U.S. American readers are urged to read the text of the 2012 State of the Union address. It is available on the Washington Post website.
Agree or disagree, it never hurts to be informed.
This Ain’t No CNN.
180º
So a while back I was blogging about the fact that I couldn’t take anymore about politics and news, it was simply just burning me out and all of the information, commentary and rhetoric was overflowing my brain with information that I couldn’t use anymore. Inside I had decided that I was going to be one of those typical Americans that went into the polls in November 2012 and stab blindly at the ballot box that contained the name that sounded the least menacing, or if I was familiar with the candidate, was the better looking of the choices.
Now that’s not the right thing to do.
Over the past 48 hours I have done a complete 180 degree turn when it comes to politics and the news and quite frankly, I now completely give a damn, I can’t know enough about what’s going on in the U.S. and in the world and I want to be a very informed and engaged citizens when it comes to make the important choices at the polls in November (even though it’s 11 months away).
Bored with hearing Billy Joel and Elton John on 70s on 7 and/or 80s on 8 on Sirius/XM last night, I tuned into POTUS (Not red, not blue, red, white and blue, Politics of the United States for the People of the United States) and caught the last hour of “Stand Up with Pete Dominick”. Pete’s an ok guy and show host, after all he is a native of Central New York. There are times when his show sounds like a poor-man’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” but I think his schtick works 90% of the time. For a station that isn’t suppose to lean in any particular direction, Pete will admit that he leans squarely to the left in his political beliefs but he lets those that disagree with him have their say and he asks the good questions, so for the most part, I enjoy listening to his show.
Last night he had Will Cain, a political commentator frequently seen on FoxNews and LZ Granderson, a writer for ESPN who happens to be black and gay (only brought up because this was a prevalent topic in the conversation) as his guests. Like all of Pete’s shows, the format is listener participation driven. Much of the conversation had to do with what being gay or black was like in the United States and how it contributed to political campaigns.
Will Cain, who leans solidly towards the right, is a very smart man. I wish I could grab a transcript of the show because he had brilliantly worded explanations and analogies for his arguments during the conversation. His Republican-centric point of view actually made sense to me. Which is saying a lot, because the campaigns leading up to the primaries and the caucuses has been rather crazy. There is no one currently running for President that gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. Ron Paul gets into the ball park with his Libertarian ways, but I can only buy into 80% of what he offers (when he gets into the racist stuff I become very uncomfortable). I have never been a big fan of President Obama; back in 2008 when given the choice between McCain and Obama I wanted to vote for Hillary. I still think she was a stronger choice for the Democrats and I think that the country wouldn’t be in the same spot we are in today if she was to hold the office of President (though I think we’d still be in the same ball park, just not way out in outfield somewhere). I said this back in 2008 and I stand by that today. Do I respect President Obama? Absolutely. Do I think he’s been a stellar president? No. I rate him around Jimmy Carter.
The problem is that the alternatives are weak. What bugs me most about the current Republican folks trying to win the primary is the hypocrisy. Mitt Romney, who will most likely get the nomination, wants the government out of our personal affairs (unless you’re gay). Rick Perry wants to guarantee the “pursuit of happiness” as decreed by the Declaration of Independence (unless you’re gay). Michelle Bachmann is such a mess it’s hard to tell where that woman stands, but I know she said something about gas being $1.79 a gallon within three months of her taking office and her husband has more chiffon coming out of his mouth than Charles Nelson Riley (no offense to Chuck intended) so I don’t know why she is so angry towards the gays.
I feel like the choices that have been handed to us, even this early in the game, are “none of the above”. And that’s why I have to get myself educated. Voting for the next president is not a clear, cut choice for me. None of them really tailor to my Libertarian beliefs; some of them want to spend so much money that quite frankly it makes me fearful for the solvency of future generations of Americans, others want to practically give soldiers the right to “shoot to kill” as they patrol the U.S.-Mexican border and yet others want to just get rid of those pesky gays to the best of their ability.
I grew up in a Republican family with steadfast beliefs on the individual responsibility each of us to contribute to our society and to not be a burden on it. This is where my core political beliefs are fueled – small government, fiscal responsibility, respect the rights of others and contribute to the greater good.
It’s not a difficult concept. And I’m going to do my part to make sure that I know everything I can do to make sure we are headed in the right direction.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Reality?
I try to do my best to stay abreast of what’s going on in the news, especially in the political arena. When I have the privilege of casting a vote for the leaders of our country, I want it to be a well-thought out vote for the candidate that I feel will do the best for the job they are being elected for. I believe that it is the responsibility of every citizen to cast an intelligent vote at the ballot box. To skip voting or to just randomly color in dots, hang chads, pull levers or whatever is irresponsible.
That being said, I must admit that watching the news is getting more and more difficult for me these days. One person commented on a tech board yesterday that they “cut the cable”, meaning that they disconnected themselves from cable television, opting to download media to their computers and the like instead. One of the reasons for their decision was the fact that watching the news made them feel homicidal. I have to admit that I grinned when reading that remark, because while I’m not at that limit, I certainly can sympathize with the feelings in that general area.
Every time I see presidential candidates make promises that they can do better and make our country a better place by doing a laundry list of ridiculous notions it makes me want to kick in the television screen.
Our TV is much too nice for that sort of abuse (the kick OR the babel from the candidates).
I end up yelling back, or at the very least, asking the question, “Is this the best you got?” I know my grammar is bad when I ask this but I don’t care.
I’m beginning to see a blurring of the line between reality show-like contests and presidential campaigns. Let’s see who can be the most outrageous by eating the biggest fried corn dog. Before you know it they’ll be eating live bugs with a cow’s blood chaser. Let’s see who can make the most absurd proclamation (i.e., “I’ll have gas to below $2 per gallon in three months!”). Let’s see who can steal the spotlight but trouncing around the country in a big bus but proclaim that they don’t really want to run for the presidency, they just want the attention. And let’s see who can spend the most money that we don’t have and hope that some of that money goes somewhere and sticks to something so that millions of people can find jobs.
It’s sad to me that elections have gone in this direction, but when you have to compete with the likes of American Idol and Big Brother, I guess politics have to be made extreme, wild and sexy to get the attention of the ever dwindling collective IQ of the American public.
The founding fathers have to be spinning in overdrive in their graves.
– I am crossing my fingers and praying to the digital mecca that this has been a successful instance of using BlogPress from my iPad
Limits.
I have been listening to the debates about raising the debt ceiling. I’m finding the various political commentators, with their differing point of views, to be quite interesting. I listen a little to the left, a little to the right. I’m surprised that it’s hard to find commentators that are traveling down the middle. Polarization of the people will do that.
There are a few things that I don’t completely understand about the debt ceiling limit and what will happen if it isn’t raised on August 2. If someone would care to enlighten me I would be thankful.
1. Why aren’t we controlling our spending more so that we don’t have to borrow as much money? There is a LOT of frivolous spending in progress within the government. Why aren’t people looking at these things? For example, in 2005 a bill was passed by Congress for the mints to start printing dollar coins to commemorate each President. A certain number of dollar coins must be made for each President, and they can only be made to commemorate those Presidents that have passed on. The law was written so that they can’t stop printing these commemorative dollar coins until all of the presidents have been commemorated. In addition, the Sacajawea dollar coin must be printed in a ratio of 1 to 4, for every four presidential coins printed, one Sacajawea dollar must be printed.
Have you used a dollar coin in the United States today? I didn’t think so. Yet, the U.S. mint still prints millions of these on an annual basis because Congress passed a law in 2005. They sit in bags in vaults in various secret places in the country, unused and unneeded. The amount of money used printing these coins, storing these coins, etc. is a waste, not to mention the actual value behind the coins.
2. I keep hearing that all of these domestic programs (social security, veterans’ benefits, etc) are going to be cut if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. Why aren’t we talking about cutting war efforts or even cutting foreign aid? Why are we cutting domestic programs first. Shouldn’t we worry about the citizens close to home? If we are forced to pick and choose, shouldn’t we pick and choose the ones that DON’T contribute to the country before cutting from our own citizens? Where is our sense of priorities?
3. I am not a fan of welfare. I am very offended by the fact that people are actually saying it is unconstitutional for welfare recipients to be drug tested by the government, after all, I can be subject to a random drug test at any time at my job and I had to take a drug test to get the job in the first place. I’m sorry, but I believe that if you don’t contribute to the system, you don’t benefit from the system, plain and simple. These people that live off of Welfare for one, two, three or more years should be cut off from their funds and forced to grow a garden and find a way for themselves. Our lack of natural selection/the natural thinning of the herd through these things have overtaxed our resources in ways that we can’t even begin to comprehend. Call me cold, call me callous, but if you don’t put in, you don’t get anything out. And don’t attack me about retirees and the like, they’ve earned their place and their benefits. I’m referring to 25 year old baby machines that enjoy junk food on a check from the government that has been funded by our tax dollars. Here’s a cute story: when I was a baby computer maintenance guy I was hired to show a computer user how to dismantle, remove and then reinstall their high-end computer system of the time because they needed to hide it from the state inspectors when they were being inspected for welfare eligibility. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Being lazy does not equal being disabled.
4. If I were to go to the Apple store to make a purchase and my credit card was declined, I was be forced to not buy whatever doo-dad I was trying to buy. I could ask for an increase in my credit limit, I suppose, but if that was denied, I would have to stop spending and reprioritize my budget. As I have mentioned elsewhere in this post, we need to get our spending under control. Scare tactics of making grandma hungry because we can’t give her her hard-earned check are unnecessary.
5. And last, but not least, has anyone ever considered a flat tax across the board for all Americans? I don’t care if it’s an income tax or a consumption tax, but eliminate every deduction, every loophole, every piece of legislative bullshit from the tax code. You earn a dollar? 23% of that goes to the government. You earn one billion dollars? 23% of that goes to the government. If you have a social security number, you pay. I don’t care if you’re married, single, swinging from a chandelier, rich, poor and nasty and maladjusted. A flat tax across the board would eliminate a lot of this bullshit and the screams of “it’s not fair!” If you have a tax ID, you pay. Plain and simple. And, this is where Earl and I disagree, by the way, I don’t think that folks with kids should get a tax deduction based on the number of children they have. People are pumping out babies and taxing the system/resources all in an effort to lower their tax responsibilities. This has got to stop. Yes, we need to fund education so that we can perpetuate the species responsibly, but penalizing those that don’t have kids by making them pay more in taxes is just not fair.
I think I’ve reached my rant limit for my lunch hour.
– Posted from my iPad with BlogPress
Exhibit A.
Exhibit A
Meredith Attwell Baker, Typical Government Corporate Employee.
This woman is Exhibit “A” as to what is wrong with the direction of the United States of America. This is Meredith Attwell Baker. She is one of the five commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission that approved one of the largest corporate mergers in history, the merger of Comcast and NBC.
Ms. Baker just accepted a job with Comcast as the senior vice president of government affairs. So on the taxpayers dime, she basically helped create one of the largest media conglomerates so she would have nice, cushy job to fall into.
Nah, there’s no conflict of interest there at all. None. Nada. And if there was, you’re not suppose to notice. Just keep lapping up what these big media corporations tell you and everything will be just fine.
It’s all plusgood.
Thank You.
Thank you to the men and women in the military, to their families and to the families of the victims of 9/11 and the wars that have ensued since.
A historic night. God Bless America.
Lunch.
Back when I was young and full of energy I worked for a couple of agencies that worked with the developmentally disabled. I worked in group home and assisted living facilities. It was a job that I liked, though I knew that I wasn’t destined to do it forever, and it was a job that pulled on my heart strings and helped me grow in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise found. I learned a lot about the human equation during those years.
One of the daily chores that I would help the folks1 complete was the assembly of their lunches for the next day. These folks, regardless of their age, brown bagged it to the various day treatment or workshop programs they attended during “business hours”. Each of the folks was responsible for making his or her own lunch and as a residence counselor or manager I assisted with the process. My assistance was dependent on the skill set of the individual. Some folks needed help manipulating a knife to spread mustard, others needed to be shown the difference between ham glaze and strawberry jam and yet others had no concept of lunch at all and just knew that whatever came out of the brown bag made them happy. Others could assemble the lunch on their own, they just needed some guidance as to what would be healthy and what probably wouldn’t be a good choice. After a year of addressing and guiding healthy choices with one particular woman, she found a great deal of pride in gaining the skill to assemble a healthy lunch on her own, based on what she had been taught.
A Chicago Area School has banned students from bringing in lunches from home. The students must eat what is served from the cafeteria or else go hungry. Principal Elsa Carmona said that the food coming from home wasn’t nutritious enough so she banned brown bagging it.
So, if a mother wants to make a homemade meal for her child, she can’t. Her kid must eat the processed crap that school cafeterias serve these days. I have been behind the scenes in a school cafeteria. Pork comes in tubes with so much fat that you can pour the pork out of the tube. Hot dogs are a routine staple, French fries are a necessity and there’s always plenty of cookies around.
Not exactly a healthy offering, is it Elsa?
When I first read this article this morning I was became angry, because here we have another example of someone sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong and trying to dictate to others how they should live their life. I’m sorry but the school is not there to be a nanny or to babysit. A school is there to educate, and they are completely missing the mark because they are taking away the responsibility of the parent to teach their kid how to make healthy meal choices. I don’t understand why there isn’t more outrage about this.
There is a cynical side of me that thinks that this has to do with government reimbursements for the cafeteria — a sure way to help the school budget. But I won’t go down that road because it could just be me being cynical. However, I won’t buy one word of the principal’s claims that she is trying to help the students eat healthier until:
- anything that can be found in a Happy Meal or at a hot dog stand is left off the menu
- all microwaves are removed from the kitchen
- all items containing high fructose corn syrup, preservatives or artificial sweeteners is removed from the premises.
I have written Ms. Carmona an email expressing my feelings on the subject, after trying to call her but finding all circuits busy (I guess she’s popular today). I’m interested in seeing her response.
1 The people I worked with at the homes were just folks. We didn’t call them residents. Chautauqua County had a habit of calling them “the guys”, regardless of sex and Oneida County called then “the folks”. I liked “folks” a lot.
Speech.
Okay, I have to admit that this is kind of bothering me. Last night (or afternoon, depending on where you were), President Obama made a speech to the American people regarding Libya. Now, I will admit right here that I chose to be a bad American because I didn’t watch the speech. Personally, I would prefer to read the transcript, which I will do after I finish this blog entry, because I get distracted by his glancing at the teleprompter and his habit of scanning back and forth kind of like a robot. Now, I don’t think that he’s a bad speaker nor do I think he shouldn’t use a teleprompter, I just find it distracting and that’s my thing.
Obviously, when the President deems something important enough to address the nation, we should pay attention and see what he has to say, no matter what we think of politics. That’s part of being a good American. What struck me very odd about this speech was that it was televised at 1930 (7:30 p.m.) EDT. That means it was at 4:30 p.m. on the west coast and even earlier in Alaska and Hawaii.
That’s weird to me. Speeches of this nature usually take place at 9:00 p.m. eastern. So I decided to take a look around to see why the odd time slot and lo and behold, ABC was going to pass on the speech if it was broadcast at the usual later time. This was because it would have pre-emptied “Dancing With The Stars”.
Oh. My. (insert favorite deity here).
Has the American people really become so ridiculous in their mindset that it is more important to see Charo do the cha-cha for a score of 19 or so instead of hearing about the game plan of we are doing to address a very volatile situation in the Middle East? My god, I am ashamed of my fellow citizens if the ad revenue and ratings of “Dancing With The Stars” trumps the importance of sending our troops to this dangerous situation.
Yes, I made the choice to read the speech instead of watching it, but I can tell you that if it had been broadcast at 4:30 p.m. Eastern I wouldn’t have been to watch it even if I wanted to because I would have still been at work.
The FCC requires that those who hold a broadcast license must do so in the best interest of the public. That’s why you hear a smattering of public service announcements at 3:00 a.m. when you’re trying to build a hangover, no one wants to hear about starving people during their lunch hour. This is how broadcasters skirt around the public service requirement. We used to call it “lunar rotation”.
Shame on ABC for their lack of priorities, corporate greed and general asshattery. Shame on the White House for bowing to that sort of thing and playing ‘second fiddle’. And shame on the American people for their superficiality by even allowing ABC to make this a priority.
Here is the transcript of last night’s speech. If you missed the televised version last night, this is your chance to read it.
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Japan.
I am very saddened, but somewhat fascinated, by the tragedies in Japan. I am finding the US news outlets to be somewhat contradictory in their assessment of what’s going on over there so I’m following various sources on the Internet and from news outlets from abroad.
The part that fascinates me is the stories of hope. This morning I read that a man was found sitting on the roof of his house after the tsunami hit. The interesting aspect of this was that the man and his roof were 10 miles off the coast in the Pacific. Apparently he had survived the crushing waves and had drifted out there.
That gives me hope.
Watching video clips of the tsunami wiping out entire villages or hearing stories about how there are entire trains missing is very disheartening. Reading that nuclear power plants are thisclose to meltdown is scary. But the stories of hope and survival give us a moment of triumph in a horrible, unimaginable situation. I can’t imagine what folks are going through. I hope I never find out first hand.
In this day and age it’s rather fascinating to see how easy it is to donate to help those in Japan that need our assistance. Sending the message redcross to 90999 let’s you make a $10 donation charged to your cell phone bill. That’s kind of cool.
I wish I had the resources to go over and help. Instead, I hope the universe shares my thoughts and prayers with those that need them.
Wow.
My thoughts and prayers go to the people of Japan as they deal with this latest blow from the Universe. The earth is such a magnificent and awesome living thing that can be so fragile at the same time. The earthquakes seem to be getting more frequent and more fierce; whatever you think about 2012, it does give one pause for a moment.
During my commute this morning I wanted to catch the latest news. *NPR’s coverage was lacking, in my opinion, so I started spinning around the dial and finally switched over to AM where I found a strong signal with non-stop earthquake coverage. The talk station is rather conservative, but it never hurts to hear all points of view and quite frankly, I felt that the earthquake news was beyond politics anyways. The female anchor was almost giddy when she announced they would be going commercial free to bring the latest news on the disaster. News people get happy about this sort of thing, and I get that, the rush of diving into a big project at work. I think some people lose sight of that when it comes to news.
I sent a message to my sister prompting her to get a hold of her friend in Hawaii to let them know what was happening as Hawaiians were probably sleeping and some might sleep through the tsunami sirens. Hopefully everyone involved is safe and sound.
The station was still on in the car when I left for lunch so I listened to the rantings of the substitute host for Glenn Beck. As I said earlier, it never hurts to hear all viewpoints. That’s the only true way you can formulate your own intelligent opinion. A very smart man reminds me of this from time to time.
NPR has been a little weird for me lately. Pledge drives, public money pleas and departing executives all get on my nerves.
