Yesterday President Obama finally allowed himself to be interviewed by Fox news' Brett Baier. I am currently reading Boomsday by Christopher Buckley. Buckley's book is about a young blogger who takes on the coming Social Security crisis by suggesting that seniors "Transition" at a certain age and that they be rewarded by the government with tax breaks and last vacations. The absurdity of the suggestion is intended to jump-start a national conversation on Social Security reform. When a senator gets a hold of the idea and sponsors a bill, he starts cutting deals to get support for his bill and things really start to spin out of control.
This story is hilarious for its absurdity, but it is scary because Obama's interview on Fox could have been in this book for its absurdity. The bad news is that yesterday was real life that is going to effect all of our real lives. We must stop this congress from voting on anything because they do not care what is in whatever they vote on as it will all be "deemed" to be about health care. I am not making this up as much as I wish that I were. There is a link on the Drudge Report.
Watch it three times. You won't get it all the first time. On the second time, you will catch the sleight of hand and the ought right lies. The third time you will have time to look at Brett Baier. He looks incredulous toward the end as the President make one crazy statement and assertion after another. Watch for the "earthquake in Hawaii" as an example of states that needed the money in the Louisiana payoff. Louisiana need the payoff because they are, five years later, still suffering from Katrina. The big problem with that little deal is that they will not get the money for four more years. NINE YEARS and they still need help???? If this is the case, they don't need more than money; they need a new population that knows how to run a state and take care of themselves.
I have sent emails, but today I am going to spend my time helping to melt the phone lines in Washington. I have a fear that this is going to happen anyway. The way it will pass will have nothing to do with the process set forth in the Constitution. The bottom line from the President yesterday was that whatever they vote on, they will be voting on health care. Does this mean that next week, after we think we have defeated this and the President is off to another foreign country tour on our dime, the congress will have a vote on something, and we will wake up in the the morning to find out they have passed health care, and the President has signed it electronically from the Southern Hemisphere. They would put it into law by executive order if they could.
Watch for more. Get on the phone. If you live on the right end of the country, get in your car and go to Washington and button hole a congressman.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
On Politics and Tipping Points
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
UN gun ban
Fishing ban
Health care
Cap and Trade (Tax)
Education reform
Eric Massa
Jobs bills
Stimulus
April 15 approach
Spring
Script Frenzy month
Facebook
Internet to read
Books to read
...a job.
I am beginning to conclude that the Obama administration is working to make sure that the American voting public melts down under the weight of too much information and too many issues. Then they will go back to their couches and remotes, and let him do all the wonderful socialist things he has dream of accomplishing to "fix" America.
That is how this week felt. I am reading Malcolm Gladstone's Tipping Point. It is a fascinating explanation of how epidemics of all kinds happen. On the reverse, why some don't. What Obama would like to see is the "epidemic" of citizen involvement in the democratic process halted. Overloading the public with issues they will want to fight against is a really good way to shut it all down.
Let me explain. In his chapter on the "Power of Context (Part Two)" Gladstone explains the "concept in cognitive psychology called channel capacity, which refers to the amount of space in our brains for certain information (175)." It is the reason for the seven digit phone number--it is the biggest number we can still remember. Eight digits? Forget it, most of us do not stand a chance. Additionally, there is a limit to our ability to keep things categorized before we fall back to a default position. We do not have the capacity for keeping more than six or seven categories straight before we just begin to put things in to two big categories, hot or cold, sweet or not sweet, high or low, important or not important. We lose the ability at a certain point to keep a long list of subtle distinctions.
I recognized this phenomenon instantly when I read this part of the book. Last winter, after the Inauguration, I shut down. It was winter in Illinois,(reason enough to shut down), I had company, the issues were flying fast and furious, so much needed attention that I did not even know where to start. I shut down. I did not write, I did not read as much news; I watched movies, read mysteries, and had endless tea parties with my granddaughter. The other Tea Parties fired up in April, and I knew about them, but life was still in the way. I joined a 9/12 group in the summer, but then I moved. It was a whole year before I got back to writing on my blog. A whole year before the one issue of health care crystallized over all the other debris of life to focus my thoughts enough to write a coherent blog post.
Any of this sound familiar? I have many friends who shun politics for a host of reasons, but I suspect this overload of channel capacity is what gets most American most often when it come to politics. I am a political science major and history teacher. I live and breathe this stuff. But my friends? Ordinary, working Americans? Not so much.
It is changing though, especially among my friends back in Illinois. There is a group of them at church that are becoming regular firebrands. Campaigning, donating, joining--things they had never done before.
So are we at a "tipping point" of citizen involvement in our democracy? Yes, we well could be. Can it still be derailed? Of course. Just throw too much at us at once and we might, quite predictably, shut down. Can we let this happen? NOT THIS TIME.
I hope Obama has not read this book, but I think more thinking Americans need to. It is an excellent look at how we as people act and react to the world around us.
I will give a small clue to how big things happen. They happen because of the smallest and most innocent little shifts, nuances, looks, and words. Small things matter. Individual actions matter. You matter.
UN gun ban
Fishing ban
Health care
Cap and Trade (Tax)
Education reform
Eric Massa
Jobs bills
Stimulus
April 15 approach
Spring
Script Frenzy month
Internet to read
Books to read
...a job.
I am beginning to conclude that the Obama administration is working to make sure that the American voting public melts down under the weight of too much information and too many issues. Then they will go back to their couches and remotes, and let him do all the wonderful socialist things he has dream of accomplishing to "fix" America.
That is how this week felt. I am reading Malcolm Gladstone's Tipping Point. It is a fascinating explanation of how epidemics of all kinds happen. On the reverse, why some don't. What Obama would like to see is the "epidemic" of citizen involvement in the democratic process halted. Overloading the public with issues they will want to fight against is a really good way to shut it all down.
Let me explain. In his chapter on the "Power of Context (Part Two)" Gladstone explains the "concept in cognitive psychology called channel capacity, which refers to the amount of space in our brains for certain information (175)." It is the reason for the seven digit phone number--it is the biggest number we can still remember. Eight digits? Forget it, most of us do not stand a chance. Additionally, there is a limit to our ability to keep things categorized before we fall back to a default position. We do not have the capacity for keeping more than six or seven categories straight before we just begin to put things in to two big categories, hot or cold, sweet or not sweet, high or low, important or not important. We lose the ability at a certain point to keep a long list of subtle distinctions.
I recognized this phenomenon instantly when I read this part of the book. Last winter, after the Inauguration, I shut down. It was winter in Illinois,(reason enough to shut down), I had company, the issues were flying fast and furious, so much needed attention that I did not even know where to start. I shut down. I did not write, I did not read as much news; I watched movies, read mysteries, and had endless tea parties with my granddaughter. The other Tea Parties fired up in April, and I knew about them, but life was still in the way. I joined a 9/12 group in the summer, but then I moved. It was a whole year before I got back to writing on my blog. A whole year before the one issue of health care crystallized over all the other debris of life to focus my thoughts enough to write a coherent blog post.
Any of this sound familiar? I have many friends who shun politics for a host of reasons, but I suspect this overload of channel capacity is what gets most American most often when it come to politics. I am a political science major and history teacher. I live and breathe this stuff. But my friends? Ordinary, working Americans? Not so much.
It is changing though, especially among my friends back in Illinois. There is a group of them at church that are becoming regular firebrands. Campaigning, donating, joining--things they had never done before.
So are we at a "tipping point" of citizen involvement in our democracy? Yes, we well could be. Can it still be derailed? Of course. Just throw too much at us at once and we might, quite predictably, shut down. Can we let this happen? NOT THIS TIME.
I hope Obama has not read this book, but I think more thinking Americans need to. It is an excellent look at how we as people act and react to the world around us.
I will give a small clue to how big things happen. They happen because of the smallest and most innocent little shifts, nuances, looks, and words. Small things matter. Individual actions matter. You matter.
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