Traffic Light Cameras

The use of cameras at intersections should be driven by safety and not money. We can use this technology to reduce accidents and save lives if we do it right.

1. Time the lights so they allow drivers to make safe decisions in all conditions.

2. Increase the “take” the state gets for fines to be used for road improvements.

3. Increase the use of cameras to include all major intersections by 2015.

4. Use data from the cameras to increase “manned” patrols on problem intersections.

Economic Growth

The shine is off the apple for the Minner Administration when it comes to jobs. We will see the fall out when state revenues begin to fall.

Five recommendations;

1. Solve Health Care – Delacare 2008 is a great place to start. Wellness, productivity and security for businesses and people.

2. Use a small part of the resources we have in the Delaware Pension Fund to begin a “start up and expansion” effort for small and mid size businesses.

3. Stop spending so much money. You can’t let state spending growth out pace revenue growth.

4. Education – The reforms of the last ten years have not worked.

5. Tax policy should be shaped to support savings, growth and investment which in turn will produce revenue.

Climate Change Summit

One of the first things to do as Governor is to begin a serious effort to bring Delaware in to the 21st century for energy production and pollution. A Climate Change summit will be hosted in order to reduce our energy needs from gas, oil and coal and enact legislation to do so.

The most important part of the equation is to improve the environmental profile of the state of Delaware plus make energy more plentiful and affordable.

Teachers and School Reform

The News Journal had a great Community Voice column from a teacher who laid out some compelling thoughts on school reform.

One very interesting fact was the 50% attrition rate for teachers in the first five years. Imagine going through college and within five years you dump your chosen profession not because you don’t like it but because the folks in charge of your enterprise don’t seem to care about you.

A few recommendations:

1) 40% of teachers say classroom discipline is their #1 issue yet we still do not have alternative schools to quell the all to routine disturbances.

2) Teachers know the DSTP and NCLB is a bureaucratic solution which is compliance driven not goal driven yet we refuse to seek a better way to track accountability.

3) Most importantly the author of the article points out the disarray of the everyday school scenario and how difficult it is to hold teachers accountable for results when they can’t control what walks in the door.

The Health Care Shortage that is Coming

The number of primary care doctors has dropped 6% from 2001 to 2007 and the proportion of third year internal medicine residents who will pursue primary care dropped from 58% in 1998 to 20% in 2005.

It is called too much work for too little pay. Primary care doctors earn about $162,000 while specialists bring home roughly twice that amount.

As we look to implement Delacare 2008 we will look for ideas to bring primary care doctors to Delaware. Coverage without access doesn’t mean much.

DSTP: What to Believe, What to Do?

The recent Delaware State Testing Program (DSTP) results answer few questions, but do create some new opportunities for true change in our shools.

It appears many of the schools with growth achieved this growth by applying local solutions to local challenges. I applaud their ingenuity and results. Why not embrace some of the changes in Vision 2015 to make school principals the true leaders of their schools and not servants of the Department of Education?

Also for the test itself. Are we to believe that some schools can post double digit gains one year with no reason? Barry Bonds has tried that argument for a few years. Testing must be consistent with student curriculum and teacher training and be measurable over a school year.

Delaware Psychiatric Center…What to Do?

The challenges at the Delaware Psychiatric Center (DPC) are many and cannot be swept under the carpet any longer. The solution must involve these concerns:

1. First and foremost every citizen deserves adequate health care consistent with their individual needs.

2. Each patient should be treated fairly and professionally.

3. Taxpayers deserve value for their tax dollar and allowing disastrous care which has been documented but ignored while we waste tax dollars is intolerable.

4. There should be an outside investigation in to the WNJ allegations and those at fault should be held responsible and if dismissal is warranted, so be it.

5. Along with the investigation there should be discussion on better options for these patients other than a public hospital managed by bureaucrats. Possibly, a private hospital could be contracted to care for these patients to deliver adequate care and better value for taxpayers.

The California Health Care Saga

As reported in the wall Street Journal the Governor of California and the leislature are at odds over a universal health care proposal.

The (California) Governor’s plan includes individual mandate, levies and fees on doctors and businesses or pay 4% of payroll toward the cost of coverage.

Legislature plan includes no individual mandate, no fees on doctors or businesses but mandates 7.5% of payroll be spent on health care.

Both have good intentions but poor execution. Our plan Delacare 2008 is based on wellness, productivity and security. Setting a per centage requirement does not mean “value” will be delivered to the consumer or to businesses.

Property Rights Reign Supreme

The recent attempt by the City of Wilmington to “reclaim” land to move the City into the 21st Century is a case of good initiative, bad headwork.

The owners of these businesses have the right to stay, sell or buy without government influence or threats. Property rights and the rule of law is what makes our economy run efficiently and to abrogate any part of that condition is a bad precedent.

If the City if Wilmington want to move in to the 21st Century then possibly it could deliver basic government services to it s citizens in a safe and clean environment. Using a heavy hand to pressure business owners is unwarranted.

Let the business owners bargain for full market value and nothing less.

Iran Opening? Poll shows Public Rejects Regime’s Agenda

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published in the New York Post on July 16, 2007.

Is the extremist agenda of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – including support for terror, development of nuclear weapons and confrontation with the United States and Israel – popular among Iranians? Are they willing to make the sacrifices that would come from an increasingly tight global boycott imposed because of Iran’s defiance of United Nations strictures on its nuclear development?

A rare glimpse into the minds of the Iranian people – via a telephone survey of Iranians conducted for Terror Free Tomorrow – shows that the answers to both questions is “no!”

Apparently, Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs are in serious political trouble. Iranians do not much care about getting the bomb and very much worry about global isolation.

The survey shows:

* Iranians oppose the institution of an “unelected Supreme Leader” by 61-27 and favor democracy by 79-14. So when liberals assail neocons for having a naive faith in peoples’ aspirations for freedom, they are just wrong – even in Iran.

* Iranians want nuclear power more than nuclear weapons. Suffering under gasoline rationing and falling energy exports, three-quarters said that developing nuclear power, without weapons, was “very important.” By contrast, only 37 percent said developing nuclear weapons was a similar priority. Since the Iranian regime says that it wants nuclear power, not nuclear weapons, its stated position accords with its people’s views. (The government, of course, is lying and wants to get a bomb.)

The survey underscores the need to separate nuclear power from weaponry in the minds of the people and make clear that Western sanctions are designed to prevent Iran from getting the bomb, not power or energy.

* Iranians would gladly agree to “full inspections and a guarantee that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons” if other nations would increase overall trade and investment (80 percent), increase investment in the energy sector (79 percent), give humanitarian assistance (80 percent) or assist in helping Iran develop peaceful nuclear energy (80 percent).

* Only 33 percent said supporting terrorist proxies Hezbollah or Hamas was a priority, and 55 percent are ready to endorse full recognition of Israel and of a Palestinian state if they could get “normal trade and full recognition” from the United States. Almost two-thirds – 64 percent – said that they are willing to end Iranian assistance to armed groups in Iraq and 51 percent would forgo nuclear weaponry and accept full international controls and inspections in return for normal relations with the United States.

These data emphasize the importance of a Western willingness to bring Iran in from the cold in return for a no-nuclear-weapons agreement. The palpable thirst of the people for an end to their isolation speaks volumes about the attractiveness of such a proposition.

* The government in Iran gets dismal ratings. By 52-33, Iranians feel Ahmadinejad has failed to cut unemployment or inflation; by 56-22, they say he has not kept his campaign promise to “put oil revenues on the tables of the average family.”

But does this all matter? Do the opinions of the Iranian people count in this dictatorship? Clearly, they do. The data point to a potential for revolution should Iran’s global isolation increase. People are fed up with living in a pariah state and want normal relations with the rest of the world – even if it means abandoning their leaders’ extremist agenda.

Thus, the recent actions of Florida, Missouri and Louisiana in cutting off all pension-fund investments in companies that do business in Iran takes on particular importance. Their nation’s global isolation clearly grates on the Iranian people and stokes their fears and disenchantment with their government. Divestment legislation is making good progress in Pennsylvania (shepherded by state Rep. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat) and in California and New Jersey. In New York, unfortunately, the Legislature adjourned without taking any action. Divestterror.org, an organization founded by Frank Gaffney of the Reagan Pentagon, is leading these battles.

The Louisiana action is particularly important. The state law – sponsored by state Rep. Pete Schneider, a Republican – authorizes the governor to contract with Wall Street firms to develop a terror-free investment index of companies and mutual funds in which the state can put its pension funds. Once such a fund is developed, the potential for it to become the gold standard for disinvestment is enormous.