The Cult of Julian Assange and Wikileaks

What would you think if your mother called you this evening and told you that your very best friend from grade school, high school, college and beyond came to her and told her everything. Because of some quirk of a new found belief, this friend thought it was best to be transparent about not only his life, but yours as well. So your mother now knows everything. Like what you drink and how often. And how often to passing out. Who you slept with and how often you have sex with someone you don’t really know. The drugs you like and have hidden in your apartment. The kinky stuff as well. Your deepest secrets that really you shouldn’t have told your friend and you certainly never wanted your mother to know. Even if she suspects some of the things might be true.

How would you feel? Mad at your friend? Worried about who else knows? Worried what your mother now thinks about you? And now your friends just sort of look at you since you may have told your friend secrets about them and they heard about them.

Well, that is just what Julian Assange just did. He told your mother everything and he also told a number of people too. Stuff they suspected or assumed, but now it is out in the open, well what you said, not what anyone else said.

Why did he do it? The enigmatic Mr. Assange doesn’t really say. He says it is for transparency. But I think what he has done is not transparent, but created a one-way mirror. People can look in on our dirty laundry, but we only see ourselves. Being transparent would be taking the cables related to Iran and publishing Iran’s cables about us. That is transparent.

My belief is that Mr. Assange is an anarchist who found the best bomb. One that doesn’t kill anyone, but can be deadly. He says he is a journalist, but all he is doing is dumping these cables and letting everyone else evaluate them. There is no investigation or interpretation of these cables, because he doesn’t care about that. He is only interested in disrupting the world.

I think it is very naïve of people to think that governments have only positive things to say about one another and can be transparent to each other about what goes on. Diplomacy in itself is the absence of transparency. Mr. Assange and his minions seem to believe I have a right to learn that we don’t like the Russians. I know we don’t like the Russians, but I don’t need to tell them we don’t since they don’t like us either.

In the end, Wikileaks will be an interesting footnote to the world history. Mr. Assange will go away and brood about why he isn’t in charge of the world and his minions will grow up and get jobs and wonder what the hell they were thinking back then. Unless, like a playground dust up, a push/shove match starts over a few words. Then Mr. Assange will need to think about what he started and how many lives might be lost because he thinks he is better equipped to tell the world what to think than everyone else.

The Purpose of Protest

I grew up during the 60’s. I saw and kind of participated in the protest against the Vietnam War. I guess doing what everyone else was doing, I went along. During those war years and as I got closer to draft age, I worried, like all young men did. We all knew the war was bad, but we really didn’t want to be forced into the service. I have very bad eyes and probably had a deferment, but all it took was an Army doctor saying that my eyes weren’t that bad and I was in.

One of the jokes after the war was that guys went to the college protests because it was a chance to meet girls. I guess if you showed up and yelled and screamed, you might get lucky. I wasn’t at those kinds of schools nor was I really old enough during the height of the war to go to meet girls. But it seems to be a pretty relevant comment.

Lately, there have been more protests than usual. Arizona, the BP oil Spill and the Anti-Bank protests come to mind. . I’ve come to a change of heart on protests, probably because I no longer am interested in meeting girls and now wonder what good comes of these. My new position is nothing happens because someone has a protest. Just like the Vietnam War rallies and protests probably didn’t change any one’s mind that the war was wrong.

Let’s define though that there are protests that are necessary. The Buddhist Monks during the Viet Nam War who burned themselves. Others like the lone protester at Tiananmen Square, the Mother’s March in the Philippines, the Civil Rights Marches in the South. These were beyond protest to a form of insurrection. The Monks gave up their lives to inform people that the war was wrong. The lone protester is believed to be still in prison and the Mother’s March and Civil Rights Marches could have ended in the deaths of the people who marched. So when I speak of protests here, I mean the sign waving, chanting, marching type of protests.

So what purpose does a protest have? Basically, the only purpose is to channel efforts to support a cause. However, the people that participate usually agree with your beliefs and frankly are the audience you hope to reach. There may be media coverage or you can create your own YouTube coverage of an event. And the people that will see it will either total agree or will vehemently disagree with your cause. So are you going to change any minds? No. The people that see any 10 second view of the protest may see some witty signs, but I think 20 words on a poster will not give anyone a head slapping moment and make them change sides. The purpose of the protest is to me, the ability to see if you can bring people together. It is marketing. If your group can muster 1000 people, maybe when another similar cause comes up, they might call you to get some of those people to a rally. Except those 1000 people probably are in the same 5 groups which all compete for the bodies.

So again, why hold a protest? I don’t see a reason. You won’t educate anyone on the problem with a few signs. You won’t change anyone’s mind because of a chant or the fact you are out there. You won’t get the people that you are protesting against to suddenly change their behavior. But someone got you out there and that might impress some people. As I thought about this, it no longer impressed me.

So instead of a protest, think about how you can change people’s minds or change their awareness of the problem. If you are attempting to change a company’s actions, what would make them change, such as a boycott. Companies don’t have shame so you can’t get them to change like you can a person. Corporations only are interested in profits. If you want to get people to change their opinions, then education works better than cute signs. Yes, a protest looks like education, but only to the people that already agree with you. You want to reach out to people that don’t agree with you. That can be done with flyers, teach ins or ads and nothing works as well as one-to-one dialog. And the time and money used to organize a protest could be used to help the cause you are protesting.

Now, I don’t mean that people shouldn’t protest. This is a right and privilege we all have. But in based on civil and rational discussion, a protest should be viewed in light of the probable outcome. In most cases, I believe we should save the shoe leather and get off the street. Nothing is improved by protests and I believe everything can be changed with dialog.

For the Memory of a Lost Scout

My wife felt bad for me because I have funeral duty, as she said. Since I work from home and have a freer schedule, I am the designated attendee for funerals. I feel someone needs to honor the deceased and I know that other people have to work, so I accept this duty as an honorable assignment, until today.

A couple of days ago, I got an email from a Scoutmaster of a Boy Scout Troop I know saying that one of his Scouts had died of Juvenile Diabetes and he was asking for Scouts and Scouters to attend the funeral. I didn’t know the Scout, he was just 11. I felt the need to attend, this was not a hardship, but it was the hardest funeral I’ve attended.

There was a wake held last night. I knew I could not do that. I’ve been involved with Scouts for 10 years as a leader. I’ve known 100’s of boys. I’ve seen 11 years olds grow up to be really fine young men. I’ve dried some tears and yelled at a few. I’ve coached a lot of them. And I’ve loved them all. They are my sons. And because of other duties, I’ve probably met nearly a thousand boys, chatted with them, kidded them. All 11 to 18. I’ve attended 20 to 30 Eagle Courts of Honor over the years and I don’t know how many troop Courts of Honor. I’ve shook so many little hands over the years.

And yet this morning, a hole was punched in my heart for a little boy I’ve never met. Because I’ve met this boy a hundred times. Except I saw them grow up. This little boy won’t because of an awful disease.

I can’t say anything to comfort the family, friends or his fellow scouts. I can’t say anything to the Scout leaders that he looked up to. But I can say, please contribute to end Juvenile Diabetes so none of us have to see this again. Give at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Profiling and Terrorists

I agree, the new airport scanners are intrusive. And I’ve read online that the only good answer is to do profiling. As someone pointed out, all the terrorists have been Muslim men from 18 to 45. Because they are the terrorists, all we have to do is watch for those Muslim men.

However, I wonder how the original poster would define Muslim men. I assume they meant dark skinned men from the Middle East area. Except there are Christians living in the Middle East that would not ever want to be considered Muslim. Well, then how about all Arabic men. Well Pakistanis and Indians are also Muslim and they are not Arabic and they might also be Hindu or Christian. But to be safe, we should profile them all. We can’t be too careful.

Africa has a large percentage of people that are Muslim as well. So should the profiling be expanded to include blacks as well? And Indonesia is predominately Muslim and they are not Arabic, they might have darker skin, but they have Oriental features. And there are groups in China that are Muslim. I guess you will have to expand the profiling to either black or dark skinned or Asian men.

Except women could hold or carry bombs for the terrorists, so your profiling should be expanded so that any black, dark skinned or Asian person should be profiled.

However, we are seeing Islam reaching out to the European and American white population. I guess one way is to profile any man who wears a beard. Except the terrorists who flew the planes into the World Trade Building did not have beards to blend into the community. And of course, then we would also be looking at Amish and Mennonite men as well as Orthodox Jews.

So in the end, the TSA should profile any black, dark skinned, Asian or white men and women.

In the end, who is left? Inuits. There has never been a report of Inuit converting to Islam. We can profile everyone else and leave the Eskimos to sail right though. Except they might be carrying those big harpoons…That might not be that safe.

Chapter 1 of Life in the Christian States of America

Chapter 1

“Dear Rebecca”, as I wrote the letter in long hand to my daughter who was 8. “I’m writing this to you so that you might someday find this and understand what has happened with your world. First, I love you more than anything as I do equally your brother, Jeremiah. But someday, Daddy might not make it home and your world may change. I’m not sure how to tell you that everything will be ok, but know that anything that I do, I do it for you and Jeremiah”. I folded the letter and looked for a place to put it. I could put it in my personal Bible, but I know people might look there if there was a judgment called. Finally, I remembered the best place. I put the letter inside her familiar “A Little Girl’s Bible Stories” book. She had outgrown it and Jeremiah would never use it since he had gotten his copy at pre-school.

Morning came too early for me this morning. I woke up to the radio with a preacher on discussing the third Psalm and cut it off so I could let my wife sleep a little more. I rose, showered, shaved and put my better work clothes on. I wore my blue suit, white shirt (of course), dark tie and black shoes. I had gotten my haircut yesterday after work so I looked fresh and ready to go. I woke my wife and told her I had to go and to say good morning to the kids. I needed to be very much on time today.

I hurried to the neighborhood bus stop for our morning prayer meeting before the bus arrived. I didn’t want to be too early and wait for everyone else but I also didn’t want to be late and have the elder note my tardiness. Our prayer meeting is hosted by my neighbor, Tom but is attended by every man in the area before we have to go to work. We also have an elder who note that we had the meeting, the length and who attended etc.

Tom runs a good prayer meeting, I guess. He isn’t too long and he is able to get to the point before the bus arrives to take us to the community center. His topic was cleanliness which I assume is a cut to Bill Johnson’s tendency to be a little messy. I often wonder if the neighborhood elder gives Tom his topic or he picks it, but I’d rather not ask for fear that he might want to know why I’m curious. Curiosity isn’t forbidden, but it is discouraged by the elders.

Our bus arrived promptly as usual and we men filed on in our usual line and sat in our usual seats. Doing this day in and out does give us a sense of routine. I sat with my next door neighbor, Mark and we sat in silence. Our elder left us at the bus stop, but frivolous conversations are frowned upon and might be reported. We really don’t have much to talk about. Our homes are identical in most ways. Our small lawns are usually about the same. If you say something good about another man’s lawn, you might be coveting and that will get a phone call or worse a visit from the neighborhood elder. The kids do play sports but not in a competitive way either. So frankly, other than the health of your parents, there isn’t much else to chat about. So we ride the 10 minutes or so in quiet meditation.

Like all the communities in the Christian States, ours is based on a local grouping of neighborhoods who feed into the community center, which is connected to other community centers via a light rail system. Communities have about 2000 people living in them. Within the communities are area centers where a larger church is usually located and the area centers are connected to regional centers which of course lead to the national center. Before the Reform, there were cities and towns, townships and states and other forms of government, but the elders redefined it all to make it work better.

I happen to work at the community management office so my commute is typical, since most of us work in the community center area in businesses, management or with the elder council office. Our bus drops us off in the square and I walk the block to the management office. The bus riders drift off to various locations. A few work at the area center and so they walk to the rail stop and commute on. All our hours are regulated by the need to be back in our communities by 6pm so they work fewer hours than we do. But all work is needed and we know they have a little farther to go. And we only work a half a day on Saturday morning compared to how it was before the Reform and people were working 60 to 80 hours a week! Ours is a more civilized life.

My work at the community management office is reviewing and approving the work requests by builders and contractors. My supervisor and I were in the Reform War together and so we have strong relationship. Will was the man who told me my brother had been killed by Government agents. We no longer have computers, unless approved by the elders and there is no reason to have one. We receive a paper request from a builder outlining the work they would like to perform. We insure the work is allowed. It could be too much ornamentation or make a home too large or create the impression that the home or business is too lavish. We also approve the workers and any contractors to make sure they are god-fearing people and are members of the community and not outsiders. If work is unique not to be provided by our community or even our area, outside workers may be brought in, but we have to insure they are approved by our regional office. We had that happen a few years ago when the school needed some very special lighting panels and no electrical contractor was able to install. The regional office had to approve a contractor to come to our community to install. They were housed in the men’s dormitory, but it was quite a fuss in town.

Will and I work close. But since most of my day is looking up names in the report books to make sure men are allowed to work and have been approved by the elders as well as cross checking the names to make sure everyone has enough work to do, we don’t have to talk every day. I wanted to talk to Will about the upcoming promotions. One of the community supervisors had passed on about a week ago and a replacement was needed. Will was a war veteran and a pious and righteous person. He should be able to get the promotion. Not that he wanted it, of course not. That would not be correct to let the promotion get in the way of the community. The elders would decide this, but if he were promoted, I might get his job. Again, I don’t need it or covet it, but I had done this job for 10 years and at times my interest would flag. I have not mentioned it to Will or my neighborhood elder or to anyone else, even my wife. But a new job would be different. So today I dressed as well as I could so Will would know I even looked like the supervisor of the management approval office.

“Steven, can you come in for a moment?”

Will called out from his door. There is only him and me here anymore. We had another man in the office for the first few years while we were classifying and figuring out how the community would function and then he went to part time here and part time at the office next door and I understand he is working at a store in the community center. I got up and put on my suit. It is considered proper to always wear a suit coat unless you are at your desk. I walked over to his little office. His manuals and books were neat, but showed he knew what was in them. The paper on his desk was tidy, but frankly a little too much paper for my liking. He saw me looking at them and cleared his throat.
“We need to go through these papers again, something has um come up”. I gave him a look. I didn’t think I had not done a thorough job nor had I missed anything.

“It isn’t your or our problem. Sit down, I need to explain something.”

I sat down, puzzled looking. In the early days, we had had a few people who had tried to sneak through the system and get work as laborers in the reconstruction of the community centers even though they were not approved to work by the elders. We also had some people who pretended to be from the region try and tell us who to hire and fire. But those days were at the first days of the Reform.

“The Elders seem to think some of the workers of Paul Schmidt’s construction company may be not living the word of God. It seems one of the Elders saw a man at the area center who looked a lot like one of Paul’s workers who was seen holding the hand of a woman. And as if that wasn’t proper, he does not believe she was his wife. So we have to go back through Schmidt’s paperwork and determine if he is following the Elders’ wishes.”

My heart went out to Paul. I knew him from the War as did Will. He was a god fearing man and was a good citizen. But when the Elders feel something is wrong, we have to review and if necessary disapprove his contracts. We will find out about the man’s behavior soon enough when the revised work approval sheets come in later today.

I asked, “Is Paul and his crew working today?”

“No, they are on temporary assignment at the Elder house. Everyone will be reviewed and interviewed there and approved or disapproved. If there is a problem, the Elders will nip it quickly. We don’t want one man ruining that crew or the community.”

I nodded in agreement. I silently thought about Paul and what we did during the war. Will and I were in an infantry regiment and Paul came to us from another church group. We didn’t know him, but he had been in battles with the Government forces through Ohio and Pennsylvania. We fell in together outside Pittsburgh and fought the Govs in Western Penn. The Government forces were falling apart and our leaders were encouraging us to fight harder to finish them off. They were weakening and starting to desert coming over to our side. As we captured them, we sent them to our rear areas to be reviewed and determined their status. Most of them were obviously not acceptable since they were foreigners in color and name. We just did our job and sent them back. I had heard stories about what happened to them, but we were changing the United States back to our fundamental beliefs and if a few non-believers were lost…well, they would be with God sooner then. Will, Paul and I were outside Pittsburgh when the War ended. We hoped we would be sent back home soon, but we spent eight years in the Army helping keep the peace while the Council of Elders was formed and they organized our new system. We mostly patrolled and watched that people who felt the new laws were wrong were ‘corrected’. Some we just talked to, some we had to arrest and send to education camps and a few, well some people won’t even stop when you fire a warning shot, let alone wound them. We did find a lot of those were non-believers, either Jewish, Moslems, Hindus, some Catholics, pagans or Mormons. Non-believers just didn’t understand what the Reform was about.

Over time, the trouble sorted itself out and as the rules came down from the Council of Elders, people just knew to say OK and adjust as necessary.

About twelve years after I joined the Army of the Reform, I was to be mustered out. My brother had been killed so I received his citations and awards for him. In the eyes of the Elders, I was my brother’s keeper. Will, Paul and I were all sent back to our home area to a community. The Elders of the community embraced us and allowed us to select a bride. I had known my wife before and selected her and was given her. Because of the Reform and because the war was very destructive, massive construction of homes and apartments were started. We had the opportunity to clean the slate in many ways. The large cities of the past were found to be wicked and full of non-believers. Many non-believers were allowed to live in the cities, until the Elders could work out the laws of our land. Many left quickly for Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. We knew we didn’t need these people and that they were the cause of the collapse of the old government. The Elders knew what was right for us.

We worked tireless in those first years. We were lucky in our community was built from scratch over the ruins of a small city. We didn’t have to try and fit the new life into the molds of the wickedness like a few communities did. Some communities tried to name themselves or build sports teams to compete against other communities. This was quickly stopped by the Elders. Some communities didn’t understand the place of women and wanted to allow women to work outside the home. They can work outside the home, but only as teachers of girls, or doctors and nurses of women. Why did they think they needed to work? Our salaries are managed by the Elders so we can earn enough to pay for everything we should want, housing, food, clothing etc. To want more than we earned was to sin.

“Steven, also because of our friendship with Bill, we will be investigated. Now don’t get angry, this is routine to make sure no funny business was taking place. I’m sure it will take a few days and all this will blow over. We have nothing to hide so they will come in review our procedures, ask us a few questions and move on. Understand?”

I nodded. We had been through a few investigations in the past. They were nothing. Both Will and I were solid citizens. We both lived our lives as the Elders want. We both were on committees at the church and participated in Church activities. We tried to live pious and respective lives. This really wasn’t a big deal. But we were never questioned because of a friend. A moment of reflection allowed me to remember that we had nothing to hide and would be fine.

“Got it. I’ll just get started on the review papers. Let me know when the work approval paperwork arrives so I can start that process.” I left his office with some of the papers. There was too many to do in one sitting and not all of it could be done today. We would work steady and hard and would get done what we could as quickly as we could. We were still Soldiers of the Reform and would fight and die for the cause. Even if it was to review papers.

What is an Effective Organization?

One of my favorite things to think about is how small organizations work. Having been a part of both successful and unsuccessful teams of people, I’ve wondered why did that team work well together and a similar team did not. Today I think I discovered one reason, leadership. Not just a good leader, but how the job of leadership is performed.

My theory is that every group must have a two people that divide the jobs of speeches, meetings etc and day to day operations. The job of speeches and meetings is the ‘presenter’ of the group. This is the face. This person is the charismatic leader, the one that people look to. They can attract people and make them interested in the project. The other person is the operations leader. This position makes the ideals and goals of the strategy and makes a meaningful process to accomplish this. The key is however, that these two people must be equals in their eyes and must be both strong enough to lay out the strategy for the group.

Additionally, it is extremely rare to find a presenter and operational leader in one person. Partially because I believe people are either stronger in one area or another. Also, as the group grows, the roles of both of the position will grow quickly and there a time restraint will creep in, until one of the jobs cannot be done by one person.

There are examples of successful teams like this and there are many others that are unseen. One of the first that came to mind was George W Bush/Karl Rove and as an odd counterpoint, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Many times in political areas, the operations job is done by a Chief of Staff, but the important role here is how strategy is set. It has to be a mutually agreed job.

A group with just a charismatic leader will fill the seats of a meeting room and wow the people with great ideas, but in time, the ideas never seem to expand into real projects. An operational leader will get very few people into the seats, but they will be wowed with the detail and ability to execute the plan. However, the ideas will not keep coming and the people will loose interest.

This is a theory. I’m looking at groups to see if this is true in many cases. All the groups I’ve examined seem to have this either working for them or have a failing in getting going.

Stopping the Anger

The elections are over. People on both sides are unhappy. And there is anger everywhere. Anger is a bad thing. His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote "Happiness cannot come from hatred or anger. Nobody can say, “Today I am happy because this morning I was angry.” On the contrary, people feel uneasy and sad and say, “Today I am not very happy, because I lost my temper this morning.”

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-dalai-lama-s-wisdom-about-anger.html#ixzz14utNLMnh

This anger is unnecessary and of course not useful. An election was lost, a candidate won who shouldn't have won, in your opinion. A referendum was lost or passed. And you are not happy, in fact angry. People are angry at Banks, Corporations, Politicians, Tea Party, Liberals, Neo-Con's, People who don't agree with your opinions and on and on.

Lighten up, Nancy (Stripes with Bill Murry).

Yes, you lost. I lost too. But like in Judo, you need to use that anger to your advantage. Use the negative energy of the other side to counter and then thrust your hip into their beliefs and watch it crumble. But you can't do it angry. People have to rise above the anger. It isn't easy, because we like to be angry and the people around us are angry which feeds our anger and makes us part of a group.

Rise above it. Use your energy in a positive way.

Impressions from the Jon Stewart Rally for Sanity

It was an amazing event. I shocked I went, I had 100 excuses not to go, but I felt this weird urge to go. I knew there would be people that I could meet up with, but that wasn’t the reason. I knew it would be a sort of comedy/political show, but that wasn’t the reason. The reason was more the people than anything. Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, Ozzy, Yusaf Islam, the O’Jays, the Mythbuster boys, Kid Rock, Cheryl Crow, The Roots, John Legend and Tony Bennett could have not been there and yet I probably would have gone. The people. Sort of a Field of Dreams event.

So some impressions. The people. I saw no one hassling anyone. People were very close together, yet people just got along. Of course, don’t expect to go to the port-a-potty from the center of the crowd, but still everyone was cool. The average age was probably late 20’s to 30’s, but I saw teenagers to seniors in their 70’s. It was skewed a little to whites over blacks, but there were good representation of blacks there. I saw enough Indians, Muslims, Hispanics to even out the mix of races. And yet we got along. People were polite and respectful of each other.

The attitude. The far right media felt that the signs were mean and hateful. Someone needs to take a sarcasm dosage. These are college kids who live on sarcasm. They were making fun of the Tea Party signs and the screaming idiots who have so much hate. They didn’t hate, they were snarky, but it wasn’t hate. Some I needed a friend to translate into my generation. Some were absolutely funny and others were weird. And some were touching. I communicate with enough 20 and 30 year old people to know what the meaning of the signs were. I don’t agree with some, but they didn’t mean anything bad by them, they were having fun. Only the hardened right wing saw anger and hate, because they think that is what everyone does.

The crowd. It was big. We were at the closer edge of the Air and Space Museum to the stage. We were a long way from the stage. We could see it, but no way could you see people on stage. We had a good view of the second set of Jumbotrons set up before 4th Street. And when the Mythbuster guys started a wave from the front and the back at the same time, I figured we would be in the middle. We were in the front! The wave hit us from the front first and seconds later did it hit us from the back. Cell and data service died for hours as expected with this crowd. My most telling story about the crowds was trying to get away. I had a 6pm flight from Reagan and the event was over at 3:00. I was a few minutes at the end saying good bye and took off to L’Enfant Station on foot, fighting the crowd. The line to the subway was up the stairs, around the pavilion, down the block, under the underpass and then back down the next street about a block or two. The crowd was about 4 deep. And it wasn’t moving. I went to plan B and went to the Smithsonian Blue line. The first entrance was blocked by a cop and was telling people to go that way to another entrance. I was then working on Plan C and D. Plan E was walking as far as I could an hopefully find a cab because cars weren’t moving that much. Plan F was saying screw it and staying over. I was able to get down the stairs at the other entrance and slowly get on a subway. The car was jammed, but people were pretty good spirits, but you could tell they were pooped. I made my flight. Could there have been 215,000? Oh yeah. More? Who knows, I was surrounded by people, as far as I could see.

The message. Stewart’s message at the end was the most sincere thing I’ve heard for years. He was taking a bit of a career risk by doing this. But as I listened to him, I heard something wonderful. 200,000+ people listening. No one was laughing or talking. They were listening to him say these wonderfully sincere words. No script or teleprompters, no messages written on his hand. And they listened.

So what did I take away. First, the reason I came was because something would happen and it did. People did walk away with a little more love in their hearts. We, for that brief moment, were sane. We had a spirit I haven’t felt for a long time. Annabel Park asked me if this was my Woodstock. No, but better than that. To be in a sea of people of all races, ages, religions etc and share that moment is a life changer. And for a brief moment, I was sane. Now we need to learn how to keep it going.

An Open Letter to Conservatives

The Republicans seem posed at this writing to take a number of seats in the House and Senate in the 2010 elections. It might not happen, but I have a question. Are you sure you want this? Are you really getting what you think you are getting?

I’m not saying that it is a bad thing to take more seats even to win control. But please examine what the outcome may be. Conservatives, Tea Partiers and the like think that by taking control they will take back America. A number of my conservative friends say that President Obama is bad and President Bush was just as bad as a big spending, favor the special interest and the wealthy. Much of the Tea Party literature talks about returning to the Reagan type conservative government.

However, let’s look at what is happening. Lots of money is pouring into these races. Lots of money. And look where that money is coming from, Crossroads and a few others are the main concentration of funding for these new candidates. However, the man behind all this is Karl Rove. Mr. Rove was the architect of the George Bush Presidency. He was the one who started the big spending programs.

And when the candidates he backs get into office, he will be asking for favors, big favors, like vote for the bills I want you to vote for or kiss that seat goodbye.

In other words, G. W. Bush is back. Except he isn’t in an elected office. He is sitting in an office, telling his new candidates what to do. And if they don’t? They will be shunned and renounced as traitors and they will never get elected again.

Take back the Republican Party for the Conservatives. But please don’t return to the last eight years of spending, giveaways to special interests groups that will give money to the new shadow government and keep running up the deficit. I can accept a good conservative approach to government, but I can’t take more of the last eight years of spend, spend , spend.

The Indentured Servitude of HIB visa holders

Every so often, I read in the paper about the need for skilled workers and the only place to get them is from overseas, especially from India. Now I have a lot of friends who are here because of HIB visas and I don’t think the people that come here are not good workers, but I think there is fault in the corporate thinking why they need these people.

One of the first arguments offered is the lack of skilled workers. Oh? Let’s see, all those gray-temple workers at Home Depot or running the local Mail Boxes places probably aren’t there because they love working for $10/hour or the allure of working the plumbing row. No, most of them (and for honesty, me) are not in the high tech world because there aren’t any jobs offered to them. They have skills, but because corporations didn’t pay to have these people trained in the newest stuff and because it is costly to retrain yourself, these people are considered “not mainstream”. And why aren’t they trained? Because the companies need them to work on the old junk that is keeping their company running and know that if you train people on the latest stuff and they will likely leave. Or ask for more money. Or crab at the managers about not using their new skills. So they get your older (not old, just older) employees to work on legacy projects. Now I know the equipment and software used on the legacy systems were at one time the latest and greatest. But over time, that skill set moves from latest and greatest to hot to mainstream to passé to finally obsolete. And once you convert that project to the latest newest stuff, those legacy people can be let go. I believe there are a lot of skilled people out there who are underemployed or have move out of the skilled employment area because no one wants their skills.

Most hiring is done via a resume into the resume hopper of a human resource department at a large corporation. Most human resource people working in high tech only need to know the buzzwords. They are not skilled people so if you say you need C++ experience and someone comes in with C experience, they are rejected because they don’t fit the criteria. The only way to get that experience is to work in a place that will allow you to learn C++, but few companies will hire you because there are college kids coming out of college with that experience who will work for a lot less and less headaches. And then there are the H1B’s. I know a number of H1B visa holders. They are smart, well educated and eager. In a different setting, I would say they were the perfect employee. But there are some parts of the H1B system that must be understood.

As an employer of an H1B person, I have to agree to give that person a job and “sponsor” them. In so many words, I am responsible for them. Many employers look at this as the end of their job. There are many other employers who view these people are either manipulatible or in the extreme conditions treated like dirt. The problem is that the H1B person has no recourse, unlike the American worker. If it were me, I could complain, not do the jobs assigned and get fired or outright quit. An HIB cannot do anything. If an HIB is fired for any reason, they can be and probably will never get to return. Keeping the job here until they get a Green Card is more important than the job itself. If they complain, the less than scrupulous employer can fire them. If they don’t do the work, they can be fired. And if they quit, they strongly run the risk of deportation since they don’t have another job. Also to qualify for a green card, you must have held the same job for a period of time. So if the boss tells you to work Sunday on a project, you’re only answer is, yes sir. To take on more work, yes sir. To mop the floor, yes sir. Also add to the equation is that the cultural background of the typical H1B visa holder is deferential to the boss. So if I want to, I the employer can get an employee who is smart, well trained, deferential to me, willing to do anything I want, probably will make less than the American worker and won’t quit for a period of time. Or I can hire the smart, but less trained, typical American worker who needs time off for soccer games, wants a raise and can quit in the drop of a hat.

So what is wrong with this? It is the millions of people that are under employed that would love to go back to what they love doing, but can’t because employers have found a cheaper and perhaps better resource. If the worker is a commodity, then H1B visa holders are the cheaper overseas connection. And the people that are here on H1B’s are in many ways indentured servants of the company, working hard to gain their freedom of a green card. And someday to become that American worker.

Voting for the Candidates, not the Party

I'm sorry, I'm not one for parties. I don't like parties, like office type etc unless I know most of the people. I like small groups of people who I know. I don't have to agree with them all, but I always am more comfortable in familiar settings. That said, the Republicans, Democrats, Libertarian and Green Parties seem a collection of people that may on a few ideas totally agree. So far, Republicans seem to agree they hate President Obama, Democrats agree they can't agree on anything, Libertarians hope a party will get them better dope and the Greens are so clueless about how to compete.

So I hate to affiliate myself with any party because frankly none of them would really want me. I ask way too many questions and have way too strong opinions. I am not a good soldier. That said, there is an election. Given those too strong opinions and with time since the economy from about the end of Clinton on has sucked for me, I get to ask a lot of questions.

So as an intelligent voter, you need to do some reflection time. What matters the most to you? What hot button do you have? Don't read the paper to have some pollster tell you what America's hot button is. You must have one. And then what is next. Get three or four hot buttons. Since this is private, some of them might not agree with the party you see yourself with. It's ok, you don't have to tell. Then research. Read the web pages and look for your hot buttons. Do they agree with you? And is what they say just to placate you or do they have solutions to the problems you find important? It doesn't matter what party they are with, if the candidate agrees with you on what you think is important, then vote for him or her.

Intelligent voters are not party voters. They may agree with a party and find that one party or another basically reflects their opinions, but frankly I'll vote for who I think is the best candidate to solve the problems I think the country needs. No talking head has to tell me what to think. I am an Intelligent Voter.

An Open Letter from a friend

A good friend has written an open letter to Rep. Judy Biggert, 13-IL about her problems and Ms. Biggert's lack of responses. I found it moving and so true. Please read and pass this along. Our district is so poorly represented because of big money or at least the perception of big money. Please follow this link to Gayl's Letter

vote early if you can, vote intelligently

Vote. Vote like it means something, it does. Vote Early and get it done with. Nothing irritates a phone bank caller than to say I already voted and I didn't vote for your candidate.

Vote intelligently

Vote, because they don't want you to vote

Friends, Internet and Politics

Years ago, when two high school friends met on the street after 40 years, they would just chat about jobs, marriages, kids etc. If they noticed each was wearing the political button of the other party, they probably wouldn’t say anything until they walked away and they would mutter under their breath, “what an idiot”.

Today, with the Internet, online social networking and other online systems, we are able to find people that we were friends with many years ago. I graduated from High School in 1971, which doesn’t seem that long ago to me, but I know it is almost 40 years. I also grew up in a small town in Northeast Missouri, but had a unique group of people since there was a university, an Osteopathic medical college as well as from farms and smaller towns. I had a wide range of friends and liked them all. But we all grow up from high school days and get different viewpoints based on jobs, marriages, kids, where we end up, who we make as friends as adults, military service or not, interact with foreign cultures, loose jobs, get new careers and the list goes on and on. Essentially, we grew up.

Now enter social media and the internet. I’ve been bombarded for years to go to a classmates site. I was curious about the people I knew and what happened to them. It was nice to find out who is doing what. Who was married, still married, remarried or widowed. Who has grandkids and who can post the most pictures of them. The internet and social media sites like Facebook have allowed us to reconnect with friends from 40 years ago as well as our current circle of acquaintances and friends. Since I don’t have to worry what an employer thinks anymore, I can say what is on my mind. My current friends know me and know where I stand. When a conservative minded friend would come to my house during the last election, they saw my Obama sign and bumper stickers on the refrigerator. On the other hand, my friends and I have more to talk about than just politics. I respect my friends and their opinions. We don’t discuss it, but will hint at it. I have one friend that is very conservative, we disagree about politics, but he can have my right kidney if he needs it. Frankly, all my friends can have my right kidney if they need it. But what about those friends whose views of me are frozen in 40 years of time? What do they think of this online me?

Recently, I have become more politically aware and active with the Coffee Party. This is a moderate group interested in rational discussions on politics and reestablishing civility in discussions. Because of Facebook is the primary discussion tool, many topics come forward that may be center to left in leanings and because of this stand, I will offer my opinion as a status or as a comment on another topic. My current friends seem to ignore these. I have one very Tea Party/Libertarian who I know reads what I post because we agreed on a topic. But in most cases, everyone ignores those topics. I don’t care who has found Jesus and I don’t need to argue with them about conservative values etc.

But I have one ‘friend’ who doesn’t quite get it. Perhaps he thinks he has to balance his conservative viewpoint against my more liberal view. Maybe he is argumentative. Maybe he has a chip on his shoulder about me and my life. Maybe he has a need to debate his viewpoints. Maybe he wants to talk to people and doesn’t have a lot of friends. But we are not the people we were in high school and we wouldn’t have that much in common anymore. The problem is that I hate to say, ‘see ya’ to him. On the other hand, I don’t need his comments on some topics.

So I wonder, do social media sites really help bring us closer or just show us the gaps that we all have between each other. There is a part of me that likes knowing about grandkids and vacations. I’ve been able to sort of reconnect with old friends. This reconnection is not the same as a real connection, but given that I probably wouldn’t have heard from these people, this lets me have some imaginary re-acquaintance. So maybe social media systems offer us this chance, but we all need to be aware that the person on the other end or the people reading the comment are probably not who you think they are and so we have to question the relevance of the comment before any of us hit send.

Organization of the Tea Party

There is a general impression that either the Tea Party is this monolithic organization, run by some nefarious gnomes or 10,000 individual groups with little interaction. I keep hearing that they are loonies or Libertarians, Republican operatives, Nazis, normal people etc. There are as many definition of a Tea Party member as there are groups.

I personally divide the Tea Party into six groups. I find the groups are the real Tea Party people, the Libertarian wing, social issues group, the RWANs (Republicans with another name), the fringe groups and the politicos. People will fit into one or more groups, but generally I think they break down like this.

The Tea Party generally goes with three philosophies: Fiscal Responsibility, Limited Government and Free Markets. It will depend on who is speaking as to they accept all three as well as interpretations of the philosophy. Some would say it is different emphasis rather than rejection of some, but in what I’ve seen, they are very different groups.

The original Tea Party people really take their beliefs in the fiscal responsibility and the Taxed Enough Already concept. They do believe in smaller government and free market, but as the rant by Santelli exclaimed that they were tired of paying for other people’s mistakes. These original Tea Party people are probably the majority of the movement. They are the angry voters that are tired of Bush and now Obama’s views of taxation or at least the perceived view of taxation. They are also the lesser known of the groups because they are not as visible or vocal and they also are more moderate than other groups in looking at the span of the different organizations. This group is not as active in social issues, like abortion and gay rights, and is more right of center than far right. They do not necessarily believe in a totally free market, but look at over-regulation as bad.

Libertarian wing of the Tea Party is to take the limited government and free markets as more important than fiscal responsibility. They want the government to ‘keep their hands off of my stack’ and stay out of their business. These people are the pro-legalization of marijuana, very very small government types. This group is very pro-individual freedom and for less is more. They would be necessarily pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-legalization of soft drugs, pro-immigration reform, anti-taxation and view fiscal responsibility as control of the size and scope of government. They are also less interested in military might and see a smaller military, since a draft and war usually mean that individual freedoms are compromised.

The social issues group is the anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-gays in the military, pro-Christian evangelicalism group. They are not as interested in the limited government as much as making the government do what they want to do, such as write laws to keep women from getting abortions. This group is more or less the Evangelical movement of the old Republican party. They have less interest in the size of government, but are interested in getting the government back to what it perceives as a Christian system. They view the role of the military much like the old Republican party, but want to choose which missions so that they can push their agendas.

RWANs are Republicans with another name. They are the right wing Republicans who worship Reagan and want to go back to those glory years. These are the old white rich people who were in power at one time and have seen their thinking moved on by the Neo-Cons and the moderates in the Republican party. They are for smaller government and fiscal responsibility by lowering the deficit as traditionally defined by the Republican Party. However, they believe in a strong military presence and are willing to wage war to keep America safe.

The fringe groups make up a small percentage, but are the ones most photographed. These are the birthers, the 10thers, the 14thers, racists, LaRouchies, probably a few neo-nazis and the like. These people see the chance to expand their base and get their message to the media in a way that is more mainstream than they could before. And as these people get their message out there, some people have picked up on it like Lou Dobbs and use it either as a way to create news or to push their message. They aren’t necessarily interested in taxation, social issues or limiting government. However, they make great television.

The politicos are the smallest group to me, but the most powerful. These are Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Jim DeMint, Dick Army and others. They are the ones that have seen a parade starting and have jumped in front, hoping to be the leader. There are other politicians that have tried to adapt, like John McCain. There are also the members of the Republican Party that are working with the groups like the Evangelicals to help craft a message. The Tea Party may not have a person deigned to be in charge, but as with any group or groups, there are people who are ‘helping’ craft the message, like Dick Army and Jim DeMint who I believe view the Tea Party as a chance to flex power by creating a voting bloc rather than accepting their message. Without a doubt, Fox News and Rupert Murdock have an interest in creating a voting bloc to push his agenda through. Politicos are more interested in leading than crafting the message. They follow the pack rather than leading it ideologically. However, since they have air time and are articulate, they can appear to be leading the ideology by playing up an idea to the base. They are not interested in fiscal responsibility, free markets, or limited government other than to morph themselves into the message.

People may belong to many groups. Some may even identify themselves as a Tea Party and not really be in any group, because they find a niche that appeals to them. However, to assume they are a unified group is wrong. Again, ask them about legalization of marijuana, reinstatement of the draft, or the role of the US as a world power. Unless they are all from the same church, the same Tea Party group, etc, I think you will get varied opinions.

An Explanation of Obama Poll Numbers

The pundits keep talking about President Obama’s polling numbers falling and make it seem like the end of the world for him. He was elected by a wide margin and was mostly from the independents, the moderates and the Democrats. In order to achieve any changes in Washington, he had to find some balance within the system and to do so means moving to a more centrist viewpoint. You cannot achieve when the very Democratic Congress isn’t behind him.

So as he continues on a more centrist path, those people who are left of his views are not happy with his performance, because they wanted single payer health care, out of Iraq and Afganistan and other programs. They hoped he would be able to convince people to their viewpoint. So when a pollster calls these people and asks their opinion on President Obama, they will respond that they are not happy with his performance. But when that same pollster calls a right of center voter, they too will say they are disappointed for very different reasons.

Is the left truly disappointed in his performance? No. They are disappointed in the Congress, the Republican monolith and the fact that he has to compromise to get anything done. They would like to have President Obama fulfill his promises, but to do that he needs a Democratic Congress to stand with him. But the Democratic Caucus of the Congress is made up of many factions and I doubt any of them can agree on anything except their individual needs to be elected. The Republican caucus stands united and I’m not 100% sure why they are. I think it is because they understand power better than the Democrats and realize as the minority party that standing together will achieve their goal of returning to power.

So I discount the polling numbers because they won’t ask the question I want to ask. Are you disappointed in President Obama or are you disappointed in that he can’t get things done because no one, neither Democrats or Republicans, are willing to work with him. And in answering this, we might find that the people who voted for Obama are really still in favor of him. But in fact they hate that the Democratic Party cannot stand behind him. But pollsters don’t want to ask hard questions that lead to other questions. They are paid by people to get the pulse of the people, but to get the pulse they want to hear. Even the independent polling groups want explainable numbers and trying to tell people that the left really likes President Obama, but doesn’t like the way laws are made especially now is too difficult a message to get out.

The Former Members of Congress say STOP

There is an open letter from the Former Members of Congress for Common Ground who want to stop the bickering and get Congress back to work. This is a wide range of Congress, from Republicans to Democrats. Their letter could have been written by Annabel Park of the Coffee Party. Why won't Congress do anything? Because it is all about power and control, not about ideologies.

Ask your Candidates if they want to be with their colleagues or against them.

Click here to see the letter

I Am No Longer a Liberal

Nor am I a conservative or a libertarian, a socialist, a communist, or an espouser of free radicals. These are labels, I am do not like being labeled. Because by picking a label, you now have to become all that that label thinks of itself and what everyone else thinks about you. In one sense, you must now stop thinking for yourself and I for one will never stop thinking for myself. I can sense that many reading this are saying, I’m liberal and I think for myself! Or I’m conservative and I think for myself! And you might. But the label you have chosen has certain beliefs that personally I may or may not agree with at this time. I like to think that my thinking is evolving and changing as I grow older and get some elder wisdom.

I happen to have some beliefs that do not fit into liberal or conservative. I am not for a smaller government or for a large government. I am for right sized government. I am not for no regulations for businesses nor am I for a lot of regulations to manage the businesses. I am for enough, but not too much. I am not for government to cut all spending nor am I for spending wildly, but to spend where it is necessary. Oh and this means then no earmarks. That is not spending as necessary, but making sure your constituents (and donors) get a little more than everyone else. I can not see the benefit of lobbyists. The job of informing politicians of their issues is one thing. Junkets, money, campaign contributions, etc isn’t teaching about the issues, it is bribery. I do not like debt, either to a bank or to a lobbyist.

I am for helping people who are in trouble. Like kids, sometimes you have to let them fall down, dust them off and have that talk about why what they did was harmful. But I don’t agree with letting them fall down over and over. Nor am I for putting them in a bubble. Here I’m thinking about the people who made very bad loan decisions as well as people who don’t want to get off welfare. People will make mistakes, but assuming someone will always be there to help you out is silly. So if you gamble your house and life on a chance to make it really big and lose, you should take it and deal with it. There shouldn’t be a bail out for stupidity.

I am for education. We cannot grow without a well-educated population. But again, our teachers are underpaid in the most part and everyone says we need more teachers. But try and get a teaching job. The jobs are held by under performing teachers who have union backing and tenure. As well as the bureaucracy that keeps the teachers, administrators and other staff insulated from reality.

I am for unions. But not for unions who do nothing for the workers except line their pockets with dues and are only the managers of another resource for the company, labor. I don’t mind union workers getting good wages, but there is a point where they are a second tier privileged class behind the over priced management. However, when workers are being exploited by management, then it is time to organize.

I am for business. But businesses forget that they are nothing without workers. And not workers in India, but the workers that live here. The people who buy the products. No one is worth making millions of dollars, unless you have some risk involved. And a golden parachute isn’t risking anything. And I am for right sized regulation. Hey, I don’t want you pouring your waste water into my drinking water, but I don’t think we need regulation to make sure you have enough left handed wrenches in case you hire some left handed workers.

I am for banks. But banks need to understand the risks and expect like all of us that if you take risks and fail, you will need to close. If I risked everything on a business venture and it failed, I would have to file for bankruptcy and start over with nothing. So management of risk is important to me and to the banks.

So when you spew some liberal or conservative mumbo-jumbo at me. I will read and nod politely. Because you have drunk your respective kool-aids, read the appropriate books and have stopped thinking for yourself. My label is I am me.