This is Un-American

Dear Iowans, please sense what has now begun. I realize that I have no business in your affairs but your decisions will effect me and the rest of the country to such a degree that I can't resist. Senator Bob Kerry for all intents and purposes is a New Yorker. He has pledged his allegiance to Senator Clinton and his soul was sold before your eyes as he began to carry out his orders to win at all cost.
Here is how the good soldier Senator began his mission. After stepping off the stage where he just announced his support for Senator Clinton, speaking about Clintons chief rival he said, "The fact that he's African American is a big deal. I do expect and hope that Hillary is the nominee of the party. But I hope he's used in some way. If he happens to be the nominee of the party and ends up being President, I think his capacity to influence in a positive way without spending a penny, the behavior of a lot of under performing black youth today is very important, and he's the only one that can reach them" He continued, "It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barrack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims and I think that experience is a big deal." He added, He's got a whale of a lot more intellectual talent than I've got as well."
Then when responding to question from CNN's John King about his point he said these things are attributes that he was highlighting. He also said that Sen. Obama and his family had chosen Christianity giving the impression that they had converted.
Of course this is all political deceit. It could not be more obvious and it begs the question, do they really believe we are that stupid? I believe many of them do and it insults me to no end.
Folks, this is how dirty the Clinton camp plays the game and if you believe that two weeks before the Iowa Caucus, on the day he gives his endorsement to Sen.Clinton, that Sen.Kerrey is using this basket of words to praise Sen.Obama then you are simply not going to receive better leaders or a better Government.
Since Monday he has continued this assault using his praise cover to mention Islamist schools, Secular Madrassas, Muslim Manchurian candidates and Sen. Obama's middle name, Hussein repeatedly. All I can say is how does a man sleep at night who does such deeds by day?

If this doesn't convince you consider the following. This is what our leadership has been and will look like if the Clinton's get their way.
1988 Bush
1992 Clinton
1996 Clinton
2000 Bush
2004 Bush
2008 Clinton
2012 Clinton (highly probable)
28 years of two families. That's anything but American.

What else could happen

What a bad time to take a break. There has been so darn much stuff in the news. This must be excruciatingly painful for the striking writers. Especially the ones who do comedy. Little pearls lost forever, the falling trees that were never heard. Boo-hoo!
Anyway, allow me to catch up with some bullets.The Chavez dictatorship bid was gloriously rebuked. Don Imus slithered back, but to buy in he sells out. Senator Clinton's brilliant political machine throws a rod. Their bag of slime tactics against Obama implodes, exposing for good what they're really made of. Obama's kindergarten presidential aspirations and drug use may end up being Clinton's "screaming Dean" moment. Two Clinton workers quit over phony e-mails saying Obama is Muslim (still beating that dead horse) and another high level operative resigns over the Obama drug use flap. Sen. Clinton apologizes to Sen. Obama on a tarmac no less. The horror of it all! Poor Hillary.
Former President Clinton seems to keep lapsing into the belief that it's he that's running, but sadly, any way you cut it, he seems to have lost the magic.
On the positive side Sen. Obama may have had his Reagan, "I will not make age an issue..." debating Mondale moment, when saying to Sen. Clinton, "Hillary, I'm looking forward to having you advise me as well," cooling her laugh track sounding jets over a question about having ex-President Clinton operatives working on his campaign. She knows now that not only can he think on his feet but she's likely to get burned anytime she tries that tactic again.
Now to our lamest of duck presidents. National intelligence estimates don't matter to him. Damn the torpedoes! How about his press secretary who admits she didn't know what the Cuban missile crisis was. Beyond comprehension! And under court order not to discard evidence of detainee torture, the Bush administration's CIA destroyed video tapes of it's harshest interrogation tactics. It almost makes you wonder had they not told them not to destroy the tapes whether they would have. Maybe it's that old youthful, rules are meant to be broken thing they're motivated by! Then you have talk of Paul Wolfowitz being brought back. I'm speechless.
Now we find out that 2 years ago operation "brain drain" was ordered by the White House and was launched by the CIA against Iran to get high level Iranian scientists to defect in an effort to curtail work on their nuclear programs. This is cold war type stuff and It's as old as the hills but they only managed to recruit seven people. They can't even get this stuff right and it's probably a sign of how laughable Bush has made us. Were like a bunch of Neanderthals the world is speeding by. By hanging onto old defunct policies we are ever becoming less significant on the world stage and all we can do is wait for it to end. Can you imagine not having term limits, even Venezuela has now been enlightened.
Why is the notion of a shrinking world or call it a global community so utterly distasteful that they resist it it all costs? Why is a perpetual locked-horns-with the-world plan seem viable to them? One can only guess as they continue to sell their personal pathology to us by quickly translating everything as a threat to national security. Drop the national and the statement becomes pretty much true and guess what? That's how it feels to be alive and human. A few words that do work well together that they might consider are firm-but-fair.

CNN/You Tube Republican Debate

Well it didn't last long now did it. CNN managed to turn a novel and fresh approach into a sketchy affair of limited value, and all faster than you can say,"entertainment"or"waste of time."
Since this spectacle, CNN has been on the ropes about accusations of planted questioners from the other side but this thing made you think that maybe they had to go there just to find something pithy. After all, what we heard from the faithful included in-character cable-guy type questions about the 2nd amendment, guns guns and more guns, the confederate flag and the bible. I'm not talking about substantive questions either. These were Blue collar T.V. routines that showed people things that would, at the very least, make the out-of-character cable-guy cringe.
Instead of the suspected planted questions, Republicans should be furious about CNN's portrayal of them as a bunch of 6-toed inbreds. There were over 4000 questions to choose from; was this the best they could do? I don't think so, I think this is further evidence that CNN has lost it's way. Call me way too serious but I don't view the election process of the leader of my country as simply entertainment.

CNN Dem Debate Eight

There will be a time when the democratic nominee is picked-but it shouldn't be now-even if the news media is beginning to act that way. The CNN democratic debate we just witnessed was as weak as it gets. They rolled out Wolf Blitzer again to lead what should have been a charge like we saw last week from Tim Russert but instead he seemed over his head and let Senator Clintons platitudes rule the day. To make matters worse, after the debate, Anderson Cooper let three Cinton friendlies praise her for a come-back-kid performance. James Carville, being practically on her team and David Gergen, a former advisor to President Clinton and Trojan Horse type friendly J.C. Watts decided for the rest of us who's foot work most resembled what it takes to win our affection. I ain't buying it folks, this is not unbiased news coverage and it is why we keep electing the wrong leaders.
Frankly, if you were to gauge performance in this debate based on real substance, Senator Clinton would not be in the top five.
Remember it's not forbidden to be outright critical or suspicious of news organizations or their journalists and just accepting them as credible because they've been around a long time is to be remiss.
Let's face it Wolf Blitzer was lax in his duties. One glaring example was letting Senator Clinton give a one word answer to the question about drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. This was something that given her previous answers on this issue, should have been ceased upon. It's omission let Senator Clinton off the hook and instantly created suspicion as to whether all candidates were being treated equally.
There was more of the same in the leading question about what is more important, human rights or national security. He was so hell bent on setting up his one word answer wishes that the context of the issue was left behind, confusing everyone. When he finally got to Senator Clinton, having sized up the situation, complied looking decisive, even if the question was like asking which is your favorite child. I never said she wasn't good at politics.
This is the dangerous time in a campaign when the pundits depart from paying attention to a candidates words in favor of less difficult tasks like sizing up "how they come across." You know, their poise, or toughness or the "fire in their belly" and so on. This serves two primary purposes, they get themselves off the hook from doing the tedious job of objectively determining who's best for the country and it allows their personal preferences to seep in more convincingly.
In other words it"s hard for smart people to to align themselves with vague policy such as Senator Clintons "fiscal responsibility" cure for Social Security or her "aggressive negotiation" approach with Iran. So they talk about how she "got back in the game" or "she seems to want it more than the other candidates." Remember, it's supposed to be about how much we want her not the other way around.

Iran; The Beat Goes On

One of the news services I like is Reuters. Today I checked their web page and found an interesting story titled "Military finding more Iranian arms in Iraq." That stuck me as a little peculiar because recently the news has been a bit more encouraging on that count as well as on U.S. Soldier and civilian casualties. In fact I thought I had read recently that fewer Iranian made munitions had been found. I couldn't remember where and after thinking on it I even wondered if I had.
Just keeping track of what you think you know about this war is difficult. It would be hard enough if you could believe most of what you read or hear but you can't and it makes it nearly impossible. It requires vigilance and a personal conviction that few people can find time for.
The article cited Major-General Rick Lynch whose command includes southern Baghdad to Kerbala and Najaf. He made his case and since he's a high level U.S military man who would seem to be well informed-what's not to believe-right? Maybe, but it really is just a piece of a puzzle. There was a lot to the story that perplexed me. I stared at the page and wondered as my eyes wandered. When I refocused I was on "related stories" where I saw another story titled "U.S sees decline in Iran-linked bombs found in Iraq." I thought what the #@^%!
So I thanked the age of technology for this little mishap and quickly clicked on it and sure enough, there was a story that was polar opposite, all on the same Reuters page.
This story was about 10 days old (dated November 1, 2007) and cited Army Lt. General Ray Odiemo. I knew he was the top commander in Iraq for day to day operations. Again a well placed high ranking official who should be believable.
Like the other article there were plenty of qualifiers and once again it didn't leave me feeling any closer to the truth .
My point is that watching these day to day reports has no real value and in fact is just plain misleading.
I had a sense that the prior page wouldn't last so I went back and shot a copy and sure enough when I was done the "related stories" article was gone. I guess some Reuters web master staffer realized it looked a little silly and scrubbed it. But I got my copy and I can look at it any time I want to remind myself just how far we are from the truth.

Dem 7

For someone like myself who desperately wants change in our government, this debate was a winner. Senator Clinton bared all. If you saw this debate you peaked into a future with her as President and I didn't like what I saw. I was left wondering if this candidate really owns a soul. This was a sort of desert mirage performance, fading in and out of existence. Not exactly the makings of a future leader of the free world.
Some of the issues went like this. She kinda-sorta likes Gov. Spitzers plan to issue drivers licenses to undocumented workers, formerly known as illegal immigrants, who were formerly known as illegal aliens and why not three different licenses for three different categories of, well, them. But she doesn't want to burden the states because it's a national failure so lets let her do it from Washington, you know, like she did with health care!
Recently she said that President Bush couldn't pass his immigration reform because he had no more political capital. Trust me, these two share the same bank accounts.
Then there is her brilliantly simple fix for Social Security. That's it, fiscal responsibility. I wonder why no one ever thought of that before?
On the subject of releasing Presidential material from the national archives, she tried to attribute the delay to the bureaucracy at the archives. Maybe, but it's a big Government that she is trying to be in charge of and if as Senator she can't make something happen with the National Archive how can she run the government. Unless just maybe she's not quite telling the whole truth!
Then there was the so called Kyl-Lieberman amendment that she voted for that above all gives Iran's leaders more power to rally the support of the Iranian people. Oops. I think we all remember how fear spawns patriotism don't we. Also do you really believe that she cares if the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a designated terrorist group or not? No, she's just pandering to the power brokers she believes are important to her election and acting tough again for political reasons, pure and simple. Btw why is Liebermans name last on this one? Just a few more guys who never served in the military beating the war drums.
Also did you notice that the fire that Senator Obama drew from Senator Clinton for his naivety and lack of experience in suggesting that we negotiate with Iran is all but forgotten. He just didn't use the right words. It's vigorous diplomacy silly, you were so close.
As Senator Dodd pointed out, polls have showed that 50% of voters say they would never vote for her. I bet that number wasn't trimmed much by this performance.

Beyond A Lost Boot

I have an 86 year old neighbor who is about as good as they come. Just seeing him lifts my spirits. My first impression was like something out of boy scout law. You know, friendly, kind, cheerful and so on. He's not a big man, he's slightly built and hunched over. It took a while to get to know him but I'm lucky I do, he truly is a great man.
To start with I've never known anyone his age who was in better mental or physical condition. He rides a bike 60 miles per week and walks every place else. He does most of his shopping using a back pack and he walks to a local high school twice a week to an exercise class. On top of this he cares for his wife who has a serious illness. When asked about her health he replies, "oh her health is fine, she just can't walk all that well." He simply has an unshakable positive attitude.
But if it hadn't been for my neighbors, who have lived here much longer than me, I wouldn't know much about his life because he rarely talks about himself. He is understated in every way.
What the neighbors did tell me was that he was a prisoner of war in Germany in WWll.
Over the years I've managed to fill in some of the details of his experience. In April, 1944 his B24 was shot down with 10 crew members aboard on a bombing run to a ball bearing manufacturing plant in Aschaffenburg. He was the only survivor of the crash. "We were unescorted by fighter aircraft, we were sitting ducks," he said.
He was lucky to have had his parachute on as many of his crew mates did not. After the crash he was rounded up by what he said were farmers carrying shot guns, taken back to a farm house and then turned over to the authorities then taken to Frankfurt. He was finally taken to a prison camp called Stalag Luft 1 where he spent one year before being liberated by Russian troops.
This is about as much as he had told me until last week. I told him that I had seen an episode of Ken Burns new series on WWll. He said he had watched some of it to and it seemed to loosen him up a little bit on the subject. We talked about a few more details when he became slightly more enthusiastic. For the first time I felt that I was hearing something that he felt like telling me.
He said that when he jumped from the aircraft he had lost one boot. He said his suit was heated and his boots were fleece lined which had kept him relatively comfortable. But when he landed he had just one boot on and with the mud and cold it made it even more miserable than it already was.
He said that back at the farmhouse after some time had passed, a young girl came to him. His eyes lit up and he became quite animated. He said that she was carrying his lost boot and she could speak some English and said, "is yours?" which he replied,"yes thank you." This obviously was a pleasant and lasting memory for him.
It's difficult to narrow this down to the single most important thought here so I'll let you come up with your own. I do know that it's timeless and timely to.

A Story About Terrorism

A quick story. I was working on a job recently and had hired two young plumbers named Jimmy and Sean to re-pipe a building. Jimmy was breaking open a wall when he found an old newspaper stuffed inside. It was used as backing for an old plaster patch. He unfolded it and said in a soft voice "March fourth nineteen-seventy-six", then said loudly, "Sean, check it out, they had terrorists back in 1976." They huddled around the paper for a bit reading headlines in disbelief. Sean said,"that was before we were even born, they'll never get rid of those guys." I said, "these were different guys, the IRA," but I could tell it meant nothing to them. I said, "the Irish Republican Army," still nothing. Looking at these kids and by their names I suspected there was a very good chance that one or both had a distant relative that called Ireland home. I felt like tinkering with their perception of terrorists but I realized that making this connection maybe possible in my mind but probably not in theirs.
We talked a bit about the terrorists of today and it was clear that they had strong feelings about it. I'd call it a heart felt hatred for terrorists actually. They told me about where they were and what they felt on 9/11. Being in their teens and early 20's at that time, it was obvious that it was truly pivotal for them.
I remember the Cuban missile crisis and the fear I felt as my neighbor built a bomb shelter especially because my dad didn't. And I did hate the Viet Nam war but it was hard to know exactly who to hate.
My feelings about the 9/11 attack do not include hatred and it's not because hatred doesn't suit me anymore like some wasted energy or something. It's because I have always thought that efficiency was particularly important. Nothing complex, just a strong belief that the most important measure of success is how quickly something gets properly completed. Now, I know that this means different things to different people but since nothing has really been accomplished with a unified hatred approached to terrorism I think thoughtful people would agree it's time to try something new. But instead our Government acts like a couple of 20 year olds feeding off each others hormone induced one upsmanship and dragon slayer fantasies.
P.S The incident was a bombing in a London train station. It was the fifth since IRA hunger striker, Frank Stagg died after beginning his strike 62 days earlier.

Merger Activity

Where did the summer go? Not that there is some big seasonal change here but because I like growing plants of all kinds I see changes underway, pointing to the end of a growing season and cooler weather ahead. Fortunately years ago I became interested in native plants. Interestingly these plants march to a different drummer. With a little rain they perk up-it's almost spring for them now. This helps to mitigate some of the negative effects of winter. Anyone who is into this sort of thing knows how remarkable it is to be able to have plants from around the world in your garden. For me it's just one of the real bonuses of being alive today.
Understandably though, like many personal interests, most others couldn't care less.
Of course I have no bone to pick with someone who doesn't give a hoot about gardening just as long as they give a hoot about something and that something isn't becoming famous or making vast sums of money.
Capitalism has been in overdrive and unrestrained for many years now and our inextricable obsession with it has seemingly created legions of people who are using every ounce of brain power and desire for that pursuit and it's leaving little for anything else.
To be clear, I believe in capitalism as much as anybody because the alternatives are proven losers. But it's become harder than ever to find people who don't define themselves by what they do for a living as opposed to who the are. What's worse is that they are often unaware of it. It's sort of like not missing air conditioning when you never had it.
I think that most thoughtful people anticipated such an outcome but the speed at which it has arrived is a little surprising.
I noticed a television commercial recently where there was a man who relished his good fortune that his business defined who he was and he felt good that he could pass the business on to his daughter so she could define who she was.
Now for a guy who rued the day Eric Clapton did his first beer commercial, this is awfully hard to take. I cut my philosophical teeth in the sixties, so for me each time I hear a formerly iconic song or image being used to sell something it's a little bit painful. I know this is the price of doing business because after all how many communes are still in operation. But completely merging what we are with how we earn is in some ways like what monoculture is to agriculture. Too many eggs in one basket.
There is a huge discussion due here but to keep it simple I'll just say that I consider it proven that there are certain susceptibilities, individually and collectively, that come about as a result of a narrowing of interests for any reason. In agriculture it is the lack of biodiversity that can potentially lead to crop failures. In human beings it sets up basic structures of thought pointing too many people in the same direction. A sort of malignant groupthink can emerge. In either case the outcome is not the optimum and is potentially catastrophic. Let history be our guide.

Lighthearted

Ok, In my last post I promised that in my next post I would take a break from the cynicism and do something lighthearted. So here goes. I once had an friend who was a genuine dust bowl Okie. Ivan was his name and I say was because he died several years ago. He was one of the happiest people I ever knew. He was quite a bit older than me but was full of life and I admired him because he treated everyone the same, with respect. He was half Cherokee Indian and said he was from the "lapland." I asked him where that was and he said, "that's where Oklahoma laps over into Arkansas."
When he came to California he picked fruit for a living. He told me this story about how one summer he ran into a friend from back home who asked him where he had been working? He replied, "over in San Jose," but he pronounced it like it read to him. His friend, who had been out west a few years before Ivan said, "no Ivan, out here the J is silent, use an H instead, otherwise the people won't know what your talking about. Ivan sincerely thanked his friend for that helpful bit of advice and wished him well. Ivan said the next time he ran into his friend it was winter. His friend was glad to see him again and said, " good to see you Ivan, it's been a while, when was that anyway?" Ivan replied, " oh that was back in the early summer, maybe hune or huly!"
Now Ivan didn't hear all that well and one of my favorite stories came up while he explained how he had lost his hearing as a child from an illness. He said it didn't bother him too much but it had been a little embarrassing at times. He said, one time back in Oklahoma when he was a kid, working in a service station, a beautiful woman drove up in a new Cadillac. He never saw her before and figured she was from a big city. She pulled up slowly and said to Ivan, "young man, do you have a rest room? The service station had just been equipped with compressed air and Ivan, hearing whisk broom instead of rest room, and wanting to impress her, grabbed the air hose and said, "no Mam, but if you pull it up a few feet I'll blow it out for ya!"