Category: Politicians

Growing list of politicos find fault with term limits:

Imagine Missouri’s stately Capitol with a vacuum hose attached like a glove around its rounded dome.

That’s how House Speaker Ron Richard describes the effect of term limits on the General Assembly.

“There’s always a vacuum up here. There’s always someone seeking power,” Richard said. “If the legislative branch doesn’t get it, forces outside the building might set policy.”

Over time, Richard said, lawmakers develop the institutional knowledge and personal fortitude to become powerful enough to stand up to the executive branch and the hordes of lobbyists who try to influence legislation. But when term limits force out elected officials before they get properly seasoned, he said, the vacuum sucks the power right out of the Capitol.

The speaker’s comments land him firmly on a growing bandwagon of Republicans and Democrats in the Show-Me State who have become disillusioned with Missouri’s constitutionally mandated limits on the amount of time elected officials can serve in the House and the Senate.

Yeah, it sucks not ruling after you get the taste for it and having to go find a job in an economy like this.

You know who continues to approve of term limits? I do. It keeps individuals from becoming too powerful and keeps the ranks of lobbyists so full of former legislators that they, too, aren’t as powerful.

State Senator proposes death penalty for littering:

“I think that if we kill just a couple of people we catch, the rest will catch on,” he said.

He called the people perpetrating the littering “white trash” and “rednecks.”

Soon after, he clarified he was joking about the bill.

“I’m doing this tongue in cheek, obviously,” he said, and withdrew the bill.

This bozo is a Republican, no less.

I am not a humourless guy, no matter what this blog might indicate otherwise, but the legislature is not the place for jokes. I mean, someone might take it seriously, and suddenly you’re passing $825 billion dollars in junk stimulus.

McCain’s problem:

Two words:

McCain-Feingold.

The fundamental difference between McCain 2000 and McCain 2008 is that he put his name on a law that forbids people from speaking out against their congressman within 60 days of an election.

That’s what I told the exploratory committee volunteer who called me up; I would absolutely not support McCain for president based on the BCRA.

“Even against Hillary Clinton?” she said BOO!

“What’s the difference?” I said.

How does that make you feel, Senator? You engender the same response in a former supporter and a former money donor as Hillary Clinton does.

(Link seen on Instapundit.)

When they promise a temporary sales tax that will sunset:

“It is a one-half cent sales tax for whatever amount of time it takes to pay for the issues,” said Presiding Commissioner Mark Mertens. “It will not last for more than five years.”

Jefferson County, Missouri, officials want the sales tax for a laundry list of things:

If approved, the sales tax would provide funds for a new juvenile detention facility, expansion of the county jail and the creation of a park development fund. The tax would also cover the cost of bringing county buildings into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Perhaps presiding commissioner Mertens believes what he’s saying, and perhaps he thinks that he and the people who follow him in Jefferson County government will not find further means to spend money generated by the new tax so that Jefferson County will need to extend or make permanent the sales tax.

However, as a private citizen, I have my doubts. Once the sales tax is in place, I suspect it will be permanent and eventually, I predict that Jefferson County will find some reason to raise its amount for the Children or some other pet projects.

Once Jefferson County’s revenue becomes dependent upon sales tax monies, watch for eminent domain abuse as its government officials determine that large retail developments are worth more to them than actual residents who own the land the developers covet.

Slippery slope? Not too slippery, since it won’t happen suddenly. After all, it would be five years before the Jefferson County government has to act to make the temporary sales tax permanent. But don’t doubt they would try.

I cannot fathom why John Kerry chose this Vince Lombardi in Green Bay:

In arguing for different budget priorities than Bush’s tax cuts, Kerry quoted legendary Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi as saying: “Who you are depends on what you do with what you have.”

Help me while I try to keep the universe from imploding from the sheer paradox.

• John Kerry, personally, has parlayed his wealthy birth and finishing school life into marriage to not one, but two wealthy women and a lifestyle which the common man cannot even dream of with any detail.
• John Kerry, politically, belongs to the party better served by the quote “Who you are depends on what you do with what the government leaves you of what you had, or what you do with what the government gives you of what it has taken from those who had it.”

Kerry should have instead quoted, “Winning isn’t everything, winning is the only thing.”