Random Tidbits
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.