Adventures in Politics

I decided that since I am so disappointed and distressed over our sad choices in this next elections, that I would become more knowledgable and more active in politics in my area. So after the primary I went to the precinct meeting. There I met a few others who were similarly curious and we all became delegates to the senatorial convention.

Today I went to that convention, learning many things. First of all delegates select the nominees, not the voters. Not yet anyway. And since none of the delegates at my precinct and precious few from others in the area have Trump delegates in spite of fairly large numbers of votes, we know that either Trump voters are interested in the full range of politics OR that Trump voters are not by and large Republicans. The agenda included approving a slate of supplementary rules as well as a slate of delegates to the State Convention in May. Everything was hunky dory until Rule 16.

Rule 16 says that in order to be a delegate to a State convention, you have to file an application and turn it in. The applications were online and even mailed to the homes of senatorial delegates weeks before the convention. There was plenty of time to turn in these one page applications. But, like their children, these alleged adults fiddled around and lost the papers, ultimately didn't turn them in on time. So instead of asking for time to do it today, they wanted all applications eliminated as a deciding factor in who gets to go to State.

But that's not the whole story. Early on I had been reading how Trump supporters were going to try to get enough delegates just to get the Rules changed for the national convention so that he could be named the nominee with a plurality of the delegates rather than the majority of the delegates. That being the goal, Trump delegates wanted to pack delegations at every level to get their planks in the platform passed. I reasoned this out on my own, but at lunch I asked my precinct chair-a lady who's been around party politics since Reagan-if I was truly seeing that kind of attempted takeover. She nodded solemnly and said not only that, but the same tactics were being used in senatorial districts across the state. If they can get Trump delegates at the senatorial level, they can push their platform and delegates at state and end up having rules shaped to confirm The Donald's nominations without so much as a whimper.

More such shenanigans went on as various precincts tried to remove some delegates in order to replaced them with alternates that held more Trumptastic views than the rest of the crowd. This event-although at times tedious-was an education in itself. I wish I could go to State, but I have to give an AP exam that day.

Obama is Just Scary

And just what, pray tell Mr. Obama, is the mission of the "civilian force" you propose? Are you going to enforce your socialist liberal values upon those who chose to oppose you? Will knocks at the door in the night signal your opponents precipitous demise? Frankly, having read history, this sounds like a little group that terrorized German Jews in the 1930's. So is that the kind of starry future you propose? I used to think at least that you were reasonable, but it has become obvious that the hubris from public acclaim and the money of those who want to control the United States from behind the scenes has led to into a very dark place indeed. Be afraid, America, be VERY afraid.

Scandal Brewing OR Who's Under the Bus This Week

The media has given a free pass to the Democrats by and large because the president and Republicans in general were a more popular target for venom and ridicule. So here we have this economic situation fueled largely by dropping dollars from the mortgage "crisis" (did you ever notice how every liberal issue is a "crisis"?) Anyway, where is the outcry in the media about these stories? They go very high up in the DNC echelon and hardly anyone is giving them page one treatment. Where's the angst folks? Where's the accusations and calls for censure? Pay special attention to the very close alliance between current and former Countrywide executives and the Obama campaign. Heck, one of them is vetting potential VP candidates. *pensive" Do you think that the views potential candidates have toward litigation of the folks involved with subprime loans will play into who is chosen? Just wondering
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Here's the REAL Conservative

There's a number of people, especially in the media, that want to have this political race turn into a cakewalk for liberals. One way that could happen is to have a quasi-conservative win the Republican nomination. Huckabee, McCain, Romney and Guiliani all have a history that is less than stellar in regard to the true conservatism of lower taxes, greater opportunity, national security and dismantling of the nanny net social structure that is gobbling more revenue than it creates. Here's just one example of how some candidates are choosing to hide their political history and run as quasi-conservatives. Look before you vote. And while you are looking, consider a TRUE CONSERVATIVE-Fred Thompson.
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Basic Budgeting for Political Candidates

With the bridge collapse in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the politicians have come out of the woodwork demanding new and bigger spending for infrastructure. The federal government sets standards which the states are supposed to monitor and maintain for a variety of public works from electrical grid, levees, water supply and roadways. While the bridge collapse is certainly a tragic and dramatic example of system failure, does pointing fingers and laying blame based on a political model help at all? There are those in our legislatures that want the federal government to basically seize control of every issue. Do we really want to have to petition Washington to have a street widened or turn lanes installed? I ask that because that is what many in Congress claim to want. In essence, this would take local bond issue improvement funding and revert it to federal control. If you want an example of what that is like, consider that the state of Texas, for all of its highways, bridges, dams and such only gets back around 70% of the money sent to Washington in the form of fuel taxes. With larger populations and related larger numbers of Congressional members, more populous states would get the lion's share of funding under a federally controlled system,leaving states like Kansas, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Arizona with minimal attention. That is virtually the system now in place for federally funded programs, the results being things like "The Bridge to Nowhere" and "The Big Dig" both programs earmarked by well connected Congressmen.

The problem is WHERE do we spend our money? If your family income is say, $2000 a month-your first needs are shelter,food, utilities, transportation,clothing. Beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets are in that frill area of "want" over "need". If your family has problems making determinations about what is necessary over what is a frill, then you probably have serious cash flow problems. Ramp that up to a federal level, and unless the government creates new and bigger taxes, there is only so much money to go around. Yet we have Congresspersons and lobbyists that place pet projects in the way of real and necessary improvements. And that can come from a whole plethora of sources. Dams and levees can be almost permanently delayed by lobbying from environmental groups. Educational funding can be diverted for free lunches and ESL programs over books and computers. Highway funding can be delayed years, even decades, over silly internal squabbling such as we are seeing on the Trinity River parkway fiasco. And the list goes on and on and one.

With finite resources, the federal government CANNOT pay for everything. Right now, voters are being hit with a number of campaign proposals such as National Health Care, Infrastructure Improvements to highways, dams, power plants and water resources, Educational reform that would cost billions to implement and programs that we can't even begin to detail here. I know different people have different needs,but when you look at these promises, please stop and ask yourself from which pocket of income the funding for such programs will come. It has to come from somewhere. And the last big wave of corporate taxation is what led to massive offshoring of critical industries. Perhaps, like many families out here, the federal government needs to live within its means and allow a free citizenry to define their own priorities and pay for their own needs rather than taxing everyone and giving us back only a fraction of services in kind.