Sunday, August 31, 2008

Too Good

To Pass Up:



"We" when the news is good. He says "Them" when the news is bad. (Referring here to the advent of Hurricane Gustav along the Gulf Coast). Absolutely to be expected; I'm not picking on Rep. King in particular. I often use the Politicospeak use of the Passive Voice as an example for my ESL students. "This is when you use the PV: when you don't want your fingerprints on the SNAFU", to paraphrase a bit.

Pay Grade

According to the New York Times (August 30), Candidate Obama's campaign won't be attacking "...Mr. McCain for his opposition to pay equity legislation and abortion rights — two issues of paramount concern to many women — as it tries to head off his effort to use Ms. Palin to draw Democratic and independent women who had supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton...."
Which raises the question: Would Vice President Sarah Palin, a woman,
be paid 40% less than would Vice President Joe Biden, a man?
See, in this Historic Campaign, which is code for <"Theres some candidates who aren't Old White Guys!", there are some really interessting sidebars to be bloviated upon. Because, of course, in the government, women do get equal pay. Therefore, why should the government give hurt to their (corporate) contributors by requiring their businesses to do the same? I would say because it would be good for business, but (as you will agree if you watch a little cable teevee business news) business leadership is still ensconced firmly in the nineteenth century.
Anyway, I'd like to hear Candidate Palin speak to this question. Be interesting to hear her answer. Perhaps along with asking if she agrees with the biblical injunction for her to defer to her Lord And Master (husband, that is) in all matters outside the home?
Just asking.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

I'm Shocked...

Shocked! At Candidate McCain's selection of a runningmate (as they are called in politicospeak). Nothing wrong with the choice at all, really. I was pretty sure though, that it was going to be Mitt Romney, the man who looks like a clearcut choice for JayCee Man'O'The-Year. The GOP (as it is called in politicospeak) is definitely a highly heirarchical outfit, and generally selects next-in-line for the Next-In-Line.
I was a little puzzled at the selection of


Sarah Palin
Risky Business?

I remarked to a friend a little while ago that I hoped John McCain was smarter than to believe that the supporters of Hillary Clinton, AKA Femi-Nazis (You can Google Rush Limbaugh for the reference) would flock to his campaign. There are those who seem to believe that "Women are desperate to see a woman shatter the Glass Ceiling"; desperate enough to vote against their own self-interest though? Well, that remains to be seen. And is it really true that electing a woman to the Not-Worth-A-Bucket-Of-Warm-Spit office is the same as "shattering" a glass ceiling?
It took me a while to figure out what else might have prompted Candidate McCain to select now-Candidate Palin. Here it comes: the Conspiracy! Remember back in 1960 - a simpler and much less expensive time in politics. Old Joe Kennedy was reputed to have asked his son (yes, that would be JFK) how much it would cost to win the election. I heard it was around seven million. That seems like a lot to me, but these days, it wouldn't even pay the electric bill at one of the conventions, probably. Elections cost a lot. The reporting on contributions say that the Obama Campaign and the DNC are getting a bigger slice of the pie than the McCain Campaign and the RNC so far.
Not any more. With the Drill Here Drill Now Lady running for Vice, why, ExxonMobil alone will spend more than all the democrats in the universe.
If it's true, as Big Daddy Jess Unruh (anybody remember him?) said, Money is the mother's milk of politics", why then Candidate McCain has picked himself a winner. Or perhaps someone whispered in his ear. And he listened. He has money (as well as oil) to burn now. His campaign budget will probably be enough to fund the war in Iraq, except we're now "winning" that war, so the RNC can feel comfortable spending the oil money on a surge against Candidate Obama.
I hope people will take note that Alaska is a very different place from every other place. In fact Alaskans are known to refer to the rest of the United States as Outside, and (with the possible exception of Seattle) look at the whole country as being pretty exotic. Being an office holder in Alaska might not be very like being an office holder anywhere else, as well. In Alaska, the Income Tax is even different: the State pays the Citizens! Here's something from the Alaska Daily News telling about local reaction to the news.
Of course, when it comes to exotic places, people everywhere think of Washington, D.C. as pretty exotic, so perhaps it won't really be all that different from the rest of the country to Candidate Palin.

Friday, August 29, 2008

All In All

Today's acceptance speech by

Candidate Obama
Was, All in All, pretty good. Great, in fact, in some places. The problem was, predictably, that there were Too Many Places. In this sort of speech, and as we will also see in the State Of The Union, to be delivered by a President-To-Be-Named-Later, every topic that could possibly be spoken to is spoken to. Political writers, it seems, have a Bullet Chart pasted on their walls, listing major, sub-major, and minor-major subjects. All of which must be included in every major speech. Lest some Key Constituency, or some Vital Concern go unmentioned. Leaving the opponent with an opening to claim that the speaker was uncaring, or careless, or ignorant, or et. cetera with regard to the item that got scanted. Result? Everything gets stirred into the pot, and nothing really gets spoken of in any depth. Which is fine for the speaker. In these Modern Times, the point is really to get the Sound Bytes (yes, bytes!) out there in Cyberspace.
To sum up: Wonderful in parts: but too many parts.
Barack Hussein Obama has an amazing bio (as they are called these days); if there's any poetry in this world he will be elected President of the United States. As President, he will face huge challenges. By dint of his brilliance and his force of will, and his great inner humanity, he will overcome these challenges, and his presidency will come to be a national epiphany and be regarded as a millenial event.
Admitted; this is not the likliest outcome.
I decided to investigate.
I took a poll. The Question: "Do you belive there is poetry in the world today?"
The Results:
Yes, I do: 0
No, I do not: 2
What the hell are you talking about?: 1
Ok, it was a small sample. There might be a large margin of error. Also, one of the respondents might have been a little drunk.
Still, on the existence of poetry (and therefore, of poetic justice) in the world today question, things don't look too good. But hey, the guy has done amazing things.

November 4th. Mark the date on your calendar. Stay tuned.
Oh: I liked this guy's speech too. Good speech. Bulldog delivery, as always.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

There's A Difference

In this world of Testomania, (SF Chronicle, July 10),
I wish people would understand that there's a World, Nay, A Universe of difference between learning Algebra and learning to Take An Algebra Test. Indeed, this is true for any subject. It's pretty clear, clear to anybody who's spent a largish part of their educational years being drilled to take high stakes tests (PSAT, SAT, LSAT, GRE, etc...) at any rate, that it's an entirely different kind of learning. Cramming short-term memory with testable data as opposed to learning concepts and methodology. For those who are natively good at test-taking, this doesn't make a lot of difference. But for those who need to study to learn, which at some level is ALL OF US, the looming Standardized Test Of Educational Achievement pretty much sucks the life out of learning.
As I've tried to say before, it's a pretty good generalization when talking about schools to say "That's not how people learn!"

Deeply Wierd

Is it just me, or does anybody else think it strange that the Republican Candidate for President is denigrating the Democrat Candidate for his inexperience? Eight years ago the Republican Candidate was championing his own inexperience as a panacea for the experience that could reasonably be claimed by the Democrat Candidate.
Some things, however, remain unchanged. In both cases the Democrat Candidate could demonstrate considerable knowledge and intelligence, while the Republican Candidate was/is happy to demonstrate ignorance of most aspects of governance. As retired General Wesley Clark pointed out; while flying a combat aircraft, and being shot down in same, and being imprisoned for years makes for a heroic bio - it really doesn't constitute "foreign policy experience". Nor does an expressed willingness to attack any foreign country that doesn't take orders from Washington. As Candidate McCain put it: "nations don't attack sovreign nations in the 21st Century". Unless you're the President of the USA, and the sovreign nation under consideration is one that, as stated above, fails to heed Washington.
Wierd, deeply wierd.

Monday, August 25, 2008

What's To Be Afraid Of?

Sometimes it just seems like people have a childlike need to be Afraid Of The Dark. (Nyctophobic) Or, in this example, Afraid Of The Stranger. (Xenophobic)


Sorry, but I find it quite impossible to believe that the "Desperadoes" in this video are a threat to your life, limb, or (most horrifying possibility) pocketbook. Nor are they likely to rape your women. Or you. It's probably about as reasonable for most men to believe they're attractive to homosexual men as it is for them to believe they're attractive to heterosexual women. Or, in other words: Don't You Wish!
Maybe it's a Christian thing. Here in the Land Of Smiles, a Buddhist country, they seem to take a more relaxed view on matters of personal freedom. More tolerant of other humans, perhaps?

Copycat

It's a bit puzzling, really.
Why is John McCain basing his campaign on the campaign of (failed) (Democrat) candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Joe Biden? (now the Democrats Vice-Presidential candidate). Is Candiate McCain unable to find his own issues? Does he think that the failed Democratic candidates had a better message than any he could devise?
Here's a sample:

Not very illuminating is it? Of Course Candidate Clinton tried to diss Candidate Obama. That's what candidates do when they campaign. It didn't work, as we have seen. So, then, why is Candidate McCain repeating the failed attempts of his other potential opponents?
I personally think it's all the fault of Fox News; the news you can trust to demonize the Democrat and sanctify the Republican - based, apparently, entirely on party affiliation, regardless of any other attribute. The above mentioned "news" organ was citing Candidate Biden's response to the question of whether or not Winning Candidate Obama was "ready to be President". As though Joe Biden was the arbiter of such things.
So, John McCain has abandoned, albeit only temporarily, his winning sound-bite: "Drill Here - Drill Now". A position that will seduce millions of currently unhappy consumers of gasoline into believing (with that magical thinking we are all seemingly capable of) that we will shortly be able to pump all the Buck-A-Gallon gas we want into the tanks of our sport-utes. That's the thing he said that caused that poll-shift. Pay no attention to the fact that it's a will-o-the-wisp; we aren't going to "rid ourselves of expensive imported oil" by drilling in our own backyard. Or frontyard. Or offshore. Or onshore. Not soon (as most talking heads are willing to acknowledge), and also, alas!, not late, either. Sometimes there just aren't enough resources to go around, and NO, you don't get to go to the head of the line! Sorry. That's 20th Century thinking. Get over it.
Still... Perhaps if I vote for McHillary, I can have what I want.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Remember When

The Cold War was over?
It sure seems like a short intermission between CW I and CW II!
I guess even those who think the present president is a hopeless buffoon will have to admit he has done an admirable job of restoring the status-quo-ante, as the neocons of the "Project For The New American Century" wished him to do. Wars make profits after all. Even small wars like the pissing contest over S. Ossetia. Have you noticed? Shooting starts - stock market rises; shooting subsides - so does Dow Jones!
Seems Candidate McCain was just having a little fun with us when he proclaimed that "Countries don't invade countries in the 21st Century." That one is almost as good as Condoleeza Rice telling Russia that we will (probably) not like them for at least a little while.
I tell you, Will Rogers was wonderfully right when he claimed he only needed to read the newspapers to find his best jokes.

High Finance

Has Anybody But Me Noticed?
With all this bloviation about "adjusting interest rates", (the New Gold Standard of fiscal management), the net effect has been the following.
Interest the banks pay me - down about 30%.
Interest I pay the banks - up about 30%.
Therefore I (and you, and also you and you and you) end up financing the financial wizards that precipitated the housing disaster with the 21st century version of the The South Sea Bubble.
Which prompts me to re-iterate the premise on which history-according-to-Maunder is based: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana "Those who do remember the past are likewise condemned to repeat it." - Frank Maunder

Friday, August 22, 2008

It's Getting Pretty Deep

In Presidential-Election-Land!
I think What's happened is that the Candidate McCain campaign has found the "right" code words to convey the idea "uppity black man" (ahem). Telling the magical-wishful-thinking road warriors they can have cheap fuel if they vote for their candidate seems to be helping too. Best of all, they've managed to create a set of rationalizations for voting against the "uppity black man" (ahem), without reference to the fact that he doesn't look like all those presidents who preceeded him. As I said Here:(Finding a PC Way).
So, dropping his attempt to act like an intelligent man (risky for a presidential candidate, as I mentioned previously) Candidate Obama has begun to reply in kind. As shown in This video:
The pointlessness of this kind of thing is generally pretty apparent - but for most of the electorate, it's only apparent when the Other Candidate does it! I, as an equal opportunity sneerer, say "...See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love. And I for winking at your discords, too ... All are punished." Nobody is enlightened by this kind of thing, that's certain!

Now, Here's an exercise for the reader. Try to figure out the whichness of the why: there's a segment of the electorate, somewhere in the range of 8% to 12%, that's going to use the Free Pass I mentioned above. In the "Sanctity Of The Voting Booth", these voters are going to vote on the basis of He-Who-Looks-Most-Like-Me. Of course, I could be wrong! One hopes. OH: the question at hand: Most of these non-racist McCain voters are going to be in the states where Candidate Obama has precious little chance of winning a majority anyway. But, even in the least red of the redneck states, there's going to be a umm ..., a ..., well..., let's call it a "white vote". Q: How many electoral votes will this cost Candidate Obama? Will he end up in second place?
Or: will he drop all that "elitist" intelligent approach to campaigning and just go for the soundbite politics that's been tested over time, and proved to be the way to get the ornery voter to pull the lever for you? Go ahead, take the Electoral Map out for a spin. See what's up.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

I Leave It To You

Dear Reader...
To figure this out: “We want to bring out the pro-American energy people,” Rep. Virginia Fox (R-N.C.) said. “We are going to soon, we hope, separate the sheep from the goats here. Are you pro-American energy? Are you anti-American energy?”. The Hill (August 17)
With rhetoric like this, it's pretty clear, if nothing else is, that "No Child Left Behind" hasn't been of much worth in educating congresspersons. I know, I know, politicians have long since Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed...(Rubaiyat LV, Fitzgerald); but at least Omar had scansion (well, this is from the Fitzgerald translations). Here we see that "old barren Reason" has been replaced with... What? An appeal to old barren Mindless-Self-Destructiveness? I find myself feeling somewhat pro-anti American Energy myself, believing deep in my heart that there is no energy anywhere else in the world that can replace good old American energy. Nobody can burn energy like a good old American, either!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Tweedledum & Tweedledee

Vladimir Putin - emulating his soulmate George W. Bush:
"I looked the man in the eye. I was able to get a sense of his soul"

- By attacking a country whose president he dislikes. This of course was bound to upset Putin's ("a straightforward and trustworthy man") soulmate George W. Bush, who said, referring to the invasion (of Georgia): "...violence in Georgia is unacceptable" - (G. W. Bush August 12, 2008). This pronouncement would probably have more impact if it came from somebody less prone to attack "sovereign nations" (e.g. Afghansitan, Iraq) himself.
"I was very firm with Vladimir Putin", Said President Bush, speaking from Beijing China where he's watching various sporting events at the 2008 Olympics along with special guest George Herbert Walker Bush, who would be the current president's father except that he answers to A Higher Father.
GHW Bush (AKA Bush-41) avers that it's pretty smart of the president to have "pleasant relationships with people and that they trust him. I think he's developing that with [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy. I know it's there with Putin."

Friday, August 08, 2008

But This Will Only Mean

That we'll have twice as many Afghan soldiers shooting at us.

Now here's a spectacularly bad idea:
"Gates Pushing Plan to Double Afghan Army" (In the New York Times (August 7), Robert M. Gates (of George W. Bush administration fame; not Bill Gates of Microsoft fame), said that inasmuch as we're, ahem, not winning (as somehow distinct from losing) the war we began in such hopes in Afghanistan, we should throw good money after bad. We should arm, train, and pay the men who will shortly be taking aim at our soldiers. Employ Twice The Usual Suspects, in fact. Apparently, the will to believe can eclipse all evidence, gathered over, literally, millenia. And persuade some to believe that if we keep doing what hasn't yet worked, only do more of it, it's bound to start working soon. Much like the idea that if we punish people for being people, soon they'll stop being people. All that gambling and drinking and smoking and drug use and sexual activity will cease. It's magic, don't you know. As in Just Say No. That's certainly proved effective.
And so, the Afghans will lay down their arms, lie down with the lion, and (to quote a soon-to-be-recent-ex-vice-president) welcome us with open arms. Hell, Alexander the Great couldn't get these guys to stop fighting, and he was a heckuva lot better leader than anybody in the White House presently.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

The Man Is Shameless!

(Or Is He Clueless?)

"BANGKOK, Thailand - President Bush praised the spread of freedom in Asia while training a harsh spotlight Thursday on the region's democratic laggards, sharply criticizing oppression and human rights abuses in China, Myanmar and North Korea."(AP August 7)
Considering his relentless all-out assault on the United States Constitution, the feckless president should perhaps look to his own house. "He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace." (Proverbs 11).
At least let him hold his peace until January 20 2009, at which point nobody except his closest toadies will be paying any attention.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

And Now This From Paris



Always

Favor Form Over Substance.
After all - everything is just fine in the world today, so The Most Important Thing is to prove you're a True Patriot As here: Take The Pledge.
Is it important to actually Do anything? Absolutely not! It's much more the thing to profess virtue than to practice it. Less effort. Pretty much like making sure people can see you praying to God. What's the point, if nobody knows you're doing it?
Meantime, back at the Town Hall Meeting, we managed to divert attention from any possible discussion of substantive issues (which, admittedly, both candidates seem a little leery of approaching). Whew! Close Call!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Finding a PC Way

To Say "Uppity".
Pretty clear by now that the main effort of the McCain campaign (through, yes, surrogates, of course) is all about searching for the right way to convey the idea "uppity" without actually using that term. It's proving to be much more profitable than actually addressing any actual substantive issues. When Sen. McCain (And Friends) start talking about the economy, the environment, the government - basically anything regarding the physical or social infrastructure - it's pretty easy to see that they have NO IDEA what the problem is, much less what a solution might look like.
Lets see if "Elitist", "The Race Card", "Pop Star Celebrity", "Naive Idealist" will gain traction, at least with a "certain segment" of the electorate. The ones that are looking for a reason not to vote for someone who doesn't look like them.
I agree that Sen. Obama is somewhat of an idealist, which may not be such a good thing for a US president, but naive he certainly is not. I think the statement about not looking like previous presidents is exactly correct. And well phrased. Sen. Obama has shown a great deal of political agility in defusing the so far pretty clumsy attempts to label him as a "Black" candidate. Of course, it may be that labelling a black man as a black candidate was previously an easy thing to do. Jesse Jackson, as the most visible previous campaigners, really had no credibility except as a leader of a social movement largely aimed at a black constituency. Regardless of any other characteristic, it's really best, in the belief of most voters, to go with someone with previous experience in elective office. Someone who has submitted him(her)self as a candidate.
Still it worries me somewhat: When the curtain is pulled at the voting booth this November, there's going to be some level of ... Let's call it "Nostalgia" - people harking to a past that seems nicer than today. Deciding that they really would prefer a president who looks like all the previous presidents. It's an easy way to be a non-racist racist.
For my part, I think that the Old White Guys have had their turn (and I am one, or at least look like one), and they haven't really delivered for at least half a century. Let's go with the new guy. He couldn't do any worse than the present one!
I especially like that Sen. Obama's running from the intelligent end of the political spectrum, even though that's risky. Even the intelligent ones (Clinton comes to mind) generally prefer to reduce risk by running as a good ol' boy. Let's reward the innovative and eloquent Candidate Obama this November.
Although, perhaps, sticking him in the Oval Office, which by now looks pretty much like the Augean Stables may be no reward.