Well, la-di-dah

Today's paper, front page, is a picture of "Batman"
and a story of "prominent Republicans" in our state,
endorsing my favorite candidate, the "Independent Democrat" - !

They're crossing over to support him, instead of their own party's guy. (!)
It's very interesting.

If the "prominent Republicans" are thinking the same as me, then one or the other of us must be in trouble. (?!)
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What is "prominent"?
Is it the same as fancy schmancy?
Or, is it more like la-di-dah?
--------------------------------
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The story says, "If elected, [the Independent Democrat candidate] said he would gather a team of Republicans, Democrats and Independents around the governor's conference table to work on solutions to the deficit.

'Problem solving has to trump partisan politics,' he said, adding his election would not mean a winner-take-all process."
------------------------------ Several important key words/phrases in there:
a. team
b. problem solving
c. partisan politics, and
d. winner-take-all...

In what I read, the modern-era (1994 to now, I think) stalemate / gridlock / locked-down / ambience in Washington is caused by entrenched partisan warfare (item c), resulting in a petulant, bullying, "winner-take-all" (item d) culture -- and it leaks back-and-forth from politics to business, and back, I think.

Meanwhile problems (item b) don't get solved because politicians are too busy fighting with each other and raising Money.
Working as a team (item a) -- it's like, Hello, define that, please. We don't know what that is, anymore.

A woman who chaired House Appropriations (state level) in the nineties is quoted in the front-page story, also, saying she recognized his "strong ability to lead" even as a young Republican legislator from a small town west of here.
The story adds, The candidate "has since switched to the Democratic Party."
(It's as if by proving himself, and yet quitting one party to join another, which can tick off power brokers, still, now, he's created -- or discovered -- an opportunity to bring people back together again and get them working together in a positive way.

Our veteran Appropriations Chair was quoted in the article -- the candidate's "most outstanding quality is his willingness to stand up for an issue and for people and to make tough decisions."

Batman, babe.

-30-

"the usual suspects"

"Round up the usual suspects!" was the line used several times in the movie Casablanca -- Louis (pronounced "Loo-ee") Renault is the local police captain in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. He wants to be a good guy, but the Nazis are in control so he pretends to go along with them because he has to.

(I think he generally sent all of "the usual suspects" right on home again after he was through proving to his superiors that he had investigated whatever incident it was.)

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The Independent Democrat running for governor of our state has a Republican running mate, for Lt. Gov. A true hybrid ticket. Also -- the gov. candidate, now an Independent Democrat, used to be a Republican.

(And -- in our Republican primary there was a guy running who used to be a Democrat.)
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Our "I.D." (Independent Democrat) candidate got one of my bills passed, once.
(My memory is searching -- was it Pass our bill, or Kill their bill, or was it Amend something?)
Anyhow, it affected only a small number of local government entities -- failure on our part would have meant some closings and / or local taxes having to be raised in some rural areas.

The Governor candidate, (at that time -- late 90s -- a Republican State Senator) represented one area which would be adversely affected if my effort didn't succeed. During the time when my bill (or amendment, whichever) was being heard in Education Committee, he was in the Senate State Affairs Committee. Our plan was, I would go and let him know when our bill was coming up.

(State Affairs is sort of the most important committee. They handle the Biggest topics. It is the most prestigious. For example, if there's a bill which would affect taxes, it will probably land in the Taxation Committee. But if it's a bill affecting taxes which the governor wants, then it will most likely be assigned to State Affairs.)

So I went to Senate State Affairs and he came with me to Education, walking fast. He strode in and testified standing up. (There's a microphone and a small table and chair, where you can sit to testify.) But our Gov. Candidate told it while standing.

He was energetic, and to-the-point and was telling it to them kind of -- hard.
I recall thinking, "Carefully -- don't scare 'em!"
What he was doing was what I would term "call-their-bluff" testimony.
(Mine would always be gentle / reasonable / giving some examples.)

Gov. Cand.'s brief testimony was along the lines of, "If what we're trying to do is force consolidation, then we need to just say so and not hide that agenda behind pieces of legislation like this." Very firmly.
(I'm thinking, "Don't offend them -- aaauuugghhh!")

But he didn't offend them.
He has more power than me. He can kick some ass if he wants to.

It was short and sweet, and it went our way.
(Phew!)
And he took off back to State Affairs.
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He was like Superman!
He was like Batman.
He was the man.

A few years after that he was no longer in the legislature, and read in one of the papers his answer to the question of whether he was running for governor -- must have been 2002 -- and his answer was something like -- "No I'm not running this time -- I don't know how that rumor got started -- someone just threw my name on the list when they were rounding up the usual suspects."

A reference to Casablanca.
Ni-i-i-ce.

-30-

Orders up!

Next Tuesday
I'm putting in my "two cents":

Republican to the State Senate!

Democrats to the State House!

"No" on all the ballot issues except for Lucky number 13.

Re-elect our congresswoman to the U.S. House.

and last but not least -- an INDEPENDENT DEMOCRAT (what's that?!) for Governor.
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My statehouse votes are all three to re-elect incumbents. They are doing a good job, and no reason to start all over from the ground up and re-invent the wheel with people who are new and have no power.

I listened to our congresswoman speak about the health care bill on C-SPAN, and something I noticed was, while some of the other congressmen spoke "off the cuff" -- pausing to say "uh" or some other filler while they thought of which direction they wanted to take next, our congresswoman was well-prepared. No "uh"'s. She had enough respect for her constituents, for the listeners & viewers, and for her colleagues in the House to prepare and give a strong, coherent, and concise talk about the topic.

She lacked the conceit of the "off-the-cuff-ers."
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After watching medical marijuana get voted down by state legislators who were too chicken to vote to help people who may be in pain, now I get to vote for it myself. (Why would you not?)

And one of those ballot items is to further limit places where people can smoke -- regular cigarettes, that is.
I say, Haven't we (society) beat up on smokers enough??! Leave 'em alone!!
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a quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes:
"A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve."

-30-

Nice and rough

A guy I work with told me a few weeks ago that I am "not a normal person."
Then last Friday he told me I was "nothing like Tina Turner."

He's cruisin'.
-------------------------

You know,

Every now and then,

I think you might

like to hear something

from us, nice --

and easy.

But there's just one thing.

You see, we

nevah --

evah --

do nothing --

nice.

And easy.

We always do it nice --

and rough.

Now we're gonna take

the beginning of this song--

and do it --

easy.

But then we're gonna

do the finish --

rough.

That's the way

we do

"Proud Mary."

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Aside from being a white woman with no talent,

I am (wish to be) -- EXACTLY.

Like Tina Turner.

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The name of the book (reviewed last week in NYTms) I've referred to is, Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary.

Looking at the Times review, I found so much that seemed relatable.

The review (written by David Brooks, October 15, 2010) says,

"Moynihan, for much of his public life, wrote long, substantive letters. These were neither gossipy notes nor dishy character sketches. Though a skilled writer, Moynihan didn't have a literary mind....

Instead, his letters recorded the evolving intellectual adventure of a restless mind. Moynihan explored the grand themes of history and tried to understand the times in the most ambitious of ways: the cultural implications of the shift from the industrial to the post-industrial society, the disaffection of the intellectual class, the foreign policy implications of ethnic tension in a post-Communist world."

Trying to figure things out.

Moynihan became an adviser to a series of elected leaders --

Gov. Averell Harriman, New York;

and Presidents

Kennedy,

Johnson,

and Nixon.

(I liked the bipartisanship of that. He wasn't stuck with only one party. And THEN -- look how he advised...)

Brooks writes, "He [Moynihan] urged Nixon to lead an administration of 'Tory men with Liberal principles' -- a characteristicallly hybrid formulation, this time blending opposed ideologies."

----------------

That's because of course there are good ideas on both sides.

Political leaders and people in government, just like in any environment, need to Get Their Work Done, not spend their time fighting and saying terrible, mean things about each other.

Not a complex idea.

-30-

Ike, Nixon, and Grandma Snow

And Mickey Mantle.
If anyone on planet Earth (or other planets) reads my blog, and they don't want to read about political parties, they may skim down, on this post, to where the dotted line is: under the dotted line is content about Mickey Mantle. Below the dotted line: a politics-free zone.

I thought of Grandma Snow (passed, 1982, I think) because of the Republicans. Was thinking, "This is not my Grandma Snow's GOP."
Trying to get hold of a thought, or concept: probably the best Leadership, Politics, Vision, whatever occurs when the person (a President or someone else) takes the position, or makes the statement, or takes the action which observers might have expected someone in the other political party to say, or take, or do.

Two examples:
1. President Eisenhower in his farewell speech, Janury 1961, warned us about the military industrial complex: he wanted people to be aware that "war is good for business" and that the Pentagon and the big corporations that make trillions from war-time expenditures can, together, get too much power. If that warning had come from a Democrat, particularly a further left-leaning one, it would have been taken somewhat differently. "Ike" (campaign buttons in the fifties read, "I like Ike" - !) had been president 8 years and before that, had an outstanding military career. So -- he could talk.

(You can get this on You Tube. Some of the shorter [1-2 minute] uploads of a segment of the speech are backed up with sort of annoying piano music which, I'm relatively sure, were not part of the original farewell address! If you keep trying different ones, you can get some without that piano.)

2. President Richard Nixon opening up relations with China. (1970-whatever it was.) As little as 10 years earlier, if a Democrat president had recommended talking with the Chinese leadership, some would have called him "red." Not nice, or accurate, but that's the way they would have played it. As a former red-baiter, ironically Nixon was somewhat uniquely positioned to Do The Right Thing. And he did.

When I was thinking about my party Friday, and feeling bad about the Republicans, I thought about it later --the thing is, it isn't that the original Grandma-Snow-type Republicans have become crazy, it's just that some Nuts have "attached" to our party.

But they haven't simply attached, they've, I'm afraid, sort of infiltrated, stomped over, and corrupted the way the party used to be. If Grandma Snow were living today, and she could see (and hear) the moronic antics of some of the politicians and the ever-redundant pundits, she would be horrified.

And I think they could all just hold their breath waiting for her to send them any money.

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Last week, reading the New York Times Review of Books, two stood out -- a biography of Mickey Mantle, and a collection of letters written by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. I want the Moynihan book. After my book sells and I make enough money, 1st thing I'm gonna do is have some repairs on the Buick I'm driving, 2nd thing -- buy the Moynihan book.

The Mickey Mantle book, I'll probably never get read -- there's not enough time in life to read everything that looks interesting. But -- here's the part of the review I liked (and that's the good thing about the reviews, you DO have time to read those, and you learn a lot, even about the books you're not going to have time for.
___________ [quote] Mantle's 565-foot home run at Griffith Stadium in Washington in April 1953 was not merely one of the longest ever hit, nor was it just Mantle's true self-introduction on the baseball stage. It also sealed the sport's obsession with the "tape-measure homer," largely through the artifice of the anecdotal report by the Yankees' public relations director, Red Patterson, that he found the boy who had come upon the Mantle baseball where it finally stopped, in somebody's backyard. More than half a century later, Leavy [the author] tracked down the man, by then 69 years old, and managed to get just enough detail from him to produce a true picture of the transformational blast.
______________[end quote]
"The transformational blast."
The author asked an expert -- a Nobel Prize winner in Physiology / Medicine, Eric Kandel -- to try to explain both Mantle's explosive swing, which made the bat seem of double width, and his inability to explain to others how he did it.

Kandel answered: "I think your question is not dramatically different than asking, 'What makes Mozart Mozart?'"

-30-

Questions with no Answers

Political Parties:
When I turned 18, we were a month away from a presidential election.
When I was in grade school, people still had to be 21 to vote, so I had this idea that it was a Big Good Thing to be able to vote at 18.

After my 18th birthday (probably the day after), at my request, my dad drove over with me to the county seat so I could register to vote. I registered as a Democrat because my parents were Democrats, and that seemed good, to me at the time. I knew I could vote for any candidate I wanted to, whether Democrat or Republican, so I didn't feel like I was tied down, or limited, or trapped.

I think my history teacher in high school (who was beautiful and stylish and articulate) explained it to me that if you registered as an Independent you wouldn't be able to vote in the primaries. (Or maybe I learned that at home, cannot remember.) Somehow I had it in my head why it was better to belong to either one party or the other -- because you got to vote more, that way.

A few years later I switched parties.
Why?
Because I really liked a particular Republican candidate for president.
And I think taking a course from a professor who claimed he was a "Marxist-Leninist" (whatever happened to those -- they don't even have 'em in Russia anymore...!) somehow pushed my political thinking further to the right.

But not that far.
Like most Americans, I'm in the middle --
we like America, and we're -- not crazy.

When I hear
anger taking the place of common sense
and
insult taking the place of constructive policy outlines
and
personal attacks taking the place of lively public discourse
I get disappointed and consider changing my registration from Republican to Democrat.

Two reason why I don't:
1. If you change parties every time someone in the party you're registered with said something hostile or stupid, (particularly these days), you'd be down at the courthouse every day, ping-ponging back and forth. And
2. Right now, the scariest extremists are in the Republican party. I stay in the party so I can vote against the worst extremists twice -- once in the primary and again in the general election (if they got past the primary without my vote).

Maybe what I'll do is only switch from Repub. to Democrat sometime in the future if things change and it looks like the most frightening extremists are in the Democrat party.

That's like so negative: I would rather register with a party because I like them, not because I think they have the most candidates who need to be stopped. I never forecasted that phenomenon when I was 18. I wanted to vote for stuff.
---------------------------

Has politics devolved into contemptible behavior and rhetoric because our Society is doing that?
Or the other way around?
Or does Society (including the political community) follow Hollywood's influence?
A Republican state representative I used to know said once that he learned, "You get what you reward." And somehow our current public life and entertainment / communications seem to reward bad behavior / outrageous antics / most-insulting soundbites, etc.
More extreme behavior seems to be going mainstream. I don't think this phenomenon, if I'm correct, is going to make our lives any better.

In his book, The Audacity Of Hope, President Obama called it "the industry of insult."
He wasn't wrong.

-30-

yearning for elegance

I am a registered Republican.
And I am wondering, "Is my party a party of sore losers?"
Acting like babies --
no that's wrong, a baby who needs changing doesn't tantrum like this.
Acting like -- what? Animals?
My cat behaves way better than that.
There's, like,
nothing to compare it to.
I am at a loss for words.
And that's rare.
And I am beginning to see why
some of the people I know
don't vote.
Because they are disgusted and turned
off
by the stupid behavior
and ugly remarks and ranting.
I still think the people I know
who don't vote
should vote
because when they don't,
they leave election of people who
govern us
to the people who are somehow
impressed by mindless anger
and ridiculous antics.
Would you let those people
run your house?
Or mow your lawn?
Do you want them deciding who
runs the government?

"News" too bizarre to even look at;
I agree there.
Most people just want to
live. And take care of things.
I am an optimist.
And I am concerned.

-30-