Marathon Pundit

Monday, October 01, 2007

"I like Mike": Glenn & Helen podcast with Mike Huckabee

Almost a year ago, I unleashed a series of tough posts, including this one, on then-Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. What caught my eye was that Huckabee and his wife--they've been married for many years--appeared on a "bridal registry" at Target and the department store Dillard's.

The couple didn't set up the registries, but they took their time in distancing themselves from them.

Since that misstep, Mike Huckabee has grown on me as a candidate for the Republican nomination for president. This is not an endorsement--it's still too early for that--but I'm going to say right now, "I like Mike."

This being marathon week in Chicago, it's important to mention that Huckabee is a four-time marathoner. As for myself, I will be running in Sunday's Chicago Marathon. I'm in terrible shape: Too little running, too many late night dinners, and too much late night blogging.

In the latest Glenn & Helen show, Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith interview the second-most famous man from Hope, Arkansas.

Discussions about health care take up a significant portion of the podcast. The slim former governor lost 100 pounds after his doctor warned him that barring drastic lifetstyle changes, Huckabee was facing the final decade of his life. That's how Huckabee got involved in marathon running.

Huckabee favors changing the health-care system, which he calls a "disease care system," but is opposed to Hillary-care and its latest incarnation. Huckabee, in explaining his position, quotes P.J. O'Rourke's famous comment on universal health care:

If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it's free.

"Huck" also dishes out a lot of common sense on taxes, an issue I've been paying close attention to of late on this blog. Scroll down for more on that.

Listen to or download the podcast here. Or if you have an iPod, do what I did, download it here, and if you're in the mood, listen to the podcast during a 10 mile run.

Huckabee is also a prolific author, his books include, From Hope to Higher Ground, his weight loss tome, Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork, and Kids Who Kill, among others.

The podcast is sponsored by Volvo Cars.

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Partial victory: Cook County Board delays vote on enacting nation's highest sales tax

It appears that there is some common sense left in Cook County. The leaders of that patronage army and legion of layabouts known Cook County government decided to delay a vote scheduled for today that would've cursed the residents of the nation's second most populous county with the nation's highest sales tax.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

Sources say that the Stroger administration could not round up enough votes to pass it today. (My comment: Hooray!) This is last possible date to enact a tax increase that would take effect on Jan. 1, 2008. Unless something changes dramatically, the proposed 2 percent hike cannot now take effect until next July 1 at the earliest.

Allies of Cook County Board President Todd Stroger say board members would likely return to this issue on Oct. 16.

Stroger said the hike is necessary to save the county health system and fund necessary services. He has called for a 2 percent hike in the sales tax, which would bring the sales tax in the city of Chicago to a nation leading 11 percent.

Stroger's office released figures indicating the total budget deficit is $307 million. This breaks down to $150 million in reduced revenue and $157 million in increased expenses. A total of 48 percent of those expenses are employee-related costs.

And now is a good time to revisit my thoughts from Saturday night. Last fall it looked like Republican candidate for Cook County Board President Tony Peraica would achieve the impossible and put that office into Republican hands for the first time in almost forty years. But as I blogged that evening, a big push by state Democrats, including Barack Obama and Dick Durbin, gave Todd Stroger the momentum to prevail in November.

So Obama and Durbin, who've been silent on the sales tax issue, can't claim that this is a local issue that isn't relevant to their responsibilities in Washington.

Senators: Where do you stand on the county sales tax hike proposal?

Hey, even Gov. Blagojevich, a Democrat, spoke out on this issue: He's against the tax increase.

Related posts:

Will Cook County have the nation's highest sales tax?

Hey Obama! Speak out on proposal to impose nation's highest sales tax in your hometown: UDPATED

Cook County Board may vote for nation's highest sales tax

Time for me to shop...outside Cook County?

Marathon Pundit Chicago River dumping follow up

Thanks for links:

The newly re-designed It's My Mind

And another resigned blog, The Bench

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My Kansas Kronikles: Mushroom Rock

Mushroom rock formations are created when a harder rock finds itself, over the slow process of geologic time, on top of a softer rock. Heading from McPherson, I drove on Kansas' newest scenic byway, Pioneer Trails. It's no new, no signs are up marking the route. Other than the the Mushroom Rock photograph, all of the other pictures were taken on the new byway.

Yes, I had to get one more barbed wire photograph in. Many of the fences in this part of Kansas have posts made up of ordinary tree branches. Just as I found nascent ghost town on the Smoky Valley Scenic Byway, the byway town Roxbury seems to be heading that way as well. The building in the bottom photograph comes from there.

For more on Pioneer Trails, visit Kalle Lilla's Lindsborger News blog, here and here.

Mushroom Rock and the other rock formations in the five acre state park are a big deal to Kansans. Although I described Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America as a "teeth-gnashing" experience, I enjoyed the book's chapter on Pope Michael I, also known as David Bawden. One two photographs on the Bawden's main page is of the Pope posed in front of Mushroom Rock.

Bawden lives near Topeka, and considers the Vatican popes from John XXXII onwards as heretics.

Mushoom Rock State Park is located near Salina, just south of Interstate 70. Like the impressive Monument Rocks, drivers have to endure a few miles on unpaved roads to get there.

This is my last Kansas byways post, and I only have few Kansas Kronikles eentries left Now is a good time bring up Marci Penner's Kansas Guidebook For Explorers. A reader e-mailed me about the book, I wasn't aware of it before I left. If you want to learn as much as possible about traveling through the Sunflower State, click here.

Next: Abilene

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Will Cook County have the nation's highest sales tax?

Today could end up being a dreadful one. As I type this, the Cook County Board of Commissioners is meeting and will later vote on whether the nation's second most populous county impose on its 5 million residents the highest sales tax in America.

As I blogged two days ago, key supporters of Todd Stroger in his tough election battle last year, Senators Barack Obama and Dick Durbin, are silent on this issue. Governor Rod Blagojevich, also a Democrat, has made his view public: He's opposed.

Not to be outdone, Chicago is considering raising property taxes for the first time in four years. And they want to add a bottle water and restaurant meals tax, as well as increasing the already high city gasoline tax. Chicago and Cook County residents already have to suffer paying close to the highest prices for gasoline in the nation.

Related posts:

Hey Obama! Speak out on proposal to impose nation's highest sales tax in your hometown: UDPATED

Cook County Board may vote for nation's highest sales tax

Time for me to shop...outside Cook County?

Marathon Pundit Chicago River dumping follow up

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