Tag: Politics

Just a thought… way too late for Memorial Day, but then I spent the weekend running a megamutt lost–and-found, otherwise I would’ve jotted down much earlier the following thought that’s been coalescing into existence inside the misshapen potato I carry around atop my shoulders:

My dad and all of his brothers were in one branch of the service or another. He was a Marine; one of my uncles was in the Navy; another uncle – the one who everyone has, since I was a little kid obsessed with anything NASA was doing, assured me would’ve been the most in-tune with me of any of them – was killed in action long before I was born. Like so many others, their generation of this family made sacrifices I can barely imagine; thanks to them and everyone who’s ever put on the uniform and served, all I have to do is imagine it.

So I propose this: let us not squander the blood and sweat and deferred dreams of those who have made these sacrifices by failing to fully participate in the freedom they swore to protect. To fall in line behind pundits who are misrepresenting or manufacturing “facts” is to make a mockery of that sacrifice.

So you’ve heard something outrageous on the news that gets your blood boiling? Do the research. Delve deeper. Perhaps even – gasp! – see what the opposing side is saying about the same issue. It may not be what you think.

To be led by someone just because they can get their face on TV, their voice on the radio, or because they can put a web site on the internet, is to waste one sacrifice that should never be wasted.

And remember that government begins at a local level. There’s more to it than what’s going on in Washington. Most of what actually affects you, such as sales tax rates and other taxes, is determined locally. Ignoring this to focus on Washington is like planning to fly to the moon without having quite worked out that whole getting-away-from-Earth business.

In summary: we have freedoms. Countless people have died to preserve them. We owe these people more than thanks.

We owe it to them to make best use of what they died to protect instead of being led around on an ideological leash.

Just a thought. Everyone has a range of views all over the place. Talking things out reasonably without resorting to base emotional “scare” arguments is what has made this country great in the past – and can make it great again. Know more about the issues affecting you than a couple of carefully cherry-picked, out-of-context soundbites. Act on knowledge, rather than fear stoked by someone whose agenda isn’t much more comprehensive than “talk smack about these other guys, without pissing off my advertisers.”

The folks on TV and the radio aren’t running for office, and they’re not running the country, no matter how much they think they should be. Our elected representatives are not answerable to a media entity. They are answerable to us – the voters who put them in office in the first place.

Think. Reason. Debate without resorting to lowest common denominators. Do the research and put the pundits out of work.

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“…I really like it here, I’m quite attached to it, I hope I’m wrong.” – Ben Folds, “Don’t Change Your Plans For Me”

Part of me wants to laugh this one off. Part of me knows better. I’m sure nearly everyone here has heard of the NSA’s enormous Utah data center, though the details are necessarily vague. According to Wired:

…it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

Obviously no mere body of representatives elected by the people was going to stop this, right? 😆 But now we have a better idea of what they’ll be looking for and listening to. … Read more

You work for us.

Here’s the thing: with a lot of the public, your chances of re-election are only as good as the last thing you do to honk everyone off before the next election.

Some of us are watching a bit more closely. Your chances of re-election are only as good as what you do that erodes our freedom. We’re the ones who call and write (and can gauge, from the responses to those contacts, whether or not what we’re saying is being taken on board).

Some of you aren’t even the people I voted in to office. But I nevertheless recognize you as the rightfully elected representative of the majority, and deal with you politely and professionally as such. I’ve got a lot of time on my hands, so I’ve become a bit of a lobbyist with no budget and no portfolio. (By the way, that’s the only kind of lobbyist there should be.) Perhaps naively, I never completely give up faith that I can make a cohesive and persuasive argument and chance your mind, thus contributing in my own small way toward changing your votes.

But hey, while we’re on the subject of votes, here’s the thing. You can be voted out of office. I’m keeping a running tally on how you’re voting on stuff. I’m making sure other people know about it. I have about an even chance of casting my own vote in a few months and replacing you with someone I do want in office.

I also have about an even chance of being outvoted too. That’s the great thing about how this country works.

But I have no chance of being voted out myself. I’ll still be here, whether you’re in office or not. Whether it’s someone who I feel is more in line with my values and concerns, or whether it’s you, I’ll still be in touch. I won’t shut up. I’m your constituent, term limit: [not applicable].

I strongly recommend you listen to what I, and others who take the time to be actively involved in the process, have to say. Ignore us at your political peril.… Read more