Obama's First Week

President Obama has had a pretty good first week.  I agree with most of what he has done so far.  He has started to reverse the recent trend of more secretive and unaccountable government to one that doesn't hide behind the false veil of "national security" and Executive privilege.
The most glaring exception to Obama's one-week record is the stimulus bill which will affect the economy very little (at least positively).  CNN erroneously reported the vote was on party lines.  While true no Republicans voted for it, many Democrats voted no as well.  The Senate has been more inclined to vote for the recent "bailout" bills than the House so I expect the bill to pass easily.

2008 Election Results

I was not surprised that Barack Obama won, but I was a bit surprised by the margin. I thought he would win the popular vote by more than 53% to 46%. Although I did not vote for him, I am not disappointed that he won. The final nail in the coffin of racism.
The big news here was that the 3 incumbents kept their seats on the Encinitas city council. I was quite alarmed to see Maggie Houlihan get the most votes with 10,245, almost 2,000 more than second place finisher Jerome Stocks. James Bond rounded out the show with 7,981 votes. Bond's decision to reenter the race was probably for naught as Doug Long finished fourth and would have kept the status quo on the council if Bond was not running. Collier was fifth and Bob Nanninga finished a disappointing sixth. Brandenburg, Sheffo and Seldon were the also-rans. 1,928 idiots voted for Betsy Aceti. So the council remains unchanged until Barth and Dalager come up for election.
The sand tax passed by a huge margin. You have to love taxation without representation.
Of the state propositions I cared about, they all went against me. The 1A rail money pit passed. The state also decided to elect a black man president but tell gays they aren't welcome...in the very same election. Nice.
Sidebar: Did anyone notice the NC Times and UT sites were butt slow yesterday? Slow web sites that can't handle traffic spikes are so 90's. Get with it guys.

Four More Years! Four More Years!

McCain Says Obama's Policies are Socialist

And his aren't? If you really value freedom, liberty and the true American way, please vote for someone who does as well.

Vista School Board Does Not Considers Prop 8

The Vista School Board voted 3-2 to not consider supporting Prop. 8. Why would a school district concern itself with such matters? Can't elected officials just stick to the jobs they were elected to perform. At least there were 3 reasonable people on the board.

Everywhere A Sign

In general, I dislike the signs.  I can tolerate them as long as they are removed promptly after the election, but that never seems to happen.

Hall Property

The UT has a synopsis of the current Hall property situation. Dan Dalager is always good for a quote and this is no exception. He states the city can afford phase 1, as long as we redefine phase 1. Be he fails to mention how to redefine.
How about this idea for phase 1. Put grass in the entire park, mark out some trails and let people use the dang thing. It shouldn't cost much to do that and that way the space in getting some mileage while everyone battles it out about the soccer fields and lighting.

Republicans Minus Democrats Equals Zero

Glenn Beck has hit the nail on the head. There is really no difference between Republicans and Democrats.
One can hope that this is the year that real change starts to happen. Not the bogus "change" that Barack Obama hypes, but true political change. Will citizens finally realize that the government is not working for them, but for only for themselves. I wonder how Ron Paul would have fared if this crisis had taken place before the primaries.
One microcosm of this change might be the Encinitas city council race. Running for the 3 open seats (which would constitute a majority) are the 3 incumbents plus 7 or so opponents. Two of the incumbents represent the old guard. In Encinitas' case, this means development, development, more development (not as rampant as Carlsbad but close), opaque government and bad business (as in the Mossy dealership fiasco). Most of the other candidates represent change in one form or another. If the two incumbents win, they and their buddy on the council would still hold a majority and things remain the same. If new blood is elected, then they would team up with Councilwoman Barth to form a new majority.

Change

Change is a word that being thrown out a lot these days. Barack Obama popularized the trend during the Democratic primaries and he used it to overcome Hillary Clinton, something I didn't think was probable. I have written about change recently as well, mainly due to the disgust with our current government. But I think my definition is different than Obama's. I require a change in government that means more freedom, more responsibility (both personal and by government), less government (in all areas, defense, entitlements, etc.).
When Obama speaks of change, I am not sure what he means. I have not seen anything in his platform that constitutes real change. Yes, his platform differs from John McCain's in some minor ways, but neither candidate has solutions to the government's problems.
On the Encinitas city council, change here would be getting back to responsible government. When we first moved here, the city seemed very well run (and for the most part, still is). Yet it has started down the slippery slope of corruption and greed that the federal government has been sliding down for decades. Corruption in the sense that certain council members seem to want to hide from decisions, meet in closed sessions. Greed in the sense that the council tries to pass illegal and/or unethical taxes (i.e. the water tax from a few years ago). Greed in the escalating salaries, benefits and costs of running the city. The goal of the council should not be to have your name on as many plaques on as many public properties as possible, but to serve the residents of your city. In my mind, only one (possibly two) of the current council members does this, Teresa Barth. Hopefully more will join her.
Do I think that the other council members are bad people. No, they seem likable enough and I have never seen evidence of major wrong-doing. The issue is the age-old problem of power and money corrupting those who hold it. A lot of what they did for the city was good. But after years of building small parks (Moonlight Beach), they feel the need to build a huge, overblown park that nobody wants (Hall property). After having a small, but usable public works facility, they feel the need to overpay for a dilapidated car dealership. That kind of service we don't need.

Bob N. and the NC Times

Does Bob Nanninga work for the North County Times? Or is he just extremely available for comments on every article the NC Times does on Encinitas, especially when it concerns the city council. Reporter Ruth Webster sought fit to get Nanninga's comments on the sidewalk dining policy that might be under consideration for alterations. Why were none of the other 10 or so council candidates consulted for their views? Granted, Bob N. does own a downtown business, a restaurant in fact, but that pertinent information was not mentioned in the article. The Bob Nanninga political machine is hard at work it seems.