Bridges

Thursday is here. The week is just flying by. And right now I wish our coffee pot was flying…out to the trash can! It has stalled once more, groaning and wheezing gasps of steam while producing an espresso cup amount of coffee. Then it gives out a few cheerful beeps to announce that it has completed its task. Not!

With a cup in place, in front of me while I type, I’m ready to face the day. And according to the weather report, it will be another nice day. And without any wind. That presents a quandary, as I was hoping that all of the leaves would be stripped from the maples and I could finish the front yard cleanup, but the wind was only able to get about half of them down and now the leaves are slowly fluttering to earth, one at a time. Should I rake now? Or…

Of course I can’t wait around for all of the leaves to fall. I have to get them picked up and ready to burn. I have already found that if the leaves stay on the lawn for too long, a crop of mushrooms will grow under the protective canopy of leaves.

I have looked at the headlines this morning and the one that fascinated me was the one concerning those bridges in Alaska. “Two 'Bridges to Nowhere' Tumble Down in Congress” was the headline and the story is all about a Republican Congress that has finally become embarrassed. It seems that the public was more than slightly outraged that the Alaskan representatives had earmarked $442 million for two bridges that served a very small purpose. With their leader’s popularity in decline, these Republican congressmen and senators decided that it would be in their best interest to appear as if they were actually interested in fiscal responsibility. At the same time, there was an opportunity to sneak the money to the Alaskans while appearing to be the good guys. What they did was to remove the “earmark”, the requirement that the money be spent on the bridges. The money, all $442 million, goes to the state to do whatever they wish with…including the building of bridges if they so desire.

I can see now that these are not “Tax and Spend” Democrats, these are a new brand of Republicans, “Cut Tax and Spend”. They have obviously taken lessons from both sides of the aisle on this. You can become popular (and re-elected) by giving lots of “pork” to the populace and gain support (and campaign financing) from the business community by cutting taxes. It’s the best of both worlds.

We all know about presidential popularity polls, but what about the numbers for Congress? For instance, our acting governor has very low polling numbers right now, but less known is the fact that the state legislators have even lower numbers. I suppose I could Google that and see…and here it is from CBS, on November 3rd.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S JOB APPROVAL
Approve 35% Disapprove 57%                Congress is rated even lower. Only 34 percent approve of its work.
                Vice President Cheney has never been as popular as the president, but his favorable rating is down nine points this year to just 19 percent.

34% approval? So why do we re-elect them? Are we really that stupid? Well, I just read the CBS polling pages and the results of some of the polls would indicate that, yes, we are stupid. Sad.