Want to know more about Sarah Palin? see some great photos? Here's a link to a page with a lot of info: http://www.jeffhead.com/Palin/
I don't have time to read it completely, just did a quick skim of the page getting the gist of author's feelings and info, looked at the photos.
(the more I hear about Palin, the more I like her!)
Friday, September 05, 2008
Great read if you have time...
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Janet, this isn't related to this post, but I thought you might be interested.
This blog essay by Mississippian Michael Hebert pretty much sums up why I am very seriously considering voting for Obama. (like Hebert, I am a pro-life catholic):
"The Big Fib" by Michael Hebert
I'm the type of guy the Republicans could have if they really tried. I live in the South, the reddest of Red Country. I am Catholic and anti-abortion, I like low taxes, and I tend to agree with Jefferson's statement: "That government is best that governs least." I don't trust political do-gooders, and think liberalism too often gets wobbly in the knees when morality comes up.
But I'll be shot before I vote Republican this year, or any time soon. Why? Because the G.O.P. is a pack of remorseless liars, and not about the little things. About the single biggest unifying principle of conservatism -- limited government and low taxes.
Last night I sat and watched the entire slate of Republican candidates speak at the convention. I have no idea why, because I expected no better than I got. But I ran the gauntlet -- Romney, Huckabee, Guilliani, and Palin -- with the same mood of self-torture that sometimes drives me to listen to Rush Limbaugh.
Each candidate stood up before the crowd, and in turn spoke the Lie. The Big Lie, the Mother of All Mendacities. That the Republican Party is in favor of small government and low taxes.
The GOP has never in recent memory come anywhere near reducing the size of government. In fact, it has gone so far out of its way in the other direction that it is embarrassing that anyone persists in repeating this myth in public. Are we just plain stupid? Or is the Democratic party and the media so spineless that they cannot even call the Republicans on the obvious?
In my lifetime, no Republican president has ever left office with a smaller government than he found on Inaugruration Day. Nixon certainly didn't. Reagan oversaw the largest expansion of defense spending in U.S. history in pure dollar terms, and ran up record deficits in the process. Bush 39 waged a war, as did Bush 41, and neither one came within a country mile of balancing a budget. Every time you turn around the budget is bigger. Even when the military is smaller, the defense budget grows. The Medicare budget grows, Social Security spending grows. Where's the small government?
Republicans whine about pork-barrel spending, even though they perfected the current system of legislative earmarks, through which they funnel billions. In the old days of the Democrats, most spending had to pass through the Ways and Means Committee to be added to the budget -- which at least meant some kind of oversight. Nowadays it is nothing but a free-for-all, and we have the GOP to thank for it.
The second, more subtle lie is that Republicans cut taxes. Yes they do, on paper, but when you borrow trillions to cover budget shortages, are you really cutting taxes? Or are you taxing your grandchildren to fill up the SUV? Moreover, to borrow money the government has to float bonds, and the more bonds it sells the higher the interest rate it has to pay out to make the bonds attractive. This means citizens pay higher interest rates on everything from mortgage payments to credit card bills because Republican presidents remain on an endless spending binge.
So you do pay more taxes. The tax does not come out of your paycheck; it is hidden in your mortgage note. And in the end, you will probably pay more in higher interest payments that you ever would if the government would do the manly thing and raise taxes to pay for its profligacy.
At least liberals don't pretend. They don't say they will cut government spending, then turn around and create the largest government department in American history (the Department of Homeland Security).
Sometimes, on a good day, a Democrat will come close to saying I will tax you, but I will provide better services to you in return. It doesn't often work out that way, but at least when I pay taxes and approve higher taxes it means I have a right to raise my expectations and demand something in return.
Republicans have an opposite, ugly calculus: I lowered your taxes so I don't owe you rights, justice, health care, or any other consideration. You got your stimulus check so go on and shut the goddamn hell up.
Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me Republicans haven't figured out that as long as the electorate gets rebate checks and cheap oil and tax cuts no one is going to care what the government is up to.
I'm not looking forward to an era of bigger government. But any day a liar is put out of work, that's a good day, in my opinion.
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