Friday, March 31, 2006
The Big House
So the General Assembly can't agree on a budget. Ho-hum.
Is anyone else fed up with this?
Once again we see posturing from the Senate and the House Republicans over the budget, the third time in the last five years. Our leaders are batting .600, folks.
This issue has gotten much ink over the past few weeks, but the political side of this issue has received little attention from the MSM, and especially bloggers.
Why?
It's really freaking boring. Most people don't understand why they can't come up with something... ANYTHING!
To the average person who has to deal with a very strict budget just to eat, it's no surprise that they don't fully comprehend wha's happenin'.
Really, this is just a matter of ego. After Warner's tax increase two years ago, and Kaine's subsequent election, the House Republicans are on notice that party disloyalty will not be tolerated. On the Senate side, John Chichester seems as entrenched as ever that the budget is his show, and it will be run as he sees fit.
I put forth the "compromise" that the Senate proposed this week. It will likely be soundly rejected because it continues for two year a "stopgap measure" that the House put forward for the next three months. They knew that it wouldn't fly, but they still floated it to try to look like the good guys in all of this.
Of course, that's part of my problem with the House's budget. It's all stopgap measures for the next two years. They aren't going to literally pave the roads with textbooks, but they aren't really offering any real solutions to what's already an overdue crisis. It's just more of the same passing of the buck.
Somewhere in the middle is what's right for Virginia. Surprise, surprise.
The major losers in this (besides all of the General Assembly members) has to be the counties and cities that are waiting to see exactly how much funding they will receive from the state. Funds for schools, road improvements, improvement grants. They have to wait to see what the state will give them before they can balance their budgets. They must be fuming.
On a side note, where is Gov. Kaine? He's looking quite ineffective right now. I know he's just been in office 2.5 months, but he's been quite invisible. It's already apparent that he's no Mark Warner, and is not getting a "hurumph".
Of course, visibility isn't all that it's cracked up to be when a "film error" makes you look like this:
Is anyone else fed up with this?
Once again we see posturing from the Senate and the House Republicans over the budget, the third time in the last five years. Our leaders are batting .600, folks.
This issue has gotten much ink over the past few weeks, but the political side of this issue has received little attention from the MSM, and especially bloggers.
Why?
It's really freaking boring. Most people don't understand why they can't come up with something... ANYTHING!
To the average person who has to deal with a very strict budget just to eat, it's no surprise that they don't fully comprehend wha's happenin'.
Really, this is just a matter of ego. After Warner's tax increase two years ago, and Kaine's subsequent election, the House Republicans are on notice that party disloyalty will not be tolerated. On the Senate side, John Chichester seems as entrenched as ever that the budget is his show, and it will be run as he sees fit.
I put forth the "compromise" that the Senate proposed this week. It will likely be soundly rejected because it continues for two year a "stopgap measure" that the House put forward for the next three months. They knew that it wouldn't fly, but they still floated it to try to look like the good guys in all of this.
Of course, that's part of my problem with the House's budget. It's all stopgap measures for the next two years. They aren't going to literally pave the roads with textbooks, but they aren't really offering any real solutions to what's already an overdue crisis. It's just more of the same passing of the buck.
Somewhere in the middle is what's right for Virginia. Surprise, surprise.
The major losers in this (besides all of the General Assembly members) has to be the counties and cities that are waiting to see exactly how much funding they will receive from the state. Funds for schools, road improvements, improvement grants. They have to wait to see what the state will give them before they can balance their budgets. They must be fuming.
On a side note, where is Gov. Kaine? He's looking quite ineffective right now. I know he's just been in office 2.5 months, but he's been quite invisible. It's already apparent that he's no Mark Warner, and is not getting a "hurumph".
Of course, visibility isn't all that it's cracked up to be when a "film error" makes you look like this:
In the off chance you haven't seen it yet, this is not a drawing. To me it looks like Dick Nixon and Jimmy Carter had a love child. It looks like Warner's going to an 1970's prom... not the White House.
Oh well, maybe next time.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
This Bill Will Pass Faster than a Speeding Bullet...
This one got me thinking.
J. Sarge is clearly better informed and better connected than I (and has been a good friend to this blog in the past). But his article on HB 162 (what I like to call the "Going Postal Bill") got me thinking about the issue of guns in Virginia.
Clearly, this is another issue that really has no bearing on our long term fiscal, social and mental health, but can be made into political hay.
As I said back in September, I'm a sportsman, but I'm just not behind the NRA "They'll take yer guns" mantra. HB 162, to me, is just another extension of their flawed argument.
I'll always side with a property-owners right over almost anything else. I liken this to the "Bullets and Booze" bill of last year that would have allowed guns in bars.
I'd like to ask a majority of the legislators that voted for these bills if they belong to country clubs that allow blacks, women, and Jews to be members. My guess is that they're all for exclusion in that case.
Yes, you do have a right to protect yourself. Yes, you do have the right to self defense. But I've always thought that a clear head and a few words can diffuse a bad situation easier and faster than a Smith and Wesson .44 caliber with a laser sight and optional grenade launcher.
Hey, just ask Jack Reid what can go wrong.
J. Sarge is clearly better informed and better connected than I (and has been a good friend to this blog in the past). But his article on HB 162 (what I like to call the "Going Postal Bill") got me thinking about the issue of guns in Virginia.
Clearly, this is another issue that really has no bearing on our long term fiscal, social and mental health, but can be made into political hay.
As I said back in September, I'm a sportsman, but I'm just not behind the NRA "They'll take yer guns" mantra. HB 162, to me, is just another extension of their flawed argument.
I'll always side with a property-owners right over almost anything else. I liken this to the "Bullets and Booze" bill of last year that would have allowed guns in bars.
I'd like to ask a majority of the legislators that voted for these bills if they belong to country clubs that allow blacks, women, and Jews to be members. My guess is that they're all for exclusion in that case.
Yes, you do have a right to protect yourself. Yes, you do have the right to self defense. But I've always thought that a clear head and a few words can diffuse a bad situation easier and faster than a Smith and Wesson .44 caliber with a laser sight and optional grenade launcher.
Hey, just ask Jack Reid what can go wrong.
