Episode LIV: Politics and the Economy

First off, for those of you who have contacted me about the family tree, I plan to get those invitations out ASAP after I add a couple of photos. For now, a post about politics and the economy (a la Epic Ballade).

Politics

As you may know, the United States just had a national election. In case you care, here are some of the things that happened on the local and state levels here in Douglas county, Kansas:

We re-elected an incumbent Republican senator (Pat Roberts), elected a Republican congresswoman (Lynn Jenkins) over the Democratic incumbent (Nancy Boyda), and elected a Democratic state senator (Tom Holland) over the Republican incumbent (in this race the Libertarian candidate [for whom I cast my vote] managed a respectable 5.4% of the votes!)

We also approved THREE SEPARATE local sales-tax increases. One for roads and infrastructure, and two to rescue our local bus system, which is unpopular, inconvenient, hemorrhaging money, operating at a huge loss, and is only afloat now because of large amounts of taxpayer money.

Also, contrary to what you might have guessed, the turnout in our fair county during this election was actually lower than it was four years ago.

The Economy

I am happy to report that the economy is doing just swimingly as far as I can tell. My evidence is this: the cheapest tank of gas I have filled in ages!