Armageddon American Style

I cannot recall ever seeing the people of our country as angry as they are now.  Everyone is on edge if not at each other's throat.

It' uncomfortable.  The reason?  The almighty dollar and what it does and does not buy.  Can the people defeat what and who it owns?  Let's look at it.

The politicians, bought and paid for.  Their misguided solutions to  problems.  Like Dodds/Frank which is in essence telling banks to go ahead and be stupid because they won't be allowed to fail.

Then there are those financial institutions.  So tarred with regulation they won't lend money which could fix the mortgage mess though they sit on more than adequate reserves.  Yet they are so tone deaf, they use that money - ours - to award themselves once again with large salaries and larger bonuses.  Meanwhile we sit homeless, jobless and hungry.

Back to the politicians.  Even though we keep trying to change the dynamic through elections, it's a blip that lasts only as long as it takes to get them sworn in.  The Democrats still hate the Republicans and vice versa.  The Progressives hate the President.  The President hates Congress.  The Conservatives hate everyone who doesn't agree with them.

Okay.  Maybe hate is too strong a word but the emotion is fast approaching it.  The candidates are mistrusted by the electorate.  They're too far right, not far enough right, the wrong religion, their policies are weak or too convoluted.  Whew.  It's exhausting trying to keep up with it.

It is all, however, tied back to that almighty dollar. The Tea Party started out with people demanding fiscal responsibility until they were hijacked by the extremes who have skewed the intent.  That group was for the most part middle class working people.

Now we have the Occupy Wall Street movement. There is even one being organized by college students for Coeur d'Alene.  This movement, not unlike the Tea Party, started out protesting inequity.  And not unlike the Tea Party it is already being compromised by special interests.

What is clear is the people have had it and then some.  It is palpable.  I've been blogging long enough to notice the edge that has been creeping into those who comment. It's okay.  I ramble at times, just letting whatever I'm looking at be put out there for thought.  What at one time would have been taken as silly is no longer.  People aren't seeing 'silly'.  They're seeing loss and frustration and anger because those who should be able to change things either don't have the ability to or won't.  Angry because we put them in positions of power and feel betrayed by them and because we weren't smart enough to see it beforehand.

How is it all going to end?  Crime is up.  Anxiety is high.  Money is tight. I feel like I'm in the midst of an F5 tornado.  I'd not like to be the storm chaser following this one.  I'd fear there'd not be enough with which to rebuild after it passes.  When it passes.  If it passes.

So Joe's Going To Run!

Joe the Plumber, also known as Sam Wurzelbacher, has filed a statement of candicacy with the FEC.  I'm not sure I'm happy about it but not for the reason you may be thinking.

I'm afraid if he wins he might change like so many others in Congress.  The institution does something to members.  It makes them forget they were elected to run the country as we want it run, not the way they think it should be run. For their own, personal ends.

Joe has had a checkered career since first we met.  In some ventures he was sorely out of his league, but he was enough of a 'personality' that he was afforded opportunities others of us would love to have had.

To run for Congress, however, is not out of his league.  He's not slick. I have no idea what his formal education may have been but I wager it does not include a law degree from Harvard.  I bet too he'd probably tell you what his grades were.  That, however, is strictly conjecture on my part.

What he does have is savvy.  Had hot shots like myself only listened to him when he asked Obama if he bought a company that made $250,000 or better a year would his taxes go up.  Right then and there was the answer we've been grappling with ever since.  Now it's being called class warfare - pitting Americans against Americans.  What did Obama say?

"I think when you spread the wealth around it's, it's good for everybody."

Perhaps this is why Herman Cain is so popular.  He has spelled out a plan, while maybe not perfect, where everyone has some skin in the game.  In other words, everyone would have to pony up.  The rich wouldn't have to carry the poor.

Where Obama runs into problems is he has yet to provide  an equitable plan for taxing the rich.  How much is enough?  How much is too much?  Fault will be found with any number put forward.  But then I don't think he cares.  Just tax them.  Mightily.

So what would happen to Joe?   He's about as much the everyman that there is.  He didn't like the politics behind the campaigning when McCain embraced him and made no bones about it. Now he's going to give it a try on his own.

If he's able to handle the flack that will be aimed at him, perhaps he can win.  He'd be interesting. He saw right through the tax the rich rhetoric during the 2008 campaign.  He knew that a company making $250,000 isn't going to be rich after expenses this day and age.  Heck, by no measure is $250,000 rich this day and age.  He didn't buy the company.  He didn't create any jobs.  It's one small business that didn't become part of the backbone of the American economy.

He understands because he's been there.  I'd almost rather have him on the outside looking in with a platform to let us know what he's seeing.  Sometimes it's the better place to be. 

Holier Than Thou

There is a good reason for the separation of church and state.  Ironically, the  Value Voters Summit is a prime example of why.

I have no objection to believing in a Deity,  and  embracing the tome that justifies it in ones mind.  I do have an objection to one such group denigrating those who don't believe the same dictums, especially when it comes to the ability to capably lead our country.

We're not looking at radical Islam here.  We are looking at freedom of religion.  Freedom to worship as you believe without penalty from those who disagree.

The Value Voters crowd is not looking at what solutions the candidates have to solve the problems that are plaguing our country.  Economic meltdown, joblessness, crumbling infrastructure, instability world wide.  No.  They're looking for the candidates to bow to their dictates on social values.  The media eggs them on.  The candidates pander.  That pandering makes me take a much closer look at those who chose not to do so.  Jon Huntsman.  And yes, Newt Gingrich.

You see, I'm not a Christian Conservative.  I do not agree with much that they demand.  I do not believe it makes me an evil person, nor does it diminish in any way my abilities in the areas in which I am capable.

Preachers from their Mega churches seem to have the ability to mesmerize their followers into believing extreme views.  Like insisting Mormonism is a cult.  I could say all organized religions are cults because they do not believe as I do.  I can hear the hue and cry now!

I listen to how many of these people have actual conversations with God.  I should run.  I shouldn't run.  He told my husband and my husband told me.  Please. I have never, ever heard such voices and don't tell me it's because I don't believe.  I can't accept that as fact.  If God were having conversations with the candidates, why isn't He telling the rest of the world to quit having wars or beating our wives or killing our kids?

I also can't take a movement seriously when their pastors say, as truths, "Homosexuality caused the Holocaust."  Boy, is that an over used theme.  Or, "The government 'incentivizes' African-Americans to 'rut like rabbits'." Talk about racist.  It seems to me neither statement has a thing to do with the worship of God nor an indication that the pastor who made the statements is in any way capable of defining who would make a good presidential candidate.  Why are such people even elevated to the prestige of being a pastor?

There are so many religions in the world, and even a brief study of their symbolism indicates a penchant for peace and tranquility. Not divisiveness and hate. There are good and bad among all of them.   When the bad tends to be radical, though most haven't devolved to the extent of the radical Islams where heads are cut off and societies targeted for annihilation, they are getting precariously close.  Our society is just as threatened by 'Christian' radicals who would deny good people from serving because of their religious backgrounds as we are from the Islamic terrorist cells we're told are within our country.  They both aim to conquer.

With the country teetering on the edge of anarchy with the growing protests spreading from city to city, we had better band together in looking for qualities of leadership and sound policy rather than divisive self interest.  I'm not sure the country is any longer capable of it.

Speaking of divisive self interest - the media isn't helping.

Texting - Should Behavior Be Legislated?

Well of course behavior is legislated all the time.  That's what laws are all about.  So a ban on texting while driving?

After hearing a report on the news last night where recent tests have found texting while driving is more dangerous than driving drunk, it makes me wonder about the disconnect.

I recalled reading that our state, one of only 16 that does not have a law against texting, missed the opportunity due to trying to make a law difficult to enforce, more difficult and the  legislative session ran out of time.

Thank you to our now U.S. House representative, Raul Labrador, for throwing a monkey wrench in the process.  I find it appalling that one man can hold the fate of legislation in his hands when the majority have ruled against him.

That being said, the problem still exists and studies continue.  The one reported in Car and Driver tested drivers' reactions while both sending and reading a text. Then they got them inebriated to the legal limit and tested their reaction times without texting.  The results found the reaction times worse while texting than being under the influence.  I don't know about you, but it scares the living daylights out of me.

I know texting is the latest fad that people of another generation seem not to be able to do without.  Even the penalties were to be no more than a slap on the wrist compared to a DUI.

Consider a first violation fine for texting of $50 versus a first DUI conviction of up to 6 months in jail, a $1000 fine, license suspended from 90 to 180 days with restrictions possible after 30 days plus the possibility of having to undergo alcohol evaluation and treatment.

There is definitely something out of whack here.  One is why police, fire and emergency workers would have been exempted.  Like they're better at it then we are?  They're enough of a menace on their cell phones.  As are the rest of us.  If a person is killed, they are dead.  Dead.  It doesn't matter if it was alcohol or texting related.  Dead.

When a group of sixth graders and their teachers research the subject and join with the AAA to support the ban, I have to wonder at the wisdom of one legislator in particular along with the others who tried to gut the legislation.  The school project  took place in 2010.

How many texting related accidents have occured since and how many ended as fatalities?  Difficult to enforce?  Only because the legislature wanted to make it such.  Toothless?  Only because the legislature wanted to make it such.

But the kids know, as does this old lady, you can't look down to text, or read one and watch the road at the same time.  As one twelve year old said, "People aren't going to stop unless it becomes a law."  Let me add, one with teeth in it.  Just in case law enforcement figures it out.

Lucky New Jersey

Yes.  New Jersey is a very fortunate state.  It has a governor who really cares for the state and it's people.  A governor who put his love for his state above ego and pressure.

Unable or unwilling, I'm not sure which, the Republican powers are still looking for an ideal candidate to pit against Obama.  Chris Christie won't be the one and I couldn't be more happy.  Mainly because he hasn't disappointed me.  He has remained a man of his word.

I think it takes a great deal of control and a good dose of humility to resist the pressures to run for President that Mr. Christie faced.  It will be interesting to see if he enters the field in 2016.  There are a lot of good young Republicans waiting in the wings, but I can't help wonder about their fate.

Consider what is happening to the current field.  With the exception of Ron Paul, who to my way of thinking, is too extreme, all of them could handle the job.  Some better than others.

What troubles me is the lack of positive reporting on them and the extremes of negativity.  Romney - Massachuttes Care and Mormonism.  Bachmann - a bit foggy on historical truths and reactionary.  Santorum - too far right.  Gingrich - too much baggage.  Cain - he's a racist and can't win anyway.  No foreign policy, no political experience. Perry - what more need be said.  Huntsman - where the heck is he?  Never mind; he's Mormon and too moderate.  Buddy Roemer and Gary Johnson - did you even know they are running?  Isn't there anything good and positive about any of them?

As much as I like to watch politics, I know I'll never understand it.  Mostly because politicians today have defined themselves differently than our founding fathers intended.  The media, too, is complicit.  They no longer report all sides of an issue, just those that agree with the philosophical bent of their owners.  They no longer serve the public well and haven't for far too long.

At least today, as far as I'm concerned, will be  remembered as bright spot in national politics.  A good man has remained true to his word.  What a breath of fresh air.  While his absence in the race may be considered our loss ~ it is really our gain.  And his.