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Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-April Fool’s Edition

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Redistricting – The Virginia House and Senate released their legislation for the new legislative districts. Amid the cries of partisanship and incumbent protectionism, the net result will be a change of not much. Sure some incumbents will lose their next election in either the nomination or general election and some will choose to retire rather than run and some will have more competition, but in the end not much is going to change. In the end, Virginia’s system of governance works. I will offer more comments on this in a later email, but a part time legislature that pays less than $18,000 a year with a non successive governor and a judicial branch that is elected and re-elected by the part time legislature – works. Limited and divided government works. See ANY similarities to DC? NOPE.

Baseball – The Pirates will win the NL Central and the National League Championship and the World Series. I am channeling the Black and Gold Color Spirit of the VCU Rams which is going to SHAKA the world this weekend! They have gone through Southern Cal, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas! And the Pirates signed Kevin Correia and beat Manatee Community College in spring season, so this is going to be a great year! Correia, the big free agent signing in the off season for the Pirates, brings in a 45% winning record. No wonder he is getting $4 million a year. Awesomeness abounds. GO VCU!!!!

Inflation is here. Can’t see it? Try looking at the sizes and amounts of food stuff that you purchase these days. The price might be the same for a can of this and a bag of that but there is less and less in the can of this and bag of that. The average price for a gallon of gas is $3.60. I had predicted $3.50 by Memorial Day and that Obama would relent on his offshore drilling ban after Labor Day. Well, we are three months ahead of the price increase and POTUS kind of admitted he was wrong on his energy policy the other day. Kind of. Inflation is often called the cruelest tax increase because it is hidden and hits the poor the hardest. As opposed to automatic payroll deductions for state, federal and social security taxes which are just hidden from those who actually pay them.

Will the GOP please move their convention to April 15th, 2012? No, because people won’t start REALLY paying attention to the fall of 2012. Really? I think people are paying pretty close attention and sticking to the same old same old will be the narrative, unless you change. Change…hmm….where have we heard that before?

Libya. The president’s polls numbers actually went down after a military strike. Previous to this “kinetic military action”, presidents enjoyed a pretty good bounce in the polls when the US hit an obvious bad guy somewhere in the world. Why did BHO’s go down? My guess, unsubstantiated of course by hundreds of polling cross tabs, is that those who would normally support this kind of action have already made up their mind about this president and those who do support the president don’t like the military. So, the universe of approval was limited at the start of the “kinetic military action”. Now, that we are apparently going to try covert operations (shhhhh, don’t say anything) things must not be too terribly unbearable for Ghad/Quad/Khad OFF EE. Maybe next time POTUS will tell us closer to the event rather than going to Brazil and telling us we bombed another country ten days after the fact. The media did treat him just like they would have treated Bush if he had done that. NOT.

Honestly, how many people in the world would have thrown a tizzy fit, other than Kucinich, if a Navy SEAL or Delta Force team suddenly dropped off a lifeless Ghad/Quad/Khad OFF EE body in downtown Brussels? Or how many would have said…”Bout friggin time, maybe this president has some stones after all…”

Charlie Sheen. Where is he? Do we miss him out of morbid curiosity or just because we have been left hanging worse than a episode of 24.

Budget Stalemate in DC. It looks like we could be playing a game of political chicken in which the Tea Party seems content to drive the GOP to the brink of another government shutdown and the Democrats seem content in their total misread of the electorate’s feelings about spending. Reminder – we have 1.6 TRILLION dollar DEFICIT. 1,600,000,000,000.00 is appropriated without the money to pay for it. Caught on tape extolling to his colleagues about the benefit of using the word “extreme” in his portrayal of the GOP, Senator Chuck Schumer needs to be reminded that the budget deficit is “extreme”.

Yesterday, I had a fascinating lunch with my dad. Okay, the shrimp and chicken over spinach salad wasn’t fascinating. The conversation was. Well, his side anyways. I just listened – no seriously – well, for the most part. Dad told me of how vastly different it was growing up in a time when things were much simpler. When roles were defined, understood and followed. He lamented how difficult every thing is these days. The size, scope and complexity of the world is mesmerizing. Think about it….

Ever tried to follow the conversations of the business cable shows? Do you really think you understand the most basic elements of what drives our economy?

Ever think that the political shows are showing you want really goes on in the world of politics and how it really works?

Do you think people see how politics and the economy are forever linked and the financial center of the country is now on K Street in DC? Well, Wall St and K Street. But not Main Street. That’s for sure.

Are the rules getting simpler? Less onerous? Can a man set his sights on the horizon and make it in the world or does he settle far earlier in life than in previous generations?

He’s settling, much earlier and not in a good paying manufacturing job where he is producing something of tangible value. Nope, those jobs are gone. We now have twice as many people working for government as we do in manufacturing.

We need to make things again. The government needs to get out of our entrepreneurial way. Like kids in my dad’s old neighborhood, we need to go out and try our hand at what comes our way without a lot on intrusion and when dinner’s ready, mom blows a whistle instead of driving up in a mini van with front and side air bags with adjustable belts for the shoulders and laps.

Don’t get me wrong – we have created a lot cool things that make life easier and more entertaining but have we made it better?

In my dad’s neighborhood, dinner was always at 6:00. Always.

If you waited until now for the April Fool’s Joke – my apologies….I just never got that concept and subsequently fall prey to them pretty much all day long.

Or do !?

Muwahahahahahah.

Column by Chris Saxman

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