Donkephant

Thank you, Rep. Barton for saying what many of us are feeling and want to say, but don’t have the platform. You apology was deserved and I (and others) think you were right when you characterized what happened as a shakedown. That’s exactly what it was. Chicago-style gangster politics at it’s worst. Completely un-constitutional and certainly illegal.

Perhaps the fund should have been created (I have no good reason why it shouldn’t have been.), but the way it was gone about was wrong. Just a bit more of the mob styling of the Presidents political bent. Sad that we have to endure another 2 years of this. Let’s hope that by November they become a little bit more bearable.

The Jamestown, ND city council is scheduled to vote to extend the 1% economic development sales tax and change the use at their April 5, 2010 meeting. The tax, originally scheduled to end in 2012 enacts a 1% sales tax, the proceeds of which are supposed to be used for economic development and infrastructure improvements for economic development. The city council would like to extend it’s end date to 2018 as well as divert 50% of the funds to infrastructure maintenance such as sewer replacement.

All of those changes are fine. IF the citizens of Jamestown, ND get to vote to approve them. The original ordinance was placed on the ballot and voted on by the citizens, so it should follow that the citizens should be allowed to vote on any changes to the ordinance. Am I wrong? Am I missing something here?

Unfortunately, the city of Jamestown doesn’t have any of their ordinances or election results online, so I can’t do any research that way. I guess I’ll have to go down to the city hall and see if I can find anything out in the catacombs. Welcome to the 21st century folks, it’s time to digitize your records. Especially the ones that are supposed to be publicly available.

Also, you can bet I’ll be recording in detail the election results from now on. If for no other reason than for my own research ability.

I almost missed this. Last December, when the vote was taken for the healthcare blunder, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada “mistakenly” called out “No” when asked how he voted. He immediately caught himself and changed his vote to “Yes”. Well, fool me once…

Reid casts wrong vote on health care for second time.

Way to go. This is the Senator who is the Majority Leader! And you Nevada folks? What were you thinking when you voted this guy into office? Or did the dementia set in after the election? He can’t even get a vote right, but you trust him to represent you and your state?

For those of you so inclined, there is a HUGE Tea Party going on this weekend in Fargo. If you’re thinking to yourself (self, there’s something else going on this weekend in Fargo), you’re right. The Democrat State Convention is being held in Fargo this weekend. Coincidence? Nope. If you are available this weekend, you really should go. I encourage you to go. And directly after the tea party, there’s a Take Back Washington rally at UMM in Moorhead.

The tea party is from 1 to 3 on Saturday at the Fargo Civic Center and the Take back Washington rally is at the UMM campus.

You can get more details for both events (e.g. times, locations, maps, etc.) over at Sayanythingblog.com. Here’s a handy link to the info on the Tea Party in Fargo.

And, yes, I’m going to tell you why. Also, it’s mostly the Democrats who are wrong, but I’ve heard my fair share of Republicans that are messed up on the issue as well.

First. Let’s get something straight. Every single American has access to healthcare. Any one of us can walk into any Emergency Room and receive healthcare irregardless of our ability to pay. Will they ask you to pay? Probably. But they’ll still treat you first. So, quit trying to use that silly argument.

Second. Those of us with insurance or money to pay for our healthcare will likely receive better treatment. It’s a reality in every single capitalist economy. Free = lesser. Sorry, but that’s the way it works. If you don’t like it, get a job that offers insurance. And if you do have insurance? Quit going to the doctor so darn often. I firmly believe that you are capable of treating your own splinters.

Third. You do NOT have a right to health insurance. Affordable health insurance? Yes. But, expect your affordable health insurance to not cover as much as the “Cadillac” plans do. This goes back to the Free = Lesser argument. The quality of something (In this case, what it covers and how much it pays) is directly relational to how much you pay for it. If I can afford a health insurance plan that has a premium of $4000 a month, I can expect it to pay everything. If I’m only paying $400 a month, I cannot.

To recap: Health Care does not equal Health Insurance. You do not really have a right to either. What you do have the right to is the “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. None of those three things can be construed as meaning health insurance or health care. Very simply, I cannot take your Life from you. I cannot take your Liberty from you, and I cannot keep you from pursuing happiness. Period. Stop trying to give it meaning that doesn’t exist, or I’ll start doing the same. Did I mention that I can make a very good argument for my pursuit of happiness being ruined by people who don’t do what I tell them to?

The more liberally you take these things, the more liberties you’ll give us to use them against you later. You keep saying it, and maybe it’s true, but we conservatives are a warring bunch and when we are not allowed to war with our real enemies, we’ll naturally turn on our domestic ones.

Finally, you all are acting like a bunch of children. You aren’t getting your way, so you’re trying to find ways to break the rules without getting caught and to bend the rest of them so that you’re stuff gets pushed through. Grow up already.

Let me start by saying that I truly believe that the Toyota recalls were necessary and that the parts in question really were failing like they were reported to be. I do feel that the coverage was overmuch and that it was blown out of proportion. The recall for the gas pedal wasn’t really as dangerous as everyone made it seem. If your gas pedal gets stuck and you find yourself driving a car that is accelerating uncontrollably, all you have to do is put the car into neutral. That’s it. The brakes is another story.

All of that aside, there is a little conspiracy theorist deep down that is wondering if all the hullabaloo isn’t a construct of the unions. You see, Toyota is not a unionized company. They don’t have contracts with the unions in their factories. And Toyota has been consistently gaining market share over the big three in Detroit. And the big three are unionized. So, the theory goes that the unions are putting political pressure on the government to put a lot more pressure on Toyota than they would on Ford, GM, and Chevy.

Just a conspiracy theory, but all too plausible.