Ballot
Following in Suburbaknght's footsteps...
President: Barack Obama (D)
Senate: Mark Warner (D)
House: Gerry Connolly (D)
Parks Bond: No
President
I'll admit, I am "defensively casting", as Nikki puts it. The race is entirely too close for my own comfort. If Obama had a 30 point or more lead, I'd feel a little more free to consider someone different. But there are entirely too many crazy people in this country who actually support 4-8 more years of this insanity. And there are entirely too many more apathetic people who think it's in the bag for Obama and will be too lazy to vote on Tuesday.
Senate
I go back to personal experience on this one. When Jim Gilmore (the Republican candidate) was Governor of Virginia, I nearly lost my job due to his fiscal irresponsibility. He phased out the car tax, which naturally led to the government suddenly not having money to spend any more. Surprise, surprise. Then he reduced the budgets of government services. Even with that, we had a major budget shortfall. Mark Warner turned around Gilmore's shortfall by both lowering income tax but raising the sales and cigarette taxes. Mr. Wikipedia tells me that netted 1.5 billion dollars annually.
See, that's the thing that trips up so many people - taxes aren't the chaotic evil that people play them up to be. Taxes give us good things...like health care. Joe the Plumber doesn't want to pay for health care for the poor. What Joe the Plumber doesn't realize is that when those poor people get tuberculosis, and can't pay for the 9 months worth of medicine required to clear up the infection, that TB is going to spread to people like Joe the Plumber. And unlike Joe the Plumber, TB doesn't discriminate between the haves and the have nots.
As for William Redpath, the Libertarian candidate, while I agree with him on tax reform, I disagree strongly with his support of the Cato Institute's "Downsizing the Federal Government" document. I would assume these would be the guidelines he'd use to downsize the federal government as a means of fixing the economy. I haven't read the whole document - it's 68 pages long, and I'm still behind on my school readings). They do have a few pages-long list of programs they would terminate, privatize, or turn over to the states.
Too many agencies/programs were listed as "terminate" (with no option to privatize or turn over to the states) for my own personal comfort. NEA, Student Aid (college loans), Energy conservation, substance abuse/mental health services, NIH Research, Health Professions education (particularly since we are still experiencing a significant nursing shortage in this country), low income housing assistance, homeless assistance and housing programs for minorities, antitrust investigations, the United Nations, equal employment opportunity commission, and the Peace Corps.
Thanks, but go away, Mr. Redpath.
House
It's interesting seeing how the funding difference between Keith Fimian (R) and Gerry Connolly (D) shows up in their websites. Keith's site is very slick, and very interestingly looks a lot like Obama's. His road signs are all blue. Before I started taking a serious look at the candidates, I mistook Keith Fimian for a Democratic candidate. I have to wonder if that was intentional.
I'm not a fan of how either candidate lists their issues in little sound bites. What I do dig, however, is Gerry Connolly's extensive environmental plan. I also don't like that Fimian doesn't support abortions even when the mother's life is in danger. That isn't just a belief, it was a company policy he implemented when he was a CEO. The company's health care plan would not cover abortions in the instance of a mother's life in jeopardy. What a horrible way to treat your employees - "Oh, you've just been raped and you want to abort the child? Sorry, you're on your own. Don't like it? Get a new job."
I also looked into the Indygreen candidate for House (Joe Oddo) but I was not impressed. Even fewer soundbites, and his one big agenda was a light rail system for the Beltway. There were no other substantial positions noted. Besides, Oddo was the name of that annoying prick smiley face guy in the Atari version of Frenzy. When you shot at his box too much, he got this really scary angry face that gave me nightmares. Coincidence?
Parks Bond
I have never voted no on a local bond referendum before. I'm a fan of giving my tax money to schools, parks, health care, and so forth. That said, this is unfortunately not the year to be spending on parks. We need to shore up our finances, and the trees will have to wait until we make sure the humans are covered. Certainly when our financial system is better, I'd be happy to give money to parks. So I hope this comes up again in future years, and in better times.
President: Barack Obama (D)
Senate: Mark Warner (D)
House: Gerry Connolly (D)
Parks Bond: No
President
I'll admit, I am "defensively casting", as Nikki puts it. The race is entirely too close for my own comfort. If Obama had a 30 point or more lead, I'd feel a little more free to consider someone different. But there are entirely too many crazy people in this country who actually support 4-8 more years of this insanity. And there are entirely too many more apathetic people who think it's in the bag for Obama and will be too lazy to vote on Tuesday.
Senate
I go back to personal experience on this one. When Jim Gilmore (the Republican candidate) was Governor of Virginia, I nearly lost my job due to his fiscal irresponsibility. He phased out the car tax, which naturally led to the government suddenly not having money to spend any more. Surprise, surprise. Then he reduced the budgets of government services. Even with that, we had a major budget shortfall. Mark Warner turned around Gilmore's shortfall by both lowering income tax but raising the sales and cigarette taxes. Mr. Wikipedia tells me that netted 1.5 billion dollars annually.
See, that's the thing that trips up so many people - taxes aren't the chaotic evil that people play them up to be. Taxes give us good things...like health care. Joe the Plumber doesn't want to pay for health care for the poor. What Joe the Plumber doesn't realize is that when those poor people get tuberculosis, and can't pay for the 9 months worth of medicine required to clear up the infection, that TB is going to spread to people like Joe the Plumber. And unlike Joe the Plumber, TB doesn't discriminate between the haves and the have nots.
As for William Redpath, the Libertarian candidate, while I agree with him on tax reform, I disagree strongly with his support of the Cato Institute's "Downsizing the Federal Government" document. I would assume these would be the guidelines he'd use to downsize the federal government as a means of fixing the economy. I haven't read the whole document - it's 68 pages long, and I'm still behind on my school readings). They do have a few pages-long list of programs they would terminate, privatize, or turn over to the states.
Too many agencies/programs were listed as "terminate" (with no option to privatize or turn over to the states) for my own personal comfort. NEA, Student Aid (college loans), Energy conservation, substance abuse/mental health services, NIH Research, Health Professions education (particularly since we are still experiencing a significant nursing shortage in this country), low income housing assistance, homeless assistance and housing programs for minorities, antitrust investigations, the United Nations, equal employment opportunity commission, and the Peace Corps.
Thanks, but go away, Mr. Redpath.
House
It's interesting seeing how the funding difference between Keith Fimian (R) and Gerry Connolly (D) shows up in their websites. Keith's site is very slick, and very interestingly looks a lot like Obama's. His road signs are all blue. Before I started taking a serious look at the candidates, I mistook Keith Fimian for a Democratic candidate. I have to wonder if that was intentional.
I'm not a fan of how either candidate lists their issues in little sound bites. What I do dig, however, is Gerry Connolly's extensive environmental plan. I also don't like that Fimian doesn't support abortions even when the mother's life is in danger. That isn't just a belief, it was a company policy he implemented when he was a CEO. The company's health care plan would not cover abortions in the instance of a mother's life in jeopardy. What a horrible way to treat your employees - "Oh, you've just been raped and you want to abort the child? Sorry, you're on your own. Don't like it? Get a new job."
I also looked into the Indygreen candidate for House (Joe Oddo) but I was not impressed. Even fewer soundbites, and his one big agenda was a light rail system for the Beltway. There were no other substantial positions noted. Besides, Oddo was the name of that annoying prick smiley face guy in the Atari version of Frenzy. When you shot at his box too much, he got this really scary angry face that gave me nightmares. Coincidence?
Parks Bond
I have never voted no on a local bond referendum before. I'm a fan of giving my tax money to schools, parks, health care, and so forth. That said, this is unfortunately not the year to be spending on parks. We need to shore up our finances, and the trees will have to wait until we make sure the humans are covered. Certainly when our financial system is better, I'd be happy to give money to parks. So I hope this comes up again in future years, and in better times.