I've been somewhat busy these last couple of weeks. I started a new job the second week of July. I'm working as phone-based technical support for a major CDMA cellular carrier. I'm supporting the carrier's data products as a second/third level support tech. Basically, if you are using data services over the CDMA system (or CDPD; an analog data system), and the first level technicians can't solve your problem with the resources they have, they escalate to us. I generally dela with around 15 calls a day. The other interesting thing about this job is that I work right now from 1530 hrs to 0000 hrs monday through friday. This is great in one respect (I don't have to wake up to an alarm), but it does crimp things slightly, in that anything I want to do out of the house during the week has to be one kind of rushed, and I can only get together with people n the weekends.
Also, around the end of June, my Ranger died, so we're down to being a one-car household; DW can't run errands while I'm out. Luckily, she works from home, so this isn't a disaster.
The other reason I've not been blogging much is that, quite frankly, I'm tired of politics, and the arguements are beginning to repeat. The most interesting thing that happened politically to me this week was Governor McGreevey resigning, and that's more of a "OK, what did he do that was so bad he feels he needs to claim victimhood to avoid?" I can claim a certain amount of schadenfreude - I voted against the man. (Not because he was gay, mind you. Despite apparently being the worst-kept secret in NJ politics, I had no idea. I voted against him because I didn't think he was honest. And a quick perusal of my previous posts should show I'm no homophobe.)
And now my mind drifts back to the same thing - why I will be voting for President Bush this November. In very different ways, I can see either candidate doing severe damage to the country. But the danger that a second Bush administration poses (gradual erosion of freedoms) is being vigorously opposed by elements in this country already. I will be donating to the ACLU this year. As much as a few of the cases they take offend me (I think some of the religious freedom cases end up being attempts to impose atheism in the public fora), I believe that they are a necessary part of our political fabric. And our national predisposition is to watch the right more for potential restrictions of liberty. That issue is a non-starter for me. As a nation, we have antibodies for this (as long as it's not "FOR THE CHILDREN!!!", anyway). Bush's other problem for me is that he is allowing Congress to spend more money than I would prefer. But it's less than the fearmongers would have you believe (as a percentage of GDP, the current deficit spending is only mildly above historical norms, and about right for the US coming out of a recession), and less than the other party wants to spend.
The danger of a Kerry administration, to me, is two-fold. One is that government spending will increase over the current levels; and even repealing the recent tax cuts won't pay for it. So taxes will have to go even higher. Hopefully, a Republican-dominated congress will keep this to a dull roar, but with the Senate evenly divided, I can't even be sure of that. Secondly, I don't believe that Kerry will be able to continue to take the war to the terrorists, instead of waiting for them to make the next move, and then responding. His twenty years in Congress, and his previous multi-year experience as a anti-war protester are weighed against his 4 months as a showboating glory-hog.
I don't want to buy a pig in a poke. I have a fairly good idea of who President Bush is. All I know of Senator Kerry is that he is not Bush. And when he's not being the anti-Bush, he's being the Better-than-Bush. He would have invaded Iraq, but with a coalition. (If it doens't have France and Germany, I guess it's not a coalition?) He would have had a better plan to re-build Iraq. (Using infromation we didn't have until after the defeat of the Baathists, of course). Or he would continue failed policies (giving NoKorea whatever they want in exchange for promises to be broken at the first opportunity).
No matter who is elected, we won't see the economy of 1999 again. The government had little to do with that. We had a revolution in technology (Internet), an overhyped problem (Y2K) that caused corporate accountants to give their IT departments carte blanche to upgrade their systems, and a general feeling of exuberance because we defeated the Soviet Union. None of these were caused by the incumbernt government. (And only one had any particular government involvement at all).
In a different time, I would consider Kerry. (If I had not had absentee ballot issues, I'd have voted for Clinton his second time around). But at this time, I don't have faith that he will "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution" to the best of his ability. And that's it.
I eagerly await November. I want to stop trying to convince people. Hopefully, my next entry will be non-political. This one was supposed to be, but it got away from me.
Short of Bush buggering a hedgehog next to me (notwithstanding Nanny Ogg's claims to the impossibility of that feat); or somethign equally interesting or exciting, my mind is made up. I don't actually expect to change many minds with this post. I'm just taking advantage of the soap-box kindly made available to me by Stardock. They'll make one available to you, too. But this soap-box is mine. I'm debating not allowing comments, but I prefer to read blogs who allow comments (though the three I link to do not), so they are still on. If the comments on this blog start resembling Usenet, I will reconsider, though.