Month: October 2012

Different Sides–Same Coin

Election time approaches…..and I hear in the news that undecideds will make the difference…..but that is crap!  If anyone is undecided at this point they will most likely not vote.  But if you have made your choice….maybe there are a few things to consider before you go into that great tradition of the voting booth…….

Things about our two great candidates (and yes that is sarcasm on my part)……

The list has been prepared by Bill Quigley of Truth Out…….

Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of the death penalty for federal or state crimes.

Neither candidate is interested in eliminating or reducing the 5,113 US nuclear warheads.

Neither candidate is campaigning to close Guantanamo prison.

Neither candidate has called for arresting and prosecuting high ranking people on Wall Street for the subprime mortgage catastrophe.

Neither candidate is interested in holding anyone in the Bush administration accountable for the torture committed by US personnel against prisoners in Guantanamo or in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of drones to assassinate people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia.

Neither candidate is against warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, or racial profiling in fighting “terrorism.”

Neither candidate is interested in fighting for a living wage.  In fact neither are really committed beyond lip service to raising the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour  – which, if it kept pace with inflation since the 1960s should be about $10 an hour.

Neither candidate was interested in arresting Osama bin Laden and having him tried in court.

Neither candidate will declare they refuse to bomb Iran.

Neither candidate is refusing to take huge campaign contributions from people and organizations.

Neither candidate proposes any significant specific steps to reverse global warming.

Neither candidate is talking about the over 2 million people in jails and prisons in the US.

Neither candidate proposes to create public jobs so everyone who wants to work can.

Neither candidate opposes the nuclear power industry.  In fact both support expansion.

As the title implies….there is not a TWRPHs difference in either candidate….so the decision will be…twiddle dum or twiddle dummer….or flip a damn coin…..

2012 Forgotten Issue

This could be just about anything….there is a wide array of issues that neither candidate wants to talk about……we know that both Obama and Romney say they will create jobs only if they are elected…….we know that taxes are too high in one camp and too low in another…….we know that Obama sucks and Romney is a liar………the spin is so thick that it borders on propaganda….well it is propaganda but we Americans cannot call it for what it is……but there is one issue that both candidates have been unwilling to talk about……..can you name that elusive issue?  (Pause he for thought…….oh who am I kidding voters do not want to think that is why we have the two pathetic candidates that we have)……okay the forgotten issue is…..(drum roll please)……..the stagnant income….yes for all the progress and all the hoopla on Wall Street, income is not moving at all…..Corporate biggies are doing marvelous but the rest of us mere mortals are stuck in limbo with worse than modest increases in wages that is quickly ate up by those inflationary things that are not counted as inflation…..like gas….food…….etc.

Newser) – The economy has taken center stage in the race for the White House, but amid the chatter about government spending and taxes, the New York Timesthinks one subject that hits close to home for many poor and middle-class Americans has been largely left out: the long-term stagnation of income. For the first time since the Depression, median family income has decreased over a decade, and though both candidates acknowledge the problem, they rarely touch on the true catalysts behind it—automation, globalization, and education. All are complex issues that can’t be “quickly remedied through legislation,” writes David Leonhardt.

Often, politicians place the blame for falling wages on flashpoint issues such as immigration, but what’s going on is far larger in scope, writes Leonhardt. Pessimism abounds because no quick fixes are in sight, though “maybe the biggest reason for optimism is that there is still a strong argument that both globalization and automation help the economy in the long run,” he writes. It just happens to be painful in the interim. Click to read Leonhardt’s full piece.

With about 10 days left before we decide who will lead the country…….the most important issue is still unexplained…..why?

Poem #7–1968

By this time, 20Dec1968, I had been back in the states for a month or so……reassigned to Ft. Hood, 2nd Armored Division, “Hell On Wheels”…….I had gone from combat situations almost daily to painting rocks and re-lettering jeeps to pass the time…..and about this time is when the nightly visits started……..

This was my last poem for the year, 1968…..

Going Home
Every lived inside your head?

All the dread,

All the memories,

Trying to keep busy.

Night after night

Faces take flight

Enter into your dreams

Cold sweats and screams.

People look

But do not know

The agony that lives

Deep inside

They just don’t know.

The pull is strong

For the realization

That the only peace

From the vision

To cease

Is to return

To the place I belong.

CHUQ                                                    20Dec1968

This was my last poem for the year, 1968……Next year all will be clear…..

The Poka In Boca–Prez Debate #3

The Mass-Debaters met in Boca Raton to debate for the third and final time….mercifully putting us out of misery…..well, our debate misery….there is still much money to be spent in the battleground states and those poor people should be raving lunatics by election day with all that spin thrown at them….

I learned that Mitt has the same position as the prez for getting out of Afghanistan…..well, basically, he has most of the same positions as the Prez….the one surprise for me was the lack of a drumming on Benghazi, a good choice to not focus on it, but the echo chamber is still going on and on about Benghazi….Mitt and his boyz decided not to on about it……to me Romney look off balanced almost the whole time for the exception for the first 10 minutes or so, when he looked like he was going to be in it for the haul……especially when he gave Obama his props for taking out Osama…taking one of the Prez talking points out of the debate…..good ploy!  Romney seemed a bit mild mannered from the bolster that has been  present in the campaign stops…..

Obama was calm and collected…….but his most newsworthy quote for the next several days will be his comment on the number of horses and bayonets in the military…….Obama spent a good percentage of his answers pointing to the ever changing positions the Romney campaign has held on foreign policy…

All in all, the Prez won this debate, my opinion…..but I am sure that others will see it differently……..I was expecting no different……the Prez had an advantage in a foreign policy simply because of his office…..Romney once again, in the last two weeks, has tacked to the middle….but is it enough or did he wait a bit too long, two weeks before the election, to make this course change?

Since this is the last debate of 2012 I want to add a few notes……as I have always said….these debates were about optics not substance….they are too rehearsed!  They have not been real debates but rather a short TV program….there needs to be a serious look at the formats and the whole presidential debate system…it needs to be updated.

Once again, it was the optics that made your decision on who won……..and of course they, meaning the media, has assembled “undecideds”…..and once again it was all theater….if there are any “undecideds” at this point then them are just looking for some attention….but idf they are truly “undecided” then just make sure that they have a coin in their pocket on election……. and for God sake….Do NOT ask them if they prefer paper or plastic!