Blogger Upgrade

Maybe now that I've upgraded to the new Blogger I will post more here.

Wally vs Buffet

Who would you side with in a debate over the Estate Tax, Wally or billionaire Warren Buffet?

But what are the numbers?

The estates of fewer than 48,000 Americans a year — 2 percent of annual deaths — pay the tax. Nearly half the total is paid by the estates of the 4,000 people who die each year leaving $5 million or more.

Oh...

Net Neutrality Defeated in the House

Wally voted no. I wonder why?

Torture

I can't believe that I missed Wally voting against McCain's torture amendment. That is just sad.

Spare me the diatribes about "doing whatever it takes" because that is not how it works. It's wrong and everyone knows it. It's that supporters have been able to rationalize it. That doesn't make it right.

Putting up fake arguments that you only have a choice between hug therapy and water boarding is also quite insulting, so don't. Spare me the "this is a different kind of war." How about you muster up the same outrage you had when our troops were shot down over Iraq in Desert Storm? The comparison is not between "terrorists" and our troops but treamtment of human beings in a time of conflict. The goal is not to keep the government from getting information, it's to keep it from getting bad information -- which torture generally leads to. If you have some sick vengence fettish that's your problem. This is an issue of national security and we don't need any more bad intel than we already have. Thanks Wally. Thanks a ton. Nice vote...

Genetic Labels for Food Products

Wally, unsurprisingly*, is against it. Boxer thinks that if we give this information to people we export food to, we should give it to people who buy it here.

I'm not sure where I stand on this. There is so much misinformation and FUD about genetics out there right now. Genetic engineering is happening naturally everyday. Yes, I understand that this is with "natural" genes and not man-made ones. Yes, there are dangers in the choices that can be made in creating an organism with new characteristics. Yes, instead of it happening randomly it would have been created intentionally. Still...I don't know where I stand.

* - That is if you subscribe to the quaint idea that the GOP wants less government, which as we now know is a bunch of bull.

Potential Challengers

The Appeal-Democrat has a story on potential challangers to Wally's 11th term.

Will the name of Tom DeLay come up during the election? I think it should...

Wallys Talks Economy

Wally gave the opening address at a Tri Counties Economic thing-a-majig this past week about the economy. Of course, seeing as how Bush has been in charge for five years now, it's obviously going great.

The conference was hosted at Chico State and if I had known he was going to be there, I might have dropped by to say 'hi' or get an autograph. Maybe some industrious staffer can put me on his press release list? Or is that still a fax-only list? pberry at gmail