How many times do I have to keep repeating this?
1. You can't blame the Democrats in the House of Representatives for inaction. The Democrats do not have a working majority, they only have a simple majority. A working majority is more than a two-thirds majority, so they can be allowed to follow through on their promises without being blocked by arcane rules.
A fifty one percent majority only shifts the ranking members of the house from one party to the other, then the ranking party is made to look bad because they still don't have enough votes to do anything.
A Quagmire makes for a totally irrelevant government that appears to only be in place to divert the public's attention away from those who are really in control.
Did you ever wonder why all the poll and election results are split down the center within a ten percent margin between them?
This government is done, all that's left are the corporations.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
How it might have been
It might have turned out like this if nobody paid attention to what was going on:
Monday, April 21, 2008
The Internet Killed The Television Star
Why are television news reporters being so nice to Senator John McCain? MediaMatters.org noted recently that McCain has been getting the red carpet treatment and softball questions on the broadcast networks, as well as cable news networks. It's shocking to see the media fawn and flatter a political candidate.
Following the November 2008 election, there may be no more broadcast television as we know it. The results of the election will throw mud in the face of the mainstream commentators.
The news media needs McCain so it can create content and justify its own existence. It's fast becoming totally irrelevant. Most viewers have enourmous quantities of information from the Internet with which to hold up against what these people are saying, yet the television personalities continue to operate under the assumption that most of their audience is stupid, has yet to adopt Internet technology, or never will.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Suddenly in Springfield
There's talk of spending millions of dollars on infrastructure replacement in Springfield, Illinois. The trend has been to use the claim of infrastructure maintenance necessity to justify sudden massive increases in utility rates in the city.
I contend that such maintenance requirements are common knowledge and should have been included in already existing taxes and fees. Therefore, I conclude that corruption is rampant on a scale that requires federal intervention.
The city of Springfield has an old generation that spent huge amounts of money to build Springfield right after World War II, and when they were done, they sat back and retired, and complained bitterly about taxes.
They didn't want to pay taxes and their politicians promised not to raise taxes, and now that they are all dying off, they can go peacefully without a worry for themselves, or so they thought.
Suddenly, money is needed to fix things. Now water, sewer and other city service charges are doubled, tripled, or quadrupled. Why? Those idiots didn't want their taxes increased to create a surplus for such needed maintenance. If they allowed for a gradual increase in taxes to maintain a budget surplus in anticipation of repair or infrastructure growth, there would be no issue here. The money would be available.
If the budget was planned properly and there was still a need for sudden increases in fees by the city, than a federal investigation needs to be initiated, and people jailed for stealing the money.
So what is the solution? Leave Springfield, Illinois. Move out. Those who leave now will join others who left when schools were desegregated.
The commutes to work will be longer and harder. Sales taxes locally will be the only way to shore up the city coffers.
The flipside is the gentrification of Springfield. The only people who will stay will be those that can afford it. But I have bad news. More than two-thirds of the population of Springfield earns less than ten dollars per hour.
Allegedly local business owners have influence with local politicians. Did they influence local politicians into keeping past utility rates too low? Do the majority of these local business owners actually live within the Springfield city limits?
If the majority of the local business owners reside elsewhere, they might be inclined to think they will suffer no long-term consequences for dangerously low utility rates and city taxes. They can pull up stakes and move elsewhere, that's why most of them only lease the property upon which they do business.
Except for farming, SPFLD's well of commerce is drying up, my friends.
I contend that such maintenance requirements are common knowledge and should have been included in already existing taxes and fees. Therefore, I conclude that corruption is rampant on a scale that requires federal intervention.
The city of Springfield has an old generation that spent huge amounts of money to build Springfield right after World War II, and when they were done, they sat back and retired, and complained bitterly about taxes.
They didn't want to pay taxes and their politicians promised not to raise taxes, and now that they are all dying off, they can go peacefully without a worry for themselves, or so they thought.
Suddenly, money is needed to fix things. Now water, sewer and other city service charges are doubled, tripled, or quadrupled. Why? Those idiots didn't want their taxes increased to create a surplus for such needed maintenance. If they allowed for a gradual increase in taxes to maintain a budget surplus in anticipation of repair or infrastructure growth, there would be no issue here. The money would be available.
If the budget was planned properly and there was still a need for sudden increases in fees by the city, than a federal investigation needs to be initiated, and people jailed for stealing the money.
So what is the solution? Leave Springfield, Illinois. Move out. Those who leave now will join others who left when schools were desegregated.
The commutes to work will be longer and harder. Sales taxes locally will be the only way to shore up the city coffers.
The flipside is the gentrification of Springfield. The only people who will stay will be those that can afford it. But I have bad news. More than two-thirds of the population of Springfield earns less than ten dollars per hour.
Allegedly local business owners have influence with local politicians. Did they influence local politicians into keeping past utility rates too low? Do the majority of these local business owners actually live within the Springfield city limits?
If the majority of the local business owners reside elsewhere, they might be inclined to think they will suffer no long-term consequences for dangerously low utility rates and city taxes. They can pull up stakes and move elsewhere, that's why most of them only lease the property upon which they do business.
Except for farming, SPFLD's well of commerce is drying up, my friends.
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