McGarrett50's Open Salon Blog

Here's Hoping Romney Goes All Out to Win

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:04:11 -0400

I am not a Romney fan and would have preferred that an aggressive, articulate conservative had run for and won the GOP nomination. Unfortunately, no one of that caliber ran. The more conservative candidates that actually did run had glaring weaknesses that were just too big.

But, there is one thing that Romney proved in the nomination campaign that should bode well for the general election campaign. He knows how to go negative.

Obama's record and arrogance are so bad that Romney should be able to plaster this country with pointed and aggressive negative ads. Here's hoping he does so and drives Obama and his supporters into incoherent, petulant, sputtering defensiveness. The base will rally behind the attacks even if Romney is an imperfect choice to lead conservatives.

Unfortunately, because Romney panders to audiences, I fear that he may go less hard on Obama than his fellow Republicans because he thinks he needs to be more middle-of-road for independents. It will be so frustrating if the thing Romney was consistent and good at is abandoned.

Let the attack machine take aim.

Iowa's Biggest Loser: Tim Pawlenty

Tue, 3 Jan 2012 22:01:33 -0500

I write this before the final Iowa results but it is never more clear than now that Tim Pawlenty made a ridiculous decision to drop out of the race earlier this year. He could have played the exact same game that Santorum played and potentially ended up in a much stronger position. Why? Because he is simply more likeable than Santorum ever will be.

But, Iowa may still be doing its job. If Pawlenty didn't have the internal motivation to hang in when times were even mildly tough (losing the Ames straw poll), then he probably wouldn't be good at being President.

On to North Carolina... sorry New Hampshire, you likely won't matter much.

P.S. Mitch Daniels's wife vetoing his run also looms large now. I still don't understand why more prospective candidates didn't see this as a great year to run.

This Year's Best Halloween Costume

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 09:11:59 -0400

I had about 75 kids come to my house this year for Halloween. Most were wearing standard fare kind of costumes: super heroes, princesses, a few witches, a few zombies, one pair of super-mario brothers, and a few who appeared like they could afford costumes but were too lazy to go to the trouble of wearing them.

Then there was one kid, maybe five years old, wearing some dark clothes with a big gold-looking necklace and some other gold-like accessories. I ask him what he is dressed as. He says very crisply, "I am a man that is rich."

After I shut the door, I laughed and wrote down his exact words. This was one of those odd moments that causes the mind to pay a bit more attention.

This kid seemed to enjoy the idea of his costume. He is too young to have a cynical view of this. He simply believes it is good to be rich. And, why not? This is America. Anyone can get rich here.

But, there can be more to ponder here.

One view is that there are people who resent rich people. They could envision wearing the costume sarcasticly, dressing up as a rich monster oppressing the impoverished. These would be the Occupy Wall Street types. (There is another potential costume. Instead of being a hobo, dress up as an OWS person who has been living in the park for 4 weeks.)

There is the phrasing this kid used. He did not say, "I am a rich man." He said, "I am a man that is rich." This is uniquely humanizing. I am a man first. I happen to be rich. What is missing is any sense of how he got rich. What is implied is, again, that anyone can be rich because it is only an attribute available to someone who is a person first.

I did not give the kid any extra candy. He got the same allotment as even the lazy ones who chose not to have costumes. In retrospect, this seems a little unfair to me because he put more thought and energy into his costume.

He also was an early trick-or-treater and put some energy into saying "Trick or Treat" along with confidently answering my question about what he was dressed as. Had he come later after the lazy ones, maybe it would have occurred to me to throw him a little extra.

Ah, but there is another potential counter-point. Why should the rich man be given extra? After all, he is already rich. Shouldn't he just enjoy what he has and not put forward effort to make more? Shouldn't he allow others to get more? I do not know whether his parents re-allocated some of his candy to brothers and sisters (if any) under a progressive "tax" system.

But putting aside these unnecessarily analytical musings, I liked the kid and hope he gets rich some day.

Is there really an unemployment problem?

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:10:44 -0400

It's normally easy to get a feel for the mood of the country from watching comedy shows. I've been regularly watching Jon Stewart for a few months (I used to never watch). And, I've watched Saturday Night Live since the new season started.

Given how miserable the economy is and how bad long term unemployment is, one might think there would be more jokes about the politician in charge - President Obama. No science to back me up but I don't recall any sketches ridiculing Obama on SNL. And, Stewart spends multiple days a week making fun of the Republican debates. Tonight, he spent 5 minutes talking about Pat Robertson... someone completely irrelevant to, well, just about everything.

It must be good to be Obama. No amount of economic suffering causes any critique. He can also travel around the country mindlessly repeating, "Pass this jobs bill" and there's nary a joke about how silly it sounds. It reminds me of Gerald Ford and those stupid "Whip Inflation Now" buttons.

Maybe 9% unemployment isn't a problem after all?

But, there is some good news: the Europeans will go down the tubes before us.

9/11 and Music That Followed

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:09:32 -0400

I have not been paying much attention to the 9/11 anniversary reports on TV or in the papers. I recall the day well enough and media hype and repetition is not interesting to me. I had expected to treat the day as many others.

But, this Saturday morning (9/10), I grab for a CD to listen to in the car and my subconscious does its work. I grab emo band Thursday's "War All the Time" CD, originally released in September 2003 after both the 9/11 attacks and the starts of the Aghan and Iraq wars.

Now, it has been publicly detailed by the band that this CD is not about 9/11. However, once released, music gets interpreted by the listener. The song "War All the Time" was quickly viewed as a commentary on the attacks and the subsequent wars. I know that was my reaction when I bought the CD. And, listening to it today, the emotions of 9/11 really came back:

It is clear that the early part is about young kids dealing with more personal tragedies such as an older brother's death and suicides. The lyric about parking in a car in a garage and listening "to the lullaby of carbon monoxide" is quite vivid. I see this as giving people a perspective that all sorts of tragedies impact people all the time. Everyone is at war with things every day.

Where this resonates as about 9/11 is the repetition in the chorus about the New York skyline and ashes of America flags falling. This becomes more specific when we get lyrics such as "we used to be very tall buildings but we've been falling for so long." Knowing that people jumped from the towers and then the towers eventually fell in what felt like slow motion, it is hard to avoid thinking of 9/11. However, the best part of the song is when the imagery of falling pieces of American flags gets reversed into a hope:

when the pieces fall it's like a last-day parade
and the fires in our streets start to rage
so wave to those people who long to wave back
from the fabric of a flag that sang
love all of the time.

When I hear this song, the idea of people waving to each other longing for love is a sublime outcome that most would and should seek for all people everywhere. This theme of unity and reaching out to heal is a natural reaction to the 9/11 attacks.

However...

We must be realists.

Another song that I viscerally associate with 9/11 is Laibach's "B Mashina" from thw "WAT" album, also released in September 2003. Laibach's track is actually a cover version of a song by fellow Slovenian band Siddharta. The original is written before the 9/11 attacks but as is typical of Laibach, they deconstruct the song and write new lyrics to be delivered in spoken word fashion.

With the menacing music and voice speaking, this always struck me as a view of 9/11 from the perspective of the hijackers as they prepared that morning. There is a feeling of dread and otherness. Nothing like the desire for unity and healing we saw before.

Only one day is left
only one day
we are leaving the others
we're going away
Today we all steal
animals we are
possession is lost
Our souls are from the wild
and wings to reach the sky
let the sun fall into the ocean,
let the earth erupt in flame
It is enough to have the strength
and knowledge
to raise our dream machines
into the sky
Let them sleep who do not know
the final day is here
the very last
and we leave at dawn
There is no force no money and no power
To stop us now and change our fate
Now every problem is destroyed
We raise our hands and bodies to the peak
Into the Universe - towards the stars we go

Machines we are sending to the skies
Above us all
And leave behind those who don't know
Of the final day
We leave in sleep those who don't know
and we leave at dawn
We are driven by the B-machine
That never stops.

Taken together, there is overwhelming ambiguity and weight. We can seek unity and healing but we cannot rely on that. Even the Thursday song views the world as war all the time with love being only a hope. Laibach then confronts us with that we should not wish on anyone but we must acknowledge is being wished on many.

Remember 9/11 because the hopes and fears it epitomizes are with us every day.

P.S. To hear the original Siddharta version of "B Mashina", there is an English version on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/N_RmD2Hn1H4