Category Archives: Politics

I Haven’t cared Less about Election Day Since I Started Voting

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I voted today, but never has it felt more like a waste of time, and I honestly don’t care who wins.  Yes, I said I don’t really care who wins.

I’ve completely lost my care because I’ve realized that it doesn’t matter.  Endless hours of cable news yapping has been spent on what’s going to happen tonight and how its going to impact the government.  Let me sum it up for you, one party is going to have more seats than the other and the only difference between one or the other is the pace at which Congress is going to accomplish nothing.

One party has a group of dithering fools for leadership and the other only cares about stopping the current administration from doing anything.

Bottom line, very, very little will be different tomorrow.  With my vote today I just bought myself another couple of years to complain about how much our politics is hurting our country.

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The Sad State of Our Country

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It’s things like this Slate article that have made me completely disenchanted and inclined to weep for the future of this country.  Love him or hate him, how can you still have a complete lack of understanding about some fundamental characteristics of the leader of your country?  And I’m not sure which is worse, the Republicans who don’t know that Obama isn’t a Muslim or the Democrats that haven’t figured it out.  Yeah, I’m going to go with Democrats.

HE’S THE LEADER OF YOUR PARTY AND YOU DON’T KNOW SOMETHING REALLY FUNDAMENTAL ABOUT HIM.  REALLY?

On top of that, the numbers are trending in the wrong direction.  Instead of people getting a more accurate understanding, a greater percentage of people are getting wrong as time goes on.

Sad.  Just sad.

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Words of Reason?

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I think I’ve noted several times over the last handful of months that I was spent on the landfill that our public political discourse has become.  The partisanship has gotten to a point where it sounds like grade school kids calling each other names on the playground, which we all know accomplishes absolutely nothing.

This article probably sums up what I’ve been thinking and feeling, but haven’t been articulate enough to express in a way that would make sense.  Usually, when I link to opinion pieces I try to give a little bit of a disclaimer on the author and their partisan leanings.  I did a quick look, but couldn’t figure out what John Avalon’s leanings are or what the deal with the Daily Beast is.  Read the article and see if it hits home.

I pulled two paragraphs from the article, which  are actually direct quotes from Obama’s speech that I think say it all very concisely.

“We can’t expect to solve our problems if all we do is tear each other down. You can disagree with a certain policy without demonizing the person who espouses it. You can question somebody’s views and their judgment without questioning their motives or their patriotism. Throwing around phrases like ‘socialists’ and ‘Soviet-style takeover’ and ‘fascist’ and ‘right-wing nut’ — that may grab headlines, but it also has the effect of comparing our government, our political opponents, to authoritarian, even murderous regimes.

“Now, we’ve seen this kind of politics in the past. It’s been practiced by both fringes of the ideological spectrum, by the left and the right, since our nation’s birth. But it’s starting to creep into the center of our discourse. … The problem is that this kind of vilification and over-the-top rhetoric closes the door to the possibility of compromise. It undermines democratic deliberation. … It makes it nearly impossible for people who have legitimate but bridgeable differences to sit down at the same table and hash things out. It robs us of a rational and serious debate, the one we need to have about the very real and very big challenges facing this nation. It coarsens our culture, and at its worst, it can send signals to the most extreme elements of our society that perhaps violence is a justifiable response.”

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Health Care Reform

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Okay, I was trying to stay away from this because I admittedly haven’t been following it as much as some other topics in the past, but things that I’ve been hearing lately have been bothering me.

First off, I don’t really think you’re going to find many people that would disagree that the cost of health care is becoming an increasing burden on a significant portion of the population.  I know personally, the increases in my insurance premiums have been outstripping the yearly increases in my salary.  So in terms of the work to fix health care in the country, here are some problems I have with the current situation.

I’m generally in favor of a free market for the exchange of goods and services, but I am concerned that we currently rely on such a system for the provision of health care.  Basically, health care providers are primarily concerned with making money, not providing quality health care.  The same goes for insurance companies, who make it more and more difficult for health care providers to not worry so much about money, but providing good health care.  The problem, as I see it, is that there’s no natural downward pressure on health care prices, which is how a free market would ideally regulate itself.  There’s no natural downward pressure because the demand for health care is never ending, and people will only do without it as a last resort.

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Handshake Hyperventilation and Diplomatic Hypocrisy

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Are people really making this big a deal about the fact that Obama shook Chavez’s hand.  People are freaking out because Venezuela is a socialist country and Chavez is kind of crazy and hates America.  Their human rights record sucks and they’re against everything we’re for economically.  This isn’t anything we didn’t already know.

There’s another country that’s pretty similar to Venezuela.  Its called Cuba and Obama said he was going to try a different tact with them as well, since, as I noted before, our foreign policy with them has worked so well over the last 50 years.

I’m just trying to make the point that people shouldn’t be so surprised.

I’m looking forward to when Obama meets with China for the first time though.  We all know that he’s going to shake their hands and smile when he’s talking to them.  But its okay when he does it with them because they have a really good human rights record and they’re totally on board with running their economy like ours and having really balanced trade with us.

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Cheney on CNN

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I’m sitting in the airport waiting to fly back to DC watching Dick Cheney being interviewed about Obama’s policies on CNN and I’m wondering why. Its not like what he is going to say is going to be a shock to anyone. You can sum up what he’ll say as simply as “Whatever that Obama guy wants to do is bad.”

Its as worthwhile as having Nancy Pelosi come on and ask her about Bush policies. Every one of her responses would essentially be, “He’s bad and so are his policies. I’m not really thinking about what the policies are, but if Bush wanted it, it has to be bad.”

Now I might be exaggerating a little, but does anyone really care what these uber-partisan people have to say about policies from the opposition. Maybe you do care and you’re game for that, but it seems like a huge waste of time to me. If you’re going to trot someone out on TV, at least give me three seconds of suspense where I don’t know what they’re going to say in response to a question before the question is finished being asked.

Then again, I’m probably asking too much since there aren’t enough of those people to go around.

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What the Republicans Think is Waste

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After reading this article I felt compelled to share my thoughts.  Some of what they complain about I agree with.  Some of what they complain about makes me think they’re playing rubbish political games.  One basic issue I have is if the spending is only going towards propping up current operations, I don’t think its the best use of money.  I really think that if we’re spending this money, it should go towards getting tangible things that will benefit the country while giving people jobs.  The country gets something while people make money that will spend, which will help bolster the economy.

Read it and tell me how foolish I am.  My comments are in italics.

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.  - Agreed, this is total rediculous, crap, stupid pork spending.

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters. – If you saw what they work out of now, you’d understand.

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.  - Easy there tiger.  What kinda furniture you getting?

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees. – Let’s see, the American auto industry is in the crapper, the federal fleet uses American automobiles, this will help reduce pollution through cleaner emissions.  Sounds like a terrible idea to me.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities. – I’m not getting the stimulus from this, but maybe I don’t follow.

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion. – Stimulus?  Crap idea.

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI. – As a civil servant (admitted bias alert) I have a serious issue with calling this waste.  The American people want to be safe and have good roads and have clean water, but they don’t want to pay for it.  Maybe doesn’t belong in a stimulus bill, but I’ll support it anyway.

• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River. – I think its pretty clear that we’re not exactly squared away with dealing with floods of the Mississippi River.  If we’re building things this is exactly what we need, especially b/c it will save money in the long run.

• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. – Huh?

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings. – See similar comment about buying hybrid cars.  Plus, many of the federal buildings in DC are old and really crappy and need to be refurbished anyway.  Make them greener in the process.

• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs. – Programs to get more people working even if for a short period of time, putting money in their hands, that they will in turn spend on consumer products, which is what poeple aren’t doing now.  Terrible idea.  Why would we do that?

• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service. – a volunteer is someone who is unpaid by definition.  If they get paid, they’re not a volunteer.

• $850 million for Amtrak. – are we building or subsidizing.  Building good, subsidizing bad.

• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies. –  Nice try State

Just my thoughts.

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Staggering Facts About our Government and Spending

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Say whatever you want about the opinions expressed in the rest of this Bloomberg article, some of the figures about the spending of our government and our current budget shortfalls knocked the wind out of me.  Here are the highlights:

Or try this. The whole world’s military spending in 2006 totaled a little less than $1.2 trillion. So next year’s U.S. deficit [$1.7 trillion projected] could cover that and still have $500 billion left over for building bridges.

And…

Perhaps the most disturbing comparison is this one: When President George W. Bush was first elected, total federal government spending was about $1.7 trillion. In other words, the difference between federal outlays and federal revenue this year will be bigger than the entire government was as recently as 2000.

Another interesting thing the article points out regarding our governmental spending is that revenue has increased from approximately $2 trillion to projected $2.4 trillion next year, while spending has increased around %95.  In 2000, the government spent around $1.8 trillion and it is projected to spend around $3.5 trillion.

A couple of thoughts on that last tidbit.  First, almost all of that increase in spending happened under a Republican government.  So much for small government conservative leadership.  Second, it really gives one pause when considering whether the new government should be teeing up another huge spending bill and whether the bill is going to really accomplish anything.  Obviously, money spent on the wrong things isn’t going to help the economy any, and I think we’ve proven our inability to spend on the right things over the last eight years.  Despite the view of many that Obama is going to make it all better, he can’t turn the Titanic himself.

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aGgZR28hHCPk&refer=columnist_hassett

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Apparently Mayors were Feeling Left Out

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Since everyone else in the country who’s economic situation sucks is asking for crap tons of money, the mayors of the country decided they’d get in on the action.  When the idea of requesting a monetary package from the federal government to help upgrade the national infrastructure while creating jobs was first thrown out, I thought it was a good one.  There’s been a lot of talk about our aging infrastructure and the problems its going to cause and lord knows we need to create jobs.  The mayors claimed they could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in pretty short order.

Today the other shoe dropped.  I missed the day at school where the explained that infrastructure included building a polar bear exhibit or a water park ride or starting a program to curb prostitution.  I’m not saying these are bad things by any means and I would likely advocate all of these things given different circumstances.   Essentially what they want to do is put a pool in the backyard instead of fixing the leaking roof.

This country needs improved roads, a reconditioned power grid, replaced bridges, more robust telecommunications facilities.  I don’t think increasing the attendance at the Providence zoo or a Miami waterpark.  And from my perspective, I’m betting attendance is down right now because people spend disposable income on activities like zoos and waterparks, and people just don’t have as much disposable income right now.  Once the economy turns around a bit, I’m betting that attendance will pick up again.

The thing that really bothers me about this is that they’re requesting economic stimulus through the guise of infrastructure improvement.  Its the same line of crap that congressmen use in their pork game.  Bottom line, if we’re going to spend federal money on an infrastructure improvement project, it should be something that is going to more directly benefit society as a whole.  Not the handful of people that visit a waterpark in Miami or a zoo in Providence.

One of my favorite parts of the article:

To reverse the current economic crisis, we must invest wisely. We must invest where we get the greatest return. We must invest in Main Street,” said [Miami, Florida, Mayor Manny] Diaz, who is the president of the mayors’ group.

Um, I think what constitutes “greatest return” is a hugely subjective thing here and I couldn’t disagree with you more.  Try again.

Other crap requested in the proposal includes:

CNN also found in the U.S. Conference of Mayors‘ report a proposed $20 million minor league baseball museum in Durham, North Carolina; $6.1 million for corporate jet hangars at the Fayetteville, Arkansas, airport; $20 million for renovations at the Philadelphia Zoo; and a $1.5 million program to reduce prostitution in Dayton, Ohio. Officials in those cities told CNN the projects were needed.

I really hope if the federal government considers this, they break out a line item veto pen and get rid of some of this crap.  I’m sure there are some extremely useful things in there, but I’ll be damned if I’m happily paying for a minor league baseball museum in the current economic environment.

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Crazy Conservative Says Crazy Things

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In an effort to see our political world from both sides of the coin, I’ve been visiting the “other” punch bowl and taking sips on a semi-regular basis to see what the juice tastes like. I’ve done this largely by reading RealClearPolitics.com‘s “Best of the Blogs” section. Through law of averages they usually have a pretty good balance of left and right leaning blogs on there.

Now, I’ve come across some pretty reasonably written articles on both the left and right. I’ve also come across a special kind of crazy, often stemming from blind fervor for the cause of the author. Within that special kind of crazy cold is what I’ll call the “up is down” strain where the author believes something is a certain way, because they say it is. I came across an example today that I absolutely had to share.

Anyone that knows me is probably aware that I’m completely unimpressed by our current president, the job he’s done in office, and his prodigious oratory skills. Apparently, John from Powerline agrees and providing this gem.

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn’t raise his standards, he will exceed Bush’s total before he is inaugurated.

The tricky thing about the “up is down” strain of crazy is that its hard to tell when they actually believe what they’re saying and not being sarcastic or satirical or ironic.  I hope I’m wrong, but I’m thinking John actually believes Bush is a good public speaker.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe Bush is the next great communicator and he’s been pulling my chain, and in that case I say to him “fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

For the counter argument to John’s praise of Bush and his speaking ability see Slate’s record on the matter.  You also have to wonder how there would be a complete niche industry of calenders based solely on Bushisms if the president is as good as John thinks he is.

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