36 posts tagged “politics”

Why is it that we follow others?   If we are truly a nation built on the individuality of people, why do some people rise while others fall?   Why do some people allow themselves to be herded to blindly follow a leader that may or may not be the right person for the job?  If history has taught us anything, it should be this – never trust your leaders. 

Trust is not something that should be offered to leaders, especially political leaders.   I do not care if the man or woman can perform miracles; you have to doubt your leaders at all times.  Doubting your leader should be mandatory because it keeps you thinking, questioning and analyzing their movements and actions.  Its doubt that allows you to see a “leader” for what they truly are – your equal that is capable of making mistakes and errors just like you.  Doubt helps you to understand that leaders are not better than you because they are simply operating on authority you gave them and you can take away.

I understand that there are people that need to trust their leaders, but that need is flawed.  Trust is something that should be earned and it simply cannot be done on a national level.   The people of this country can’t sit back and claim to know the President; they don’t know him at all.  They know the image and the brand.  They know the shiny exterior that is packaged and presented to the world, not the real person.  I don’t care if you have seen a President hug their children and kiss their wives – that is nothing more than a framed snippet presented to make the leader more likeable to the “common” people that are so willing to give away their own authority in the world.

Yes, many of you will read this and think I am talking about Obama followers, but others will look at this see Bush followers.   It doesn’t matter.  Apply it to whomever you want but you must understand that if you are willing to trust a leader without question, you are doomed.   After all, the people of Germany trusted Hitler because he was a moving and powerful leader that rescued the nation from a crushing depression and restored national pride lost during World War I.  Look what happened to that nation when trust was given rather than doubt.

Health care reform.   Socialized medicine.   Free market medicine.  Communists.  Socialist.  Capitalist.   Greedy pigs.  The Brooks Brothers Mob.  Obamacare. Unamerican.

You have to love buzz words.   If there is an issue, I guarantee that there are a few choice buzzwords attached to it, even if the words aren't even remotely relevant.  The argument ends up being nothing more than a series of buzzwords thrown at each other through every communications channel available.  Finally, the public decides which buzzword it likes the best (rather than an actual argument) and that is the winner.

The issue of the day?  The future of biomedical sciences in the United States.  Some call it health care reform, some call it the end of the line.  It doesn't matter who is right or wrong on the issue because the realm of rational discourse and debate ended the day it was introduced. 

The Obama administration, like every presidential administration before his, is looking for a defining piece of legislation that can give them enough momentum for reelection.  They saw a need and used John Dingell's decades long attempts to produce health care reform as their platform.  After all, how could the American public ever be callous enough to deny health care to everybody.  

Apparently, the Obama administration was asleep in the 90's and missed the outrage over "Hillarycare".  Maybe Obama should have talked to the person with actual experience in the arena of governmental health care reform....Hillary Clinton.  Had he talked to her, she could have prepared him for the public outcry.

The people are angry Mr Obama.  Yes, there are 45 million people uninsured in this country.   However, you forgot the majority that are covered via private or governmental insurers - that's 355,000,0000 people.  These people don't want to see the quality of health care diminish because there are more people that will almost certainly overwhelm our overtaxed medical system (next year we face a shortage of 40,000 internal medicine docs). 

We see calls for nurses (another shortage) but where are the calls to increase the number of doctors?   Where is the push to make the AMA allow more medical schools?   Where is the push to have our state universities expand medical school classes?  When a resource is scare, it costs more.  Produce more docs and the costs will be less.  Did the democrats miss Econ 101?  

The people hear small business saying they will downsize to eliminate their employer provided healthcare requirement.   The people see that it will be far cheaper for large companies to pay the fine and shift their employees to governmental programs.  They see companies for what they truly are - organizations with a goal of turning as much profit as possible - NOT benevolent parent figures caring for their children. 

The people also see how poorly our current governmental agencies run.  Why would we want to hand over an industry that is one fifth of our GDP to the most corrupt, inefficient, incompetent organizations in America, ie the Federal Government?  Hell, the Congress and the Administration know that the fed is incapable, how else can you explain their exemption from the plan?

Nancy Pelosi published an Op-Ed piece recently condemning protestors that shouted and chanted as "unamerican".   Hmmm, she doesn't say that when Code Pink is shoulting down conservatives.   She praises them.  Perhaps if she stopped being a hypocrite and answered the questions with facts other than 2 or choice tidbits of the bill (elimination of pre-existing condition, "patient choice", etc), people wouldn't be so damned mad.

Before anyone comments that I must be a Republican or a Limbaugh suppporter....WRONG.   I am a democrat.   I voted for buth Clintons, Gore, Kerry and Obama.  I support health care reform, but this bill does NOT cut it.   It simply add another layer of beauracracy to an already broken system.  If universal health care is the way to go, fine.   Do universal health care but fix the supply problem and make it mandatory for ALL americans (to include congressmen and presidents).   Also, tax all people EQUALLY - no one group should be responsible more than any other.  

To fix healthcare, you have to rebuild it from teh ground up - not by adding another layer of shit to the pile.

Ahhh…electric cars.  Clean.  Safe.   Eco-friendly.  These babies don’t produce the noxious gasses that their gasoline driven brethren create.   Global warming will abate as the CO₂ levels drop with the ever decreasing population of gasoline-driven automobiles.  The consumer will not be beholden to the gas company and their ever-fluctuating prices.   National security will improve as we reduce the dependence our nation has on foreign oil imports.  It will simply make the Earth a better place.  Right?

As Detroit and Japan push forward on the release of new electric plug-in vehicles, we need to reexamine our condemnation of the auto industry as the chief party responsible for global warming.  Plug-in vehicles sound great to most Americans because we simply plug them in and “POOF” – no more combustion engine pollution.   The problem with electric cars is the myth that they are the solution to our problems.

Americans and the rest of the world face a bigger problem than our vehicles and that is our energy industry.  Beyond the obvious stranglehold that oil producing nations have over the world we have big problems.  Oil is the BIGGEST energy producer on the planet (not to mention a primary source for plastics).  In the US, nearly 40% of ALL energy produced in the country is created by oil and most of that energy produced is done by vehicles. 

So what happens when we take all of the power producing vehicles offline and put the burden on our aging power grid?   What happens we have to nearly double the capacity of our aging grid?  We have to build more power plants.  

New power plants will probably result in new coal plants and an increase in the ever-growing demand for coal.  Currently, 51% of our electricity comes from coal and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon.  People seem to be on a “clean coal” kick to include top Democrats like Obama.  Unfortunately, there is no such thing as “clean coal”.  No matter how much you scrub the gasses or trap them in underground storage facilities, there is still a host of environmental issues involved like the destruction of mountains, rivers and streams through mountaintop removal mining techniques.

Sadly, renewable energy sources are expensive to install (although the prices are dropping) and the profits are minimal compared to those the energy industry is used to seeing.  That means they aren’t truly motivated to implement the cleaner energy sources.  Also, the large scale national grids that are plagued by transmission losses and health risks make the sale of energy more profitable; this eliminates their interest in more sustainable, secure and eco-friendly microgrids.

We have attacked our environmental problems in reverse.   Rather than addressing the need to double the capacity of electric power production FIRST, we have pushed for the production of vehicles that will drain an already overtaxed system.  This will most assuredly result in haphazard regulations and lenient rules that will allow the power industry to expand its production capabilities with cheap, dirty energy.  

Pecss_diagram

  

We have ALL seen it before.  A group protests the ruling political party's policies and the participants are deemed dangerous to the Country, the President and even themselves.  The most recent victims of the anti-protest rhetoric are the participants of T.E.A. Party demonstrations.  From Nancy Pelosi to CNN - participants were mocked, demeaned, belittled, and even declared dangerous.   The evil "neo-con" word was thrown around too - even though some of the protestors were liberal democrats.  I won't even go into the amount of times that people attempted to race bait participants.  During the Bush years, anti-war and liberal protestors were declared dangerous and unamerican.  The Right declared these protestors to be commies, radicals, unamerican, unpatriotic and even terrorists!

Why can't Americans see that, no matter what side of the political fence you are on - protesting is a staple of a democracy, a republic and the USA?  These protestors are involved in their country and its governance that supercedes most Americans.  Their participation surpasses that of ANY elected official (to include St Bush and St Obama) because they are doing it for something more than wealth, money, power or fame.

I don't care what the person is protesting, they are doing so because they want to make the nation better.  They are doing it out of a love for their country.  They are protesting because they want to make a difference.   Unlike politicians and talking heads - they generally don't seek fame and glory.  They aren't paid.   They aren't rich.   They are there on their dime. 

So, maybe we can all sit back and respect that thes people are true Americans that are actively involved in the way that it runs rather than calling them names.

First off, let me start by saying that Obama gave me the one major change I wanted out of the last election cycle - an end to the presidency of George W Bush. So for me, anything else that changes (for the better) is gravy.  For me he has done some great things to help protect women's reproductive choice (GRAVY!).

The reason I ask this is because for so many people, they voted for a dream in 2008 not reality.  

• They voted for the troops to be magically transported out of dangerous warzones.  However, they got the very approach that McCain promised - a coordinated withdrawal of combat troops while leaving a peacekeeping force to assist the Iraqis that would be withdrawn (hopefully) in a year or so but would stay as long as needed if something changed (*cough*  remember McCain's 100 years comment?)
• They voted to end Guantanamo.  However the reality is the closure of the prison leaves 100s of terrorists without anywhere to go (we don't want them here, their countries dont want them).   The prison is set to close in a year but where will those 200+ prisoners go?   I personally doubt that they will make their way to mainland America so they will probably end up at one of the secret prisons we run (or our allies run on our behalf). 
• They voted for a new kind of "non-partisan" politics.  However we have all seen that both the Republicans and the Democrats (Obama included) are firmly entrenched in their party alliances and wars.  Just because Pres Obama declares a bill he wrote to be "non-partisan" does not make it true.   You can not expect people to go completely against their ideology and beliefs to accept legislation that is radically different.  It didn't work under Republican rule and it wont work under Democrat rule.
• They voted for an end to lobbyists that are beholden to large corporations and the rich.  President Obama even declared that his administration would be lobbyist free.  However, he backtracked on that promise within days of making it by hiring multiple lobbyists who owe companies like Raytheon massive favors.
• They voted for Obama because he would restore the USA's standing in the world and bring peace.  The reality is that plenty of countries simply don't like us and they haven't liked us for generations - with or without George W Bush.

Now, I don;t want President Obama to fail.  In fact, I want him succeed.  I just know that there were a LOT of naive people that believed Obama to be this mythical figure that could solve the world's woes.   They believed he would bring peace while protecting us from all harm.  They believed he would bring an economic revival that would make the poor rich (or at least middle class).  They thought he would fix our educational system.   They thought he had magic in him that would fix everything.  So I wonder this, at what point will their fantasy view of Obama end and reality set in?  

Worse yet, will their inevitable disillusionment with Obama lead to a return to their apathetic voting practices?  I would hate to see Sarah Palin come into power because Democrats decide to not vote (thats how we got Bush!)

President Obama began declaring that his economic recovery package was non- or bi-partisan before he ever stepped into the Oval Office.   While many people sat agreeing that Mr Obama's bill was indeed a bi-partisan wonder that would save the country, they forgot to do one thing - ask the opinion of the other party.  You see, most of the people talking were die-hard Democrats.  Republicans have made their thoughts known over the past couple of days and guess what happened?   The Republicans don't like the bill.  Shocker.

Now, I am still debating the merits of the bill as I am a fiscal conservative (socially extremely liberal).  So I have not decided where I stand on the bill.  However, I do no one thing - the bill is EXCEEDINGLY liberal.  It follows the Democrat platform almost verbatim.  So how did Mr Obama ever think that it would pass as some non-partisan approach to economic recovery? 

It really frustrates me that Obama makes a decree and expects everyone to fall in line with his thinking.  I spent the last eight years of Bush jr doing the same. 

Like it or not - the change of our governmental seat happens today in just a few short hours.  No matter who you voted for in the Primaries and the General Election - today is the day we welcome a new President and say goodbye to Bush. 

Today is a day of promise, hope and positive contemplation.   Today is a day that we have a President that has made no mistakes while in Office.  Today is the day that we have a President that has committed no crimes or acts of moral ambiguity.  Today is the day that we will see people across the country celebrate our President, our Government and our nation.  Today is the day that we will see people proclaim their national pride.  Today is a day that America will see the ultimate racial glass ceiling broken.  Today is the day that most people will look to Obama and see a man that has the potential to do a good job.

I say that this will be the best day of his Presidency not because I expect him to be horrendous President.  I say it because this is the first day of a term of office that will face challenges.  Before he leaves office he will be required to change his own policies.  He will be required to mitigate the damages of a bad decision.  He will be required to compromise on his agenda.  He will be required breaks campaign promises.  He will have to face scrutiny for military, economic and policy decisions. 

So today President Barack H Obama should enjoy himself.   This term of office will not get any better than the celebrations of hope today.

We actually drove by a man in fatigues carrying a cross and completely decked out in military camo heading away from our voting station. 

Please note - he wisely hid his nametag under the Palin sign.   We pulled over and asked the man some questions and he immediately began talking about the "great Sarah Palin" and how he wants HER to be President because she is a real conservative.   Jeez...this guy probably likes GW Bush too....

downsized_1104081047a.jpg

This election season, like every other,  we have long time voters that are set on doing their duty and voting - even if it is for somebody they consider to be only slightly better than the person they have deemed the anti-christ. So here are some simple steps for you to follow if you don't like the person you are voting for, are embarrassed to vote for that candidate or you simply don't have a clue.

I don't like the candidate that I am voting for but they seem to be the lesser of two evils:

• Take pride in the fact that you are at least voting.  Half of our nation is too concerned with the winner of American Idol to waste time voting for something silly like President.
• Look for validation before you go to the polls with spokes people that are lending the candidate their credibility (ethos in the campaign biz).   There has to be at least one celebrity, public figure or pundit that you quasi-respect that is campaigning for that person you are being forced to vote for, they can help justify your vote.
• Look for validation on the net.  After all, if there is a Paris Hilton fansite - you are bound to find some third party site giving you reasons that you can get behind the candidate on.
• Make sure you thoroughly list every reason why you think the other guy is evil.  Make sure you reassure your self that they are nothing more than a pure evil person hell-bent on destroying the entire world.  This will help ease your conscious.

I am embarrassed to vote for the candidate I want:

• First off, why be embarrassed?  Once again, take pride in the fact that you are getting up off of your butt to vote.  Remember my American Idol example?  Still applies.
• Once you pick a candidate, be PROUD!   After all nearly half of the Americans that actually decide to vote will back up your choice as a valid one.
• Even if you are still embarrassed at the polls - relax.   Its a secret ballot and nobody knows who or what you voted for on you ballot.  Just make sure your curtain is pulled tight so a nosey election worker or the kid that comes with their parents don't peep your vote.
• Are you afraid of what friends will think of you?  SCREW THEM!  They are probably too busy watching American Idol or America's Next Top Model to actually vote and you don't need those losers!  Real friends will be proud of your patriotic decision to vote!
• Are you afraid of what family will think?  Thats a tricky one because you are stuck with your family for life.  If your candidate wins, gleefully parade through the house with patriotic songs like "Nanny, nanny, boo, boo.  My guy one and your guy lost".  If they lose - LIE!   Its a secret ballot - remember?
• If all else fails...DENY, DENY, DENY!   If it works for politicians - it should work for you!

I want to vote but I am completely lost this year and don't have a clue as to who I should vote for!

• First off relax.  Of the voters that will actually turn the TV off and go out and vote - probably a third of them are "undecided" until they enter that voting booth.
• Now rejoice in the fact that you are going to the polls to participate in a right that so many have died for you to have.
• Vote by your political party.  these people are the rocking cool crew of people that you have decided knows you best.  Many people vote by party so blind faith in organizations that take millions from corporations like Target, Chase Manhattan, Enron, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia, etc can't be wrong!
• Pick the coolest name.   Face it, there are some really awesome names on the ballot!
• Pick the name you know the most.  Familiarity is a great thing - if you know the name that means you like them!  There is no way that the only reason you know the name is because of its appearance in a series of exposes showing your candidates seedy criminal dealings.
• Use a blind ballot method - that means close your eyes and just start voting without reading.  Who cares about who you voted for because the important thing is that you vote!
• When all else fails vote for things that make you comfortable - ie men, Christians, traditional major parties or people that showed you their advertisements the most.

Please note...this post was all in fun.  It is completely dripping in sarcasm.

OK Obama Supporters let me give you some advice – enough with the downright dirty attacks on Palin.   We get it – you don’t like her.  You think she is a horrible person.  You don’t want her as the Vice President.  We all understand that and I applaud your passion.  HOWEVER, you must learn to express you dislike for the woman in a mature and intelligent way.  

First off, children should be off limits.  Guess what – it’s nobody’s business about Trig’s birth.  I don’t care if she gave birth to him or if Bristol or the Devil himself gave birth to that kid.  Fact is, Sarah Palin is the baby’s mother – so leave the kid and its mom alone.  Also, who cares if Bristol is pregnant?  She is 17 (a few months young than when Obama’s unmarried mama gave birth) and she is taking care of it in her own way.  That girl is not our concern.

Second, do we really need to attack working women?  That is what is happening when democrats are screaming about how Palin is an unfit Mother.  I actually heard a woman that identifies herself as a feminist declare that if Sarah Palin had stayed home and done her job as a mother – her kids wouldn’t be so screwed up.  WHAT?!?!?!?!  Please people; remember your own values when you attack this woman.  As a liberal – I expect you all to understand that a woman CAN work and be a mother.   Having children should not dictate that you only take low level jobs either.  Don’t even get me started on people saying that she can’t do the job because she nothing but a beauty queen.

Come on people – talk about her stance on the environment.  Talk about her qualifications for the job.   Talk about her positions on social issues.   Talk about things of substance.   I promise you, it can be done.  I know that when talking about Palin’s anti-choice, abstinence only positions – it’s easy to use Bristol Palin as an example but you don’t need to do it.  You can discuss the issue without using her kid.  Do you realize what the nasty attacks are doing?

These attacks on Palin’s family have actually energized the Republican base.  Democrats have actually done the work for the Republicans.  The GOP was worried that conservatives wouldn’t come out to vote for the moderate McCain – but the DNC fixed that problem.  The latest polls are now showing McCain 15 points ahead.  I know that people say the polls are irrelevant but that is crap.  The DNC has a case of chronic apathy when it comes to voters – the GOP does not.  An Obama lead in the polls means little because many supporters will just be too lazy to vote in November, but a McCain lead is huge.  The GOP voters go to the polls.

So we need to find new ways to attack Palin and McCain.  If you want Obama to be in office and to be the “Change” that this nation needs – act like you are representing him.  Right now, many Obama supporters are acting like petulant children rather than mature informed voters and that has to change.  Obama supporters need to go at this differently or else they will be the reason that Obama loses.

Oh and FYI – I have been hesitant to support Obama in the past but McCain’s choice of Palin as his running mate changed my mind.  She is far too conservative for my taste.  As the tie-breaking vote in a narrowly divided Senate, she would work against most of my interests.  So I guess as of right now, I support Obama.