That’s Right Nate

It appears that Mark Sanford was alive and well. He was simply talking to the Russian government about seceding from the United States. While I am obviously no fan of Obama’s it is a load off my mind to know that he has not killed Governor Sanford. I guess we won’t know until Sanford returns to South Carolina, but the above link seems pretty legit. They even used me as a source.

I will be out of town for the rest of this week and the weekend. For those of you unaware, this is the week of the big Great Lakes Regional Public Storage Expo and Convention. This is basically, the Super Bowl of self-storage conventions. Supposedly, Martin Loviglio will be there. Martin is basically the father of the modern self-storage business and designed many of the box shapes and sizes that are still used in the industry today. I met him back in 1996 and it was a highlight. He had so many self-storage stories, I could have talked to him all night. Some people prefer the big SSA trade show in Vegas, but for me you can’t beat the GLRPSEC.

Recently, one of our most loyal readers, Lola successfully defended her PHD in English Literature (Yay Lola!!). As you know, I recently received an honorary associates degree from Sawyer College in General Studies and I have not defended it. I feel that boxing champions and people with advanced degrees should defend. I will answer Lola’s 15 topics as my defense. I will defend it against all comers when I return. Until I talk to you all again next week, let us not say goodbye, but as we say in the self-storage game, “Be Back in 5 Minutes”

Update: No sooner do I start packing for my trip, than our own Congressman Jack Kimble (R-CA) gets a nice writeup on the amazing Political Carnival blog.   He hasn’t been on Twitter very long, but I told him he’d get fans if he joined.

Barrack Obama is fond of saying that “elections have consequences.”  However, if he truly believes this, why does he continue to ignore the nearly half the nation that voted for John McCain.  During the election, McCain made ending earmarks a major point of his campaign.  So why exactly is Obama approving a huge earmark laden spending bill?

Faithful readers, I wish that it was only earmarks, but Obama has continually broken McCain’s campaign promises.  When it comes to income taxes, Obama has raised taxes on people earning over $250,000 despite McCain’s promise to keep the Bush tax cuts  in place.  He has also  removed the Bush barriers to stem cell research.  “It has really been a disappointment,” said Brian Burch, president of Fidelis and CatholicVote.org. “The people who argued during the campaign that Obama’s pro-life rhetoric represented a reason to be hopeful have been totally discounted. We are 60 days in, and he has taken advantage of every opportunity to shut the door on any consensus building on the issue.”  You can be sure if we knew that Obama would do this stuff we would have voted against him much harder.

I know this comes off as sour grapes now that John McCain has lost the election, but did John McCain’s promise of a balanced budget by the end of his first term in office need to be swept aside as well?  Had we known that Barrack Obama was not going to keep any of his promises, I believe we all would have worked harder for John McCain and that just isn’t right.

Martin Luther King wouldn't approve of Obama being soft on terror or leaving Iraq.

I have always felt a deep connection to Martin Luther King because my father marched with him when he came to Chicago to protest the housing situation. Actually, it wasn’t that he marched with him so much as my father and my friends helped make the King march a success by patrolling the neighborhood looking for anybody who didn’t belong and quelling any rioting.

I am sure that Obama is getting sworn in on the day after Martin Luther King Day because he wanted to invite further comparisons to Dr. King. I think there is a big difference between the two men. In fact, if Martin Luther King were alive today, I have no doubt that he would be a staunch Conservative. Many people who are successful as liberals early in life come to their sense later on particular if they make a lot of money. King was friends with Charlton Heston and would probably have adopted some of his views. Also, Martin Luther King was a Republican like most of the Civil Rights leaders. I am 100% convinced that if Martin Luther King were alive today he would be marching for gun rights and lower capital gains taxes.

Obama is in favor of none of those things that Martin Luther King would hold so dear. The only thing the two men have in common seems to be their race. I hope that Obama does not take advantage of the holiday to play the race card at his inauguration. I would like to believe that he will refrain from having a lot of African-American and speakers and musical acts just to try and win African-American support for future elections. This country has been shaped by people like Martin Luther King who knew that a hands off attitude by government towards business embigens us all.

Seperated at birth?

Being a Conservative Republican, I haven’t agreed with much that Barrack Obama has done, but his choice of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education is a great move.  Arne Duncan is not only an Illinois politician, he’s a Chicago politician.  In this day and age that should certainly count for something.   He has presided over the Chicago education miracle over the past 7 years which in many ways was the continuation of the Paul Vallas miracle in the years before Duncan took over and like much of the Bush administration Duncan has plenty of experience with no bid government contracts.

Arne Duncan has a very impressive resume.  After graduating college with a degree in sociology in 1987, Duncan went to Australia to play basketball professionally.  Returning to Chicago in 1992 he went to work as director of a childhood friend’s educational program on the South Side of Chicago.  In 1998 he became Chicago School Chief Paul Vallas’ Deputy Chief of Staff.  In 2001 he became head of the Chicago Public Schools.  I don’t think you’ll find many people with that kind of depth of experience interested in a  cabinet job.

In Chicago Duncan made a name for himself by closing down poorly performing schools for a year to turn them around by replacing the faculty and many of the students.  In the case of Orr High School he did this twice.  As most poor schools are African-American, Arne Duncan has personally fired over 2,000 African-American teachers this way.  This is a very impressive quality–the ability to see that the poor performing schools are in African-American neighborhoods and the foresight to take the moves necessary to improve them.  This strategy hasn’t always worked, but in neighborhoods that have simultaneously undergone gentrification, the results are quite impressive.

Duncan is part of a new breed of school administrator whose minds have not been poisoned by working in the classroom.  Instead they believe that the needs of children can best be met by the free market.  In his time in Chicago, Duncan has frequently reached out to business leaders to do for the schools what they have already done for corporate America.  The cornerstone of the Chicago Education Miracle is Renaissance 2010–A program designed to replace public schools with charters.   The program seems poised to reach its pinnacle next year with the opening of The  Transportation Academy of Chicago which will have the mission statement of training the city’s future bus drivers.

I believe that the Charter School System is our best hope for the future of education and charter schools couldn’t have a better friend than Arne Duncan.  Through charter schools parents who are concerned with their child’s education and have a little political pull can get a public  education at a newer school without the dangerous element that often can be found in the public schools.  If anybody can export the Chicago Education Miracle to the rest of the country its Arne Duncan.

I have detailed Obama’s relationship with the Reverend Cleophus James and the Triple Rock Baptist Church  (http://thatsrightnate.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/obama-scandal-threatens-nominations/)  on this blog in the past and of course everybody knows about the Reverened Wright, but it seems that we have underestimated the extent to which the vile teachings of anti-american black churches have influenced him.

“God didn’t call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. . . .
And we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes
almost than any nation in the world, and I’m going to continue to say
it. And we won’t stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a
nation. But God has a way of even putting nations in their place…And
if you don’t stop your reckless course, I’ll rise up and break the
backbone of your power.”

This is not the language that a Presidential candidate should endorse, but what did Obama say, “Through his faith, courage, and wisdom, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. moved an entire nation. He preached the gospel of brotherhood; of equality and justice. That’s the cause for which he lived –and for which he died forty years ago today. “  I’m sorry, but reading that quote does that sound like the gospel of brotherhood and equality or the gospel of hate America.

If Barrack Obama is serious about uniting this country together then he needs to distance himself from Martin Luther King’s legacy and condemn the anti-American sentiments he expressed.  I don’t think Obama will do that, but until he seperates himself from such anti-American hatred I hope America will show the common sense to vote against him.

Poor Hillary.  It reminds me of one of those WWE wrestling matches where suddenly some surprise wrestler appears in the middle of a match to help one of the combatants.  I’m glad it happenned because nothing says “I’m not an elitist” like a friend who gets $400 haircuts.

So why did Edwards support Obama?  The reason is quite simple.  Obama is going to name him as his Vice-President.  Since he already has experience losing an election as a Vice-Presidential candidate he’s ready. After losing in West Virginia, Obama needed to have a famous white guy endorse him and Edwards definitely fit the bill.

Hillary’s response to the surprise endorsement was, “I am a fighter.  People counted this campaign out after Iowa, but we won big last night.  I have contacted John Edwards’ campaign and I welcome a chance to discuss his endorsement with him.  Just because he made a speech tonight doesn’t mean this thing is over.”  She was then seen angrily firing her shotgun into the air as she ordered a Crown Royal in a dirty glass.