I know, it's been a long time since I bothered here, I know. Life's been busy.
I like to subscribe to all the political email lists I can get my hands on, and read over them. Party, etc. doesn't matter for me. It gives me what I feel is a fairly even-handed view of what the politicians think I want to hear.
I just got one from the Oregon Republican Party.
It's formatted sort of like a newspaper, big logo at the top, and two columns. On the left, boring text and news blurbs with a common theme. That theme, using their words:
OREGONIANS DISAPPOINTED WITH GOVERNOR AND DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED LEGISLATURE
Poll Reveals Voter Dissatisfaction With Wasteful Spending
"Oregonians Want Accountability." (House Republican Leader Bruce Hanna, Poll Finds Rosy View and Range of Worries, The Oregonian, 12/7/07)
OREGONIANS DEMAND STOP TO WASTE
Democrat Governor and Democrat Controlled Legislature Hit New Lows.
There's some graphs and statistics and so on and so forth (by the way, noting that the breakdown of the state legislature, asked about their overall feelings is Unfavorable at 33%, Favorable at 30%, Neutral at 27%, and Don't Know at 10%. IT'S A LANDSLIDE)
The right column just made me pinch that little spot on your nose between the eyes that suddenly started throbbing. There was a link to a video (here, I didn't watch it) and the subtitle:
For more information about the Salem politicians trying to take away the personal kicker, and more videos like "Grinches of Oregon", please visit www.kickerfacts.com.
For those not versed in Oregon politics.. this state has an interesting way of doing its budget, every two years. The way I understand it, the legislature writes a budget (and endures all the drama that goes with that) and if state revenues are higher than some percentage (I think it's 10%) of the projected, the over-projected amount gets returned at the end of the year as a "kicker", which equates to money for taxpayers. Mine, this year, was $56.
Sounds great, and makes the legislature budget sanely, right? The downside is.. it doesn't take into account things like, "Unless the State is in a huge deficit" or "to do this, we'll have to cut other programs" etc. It's not a budget surplus, it's just some amount over the projected revenues.
Anyway, I read that, and went, "Ow."