Sid Salter

• War, recession or Tiger’s girlfriend?

  America is mired in two wars — one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. President Obama announced he’s sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion in a conflict that’s lasted eight years and cost over $200 billion without any real success. Unemployment is at historic [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: December 03, 2009, 1:11pm EST
  by sidsalter

• (Kelvin) Buck stops in committee, HBUs won't be consolidated...

  Regardless the state’s fiscal woes and regardless Gov. Haley Barbour’s Fiscal Year 2010 Executive Budget Recommendation, don’t expect any of the state’s historically black universities — Jackson State, Alcorn State or Mississippi Valley State — to be merged or consolidated any time soon. State Rep. Kelvin Buck, D-Holly Springs, has [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 30, 2009, 1:50pm EST
  by sidsalter

• University mergers highly unlikely

  How’s that university merger plan going to work out for Gov. Haley Barbour? He might want to ask 4th District U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis and current Ole Miss professor Cy Rosenblatt. Back in the late 1980s, there was talk at the Capitol about closing or merging MUW [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 25, 2009, 1:24pm EST
  by sidsalter

• Ft. Hood: Jumping to conclusions

  In the wake of the Fort Hood massacre, President Obama said: “We don’t know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.” Too late, Mr. President. The alleged Ft. Hood shooter — Maj. Nadal Hasan — is apparently a Muslim [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 12, 2009, 5:38pm EST
  by sidsalter

• Barbour is in Iraq today visiting the 155th, 186th in Kuwait

  Gov. Barbour held a conference call press conference from Baghdad, Iraq. Barbour and the governors of Wyoming, Georgia, and Oregon are on a Defense Department tour of the war zone.
  Barbour talked of visiting with Mississippi National Guardsmen, some his age (62), who are serving. He spoke of the "honor" [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 10, 2009, 2:16pm EST
  by sidsalter

• Huckabee endorses Nunnelee

  From Huckabee's press release...
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
  Friday, November 6, 2009
  Contact: David John, 501-324-2008
   
   

  MEDIA ADVISORY
  

  
  Huck PAC and Governor Mike Huckabee are proud to endorse Senator Alan Nunnelee for Mississippi Congress (CD-1).
   
  Senator Nunnelee [...]

  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: November 06, 2009, 2:05pm EST
  by sidsalter

• Distracted drivers and Congress

  A bipartisan federal bill introduced Wednesday on Capitol Hill would provide incentives for states to ban drivers 18 years of age and under from using their cell phones while behind the wheel. The legislation, introduced in the Senate, seeks to curb deaths and injuries due to so-called distracted driving. What’s [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: October 29, 2009, 10:18am EDT
  by sidsalter

• Gene Taylor: Calls it like he sees it

  U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, isn’t a good politician in the classic sense. He’s abrupt. He’s abrasive. He frequently disagrees with his own party and he jousts at political windmills in fights he know he can’t win. While Taylor isn’t a good politician, he’s a fine congressman. Like [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: October 15, 2009, 8:19pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• "Mule-headed bunch of farmers?"

  Sheila Byrd of the Associated Press is reporting...
  CLARKSDALE — Academy-Award winner Morgan Freeman says Mississippi is "starving" for the right leadership, so the actor is using his celebrity status to help his friend run for governor in 2011.
  
  Freeman has written a fundraising letter and is one of [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: October 13, 2009, 2:54pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• "Mule-headed bunch of farmers?"

  Sheila Byrd of the Associated Press is reporting...
  CLARKSDALE — Academy-Award winner Morgan Freeman says Mississippi is "starving" for the right leadership, so the actor is using his celebrity status to help his friend run for governor in 2011.
  
  Freeman has written a fundraising letter and is one of [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: October 13, 2009, 2:54pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Obama’s Nobel Prize is premature

  President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize came to him prematurely to say the very least. Elevating Obama to the status of Dr. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Gen. George C. Marshall or even Teddy Roosevelt begs the question of a serious comparison of accomplishments.
  A friend suggested that [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: October 12, 2009, 1:10pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Obama's Nobel Prize is premature

  President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize came to him prematurely to say the very least. Elevating Obama to the status of Dr. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Gen. George C. Marshall or even Teddy Roosevelt begs the question of a serious comparison of accomplishments.
  A friend suggested that [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: October 12, 2009, 1:10pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Cigarette smuggling on the increase in the U.S.

  One of the expected results of higher cigarette taxes have been the increased incidences of cigarette smuggling. The federal government estimates that states are losing about $5 billion annually in tax revenue because of illegal tobacco sales. Mississippi’s already had one high-profile contraband cigarette smuggling case and it’s just a [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: September 22, 2009, 9:16pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Obama's "listening tour" in Mississippi

  Uh, oh.  Let me roll up my pants legs here....it's about to get deep.

   

  Here's an e-mail from "Organizing for America" that touts President Obama's so-called 'listening tours" slated in Mississippi for Batesville, Booneville, indianola, Hattiesburg and Jackson. It went to everyone in Mississippi on Obama's 2008 campaign data base:

   

  I'm" [...]

  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: September 22, 2009, 8:11pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• I agree with Barack Obama...

  Kanye West really is a jackass.
  
  Best joke on that I've heard so far?
  
  Kanye West just interrupted Patrick Swayze's funeral to say that Michael Jackson's funeral was better!
  ' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: September 16, 2009, 10:28pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• It’s about public policy, not race

  Former President Jimmy Carter did current President Barack Obama no favors by suggesting that criticism of Obama is race-based rather than policy-based. Carter played the race card on Obama critics because it’s the easiest one to play. But the fact is that for most Obama critics, it’s big-government change that’s [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: September 16, 2009, 10:26pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Obama’s uninsured numbers change

  A funny thing happened on the way to the Capitol. President Obama changed one of the major numbers cited to justify his health care reforms.
  “There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage,” Obama told Congress last week. Back in August, he had said: “We’ve [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: September 10, 2009, 8:07pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Barbour expected to announce budget cuts Thursday afternoon

  Gov. Haley Barbour is expected to announce what will essentially be across-the-board budget cuts that will include public education at all levels at Thursday 1 p.m. press conference.
  Likely exempt will be Medicaid, the Department of Health and state compliance with court mandates that stem from lawsuits. The cuts are [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: September 02, 2009, 7:04pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Lawmakers know budget cuts coming

  State legislators and state educators at all levels alike can see the budget handwriting on the wall — state budget cuts are coming and they will likely begin this month.Gov. Haley Barbour will get the political blame for making the cuts, but the fact is that state law requires him [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 31, 2009, 8:10pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• How utterly ridiculous is this debate?

  Social Security and Medicare, the two federal obligations most near and dear to American citizens, are on fiscal life support. Medicare is projected to run out of money in 2017, with Social Security on track to go belly up 20 years later in 2037. Forget partisan wrangling. This isn’t about partisanship. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 19, 2009, 9:59pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Earmarks for none or earmarks for all

  A congressional “earmark” is a provision that directs appropriated funds to be spent on specific projects. U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., got $1.22 billion in earmarks, the most in Congress in Fiscal Year 2009. They included funds for repairs to hurricane damage at an Army ammunition plant and for construction [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 18, 2009, 9:16pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Town Hall Meetings: Double standard for protesters...

  When protesters from the left — environmentalists, labor unions, the pro-choice lobby, civil rights advocates, health care reform advocates, anti-war activists, you name it — take to the streets, disrupt speeches or public meetings or shout down speakers, it's hailed as political activism and noble expressions of dissent. Most of the [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 10, 2009, 10:06am EDT
  by sidsalter

• Post-Neshoba County Fair wrap: Grey eminence?

  Here's what I saw and heard at Neshoba:
  •Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann appears headed for a re-election bid, not a bid for higher office.
  •State Treasurer Tate Reeves appears ready to take his $2 million campaign warchest out for a spin for higher office. Whether that bid is for [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 04, 2009, 11:10am EDT
  by sidsalter

• Post-Neshoba County Fair wrap: Grey eminence?

  Here's what I saw and heard at Neshoba:
  •Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann appears headed for a re-election bid, not a bid for higher office.
  •State Treasurer Tate Reeves appears ready to take his $2 million campaign warchest out for a spin for higher office. Whether that bid is for [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: August 04, 2009, 11:10am EDT
  by sidsalter

• David Landrum: Raising money for Voter ID initiative and referendum fight...

  This arrived by e-mail today from former Republican 3rd District Congressional candidate David Landrum:
  
  "The Mississippi Republican Party is hard at work to get photo voter identification on the ballot in 2010. For years, many people have been allowed to vote numerous times under different names and the deceased" [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 23, 2009, 2:05pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• David Landrum: Raising money for Voter ID initiative and referendum fight...

  This arrived by e-mail today from former Republican 3rd District Congressional candidate David Landrum:
  
  "The Mississippi Republican Party is hard at work to get photo voter identification on the ballot in 2010. For years, many people have been allowed to vote numerous times under different names and the deceased" [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 23, 2009, 2:05pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Abstinence programs aren't working. Hugh shocker, that...

  Mississippi is among the leading states in terms of the spread of HIV and AIDS among pre-teens and young adults and of pregnancies among those same age groups, including girls as young as the age of 10. Mississippi has the highest birth rate in the nation for girls ages 10-14. Abstinence [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 22, 2009, 2:47pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Abstinence programs aren't working. Huge shocker, that...

  Mississippi is among the leading states in terms of the spread of HIV and AIDS among pre-teens and young adults and of pregnancies among those same age groups, including girls as young as the age of 10. Mississippi has the highest birth rate in the nation for girls ages 10-14. Abstinence [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 22, 2009, 2:47pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Judicial confirmation process is broken beyond repair...

  I'm not a huge fan of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Her views on gun rights don't jive with mine and her views as expressed in the Ricci case are downright dangerous.But if a conservative president like Bush is going to be able to appoint conservative judges whose views dovetail with his [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 22, 2009, 2:37pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Is minimum wage hike going to hurt job seekers?

  Clearly, a minimum wage hike is a good thing for those working in low skill, low wage jobs and any boost to household income now for those families is welcome. But when the current three-year phased minimum wage hike plan was approved, the nation's unemployment rate was 4.5 percent. Today, [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 22, 2009, 2:32pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• McCoy tapped as small business "Champion" by national group

  According to House Information Officer Mac Gordon, House Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Rienzi) was recently honored with a "Champion of Small Business" Award from the National Coalition for Capital. Speaker McCoy and 24 other elected officials and community leaders from around the nation were recognized for their efforts at the National [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 22, 2009, 2:24pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Chip Pickering statement after Leisha Pickering's lawsuit

  Former U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering released this statement late Thursday afternoon:
  
  "My marriage to Leisha is irreparably damaged.  For the sake of our boys, I have done my best to resolve our differences amicably, fairly and privately, but without success, as Leisha refused to cooperate in any form or" [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 16, 2009, 8:52pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Attorney General's ruling anticipated, perhaps today, on challenge to Judy Rhodes at SDE

  An opinion is expected perhaps as early as today on whether or not Mississippi Professional Educators' executive director and former longtime state Department of Education leader Judy Rhodes can serve as interim state superintendent of education without a masters degree.
  Sources say the ruling will support legislators who say Rhodes' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 16, 2009, 12:40pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• PSC a partisan fight? You bet. Just ask Sam Hall...

  Hmmm....
  
  As I said in a column today, it appears the Public Service Commission budget fight is far more about partisan politics than it is the actual need for additional technical staff to enable the PSC to do their jobs — as all three commissioners, Democrat and Republican, have [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 08, 2009, 11:52am EDT
  by sidsalter

• Oath slated for new House member

  Mississippi's newest state representative will take the oath of office on Friday,  July 10  at 10 a.m. in the House chambers.Rep. Wilbert Jones, D-Meridian, succeeds the late Rep. Charles Young Sr. of Meridian in House District 82. Jones is director of the Greater Meridian Health Clinic.
  Jones defeated Republican challenger [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 08, 2009, 11:20am EDT
  by sidsalter

• Barbour: An unequivocal "No thanks, Bubba" to additonal PSC staff

  Gov. Haley Barbour confirmed on my radio show the worst kept news in Mississippi - that there would be a special session of the Legislature called to fund the Public Service Commission and Public Utilities Staff budget on Friday, July 10 at 10 a.m.
  Barbour was adamantly opposed to lawmakers [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: July 07, 2009, 7:11pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Democrats hold the House seat created by Rep. Charles Young's death

  Mississippi Democrats held the House seat once held by the late Rep. Charles Young of Meridian. Wilbert Jones is the new state representative. He defeated Republican Bill Marcy. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 30, 2009, 9:59pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Low and behold, "taxing the sick" was agreeable all the way around...

  As the Legislature prepares to wrap up the down-to-the wire budget mess, it seems that all the plaintive rhetoric about the evils of "taxing the sick" was just that — rhetoric — offered by mega-salaried hospital administrators at Mississippi's profitable "not-for-profit" hospitals who were far more worried about their bottom [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 30, 2009, 1:19pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Harper, Taylor and Childers reject ‘climate’ bill — Thompson votes for it

  On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 2454, the so-called “American Clean Energy and Security Act” by a vote of 219 to 212.
  Mississippi U.S. Reps. Gregg Harper, Gene Taylor and Travis Childers voted against the bill. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson voted in [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 29, 2009, 7:24pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• 2009 Neshoba County Fair Political Speaking Schedule

  Political Speaking - Founders Square – Wednesday, July 29, 2009
  
  9:30 a.m.  Honorable Mark Duncan (D), District Attorney, 8th Circuit Court District,
                   State of MS.
  9:40 a.m.  Honorable Vernon Cotton, 8th Circuit Court Judge, State of MS
  9:50 a.m.  Honorable Marcus Gordon, 8th Circuit Court Judge, State of [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 29, 2009, 10:44am EDT
  by sidsalter

• NO DEAL!!! Negotiations to continue Saturday

  After getting close to a budget  agreement on Friday, negotiations broke down again on Friday afternoon with Medicaid funding still the primary hangup. All sides say negotiations will continue on Saturday. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 26, 2009, 6:34pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• DEAL!!! Political drums say budget agreement imminent, special session likely Sunday

  A check with House, Senate and Governor's Office sources this morning indicates that a FY 2010 budget deal is imminent and that an announcement could come as early as this afternoon of a special session set to begin Sunday. It appears that the leadership of both houses and Gov. Barbour [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 26, 2009, 1:08pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Barbour, Huckabee the beneficiaries of Sanford's flameout

  Since Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s last nationally televised speech was so unforgettably discordant, one would have to conclude that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s political flameout leaves Gov. Haley Barbour and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the prime political beneficiaries if the GOP indeed is looking for a Southerner [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 26, 2009, 1:07pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Barbour to immediately succeed Sanford as Republican Governors Association chairman

  Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour will immediately succeed South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Barbour was the vice-chairman and set to move up at the end of Sanford's term, but will immediately assume the chairmanship after Sanford's resignation from the post today after admitting that [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 24, 2009, 2:07pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Legal fee dispute- Microsoft Version 1.0

  Microsoft Corp.’s settlement of an antitrust lawsuit filed by the state of Mississippi will result in a payment of $40 million in about 40 days and another $60 million in vouchers to buy software and computers with Microsoft products for Mississippi schools, businesses, local governments and individual customers.
  Kudos all [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 15, 2009, 8:20pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Public is angry over state budget fight

  If either the Republicans or the Democrats in the Legislature — or in the Governor’s Mansion, for that matter — think they’re making friends and winning future votes by failing to craft a state budget during the regular legislative session, think again. The public is angry. They don’t care about [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: June 04, 2009, 10:37pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• No parole for cop killers. None.

  The notion that cop killers Charles Montgomery Jr. and Anita Krecic are up for parole is beyond infuriating. Both of these individuals were given life sentences for killing Mississippi state troopers during routine traffic stops. Giving either of these inmates one day less than the maximum sentence they received marginalizes [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 22, 2009, 1:51pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Medicaid: Can the governor 'save" $60 million in stimulus funds?

  Gov. Haley Barbour, Sen. Alan Nunnelee and others are talking up plans to "save" $60 million from the federal stimulus package to carry forward for 2011.
  But State Rep. Cecil Brown and other House leaders say they have been shown "no authority" to carry that money forward and Brown says [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 20, 2009, 12:40pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Philadelphia's mayoral election

  There's perhaps far too much significance being attached to the election of James A. Young as the first African-American mayor of the city of Philadelphia, Mississippi. While the historical milestone is notable given Neshoba County's hallowed place on the American path to civil rights, in terms of retail politics it's' [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 20, 2009, 12:09pm EDT
  by sidsalter

• Pearl Mayor: Incumbent Jimmy Foster trailing Brad Rogers

  FROM THE RANKIN LEDGER: With four of eight precincts reporting in Pearl, incumbent Pearl Mayor Jimmy Foster was trailing challenger Brad Rogers by a margin of 542-339.Local business owner Kevin Kimery had only snagged 47 votes. [...]
  Share | Rate | Archive

  Posted: May 05, 2009, 10:17pm EDT
  by sidsalter