Unsubstantiated random political thoughts

1.  Edited Wednesday evening (last paragraph)

We knew it had to end, and that ending began Tuesday.  Of course I'm referring to the weather.  That doesn't take a thing away from those absolutely beautiful days we had, though, over the weekend and Monday.  Now a cool Wednesday and then some rain moves in.  One report I read the other day said that the whole month of October will be warmer than usual.  We'll see.

The Republican debates continue as well as the candidates' rhetoric.  I'd like to hear them talk about what they will do if elected to fix this country.  Presidential hopeful Cain at least offers something called a 9-9-9 plan which deals with taxation.  He wants to lower income and business taxes to 9% and introduce a national consumption (sales) tax of 9%.  Seems to me an awful lot of other tax changes would have to take place before his plan could even begin to be effective.

Other than that, what other economic plan can you mention?  There are several candidates that I still have no idea where they stand and, since they'll probably be gone a lot sooner than later, I'm not interested in spending much time on them.

The news media continues to attempt to control the outcome.  It successfully has eliminated N.J. Gov. Christie and former Alaskan Gov. and Veep candidate Palin from the mix.  There really only seems to be three, Cain, Perry, Romney (alphabetically), left in the realistic mix, four if you count Huntsman.  There remains a good contingent of Paul supporters but my goodness he's as old or older than I am.  I wouldn't want me in the White House.

Unfortunately, Perry and Romney seem to be spending more time taking pot shots at each other, mainly on Perry's immigration stand (which probably takes me out of supporting him) and Romney's stand on his RomneyCare in Massachusetts, a Dirigo-like failure, than telling how they would help America recover from the economic crisis.  Wow!  If I were an English teacher grading that sentence, I might have a comment or two.

We had mentioned earlier this week that the latest Administration stimulus package, the so-called Jobs Bill, would be taken up by the Congress early in the week.  It was, Tuesday night.  The Democrat controlled Senate failed to advance the bill.  I point that out because I'll bet once again the failure will be placed at the Republicans' feet.  It would appear the plan will go back to the drawing boards.  I wonder when an honest negotiation between the two parties will take place to get something accomplished on the jobs and economics crisis.

Did you hear the Lewiston mayor, while supporting a new casino in his city, say that the crime rate does not increase with the presence of a casino?  Paraphrasing his words, he said that poverty causes crimes while a casino creates jobs thus ending poverty.  Interesting  logic.  But then, I think it's also possible that people gambling away what little money they have hoping for that "big payoff," which probably will never come, is one of the ways poverty exists, thus, using the mayor's words, causing crimes.  I don't have any statistics or research to back up my thoughts; they're just a result of thinking about the mayor's observations.

Finally, will we know the future of Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein before the week is over?  There's a good chance he'll head for the Chicago Cubs.  The handwriting was on the wall a few weeks ago and probably has been being written for several months.  Considering the leadership in Boston, I think we Red Sox fans just might be in for another very long dry spell.  1.  Edited to add later information:  Epstein signed a 5-year contract with the Chicao Cubs.  Reports say he'll be out of Boston by the end of the week.  Like the Red Sox with an 86 year curse, when he took over, it has been more than a hundred years since the Cubs have won a world championship.  The Cubs management hopes he can produce the same miracle for Chicago that he did for Boston.

Gator