I missed something somewhere. I missed the day when being elite at your job and suffering from a condition “elitism” became an automatic conclusion. That day when being one of the best at what you do became a bad thing because you automatically become stuck up.
Being “elite” is not a bad thing, quite the opposite. The Delta Force, the Naval Seals, Marine Force Recon, The Green Berra’s are all elite special forces units. These are the best soldiers, sailors and marines we’ve got. If I am being held hostage by terrorists or the like, I don’t want a volunteer unit comprised of the folks of my town or my friends to come get me. I want these elite troops coming after me. Does this make me a bad person?
In college basketball, when my team makes the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament (for my friends and readers who don’t follow college basketball, the final eight teams left standing in the NCAA Basketball Tournament (a.k.a. March Madness)), should I be ashamed now rather than proud? Are they bad men & women for doing this? Do they no long represent humble, small town values?
Elitism on the other hand, the bad side of which Webster’s dictionary defines as “the selectivity of the elite ; especially : snobbery , elitism in choosing new members, . . ., consciousness of being or belonging to an elite”. Now, that is the problem. I have had very intelligent, talented friends who unfortunately fall into this. They assume incompetence when they hear a regional accent or that someone is from a humble beginning or a small town. This is dangerous stuff.
But being one of the best at something, having graduated from one of the best schools, best programs, etc. This is something we should want. We should be ok with an inexperienced Senator from Illinois, who comes from a humble background, who can give good speeches and have an impressive brain in his head. I’m not talking about Obama, but a guy by the name of Abraham Lincoln. We should be Ok with a presidential candidate handling a major economic and foreign policy crisis whose middle name is strange and has it’s origin in a foreign power we are worried about. No, again not Obama but Franklin D. Roosevelt. His middle name is scarily not anglo, but gasp, from when of rivals at the time. We should not be afraid of a guy who went to elite schools and has risen quickly to the Senate, but is young running the country through a crisis, because I am talking about a guy named John Kennedy
By the way, when I think of elitism, I usually think of those with power and privilege. Those with multiple houses, multiple cars, whose families have walked the corridors of power for decades. I don’t think of the son of a single mom, who had to go to schools on scholarships, who worked in the inner city with the poor, who slept a night or two on the streets, who even when he makes it has only one house and one car.
Thus far, in American History, these elites who graduated from great schools, at or near the top of their classes, who speak well, who think, who listen to dissenting voices, and who rise quickly, are not the problem. They have been the solution. They are, Republican and Democrat, the kind of people who end up on the sides of mountains, on coins and bills, etc. So, how about we give a new one a chance? I voted early and already did. How about you?
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A few thoughts on Palin
The local paper in Wasilla, Alaska, The Frontiersman is anything but a liberal, big city newspaper. You know the kind that attacks poor, innocent conservative candidates A brief glance at it’s website, at least in the first week of September 2008 and you find articles you would expect to see in a local paper: prep volleyball teams getting ready for the season, local concerts and events, an article by a local pastor on the evils of Contemporary Christian music (I kid you not, Michael W. Smith is leading us all to hell?). There is even a Op Ed talking about how wonderful it is to have a local on the ticket with McCain, as it has been a tough year for Alaska with all of the corruption scandals and all. But, look at some old print and you find a different story.
According to The Frontiersman’s articles and editorials during Sarah Palin’s administration, they were not really enthralled with this “experienced executive”. To quote a long, scathing editorial, “Palin promised to change the status quo, but at every turn we find hints of cronyism and political maneuvering. We see a woman who has long since surrendered her ideals to a political machine”. The piece continues “The Mayor’s [Palin] administration has been one of contradiction, controversy and discord. While she will blame everyone but herself, we mostly see Sarah at the center of the problem”. Finally, my favorite quote, “Mayor Palin fails to have a grasp of something very simple: the truth”.- Frontiersman editorial 2/7/97.
Think maybe they had a rough day with her, then read more “Wasilla is led by a woman who will tolerate no one who questions her actions or authority.” Further “Palin continues to lose public faith by sticking by her philosophy that we are either with her or against her.” Frontiersman editorial 3/7/97. Further the paper accused her of padding her resume to get the mayoral job in the first place. She claimed to have executive experience running a lodge. The problem is the lodge did not have a license nor pay taxes during the time she supposedly ran it. Frontiersman articles 1/22/97 & 2/5/97.
But, you know a mayor can run afoul of the local newspaper, even one of a similar ideology. So what did other papers say about this wonderful reformer, the woman cleaning up Alaska’s political mess? In 2002, she ran for Lt. Governor unsuccessfully, the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s high circulation newspaper (paper’s website confirmed by Wikipedia) ran a series of articles detailing her running of the campaign from Wasilla City Hall. Mayor Palin was found to have used city funds, resources and personnel to further this bid. She held meetings with vendors, used phones, faxes, computers and staff to further the campaign - Anchorage Daily News 7/14/06, 7/21/06, 7/28/06, 8/9/06, 8/18/06. Whoopsie, is using your government office to run your campaign not reform?
There are 46 Republican members of the United States Senate with more experience than Governor Palin, and 17 Republican Governors. Even take out McCain, his colleague from Arizona who can not constitutionally run on the same ticket as him, and Arnold who can not Consitutionally be president (and they're is surely a team working on that), that leaves almost 60 more qualified current Republican Governors and Senators (Electoral-Vote.com). Ah, but he wanted to make history, fine, that leaves 6 women governors in senators in that pool with more experience. Factor religious views and ideology, and you are still at 5. Factor in former or current members of congress, former governors, former senators, cabinent secretaries, people who have been to Ireland for more than refueling stops, etc. Well, you get the picture. When asked if this was the best the party had to offer, a Republican Member of Congress answer “Well, it’s Senator McCain’s choice”. Boy, I feel the confidence now.
Never mind the pregnant teenage daughter, I will not value judge, nor should anyone else according to my Christian beliefs. However, Oh my God can you imagine James Dobson or Rush Limbaugh if this was a liberal Democratic Governor, even if they were going to keep the child and get married? Or how about the specials needs newborn at home? Again, I don’t think we could restrain Dobson or Limbaugh if this were Obama’s running mate, but the Palin family should run the Palin family’s life, even if my decision would be different (ok, the wife says she would not just divorce me but borrow Palin's favorite hunting riffle and she's a paficist, my wife not Palin). Never mind “Trooper gate”, you know where she may have used her office to try to get her ex-brother in law fired during a custody battle and then fired his boss when he did not fire the ex-brother in law, and which will result in her facing criminal charges or not about October 31st, you know 4 days before election day (sorry, but run on sentence required here, as is the effort to stall this investigation until after November) . Never mind the lawsuits for discrimination, etc while she was mayor, even a great mayor could face those. Please, despite the fact that I snicker to no end about these, don’t even think about her brother in law on a reality dating show, her husband with the 22 year old DUI (but both parties have their spouse embarrassments), her saying that Alaska lacks culture and class on the way to see Ivanna Trump at the nearest Costco, the fact she smoked pot and liked it (like others running for or who got the job before) or the fact that she set up a marketing business whose fancy name means literally “red neck” (I love the Blue Collar Comedy tour and my ex brother in law is the best parts of a red neck).
No, focus on the serious, please. Her “executive experience of the past” is a joke. Small towns, contrary to what you may think of me as a liberal city boy (mind you the son of a small town, country boy), would say, are not backwards. Folks from the country, with accents that sound funny to some of you, are acutally smarter than a lot of you know. But this woman ran her town and it’s of more like 7,000 than 8,000, ineffectively. Also, this woman was in no way vetted, contrary to McCain’s statements. She met him personally once, 6 months ago for 15 minutes. She was interviewed briefly by his campaign staff on the day he picked her, without him present. This is the kind of rock solid judgment we get with John McCain? I agree with his former top aide who says that the worst thing about this is that it diminishes what John McCain has been about and is about cynical political gain.
Ask yourself, given that statistical tables say there is a 33% chance that John McCain will not make it through two terms (Metlife actuarial tables per Electoral-Vote.Com), due to the natural aging process, in fact he hits average male American life expectancy in term one. Also, he has had three bouts of the most serious, and often fatal form of skin cancer. So, feeling the love of the “Hockey Mom” now? The job of President is all about judgment. Some of our greatest Presidents, you know the ones on the mountain side and money, have had the lowest experience. So, guess it cuts both ways, but for my money, give me the guy running a 3,000 employee business, with the 4 years in the Senate, 8 years in the state senate, and years fighting poverty door to door (and sorry to my conservative, Christian friends but the button is right "Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor"), and the almost three decades in Washington running mate, versus the albeit decorated war vet with less experience than the running and the self-described “Pit bull with lipstick”.
Oh, by the way, think this is the guy’s view from Ohio, thousands of miles away, read the woman from her hometown’s view at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp.
According to The Frontiersman’s articles and editorials during Sarah Palin’s administration, they were not really enthralled with this “experienced executive”. To quote a long, scathing editorial, “Palin promised to change the status quo, but at every turn we find hints of cronyism and political maneuvering. We see a woman who has long since surrendered her ideals to a political machine”. The piece continues “The Mayor’s [Palin] administration has been one of contradiction, controversy and discord. While she will blame everyone but herself, we mostly see Sarah at the center of the problem”. Finally, my favorite quote, “Mayor Palin fails to have a grasp of something very simple: the truth”.- Frontiersman editorial 2/7/97.
Think maybe they had a rough day with her, then read more “Wasilla is led by a woman who will tolerate no one who questions her actions or authority.” Further “Palin continues to lose public faith by sticking by her philosophy that we are either with her or against her.” Frontiersman editorial 3/7/97. Further the paper accused her of padding her resume to get the mayoral job in the first place. She claimed to have executive experience running a lodge. The problem is the lodge did not have a license nor pay taxes during the time she supposedly ran it. Frontiersman articles 1/22/97 & 2/5/97.
But, you know a mayor can run afoul of the local newspaper, even one of a similar ideology. So what did other papers say about this wonderful reformer, the woman cleaning up Alaska’s political mess? In 2002, she ran for Lt. Governor unsuccessfully, the Anchorage Daily News, the state’s high circulation newspaper (paper’s website confirmed by Wikipedia) ran a series of articles detailing her running of the campaign from Wasilla City Hall. Mayor Palin was found to have used city funds, resources and personnel to further this bid. She held meetings with vendors, used phones, faxes, computers and staff to further the campaign - Anchorage Daily News 7/14/06, 7/21/06, 7/28/06, 8/9/06, 8/18/06. Whoopsie, is using your government office to run your campaign not reform?
There are 46 Republican members of the United States Senate with more experience than Governor Palin, and 17 Republican Governors. Even take out McCain, his colleague from Arizona who can not constitutionally run on the same ticket as him, and Arnold who can not Consitutionally be president (and they're is surely a team working on that), that leaves almost 60 more qualified current Republican Governors and Senators (Electoral-Vote.com). Ah, but he wanted to make history, fine, that leaves 6 women governors in senators in that pool with more experience. Factor religious views and ideology, and you are still at 5. Factor in former or current members of congress, former governors, former senators, cabinent secretaries, people who have been to Ireland for more than refueling stops, etc. Well, you get the picture. When asked if this was the best the party had to offer, a Republican Member of Congress answer “Well, it’s Senator McCain’s choice”. Boy, I feel the confidence now.
Never mind the pregnant teenage daughter, I will not value judge, nor should anyone else according to my Christian beliefs. However, Oh my God can you imagine James Dobson or Rush Limbaugh if this was a liberal Democratic Governor, even if they were going to keep the child and get married? Or how about the specials needs newborn at home? Again, I don’t think we could restrain Dobson or Limbaugh if this were Obama’s running mate, but the Palin family should run the Palin family’s life, even if my decision would be different (ok, the wife says she would not just divorce me but borrow Palin's favorite hunting riffle and she's a paficist, my wife not Palin). Never mind “Trooper gate”, you know where she may have used her office to try to get her ex-brother in law fired during a custody battle and then fired his boss when he did not fire the ex-brother in law, and which will result in her facing criminal charges or not about October 31st, you know 4 days before election day (sorry, but run on sentence required here, as is the effort to stall this investigation until after November) . Never mind the lawsuits for discrimination, etc while she was mayor, even a great mayor could face those. Please, despite the fact that I snicker to no end about these, don’t even think about her brother in law on a reality dating show, her husband with the 22 year old DUI (but both parties have their spouse embarrassments), her saying that Alaska lacks culture and class on the way to see Ivanna Trump at the nearest Costco, the fact she smoked pot and liked it (like others running for or who got the job before) or the fact that she set up a marketing business whose fancy name means literally “red neck” (I love the Blue Collar Comedy tour and my ex brother in law is the best parts of a red neck).
No, focus on the serious, please. Her “executive experience of the past” is a joke. Small towns, contrary to what you may think of me as a liberal city boy (mind you the son of a small town, country boy), would say, are not backwards. Folks from the country, with accents that sound funny to some of you, are acutally smarter than a lot of you know. But this woman ran her town and it’s of more like 7,000 than 8,000, ineffectively. Also, this woman was in no way vetted, contrary to McCain’s statements. She met him personally once, 6 months ago for 15 minutes. She was interviewed briefly by his campaign staff on the day he picked her, without him present. This is the kind of rock solid judgment we get with John McCain? I agree with his former top aide who says that the worst thing about this is that it diminishes what John McCain has been about and is about cynical political gain.
Ask yourself, given that statistical tables say there is a 33% chance that John McCain will not make it through two terms (Metlife actuarial tables per Electoral-Vote.Com), due to the natural aging process, in fact he hits average male American life expectancy in term one. Also, he has had three bouts of the most serious, and often fatal form of skin cancer. So, feeling the love of the “Hockey Mom” now? The job of President is all about judgment. Some of our greatest Presidents, you know the ones on the mountain side and money, have had the lowest experience. So, guess it cuts both ways, but for my money, give me the guy running a 3,000 employee business, with the 4 years in the Senate, 8 years in the state senate, and years fighting poverty door to door (and sorry to my conservative, Christian friends but the button is right "Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor"), and the almost three decades in Washington running mate, versus the albeit decorated war vet with less experience than the running and the self-described “Pit bull with lipstick”.
Oh, by the way, think this is the guy’s view from Ohio, thousands of miles away, read the woman from her hometown’s view at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp.
Who is this new guy
Ok, never in a million years did I think I would be blogger, let alone a political one. Don't get me wrong, I've been involved in campaigns since the age of Twelve or Thirteen when a guy running for Norfolk, Virginia City Counsel took the time to stop and talk to a group of us, and in doing so get a door to door lit team for the afternoon. No, it's just the idea of thinking that anybody out there would care what I have to think. However, after a big of encouragement, from a number of friends, here I am.
So, who am I. God, I hate to type the following, but I am a middle age, slightly balding, slightly overweight upper middle class guy from the Industrial Midwest. Ah, but from the swing state of Ohio. You know us, the one's who screwed up the 2004 election, not to be confused with the ones who screwed up the 2000 election. No, we just gave the current occupant of the White House 4 more years. And I take no blame, I spent 14 hours on election day and probably 140 hours leading up to it, trying to make sure everyone's vote should get counted, who knew we could a miss a few hundred thousand, but when your state's chief election law officer (thankfully no more) is the state chair for that guy's campaign (and you would think they would learn from 2000, but no) well, a few votes can get "lost".
I am a Christian. Don't run for the exits yet. I am the type who scares the fundamentalists. I read the Bible as saying we are all God's beloved children. That, gasp, heaven is full of muslims, jews, agnostics, pagans, gays & lebsians and, say it ain't so even Democrats. I believe that you can not use just selected quotes from a holy book to justify what you want, but have to read the whole book. As such, I support workers, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the environment, etc. And, I am helping found a church that believes that too (see my other blog).
I am a military brat. My father was career U.S. Navy, served a tour in Vietnam, got all the medals the U.S.N. has to offer save the Navy Cross and the Congressional Medal of Honor, including two purple hearts (oh, wait we are not supposed to be impressed by that any more or so the voices from 2004 told me). That means, that gasp, for a liberal, a support the military and the use of military action, when needed. However, by "supporting the troops", I don't mean the put a magnent on your car and thump your chest. I mean only use them when absolutely needed, take care of them when they come home, look at for their families, etc type. As I said to our friend (WARNING: Here's a name drop) Jim Wallis (author of "God's Politics", don't be too impressed for the few who got this, Jim's wife Joy (the real Vicar of Dibley) and mine have been friends for years, "There is unfortunately a level of evil on this Earth that can not be loved into stopping, it can only be stopped by our best and bravest crawling on their bellies, in horrible places, and helping put weapons onto target". So, drum me out of the liberal club if you will.
I am a do gooder lawyer. What does that mean? Well, in the words of John Wesley, and as the "preacher's wife" of a lifetime Methodist minister I am duty bound to drop in a Wesley reference from time to time, I "do all the good that I can". I represent working men and women who get hurt on the job and have to fight government bureaucracy and corporate greed to ensure that they get the treatment they need and get back to work. All at a barely for profit status.
My job description is "finder of desperate, last minute solutions, to impossible problems, created by other #%@*#%* people", thank you Tommy Lee Jones in Under Siege. So, if you dare, read on. Or fall asleep from boredom, but I hope it's read on.
So, who am I. God, I hate to type the following, but I am a middle age, slightly balding, slightly overweight upper middle class guy from the Industrial Midwest. Ah, but from the swing state of Ohio. You know us, the one's who screwed up the 2004 election, not to be confused with the ones who screwed up the 2000 election. No, we just gave the current occupant of the White House 4 more years. And I take no blame, I spent 14 hours on election day and probably 140 hours leading up to it, trying to make sure everyone's vote should get counted, who knew we could a miss a few hundred thousand, but when your state's chief election law officer (thankfully no more) is the state chair for that guy's campaign (and you would think they would learn from 2000, but no) well, a few votes can get "lost".
I am a Christian. Don't run for the exits yet. I am the type who scares the fundamentalists. I read the Bible as saying we are all God's beloved children. That, gasp, heaven is full of muslims, jews, agnostics, pagans, gays & lebsians and, say it ain't so even Democrats. I believe that you can not use just selected quotes from a holy book to justify what you want, but have to read the whole book. As such, I support workers, the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the environment, etc. And, I am helping found a church that believes that too (see my other blog).
I am a military brat. My father was career U.S. Navy, served a tour in Vietnam, got all the medals the U.S.N. has to offer save the Navy Cross and the Congressional Medal of Honor, including two purple hearts (oh, wait we are not supposed to be impressed by that any more or so the voices from 2004 told me). That means, that gasp, for a liberal, a support the military and the use of military action, when needed. However, by "supporting the troops", I don't mean the put a magnent on your car and thump your chest. I mean only use them when absolutely needed, take care of them when they come home, look at for their families, etc type. As I said to our friend (WARNING: Here's a name drop) Jim Wallis (author of "God's Politics", don't be too impressed for the few who got this, Jim's wife Joy (the real Vicar of Dibley) and mine have been friends for years, "There is unfortunately a level of evil on this Earth that can not be loved into stopping, it can only be stopped by our best and bravest crawling on their bellies, in horrible places, and helping put weapons onto target". So, drum me out of the liberal club if you will.
I am a do gooder lawyer. What does that mean? Well, in the words of John Wesley, and as the "preacher's wife" of a lifetime Methodist minister I am duty bound to drop in a Wesley reference from time to time, I "do all the good that I can". I represent working men and women who get hurt on the job and have to fight government bureaucracy and corporate greed to ensure that they get the treatment they need and get back to work. All at a barely for profit status.
My job description is "finder of desperate, last minute solutions, to impossible problems, created by other #%@*#%* people", thank you Tommy Lee Jones in Under Siege. So, if you dare, read on. Or fall asleep from boredom, but I hope it's read on.
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