Not so Subtle

Readers of the Nation seem to have no concept of urgency. Constitutional crises are important, but nowhere as important as climate change. They seem to disagree, according to this poll:

http://www.thenation.com/poll/missing_issue08

Right now climate change ranks dead last among the issues they feel the candidates are not devoting enough time to.

Get your priorities straight, people! The environment should be number 1 far and away. Progressives who critique conservatives on climate change need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Nobody is paying enough attention to this.

The problem is that liberals think that gay marriage rights, abortion, and public works are more important issues than the climate crisis.

Let’s get real, here. The solutions that we’ve come up with are pathetic. Alternative fuels are only a very short-term (and ineffective) answer to the problem. We simply need to consume far less energy.

Less.

Energy.

The first presidential candidate who has the nuts to out right tell America and the world that we need to use less energy, and comes up with a real approach will get my vote.

Today comes the latest batch of All-Star votes for the American League, and it is completely dominated by Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

First Base: Kevin Youkilis is leading

2nd base: Dustin Pedroia, followed by Robinson Canoe

3rd: Alex Rodriguez, followed by Mike Lowell

Short: Derek Jeter

Catcher: Jason Varitek

DH: David Ortiz, followed by Hideki Matsui

Outfield: Manny Ramirez

What does this tell us about the voting process? For one thing, the media shows just how powerful it is in selecting candidates for baseball and for the President of the United States. See, the choices for the people on the ballot are made even before the season begins, much like our primary campaigns. Before a single vote has been cast, before our voice has been heard, someone has already chosen who is electable and who is not for us. This means that only big names will be on the ballot and candidates who are just as qualified, if not even more-so, will be left out in the dark, and the people who choose to vote for them will have their needs ignored.

Case in point: Carlos Quentin of the Chicago White Sox is not even in the top 15 vote-getters for the outfield position, despite leading the AL in home runs, and being 2nd in RBI. Why? Because when the ballots were put together, baseball decided there was no way Carlos Quentin could put together an All-Star year. So despite having the best credentials, Quentin will not be voted in by the fans.

Who does make it? The two party system. Baseball coverage is dominated by Red Sox and Yankees highlights, just like media coverage is monopolized by Democrats and Republicans. Because we have been told that the Red Sox and Yankees are the only teams that really matter by the main-stream media, those are the ones that get the votes. So even though they might not perform, *As of today, the Yankees are in last place in their division* they will still be selected to represent baseball’s best.

This is the same phenomenon that has pushed out legitimate candidates who have agendas that do not match the powers’ that be on both sides, and from 3rd parties. Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards and Ralph Nader have all been repeatedly shut out by the media and have been effectively forced out of the race.

Hillary Clinton, John Mccain and Barack Obama are ALL the establishment’s candidates. If you want a President who can really change things, and if you want to see your team’s best represent your town in the All-Star game, it’s time to start ignoring what the media tells you and start making choices on your own.

The New Republic has an awesome piece about the turning tide in the Muslim world against bin Laden and Al Queada.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=702bf6d5-a37a-4e3e-a491-fd72bf6a9da1

People who understand this conflict have always known that the real battlefield is in the hearts and minds of young Muslims. They will either be recruited, or convinced that terrorism is really at odds with the principles of Islam, and the only people who can do that are legitimate voices in the Muslim community. It seems that may finally be happening.

Let’s hope that an escalation into Iran doesn’t squander all that.

Last week I wrote an article about Dan Rather speaking at my graduation ceremony. This week I received an e-mail response.

Dear Tim,

I am writing to you because I was struck and moved by your comments on
my commencement speech that you posted on the Internet.  In giving talks
like these, I try to remember that graduation is about the
accomplishments of the students, their actions are to be lauded, and
they have been lectured enough.  I am pleased that you found at least
some of my words of interest.

As you so perceptively point out, democracy cannot be a passive
activity.  One of the reasons why I enjoy speaking with college students
is because, especially in the current climate, one cannot help but be
buoyed by their optimism.  These are important times facing our country
and our world, and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to
disentangle the two.  You are right.  We need to challenge our political
leaders and we need to challenge ourselves.

Good luck in the field of journalism.  I am confident you will be a
welcome addition as a colleague.

Sincerely,

Dan Rather

…

I’ll try to stop my teeny-bopper squealing for a moment and reflect on his message.

Yesterday was Memorial Day and if you weren’t out enjoying the beautiful weather with a barbecque and alcohol, chances are you were inside enjoying a movie marathon or a ball game on television. You probably saw alot of commercials  that were intended to provoke a patriotic response.

There’s the one with the soldiers walking through the airport who receive a spontaneous standing ovation from everyone in the terminal, with a simple “Thank You” message from Budweister at the end.

There’s the one about the different names that marines have gone by over the years: leathernecks, devil dogs, filled with clips of the USMC rescuing children and carrying wounded civilians away from battlezones.

And then there was the one with the adorable Asian-American girl singing “My Countwy Tis of Dee.”

Boy are we patriotic or what? I was touched by some of the ads, but this one seemed a bit on the manipulative side. Who could dare question the motives of our law-breaking President, or the actions of our troops overseas, or our entire society’s obsession with military might, when this cute little cultural anamoly is serenading us with an ultra-patriotic song?

Thomas Jefferson once wrote that it is the duty of the patriot to save his country from its government.

I believe Dan Rather has responded to that call with decades of awesome service to the field of journalism, in the quest for truth. Some people will deride him, some people will say that he has a liberal bias, that he is, and has been unpatriotic for questioning America’s policies and leaders. They will claim that he broke his oath when he reported on Bush’s national guard service and he deserved to get ushered out the door at CBS.

Bull-o-ney. Suppose that Dan Rather really was responsible for the bad information. Was it not already common public knowledge that Bush’s military record was less than stellar? Would that one mistake ruin an entire career of dedicated journalism? Some people will say so. I say no.

Waving the flag and supporting the troops and singing My Country tis of Thee is great, but we should never fall into the trap of feaux-patriotism. A flag lapel should never be sufficient evidence of loving one’s country, and a lack of one should never be considered a sign of treason. It’s time that we stopped the surface level America loving and did our nation a real favor: act in the same spirit that Thomas Jefferson wanted us to act in.

I read the New Yorker less frequently than I used to. I had to admit at a certain point that I didn’t understand half of what they write about, and their fiction section is as thrilling as moon pie on a paper plate. Occasionally they still write something that grabs my attention and today yielded this article on the so-called paradox of free trade:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/05/26/080526ta_talk_surowiecki

The author plays into an age old fallacy of believing that political candidates (in this case, Clinton and Obama,) actually plan to follow through on the promises they make during the campaign. They compare the primary contest to a “who hates free trade more” competition and then chastise the Democratic candidates for not understanding the “paradox” that free trade represents.

That paradox: raising tarriffs on China to help middle Americans will eventually hurt middle and lower class Americans because it will effect their buying power. Buying power that is used to by cheap clothes and shoes made by Chinese children who earn less than a dollar an hour in a sweatshop.

The logic is the same that has brought us the (Still waiting for my) economic stimulus package. Ordinary Americans will quickly spend the money that is being sent to them, and thus will help the economy. If you read between the lines, the administration is saying that poor people are stupid and will give the money right back to us by purchasing useless shit.

I may benefit from cheap goods made in China. In fact, I’m wearing a pretty cheap button-up shirt right now that was made there. But you know what I would benefit from EVEN MORE? A real job that pays well, is protected from outsourcing, and has the backing of a union. Then maybe, just maybe, I could afford to stop buying cheap goods that don’t last very long, and enjoy the luxuries of travel and education like the wealthy.

The anusless masses who subscribe to the New Yorker and the National Review should be smart enough (because of all that expensive education) to understand that lower and middle class Americans wouldn’t make such supposedly stupid buying decisions if they could actually afford to make good ones.

Obama has played the populist card as well as anyone, while nobody (except the middle class people who refuse to vote for him) seems to notice that he thinks free trade is the greatest thing since the wheel. It says so on his website.

Meanwhile, nobody was more responsible for the unleashing of free trade than Bill Clinton. Is it not painfully obvious to anyone that the Democratic party doesn’t give a fourth of a flying fig about average Americans’ interests? (Which is still twice as much as the Republicans.)

Don’t buy the hype. The benefits of free trade for average Americans (and Chinese) are far outweighed by the costs.

While I’m still a little disappointed that the other half of my graduating class gets to have Earth, Wind, and Fire perform at their commencement, I was honored yesterday to hear Dan Rather speak at my graduation ceremony.

Rather spoke, as he often does, of courage. He was speaking not only to those of us who had chosen journalism as their field, but to any of us who used writing. He encouraged us to challenge those who are in power, to not be intimidated by its instruments. Rather did not indulge the simple cliche of saying we are the future; instead, he told us that we are the now; he warned us not to wait to follow our dreams and to change the world and make it in the image that we want it.

These are words that I try to take to heart whenever I sit down to write, whether it be political commentary, diary, or fictional stories. Courage and the willingness to challenge the conventions of society are important. Rather reminded us that democracy is not the sole responsibility of people in Washington or the state legislature: it is on all of us to preserve it.

Journalists are not the only people who must hold those in power accountable. With the growth of the internet, it is now possible for people to understand the world in a limitless number of ways: the barriers to information and freedom are being torn down as we speak, but we must not forget to exercise that right and keep the powers that be in check.

I ask that if you’re voting for John Mccain, you question his policies, and you hold him accountable to the Constitution. I ask that if you’re voting for Obama, you force him to uphold the oath of office. No matter who you choose to elect, I ask that you never stop questioning them. Had we maintained our courage and been more willing to challenge our current President, we would not be in the shape we are in now.

In America, we the people are in charge.

P.S. Congratulations to everyone from the class of 2008

One of the more deplorable things about politics is that most people never change their minds on a subject; once they have made their decision about an issue, it will stand in ther mind no matter what evidence is presented against it. They make fantastic mental leaps in order to assimilate the evidence into whatever idea they already have. I hope that I never become like that.

Today I came across an article from last year that has shifted my opinion on the Israeli question.

http://web.israelinsider.com/views/10767.htm

If you don’t care to read the whole thing, in essence, it states that Nazi propaganda was very widespread throughout the Arab world during the 30’s, and that it has helped shape many of the anti-Semitic views throughout the Muslim world, to this day. I was unaware that Hitler’s words were able to reach such an audience.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m ready to sign on and say that we need to bomb Iran in order to save Israel from certain destruction. A great deal of the hatred that Muslims have for Israel come from Israel’s own policies in dealing with the Palestinians, and much of the same could be said for America’s foreign policies. I do not believe that we are in the Middle East to protect Israel, or to bring democracy to the masses: this war is, was, and always will be about oil. But reading the impact that the Nazi message had on many of the people: “God in heaven, Hitler on Earth,” is disturbing enough for me to think that maybe Mr. Bush isn’t entirely wrong when he compares these regimes to Germany in the 30’s.

Scaling back America’s empire abroad would go a long way to improving our image around the world and would slow the growth of terrorist ideologies, but we should never at any point negotiate with any party or nation that has taken Hitler’s words to heart.

The Obamas may have doomed their chances of living in the White House a long time ago.

Today comes a report that Republican strategists have scoured through decades of sermons by Jeremiah Wright, all tape-recorded, and have found something big. The video will likely not be made available until the fall, but apparently it contains footage of Michelle Obama making racist remarks. The only term that they use in quotations is “whitey.”

I don’t want to speculate too much because I haven’t seen the video- though I guarantee it will be leaked before, or soon after the Democratic Convention- I think this has the potential to be more damaging for Obama than any of his other previous problems.

1. Tony Rezko, the Chicago slumlord was the first bump in the road for Obama, which has gone largely ignored by the national media.

2. Jeremiah Wright has been, thus far, the biggest obstacle to Obama’s campaign, and he will continue to be so, even if this video never came up.

3. Cling-gate: the speech in which Obama claimed people in small towns in Pennsylvannia were clinging to religion and guns has heavily damaged his credibility with working class voters, who already weren’t too fond of him.

4. A racist rant by his by-and-large respected wife could be a death knell for the Obama campaign. All of his ability to “transcend race” will go out the window, and we could be in for a very dirty, race-driven general election.

If the video causes a major stir (which it almost certainly will) then a large number of people who have supported Hillary Clinton may side with John Mccain, and earn him a landslide victory in November.

It’s very sad that the Democratic party can’t come up with a candidate to win in 2008, which will be the best opportunity they will EVER have of regaining the White House.

 Yes we Can, but No I Won’t.

First of all, I am a racist fundamentalist who clings to guns and religion and could never vote for a black man and besides, I think he might be a secret Muslim communist sympathizer, who should have left that evil, evil church a long time ago.

Now that that’s out of the way, here are the real reasons why I will not vote for Obama:

1. Bad Fruit from a Bad Tree

The tree I refer to here is not his mixed heritage or unconventional upbringing. The bad tree that has borne Barack Obama is the Democratic Party. For one, the notion that we have to choose the Democrats over the Republicans because they’re the lesser of two evils is flawed and ignorant. If you got your political coverage from somewhere other than the idiot box or major newspapers, you might discover that there are a whole number of political parties, and if, God forbid, you do some research, I’m certain that you’ll find one that reflects your values more than the Democrats and Republicans, no matter what your values are.

The Democrats have failed at every turn to stop the funding for Bush’s war, they have failed to impeach a President and Vice President that have broken the law and the Geneva conventions, and they have failed to convince me that they will truly change the way business is done in Washington. The donkey party has had it’s fair share of scandals, and I’m not talking about oral sex in the Oval office, here. Once they are back in power, we will quickly be reminded that they can be just as corrupt, inept, and smug as the Republican machine. The party is a bad tree, and anyone who comes out of it can only be bad fruit.

2. Realism

The realism here is not what most people complain about in regards to Obama’s ideas. Many of his critics say that he’s naive for promising to end the war in Iraq, to bring more Americans healthcare, and to heal the divisions in Washington. I say that we would be naive to believe him. If you listen carefully to his speeches and read his policy statements, you will find nothing radical in his rhetoric. His promises of bipartisanship are nothing that a hundred slick political anglers haven’t peddled to the American public a thousand times already. Critics will say that he has a radical voting record, that he is by far the most liberal member of the senate. Other than his extremely creepy voting record on abortion, I see nothing radical at all in his proposals. He’s progressive on abortion, gun control, and immigration. But I don’t see Obama being progressive on the issues that really matter.

When you hear him wax on foreign policy, he’s so eloquent compared to Bush that you can easily believe that he will end our destructive imperialist policies. But he promises to do no such thing. Barack Obama has no intentions of ending the permanent state of militarization in this country; Obama has made no promises to address the military industrial complex, which is the single greatest impediment to our own democracy, and to the lives and freedom of people around the world. Obama speaks of managing America’s image and empire in a more responsible fashion, but he never has shown a desire to “end the mentality that got us into war in the first place,” as he has promised so many times.

The realism needs to come from the American people here. Are we going to believe that one charismatic man can solve every foreign policy issue we have, just because his name is Barack Obama? Talking to terrorists and rogue states is not a radical idea, we have been doing so for decades without any serious intention of engaging their interests. Talk is hollow when it is done from a point of unprecedented military leverage. Obama has no grandiose notions like nuclear disarmament or withdrawing the hundreds of thousands of troops that we have stationed all over the globe. No, there is nothing radical about his ideas at all.

3. Arrogance

The issue of character will rear its ugly head again and again during this election. I am not going to claim that Obama has any less character than the lying Clintons or pandering Mccains, but one thing I do take issue with is the fact that his entire candidacy is based on a platform of arrogance.

Talk to any supporter of Barack Obama and try to see if they can find any flaws in him. I’ve tried, and I’ve come up short every time. Obama has done a superb job of convincing us that he is the coolest fucking thing that has ever walked the Earth. The groundswell of his support comes not from people who desire a real change in American ideas and actions, but from people who believe with all their hearts, minds, and souls, that Barack Obama can fix anything. It’s a point that he has hammered home again and again by claiming he feels the most qualified in the realm of foreign policy, when the man has absolutely no experience in the arena. There is no doubt that Obama is a confident man, and people line up behind confidence like sheep line up to get skinned. My problem is that Mr. Obama’s arrogance has become the driving point of this campaign season, and almost everyone down the line has fallen for it, except for the radical conservatives who will despise him no matter what he does or says.

The media loves Barack Obama. The people love Barack Obama. But don’t forget that the person who is most enamored with the Barack Obama phenomenon, is one Barack Obama.

Ralph Nader will not be our next President. But I’d rather back a humble civil servant over an egomaniacal, slick snake-oil salesman any day of the week.

It is an unbearably hot and humid day in West Virginia in 1998. We are building a small flight of stairs for a family living in a mobile home; for hours we have been pounding nails, sawing, measuring, and sweating in the heat. “We” is a group of kids from Chicago on a mission trip to this impoverished state. The family is a single mother and her son, who have lived together her for several years. The stairs need to be built because recently the mother tripped on the makeshift staircase: a pair of cement blocks.

Every hour she comes out and gives us a new container of lemonade, which we accept gratefully and greedily. This lemonade is sweeter, cooler, better than the granulated stuff that we buy at Jewel back home.

We continue to toil in the sun into the afternoon, only being interrupted to shew away a snake which has strayed into the family’s garden. We don’t have snakes where I’m from. But here it’s not uncommon to be bitten when strolling through your yard. Here everything is a little bit different than back home. Us city kids are worn out easily by the labor, and the older youth group leaders take over the majority of the work soon. Inside, the mother is working just as hard, preparing a feast of chicken and dumplings for our entire group. It will be ready by sundown, she says in her friendly drawl.

Finally we finish the project. Four sturdy wooden stairs now lead up from the muddy ground to the door of their trailer. The son, Ben comes out when we are finished and he marvels at them after skipping down the steps in his bare feet. His mother comes out to see, and he nearly shouts:

“We got stairs, mama!”

I feel a slightly embarassing wave of warmth come over me when he says this. Maybe it’s satisfaction at having helped this family in need, maybe guilt over living in a two-story, middle classed mansion compared to their home. What strikes me is how excited Ben is over having stairs. The family has been living on food stamps for years and simple pleasures like a working staircase bring them the kind of joy that only Christmas usually carries along.

The poverty in West Virginia is real, and it is still as much a problem today as it was then. Today they vote for who they’d like to represent the Democratic party, and more than likely, they will choose Hillary Clinton, even though she has no chance of winning the nomination. There are alot of reasons why they will do this, and I don’t know them all. A great number of people will claim that they are stuck in a racist ideology, bred by time, ignorance, imbreeding, and poverty. On the road back to the school where we stayed for the week, there was a broken down stone wall that was spraypainted with an all-too-common message: “The only good Nigger is a dead Nigger.” We held our breath passing by it every day.

Racism is a fact of life in America today, especially in poorer southern states such as West Virginia. But I hope that Barack Obama’s supporters do not think that just because the people of the state chose to vote for Hillary over him means that they are racist. It’s certainly going to be one reason, but it is not the only one. To lump all of West Virginia together as a pack of ignorant redneck racist hicks is no more constructive than the claim that everyone who votes for Obama or Mccain is a sexist pig who loathes her and could never vote for any woman.

West Virginia is a real state with real problems, and no matter what happens with the voting today, I hope that we keep in mind that these are not stereotypes: the people I met in there were among the kindest, most generous, most genuine that I’ve ever met. The legacy is there, but do not belittle the people of this state by labeling them as anything.