An Upset Victory

I'm celebrating over the victory, last Tuesday, of an independent democrat who won a 3-way primary, the winner to face a republican for the house seat vacated by Tom Reynolds, who has retired. Her name is Alice Kryzan, and she's an environmental lawyer.

Alice beat an aging millionaire democrat businessman who put a lot of his own money into the race, and she also beat a 30 year old Iraq war veteran put forward by the state and local democratic parties. Now she's beholden to nobody except her own conscience.

I don't live in Kryzan's district, so why should I care? I care because I heard her handle a tough interview from a staunch republican talk show host. She was smart, cool, and verbally astute. Her positions on issues were pragmatic, and she looked forward to helping construct legislative solutions to the issues that America faces. The talk show host was clearly impressed with her. Apparently, working virtually alone in a large geographic district, she convinced a plurality of primary voters that she's the real thing. She won, and she was front page news!

Perhaps Alice's victory is a portent of what will happen in many districts around this country. Maybe people are tired of rich candidates and candidates owned by the special interests who control the political parties. Maybe those candidates who are seen as smart and independent will get unexpected support. I certainly hope so.

Good luck in November, Alice!

American "Empire"

We Americans hear a lot about our soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan, somewhat less about our soldiers in Korea, and from time to time we hear news of someplace else where our troops are involved in something. And, we know that the U.S. has a bunch of large aircraft carriers that go here or there based on some threat or need. But we really haven't a clue about how ubiquitous American military power is, across most of the world.

Take a look at the following url; it's worth a few minutes of your time. http://aep.typepad.com/american_empire_project/2008/09/going-on-an-imp.html
Thanks to a friend for finding it!

As a veteran, I thought I had a reasonable grasp of what our military was into, but I had no idea that we have so many forces and bases overseas. Is this level of commitment beyond our shores necessary to defend our country, or is it what you get if your country is ruled by a military/industrial complex? Something to think about, something to vote about.

"Elitist" Needed

Americans are funny. Maybe we're just like people everywhere. We extoll accomplishment in a general way but seem to resent it in a specific way. We like the idea of doing things well and succeeding, but we seldom hold those who have been very successful in high regard. They're "too rich", "too smug", "too distant", "out of touch with average people", "too elitist", or any number of other phrases that we use to describe people who, by way of their own accomplishment, enjoy fame, riches, social status, or opportunities that we can't even imagine.

In this election, all the candidates are playing down their own success. They're defending themselves from their own accomplishments for fear the electorate will feel distanced from them. Obama stresses his upbringing in a poor single-parent family rather than telling us about the $4 million income he reported last year. McCain talks about his POW days rather than his life as the son and grandson of Navy admirals who lived very well, and he never talks about his wife's $100 million fortune. Biden tells of his humble upbringing in Scranton, and Palin trumpets her marriage to a member of the USW. Running away from success! How interesting.

I don't like this behavior. In a conversation with a very successful lawyer friend this morning after church, he mentioned that he wished the president to be a person who he felt "inferior to" in every way. I replied that I knew, personally, at least ten people who were more qualified to be president than Sarah Palin, but that none of them were really qualified for the job. We both felt that our leaders should be very intelligent, very broadly educated and well-traveled, good communicators, morally and ethically straight, and courageous. That is, they should be the most impressive people that America can produce. Unfortunately, such persons could never get nominated or elected. Too "elite", I suppose. Also, too incorruptible.

Although we may never get the very best citizens to be our leaders, we should nevertheless restrain ourselves about judging those who have accomplished much. The fact is that achievers, like Obama, are those who are most likely to achieve in the future. George Bush, conversely, is a great example of a non-achiever who continued to non-achieve in office. Even Sarah Palin, while unqualified for national office, has done well considering her background. Rather than focusing on her "hockey-mom" credentials and her caribou-shooting ability, however, we should be asking about the qualities that make her superior to us in many ways. When it comes to leading the richest and most powerful nation in the world, an "elitist" is just what we need.

What Century Are We In?

As I left the golf course tonight (shot 39 in our 9-hole league), I picked up NPR and the republican convention. A video was being shown to the conventioneers between speakers, a video outlining all the things McCain would do if he was president.

I was shocked to hear, between such ideas as McCain hastening generic drug approvals and McCain strengthening alliances, that he would bring "20th century information technology" to government. A Freudian slip, no doubt.

The problem is that McCain would champion lots of 20th century ideas as solutions to the problems of the 21st century. He can't escape his generation, and the world has passed him by in more ways than I could enumerate. Not now, not ever, not McCain. For the children.

Gustav a Republican Bonanza

What if you knew you had scheduled a party that was sure to be a dud? It would be embarrassing to just cancel it - you need a good excuse in order to save face. Well, the republicans scheduled a convention that was bound for disaster, and Gustav has saved them.

Why was the convention going to be a dud? Bush and Cheney had to show up, even if they would be early and short, basically out of the picture. What could the party celebrate? Not the economy, not the war, not foreign policy successes, not ethics purity, not constitutional protection. And the nominees? Wooden John McCain and inexperienced Sarah Palin, the latter under pressure from several sides. Where was the inspiration going to come from? Maybe only the dream of continued tax cuts for the rich, but even those seem destined to run out. Time to cancel the party!

Just at the opportune time, along comes Gustav. He's only a run of the mill category three hurricane (now a less threatening category 2), but he's good enough to prompt the cancel. No celebrations when a tragedy is unfolding! McCain's got to get down there and do a photo op in a raincoat. That's a much more effective campaign device than a speech guaranteed to beat Ambien for promoting drowsiness. And, the cancel prevents hundreds of reporters from asking convention delegates questions they can't answer, such as "Why was Sarah Palin the best choice for vice president?", or "How is John McCain going to deal with the deficit?". This year, for the republicans, having a typical convention would have have been a disaster.

Gustav is not living up to his billing, but he'll be good enough. A few cameos and the republicans will be gone from Minneapolis. McCain's poor acceptance speech will be attributed to hurricane fatigue, but he'll be characterized as a fighter who'll be back on his feet in the morning. Maybe it's all for the best. The cancellation saved a lot of us plenty of angst. But, it also prevented the republicans from having to make sense in public - something they find that hard to do these days.

Allegations About Palin's Child

"Daily Kos" recently published detailed circumstantial allegations that Sarah Palin's child is not her own, but is actually the out-of-wedlock child of her oldest daughter. That posting has now disappeared from the web site where it originated. How interesting!

I've looked elsewhere on the internet to find any reference to this allegation, but have found none. No democrat or republican has come out to address the topic. The question is hanging out there, unresolved. Maybe the charge was a lie, maybe not. I expect lots of news organizations, and especially the National Enquirer, are digging for information before they decide to take on this unbelievably hot potato.

Is the question important? You bet! Already, much has been made of this child in the campaign. Palin's decision not to abort her fetus when she was aware it would not be normal has been trumpeted as a personal validation of her "right to life" position. That position would still stand if the child was actually her daughter's. However, if it is confirmed that the child was not Palin's, but instead her daughter's out-of-wedlock birth, the political implications would be major. It would reflect on Palin's success as a mother, and it would reflect on her truthfulness and integrity by claiming she was pregnant in order to avoid an unfavorable public reaction. It would result in many people deciding McCain's choice of her for vice president a terrible mistake, and perhaps finish his campaign.

So, now we wait for this situation to be resolved. It should be a simple matter to confirm the facts one way or the other. There are likely more than a few people who know the truth, and perhaps some who might be in legal trouble if the true mother's name was not disclosed.

I'm torn when I think about this. Based on personal experience I know that the unfortunate actions of children can be dismaying but also require parents to continue unconditional support. If the allegations are true, I feel genuine sorrow for Palin and wish the best for her family. However, if true, the allegations also provide much justification for deeming her unfit for high office. A massive public fabrication of the "facts" of this situation would be totally unacceptable.

The silence is deafening. If Palin suddenly decides to withdraw from the nomination, we will know why. If she files a suit for defamation and and settles the matter in her favor, "Daily Kos" should be and will be pillaried and discredited. But who would deny that this question should be resolved promptly?

Sarah Who?

Sarah Palin, that's who. Our latest candidate for vice president, the person who could be one (lack of) heartbeat away from being commander in chief and chief executive of the United States. John McCain's latest joke.

I spent a little time today learning about Sarah's background and watching her appearance with old John. No gravitas. It's an insult to all Americans that John McCain would nominate a person who was mayor of a tiny Alaska town only 18 months ago to be vice president of the United States. McCain dies; would anyone choose Palin to deal with Boris Putin or Iran? McCain lives; can you see Palin as president of the senate, which is one of the vice president's jobs? What has she done to earn the respect of those in high places? She is a child by comparison.

This episode points out the sad truth of our electoral process. It seldom identifies the best leaders because it must attract votes from the lesser educated masses who understand little about policy and the political process. Palin will appeal to many who share her starkly conservative agenda, admire her beauty queen freshness, and don't have the faintest clue about what her job would be if she were elected. However, she terrifies me.

There are only about 63 days until the election. I'm trying to be optimistic about it. It's hard to believe that a majority of Americans could choose McCain and Palin over Obama and Biden, simply because of the latter's giant advantage in experience and accomplishment. It's not about republican -vs- democrat; it's about us turning over leadership of the world's richest and most powerful country to people who we feel have the judgement to move it forward and avoid stupid mistakes. We know what happens when we make a mistake in choosing...America has been slipping in every category for eight years. McCain-Palin would be a worse mistake, not because they are bad people but simply because they are the wrong people.

Southern Exposure

Good Witch and I traveled to Tennessee and North Carolina on Friday and Saturday, and we've been enjoying southern hospitality for the last couple of days. It's great, but clearly different.

The first sign that we're arriving in the south is the appearance of "Southern Exposure" roadside billboards. "Southern Exposure" is the name of the chain of skin bars that dot the interstate, beginning in West Virginia. Their parking lots are populated most times of day, but I can't speak for what's going on inside. Not interested.

After arriving at my brother's nice home near Kingsport, Tennessee, I was soon gifted with a quart Mason jar of nice clear moonshine, made not long ago, and legally, by a friend of his whose family has been in the moonshine busness for a couple centuries. I've not had moonshine since I lived in central Tennessee about 40 years ago. It will put hair on your chest!

For breakfast Saturday morning we enjoyed some delicious pork sausage with our eggs and toast. The sausage came from a 400 pound pig that my brother shot in the head with a .22 rifle before being tutored by the farmer in the fine art of skinning, splitting, and butchering a pig. You may wonder what kind of guy my brother is: he's president of a large high-tech company who spent part of last week in Bangkok dealing with the Thai government, who is a major customer. He just butchers pigs in his spare time...it's a southern thing.

After breakfast we drove across the Smoky Mountains to Hendersonville, NC, just south of Asheville. Every time my car reaches Erwin, TN, and the huge mountains come into view, I'm amazed that I once hiked across them on the Appalachian Trail. They seem almost insurmountable, but actually they are quite traversable one step at a time. It just takes a few weeks to do it.

My 87 year old mother and her slightly younger husband live in Hendersonville, comfortable in a villa that's part of a multi-tiered senior living community. We've been to an Agatha Christie mystery play with them, and also had a fantastic brunch at a 1930's stone mansion, now a B&B, just across the South Carolina border. Tomorrow Bob and I play golf, weather permitting. He's over 80, but he still lives to chase the elusive golf ball.

Tomorrow marks GW's and my 42nd anniversary! It can be true that everything, and I mean everything, about a marriage can still be improving after that many years. In our case, it is. Maybe it just takes a long time to get it right.

Politically speaking, western North Carolina is pretty redneck. There are many transplanted northerners here, but they are still outnumbered by the locals who have been isolated in these mountains for a long time and are subjected daily to a local newpaper owned by reactionaries. McCain will take Henderson County by a large margin. When I reflect on Hendersonville being representative of most of the south, I wonder if the founding fathers were right when they attempted to restrict voting rights to those who were likely to be educated.

We'll hop in the car early on Wednesday morning and I'll drive 800 miles to Rochester in one 14-15 hour stint broken up by short potty breaks every two hours. It's a grind, but Good Witch reads a novel to me for a few of those hours. On our way down we made it halfway through "The Sweet Hereafter", by Russell Banks, and we'll finish it on the way home. Then it will be back to business with a church mortgage closing on Thursday morning, a board meeting Thursday night, and then the overnight shift at the ambulance. But our "Southern Exposure" will have given us a nice break in routine and some interesting experiences. We'll do this trip over and over again until the people we come to visit have moved on for the last time.

Will the Oldsters Put McCain Over the Top?

I worry about the world-view gap between septuagenarians, nonagenarians, centenarians, and the rest of us. I worry that this gap may cost Obama the election in November, and I'm not happy that those with little at stake in America's future may make the difference in determining what that future will be.

Yes, it's risky to talk in generalities, and I know that there are grandma's and grandpa's who are rabid for Obama. But, in general, I believe a large majority of oldsters will vote for McCain. Why would they make this irrational choice? Because they think he's the rational choice, of course! McCain appeals to their world-view.

I recently observed a well-dressed, tight-lipped old lady sitting in a car repair shop waiting room reading one of the latest swift-boat books about Obama. She fit exactly the profile of the Fox News watching, Limbaugh-listening senior who lives in a world very different from mine.

If I had tried to chat with this lady I'd surely have found she's ruled by fear. Fear of blacks. Fear of Muslims. Fear of latinos. Fear of Russians. Fear of taxes. Our imaginary conversation would be all about what she's afraid of and nothing about what she's for. Her vision would be a return to the America of the 1950's when she was in her prime and society was not yet homogenized. She liked it when the white cream was clearly on the top, and she identifies with anyone who rants at how America has changed in the last 50 years. And, unfortunately, she votes.

Is this lady a caricature of her generation? Are they all so buttoned-up and sour? Of course not. But her generation certainly leans hard in her direction. Their knee-jerk reactions have little to do with today's realities and everything to do with the programming they received as young people. Less wealthy oldsters fear the democratic party because it represents a multi-colored society, and wealthier oldsters add the fear that their wealth might be redistributed to those who are different from them. McCain looks like them, and he speaks their language. He will get their vote.

My world is also largely caucasian and well-to-do, but it's a world one generation ahead of this older woman's. We've been through the period when other races and women proved they are just as capable as whites and men. We've been through the period when homosexuals "came out", and we learned they are not the scary deviants that they were formerly portrayed to be. We've been through the period when the Vietnam war and the recent Iraq war showed that American militarism can be a cancer on our country. We've been through a period when our government failed to enact sensible energy and fiscal policies. My baby-boomer generation understands that a return to the past would be retrogression rather than progress.

Will the votes of people who live in a world long past put John McCain in the White House? Will we who want to capitalize on America's new strengths have to wait four more years before it's obvious that America's gone down the wrong roads for too long? I hope not. But I worry about the voting power of those who won't be around to suffer the consequences of their fear-filled choice for the republican party and its backward-looking agenda.

Think Twice Before Multi-tasking in Car

I've been a medic on two serious head-on crashes. One resulted in a fatality, the other in a life-changing event for the victim. Both resulted from drivers who attempted to do something else while driving and subsequently crossed the center line.

Unfortunately, the deadly or serious injuries happened to the unsuspecting drivers who were suddenly presented with a car coming at them in their lane at high speed. They never had a chance...

I feel sorry for the victims, but also for the careless drivers. Who would want to have the memory of their stupidity causing such carnage?

Drive your car. Save the cell phone, the text message, or the kid's discipline for when you are safely parked.

Election Fatigue

There's almost four months left until the 2008 elections, and I'm already fatigued. What was once interesting is now turning into a soap opera.

McCain says we need an "economic surge". Obama supports a windfall profits tax. Hillary and Bill are keeping their irons in the fire, just in case. The race card has been played again (by McCain's surrogates). What crap! I can't wait for the next bit of non-news. Four more months of this agony?

Everything McCain and Obama will say from here on is unimportant. The lines have already been drawn, the candidates have already shown their colors. At this point both are reduced to pandering to some small fraction of Americans who are undecided or wavering. And in their pandering, both are reducing themselves. Ugh!

This coming election offers clear choices. We can elect a rich, flag-waving, semi-corrupt, poorly educated old guy who will pursue the corporate agenda, or we can elect a rich, populist, semi-corrupt, well educated young guy who will pursue the center-left agenda (ala Clinton). Each day that the election cycle continues will corrupt each candidate just a little more as they sell pieces of their soul for a few more votes or an endorsement.

The Europeans have a much better system. Call the election and get on with it! I wonder: "Can I die of election fatigue?"

"ZZ Top" Who?

Last night as I was thumbing through channels I heard this very cool guitar sound, so I stopped thumbing and saw: a guitar player and a bass player with long white beards and a wild-looking drummer generating pulsating music on a very large stage. I pushed the "info" button and found out I was watching MTV and the music-makers were called "ZZ Top". For the next 40 minutes I was mesmerized by their driving rhythms, their creative themes, and their showmanship. They were just plain fantastic and the huge crowd was going wild on every song.

Partway through this adventure I googled "ZZ Top" and found their "wiki" entry. It turns out they are the longest lived original rock band still performing with their original artists. Their first hit was in 1969, they've put out a plethora of albums since then, and the guitar player is regarded as one of the finest players around. I scratched my head...why didn't I know about these guys?

I am a music nut, and I'm not picky about genre. I'll never forget the first time I heard Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Pride and Joy" on the radio late one night, years ago - I had the CD the next day, months before he became a star. From Bach to country and jazz, I like all the good stuff that demonstrates real musicality. How could ZZ Top have escaped my ears?

Well, on reflection I realized that ZZ Top is considered "hard rock", a genre that I just couldn't handle. Every time I tuned in, it insulted my ears with harshness and my mind with lyrics I couldn't even decode. So I tuned out and in the process tuned out ZZ Top until last night.

This experience confirms to me that there is beauty in about every kind of music, including hard rock. I'm sorry I've been deprived of their talent all these years, but I'm also happy that I've now found it for the first time. Life is full of pleasant surprises!

Depression, Revolution, or War

"Which would you rather have, a major depression, a revolution, or a really big war? "

"Quite a choice of ugly alternatives!", you might exclaim in response.

Well, that's what I think are the choices we are likely to face if the U.S. government doesn't get our economy fixed for the long run.

I attended a men's outing one day this week at a lovely "cottage" on Keuka Lake, one of the "finger lakes" south of Rochester...on land worth thousands of dollars per foot of lakefront. The 20 men who attended are pretty smart guys, and we talked about a lot of things as we enjoyed the ambiance of a beautiful scene, plenty of good food and drink, and a respite from the day-to-day pressures that most of us face. Most of the men were either retired or well along in their work life.

The consensus is that our kids and grandchildren will not enjoy anything like the standard of living that we have enjoyed. The America of today is not the stable, rich land of opportunity that we remember, and all signs point to further deterioration. We don't see a large class of younger "middle and upper-middle class" people accumulating enough wealth to live well after their retirement. Rather, we see America being propped up by us older folks as we spend our accumulated wealth, and then falling rapidly as we are not replaced by a large group of relatively well-off older citizens.

Our generation enjoyed significant advantages over our counterparts around the world. Their countries were ravaged by war, their treasuries were depleted, and their cultures resisted change. They had less natural resources to tap, and often, less freedom to be entrepreneurs. But all this is past history now. Our competitor countries have rebuilt, their people have worked hard and saved, they understand entrepreneurship, and their citizens are more free to succeed.
America is no longer the source of most items demanded by consumers, and our competition has virtually wiped out America's participation in some industries.

During the time our economic competitors were gearing up, our government has fought three very expensive wars, set up social programs like Social Security and Medicare without adequately funding them, and has run big deficits and foreign debts despite being the most successful economy in the world for two generations. We have got fat and lazy while our competitors have got skinny and invigorated. At one time America was the world's banker, but now we are the world's biggest debtor. As the value of our currency falls our standard of living will fall and our sense of security will diminish as the years pass. How will our people handle the disappointment?

That's where my choices come in. If we do nothing to fix our problems we will face either a major depression, a revolution, or a big-time war. We will have a depression if the U.S. dollar depreciates even further, since oil and commodities will become extremely expensive. We will have a revolution if our citizens conclude our political system is guilty of selling us out. We will have a major war if our politicians decide that a desperate grab for worldwide power is preferable to America falling via depression or revolution. This is not a very happy set of possibilities. Can they be avoided? I don't know.

What I do know is that America needs to make some dramatic changes in order to compete and survive in the 21st century. Government needs to live within its means, get our entitlements under control, and somehow convince the citizens to endure the lower standard of living that recovering will entail. There is no quick fix; our debts are gigantic and our resistance to change is high. Will our politicians ever wake up to their responsibility to future generations, or will they, like President Bush, paper over the problems until a collapse is inevitable?

Depression, Revolution, War, or major structural change? This is no parlor game question. We don't have much longer before the answer must be given, so pray it's the latter.

McCain is the Wrong Man

Lately there's been a lot of talk about Obama's and McCain's qualifications to be president. I'd agree with those who say Obama is light on experience, but I have a lot of trust in his knowledge, his instincts and his calm and positive demeanor. On the other hand, I've become more and more convinced that McCain would mean big trouble for our country because he lacks knowledge and seems socially retarded. In these respects, McCain differs little from our current unsuccessful president.

It's no surprise that McCain's supporters focus on his military background and his POW status in order to depict him as a great patriot. In my view, his version of patriotism is about all he has to offer. Like Bush, his education is dated and there's little evidence he's been a dedicated student of world affairs and the cultural, business, and social issues that face America today. There's plenty of evidence that he has a short fuse, speaks before he thinks, and has a penchant for being crude in public and private. Because his family's wealth and his privileged status as a tenured senator have isolated him from the challenges faced by average Americans, he is unable to clearly explain domestic issues or speak coherently about how to address them. And lastly, his mental and physical stamina is suspect due to his age. In short, he's not competent to be president unless you feel patriotism is the sole criteria.

I don't hate John McCain. He is a product of his environment, as we all are, and I doubt he is an evil person like Dick Cheney. But, remember: he is running for the most important and demanding job in the world. McCain is clearly the wrong man.