The Usual Suspects

Our local election results will probably end up showing a slam dunk win for the conservative crowd. This part of the north state is filled with dyed in the wool conservatives who are still stuck in the 19th century. For instance, Sam Aanestad who represents the 4th State Senate District; Mr. Aanestad opposes the bill that would create public funding for elections. Why? Because he doesn’t want to see the money going to “just any Tom, Dick and Harry”. Really? I thought that our form of government was based on the fact that any Tom, Dick or Harry could run for public office… it’s called “democracy”. Would it be OK if the money went to a Sam?

This same Sam dislikes any environmental restrictions as they only slow economic growth. And he really dislikes Proposition 87 because it imposes an extraction tax on oil companies. Well, that makes sense…everyone knows that the oil companies are having tough times.

Then there is Rick Keene, incumbent Assemblymen. He’s pretty much against anything that might cost money. He says universal health care is “socialized medicine” and he’s against it…whatever it is. He also dislikes minimum wage increases, “We are competing in a global marketplace, and wage increases make us less competitive.” I’m not sure how that relates to the wages of the lowest paid among us; the janitors, ag workers, burger flippers, etc. I don’t believe there is a lot of global competition for those jobs. If we could get our burgers flipped for less in Thailand, would we send them there and back via Fedex?

And if you really want to know about Mr. Keene’s intellect, his comment on Global Warming has to be the clincher. He says it’s based on “questionable science”. Now that’s a position that even his leaders in Washington gave up months ago…where was Rick?

Wally Herger is the incumbent Congressman for this area and has been for 20 years, which tells you a lot about the powerful people of the north state. Wally is all for the “War on Terrorism” and supports the building of the 700 mile long Great Wall of Arizona…but he also wants a guest worker program so that foreign workers can harvest our crops and then get the heck out of here!

Mr. Herger also likes the suspension of habeas corpus for “known or suspected” terrorists. Apparently Mr. Herger doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “suspected”. That’s something that most conservatives have a problem with. To the conservative ear it sounds just like, “Guilty! Hang em’!”

I remember that a year or so ago, Mr. Herger went to Baghdad on a “fact finding mission”. (Anytime a congressman travels anywhere…it’s always on a fact finding mission) He spent all of his time there in the safety of the “Green Zone” and then on his departure, he noted that the happy Iraqi civilians were waving to him as he passed over in his helicopter. Happy? Waving? How close to the ground was he flying?