Republicans Have Zero Credibility on the Budget Deficit

A friendly reminder as the Republican majority in the House drives the Federal government closer and closer to a shut down over the issue of spending cuts to address the massive Federal budget deficit...

It was this very same Republican Party that created the deficit through massive tax cuts and deregulation, combined with massive spending - particularly in the area of defense and the bailout of financial and auto industries.

That's right. In case you forgot, the Republicans controlled the combination of both houses of Congress and the White House from Jan. 2001 to Jan. 2009. And in that same time frame, our nation went from a budget surplus in 2000 to the largest deficit in the country's entire history by 2009. Thanks.

Also, many of the current leaders of the R party were in positions of leadership then. So, we're also not only talking about the same political party, but literally the same people who created our problems.

Keep that in mind when you see news about the Republicans wanting to address the budget issue. They have zero credibility on what works and what does not.

Gas Prices and the Election

OK, here's one for you...

It's my guess that gas prices will magically come down over the next two months as we lead up to the election. And, I think the tighter the race between Obama and McCain is, the more they'll come down. 

Why? I think the oil companies and the energy sector of our economy has enjoyed such historical success with Republicans in the White House that they will be willing to take a hit for a couple months to help ease one very painful economic issue that most Americans ascribe to "the economy"...and therefore, in theory, lessen their likelihood to turn out to vote or to vote for Obama.

We just bought a tankful yesterday, Sept. 6 at our local Shell station here in Seattle at $3.87 a gallon.  Lets see what it is on Nov. 1. 

My guess? Somewhere around $3.45 per gallon. Still higher than we were paying a year ago, but reduced enough that we fell like "things are getting better."

We'll see.

Your e-mails don't disappear - unless you're named Dick Cheney

I work for a company that – among other things – creates and sells software and online services for attorneys to conduct legal discovery electronically. E-mail messages typically make up a huge volume of documents that lawyers want to look at when trying to find relevant documents for their lawsuit.

Anyway, I’ve learned by talking to the digital forensics experts at my company that short of shooting a hard drive or server into space, lighting it on fire or dropping it to the bottom of the ocean, it is virtually impossible to completely get rid of e-mail records. There are too many backups, sent copies and even deleted e-mail is recoverable. And they find them.

On the flip side of that coin, many people (even those who really should know better) simply do not think that what they write on e-mail will ever be seen by anyone else. Not true.

And so it was quite interesting last week when the story came out abut e-mails showing the owner of the Seattle Supersonics, Clay Bennett, had been lying to the city of Seattle, the Washington state government and the NBA about his intentions to not move the team to Oklahoma.

All this is a very recent example of how e-mail is accessible and useable by the law. So…

I’m really scratching my head about how every time over the last year when e-mails from Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, the Republican Party or the White House are requested as part of investigations into the suspect firing of state attorneys general not willing to do Rove’s bidding, the buildup to the Iraq war and Cheney's energy task force…they simply can say “well, they were deleted,” or “we lost them.” And, nothing happens. It’s just over. Why? In short, just what the hell is going on here?