To the Republic, Four Which it Stands

Among the 50 states, only 4 have ever been independent republics...do you know which ones?

Texas is the easy one...the Alamo, Davy Crockett - you've heard it all before.

California was briefly independent in 1846 between the time it broke away from Mexico and was annexed by the United States.

Now for the tougher ones....

Hawaii was its own independent Kingdom for much of the 19th century.

And finally...between 1777 and 1791 Vermont established itself as an independent nation.

New Year's Ball Drop

Happy New Year!

Across the continental U.S. (and even farther out past Hawaii and Alaska) it takes several hours for our nation to celebrate the New Year. However, a lot of Americans count the ball drop in Times Square as an official passing of the old into the new year.

This is the 100th anniversary of the ball drop, which started in 1904 when Alfred Ochs, the owner of the New York Times, put on a fireworks display to welcome 1905 and celebrate the opening of the newspaper's new offices.

When city authorities banned the fireworks display on security grounds, the first ball was introduced -- a 320-kilo (700 pound) steel and wood sphere lit up with 100 light bulbs.

The Times Square ball has marked every new year since then, except in 1942 and 1943, when wartime regulations restricted lighting in the city.

In 1955, a new aluminum ball was unveiled and remained in use until the 1980s, the traditional ball came back seven years later, computer control started in 1995 and aluminum replaced by crystal for millennium eve in 1999.

This year's ball lights green and is made of 672 crystal triangles, weighs almost 500 kilos (1,100 pounds) and is lit by 9,576 energy-efficient light emitting diodes, which replace the halogen and strobe lights in last year's ball.

The War

I finally just finished watching Ken Burns' excellent documentary about World War II - "The War."

If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

"The War" exhibits the incredible attention to detail and quality that all of Ken Burns' stuff does (remember the Civil War documentary that came out a while ago that used Sam Waterson's voice with interviews of Shelby Foote? The was Ken Burns).

What really struck me about "The War" was the extent to which the US government under FDR was able to motivate and inspire the population through sacrifice and massive hardship and loss of life - for 4 long years.

During World War II the American government sent all the right signals to the people and provided the leadership that allowed our nation to marshal its great strength against tyranny.

It occurs to me that immediately after 9/11 - there was an opportunity to marshal that strength again against our current challenges. But that opportunity was wasted when the government asked people to "go shopping" and though people wanted to sacrifice and do something in the wake of those terrible attacks - the government pointed those eager to help to the malls.

As "The War" shows, government has the power to do better.

Larry Craig on the other side of the wall

Now that the Larry Craig saga has mostly stalled out (only pun in this post, I swear) - I wanted to point out something he talked about in attempting to defend himself through the whole ordeal.

During his October 16, 2007 interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Craig explained his view that:

"Well-- it's always been a great privilege, Matt, to represent Idaho in Congress. And that's all I've really ever wanted to do is to go there, to be their defender, to be that wall between government and the citizen. Because government, as you know, can be very daunting to the average person."

This is why Larry is wrong: As Abraham Lincoln pointed out - our's is a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" - the belief that there needs to be a wall between people and their government does not scan. The government is the people, the people are the government.

Larry Craig is just getting in the way.

Symbols of Government

Some of you may have heard about Jim Broussard last week.

Jim Broussard is a U.S. Army Veteran who became angered after hearing that a business in his town of Reno, NV was flying the flag of Mexico above the U.S. flag.

Taking matters into his own hands, Broussard proceeded tothe business in question and with his US Army issued knife, cut down the flags.

Now, the debate over flag burning vs. freedom of speech has a long history and this episode only adds another chapter.

No matter where you come down on the debate, flags and other symbols of government are things that most people in this nation hold to be sacred.

Symbols of government is important because govenrnment is important.

If government can help, Veto it.

These are the only two reasons I can think of that Bush why Bush vetoed the S-CHIP bill.

1) He does not feel that making sure sick kids have a way to see a doctor is an important priority...compared to say, what we're spending to be in Iraq for a few days.

2) He believes S-CHIP is a first step to universal health care for all Americans. If S-CHIP continues to be successful, then its possible it will set a precedent for other government programs that might help Americans stay healthy.

Either answer reflects some twisted values. I suspect all things being equal, Bush doesn't want kids to be sick. Which means his true motive is answer #2. If S-CHIP and other programs like it work, then it undermines the whole philosophy that government programs can't help people.

The truth is, government can and does help people all the time.

Wanted: Government

Regardless of where you come down on the Iraq debate, all sides seem to agree on one thing - the linchpin for American success in Iraq revolves around the ability of Iraqi leaders to get their government organized one way or another.

Even the highest ranking military officers admit that military force alone cannot provide a long term solution for solving Iraq's security woes. Rather, the only long-term solution is political. That is, Iraq needs government.

Next time somebody comes to you and starts espousing the merits of limited government. Ask them if they think the current government in Iraq is limited enough.