Senate Raise

In the coffee shop yesterday, I overheard a lady discussing the automatic pay raise that the Senate had voted to cancel for next year. The folks at the table were up in arms about the fact that our Senator (Richard Lugar) had voted against the freeze.

I asked who else had voted against the freeze, the ladies husband told me that there were 5 "no" votes, 2 republicans and 3 democrats. It didn't seem to interest them very much that there were 3 democrats (they are also of that party) The only thing that bothered them was that Sen. Lugar had voted against the freeze. They were under the impression that the un-used raise money was supposed to go to Hurricane Katrina relief.

I did a little research on my own and found the following...the bill passed on a 92-6 vote. The pay raise freeze was an amendment on a funding bill. The six no votes were as follows;

Senators:
Kit Bond (R) MO
Richard Lugar (R) IN
Jeff Bingaman (D) NM
Paul Sarbanes (D) MD
Daniel Inouye (D) HI
James Jeffords (I) VT...........Count this guy as a (D) based on his voting record.

2 Senators did not vote...

Saxby Chambliss (R) GA
John Corzine (D) NJ..........This fellow is running for Governor of NJ and probably did not want this on his record either way.

The raise that was frozen amounted to $3100 for each Senator and Congressman totaling under 1.7 million dollars, this is just a drop in the bucket for what will be needed in aid for the southern region. I know every little bit helps, but so far I haven't seen anything that states the money will be sent into the aid effort.

I'll do some more digging when I get the chance and post and update here.....

History of my first Hate Mail

I was sitting reading the paper one evening (9/16/05) when a letter to the editor caught my eye...I have posted a scan under the title first but it is very hard to read so I will place the contents here so the history is complete....

For accuracy's sake..this was printed in the Washington Times-Herald on 9/16/05

Our biggest threats are President, Vice President

Editor:
In the late 1940s, before I Graduated from high school, gasoline was 20 cents a gallon and cars got 12 to 15 miles per gallon. A man in the next town purchased a new car. After his first fill-up he checked his milage and was getting over 50 miles per gallon. Word got out and the oil company gave him more than the original price and a regular carburetor. This was an experimental car that had gotten out. We know automobiles can be built that are economical to drive, but the oil companies regulate this.
Our biggest threats to this nation are the President and Vice President, as they are both very involved in the oil industry and they do not want the price of oil to come down.
All of the oil now produced in Alaska goes to Japan. We can spend billions of dollars going to outer space but cannot spend a few millions to build a refinery that would make this oil to U.S. citizens usable. This oil problem has not been addressed by either Cheney or Bush as that would cut into their retirement.
Instead of spending billions of dollars in Iraq and going to the moon, put this money back where it belongs so the average worker can have a decent retirement, and a few cannot play war games and satisfy their fantasies.
Now we come to this so-called governor who would like to be a dictator, except for a few like Dave Crooks who try to keep him in line.
The first thing he did after taking office was to remove all the state employees bargaining rights. As I have been a union member for more than 55 years, his actions make my blood boil.
He also got one vote changed to get daylight-savings time and then did not know what to do with it.
I guess if you get up one hour earlier you can bilk more people like he did with the power company sale.
On Aug. 18, he held a town meeting at Shoals and told the people he thought there would be two time zones. I guess the line would be in the center of their new bridge over White River.


This guys letter annoyed me enough that I felt the need to write my own letter to the editor which I did and emailed in..it was published as follows on 9/22/05; (see post titled second)

Bleeding hearts taking over common sense

Editor:
It amazes me daily to see people blaming the President for any mishap that happens anywhere in the world. Environmentalists in this nation and others have pretty much killed any type of refinery building and new oil exploration. Not President Bush. Gas prices, like everything else in this country are a product of the consumer. If drivers will pay 3 dollars a gallon, then that's what will be charged. If everyone stays home with their family next weekend instead of making five trips to the local Wal-Mart, then gas prices will come down. Of course, this will not happen because there is no sense of solidarity in this nation anymore, and who could possibly stay out of their vehicles for a full 48 hours?
Yes, gas was at one time 20 cents a gallon, and bread was 7 cents a loaf. Americans also made alot less money in those times. We've all heard the stories of super cars that made amazing milage; of course when you ask someone who knew this happened for a fact, you get a "I knew a guy who heard of a guy" story but never a name.
It further amazes me that Gov. Daniels is solely responsible for the power company sale and resulting actions when he was only one member of the board of directors, and the sale was approved by the stockholders. And besides, Indiana's governor and lieutenant governor at the time had no objections either. I'm sure this fact is not ignored because Gov. Frank O'Bannon and then Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan had a (D) behinf their names. One other little thing; I believe that Gov. Daniels had already left the company before the deal was done. The daylight-savings time deal is unfortunate too, because it's covering up too much good being done in state government. Too bad folks won't go looking for it on their own.
No sir, it's not the President's, Vice President's or the Goverors fault. It's ours for letting the inmates run the asylum for so long. Now the biggest threat to the nation is that the bleeding hearts have taken over where folks with common sense fear to tread.

My letter apparently really annoyed a fellow who read it and felt the need to send me a personal letter at home. I have to admit when I opened the envelope and read what Mr. Anderson had to say, I was ecstatic. This man proved to me that I have made the right choice in my political views, I would never want to be on the side of Mr. Anderson. His letter follows and the scanned copy is in the post titled third;

Dear Mr. Baxter:

I read your article in the Washington Times-Herald. Before I
comment on the content, let me say that your writing skills leave
much to be desired. I am guessing an 8th grade education,
certainly not college.

Your views are exactly what is wrong with this country. Poorly
educated white males that are taken advantage of by President
Bush's(I call him President Gump) policies, but continue to
support him because of your ignorance and prejudices.

Good young men are dying in Iraq because of the lies Gump and his
buddies told us. People died in LA, MS, and Al because of
the administrations lack of leadership.

I don't know but I am betting you don't care about any of this as
long as we continue to ban gay marriages.

Global warming contributes to the increase in intensity of the
recent hurricanes but you right wing idiots don't believe in
science. Don't get me started on creationism.

The liberals in this country will take over again and your can
just wallow in your hatred and prejudices.

I understand that uneducated people like you are afraid of
intellectual people running the country, that is why you like
president Gump.

When you decide to write to the paper again, brush up on your
writing skills so you won't come off looking like such an
idiot despite your unenlightened views.

Sincerely


George Anderson


I love Liberal Democrats like this, not even a little afraid to show their true colors. Now let me evaluate your letter George...

1. Next time you write me, have guts enough to put your return address on the envelope so I can answer.

2. Try to make it past the first paragraph before you start your insulting and name calling.

3. Buy a Thesaurus so you can use more than one word for "idiot".

4. Stick to the subject, I did not mention in my letter to the editor, gay marriage, religion, global warming or Iraq.

5. The indentation in a paragraph comes at the first line, not every line except the first.

NOW ON TO YOUR CONTENT................

6. The left is always up in arms about labeling and name calling. Yet you have no probleming with name calling. My President (yours too unless you want to give up your citizenship and move) deserves respect..no matter your personal opinion, he has accomplished what only 48 men in the history of the world have accomplished. Becoming President of the United States. Name calling and insults do not strenghten you position, they have the opposite effect.


More later...I'm getting sleepy!!! Must be my short attention span...we uneducated white men have a problem with that you know (that's sarcasm George)

Third

Apparently my Letter to the Editor annoyed Mr. Anderson a great deal as you can see by his tirade in the letter that he mailed to my home on 9/23/2005.

I will retype all three of these in another post as I know the scans are very hard to read.

Second

This is the Letter that I wrote in response to the letter published 9/16/2005. My letter was published in the newpaper on 9/22/2005.

First

This is a Letter to the Editor Published in the Washington Times-Herald on 9/16/2005. Reading the letter annoyed me a little and sparked me to write my own letter to the editor. It is in the following post.