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Given that other things are tying up my time, I’m not able to dedicate a full post to some things I’d like to hit. In lieu of that, however, I’m going to toss out some quick thoughts on a few things just to get my thoughts out there. Feel free to comment/add as you will.

President Obama’s First 100 Days
The first hundred days mark is the Hallmark Holiday of the Presidency. It’s something that sets a false expectation of anything substantive being done in the first 100 days of an administration. Sure, it can give something of a preview, but the general odds of something substantive being done by the President in that period of time is rare. For Obama, he’s signed a number of bills that have shifted the US away from Capitalism and closer to Socialism, as well as setting a path for bankrupting the United States. For all his talk of it being necessary to pass the stimulus bill, much of that money is still not flowing into the economy.

So while I will note that Obama has been the instigator of a lot being done during his first hundred days, what was accomplished was to the ultimate detriment of the United States as a Republic.

Swine Flu
As I noted in a tweet, I will start worrying about the Swine Flu when people start dying from it in the United States. Until that point, I see no reason to work myself up over it. Yes, people have died in Mexico. However, the living conditions in much of Mexico is worse than it is in the United States. Also, we still don’t have word on how many people have been infected, so we have no idea what the death percentage is. Given these two items, I see no reason to get worked up into a panic over it. Will I keep an eye on it? Sure. To do otherwise would be irresponsible, but I’m not going to be one of the people running around banging the Pandemic drum.

Arlen Specter
Arlen Specter has announced that he is going to run as a Democrat in 2010. This isn’t all that much of a surprise. He is in a Blue leaning state and he was facing a very tough Primary battle as a Republican. Swapping sides puts him in line with the supposed majority in Pennsylvania and more in line with how he’s tended to vote in recent years. The interesting question is whether he’s going to remain in the Republican Camp until the 2010 Election. If so, it’s not as big a blow as it could be. I expect the Republicans to shift the balance back a bit in the Senate in 2010, which will move us farther away from a filibuster proof Senate. There is also still the lingering question of Minnesota, which is likely going to end up in the Supreme Court.

RINOs and the cries against them
Looking at one of the announcements about Specter on the web, there were a number of comments saying he was a RINO, and he needed to run away and not come back, taking McCain and his daughter with him. This honestly makes me wonder just what the Republican Party has become in this day and age. Once upon a time, they were the party of smaller government and fiscal responsibility. Somewhere along the line, they’ve shifted to being a party of legislated morality and lip service to the previous tenets. Anyone in the party who dares to drift from a hardline stance on the far Right is vilified and accused of being a Republican In Name Only (for those who didn’t know what RINO meant). Unfortunately, I blame much of this on Bush and Rove with their ‘with us or against us’ rhetoric that encouraged this division.

Political Parties aren’t monolithic lock-step organization, no matter what the preachers of dogma within them want you to believe. They are a group of people with a similar core tenet of beliefs. Unfortunately, political parties tend to suffer from the same pit falls as organized religion. They mean well in the beginning, but they get far too tied up in their own dogma to remember why they originally started.

stranger Random Thought

GM has announced that Pontiac is going away as one of its brands. While I personally have no issue with this being made as a business decision, there is evidence that this decision came from pressure from the Federal Government, not from a decision of GM itself (who apparently wanted to keep at least a couple of Pontiac models as niche brand). It unfortunately appears the moniker “Government Motors” is growing more and more apropos.

More and more, it’s appearing the Federal Government is sinking its talons into various businesses and is going to continue making demands and isn’t going to want to let go. Now if a business took Federal bailout money willingly, then I do agree the Federal Government has a strong position to make demands on the business. My primary issue, however, is these should be broad demands, not specific business decisions. This is rather obviously a viewpoint not shared by the Federal Government.

If you add into this the claims of the Federal Government not allowing some banks to repay TARP funds and their attempt to transition Preferred Shares to Common Shares (thus allowing the Federal Government what would be a controlling share of voting stock in many cases), there is a lot of ugly potential out there. I wish I could say that I think the best of what the Obama Administration is doing right now and their only goal is to get everyone back up on their feet and allow a return to the free market. However, the Administration’s pandering to the hard left at this point (granted, the last Administration’s pandering to the Hard Right was just as problematic in other arenas) provides no evidence of a reason for such a level of optimism on my part.

At this point, there isn’t much that can be done other than to watch and gnash my teeth. However, the 2010 election cycle will start up soon, which will offer plenty of opportunities to push for something more.

stranger Government Outrage, News

“I am concerned about the environment. I love to wear black. I think government is best when it stays out of people’s lives and business as much as possible. I love punk rock. I believe in a strong national defense. I have a tattoo. I believe government should always be efficient and accountable. I have lots of gay friends. And yes, I am a Republican.”

The above came from a transcript of Meghan McCain’s speech to the Log Cabin Republicans. The whole can be found at the Daily Beast. I recommend taking the time to read it.

My thoughts after reading it (yes, I’m a few days behind getting to it, but that’s the way things go) were very simple. She’s someone who gets it. Unlike many Republicans, she’s not clinging to the past. Instead, she’s found her way to boiling down the core values of the Republican Party and working on applying them to the current environment.

Reading her thoughts brings up some thoughts from friends of mine after the 2004 election when there was talk about a need for a “Purple” Party that blended the best parts of the Republican and Democrat Parties, much of which was often exemplified by Meghan’s father, Sen. John McCain, in the eyes of many people. Whether or not Sen. McCain could actually be held up as the poster child of that viewpoint, it doesn’t change the validity of it.

For several years now, I’ve believed the Libertarian Party was what the doctor ordered, but I honestly don’t know anymore. At the end of the day, I don’t think any political party has the magic bullet because the minute you start pushing the agenda of a party, you’ve bought into the system, which has its own pitfalls.

Instead, I think what we need are more people who are willing to stand up and simply say, “This is what I believe in and what I want to accomplish.” More and more, the major political parties are reminding me of Unions and their tactics to force their members to march lock-step no matter the direction they’re moving. Do they accomplish some good things? Of course. In the long run, though, do I believe they do more harm than good? Absolutely.

What Meghan McCain put forward in her speech to the Log Cabin Republicans, however, shows a line of thinking that could actually pull the party back to being more good than bad. Shifting the party to thinking in a more modern fashion without clinging to things that are either completely mired in the past or are too wrapped up in religious dogmatic thought processes would go a long way to gaining more support for the Republican Party.

The same, of course, could be said for the other side of the aisle. Much like my viewpoint on religion, my general feeling is that the problem isn’t with the particular philosophical stance that would be called Republican or Democrat (or Libertarian or Green or whatever). The problem starts when it becomes organized beyond the level of ‘hey, let’s work together since we think alike.’ After not too long, it gets to no longer be about making a difference and more about gaining and keeping power.

Obviously, I’m rambling more than a little on this. The core thing here is that people like Meghan McCain give me hope that there are people out there who see what needs to happen and aren’t so completely wrapped up in the game that they lose sight of the goal. We could do with a few more voices out there espousing similar viewpoints.

stranger Random Thought