Under the Bush administration the pentegon's budget has increased from $300 billion to $541 billion. This sixty per cent increase does not include spending on the wars, $171 billion, or veterans benefits, intelligence gathering, nor security costs. Repubs are paranoid. This total is half of the defense spending for the entire world and more spending than the next 45 nations on the list combined. Okay it's not paranoia, it is insanity.

This is my 600th blog post.

There is a kind of lull in the national news now that the post election fingerpointing has died down. The Repubs had a couple of weeks of blaming John McCain, then Sarah Palin, and laying out future plans for them. The pundits had lists for Barack Obama, who to appoint, what to do first, etc. Luckily Obama seems to be pretty much ignoring them and making his own way. Palin has wandered back to the obscurity of Alaska with no hope of appointing herself to the Senate, and McCain has gone underground, "poof", vanished.

Now we have the wait to see if the House that Bush built will fall over before the Obama family can move into the Whitehouse and start proping things up. Some say we won't make it. I see that our State School Superintendendant has declared personal bankruptcy. And she just gave away 1 million dollars that she won on the game show, Are you smarter than a 5th grader. She is. But apparently needs a good accountant.

I like the sound of an acoustic guitar. This sound was the rage in the late 60's and early 70's but it keeps making comebacks.

I enjoy getting out and walking the dog and go between 3 miles and 5 miles a day. However, it has been so cold lately. Ugh. How can it be 16 one day and 17 the next day in November in Georgia. That would be brutal on a peak in NC or TN, but is ridiculous on the coastal plain of Georgia. We've already had more freezes this year than we have had throughout the entire winter in some years. And winter doesn't start for a month. I have a system though and do not get cold--Two pair of socks in heavy shoes, flannel longjohns and jeans, a long sleeved T, a collared shirt, a cotton hoodie, hood up, ear muffs, wraparound sunglasses, down coat zipped up tight around my neck, and a baseball cap. I do not get cold on a halfhour walk at 16 degrees.

I have a birthday coming up this week and it is nice to reflect. I wish that the boom 90's had continued through the "oughts" but that 12% annual return from the stock market which was seen in the 20th century has evaporated. In fact the stats for the last 100 years don't look so hot right now. If there is a bounce, perhaps things will work out okay for retirement. No bounce? I don't know what we'll do. Find a new job amid 10% unemployment? Let's hope for a bounce, not a cliff. But for now, we have a nice life.

We visited with Mrs. G's roommates from college and another old friend last night for three hours at supper and had a lovely time. They all looked good. Unfortunately the friend has lost his wife this year, and the husband of a roomie is here in town for a heart procedure at Piedmont Hospital. No worries they say. Old friends are a nice reward for living a long time.

It is pretty amusing that Republicans have so much to say after the recent election. Some of them, I’ll have to admit, are practicing a little silence. Thank you all for that. But many of the others are rattling on as if what they have to say is important. Let’s be clear, the only Republicans in the Federal government that have any power at all are the thirty something Republican Senators. If they end up with 41 votes, and it is likely that they will, then they are the only Republicans that may have something to say for the next two years. The democrats have taken a thrashing from Republicans since 1994, but this convincing electoral victory has them in position to do what they want.

I keep seeing recommendations for Republicans in the cabinet--John McCain as Secretary of Defense? Keep Gates as Sec. of Def? Colin Powell for Education Secretary? Sunday’s news shows listed shortlists of potential candidates. Oddly these lists were almost all white men. I think they missed the point of the election. Get ready to see some women. Get ready to see some color.

I hear on TV and see in the press that America is a “center-right” country. If that were true, wouldn’t we have elected John McCain. Isn’t he center-right? Conservative columnist David Brooks (NYT) says today that there was no movement to the left in this election. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Whew! He said he is hoping for meaningful dialogue between parties. (But why David? The Repubs have frozen out the Democrats for a decade. Why should the dems play nice now?) Brooks says “The Obama administration of my dreams . . . [wi]ll invite GOP leaders to the White House for real meetings and then reinvite them, even if they give hostile news conferences on the White House driveway.” It sounds like David is advocating that the Obama administration remain calm and include everyone while the Repubs continue to act like children and throw temper tantrums in their front yard. Oh sure, that sounds wonderful.

Georgia Representative Paul Broun (R) is also in the paper today, saying about Obama, “I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may . . . have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism.” He speaks for Obama’s call for civil service by all young Americans by saying “That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany . . .” Come on Rep. Broun, get your metaphors straightened out. Is Obama Marxist or Facist? Broun also said he believes Obama will move to ban gun ownership. Sheeeeeesh. Don’t these guys every shut up? The election is over, you can quit your campaigning. Paul Broun is a Republican in the House of Representatives. He’s going to be 80 votes on the losing side of every issue, possibly for the rest of his political career. He can shut up and sit down now.

Let’s say this. Any offerings democrats give to repubs, meetings, offices, deference of any kind, is an undeserved kindness. Bush has clearly used the work "bi-partisan" to mean "Do it my way or else." The Republican party marginalized itself through corrupt and incompetent governing and it is not the Democratic party’s responsibility to console them and freely offer them another chance to have a role in this government. If they behave themselves and work hard, if they show good faith instead of throwing tantrums and threatening to kill the President, then maybe. But right now, they just don’t play nice and they should be pushed out of the school yard like the bullies they have been.

This is not the time for Republican advice to Barack Obama.

I am pleased that democratic candidates did so well in yesterday's election. Yet . . . I am amazed that Alaskans may have elected a convicted felon rather than vote for any democrat. (I see their logic. Elect Stephens, the Senate expells him and he goes to jail, Palin appoints herself to fill his seat and gets to go to Washington after all. But yech! How convoluted and sad).

I am amazed that white voters in Georgia, Alabama, SC, TN, the old south, voted against Obama in such numbers. Their cousins in the north and west voted overwhelmingly for Obama. The big difference in the groups is 230 years of racial hatred in the south.

I am sad that in all likelihood repubs will block vote trying to obstruct every change that the democrats put forward in the Senate. I believe that if the repubs want to filibuster, the democrats should make them actually do it. Make those old guys stand in the floor of the Senate hour after hour. Make it a brutally difficult physical exercise. Make them pay with a week long filibuster and then two days later, put them back out there again. Break the rascals down. The only real power of the democrats will be the power of appointment to the beauracracy that is government. Perhaps the democrats can trade pork to repubs for their votes to change our government.

It now appears that 200,000 + people came out to Obama's block party in Grant Park. After the party, police reported that they arrested . . . no one.

You can be sure that the repubs are already preparing to attack this new administration as they attacked the Clintons. Soon you'll hear nothing but Barack the socialist, communist, muslim, anti-American, baby-killing, racist president. Hopefully, like the boy who cried "Wolf!" They will have no audience this go around. And hopefully President Obama will do so well that the racists will begin to admit that "that black man did okay."

I'm going to say Obama 55% McCain 43%. No democratic candidate has gotten this high of a percentage in 40+ years. This will qualify as a landslide. About 350 electoral votes.

59 senators who caucus with democrats, 57 demo 2 independent
There will be runoffs in Minnesota and Georgia. Georgia will go Repub, Minn. to the Democrats.

McCain is losing because he has little substance. He chose Sarah Palin because she is an icon for women, but she has only one tenth the substance of McCain. He's for something different every day. Mostly he's against something new about Obama every day. Obama's a muslim, a socialist, a communist, a Kenyan.

Actually Obama is a brilliant intellectual with a heart for American people. He has surrounded himself with brilliant people. He is calm in the midst of trumoil. He is so organized that he has won the presidency without any reasonable chance that he would do so. He wants to make government work. If you think about it, government should work. It should serve. It should defend those who are defenseless.

McCain crashed 3 U.S. aircraft and flew another one through powerlines causing a blackout in Spain. People don't ususally get to keep flying U.S. aircraft if they crash them. One crash per pilot is the rule. But McCain's daddy said he was untouchable, so he was. Family connections got him into and out of Annapolis. He didn't deserve to be there. He didn't deserve to graduate. Same thing for his appointment to the War College after his return from being a POW. I wonder if he did any studying there either. No wonder his campaign has been so helter skelter. And he is the best the Repubs could offer. Palin 2012. Let's hope for that.


Another subject:
Why should taxes be highest on the richest people? Because they benefit most from public projects. If you a selling widgets nationwide and you become rich, your money comes from the availability of publicly funded infrastructure, roads, rails, air planes. Great wealth is fine. It comes not from hard work, but from hard work and from America's capitalism. If you are rewarded with wealth, the greedy think they deserve all the money. Actually America deserves most of it. They deserve enough to make it interesting, but they owe a great debt in return.