Error of My Ways

So, the much feared speech is now history. The country has survived. Our children have returned from school much as they left. They’ve not joined the new Hitler youth. They haven’t morphed into pint sized socialists. Of course, the doomsday sayers and tinfoil hat brigade will have you believe that is only because they shed light on the secret plot, thereby causing President Obama to rethink his evil plan and revise the planned speech to one of a more benign message.

Though I make my living on the internet and my extended social life is just as entrenched in the virtual world as most Americans, I am not blind to the drawbacks of the internet age. In my opinion, the single greatest societal change brought about by the advent of the internet is that it lends an aura of credibility to even the most lunatic fringe of society.

In the days before the internet, the crazy on the street corner shouting messages of the coming apocalypse was just that - the crazy on the street corner. Now, not only can anyone publish their rantings to a world wide audience, the internet has enabled the crazies from all the street corners around the globe to find one another. Suddenly, you have all these voices joining together to shout out the same message of the falling sky. They can compare notes on the latest conspiracy theories. Then the ignorant and the gullible can stumble upon these gatherings of the insane and it suddenly isn’t just the ravings of a lone lunatic. No, it’s words of the new truthsayers.

You suddenly have people believing these wild ideas because… they read it on the internet, of course. It must be true! The powers that be cannot keep these warriors of the web from shedding light on The Truth.

Seriously, people. Bill Gates is not going to send you $5000 for forwarding emails, Neiman Marcus didn’t charge some lady $250 for a cookie recipe, no one is going to drug you and steal your kidneys, George W. Bush wasn’t the secret mastermind behind 9/11 and President Obama isn’t trying to indoctrinate your children.

Common sense - it seems to be in short supply lately. You might want to stock up.

I just got done watching Barack Obama address the nation for the first time as President Elect. I couldn’t help but to be touched, inspired and moved by not only his words but the simple fact of witnessing history tonight.

As I watched, I thought of all the comments I’ve read online, at various message boards and blogs, about how difficult this election season has been. I’ve heard so many people say that they just can’t bear to listen to the election talk anymore - they find it so upsetting. I’ve seen people post online about how they need to take a break from boards because they just can’t deal with their views and opinions being criticized or questioned. I thought about all this and I realized just how incredibly spoiled and self centered so many people in this country are.

These people, the very ones who cannot deal with the opposition to their views, do not realize the privilege they have been born into - the simple fact that when their children speak about what they’d like to do when they grow up they can look that child in the eye and say “You can be anything you want to be” and believe it. For them, that always been true. The great American dream - the promise of our country has always been at their fingertips… within their grasp.

For the rest of this country, when it was first known that a black man was going to run for the highest office in our land, it was met with trepidation. The fear was of letting that hope in - giving voice to it and believing it could be true. Because along with that hope comes the very real possibility that hope could be dashed. Those dreams could be shattered. For many, that would be worse than ever believing in the first place. Those brave people went out and listened to their hearts. They left themselves open and vulnerable to abject disappointment and despair and have been rightly rewarded for it.

So, the next time you want to talk about how saddened you are by hearing your views and ideas mocked and ridiculed, think about those who really have exposed themselves to the ultimate rejection. Think of what a long and difficult campaign season it has been for them. Think of what they have lain bare in support of their candidate. They dared to hope and this time, hope won.

Today, in America, children of all races can ask the question, “Can I be President of the United States when I grow up?” and their parents can look them in the eye and say unequivocably yes. Now, it will be more than a dream. It is now a reality. And I am proud to have participated.

Congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama.

I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.”

Joe Vogler , founder of the Alaskan Independence Party

You would think that someone with questionable associations of their own wouldn’t be lobbing charges of “palling around with terrorists” at the other guy.

While Sarah Palin has been on stages across the nation making accusations of how Barack Obama is so unhappy with America that he’s palling around with terrorists, some journalists have been hard at work finding out who are Palin’s own pals.

Although I think it’s fairly well known that Sarah Palin has some ties to the Alaska Independence Party, I’m not sure that people realize her allegiances apparently extend to the present day.

Here’s Gov Palin giving the address to the opening of the Alaska Independence Party’s 2008 convention.

And here is a a videotape of a speech given by Dexter Clark, a vice chairman of the AIP at their convention. It’s a long video, you can skip to approximately 5:55 to see the pertinent parts. Here’s a quote from that video in which Mr. Clark talks about Sarah Palin:

“Our current governor, we mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected. There’s a joke, she’s a pretty good looking gal, there’s a joke goes around we’re the coldest state with the hottest governor. And there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as a mayor of a small town — that was a non-partisan job. But you get along to go along — she eventually joined the Republican Party, where she had all kinds of problems with their ethics, and well, I won’t go into that. She also had about an 80% approval rating, and is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership.”

Here is some interesting information and quotes from Joe Vogler, the Alaska Indepence Party founder:

“The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government,” Vogler said in the interview, in which he talked extensively about his desire for Alaskan secession, the key goal of the AIP.

“And I won’t be buried under their damn flag,” Vogler continued in the interview, which also touched on his disappointment with the American judicial system. “I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.”

At another point, Volger advocated renouncing allegiance to the United States. In the course of denouncing Federal regulation over land, he said:

“And then you get mad. And you say, the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska.

This is a very good article on Salon.com - Meet Sarah Palin’s Radical Right Wing Mentors

The article is long, so if you don’t want to take the time to read the entire thing (although I recommend you do), here is an interview from MSNBC  with one of the article’s authors and it gives some of the article’s highlights.

He’s an Arab.
No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man.

This was a recent exchange between John McCain and one of his supporters.  Most of the reaction that I’ve read and heard about this so far has been to comment on John McCain’s “defense” of Barack Obama or to point out that the McCain campaign’s rhetoric is beginning to take on a life of its own.

I’m glad McCain finally said something in response to the angry mob mentality that has been building (is being crafted?) among his followers. I do, however, question his motives. I also think its a case of too little too late.

I also happen to agree with the stance that the racist anger is taking on a life of its own and the McCain campaign has unleashed a beast that will be nigh impossible to control.

My concern in this post though is none of that. What has struck me about this story is the fact that McCain’s response has been widely considered at least adequate, if not laudable. Why is that though? Why is it that the reply to the statement “He’s an Arab” is “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man.”? Is that really the logical reply? Is it because somehow Arabs are necessarily “indecent” or not “family men”?

The implication of McCain’s reply is that he was contradicting the accusation that Obama is an Arab and qualifying the “No ma’am” with the contrasting “He’s a decent family man”.  I heard this exchange in the same way that I would hear one person say “The sky is green.” and a response of “No, ma’am. It is blue.”

Why is it that this is accepted in our society as a logical, adequate reply? If someone were to comment on another person by saying “He’s a Puerto Rican” of “He’s Italian.” or “He’s a schoolteacher.” Would anyone still see the logic and be applauding a response of “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man.”

But here we have that exchange left hanging with the resultant implication.

He’s an Arab.
No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man.

As I said in my previous post, there are so many things that I find wrong with the idea of Sarah Palin as the VP pick, that it’s hard to know where to begin. Let me try…

Since John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin defies all normal logic, we are left to assume that she was chosen for 2 reasons only - her gender and her extreme conservatism. If McCain hopes to win the presidency, he must win over at least 1 of 2 key groups. The uncommitted voters who supported Hillary Clinton and/or the ultra right wing conservatives that McCain has long failed to attract.

The problem with the first part is the assumption that HRC’s supporters were merely invigorated by the possibility of a woman in the White House, rather than true supporters of Clinton and her politics. The idea that women candidates can be swapped out interchangeably with supporters just following along is, at best, naive.

For that reason, I don’t think that was the main motivation behind the naming of Palin. Yes, it may have served to garner the support of those who were not true Clinton supporters, but rather just liked the idea of a woman candidate. However, I do think those were an insignificant minority.

That leaves us with the assumption that Sarah Palin was chosen to appease the far right. This is what I believe to be the main reason for her selection. This concerns me more than any other thing about McCain’s candidacy.

Even though I long ago gave up supporting the Republican party, I was not entirely unhappy with McCain as a candidate. My issues with McCain prior to Palin’s selection dealt mainly with his lack of tact and diplomacy and inability to control his temper. I did, however, admire his moderate position and his ability to cross party lines to accomplish goals.

Palin is an anti-choice, ultra right wing, conservative Christian. The fact that McCain was obviously so desperate to reach that right wing vote that he would pander to them with Palin’s selection has destroyed all faith I may have had in his campaign. It’s obvious that he is willing to do whatever it takes to win, even compromising his own record and reputation. That to me is both sad and frightening.

Continued in Part III

Ok, back to the rant on Palin a bit later…

For the moment I’d like to take a detour to the subject of the economy.
I am not an economist, nor an accountant. I admit to having only a rudimentary grasp of the economic issues facing our country (and in turn the world) and there are some things that I just don’t understand about this whole mess.

I keep seeing Bush, Paulson, et al saying that we need to do X to restore confidence, give the economy more stability, etc. From my admittedly uneducated perspective, it appears that all their statements and all their interventions have done just the opposite. Especially in the days of trying to get the bailout passed, their sense of urgency that it had to be done NOW or risk imminent collapsse - didn’t that just serve to instill more panic?

The market appears to be very volatile at this point - reacting to every bit of news by fluctuating wildly. With each downturn, the Fed in turn pulls some grand, never before seen measure to once again “instill confidence”. Yet, doesn’t this sense of desperation on the part of the Fed just add fuel to the fire? So much of the market is based upon speculation and anticipation rather than facts and numbers. So, aren’t they just participating in a vicious cycle at this point of the market goes down, credit tightens further, the Fed reacts (overreacts?), the market goes down more because of the continued panic and on and on. Am I just looking at this too simplistically here?

Taking that simplistic approach and running with it a moment here, I kind of liken this to when your kid misbehaves, you give a timeout. If you don’t get the immediate result you’re looking for, instead of giving it time to have an effect, you jump to the next item in your discipline toolbox. Eventually, instead of fixing the problem, you’ve made it a whole lot worse because your kid picks up on your sense of desperation and frustration and acts out worse. To me, a big part of the equation is the impression you create psychologically. IMO, the govt is just perpetuating this climate of fear and panic and doing absolutely nothing to settle things down.

I also understand that the bailout has not actually been put into effect yet, so we have conceivably not seen any effect from that. However, when the market fell 777 points on the news of the failure of the original package, its proponents were very quick to point out how important it was to get the measure passed because the market was reacting to its failure. If the news of the lack of the bailout was so important to the confidence in the market, why is the fact that the bill passed not having a positive effect on the confidence? Is it not tempered by the fact that the Fed seems to be grasping at straws at this point and hoping to stumble upon the magic bullet that’s going to fix it?

Early on in this election season, when it became clear who the front runners for each party were going to be, I wanted to find something encouraging about McCain to have reason to support him.
Even though I had long since abadoned the Republican party, I live in a world of reality and one of those realities is that a third party candidate cannot win in this country. I have some serious philosophical differences with the Democratic Party as well, so I find myself in a quandry.

Given McCain’s history as a moderate conservative, he was far more palatable than say, Romney or Huckabee. Some of my most serious misgivings about a McCain presidency are due to his temper and lack of tact and diplomacy. The last thing this country needs in these volatile times, is a leader who doesn’t understand the importance of diplomacy, one who has demonstrated a marked inability to control his temper.

So, for some time now, I have just been watching and waiting, undecided - hoping for something to weigh in favor of either side. Sarah Palin has been that deciding factor for me.

I cannot, in good conscience, support John McCain with Sarah Palin as his running mate. There are just so many things that I find wrong with the choice of Palin for VP that it’s hard to know where to begin.

To be continued in part 2…

Today is truly a sad day in American history. We, as a nation, owe an apology to our children, grandchildren and all the future generations that we have allowed to be saddled with this massive debt called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

We have let fear and scare tactics override our better judgement and have handed over the keys to the henhouse to the Wall Street foxes.

As an American, I can feel nothing but shame and sadness at this turn of events.

No matter what candidate or party you support, make your voice heard and vote.

I am very dissatisfied with the choices this election and have not yet decided who is getting my vote. The only thing that I do know is that I will vote.

If you are unhappy with the state of affairs in our country, don’t allow the politicians to point to low voter turnout and think that no matter what they do, apathy will win out. Whether or not you believe your candidate has a chance to win, let your voice be heard at the ballot box. Tell Washington that you do care enough to vote. Tell them that you are watching and listening and will react.