I'm thinking your not a Democrat, Pete...

Well, your right - I'm not. And I'll admit - I tend not to see things through the filters a Democrat sees them through - whatever that means. I'd like to think that I see things through the filters that a fair person sees things through - and I don't like it when people say one thing and do another -- or hurt the very people they claim to be trying to help - hypocrites and schemers. Lately, its been the new Democrat leaders that are so outlandish I can't stand it -- tomorrow it may be someone else. My mind picks up on lots of stuff, and thinks about why.

I don't understand why automobile smog laws were put into place to clean up our air -which is polluted heavily by older, non-smog-technology-current cars. Then someone decides that smogging the older cars would hurt poor people, because they can't afford a new car and can't afford to repair an old one. So, now we have smog laws that do virtually nothing. And really - who got helped. Its the little guys who build cars on the assembly line - so by keeping old ones on the road, less people have jobs. And its the poor people who can't afford health insurance to pay for the damage to their bodies that smog does....so who really got helped ???

I don't understand why the Air Pollution, Water Pollution and Ground Pollution people never have lunch together. If a gas station pollutes the ground - they dig up the soil and stack it for a period of time until the gas in it evaporates into the air. The air pollution folks have us put MTBE into our gas, which pollutes the water. The water pollution folks have us pump water up a stack, and blow air through it to evaporate the pollutants into the air. I mean, come on -- none of that makes sense...

I don't understand why our "Representatives" sell their votes to lobbies for industries that cause us to use old technology, that does not work, so they can make money. If the air pollution folks want clean air - then why don't they just mandate clean air standards -- and let the engineers figure out how to meet them? Why say - This is the standard AND you have to use a catalytic converter in your design? Why not let the engineers do their job -- oh yeah, someone from the catalytic converter lobby bought lunch last week....so we, the people get stuck with the bill.

I try not to let my personal political party run me or my opinions. If my opinions happen to be in alignment with one party or the other, its because that party is aligned with me at the time, not the other way around.

I like Arnold Schwarzenegger -- "real" Republicans AND "real" Democrats don't.

I think Bush is guilty of the same error in judgement about going to Iraq that 30 other countries, the UN, and a lot of Democrats (including Hilary) were. Can we make lemonade out of lemons? Hard to say, but there seem to be a lot of people who would rather run away and hide, then step up to the plate and deal with what we created -- that's right WE created, the whole darn country, each and every one of us -- because our government is BY the people -- and that means us folks. I think it would be wrong to dismember Iraq's govenment like we did, and then leave it to the wolves. Can we do anything to keep that from happening? Was it going to happen regardless? I don't know yet -- but it would be wrong to just walk away without trying.

There already are a lot of folks trying to say Bush was being evil -- remember, those are the same folks who could make me going out to dinner with my wife look like I was cheating on her. They will take things out of context, leave out facts, cut and paste -- anything they have to in order to get us to believe that what we saw and heard 4 years ago isn't what we saw and heard....well I watched the lips move and heard the words, and I remember them. So, they can blow their smoke some other direction.

I think Jimmy Carter is a truly great man -- truly great -- but he wasn't cut out to be President, and he had lousy people backing him, so they could use him.

I think people tend to blame the way it is too often on someone else, other than themselves -- or just that the way it is, is the way it is:

Like someone who doesn't have a job saying its someone else's fault - when the want ads are full of opportunity -- maybe not doing what they want, but doing something that is an honest living.

Or like people who can't understand why our standard of living is falling -- well, there used to be two separate world economies - Free Market (us) and Communism (them) -- and then communism failed - so, all the people from those countries (roughly 1/2 the population on earth) entered into the same market we are in, Free Market. And they had nothing, and even more importantly - no bills -- no house payment, insurance payment, car payment, NO BILLS -- so they could work cheap. So, any job that doesn't have to be done on local soil is up for grabs -- and the person willing to work the cheapest gets it. So, we gotta find ways to compete, or loose those jobs -- and we can only work so fast at menial tasks (how many lug nuts can someone screw on in one hour for example) -- so if we want those jobs, we gotta take a cut in pay. That's just the way it is...complaining won't change it -- nothing will change it - so get over it...

I think some people truly need and deserve help --- and those people usually get it regardless of what our government does. A local community is very good at knowing its own people, and which ones are deserving of help, and which ones are lazy. I think that when our government gets involved -- people tend to find ways to make the rules work for them, rather than try to use the help to get back on their feet -- and so the government just becomes an enabler, rather than a helper.

It doesn't really matter to me WHO is doing us wrong. The intent is what I look for. I can be very forgiving of someone who has really good intentions, studies a situation and thinks they are doing the best for us -- but totally messes up. But, I have no patience for someone who is out to do us wrong, and goes way out of their way to do it. Or who tells us they are doing something to help us, when in fact they could care less about us, and are just using us to line their pockets.

And that is what this BLOG is about for me - pointing out the folks who I think are really out to do us wrong, scheming against us. And mentioning when I see someone trying to do us right - or someone who makes a good point (see my previous Feinstein post).

I have lots more to say - please read my posts -- please do use what works for you, and ignore the rest....its free. And its good to hear another point of view...at least I think so...

Pete