Arkady's Thoughts

Everyone has focused their attention on the now infamous MA-4th Congressional district and the absolutely vilified Barney Frank.  Meanwhile the prominent conservative websites have completely ignored the MA-3 district.  As a refresher course, Jim McGovern is potentially even more dangerous than Barney Frank because McGovern operates in the realm of the unknown.  In fact, this election season the most wonderful aspect is the heightened exposure that a lot of people get to the multi-term incumbents residing in Congress (watch the video below for an explanation).   McGovern's role on 'ObamaCare' is undeniable and he personally pulled strings in order to expedite the bill out of the House.  Worse yet, he authored and is personally responsible for the legislation that allowed Congress to raise the debt ceiling - yes again!   Of course he justified this by blaming Bush, a correct accusation, but ignoring the fact that Democrats have increased spending since 200...

As the election season winds down we need to ask ourselves, what is it that we want from this new Congress?   What kind of change would strongly impact America and improve the legislative process?  Term limits for Congress should be the first and most obvious choice and one that has the best chance of succeeding.   Term limits will break the all powerful incumbency, will deter and discourage special interests, lobbyists and corporations from spending too much money on campaigns and will constantly rejuvenate Congress with fresh ideas.  We will achieve the goal of the founding fathers in sending citizen legislators to office instead of career politicians. Term limits also has the the best chance of passing in this highly partisan and tense environment. The official organization for promoting U.S. Term Limits cites the following statistic . A recent poll shows that 78 percent of Americans support term limits for the U.S. Congress, including large ...

Three days left for one of the most pivotal elections in recent history.  While the candidates have been pretty much decided the individual questions still remain a mystery to some.  Massachusetts proposes an initiative to rollback the sales tax from 6.25% to 3%.  We have discussed the reasons for why Question 3 makes sense , but it is equally important to analyze and debunk the opposition.   The millions of dollars spent by the various unions and recently health insurance giants should leave a very sour taste in one's mouth.  Bluntly put, the opposition has been purposely skewing information and using scare tactics as their primary source of advertising. Myth #1:  Local services have been cut by 25% already.  We cannot afford more cuts.  From the opposition's main Facebook page : "Our communities rely on local aid to pay for schools, public safety, and emergency services. Local aid has already been cut by 25 percent in the last two y...

Would this be a Freudian slip on CNN's behalf?  In one of the most heated Senate races of the country, primary Republican winner Joe Miller is in a three-way race against Democrat Scott McAdams and the former Republican Senator whose name escapes me.  The former Republican has launched a write-in campaign to give the much needed pork addicted Alaskans a voice.   Here is the headline from CNN , I shall give you a snapshot before CNN realizes who they are truly helping here. Hmm?  Murkowsi?   See that Alaskans, this is precisely how you should spell that name.  Nothing to see here, move along.  Move along. Thank you CNN!  I am feeling optimistic here, if CNN can't do it, then what are the chances a few million people can?

Purpose The 2010 midterm elections are just around the corner and the energy in the air is frenetic.  People of all ages and experience regard these elections as potentially more important and crucial than the historic 1994 elections and for good reason.  In the past eight years our government has taken a dramatic turn for the worse and exacerbated a direction that has been unfavorable for individual liberty, freedom, choice, expression, opportunity and all the wonderful things that made America the greatest country in the world.  A debate over the beginnings of this sad direction is a tricky one, but looking at the future with some renewed optimism is worth the time and effort. After the 2008 election and the inevitable assumption of power by the most liberal president since FDR along with the likes of Pelosi and Reid, America has entered a new age.  Not the lurch towards European style socialism, but a renewed activism by citizens and a dramatic up-tick i...

With the election only 9 days away emotions are high as another power change is just around the corner.  With hundreds of interesting races it can become a daunting and downright overwhelming to cut through the clutter.   While this post may be more beneficial to do in between elections, with people's attention piqued I am thinking of sharing with you my list of Congress(wo)men fit for office. Now, the criteria here is simple.  As far as I am concerned, the only people that belong in the US House of Representatives are those that uphold the Constitution and either actively try to limit the growth of the Federal government or attempt shrink it.   While each individual's voting record is outside the scope of any one's person capability, one can use an array of important votes in recent history to gauge the effectiveness of a particular member of Congress. Methodology I have used four votes to make my determination and I shall explain my reasoning. 1)   ...

In case you have not heard, Eric Cantor and his Whip staff designed an interesting concept called YouCut .  You log in and then cast votes on what you want to cut from the Federal budget.  Each week several options are presented.  Descriptions are provided and the estimated savings amount is presented.   While some of the issues are minor and have no apparent effect on the 13.7 Trillion dollar deficit, some issues carry a moral message.  For instance in one week, Republicans proposed to freeze pay of all federal salaries.  Will this save a ton of money?  Probably not, but it is an outreach by our representatives and a symbolic gesture that we are going through the financial crisis together. In the third week, a far more fascinating and potentially fiscally instrumental change was proposed.  The possibility to reform Fannie/Freddie and stem the bleeding.  Ideally we would see the completely dissolution of these organizations and ...