Politicians...Can't kill 'em, can't even beat 'em up

The longer I live, the less I trust anybody elected. I still pretty much trust the Supreme Court, but here lately, even that has come into question a little. Politicians. They're crooked. They're all crooked. But having no government would be even worse as we've already proved in New Orleans. So my plan from here on out is simple. Unless they have done an exceptionally enlightened job, unless they have not strayed one inch from doing the job they were elected for (We have quite a few County Commissioners here that believe they were elected to some kind of Lifestyle Police position. All the while allowing every wetland to be paved and every grove to be leveled without any thought to the infrstructure requirements needed to support such explosive growth which is the job, I believe, they were actually elected to do.), I'm voting against them. Yep, if you're incumbent I'm likely gonna vote against you. Keep them moving through too fast to line their pockets, too fast to become a lobbyist lapdog, and too fast to get used to too many perks.

I decided this after two things. The first, which I have mentioned here before, was some local politicians voting to relax the ethics laws because the stricter ethics laws, which were not particularly strict on a national scale, were keeping them from accepting some of the nicer bribes, I mean gifts, that were being offered them.

The second thing, which occurred this week, was a bunch of state politicians accepting travel trips to Scotland to play golf at St. Andrews. When asked about the propriety of accepting such trips, they both answered with, "It's not illegal." When a politician says "it's not illegal", it means he knows it's improper but, well to put it plainly, he doesn't care. So I intend to try to keep all my politicians too junior to be worth bribing. And if we aren't able to get a new bridge that we don't need, well so be it.

News I did like actually comes from Joe Lieberman. I never thought he and I would see eye to eye on anything. But I did like him chastising the Democratic party by warning them, "It is time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be commander in chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril."

News that pisses me off is, again, attaching an unpopular bill to a bill that cannot be not passed. We must fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We must do it. We need to continue to aid the hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast. That, too, is imperative. So for lawmakers to attach the bill to allow drilling in ANWR, a bill that divides public opinion, to funding bills for the wars and humanitarian aid and then saying take it all or leave it all is, in my mind, unconscionable. It is cowardly. Openly debate it and, if your side loses, then the people were against it, your argument was flawed, or both. Just be a man about it. Dang.

Last item politically irritating, before we move on. The Senate set a firm date, Feb 17, 2009, for all broadcast TV to be digital. OK. Not sure why Senate feels they must be a part of overarching business decisions since usually market forces will cause beneficial changes to occur, and usually at a more competitive price. But still, they have. Now, since this decision of theirs will negatively affect folks with older sets, Congress has authorized $1.5 billion, BILLION, for a converter box program. They couldn't find time to work on the Patriot Act and other important legislation in any kind of timely fashion, but these folks lept into action for Terry Schivo and Digital TV. Repeat after me, vote incumbents out.

OK, the next post, which I am starting now, will be back to Ramblin' Ed standards. Whimsical and without any real point. Yeah, that'll be better.

Vote early and vote often, out
Ramblin' Ed