With the Bush government in high celebration of the Iraqi election, and all the TV news reporting from the Green Zone that all is going great - even though they only know what the US Army tells them -
Let’s not criticize George Bush for being slow to respond to the tsunami disaster. Unless you will also hammer UN Secretary Kofi Annan for spending three more days at the Jackson Hole ski resort after
Where? Indonesia is my guess. They were sent to me. If you know any more about the location, please let me know. The bottom photo is a close up of the second photo’s far right side, just behind the gr
Reading foreign news websites is a most enlightening process. We learn things and read perspectives not found in our controlled US media. Not that other media are not controlled to some extent also, b
Richard Cohen of the Washington Post has it right. You need to register with the Wa Post to read his column, Presidential medals of Failure. The fourth failure is, of course, Bush himself. But these t
When Al-Jazeera first went with an English version last year, they were boomed off line in the US by several never-revealed Internet companies using illegal electronic processes. The common assumption
An energetic reporter set it up - and made sure it would happen. Edward Lee Pitts, embedded with a unit going north to Iraq, saw the troops working with unarmored vehicles and saw an opportunity to ge
Israel is restarting the terrorist violence. Since Arafat died a month ago, there have been no serious Palestinian attacks - and all the world has been watching the Palestinian leaders try to organize
To be concise, if we start to rationalize torture then we are lost. It is the absolute opposite direction of democracy. It is the basic tool of the tyrant - the dictator. Terror is created by torture.
to my post of Nov 6. He sees things differently, and I think he is right. I received several emails on that post, but this is the one that explains things best.
Today they again arrested Mordechai Vanunu. We expect the worst for him. This courageous Jew has dared to speak out against Israel’s madness. This in a country that says it is tolerant. But he
The Democratic Party continues to be unable to understand people and what motivates them. The party - and party members - have pushed extreme gay rights issues up the noses of conservative Christians
Well, Americans like the Bush vision and values. He is elected by a majority of the people and electors. And he has a Senate and House of Representatives that are able to carry through his programs.<b
I don’t kid myself that these have much affect, as most who check this blog have their own strong opinions. But, for the record, and for those who ask me each election, here are some issues and candid
The beauty of a website is you don’t force yourself on others. I got an email today from TL - and he graciously gave me the email addresses of dozens of people. And he gave them to many others. All of
Jon Stewart - host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central - was guest on CNN Crossfire on Friday. They thought he would be funny as well as plug his book America (The Book) A Citizen’s Guide to Democr
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."
