Why Another Blog?

Why another blog? Why am I doing this? What can I possibly contribute to the vast universe of opinion that drifts about on the web? What I have been noticing over the past couple of years, is that the formation of my analysis and opinion, particularly in the political realm has become astoundingly acute - that is, some weeks, or sometimes months after my analysis and opinion is formed - which may run contrary to what is commonly expressed by pundits in the news media, etc., it begins to pop up on the Sunday news shows, and talk radio!

For example, after the election of 2006, we heard that "the Democrats were elected to get us out of Iraq". Where I think that began, actually was with some very unscientific exit polling on election day, but somehow it seemed to have stuck, largely because of it being repeated in the media over and over and over again. When I thought about it though, I thought, "that's stupid". What are the Democrats going to do? They have only one tool to actually end the war and bring home the troops and that is to cut off funding. They'll never do that. It would be political suicide - plus, they'd never get the votes. Then I thought, is the American voter that stupid? Would they know better than to think that the Dems could end the war. I was forced to answer "no". I think the American voter is smarter than that. I think the Republicans were voted out of office not because of the war, but because they did not do the people's business in the legislative branch. What the voters wanted was something on social security, immigration, etc., but what did we get on those ... nothing. Instead we got Terri Schiavo and steroids in baseball. Lo and behold, in recent weeks, I have begun to hear rumblings that what really happened in November, 2006 might not have been about the war, but about the inability of the Republican Congress to actually get anything done. It is interesting that having been swept into office, the Dems are faced with the same difficult issues, social security, health care, immigration policy and the border, but they cannot successfully address ANY of these - instead we get anti-war resolutions that are a huge waste of time, and a witch hunt to get the Attorney General. How well does that bode for the Dems in 2008? Ya gotta wonder!

As another example, while the immigration bill began to heat up in the media, the huge debate seemed to be what to do with the 12 million illegals that are here. I thought, "that's stupid". Why is everyone wasting time talking about that. I think it was at that moment, and this was months before you heard it anywhere else, I "coined" the phrase, "stop the bleeding". I thought, our society would absorb those 12 million - or even 20 million by some estimates, with ease, as long as the flow over the border was stanched. When I would discuss this issue with my wife, who is often my sounding board for all things political, I would ask, "what do you do first when you cut yourself, go figure out how you're going to get the wound to heal or just get the bleeding to stop?" To me, the answer was obvious. Seal the border and stop the bleeding. Duh. Of course as the bill and the vote came to a head a couple of months later, sealing the border became the primary issue. The other ridiculous idea that floated around then is, "how can you build a wall to seal up 1200 miles of Mexican border? It's too big a project. It's impossible". BS. Can somebody estimate for me how many miles of interstate we've got in this country - tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands? A double wall that runs the length of the Mexican border would be small potatoes compared to the interstate highway system. Even considering the construction cost, that would be small compared to what millions of illegals pouring over the border cost us every year.

So that brings me up to today. I've been ahead of the curve on the war, and ahead of the curve on the border to name just two. Let me get ahead of the curve on another topic and that is, None of the candidates the Democrats are putting up, though they are getting HUGE play in the press, are electable in the general election. I'll explain that in my next entry. Stay tuned!