Open Letter to Mitch McConnell

To: Senator Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader
Today sir, you restored my hope that the political system can work. While I was indeed opposed to the recent immigration amnesty bill being sponsored by the President, I was more concerned by your votes as the bill began to make its way through the Senate. However, yesterday you changed your vote and the bill died. Was it because the White House and Senate switch boards were so overloaded that they shut down? Was it the millions of e-mails that you received, faxes, and letters? Whatever it was, thank you for listening to the people who voted you in to office, and will continue to support you. Thank you for standing in opposition to the President (your friend) and defeating this terrible bill. Please continue to defeat such measures that would sell out America and give sanctuary to millions of people who have no regard for our laws.

Thank you!

Interesting Perspective on Immigration Reform. CNN is just reporting that the Immigration Bill has suffered a crushing defeat. If it didn't pass, and the majority voted, doesn't that say something about the bill? If they had just called it what the President did, "The Immigration Amnesty Bill" maybe the Senate would have discussed it on its merit. The good news is that amnesty is now off the table for the 12 million illegals aliens in America. The bad news is that there is nothing to stem the flow of the thousands who march on our borders every day.

Congressional Approval Rating- DUH! I heard several comments this week on blogs, podcasts, etc., discussing that the congressional approval rating was at an all time low. This is not surprising to me at all! If ever there was a "do nothing" Congress, this one is it. Two things came out this week which showed to me clearly that they have no agenda, no ethics, no clue.

When Ms. Pelossi took over as Speaker of the House she claimed that they would have a higher standard, be more transparent, and work better. Sounds good. But since then it appears that the opposite is true. Recently as the House began to thrown in all sorts of earmarks (pork barrel spending to you and I) it was reported that not only was there a record number, but that the amount of such projects is at an all time record high. I applaud the work of Se. Tom Coburn (R-OK) for his public exposure of such projects and to the six members of the House said they had no earmark requests. I understand (but don't agree) with the current procedure which doesn't require them to publicly announce what their projects are, but it still would have been nice to have at least one of the congressmen from Kentucky to disclose something. Several denied the requests, some just ignored the requests. But when Ms. Pelossi was asked about her earmarks she corrected the reporters by saying that they weren't "earmarks" they were legislatively directed spending requests. What a bunch of garbage. This kind of verbiage reminds me of Bill Clinton saying that oral SEX isn't sex. It was a mutually consensual act. Changing the name, Ms. Pelossi, doesn't change what it is. Call it "ethically controlled legislative spending directives as voted by the people", its still pork.

I would like to see congress have the courage to not slide stuff like this into the budget. Stand up and say, "Hey, this is important to our country, vote for this single budget amendment bill."

[Ever started something and gotten totally sidetracked and forgot where you were going? I just did that with this post. Then the rest of the story hit me this morning...so I now continue]

Well, it struck me that we have this massive problem with our borders and the government has proven that they are impotent to fix it. We are in a war that doesn't seem to have any strategy. We have a serious problem looming with Social Security, our national debt, trade deficits, and the overall plunging value of the dollar overseas. But what did our elected officials do this week? They once again put forth a bill for expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a bill that the President vowed to veto, and he did. If the Congress can't get their heads together enough to know that the bill isn't going to have enough momentum to override a veto then they are just wasting their time, and our money.

If Congress were a business they would be bankrupt. How can you have hundreds of employees spending all of their time working on a problem that isn't of the highest priority, knowing that when the solution is sent to the CEO of that company that he will reject it.

Folks, the house is on fire and Congress is rearranging the pillows.

Giuliani: Stick a Fork in Him, He's Done. I am willing to give anyone a second chance. There are great politicians who have not had perfect personal lives (with the exception of possibly Ron Lewis). Reagan had a failed first message, Nixon had that whole Watergate thing, and Clinton had sex with an intern in the White House while his wife was there. Okay, so maybe he wasn't a great president. Anyway, some times a guy just needs a break and I am one to stand up and say "Let's give him a chance". But, there comes a time when we need to say that enough is enough and move on to someone else.

Rudy alienated about half of the Republican base when it came out that not only does he favor abortion rights, he has donated thousands of dollars to Planned Parenthood (who just published that they had a record year last year performing 264,943 abortions last year (more deaths than the population of Louisville, KY). Strike one in my book.

Today it was announced in Newsday that Rudy Giuliani was a member of an elite group known as the Iraq Study Group. Well, when there were meetings scheduled Rudy was busy on the speaking circuit raising money for his campaign. I have no problem with him raising money, that is essential to any campaign. But why commit to something that is so important if you aren't going to show up for a single meeting, or even a conference call? It seems to me that this would have been a pretty important group to be a part of. Strike Two.

If this were baseball I would throw out a "ball one" on charges that his campaign manager in South Carolina was indicted in charges to distribute cocaine today. The bigger story is that this man was the treasurer of the state of South Carolina. That he was also heading up Rudy's campaign in South Carolina is coincidental at best. Rudy didn't have intimate knowledge of this man's life and that really can't be held against him. But, he did have intimate knowledge of Bernard Kerik's life (that he had a sexual harassment charge against him, hired an illegal as a domestic, had ties to organized crime, guilty on ethics violations, perjury charges, etc.) So, maybe not a "ball", certainly a foul. It is essential for people in high positions to have people of incredible integrity around them. Giuliani doesn't seem to do a great job in this department.

But then, Rasmussen is reporting tonight that in the polls Giuliani has slipped into second place behind a guy who hasn't even said if he is running yet! But that is likely to change in the next week as well.

Why the Republican’s Will Lose the Kentucky Governor’s Race in 2008 (and probably more and more house seats).

On Friday April 6^th I decided to get a little more involved than just reading about stuff in the paper (or more accurately a dozen of my favorite blogs). I had pondered things for some time and decided to become active in assisting in the political process. I was a little disappointed in the pathetic showing that Steve Nunn made in the election for House Representative. Since his failed bid for the Governor’s seat in 2003 he just wasn’t there. So it was little surprise when he also lost his bid to keep his seat in the House. I don’t recall him making any speeches, although he might have. If the gauge of activity was yard signs, he was a no show in our end of the county. I am not sure who will run against Bell the next term, but I decided that I would get more active and help that person out.

So, on April 6^th I wrote to the Kentucky Republican Party online expressing an interest in becoming more active. I shared that I could help campaign, pass out stuff, whatever was needed. I shared that I lived in Barren County and wanted someone to contact me so that I could see where there was a need. I immediately got a great automated reply. In that reply I was told “With your help, we'll bring new faces and new voices into the Republican Party and maintain our majority for years to come.” How refreshing!

Two months later I haven’t received a thing. I got a nice post card from E. Fletcher telling me why I shouldn’t vote for Northup. I got a couple of automated replies from Ron Lewis on some correspondence that I have sent. But from the Republican Party of Kentucky or locally I haven’t received a thing.

I understand that people fall through the cracks. I am in a business that deals with thousands of people every day and I know that a few people have had to call us twice to get an issue resolved. But it seems to me that if you are putting out a plea for help that there should be some system of accountability to make sure that those people are getting a follow-up. An e-mail from the chairman of the Republican Party of Barren County would have been nice. An invite to their next monthly meeting, fund raiser, or something like that would have made me happy. Something automated from the state that just told me what was going on with elections would have at least acknowledged that they knew that I was out here. But the silence tells me so much.

At the federal level I get e-mail almost daily. A lot of it is asking for money, but some is telling me what is going on.

Soon the election is going to ramp up hard and there will be a bunch of Republican’s who wanted to help but never got the call. We will watch from the sidelines with sadness as the Democrats take more seats.

Where I am going with all of this is the frustration of our party that still lives like everything is going to just happen on its own. The Green Party is the most active group out there, they are passionate about what they believe and rally their people to participate. The Dems do a fairly good job as well, particularly on key social issues. But where are the passionate Republicans?

I am here, waiting for someone in leadership to step up.

Maybe that’s the problem, maybe I need to step up.

Random Explosions of Thought: In a recent poll, people were asked if the election were held today who would they vote for. Of the Republicans the top pick was someone who hasn't yet announced if he is running. What does that say about the millions of dollars that the others are spending every week.

Downloaded the Apple Safari browser. Made me glad I don't own a Mac.

Someone on a podcast I listen to suggested that they were going to buy the 8GB iPhone and then cancel their contract with ATT/Cingular. Why? They just wanted the device without the phone. So, $599 for the device, $175 early cancellation fee and they have an 8GB MP3 player. Hmmm, seems like he could have spent $149 for a iPod nano of the same size, or $249 for the 30GB video. I will wait for the 6g coming out this year (hopefully).

Bernheim Arboretum needs new management. The place is going downhill quickly.

John C. Dyvorak needs to eat some prunes.

Jericho and SG: Atlantis are my current favorite shows (via web).

I greatly respect the office of the President of the United States. I hope the current President fails miserably in his attempts to revitalize the illegal alien ammnesty bill. I also think that the H1B visas are DESTROYING our country. But, good job with Putin!

Podacasting is SO much better than broadcast radio.

Found my old Canon ELP 2.1MP camera today. Doesn't work anymore, but what a great camera!

Small Victories: There are times when the smallest things just make me smile. Feedback on a picture that I have posted, good gas mileage on a trip, high score on a game that I play. Well, I just had a small victory. I do a podcast (totally unrelated to anything that I do here at TheDigitalLife) but have really been having a great time with it. Well, I now officially have more listeners (subscribers) than the average. Not that many, but I am above average and that says something (although I don't know what).

Okay, so you are probably wanting to know how many subscribers, embarrassingly the average is only 40 subscribers. I have just hit 43 today, adding about 3-5 a day. I will crank out another episode today and hopefully the word of mouth will spread a little.