O beautiful for patriots' dream
That sees beyond the years --
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears.....
Those are the words of a rarely sung verse of "America the Beautiful." It is my favorite verse –- since for me, that patriots' dream is even more beautiful than spacious skies and purple mountains' majesties.
Why is that verse sung so rarely, and why is that verse not the passage that springs first to most Americans' minds when they think about patriotism?
What is patriotism, and what would a "patriotic" President be like?
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Ok, call me crazy but I thought a foreclosure prevention bill is suppose to be designed to help average folks stem off foreclosures. So will someone tell me how a foreclosure prevention bill would contain bail-out money for automakers, airlines, alternative energy producers and other struggling industries? What do these clowns in Washington have to do to prove to the American public where their loyalties lie. Why is it that when average Americans seek help from their government they are treated to: rely on capitalism and the free enterprise system, but when these CEO’s, who get million dollar bonuses whether their companies succeed or not, make bad business decisions it is ok for the government to bail them out. Who says we are capitalist? I guess the poor are, but the rich sure as hell aren’t.
It is surreal to listen to the news media, the pundits on the talking heads shows, and politicians on both sides when they talk about Iraq. Everybody, and I do mean everybody, is talking in abstracts--how do we draw down the forces, how many years do we stay in Iraq, what's the best way to get out, whose plan is the best, when will we know that we've achieved "victory," and on and on. Where is the person who is going to boil this thing down to the important question? Human sacrifice. Dead people. Wounded people.
Since politicians regularly visit DailyKos.com, I decided today to write a letter to them, expressing just how bizarre the current political situation is. For the most part, this diary is a link-fest: don't just read the diary itself, check out the links.
Sometimes, politicians lie to get elected. This is a fact, and is not okay. Politicians are the elected leaders of our communities, and should, among all people, be the most trustworthy and honest. In recent weeks, all three presidential candidates' records have been scrutinized for thousands of hours. From all this review, some disturbing discoveries have been made, notably, of Hillary Clinton's repetitive embellishments on the truth, or just simple LIES.
The last week's news has been full of candidates and officials behaving in ways hard for the ordinary person to comprehend. The revelation of Elliot Spitzer's assignations with prostitutes, encompassing six years and costing thousands of dollars; Hillary Clinton's allowing her campaign to make racist pronouncements and then issuing a non-apology apology--I can't be the only person who has wondered "how on earth do they think they can get away with this? Isn't there anyone who can get through to them?"
I don’t understand why the people from around the world still are sending so much money to be invested in the United States when the system it is run not much better than a "Banana Republic."
The politicians in Washington can’t connect the dots even if it is necessary to save their own lives – most of them lack even a minimum amount of common sense.
You really don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that it would be nice to extend the safety net when the country is in the process of getting into a major recession.
I know it is very hard to connect the dots and figure out that when you are getting into a recession the unemployment figures it will go up as more people lose their jobs as the economy starts to implode.
I also know that it is very hard to connect the dots that by giving an unemployment extension the government would be putting money in the pockets of people that might be able to pay their mortgage and keep the sub prime mess from getting in even worse shape.
Actually an unemployment extension would help people pay their bills when they don’t have another source of income; kind of help people to stay afloat.
I sit here and play Eva Cassidy records and idle my time away by desultory flicking through various American political blogs and finding little there that either suits my mood or feeds my mind.
Many complain that it is the in-fighting and the rancour of the present Primaries that make them turn away. For me it is not the venomous dislike of other candidates that I find ugly. It is the idolatry of their own preference that I find offensive.
I don’t know where this comes from, this belief that somehow a sudden and genetically impossible evolution will occur by the initiation of a single person to usher in a New World where most of our problems will be solved. It is as sad to see the extent of the investment of hopes and aspirations placed in particular candidates by the left as it is to see the religious right look towards the coming of their divine Messiah to change the human condition.
I’m about to do something I hate doing. I’m going to preface my argument with a statement. I hate prefacing things because it feels like making excuses or buying a Get Out Of Jail Free card, but this needs to be said: I like Barack Obama.
Okay? I like him. I like everything about Barack Obama, even though I know little to nothing about him, which is problematic. I like his talk, his walk, his family, and his speeches.
He’s made me like a politician, a rare feat. Even more remarkable, he’s done this by using the same word bank of commonplace rhetoric like "hope" and "change" that feel so stale when other hunchbacked politirats use them. Barack gets away with it because Barack has style, and he also appears to mean what he says. He really seems ready to charge the gates of the White House with his army of dreamers.
I followed a link on reddit.com the other day (sorry, can't find the specific link). It was a story on Obama, told from the perspective of his wife, bragging up how he is the only true outsider, and how he'd work to clean things up in a way that no others can.
When I hear these types of things, I almost gag. My usual understanding of these things is that they're the most condescending sort of lie, the sort meant to appeal to idealists who are believed by the liar to be too stupid to recognize the dishonesty. But then something else occurred to me...
Today is Veterans Day and everyone will spend time today with veterans either in photo ops, making speeches on the sacrifice these men and women made in their lives to serve this nation. Pictures they can use in campaign literature and TV ads, it is always good having your pictures taking with military and veterans to show how strong you are on defense and supportive of the military.
But what happens the other 364 days of the year, are you there for the veterans or the military then? When it comes time to vote on mandatory funding for healthcare do you vote yes or no? What about additional funding for programs to help the families, the children of military members or veterans? Do you vote yes or no? The past records are dismal from Republican office holders according to the web site Vote Smart the records speak for themselves, where will you be the next time the records are published?
H.B. No. 7432 Was introduced by My opponent and Speaker of the House Jim Amann. This bill is a Dream Bill for UI our electricity nighmare company now soaking us again and again with rate hikes that defy understanding or explanation. UI's profits soared and our Speaker Amann who also opposed the "windfall Profits Tax" that Blumenthal so passionately wanted to protect CT's consumers, also voted to soak us again on electricity.
So many of us cut down on our usage of electricity because the rates were so high. Just today my friend at the local gas station was telling me how his wife and children all sleep in one bedroom of their house to battle the unaffordable high cost of electric heat. Do our politicians care? Apparently not because House Bill 7432 punishes you the consumer for conserving electricity. It makes the little electric you do use even more ridiculously expensive by kicking back the lost profits to the Big UI energy company.
I just read a story about boric acid being used in mattresses. Boric acid. In mattresses. Can I get you a little rat poison while you sleep, Sir? Ma'am?
I read about this mattress thing, on the heels of coming back from the grocery store and getting gas for my car, feeling completely ripped off by both experiences. Just the thing I needed to challenge my sanity.
