Pathetic

Mere days after Governor Kaine famously unveiled his budget without raising taxes he has already flipflopped.  From the Washington Post.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Monday that he wants legislators to consider increasing the state tax on automobile sales to generate more money for highway maintenance and end the controversial fees on bad drivers.

Kaine doesn’t even have the guts to actually propose legislation I guess in a pathetic attempt to somehow maintain his no new taxes budget

Kaine said he will not introduce a bill calling for a tax increase, but he described it as the best approach for closing a projected $290 million shortfall in the part of the transportation budget used for the repair and maintenance of roads and bridges.

The hypocrisy is made even worse because of how much of a big deal was made about not raising taxes.  Google kaine budget no new taxes and see for yourself how many articles were written.

In the end a donkey is a donkey and that means your taxes are going to go up.

Final Iowa Preview

For the Ds

I am still going with Edwards based on what I said about a month ago.  Moving forward nothing will change because Edwards is tied to public financing and Clinton and Obama have enough money and people on the ground to continue to at least Super Tuesday.   I think Clinton will edge out Obama for second but I dont think many independents will abandon Obama in NH which is bad news.

Hillary will eventually be the nominee

For the Rs (I am a McCain supporter)

I think Romney will end up winning due to his more disciplined campaign, more resources, and more and better organized boots on the ground.  Huckabee won’t be too far behind and will stick around until at least South Carolina.

The latest polls have McCain in third in Iowa and beating Romney in NH but the polls aren’t too reliable.  I also think the latest terrorism ad against Romney will create a negative backlash.  In the end I think Romney will win in NH and then cruise to the nomination.

Regardless 2008 will be very interesting and I am going to “try” to blog a little bit more often

Edwards in Iowa !?!?

I know I know stick with me for a bit…

Lets go back to 2004 Dean and Gephart are the frontrunners they attack each other opening the door for Kerry and to a lesser extent Edwards
2008 Hillary and Obama are the frontrunners they attack each other….

Hillary and Obama both are relying on unreliable voters first time women and younger caucus goers. Factor in the holidays and the potential for bad weather and these groups become even more unreliable

Edwards also has a double advantage of having run before and being tied or ahead amongst prior Caucus goers and older Iowans

The race is basically a tossup amongst the frontrunners. It will come down to what the Richardson (10%) and Biden (5%) and to lesser extent Dodd and Kucinich supporters go to. Their decisions will probably be influenced by the supporters of the other candidates. Another advantage for Edwards because people are the most familiar with him and his caucus goers are the most experienced.

Briefly on the Advance

There has already been and will be tons of posts and analysis.  Here is my 2 cents.

Looking around I noticed three attributes in the crowd.  White, Male, Old.  This is a recipe for extinction.  We’ve had countless commissions and studies about how to reach out to women, minorities and youth.  Its time for action and that starts at the grassroots level.  Getting involved in your local community, identifying local leaders, and avoiding the politics of fear and NO and instead focusing on inclusion and solutions oriented policy.

No more debates

The races on the republican and democratic side are becoming increasingly competitive.  So with less than 40 days ago the candidates are aggressively courting voters as fast as they can.  Except of course when they are preparing for one of the four to five remaining debates.  Debate prep and travel takes away at least 24-48 hours from the campaign for each debate.  Thats as much as 25% of the remaining time before the election.  The quality of the debates to this point has been a dismal failure.  There are too many candidates and the answers are too short.  Additionally, the moderators seem to be more interested in their own personal agendas or setting up a combatitive environment instead of actually having the candidates debate the issues.  No More Debates

A nonpartisan Thankful list

Things to be thankful for

1.  The opportunity to vote AND have your vote counted

More countries are holding elections but many times the elections are just for show

2.. Freedom of Religion, Speech, and Blogging :-p

There are dozens of countries that regulate speech, and some that jail or even murder anyone who speaks against the government

3.  Food clothing and shelter

1/4 of the world does not have these basic needs met on a daily basis and over half of the world lives on less than $2 a day

4.  Health

The average life expectancy in some countries is less than 40 years

5.  Educational and Career opportunity

Talk to any entrepreneur, small business owner, or immigrant

Endorse Me no no Endorse ME

With a little less than 60 days until the first caucuses and barely 100 days until the Virginia Presidential Primary the endorsements are coming in fast and furious

Giuliani picked up the Pat Robertson endorsement recently

Huckabee doesn’t have any major endorsements from Virginia to my knowledge but he is definently a serious candidate

McCain has been endorsed by John Warner

Romney has been endorsed by Bolling

Ron Paul doesn’t have any major endorsements from Virginia either to my knowledge but his recent fund raising warrants a mention.

Thompson just received the endorsement from Allen and McDonnell

Not to be outdone the major democratic candidates are being endorsed by different Democratic party leaders as well

Personally I don’t place much emphasis on endorsements but judging by the MSM press and the campaign propaganda coming out these endorsements are important to some voters at least

Thank goodness only 4 days left

Nothing much to say really GOTV GOTV GOTV

Still thinking 21-19 Senate for the dems.

For the house Ds pick up net 2

Ferguson (9th), Matheison (21st), Vanderhye (34th) Loupassi (68th)

See you out on the trail 🙂

Where is the line between politics and governance

The Washington Post has an excellent article up this morning

Some key snippets are below

As if we needed more evidence, Tim Kaine is no Mark Warner and is a partisan hack of the highest order

Kaine’s efforts reveal a side of the governor that few residents know about. Although Kaine often preaches bipartisanship, the Harvard University-educated lawyer can be a tenacious partisan, spending hours strategizing over how to bolster the state’s Democratic Party, according to his staff and friends.

“Tim’s commitment to party-building has been exceeded by no governor in recent memory,” said C. Richard Cranwell, chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party.

Some senators who were willing to work together with Kaine in the name of compromise eventually got yanked.

Although he found GOP allies in the Senate, the House leadership balked, which prompted a budget impasse that almost forced a government shutdown. During the battle, top Senate leaders tried to get assurances from Kaine that he would not target them in 2007 if they continued to work with him to enact his transportation proposal.

“I said, ‘Tim, what you are asking us to do makes us politically vulnerable, and before we would be willing to do something like that, we would want a commitment that you are not going to come after GOP senators next year,’ ” recounted Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle (R-Virginia Beach). “He came back and said, ‘I can’t give that commitment.’ “

So much for bipartisanship, for Democrats in this election cycle its our way or the highway.  Voters should remember this as they head to the polls.  Do voters really want Raising Kaine type rhetoric in control of Virginia’s future.

Why Gary Baise is best for Fairfax and why he is within the margin of error

Gary Baise has an actual platform here Gerry Connolly speaks all things to different constituent groups

Gary Baise wants proffers and inferstructure for development Gerry Connolly let development occur unabated

Gary Baise supports a tunnel through Tysons and supports competitive biding. Gerry Connolly tried to play both sides (which is par for the course) but ended up voting against the Tunnel and openly mocking over 400 tunnel supporters who came to the tunnel vote this spring

Gary Baise understands the illegal alien issue. Gerry Connolly waited and waited then finally acted and he still doesn’t understand the issue.

Too Conservative, The Mason Conservative, Novamiddleman, Virginia Virtucon and BVBL all support Gary Baise. Its rare that the five of these sites will so strongly totally agree on something.

In contrast, Gerry Connolly has no support from the blogosphere. NLS has had several negative posts and even more damning there is NOTHING on RK. At best Gerry has lukeworm support from most democrats

On the same line Gerry Connolly is getting crushed by Gary Baise in signage

Gerry Connolly won the last race with less than 100,000 votes

Gerry Connolly has not guaranteed that he will serve a full-term

The three competitive senate districts are in large portions of swing or lean republican areas (Springfield, Braddock, Sully). The most competitive delegate race is in McLean (see Tysons Tunnel comment above)

The Fairfax County Budget has greatly increased over the last four years and there is very little to show for it. During this time the school population has been flat.

Its time to bring back efficiency, vision, and results to Fairfax County. Vote Baise for chairman

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