Ramblings of a pseudo intellectual

I tend to like spoilers.  Not movie spoilers or anything like that, but those behind-the-pack forces that wreak havoc for the people out front.  A last place team ruins a playoff chance for another team but pulling out an unlikely victory?  Awesome!  Maybe it’s something twisted about my personality, or maybe I just dig the expression of power that comes with it.

It’s probably not a secret that I am fairly left-leaning on the political spectrum.  Although my fiscal heart sits a smidge to the right side of moderate, for social issues I’m quite aligned with the Democratic party, and am registered as such.

I’ve written before about how much Ralph Nader gets my goat.  And it’s not necessarily because of his general role as spoiler, but that he was spoiler for MY candidate.  I suppose it’s fair to say that I like any spoiler, except when I’m vested in he for whom the spoiler works against.

But the campaigns of Ralph Nader, especially in 2000, have duly demonstrated the power of the political spoiler.

And now, I’ve got a spoiler I can get behind!

Bob Barr is running for president on the Libertarian ticket.  He’s got an uphill battle for sure — right now his campaign isn’t even certain they can get him on the ballot in all 50 states.  But people are loving him.  He’s garnering the attention of conservative Republicans, and independents are showing him a lot of interest, too.  Pollster John Zogby’s organization has done a really interesting poll that illustrates just how much influence Bob Barr might have in the ‘08 election.

I don’t have the financial clout to max out my $2300 contribution limit for a candidate.  But Barack Obama’s had a few bucks thrown his way from my wallet.  MoveOn.org Civic Action gets a few bucks when they are starting up a campaign I’m interested in (like now, they are about to embark on a big push in support of universal health care).  And today I decided to throw Bob Barr a bone, too.  If he can wreak half the havoc that Nader did in 2000, it will be money well-spent.

I’m also left to wonder how many of Ralph Nader’s political contributors were registered Republicans.

Today, overall, was a good day.  I was productive, I had some fun with the kids, and nobody got sick or died that I love.

There were bad parts to it.  Lane fell on the playground and bumped her head pretty good.  Jake refused to take a nap this afternoon.  A bug flew into my eye…. and I saw it coming.

Basically, a run-of-the-mill day as far as days go.

Then, there’s my friend Greg.  Not impressed with simplicity as far as having a good day or a bad day, he always tries to take it one step further.  You see, Greg does security stuff for the State Department.  He currently covers eastern Europe, but used to cover sub-Saharan Africa.  One of the countries he’s visited, Equatorial Guinea, is currently trying a guy for attempting a coup.  As people often do when they are being tried in a dictatorship for trying to overthrow said dictatorship, the guy on trial is attempting to deflect blame and name names, and in the last day or so of the trial, my dear friend Greg was falsely (he assures us) implicated in this coup attempt by a witness in the trial.  For all practical purposes Greg assures us this won’t get him sent to Gitmo or anything, or have any effect on him really, except that he won’t ever want to set foot in Equatorial Guinea ever ever again, lest the dictator bear a grudge.

Sort of makes my bug in the eye seem pretty tame.  Even though I never actually observed it leave my eye and it may be swimming around in my brain or something.

Seriously, Nader, WTF is wrong with you?

I’m not in any sort of disagreement that his previous life as a consumer advocate was noble, and he did lots of good.  Many people admire him for that, and I do, too.  Though he did help found OSHA, which while I personally think is a good thing, there’s lots of people who would disagree with me vehemently.

And, frankly, I don’t disagree with him much on his economic and politics.  Sure there’s some things we don’t see eye to eye on, but that happens with any two individuals.

But Ralph Nader, why are you doing this?  First of all, you’re 73.  My in-laws are 71 and in great health, and they have trouble committing to a one-year magazine subscription.  John McCain is also 71, and before he was even the front-runner the news continually brought up his age as a factor.  News flash, Ralph.  You’re older than him!  If you were to be elected, fat chance in hell that may be, you’d be 78 by the time your term was over.  And then re-elected?  That puts you at 82.  Come on - wouldn’t you rather spend your golden years playing golf?  Or is the problem simply that you’ve chosen work over personal life for so long, you simply lack the personal and social skills to enjoy any recreational pursuits?  Won’t that make you the life of the international summits!

Second and perhaps more importantly — you may dislike the Democratic front-runners, but do you like John McCain more?  Are you secretly a Republican at heart?  Your entry into the race promises to do nothing but siphon support away from the Democratic fringe.

I have to say, the very idea of you running yet again just smacks of vanity.  It reeks of desperation to cement your place in the history books.  You can’t believe it’s because you think you have a chance at winning, because you don’t.  Maybe you like the idea of being a spoiler again, like you were in 2000, and that’s just selfish on a monumental scale.  That’s basically screwing with the future of an entire nation so you can feel grandiose and influential and important.  I’m sure part of it is your real belief that you don’t like the candidates running, that the two-party system is flawed, yadda yadda.  Well, idealism sure is admirable to a certain extent.  My younger brother still is very idealistic and on a 25 year-old, it’s encouraging to see.  But as experienced as you are, and after the life you’ve lived, that sort of blind idealism is annoying and borderline pathetic.  Perhaps if you would get out of the way, someone without the political baggage and without one foot in the grave can do the work to change the world you’d like to see.

Really, I wish Tim Russert would have smacked you upside the head this morning.

Frank’s in the other room with Lane watching the State of the Union address.   I probably should be, as I do think of myself as a responsible citizen and whatnot.  But I hate hearing Bush even speak, he drives me crazy.  And the State of the Union always just feels like a giant circle jerk; everyone spends more time applauding and congratulating each other on being masters of the universe than anything else.

So I’m in here instead, editing and submitting stock photos that have been laying dormant on my hard drive for months, and listening to the intermittent blah blah blah and rounds of applause.  I can get a 10 minute synopsis off CNN.com when it’s done anyway.

Out of nothing more than sheer boredom, and my own desire to organize my feelings about some of the front-running presidential candidates, I thought I would take a little time to babble about each of them over the next few days.

So, Mike Huckabee.

There are certainly some things I like about this guy :

• I trust him implicitly, which is odd to me. Like most people, I have a knee-jerk distrust of most high-ranking politicians. Maybe getting into my 30s has made me able to relate more to these ‘old people’ who want to be president but I’m finding I trust more of them. Or maybe my brain is atrophying and I’m getting more ignorant and naive. But, I do trust Mike Huckabee that he means was he says and he says what he means, though he does seem, like a crafty politician, just as adept at sidestepping questions, changing the subject, etc. Some of his interactions with Mitt Romney during the recent forum proved that quite well.
• Fiscally, he’s really ‘out there’ for a Republican. I LOVE that there is finally a candidate that is a proponent of a federal consumption tax. Granted I’m no economist, but everything I learned in my undergrad economics classes tells me that taxing consumption vs. taxing income is just so much more economically sound. A basic economic tenet is that encouraging savings grows investment, which spurs economic growth. If a consumption tax can help discourage the rampant consumer culture we have, and encourage even a small percentage of the population to save more, it will do wonderful things for economic growth in our country. Opponents of a consumption tax say that a consumption tax will just encourage under-the-table transactions, but you know what? Income taxes do the same thing — who didn’t have at least one job in their lives that was paid under-the-table so that you, and your employer, could avoid paying income & employment taxes??
• That whole weight loss thing? That’s pretty cool.

But then, of course, there is lots of stuff that make me want to run to Canada if this guy’s elected:

• The whole thing with his son and the dog. If you’re disinclined to read a whole Newsweek article, let me sum up: when his son was 17, it seems he hanged a stray dog for the fun of it. It also seems Gov. Huckabee actively worked to ensure his son was not brought up on charges of animal cruelty. This whole thing leaves me feeling dirty for a couple of reasons - first, that his son could be capable of such behavior is at least a small reflection on his upbringing, and second, this is but one of multiple examples of Huckabee’s questionable actions in regard to criminal activity.
• Huckabee completely rejects the theory of evolution. Come ON.
• Huckabee’s stance on a vast number of issues, including but not limited to anti-abortion rights, anti-gay rights, anti-embryonic stem cell research, opposition to hate crime legislation, pro-gun, pro-display of the Ten Commandments in public schools, rejection of international law, anti-universal healthcare, are all in direct opposition to my own personal beliefs.

So it seems when it comes down to it, I really want to like the guy, but he and I will just have to agree to disagree.

Mike Huckabee, your stance on nearly every issue of importance to me makes me think you are close-minded and rely on only one source for your ‘wisdom’ - The Bible. I know for some people this is favorable, but in my mind it makes you blind, intolerant, and in blatant contradiction to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Our founding fathers were all about guaranteeing freedoms, not about restricting them. Thus, unless Charles Manson wins the Democratic nomination, you will not have my vote in November.

I’m so incredibly bummed about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.  It shocked me, nearly as much as any news story can manage.  I read the story on CNN.com with my mouth agape.  I guess mostly because it’s such a violent, awful end to what seemed like such a possibility of hope for Pakistan.  I’d been following her return to the political landscape of that country, and it was inspiring.  She brought a sense of hope and optimism to a place that seemed, for a long while, to need it a great deal.

Plus, she was a woman on the political forefront in a pretty major country.  That’s inspiring, regardless.  I mean, if a woman can lead a country like Pakistan, there just might be hope to someday have a US president that isn’t a male WASP.

Heh, two political-ish posts in one day… I promise this probably will not be the norm.