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Items by AndyTaggart

  • So long, Sen. Lincoln

    —Red/Blue

    Senator Blanche Lincoln (D - AR), who is up for reelection next year, has now said she will vote in favor of the healthcare reform bill this evening when it comes to a vote.

    In her words, "The vote tonight will mark the beginning of consideration of this bill by the" [...]
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    Posted: November 21, 2009, 3:24pm EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Government consolidation

    —Red/Blue

    Jere, you've got a deal.  Let's consolidate all the governments of the metro Jackson area.

    Problem is, it's your guys on the Democrat side of the aisle, not my guys on the Republican side, who are going to oppose your idea of consolidating governments and government services.

    Republicans,' [...]
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    Posted: November 21, 2009, 3:11pm EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • The Bad News and the Good News

    —Red/Blue

    Yesterday, it was my privilege to attend the Cochran Forum on American Enterprise, put on by the Mississippi Council on Economic Education.  The luncheon meeting packed out the ballroom in the Downtown Marriott.

    The bad news flowed easily.  State Treasurer Tate Reeves noted that the state budget is enduring the [...]
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    Posted: November 19, 2009, 11:31am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Nunnelee/Barbour vs. Childers/Pelosi?

    —Red/Blue

    Really, Jere, are you sure that's where you want to take this conversation?

    I'll tell you what let's do:  You concede to Alan Nunnelee all the people in the First Congressional District who support Haley Barbour as Governor, and I'll concede to Cong. Childers all the people in the First [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 5:18pm EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • New fed rule on mammograms -- rationing already

    —Red/Blue

    The federal government has just announced that women should wait until they are 50 to have annual mammograms, ten years later than has been the recommendation for many years.  The government says that commencing mammograms at age 40 leads to too many unneeded biopsies. 

    The announcement has already set [...]
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    Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:12am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Jere's death spiral on Simpson County Republicans

    —Red/Blue

    Really, Jere, you should just stop on this one.

    Your latest post is one of your most remarkable in months.  For the entirety of the last generation, your side was saying, "Yeah, the Republicans can win some big elections, but they'll never crack the courthouses."

    Now that the' [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 11:21am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Politics hijacks science

    —Red/Blue

    Unbelievably, the American Cancer Society has now joined the AARP as just another mouthpiece of the Democratic National Committee.

    Last year, against my nature, I kept my powder dry when the American Cancer Society endorsed Democrat Ronnie Musgrove against Senator Roger Wicker.

    But now, an organization that is supposed [...]
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    Posted: November 14, 2009, 11:08am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Is eight a big deal?

    —Red/Blue

    Yesterday, the eighth Simpson County official in as many days announced her decision to join the Republican Party. 


    Circuit Clerk Cindy Jenson switched from the Democrat Party, joining her Sheriff, District Attorney, a Supervisor, the Coroner and three other officials last week.

    County elected officials are at the [...]
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    Posted: November 13, 2009, 5:45am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Veterans Day

    —Red/Blue

    Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of our armed forces, for your courageous and devoted service in the cause of freedom.

    Last night, I had the privilege of meeting and conversing over dinner with a young man who has more than 18 years of service, first with the Air Force, and now with [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2009, 6:02am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Jere and Simpson County Republicans

    —Red/Blue

    "No big deal," Jere writes about the announcement by seven incumbent elected officials in Simpson County that they are switching to the Republican party.

    He probably didn't think much of the early Apollo missions, either, when we were sending ships up to practice docking, then circling but not yet landing on the' [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2009, 6:11am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Not exactly, Madame Speaker

    —Red/Blue

    It has been reported that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has likened the House vote in favor of the government healthcare package on Saturday to the adoption of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965.

    Not exactly.

    In both of those earlier cases, there was widespread [...]
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    Posted: November 09, 2009, 6:30am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Mr. Potato Head politics

    —Red/Blue

    When I was a boy, Mr. Potato Head was not an oblong piece of brown plastic with pre-fixed holes for eyes, nose, mouth and ears.  Instead, we was, well, a potato.

    When you got a Mr. Potato Head kit as a gift, all you got was a little bag [...]
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    Posted: November 07, 2009, 7:52am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Yesterday's elections

    —Red/Blue

    The White House can whistle past the graveyard just as loudly as it likes, but yesterday's Republican sweep in Virginia and stunner in New Jersey are the clearest indications yet that Barack Obama's election last year was a reflection of his personal appeal -- plus the fact that he was not [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2009, 6:28am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • 2009 - 1976: Back to the Future

    —Red/Blue

    In 1976, the Republican Party was in the throes of self-examination and philosophical course setting in the aftermath of Watergate.  Mississippi's role in the efforts of conservatives and Ronald Reagan to unseat incumbent but unelected President Gerald Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention is the stuff of history and [...]
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    Posted: November 01, 2009, 8:01am EST
    by AndyTaggart

  • Hobnob Wrap-up

    —Red/Blue

    MEC's annual political throw-down, Hobnob Mississippi, was the biggest ever last week.  Under the big tent at the Ag Museum, all eight statewide officials, plus Rep. George Flaggs on behalf of Speaker Billy McCoy, spoke to a seated crowd of about 1,200, plus another couple hundred of folks hanging out [...]

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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 5:41am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Nunnelee website is up

    —Red/Blue

    Alan Nunnelee's congressional campaign just circulated word that his website is up and running at: [www.nunneleeforcongress.com].
    [...]
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    Posted: October 22, 2009, 2:28pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Where the rubber meets the road

    —Red/Blue

    Here's the real test of how serious legislators are about all the rhetoric to the effect that education is the state's top priority.

    I don't agree with that premise, by the way, as I believe the fundamental role of government at every level is the security and safety of' [...]

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    Posted: October 17, 2009, 4:31pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Huckabee is coming to town

    —Red/Blue

    Hot off yesterday's Rasmussen poll results showing him leading among Republicans responding to questions about their current top pick for the presidential nomination in 2012, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee will be in Jackson this coming Wednesday evening.

    Huckabee is headlining the annual fundraising banquet for the Salvation Army [...]
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    Posted: October 16, 2009, 5:05pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Attorney General Jim Hood hits a lick for the Second Amendment

    —Red/Blue

    Attorney General Jim Hood recently signed onto a very important document.

    About two thirds of the states' attorneys general, including Jim Hood, joined in a friend-of-the-court brief addressed to the United States Supreme Court in the case of NRA v. City of Chicago.  The brief argues that the right to keep and' [...]
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    Posted: October 14, 2009, 3:46pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Come on, Jere, you can do better

    —Red/Blue

    And really, Jere, calling people "crazies" because you disagree with them is a bit beneath you. [...]
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    Posted: October 12, 2009, 8:41pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Europe's Systemic Anti-Americanism

    —Red/Blue

    Regrettably, after Jere's and David Hampton's nearly simultaneous posts about how the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama was supposedly good for the nation, this blog site blocked me from logging-in to respond.  I am quite sure that that technological glitch had nothing to do with the timing [...]
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    Posted: October 12, 2009, 8:28pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Politics and the National Football League

    —Red/Blue

    I love pro football, truly I do.

    But I don't watch football to get my politics, or anyone else's politics, either.  Consequently, I do not watch the pre-game show of NBC Sunday Night Football, because I do not intend to watch uber-liberal Keith Olberman pontificate about football after he' [...]
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    Posted: October 12, 2009, 8:19pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Jere and competition in education

    —Red/Blue

    Well, what do you know?  Nash and I agree on the need to let the competition of the marketplace drive education decisions in our state.  But why stop at course offerings and majors, Jere?

    Why not divide the education dollars flowing from the General Fund by the number of [...]
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    Posted: October 07, 2009, 9:20am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Budget shortfalls, and this is for real

    —Red/Blue

    We've been seeing bad state revenue numbers showing significant shortfalls versus projections for so long that I have no doubt that many think that's just the way state government does business.

    But the environment in which we are operating right now is a new thing for everyone in state government' [...]
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    Posted: October 04, 2009, 7:58am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • President of the World?

    —Red/Blue

    My friends in the vast right-wing conspiracy (the "VRWC") were wondering aloud the day it was announced whether President Obama's trip to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago to the International Olympics Committee wasn't a clear indication that we already knew Chicago was going to get the nod.

    "Has to be,"' [...]
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    Posted: October 03, 2009, 9:00am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • There's your 60th Senate vote, Jere

    —Red/Blue

    Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick named Paul Kirk to the United States Senate today, taking the seat vacated by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy.

    So have at it, Jere; your Democrat brethren and sistren in the Congress now have a 78 vote margin in the House and a filibuster-proof [...]
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    Posted: September 24, 2009, 4:08pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Jere and Joe

    —Red/Blue

    Incredibly, Jere cites to Vice President Joe Biden, the Administration's biggest loose cannon, as authority for his latest post.

    It is ridiculous and offensive to suggest that Republicans want the economy to get worse, Jere; every American with a shred of patriotism -- which describes most folks I know -- wants [...]
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    Posted: September 24, 2009, 6:27am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Angela McGlowan sounding more like a candidate for Congress

    —Red/Blue

    When I first began hearing the name Angela McGlowan circulated on the short list of potential Republican candidates for Congress up in the First District, I discounted the possibility as unlikely.  Ms. McGlowan is passionate and eloquent in defense of her positions and beliefs, highly telegenic (read that, very attractive), [...]
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    Posted: September 22, 2009, 5:28am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Barbour to help Harper at fundraiser today

    —Red/Blue

    Governor Haley Barbour is the featured guest at a Washington, DC luncheon fundraiser being held today for Cong. Gregg Harper.

    Harper surprised a lot of folks when he emerged the winner from a tough and competitive field in the Republican primary race to replace Chip Pickering last summer.  He has [...]
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    Posted: September 17, 2009, 5:51am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Real power

    —Red/Blue

    Observers of real estate prices in Oxford over the past decade saw values skyrocket.  Lots of people wanted to live there for lots of reasons.

    In the past couple of years, even without the tough economy, things seemed to be tapering back a bit, and land values started to [...]
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    Posted: September 15, 2009, 6:29am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Vote "Yes" on Madison Schools Bond Issue Today

    —Red/Blue

    Today, residents of the Madison County School District have the chance to vote "Yes" on the future of public education in our county.

    The members of the school board and Superintendent Mike Kent have pulled together a $61MM package that requires no tax increase, but does require the approval of [...]
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    Posted: September 15, 2009, 5:33am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • South Carolina and political overload

    —Red/Blue

    This past weekend I had a work-related trip to North Carolina; on the way there, my wife and I stayed with friends near Greenville, South Carolina.  I was struck with the front page news stories that South Carolinians were reading during the past few days. 

    Between the Republicans in the [...]
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    Posted: September 14, 2009, 6:34am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Joe Wilson

    —Red/Blue

    Cong. Joe Wilson's outrageous interruption of the President's address Wednesday night violated our nation's great tradition of civil discourse.  He ought to be ashamed of himself.

    When we were all in school, most of us learned a principle that went something like this:  In our country, we are free to' [...]
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    Posted: September 12, 2009, 8:44am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • More on state budget cuts

    —Red/Blue

    Governor Haley Barbour has taken hits from some fronts, centering around complaints that budget cuts announced last Thursday are too damaging to education.  It might be helpful for some of those critics to take a look around the country.

    In a lead article this morning, the New York Times catalogues [...]
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    Posted: September 08, 2009, 5:54am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • JSU v. MSU

    —Red/Blue

    The first-ever SWAC v. SEC football game today between Jackson State and Mississippi State might be historic, but the first half has been anything but.

    Good grief. [...]
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    Posted: September 05, 2009, 4:28pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • The State Budget Blues

    —Red/Blue

    Governor Haley Barbour is holding a news conference at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon to announce, in the words of his office, some "major decisions" concerning the state budget.

    We are only two months into the new budget year.  Given that both July and August revenues were considerably below projections, and that [...]
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    Posted: September 02, 2009, 4:16pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Jere on Doug Wilson's Cash for Clunkers Column

    —Red/Blue

    As much as someone needs to respond directly to Doug Wilson's column on Cash for Clunkers in this week's Mississippi Business Journal, I had somehow resisted the temptation.

    But, Jere, you are not going to get a free shot on that one.  Doug's column extols the virtues of Cash for' [...]
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    Posted: September 02, 2009, 10:13am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • AG Race Brewing?

    —Red/Blue

    More and more buzz in Republican circles is being generated about the prospect of Public Safety Commissioner and former Circuit Judge Steve Simpson gearing up to run for Attorney General in 2011.  Simpson is a physically imposing guy, he has to be 6'6" tall, and has a record as a'" [...]
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    Posted: August 31, 2009, 5:05pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • New pilot project for electronic filing in state courts

    —Red/Blue

    Coungratulations to Madison County Chancery Clerk Arthur Johnston for serving as the pilot office for the roll-out of a system of electronic filing and access of all court files in state court. 

    Federal courts have mandated electronic filing for some time now, and the improved efficiencies for the [...]
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    Posted: August 30, 2009, 2:09pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • "Red Blue Review" on WLBT has new air times

    —Red/Blue

    Folks have been kind to ask about why Jere and I didn't show up on WLBT's 10 p.m. Sunday night news with "Red Blue Review" last weekend. 

    We have two new air times -- you'll be able to catch us during the 6 p.m. news on Saturdays and during the 6 a.m. [...]
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    Posted: August 26, 2009, 2:44pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • The more things change

    —Red/Blue

    President Obama, who campaigned on an amorphous theme of "Change", has signaled that the new Administration is as wed to the permanent power structure of Washington as was its predecessor.

    The President had already announced some time ago that he was keeping Defense Secretary Robert Gates in place, after [...]
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    Posted: August 25, 2009, 8:15am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Snapshots of freedom

    —Red/Blue

    Tomorrow, our youngest of three sons packs off to college for the first time.  I've been resisting the urge to wax too nostalgic; instead, a few thoughts brought to mind by our sons' ages:

    When our oldest son was born in 1986, we were in the wheelhouse of the Reagan years, halcyon [...]
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    Posted: August 20, 2009, 3:23pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Clunkers, Part II

    —Red/Blue

    As I wrote some time ago, Jere, Cash for Clunkers has everything to do with ObamaCare.

    The government can't figure out how to distribute $3 billion to car dealers.  How can anyone actually believe it makes sense to expect the government to be able to distribute hundreds of billions' [...]
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    Posted: August 20, 2009, 10:24am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • "Public Option" still alive after all

    —Red/Blue

    This past weekend HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House mouthpiece Robert Gibbs both said the so-called "public option", the government health insurance plan, was not a necessary part of a healthcare reform bill.  The ensuing news cycles declared the public option dead, particularly after Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) flatly declared that [...]
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    Posted: August 19, 2009, 6:32am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Not all Democrats are the same

    —Red/Blue

    Last night, Democratic Congressman Gene Taylor rolled up his sleeves during a tough, public and open town hall meeting in Moss Point and discussed issues with a contentious crowd that at least one reporter estimated at 1,000 folks.  Upon announcing his opposition to ObamaCare, Taylor got a standing ovation from the crowd.
    [...]
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    Posted: August 18, 2009, 10:31am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Jere's 2012 fixation

    —Red/Blue

    The reason Jere keeps writing about how the policy debates of today will or will not affect the elections of 2012 is that he can't bear to think about the mid-term elections next year.  

    Jere knows from history, from the fact that Democrats won a lot of Republican and' [...]
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    Posted: August 18, 2009, 6:29am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Well, that's a different matter altogether

    —Red/Blue

    When I saw the news that former Texas congressman Tom DeLay is now going to be a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars," I winced.  I mean, we hear of cross-over artists in the music industry who go, for example, from country to pop, or from gospel to rock.  But [...]
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    Posted: August 18, 2009, 6:19am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Oh, come on

    —Red/Blue

    Apparently Nash doesn't believe that recovery of a million dollars in illegal attorney's fees Ed Peters received for attempting to bribe a sitting state court judge is worthy of the attention of the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi.

    Or, and here's a novel thought, maybe actual jail time' [...]

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    Posted: August 15, 2009, 7:17pm EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Family Ties

    —Red/Blue

    This week saw three big enforcement cases in the news.

    In two of them, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and State Auditor Stacey Pickering were pursuing enforcement actions against cemetery owners and state employees, respectively, for stealing money.  Both officials seem to be aggressively fulfilling the duties of their offices.
    [...]
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    Posted: August 15, 2009, 8:05am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

  • Jere's Liberal Manifesto

    —Red/Blue

    Jere is a true-blue liberal; and as a liberal, he is devoted to the notion that more and bigger government is a good thing.  I believe the opposite in virtually every respect.

    As for Cash for Clunkers and ObamaCare, here's where we part ways:  I say more money in the programs [...]
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    Posted: August 05, 2009, 6:47am EDT
    by AndyTaggart

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