Quote of the Day - Smoking Ban Edition

What a great point, do you think she was a debate champion?

Mary Lou Duerr, president of the Wood County Tavern League, does not want to see any smoking ban include taverns.

"There's something about drinking and smoking that goes together," she said.

Friedman on Bush's State of the Union:

As I read the president’s remarks, listened to the tepid public reaction and looked at his latest polls, which show Mr. Bush to be wildly unpopular, it seemed to me that the American people basically fired George Bush in the last election. We’re now just watching him clean out his desk. Both his energy proposals and his recent Iraq surge were about the best he could muster, given his pink slip.

Krugman Quotes FDR

A great editorial here.

Krugman compares the coming health debate to the New Deal (I agree).

“We had to struggle,” he declared in 1936, “with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. ... Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.”
...
But politicians who try to push forward the elements of a new New Deal, especially universal health care, are sure to face the hatred of a large bloc on the right — and they should welcome that hatred, not fear it.

Bush now at 28% - Clinton at 69% same time in his term

The latest CBS poll:

THE STATE OF THE PRESIDENCY
Only 28% of Americans approve of the way the President is handling his job, while more than twice as many, 64%, disapprove.
This is the lowest approval rating the President has ever received, but it is not much different from earlier this month, when 30% approved.
PRES. BUSH’S JOB APPROVAL
Now - 1/1-3/2007
Approve - 28% - 30%
Disapprove - 64 - 63
Interviewing for this poll was conducted Thursday through Sunday. Saturday was the third deadliest day of the fighting in Iraq for U.S. troops.
There is more bad news for President Bush. By a two to one margin, Americans think he does not share their priorities. Just 28% think he does, while 69% think he does not.
DOES BUSH SHARE YOUR PRIORITIES?
Yes 28%
No 69

Contrast this to January 25, 1999 - 6 years into Clinton's Presidency (and during his impeachment)....

Clinton's approval rating remains high despite the Senate trial, with 69 percent expressing approval of the way he is handling his job as president. But a majority say they have a negative opinion of Clinton as a person. One reason for Clinton's high approval rating is that 71 percent say the economy is the best it has been in their lifetimes.

Do your soul a favor...

...and read this about refugee soccer in Atlanta.

Why Does Nate Still Hate Bob La Follete? (Another History Lesson)

As I have discussed before, our buddy Nate is slowly trying to tear down Bob La Follette's Legacy.

First he went after the open primary system, and now he is trying to shoot down the Council-Manager form of governmtnet in this comment on Babblemur.

nate wrote:
I am confused, what the hell is a city manager. Is that something akin to a Mayor in a democracy. Is that something leftover from the mining days.
Posted on 19-Jan-07 at 5:28 am

Well, Nate - here's a history lesson, the Council-Manager form of government is a major reform of the Progressive Era lead by La Follette:

Wikipedia:

Many progressives hoped to make American governments better able to serve the people's needs by making governmental operations and services more efficient and rational. Reforms included:

Professional administrators

Many progressives argued that governments would function better if they were placed under the direction of trained, professional administrators. One example of progressive reform was the rise of the city manager system, in which paid, professional administrators ran the day-to-day affairs of city governments under guidelines established by elected city councils.

Regents US History:

Progressive reform began at the local or city level because it was easier to implement than at the vast state or national level. Urban corruption from political machines was a major focus, resulting in the reorganization of local government using the commissioner-and city-manager-styles of management.
City Reforms
CityCommissioner Plan
Cities hired experts in different fields to run a single aspect of city government. For example, the sanitation commissioner would be in charge of garbage and sewage removal.
City ManagerPlan
A professional city manager is hired to run each department of the city and report directly to the city council.

Encyclopeadia Britannica:

Despite initial differences among urban reformers, by the early 1900s the vast majority of them were fighting for and winning much the same objectives—more equitable taxation of railroad and corporate property, tenement house reform, better schools, and expanded social services for the poor. Even big-city machines like Tammany Hall became increasingly sensitive to the social and economic needs of their constituents. Reformers also devised new forms of city government to replace the old mayor–city-council arrangement that had proved to be so susceptible to corrupt influences. One was the commission form, which vested all responsibility in a small group of commissioners, each responsible for a single department; another was the city-manager form, which provided administration by a professionally trained expert, responsible to a popularly elected council (these two forms were in widespread use in small and medium-sized cities by 1920).

University of Arizona:

One of the key factors in good governance at the local level, advocated so successfully one hundred years ago in the Progressive Movement, is the professional public manager.(1) Professional public management, embodied in the council-manager form of government for municipalities and in the board-manager form of government for counties, requires an elected governing body to hire a professionally-trained public manager with broad authority to hire and fire department heads and to establish merit systems, competitive bidding procedures, and standardized accounting and auditing practices.

Nate, why are you trying to tear down Fightin' Bob LaFollette?

Approve - 35% Disapprove - 60%

Those are Bush's current numbers.

(I suppose it is far to late for 'We told you so'?)

Some highlights from the poll:

When President Bush delivers his next-to-last State of the Union address Tuesday night, he will confront this reality, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll: Nearly two-thirds of Americans appear to have given up on success in Iraq and also on his presidency.

In addition, the poll finds that nearly another two-thirds believe he shouldn’t move ahead with his troop increase to Iraq, if Congress passes a non-binding resolution opposing it. And it shows that just two in 10 want Bush taking the lead role in setting policy for the country.
...
Perhaps more significant, a whopping 65 percent believe that Bush is facing a longer-term setback from which he’s unlikely to recover. That’s compared with 25 percent who think he’s facing just a short-term setback, and 7 percent who believe he’s facing no setback at all.

What’s more, only 22 percent say they want the president taking the lead in setting policy for the nation. Fifty-seven percent say they would prefer the Democratic-controlled Congress holding the reins.