I have finally secured proof that Ron is all hot air.  I arrived at work today to find Ron’s cube adorned with a fresh Saxby Chambliss bumper sticker. Don’t take my word for it.  I had Sarah grab me a picture with the office camera.  Is this something like a bigfoot sighting?  Should I be getting paid for capturing this?

The day after the election and the solid beating that the Republican Party took I made a blog post about about getting involved. Since I am a firm believer in walking the talk not just talking the talk I headed out to the first political meeting of my life this morning. I did not go alone though. Ron Davis went as well since he is tired of the same old politics and is on a personal mission to see Saxby Chambliss unemployed next year. While I may not see eye-to-eye on everything with Ron it was nice to have someone to go with.

Overall the meeting was interesting and I learned alot about issues I did not even know where issues in Georgia. Maybe I will post more on that at a later time. Suffice it to say… did you know that we have been in a border dispute with Tennessee for over 150 years? Yeah, me neither.

There was also lots of talk about the run-off election that will occur for Georgia on December 2nd. Saxby Chambliss is in a serious fight for his job and his re-election chairman for Paulding county was there to urge us to vote for him. He said that Saxby got the message and that he plans to return to fiscal conservatism and to fight for the conservative values that the Georgia people want. I want to hear it from Saxby though before I will believe it. Ron talked to the guy on the way out the door but I will leave that for him to comment on his blog.

Overall my first trip into politics was enjoyable and I plan to go back for the next meeting. If you live in Paulding county and want to get involved in something other than armchair politics then let me know and I will make sure you get the details on the next meeting.

I think there are a lot of republicans are scratching their heads this morning. I think we expected Obama to win but not in the landslide victory that we saw. What happened? What do we do now? I’ve given some thought to this and here is what I have concluded so far:

1. The people have spoken. The democracy that makes America great is also the thing that allows the “other guy” to win and it is also the thing that I have had a friend die fighting for and that John McCain spent years as a POW for. While I may not have voted for Obama, or even really like him, I can give him the respect that his position deserves… and I will.
2. Get involved! I am as guilty as the next person of playing arm chair politics. With the Republican party in a shambles this morning it is time for young America to get involved again. Find your local party office and see how you can help. Run for office. Donate. Attend rallies. Educate yourself on the issues. Do something… not nothing.

Today I am just as proud to be an American as I was in 2000 when President Bush was elected. It’s the other party’s turn now. It is their turn to celebrate like I did in 2000 and 2004. However, when the celebration dies down I hope that the rights, the lefts, the Christians, the Jews, the Catholics, the Blacks, the Whites, and everyone else can just be Americans and work toward a better tomorrow.

I decided to wait until the official election day to vote. Some said I would pay for it based on the turn out they were seeing for early voting. I still decided to take my chances. To make matters worse my wife was sick today and I had to take the 8 year old and 2 year old with me. I pulled up to the school (polling place) at 1:06 and pulled away at 1:33… 18 minutes to stand in line and vote and 9 minutes to walk to and from my car. Why can my gamble never pay off when I am in Vegas?

I will probably be up late watching the returns come in but in the end it does not really matter. The candidates are not that far apart and Washington is so screwed up right not that neither of them will likely come through on most of their promises. Major changes are needed not just another middle-of-the-road democrat or republican.

One a lighter note my eight year old had these comments on the election:

“Don’t vote for Obama because he will make me go to school on Sunday and will raise taxes”

“Don’t vote for Bob [Barr] because he is going to lose anyway”

“Dad, did you vote for all the Republicans?” This was said in his “outdoor voice” while I was voting!! And, no I didn’t… take that Saxby!

Unless you are dead you probably know about the proposed government bailout… errr I mean “rescue”… that passed through the Senate last night. This is the plan where the government borrows money to buy bad debt from private businesses that made poor business decisions by lending the money to people that could not pay them back. I know that I am no economist but I fail to see how this plan makes sense from any angle. Where do we draw the line? What about the painter that has fallen on hard times now because fewer new homes are being built or the Pizza guy that can no longer afford to deliver my pizza because of gas prices. Who is going to bail them out?

Yes, times are hard right now. But, somehow the American Spirit always seems to drag us through difficult times. Why are we rushing to pass a bill that has the government lending billions of dollars to companies that got themselves in trouble by making stupid business decisions? On top of this so called “emergency”, the bill being passed is laden with all the typical special interest riders that a typical bill going through Congress gets. If this is soooooo (sarcasm implied) important why can’t Congress pass a bill that does one thing, does it quickly, and does it well?

What do you think of this bailout plan?