Political Frenzy

I remember my first time gambling when I was 18. My friend and I drove for over an hour out into the into the Northern California mountains. We got to Jackson Rancheria Casino, walked inside and within 3 minutes we were out of money. We looked at each other, muttered some choice words about “all Indian casinos” and drove home with our tails between our legs.

Since then I have been to several Indian casinos throughout California and Oregon. All with similar results, the trips usually last under 30 minutes and I have never won a dime. (When I go to Vegas I never lose by the way). But do I care, NO! It was my choice to lose my lunch money at an Indian casino.

California’s Propositions 94, 95, 96, and 97 all passed on Super Tuesday ensuring California billions of dollars from Indian gaming. The propositions allow Indian casinos to build more slot machines and also raise the amount of money they have to pay to the California government.

As it is with all ‘sin taxes’ this is a hotly debated issue. Some say that Indian casinos are a good source of income for the state because the money is being spent anyways, while others argue that it is wreck less for the state to rely on money from Indian gaming.

It is not wreckless; not tapping this enormous source of money is wreckless given the budget deficits we now face.

When looking at the Governor’s budget it features huge cuts to public education, among other services. We cannot afford to weaken our children’s educations! We don’t want our future leaders to not be able to add 2 plus 2 (although some would say they already can’t). Arnold doesn’t want to cut education but The Governator’s hands are tied. His only other alternative is making good on his campaign promises of making Indian casinos pay their fair share.

Expanding Indian gaming in California is a great idea. It will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in a year that would pay for services such as public education and medical reimbursements. It would make gambling more visible in the state, but it is still up to the consumer to choose to gamble. Making it more readily available does not mean that you have to go do it.

Maybe next time they will author a proposition that will make the games fairer so I can win some money when I go there!!! Losing 10 hands of blackjack in a row with the dealer showing a 6 makes you wonder.

“Why doesn’t Congress do anything?”
“Tradition mostly” – Congressman Charlie Wilson

When I say the word ‘politician’ what do you think of? Most people would respond with ‘sleazy,’ ‘scandalous,’ or some other word that would require me to hide the children.

Much has been talked about as to how to keep our politicians from become corrupt, and to get the corrupt ones out. The problem is that the ones who need to be governed by laws are the ones who make the laws. It’s a catch-22.

One idea that gets tossed around (to make it look like they are trying to fix the problem) is term limits. In the California State Legislature members are allowed to serve a total of 14 years between the two houses. 8 years as a State Senator and 6 as a member of the Assembly. Recently the leadership (who all just so happened to stand to be termed out at the end of their current terms) introduced Proposition 93.

Like most of politics there has been nothing but confusion surrounding Prop 93, which California voters defeated on Super Tuesday. This 53% opposed proposition was marketed using a successful tactic of confusion. Voters were unsure if it eliminated term limits, shortened term limits, increased speed limits, or who even supported it.

All that Prop 93 would have done was shortened the total amount of years to 12 years of service, but it would allow a person to serve all twelve years in the same house.

Prop 93’s support was also confusing. At one point the Governor didn’t support it, but then suddenly endorsed it. Some say he realized that 3 or the 4 leaders in the State Legislature would become ‘lame ducks’ if the proposition didn’t pass and would make it impossible for the Governor to advance his agenda.

Prop 93 was a good idea, but term limits are only a mere band-aid on the malignant issue. The issue should not be how long politicians should serve; it should be about us finally holding them accountable to their service. Let’s say that Speaker Nunez was using special interest money to go on Luis Vuitton shopping sprees in Paris as the anti-Prop 93 commercials touted, then why do his term limits matter? If he is using money other than his own to live his ‘opulent lifestyle’ he shouldn’t be re-elected even if he was eligible.

Every voter is afraid of politicians who are in bed with special interest groups, the ones who don’t pay attention to us anymore. We all see that some of our U.S. Congressmen and women are corrupt; we see Jack Abramoff in FBI custody, our Representatives homes being raided, and Senators asking for “favors” in airport bathrooms.

Congress’ overall approval rating is historically below 30% every year, and was as low as 11% in 2007. An ABC News/Washington Post Poll last September asked, “Overall, how much do you think Congress has accomplished this year: a great deal, a good amount, not too much, or nothing at all?” 2% answered “A great deal,” 14%, “A good amount,” and 65% said “Not too much.”

We don’t trust out members of Congress, but we consistently re-elect them at rates over 95%.

The fact that these people spend millions of dollars running for a job that pays around $160,000 a year should be cause to throw a penalty flag. They do it because they get away with anything, they always have. If you give a mouse a cookie…

Look at Congressman John Doolittle, he has been under investigation by the FBI for years now, and he has been re-elected 8 times! While his colleagues were being thrown in jail he was out being re-elected. Are we nuts!? People he works with are being thrown in jail and we just say ‘ok, but you aren’t doing that stuff right? Ok we’ll re-elect you.’ Doolittle finally had to announce that he wouldn’t run for re-election in 2008. (District 4 rejoice, you don’t have to re-elect him again!). I suppose the FBI raids on his homes made him wonder if he stood a chance in November, nah he would have been re-elected.

Unfortunately voters have become mindless lemmings when it comes to elections. Just because someone was elected does not mean that they have to be re-elected! If we paid attention to what our politicians were doing and held them accountable for their actions term limits would be unnecessary. The fact that we have term limits in California shows that we don’t trust ourselves to hold our elected officials accountable.

With the way we don’t pay attention to what our politicians do they would get away with murder, and no I won’t make a Ted Kennedy reference here.

Today Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law that will make it illegal for 16 and 17 year olds to text message while driving. According to reports 90% of people think that “drive-texting” should be illegal, but most of them do it themselves.

I’m guilty.

Who hasn’t been proud of a good text fired out without looking down while in traffic!?

OUTBOX: Nice drivetxt
INBOX: I kno

It is dangerous as hell and whenever someone else is doing it while they are driving I’m the first to yell “DRIVE!!!”

Why is it OK to do it ourselves, but not for someone else?

I’m asking you…I don’t know!

This law will be impossible to enforce. All it will do is make teens even more efficient at texting (if that is even possible). The “drive-texters” that we should be worried about are not teenagers. Have you seen one of these kids send a text, it’s amazing!! If they have to look at their phone while sending one out it is equivalent to staring at the keyboard while typing. I think some of them can even read an incoming text without looking at it.

All “drive-texting” should be illegal…except for 24 year olds.

Source: Harris Poll, The Sacramento Bee

Recently the issue of health care has been at the top of the agendas of the media and presidential candidates. So let’s roll with it.

An editorial in the New York Times today, “Bleak Findings on Health Insurance,” discussed how there are over 47 million Americans without health insurance. This is a terrible number because each of these people are one health problem away from being ruined financially, which means our taxes WILL go up. Somebody has to pay their bills.

In my home state, California, there is a heated debate between Governor Schwarzenegger and the state legislature on what to do about the health care crisis (I like how when people pay attention to it it becomes a crisis, even though the numbers have been the same for years). California has the opportunity to set the example for the rest of the country, let’s hope we do so.

However the big crisis is not that of health care, it is of politics.

The only reason that our nation does not have truly universal health care is because of partisan bickering. Canada has universal health care; there is no reason that we cannot! The only thing that politicians care about is who gets the credit for coming up with the plan.

It is ridiculous.

Here is a video from John Edwards’ presidential campaign in which he discusses health care. I am not supporting any candidates yet, but this video has some strong points: