Alice in Wonderland is the appropriate description of the Bush administration and how it wages incompetent war on terrorism while it wrecks the good country of Iraq and drives our beloved United State
Rick Larsen voted against a free and open Internet. Below I write he voted for it - my error. I misread what “no” meant. Our US Representative voted with the Republicans again t
Diego Garcia is small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Today it is a major US military base - and has no other inhabitants. But 40 years ago it was not ours and had a couple thousand inhabita
from the polls this November. And let the Democrats take over Congress. My wishful thinking? Not at all. Rather the wish and hope of Richard Viguerie, one of the most prominent and influential conserv
A legal and effective communications analysis system to combat terrorism was developed and used by President Clinton’s administration. But the Bush administration tossed it away and has used the illeg
Al Gore on Saturday Night Live last night was great - funny - and also had a very real message. The last six years did not have to be one debacle after another. As events become history, we humans can
A gauntlet has been thrown down on the floor by GW Bush. By nominating General Hayden to head up the CIA, Bush is daring good citizens, the responsible media and decent Senators and Representatives to
The Army announced it will court marshal a Colonel Jordan for torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. His immediate boss, a Colonel Pappas will testify against him with immunity from prosec
to rebuild New Orleans? Bush covered his FEMA failure last September. Nothing ever came of it. He later wimped out. Today Bush reversed his whole political life’s work and spoke for some modest change
the 60 Minutes piece last night with Tyler Drumheller, the CIA chief in Europe during the years we prepared to invade Iraq. He blows the Bush Administration claim that the intelligence failed Bush. He
a film about our present-day United States. It won at Sundance and for good reason. For those of us who are beginning to wonder if we made a “mistake” going to war in Iraq, this film is for you. You w
Walls. So the Republicans - or the ruling faction - wants a wall between us and Mexico. And this is supposed to solve the problem? Well, this did not work for China nor Rome. And even 20 miles in Berl
and fabricated excuses for an invasion. Proof was printed today in the New York Times. In January, 2003, Bush and British PM Blair talked about how they could start the invasion even though they knew
The Pentagon - that world-renowned planning organization - is complaining that Russia tipped off Saddam to our military moves during the invasion of Iraq three years ago. How did Russia supposedly get
Juan Cole has it - how the Mid East could end up if Bush continues with his insane war. See the Mar 19 post for the map showing Iraq partitioned and the new countries of Kurdistan, Qaedistan and Shiit
Umpire Bob Davidson, our USA go-to cheater, is behind the plate for today’s game between Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Of course his calls are to help defeat Cuba. Gawd, what an embarrassment to th
We can all feel better as Americans today, as it turns out we did cheat last night in trying to beat the Mexicans. Whew. We did give it the old American best after all. Last night, I missed the early
Somebody forgot to tell the Mexicans that they couldn’t beat the US baseball major league all stars. Take a hint. Clemens pitching? A batting lineup of all stars? Those little fellows south of the bor
when we - Americans in this case - do lose at something despite our cheating, we simply ignore it as best we can. We pretend it didn’t happen. Lose the war to Vietnam? Destroy the city of Fallujah and
Writer's notes: The candidates for State Representative in the 40th District Position 1 are: Dusty Gulleson (prefers Republican Party,) Chuck Carrell (prefers Republican Party,) Doug Revelle (prefers Happiness Party,) Mike Newman (prefers Republican Party,) Kristine Lytton (prefers Democratic Party,) Tom Pasma (prefers Democratic Party,) Thomas Boucher (prefers Democratic Party,) Justin Van Dyk (prefers Democratic Party,) and Donna R. Miller (prefers Republican Party.)
What follows are the two responses to questions I submitted to Chuck last Mon, Aug 2.
Why should I vote for you?
"I’m running this year because the Legislature and Governor continued their out of control spending habits despite our troubled economy, and we need to stop it.
The only way it will stop is to start electing strong leadership to the Legislature that can make the hard choices that will be needed.
I will not support any new taxes unless they will completely eliminate an existing tax and make the amount less overall to the people they affect.
I think people are taxed to their limit right now and the real long term solution is to have the state and local governments cut their spending and get back to the essential functions of what state government is supposed to do.
I will not accept money from, or be a representative for, any PAC or special interest group. That’s important when figuring out where to trim at least $3 billion dollars from our state’s budget next session.
When making cuts, these candidates will feel obligated to keep unnecessary programs due to the financial aid they received during their campaigns. The problem was highlighted this year, and electing those types of candidates will only bring the same issue to the next Legislative session."
What is important to you?
"The most important thing to me this next Legislative session is getting our fiscal house in order.
We need to simplify the tax structure and then get an accurate assessment of what the state budget will be.
Then we need to REALISTICALLY balance the budget. This means that we fund our most important things such as education and public safety first and then continue down until everything is funded or there is no more state money left.
When the state budget is down to zero then we stop funding programs. No matter how badly we want to fund a program, if the state budget is spent then they will have to get their funding someplace else besides state government.
Even within our top priorities we need to look at how to consolidate these agencies and programs to make them more efficient. We also need to look at reducing the middle management in these agencies and what I term “inner bureaucracies.”
Years of these types of hiring practices by state and local government has created an enormous drain on our resources and is not sustainable. Nor can we rely on Federal grants like we did this year to balance the budget."
