Jerusalem, and the people of Judah were driven from their land of promise.
Today America, like ancient Israel, is turning a deaf ear to the lesson of history. We have repeatedly violated God’s commands, as if we could do so with impunity. We have failed to heed the warnings of His prophets and have embraced the new paganism of our times. Indeed, our ways have become detestable to the Lord; we have forgotten His command: “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God” (Deut. 18:9-12; emphasis added).
Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer warned us that abortion would be the watershed issue of our era. He said, “Of all the subjects relating to the erosion of the sanctity of human life, abortion is the keystone. It is the first and crucial issue that has been overwhelming in changing attitudes toward the value of life in general.”1
Schaeffer’s warning has tragically fallen on deaf ears. For more than two decades we have sacrificed our children on the altars of hedonism. And even now, the ax of God’s judgment has been laid to the root.
Two thousand years ago Christ warned us that “the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed!’” (Luke 23:29). The present day abortion holocaust has driven those words home in dramatic fashion. Consider the statements of some of the spiritual and secular leaders of our age:
• Beverly Harrison (professor of Christian ethics at Union Theological Seminary) —“Infanticide is not a great wrong. I do not want to be construed as condemning women who, under certain circumstances, quietly put their infants to death” (emphasis in original).2
• Esther Langston (professor of social work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas): “What we are saying is that abortion becomes one of the choices and the person has the right to choose whatever it is that is…best for them in the situation in which they find themselves, be it abortion, to keep the baby, to adopt it, to sell it, to leave it in a dumpster, to put it on your porch, whatever; it’s the person’s right to choose.”3
• Mary S. Calderone, M.D. (head of SIECUS — Sex Information and Education Council of the United States): “We have yet to beat our drums for birth control in the way we beat them for polio vaccine, we are still unable to put babies in the class of dangerous epidemics, even though this is the exact truth.”4
• Margaret Sanger (the late founder of Planned Parenthood): “The most merciful thing a large family can do for one of its infant members is to kill it.”5
• Nobel Prize laureate James Watson (co-discoverer of DNA) — “Because of the limitations of present detection methods, most birth defects are not discovered until birth. . . . However if a child was not declared alive until 3 days after birth . . . the doctor could allow the child to die if the parents so choose and save a lot of misery and suffering.”6
Perhaps most frightening of all, President Clinton signed into law the National Institute of Health Revitalization Act. As a direct result it is now legal not only to kill but also to carve up murdered babies and use them for fetal tissue research.7
While pondering this horrifying reality, remember that the present-day holocaust is government-funded. It means that you and I are footing the bill!8
Make no mistake: “Choice” advocates like Clinton, Congress, and the Courts are not the friends of children. America’s unthinking submission to their twisted arguments is moving us progressively toward social genocide of a magnitude eclipsing that of Hitler, Stalin, Somalia, and the Serb-Croate conflict.
The movement’s own label — “pro-choice” — is a twisted deception, covering up a nationally sanctioned holocaust in which the “right” to choose to kill a child reigns supreme over:
• the baby’s human rights;
• the rights of the parents of a pregnant minor;
• the rights of the preborn’s father;
• the mother’s right to accurate information about fetal development and the negative consequences of abortion;
• the rights of society to protect all its members — no matter what their social status, economic situation, or physical limitations.
First and 10, Tennessee. First ever, SEC.
Homecoming. #Rankings from 
The Daily Hatch 