Happy 4th of July. Independence day.  We celebrate our independence from the oppressive British monarchy.  We shot their soldiers and theirs killed ours. In Brookfield there is the grave of a man who fought in the Revolutionary War. Private Nathan Hatch. Since we are now buddy buddy with the British, it seems that today should be more of a birthday celebration of becoming a country rather than the day we officially flipped the bird to the king of England.

Which brings me to the point of the blog today.  You see, we still owe England. We also owe China along with some of the oil producing countries. It's called the national debt. It something that we've all heard about but is obscure to most of us. I understand that we are actually borrowing money from these countries to pay for things that we do. How is it that we need to borrow money from other countries? I though we were the rich people in the subdivision.

My dad once said, "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?". I'm sure he heard that from someone else and it won't be found in the book of famous quotes but it does say a lot. I'm not rich so I'm not ashamed to say I don't understand money well. I understand gold and silver being worth something and exchanging pieces of same for value received. We used to do that. Gold coins could change value but our silver certificates were always worth a dollar's piece of silver. No more silver, no more silver certificates.  Now we exchange numbers. We can print as many dollar bills as we want because we'll never run out of numbers. 

I've got some stocks. One had numbers of being worth $44 a share when I bought it. Before last Christmas the numbers ran up to $128. Now it's got numbers of around $46. Same company. Doing good business too. Sales are way up. Like I said, I'm not ashamed admitting to ignorance of money and speculation. Nobody in the government seems to understand speculation on oil commodities or they'd be clambering to announce opening new areas for exploration and drilling for oil. It seems when there is more supply, the prices these speculators are willing to bid for oil goes down. Politicians don't understand that. Some think more taxes on the people that do the work keeping gasoline available for our tanks will lower the price of gasoline. Further, these same politicians believe that the cost of the taxes won't be passed along to us, the consumers. So let me modify my dad's quote to; "You may be an elected official but that doesn't mean you know squat about money!".

So continue to celebrate Independence Day. After the grill is put away and the firecrackers are all fired off, remember that Uncle Sam has loans out there from some nasty countries so we can appear to be a wealthy nation. Uncle Sam needs to better explain what this really means to those making the payments on everything that Sam does. It appears that the finance charges are greater than our minimum payments. What politician is going to tell us what we need to hear rather than what it take to get on their power trip and stay on it?

Happy Dependence Day.

I believe there is a wave of paranoia sweeping the country. Zero tolerance this, can't say that and so forth. I don't think it is any big secret that Mayor Nelson, if not a registered democrat, certainly has leanings that way.

I understand that upon advice of our city attorney, the mayor removed a post from his blog on the city's website. What I know of the post, it seems ok to me.  I don't like censorship. I'd rather know as much as possible about our elected people's thought processes. This is also why I don't like anonymity. If there's no name associated with statements, take them with a grain of sand. We're about out of salt.

I also see that our new city administrator was seated along side the mayor at a Barack Obama rally.  The administrator was just doing her job, so a memo from her says. If so, fine. But, I'd like an explanation of why she wasn't doing her job at any republican rally? After all, she was on the clock.

There is one explanation that I'd buy as to the attendance at the Obama rally. Asking Obama to promise more money for the city for road salt and pot hole patch.

I was going to write about an internet purchase experience and a local experience but a news item begs for comment.

As I opened WaukeshaNow, I saw a headline that the Sentry next to Walmart on the Les Paul Highway is closing. Such is competition. I'm in the minority, it would seem.  I don't like the huge supermarkets. It seems everything I want is about a mile away from the entrances or I have to sort out through expensive gourmet stuff that I'd never consider buying, but somebody must.

I miss my Sentry on Moreland and Delafield and the one that was downtown next to the bank. I can't help but blame those who were in power at the time for allowing that to happen. Would a tax exemption have helped the bottom line? How about the state helping out by eliminating some or all of the payroll taxes for a struggling food store? We are talking about a basic necessity of food and not spas or car dealers.

In the business section of Sunday's paper, an article about Buell reminded us about the government's tariff on Japanese motorcycles to allow Harley Davidson gain some footing to keep it alive. This was done by a Republican, Nixon, if I recall correctly.
 
Does all of this sound out of the question in the near future? Somehow it is something that I think presidential candidates Obama and Edwards just might consider. My votes during the last 20 years have been solidly Republican. However, I'm listening to the messages that have the Democrats so enthralled with these two people. It seems that people are indeed looking for change that is real rather than change that is only rhetoric. I think this also explains Mike Huckabee's rise in favor. Thus far I am still supporting Rudy Guliani, but until the pencil has made its mark on the ballot, who knows?

Could it be that true conservatism is gasping for air?