(I am) Voting for John McCain

I am voting for John McCain and the main reasons have more to do with Barak Obama than with John McCain. I am no fan of John McCain (Some of you will remember the post I wrote during the primary season of why I was not voting for John McCain then.) but the thing he wants to accomplish can be reversed if they do not work. Barak Obama is proposing things that will fundamentally alter our country and the expectations of its citizens in the future. This is why I can not vote for Obama.

The first and most important issue that Obama wants to change in America is Healthcare. If elected along with a Democratic controlled congress, Obama will enact a Universal Healthcare system. It may not start out as all encompassing, but no one can dispute that government entitlement plans only get bigger and more costly as time goes on. (See Social Security and Medicare.) Once the government is providing healthcare, employers will most likely make the choice to stop providing health insurance to their employees as they won’t have to worry about hearing how they took away this coverage and left millions of people without health insurance available. So the program will grow. Eventually, the cost of the program will grow so big that there will be calls to overhaul or end it. But just like social security, no one will have the guts to really either tackle the problems with the system or to abolish it. At that point, health insurance will be looked at as a right, not a benefit or privilege. In America, we already have the right by law to health treatment. Anyone, regardless of the ability to pay, can go to an emergency room and be treated for illness or injury. We should be very careful before enacting any plans that will be almost impossible to get rid of if things go badly.

The second issue important issue is taxes. I know my taxes will go up under Barak Obama and a Democratic controlled Congress. Bill Clinton raised taxes in his first 2 years as President before the Republicans took control of the House and Senate. Obama and Congress will do the same. There will be little incentive for Obama to stand up to the Congress on taxes as long as they enact his other major initiatives in return. And when Obama and congress increase taxes on corporations, that cost will be passed on to consumers as that is how it always works. Working for a small business, I know that when our costs go up, we pass that cost on to our customers as we need to do that just to keep our margin of profit at its current level.

The third reason I am voting for John McCain is that I think he will do a fine job. I do not think he will be a great president, but I also think he will not be a failure. That is all that is required for him to be a reasonable alternative to the other candidates running for president. By voting for John McCain in 2008, we are not locked in to him being the nominee in 2012 if either his has lost some of his ability to govern or has done a poor job as president.

John McCain may not be the perfect candidate, but his policies do not lead us down a road of no return.

Funny Even to a Republican

From Speed Bump

Ocho Cinco...Ouch!

The NFL player formerly known as Chad Johnson would like to have his new name on the back of his NFL uniform. He legally changed his name this August to Chad Ochocinco. The "Ocho Cinco" is in reference to his number which is 85. Well the NFL is saying that if he wants to wear a different name than "Johnson" on his uniform then he has to buy all of the unsold C. Johnson jerseys in the country first. This rule is meant to protect the official apparel companies of the NFL from having wasted merchandise if players change numbers or names. The NFL estimates that there are thousands of unsold "C. Johnson" jerseys out there and that they would have to be bought for at least $45 each to recoup costs. Talk about putting a true price on changing your name.

Giving Seen Through Different Eyes

Sometimes I think our churches would do better financially if the congregants had some of these thoughts.

Kobe Bryant is no Michael Jordan

With the Lakers ascendance to the top of the NBA this season has come the question “Is Kobe Bryant as good as Michael Jordan?”. Commentators on ABC, ESPN and TNT have all weighed in and pretty much unanimously agree that Kobe is now equal to Michael. Having seen both player in their prime, I simply can not agree. I’m not sure Kobe is the best Laker I have ever seen. The most basic sports question for these arguments is “who would you pick to start your team with?” I might start my team with Magic Johnson before Kobe Bryant…But back to the main point here. Michael Jordan won 5 MVP Awards and 6 NBA Championships. Kobe has 1 MVP award (this year) and 3 championships. These accomplishments mark Kobe as an all time great player, but not as the best player to ever play the game.

From Dog Eat Doug

I could so have seen one of my friends at college saying this.

Home Schooling Ruled Illegal in California (in most situations)

A California appeals court ruled that homeschooling your children is illegal unless the parent doing the teaching holds teaching credentials for the grades the students are in. This means that basically unless you are a teacher who stops working to teach your own kids, it will be illegal to homeschool your children. Perhaps the scariest part of this case is what the judge said in his ruling.

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue."

This is scary! I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up in front of the US Supreme Court.

James Dobson Comes Out Against McCain

Why I am not Voting for John McCain

With John McCain’s recent rise in the polls and primary victory in New Hampshire, I have been forced to take a closer look at his candidacy for President. I have never been a supporter of him, but do not hate him either. Let me get the obligatory “He is an honorable man and served his country well both in the military and the government” out of the way. All of this is true, but is not nearly a good enough reason for me to support him for President. The following are the reasons that I have chosen not to support John McCain in the Republican Presidential primary.

The first reason that I am not supporting him for President is the most obvious, his age. Few political pundits are willing to admit it, but this is a major disadvantage in a general election for him. In American politics, we are always looking to elect the “next generation” of leadership. Senator McCain, would be a step towards electing the previous generation. President George W. Bush was born in 1946. Senator McCain was born in 1936. This means that Senator McCain will be 10 years older than the current president on the day that he would take office. Even more striking is that he is 25 years older than Barak Obama, 17 years older than John Edwards and 11 years older than Hillary Clinton.

The second reason that I am not supporting John McCain for president is his position on immigration. McCain has not been a strong supporter of securing our borders. Although the recent immigration bill he tried to pass did include a component of securing the borders, that was not what it came to be know for. It became known for being an “Amnesty Bill”. Whether or not you believe it was amnesty does not matter. McCain was not able to argue effectively to the American people that this bill was the right course of action. What makes us think that as President he will have any more success?

The third reason I am not supporting John McCain is that he has never been a strong proponent of tax cuts and fiscal discipline. McCain did not vote for President Bush’s tax cuts and still says that he would not vote for them. McCain does get some credit for his being against “pork barrel” spending, but this issue also shows McCain’s lack of being able to influence Washington as earmarking is still prevalent in government budgets.

A forth reason I am not supporting John McCain is that he has never been strong pro-life advocate. McCain will argue that he has a pro-life voting record and that may be true, but he has never conveyed that it is an important part of his political life.

The fifth reason that I am not supporting John McCain is his work on campaign finance reform. I believe that if it was up to John McCain we would have total public financing of elections. He has worked to limit the money that individuals and groups can spend in support of an issue or candidate. His famed McCain-Feingold bill is opposed by just about every important voice in the conservative movement as an attack on free speech.

The 6th and final reason that I will give in this article is perhaps the least purely logical reason, but still it is important. I believe that John McCain will “surprise” conservatives with something major that he does if he is elected president. McCain has been too willing to compromise conservative principles in the name of showing bipartisanship or progress for a specific issue. The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill and the failed immigration bill and are both examples of this trait. Neither bill is based on American conservative philosophies.

I have not made my final decision yet on who I will vote for in the primary, although I am leaning toward a certain candidate. Connecticut votes on February 5th, so I will need to wait and see which candidates make it to that date before making my final decision.

Football Legends

Ted Stevens Alaskan Royalty

Neal Boortz had up a link to a good article by an Alaskan on how Senator Ted Stevens is viewed in Alaska. I thought it contained good background information for anyone looking at the current investigation of him to read.

Nomad and an interesting score

Nomad was playing a game on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey and got an interesting score.

Vote Democrat if you want to pay for Abortions

The 2 of the 3 major Democratic candidates have released some more details of their "Universal Health Care" plans and the include insurance that will pay for abortions for low income women. Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards both said that their plans include "contraceptive service" which include pregnancy termination. Hilary Clinton has not yet released her newest health care plan, but it is safe to assume that it will also include the same services. I could vote for someone who is pro choice, but probably couldn't vote for someone who thinks we should all pay for others to have abortions.

Yankee Stadium YMCA

We went to Yankee Stadium on Saturday and I took a short video of the grounds crew doing the YMCA song.

Fire Video

Here is a video I took of the smoke rising from the fire near my office.

MSNBC Democratic Debate Thoughts

I enjoyed watching the Democratic debate last night. Even as a Republican, I thought it was entertaining and informative. It was a good event for introducing our country to the candidates. MSNBC did a nice job of keeping the discussion moving and asking relevant questions.

As to my reactions to specific candidates. I believe that the biggest loser last night was Bill Richardson. I had thought that he would be a good candidate for the Democrats who could bridge the party and country back to the Clinton years without having all the negative baggage that Hillary Clinton has. But Richardson looked tired and unmotivated last night. He did not look like someone who would be a legitimate presidential nominee. I’m not saying this ended his presidential run, but he needs to turn around his campaign after that poor performance last night. I thought the wisest answers came from Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich. Biden did a good job of answering the questions that were asked of him, but didn’t feel like he had to fill his 1 minute of allotted time. If the answer to a question took him 45 seconds, he ended there. If it could be answered in a sentence, then he ended there. Dennis Kucinich’s answers were the most well thought out and consistent with what he professes and is know to believe. (Except his assertion that he is the known for being a healer. Has anyone ever heard of him being someone who can bring people of different points of view together for the common good?)
Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama each did fine, but neither were fantastic. The one thing I would have liked to have seen out of Obama is for him to have a moment where he was inspiring. That is his reported strength and last night, he was not able to come across as inspiring. Chris Dodd did a nice job and his best statement, which should become his theme, was “We don’t need another President who needs years of on the job training.” Mike Gravel played an important American political role. He was decidedly politically left of everyone else on stage, but he is a true believer who is consistent in his ideology. He is a good tool for the other Democratic presidential candidates to use to sharpen their own words and positions as they react to his. Gravel did come off as “not mainstream” enough to be a serious contender, but that is not his role. John Edwards did fine, but did nothing to distinguish himself from the other candidates.

Tune in to MSNBC next Thursday to see the Republican candidates for President.

Dumb Criminals

Are you one of those people who loves the dumb criminal books and TV shows? Well while looking at my local TV stations website I saw an article where a thief tried to trade in a car he stole at the same dealership that he had stolen it from a month earlier. You can't make this stuff up.

Funny

1986 Mets meet Nintendo

This is just too Cool. Someone created the bottom of the 10th inning of game six of the 1986 World Series using the original RBI baseball for the Nintendo.

Foxtrot Politics