Yay, Ron Paul!

Yay, Ron Paul!
Originally uploaded by georgeloring

I emailed our friend George in Arkansas to ask if he was supporting Mike Huckabee for president since he was a fellow Arkansasyer. I was surprised to get a response that said No, George is supporting Dr. Ron Paul, quite literally, and provided some proof. Ha!

I believe this was Monday, the day Paul raised 4.2 million in 24 hours, breaking most if not all the records. We're currently sitting at 7.7 million.

Most of you will say so what, rich people give money and that means nothing of a candidate's support. Campaign finance law sets the maximum contribution per person at $2300, which means if Bill Gates decides to support a candidate, he can only give the person $2300. The cool thing about Ron Paul's campaign bonanza on Monday was that it was from over 37,000 donors, which means the average donation was just over 100 bucks per person. Wow.

Presidential Candidates Matching

Take this quiz if you wanted to see which candidate matches up with your thoughts.

Did You Mean...

Thank you, Google, for giving me a good laugh today:

Tulsa County Says 'No' to More Taxes

We were glad to see that Tulsa County voters indeed have their priorities straight, even if all our leaders don't. It's clear to many of us that this proposed River Tax wasn't the best way to make Tulsa a better place to live and work. Many people asked, what about our streets? Others asked, what about our parks and pools? These are things that have been neglected for a long time, and Mayor Kathy Taylor has reneged on promises she has made to improve them. Finally, we were asked to ignore all these problems and write a blank check to so-called river development. Not happening.

Jennie and I visit the Jenks Riverwalk occasionally, and very much enjoy the food and entertainment and atmosphere. Now, why exactly was Jenks able to do something with their part of the river without a single tax increase, yet now we're told that we must spend millions of dollars to make it happen in Broken Arrow and Tulsa and elsewhere? I don't buy it.

Thank you, Tulsa County for seeing through the propaganda machine and understanding the real issues here. The longer I live in this city, the more I love it.

Hillary's Universal 401K Plan

Sweet! Rather than letting the free economy work out 401K plans and businesses choosing to offer matching funds, let's get the government to do it! Except, of course, that little problem of the government running our lives.

Under the plan, everyone would have access to a 401K and would be able to get matching funds from the government. It is part of Clinton's effort to increase retirement security by promoting savings and investment.

Does this really sound like a good idea to anyone?

Vote Tomorrow

For those of you who live in Tulsa County, don't forget to vote tomorrow. And, if you've been listening to the people who say there's nothing fun to do in Tulsa and feel it necessary to allocate other people's money to go toward river development, take a look at City Councilor Roscoe Turner's list of 35 things to do in the Tulsa area.

There are many hard-working people who live paycheck to paycheck; many elderly who worked their whole lives to retire on a very limited income, these people cannot afford to pay more taxes for your entertainment - especially those who live in areas of Tulsa where the city has made promises and reneged on them time and time again.

So, get out and spend some of your young professional money and generate some tax revenue, and before long we will have the money to fix the streets, open swimming pools and recreation centers at our community parks, mow the grass in all areas of the city, fix broken water lines and provide public safety by hiring more police. Then maybe, just maybe, we can take a look at doing something with YOUR RIVER.

Now, if that isn't persuasion enough to vote NO tomorrow, than I don't know what is.

No River Tax Signs on Fire (Literally)

Apparently, River Tax supporters are going around lighting No River Tax yard signs on fire. Some lady's lawn was burning, and her husband had to run out and douse the flames.

Nice.

Lying to Broken Arrow

From BatesLine:

Notice the drawing in the photo, labeled "Broken Arrow Riverfront." That's a conceptual sketch from the Arkansas River Corridor Master Plan (ARCMP), the long-term wish list for riverfront development that was developed from 2003 to 2005.

NOT ONE CENT of the money in this plan will build what you see depicted in that drawing...

How Lawmakers Vote

OK, I'm already on my second "holy crap" of the day. Check out this investigation of how lawmakers in Texas vote on important legislation.

Ron Paul : When in the course of human events...

More Sales Taxes?

From Bates Line, sounds like we'll be voting October 9th on yet another Tulsa sales tax increase to fund river projects. Oh, and by the way, we're already paying for the river improvements with Vision 2025.

Ron Paul - President in 2008

I've never been much into politics in the past, but I'm really excited about one particular presidential candidate for 2008: Ron Paul.

He's the only GOP candidate who does what he says. He actually votes for lower taxes; he actually voted against the war in Iraq; he actually follows the constitution and the original intent of the founding fathers of this nation.

He has a unique yet sensible message.

There's a GOP debate on CNN tonight -- you know I'll be watching.

Update: Seems Ron was largely ignored in the debate (at least for the small portion I was able to watch anyway), but he did manage to get a few words in edgewise: