Headed for a Constitutional Showdown?

The President and Congress appear to be headed for a showdown at the O.K. Corral over executive privilege.  Excuse me, but is this what we elected you people for?  This is yet another tangential non-issue that takes away from addressing the real problems this country faces.  Everyone knows that this White House stonewalls and obfuscates.  The people elected them for a 2nd term anyway.  So Congress, get on with your business, it looks like you are on a partisan witch hunt.  Mr. President, by stonewalling and constantly protecting your secrecy you look like you are hiding something even when you are not.  You do not have executive privilege to keep non-national security information from the Congress.  Produce the information and stop wasting the time that we the people are paying you for.  Once again, both sides are wrong and the people lose.

Articulation

Political parties are failing us in a major fundamental way.  Primary elections have caused the demise of centrist politics in the United States.  No candidate for President who has moderate, pragmatic beliefs will get past the partisan, money infested political party primary process.  People who vote in primaries are only the most extreme wings of each party.  While candidates “run to the center” for the general election they cannot hide who they are or govern from a centrist philosophy.  The blue candidate is very blue, the red candidate is very red and this leaves those of us who have the power for original thought without a horse in the race.

Personal Responsibility?

When President Bush ran for President in 2000 he promised to usher in the “era of personal responsibility”.  How is that going so far? 

-Bush refuses to acknowledge any mistakes until it is too late (Harriet Myers, Social Security, Immigration……)

-Tom Delay (the list is too long but suffice it to say he did lots of bad stuff)

-Jack Abramoff (Ditto!) 

-Rush Limbaugh and the pills

-The righteous indignation about gay marriage from thrice married politicians

-Halliburton and their billion dollar no-bid contracts

-Harriet Myers for Supreme Court???

-Tank Johnson, Pac-man Jones, and Barry Bonds from the world if sports (he so did steriods)

-Alberto Gonzales firing people for political reasons

Election 2008

  I make the following vows for the election cycle of 2008.  I hope anyone who reads this will follow suit.

1.  I will not believe or disbelieve statements made about any candidate without checking it out for myself (I don’t care if it is someone who I agree with bashing someone I hate.  We have a need for truth)

2.  I will not allow myself to be sucked into formulating opinions about candidates positions based on votes taken out of context (no credence nor quarter shall be given to political adds claiming someone voted to raise taxes infinity times)

3. I will not vote for any candidate that balks in the least about debating his/her opponent (if candidates are shy about sharing their message in an open forum where they have to actually formulate answers to questions and respond to criticism, I don’t believe they are capable of doing the job)

4. I will not believe any message, add, billboard, poster, pamphlet, email or any of the other garbage put out there by 527s, PACs, or anyone else not subject to the (minimal and insufficient) campaign rules of the FEC

5. (This will be the most difficult for you partisans)  I will not vote for candidates who attack their opponent personally to the detriment of having a debate about the profound issues affecting this country. 

Sorry, I’ve been on vacation

In the time since I have written on this blog, there has been so much to write about.  In the politics of personal achievement, Michael Bloomberg has declared himself an independent.  This is a thinly veiled move to run an independent challenge for the Presidency.  While I like a lot of his politics and don’t like the primary process which polarizes candidates and nominates “dividers rather than uniters” I am concerned about his 5 billion dollar fortune.  Another politician who is “in touch” with real Americans.  The Army is considering increasing the length of combat tours.   This is just the latest example of a war fought by a few while the rest of us are not asked to share any of the burden (see the only country to implement tax cuts in a time of war in the history of the world*).  Perhaps my favorite has been the book I am reading.  I am more and more convinced that Sean Hannity has some sort of pictures of something illicit going on at Fox News.  How else do you explain his continued employment at a news organization that is other wise so “fair and balanced”.  That is all I have time for now but, coming soon are Jim’s rules for participating in the election of 2008.

*I admit I did not spend a great deal of time checking this fact, it just seems intuitive

Rant #72

Sorry it has been so long since I said anything political.  I have been preparing to dig a hole (insert your favorite Presidential hopeful joke here).  My rant for today returns to to that time honored topic of money.  For like the 10th time, money is not speech.  For you un-nuanced political ideologues here is the scoop.  In economics, money is used to vote for the products and companies we prefer.  In the political realm, we vote in a different way.  IT’S CALLED VOTING!!!  All other uses of money in the system are called: bribery, kickbacks, influence peddling and the like.  And the next time some political hack tells you different send them my way.  Have a nice day.

Presidential election? Horse race? Beauty contest?

Here is part of the problem we encounter with our electoral process.  It is spring 2007 and we are knee deep in Election 2008.  If we didn’t spend so much time on this we wouldn’t get bogged down on the absurdities of our electoral process. First of all, all of these people have jobs.  Are they just ignoring their current jobs trying to get a better one?  Second of all, why don’t they all just travel together and appear in joint campaign appearances.  If would save time, money and if the real goal is to pick the best candidate and not to pick each other apart then how better but to share the stage?  Finally, it would really be nice if we had an actual discussion on issues rather than this obsession with name-calling and blaming for votes and statements taken completely out of context.  Why are campaigns allowed to dictate debate format?  Why should they be able to filter the information the voters get?  We should have political scholars set the format and if you want to be part of the election, you participate.   These are just a few thoughts on the ridiculousness that is our political process.

I explained it right???

As a teacher I have students who sometimes ask good questions.  Like, if everyone is so fed up with these politicians why do they keep getting reelected.  As I was having this conversation for the umpteenth time this year, it finally struck me.  The rate of reelection for incumbents is somewhere in the 90+% range.  When politicians do things and we reelect them we  reinforce the status quo.  It is like simple behaviorism.  We reinforce the behavior by rewarding it with more terms.  To extinct the behavior we don’t want it would be a simple matter of punishing the behavior.  Don’t whine about politicians, but then believe and vote for incumbents when they say they will make changes.  If you don’t like the behavior of our political leaders, punish the behavior by  voting for someone else. 

The news should make us ashamed…

I read, on Yahoo, an article that describes a study of the workforces of the world and how much they whine.  I can understand France being number 1 because, well, no explanation needed.  For the United States to be in the top five should make us all ashamed of ourselves.  We have the highest standard of living in the world, and yet we complain.  This is a travesty.  It is too bad that the rugged, frontier, pull yourself up by the bootstraps mentality has been replaced by the woe is me, victim, the world owes me attitude.  We have become to reliant on government, litigation, and lotteries.  To get something, it should be earned. 

Now, lest some right-wing, Darwinian, capitalist come along and peg this as a diatribe for unbridled capitalism I must beg to differ.  I also read an article on CEO compensation that listed the top 10 in America.  These salaries are not based on production nor contributions to a company.  They are purely a handout in an old boys network of corporate greed.  Boards that agree to such compensation at the expense of stockholders should investigated for fraud.  They think nothing of firing thousands of workers to cut costs when the most obvious useless cost is sitting at the head table. 

I guess what I am trying to say is that the attitude of many needs an adjustment.  CEO’s and entry level alike should be sent to other parts of the world when they get to unhappy with what they have. 

On this mother’s day….

It is a good time for a reminder that being a parent means being a parent, not a friend.  That means you love your child unconditionally and do what is best for them.  Sometimes this might mean sacrificing so your child can have more than you had.  Sometimes, though, it means that they can’t go somewhere or have something even though they want it.  Raising your child is your charge, not keeping them happy.  I have witnessed too many parents of one of two ilks.  One who gives a child everything they request, never question what a child tells them and always takes their side no matter what.  The other pays no attention to their children, don’t care what they do and is uninterested in their child’s problems.  Both abandon their responsibilities.  Though it takes a village to raise a child, you first have to have good parents.  On this mother’s day I would like to thank my mom (you to dad) for being a good PARENT.