Giving Thanks Part One

Wow...some folks want to "thank" our current "president" for giving us 7 years of safe living....I assume this is serious, though in some sense, I canot see how it could be.....but check it out at:

http://www.thankyoupresidentgeorgewbush.com/

I actually dug around and found a place to write the buffoons who set this thing up. Not sure anyone will read it, but I vented at:

info@thankyoupresidentgeorgewbush.com

I wrote:

Really? A petition thanking “President” Bush? I am sure there are more stupid things on the web, but none comes to mind just now. If you are going to thank him for “keeping us safe for 7 years, you ought to “blame” him for allowing the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history to occur on his watch....can’t have it both ways, I fear.

Put your energy into something constructive, like healing the damage done to this nation over the last 8 years...

jsw

Thanks to Wonkette for opening this can of worms....http://www.wonkette.com/

Wrong Time of the Year for the Holidays?

The American consumer, I have heard, holds the key to stemming the tide of bad economic news. It is simple really. Go forth and spend money like there is no tomorrow...and for once that might be right....THERE MAY BE NO TOMORROW.

OK, seriously. How does this work? Investments have taken a beating, Job security ain’t what it used to be. Many folks are working but are “underemployed”. Money is tight. No credit, no certainty that it is not going to get (a lot) worse. And yet, if we stay at home during the holiday season, and avoid buying the IPods, the Abercrombie and Fitch sweatshirts, and this season’s Pet Rocks that we all need so desperately, the economy will suffer even further, and we will nosedive ever closer to an even worse downturn.

Is there some sort of signal that is emitted when this recession becomes a “depression”? And if not, perhaps we are already there. I am just about ready to stop watching the news, because, frankly, it is depressing. Seems like depression is at hand.

Thanksgiving Day is a week away, and after that, the Christmas shopping season begins in earnest. I am guessing there will be parking near the door this year. A lot will have to change in the next week to reverse the mindset that this year is a time for restraint, if not outright rejection of the end of the year shopping binge.

Perhaps this will be that holiday season where we set aside our materialistic impulses and appreciate our friends and family as the gifts they are. Maybe that starts at Thanksgiving as we appreciate the irony of a huge meal amidst such uncertainty. There will no doubt be more hungry folks this year, as we sit down to carve a turkey...maybe even you, or me.

In seasons past, we have all dutifully reached into our wallets and done our duty as consumers despite the times. That seems all but impossible now. The sting of this season will be felt in the retail stores, and that will surely add to the bad news. But what will be the long term cost as we turn our backs on the retail establishments in our home towns? Will this finally spell the end of the mom and pop boutique? Will Wal-Mart finally take over everything and leave us with no other shopping options? How can we combat the reality of cheap prices at the expense of employees, suppliers, and land use planning. Do we kiss Main Street goodbye once and for all? Before we drive past the small businesses en route to the big box outside of town, perhaps we’ll find “rock star parking” near our local shops...the mom and pop liquor store, the toy store that sells only toys, and the clothing store that might not even have a website. Think of all the cheap gas we will save.

The Economy...For the Birds

I was sitting at my desk this morning. It was a beautiful fall day in the Bay Area...the kind of day you can open the doors and let the fresh air in. As I did just that, I was struck by a sound. Birds--hundreds of them, chirping and twittering and clucking and squawking. I stepped out side to find the source...a large elm tree to the south of my office filled with what seemed like thousands of birds, though I could not see but one or two. I closed my eyes to focus on the sound. It was quite similar to what I imagined the South American rain forest to sound like. It was loud and complicated like an orchestra without a conductor, and amidst the randomness of the sounds and the diversity of types of noise, emerged a sort of swirling pattern. It was wondrous. I have never heard so many birds, making so much noise so near to me. I paused for several minutes just to listen and observe what I could through the foliage. Then suddenly, as if on some prearranged cue, the tree shed itself of every bird as they roared off to the south in a well defined group, soaring at first high, and then swooping downward, before setting off to some other tree, perhaps some miles away. Perhaps they had stopped for a bit of lunch or a rest in the protective limbs of the great old tree and when the break was over, they headed off as if on some sort of schedule. Perhaps an unseen predator was near. Perhaps they had liberated the tree of its surplus bug population and it was time to dine elsewhere. In any event, when the signal was given to go....they did.

How difficult, I thought, it must be to be a bird nowadays. Large trees capable of holding hundreds of birds are few and far between. With vanishing habitat, global warming, and pollution complicating the lives of birds, and other creatures with as much right to be here as we humans, it must not be easy to be a bird just now. And just when there is momentum toward taking the threats seriously, a serious recession, perhaps a global depression, we may, in fact, turn to trying to eat them. Instead of tackling climate change and global warming, we will instead do what ever it takes to keep the economy moving ahead, including lowering the price of gasoline, so that automakers can continue to turn out fuel thirsty cars.

We will assist automakers, to keep them up and running, without demanding that they begin to retool and begin producing cars that respect our diminishing fuel supply, and stop belching greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. We will burn coal instead of erecting windmills. Solar energy will have to wait a bit longer before its day in the sun. And every day of inaction brings us closer to the day when it will no longer matter.

The news continues to be bad in the economic world, and when we speak of the global economy, it appears perhaps more than people around the world are affected. Perhaps the bad economic news spells trouble for the birds as well...and the frogs, and the polar bears, and the fish in the sea.

Its the Little Things

Doom and gloom is hard to ignore on the TV, on the Radio and all over the front pages of newspapers and magazines. We are in for some hard times, and I wonder if we are really up to it. We are out of practice when it comes to scrimping and saving. But when the largest companies in the country are teetering, and the layoffs approach millions, it is hard to ignore, much less be pithy or even humorous.

And yet, there are so many things that we might do without that might make us more efficient. Lots of little things might add up to some big things. And maybe, in the process, we could become less wasteful. Painless frugality to save the day.

First of all...mattress tags. It seems like it has been a long time since the mattress police took their job seriously. I have removed literally dozens of these tags. I believe I have even done so in a store, where clearly, I was not, at that moment, a consumer. What do you suppose it costs to cut print and stitch these tags onto mattresses, pillows, cushions and comforters? If it costs a penny, and we eliminate them, that puts like $6,754, 659.07 right back into the economy (more or less).

And what about ink cartridges for our computer printers? I purchased recently a cartridge #78 for my HP Office Jet printer. It came wrapped in hard plastic shell, and inside that was a cardboard box. Within the box, a plasticized aluminum pouch hermetically sealed with a product that I apparently should not eat, because it says so right on the pouch. Nothing else in the package suggested I should not eat it, so I assume I could, in a pinch, dine on the packaging....but seriously...get over yourselves. One package is enough...there is no reason for three...it is wasteful of resources, money, and it takes a lot more time to open when I get home. Did I mention I carried the purchase home in a plastic bag? Really, if HP eliminated two layers of packaging, I am sure millions of dollars are saved. Trees as well. See, this is easy.

While we are on the subject of plastic bags....let’s eliminate all bags from retail establishments. Bring your own damn bag, and if you don’t, you get to carry the stuff out without benefit of a container. In a very short time, we would all get good at remembering to bring our own bags. I kick myself every time I forget all the reusable grocery sacks we have collected over the years...they sit in the back of my car awaiting use. Today, with the cart almost full, I ditched it in a quiet corner and ran out to the car to retrieve the bags I had forgotten to bring. They are much stronger, hold more groceries, and that means less trips from the curb to the kitchen. I have teenage children, so all the grocery carrying is my job and I am fond of limiting my trips back and forth. I don’t know what the savings here are, but it helps those businesses in the reusable sack manufacturing industry.

As we just passed Halloween, another opportunity I noticed. “Fun Size” candy bars packed in plastic bags. Why not sell the candy in bulk, by pound. As we do almonds, dried apricots and apples. The candy bars are all individually wrapped anyway. They need no additional protection. That way, you can customize your order. Lot’s of Reese’s, not so many Three Musketeers, and we can just leave the Tootsie Rolls to....well...there must be someone who eats Tootsie Rolls....I think my daughter gives them to the dog.

The list could go on. I am sure we all have our pet peeves. I think soap bars are over packaged—some are in cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic shrink wrap. Really? Is that necessary, and I think we wrap too many things in plastic in general. I find it interesting that plastic bags come in cardboard boxes, while a ream of copier paper is wrapped in plastic. Someday, someone can explain why hot dogs come in packs of 10 while the buns are 8 to a bag. Someone missed a meeting.

Anyway, if we pay attention to all these little things, maybe we can save industry enough money to keep the economy from collapsing, and then we can look at some of the more complicated issues. Like why my 19 year old son keeps getting credit card offers....I mean, isn’t that how we all got in this mess to begin with?

No Veteran's Day?

Happy Veteran’s Day. This is a day to offer our thanks to those who have put their lives on the line to fight for the many liberties that we citizens enjoy. The men and women from all the conflicts that have been fought over the last century or so have served with bravery and honor, and have done so by risking their lives. I imagine there are millions of veterans, having served the frequent conflicts of the 20thm and now the 21st century.

I suppose there might be some veterans left from World War I, but they would be quite old, I should think. Many more from World War II. Their sacrifice and bravery in large part is what made our country what it is today. We owe them our very existence, in some sense. We have also veterans from the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the invasion of Panama, Granada, Kosovo and no doubt other smaller skirmishes, some perhaps without names. And of course, our nation is churning out a great many more veterans as we fight two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if there was a passage of time where there were no new veterans. Where our nation, and those sharing the planet with us, opted to resolve our differences through negotiation, and we fought no wars for a generation or two or three. What if 100 years passed and we did not fight a war? Would there be any veterans left? Daresay their care at places like Walter Reed would have to improve quite a lot for any current veterans to live another 100 years.

I have nothing against veterans. Absolutely not. I would just like to see their numbers shrink, but instead, the veteran population is growing all the time. Alas, in the process, we are also increasing the numbers we must remember on Memorial Day. Sadly, we do not even have a special day for those that will spend the rest of their life in some sort of damaged state as a result of the wars we have fought. In some sense, those that left a part of themselves on the battlefield are the ones that truly need our help, our appreciation, and our admiration, perhaps more so than any group of veterans. They deserve a day to call their own. Those that have given a limb, or two, or have lost the use of their limbs, their eyes, their ears, or those who have suffered such anguish that their thoughts have turned against them. These folks need a day where we consider their sacrifice. Hero Appreciation Day. Victims of Foreign Wars. Can’t even think of a good name.

The United States military is the finest in the world. When motivated, and fighting a just war, we are pretty much undefeated. When, however, we fight wars that are the result of leaders who have misunderstood their responsibility, the results are a mixed bag. I am hopeful we can end, soon, the ongoing creation of new veterans, and that the future leaders of this country will understand, once and for all, that the enormous might of the United States military carries with it the enormous responsibility of using only when there is no other option. We have become cavalier in our decisions to go to war. Here’s hoping we can go 100 years before fighting, so that we can fully appreciate the veterans we already have, without adding to their numbers.

To those that have served, thank you. Help our leaders understand why your sacrifice should not be offered in haste.

Elections are Easy...Leadership? Seems hard...

Be careful what you wish for. Heard that phrase before? Now that the Democrats are back in power, you can hear the early rumblings...permanent progressive majority....Republicans banished to the wilderness....It is all going to be wine and roses now...careful boys and girls....this is where it gets tricky. Often, it seems, a president swept in with such a mandate, overreaches, and sends the pendulum hurdling back the other direction. This time, however, the stakes are too high. Simply put, the new governing party MUST be successful, and in short order. This will be a challenge. This might even be impossible.

Before we start shunning the conservatives....before we mock them and laugh at their pitiful waste of the last 8 years, we might want to accomplish a thing or two....and here is a thought, why not include them in the success...make them team mates rather than opponents. Remember the big boat we are on, the USS AMERICA? Well we are all in it together, and if it avoids the jagged rocks, the tumbling rapids and deadly falls, we all stand to gain.

The shrillness of the autopsy of the McCain campaign, while entertaining, has little to do with what we should be focusing on. Frankly, I am not savvy enough to know who should fill what post and how quickly the posts should be filled. I just know that just like Obama was the smart guy running for the presidency, he ought to make sure that each pick is the smartest person he could pick. We are going to need a lot of smart people. Black and white, male and female, republican, democrat and independent...choose the best person from that pool of people.

I am probably not the right choice, but if there is anything I can do, you can always reach me right here!

Your Services are No Longer Required

Dear President Bush,

After 8 years of service, it has come to the attention of the electorate that your service to this nation is no longer required. Though clearly the duration of your service is at its natural end, you should know that were that not the case, and were you eligible to remain in your current post, we would still seek to end your relationship with us, the American people. We have been all but unable to find anyone who still offers any support for your methods or affection for your once endearing folksiness. We hereby seek to terminate your contract with this nation for cause and with prejudice.

Furthermore, should you look to use this position as a springboard to other posts, we think it best that you not call on us for a reference or letter of recommendation. Simply put, your work has been shoddy, and it appears that you have difficulty completing any task on which you embark. It will take your successor considerable time and valuable energy and resources to tie up the loose ends you leave behind. Were there any way it could be done, it would be a fitting servitude to ask that you clean up these various messes, but there is simply no longer sufficient resources to risk having you further bungle things.

It appears that your staff has not served you well either. Your second in command appears to have ruffled the feathers of nearly every person he has influence over or contact with, and in general, the entire lot of them do not take criticism or advice particularly well. Though difficult to prove, it also appears that a number of them lied....to you, to the media, and to their employers. It is frankly difficult to find instances where they were honest for any stretch of time, or in any important context. You should be advised that, for the most part, it is our intent to dismiss them along with you.

It always seemed as if things were done “your way or the highway” and frankly, that approach has not yielded much fruit. As a word of advice...get some help, literally and figuratively. It seems that unresolved issues with your father have tripped you up on an occasion or two, and so you may want to talk to someone about that. Professionally, you seem at times over matched, and the job appears to have grown beyond your abilities. Your crisis management has been uneven at best, with occasional glimmers of success, offset by abject failures, and repercussions of these stumbles are with us to this day.

We understand that our displeasure with your performance might come as a shock. Your subordinates have, alas, shielded you from many realities. In your next endeavor, you may want to consciously involve yourself with people of divergent opinions from your own. You may wind up learning something from them, and their input may save you from duplicating the same types of missteps taken in your current position. It appears that you treat dissent and disagreement as somehow inappropriate or dangerous. You may want to brush up on the history of the nation you have been serving. Dissent has led to some positive changes. In fact, your successor’s rise to power can be traced not indirectly to people that chose to speak out against injustice some 40 years ago.

In closing, we’d like to request that you not do anything any of us will regret in the future. Leave the silver in the cabinet, keep the special pen used for pardoning safely stored and do not consider using it. Help yourself to as many paperclips as you wish to have, and the stationary with your name on it is yours to keep. Try not to start any more wars, and this includes border incursions contemplated without provocation. It has been publicized that you will seek to (further) undermine clean air and water standards as you head toward the door. Better to concentrate on putting all the picture frames into proper cardboard boxes. Suspend any further torture activities, in any of the prisons, known and unknown, that you are operating. Please be forthcoming with your successor, and pray that your misdeeds do not lead to more than a simple dismissal.

Though your rent is paid in full through January 20th of 2009, there would not be much resistance should you abdicate your position well in advance of that. Feel free to travel. There are many folks in distant lands that would love to have a word with you. You are hereby encouraged to see what all the fuss is about.

You might also want to begin work on your presidential library. Surely many institutions would be happy to house this facility. You will need to rustle up some books and papers to put in there. It is assumed that most of the documents have been shredded or placed in the secure location along with your vice-president. Someday, these will come to light, and there doubtless will be a lot of folks that want to peruse them as they describe exactly what this nation opted to do to itself over the last 8 years.

We appreciate your cooperation during this delicate time, and we look forward to seeing you at the swearing out ceremony that, in some circles, has already begun on an ad hoc basis.

Regards,

The Citizens of the United States of America
(your employers whom you sought to actively ignore, deceive, and embarrass)

Process is Everything

A troubled country sits under the command of a failed leader...unpopular and waging war in two distant lands, with an economy crushing the populace, and despair and hopelessness having replaced the vibrant optimism of the country. The military is firmly, resolutely behind the leader, despite mounting losses and humbling setbacks in the various military campaigns. Much of the military engagement has been at the whim of the nation’s leadership, a personal vendetta fueling one of the conflicts, while inept leadership has hampered the other. The country’s standing worldwide has slumped, and the leader is reduced to occasional scripted appearances, with little or no interaction with the press. His unpopularity stands in stark contrast to his absolute, unquestioned power.

Time for a coup d’etat? In some parts of the world, perhaps, but in this nation, it is time for an election. Every four years we hold a referendum on the leadership of our nation, and this year, we get to turn the bums out. The problems won’t all go with our outgoing president, but what a marvelous construct is our democracy. Without anyone reaching for a weapon, the most powerful man in this country, really the world, will cede his power to a person, in this case, not even of his own party. He will walk away from the highest office in the land with nary a backward glance. And in 4 years, we will consider the job done by the new president, and re-hire, or fire, him accordingly.

Watching democracy in action is breathtaking. It is easy to dismiss the quaintness of customs and traditions of a bygone era, but consider the documents and processes designed by our nation’s forefathers in the late 18th century, well over 200 years ago. The mechanisms for changing power, for limiting the duration of power, and the creation of numerous checks and balances to limit that power is perhaps man’s most impressive gift to the future. Sure, we will also hand over the miracle of flight, the internal combustion engine, linear accelerators, split atoms, and the thermos, but those inventions will all be upgraded and surpassed in some way. But what we witnessed last night....hard to improve on that.

And so it is, that troubled country, led by a failed president, in a single day of voting, an evening of counting those votes, and then an early morning speech by our next leader, infused with optimism and possibility, restored a measure of hope...without use of a weapon, or a drop of blood. Plenty of sweat, no doubt some prayers, and sore knuckles from knocking upon endless front doors were the tactics by which we replaced our leader. And so it has been for over 200 years, and with luck, so it will continue for centuries to come. We study our nation’s forefathers as characters in our history books, but last night, as they do every 4 years, they were alive once more, walking amongst us.

Generation Why

Today is a special day. For many of us, this will mark election day, but for some, this will also mark the FIRST TIME they have voted. Perhaps they just turned 18 in the last year or so, or perhaps they have felt their vote meant nothing, but this year, somehow, its different. Perhaps the lessons of Florida circa 2000 are still fresh enough that indeed, every vote matters. Perhaps this is the first presidential election they were old enough to vote in. In any event: CONGRATULATIONS!

I have a 19 year old son. He wonders no doubt, why he needs to fill out this form, that looks suspiciously like a test. He wonders why he needs to read all that information in the Voter Pamphlet. He wonders why you cannot vote via video game...which come to think of it , might be something we need to consider at some point. I am assured that he will make the walk, perhaps even through a bit of northern Colorado snow, to the polling place and deliver his ballot. It means something, especially in Colorado, but regardless of location, it means a lot to vote.

To skip voting is a little like ceding control to someone else. You let others make decisions for you. They tell you what to do, where to go, and you just have to go along with it. Does it sound familiar? Yep...that is a bit like having parents when you were a little kid. But as you turn 18, and in the years that follow, we are trusting you to make decisions. You have a stake in this, and it is time to show you are ready.

Besides, all the problems that we face today: they are YOUR problems more than anyone else’s. Some of these issues, like climate control, alternative energy, war, and peace, will be with us for your entire lifetime. The sooner we start solving those problems, the better your life will be.

So vote, my young friends, lest we send you to bed without supper, or take away your allowance.

There, but for the Grace of God...

I was walking my puppy this morning....a 65 pound ball of energy anxious to chase every bird, jump in every puddle and streak up (and then down) every hillside. It was a crisp fall Northern California afternoon. The air was heavy with the smell of Bay Laurel, and the dampness from the heavy rains of yesterday held the promise of winter. Still, the pools of sunshine were still warm, and it was one of those days when a sweatshirt was at once not enough and way too much.

After watching the pup frolic for nearly an hour, it was time to head home. We came upon a scraggly looking fellow on the trail. The puppy barked his fierce bark he reserves for moments when he is startled or truly scared. The man was skinny, and a bit unkempt, and it was quickly apparent that he lived in these woods, near the bottom of this canyon...perhaps in a cave, a storm drain, or some other inadequate type of structure he called “home”. He was belligerent, shouting curses at me and telling me to leash my dog lest he “kick its ass” I daresay the dog might outweigh him. His abrasive demeanor caught me off guard, and I said nothing after calling the dog and attaching his leash. He stalked off muttering, cursing, perhaps baiting me to say something. I sized him up. I have never thrown a punch in anger. Somehow his verbal assault on my dog was bringing my blood to boil. Always a first for everything.

Happily, he took the fork in the trail away from our destination, and we headed up the canyon in a series of switchbacks. After a few minutes, I felt safe to take the dog off leash again, and he happily bounded ahead on the trail, chasing imaginary varmints, and slipping and sliding up and down the slopes. Out of the quiet, the hiker bellowed across the canyon that I better leash my menace of a dog or he would call the pound. His language was a bit more colorful than that, and it was clear he had been stewing on this for the 5 or 6 minutes since our paths had last crossed. There was, if possible, even more anger in his voice than there had been when he was nearer to us.

“The dog is the least of your troubles, dude! Why don’t you come over here and I’ll show you why!” I shouted at the canyon, the hiker invisible in the foliage. I looked around and quickly identified a baseball bat size stick. I awaited a response, but none was offered. Was I serious, I wondered? Was I really going to take on this poor sap? And truth be told, though I have never been in a fight, it occurred to me that he might have been in a scrap or two in his day. Rather than wait to see if he elected to pursue the matter face to face, I leashed the dog and headed up the trail and onward to the safety of the parked car.

As my anger stilled, and my heart rate returned to normal, I began to ponder the incident. How must it be to be a homeless guy, living near a trail popular with folks walking their dogs? How many times a day, or a week, is he hassled by dogs? How many times has he been bitten or chased out of his shelter? How many dogs had discovered his food stash and helped themselves?

I assumed his homelessness was not a choice he had made. He looked grizzled, far older in appearance than in actual years and I imagined he had survived a lot of tough days...grouped together in years or even decades. I was, moments before, ready to take a swing at him or strike him with an oak branch, but a few moments of consideration put a bit different spin on things.
Our nation is heading into tough times. Though I remain hopeful that the election will return some sense of hope to the nation, it is clear that there are still rough waters to be navigated. Foreclosures, unemployment and bankruptcy... how far behind can homelessness be? Was I mad at this guy because he hated my dog, or did I fear what he represented....our nation’s future? My future? I sure hope not...hope being the operative word. Just like I am sure he did not choose the life he had been handed, there will be others that follow his path, despite their efforts, despite their hopes and dreams.

Nothing Left to Say

I don’t really know when it all started. They say 22 months, but really, it is hard to think back to a time when this election was not underway. To some, it probably started the day after we mistakenly offered George Bush another 4 years to undermine the country. And in a very real sense, the Democrats have been trying to wrest control from Bush ever since he and Katherine Harris and the SCOTUS out weaseled Al Gore and took Florida.

But really, the election started the day Senator Obama tossed his hat into the ring and decided to take on the anointed candidate, Hillary Clinton. Really, they were both great candidates, and the toughness of the primary season may in fact be what prepared Obama so well for the tougher campaign to come. But 22 months? So much has changed. Is it really a job worth having? I wonder if the pursuit of the office is all that is left anymore. The job itself will seem anticlimactic, or worse, impossible. Good luck to whoever gets the keys to the White House.

I wonder if next time around, the election will begin 24 months in advance. Like the Christmas season seems to arrive in retail stores earlier and earlier each year, it makes me wonder why they ever bother to take down the holiday lights anymore. Christmas in July? How about Christmas in April? And so it shall go for the elections. Someday, perhaps, the day after inauguration day will be the day when all the candidates for the next cycle openly declare. A permanent state of electioneering. That would never get old, would it?

With all this time to fill, we have really seen the candidates from every angle. The cable news shows, and the network talking heads, the commentariat, and all those that need to fill air time, or columns in newspapers, must find something to say everyday. I pity them. That is why we analyze a poll that shows a move of 1% even though it has a margin of error of 2.6%. In other words, the movement is trivial, illusory, or even, imaginary. It is like discussing a baseball player raising his batting average from .321 to .323. It is only significant if you talk about it. They follow candidates around the battleground states, where they say EXACTLY THE SAME THING as they said at the last stop, or yesterday, or last week. And yet somehow, it needs to be made news.

Oddly, though, with all the information we have and all the facts, lies and innuendo, there are still so many things I have never heard discussed. They may not seem relevant, but how much of what we have heard has really been relevant to the presidency anyway. Why does it matter whether Obama’s aunt is a legal resident? Should he have turned her in? How can he control who he sits on boards with or who’s at a birthday party he attends, and what does that have to do with anything anyway. All the falderal about Reverend Wright was interesting to me because I wonder if bad stuff was being said in churches I attended from time to time. I must say, I sometimes did not focus on it, often preferring to check out the stained glass, or the structure holding the roof, or the exiting strategy. 6 years of architecture school will do that to you. Would I really want to be held responsible for what was said? No one indicated there would be a quiz. We might have been urged to do something untoward....I don’t really know.

In any event, there are things I’d still like to know. What size shoe does Obama wear? What is McCain’s waistline? Do they drive a manual or automatic...can they even drive a stick shift? What are their pet’s names? When they load their dishwasher, is it on the right or left. Do they ever load the dishwasher? What was their favorite childhood book? Ginger or Maryann? Which was their favorite “Angel”? What kind of beer would we find in their refrigerator? What is their favorite movie? What is in their Netflix queue? What is on their Ipod? Which side of the bed do they sleep on? Curly or Shemp? Scooby Doo or Felix the Cat?

As you can see, despite the time that has passed, there is still a lot we have yet to uncover. Perhaps a few more weeks campaigning and we could really get to the bottom of all this.

Decide Already!

You can count it in hours. The election of our generation is only 5 days away, and after 20 months of campaigning, I can say this without reservation....everything pertinent to the issues has been said. If you have not decided, you might as well find a heavy coin you can flip...or perhaps you can catch an all day matinee and sit this one out....that sure should sound great 50 years from now, with grandchildren on your knee...”why I remember the election of ’08....most important election of the century...nah, I didn’t vote. I couldn’t be bothered”. That ought to inspire the little tykes!

Perhaps the undecided voters are waiting for the October surprise. They are waiting some sort of galvanizing moment when the clouds part, and the choice somehow slaps them upside the head. However, maybe the real problem is that because the election has gone on so long, that these people have hit some sort of strange overload, where they simply cannot process any further data, and they are sick of it, and they stop watching the news shows and turn to Gilligan’s Island reruns on Nick at Night. They are undecided because they are not going to decide. These are the same people who struggle with “paper or plastic” at the grocery store, or the chicken or fish at a banquet. They are not prepared to starve a cold OR feed a fever. The choices posed by an elevator button panel can be debilitating. They never go to cafeterias. Selecting a tie is all but impossible.

In the end, we can prod them to vote, or perhaps offer them a padded portion of fence on which to sit comfortably.

A Weak Week

I am prone to distrust the polls and though I find myself watching them constantly, I frankly wish they weren’t even available to observe. It boils this election process down to little more than a horse race. You can bet on the outcome. You can watch the daily fluctuations and wonder why one pollster can have Obama up by 2 points, while another has him up by 13. And then there is John McCain, suggesting he has a plan, and that he will win and show everyone what idiots the pollsters and pundits have been. I wonder if the pollsters will offer some of their fees back if somehow their predictions and analysis has been...flawed. I mean, they have had Obama up by so much for so long, how this can be overturned....and if it is, will it be the will of the voters or some more sinister force. One hesitates to go down that road.

With a week left, there will be attacks, if possible even more acidic than last week, or the week before that. Vitriol will flow from candidate’s mouths to their supporter’s ears, and what they say will become fact, regardless of how ridiculous. The undecided will sit in their Lazy Boys and ponder whether they really need to decide at all. I hope they do, but I can see how they might want to turn off the cable news shows and watch some sports....the World Series is on Fox...nope scratch that...we’ll have to wait for that 3 inning spectacle for some night when winter has not made its presence known.

Still, it is our obsession with sports that prepares us to dissect the pre-election data. Every candidate’s strengths and weaknesses laid out like a batter’s tendencies against left or right handed pitching. How many sacks has he endured? How many fumbles? How many home runs? This has in fact been an election with few home runs, McCain was thought to have homered when he picked Sarah Palin, but upon further review, that looks more like a ground rule double...at best. In fact, because of that pick the McCain campaign has apparently started to point fingers. Like the Yankees...all that star power and no playoffs. Or worse, the Raiders....a rudderless ship bouncing from rock to rock in search of a safe place to anchor.

On Election Night, we will have game time. All the stats from the “pre-season” will tell us which states to watch, and we will be familiar with each candidate’s strongest spots on the map. But just like in real sports, upsets occurs. The team with the best quarterback, or ground game, does not always win. Sometimes, the other team just wants it more. Sometimes you play a better game, but don’t score enough points. Sometimes the ref makes a bad call that costs you a touchdown, or perhaps a state like Florida. Sometimes, there is a little known player on the other team, “Hanging Chad” who comes out of nowhere to steal the show.

President Bush came to power under the most suspicious circumstances, and his presidency, in some circles, was played more or less under protest. That it has ended so badly is either his just reward, or a punishment for our country for allowing the election process to be co-opted by those unimpressed by democracy. Beyond any other need, our country badly needs a good positive election...about things that matter, and without a whiff of tampering. We need a president installed by the majority, with a mandate to be above all, successful. To lead us, and restore our faith in the system. At the end of the day, this is what George W. Bush has deprived us of....faith.

There is not much pithy to say about the next week. I fear the October surprise...a tape from OBL, a terrorist plot, another plot to assassinate a candidate. Why can’t we all just get along, I wonder. Too late for that, I guess. So instead....lets not spend time looking for the silver bullet or the “gotcha moment”. Instead, this is a request that the candidates stop talking of their opponent and speak only of what they will do, how they will do it, and why we should give them something as valuable as our vote.

The "L" Word.

George Carlin once uttered the 7 (or 11) words you could not say on television. He of course did so in a mocking monologue about how stupid we were to let words become so fraught with meaning that they can no longer be said among God fearing folk and children. How does a word become profane? Who decides the status of each word and deems it inappropriate? All of the words relegated to late night cable or bleeped out (or both in the case of The Daily Show), have meanings and usages that come up in day to day conversation....therefore, their absence from the permissible lexicon leaves a hole in our ability to converse. We need to be careful about adding words to this list, lest we run out of words and become an entirely mute society.

Happily, sometimes words can be redeemed. When Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency in 1980, a perfectly reasonable word began the ominous slide into profane status. Sadly, to be attacked with this word was to suffer ridicule and perhaps worse, irrelevance...and yet those afflicted with this status could no more help themselves than they could change the color of their eyes or skin. Can you imagine, being verbally assaulted for something as personal as your hair color, or in this case, their capacity for compassion? To be a "liberal" in this country was to be in effect a person without a country, or so said the numerous babble heads on Fox News.

How could being labeled a "liberal" become such a toxic description...I mean what does the word really mean to begin with? How could it become such an insult?

lib-er-al ; adjective: (from Dictionary.com)

1) favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
2) favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom
possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of
civil liberties.
3) free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant: a liberal attitude toward
foreigners.
4) favoring or permitting freedom of action, esp. with respect to matters
of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists
and writers.
5) open-minded or tolerant, esp. free of or not bound by traditional or
conventional ideas, values, etc.
6) characterized by generosity and willingness to give in large amounts: a liberal donor

I am happy to report, though, that that there are signs indicating that to be a "liberal" is no longer cause for shame or banishment to Madison, Wisconsin or forced to pay the ridiculous housing prices in Berkeley. Instead, there are indications that we, as a nation, can now openly become "favorable to progress or reform" and that it will now be acceptable to appreciate "maximum individual freedom" without reprisal. In time, one hopes, we might even be "free from prejudice or bigotry", because instead of parroting the drivel from the conservative talking heads we are becoming "open-minded or tolerant". In the end, don't we all want a nation that is "characterized by generosity and willingness to give"?

Perhaps part of the reason our country has strayed so far from the path is that we lost our liberal voice. Perhaps balance is what has always been called for...to hear, and assign relevance to all of the voices from all over the political spectrum as our nation solves the great problems of the day. The voices that once would make “liberal” a slanderous charge now find themselves feeling the effect of banishment, or at least failing to be re-elected, and yet I cannot help but think that we will need them. To solve the problems this nation faces, we will need the great minds from all over the political spectrum, to sit down, work side by side, without derision or contempt.

I am hopeful that the liberals, having their status restored and no longer treated as if their very opinions are profane or sacreligious, will exercise restraint as they assume the levers of power. The leadership our country needs just now will keep in mind that “favoring or permitting freedom of action, esp. with respect to matters of personal belief or expression” will be what leads us back to greatness in the days ahead.

McCain't

Where is the outrage? Back when the Republican Party handed their nomination to John McCain, I thought they were brilliant. John McCain had a well regarded record as a “tweener”, not closely tied to the ridiculous far right, and enough of a centrist to actually pull votes from the Democrats in a year that Republicans are radioactive. Now, as his campaign twitches involuntarily in the last throes of life, there are many in his own party that want to condemn his campaign staff, his tactics, his running mate....really everything about him....and yet, doesn’t that all but miss the point?

John McCain will not be president of these United States in 2008 because George W. Bush was the worst president in the history of our republic. Do we really need to let history be the judge? Can’t we pretty much close the book on this guy now? Has anything he has done as president left this country better off? Has he succeeded in any small facet of leadership? The failures are underscored more heavily now as we anticipate him riding off into the sunset....during the financial crisis, he has been all but invisible, appearing every now and again to mumble some nonsensical drivel and then sneak away to play pong or Pac Man or whatever he does with his time these days. Then this weekend, he finds time and reason to bomb Syria. Has he no restraint? Do we need to relieve him of his duties before January 20th just to make sure he does no more serious harm?

I will admit when he came to power, my expectations were very low, I felt he was an unintelligent man, with no vision and no real reason to be president other than it was a job others said he should pursue. To his credit, he far exceeded my worst fears.

But there were many that liked this guy...enough in fact to re-elect him (WOW! How crazy is that given a few years of context?) I can assure you I had nothing to do with his re-election...but I am constantly surprised by the lack of outrage by his supporters, and by the nation in general. If we impeached Bill Clinton for the rather trivial offense of a misdeed of the flesh, what might the punishment for a president who led us into two wars (one unnecessary and contrived), and who failed to act responsibly to pay for said wars in a logical matter. He ran up a debt heretofore unimaginable under a Republican administration. We could talk about all the other blunders and missteps made by the administration, but the list would take up far too much space.....and the real bottom line is that despite the simmering dislike in the form of low approval ratings and such, where were the folks on the right now calling for McCain’s advisors to be fired? They let Bush slide, and now they act surprised by the results. The Republicans brought this on themselves because they let their clueless leader lead them to the edge of a cliff and like lemmings they followed right along over the edge. Republicans don’t believe in dissent. They find it un-American. And now, they find their quiet compliance to be a ticket out of Washington. A little outrage folks, might have kept you around....

Damn Yankees.

Is it just me? I really can’t stand the singing of “God Bless America” during the 7th inning of major league baseball games. Does anyone actually like this song? Isn’t “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” a much more appropriate jingle? I realize this gesture started in the aftermath of 9/11 and for some reason it still seems oddly appropriate if done at Yankees games, particularly Yankee playoff games...but since there do not seem to be anymore Yankee playoff games in the offing, this “tradition” has spread to places not directly affected by the attacks. I say we should put a stop to it, now.

The song itself is a behemoth, made famous in some way by the bombastic Kate Smith in a generation far, far away. If we are going to demonstrate passive patriotism via a ritual song, then I’d suggest “America the Beautiful”, though I’d far rather listen to Ray Charles sing it than a throng of beer soaked fans-- Ray Charles made it his own, and in so doing, showed that even songs we have heard hundreds of times could be made new again. JImi Hendrix did the same thing with the “Star Spangled Banner” but for some reason, it never caught on with a certain segment of the population.

I think standing at the outset of an event, hats off, or a hand upon our heart is enough of a symbolic gesture to accompany our leisure activities. “The Star Spangled Banner” is a high risk endeavor. Not easy to sing. The risk of complete failure adds a certain zest to the proceedings...But, the 7th inning stretch should be a time to take stock of the circulation in our legs, perhaps grab one last pretzel, or simply sing along casually or gleefully to the best song ever written about our national pastime. Why clutter it up with a lapel pin moment?

The Calendar Says "October"

The leaves are starting to turn...the night air is cool, and though the daytime sun is still warm, it lacks the vigor of summer. No doubt about it, just a few pages are left on the calendar, until the end of the year and it got me to thinking....just as we near the end of the year, I wonder, where are we on the ‘calendar of our nation’? Near the end? Just getting started? Are we truly still in an unending state of “Morning in America”?

Surely if a politician suggested otherwise, his or her career would be over. No one can openly admit that perhaps America’s best days are behind us. But it still seems worth considering. Was the 20th century the American century? If so, do we get two centuries?...in a row? And if this is not our century, whose is it?, and what does that mean for us? American’s have a name for second place.....losers.

Ronald Reagan told us, with enough assurance that we believed him, that our best days were yet to come. As the 20th century wound down, we had successfully fought two world wars, and our economy was the envy, if not the engine, of the world. We were riding a pretty good winning streak. Sure there had been stumbles. Vietnam was surely not our finest hour, and then there was Nixon, and Agnew, and Kent State. But there was also Apollo, the Beach Boys and Willie Mays. It was pretty bold to predict that even better days lie ahead.

And yet, to say otherwise implies...what? Decline? Tough times? The end of US dominance in the world economy and as the only remaining superpower....shudder the thought! Even writing the words raises the hair on the back of my neck. Nope, we Americans will accept only top billing...but I wonder what happens when the rest of the world no longer sees us that way....self delusion can only last so long. What was Reagan saying when he said our best days were in front of us? Perhaps he meant the Clinton Administration....those were pretty good days until the whole “bang the intern” thing got rolling...and even while we considered semen stained dresses and the meaning of the word “the” , the economy was good, our stature in the world was never better, and we were number one...no one argued with that! And besides...the bad stuff all had to do with consenting adults having sex...how bad is that, really?

I wonder where we are today, on the calendar of our nation. Surely we are well past January. If we consider Reagan’s Morning in America; I guess we were all sipping our national cup of coffee (Starbucks one can only assume) and still anticipating the warmth of the sunny days ahead....it must have been about February or March, and clearly the calendar had many pages left on it. So, where are we now?

Clearly, the Clinton days felt like spring. Sex was everywhere....from the White House to the home front! I was a father for the first and second time. Everything seemed to have a fresh coat of paint. Cars were new and shiny, and clearly a drive in a convertible was not out of the question. We were like a nation of colts, finally gaining control of our long, strong legs. We were magnificent. I’d guess it was April in America

Where are we now? Do we feel magnificent? What has the Bush Administration left us with other than a bunch of pages ripped hastily from the calendar to go along with all the bills scattered about and left for us to pay. Is that what the last 8 years have been? An accelerated aging that robbed us of the sweetness of summer...the cold lemonade enjoyed under a bounteous apple tree. Did we somehow trade in what could have been the glorious days and warm summer nights of May and June, for the bitter-sweetness of August and September. We never bothered to go skinny dipping in the pond or run naked through the woods with our friends. Instead we covered our bodies ashamedly as we aged, and wrinkled and instead of fireworks on the 4th of July, we got missiles and bombs over Baghdad. Instead of laying beside a pool, we hide our skin from the sun, fearful that the broken down ozone layer would not protect us from the cancerous rays...we lie awake fearful of enemies both real and imagined....We long for morning, but we know the nights are getting longer.

Now we await the harvest of the seeds planted over the last few years. Will the harvest be bountiful? Will we have enough food to eat? Will there be any left over to share with those less fortunate? Could we use some of the crop to trade with others to get supplies we might need. It seems uncertain just now. It just seems that there are only a page or two left on the calendar, and that seems pretty scary.

The chill in the air...could it really be just the last shiver as spring yields to summer, or is it perhaps the warning of winter oncoming?

Yep.

From Mike Allen’s Playbook at www.politico.com/playbook/:

“Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers, leveling his strongest criticism to date of an administration whose unpopularity may be dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat. 'We just let things get completely out of hand,’ he said of his own party's rule in the past eight years. In an interview with The Washington Times, Mr. McCain lashed out at a litany of Bush policies and issues that he said he would have handled differently as president, days after a poll showed that he began making up ground on Sen. Barack Obama since he emphatically sought to distance himself from Mr. Bush in the final debate. ‘Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously,’ Mr. McCain said in an interview with The Washington Times aboard his campaign plane en route from New Hampshire to Ohio. ‘Those are just some of them,’ he said with a laugh, chomping into a peanut butter sandwich as a few campaign aides in his midair office joined in the laughter.”

Hard to add anything to that assessment...Thanks Senator McCain and to all the congressional Republicans for providing such great oversight during the Bush years. As you wander around looking for new jobs, maybe you should consider including on your resume that for the last 8 years you leaned on a shovel smoking cigarettes while our democracy crumbled.

It's Black and White...

It’s time to grow up, America. We are about to elect an African-American president....and just like many of our other cultural heroes, someone who is not white will be at the top of the charts. The sporting world was the first to embrace such a sea change....we looked up to, at first grudgingly, and then admiringly, numerous stellar African Americans...from Jackie Robinson and Jim Brown, to Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Michael Jordan. Jordan in fact became an icon of commercial success. Indeed, everyone wanted to “be like Mike”...black or not. Tiger Woods has become so utterly synonymous with the “white” world of professional golf, that they can barely stage a tournament in his absence. And frankly, not much is made of his color, at least so it seems...mostly, he is regarded for his ability to simply kick ass on all the other golfers....My point, though, is not to minimize the struggles that all of these people of color have gone through. No, in fact, I am trying to look beyond race...what kind of a world it would be when skin color was regarded in the same vein as eye or hair color....that black people can root unabashedly for white people, and white people can cheer on their black brothers without interference from lunatic fringe racists.

I sat, at times in horror, this past summer, as people I otherwise admire spoke in fearful tones about the possibility of a an Obama presidency. Even before I heard it from the national media, there were fears of radical Muslim leanings discussed as if they were proven facts as opposed to lies and propaganda uttered by clown boy Rush Limbaugh. But I found it hard to argue with these folks....they fell into that category of “unpersuadable” I am sure we all have friends who’s views are simply not altered by facts or reality. I think in some circles, they are called “ditto heads”...and they think I am just as crazy as I think they are. It is my sincere hope that after a successful Obama presidency, they will be better able to accept those a bit different than themselves with a bit more open mindedness, and leave the vitriol for the media mouths that stir up hatred where there should be hope.

In the end, there is one thing I’d like to know: Why is Obama always viewed as “black”? I mean, isn’t he half white? And doesn’t that make him uniquely qualified to lead a country that is a little of this, a little of that. Just like the country he is about to lead, he is of mixed race...and perhaps in time we will all come to agree that instead of regarding him as black, or white, we can regard him as American....and maybe then, (and certainly not before) we will be as well.

When did I become "un-American"?

Dear Republican Surrogates...

If you believe patriotism is only found in blind allegiance to what our government feeds us, you are sadly mistaken. This great country, my friends, was born out of dissent. Your party, and its "leaders" have had the reins of power for 8 years now. You have blown it, and we doth protest. We despise your unnecessary war, we scoff at your allegations that we spend money unwisely, when it is YOU that live in a very fragile glass house. Each and every time one of you call us un-American because we do not like your failed president, and his criminal understudies, you be-little yourselves. We wish only to dispatch your candidate as Bush's successor to the ash bin of history, along with his cynical vice presidential candidate. We do not seek to question his patriotism or his loyalties, only to rebuke his methods.

You however cannot exit with grace it appears. You must slander those who feel maybe it is time for the government to work for it's citizens as opposed to imposing it's will around the globe-- while ignoring pressing needs like alternative energy, healthcare for those left behind, and a crumbling infrastructure. Calling us un-American because we oppose YOU casts you in the same light as McCarthy. The tactics are not unlike a certain German leader in the middle of the last century. You should be ashamed of yourselves, and next time you place a flag pin upon your lapel, or hang a flag beside your front door, consider the lives given in support of freedom, and understand, please, that to be free is not the same as to be sheep. I am proudly American, and yet I am ashamed by the tactics of the right. If you cannot defend your candidate with dignity, then shut up.