Franken Rally: Herding the sheeple

This morning I am sitting inside of a coffee shop in St. Louis Park, awaiting the arrival of one Mr. Al Franken, candidate for U.S. Senate. Outside there are throngs of people awaiting a stump speech that, I am sure, will make them applaud and cheer and have just a great time.

When I got here there were several people in Franken T-shirts and holding Franken signs. Now the patio of the coffee shop is filled with Franken supporters.

While I am a supporter of Franken, in that I am likely to vote for him and read his books, I am feeling like the whole rally is full of the converted just wanting to touch the candidate. Or they are people that want to touch fame.

My aunt may or may not have coined the phrase "sheeple." It is what she calls people who blindly follow who will ever show them the way. If you are able to force sway on these folks, you could get a lot done.

I am a follower in so far that I want things done on my behalf but things that benefit society as a whole, not just a select few. If a politician can get things done for all then I am in full support. This is the ideal of the Democratic Party that I want. The Republicans, well, it's all for one and none for you, unless you have deep pockets.

Most of the people who are here right now look to be those that just want to be next to famous people. Sure it will also bring in their votes, if they do bother to vote, but it will also give them that sense of importance that they seem so desperate to have in their lives.

This election season I am not putting on bumper stickers or yard signs or really do anything other than talk about the issues as I know them. That's what a voter should be doing, not blindly waving their banners. Just watch the Daily Show and see a media member rip them apart. Those that blindly follow go over the cliff. I, for one, don't want to be with them.

So, as the rally goes on and we hear the rhetoric, that which we force our candidates to spout in the information age, it is to do our own homework, learn about what is important to us, and forget about rallies. They only preach to the choir of sheeple.

Our economy sucks!

This economy is a tough thing to swallow. Everyday, as America plunges worse and worse into the economy reality we have allowed to occur, we, the citizenry, are learning that it is almost too late to course correct and a tax refund check is very Weimar Republic all over again.

No politician wants to dissuade voters from returning them to their post but the reality is overwhelmingly glum. We all have fun with paying little or nothing for things only to have the consequences erode the ideals of our country. While at once we want to pay $2 for a gallon of gas, we don't cry foul enough for the devaluation of the dollar due to borrowing more than we take in. A nation cannot afford to run deficits forever. It is like refinancing ones home every month rather than making a payment.
No one politician gets on the stump and gives us the reality of the economy. It's too hard to swallow. You can't tell people that their tax dollars, those that they grow angrier everyday about, don't cover what they were supposed to. And far be it for them to tell us that roads and sewers and power lines cost money. The truth is masked to win votes while real issues are swept aside to keep power, plain and simple.
When a politician is willing to admit that we need to tighten our belts and cut programs, both popular and not, then we can start to undo the damage done by the political machine.
We deserve better because we are better. We once had principles, at least in theory, and we constantly tell ourselves that we are the best. During the Great Depression our government and the people pulled us out of the mud and put pride back into our hearts. Even if we are a divided people, we can learn to accept the middle ground and work together to recover.

Let's work together, what do you say?

Raising interest by lowering mine

As of today I have paid almost nothing down on my student loans. In fact, I have probably paid over $10,000 to move pretty much nowhere near being paid off.

It is a two-fold problem, really. One is that I dare not send large sums as not to put myself in harms way of not being able to make a payment if money were to get tight. The other is the over 7 percent interest I am paying.

Now, as I look at it, I am getting raked over the coals by a low payment in exchange for the next two decades of payments. Yeah!!! Fucking yeah!!!

So I thought about it the other day and am giving thought to taking out a large personal loan and consolidating all of my bills so that I make one payment per month. Only problem is that I can write off my student loan interest during taxes but, then again, I don't think it means that much as far as money in return.

I'm going to have to pay off my debt someday and, if I could, get someplace other than another apartment to live.

But there is a thought that I would love the candidates to talk about during this election and that is lowering the interest on student loans.

Higher education is a privilege and it aught not be. We should all be educated to have skills so that, one day, we can do what we want for a career, not what we have to do. One way is to allow us to borrow the money and repay it without making a profit for the lender. I'm not talking about breaking the bank and putting them out of business but this is an investment into the future of America. Why should we have to be bled dry to have an education? Isn't our ridiculous tuition prices bad enough?

Peace.

Culpability

When you do something, anything, you need to responsible for the outcome of these action. What you do, as much as you say, can have affects long after the words leave your lips or your hands leave that button.

But, as an outside observer of the current state of politics in America, I can only see a lack of responsibility in the halls of government, at least from those who are most visible.

I am using the ideas of culpability and accountability as my battle cry for this political season. Do you what you say you will and don't forget to govern all, not just those you wish. Politicians seem to forget this, living in a bubble that the lowest common denominator become lost in the rhetoric and pep rallies that are currently driving us toward the November elections.

Don't believe me? The politicians speak to change, acting as if, by saying it more and more, it will actually happen. But what changes? Where do those bottom dwellers get their fair shake? And, if they intend to get our votes, hear our voices, will they live up to the ideals set out by the definition of being in a democratic society?

In my travels and through my life, I listen to those voices that I both agree and disagree with. There are those that live a life that is fulfilling and those that pretend to. Often, because of what I have observed, I can see through facades. It's not as if their are intentionally misleading, it is that they are fooling themselves.

A good example is the naive acts of the uninformed. There are those, the majority of voters, that base their decisions on arbitrary pieces of information: Skin color, sex, social status. They strive to understand the controlled messages put out by candidates, not realizing it is mostly snake oil. Promises are made, not kept, and the voter, those who hold faith that their voice was heard, are left without that which they voted for.

I find it interesting that, while we wage war in Iraq, it is not the Republicans that hold themselves to scrutiny over the bad decisions made by their leadership. And yet the Democrats, pretending to want to stop it, don't pull the plug when they have the power to do so. Meanwhile lives, livelihood and future consequences are so simple to rectify that someone like me, an educated, working-class citizen could solve it in a moment.

The term "politics as usual" will be around long after November. The cumulative affect of what went into process decades ago has turned our country into a big turd. While we want to believe all is well, we don't see that the land of the free is sold and we have all become tourists.

so, come November, and later January 20th, 2009, I won't be holding my breath or wringing my hands. I realize the reality is that culpability and accountability are just words critics of the body politic can use to sell books and create conversations at the coffee shops. It's too bad there is no true revolutionaries left in America. And, if there were, the government is way to powerful and complex to actually make a difference... Man, life's a bitch.

Peace.

President for all

I figured something out not that long ago: President Bush is not a president for all. In fact, he is president for a rare few and that is hugely, hugely disappointing.

I don't purport to know much about the presidents in our history. However, from what I can figure out, isn't this leader support to be the leader of all people?

Bush has a lot of rhetoric that sounds like he is looking for all Americans but he really isn't. He looks out for special interests and people that have the neoconservative ideals but he doesn't really care for the other half that call themselves liberals. That's too bad, since he told us, in the beginning, that he was a "uniter."

And that's why I like this guy Obama. After watching snippets from the speech he gave yesterday, Tuesday, I have no doubt that this guy has the best of intentions for this country, regardless of his political stripe. A great orator he may be, I hear an intelligence in his words, dating back to the Democratic national convention of 2004. He could be great for this country, especially after the ineffectiveness of Bush and his agenda.

Please, if you read this, research this guy. I think you will like what you see.