Good Morning and Happy Saturday October 14th 2006!  The Red Hog will be installing $100,000 worth of new server and application software at work today so...  This is my post!  Sorry, I'll be back in full form on Sunday.

 

Thought for the day.  "Safe sex doesn't mean no sex, just use your imagination!"

            Republican Congressman Stephen King has claimed that the violent death ratio for American soldiers in Iraq is actually lower than the ratio of violent death for civilians in Washington DC.  The Congressman from my home state claims that his wife, who lives with him in DC, is at more risk of meeting a violent death in Washington than she would be as a soldier in Iraq.  By God, I think we ought to send her there then.  While we are at it why don’t we send all of the Congressmen and women that support Bush to Baghdad?  If they believe it is so safe and that the work we are doing in Iraq is so rightous and commendable then hopefully we could send them there to help facilitate our mission. 

            Why we would compare ratios of civilians and soldiers is beyond me other than to perpetuate the mistruths so handily adopted by the party that can’t do anything right.  So comparing civilian deaths; is it safer to live in Baghdad than our nation’s capital?  It depends on which body count source you use.  If you subscribe to the fuzzy math of Texas Oil Man George W Bush there have only been 30,000 civilian deaths since 2003.  Only 30,000 civilian deaths; as if that is an acceptable number.  A recent estimation of 650,000 civilian casualties in Iraq comes from a report by America's Johns Hopkins University.  Hmmm, who should I believe; published scholars from a prestigious university who used scientific methods or the little cowboy from Texas who has repeatedly demonstrated being challenged with speaking the truth?

            I know it is politically incorrect for me to question the honesty of our president but I am just trying to adopt some of the style of my conservative friends.  Conservatives claim that one of the biggest problems in our land is this whole notion of political correctness.  Bush supporters don’t like the idea of political correctness because if they are forced to be politically correct they can’t speak their minds about Jews, Gays, Minorities and the recipients of social services.  I have never really had a problem with political correctness because I always assumed the underlying principle behind political correctness was civility.  The path that we are being lead down by this Administration, however, is one that we should not go down with civility.  When I think of people dying in a war that has no justification, the loss of many of our civil rights and the advocacy by my government of torture the gloves need to come off.  With that in mind I pretty much have no problem with stating that I believe George W. Bush is a liar, liar, his pants are on fire!

 

            And now for something completely different.  I have found a writers group here in Cedar Rapids that meets weekly to keep up to date on literary events in the local area and support one another in the fine art of writing.  We meet every Thursday and discuss various works by members of the group offering critique and praise.  The group, called “The Noble Pen” is proving to be a wonderful experience and is providing an opportunity to review the work of some extremely talented writers.  The group is made up of young and old, big and small, male and female writers of poetry, news, features, essays, novels, short stories and poetry.  I am not so certain that the daily work I do here is all that artistic but I am enjoying the deep thinking and critical analysis of the member’s writings.  So I got that going for me.

 

 

            North Korea and possible nuclear weapons tests, the Eisenhower carrier fleet being deployed to Iran, four more years of soldiers in Iraq, OPEC cutting oil production, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is suspected of improper windfalls from a real estate deal with a man whose name is associated with organized crime, the Foley & Hastert Congressional page scandal, and the forecast of snow in my town gave me plenty of options for topics today.  I choose none of them.  Work has been crazy busy as of late and this evening, still in my hurry up offense; I rounded up the kids in a harried fashion.  Besides work my day included a disturbing email from the teacher of my youngest kid, a phone call from a concerned parent regarding the oldest boy and the daughter was stressed and late to get to a college interview for the University of Chicago.  Somewhere along my four trips across town to get to the point where I had everyone accounted for the idea came to me that I was in no mood to go home, pick up the house, look at a stack of bills and prepare dinner. 

            We opted for dinner out and the service seemed slow, the food was marginal, I had forgotten my cigarettes in the Yukon (we can still smoke in restaruants in Iowa!) and the kids bantering through dinner was aggravating the crap out of me.  As I grudgingly paid the bill one of the kids suggested a stop at the video store.  Looking back, my first inclination at the suggestion of a stop at the video store was to rant about life not being all fun and games and inquiring if they had any idea of how difficult my life had become.  Suddenly, as if surrendering to some mystic intervention, picking up the house and looking at that stack of bills lost all of its urgency and I succumbed to their youthful blithe attitude.  The oldest boy volunteered to run into the store and select a movie while I deeply inhaled the calming effects of my nicotine addiction and for the first time in hours my mind quit racing and the gnawing discontent of my disposition began to subside. 

            I think there are times in life where divine fate intervenes at the moment we need it the most.  I had been on the brink of dumping a whole lot of frustration on my kids that they did not deserve.  Something as simple as noticing the oblivious-to-my-angst and happy looks on the faces of my kids snapped me back to the moment.  Clayton returned to the front of the store and goofily waved a video back and forth in the window which told me in an instant that he had found the perfect movie but had forgotten his wallet.  I snuffed my nasty habit and went in to pay for the video and we made our way home for a relaxing evening.  The movie proved to confirm the gracious transition that had washed over me from the pleasure I had received from disregarding unreasonable anxieties and engaging in the moment with my kids.

            The movie we watched was Click starring Adam Sandler and Kate Beckensale.  The plot revolves around the complications involved with having the ability to fast forward all of the negative aspects of the routine and unpleasant portions of our existence.  The movie is by no means a classic but the central idea of the movie could not have been more appropriate for me this particular evening.  Click proved to be a good reminder that while we may always know what is important in life we can sometimes lose focus.  When the distractions of our lives get in the way of the meaningful people and relationships in our life we risk the possibility that the best years of our lives may slip away.  All three kids got an emphatic “I love you” when they made their way for bed and that’s just the way it ought to be.  Happy Thursday… and don’t forget to wear red on Friday in support of the troops.

            There has been a lot of talk lately about the reduction in gas prices being manipulated by the GOP and the friends of Texas oil man George W. Bush.  I have to admit it seems pretty coincidental that right before an election gas prices would begin to fall.  There have been a lot of headlines about this or that failure of Bush policy over the last several years but none had gained the nations attention like the news of record oil company profits while we were paying record prices at the pump.  Something would have to be done before November elections or it looked as if we would have a change in power in Washington like none we had ever seen before.  Conspiracy theorists were in high demand as they shared their observations with an American public that was anxious to hear and believe anything that would explain the high prices.  If oil prices were in fact being manipulated then we would be able to correct the destabilizing forces in the market.

            And then we heard from the experts.  Economists from around the country were summoned to validate our perceptions that there truly was something improper about the high prices we were seeing at the pump.  What makes up the price we see at the pump?  Vijay Vaitheeswaran of The Economist reported that the price we see at the pump is most signficantly a function of the price per barrel of crude oil.  The inefficient use of energy by Americans and the increasing importance of China as a consumer of oil are the largest variables in the world oil market.  Individual American oil companies actually purchase a very small percentage of total oil in the world and on their own can not significantly impact the prices on a global scale. 

            News show and talk radio discussion immediately turned to refinery capacity.  Could it be that the oil industry was deliberately creating shortages by trimming refinery output?  The answer was no.  Domestic oil companies were producing at 100 percent of capacity.  While it would seem obvious that huge capital outlays required to increase oil production are needed it would be years before new refineries could be built.  It is also apparent that oil companies have an inverse incentive to increasing capacity as long as shortages were keeping prices and profits high. 

            I actually started to feel bad that I had so little faith in the character of our President as to believe that he would actively manipulate oil prices in an attempt to maintain GOP power inside the beltway.  My new friend, Mike Wallace, from Cedar Falls sent me a link to a site that put things into perspective.  You may recall President Bush in April ordered the Energy Department to delay deliveries and purchases of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until this autumn.  The president did this to help make more oil available for producing gasoline over the summer and help lower then-soaring pump prices.  It seems to have been a brilliant plan borne of dynamic leadership with the economic well being of all Americans in mind. 

            And now for the rest of the story: The energy department has said it wants to wait until oil prices are much lower before it buys the replacement crude.  So in fact your president, Texas oil man George W. Bush is manipulating the demand and price of oil against a limited supply until after the November elections.  Once the demand for oil increases from our efforts to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, after the election, we will once again see the forces of supply and demand negatively impact the the price we pay for gas.  So once again, it is business as usual for the GOP and their leadership by deception.  If that doesn’t piss you off I don’t know what will. 

 

 

 

 

Mike Wallace of Cedar Falls sent me an email and reminded me of some comments made by a great man in 1979.  It is quite possible that the words spoken to America on that day resonate more true today than when they were first spoken. My Sunday post alluded to the idea that we are at a point where we are so politically divisive that we now take greater joy in the troubles of others than any success we would experience on our own.  That ain’t right! 

“The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.  The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July.  It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else -- public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

            The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us.  As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.  These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.

The gap between our citizens and our government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.  What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.  Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don't like it, and neither do I. What can we do?

First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.

We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path… the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.  All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves.”   President Jimmy Carter July 15, 1979

            Columnist Scott Cawelti of the Waterloo Courier addressed our current political divisiveness with an anecdote in a recent column.

“A jetliner pilot at 35,000 feet says to his co-pilot and occasional rival, "Watch this. I can cut both engines, fall 5,000 feet, start them up and pull right out. It's a fun ride."
The skeptical copilot exclaims, "OK, let's see."
The pilot stops both engines, and sure enough, the plummeting begins. After a stomach-churning descent, the pilot pushes the "restart" button, but nothing happens. He pushes it again, then frantically engages backup switches, but still nothing. They're sinking fast.
The co-pilot? He grins and exclaims, "Man, are you ever in trouble now!"

            I sense that the political climate of this nation is much like that airplane hurtling towards the ground with no power.  We may well very continue to accuse each other for our problems right up until the time we no longer recognize the United States that we love so dearly.  The problems we face will not be solved in the White House.  The problems we face in this country will be solved in your house and my house and our neighbor’s homes.  That’s how democracy works.

 

            I’m not really certain how to behave this year as my Chicago Bears are not only undefeated but they seem to be getting better and better every week.  All of this NFL prosperity is something I have not had the fortune of dealing with since the mid-eighties.  I have been a Bears fan since as long as I can remember.  I don’t mean that I have been a Bears fan for just a long time but quite literally I have been a Bears fan as long as I can remember anything.  It was somewhere along my 4^th or 5^th Christmas that my Grandpa Wilcox gave me an official Bears NFL stocking cap.  I still have it.  It is fairly well stretched-out, a little faded and the little orange and blue yarn tassel thingy that adorned the crown is long since gone.  I remember receiving that cap and wearing it proudly every time I ventured outdoors in the cold days of the Iowa winters of my youth.  The hat represented my first steps from boy to manhood as the important stuff of football was of the realm of men.  My Grandpa and my Dad’s sister were fanatical Bears fans.  My Dad was a Packers fan at the time.  I’m not so sure if the Bears hat wasn’t a little bit of a one up-man-ship gift on my Grandpa’s part.  It seems to have worked.

            My Dad passed away in 1989 at too young of an age.  I miss him all of the time but mostly during football season.  He wasn’t a crazed football fan.  He just enjoyed watching a good game.  My Dad was more of a player than a team fan.  He was a Packer fan back in the days of Bart Starr and Paul Horning but he let that all go after they retired and picked up on Fran Tarkington and Chuck Foreman when they played for the Minnesota Vikings.  We spent a lot of Sunday afternoon’s and Monday nights quietly watching our teams.  I don’t remember that we talked a lot during those games.  We just took comfort in knowing that the other was there.  Today my son and I watched the Bears pound the crap out of the Buffalo Bills and we did it in much the same fashion that my Father and I did so long ago.  My son is an Indianapolis Colts fan but does a good job of supporting my Bears.  His loyalty is born of a much more significant and deeper reason.  His first pee-wee football team was the Colts.  They tossed him a Colts jersey and a fan was born.

            Football is like a religion between fathers and sons.  When my son got that first Colts jersey he kept it kind of waded up until he got over to where I had been waiting and unfurled it for me to see.  I have no recollection of ever talking to him about my jersey number in high school but when he held that jersey up and let it unfold into all of its splendor I was a bit taken back when I saw my old number.  Before I could ask him if it was a coincidence he told me, “look Dad, I asked for your number and I got it.”  Most of the kids had been hoping to get the number of the superstars of the day: Dan Marino, Jerry Rice, John Elway or Brett Farve and the like.  A dad has a hard time beating a kid like that.  (pun intended)

           

            The big college search continued on Saturday.  Courtney and I went to visit Grinnell College in Grinnell Iowa.  There seems to be a theme with the schools Courtney is interested in.  We haven’t visited one, that she is interested in, that has a comprehensive annual fee of less than $30,000.  Northwestern and Georgetown both had total fees in excess of $30,000.  Grinnell tops the list to date at $36,730.  The scary part is that we both really loved it.  Courtney has reservations about attending a school that is home to only 1500 students but I bought into the benefits of a small and attentive university.  Grinnell is located about right smack dead center in the state and at first glance would only offer corn measuring and cow tipping as off campus social activities but the school is aware of its surroundings and convinced us that they work really hard to bring entertainment in to the students.  Next on the list is the University of Iowa.  I’m kind of hoping that she will feel we saved the best for last.  I’m thinking in state tuition at a state school might boast of a comprehensive fee of $36,730 that would be truly comprehensive meaning it would include the diploma!  Pray for me or send cash!

            President Bush, September 15, 2006: “There’s kind of an urban myth here in Washington about how this administration hasn’t stayed focused on Osama bin Laden.  Forget it.  Its convenient throwaway lines when people say that.”  President Bush, March 13, 2002: “I don’t know where bin Laden is… I just don’t spend that much time on him… I’ll repeat what I said.  I truly am not that concerned about him.”  And you thought John Kerry was the flip-flopper.  Republican pundits are constantly angered that Democrats point out the times the President has lied to us.  Well, maybe if he would quit telling lies... As the midterm elections draw near the political rhetoric on both sides of the political spectrum has heated up.  I am coming to the conclusion that the single biggest tragedy to ever face this nation is the loss of integrity of our elected officials.  The pursuit of power has become a “win at all costs” the “ends justify the means” type of fiasco. 

            In the current political environment there will be no winners.  It has come to a point where the process of electing our officials is more detrimental to our future than the results of the actual election.  That point is made on the premise that the winning party will assume their duties feeling that their methods were justified and accepted.  The losers will examine their methodology, compare it to the winner’s strategy and be inclined to adopt the tactics of the winners.  So what does that mean for us; the constituents?  More and more attack ads, less and less discussion of meaningful issues, more distorted reporting on voting records and a more muddled ability to make educated decisions on the future of our country is the result of the present day election process. 

            We have never been in more need of true leadership for the United States.  My only hope for the midterm elections is that a balance the power in Washington can result.  From there we could hope that both sides of the aisle in our congress would recognize that they need to confront the important issues of our time in a bi-partisan fashion.  We should be diligent in our efforts to identify and support candidates with integrity and communicate with them that we expect them to represent us above the issues of the K Street lobby crowd.  Campaign finance and lobby reform would be instrumental in restoring our democracy to a pinnacle of democratic idealism. 

            As I read the editorials of my local Sunday paper the misrepresentations and distortions from supporters of both Republican and Democrat candidates caused me to examine a need to focus my attentions less on the fight between conservative and liberal agendas and more on the fundamental principles of our differences.  Blaming the Republican party for the deterioration of our civil rights, our diminished security at home, an increasing consolidation of wealth, the resultant expanding poverty class and an erosion of worker protection and environmental problems is less productive than offering viable solutions that would benefit all Americans.  The blame game is a contest that neither side can win.  The sooner we can convince the politicians we send to Washington that we are interested in solutions, not scapegoating and accusations the sooner our country will attain a status that would become desirable and emulated from other parts of the world.