The New Pornographers - “Myriad Harbor”
This has quickly become one of my all-time favorite songs.
One thing that libertarians, moderates, liberals and progressives seem to agree about is that the current administration has made a mess of things. The nation is much worse off now than it was eight years ago. Aside from the 25% or so of staunch neo-conservatives/Bush devotees, everyone is happy that the Bush years are coming to an end. I think that, no matter which way the election goes, things are going to get better starting in January.
Of course, as one of our groups two progressives, I have to say that I am looking forward to an Obama presidency. Obama is poised to do for the country what Bill Ritter is doing for the state of Colorado: break us out of the rut that politics has been stalled in for decades, and move us onto a better, brighter future. We are seeing this in Colorado, as renewable energy corporations are starting to invest heavily in our state under Ritter’s natural energy initiatives. Obama’s policies are on a much larger scale, and the impact will be that much larger.
Of course, I am making the assumption that Obama will be the winner in November. Based on the current economy, the momentum that Obama is building, and the general feeling that the American people are sick of Republican leadership, I am pretty positive about that assumption. Add to this the fact that John McCain’s main strength is national defense, which is not going to be a factor in the upcoming election (unless there is a major economic recovery in the next six months), and I become even more positive about my assumption. It’ll be Obama in ‘08. And 2012, for that matter. 
I have been more and more bemused by how rabid TalkLeft has become in their support of Hillary Clinton. They are to the point where any credibility they had built is now completely and totally gone. TalkLeft has become nothing but a Hillary Clinton propoganda machine. Anyone who dares question anything about Hillary clinton are immediately labelled as haters or Hillary bashers. This brings to mind the 2004 Carl Rove tactic of labelling anyone who disagreed with the Iraq war as unpatriotic.
To TalkLeft, anyone who points out that Hillary made a mistake is actually slandering Clinton. For example, Jeralyn had this to say about the reaction to Clinton’s reference to Robert Kennedy’s assassination:
The leap that is required to think that her reference to the RFK assassination was in any way a statement or subliminal wish that it might happen to Obama is mind-boggling.
Jeralyn is stating that anyone who views Clinton’s remarks as offensive and reports that are assassinating Clinton’s character. As opposed to simply stating their displeasure with those remarks. This is totally and completely baffling to me. And apparently TalkLeft is no longer willing to engage in any type of conversation on the issue. From Jeralyn:
So, to sum up TalkLeft’s new philosophy: If you are anything less than a rabid Hillary supporter, you are not welcome at TalkLeft, and don’t you even think about posting anything in their comments. Interesting to find out that the Republicans don’t have a monopoly on trying to silence dissention within their ranks.
I know that George W. likes to refer to himself as The Decider, but I think he is more The Contradictor. Or perhaps it is The Obfuscator. Whichever way you want to put it, Bush continues to mislead the American public, even while being investigated for more nefarious deeds. For example, Bush decided to blame Congress for our current economic woes:
“Many Americans are understandably anxious about issues affecting their pocketbook,” Bush said in a White House news conference, held outdoors in an unseasonably cold and windy Rose Garden. “They’re looking to their elected leaders in Congress for action. Unfortunately, on many of these issues, all they’re getting is delay.” (via Yahoo! News)
Fortunately, some of the Democrats in Congress have realized they have absolutely no reason to put up with such crap from the most unpopular president in the history of the nation. Senator Harry Reid rightfully fired back:
“His call this morning for Congress to act is disingenuous at best,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of Bush. “Whether on energy policy, the housing crisis or our many other economic woes, this administration and its Republican allies in Congress offer nothing but the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place.”
It was, of course, pure hubris on Bush’s part to try and blame Congress for the current economic state. But that wasn’t the worst part of that news cycle. Instead, it was probably the best news coverage that the Bush administration received in the last week of April. The most damning - and the least covered - was a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stating that the Bush administration has been purposefully working against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)! Ayup, that one was hard for me to believe, too:
So apparently the Bush administration was not happy with castrating the EPA by turning it into an Orwellian department working against the protection of the enviornment. Instead, they also added unnecessary, informal roadblocks to any real work that migh’ve occurred at the EPA.
WTF?
Tags: dumbass
Anytime that my original hometown Trinidad, CO is in the news, I cringe. There is never any good news from the area picked up in press from the bigger cities here in Colorado. Never, ever. Trinidad only hits the radar when something really bad, or really stupid, happens.
This time around? Turns out it was both, of course. Apparently, a teenage boy was shot in the head while playing Russian roulette. No, seriously! The boy’s brother and mother had been toking on some weed in their car. Their mom noticed that they had a gun, and told them something along the lines of, “have fun, you two, just take all the bullets out of the gun before someone gets shot in the head.” The siblings decided it would be more fun to leave one bullet in the gun and play a little Russian roulette. The results were, at least, not tragic.
Now the best part of all of this? The family called the police and said that a masked man was the actual trigger person. Apparently they thought that the Lone Ranger didn’t like the boy’s skateboarding skills. Or something.
I tell you, there’s a reason that I don’t do pot!
When now-Governor Bill Ritter was running for office, he promised to make a number of changes in Colorado, centering around education, health care and renewable fuels. We’re about four months into Ritter’s first term, and we are already seeing a couple of major initiatives on Ritter’s part, including:
College scholarships funded by the oil and gas industry: This is a very interesting initiative: basically this would recoup the tax credits given to oil and gas companies, and use that money for a few specific purposes. 60% of this money (or around $120 million a year) would be used to fund scholarships. This has to be approved by voters, but it sounds damned good to me.
The state budget for 2008-2009: Ritter’s first budget has some very interesting and promising allocations. The most encouraging of which is an increase of alomst 10% for higher education, increases in both the Chidlren’s Health Plan (enough to cover an extra 11,000 children) and programs for the developmentally challenged.
All in all, I am loving the way that Ritter is already trying to implement his campaign promises here in Colorado. Things are going to be very different - and a whole lot better - in just a few years.
This is something that I run across sometimes at work: extremely defensive people. A very good friend of mine at work is one of my favorite people to be around. But she is kind of exhausting to be around, too, because she is a Highly Defensive Person. Especially when she is tired or stressed. As much as I like talking to her and spending time with her, I feel like I have to walk a tight-rope, watching everything that I say to make sure that I don’t trigger a defensive reaction. Exhausting… yeah, that’s a good word.
So I was reading an article on Beliefnet about how to protect one’s self when around a highly defensive person. This was very interesting, since I had never heard the term “highly defensive person” (HDP) until I read that article. And I know won’t be able to forget it. It’ll always be in my noggin’. The author, Martha Beck, describes an HDP thusly:
But defensive people don’t think like humans. They think like reptiles. I mean this literally. Beneath the elaborate neural structures that mediate our subtle social interactions, we all possess what scientists call a reptilian brain. This ancient biological structure, which evolved in reptiles, isn’t capable of nuanced emotion or logical thought. Its primary driving force is fear. Two fears, to be specific.
I think that calling people reptiles goes a little above and beyond - and might just have a little touch of meanness to it - but the general gist of the analogy makes sense. And definitely seems to apply in my case. However, I have to disagree with Beck’s statement that one can’t have a “functional, trusting, relaxed, mutually satisfying human relationship with a highly defensive person.”
Well, okay, maybe not the relaxed part.
But the rest seems possible. Our friendship is functional, I trust her implicitly and she mostly trusts me, we both seem to be satisfied with the outcomes of our friendship. I do admit that I wish she could be more relaxed at times, but other than that, it’s good.
Beck’s advice is to do one of two things: either put up a strong emotional shell, and resist the urge to respond defensively to the HDP, or to stand up to the attack and defuse it. That actually isn’t a problem for me. I am one of the most patient people that I know. [grin] I especially have patience when it comes to my friend. 98% of the time, I either don’t have the urge to defend myself from one of her defensive attacks, or am able to easily deflect it. Every now and then she throws something my way that gets through and either hurts or gets a crabby response out of me, but that is rare.
So I am obviously a defusing type of person. I am able to do that most of the time with my buddy. Listening, acknowledging what is said, and reminding her that, in the big picture, everything is all right. That’s how I withstand the storm. It seems to work very well for our friendship.
This has turned out to be a much longer post than I meant it to be. I was looking for information at handling people to pass on to my successor here at work, and this article piqued my interest.
Wow! Starbucks is going to change the way they make coffee? And the way that their stores are set up? That is actually very cool. Though it won’t change my main beef about Starbucks: they make it far too easy for me to spend too much money there.
[grin]
