Thursday, February 07, 2008

Mo' Politiking

A bit more on last post and in response to you K to the Irby...

As far as research goes, I have not even scratched the surface, way below less than 5%. My opinion is heavily based on feeling and loose understanding...in no way shape or form am I versed enough...but I'm going to keep reading (multiple sources) and listening...

Concerning congressional approval, it's understandable-Dubya holds the record for NOT veto'ing anything...interestingly enough for the 6 years his republican party held control...check it out:

NY Times article on Bush Record

Things changed with the new democratically controlled congress, bi-partisanship again took precedence (in my opinion at least) over what was actually good for the people...

Huffington News Post on Congress

As far as congressional approval, it's like Mark Twain said, " There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics". Approval is all of what you make of it, and the record doesn't show the approval ever really high, for EITHER party (although the republican held version did suffer from seriously low ratings).

I looked up congressional approval and found this site (among many):

Democratic Polling Report

And more...

Currently, 32% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing as president, a far cry from the record-high 90% he received in September 2001. Bush's current job approval rating is just three percentage points above his lowest.

There was a slight interruption in the downward trend in congressional approval ratings at the beginning of this year when party control changed hands from the Republicans to the Democrats following last fall's midterm elections. In January 2007, 35% of Americans approved of Congress, a significant increase from the 21% who approved of Congress in December 2006. That December rating tied the lowest in the 12 years the Republicans controlled Congress from 1995 to 2006.

But that "honeymoon" period for the new Democratically controlled Congress was brief, as its job ratings dropped below 30% in March 2007 and have now fallen below where they were just before the Democrats took over.

Dependence on oil is too huge for this post, but put it this way, dependence on corn=dependence on oil as the crop requires more oil to produce than any other (fertilizer, transportation, refinement...)...to me it's a sham and REAL thinking needs to be introduced NOW to work on this issue.

Socialized health care...I know nothing about, guess I have more reading to do...I do know insurance is beyond my families reach (if it were not provided for by our employers, we'd have none).

I am mainly focused on what we are doing now as a society and how messed up it is going to be for my son, your daughters and many others---a lot sooner than we think.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

man, when I start thinking about politics too much, I get depressed. It's the most petty bickering, it's the worst. Now I'm starting to second-guess my primary vote. The candidates whose policies I liked best dropped out due to low "electability". what a crock. I'm with Kirby, I'm worried about the lack of breadth in our political system. there's no difference between democrat and republican these days. worse yet, the democrats aren't liberal and the republicans aren't conservative! it's a mess.

I do know one way to reduce your individual dependence on foreign oil. and it's NOT corn ethanol. It's got two wheels, and pedals, and it can cut your car usage way down if you let it. since we don't use much heating oil in CA, that'll about take care of it! ps - ethanol belongs in beverages, not in your gas tank.

The Fun Park said...

The New York Times is a very liberal and almost anti conservative media group. I can find something in their paper everyday that bashes on anyone that has a conservative view.

A lot of bills have been vetoed by Bush (remember I’m not a fan of Bush) because of congresses "Pork Barrel" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_barrel spending. The Stimulus Bill ended up being 151 billion dollars http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120241127282451331.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news vs. the democrats trying to add an additional 53 billion dollars http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120232403234848325.html?mod=sphere_ts of spending to the bill. The problem I have with our current congress is they want to give everything away to the less fortunate in some form of a program, and more taxes on the upper class. It’s just a redistribution of money. It doesn’t help create or stimulate jobs to boost the economy. If anything it makes people dependant on our government.

Our old Republican congress spent so much money with using “Pork Barrel” spending tricks that is has left a bad taste with the public. This congress has cut back a little, but not enough. Bush feels the heat and that leads to vetoes. It would happen with any president. That’s one of my biggest issues with the Republican party. They had an opportunity to real in spending and they did not. They went crazy and spent more.

The stimulus plan is the same crap. We are going to borrow money from China in hopes that people buy more of the same carp made in China. That’s a win win for China not us. How is a 151 billion dollar Stimulus Plan going to impact a 14 trillion dollar economy? It’s not.

We need to cut back on spending period. Every time a bill is introduced congress doesn’t need to add more spending to it. That’s our whole problem….our government has no fiscal responsibility. They just spend, spend, and spend. You have to be fiscal at some point. Could you imagine if our government actually generating a P&L sheet for the public to view. We would all have a heart attack with where our money is really going.

Bottom line….both parties (really turning into one party) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-party_state
are more worried about themselves then serving the people. I’m terrified for my kids and this is not pointed towards one party. It’s the whole freaking government system.

Andrew, you’re on the money about the parties. There is no difference anymore. The liberals have moved to the far left and the right has moved to the left. It's scary! I'm all about pedaling by butt everywhere I can.