Politics has been boring lately

It's been great! Congress can't get anything done and they seem stuck on deciding on which failed policy to support...Republicans are offering nothing substantive and are only promising to vote "NO" on everything.

If the Democrats do indeed lose ground in the 2010 Congressional election we'll see the kind of gridlock that could make the dollar and economy recover.

My political wishlist would look like this:

1. No Federal public option for health insurance.
2. No more troops to Afghanistan.
3. No more contractors to Iraq to replace soldiers redeployed to Afghanistan.
4. Reduce spending and allow the dollar to take a breath.
5. Raise interest rates...please.

and...

I want President Obama to start focusing on the college basketball season.

Obama is thinking over Afghan Strategy

Since he's taking his time on this I'm really interested in what his final decision is going to be. My prediction:

We're sending more troops, but with a new style of uniform.

New Navy Slogan

This really gave me the creeps from the first time I saw it.



You can tell in this recruiting propaganda poster that our days of world intervention are far from over. I wonder how long our government believes this "force" for good will stay that way when they won't be able to pay them.

Buying Peace Futures

I don't have a problem with the President winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I think most people look at it like a bad call in a football game that favors your team...you realize it's lame but you still have to take advantage of it to be meaningful.

I think this is a nice way to demonstrate that the greatest potential for peace comes through President Obama. Does he deserve it? No, but he can potentially earn it.

Maybe he can reduce troops in Iraq significantly and stop replacing the soldiers with government contractors with guns.

Maybe he can stop the occupation of Afghanistan --The graveyard of empires.

Maybe he can stop war with Iran and even resist the temptation of levying worthless sanctions against them that only hurts the most vulnerable people there.

Maybe he'll want to earn this award and not consider it a free-ride to use the military to satisfy some strange sense of foreign adventurism like our previous president.

Maybe the Nobel Peace Prize will mean something once again. Yeah, I doubt it too.

The smartest conservative remaining.

No, not Bill Kristol...just watch.

Afghanistan

There has never been a clearer reason to get out of Afghanistan since the Soviets faced the same problem thirty years ago. If President Obama was wise, he'd stop the coming bloodshed in that country before it ever gets a chance to start.

Among some of the most important reasons is that unlike Iraq, the people of Afghanistan have no stomach for a national Army. Even their own government doesn't want an army greater than 60,000 troops. This is a force roughly the size of Canada's with a population of 30 million.

As the lack of direction continues our country now plans to send more troops to this country. Like every time we send more troops anywhere it won't be long before the existing population will see this as an occupying force. Once this sentiment has been established we will find ten new enemies for every one soldier we send there.

A young woman in my church just lost her husband of four months to an IED in Afghanistan. More families will become devestated with hurt and loss as we continue to be mired in fighting in the hills against an invisible enemy.

The United States no longer has the means to slay dragons all over the world. Hopefully some day we'll learn that our over-aggressiveness in foreign policy makes us less safe, not more.

Harry Reid explains how taxes are voluntary...sorta

I have to hand it to him though.  He did give it a try.

Jan over the years has asked politicians to think philosophically about the different aspects of government force. Some of his interviews have been traps but I think two people in particular were able to sit down with him and engage in thought experiments with good cheer. One being Harry Reid and the other being Joe Biden.

Happy Birthday Constitution

Sorry I didn't get you anything. I almost forgot about your birthday to be quite honest. Seems like we don't see you around much anymore. I don't want this to sound mean really so please try to understand the spirit of what I'm saying. We've kind of moved on.

Now sure, I know you're the law of the land and all that but aren't you really more symbolic than real these days? I mean you go on and on about enumerated powers and the protection of the individual at the expense of the collective but isn't that a little 19th Century?

We have really smart politicians who can fix things and they've promised not to abuse their power. I don't want to be a bummer on your birthday, because I really do like you. I'm just sayin' maybe you're not really that big of a deal anymore.

Happy Birthday anyway.

Defending ACORN

I can't defend the people that worked in these two ACORN offices in Baltimore and Brooklyn. It's pretty much indefensible. I also can't defend ANY tax money going to this organization.

I will defend the other works that ACORN has done in the inner-city to educate citizens about their rights. They've stopped the abuse of police power by telling citizens in many cities that they do not have to consent to unwarranted searches and be bullied into letting police into their houses.

They have worked side-by-side many libertarians educating citizens on their natural rights which government should be protecting, not infringing.

Like I said, I can't defend the indefensible. I will defend what I know of ACORN and much of what they do this country needs.

Veronica? Really?

I blame Archie's friends really. Reggie and Jughead have never become a trusted source of encouragement for Archie. He spends his life dragging these two bozos around and when he could really use some advice...where are they?



I'm not saying this can't last, but I'm worried where Archie will turn when it doesn't. Betty will likely pair up with someone else by the time it does...I could see it being Moose just to match the first awful pairing.

I predict a short engagement that gets broken off at the last minute and he can go back to just being friends with both.

I'd like to also add that President Obama probably was lying and if so...it's a good thing. You cannot have a public option to pay for people without including illegal immigrants. Hospitals will DEMAND to get paid for services and will be enrolling people in the public option to ensure payment...whether or not they're citizens.

I'm not more against this than I am the public option in particular. If you're going to offer benefits to people who live here, it will just happen. They're using public schools and they'll use public health insurance as well. Nobody, including the President should have to pretend it won't or shouldn't happen.

Sorry I fooled you into thinking about healthcare again. Congrats Archie.

Bathroom Scrawlings

Maybe the only thing redeeming about using a public restroom is that it is sure to have interesting writing on the wall.  I hesitate to call it graffiti because I see it as more than simply defacing a surface, but more like an open forum.  Like a toilet blog.

Some interesting tidbits I’ve found:

I’ve come to believe that Anarchists communicate with each other through public restrooms similar to how hobos used to leave signs for each other.   From two anarchists I found these two messages:

• Be free.  Live Free.
• Where there is no discord, there can only be order.

Another popular scrawling is the drawn (or in one case carved) penis with a set of testicles.  I’m not sure who these people are that see it as important to contribute to the public forum this way but I think the movie Superbad (don’t click on this if you don’t want hear swearing or crude language) gave us a clue.

Lastly I enjoy all types of religious discussions in the public restroom.  In Billings I found an ongoing discussion about the deity of Christ.

• Jesus is Alive!
• Jesus is Alive! Dead!
• Jesus is Alive! Dead! He’s alive moron.
• I wish you were both dead! (complete with arrows pointing to previous points)

I didn’t add to this conversation as I believe they’re both right in that order.  Think about it.

Maybe this blog and others can replace the low-tech bathroom alternative to public forums.

Missoula, Montana

Missoula is my favorite city in Montana without a doubt.

First of all it’s a college town.  Secondly it’s a football town.  Maybe most importantly, it’s a train town.  Missoula actually has a railroad turntable!  If you’re a train nerd like I am then you’re impressed.  If you’re not then I’ll say that is has a lot of college-aged women.

Missoula is not a big city but has decent big entertainment distractions.  Montana Griz football, excellent college basketball and minor league baseball.  They’re all fully supported by Missoula and the surrounding areas.

My family wandered around Missoula and was happy to see parts of its historic district, a great old train depot and steam engine, and a whole lot of stores to buy junk in.

Montana is a huge state and if you stick to the Interstate you’re missing an unimaginable amount of small side attractions.  That said its major cities are split apart perfectly for day trips ensuring you’ll always have a decent choice of a hotel while you look around.

Wallace, Idaho

Traveling west on Interstate 90 the family and I were still quite a few miles east of Spokane and a town we remembered days earlier on our Eastbound journey was on our minds as we went home.

Wallace, Idaho sits just off of Interstate 90 and is a fantastic historic town.  Plenty of old brick buildings and turn-of-the-last-century charm makes this a great place to stop and pee…or look at antiques.

One of the stops was an antique store that had a sort of creepy feel from the beginning.  I was immediately met by the store’s owner who sat in an old barber chair just inside the door.  He looked like he was in his 60’s and his silvery pony-tail indicated that his age and his decade of choice were the same.  There were lots of antiques that reflected the swinging, partying aspects of life from earlier decades. Some were cool and some just had a seedy vibe.

I talked to the owner briefly before leaving and he shared that he was from the same area where I live.  He said he used to run whorehouses and gambling houses in the area back in the 60’s.  If I'd had another 30 minutes I would’ve liked to have learned about his journey from…uh…the 60’s all the way to Wallace.  Next time.

I'm back

This week:

Fascinating vacation stories.

I will ridicule the Ad Council (again).

Also some pictures taken by my 3 year old son.

Stay Tuned!

Vacation again

Likely won't blog while traveling several Western states. You can follow me on Twitter if you're so inclined. I can bore you with fascinating, small tidbits about what I'm doing at any given point. If you use Twitter and want to follow me you can do so at:

www.twitter.com/tracyagreen

Garage Sales - the last remaining free market?

There was a garage sale at my house last weekend. I can't stand them honestly but I did make some observations about how they might be the last truly free market in this country.

One thing that I noticed was that a good percentage of the people who came to my garage sale were immigrants. I have no doubts that many of them were not citizens and I couldn't care less. Even with the language barrier and my absolutely horrible Spanish we managed to complete transactions using my laptop and a language translator...which was probably worse than my own Spanish.

Immigrants are able to look for things at very low cost, pay in cash and avoid taxes. They accomplish this while living in their completely undocumented world.

While those who care about "illegal" immigration usually want to just "send them back" I would suggest that we all take a look at how they're able to live here in such a beautifully unsanctioned way.

A sign of progress

Apparently even Seattle has a limit to how stupid it allows itself to be. Voters rejected a proposal that would levy a 20 cent plastic bag fee at grocery stores.

I'm glad they found a tax that they would reject, but I will still say that for such a "green" and "progressive" city, its freeways are lined with trash. If Seattleites were as ecologically sound as they pretend to be, it'd be the cleanest city in America.

Freepers, deathers, birthers, thinkers...which are you?

The party of Hope and Change has now decided that instead of using the Bush administrations ploy of calling all dissenters unAmerican, they'll just now dismiss you as crazy and then maybe wink and imply you're dangerous.

Thinker: But wait, certainly we can have an honest discussion with the Obama administration that perhaps the role of a good federal government is not to intervene in vast like healthcare problem because of well...affordability?

Hey wait a minute buddy. Do you deny the fact that our president was born in Hawaii? Do you deny that he's an American citizen?

Thinker: I just think that Keynsian economics doesn't work and there is no way to pay for a system like this with our current monetary system.

JUST WHAT I THOUGHT! We got a birther here. Go put on your tinfoil hat nutbag. We know your kind. You just don't like having a black president. We're keeping our eye on you.

Thinker: The president has said that the only reason medicare is going broke as a healthcare system is because it takes care of only old and sick people without being balanced out by healthy people paying in. Doesn't this indicate that they'd need an end to private insurance eventually? After all isn't the only problem with any failing government program is that it is underfunded?

Look Freeper, go back to your tea party and say no to everything while us grownups try to have an adult conversation. If you can't bring something to the table and solve this crisis our country faces then get out of the way.

Thinker: Like private insurance companies, decisions are made about what expensive procedure is actually covered or not. But at least in many cases families have the ability to raise money seperately and pay a doctor on their own for services. How could a community step up and make sure a sick person got the medicine they needed if they were on the public option?

We got a Deather here. Yeah, we're just lining up death panels trying to kill grandma you weirdo. Is this all you have? Can't we just have an intellectual debate here?

Thinker: President Obama himself said that Fedex and UPS were doing fine and it was the post office that was always in trouble. (it's also illegal to charge less than the post office) There is at least a provision in the constitution for delivering the mail, what constitutional authority does the federal government have to force states to pay into a federal public option that allegedly is not designed to cover everyone?

Look, unless you want to solve this problem then I'm afraid I can't even talk to you. It's overdue that this country has the real reform that the American people deserve. It's just too bad we can't have a serious debate about it and come together as a country.
__________________________________________________

Disclaimer: Republicans are idiots too. As usual I believe there is no political solution to this problem and the only thing universal about what will come out of it is...it will cost too much and under deliver.

It's a false choice really. I refuse to take sides choosing between a centrally managed and regulated industry that doesn't allow me to pay my doctor directly and a centrally managed and regulated public program that doesn't allow me to pay my doctor directly. I don't want either system.

Maybe Mr. Hope and Change can begin dreaming of paying for this scheme if he wasn't already in the middle of domestic bailouts in addition to expanding wars overseas (oh yeah...remember the wars?...that big deal you pretended to care about when you elected him?), keeping U.S. troops based in hundreds of countries. One trillion dollars last year alone maintaining an empire overseas. But what do I know? I'm just a thinker.

RIP - Les Paul

RIP Les Paul. I own an LP. It's not my favorite guitar but mostly because I'm not good enough to make it sound nice. Instead, I sound like Ace Frehley...which I admit when I'm in the house alone...is still good enough for me.

One of my mom's favorite songs was Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues with both Les Paul and Mary Ford. Enjoy!



Thanks Les for your musical contributions to this world.

Openly Carrying in the Live Free or Die State

I love how these New York big city reporters being so shocked that a citizen is openly carrying a gun in New Hampshire.  They go on to say that lawyers somewhere should file an emergency injunction.

What idiots. The man is a peaceful man (who is also a libertarian) and does not believe in the initiation of force against others. Whether these TV talking heads like it or not the citizens of New Hampshire allow for open carry and many citizens do carry side arms out in the open. It is not a shock to citizens of New Hampshire to see someone carrying a side arm in public. I'm sure to all of the people who were brought in from Boston to cheer on Obamacare...they tinkled in their undies a bit.

I’d also like to add that the man was NEVER swept from the area and at no time was President Obama ever in danger from anyone openly carrying a firearm.

Wow, the shock and dismay.  If only we could live in a country where people did exactly what they were told from idiot news readers.