FORZA AZZURRI !!! ITALY WINS !!!

FORZA AZZURRI !!! ITALY WINS !!!FORZA AZZURRI !!! ITALY WINS !!!
FORZA AZZURRI !!! ITALY WINS !!!

Huge story brewing in the votes for Mexican Congress

Currently the Mexican senate stands at 58 PRI seats, 47 PAN, and 15 PRD.
Currently the Mexican House stands at 203 PRI, 148 PAN and 97 PRD seats.
With 55.58% vote counted, Calderon leads by nearly430,000 votes, and more importantly, the PAN has 35.11% vote for senate, against 25.9% for PRI and 29.9% for PRD.
HUGE pickups in the senate for the PAN

PAN also has 34.8% vote for House deputies, against 26.2% for PRI and 29.19% for PRD.
HUGE pickups in the House for the PAN

If these trends continue, not only will Calderon be able to continue the legacy of Vicente Fox, he will be able to affect legislation and pass his agenda, as the Mexican Congress will be significantly more pro-PAN than as currently situated.

THIS IS A HUGE WIN FOR PRO_BUSINESS MEXICO and US RELATIONS

Sources:
http://prep.eluniversal.com.mx/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5137528.stm

Mexico Election Update

Now with over 52% precincts reporting, Calderon and PAN lead by 440,000 votes, or 37.89% to 35.85% over AMLO and PRD.

Calderon is looking good!!!

Detailed To Do's

Win the War

With Zarqawi dead, the focus has to be on rolling up his network, but also continuing to build up the capabilities of the Iraqi forces. To my view, this is proceeding nicely, with an achievable target date somewhere in early 2007 for this. I think we'll still have lots of troops over there, but at a reduced number from now. Clearly it would be counterproductive to leave before we finish the task, so the Dem view on leaving now is just folly, and they are merely aiming to take credit for eventual drawdowns.

Cut the taxes

The income rate reductions put into place in 2001 and accelerated in 2003 must be made permanent, as with the cap gains/dividend and death tax changes. If these expire, the economy is screwed.

Trim the spending

As federal revenues are higher today than they were in 2000, when we had a surplus of hundreds of billions, its pretty obvious that we are spending a hell of a lot more money than we were. Most of this spending is for the military and homeland security (i think), but there is a lot of growth in spending elsewhere that can be trimmed down below inflation levels if I had my way.

Confirm the judges

President Bush now has nominated 27.7% of the entire federal judiciary. This will come close to Clinton's 38.4%, if the Senate would confirm judges nominated that are in limbo - another 6.4%...and there's another year and a half for more judges to retire. GO: Santorum, Steele, DeWine, Chafee, Kennedy, Kean, McGavick, Bouchard.

Free the Trade
Globalization is here to stay. I know this personally. Outsourcing, offshoring and the like are only going to continue, and no one's job is secure. With that said, the only defense is a good offense, and American businesses can compete anywhere when the trade is fair. Therefore, for more Americans to have good and well paying jobs, we need to secure more places in which we can do business across the world, and that means free trade. Clinton signed NAFTA, which put into place around 30% of our entire national external trade was with countries that had little or no tarrifs on our goods. President Bush is on track to increase this by 50%, with free trade deals already signed with a dozen countries, and many more on track to sign within the next 2 years. We need these deals agreed, signed and passed by Congress.
Deals signed and in place include Australia, Chile, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bahrain, Jordan, Israel, Mexico and Canada
Deals in progress include South Korea, Maylaysia, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama

Secure the Border

Immigration is fine by me, in fact, I think we need to increase the limits on skilled workers. However, I also think we need to secure our borders, starting with strong secure fences where appropriate, and when that has demonstrably been successful, we also need to know who is in the country...and one way or another, have the entire population legalized, whether by deporting some, or requiring fines, jobs-in-place, back taxes paid, etc. We need to know who is here, and if they are here to work and provide for their families, or to do us harm. I think both the northern and southern borders need more resources.

TO DO's

Win the War
Cut the Taxes
Trim the Spending
Confirm the judges
Free the Trade
Secure the borders

Post wedding Bliss

SO, the wedding was beautiful, the honeymoon (Italy) was fantastic, and the wife is wonderful.
Thanks for your very nice notes, all 5 readers of the blog (I really need to build back up my readership) Hope my political blues are over....I think they probably are...the GOP is finally fighting back...

Back to reality!!!

An optimistic early call on the Mexico Election: Calderon and PAN Wins Mexico Election

It's still early, but with 42.64% reported, Calderon has 38.07% to AMLO's 35.8%.

I call this one for the PAN. Potentially a great day for Mexico, the USA and a continuation of responsible government in Latin America.