Life on the home front is good.  Owning a home is interesting… Our dishwasher broke and we’re waiting on fixing that.  We bought it new, and of course it stopped working about a month after the warranty went out.  With in the next month or two I’ll do my best to fix that.  The garage door sensor isn’t working quite right either.  We ordered parts to get that fixed, but they’re on back order.  So once those get here I’ll get that working properly again.

For the past month we’ve been going to the gym on a regular basis.  One of Beth’s coworkers gave us a couple of free trial passes and we used them, and liked working out.  So we joined up. Back in December we went to check out Gold’s Gym, but that was not the place for us.  The people were a little too pushy and trying to sell us stuff we didn’t need.  We joined the AnyTime Fitness and it’s a good place.  It’s a smaller gym, but it’s just a bunch of people getting fit.  No real body builders or anything.  Plus it’s not too busy most times.  So it’s easy to get in a quick workout and get back on with your day.

So life is good.  It feels like spring a little bit this weekend, and that puts a smile on my face.  Too bad I have to do homework today.

A while back I wrote some thoughts about the election.  I’ll reiterate my great and profound respect for the Office of the Presidency.  A respect that I give to President Obama, just like a gave to President Bush.  My respect for the Office goes hand in hand with my pride of our country.  I have respect and pride for both.

Today I was watching CNN a little bit, reading tweets, and Facebook status messages and so many people said “I am finally proud of my country”, “I’m proud of my country for the first time in 8 years”, or comments along those lines.  Is that really pride in your country?  It sounds to me like it’s pride in a person or a political party.  It sounds to me in four or eight years, however long we have President Obama, they will no longer be proud of their country.

Show respect for our President.  Instead of booing him or mocking him just minutes before he leaves office, have some class.  When was respect lost?  Why do people think it’s appropriate to do this?  President Bush has always acted with class.  The people who disagree with him can’t show even a little bit of respect.

It’s our great country that allows us to have the freedoms to disagree with our leaders.  Our country gives us the freedom of speech.  It gives you the ability to be classless and act with no respect.

So I encourage you to always be proud of our country and show respect to the person occupying the Office of the President.  Don’t hinge the pride you have for your country on a single person.  Always be proud of your country.

There is so much more I could say on this topic and my thoughts from today.  But I’ll leave that for a later time.

At the top of my blog is an image of the United States Constitution. It’s been there for about three years now. Sometimes I think about redesigning, and changing it. But I think it’s a solid reminder.

Our Constitution starts out “We the people of the United States…” It’s a document that our forefathers wrote, that the people of the United States accepted, and that was made by us. Our forefathers understood that the people should run government. Instead it seems we have government running people.

Or worse yet people encouraging government to run our lives. While I’m sure we can point to many examples of government trying to run our lives, today I’m focusing on the efforts to overturn Proposition 8 in California. It was sparked by this Google Blog posting. Google is supporting the case to have the Courts overturn the will of the people of California.

By nearly 600,000 votes (link is .pdf) the people in California voted in favor of Proposition 8. The Constitution of California was amended. If you want to change it, have another ballot question. The courts should not overturn the will of the people, and throw out a Constitutional Amendment.

The current issue before the courts is not an issue over “basic rights”. It’s an issue about if the people still control the government, or if the government rules over the people.

So to Google I say: by challenging the will of the people you are not fighting for basic rights, you are fighting for bigger government that controls its citizens. You are fighting for a government that can exert its will on the people no matter what. That is not the freedom that is the hallmark of the United States of America.

(Note: I’m not arguing for or against Prop 8 here. I’m arguing that the people passed it, and the Constitution was amended. A court cannot simply throw out a Constitutional Amendment.)

I’ve had many thoughts about the election coming up.  If anyone believes Pelosi when she says “if the Democrats win, and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan” I’d like to sell you some ocean front property here in Blaine.  The Obama tax plan scares me, and I know I’ll pay more and I make way less than $250,000.  With all of his talk of redistributing the wealth it’s clear he’s not holding the same American values that I hold.

But enough with the political rant.

School is picking up.  Pretty much starting on the 5th I’ve got to start my two final papers.  Both of those will take a while, since it’s 30 page papers.  But hopefully things will be alright.  I’m not overly worried.

The house stuff is kind of at a standstill.  We were hoping to redo some of the floors in the bedrooms and perhaps some of the downstairs.  But the new furnace took care of those plans.

We had a nice weekend get away earlier this month.  It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to just get away.  I wish we could do that more often.  We have some pictures, and I’ll try to get some up soon.

With that I’ll bid you ado, likely until November 5th.

Now for my take on the GOP VP Nominee.  I think she’s great!  She’s a solid choice.  She’s a solid conservative, she seems to be a typical mom, and I think she rallies up the conservative base.  Any woman who hunts for her own food should be applauded.

However, that being said, you should never vote for some one just because they are of a certain sex.  Nor should you vote for someone because they are a certain race, class, creed, or veteran status.  There are much better reasons to vote for or against someone than any of those reasons.  As a conservative I am proud of the record of Gov. Palin.  I think she’s a good choice.

As for what the media seems to talk about her, I think it’s crazy.  Her daughter is pregnant.  Her daughter made the right choice in keeping the baby.  But it’s a private matter, and it in no way disqualifies the Governor from being the VP nominee.  The Governor’s husband had a DUI 22 years ago.  Can someone tell me what that matters?  I don’t see how it does.  I say with certainty everyone has done something that we are not proud of in our past.  However, being married to someone  who made a mistake like that 22 years ago does not disqualify her from being the VP.

The hope and change that Obama talks about is not evident in his VP choice.  The only change I see in him is that he is not the current President.  That can be said about McCain as well.  I fear people are so caught up in the sappy rhetoric that they don’t realize there is no meat to what is being said.  Look at the policies.

How will the tax policies affect the general public?  Who pays for all the “free” stuff that is being promised?  How can we become energy independent?  What policies will bring that about?  Who will make sure our nation is safe and secure, and how will it be done?

Those are some of the questions that need to be asked of every candidate from President down to city council.  So when you see them at your door asking for your vote, ask them these questions.  Make an informed decision.

This and this have really solidified my thoughts on it tonight.

Update: It looks like I was wrong.  Perhaps I should have stayed with my feelings from a month ago.  Of course I still could be right.

He said for several decades we have heard politicians talk about change.  People run on a basis of change.  But no change has happened.

I would agree with him on those statements.  But here is my question to all of my reader, especially those who in the Obama camp:  What makes you think that Obama will bring the change that he himself admits has not happened from any other politician?  Will he bring that change, or (if he is elected) will he be like the politicians before him?

Please share your thoughts.

I’m watching the debate on ABC right now.  They’re talking about how they aren’t going to raise taxes on the “middle income”, and in the next breath how they’re going to raise the capital gains taxes.  Well, I’m certainly middle income, and I have capital gains.  So you’re going to raise my taxes!  Besides history shows you get more money from the capital gains tax when it’s lower.  So it doesn’t make sense to raise it.

The budget deficit for our country is quite large.  Somewhere around $9 trillion.  It seems to me the government has a spending problem.  It doesn’t make sense to spend more than you make.  If you spend too much you can’t spend as much the next month.  Cut government spending.  Get the federal government back to what it is supposed to do, instead of everything it has decided it should do now.  Even if you don’t cut my taxes right now, but cut government spending, I’d be okay with that IF the extra money paid off the national debt.

We need strong fiscally conservative leadership in our country.

<political rant> I am all for free speech.  Use your freedom to tell me the truth.  Do not tell me one thing, and do a different.  No one likes a politician that lies.

Yesterday at the 6th Congressional District there were approximately 95 people who were running to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention.  Each person running was asked two questions: Are you a Republican?  Will you support John McCain at the convention?  The answers to the questions were displayed for all the voters to see and to use when casting their vote.

If I remember correctly there were only about 6 people who had said they would not support Ron Paul.  The rest all said they would support McCain.  After the votes were tallied all the people who were elected had told the nominating committee they would vote for McCain.  Then it got out that only 1 (of the 3 delegates and 3 alternates) actually supported Ron Paul.

They flat out lied to the delegates and alternates at the 6th District Convention.  They lied to over 300 people.  That upsets me.

I’m all for voting for the person you believe in.  But do not tell me you will vote for one person, but then vote for someone else.

As a convetion we decided to bind our delegates and alternates to what they told us at the convention.  So they will be forced to vote for McCain as they told us they would.  It’s a sad day when you have to force someone to do what they said they would.

What happened to honesty?  What happened to integrity?

For a good recap on the events, please read this.

</political rant>

Work is picking up.  The transportation bill was passed on Thursday.  If you want to see some fun times tun into the House floor debate on Monday to watch the veto override attempt.  That will be very interesting to see.

Class is done for the quarter (Well after I finish my paper).  Then I have a week off.  So it goes from being a very, very, very busy week to this week (hopefully) being a chance for me to relax a little bit.  I’m looking forward to that!

Today I was up in St. Cloud to help with the State of the State address.  That meant leaving the house at 5:40 this morning.  Getting to work around 6:15, doing a few quick tasks before getting in the vans to go to St. Cloud at 6:30.  The event was fun.  I got to meet some great people.

The speech, over all, I thought was good.  I am not really sure what to compare it to.  The State of the Union had more fire in it, and that one was better.  I didn’t not agree with everything the Governor said today, but he did say some good stuff.  It was kind of fun to be in the room.  It was a some what strange feeling.  Because you usually only see those things on TV, but to see it in person.  It was fun.

We got back to the Capitol at 2:30 this afternoon, then it was hunkering down to write 3 news columns, attend a meeting, walk through the press corp to inform them of a press conference one of my members is having, and to get all the stories from the mornings papers.  It was quite busy.  I think I left work about 5:40, nearly 12 hours after I had gotten there.

So work is at a dead sprint.  They are pushing so many bills through so quickly this year, it’s interesting.  There is some kind of political strategy behind it, but I’m not sure what.  They may be trying to end the session early so they can brag about it during the campaign season.  They may also just be trying to pass the bills early, because they know the Governor will veto a lot of them.  We’ll see.

Anyway, I should be working on my final paper for this quarter.  It’s due on Sunday.  Another quarter has gone by, and it’s been quick (mostly).  Not as much fun as the last quarter, but good.  This next one could be interesting.  We’ll leave it at that for the moment.

Super Tuesday was fun as well.  Our precinct caucus was packed.  It was great to see about 600 people there.  Standing room only in most of the rooms.  The traffic getting there was intense.  But it was a lot of fun to meet everyone out there.

Two weeks from today is the endorsing convention.  That will come quickly.  There is a lot to be done between now and then.  But I’m right on pace with where I need to be.

Work is picking up too!  Session starts on Tuesday, which means that I’ll be busy there as well.  Not that I haven’t been already, but it’ll be a different type of busy.  Session is a fun time.  I really enjoy it.

I have realized again that recently my life has revolved around politics.  Between work and campaign, it’s all politics.  It’s what I like.  Politics is fun.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Tuesday is Super Tuesday, and I’m looking forward to that.  It marks the official kick off to the political season in Minnesota.  I’d encourage all of my friends, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or Constitution Party Members, to go out to your Precinct Caucus, support your local candidates, and cast your vote in the Presidential Straw Poll.  Don’t know where to go, you can find out here.  Make sure your voice is heard.

It’s going to be a fun week, and I’m really excited about everything that’s coming up.  Work is picking up, and the end of the quarter for my class is coming.   It’s going to be a fun and extremely busy month.  The type of atmosphere I strive for.

So I hope everyone enjoys their Super Week!

This weekend I’m without a wife.  Beth flew out to PA with some of her family to see their Grandpa.  He’s not doing the greatest these days, and they wanted to see him before he took a turn for the worse.  So if you want to say a prayer for him that’d be appreciated.

Work is picking up again at the Capitol.  You can tell that Session is just around the corner.  It will soon pick up and evenings will be taken up.  But it’s fun.  Between that and school things are really busy.

So that’s been my life in a nut shell.  I’m looking forward to everything that’s coming up.