Category Archives: Politics & News

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

What? Is He Nuts?

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Joe Lieberman, ID-Connecticut, became a Senator in 1988 and managed to get re-elected in 1994, again in 2000 (remember that date–it’s important), and to a fourth term in 2006. Barely.

In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Mr. Lieberman ran simultaneous campaigns for his third term in the Senate as well as for Vice President as the running mate of DEMOCRATIC presidential nominee Al Gore.

ID? “Independent Democrat.” He lost the ’06 Democratic primary election, so he flipped off the party and won re-election in the general election as a so-called Independent Democrat.

So, he’s a sort of a Democrat and perhaps the very best bet hedger in Washington, the capitol of hedging bets. Still, that has to make him perhaps the least trustworthy man in a city where losing trust is a political art form.

Now, eight years after his stunning electoral prestidigitation, he’s on the short list to be the running mate of REPUBLICAN presidential nominee John McCain.

I know the pundits think Mr. Lieberman brings something to the ticket. I know Mr. McCain really likes Mr. Lieberman. But I gotta ask, Is he nuts?

Oh well. At least Mr. Lieberman still has four more years on his Senate seat to go back to when this is all over.

Senators Obama’s and McCain’s terms end in ’10. Neither has given up his seat to run this race but at least neither is running campaigns for both simultaneously.

Throw Da Bums Out, II

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We need a loose cannon in politics now more than ever; it’s too bad today’s politicians shoot blanks.

In the first part of this series, we discovered that our current presidential candidates don’t have the answers.

For about 30 nanoseconds I thought I might vote for Ralph Nader. After all that’s a sure vote for Mickey Mouse or NOTA. Too bad the message sent with that vote is that Mr. Nader represents the change I want to see. That’s not my message so I retracted my Goofy vote last week.

Here’s the right message: officeholders have indeed changed. Officeholders have changed from peeps who want to do important stuff for us to peeps who want to do everything for us. Political party notwithstanding, politicians believe in their hearts of hearts that they know what you need waaaaaaay better than you know what you need. And they have fought each other to a standstill to give it to us. Read that again. It works on a lot of levels.

Sorry, folks. I know what I need and I know who can provide it.

I need less gummint. I need fewer laws. I need smaller taxes. And I need better roads.

Government has five basic responsibilities: establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence (sic), promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty. That’s it. That means the next president needs to teach the kids, build the roads, share knowledge and encourage growth, and keep other people from robbing or nuking us.

Deciding whether a former ballplayer took steroids may keep Senators McCain and Obama (mostly) out of trouble but it ain’t what we elected them for and it ought not be what gets either into higher office.

The senators—that would be the ones who eat at the public trough, not the former ballplayers—spend entirely too much time taking potshots at each other instead of working together to hit a home run for their constituents.

That would be thee and me.

Within the Presidential responsibilities, this campaign has just two issues: the economy and the price of gas. Do you really believe Senator McCain will lead us out of the economic doldrums? Do you really believe Senator Obama will do anything but give away some of the oil we already have? I found a candidate who says she can fix it.

I love Paris in the springtime.
I love Paris in the fall.
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles,
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.
I love Paris every moment,
Every moment of the year.

Sorry, Mr. Porter.

For those who live on another planet, Senator McCain took a cheap shot at Senator Obama and put Paris Hilton in play. Ms. Hilton responded with an energy policy video that makes more sense than anything either candidate has said.

The next president needs to teach the kids, build the roads, share knowledge and encourage growth, and keep other people from robbing or nuking us. Apparently, only a loose cannon can do that.

If Ms. Hilton gives us a 30-second lesson in economics, I’ll endorse her. She could be just the loose cannon we need.

In the upcoming episode of this series about the ballistic properties of ballplayers, I will explain the Democratic shortfall.

Throw Da Bums Out, I

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We need a loose cannon in politics now more than ever but we’ve been growing little water pistols and arming them with blanks.

Lee Iacocca’s 2007 book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone, finally made it to Vermont. OK, some excerpts did, thanks to my friend “Bob” who wrote, “Iacocca has for decades been one of my heroes (even if he IS a democrat!)…”

Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: “Throw all the bums out!”

The Leadership Blog wants to see Michael Moore and Mr. Iacocca “collaborate to turn this book into a movie.”

<shudder >

“Bob” wrote, “Don’t really see any answers here, though…”

And that’s the trouble with a “challenge.”

It interests me that T. Boone Pickens and Al Gore have both gone to television advertising to sell their quests, but Mr. Iacocca stayed with a book.

I’m afraid television is the wave of the future for idea generators–particularly if the idea is a bad one or a heavily politicized one. Marketing ideas is not the problem. We’ve used the media to sell ideas to the public for as long as there has been a media. In the early days, people wrote pamphlets (Thomas Paine) or owned a newspaper (Ben Franklin). The difference between then and now is that the Paines and Franklins rallied the proletariat and then went out and led them. Nowadays, the Gores and Pickenses rally the proletariat and whine about the politicians rather than implementing their so-called bright ideas theirownselfs.

The Obama camp makes the “change” noises, and the McCain camp makes the “stay the course” noises. For the record, Senator Obama has the water pistol and Senator McCain the blanks.

Throw da bums out.

For 30 nanoseconds I thought I might join Deck and vote for Ralph Nader. After all that’s a sure vote for Mickey Mouse or NOTA. Too bad the messages sent with that vote is that Mr. Nader represents the change I want to see. That’s not my message.

I have retracted the Goofy vote.

Yeah, I know. I could vote the Librarian party. Unfortunately, they are all whackos who keep trying to shush me.

Wot to do, wot to do. Next up, I will have at least a half-a-suggestion but right now I have desk butt and it’s time to go play with my tractor.

Ain’t Got No Culture

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A town without a library is a town without culture.

On July 2, the Monroe County (Florida) Board of Commissioners were to meet to consider the permanent closure of the Marathon, Big Pine, and Islamorada branches of the Monroe County Public Library. This closure would come on the heels of a significant decrease in library hours.

I am pleased to report that Mayor Mario Di Gennaro told us Friday that the library cuts are off the table. I am displeased to report that the cuts were on the table in the first place.

The Commissioners had hoped to save less than $10 per capita.

Once closed, these libraries would never reopen.

Closure is a cultural as well as an economic issue that will affect every business in the Keys. The loss of our library sends this unmistakable message: “The Monroe County Commissioners do not value learning or culture.” Our residents demand the learning and our visitors demand the culture. And, of course, vice versa.

These library branches serve thousands of residents and tourists alike. Over 1,200 children have library cards and use our library to check out books and other materials.

Popular reading materials still make the bulk of the collection; that’s wonderful for everyday readers, but there is so much more. The library provides reading at preschools, home-school support, youth programs, and research help (I have recently used the Marathon branch to learn how to remove a Chrysler Lebaron gas tank and I have researched local history there).

Home-school support has a nice warm-and-fuzzy feel to it but it is a serious economic issue: imagine the budget impact if just 10 home-schooled kids re-entered the traditional school system because the Commisioners closed the library. Or 50 home-schooled kids. At over $10,000 per student per year.

It may be difficult for those of us reading or responding to this blog to believe that some people really do not have computers or Internet access. Many people do not. Libraries fill that void.

The free computer use for Monroe County citizens enables food stamp, social services assistance, and unemployment benefit applications. Users can conduct online job searches. They can prepare taxes and Social Security applications. They have access to Florida State services, statutes, and resources.

And users can read the news.

There is nothing more important to a free society than the free availability of the news.

I’m thinking that in this election year the Commissioners knew we would lose any Commissioners who lose us our libraries.

And that would be news.

Hoofbeats

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The End is nigh. The hoofbeats of the Four Horsemen have sounded. I am about to agree with Gary Trudeau. A couple-three years ago, his Doonesbury™ strip introduced Dr. Nathan Null, the Situational Science Adviser™. Here’s an excerpt from that strip:

Young Republican College Kid: “Drat! These pesky scientific facts won’t line up behind my beliefs!”
Situational Science Adviser: “Then Challenge them, Stewie!”
—–
SSA: “Situational Science is about respecting both sides of a scientific argument, not just the one supported by the facts!”
—–
SSA: “That’s why I always teach the controversy like the Evolution Controversy or the Global Warming controversy …
—–
YRCC: “You’re right, Situational Scienceman–I’ll never trust science again! “It’s just too controversial!”
SSA: “Stewie gets it now, folks! Do you?”

Trudeau likes to pound the Bush administration (ya think) but there is a similar effort going on the Far Green camps to use science to forestall and obfuscate rather than simply to report.

Once upon a time I thought this wasn’t a wholesale attempt to discredit science, merely a concerted effort to ramp up tiny observations into generalized Truths to serve their agenda. After all, we are told the Far Right agenda tries to use common folk as cannon or environmental fodder so, situationally, the Far Green agenda must try to shut down one business segment after another.

That worries me, but not as much as what I now see as the wholesale drive to gain power over every facet of your life and mine. How? By discrediting science whenever it appears in public. It has been going on for years.

Big Tobacco tried mightily to discredit Dr. Koop as a poopyhead.

Natural Life Magazine tried mightily to discredit childhood vaccinations.

The Far Right tried mightily to discredit Evolution for 80 years.

Trudeau’s Situational Science Adviser pushed the pesticides controversy, the coal slurry controversy, the Everglades controversy, the acid rain controversy, the mercury controversy, and more.

I know very little about mercury other than its toxicity and ubiquity. And its distance from the Sun. I did read that if you lose a single mercury filling in a ten-acre pond, the EPA would have to ban all fishing, swimming, bathing, and boating in that pond. Makes you wonder why we still have “silver” fillings–or why Al Gore pushes mercury-laden fluorescent light bulbs–innt.

Now, of course, everything from the unnaturally high snowfall in the winter of 2007-08 to the unnatural temperature rise of the Atlantic Ocean is caused by Global Warming, and all a result of Carbon Dioxide.

Heh.

Anybody want to guess the agenda here?

It’s almost the same as mine.

I want you to read this, decide I am brilliant, and do what I tell you is right.

The Far Green wants you decide they are brilliant and do what they tell you is right. But they want more. The Far Green wants to force you and you and you to do what they tell you is right And they are developing the tools to enforce their whims.

One of my correspondents related a story from the historical times after the Tet Offensive when gasoline cost 40 cents per gallon. His friend, a Quaker, had received Conscientious Objector status and was assigned to a group called “Environment!” After working there several months, he said “These guys don’t care a bit about the environment. This is all about power… We, the great and stupid unwashed, needed to be doing what the folks at “Environment!” said we should be doing.”

That was more than 35 years ago.

I think the group Environment! has joined the Extinct Species list but other Far Green groups are growing stronger.

Today their tools include taxes, criminal penalties, and news attacks on science.

Our Quaker friend said then that “if the environmental movement could define Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant, they would have total control.”

OK, everybody inhale … and hold.

Next up will be the ban on that other dangerous chemical, Dihydrogen Monoxide.

Your Carbon Footprint
NASA and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that the earth has entered a natural cooling phase that will last decades.
OTOH, Al and Tipper Gore’s Tennessee home uses about the same amount of electricity as a dozen or more average American homes or at least 156 Swahili villages. The Gore’s Nashville residence is just four times the size of those average American homes and the Gore’s consumption has jumped yet another 10% since their “energy-efficient” home renovations. Do as I say, not as I do, eh Al?