Embarrassment is Usually the Fault of the Red Cheeked

A Letter to the  US Government

If you don't want to be embarrassed by wikileaks stop doing things to be embarrassed about. If you have to do ugly things on our behalf - explain to us what you are doing and why - stop lying and hiding behind 'national security" concerns because it’s easier. We can take it.

If you're going to torture, abuse power, and disregard international law, then you create in your actions the very need for a wikileaks.Wikileaks may prove to be very inconvenient for you, but in this age of the internet, it or something like it,  is going to exist from now on. I would say to you, get used to it.

Your outrage at wikileaks is, at least in part, a reflection of your own arrogance and testimony that you've gotten used to getting away with clumsiness, inefficiency, lying, cheating and cutting corners. If you've got secrets to keep - keep them. You can't expect the media to keep your secrets for you - stop blaming them. It is time to change the way you do business - less of the way you've been doing it and more of the way you've always told us you were.

Our Digital Selves

Published: Friday, November 26, 2010, 6:38 AM

Letters to the editor

Technological growth is exponential. After centuries of what seemed to be linear growth, we are now on the cusp of massive expansion. The growth curve is about to go nearly vertical. The assumption is that we will eventually need to replace our biological brains just to keep up. When that occurs, humans will have evolved into something else. I think this is inevitable.

What we will look like is difficult to say. For along with expansion of technology will come an exponential expansion of intelligence. Intelligence a million, a billion, a billion billion times our present level in the next 100 years is likely to evolve, but is simply something we can't comprehend, making speculation about it difficult. But between now and then will first come some very interesting adaptations. For not only will we begin to incorporate non-biologic enhancement, but our brains themselves will attempt to adapt.

Today's teenagers are the world's first digital generation. "The average teenager sends hundreds of text messages a day. Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task, but for jumping to the next thing. The worry is we are raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently," says Michael Rich, executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston.

I would take it one step further. Even adult brains are plastic and we now know we continue to make new neurons and to develop new neural nets our entire lives. All of us who are constantly surfing the net, texting and/or interacting with digital media are already rewiring our brains, making us a little more like our computers and digital devices and a little less "human." Not necessarily a bad thing.

Imagine where this could go.

Opinion is Earned

Feeling strongly about something does not make you right or even entitle you to be heard. Opinion simply must be based in fact not just conviction. Discovering fact takes hard work and preparation. Everyone has an opinion - few earn it. Even fewer are right.

Moving On

Polarize, inflame, agitate, and make fearful seems to be THE political landscape of our country these days.  It's how Fox News and MSNBC make their money and how the extremes of Right and Left  keep us distracted. And much of it is supported by the ultra wealthy who seem to erroneously believe that giving opportunity to the middle class, or caring for the environment, or establishing more peace in the world means less for them - and really don't want to see it happen. And hence the anger and rhetoric has become a means to distract and limit government oversight and regulation, and as a way for media to make money.

If all sides simply stop reacting and just quietly started to demand governance from those we elect to govern we'd go a long way to improving all of our lots.  Doesn't mean those guilty of fear mongering and distortion should not be called out for what they are, and the facts set straight.. But John Stewart is right - somewhere along the line it has become all about calling each other out and less about moving on and fixing things.

I personally plan on doing both.

Tax Breaks for the Ultra-wealthy

The republican leadership keeps talking about how the democrats want to take away tax breaks from Americans during a recession. When pressed that it is really only the top 2% wealthiest  Americans  that the democrats want to take away tax breaks from, the republicans then start referring to these ultra-rich as the 'job makers'. We can’t take away tax breaks from the 'job makers' during a recession.

But the vast majority of these top 2% are NOT job makers. They are corporate executives, corporate attorneys, investment bankers, Wall Street moguls, real estate tycoons. These are the exact same people whose greed in great part contributed to causing this recession. And now the republicans want to reward them?

Doing away with these entitlements, these special tax breaks for the ultra-rich, will not affect job creation, nor will it hurt the economy. On the contrary, it will help pay for the tax breaks the democrats want to keep for everyone else who really need it.

Of course the republican leadership knows this. They know extending these tax breaks will further widen the gulf between the rich and the middle class, a gulf that is already wider than it has been since the 1930's, and that it will cause further damage to the economy. They don’t care. They are trying to protect their major supporters - the ultra wealthy – and just don't care. Their irresponsibility and greed during the Bush years is what set the stage for this recession to occur in the first place - this is just more of the same.

Time to Heal

Keith Oblermann I'm sure feels he is a voice of sanity in a desert devoid of rationale thought, truth, compassion - a desert created by right wing rhetoric, hate, fear and really - insanity. But right wing rhetoric is designed to divide, to be divisive and derisive, to stir fear and thus hate in order to distract. And Fox News ratings depend on it. Its not about a unified country, not about a healed country working together in common purpose for the betterment of all. Last thing they want. A better more unified country is simply not going to be good for Fox News ratings and is not in the interest of big money and corporations - or so they think.
But in order to become a better country we simply must unify and find common ground. Our ultimate goal is to improve the lot of ourselves and of the world in general is it not?
Perpetual argument, hate, fear will not get us there.
Keith Oblermann - while seemingly a voice of truth in the desert of right wing rhetoric - really only accomplishes expungement of frustration. And in the process he creates more anger and divides even further.
It is time to focus on common ground. It is time to demand of our elected officials that they work together for the betterment of the country - not their personal and political agendas.
It is time to resist hate and fear - to buck up.
It is time for this country to begin to heal.

Our Minds Are Made Up - Now Let's Find Some Facts

Elisabeth Hasselbeck from the View made a blanket statement today that 40% of Americans support the Tea Party and kept repeating it as if it was fact. It reminded me of someone who has found a passage in the bible forbidding homosexuality in order to support their hostility towards gays and then keeps repeating it as if its indisputable fact. Imagine if scientists did something similar in their research - using 'facts' to support preconceived beliefs.

Ok, who cares what this bobble head says? Well I most certainly do not but it exemplifies so much of what is occurring in the media today. There is a real dishonesty in how 'polls' and 'facts' are being used - clearly mainstream media and political pundits often attempt to prove agendas handed down from on high with their 'facts' rather than facts defining their agendas. And no surprise even well done polls are being completely misinterpreted and distorted. 

So Ms. Hasselbeck  is basing her statement that 40% of Americans support the Tea party on two surveys released last week by ABC News and the Washington Post and by CBS News and the New York Times.  As is true so often the two surveys give very different impressions. The CBS/Times poll finds 17 percent of adults rate the movement favorably and 13 percent unfavorably, but their question offers the option of saying they are undecided (12 percent) or don't know enough to have an opinion (24 percent) even after they take out the 34 percent who say on a previous question that they have heard "nothing" about the Tea Party movement. The ABC/Post poll, on the other hand, finds far more who rate the Tea Party movement favorably (35 percent) or unfavorably (40 percent) because they present all adults with just those two answer choices.

What is interesting is that both polls found that many Americans know precious little about the Tea Party movement. On the ABC/Post poll, only about a third say they know "a great deal" (13 percent) or "a good amount" (22 percent) about "what the Tea Party stands for." On the CBS/Times survey, slightly more say they have heard something about the movement and believe they know "a lot" (13 percent) or "some" (27 percent) about what it stands for.

The CBS/Times survey finds only 18 percent who describe themselves as "supporters" of the Tea Party movement, and the ABC/Post survey finds just 14 percent who say they "strongly agree" with the movement's issue positions.

The ABC/Post poll found that nearly half of Americans (45 percent) say they at least "somewhat" agree with Tea Party positions on issues based on the general impression of the Tea Party movement is-- conservative, anti-Obama and anti-government. That support was greatest among conservatives (63 percent), strong Republicans (67 percent), those who disapprove of Obama (65 percent), and those who say they are angry about the way the federal government works (69 percent).

So what these polls show us is that most know relatively little about the Tea Party, that strong support is given  by only 14%, and a total of 18% describe themselves as supporters. 45% share an anger at government and disapproval of Obama -  but that can hardly be counted as strong support of the Tea Party itself. A far cry from '40% support the Tea Party'.

Bush's Worst Day

Letters to the editor   

Published: Friday, November 12, 2010, 8:06 PM

Bush's book tour
George Bush's worst moment as president was when someone said he didn't care about black people.
It wasn't the day he watched terrorists kill 3,000 people on 9/11.
It wasn't the horrible human suffering and his disgraceful response to it after Hurricane Katrina.
It wasn't discovering that his war in Iraq -- a war that has displaced more than 1 million Iraqis, killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops, and has wounded and crippled 500,000 more -- was a mistake. For not only weren't there any weapons of mass destruction, but perhaps even more important, he went to war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and at the time had nothing to do with terrorism.
It wasn't that his economic policies led to financial collapse and record deficits -- and have caused a worldwide recession we are still in.
No, his worst day was when he got his feelings hurt by something someone said about him.

Fear is Alive

Witness now even the democrats using fear for their purposes in this election cycle much as the republicans have done for years. Vote for us or billionaires will take over everything. Vote for us or the end of our system of government is at hand. Vote for us or depression and suffering will come to pass.

How about everyone - both republicans and democrats and even Fox "News" - stop trying to scare us and instead inform us. What will the republicans DO? What will the democrats DO. What is the plan? How will things be made better. How will each side cooperate with the other to make America better?