MODERATION IN ALL THINGS, NOT

As our masthead proclaims, we are advocates of moderation in all things. However, there are a number of moral and ethical areas where moderate seems cowardly. From England comes the sad report of a 23 year old student athelete, a rugby player, who was so distraught after a paralyzing accident that he persuaded his parents to take him to the quintessential moderate country of Switzerland for the purpose of finding a legal, if not ethical, venue to assist the young man in ending his life. Switzerland is one of a handful of European countries were assisted suicide is legal. The others are the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, all countries with lengthy histories of never taking sides in disputes.

Daniel James, an all star rugby player was injured when a “scrum”, that group hug thing the players do when restarting a play in rugby, collapsed on top of him, resulting in the young man being paralyzed from the chest down. As tragic is such an injury, James was by all reports an intelligent, well educated young man whose main was not physical but emotional and mental. Most people we know feel empathetic toward those people with illnesses or injuries that leave them in extreme physical pain or in a persistent vegetative state, even if they are ambivalent toward assisted suicide. As parents, we can appreciate the pain of young James’ parents. The serious injury or death of a child of any age is tragedy that is every parent’s worst nightmare.

We have had the unwanted experience of family members incapacitated by illness and the loss of a child before his time and it has left us with this belief. Life is not ours to take. We grew up in the company of wheelchair-bound family members and have a current family member who has been confined to her bed for over 20 years. It is true that we would prefer that these loved ones not be so challenged, but we love them and our lives would be diminished without them. There is no middle ground on this one nor any response, except this, Mr. and Mrs. James, we mourn your loss.

VOTER REGISTRATIONS, POLL NUMBERS, AND OTHER PARTY TRICKS

As the scandal around the group, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), unfolds we got what they call in the military a BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious). Maybe, just maybe, all this hype, about how amazing an organization the Obama campaign is, is an elaborate hoax, some sleight of hand party trick to make us see what isn’t there. Watch us closely, ladies and gentlemen, for the political spin is quicker than the eye.

The Washington Post reports that there have been about 4 million new voters registered in a dozen key states during the past year. ACORN claims to have registered 1.3 million of these. Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, estimates that 200,000 Ohio voter registrations, that’s one third of all new registrations in Ohio, are suspect. We do believe that only a few of these phony registrants will actually show up at the polls. If this premise is accurate, pundits may be red faced to find on November 4th that the expected tsunami of new voters to be just a trickle.

Another smoke and mirrors aspect of this campaign is in the polls. The consensus among campaign watchers is that the Obama organization has no peer in its ability to use technology to support its goals. The campaign has unleashed a horde of cyber robots to manipulate popular internet sites. Like virtual army ants, they crawl all over FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, and the comment sections of prominent blogs. We have no reason to believe that they have not been equally as successful in the usurping of the polling process.

It is important to remember that Obama’s initial election to public office was through his knowledge of the voter registration process. He was able to defeat his opponents, not by the votes of American citizens, but by removing them from the ballot through legal manipulation. We wonder if Hillary Clinton might have been more successful if ACORN’s activites had come to light earlier.

HEEEERE'S JOHNNY!

If you ever wanted evidence of why John McCain has such devoted followers, witness his performance at last night’s Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in Manhattan. The charity event, held at the dowager empress of hotels Waldorf Astoria, was attended by both Presidential candidates and a plethora of social and political A-listers. John McCain took the stage and delivered a brilliant comedy routine. Not only were the jokes well written, they were delivered with a comic timing that any stand up professional would envy. Barack Obama, by contrast, delivered a clumsy routine, that was met with more groans than chuckles. Viewers were left with the images of McCain as a regular guy that anyone would want to have at your next neighborhood barbeque and Obama as a guy that would bore you to tears if you had to sit next to him at a ball game. Who knew that the old guy the media portrays as slow and tongue tied would be so wickedly funny or that the guy pundits revere for his masterful rhetoric would be as clumsy a joke teller as your great aunt Martha after three glasses of sherry?

Perhaps Obama was intimidated by following McCain’s performance or perhaps the politician with the most extreme view of the right to an abortion felt a little uncomfortable sitting next to the Foundation’s President, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, his Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan. Lest readers think me non-objective, watch the video of the two candidate’s speeches and decide for yourself. Unless you do laugh at Great Aunt Martha’s jokes, we think you will agree with us.

JOE THE PLUMBER WINS DEBATE

The star of tonight’s debate was not a Presidential candidate, but a plumber named Joe, a potential victim of a potential President Barack Obama. For those of you who have not seen a newscast in the last few days, Joe Wurzelbacher, a self employed plumber in Ohio, is the everyman small business owner whose “wealth” Obama wishes to redistribute. Joe was mentioned no less than twenty times during tonight’s dual monologues.

Barack Obama and Joe, the Plumber, Wurzelbacher

Having worked with both the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense, we could not help but be struck by how much these two politicians are products of their backgrounds. Obama failed to answer any question directly, but spun a lawyer’s dizzyingly circular argument that soothed while it failed to inform. Yet McCain was militarily direct to the point of rudeness. His retort that he was no George Bush and that Obama should have run in 2004 if he wanted to run against the current President was as snappy as a salute.

In the end, McCain failed to draw the blood needed to turn this campaign around. If there is to be an October surprise, we recommend that McCain not wait to Halloween to convince America that Obama is a trick not a treat.

BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE

Everyone has an opinion of this Presidential election and we are no exception. After a lifetime of supporting Democrats, we are reluctantly supporting John McCain. We arrived at this unfortunate position based on one simple factor. We know where John McCain has been for the last 70 years. We know who his daddy was and we know who his granddaddy was. We know everything there is to know about him and his ancestors. He has no surprises in store for us. We know all the bad things he has done and is likely to do. We know where we agree with him and where we disagree with him.

On the other hand we don’t know who Barack Obama is. By his own design he is the embodiment of the protagonist of Woody Allen’s 1983 film, Zelig, a fictional documentary about the life of a human chameleon who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act like whomever is around him. Obama is a 21st century shape shifter who tries to be all things to all people. A charismatic persona dwarfs his thin resume and overshadows his extreme views and unsavory associations.

Despite our uneasiness with Obama’s background, we do have solid objections to his qualifications for President.

• He is inexperienced. No yammering crowd of talking heads and true believers can controvert this fact. The most junior head hunter would reject his resume were he applying for a CEO position, much less for eight years in the oval office. We would not hire a sixteen year old with a learner’s permit to drive our children’s school bus nor would we submit to surgery by a pre-med student, no matter how charming.
• He has not paid his dues. It isn’t just that he is inexperienced, but that he claims an empathy with other African Americans while living a life normally associated with the most privileged Americans. He was born to college educated parents, lived an upper class existence in Indonesia, attended exclusive private schools, studied at the country’s most elite universities, and graduated from the top US law school. He was hired to teach law before he had any practical experience as an attorney. He filled an elected position without having to defeat any opponent. Never has so unworthy a man risen so far, so quickly.
• He has fomented more hatred between the races than we have seen since the 1960s. He falsely branded as racist a former President revered for his advancement of race relations and singlehandedly undid decades of good will between black and white Americans.
• He has kept the company of subversives, racists, anti-Semites, and criminals. He pretends that he is ignorant of his associates’ antisocial behavior and when confronted with evidence of same, he dismisses it all as ancient history. Would you hire a pedophile as a babysitter if it had been 30 years since he last molested a child, especially if he had recently said he wished he had molested more children?

Is this the best we can do? We fear our choices are bad and worse. Perhaps it is necessary that we suffer through a disastrous administration in order to learn to choose wisely. What’s that you say? What did we learn from the last eight years?

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE WANT TO SHARE

The catalysts for this blog are many:

• We are frustrated with the polarization of American society…Right wing talk radio and MSNBC mindless liberalism, elitist media and gangster culture, unbridled greed and crushing poverty, etc.
• We can find no OBJECTIVE source for news and analysis…Journalism has been replaced with talking heads reading the opposing sides’ talking points
• We are dismayed that political correctness has replaced logic and fairness.
• We believe that the answer to the universal question, “Why are we here” is TO LEAVE THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR THOSE WHO FOLLOW.
  

Every legitimate opinion relies on a credible foundation. Here is ours:

• A blue collar, middle America upbringing
• A degree in Political Science with minors in Sociology and Journalism.
• A career in government that includes positions as a Congressional Liaison, a Refugee Specialist, a Military Planner, and Government Operations Consultant
• Three decades living in New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC
• A lifetime advocacy of the rights of the disadvantaged, minorities, and women. Equality not entitlement.
  

We do have a political identity. We are libertarian, with a small “l”. We don’t want government, or our neighbors, in our bank account or bedroom. We do have a social identity. We are unabashedly middle America. We do have a religious affiliation. And that is our business. We do have an opinion on just about everything. We subscribe to the principle, “Keep and open mind, but don’t let your brains fall out.”

We hope you read our posts and share your opinions for we grudgingly recognize our European antecedents, specifically the Frenchman, François-Marie Arouet, who wrote under the nom de plume Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it .”