I never had a big brother, just a big sister. She is nine years older than me, so she helped to care for me when I was a baby. As I grew older she looked out for me for a while, but soon tired of having me around ratting on her. She was great and didn't tell me how to live my life or hover over me.
Now I have two big brothers, Gov Sonny Perdue and Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson. Neither of these two gentlemen have stellar reputations as politicians. Both have pulled shady deals with their power. Gov Perdue's friend got a late night bill passed to give the Gov a tax break on a piece of out of state property and the Gov profited from a pristine piece of property in his home town that the State "passed up." Mr. Richardson recently pulled off a secret divorce that broke most of the legal rules governing the divorce process. This coming after his affair with a lobbyist and his party's passage of divorce laws requiring waiting periods and such. He somehow got around all of those archaic rules. Both of these gentlemen are good Christian, god fearing men. I know that because they told me so.
Gov Perdue continues to decide what is good for the citizens of Georgia, so we don't have to bother with voting on issues. He supposedly doesn't drink, so he has decided that we can't vote on buying alcohol on Sunday. Of course he and his buddies will allow a new arena in Gwinnett County to sell on Sunday. Hypocrites? Of course not!
Mr. Richardson has decided that he doesn't have enough power, so he will simply usurp some local power. How will he do that? Easy, just take away one of local government's largest sources of money, the automobile tax. Then local governments will have to come crawling to him, begging for money. He says that local governments have gotten too extravagant. Yes, indeed, law enforcement, EMS, roads, water, sewer, hospitals, schools, etc. aren't expensive and getting more so every day. If local governments need more money, all they have to do is ask the state for it. If they behave themselves and are the right party, they will get all they need. Right.
I'm so glad that the Republican Party stands for less government and less intrusion into the private lives of the citizens.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Bush Vetoes Waterboarding Bill
President Bush, once again, ignored the fact that the United States has always opposed torture and has spoken out when our soldiers were mistreated by other countries. We can no longer claim that torture is not a part of our culture. Other countries can simply do what they want with our people and we can not object on the basis of a civilized nation. We are now "kissing cousins" with the likes of the N. Vietnamese, Communist Russia, and Sadaam Hussien. Granted, we, hopefully, are not nearly as cruel as they, but we have admitted to using torture and the leader of the free world has condoned it. What a sorry state of affairs!
Bush has succeeded in placing our military personnel in even greater danger if they are captured. Enemies can easily use the excuse that we do it also, so what is the problem? Our standing in the world, which was once that of integrity and standing up for the Geneva Conventions has been lowered even farther.
Once we were able to admonish other nations for aggression against sovereign nations. We can no longer do that because we invaded Iraq without provocation. We have an aggressive, uncompromising leader who will not negotiate or even talk to those who oppose us. Our biggest enemy during the 30 years following the cold war was Russia. We kept open communications with them. I shudder to think what might have happened if Bush had been President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. My guess is that I would not be here writing this today. It is simply amazing that he was re-elected for a second term.
At least we have less than a year of such poor leadership. No matter who is elected in November, it will certainly be better than today. Neither Democratic candidate will condone torture. One thing we certainly can count on. John McCain, a military man and a victim of torture, will bring an end to any torture that our people are carrying out.
Bush has succeeded in placing our military personnel in even greater danger if they are captured. Enemies can easily use the excuse that we do it also, so what is the problem? Our standing in the world, which was once that of integrity and standing up for the Geneva Conventions has been lowered even farther.
Once we were able to admonish other nations for aggression against sovereign nations. We can no longer do that because we invaded Iraq without provocation. We have an aggressive, uncompromising leader who will not negotiate or even talk to those who oppose us. Our biggest enemy during the 30 years following the cold war was Russia. We kept open communications with them. I shudder to think what might have happened if Bush had been President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. My guess is that I would not be here writing this today. It is simply amazing that he was re-elected for a second term.
At least we have less than a year of such poor leadership. No matter who is elected in November, it will certainly be better than today. Neither Democratic candidate will condone torture. One thing we certainly can count on. John McCain, a military man and a victim of torture, will bring an end to any torture that our people are carrying out.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
My Greatest Political Fear
On the day following the big primaries in Texas and Ohio, my greatest political fear is that the Democrats will self destruct. Clinton in her stubborn quest to be president, will drag the race out until there has been so much sniping and mudslinging on both sides, that the current enthusiasm shown by voters will die an unfortunate death. John McCain will be left to enjoy the spoils of the Democrats stupid bickering and the United States will suffer through four or eight more years of backward Republican rule.
McCain, for all his talk about the environment and his past stands on issues related to abortion, stem cell research, etc., and his "independence," would be forced by the heavy handed extremists in the Republican party, to embrace their "ideals." We would be back under the "Bush Conservatism" and the country would continue to fall into Bush's abyss of extremism toward our citizens and our adversaries around the world. The economy is already a mess, so there isn't much he can hurt there. He has already said he knows little about the economy, and he has embraced the old Reagan era economic conservatives, who know only to cut the taxes of the rich, so that prosperity will "trickle down" to the rest of us. Health care costs, trade issues, the "war" in Iraq, etc are in danger of bringing us down, and I see McCain doing little to solve them.
One can only hope that the Bush endorsement will be the kiss of death for McCain's campaign. Unfortunately, there is still a large contingent of voters who worship the ground Bush walks on, and will do anything he says to do. There are many other voters who will allow themselves to be led like lambs to the slaughter, and he has certainly done that over the past seven years.
I will keep my faith in the voters for one more election. Hopefully, this time, they will do the right thing and take us away from this inclination toward losing our civil liberties, unprovoked agression toward other countries, a refusal to negotiate with those who are hostile toward us, giving tax cuts to the rich, and total disregard for the middle and lower classes.
McCain, for all his talk about the environment and his past stands on issues related to abortion, stem cell research, etc., and his "independence," would be forced by the heavy handed extremists in the Republican party, to embrace their "ideals." We would be back under the "Bush Conservatism" and the country would continue to fall into Bush's abyss of extremism toward our citizens and our adversaries around the world. The economy is already a mess, so there isn't much he can hurt there. He has already said he knows little about the economy, and he has embraced the old Reagan era economic conservatives, who know only to cut the taxes of the rich, so that prosperity will "trickle down" to the rest of us. Health care costs, trade issues, the "war" in Iraq, etc are in danger of bringing us down, and I see McCain doing little to solve them.
One can only hope that the Bush endorsement will be the kiss of death for McCain's campaign. Unfortunately, there is still a large contingent of voters who worship the ground Bush walks on, and will do anything he says to do. There are many other voters who will allow themselves to be led like lambs to the slaughter, and he has certainly done that over the past seven years.
I will keep my faith in the voters for one more election. Hopefully, this time, they will do the right thing and take us away from this inclination toward losing our civil liberties, unprovoked agression toward other countries, a refusal to negotiate with those who are hostile toward us, giving tax cuts to the rich, and total disregard for the middle and lower classes.
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