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!"

AFL/CIO Dem Debate

MSNBC went with their entertainment newsman Kieth Oberman to referee this event. His day job is being MSNBC'S counter-weight to Fox News where he slings mud and generally takes the low road in challenging the competition. Luckily we were spared the insufferable sermonized drivel he has become famous for. In fact in last nights role and in others, to be fair, he's done a decent enough job. I guess that was the Kieth Oberman who was influenced by Hal Fishman who he duly thanked at the end of the debate. Fishman, a 46 year TV news veteran from Los Angeles, died yesterday. He was an old school, quality newsman who will be missed.
Anyway, may I go backwards because I'm forgetting this thing so fast that soon I'll have nothing to say. Probably not a good sign.
Question? What exactly is the point in interviewing candidates campaign managers, media strategists and the like as we are routinely subjected to with last night being no exception? Chris Mathews did the honors this time. What a ridiculous way to try to learn anything. Chris, bring their mothers on next time. At least there would be a slight chance to hear something less than glowing.
Then there are the experts that size up what just happened. Now tell me something-how do you feel when someone says they know what you want? A little irritated maybe? Let's face it, people don't tell other people this unless they want an argument or worse. So why do the so called political experts do it all the time. This time it was Pat Buchanan and Willie Brown who said over and over, "what the American people want..." I understand that they each were candidates in campaigns and have insight but that is the extent of it. To claim they know what people want is flagrantly false and when they say it I find it insulting and stop listening.
Now to the debate. I think that one objective and informative way to judge this debate is to look at how they handled the pandering. The event host was the AFL/CIO so let's look at who pulled the blue collar stuff off the shelf with the greatest of ease. With potentially millions watching it is interesting to see what balance they strike between the spirited live audience and the inanimate yet important home viewers. I'm after a shamelessness quotient here and there were five winners. The shared award goes to Rep. Kucinich, Gov. Richardson, Sen. Edwards, Sen. Dodd and Sen. Clinton, more or less in that order.
From opening sympathies expressed for the Utah Mine Workers through bad toys and human rights violations in China it seemed that these candidates decided to go for the bird in the hand. I am not saying that these issues or NAFTA, outsourcing, trade, corporate aid, health care, medicaid, lobbyist, or exporting jobs etc. are not important and my heart sincerely does go out to the Utah mine workers and their families but you can't be or promise everything to everyone without looking somewhat disingenuous and they did. Rep. Kucinich, the self proclaimed card carrying member of the AFL/CIO promised so much I was left to wonder if there was going to be anything left for me when he was done. He said he would withdraw from NAFTA in his first week in office and asked, "why do you need an infrastructure?" Then said, "so you can create a base for new jobs." In one way or another he seemed to try to make the AFL/CIO the center of the universe and he made me want to grab my wallet thinking about how he will pay for it all. Sen. Dodd said such things as he would ban outsourcing of jobs and China is our adversary. Gov. Richardson repeated many of the same promises along with Sen.Edwards blaming lobbyists for everything including NAFTA and even telling of a time when, "no scab can cross a picket line." Mr. Oberman had to settle him down by reminding Sen. Edwards that he came from a right to work state. Sen. Edwards conceded that North Carolina does have a very small organized labor movement. What I heard from most of these candidates was the usher to protectionism and I wonder if anyone remembered the pitfalls of the past.
Sen. Clinton was far more clever but chimed in with a broad study of NAFTA and said it needed broad reform and smart trade, trade prosecutors, renewable energy for jobs to lift the American worker and criticized China by agreeing with Sen. Bidens comments.
So how did Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden do on the pandering test? Better, I believe. Sen. Obama said there are some winners and some losers in matters of trade and he thought NAFTA needed to be amended. He said no one wants to lose their job but globalization is here and we have to address special interests and a tax code that favors corporations. In regards to China he said we have to recognize arguments on both sides. He said it is hard to negotiate when they are our bankers.
Sen. Biden spoke of his attempts to deal with the infrastructure problem with a proposed 20 billion dollar bill. He said we don't need anymore studies. The subways in New York along with 27% of the bridges are unsafe. He said that it's a presidents job to create jobs not export jobs and there is a lack of presidential leadership. He also repeated Sen. Obama's statement about China in a slightly different way saying that China holds the mortgage on our house.
You can see here that these candidates are thoughtful when answering questions of this nature. Where the other candidates showed little restraint and tried to please everyone, Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden met self imposed resistance to such temptations. This to me is a sign of integrity and general good character and I found this to be the case through the whole debate.That's what I'll be looking for come election time.
On the other hand the craft of politics has begun in earnest. Sen.Clinton is now trying every trick in the book to bury Sen.Obama but so far not succeeding. Her position on Pakistan and actionable intelligence that she criticized Sen. Obama for is shrewed but deceitful. She previously was on the record with a position identical to Sen. Obama's and as Sen. Biden pointed out, when it comes to actionable intelligence, this is the policy of this Government if not the law. The statement about not being able to say what you think does seem as Sen. Obama points out, an insider approach. And check out her odd man out game. "Chris Dodd and I were on a panel..." or "amen to Joe Biden," and this was for a point Sen. Biden took from Sen. Obama's about China being our bankers and changed it to holding the mortgage on our house. And she thinks it unwise to telegraph your game plan. Hers is as clear as it gets. How about her "3 point plan.'' The back door here is Al Qaeda. To be used conveniently should you get in a jamb. Wonder where she learned that one? In the mean time Sen. Obama nails a question about immigration reform and clarifies to Mr.Oberman that he does not have federal lobbyists bundling for him nor does he accept PAC money. He also defended a two pronged attack from Sen. Clinton and Sen. Dodd on the Pakistan issue. He did try to change what he said previously about Pakistan's President Musharraf and I've duly taken note of this.
Finally, from her fathers dream baseball stadium fable to "if you want to fight the right wing machine, I'm your girl," comment, this is one high gloss politician. What kind of arrogance would make her want to utter the words right wing anything. Recall who started the whole right wing conspiracy counter attack strategy while obstructing justice over the Monica Lewinsky investigation. Does Tammy Wynette and stand (or not) by your man ring a bell. Anyway you cut it, it shows poor judgement.
Because this was so damn cynical my promise to you is that my next post will be light hearted. How's that, a promise I can keep.

Bridge Wake UP Call

I have not heard it yet from the countless hours of news coverage dedicated to the Minneapolis bridge collapse but I'm sure many people are wondering to what degree budget shortfalls played a role in decisions about this bridge. I realize it maybe early for this discussion but with 70-80 thousand bridges with structurally deficient designations in this country you have to be a little concerned.
Last evening there was mention of the high cost of replacement in one report read by Anderson Cooper of CNN. I couldn't locate this information on the Minnesota DOT website but I know from experience that the level of available funding has a way of creeping into the objectivity of inspection reports.
Since we have been hearing about a crumbling infrastructure in this country for several years now, it seems an automatic question to ask how much has the 440 billion that has been spent on the Iraq war, taken away from tending to such critical matters as these. I suspect the truth is frightening. Make no mistake about it. This was another Government failure. Now there will be a big expensive scramble to catch up to where they were already paid to be, only this time we'll pay the same people doing the same job at premium pay because it's an emergency. And get ready to ante up. It's like a late Sunday evening with six house guest then the sewer backs up and your on hold for Roto-Rooter. Hold on to your wallet.
I thought that it was interesting that Governor Pawlenty announced that they would hire their own outside consulting firm to get to the bottom of what went wrong. He said that they had faith in the NTSB but thought they should add some "redundancy" to the process. Interesting choice of words but beyond that why do we even have an NTSB and the cost associated with it if we can't trust their abilities. Drop another item off the list of things the Government does well.