Greetings from
The Publisher . . .
Endorsements, Voting, Economy & Changes?A twelve-year-old boy asked me the other day if I was into politics. When I said, “Yes,” He asked me who I was voting for and I told him Barack Obama.
I asked him if he was into politics. “Yes,” he said, “I am—from a child's viewpoint, of course.” Mature comment, I thought. Citing concerns about the environment and told me he supports Obama too—and just about everyone he knows does.
It seems like that, as we approach voting day.
Conservative/libertarian columnist George Will endorsed Sen. Obama in a column written Oct. 3. (See his website.) When Sen. John McCain said he would fire the head of the SEC, Will pointed out that the President doesn't appoint the SEC chairman and called McCain actions “fact-free” and “emotionally childish.” Will wrote that McCain was “channeling his inner white queen” when he wanted to “off the heads” of those he thought responsible.
I had never really thought of myself as a channel until reading that. I've been channeling that very same white queen.
Did you hear Colin Powell's statement? He said that the job of the Vice-President was to be ready to be President; and that Gov. Sarah Palin was not ready to be President. He endorsed Obama too.
Conservative columnist David Brooks endorsed Obama and complained that modern Republicans were not just anti-intellectual, they were anti-idea. To him, President George Bush and Palin were examples of that. Brooks interned with conservative intellectual William Buckley, Jr., and longs for a return to an idea-based political dialogue. Brooks called Obama more Presidential.
Just about everything leading up to voting day points to Obama. Now if all the above isn't enough to make you nervous, I am. We heard this last election when the Democrats took the House. Commentators on both sides expected it, but expected it to be much worse. They said the same about the election before that too.
The closer we get and the more it looks like a consensus for Obama the more some will take extreme measures to push it the other way. Even beyond the last minute revelations and “proof” of Obama's numerous pacts with the devil.
Scientists at Princetown University hacked into Diebold machines and altered the vote—before the last election. Faux News even reported it. See www.itpolicy.Princeton.edu/voting . They recently requested to watch the count in New Jersey, but were denied by the court. Voting officials argued that it was too important an event and they didn't want anyone in the way watching—with evil eyes I suppose. A recent poll reported that 60% of voters still do not trust voting machines, yet there are still only a few different machines being used.
Since the last election I have followed two sources that focus on election practices. Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman regularly report on Ohio at www.freepress.org. Simply put, Bush didn't get the votes to win in Ohio last election, but he did get their electoral votes. As recently as October they were arguing in Ohio's Supreme Court trying to prevent people from being purged from voter lists again. It's an ongoing battle.
Brad Freidman at www.bradblog.com writes about voting manipulations around the country. His focus is on machines that can't count and can be hacked into; and attempts to purge people from voting rolls. Overt intimidation at polling places isn't widespread in California, but it happens in other states—especially in swing states. Enough happens that Freidman writes about it almost every day.
With all the attention on these tactics and machines the last few years, people are now so much more aware than previously. This time there's hope we'll notice before we can get all the way through the Who's “Won't Get Fooled Again.”
Freidman has also written about voter registration fraud and ACORN, the group McCain endorsed two years ago. They really aren't the problem they're made to appear. Registering does not ensure someone can or will vote.
Some commentators seem particularly enraged that Mickey Mouse was registered to vote. But everyone knows he divides his time between CA and FL. If he shows up anywhere else he'll be recognized and turned away.
Jay Leno's take was that after the last 8-years with Goofy in the White House, why shouldn't Mickey vote.
We all know Mickey's not the rat spin masters make him out to be, but unfortunately, all the last minute fear-based propaganda usually shows it's easier to get people to band together out of fear, than it is to get them to cooperate on something.
I hope we vote for a hopeful, not fearful, future. A group of economists surveyed by The Economist magazine thought Obama would surround himself with better economic advisors and endorsed him. Most economists think we have some major adjustments coming, but Obama could better handle it.
Former President Bill Clinton's explanation was that it wasn't the economy that was broken, it was the leveraging system that led to derivatives and creative deals that failed. We want to bail out Wall Street and the banks, he said, because they provide capital to start the new businesses we need.
Early in the decade, instead of focusing on real estate and creative ways of making money out of money, he said we should have given tax breaks and incentives to support alternative energy businesses. That's still needed, of course, as everyone knew even back then— except for the Bush government. It's good both candidates know.
We're 8 years late and may have to adjust until a green economy creates the new industries and jobs we need—jobs located here, for us/US.
The government may have to get creative and be a bridge to that until that gets going. Some people say they are afraid of having one party control the legislature and executive branches of government, but isn't the alternative gridlock? Do we want legislators who still wonder if we need social security? Or still think investing retirement funds in the stock market is a great idea? We've learned a lot from this Administration haven't we?
So if times are bad, where's the silver lining? We'll learn about people who do prosper in these changing times. We'll redefine prosperity. When people don't have as much money they get closer, more creative and discover simple pleasures and also, what's important. Maybe we will look closer at the U.S. budget and see we have real needs at home—that would make them patriotic needs wouldn't it?
Maybe we'll notice that health care is not a “right?” or a “privilege.” But simply right—it's right to care for the sick and it's smart. It helps big business level the playing field with other Western nations. Can paying for it through taxes be worse than our current insurance premiums? Can government bureaucracy be much worse than the red tape of insurance companies? The hope is that government might be more responsive than insurance companies when faced with a White Queen movement.
If nothing else we now see how easy it is to fund a national health care system. We've done it several times over in Iraq and several times over with these recent buyouts—$50-$75 billion doesn't sound like much anyone.
There's a lot to decide after this election. Let's hope that we've learned to pay attention even when it isn't election year.
Charlie Rose had a half-dozen commentators on his show after one of the debates. Several of them commented that one objection to Obama is that he hasn't waited his turn. He's young, run next time. McCain, especially, has a problem with this—or that one—they said.
They said that Obama was running now because he felt that this time in our history was especially significant; and that his motivation is to put democracy back in the hands of the people—and now is the critical time to do that.
If that means putting people on an equal footing with money, restoring to the national consciousness the idea that people can make a difference, that the government represents and responds to the people—not only lobbyists—I hope Obama wins/won.
The good news is that if we do have hard times ahead, our country is in a unique position to rebound quickly. Our diversity allows us to look at things from many different perspectives to discover what works. We aren't locked into one view of things. And now is really the time to give up the unyielding partisanship, get creative and look for what works. Not many countries are so diverse and so rich this way.
Also unique is that we can explore the many ways and tools to raise our consciousness—and that allows us to more readily discover solutions. We'll keep looking for those to share with you.
Have a Great Month, Good fortune to us/US all.
Steve
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