Our Friend Chambliss

Honestly folks, I really did not know what to write about today.

I was supposed to give you this Fulton County update, and I hadn't really heard about anything happening in this sleepy corner of Cosmopolitan America, even looked a little, so I decided to visit the webpage of my favorite Senator, Saxby Chambliss. His headline in the upper left of the site didn't link to anything, and on his biography page, 8 of the 9 paragraphs were dedicated to the last 16 years of his life, and his quick rise to power as a Senator. Many awards were listed, but few specific bills or accomplishments. A lot was told about him supporting this or that constituency or local interest, but very little was told about his actual philosophy or passion. He apparently was a lawyer before that representing farmers in South Georgia, and still lives in the South Georgia town of Moultrie. He supported the farm bill, and received a "Golden Plow" from the American Farm Beareau Federation. That farm bill along with the ethanol subsidies has caused more hardship among the poor in my neck of the woods then you could possibly believe or understand, for it drives up, beyond market levels, the cost of that most basic of neccesities, food.

Speaking of Ethanol, he introduced (and told us about in a seperate section called "Accomplishments") a short, sweet, easy to read bill called the Celluloise Ethanol Incentive Act of 2007, which proposes increasing the percentage of ethanol in gas tanks to 11% by 2013, despite the fact that most cars can only handle 10% ethanol, and forcing all geographical regions to use at least 30% ethanol from THAT region, making the subsidies even more burdensome and inefficient, especially in places like California & NYC where land is expensive.

He also supported earmark transperancy, despite himself working for many earmarks, including a 74 million dollar "goverment investment" ethanol plant in Truentlen county. More importantly, though, his attitude is the kind that causes earmarks in the first place, the attitude of stealing from one state to give to another, whether by tariffs and subsidies or programs funded by national tax dollars. My source, as usual, is his own website.

Is Saxby an exceptionally bad senator? No. He's probably even slightly better then most. But he doesn't really stand for anything, or if he does, he's sure not making it public knowledge. Unfortunately, that describes a lot of senators and politicians. It would be nice to elect someone who actually represents something one of these days, rather then just being constantly afraid for their office. It would be nice to find that rare person, like a Sarah Palin, a Ronald Reagan, or even a George W. Bush or LBJ with real fire running through their veins and a vision for the future, someone who really cares about this country and its' future.

The only things I like about Saxby is he's a Republican and he supports the F-22, a versatile, stealthy, well-armed, maneuverable fighter juggernaut that was unjustly canceled by the Obama Administration that would be built in Fulton County. Also, as far as we can tell he has yet to screw anything up or run off to Argentina with any Maria's.