Unfettered Blather

One of the great memorable lines I remember from the 2004 election was an American expatriate who, upon finding out we re-elected George W. Bush, said “In a Democracy, we get the government we deserve”.

Much has been said about who is to blame for the Financial “Crisis” (I prefer “Meltdown” personally). It is the Democrats’ fault for forcing banks to give out high risk loans so people could buy housing. It’s the Republicans’ fault for de-regulating the financial markets. Then we get the entire bailout mess. Whether you are for or against it, am I the only one who is outraged that the exact same bill that was voted down was then passed once the appropriate bribes were handed out? Not only that, but the government is now on a four month break! I got to listen to a Democratic Congresswoman complain about how unemployment was going to go up while the House was on their four month break. Then don’t go on break! What kind of job let’s you walk away from a crisis for a third of a year?!

In the end you could say that both parties have plenty of blame to go around, but in the end I think I know who really is to blame for this whole mess. The American Voting Public. You see, years ago I used to rant and rave about the failures of our two party system. I argued that the system was anti-competitive and operated in the interests of the respective parties and not the country as a whole. I saw people who identified as Democrats or Republicans as part of the problem, since politicians had grown accustomed to their unwavering support. Sure, you always have those people who say they are one party then make a big deal of voting for the other guy. I’m not talking about those people. I’m talking about people who vote a straight party ticket without even knowing who is on the ballot or what the different members of their esteemed party have been responsible for as they blindly pull the lever. Amazing how the people who most ardently identify with a party are the educated upper middle class and higher. Why are our most educated and well-to-do the most loyal and sheeplike of our society? I would expect people who are educated to be able to think for themselves. Is there some failing in our education system?

Regardless, I am tired of this mess and I am tired of the weak excuses people give me for voting the same people into office despite their lack of effectiveness. Don’t you get it? Voting out the incumbent, regardless of party affiliation, sends a clear message to Washington D.C. that we’re tired of this crap. We’re tired of our so-called “representatives” ignoring us. Yet they’ll continue to ignore us until we take away their jobs. You vote out the incumbents who are profitting from running the country into the ground and ruining the lives of ordinary Americans and then you put up with someone not from your party for one-term and then you can let your party back in once they realize that they need to behave themselves.

Right now there is no incentive for our government to clean up their act because they believe that they’ll always have a job. That Republican or Democrat who has held office longer than I’ve been alive is so convinced you won’t vote for the other party that they use it as a form of blackmail to get your vote. “If you don’t vote for me, then that other party will get more power.” Can you honestly tell the difference between the two anymore? Can you not see that the Democrats and Republicans, despite their very real loathing for each other, actually work together to play the American people against each other and block us from choosing new leaders?

We don’t need an armed revolution. Our government was structured in such a manner that we can choose our own leaders, and we have consistently chosen to not exercise that option. If you’re tired of how your Representative and Senator behaves, vote them out! If we actually had leaders who cared more about this country than lining their pockets we wouldn’t be in this mess. However, it is our failure as voters to get rid of poor leaders that got us into this mess. Until we take the necessary steps to replace this incompetent gaggle of fools we have only ourselves to blame.

The industry I currently provide services to is banking.

Yeah, absorb that for a moment.

I’m not terribly worried about everything that is going on yet. What worries me is that people are going to panic. It doesn’t help that the media is flashing the word “CRISIS” every five seconds. I really hate the media right now. I didn’t care for them when I had to work with them way back in my law enforcement days and they’ve done nothing to make me feel better about them since.

It seems like we just recovered from the Dot Com Bust and now this? What made the Dot Com Bust so painful though was the constant talk from the media about how bad the economy was. People panicked then and we had this constant cycle of low consumer confidence followed by layoffs as everyone refused to spend money. It was this terribly vicious cycle.

On the flip side I keep hearing about how it will be harder to get credit. Good! There are so many reasons why that is not a bad thing! One of the reasons we’re in this mess is that people are more than happy to borrow today and not worry if they can pay tomorrow. I hope that no matter how bad things get or whether or not the government can “fix” it we can at least learn some valuable lessons from it.

On the other flip side (three sided coin I guess) I am so not impressed with our congress. Nancy Pelosi can blow me, seriously. You give a partisan speech and tick off the people you need to work with them blame them for voting against the bill when the Democrats had 40% of their own membership vote against it as well. That is outstanding “leadership”. I’ve had this perception that the two party system has devolved from being forced to reach compromises to just a bunch of stonewalling and hissy fits until one side gets their way. It’s really sad that they cannot even work together for the good of the American people.

The Democrats cannot ignore their own part in creating this crisis. I love the focus on how the Republicans caused all this, as if the Dems are completely without blame. Do they think no one has Google? Furthermore, if the Republicans, and Democrats, who voted against the bill thought this was a bad plan then what is the alternative? It’s not that I think the bailout bill is a great plan, I simply think that some plan is better than no plan. If you’re intention is to “let the market work it out”, then say so. Honestly, we need to vote out every “professional” politician regardless of party. At the very least, the two day recess they’re taking is just shameful.

Subtitle - And Why I’m Barely Talking About It.

In Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land the character Jubal Harshaw comments that politics are only second in importance to breathing. I don’t follow politics as a cheap way to argue in the Internet, as I see that as an exercise in futility, nor do I follow politics so I can use my blog as some kind of one-sided soapbox, or to add my voice to one of the various echo chambers. I follow politics because I believe they matter.

Yet I am kind of “meh” on this election. Part of it is burnout, which a tight and bitter primary can do to you if you bother to follow the silly things. I typically don’t. As a determined independent I don’t feel like I have much say in who the major political parties pick, but even if I did care the primaries typically hit Texas long after a frontrunner has cemented their place in the race. Also, I find it funny to mention using cement to determine a position in a race. Back on subject, this year I did follow the primaries and even bothered to vote in the Democratic primary because I really wanted an Obama versus McCain runoff.

So after Obama was, finally, confirmed it sort of put the whole election into neutral for me. Both candidates seemed to be determined to go through the usual paces. McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin did shake up the race and changed the dynamic of the campaign. Yet even that bold and clever move has only sparked some tertiary interest. Neither candidate has done much to change my mind. There is a lot of rhetoric about how bad each candidate is for the country, which I find interesting in the sense that we have very short memories. I remember not that long ago McCain was a media darling, but now that he’s running against their golden boy he’s the devil.

Aside from the media turnabout on McCain, the introduction of Palin, and Obama being half-black it really is not that interesting of an election. Is it perhaps because I just don’t have any major objections to either candidate. I know who I would prefer to win but I have no real reservations if my preferred pick loses this time. The USA is more resilient to presidential politics than people seem to realize, so this time I’m not that worried, though both candidates have political beliefs that I simply do not agree with.

“Why is this a big deal, these girls are talented so why the fuss?”

I’ve seen this tossed about frequently in the debate over China’s underaged gymnasts.

Let me clarify a point first so we can move forward with the heart of the issue.

The gymnists are not old enough to compete. To continue to perpetuate this farce based on conjecture is disrespectful to the collective intelligence of the sports community and everyone’s common sense. We’ve seen the pictures (I thought 13 was a stretch) and given the effort made to hide the story by the state media is only further evidence. They are underaged, get over it folks. Stop trying to save the face of people that do not deserve it.

A little primer of sportsmanship

I have to ask, are there no talented Chinese gymnasts within the age bracket that the rules define? This is an important question because it means the Chinese chose those they felt had the best chance of winning as their only consideration. While winning is the goal, how you win is more important especially in such an organized and officiated event.

Winning at any cost defines a bad winner and unsportsmanlike behavior. When you seek to break a rule to give yourself an advantage, then what rules are important? You have now entered a realm where rules are subjective as you can pick and choose to follow. More importantly it is dishonest. When you agree to abide by a set of rules and then refuse to do so it makes you little better than a common liar. It disrespects the other nations who abide by the rules because it makes it clear that being a good sport is of no concern to you. In order to offer a better chance at victory the Chinese have sacrificed credibility.

Then again, thats to be expected isn’t it? Winning allows them a propaganda opportunity to their public. The Chinese aren’t concerned with competition and show the true nature of their goals. Russia and the East Bloc countries routinely broke this rule during the cold war era and I see no reason to let China off the hook here either. I also fail to understand the logic of the apologists that seem determined to give China a free pass when they corrupt the games for state purposes. This clearly goes against what the Olympics were supposed to represent.

Naturally the IOC is launching and investigation but this boils down to little more than asking those perpetuating the lie to tell the truth so they can revoke the medals the state worked so hard to win at any cost. Anyone see a problem here?

This is the first in a series of short opinions on the Olympic games. I am not a fan of sports but the political firestorm and wide ranging opinions caused me to look at the fundamentals of some of these situations.

There has been a lot of debate and angry words, especially in the blog community over Beijing hosting the Olympic games these days. The arguments rarely evolve in to valid point/counterpoint situations but the debate is driven by a simple fact:

The Olympics should have never been hosted in China. Period.

Much of the debate stems from two basic and divergent viewpoints on the matter.

One states that you cannot hold the games in what is essentially a totalitarian system where mass abuse is rampant as a means to display the best and brightest in events based on sportsmanship.

The second view states that it doesn’t matter where you host the games because this is a world community and a worldwide event and this is often followed up with series of comments that states no nation is perfect.

In the end the debate is very simple. Do you believe it is right to lend the legitimacy of a worldwide event to a nation with a oppressive system of government. This may sound biased, and I am but an important fact here is being overlooked. Support it’s host or not the Olympics have been forced to rationalize the views of it’s host nation and thrust it’s politics in to the center of the world stage. It is distracting at the very least and the only logical reaction given the choice of host nation.

Did the Olympic committee think this wouldn’t happen? I am sure there are those that felt this was some form of progressive statement, but frankly one that damages the organization’s credibility.

There is some debate as to the validity of these outrages. If nations are so concerned with China’s policies, why do they continue to depend on them for cheap manufactured products so heavily. They complain about their actions, but feed their market to turn a higher profit.

The world cannot “make nice” with China one day to host the Olympics and then go back to being at loggerheads with them the next. This is dishonesty and disrespectful to the policies of the nations and the people participating in the event. I fail to see what benefit the Olympics will provide to the world when they operate under these false pretenses.

The Olympic committee has made some serious concessions to the Chinese government including allowing certain forms of censorship. This is a serious compromise to nations that consider freedom to be essential to their existence. It is a betrayal of ethics.

China’s questionable and downright dishonest behavior should also come as no surprise. It is a communist system and such thing have happened in the past when the cold war was in full swing. It also displays the differences in the nations goals. China’s government will do anything to build an image and dominate the games including using underage competititors. Using fake singers because the small girl with the talent wasn’t deemed cute enough to “represent” China is also acceptable, actions that would have any western media outlet crucified on the weekend talk shows. Many turn a blind eye to this and those that do are berated.

A large portion of the media is also turning a blind eye to these very basic ethical issues.

We have an image problem with China. At some point we are going to have to determine if they are an emerging nation and look the other way to their motives or simply another oppressive regime that persecutes and sells weapons to nations like Iran and North Korea. We know the answer to this and we need to face facts. The Olympics have highlighted the double standard and the fuss and bickering over this only proves the point. The Olympic committee would do well to choose a nation with a track record that isn’t divergent from the principles of the vast majority of the participants so the games can be the focus.

There is a reason for meeting on neutral ground and Beijing will go down as an Olympics filled with contention. That will be the legacy no matter how many seek to drown out the fact.