Monthly Archives: August 2012

Lies, Lies and More Lies? – and We’re OK With That????

Mark Twain wrote a short paper entitled “On the Decay of the Art of Lying”. If he could observe politics in this day and age ….

“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”
– Autobiography of Mark Twain

Wanting to examine some data about messages shared by politicians, I went to Politifact’s WEB site last December. I compiled the aggregate ratings for each leader (and Internet emails).

Ranking the best and worst in categories, Mr. Obama scored best, Mr. Boehner was 2nd followed by Mr. Biden in 3rd. The two Senate leaders came next and were tied. The worst score for an individual was Ms. Pelosi.

Of course, Internet chain emails were far and away the absolute worst score and led the percent of the worst rating available “Pants of Fire” false – which is not surprising because there is little to no accountability for their messages. OVER 91% of the rated Internet communiques had, at best, half-truths !!!! Given these stats, why do so many people fall for this stuff????

More important to me than the individual ratings is the fact that the BEST score for communiques with some false within them was almost 69% !!! Since this is an undesired rating, the lowest score is the best.

Also, the best score for the half-truth and worse rating was slightly over 53% !!!!

So the BAD NEWS is that at their best, communications from these politicians contained some falsity almost 69% of the time and at their best, over 53% contained half-truths or worse!!!!

Half truths might be the most effective of all – they have some truth that people recognize and accept as true and then they very well assume that the entire message is true.

Worse than that is that we, the electorate fall for this stuff !!!

….. and my following of the campaigns so far this year indicates to me that it has only gotten worse. Last night Mr. Ryan led people to believe that an auto plant in his state was closed because of Mr. Obama’s policies or failure to do what he said he would do – and the fact is that the decision to close the plant was made before Mr. Obama was elected !!!! I suspect we will hear similar crud from next week’s Dem convention.

Is this OK? Is this what we want?

If not, how can the electorate unite and hold politicians and their supporters to a higher standard?

A Campaign Finance Reform Constitutional Amendment Needed?

After reading 2 books on the 2007-2008 collapse in the finance industry and several other books about our broken political system,contemplating the, IMO stupid, SCOTUS’ Citizens United decision and being ever disgusted by the half-truths and outright lies used by politicians and their supporters on BOTH sides, I seriously wonder if we will never truly make headway without a constitutional amendment regarding campaign financing – and maybe even the conduct and timing of campaigns.

A corporation is not a person and individuals should not be able to contribute $40,000,000 or more simply because they can afford to and others can’t. This type of free speech is not equal speech and threatens to bring the tyranny of the minority down on all of us less powerful citizens (the REAL “persons” !!!) !!!

What might such an amendment include?

  • limits on contributions ?
    – with or without meaningful and deterring penalties (financial, jail time, loss of position if the violator was elected?) for violating them?
  • limits of the period within which campaigns can be active?
  • limits requiring all messaging to be approved by the candidates themselves?
  • define some sort of meaningful and deterring punishment if lies and half-truths are included in messaging?

What do you think about the above ideas?

What other ideas might you propose for consideration?

GOOD NIGHT, IRENE !!

NOT EXACTLY a Glamourous Topic – What Rules Changes in Congress Would Make Sense ???

Sometimes changes can be made without vilifying specific people or groups of people. When people who want change look at the processes used, they can often find changes in those processes which increase the chances of desired results being produced. Some idea & questions are presented below. What other ideas do you have – or how do you evaluate the ideas presented?

Why have BOTH parties been allowed to gavel in and then gavel out within a few minutes – and call that “being in session” for the day? What is the benefit – other than for political purposes – of so doing?

Why are laws not made easily available on the Internet for a predefined period of time before a vote is allowed? How many times have you heard of a complex law being changed overnight and either the Senate or the House being required to vote on it the next day – without a reasonable opportunity for members of Congress, their staffs nor the public to understand the changes before a vote is required? Does that make sense? Why or why not?

Why do committee assignments get made the way they do? Does this give too much power to a few in each party and thus, give leaders of BOTH parties the ability to “influence” how their caucus members will vote on legislation?

Why can members of Congress or their staffs or family members be allowed to accept ANY benefit from lobbyists? … or why shouldn’t ALL benefits received be reported on a publicly accessible WEB site within 24 hours of their receipt?

Why should members of Congress, their staff members or extended family be allowed to profit from their inside knowledge of information?

What ideas do you have and what are the pros and cons of ideas listed above?

What Happened to the Middle Class ????

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/08/28/what-happened-to-the-middle-class.aspx

Over the years, globalization has taken many jobs overseas – free market capitalism has done that and there is nothing illegal about any of that !! In addition, technology has automated a huge number of jobs, eliminating them forever.

Salaries in the services sector are not always lucrative and many jobs do not pay enough to support a family. Additionally, many sector jobs are part time positions that do not offer benefits (such as decent health insurance).

Our country faces new challeneges now and in the future. All of us need to understand that the old ways will not work – and that these challenges are so huge it will take us all working together to even have a chance at overcoming them.

Instead of wasting time going back and forth between Democrats and Republicans, let’s tell members of both parties that they need to get on the same team – for the good of our country. The more time that is wasted, the harder and more expensive each challenge will be to overcome – and our chances of success diminish. Think long term and not just for today.

We actually need to invest in several key areas – and government incentives along with public/private partnerships make a huge difference.

…. thinking about the Grover Norquist Pledge …. is it actually unpatriotic???

Almost everyone believes that to fix the deficit will take a balanced approach – combining decreases in spending with increases in revenue. EVERYONE is going to need to sacrifice some in order to give our country a chance at maintaining our historical preeminence in the world. Our country’s future is NOT GUARANTEED – we need to find ways to work together as a patriotic team rather than as two competing parties and a bunch of self-interested individual politicians.

While it sounds so good, easy and painless when politicians and other special interests say “We can fix our deficit issues by cutting spending without raising taxes.”, it just “ain’t” so !!! DO NOT FALL FOR MESSAGES THAT SOUND TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE !!!! You know the old saying …. !!! It probably is !!!

So many of us are so cynical about government (and for very legitimate reasons) – but then we turn around and support people who mislead us and tell us what we want to hear, regardless of whether it is feasible.

BOTH parties are going to have to come to the middle, work together and compromise to solve our country’s fiscal woes.

The Norquist Pledge embeds hard and fast ideology into the political process and keeps it from working the way our founding fathers carefully and thoughtfully designed it.

Any politician that signs that Pledge is, IMO, either naive or disingenuous. Because “the Pledge” so impedes our nation’s law making process, one might even think it unpatriotic !!!

I admire Jeff Fortenberry, my Representative in the House, for withdrawing his support for the Norquist Pledge. Unfortunately, too many others assume that ideological stance – and thus refuse to become a member of a larger team, focusing on solving the nation’s problems first and their political self-interest second.

Former Governor and US Senator Bob Kerrey repeatedly told the truth during last Saturday’s one and only debate (his opponent has so far not agreed to additional and televised debates) and his opponent repeatedly refused to acknowledge that a balanced approach is needed. Over and over we heard those tempting words “I am against cutting benefits and against raising taxes.” Open minded Nebraskans will recognize that position as political pandering and realize that sacrifice by all is needed – and will support Mr. Kerrey’s campaign to return to the Senate. You can watch an archived copy of the debate @ omaha.com.

Tell your Congressman to put aside their ideology and withdraw their support of the pledge – and be open minded about how BOTH parties need to work together, compromising to actually solve our big problems and our current/future challenges.

I do not want our country to become a 2nd class or 2nd tier nation. Yet one has to wonder that, if by putting their party and personal self-interest ahead of country, many of our current set of politicians aren’t taking us down that road !!!!