Time to gear up for the fall elections I'm guessing :)
Update: Erm ... where are the "comments" links?
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
The problem today...
The problem today isn't that the government is adding trillions and trillions of dollars to the budget, creating bubbles by propping up certain industries, or hurting job markets by demonizing industries, corporations, and capitalism as a whole, or with threats of regulations and penalties on companies for everything from health insurance to added corporate taxes to carbon dioxide emissions...
No!
No!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
*Sigh*
I am not sure how I feel about this.
Am I missing it, or are the legislators missing it?
Responsible spending means if you need something bad enough, you have to find a way to save money somewhere else. It means if you need to spend $500 million dollars (that's a crap load of money to you and me) on something, that it should be judged and voted on for its own merit, not tacked on to some completely unrelated bill like college students at the store with mommy's and daddy's credit cards.
If Washington continues spending like they have in the recent past then all of this, all of the protesting, all of the grass-roots community involvement has all been just a bunch of talk.
As the national debt clock ticked past the ignominious $13 trillion mark overnight, Congress pressed to pass a host of supplemental spending bills to, among other things, fund the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ramp up security on the U.S.-Mexico border and prevent teacher layoffs.
and this...
I know cutting spending does not mean we completely stop spending on anything. Won't work that way. These amendments they are putting in seem like (admittedly without reading them) good things, things I would support spending money on. However, we have crossed the point that we can just keep "piling on". I thought that is what all of the anger has been about? I thought that is what cost the Republican party a lot of support in 2006 and 2008? I thought that is what the tea party is about? I thought that is what Republicans are pledging to change when they take power back from the Democrats?Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is just one of several Republicans seeking to add money for border security. He's offered a $2 billion amendment to award grants to state and local law enforcement agencies, provide new unmanned surveillance aircraft, and hire hundreds of immigration and border agents, among other steps.
McCain offered an amendment to provide $250 million to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border. Democrats will consider countering with a proposal of their own in the wake of a White House announcement that Obama would seek $500 million to send 1,200 guardsmen to the border and take other border security steps.
Am I missing it, or are the legislators missing it?
Responsible spending means if you need something bad enough, you have to find a way to save money somewhere else. It means if you need to spend $500 million dollars (that's a crap load of money to you and me) on something, that it should be judged and voted on for its own merit, not tacked on to some completely unrelated bill like college students at the store with mommy's and daddy's credit cards.
If Washington continues spending like they have in the recent past then all of this, all of the protesting, all of the grass-roots community involvement has all been just a bunch of talk.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
5/18/2010 Election Results
It's clear from the turnout that things didn't go the way Republicans and Democrats expected them to go.
Arlen Specter, loosely endorsed by Obama, and opportunistic party-swapper lost his re-election bid in a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment.
Trey Grayson lost his Senate candidacy bid to Rand Paul in what is clearly a denial of Republican Party establishment favoritism. Grayson was endorsed by a large number of establishment Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell.
What bothers me in the election aftermath though, is the coverage from the media on PA-12, the late Rep. John Murtha's district. Before I get into that though, I'm amazed that the Republicans bothered spending millions of dollars on a campaign that would according to recent voter traditions, even among angry voters, bring favorable results to the Murtha-replacement, Democrat staffer, Mark Critz.
Recent elections involving the death of a sitting representative have tended to take on a sympathy vote sort of flavor. I for one never expected to see a Republican replace Murtha when someone so close to Murtha was running. If one of Ted Kennedy's top aides had run for his seat, it seems more likely that they would have polled a lot closer to Scott Brown. Sentimentality, sympathy, and compassion do sometimes change elections.
Additionally, the Democratic turnout throughout Pennsylvania was very high as a result of the Sestak v. Specter race. One cannot expect that Democratic leaning voters in PA-12 would vote overwhelmingly for Sestak and then break party lines to vote for Tim Burns, that just defies common sense.
I think the media, the talking heads in both parties, and others are missing the point in these election results. They are no longer dealing with an electorate they can predictably count on for a particular outcome.
Politically motivated angry voters do not vote along the so-called traditional voting lines. There will be change in Washington, D.C. and hopefully that change leads to a weakening of the two-party system in this country.
Arlen Specter, loosely endorsed by Obama, and opportunistic party-swapper lost his re-election bid in a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment.
Trey Grayson lost his Senate candidacy bid to Rand Paul in what is clearly a denial of Republican Party establishment favoritism. Grayson was endorsed by a large number of establishment Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell.
What bothers me in the election aftermath though, is the coverage from the media on PA-12, the late Rep. John Murtha's district. Before I get into that though, I'm amazed that the Republicans bothered spending millions of dollars on a campaign that would according to recent voter traditions, even among angry voters, bring favorable results to the Murtha-replacement, Democrat staffer, Mark Critz.
Recent elections involving the death of a sitting representative have tended to take on a sympathy vote sort of flavor. I for one never expected to see a Republican replace Murtha when someone so close to Murtha was running. If one of Ted Kennedy's top aides had run for his seat, it seems more likely that they would have polled a lot closer to Scott Brown. Sentimentality, sympathy, and compassion do sometimes change elections.
Additionally, the Democratic turnout throughout Pennsylvania was very high as a result of the Sestak v. Specter race. One cannot expect that Democratic leaning voters in PA-12 would vote overwhelmingly for Sestak and then break party lines to vote for Tim Burns, that just defies common sense.
I think the media, the talking heads in both parties, and others are missing the point in these election results. They are no longer dealing with an electorate they can predictably count on for a particular outcome.
Politically motivated angry voters do not vote along the so-called traditional voting lines. There will be change in Washington, D.C. and hopefully that change leads to a weakening of the two-party system in this country.
Google Migration Kills File It Under
And hundreds of other blogs.
...So, Google announced that they were ending support of FTP for blogger. This led us to a state of having to decide what to do with the site.
James asked for volunteers to help with migrating the site and I stepped up, thinking I'd have some time since I had an impending layoff. Well, the blessed burden of employment reared it's ugly head and I lost the time I had to work on the site.
In the meantime, it appears that I overlooked the problems with the site. Google's migration utility hasn't made this process easy for anyone, and File It Under was no exception. I am working on fixing the biggest bugs, but this is going to take time. Please bear with us.
You'll notice that the old comfortable feel is gone. That's because the migration screwed up the old template and updates to the template to account for images, etc. aren't working as intended.
I'm working on it.
In the longer term I hope to have File It Under back to being the wonderful site to which we've all become accustomed, and I'll even be begging James and others for help.
Sorry for the dust, and for the negligence. In the meantime, we all get to blame Google, whose motto is "Do No Evil"
...So, Google announced that they were ending support of FTP for blogger. This led us to a state of having to decide what to do with the site.
James asked for volunteers to help with migrating the site and I stepped up, thinking I'd have some time since I had an impending layoff. Well, the blessed burden of employment reared it's ugly head and I lost the time I had to work on the site.
In the meantime, it appears that I overlooked the problems with the site. Google's migration utility hasn't made this process easy for anyone, and File It Under was no exception. I am working on fixing the biggest bugs, but this is going to take time. Please bear with us.
You'll notice that the old comfortable feel is gone. That's because the migration screwed up the old template and updates to the template to account for images, etc. aren't working as intended.
I'm working on it.
In the longer term I hope to have File It Under back to being the wonderful site to which we've all become accustomed, and I'll even be begging James and others for help.
Sorry for the dust, and for the negligence. In the meantime, we all get to blame Google, whose motto is "Do No Evil"
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Checking In...
This post is as much a test as anything. I haven't been by lately due to demands at work, and in my personal life.
I can tell you all about it, if any of you are interested in dancing.
I can tell you all about it, if any of you are interested in dancing.
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