AZ Election Results

Official results won’t be until Friday but here are some of the obvious and expected results.

In Phoenix, Sal DiCiccio won a runoff with Dana Kennedy for District 6 and Bill Gates won District 3 for City Council seats. Congratulations to both. Now help get our city’s budget under control.

Budget overrides passed in Mesa, Scottsdale Unified, and Paradise Valley school districts. Higley defeated their override.

Unfortunately for me Osborn overrides were approved, much to my disgust. At least Phoenix Union’s override was defeated. I wouldn’t mind so much if the schools were half decent and not so extremely hostile to the residents who don’t have children and businesses of the district. That and the kids seem to be dumber than stumps when you ask them a simple question.

The problem is we have so many ignorant people in the city that  are convinced throwing money on a failing system will some how fix it. It won’t. They’re going to continue to drive away tax paying property owners with the constant budget overrides. Get a budget and stay on that budget. Period. If you can’t afford it, then cut the useless programs that have the least benefit to the kids like bilingual education for K-6. How about larger class sizes until the tax base improves when the economy gets better. I was in large class sizes and went on to become an engineer so I don’t buy into the class size equate success crap being tossed around by lazy school officials.

Honestly, the system needs to change. It’s unsustainable and driving away businesses, jobs, and residents with each new increase or extension of taxes for which people see no gain. Perhaps a tuition system needs to be put into place or a pay-go plan that seem to be the love of so many politicians now. But perhaps most importantly we need administrators and teachers who will do their jobs and hold themselves, parents, and kids accountable for their failures. Get the basics fixed first for a solid educational foundation and everything else will naturally build upon that.

News Round Up

U.S. decision can’t wait for Afghan legitimacy: Gates | Reuters

The overriding question is not, “how many troops you send, but do you have a credible Afghan partner,” Emanuel said, adding it was important the election outcome be seen as legitimate and credible.

An interesting comment that highlights Emanuel’s silly statist notion that the government are more important than the people. That and proving he’s an idiot for trying to blur the truth about Afghanistan: it’s a war against the Al-Qaeda and their allies, the Taliban. Besides I think there’s actual progress in Afghanistan since Karzai agreed to a new round of elections, something that would not have happened under Afghanistan’s many assorted dictators of the past generations.

House panel redraws credit agency bill | Politics | Reuters

Draft legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to rein in credit rating agencies has been redrawn to drop a provision mandating across-the-board repeal of U.S. laws requiring the use of credit ratings.

Just more proof on the complete failure and corruption of our government. Why does the repealed language have to be reinstated into a bill after it was stripped out if there was not anything wrong with it in the first place? Just typical games and corruption. The whole credit ratings system has become one giant scam.

NATO a corpse, fumes former Canada military boss | International | Reuters

At least it’s still somewhat more relevant than say…the United Nations. Not that the General doesn’t have a point about NATO’s problematic members that want all the benefits but none of the responsibility nor the burden such responsibility entails.

Vatican welcomes Anglicans into Catholic church – CNN.com

Interesting though I can not help but wonder if Roman Catholics are going to start questioning why these new “converts” will be allowed to operate under a different set of rules for Anglican priests regarding marriage versus Roman Catholic priests. Seems odd, but the RCC will work it for themselves.

AK-47 maker to go bankrupt?

Gunmaker to go bankrupt?

Health Care Debate continues

I’ve been quiet on the health care debate mainly because I’ve been watching to see what the Legislative branch comes up with. For the most part I’m not pleased and as yet oppose both House and Senate proposals across the board.

I’m particularly annoyed at the nitwits supporting coverage to illegals. I would not be surprised if they were the same misguided folks who support sanctuary cities and others who intentionally violate U.S. immigration laws to protect illegal aliens in this country. I say they truly want that then they add in a requirement that said illegals after getting their insurance or being treated are arrested on the spot and deported without delay.

I’m glad to see the Senate Panel vote down attempts to place “public option” into Baucus’ already questionable “health care” bill. Now if only they’d drop what for me are absolutely killers of the bill: requiring citizens to obtain health care coverage or be fined (sorry I’m not government property and refuse to be treated as such), taxing those who can afford so called “Cadillac” programs (punishing those who work hard to have a better quality of life), and the annual outrageous government fees on insurance companies, medical device makers, and labs but not on Big Pharma (convenient that Big Pharma will also get government protection from foreign, cheaper competition while crippling development of medical devices and assorted preventative medical tests).

An interesting view: Some Thoughts on Health Care “Reform”

America’s Shameful Immigration Policy: The Ferschke Case

Marine’s Widow Denied Residency

Has our nation really become so low and our laws, regulations, and government workers so out of date and out of touch with reality that the wives and children of our military personnel are being denied their rightful place as members and citizens of this nation simply because the military spouse died? I simply have to wonder why they are so concerned with denying a legitimate wife and child of a deceased American Marine residency yet these same bureaucrats think nothing of allowing illegal aliens to cross the border and are automatically allowed to stay after having their “anchor baby”.

It’s another disgusting, shameful day for America’s bloated bureaucracy and anachronistic laws. I hope the private bill being introduced by U.S. Rep. John Duncan will be dealt with quickly and not sidelined by ignorant and uncaring Congressmen and Senators so that Mrs Ferschke and her son will be allowed their rightful place here in the United States instead of being forced to leave in January. Doing otherwise is a slap in the face of all Americans and dishonors those military personnel serving our nation who may have a foreign born spouse and/or children.

It’s just more evidence on another issue being ignored by our so called leaders: immigration reform.

Tea and Acorns

It looks like the Tea Party in Washington, D.C. was pretty successful (not to mention those held across the country). Plenty of people showed up by all appearances, though it looks like we’ll perhaps never get an accurate estimation of the crowd size given the politicization of the news media when you get numbers ranging from some two million down to a few thousand. Regardless, I think they made their point sufficiently well, even if some of the more extreme left are in denial and using every dismissive tactic they can think of to dismiss the event.

On to more fun things…like watching ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) expose its corruption. Which is a rather sad occurrence for those honest people working for ACORN whose work may now be discredited by those recently caught in the scandal.

First we have a it come out that ACORN has actually been providing means to flaunt U.S. laws on taxation, immigration, and housing let alone turning a willful blind eye to child prostitution in one office. Then a second office is uncovered (by the same people) as following in similar vein. Now keep in mind this is the same group accused in a number of voter registration fraud concerns from the 2008 elections.

This has led to their removal from duties to aid the 2010 Census, and rightly so given the organizations questionable activities. I’m personally of the opinion that this group needs to be investigated further, especially in light of their recent behavior and the fact that they are the beneficiaries of billions of tax payer dollars via the stimulus. If nothing more they should be investigated to to ensure more illegal activity is not underway. I do hope the Department of Justice investigates them fully, but I’m skeptical this will happen given the light treatment the group has gotten over voter registration fraud activities.

Following on the heels of all this is Florida prosecutors accusing 11 ACORN workers of falsifying voter registration forms. While not evidence in and of itself it does show an ongoing pattern of questionable practices. Enough so to warrant investigations (as is occuring in a number of States) and criminal charges (such as in Nevada).

Of course ACORN is lashing out trying to play the victim of conspiracies by threatening lawsuits and what not again Fox and others for uncovering the criminal activity. I’ve said this often but you can’t claim to be the victim when you’re the one committing the crime. If ACORN wishes to survive it needs take responsibility for its members actions and be more transparent. Taking legal actions against those who report the organizations activities merely reinforces the perception that the group as a whole may be nothing but another criminal organization.

The question now is Maryland going to foolishly punish those who unconvered the ongoing fraud and criminal activity in their state by going after the filmmaker or are they going to do their job and rightfully go after those perpetrating the fraud and crime? Time will tell, I guess.

September 11 Terrorist Attack 8th Anniversary

Always remember what happened on September 11, 2001 and what it cost us as a nation.

Common Sense Wisdom

(At least with respect to governance, if not life.)

From W.J.H. Boetcker’s The 10 Cannots:

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
• You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
• And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

Perhaps our so called political leaders should take note.

Funny how the silence echoes to a storm

Perhaps the Obama administration should be wary of the growing storm they are feeding.

I don’t really feel like writing much tonight other than to say I am contemptuous and scornful of the lefty loonies trying to dismiss the genuine anger and concern the American people have over health care “reform”. Somehow they seem to think they can out “wing nut” the right wing “wing nuts” from the Bush era, which would be something of a feat. Unfortunately they seem well on the way to succeeding in that regard. So now we have a  thugs that think they can intimidate the public into silence, at the behest of the White House, planning to try and stop the citizenry from expressing their outrage at assorted town hall meeting by bringing their own people to stack the events into Obama’s favor and drown out any opposition. Then we have delusional politicians who simply dismiss the people’s anger as some  incitement by some mysterious GOP led vast right wing conspiracy. LOL. Sure. You keep telling yourselves that when your voted out of office for not listening the citizenry, you scumbags.

Facts are facts. People don’t like Obamacare, which they (Congress, et al) continue to lie about even though they seem to have forgotten that a number of citizens have done something they have not: READ IT! People certainly don’t like the public option with it’s shifty mandatory “end of life” consultations, cutting $150 billion from Medicare, prohibiting the sale of private health insurance starting in 2013, a 2.5% tax on any not accepting a bureaucrat approved health care plan, among other thing.[1]  People most of all don’t like elected leaders acting like they are untouchable dictators for life or some form of royalty allowed to crush the masses whenever they feel like it. Outr leaders refuse to explain their actions or hold themselves accountable for failing to do their jobs with the best interest of their citizens at heart, not the government or their political affiliation.

[1] Don’t believe these claims about the bill? Don’t listen to the demagogues or the MSM propagandists. Read it for yourself here and decide. You’ll probably end up telling Obama and his clowns to sod off with their lies afterward.

I’m so looking forward to the 2010 elections when these scumbags can be made to pay for their arrogance by throwing them out of office.

And to end on an amusing note: The People’s Cube

Misc News Comments

Sarah Palin Resignation

So Palin has decided to resign, for whatever reason, be it media harassment, financial problems, etc., it does not matter. It’s not surprising given the viciousness of attacks against her and her family. One would think that those who blithely dismiss her are in fact terrified of her given their venom towards her in everything she does.

Some think she’s starting her run for President in 2012 or a Senate seat in 2010 and already attacking her in case this is true. It’s funny though how the attacks play out by calling her a quitter by not finishing her term considering how Mr. Obama became President doing the exact same thing as the junior Senator from Illinois. Again it doesn’t really matter.

Personally I don’t think she’s electable as a President even with the ongoing train wreck of the administration’s policies. While she gets points for generally being a State’s Rights Federalists, she loses that federalist brand on a number of social issues being far too conservative for the comfort of many Americans fed up with their lives and nation being run into the ground by the extremists. She and many other self style federalists forget that true federalism doesn’t allow for them to impose their conservative social agenda on America any more than hard left liberals can impose their statist social agenda.

China and the Uighurs

Any hope China has in the Xinjiang region for peace is slim to none given riots there. You can’t keep oppressing the ethnic Uighurs in their own land and not expect to have trouble, especially when Han are brought in to try and dilute the Uighur population and actively practice ethnic discrimination against the Uighurs. Of course the Chinese are planning another crackdown.

TEA Parties

The Tea Parties across the nation appear to have done well despite the holiday and associated weather. The Phoenix Tea Party seems to have done well despite the relatively quick planning. Naturally small given the weather here and the fact that it was a holiday.