Category: Politics

Senate Democrats have decided that if they can’t run the United States then no one will defend us.

For them it is better to destroy this country than to keep it safe from terrorists. Today they appear to have destroyed the Patriot Act and its renewal.

This treasonous act forces the blinders upon the intelligence agencies entrusted with defending this nation. This is a violation of the oath of office that these blusterous politicians take every few years to defend this country from all enemies foreign and domestic. Unfortunately for us, these politicians are the domestic enemies, which threaten our very existence as a nation.

If Congress doesn’t stop leaking every nation secret and black ops project while simultaneously leaving us naked and defenseless to our enemies, tens of thousands will die. How much blood must be spilled before they are held accountable?

Like ancient Rome, the barbarians are storming the walls and the Senate is too busy wetting themselves to protect the people. They either need to do their job or make way for Caesar to take over their responsibilities.

Insane Senator John McCain, the Manchurian Republican, is trying to negotiate with the White House to get his stupid torture amendment passed before the end of the year. He is holding a military spending bill hostage to try and force this stupid idea onto the military. If his fellow senators had any backbone, they would tell him to sit-down and shut-up. We don’t need any more full employment provisions for anti-American, ACLU lawyers. Instead Senators are cowering in fear of McCain.

Senator McCain, like others such as John Glen, have milked the valor of their youth much too long. They need to be relevant here and now. The Arizona Senator has been in office at least a decade too long. If he had any honor left, he would go quietly into that good night and let a real Republican serve his state.

Unfortunately McCain is following the path of Barry Goldwater. The more senile he gets, the more he undoes what should have been a conservative legacy. The longer McCain serves, the more he becomes like Teddy The Swimmer Kennedy.

Face it John, you are way past your usefully life as a politician. Do the other 49 states a favor and fade away quietly. If you want to hang out with Chris Matthews, do it away from the cameras at the corner pub.

This morning Eric Hogue was asking how you would like to be taxed to pay for road improvements in California. He was asking about a per mileage tax versus an increased sales tax. This discussion was due to an upcoming ballot initiative related to this issue.

I reject any proposal for an increase in taxes for this purpose. A mileage tax however well intended would be in addition to any existing taxes and engineered to eliminate privately owned vehicles. It is just another avenue for trying to socially engineer my life and yours and take away our freedom to travel.

Previous attempts to increase spending on roads have resulted in no increase in spending. The new tax revenue simply replaced other revenue that was then diverted for other purposes. Remember the temporary earthquake tax that was made permanent to help with roads? It didn’t make any difference anywhere in the State.

Gasoline taxes diverted for public transportation are a waste of time and are used to subsidize unprofitable modes of transportation. Diverting money for this purpose results in even less money available to maintain and improve existing roads.

If you want to fix the roads then stop the Legislature from putting the money from gas taxes into the general fund. Only a fraction of State and Federal money collected for this purpose is actually used on roads. Most just ends-up in the general fund and is spent on social programs.

If you want to fix the roads put all money collected from gasoline taxes into a separate fund for fixing roads and keep it out of the general fund. If these tens of billions of dollars won’t get the result that you want, then get rid of the Davis-Bacon Act and similar mandates for prevailing wages on highway projects. I know in construction of public schools that prevailing wages increase the cost of construction by 40 percent. Even members of my local school board conceded that point when pressed about the economic cost. I suspect that eliminating prevailing wage requirements on road construction and maintenance would result in similar savings.

The truth is that transportation taxes are a great source of general fund revenue and have nothing to do with road improvement. If the money went to the purposes for which it is collected then we would not even be discussing the quality of our roads. Instead we might be discussing how to rebate the extra revenue collected by the State.

Last night my wife and I went to dinner. On the way home I turned on Mark Williams at KFBK Radio to see what he thought about the special election. I was expecting a rational, reasons analysis of the election (something like an after action report). Instead of how can we do this better next time what I heard was the most acidic, venomous attack on Governor Schwarzenegger that I have ever heard. My wife was so offended that she told me to shut off the radio.

Right before the radio went off, I did hear Mark thumping his chest and bragging about his article on the Sacramento Union website. (Yeah, the conservative alternative website that was the victim of a hostile takeover by the Sacramento Bee earlier this year.) After reading Marks tome, I can see why the Bee is so happy to have him thumping on Republicans—after all we do tend to eat our own.

A summary of Marks column is for Republicans to throw Arnold under the bus and start from scratch. This begs the question did Arnold fail us or did we fail Arnold? Williams dodges this question by call Arnold a parasite that is killing the Republican Party. His solution, kill our General.

If the party wants to survive in California, not even win just survive, the very first thing party leaders need to do is sit down in a quiet room to jettison SchwartzenKennedy, assess their options and settle on a candidate for 06. Then they need to commit to building a new party, from the ground up . . .

My first reaction to that comment is Welcome to Fantasy Island or the Twilight Zone.

George Bush had the Harriett Miers nomination and Arnold Schwarzenegger had this special election. The motto in both cases was trust me. The reaction from the base was similar. Many on the Right were skeptical. Bush has recovered from this hit and so will the Governor.

In one article, Mark Williams called the Governor:
a duck whos a little gimpy, hes a carrier of a deadly political form of Avian Flu
reckless
delusional
never was, a republican or a reformer
self-centered, spoiled, B-celebrity out on a lark
jamoke
parasite
SchwartzenKennedy

The heart of Williams argument is his assertion that the so-called reforms failed for these main reasons: they were ill conceived, poorly written, unsupported, made to be personality specific (Arnold) and did not address any one not a single one of the serious issues and problems facing the state.

This is elevating history revisionism to a fine art form. The Governor and his administration wrote none of these initiatives. The initiatives were written by third parties interest groups that felt the Legislature had failed to do their job. The Governor agreed to support them because they were incremental steps in the direction that he wished to move the State. This election was his threat and he had to follow-up on it when the Democrats failed to negotiate with him in good faith to solve these problems without having to bring them before the people.

To assert that these initiatives were poorly written is nuts. The only one that was spun as poorly written, was the pension initiative that was pulled many months ago for a rewrite.

Yes, Mark some of the Governors initiatives were unsupported by you and John Doolittle and enough others that the base was split. This clouded the issues enough that many on our side either stayed home or fell back on the old axiom of when in doubt throw it out. Instead of being part of the solution for the political ills of our state, people like you became part of the problem of why the effort on our side failed.

Now you want to gloat when you have nothing to offer as a solution or a constructive alternative. If you would shut-up and sit down then you might at least get the benefit of the doubt instead of opening your mouth an throwing a tantrum like last night. You can play the Michael Savage of Sacramento if you wish but you wont be doing anything to solve the problems facing California.

It is a sad night as the election returns begin pouring in from all over California. The reform package supported by the Governor is in tatters. As of this writing, only Payroll Protection is in the hunt to pass. Parental Notification also might have a chance to win.

Why? Because the campaign for the Governor’s measures failed to energize voters to go to the polls and support these measures. As I have stated previously, the cornerstone of this election was the reapportionment measure. This is the only reason that we had the election today instead of waiting til June. No one in the Governors camp ever made this argument a part of the campaign. This allowed the labor unions to portray this election as Arnolds war on California voters. Frame the issue, win the debate.

The Governor let these measures qualify without any input from his administration. Once he gave his support to these measures, he let his opponents define his positions on these measures.

Only the consultants benefited from this campaign. Support was poorly thought-out, executed and delivered. Saying trust me is not a good enough reason to vote the way we were asked too by the Governor.

Suggestions
1. Fire the consultants, they lose elections every two years for their Republican friends and then get hired the next election cycle and do it again. Amazingly they stay employed while another democrat beats their candidate.
2. Use the Internet and get some grassroots organization.
3. Listen to the people and explain what you are doing in a way that they can understand. Make them part of the solution.
4. People vote their pocketbooks; help them understand the process better.
5. Don’t take your base for granted. If you do they will stay home.
6. Bring all these ideas back again for another vote and make the case why they are needed.

On Friday, I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get my drivers license renewed. It was quite a change from my last visit at DMV. In fact it was a rather pleasant trip. It took me longer to drive to the DMV office than it did to get in and out.

In previous trips, I would wait in line for 30 to 60 minutes, only to be told to take these forms, fill them out and then get back in line. Well those days are over!!

Two things helped to really speed up my visit.

First, I went on the Internet and made an appointment.

Second, as I walked into the door, there was a desk manned by one lady who asked me why I was visiting DMV; after I told her, she gave me the proper forms and had me fill them out. After I completed the form, she verified that I had filled-in the appropriate boxes and them gave me my number to wait in line.

I had to wait for two people and then had my turn. The employees there were prompt and courteous. I was surprised at how quickly the whole process was managed. In fact my one year old slept through most of the visit. My whole visit was about 25 minutes.

Today President Bush patched things up with his base and nominated Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito for the seat being vacated by the retiring Sandra Day O’Connor. Bush finally figured-out that this seat on the Court belongs to a qualified candidate and gave up the notion of swapping one unknown woman for another.

Some have claimed that this was Bush’s strategy in nominating Miers in the first place. That idea is nuts! This switch in nominees should correctly be attributed to Providence. For those of you that went to public school, Providence was often spoken of in the early writings of our nation and is understood as the unseen hand of God working in the affairs of men. Since this is a Christian belief by the founders of a Christian nation, I can understand why you never heard this at your local government school.

Thankfully, Judge Alito has a proven track record of conservative jurisprudence. He is known for his judicial backbone and strict interpretation of constitutional issues. Now, we can finally have a national debate on the unconstitutional practice of judicial activism and legislating from the bench.

In the end, the votes for confirmation of this nominee will be there despite the best efforts of Liberal democrats. Judge Alito is the type of judge that Ronald Reagan had hoped that he would get with O’Connor and Kennedy. Judge Bork would probably approve of this selection, but I haven’t heard it from him yet. Surely Sean Hannity will have him on soon.

This appointment will bring unity and new life into the Conservatives that were profoundly disappointed in the Miers nomination. This nomination coupled with the Congressional Republican epiphany to secure the borders and reign-in spending will result of the renewed energy on the eve of the 2006 election season. Look for Republican gains in the Senate and the retirement of many old Liberal Democrats following this election cycle.

Its fishing season in Washington D.C.

Game Warden: Patrick Fitzgerald

Bait/Sacrificial Lamb: I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr.

First Prize: George W. Bush

Second Prize: Carl Rove

Rules: None

After two years of being unable to prove that a crime that was ever committed, Warden Fitzgerald decides Scooter is the weakest link into the White House. Scooter gets drawn and quartered on national television. As his life blood is leaving him and the Beltway sharks gather around his corpse, Scooter is told that his only chance to live is to roll-over on Carl Rove who will be scared of a prosecutor who thinks Martha Stewart got off easy and in turn offer-up his boss, George W. Bush. The game ends when a lonely President has been stripped of his key officials and is forced from the Beltway in disgrace never to return again.