October 1, 2008 by Jim.

I’ve been lurking again.  The presidential bull festival has been so depressing that I couldn’t even bring myself to write anything about it.  Now with bailouts and money printing the political environs have gone from absurd to patently rediculous.

The fact of the matter is that neither side gets it.  The democrats are coming across as bitter and just plain smarmy.  I’m sorry, but Barny Frank saying that he’ll speak uncharacteristically nice to get a republican to vote for a bill that changes the whole basis of our government is nauseating.

There are two things that will get us through this mess unscathed and not only are neither party talking about it, but you won’t hear it from the colluding press either.

1.  Pass the FairTax tomorrow.  The advantages of replacing our tax structure in this manner will bring so much capital flooding home that this current mess will look like a small speed bump.  There are so many advantages to this, and no disadvantages - yes I said NO DISADVANTAGES (and I challenge a debate with anyone who says otherwise) that it makes no sense to hold off debate and vote even one more day.

2. We need a national ‘back to basics’ campaign.  We need to go back to the constitution and take a new vote re-affirming it.  It needs to be taught in school for a week.  And scholars need to explain to congress the 10th ammendment and show them a list of what they’ve passed in the last 20 years that violates that clause.

We need a national ‘back to basics’ campain.  We need to go back to the education curriculum of the 1950’s and 60’s when we were educating the people with the drive to create vaccines and spaceships to the moon and teach people again how to think, not look something up on the internet.  And, when education was cheap.  Why do so many people judge education by what we spend?  Some of the best performing schools - public and private - are the lowest spending schools. 

It all comes down to being practical.  Which is what we’re here to discuss.  Join in and comment, make posts.  Let’s leave ideology at the door and talk about what we can make work.  Today.  Now.

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January 16, 2008 by Jim.

I’m a practical guy.  I like practical candidates: real solutions for our real problems. 

First, let me say that my support for Huckabee is despite my differences in our religion.  I was raised Jewish and now consider myself a devout atheist.  I have a lot of respect for many of the religions if they help their parishioners be better people.  If the morals keep their flock moral, their tithing force their flock to look after those less fortunate and really needy…  Our constitution protects us from any particular religion taking over.  It does not say we are free from religion and I expect the religious leaders to be as tolerant of me as I am of them.

That said, Huckabee shot himself recently after explaining in a speech that there should be a constitutional amendment to write in god’s standards.  I respected his religion, have thought it an advantage that he was a minister, giving him a man of the people who understands the common man aire.  Yet this puts him in the kook category and gives the dems artillery for the general election making him unelectable. 

So… where does that leave us?  Let’s recap:  I was not impressed with the original batch of candidates.  I don’t like Romney, he’s plastic and too rehearsed.  I don’t trust that his positions won’t change again.  McCain - well just think of the bills with his name: McCain - Kennedy, McCain - Feingold, etc.  Too liberal, not conservative. 

I was hopeful that Fred would come in like a dark horse and ignite the party, but after seeing him in the Florida debate live, and up close in a private moment, he does not exude the confidence or energy needed to take this through.  He seems like he’s just going through the motions without the desire.

When huckabee started catching fire I was hopeful and liked what I read. 

Now I go back to the drawing board.  The other conservative candidates aren’t generating the enthusiasm needed to run properly: hunter, tancredo, et al.

What about you, did this comment turn you off?

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January 4, 2008 by Jim.

There’s an attack email circulating from NARAL about Gov. Huckabee’s anti-abortion stance.  It is fear mongering at it’s best.  The duplicity of this is amazing.  First, Huckabee could not pass an amendment abolishing abortion, he might be able to get one through that would throw the rights to allow or restrict back to the states where it belongs.  No where in the US constitution does it say the federal government has the power to regulate anything like what RvW entails. 

Second, just because he believes in it does not make it so, he is not president in a vacuum.  There’s no way he would get it through congress or the American people to make it an amendment – polls show 55% of the public for choice, and if he did it would be up to the states where it belongs: government closer to the people representing their small, local constituency.  Third, the idea of a primary is that he has to appeal to his base, the conservative republicans (like me) you’ll find his rhetoric soften when he faces a broader audience.  While I’m pro choice, I do feel it’s too free and easy.  It should not  be a routine method of birth control: I guess I see some gray in there.  Including being happy they’ve eliminated the late term abortion that doctors finally admitted was never necessary. 

Fourth, these rabid leftists who would not like the federal government to restrict abortion in any sense or at any stage in the term  are for single payer (Hilary care) socialized medicine where the federal government would be forced to ration health care.  I don’t want the federal government telling me I have to wait a month for a cat scan to see if I have a brain tumor (like they do in Canada) and I don’t want the federal government telling someone whether or not to have an abortion.  I think my, and Huckabee’s, position is very consistent.   That’s all I have to say about that…  J

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January 3, 2008 by Jim.

All bets are off, the caucus process is too unpredictable and the last poll I saw showed both parties in statistical three way dead heats.  I’m hopeful that Huckabee wins, the ads that Romney has been airing have been terribly misleading and taking both huckabee and mccain way out of context.  Guiliani hasn’t been in either Iowa or NH and that was a terrible miscalculation, the time out of the spot light will not be made up later as the third rounders see who’s already won a state.  I know that huckabee will have a hurdle with the pro-life and religious aspect, but he comes across as a down to earth person that understands the people, not the yalies who never bought a gallon of milk, or Hillary that never had a private sector job and exaggerates about her role in Bill’s presidency, or Barak who is so far left that he’s almost communist in his redistribution of wealth/public health care/subordinate the us constitution to the world court views.  Huckabee spent 12 years as a pastor, and while we can debate the jesus part, he spent his time counseling average people with normal people’s issues from abuse to pregnancy, to marital issues, to drugs, to financial stress, he’s a common man who can apply those values in the snake pit of Washington.  And he’s adamantly for the fair tax, and limited federal government, and close the border…

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January 2, 2008 by Jim.

I’m starting a blog.  Don’t tell my mother, she’d just laugh…  ‘what do you need with a blog?’

 I grabbed the site name ‘practicalamericans’ because I don’t think rabid republicans or democrats are getting much right.  I’ll tell you right out that I’m a republican for all intents and purposes.  I’m really very libertarian, but given the durge of libertarian candidates I’m having to adapt to what is closest to my views. 

 I don’t believe the government should do anything not specifically laid out in the constitution.  I don’t believe in much that the democrats have to say, for that matter.  But, I’m not standing behind the republicans either. 

President Bush has done us no favors in Iraq.  I don’t argue with us having gone in there.   We made the appropriate decision based on the information at the time.  Hind sight sucks so lets not go there.  But, the rules of engagement that have our troups being charged with murder on the say so of the enemy has turned a defined fight into a puddle of muck.

The imigration is a mess.  This goes back to Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and ‘W’.  The lack of response has been terrible.  Money is allocated for a wall yet it sits undone.  The crap that we can’t close the border without a plan for amnesty is bad thought.  You don’t expect a doctor to wait to clamp off a bleeding artery because he’s not sure how to suture the cut… you first stop the bleeding.  First aid 101.  From the President, to congress, including my Republican Senator Martinez, they’ve all played politics with no practical view.

The Bush tax cuts are good for the economy, the Fair Tax will be better.  Don’t belive the democrat hype about the fair tax being regressive, it’s not.  They’d like to raise your taxes anyway so don’t believe them.  The fair tax will take a lot of lobyists out of Washington and that can only be a good thing.

I’ll need a future post to deal with the Democrats.  I’ve yet to speak with someone that admits that title and gotten a practical answer to socialized medicine, social security, welfare, wealth redistribution, high taxes and their effect on our place in the world economy.  I hear a lot about ‘wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had healthcare’.  Yes, it would.  But it just isn’t practical.  We can’t afford it financially or what it would do to the quality of the medicine.  There are no countries that have socialized medicine that do it well.  They’re either taxed to death or health care is rationed.  Just ask the Canadians who cross the border because a cat scan gets scheduled 3 months out.

Please register and comment.  Where do you think ‘practical’ fits into the lexicon of politics?

Jim

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