The America Elect Idea

Well there seems to be an actual attempt at trying to find an alternative to the democrats and republicans brewing so a couple of thoughts about this attempt. First though I have been voting for non democrats and republicans since 1980 on every major election and most minor elections. If no alternate choice is available I may choose one of the two or not vote for that office at all. I have been a proponent that the Democrats and the Republicans have been out of touch with the middle class for decades and for years many of my friends have thought I was wasting my vote so I am feeling somewhat vindicated that other people are coming around.

I have actually thought about what it would take to get a third party involved etc, and of course had fun when Perot ran in the 90's. It seems that some of the liberal press is concerned that a successful attempt to get an America Elect candidate up and going would split the vote and allow for one of the more conservative Republicans to win. Or basically take away the moderate vote away from Obama so allowing a back door victory for a hard liner. And for this group proabably a realistic concern. I am moderate to super conservative depending on the issue, but the current group of Republican candidates really aren't addressing the needs of the majority of the country right now. This attempt by the America Elect seems to be trying to address a moderate stance and getting the moderate vote.  

An aside here: moderate politically and doing what is right for the middle class may not be the same thing. Yes most middle class are moderately conservative historically, but right now what we need to do may take some real innovative thinking so trying to say taking a moderate position to win an election still may not be the best answer for our country right now. And I am not talking about taking extreme positions when I say innovative thinking, but actual innovative thinking.

Now back to the comments about the America Elect process. I am not going to get into the splitting of the vote, CNN and others are pretty ramped up about that. And yes it could be a concern, but lets take a look at the America Elect group actually winning. The problem is that they have no other support. Legislation gets passed when you have support in Congress and most of the time that comes from your own party. American Elect is not trying to create a third party so they run into a huge wall when dealing with Congress if they win the Presidency.  This would create a gigantic stalemate or even something more interesting where Republicans and Democrats agree on some issues and pass what they want and override Presidential vetos left and right (pun intended). So the goal of America Elect is thwarted by the very group they are trying to by pass to run this country. Basically we get more of the current situation which is partisan arguing and no real and new policy development. And if you are a libertarian you might be able to claim victory this way if the government cannot do anything for four years.

So lets briefly look at some historical examples of third party involvement and what happened that has some play on the current situation. 1968 many people think, and I don't think correctly, Nixon won because Wallace took votes from Humphrey. Well that doesn't play out since most of the people who voted for Wallace would not have voted at all because of the civil rights issues of the time, most that voted for him may have never seen a voting booth before or since. And what this shows is the possibility that there are enough hard line votes on the right to actual pull off a back door win for a hard line Republican if the America Elect group truly takes away moderate votes from Obama.

Oops gotta run, will come back to this later

A quick addition to a previous post

This goes back to the social conservative bloc of voters in Iowa. I was thinking another moral issue not discussed in Iowa is the concept of a decent living wage.

And I wanted to reemphasize the importance of what is happening to the youth in our country and serious lack of direction being shown by them. Yes there are many good kids out there and what is funny probably a good amount in Iowa, but it is the big picture that is lost when we get to primaries or caucases. We really need some serious leadership starting to come out of Iowa and we are now getting the "negative" campaign.

Straight up, the Republican candidates are seriously inadequate to lead this country. It is not just the moral issues, or the issues that are derailing individuals like Cain and possibly Newt, but a total lack of understanding of where we stand in history right now. Our country needs people to step up, but pandering to this social conservative group just to win shows serious weakness. I think the nation as a whole would like to see someone from this group step up and be their own person. They might not win in Iowa, but some real individualism and creativity would start to impress the nation as a whole. And right now we are getting the same crap we have for decades and right now this country just cannot survive with this mentality.

I am going to get some time and try to write something about one of my favorite authors. There are some interesting things going on and a discussion about him would really bring some things to light. I hope to be able to sit down and really prepare something instead of my usual quick hit thoughts. So this is my year end goal. Hopefully I will accomplish this because I would like to include some well thought out discussions sometimes. If anything though I will put something down even if not up to what I want because I have a few things I do want to say.

It is getting close

Merry Christmas,

The last couple of days have been real nice, mostly sunny and cool,, great days for December, but a change in the wind is coming.

The true Christmas season now dawns upon us, so time to count your blessings and give thanks for this past year. I know times have been tough for many, but it is still something that needs to be done. I did have to sit down and think a moment, but overall I found much to be thankful for. I hope that many blessings find you over the next couple of weeks as we head into the new calendar year.

So take a moment to relax from this overly hectic manmade craziness and enjoy time with your family, find peace in your heart to share with others, give with what you can, don't let the commercialzation take away the true joy of the season, and spend time with God as we approach the birth of the son.

And if you aren't of the Christian persuasion, then I hope you still take time to get away from the ills of the world to find a peaceful moment in your life.

So Peace on Earth, Good will to Man, and again I hope many blessings come into your life.

Interesting to note

The Republican Candidates are spending time courting the conservative faith based vote on their issues heading into Iowa. Something that is expected since this group makes up a huge bloc of votes.

What is interesting is that these people claim to represent values yet they stick to their expectations which are very narrow in focus. At a time when we need to concentrate on very serious issues for the country at large we have candidates climbing over each other to prove they are more faith based than the other. I am okay with that, but someone needs to redefine what faith based is especially if they are calling themselves Christian.

An example of better faith based thinking might be looking at what is happening to the values and mores in our country as the wealth divide increases. We have serious issues with young people losing any sense of a value system. More and more we have leaders and people with money showing absolutely no moral compass and poor young people see this and wonder why they should even try. The concept of working to get ahead is lost. Truth is no one became mega rich working for a living, but if people see themselves able to attain a higher standard of living many people will try to achieve that goal.

There needs to be a wake up call within the so called conservative faith based group on what is really happening to our country. It wouldn't hurt them to expend some energy on demanding more of our education system and reintroducing ethics in all levels of schools. Also attending events that the middle classs and working poor attend to see what is happening to our youth. And this does not mean creating a system of Nazi type controls on the situation, but more an understanding of why our values are failing among the working class and then demanding more of our leadership to lead by example.

I admit I am getting a bit lost in what I am trying to say, but I see a serious divide in attitude amongst the people who have and don't care and then the ever increasing poor and people sliding into poverty about what expectations they should be having as they grow up. It is scary to see people who demand our leaders follow their beliefs, but in reality they have no clue to what is happening to the larger populace. You cannot expect America to continue to lead as a country if you don't realize what is happening to the people who make up the bulk of the future. Or worse yet you take away a potential of a future for them.

Again trying to put together the thoughts, but want to get something out there as we head into Iowa and all the faith based voting bloc having such a heavy influence on the outcome. What is Christianity and what should be our answers as Christians to the future of our country right now. Yes I am pro life and have similar expectations for our leaders as the so called faith based vote, but right now we need more from our religious groups than singular issues, but a better understanding of what our country needs to maintain its moral compass and the ability to achieve our goals. The future of our country needs more than groups trying to define a few issues, but a holistic approach to the problems at hand. So today maybe better education, more responsible leadership, economic growth that creates opportunity rather than more minimum wage jobs, and helping our youth learn that their is value in their lifes would be a better agenda from people who try to define what faith based voting is all about.

Right now we may not get prayer back into public education, but maybe we should put back what we can that allows children the power to grow and contribute as human beings and responsible members of society. We have dumbed down the education process, reduced values to a joke, made a mockery of responsible leadership, and destroyed our economy. As a person who believes in a better set of values for our country shouldn't faith based people look at the whole picture now. Or is it going to be another election year of singular issues and pandering to perceived power groups to become President and then have no idea what to do when you get there. We will probably get the latter. Sad,,,, we still can be the greatest nation on the planet with a bit of effort.

Long live the Constituion, the constitution is dying.

Oh a side note, boy local cops are getting way too much power. Does anyone remember there is a constitution and probable cause is written into it. Heard and saw a couple examples recently where well damn. Cannot believe can just do what they want. I don't want crime, but there is a time where abusing power just because really doesn't prevent crime. And especially when you read about so much abuse of power at high levels. the scales of justice need some serious balancing. 

And finally will someone tell "the Donald" to shut up. It is really tiring to have someone like him play the big power broker for our Republican primaries when he is one of the biggest examples of someone without a clue what our country needs for the future. How Fox News has glorified him up to some exultant King maker is really ridiculous. The idea that he can wrangle so much power on these candidates shows how weak the Republican field really has become.

It is getting crazy

And we need to get crazy back. Well back on line after another round of viruses took over the computer.

It is time that we have the anti Geneva convention on people who write and/or propogate viruses for computers. I am still amazed at why there are so many. What good is it doing to hijack people's computer and infect it with viruses that do no more than eat up the computer? It seems most viruses we have been running across are just tearing it up. Who knows maybe they are trying to get something from us, but I laugh, we have nothing after almost three years of financial disaster and now getting 1/3 the income I use to, I hope they realize the waste of their time, but it doesn't seem they do.

This is just costing us money we don't have just to get online. And the kids cannnot do their homework, getting behind in school, of course the lack of facebook for some in my family is frustrating, but overall it seems you can get viruses everywhere. It is getting to the point where I don't want to get online, (maybe that is the reason,, yeah right) but there seems to be no stopping these monsters. Shoot I maybe getting one just writing this post. It is absolutely ridiculous.

I hear of other horror stories too. People having to fix computers all the time. You try to update your virus software, it never really seems to keep up. Harddrives get corrupted, you lose important info or family pictures, work, who knows what, but you have no recourse against this crap.

So someone needs to put some teeth in doing something about this, an international convention where these criminals can be hung by their testicles publicly or their fingers chopped off. Basically forego the Geneva convention for these people. They don't seem to care about their fellow humans so why should we care about them. Okay so I am a Christian and not allowed to think this way, but really something has to be done.

Anyway back online and there has been a virtual plethora of things to write about recently especially the Republican debates. Can't believe I missed all this fodder.

Also we are approaching the 40th anniversary of something most people won't give a rats ass about, but I was thinking about it the other day when Johnny Deep was on Letterman (was a repeat) when I saw it that got me to thinking about it and the author again. I still have my thoughts buried deep in my memory so hopefully I can dig it out and write some notes here soon. Interesting for me to think about it and also the Republican debates at the same time, but if you have already guessed you can figure out how they tie together.

And finally Happy friggin Holidays to all the virus writers and all other idiots destroying the average person's life. Last year I mentioned that the only Christmas special that quotes scripture is Charlie Brown's Christmas, still haven't seen another one, maybe that is why our world is so screwed up. I am not on the Tim Tebow bandwagon though, I get a bit upset when people over amp their Christianity.

Just some quick notes on a rainy cool evening preparing for the holiday season here in Dallas.

Family time

I feel for those who have to work over the holidays, the time people have to put up with is getting out of hand. I don't see why people cannot buy door busters at 10:00am vs midnight. Really this is getting out of hand.

All I can say is if you are a retail corporate executive, keep me from being President because I would make it a federal crime to not to be closed by 9PM Wednesday before Thanksgiving and not open till 10 am Friday.  I am serious about this because we have lost it as a society about the importance of family. There is no need to make minimum wage earners work these extra hours even if for a bit more. You can sell merchandise just as well Friday day.  And no I didn't have to work at midnight or 4am etc...

This troubling lack of concern about family time etc is one of the reasons we have the problem in the post below.

What are our priorities

Not really a rhetorical question, but not one I have an answer for either, ..but

I was reading the Dallas Morning News short version Thanksgiving morning and there were two stories that got me to thinking about the above question.

The main headline was that the Dow had dropped over 200 points and there were reasons discussed as to why etc.... that the Europe crisis, the inability of our Congress to get the budget situation resolved, and a bit more. This headline of course gives us the impression that a major financial event had happened. And quite frankly the dow has dropped more than 200 points I don't know how many times over the last 2 decades that I cannot see this as a major catastrophe at this point. Yes I can see that the ongoing crisis in Europe is a major concern even for us, but the dow losing 200, not that big of a deal anymore.

The comparison story was not a headline, but inside the paper. Apparently 4 or 5 12-14 year olds had ganged up on and eventually killed another person over a phone. This was done at a DART rail station and actually witnessed by some people who apparently had yelled at the kids to stop, but eventually the victim was hit by the train (sorry details a bit sketchy about the story, I read this two days ago and have been wanting to write about this, but things get in the way so I don't remember everything well) and dragged a ways.

To me the story about the kids is a much more troubling story that needs some more examination. It seems similar stories are starting to crop up more and more throughout cities in the U.S.. If kids this age are more concerned about a phone than another person in general what does this say as a society that we are becoming. This shows there is serious lack of engagement for these kids about social norms, and probably means serious lack of engagement from their parents. When you think of gangs of children roaming the streets hitting on people for whatever they want or what they can get you think more  of a third world country, but really for third world countries you can think that some of what they do is survivial, doesn't make it right, but there are explanations. For this to be happening in our country shows something more hideous going on and that is these kids are not being taught values, sanctity of life, ethics, and the list could go on. And quite frankly we are in a country where the above could be taught. This seems like though that we now have generations of families where all this is lost. Kids don't get this bad unless there is nothing in there life that gives them purpose. Serious problem folks.

And I don't have a specific answer, I blog on the economy excessively and ignore issues like this, and this seems to mirror where our press has their priorities, but we have to find answers and soon if we are to again show that the US can excel as a country. The second story is a sympton of a society falling into disarray. The economy is one problem, but there are other causes, our excessive desire for material possessions, greed, but not just greed, but a sense that having something makes us more desirable, the cavalier attitude towards others that you see not just in this episode, but in daily life, where people cut each other off in traffic, or ignore other people in trouble. I don't want to say the people who saw the attack, but didn't intervene  were wrong because quite frankly how many of us really know how to stand up and do something direct in this situation. I know I would be hard pressed to jump in unless I actually had help doing that.

To really go into this subject would take more than a simple blog about it and there are tons of articles, reports, etc that discuss this happening in our society. It basically goes back to the title of this blog, what are our priorities. I think, myself included, we need to really address this as a whole and start to re educate ourselves to what it means to have a society that represents the values of our country.

One other quick note, I don't find this to be a problem just coming from poor people, poverty has its issues, and poverty tends to reflect this problem more, but I see kids coming from well to do families without any values, parents spending money to avoid their children having to face consequences for their actions etc... we  are losing our moral compass in this country. Now is this the majority of our country, no, but it is growing as a problem way too fast.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you get to eat well, if so count your blessings. Spend time with family, more important than anything else.

Have you noticed

There seems to be a large sentiment saying only God can save America now. I see it all over the place even on trucks passing me on the highway.

People forget, God already has, and I am not specifically talking about dying for our sins on the cross, but on the two main commandents from the new testament. Basically if we treat each other with respect and love our neighbor from the poorest to the richest, things could work themselves out. Or at least be a start.

Then again John Lennon once said  "....you may say I'm a dreamer....."

This latest is so absurdly stupid you cannot resist

I know everyone knows Congress has totally lost it when you read they are trying to legislate pizza as a vegetable. This is the absolute proof that lobbies have way too much control over our Congress and that each individual Congressman that didn't shoot this down immediately should reconsider there ability to use common sense. This isn't about lack of leadership this is just plain stupid.

The fact that this is considered shows the total lack of control our Congress has over itself.

Damn someone needs to call 911. Our Congress is lost and someone needs to find it.

quick thoughts on the 1% in Congress headlines

I am not really put off by the headlines in the USA TODAY about 10% of Congress being part of the top 1% wealth group. You have to expect that since it costs so much to get elected today. You will never get equal/proportional economic representation of Congress to the populace at large anyway. And what do you expect we all want to be rich and successful.

Another issue is elected officials need the money to shield their private lives from the press. Most of us have way too many ghosts in the closet to really survive close scrutiny of our private lives to get elected. The fact that only the rich can do it shouldn't be a surprise.

I don't like the facts above, but it is what it is.

The real issue is can we find even 1% of our country truly capable of creating public policy that would actually benefit the country at large. What is scary is that most of the people in charge are completely clueless about the middle class nowadays and it has nothing to do with the fact they are rich, but the fact they are out of touch with our country. It doesn't take a Harvard economist to realize most Americans are struggling and things are getting worse. Yet our leaders tend to believe the scant few who create policy for their own benefit.

There are some productive think tanks, some authors, some academics that have good ideas, but none of this gets put into a productive policy program. Why? because most Americans don't even know what they want, no that isn't the answer, Why? because our current Congress is under the influence of lobbyists, not really the answer either, but a sympton of the problem, Why, the truth is our country is too big and too complicated for answers, not really either. We have the greatest system in the world, but no one knows how to actually put it into action. 

The truth is you can find many good answers to our problems if you search long and hard enough. No one wants to make the effort to put it all together and that is what our country needs. The truth is the solutions are simple, it is the action in putting them in place that we are missing.
(this is one of those nights where by the time I sit down to write all my ideas from earlier today have faded to the dark recesses of my memory and since I don't get to write till late, I can't finish the thought)

Anyway the purpose was to illustrate that it is not being rich that hurts us, it is our Congress not being able to truly look at policy as it applies to the whole that is hurting us.

And to the "leaderless" occupy wall street group,believe it or not there are good reasons to have direction from leadership. Tell your leadership to quit hiding and come out and really do something. I am not for all your ideas, but things do need to be shaken up now and we need new leaders in Congress that will listen to people who can actually produce realistic policy that works.

For example, we don't need more regulation, but more accountability for actions. Take the MF Global blow up. why not hold Corizine responsible in a court of law for his actions. IE new laws that deal with financial irresponsibility, something similar to what occupy group wants, but put real teeth in it, he is too rich to get away with retiring with no pension. He needs to go to jail for his actions. same for CEOs that produce by products when dumped in rivers that create cancer in people downstream, screw suing corporations,but put them in jail for assault and manslaughter. People will figure out real quick that being responsible is less expensive than over regulation. Many corporate leaders say regulations hinder growth, well their actions created them, so they need to learn they cannot have their cake and eat it too.

And if you look around, there are people putting together policies that protect people, hold corporations accountable, that can do a much better job of writing this than I. Lets step up as a people and find the 1% we need.

The above is only a simplistic example of what I would really like to put together as working policy.

Or going back to the title, the real problem isn't they are rich, it is they don't know what they are doing. (this goes for Democrats and Republicans)

remember the phrase too big to fail

Really some of these banks are too big to be successful or even more important able to help their customers. Why is wall street and everybody obsessed with larger and larger. It costs the consumers too much for companies to get too large.

Just one more thing I wish the consumer would realize and support small and medium size business. Got to give the credit where due for the groups that were trying to get everyone to switch banks earlier this month. Didn't hear too much about it so I don't know how much the public in general got the message and I wish I could help them get louder with the message.

The large banks are in the way of our economy now. It is not about loaning money like in the first part of the recession, it is everything. BOA's debit fee debacle was really just a visible example of how bad things are getting.  Large banks keep trying to pigeon hole customers into their business model, but as a customer you really can't get help when you need it. It is play by our rules or well suffer the consequences. This sucks when you are trying to work through something not of your choosing and you have to deal with the idiot policies. You cannot fault the front line staff they don't make the rules. The executives hide behind them and create policies that really even hurt their own institutions with non connected bureacracies, supervisors who quote policy not try to help you solve the problem, (again the executives fault they don't want problems solved) and inflexible guidelines that really don't produce results even the ones they are trying to produce (profit). And guess what customers get pissed so sooner or later the bank change will start to happen, people just need to be educated that it is okay/better to go smaller.

Think how many large political economic groups spend millions on advertising to try and convince the populace that their policies are better, based not on fact, but on their viewpoint ( read crap).

It would be great if the credit unions would ban together and spend some money on national TV campaigns to show how they help consumers and communities much more than large banks do now. I know the credit unions do have some lobbying presence in DC, they should turn it around and spend the money talking to the public. Voting is still an available way to change things. And even more important people's pocket books are the best way to change things.

Actually it is time that some executives realize their policies fail and maybe they should be in the unemployment line.  Too big to fail, we have a problem with too much cronyism (inbreeding) at the top and executives are failing us as consumers, which kills me that they don't realize they are creating the failure that is going to be too big for anyone's good. 

All this consolidation to become bigger is the big fail. It is not capitalism, it is stupidity.

gotta love politicians and their headline grabbing stunts

Romney has this quote in AOL headlines that he predicts that if Obama is re elected he will face another huge problem overseas. Well I got one for Romney, this is the United States whoever gets elected will face a few big to major problems overseas. We are involved everywhere.

To make this kind of prediction to grab a headline to me shows how much the press depends on crap to fill up space. And if anyone takes this as some kind of earth shattering revelation, well they are just ignorant. Problem is the Republican machine will try and use this and Obama will try and defend himself against it. Ha ha ha,,,,, too much ado about things that are inevitable to make your opponent look incompetent when well you would end in the same shit yourself. Can't we get one day of something concrete from a politician that actually says something. Yes I know I just asked a stupid question.

I love freedom of the press, but can't we get freedom from produced and prepackaged crap. Yes I know I just asked another stupid question.

I will say this, I saw some of the last Republican debate, got pretty interesting when they started talking about China for a moment. Just a moment, but you do have to think seriously how we manage the relations with China. This is a country that understands what it wants, but is stuck with managing way too many people to get there. Things will get dicey there and how we manage our interests should be given some very serious thought.  I am glad the question of China was brought up. Need more than five minutes to discuss that one though.

Trade was discussed of course and one of my answers is for us to create products to sell to China. We should seriously think about selling electric cars to China especially before the Japanese do and they are already ahead of the game in production than us. It is time we got Detroit ready to sell products overseas and SUVs aren't the answer, especially to countries like China and India. We should be more aggressive or if we are, let people know. Exports help our economy. And if we aren't, well we are just short changing any hope of getting out of our economic rut.

some quick hits

First of all the Republican faithful have to take off their rose colored glasses for their politicians. Latest example is the crash and burn of Rick Perry. I mentioned a few months ago that Rick Perry should be watched a bit more carefully because there really wasn't that much to go on about him, it was more of a nice little blog not really going into any depth, but it is panning out. Many jumped on his bandwagon when he announced back in August and now the more he opens his mouth, well the more we can see. Yep this does follow the debate debacle where he couldn't remember which depts he wanted to shut down. I get tired of Republicans supporting anyone that quotes the "conservative principles" as a valid candidate. Folks we really need somone that can think, be creative, and can do more than just say, less taxes, less regulation, a five year old can make that quote. So again I rant against the Elitist Republicans who offer no more than: support our programs so we can keep getting richer at everyone else's expense. Please Republicans look for someone who can actually represent this country.

And now for the other side of the coin,,,, to the Occupy Wall Street Group,,, just occupy the voting booths,,,, all this noise is not accomplishing anything productive. Spend time finding candidates that will support programs that will create economic opportunity for a larger group of people and some problems will take care of themselves. The more we create true economic growth and spread it around; wall street becomes less powerful, their lobbyists less effective, and well everyone else has the potential to be better off. Yes you might rant and rave we need to hold wall street accountable for the recession (and I join this sometimes), but the real issue is to prevent future problems and do that by opening up opportunities to many people, expanding the wealth base so there is more competition for power and if you read history once power is deconcentrated then better things happen, or yes if you leave power concentrated abuse begins. But you need to create real policy, force politicians to support better ideas, to accomplish this goal. Sitting around on wall street, just doesn't produce results if the politicians aren't held to the fire. Or we get new ones held liable to the people.
A healthy middle class is a sign of a healthy democracy and economy.

Finally the Joe Paterno thing, frankly I love football, played some as a youth and watch it pretty regularly, but this obsession now shows we got some priority issues. It is time someone stepped up and said enough is enough, football icons are only football icons and if they make human mistakes they need to be held accountable for them. Our society has got to stop worshipping the wrong ideals.Now yes he does deserve to have due process, but he didn't commit a crime, what he did was run a program that needs to be held to a higher standard because it (and any major university) needs to be held to a higher standard. Universities represent the pinnacle of who we are as a society. To put something that is more entertainment than substance above the health and safety of our children, and the values we are suppose to hold close as a society shows that we really need to look at ourselves in the mirror more closely. How much the Coach knew is not important, the fact that he and the institution did not put the care of the child first (defenseless child) is not some macho tough guy support the coach priority. The child and possible children are our priority and Coach Paterno should have immediately addressed that issue with as much if not more energy than a national title game. His complete lack of caring for the child by not pressing the issue shows serious fault in who is running the program and shows a lack of values for human dignity. Get over it people football is not more important than human life.  Really ritoting about this, come on.

Can't believe I haven't mentioned this

Everyone has a Sonic, the corporate replica of the good ole drive up. And probably in most cities there is still a real drive up, where the waitress actually comes to the car to get the order, maybe frayed around the edges, but probably has one of the best burgers in town.

For Dallas Kellers is the place to go. You can spend a lazy fall or spring day cruisin' White Rock Lake or just parked next to the shore of the Lake watching the sun reflect off the water, not really expecting anything, maybe tossing the football or frisbee, walking across the parks around the lake, then catch a late lunch or early dinner at Kellers. Really great way to enjoy a stress free afternoon. Get a burger, order of onion rings, and a cold one and it just tops off the perfect do nothing afternoon.

And if you are curious, Kellers is on Northwest Hwy, just east of the Abrams intersection and a couple of miles west of White Rock Lake. Now that I have mentioned it,should have spent the weekend there, last couple of days have been great.

Tonight just sucks

Too much of a pyschological hangover from game 6

Random thoughts because of a postponed game sports v politics

Politics are always full of sports metaphors mainly I guess because of the competitive aspect of running for office. Some of this isn't rocket science, but it is fun to compare the craziness we have for our side whether in sports or politics. Unfortunately for people right now home team wrangling produces seriously bad public policy.

And really any good conservative especially libertarian really doesn't want an effective government, because then you could end up with people trying to control your life, but there does come a point where we need some government. We drive on roads, someone does have to protect the country, I like clean water, and other tidbits of government work that well we need someone to take care of these things.

I have been reading both local coverage of the Texas Rangers and some coverage from the St Louis press on the Cardinals. Take the last game for example. Everyone here talks about how the pitchers got themselves out of jams, while in the St Louis press they talk about how the hitters didn't get it done. And they are talking pretty much the same thing. The little nuiances that took place in those situations where St Louis didn't get the job done or the Texas pitchers did were in most cases situations that were deteremined basically by inches. The pitch a tad bit different or the swing just a bit different could have produced seriously different results. It is the intensity of the press for each side trying to kowtow to local readership that makes all this fun reading. And for sports this is fun and good.

For politics though we do need less playing to the home crowd and serious looks at what our country needs. Right now the Republicans have the most press because of the constant debates we are getting now. Each candidate is stuck in trying to find the right message to play to the home town Republicans. And yes it is pretty much not going to change just because I make an observation about it. What is going to hurt is when we go Rep v Dem next year, and both sides will stick to this constant barrage of how can I please my constituency. Again I am not a fan of having too much government, but at some point we do need help in fixing problems.

In sports we do get help with the home team press vs home team press in judging how the last game went,  a read through many national media organizations can give a reader an idea of just how the game went and if there is something to one side's story over the other.

For politics we cannot get away from playing to the home crowd and for most years that wouldn't be a big
deal, but for the immediate and long term future right now we do need a bit more.

As Americans we have developed an attitude on World leadership, that we are in charge and people should follow our lead. We try to down play this publicly on the world stage, but in reality we push our agenda.

And in general our agenda has its good points. The spread of democracy, free markets, and the rights we are suppose to adore can benefit any country. What we have lost is the ablility to lead by example, right now we,as the world public sees us,is a country that isn't living up to expectations. And these are our own expectations. We have had the ability to do something in the past fifty years that has never been done before in world history and we became self absorbed. In my posts I pretty much bash American Wall Street as a major contributor to our current woes. In reality America's problems have been caused by Americans.

Apathy is just as bad as greed when it comes down to it. If we don't care, how can we expect to get better. That is what has happened to public education in general, to point out one example. And as our education has faltered so goes our ability to think critically, make rational decisions, basically know when the emperor has no clothes and say so. Think about it, has any of your children taken classes in ethics, philosophy, remember civics? Yes we do need science etc to keep up with the world technically, but to really lead you need a thorough understanding of how to solve a problem. And problems come in many shapes and sizes.

We can still create the greatest time in world history through our leadership and what we have built not just economically, but through our values, our attitude, can do spirit, our constitution, and the little things like playing softball on Sunday eve, whether in church or beer league. This attitude that life can be lived and enjoyed, the infamous work hard play hard idea is something we should aspire to share with the world.

Right now though we need to sit down and really examine where we stand and what we need to do to achieve this goal. And this comes back around to where I started, we have no one to sit down and make the call on whether this team or that team has the better story. Yes we have the press, but the national press has succumbed to playing to what they think people want to hear instead of saying what we need to hear. The national press use to be a good barometer of where we stood, but as time has passed they have changed to the public perception, not demanding from itself to say what needs to be said. Yes a few members can still step up, but overall the press represent a said reflection of where our society stands.

So it is ironic, we do a much better job dissecting a sports game than dissecting our future. And we wonder why we cannot determine who is best fit to lead our country.

I love my sports and my teams, I will be honest, but right now,   time is important and we need to look at ourselves now to keep up the great experiment of American democracy because this would really be sad that the greatest document written by man, our constitution , would go by the wayside based on apathy and greed. Much to be done, but really the solutions are there and simple, we just need to look inside ourselves to find them.

Long live the constitution, the constitution is dying.

Greatness, but they are driving me crazy

How can these pitchers keep letting people on then getting people out?  Please just get them out in the first place. GO RANGERS

Wednesday is a long way away now.

1-1 coming home,

Well you gotta admit that last game was anxiety central. Great job by Rangers to stay with the game and never give up.  Cardinals having wrong defense for first hit made the whole inning possible. If the first hit doesn't drop in, the inning probably doesn't happen.  This is at the point where you want to believe, but just like the Mavericks the history isn't there to support it yet. Saturday's game will be great, and of course we don't want it going back north.

Is it really possible two championships in one year and the Cowboys are second page news?  Wow childhood loyalty is under pressure. Actually it will take much more for the Cowboys to fade even now. Was watching the news after game 2 on channel 8 and the Cowboys had second story, but more actual minutes for the sportscast. Or at least it seemed that way.  

Even the texting buds are relatively quiet waiting for this to really happen.

The weather is going to be great this weekend, only slight chance of rain, down somewhat from earlier in the week. So whatever you do this weekend get outdoors. Weather like this is what makes it really worth it to get up in the morning, so give thanks.

Reading internet news, GOP politics, wall street protests

Couple articles out on the various internet sites about Perry and Cain. Both basically stating that the candidates are getting support mainly from small groups of people with money.

Again our economic problems will continue  until the middle class wakes up and realizes the elitist leadership in the republican party only plays lip service to them and the democrats still haven't come up with anything new but to spend our way out of this and well how is that going?  Especially now.

The tea party is not backed by the people, but by a small group of billionaires, Perry is supported by a small group, Cain by another group called Americans for prosperity, none has the true interests of the middle class in their agenda.

And until the middle class gets back on their feet with real income growth, real jobs, an infrastructure we can afford, and better education; democracy and America are in trouble. A healthy middle class is a sign of a healthy economy and democracy.

I love our country that is why I want to speak.  Special interests cannot rule our country because quite frankly they are "special interests" for a reason, and are not working for the general good.

And the wall street protests are just noise for now,,, what agenda do they have to actually fix what they are complaining about which seems to be..... well I don't know specifically    hmmmmm

Creating policy that supports the middle class will just about take care of the country because we are the country.

Sports in Dallas gotta love it

Now that the Rangers are going back to the World Series again, and FC Dallas made the playoffs ,Mavericks having won the NBA,,,,,,, why do people still keep talking about the Cowboys  hahaha

actually still a big Cowboy fan, but you gotta love it here in Dallas now

Getting a bit brave,,, some comments on the military

This is not a comment on any wars, or a political bombast on the military,but some observations I have accidentally run across and a couple of my own thoughts.

If you have read any of my past posts I have alluded to my frustration with being underemployed because of the recession, however, in my role I speak to a good chunk of military personnel or military people.A very large portion of the time these are very short conversations and are only about the business at hand.I have spoken to enough of them to realize a couple of points.

First with all the budget talk in Washington Congress can actually cut some budget with the military and it will not affect our ability to defend our country in the least, in fact, it might increase because some budget cutting might produce more effective management.I know most Congress people would be hard pressed to make cuts on any military project not because of pressure from the Pentagon, but pressure from local voters because of the economic benefit of having military operations for the local economy. And especially now since  any jobs cut only puts more downward pressure on the economy. And I have spoken about need to go to Congress to put pressure for them to make better decisions.So saying cutting military budget might seem contradiction to some of my previous thoughts, but in reality we all need some budget help and wasteful spending is hurting us almost as much as lack of jobs.

Now the Pentagon would be lobbying Congress not to cut budget mainly to preserve what they have, however,there are some sharp individuals at the Pentagon  who really know there is ways to preserve programs and save money and not affect our true ability to defend our country. Problem is these individuals would have a hard time making headway in today's world with all competing factions to get the government to spend money on defense.

So where does all this go from here. One example from the recent past that might get the least potential to do something was closing bases.This caused quite a stir last decade and now would cause even bigger push back. Yet you don't have to close bases to reduce costs. Just like the federal government there is much duplicity in military operations that can be consolidated.Make bases more specialized and yes I know the Pentagon will say we already have specialization, but just talking to people you hear  that certain trainings  are being wasted, people are creating jobs to keep them busy, duplication of efforts abound, some posts aren't even staffed properly, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that anything as large as our military could use some bureaucratic shape up.   I hate posting this because I am not out for a witch hunt on military spending,but we really need to look at our whole government spending to help balance the budget.

People seem to be afraid to say something about cutting military costs and even I am walking lightly, but we need to step up and ask what is a strong military, and how much does it truly cost. And again even the Pentagon in an honest moment knows there can be some effective cost cutting that doesn't affect our ability to be the best military on the planet.And one quick comment I am not talking about the infamous over priced toilet seats.

Another point and this story has been well documented in the past, but I want to put my two cents on it.  We have done a severe disservice to Vietnam vets. With all the return to people respecting military personnel for the Iraq and Afghanistan vets even if they didn't support the war it only aggravates the Vietnam vets more.They may not say it directly, but there has been an injustice served to the people who served at that time.Especially for those whose only military experience was the one or two tours they did in Vietnam. And I know that there has been some soul searching by people who took out their protest for the Vietnam conflict on the Vets that came home, but as a country it would really help if we looked to do more for them. Many are coming upon retirement age with nothing. They came back to unhappiness, depression, low paying jobs, no help acclimating back into society,  and now they are retiring with no savings, no support, and watching current Vets being treated with respect even by people who don't support the current campaigns.So as a society we seemed to have learned the lesson that the soldier isn't the problem, but for the Vietnam Vet they are still in the shadow of us having learned that lesson.

So next time you run across someone who served remember to thank them for their service.Show them that we respect what they did fighting for our country as called, it is up to us as citizens to elect leaders that make better decisions on what conflicts we enter, but not to blame the soldier for doing his job. And if you want to lobby Congress just remember to put in a word for better disability and help for Vietnam Vets as they retire from the civilian world. There are many organizations out there you can also contribute to that help them.  Just some thoughts as I watch bitterness overtake many men that suffered more there and here than they should have.

Well here come the Tigers

Something to think about for Detroit, Rangers can hit the ball like the Yankees but Wash also will play to manufacture runs.So in a close ballgame you may not see hitting away with the bases loaded as in New York, but Wash trying to get the one or two runs in the early innings to get what we can early, could make a big difference in the upcoming series.GO RANGERS

Big sports weekend in the Dallas area, so go Texas and go Texas. I would avoid the highways at all costs Saturday,way too many crazed drivers.

whew

The Rangers pulled out two close ones in a row.Definitely will take it and wait for the weekend.

The Wall Street protests

Well it is pretty interesting that people are coming down on wall street, but unfortunately probably going to be ineffective in doing anything. Until people vote in new set of legislatures or demand their representatives represent them  the now infamous 1%  will still control the game. With money control of Congress they are writing their ticket.

It is amazing that people let this 1% control so much when we actually have the power to do something about it. Our constitution gives the power to those who vote over the money, but we refuse to stand up and force our representatives to listen to the majority.

This shows that mediocre education is destroying the middle class. No understanding of how to think critically, to realize where to put pressure and to understand there are many answers out there that are better than what our elitist republicans and ineffective democrats are giving us.

The large majority of this country has basic conservative tendencies, even most minority voters tend to lean a tad bit conservative on economic issues if they belong to the middle class, but this large majority cannot see the answers that are so easy.

We need to take away lobbyist power, make them stand up in open sessions if they want to speak to Congress, reduce the size of the government by reducing duplicity in the bureaucracies, holding corporate America accountable for their actions, creating tax policy and programs that are flexible to the economic needs (which right now are to create jobs), shift tax burden equally among all groups, reduce public works programs that rely totally on the federal government and create more public private partnerships, including more public private partnerships with state and local governments so localities can rebuild their economies, encourage economic development of new industries (again tax policy and policy encouragement of lending by private groups) especially industries that create new products with new jobs so we can start balancing trade the right way,  and many more.

There are many ideas out there, we just need to start implementing policy that benefits the middle class. The strengthening of our middle class will maintain democracy, strengthen our overall economy, which in turn will allow capitalists to continue to succeed, yes, they won't get everything they want, but they will get back a viable economy to do business, be successful, and continue to invest in America where they can continue to grow. As long as we allow them to do what they want they will eventually drain the economy for their own benefit which will eventually swallow them. People who are obsessed with money should not be allowed to make policy decisions for the masses.That is where our democracy should be allowed to take over so better policy for all the people is made. Unfortunately we make much noise (Wall Street protests), but never put our energy where it will do the most good.

So if you want to get our economy back together you must get off wall street, back on main street, find candidates that will support the middle class and put them in office and then the first order of business is to create laws limiting lobbyists and money in elections. Then rebuilding our education system is the first long term plan to put in place, the rest is creating policy that puts jobs first, real jobs, ones that build, not ones based on consumption.

Now I am against federal government public works projects as a way to get us out of the recession because no long term job growth, however, there is one project that is bubbling up in my mind. And of all things the oil pipeline they are trying to build gave me the idea. If we can pump oil thousands of miles why not water, if many different water districts municipalities got together with Federal help maybe we could start creating a large water project where areas already overloaded can pump to dry areas when more rain gets predicted for the overloaded area,,, create large pools of rain run off that can be moved as necessary and since it is water if we start to get too much we can always let it run to the ocean like it would do naturally.  The pipes could be set up along the interstate system so the infrastructure is easy to map out.This is a simplistic example of the project in my mind, there are some serious logistic plans to make, but really it is basically creating man made pipe rivers to redirect water before areas get close to being flooded or relieve rivers as they are rising to reduce flooding. Again simplistic discussion here, but some food for thought. And not for the federal govt to do alone, but in conjunction with local water companies and water districts.

Another way to fight droughts along with desalinization to create jobs that helps our agriculture feed us and balance our trade.

Funny thing Brazil is making great headway in using plants to create fuel. They borrowed our scientists from our universities to help them. We have the ability in our country we just need to start using it

A few scattered thoughts that have come together over the last few days while stressing out over the Texas Rangers making another playoff run.  I knew I didn't want them to play the Rays again in this year's playoffs because of how hot they  were ending the season,but tonight Rangers won 4-3 and hopefully took some of the heat out of the Rays sails. Still got to win the next one, there are no guarantees in the playoffs.

Trying to survive watching the Cowboys

Is it just me or can we question a few of Coach Garrett's play calls inside the red zone?  First and goal from the two and you run a draw. Just run it Coach.

Fall

Fall is caught between being the best season and being the forbearer of bad news. For most in the North Fall is short lived before Winter really hits, for the South it is a welcome relief from 4-5 months of 95+ days and for the past summer even more brutal.

Fall for the South is three months of beautiful weather, but with one big draw back.You finally get to go outside again,but the days are getting shorter too quick. You go outside, but by the time you start enjoying the day it is dark. For the North it must just suck. Only a few weeks of absolute gorgeous days before you fight off 4-5 months of being locked inside avoiding the elements. Well winter does have some good moments, but now it is fall.

Fall is when baseball finally gets interesting and not being able to go outside without a football in your hand. And this goes for males of all ages.

Fall is the season of  holidays: state fairs,.Halloween, fall festivals, Thanksgiving, and of course preparing for Christmas and Hanukkah the Festival of Lights. It is a crime that retail starts putting Christmas before everything else and short changes the rest of fall. Christmas has its own season and preparation and it is a shame we have forgotten to keep that perspective.

Fall is a time for poets and I feel inadequate in trying to find words to describe this wonderful season. So where ever you are I hope that the next few weeks bring you outdoors to enjoy some moderate temperatures,  beautiful colors, friends, outdoor cooking, harvest moons, fall festivals, baseball playoffs, football (especially if you are playing it yourself),and of course all the holidays. So sit back, pour yourself a nice Crown Royal or other bourbon, sit outside late in the evening and turn up Van Morrison's "Moondance".

time for Oct excitement

Yes, The Rangers are getting close to another post season bid. It still amazes me to see them play so well nowadays even after last year. Way too many years of the season being over by August. Can we get to second best record in the AL and wait to play the Yankees? It may not matter, the road to the World Series is probably going through New York. Rather have them second round though.

Awhile back I mentioned the Lakewood area as a cool place to check out if you visit, sorry to say it is getting a bit commercial and losing its uniqueness some now. Try to go by before it totally loses its luster.

The Jobs Program,another Democrat band aid

The problem with band aids is they eventually get old and fall off.So for a short time they can heal a small cut or scratch, but a seriously deep wound like the economic crisis we have had for the past three years band aids are useless.

Over and over again we hear old outdated ideas used to solve this crisis. The situation requires some new creative thinking.

Spending public money right now to create jobs isn't the best idea, we have way too much of a deficit and the results are too short term. Yes having people employed helps, but there is no sustainability to these jobs.

And what is ironic is the jobs program wants to rebuild our schools as part of the project. What we really need to do is rebuild the whole education system. Big difference between the building and what goes on in the inside.

What we need is some public policy that forces wall street to invest money in creating new jobs, jobs built on new industries and products we can export to create some sustainability to the jobs and decent incomes.

I heard the other day on the radio that one company was going to spend $600 billion to buy another company.I don't know if I heard the amount correctly, but whatever it was it was staggering. This doesn't do anything to help the economy.What we need is taxation policy that encourages companies to spend this money on new business development and discourage companies buying and selling themselves. Nothing new is developed and usually some job losses occur with the consolidation. This is a counter productive move for our economy.

And with creating a new tax policy we need to be flexible. We institutionalize way too many laws. We need policy that is adaptive to the situation. In a few years we may need a policy to encourage consolidation to protect struggling companies, but for now we need corporate America to become creative. So policy should reflect what the times demand and right now the times demand policies that reward companies that create new jobs and sustainable new businesses.

Will we get some creative thinking from Washington, I doubt it.   The President and the Republican leadership are constantly at odds. The President wants to talk compromise, but really this wouldn't do any good, no matter how much compromise you have if either sides ideas are useless then the compromise is useless. And with both sides spouting out the same ole same ole then we get compromised same ole same ole.

So until our leadership wakes up and realizes they are clueless or the people of this country wake up and elect truly new leadership this economic crisis will continue to plague us.

And lets sing praises to the Supreme Court for allowing Super PACs,,,,Long live the Constitution, the Constitution is dying.

Driving, Irene, gas prices,and God

Well it has been awhile, trouble with the internet has taken the blog offline for awhile,but now back up.

Before our line was cut off (literally, the line did break and it took awhile to get it fixed) we drove to the northeast and spent a wonderful weekend with Irene. Now this was an interesting drive with a total of over 3500 hundred miles put on a vehicle. Overall a good drive and we did enjoy some of the trip. Irene did put a crimp in some of the trip, but not too much.

A couple of observations about the drive. Driving through Arkansas both ways and for some reason there is more tire debris on I 40 than anywhere else on the trip. If there was a market for shreaded rubber you could make some money here. The highway was covered with torn up tires from the big rigs.  I don't know how much of I 40 across the country is covered, but in Arkansas it was pretty bad. The drive through the state is easy, just a complete mess.

People always talk about the people in New Jersey and the reality show doesn't help their image, however, after spending time there, I can say the people are really good people. The problem with New Jersey is getting from point A to point B.The Turnpike is wonderful, very easy straight shot across the state, but try to do something local, well forget about it. There is no rhyme or reason at all.  Turns and directions do not make sense unless a local I guess.We did stop and ask directions, and people were helpful,but it took 2-3 tries to make sense of what they said. Identifying signs were virtually non existent, hidden, or so small you would drive right past them with the glance knowing I needed to know what that sign just said. Really really crazy and maddening. Having to drive in New Jersey right after Irene was also a nightmare. I do have to say you have to acknowledge the struggle Irene caused for much of the Northeast.The flooding that occurred in New Jersey and Vermont was absolutely a disaster for those people and prayers go out for all the people suffering in the aftermath and trying to get their lives back together. Driving in New Jersey though was crazy the next couple of days.Example: we get up to leave the hotel for the day after Irene hit and unknown to us right past the first curve the road was completely flooded. There were cars in the road with water up to their windshield. So now we were caught in trying to find away around through some side streets. I made more u turns in the next hour than   the past year and much of this wasn't because of the flood, the flood only caused the detour. Anyway someone needs to redo the entire street system in that state.

The flooding there and the long drive got me to thinking about the issues facing our country with extreme droughts in some areas of our country and the flooding in other areas.I briefly touched on this in an earlier blog, but had no answers, I think I have a proposal, but will save it for another entry.

Now we know that anytime a summer holiday comes up gas prices go up. The last couple of weeks before labor day really proved to me there might be something going on. Two weeks before labor day we drove to the northeast and we were watching gas prices the whole way since on a tight budget. So I had a pretty good idea of what I thought gas prices were going to be on the way back.Well that was the week before labor day and even though the price of oil had not really gone up, gas prices averaged 15-30 cents higher the whole trip back.Gas prices do vary from state to state and the northeast is a bit higher than other parts we drove through, but where we were seeing 3.33 -3.39 on the way up, it was 3.45-3.69 on the way back. And I moderately watch oil prices so I know oil did not go up significantly the week before. Just plain crazy and unnecessary, oh by the way gas prices are now back to the 3.30's with oil still about the same price.

And finally for this post, a bit on God. I usually don't like to talk about God in a general sense, but a billboard on the way back got my attention.It read WARNING YOU ARE ABOUT TO MEET GOD. Now I get the gist that we should always be prepared because you never know what is going to happen,but really. In fact if I meet God I am breathing one hell of a sigh of relief. I really don't believe in the beat the bible over the head of people to get them to believe.I have always thought that was just the worst way to convince someone they should get to know God. I am not much of a stand up and sing praises kind of person, but shouldn't we be happy to meet God. God created us so I don't think God is out to get us. The above is the kind of mindset that drove me away from God when I was young for a very long time.

Again overall a good trip,no it wasn't fear and loathing in the northeast, but rather, hard driving, missed sight seeing in New York, delayed endeavors, and finally some spelunking, wine tasting, and a bit of luck in Tunica on the roll back.

Bit more like a facebook post

Anyway we don't have the money nor the time, but what the hell we are off to take our son to his freshman year of college. It is crazy,,,, heading into earthquakes and hurricanes for one weekend. Tried to tell him it was a sign from God that maybe he should have gone somewhere else... not really, good opportunity for him and I hope he takes advantage of it and gets off to a better start in life than I ever had.  Way too short of a trip for where we are going and especially with no money it really takes away from the adventure we thought we were going to have a couple of years ago when things were better,,,, anybody care to pay our electric and mortgage this month

Cheers

Another sweltering Saturday

Bit hard to go out and about in Dallas nowadays, still hotter than heck,,,,but if you can stand the heat there are many great things to do.Thought I would mention one,   not the best place in the heat, but just east of Dallas there is a spot called the Harbor in Rockwell. It is on a man made lake so it has a nice vacation feel to it. Mostly restaurants, but nice walking area, for people on the lake they can dock boats, has some entertainment bars, hard pressed to be real busy since the heat dominates, but in the late evening now or spring or fall it can be a nice place to hang out. Nothing super fancy, but great place to spend an evening.

We are getting close to being down to one child. We leave soon to take another child to college.Been a bit tough lately since the economy over the last few years zapped our savings. So right now not the best time to be taking a trip to drop off a child for college.Very excited though,great opportunity for the child.Over half paid for by scholarships, financial aid, but still a bunch coming from the parents we don't have. We are still debating whether we drive or fly, flying is easier and we are gone less time,but added expense. Either way though pretty big hit to the budget that we really cannot afford. Some benefits to driving, we run across family on the way we haven't seen in awhile, but it is a long drive.In other times we would be super excited about the trip. Got the older kids in town to help watch the house and the youngest so we only have to worry about the trip itself. There are times when having a large family, married children, etc can be a blessing, well it has always been a blessing, but for times like this, an added benefit. Gonna cook some brisket for the big family meal before the child leaves. Anyway these thoughts have been dominating the brain for the last few weeks.

Originally I was going to discuss some thoughts that came up when reading about the disaster that is Parkland Hospital.This is our county hospital and it is in the news big time lately, and not for the best of reasons. Instead I decided to keep it light tonight since everyone needs a bit of good times nowadays. Some of it's problems really irk me not because of the problems themselves, but how they reflect about our situation in society as a whole. The problems are bad and yes they bother me also, but it seems to reflect bigger problems, but all in all if we address them we come out ahead in the big picture.
So a couple of quick hits,
If people cannot do their job, their are millions of people out there who might be able to do it better, even though you don't want people to lose their job now, if they aren't performing well there are many who would like the opportunity to try and do better. It is sad to see so many examples of piss poor performance when executives in charge have the ability to get new blood. For myself I have been to some interviews where I am thinking I could be doing a much better job than the person interviewing me, but for some reason no one in charge wants to step up and hold people accountable for their performance. And the point about the people in charge is important since this seems to be a problem too,,,,,see the Parkland example.

And another topic to discuss is medicare and medicaid. There is some much talk about cutting budgets etc, but lets first work on better accountability to how the money is spent.  I have read so many examples of money being spent by medicare and medicaid that was fraud. Again see the Parkland example, you seem to read about this kind of stuff all the time. We need to take care of people's health so better management is the first key to savings that is so desperately needed in our federal budget.  It is easy to cut, but we are talking about people's lives.  Much more to discuss here, but this evening didn't want to go overboard.

Pray for rain.

And again think about the concept of progressive conservatism. Actually this isn't a new idea if you know your American history. What is it for the 21st century?

Dog days of summer

Well we lost the string of 100+ days the other day, we came within 2 days of breaking a record. Oh well, it got below 100 for a couple of days, then wham back to 100 and a new streak begins. We still need rain like crazy all over Texas and other parts of the country.Of course it is flooding somewhere else.Nature isn't into balance lately.

oh yeah have I mentioned desalination before,,,,it boggles me that we aren't leading the world in developing this process. Helps agriculture, helps overall water situation, reduces pressure on our lakes, creates jobs, directly and indirectly,,,,, yeah there are some hurdles to overcome, but other countries are making breakthroughs.

Here we are suppose to be the greatest country in the world and the most common sense projects are left by the wayside. If we want to continue to lead the world economically we need to step up and show leadership with action.

Haven't seen a Ranger score this evening yet, but we are now in mid August. I promised myself I wouldn't  pay attention till Sept,,,, but  I hear good things coming out of Arlington.

The times they are a retchin'

There is a difference between being conservative and being right wing.Unfortunately right now the conservatives are losing.


Wasn't the whole purpose of our fore fathers writing the constitution was to get rid of tyranny and nowadays our so called conservatives are handing the country over to an economic oligarchy. 


So what is progressive conservatism in the 21st century?


It isn't more social welfare, it isn't another great society, or more govt interference in our lives, but it isn't handing over our rights to others under the concept of a stronger central govt, it is not letting big business make their own rules, it isn't the idea that more money means more free speech, 


It can be less govt, but more effective govt, it can be holding corporations accountable for their actions so we need less regulatory bodies...think about it; if corporations treat lawsuits as a cost of business how can they be expected to regulate themselves. You can choose more taxes and more govt or you can chose corporate accountability at the highest level. People like making money; they will figure it out.


It can be better and more effective help to the less fortunate, think about the last few years, we kept extending unemployment benefits, but really didn't hold anyone accountable for retraining,,,, less time looking for a job up front and more time learning new skills to fill the jobs available. You can hold people accountable to showing up for training classes while receiving unemployment then finding them jobs  without taking away their rights because they can still look for jobs they want while working in the new career, or eventually they may find success in the new career,,,,,, things like aptitude tests etc for retraining do not infringe on people's rights if they are receiving help from tax payer money.  


Free speech should be open, we don't need lobbyists telling Congress what to do, they should be required to give advice and guidance in open session committee hearings so all can hear and then address their views to Congress.   Free speech is one thing, undue and behind the scenes influence destroys open democracy. 


It is the responsibility of our country to protect individual rights, to not hinder individual success, to stand up and help those in need so they can stand on their own instead of relying on society, and we don't need intrusive govt, but we also don't need a self selected few replacing the rights of people to install their own views for their own benefit.


Our government was set up to protect the rights of people, not to manage people, but in protecting rights it does mean protecting them for all possible harm. Again we were founded on the belief that all humans have rights, and that no one king or power has the right to supercede those rights, but it is our responsibility to protect them, not to hand them over especially due to ignorance or apathy. 


Progressive conservatism now is supporting job growth, economic growth, less government based on more participation by the middle class, equal distribution of taxation, simpler tax laws, it is not social redistribution of wealth,but maintaining the opportunity for people to create wealth for themselves and not be interfered by govt or elements of society not wanting others to succeed.  


There are some so called conservatives that mouth certain ideas,but their actions have a completely different bent.


Oh by the way I hear Gov Perry is running for President,God Save the Constitution, the constitution is dying.

Reading someone else's blog

On Jack Cafferty's CNN blog today he asks what will it take to change things in Washington today. And there were some typical blame the other guy quotes or get rid of that group stmts., and a bunch about term limits.

Really though to fix what is going on in Washington you have to look at some of the root causes and there are many, but here are three quick topics.

1) People can't keep blaming the other guy, we need real honesty about who is at fault and that is everyone. Yes some at different levels,but we are all responsible and that leads me to
2) Distractions. Yes, more time is spent on facebook, reading about the local NFL team's training camp, Hollywood insider, you name it, but more Americans spend so much time on what distracts them than dealing with real problems how can you blame Congress for listening to lobbyists, they are the only ones talking to Congress.( unfortunately with way too much financial influence also. So instead of term limits we need lobbyist  reform).
3) Education, back in the 1950's we had a chance to build the greatest education system in the world, instead we chose mediocrity and then mediocrity begat mediocrity etc till now, most Americans really don't understand what is going on and what it means to be a responsible citizen.

It is not that we have to give up what we enjoy,,, that is part of what makes our country so great having the time to do things, but we have to realize it is more than a financial crisis facing our country, but a fundamental understanding of what it means to hold our elected officials accountable to us the people.

Now hear is a fun complaint,,,I wish I had more time to read other blogs etc, I use to be a political junkie, read everything and even now would love to go back to school and finish or start a new Master's program or even a PhD. I even have tons of ideas for economic development here for this country. I need to force myself to find the time if this is what I love, ( again we all have to take our own responsibility)but this afternoon I am actually on hold with the IRS, yes the IRS and to have to be dealing with them with all the craziness in Washington,but I have been on hold with them for over an hour, so I started reading around the internet and of course thinking of my own comments. Actually it has been well over a hour,  oh well they finally answered. Yeah,,, I think

Oh yeah and I am a little guilty about paying too much attention to my favorite teams also

One final thought on this hot afternoon

There has got to be more discussion on balancing the trade deficit. New industries help, agricultural products have always helped, but we need more.

Trade balance,not trade treaties, but new products, and jobs will do much more to helping our economy than anything Wall Street or Washington DC has done for a long time.

We need more investment banking for new industries not trading profits from volatile markets out of wall street, just a thought.

a bit of local flavor

False alarm on the last post, it is only intermission for the circus.

Anyway will hold off on the previous rant for another time.

Another aspect of the economy we really need to support is small business, either individuals, individual companies, or small chains. Empires of the past have fallen due to too much concentration of wealth and power.

So if are in the mood try Tony's in northeast Dallas on East Northwest Highway, small restaurant that serves Italian food. If you are from the northeast part of the country probably not that big of a deal to make much noise over a family owned local neighborhood spot, but with Dallas being so spread out you do have to look a bit to find them. Tony's has great customer service, good food at a really good price, nice specials, you can bring your own wine, so this helps to hold down the cost. I have been going there for years and should have recommended it a long time ago.There are a few other small Italian places like it in Dallas, but this is my family's spot.

And if you are from out of town and you want some Mexican food try Calle Doce.There are two locations, one in Oak Cliff and the other in Lakewood. Neither are in high tourist areas, but if you can get around look this place up.Not your typical tex mex you find in the chains. You do get some enchilladas etc, but there are other menu items much more worth trying. Also Lakewood area has some other nice places to eat, many local establishments.

a bit of two cents on being conservative

Or how do you survive calling yourself conservative if you don't believe the crap out of Fox News all the time and the Republican machine.

I didn't vote for Obama and won't next year, but it amazes me the amount of misconception Fox spills out. I was going by a tv set the other day and Fox was discussing the possible Republican Candidates and their responses to the current economic crisis.One comment caught my attention was that the President Obama was responsible for the crisis,, no, not the debt debacle over the last few weeks, but the whole crisis facing our country.   Really...... this crisis has been building for decades and both parties are neck deep in responsibility. And even more currently Obama inherited the current recession, he didn't create it.

I haven't voted for a democrat or republican since Carter and Reagan and yeah I have had to vote for some real interesting characters to vote and not vote main stream.  I am not a tea party supporter because they are coming out of the machine with just more extreme right wing views, not truly a grass roots movement as they proclaim to be.  Now do I get to say I am not to blame for our current fiscal disaster, no, all of us are to blame, but for the so called leadership of our country to push off blame on each other and a so called news  organization helping to polarize this problem is sometimes too much to put up with nowadays.

Being conservative doesn't mean you should let others do your thinking for you, but I see way too many Republicans parroting what they hear without any true critical thinking of what they are saying. Yeah some of the ideas are great, as a conservative you do want smaller and less government, less taxes, more encouragement of economic growth, and there are very specific conservative social values like right to life. What kills me is if you try to convince someone to understand how conservatism can work you run up against the fact that Fox and the Republican leadership are short on facts, short on new ideas, short on ownership of their responsibility, and short on credibility. So any decent argument is torn apart by trying to distance yourself  from them and say there is more to conservatism than what they are doing.

Another issue I run up against is the business issue. Way too much energy is spent on doing things they way we have always done it. You cannot expect to maintain economic growth on a dynamic planet with the same old thing. Times change.Corporate America is big on telling its workers you need to be flexible, but in reality this is a smoke screen to basically squeeze out more profit from a shrinking market. There is nothing wrong with working hard and driving to be more efficient. This does help corporations be more successful, but an economy as a whole needs to be ready to adapt to changing markets not squeezing out what is left from the last economy.

An example is the current economic situation in our country. Times are changing and yet we keep expecting to rely on the same energy sources as last century. As a true capitalist you have to see change coming and become part of the change. We became great because of the railroads in the 19th century and automobiles in the 20th century and yes oil had a huge role in this growth. ( and yes this wasn't the only driving force behind growth in our country, but it was huge).  Now though people want to invest more and more in finding more oil and even to the point where people were saying a few years ago that oil at $150 barrel and gasoline at $4-5 gallon was good because it would now be worth it to invest the billions needed to get new sources of oil. Quite frankly I don't get why we should ramp up the price of something to spend excessively to keep it going where there are other alternatives. Oil is going to be part of our energy mix for a long time to come,but if we develop other sources of energy we can help moderate energy costs, which in the long run helps our economy. And a lot more people win. There is an obsession with us relying on oil completely that is madness.

Yes I know some people equate alternative energy with a social agenda, but you have to get over this kind of thinking. Really alternative energy is not about tree hugging anymore, okay yes there maybe a side benefit of less pollution etc, but why not take advantage of a good thing.  One of my issues is I would like to vote for Green Party candidates, but there social agenda is way too liberal. So where does a person go to develop support for business models for alternative energy in a conservative world. So a bit of thanks does have to go out to Mr Pickens here in Texas, but we need much more.

I want to say more on this so will try and come back to it, but got to go pick up the wife and granddaughter, they are at the circus,,,, one thing every child should see is the circus.

Keep praying for rain, we need it for way too much of the country.

Again think about desalinazation,,,,, wouldn't hurt our agricultural output right now.... way too many cattle being sold to market too early this year.

Still hotter than heck in Texas

But it never hurts to thank God to be alive.Just keep praying for rain.


Also the Texas Rangers are still in the hunt. End of July and time maybe to start getting excited about baseball in Texas again.

Comments on Jon Stewart's comments

I am a huge fan of the Daily show and Jon Stewart. I feel he has a pretty good take on what is going on and he is funny. I understand what he does is humor etc, but the other night he touched on something I think he should have taken another approach. Reason is purely from my advantage point , but I did laugh. He was talking about the speeches on Monday night and one of his comments was about the President asking the American people to write to Congress. He went off about isn't that Obama's job to speak to the Congress and had a few jokes around it.  All in all it was part of a much larger bit he was doing.

I know no one will really give a rat's back end about me commenting on Jon Stewart's bits, however, I do believe the American people should be heavily involved in writing Congress right now.There is way too much influence peddling going on in Washington for the American people not to have their say.And with Democrats and Republicans parting like the Red Sea Congress needs to realize there is more at stake than their egos.

Yep, this is cry in the wilderness times, but soon the epitaph  may be written on democracy if more people don't get involved. I just hate watching the greatest document ever written by man alone get thrown out with the trash because of apathy and for a few pieces of silver (private lobbyists). God save the Constitution, the Constitution is dying.

Praying for a bit of rain all over Texas and even further west.  NFL lockout is over, lets see what the Cowboys can do.They got some competition with the recent success of the Rangers and Mavericks.

Otherwise can our government solve the budget situation without splitting the haves and have nots further apart. I know it is hard for some to believe, but a weakening middle class and lower middle class does not bode well for the future of democracy. Conservative values include developing a strong middle class to support our country's freedoms and values. Our economy needs people to develop jobs and more independent wealth. Less people dependent on the government not just cutting government programs is a better way to help solve our budget situation.

Our education system is in a shambles which leads to another problem for a strong democracy. Educated people prevent racism and fascism by knowing what is crap and what isn't.Too many decades of mediocrity is       starting to hurt us.

So not only is their a drought out west there is a drought in common sense in Washington DC

A bit of Texas Politics 101 and a bit about Perry

With all the noise about Gov Perry running for president it might be good for people outside of Texas to know that the Governor's office is not the most powerful political office in Texas. The Lt Governor's office actually has more clout in the Texas system.

There is a bunch of noise about leadership etc in the Grand Old Party and many conservatives are ready to jump on Perry's bandwagon so no matter what anyone says they won't listen, but for any moderates in the GOP it might be time to know the above fact and second there really hasn't been any crisis in the State of Texas to test Perry's true leadership capabilities.

I am not much of a Perry supporter because I see more PR out of him than action. Also he talks job growth, but he has had very little direct or even indirect affect on Texas employment rate,basically things have been pretty good here, because of the environment that has always been Texas.  And what he has said he has done is in a bit of a controversy based on some news reports.

Anyway just be aware the Governor's role in Texas is not the true legislative leadership role in the day to day world of Texas politics.

A few different topics

Well time flies when you are having fun. I thought I was going to sit down to write about a couple of articles I read in last week's Sunday Dallas Morning News. I went to the recycle stack to pull out the paper and it was from 2 weeks ago.  Anyway we didn't even buy the paper last week and didn't realize it till now. Oh well life is keeping me somewhat busy.

Well two weeks ago in the Points section of the Dallas Morning News were two columns about natural gas. One by Michael Lind and the other by Mindy Lubber. Mr Lind's article was just this bombastic raise the flag shoot off the fireworks the world is saved because we now have hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Now actually I am somewhat in favor of expanding natural gas as an energy source for our country.(This type of thinking will also be mentioned further down) It is just that his article was so; all the problems in the world have been solved now; that I have to take what he says with more than a few grains of salt. He casually dismisses all other sources of energy and says fossil fuels are back and better than ever. Honestly I am not an expert on fracking, but the little I have heard suggests we should spend more time developing this technology before we make this our sole way to develop energy in this country. Ms Lind seems to be more on point when she suggests we probably need to develop diversified sources of energy for the future.

And this is a fact that many people in this country cannot seem to digest. There is still way too many people married to the idea that fossil fuels are the only way to move this country forward. It scares me how closed minded people are to what we need to do to stay an economic giant now and in the future. Many people look at oil as what drove our economic engine in the 20th century. But really oil is oil, if everytime people said how great oil was in the above context just change the word oil to inexpensive domestically produced energy.  Well yes it is a big mouthful change,but really that is more what happened in the 20th century. And that is what all the fossil fuel proponents need to realize.  Right now fossil fuel is not present and may not be that in the future and for the benefit of our country we need to open our eyes to all possible sources of energy to bring back inexpensive domestically produced energy.Whatever it may be we need to accept the possible changes for all our benefit.And just because you can use fracking it may or may not be the best idea.Mr. Lind's article is so pro fracking and even glosses over any problems with fracking that this kind of thinking is what gets our country into trouble.

Now though we do need to look at natural gas as a potential source of energy though and I am going to come back to this in a minute.Right now though the news is and our country rightfully so is obsessed with the debt problem of our government. And everything both democrats and republicans quibble about is short term fixes to a much larger problem.Lets go back a bit, the last time we ran in the black was the 1990's and no it wasn't because of Clinton's administration or anything the republicans had done before hand even though they like to think their tax cuts of the 80's did it all.By the late 70's geopolitical problems had caused oil to skyrocket so our main source of energy or expense there of strangled our economy. By the end of the 80's oil relatively had come down in price/cost to consumer so people could afford to do other things which rebuilt our economy. Add the technology boom ( and remeber there was job growth and some independent wealth growth with the technology boom) and you get the real reason we ran in the black: people had jobs to pay taxes, people had money to invest to drive more growth, so the government needed to do less, ie it cost less to run the government

So no matter what we do in the short term the real way to solve our country's problems is to go back to what works, less government based on less need,  real job growth which means we need real investment in new products that we can export to bring wealth back to our country and lower our need to borrow. More people with jobs that pay mean more people are paying taxes and more people with jobs mean less people relying on the government.I know this isn't the whole problem, but it is how we start rebuilding. If people can save more on their own then there is less need for Social Security etc so we can phase out some of the costs shift some of the medicare costs to the private sector and all this takes a ton of work and some people will balk,but until we can create a sefl reliant middle class again we will only have more fiscal problems with our government.

So finally again natural gas and I bring this up as part of a diversified energy model to grow jobs. In the article by Mr. Lind he mentions other countries (most non OPEC) that have large resources of natural gas.Okay helping them develop is one industry to build, but other ideas are building industries that rely on new sources of energy, specifically products that rely on new sources of energy that we can sell here and abroad.There are the obvious ideas like cars that run on natural gas or electric cars because of new technology for electricity. Build electric trains for freight or trains for natural gas. If we set new standards for large industries and help other countries develop energy sources for ourselves this is just one way we can work our way out of our current morass.

There are other ideas out there to develop new sources of energy such as biofuels/biodiesel, again keep open all options and let the market eventually produce the winner and I bet the market is going to open up to some to all,.but not definitely one like oil or specifically fossil fuels anymore.

Anyway as always there is more to say, but time right now is short.Also I wanted to talk about getting wall street off it's back end to invest in our future. We really need to get rid of back room lobbying. What wall street doesn't realize is that hoarding investable money is not in their best interest in the short or long term. They really need a strong middle class as much as democracy does.

Wall Street seems to think it should be able to tell our government what it needs it to do so Wall Street can stay successful. I truly believe capitalism will serve our country well for a long time to come,but the government needs to be able to do its job separate from the influence of people who want to benefit from their success. When you accept the concept of economic winners and losers you have to accept the concept that the winners cannot make all the rules or you lose economic competition that benefits the country as a whole.Folks this is not complaining this is just common sense.

We really don't need a ton of regulations (also helps to lower government costs) but we need in place policies that hold people accountable for their actions. If corporate leaders had to answer for some of the things they do they would be more aware of what they were doing and if some people say then people would not take risks to move our economy forward, then they are short sighted. People who like to make money will find ways to make money even if they have to work harder at it.

I am starting to go all over the place so will stop for now, had some more thoughts about getting wall street on board to reinvesting in our infrastruture earlier today,but they have slipped my mind a bit now, will regroup and try again.

Hot as heck here in Dallas, and huge droughts all over the west. Desalinization is just another industry we should build to rebuild our economy,,,, helps agriculture too. Anyway the weather is starting to become an issue in Texas especially when someone mentions it wouldn't hurt for a small category one hurricane to come through and drench the state.  Okay how about a long tropical storm, no damage just moving rain.

Stay cool