So long, we won’t miss ya

Politico is reporting that Gov. Doyle will not be running for Governor next term.  The announcement is set for Monday, but let’s see what the weasel has to say then.

Well he lived up to his promise, sorta, kinda, well not really.

Gov. Doyle vowed not to raise taxes when he ran for Governor of WI.  He said it over and over, he wasn’t going to raise taxes.  And even with the state running in the red thanks to our generous Welfare, Medicaid and other social services he’s not.  Well not my income tax, which is the 13th highest in the nation.

He is however raising all the other taxes he can.  From the cigarette tax, which is now a $1.77 a pack, to looking at the gas tax, which is the 5th highest in the nation coming in only behind CT, NY, IL, MI and WA.  We’re tied BTW with FL, HI, and NV.  If his proposed tax hike goes through we’ll be the 3rd highest in the nation.  Lucky us hey?

It’s called a ’sin’ tax.  The only reason they he won’t seriously consider raising the liquor tax is because he knows the masses would riot and call for impeachment.  And I’m not trying to be cute, they honestly would.  We in WI take our booze seriously.  Far more than our cheese or cranberries.  Liquor is right up there with how we feel about the Packers.

I’m expecting to hear soon about taxes going up on fast food, pre-packaged food and other ‘convince’ items.  These things are bad for us you see, so it’s ok to hike up the fees to use them.

Except, of course, when you start breaking it down these taxes will hurt those already living in poverty or teetering on the edge of living below the poverty line.  For them the difference between driving their cars legally came down to the $10 hike in registration fees that our government already put out there.  And there are whispers that we could see another hike in those fees again soon.

And let’s not forget the new taxes he’s got on businesses.  The more the doctor who owns the clinics where I work is taxed the less likely I am to get a raise, more PTO or other perks.  Or he is to hire someone else to help me with the backlog of work.  Then again maybe I shouldn’t worry about that because if Universal Health Care goes through I may not have a job.  Well, maybe not, if how the current government run health care is run the way Universal care would I’m safe.  We can’t get a bill paid correctly on about 1/3 of all claims we bill without someone intervening.

Now is not a time to tax.  If those who run our goverment really want to stimulate the economey they’ll try to get more money in the hands of people so those people can spend that money.  I don’t see that happening though.  Just like the Federal goverment the Wisconsin state goverment is controlled by the Democrates who feel they know what’s best for me and that I should just trust that they’ll take care of me.

And the GOP are the heartless bastards?

After Katrina Kanye West famously said that George Bush hates black people.  The President, and in many cases his party, was accused of not caring about the poor black people in NOLA who had no means to flee the storm and were left on their roofs.  There was a giant outcry over conditions in the Superdome, questions and accusations of the Federal government ignoring the issue, of FEMA being hapless.

We were the heartless bastards.

The left leveled accusations of anyone feeling that, perhaps, 3 years should be enough time for people to no longer be needing temporary FEMA trailers and continued government support were racists.

Oh how the view changes when they have something to gain politically.

Michael Moore, a pompous wind bag of epic proportions, said that Gustav proved there was a God because, laughing, the GOP convention was being held up the Mississippi while NOLA was being decimated.

Former DNC Chief Don Folwer says pretty much the same thing, gets caught on tape then issued a non apology and follows that up with, well you don’t expect some right wing nut job to be taping you.

Other, private citizens have also said pretty much the same thing.  As long as it’s hurting the GOP’s convention then it’s AOK with them.

How can anyone think that because their political rivals are hurting it’s ok to have an entire region decimated, families flee, homes destroyed, businesses flooded and people’s already hurting bank accounts ruined.  That, my friends, is so beyond repulsive I can only call  it comic book supervillany.

If the situation had been reversed and the Repubs had said that about the coronation that was their convention we’d be called all sorts of names, from heartless to racists and down to rich asshats.  But when the words come from the Dems and it’s seen as helping their cause, their oh so important, morally high, want to help real people cause, it’s just dandy to destroy an entire coast.

I’m so beyond repulsed by this thinking I’m not even sure what to say about it except if you ever think that it’s funny or ok to watch a part of your own country, or any country for that matter, be decimated for what you perceive as good you have gone down a path of self destruction.

Sara Palin

I first heard of the Governor of Alaska when she was on CNN talking about drilling for oil.  I found her to be poised, funny, smart and well versed in the needs of her state.  It really intrigued me that here was a Conservative Republican women leading a state who was young, fairly pretty and had done a lot to piss off the status quo in her state party.  Needless to say I liked her.  A lot.

The mother of 5, her youngest is only a month younger than Kyle and also has DS, she didn’t go to ivy league schools, grooming herself for a life as a politician.  She’s been the mayor of a town, run a group to stop corruption and a Governor, all before she was 45.  Now she’s the VP slot on a Republican ticket.  As much as this might hurt in some ways, I’m actually starting to like the idea of President McCain even better.

I think it was a smart choice for McCain for more reasons than she’s a women.  Yes, she’s got a uterus and I’m sure that that was weighed when McCain was debating on her for a spot on the ticket.  Yes I’m sure that part of the reason he leaned to her was he was hoping it might help pick off some former Hillary supporters and also make him far more attractive to the security mom’s who helped re elect President Bush.  But to choose her solely for that reason would have been a very, very un wise choice.  And McCain may be a lot of things, but stupid isn’t always one of them.

Palin can help shore up the social Conservative base that’s been fidgety about electing him.  She’s pro-life, and lived that when she brought her youngest son into the world instead of aborting him.

Her anti corruption street cred isn’t bad either.  She took on members of her own party when trying to root out corruption in her state, going so far as to resign her position when she was ignored.  She’s also ended the bridge to nowhere.

She’s for oil drilling in a responsible and safe way.  To paraphrase what she told the interviewer from CNN, it’s her state’s oil and they should be the ones do decide, not DC or environmental groups that have no real steak in the state.

This brings me to her being a fiscal conservative.  As well as a states right one.  Issues close to my heart.

Watching her eldest son go to Iraq also helps deflect some of the Michael Moore like questions about when are you going to send your kid?  She has.  So, might I add has Cindy McCain.

She also allowed him to satisfy the skittish base while still allowing himself to paint a picture of him being a maverick politician.

She has problems, she’s doesn’t have a lot of foreign affairs experience.  Though I might add neither did Bush 41 when he was picked or Pres. Clinton.  It hurts the campaign using Sen Obama’s lack of experience, though it can be argued she has more.  But it also hurts Sen. Obama as well.  He can’t very well accuse her of not having experience when his resume is light too.  There is also the appearance that she, or someone in her office, attempted to get her BIL fired from his job as a state trooper, although the staffer who made the calls was suspended.

What I am enjoying most is the idea that the GOP is, maybe, moving away from the white, ivy league, old man picture.  That really isn’t the party in a lot of ways.  That old play book isn’t working anymore, and McCain realizes that.  Perhaps with this pick he can start to push Republicans to give up on that and step away from the safety of it.  We need to show case that we aren’t just a party of Christians, of straights, of men and of boring old people.  We have a base of young people who are becoming frustrated with not having much to get excited about, of candidates who don’t get our issues as more than an academic exercise.  There is a middle of Conservatives who aren’t in the party because of moral issues but because they want smaller government, less taxes and less government control.  And we have a fringe of people who are more worried about giving the Democrat’s control of our national security.
With her on the ticket McCain has gotten a lot of buzz, a good deal of his party more excited about the election and voting for him not just against Sen Obama and has guaranteed that this election day we will break at least one more glass cealing.

I’m a happy geek.

I really like Sara Palin as the VP pick.  I’ll take me a bit to get my thoughts together but I just had to say that when I heard this morning that the two front runners were not in evidence for being the pick and that it might be a women I was screaming in my head, let it be Sara Palin.

Oh Hillary

Today Sen Clinton said

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it,” she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race.”

Oh dear googleymoogley she did not just bring up RFK as a reason to stay in the race.  And that he was assassinated.  She did not just say that right after Sen Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a brain tumor that will most likely kill him.    She did not imply that a black man with the name Obama will be shot did she?  I mean I’m really, pretty sure that’s not what she meant, but for the love of Pete that’s how it’s read.

Hillary, please.  Get out of the race.  Right now you’re so tired you think that was a good thing to say.  If you’re going to start babbling stuff that’s crazy start talking about how you wanted to grab a gun from one of the Secret Service agents and shoot Bill when you knew for sure Monica was going to be all over the news.

The great debate

Depending on the day you ask me I want to be a stay at home mother to Kyle until he’s in school at the very least.  I want to be the one who watches my son grow each day and be the one who he sees when he wakes from a nap.  Not being home with him takes a toll on him too I can tell that on Thursday’s when mommy is with him all day.

Why just yesterday he showed his glee with mommy by peeing through three outfits, once while he and mommy were napping and onto her shirt too, pooping three times, spitting up on her once and four times on himself and refusing to nap if she wasn’t holding him.  It’s the not wanting to nap in his crib that is the most telling to me, all during the week he naps just fine at my mom and dad’s but come Thursday he falls apart.

Ask me during a work day and I’ll say I want to be at home.  Ask me at 4 on a Thursday when he’s refused to nap or be alone for more than 10 seconds and I’ll beg you to take me to work but then come Friday morning I drop him off and I miss his little face all day long.

Jason and I are seeing about working to me doing just that, staying at home.  I don’t want to do it all through the next 18 years but during these first few it means a lot to both of us.  Of course depending on where I say that I get different reactions.

In an older copy of Time, the issue where they explored the 60’s, they were talking to a Feminist who said, in response to SHAM’s, “If we had free child care would we even be having this conversation.”  It seems that a good deal of people still miss the idea that some mom’s want to stay at home.  Free child care or not.  While a lot more mom’s could go to work if they choose if child care was ‘free’ (not really our taxes from our paychecks would pay for it.  Really people can’t really learn that free is never that.) not all of them stay home because they have to, they want too.  I have free child care, I want to stay home giving me more ‘free’ child care won’t help that.

Even my conservative heart is glad that the Gloria Steinhams of the world fought hard for women’s rights.  I am given a choice on where I work, I can get credit on my own, own my home, have bank accounts in just my name.  I don’t need a husband to pay the bills.  But I had thought that the whole point of all that fighting was to allow women the ability to choose their destinies.  Being a SHAM shouldn’t be seen as a failure of the women’s movement, unless she’s being forced to.  It should be seen as a victory.

The Democratic Nomination

I like politics. Well, most of the time anyway. I enjoy reading stories about what’s going on in Washington as well as my own state and city. I like watching election returns, I like watching the process. I can’t really give a solid answer as to why I do. Sometimes it’s the thrill of the deal. Other’s it’s seeing how we still have power in our own goverment.

Sometimes it’s makes me mad, sometimes it makes me sad. Others it makes me happy to see that as flawed as it is, it really will work most of the time. Our founding father’s gave us a good structure to govern.

The Democratic primary has made me scratch my head then get bored then scratch my head again a few times. Mostly because I don’t understand why on earth they are allowing their own candidates to pound each other senseless while the Republican candidate is just going around to places that normally Presidential candidates aren’t able to go because they have to focus on the big states.  Sen. McCain is just out there and every so often one of the Democratic candidates remembers him and says something but then they turn to each other with veiled remarks and jabs.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Pres. Bush should have lost in 04. There was just no way he should have won a second term but the Republicans didn’t do it. The Democrats beat themselves between Sen Kerry not really defining himself until far too late to Mrs Heinz-Kerry not being able to keep her comments a little more campaign friendly.   I’m afraid they are going to be doing it again this year after watching them feed on each other for a year.