One:

…this, from a fiscal conservative himself (Sullivan). John Cole voted for Bush twice before abandoning what is now the Crazy Party. “We’re not going to let the President speak to our kids about staying in school and studying hard?” That’s mental.

THAT’s the part I don’t get. The Republicans sort of “own the brand” of fiscal conservatism, but haven’t demonstrated any for most of most people’s lifetimes.

This is also pretty interesting, with respect to fiscal priorities.

Two:

See, I’m no pussy when it comes to military power. I want us to have the biggest, baddest killing force in the world, forever (though history tells us it won’t matter).

So, I’m having trouble figuring out how we can’t do that plus some other great stuff given the numbers. The health care debate has magically transformed to “the trillion dollar threshold,” for no real reason that I can come up with other than the emotional impact of the number, when if fact we could pay for the whole health care mess with a 15% cut in military spending ALONE over 10 years (we’ll have money coming out our asses if the Bush tax cuts expire at the same time), which could also have the added benefit of getting into fewer unwinnable wars of choice half way around the world, while still retaining the by-a-mile best-funded military in the world. All this is, to me, WJWD.

Facts are sometime uncomfortable things. (The WWJD thing being only a guess, obviously.)

Simplifying and adding total transparency to the tax code, getting rid of the breaks for the super-wealthy (not even me and you!) would save us billions. Ending the WOD would save us millions/year. No more tax cuts for politically motivating “religious organizations,” no more off-shore tax breaks, end the “corporations are people, too, except for the responsibility” exemption which came about sometime in the 1800’s, stop trying to impose change military but don’t stop it economically, tightening up media conglomerate (and conglomerate in general) law, if you do it morally with respect to the values you support you’ll spread the wealth without much pain to anyone but Big Money, no discernible change for anyone but them, and they won’t hurt…and so on.

Too late for us, though! I’m buying a shotgun with a bayonet clip on the end. And I plan on being proficient with it. 🙂

Take care, X. Best to you and yours.