Post Election Blues

The election is over and America does not seem to have fallen apart. I am surprised. I thought after seeing all of the commercials during the campaign season that if the wrong candidate was elected the whole country was going to burst into flames. I am waiting for it to happen but so far everything seems to be running like normal. I know my life hasn't changed really at all. But in reality my life has never changed following an election. Even after the election of Obama nothing in my life has really changed as far as politics go.

I find it so interesting that we get so worked up about the elections and yet basically things seem always the same. I realize it may change for other people but I am not sure who. I like to vote and I like to be invested and to pay attention to what is going on in the world. But I have really felt like on a personal level my life has been all that affected by whoever the President is. I realize I might feel a greater sense of fear or urgency if I listened to Glenn Beck or Rachel Maddow but I don't. I like to think that this keeps me a little more grounded and less likely to be all worked up about things that that are past my level of control and in some cases, honestly, my understanding.

One example that pops into my head is from either last year or the year before. There was a gentlemen running around named Lord Christopher Monckton and he went on Glenn Beck to talk about the one world government that was coming as soon as Obama and the United States signed on to the climate treaty in Copenhagen. Well it has been a year since he was on Beck and since the meeting in Copenhagen. Well what has happened in this past year? Well, in short, not much. It seemed like last year at this time amongst some of my conservative friends there was a real sense of fear and almost panic that Obama was going to be giving away our Democracy by signing some sort of world government treaty in Copenhagen.

This just did not happen. But. No one seems to want to talk about the predictions that Beck throws out there to make people scared and angry. The man makes millions and millions of dollars a year from radio and television and books by spreading fear and distrust and people continue to swallow it like pigs from a trough. I just do not get it.

It is the same on the more liberal stations as well. The more agitated the audience is the more likely they are to purchase books or give money to campaigns to fight against the so called opposing side. I do not think that politics in America need to be trench warfare. It doesn't benefit us as a people or humanity in general to be so angry about things that basically most of us have no real control over and actually may not even happen.

I do not think that Oregon is going to be setback by Kitzhaber being elected. I think that things will basically continue like normal. But, I am sure that all of the usual suspects well continue to spread fear and anger all for the sake of making themselves even more wealthy. I am not sure how they sleep at night but they probably do it on a very expensive mattress and in a very expensive home.

3-23-2010 (Tuesday)

Well we have survived another day and now the fallout will begin from the health care issue. President Obama is supposed to sign it into law today. I am already wondering what the next big point of contention is going to be. The only thing that I do know for sure is that there is going to be one. But that being said a friend sent this yesterday and it made me laugh. I realize not all of you may find this amusing but such is the nature of humor. I realize it is making some pretty broad statements but I nonetheless found it amusing to me.

2-23-2010 (Tuesday)

Good morning folks. It is Tuesday morning and the rain has returned to Oregon. I do not mind the rain. It smells nice outside and is kind of refreshing. I think though that after about 3 or 4 days of it I will be back to wondering where the sun is and when is spring going to return. I like living in Oregon. I even like living in the Willamette Valley despite the months of gloom that can settle over us. When the Valley is in the middle of the rainy season it can get seriously gray and gloomy. But, once spring comes and we move into the summer Oregon becomes a really beautiful place to live. I am basically less then two hours away from the ocean or the mountains and when the weather is nice both places can really be nice. But I didn't come hear to lobby for Oregon.

I wanted to go back and touch on what I wrote about yesterday on how I agreed in part with what Glenn Beck said at the CPAC speech. But I also had to mention something he said that I felt didn't make any sense. He was doing his usual talking about how Communists and Socialists became Progressives because that let them be sneaky. He mentioned how things had gone from Revolution to Evolution and the change had allowed for the newly named Progressives to sneak in and undermine the foundation of America. Now I have heard him say this kind of thing before and he, I think, really does believe it. But at one point during his speech he was talking about how he was not a smart man and how he didn't go to college. But what he did do was go to the library because there the books are free. His exact phrase was

"I went to the library -- the books are free."

That kind of threw me for a loop. The biggest reason being that...BOOKS AT THE LIBRARY ARE NOT FREE!!!!! I pay taxes and part of my tax dollars go to fund the library in my town. Now maybe Glenn went to some hippy dippy socialist library where everyone who takes a book can leave a book and there is no librarian but I doubt it. What I found surprising about what Beck said was that libraries are basically communist institutions. They are funded out of the tax roles and anyone who wants to can get books there. I believe the first public library in the country was actually created by progressives who felt that everyone deserved equal access to books.

It just struck me as so typical of all of the talking heads on television be it Olberman or Beck or Limbaugh or Maddow they seem to speak without thinking. The basic idea of following a logical chain to it's conclusion seems to have escaped them. The saddest thing for me is that they make millions and millions of dollars doing this and most viewers just lap it up. They buy their books and listen to their radio shows and watch the television with out taking the time to do any critical thinking on their own.

These people depend on us to be angry but not on us to pay attention to the bigger picture. So lets all take a moment and really think about some of what these people tell us. They are all employees for big companies they wouldn't be working for these companies if they didn't agree with what goes on there. Keep that in mind when watch these shows. Look into where these companies do business and what products they make and sell. I do not think this will hurt us what this will do is make us better listeners and make us more aware of what we are being told. This goes for both sides of every issue. Think before you react. Take a moment and decide if what you are being told actually makes any sense.

This will benefit all of us in the long term.

2-22-10 (Monday)

Good morning and a happy Monday to you folks. We had a sunny weekend in Oregon and it seems to be nice today as well. So that is a good start to the week. Now anyone who reads me at all regularly knows that I do not care for Glenn Beck. I disagree with most of his positions on things and I think that his understanding of history and how that impacts America today is incorrect. I think he has good intentions but I think the way he goes about trying to get is message across is not beneficial to the process. But as he was addressing the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) he said one thing that I had to agree with.

Beck said:

“It’s not enough to not suck as much as the other side,” said Beck, on how Republicans can regain their ideals. “The first step to redemption is admitting you have a problem. … When they do say they have a problem, I don’t know if I believe them. … They’ve got to recognize they have a problem. … ‘I’m addicted to spending and big government.’”…

Beck went on to compare GOPers to Tiger Woods, who recently gave his first public apology for his cheating scandal. Beck said some people believed he was only sorry because he got caught. Beck, to GOPers in Congress: “You got caught. Are you sorry?”…

More Beck: “One party will tax and spend. The other party won’t tax, but spend. It’s both of them together. I’m tired of feeling like a freak in America.”

It was refreshing for me to hear someone from FOX News actually say that. I think anyone who has looked at or studied politics of the last twenty years realizes that it is incorrect and wrong to blame the countries economic problems on just the Democrats and President Obama. The idea of the federal government spending more and more and taking away the power from the states of the union has been going on for a long time. I often hear Republicans and Conservatives of today praising Reagan but in reality he grew federal government as much as his predecessors did. He was not the fiscal conservative that Republican historical revisionist historians want us to think he was. I am not saying he was a bad President but I would like for both Republicans and Democrats to be honest about things when they discuss past politicians.

All of that aside it was refreshing for me to hear what Beck said. I just hope the young conservatives that were at this conference actually took that to heart. Because he is right it isn't enough to point a finger at the other guy and say that they are bad and we are correct and continue to vote no on everything without coming forward with solutions. The reason that the majority of these Democrats are in office is because the voters were fed up with what was going on during the last Bush administration. The voters voted out the Republicans and the only other choice available to them in this horrible two party system of ours was the Democrats. Well the Democrats just basically said thank you very much and continued with business as usual. Now it seems that the voters are growing fed up with the Democrats and are going to vote them out of office and put back in the Republicans. I just hope the Republicans actually understand that this is not a mandate from the voter for them to do whatever the hell they want to do. It is a mandate for the other guy the only other choice there is.

So you heard a rare thing from me today. You heard me acknowledge that something Glenn Beck said I agree with. I do not know if that will happen much in the future but you never know.

2-2-10 (Wednesday)

Good morning folks. It looks like six more weeks of winter the Groundhog saw his shadow yesterday. Over here in Oregon it has been a pretty mild winter overall. We have had some snow here and there but nothing really stuck for a long period of time. Unlike last year where we had a serious stretch of frozen snow.

Today appears to be a slow brain day. There isn't anything popping into my head that I feel really upset about. Or even really inspired by. It seems like it is just a blah kind of day. I am okay with that. I can't exist on a sense of outrage all of the time. To fuel myself with energy generated from apocalyptic over the top rage is the path of Olberman and Beck and I refuse to go down that path. Sure it is fun sometimes to get wound up to really get myself going about the, big G, government and different liberal and conservative conspiracy theories. But really who does that benefit other then the people watching me foam at the mouth as I stomp around muttering different key words and punching the air.

"9-11 was an inside job, Kennedy was killed by the mob, Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor, Obama is selling us to the Chinese!!"

That feels better. I got all the crazy out. Actually one of the things I said above is totally true. Don't believe me. Google it!! I'll wait.
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Oh, your back. You didn't find anything? Hmm well that is just more proof that the government is covering it up because in my experience you can find anything on Google. Or, Or!! Perhaps you are part of the conspiracy? Do not try to deny it. I can see it in your beady little eyes. I will be watching you. Count on it!!

That's all for today folks

Tuesday, Dec 15th, 2009

I am writing from the office this morning. I drove in which was probably a mistake but I made the choice to drive in my car and deal with the headache of traffic as opposed to taking the train and walking two blocks in the rain. I probably should have walked in the rain. It isn't like I do not have a rain coat or anything. Also having grown up in Oregon I am very aware that rain does not make you melt. So I think I opted for the mental stress of driving in the rain as opposed to the minor physical stress of walking in the rain. I think that is pretty lame on my part. I am going to have to try to get back on track. (hee,hee) Excuse me for a moment I believe my tasty, tasty coffee from Stumptown has finished brewing.

Ahhh. There we go. I know I have told you before about how much I love coffee so I will not bore you with the details. But just know that as I type it is coursing through my body and filling me its power!!! Though today the power does not mean a whole lot. I have lots of bits and pieces popping around in my brain but nothing that I can get focused on enough to write anything coherently about.

One thing I read about last night was about Mormons running for political office and the article talked both about Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck. I found it pretty interesting as it addressed also the amount of Mormons that work for the federal government in foreign service positions. It seems that the CIA recruits regularly at Brigham Young University (BYU) because their graduates fill a couple of different criteria. One being that they speak a foreign language and the other a college degree. This happens so regularly in fact that some countries have expressed concern about people returning to the country in foreign service positions after first being there as missionaries. So I found that a little bit fascinating but I try to not mix religion and politics. Though it is often hard to not.

What else? Oh yes... it seems that Glenn Beck has once again opened his mouth and inserted his foot. He compared his skepticism about climate-change to Galileo's struggle “to enlighten mankind that the earth wasn’t flat.” I have a couple of problems with this. The first being that Glenn Beck is in no way like Galileo. I am not even sure why he thinks he can justify thinking of himself this way. The other is that during Galileo's time everyone already knew the earth was round. To put it as simply as possible Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Galileo lived in 1564-1642 so I just have to wonder does he even write anything beforehand or is it all off the cuff. Because it isn't like this is the first time he has gotten basic history wrong. Just one example is his often misquoting of President Theodore Roosevelt and his famous line "speak softly, and carry a big stick" when Beck repeats it he says "Walk softly and carry a big stick".

Now I realize everybody makes mistakes. I do it often and I often will use a word incorrectly in a sentence hoping for a laugh or because I just was not taking the time to think before I spoke. The difference between myself and Mr Beck is that I do not have millions and I think it is millions of listeners an watchers and readers hanging on my every word. I do not have people repeating what I say like it is the gospel. I would like to think that if I was ever in that position I would have a team of researchers as well as some editors to help me make sure everything that I was saying on the air and writing in a speech or in a book was correct. Otherwise why would I do it?

I would hope that if his dog and pony show continues that he would spend some time on fact checking and getting things correct. Because as far as I am concerned he just seems like another entertainment personality and will most likely end up hosting Family Feud in another 20 years or so. But I could be wrong. Perhaps it is going to be Palin-Beck in 2012 or Beck-Palin. If so the world should be an interesting place.

A little more time.

I just wanted to thank Joel and Sherry for sharing their thoughts yesterday on the topic of the 2% flat tax. I am hoping that a few more people will throw their hat in the ring so I am going to hold off today on addressing my thoughts as they compare to theirs. So please folks if you are jumping in and reading please feel free to address yesterdays topic either on this blog post or the other but I would love to hear from you.

I think both Joel and Sherry raised some interesting points and were a fine example of the difference in thinking between a conservative and a liberal to use two really broad sweeping general words that do not really address who they are as people. But I am steering this train so I get to to use any words I want to. So get over it!!

Seriously though. Please add in let me know what you think and lets talk about it.

Glenn Beck and his 2% Flat Tax Plan

So on Dec 4th Glenn Beck was on the O'Reilly show and he floated the idea of a 2% Flat Tax tied to a balanced budget amendment that would go directly to the deficit for nor more then 10 years and would be a Constitutional Amendment. It was interesting watching these two, I will just use the word personalities, talk to each other. The exact words were that if we guarantee no more spending we need a tax to fix the deficit.

The first thing that I found surprising was that these two conservative personalities would put the idea of a flat tax out there. Now on the surface this sounds like a pretty good idea. But, I am not so sure. After I thought about it for awhile and read some things and talked to a few people I wonder how good it actually is. Putting aside the idea that it is odd that two leading conservative television hosts would advocate for more taxes. I found it odd that the amount infrastructure that would be needed to administer a flat tax is enormous. I was talking to my friend Steve about this idea and he raised an interesting point.

Steve said that regardless of whether or not you liked the idea of more taxes for what ever higher purpose. That the need for states and communities to have to develop a system to collect the flat tax revenue makes the idea a poor one. He countered with "why not, since the system is already in place nationwide to collect Federal Income Tax, why not just add 2% tax to that and earmark it strictly to go to the deficit." Steve thinks that the core base viewer for Beck and O'Reilly would not like them advocating for more taxes.

The more I think about it I think he is correct. Even if it is just on the logic side of things as how do you put together the infrastructure to collect that VAT. In some areas you would just be creating more government and we all know that the Beck style Conservative does not want to create more government.

There are lots of problems in America and one of the major ones is the deficit and how do we get out from under it. So, while it is interesting to hear figures throw out new ideas this one is not a workable one in my opinion. I also would like to hear from my readers. Do you think this is workable? What would work better? Why do you think we are in this position? Are we going to ever be able to actually get out of this hole? Please let me know your thoughts.

Monday, Dec 7, 2009

Good Morning folks, just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know that I will not be writing today. I have to take care of some things this morning so I will be driving into work. But tomorrow I want to talk about something that Glenn Beck and Bill O'reilly (sp?) both floated last week and that is the idea of a 2% nationwide VAT earmarked in Becks case or tied to a balanced budget amendment and with a deadline of I believe 10 years. So I wanted to talk a little bit more about that and hopefully hear a little but about peoples thought on a VAT or Value Added Tax. So I will talk to you tomorrow.

Monday (I'm Back)

Good Morning everybody, it is Monday and I am back on the train. I had an interesting week because I had a sick ferret and I was supposed to be giving him medicine in the form of an eye drop every six hours. Because of the nature of that schedule I felt like I needed to take him to work with me. So we drove in. Overall it was not horrible though one day there was a car fire in Lake Oswego/Tigard area and that really gummed up the works. So while it was nice to drive and have the ability to get home a little bit earlier then the usual. I do not think that the trade off was worth it. I much prefer the relaxation of the train and the ability to blog as we travel.

The debate is starting in the House on the Health Care bill so I think it is going to be interesting to see what comes out of this. I personally do not think that the democrats have enough votes to make this pass. I also think that the insurance companies are to entrenched and have to much at stake to allow this to pass. That is all my personal politics aside. I just think that the amount of money that is at stake will make it a little hard or the bill to get through. I had a friend tell me this weekend "that 97% of bills that make it to debate pass." But as usual with this friend who gets the majority of his news from Fox television and mainly Glenn Beck he was unable to tell me where that particular quote came from. He also just assumed it was valid. It may will be. But I always find it funny that he will throw out numbers but then is not able to tell me where they come from or who said them.

Speaking of Glenn Beck. He unveiled his "100 Year Plan" this weekend and I am going to be writing some about that as the week goes on. I found some of his ideas pretty interesting so I hope I can dig a little deeper into that and unpack it so we can see what it means and what he thinks its effects will be.

I am also looking forward to Thanksgiving even though this will be the first one in the last 8 years without Nicole. I imagine it will be at times both sad and happy. I will have a good chunk of my rather large extended family there and that is always a good thing. I hope she is able to have fun however she decides to spend it. In fact this whole holiday season is going to be an odd one and a substantial change from last years when everything seemed to be going so well. But I guess you never can tell what people or thinking or planning even if you think they are being honest with you about the future.

All that being said I hope we all have a good short week and I am looking forward to writing and to discussing some things with all of you.

Thursday

Hello again, hello. I am coming to you today from the chair in the living room. I am driving to work today so I thought I would get something out rather then skipping it entirely.

I tried to watch the Daily Show last night. I noticed it was on and thought I usually enjoy that so I will watch it again. But I am not sure what happened. There were parts that I found humorous but overall it really seemed to be lacking for me. There was a section of the show where Jon Stewart was talking about the first speaking engagement of our last President Bush. Now I am well aware of the idea that President Bush as a public speaker does lend itself to some humor but in this case the Daily Show seemed almost mean about it. I think what bothered me is that I like things to be a little clever. I am not above mocking someone or something and I often find that kind of humor pretty funny. But, this seemed pretty mean spirited. Which, while they are a comedy show, seemed out of line from a show that has largely risen above the pettiness that seems to have infested the other political shows like Olbermann and Beck.

The new just showed President Obama at Dover Air force Base he was there to honor some of the latest soldiers that were killed in Afghanistan I believe. It was interesting to me because they showed him saluting as a coffin was carried past. Now I believe that in the years prior to Vietnam they used to show the coffins of dead military personal on the news as sort of a tribute to there efforts on behalf of the country. But, I think, correct me if I am wrong that the amount of military killed and the anger the Vietnam was generating caused the presidential administration at the time to move to stop the practice. I wonder if we should go back to showing the service men and woman come home. I think that it is to easy to forget that we have people dying on foreign soil and in a America whose military is composed of volunteers it really seems easy to forget that the people who are being killed are more then just statistics.

They just mentioned on the news that the United Nations General Assembly voted against the U. S. embargo of Cuba. This is not a surprise the vote was 187-3 with only Israel and Palau supporting the U. S., I find this interesting because this is the 18th year in a row that they have condemned it. My problem with the embargo is that if we were being consistent about how we were treating communist countries we would be embargoing China instead of Cuba. I submit that China by far is a bigger threat to us. I will grant you that Castro is not a nice man and he is not deserving of our friendship but it just makes no logical sense for us to treat China differently then Cuba. Wait let me note that it makes economic sense because Cuba does not have millions of dollars of our debt and American companies doing business there.

That's all I got folks, have a good day.

Monday, Monday

Good morning everyone, to this foggy Monday. At least it is foggy where I am in Wilsonville sitting on the train waiting for us to leave the station. I hope you all had a fine weekend and got some relaxation in.

I was down at the Oregon coast in a small town called Pacific City with some friend for a 40th birthday. The funny thing is I will also be down at the beach for the same thing this coming weekend. That should be fun. It will be a time of board games and relaxation so I am looking forward to it.

There was not much to listen to on the radio this morning. The Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) station that I listen to some mornings is in the middle of a fund drive so that was out though they did talk a little bit about Iran and the Uranium enrichment and a plan to send some of the Uranium to Russia and France for enrichment and then have it returned to be used in medical isotopes. I think that is an interesting idea. One that I hope Iran can agree to. But one never knows how these diplomatic things will pan out and the suicide bomber attack on the Iranian Royal Guard from a Pakistani really just complicates things right now.

I also listen to a conservative station in the morning but I did not manage to make it over there today. I did make it to the AM 620 station which bills itself as Portlands only progressive radio station. Which is funny to me because when I first heard that said I thought it was "aggressive" radio and really that is pretty true. Today they were discussing a new business venture in Seattle, Washington that sells deeds for different circles in Hell. These deeds people can buy as a gift and give them to others in a framed certificate. It is a funny idea and one that will probably make the creator of this plan a nice sum of money. But what struck me as odd was that the first thing the broadcaster did was wonder what circle Glenn Beck would be in. Now I am no fan of Glenn Beck, I have complained about him in the past and I know that broadcasters talk to their core audience and I am definitely not the core audience of either conservative radio or progressive radio. But, it just seemed a mean spirited attack to say that Glenn Beck would be on the crying circle of Hell. I am all for going after a man for his politics. But, I see no reason to mock anyone because they get emotional when they are discussing an issue that is important to them.

It may be that I take this a little closer to home because anyone who knows me, also, knows that I am a crier. But, I do not think that my getting emotional takes away from the validity or importance of something I am trying to say. Now I realize some of my readers may feel that Glenn Beck is just putting on a show and that may very well be true. But, if he is crying for a show I think it is hurting more then helping him.

That being said I do not like Glenn Beck and I think he is hurting the country overall with his antics. I have to be fair and note that he began his anti big government run during the Bush administration but he seems to have really hit his stride with the Tea Party and the 9-12 movement stuff. If you as me he is gearing himself up to run for some sort of office on a back to the Constitution platform. One of limited government and fiscal responsibility. I hope I am wrong but I also hope I am right so that I can tell people see Glenn Beck is just like all the rest of us. He is looking for himself and wanting to rise to power. So we shall see what happens but I feel like it is something that I want to keep an eye on.