OFF TOPIC blog

Folk seeking political office should be aware that some of the people who can vote for them have certain rules they expect prospective candidates to follow. I will not vote for anyone that participates in any of the activities listed below and will admonish my friends to do likewise. This, regardless of what the candidates claim to accomplish in a positive light.

1. Telephone solicitation: This is an abuse of my personal property. You think I want this kind of miscreant to occupy a governmental office of any kind? No! We keep an accurate and complete listing of every incoming call. You better hope yours is not in there if you want my vote.

2. Negative ads: A candidate for office is not qualified to voice opinions regarding their opponents. I am smart enough to figure out that part of the equation myself. I am much more interested in why a candidate cannot come up with positive attributes of his own. Could it be he does not have any?

3. Too much advertising: Ads are a good way of letting people know your intentions. Don’t let them become a nuisance. Nuisances do not get my vote. Over eager candidates are viewed with suspicion.

4. Don’t claim experience you do not have or experience that is not even remotely applicable to the political office you seek. Claiming to have old military experience, to having been an eagle scout in your youth, or other long lost accomplishments do not say anything about your qualification for or suitability to any current political office. In fact, reference to inconsequential or very old experience merely raises suspicions that current applicable experience may be missing. Such suspicions cause prospective voters withhold their support.

5. Experience can be both good and bad. If yours is not good, no amount of spin will change that.

6. Endorsements are meaningless when compared to a full disclosure of your political views and objectives. Endorsements can be bought. Influential people are not above taking bribes. Endorsements from unusual places raise suspicions. If you have ever received a ‘Powers’ award, best keep it a secret.

7. Should you be unfortunate enough to receive the enthusiastic endorsement and support of some famous entertainer or actor, you might as well quit now. Such endorsement is the kiss of death. You can’t possibly think that voters would take seriously the advice of people who have chosen to make a career of fantasy and make believe.

Seems that no political ad is complete without the candidate staking claim to leadership qualities that are the envy of all. This is particularly true if the candidate has had any military experience. Sometimes any experience at all with the military is enough to set off claims of extreme heroism and leadership.

We voters need to understand that while leadership and the military go hand in hand, military leadership is a special brand of leadership. Leadership in the military is largely created through conscripted followship. Even in a military populated with volunteers, there is threat of punishment for those unwilling to follow orders. This is necessary but it does not give rise to the kind of leadership that is useful in anything but a dictatorship.

Keep this in mind the next time you hear an ex-military candidate for political office make claims of his superior leadership skills.

Lately there seems to be an unusually heated debate on what qualifies a candidate to serve in the capacity of President of the United States.

Other than requiring that the candidate be born in the United States and be a citizen of the United States the only other major requirement is that they receive a majority of electoral votes.

Does not matter if you are a congressman, senator, governor, mayor, or janitor. It is that final vote tally that bestows the final qualification.

I wonder why that simple fact is being ignored by those debating qualifications?

This is what we are told by folks running questionable, even fraudulent charitable organizations. They put the bite on us by claiming it is for the children hoping the plea will pull at our heart strings.

Here is something that might pull at your brain strings.

When have children ever been sole principles, alone responsible for their own welfare? Okay, I will help you. The answer is NEVER!

Children are members of families. They may not be members of perfect families but most do have some sort of adult supervision.

Charities that minister to CHILDREN while ignoring their adult supervision are overstepping their bounds. There is no higher authority than a child’s parents when it comes to a child’s welfare. Charities that ignore this simple fact may also be ignoring other basic rules of society and family.

Such charities are not helping anyone but themselves and should be avoided like a plague. This includes politicians who claim their efforts are ‘for the children’.

Remember the bigger the lie, the easier it becomes to believe it. That does not make it any less the lie.

We often hear candidates for political office claim that leadership is important and they can provide all the leadership anyone could want.

Look out Nelly! Any time a politician uses the leadership card you can bet that he is up to no good.

Leadership is a commodity that gets in the way of good representation. Not only that, but most leaders are convinced that they alone have the answers. Their answers are not open to debate. They are compelled to carry out their agenda and the activities that follow may be hazardous to ordinary normal people. It is not at all unusual for such persons to belong to organizations that also think they are the answer to all of humanities woes. The one true belief. The only path to salvation. The biggest lie ever swallowed.

History is full of leaders. David Coresh was a leader. Jim Jones was a leader. There were leaders demonstrating how to deal with heretics during the Spanish inquisition. Stalin was a leader. Hitler was a leader. All of these people were leaders by the simple fact that they had a following.

No, not all leaders are evil, but why take a chance? In a representative democracy we need representatives, not leaders. Since our political representatives do not have to be leaders why take a chance at attracting someone that has a personal agenda of evil.

Facts, just the facts. Find out what the candidate claims to do if elected. Research to see if he kept his promises in the past. See if he has changed his positions on issues near and dear to your own. Has he engaged in negative ads? Is he claiming to be a leader?

If a candidate cannot be trusted, is wishy washy on the issues, attacks his opponents instead of the issues, makes unsubstantiated claims of leadership, such a person is not fit for political office.

Of course we are all aware of those factors. Some of us may not be aware of how senseless claims of leadership really are. Strong leadership qualities benefit despots and dictators. Leadership qualities are not desired or useful in a democratic environment because they have potential to endanger the freedoms we hold dear.

Look at the most recent history. The history after WWII. Nearly all of the politicians who claimed to be leaders, lead us into adversity and harm. These so called leaders have grown government beyond all reason. It has become a nanny to the people. An nagging spiteful entity that is more interested in dictating every detail of our lives than helping us live in the freedom we desire. Expecting us to serve it instead of the other way round. As old offices of this dysfunctional governing body fail, they linger on and on, sucking up tax dollars while new offices are created to take care of the failures of the old. Yet only seem to promise even greater failures in the future.

We do not need leaders. We need representatives who can be trusted.

So when you hear some politician claiming to be a leader, show him how much you understand and appreciate his foolishness by voting for someone else.

Unfortunately it is becoming more and more clear that there may not be anyone else. At least no one who qualifies to past standards that seem to have disappeared overnight.

The closer you get to an election the more your hear about how different the Republicans are from the Democrats. There may very well have been a significant difference twenty or forty years ago, but after witnessing what happened in the last eight years, I have to admit that the difference appears to be in name only. Still, even today you hear that Republicans are for low taxes and Democrats want to raise taxes.

Ever since President Kennedy, Democrats have been in favor of raising taxes and since that time taxes have become more and more of a burden. Republicans have been in power several times since President Kennedy was assassinated yet taxes have still gone up and up and up. How can that be if Republicans are for low taxes? Could it be that the low tax claim is just something to fool voters into voting Republican?

Not entirely. The Bush tax cut did result in a break in taxation, but for those who do not make all that much money it could not be considered anything serious in terms of tax relief. I believe I remember getting a check for $300 from the government. That was after I was asked to pay more than $5000 in income taxes.

That $300 becomes even more inconsequential when you realize that income tax is just one of a multitude of taxes and fees that our state and federal governments load on us. Less that half what I have to pay out in taxes is due to income. The rest is in fees for government services that should be free, fees for registration of automobile, fees for automobile safety sticker, a very significant property tax, sales taxes on everything I buy, excise tax on top of sales tax for all kinds of products such as gasoline, and the list goes on and on and on. The end result is that over half of the gross income is stolen by the government.
I find it very difficult to be thankful for a $300 rebate. I find it more of an insult that a benefit. All it does is remind me that I am still paying out far too much in taxes. Republicans can’t buy my vote with a $300 tax rebate.

But I would not vote for any Democrat either. If Republicans are at times shifty, then Democrats are always untrustworthy. They want us to believe that they will only increase tax on the rich. Trouble is that they consider anyone who has money left over after taxes are paid as being rich.

The want to raise taxes on corporations, especially the oil companies. They are particularly interested in taping into the windfall profits the oil companies are enjoying from the increased price of gasoline. Uneducated voters hear this, and cheer them on at the sideline. These dummies don’t realize that corporations do not pay tax like we do. Our tax comes from our income. Corporations don’t have income, as such. Just profits. Profits are removed from the top. They are not taken from what is left at the bottom like what an individual has to settle for. And the taxes that a corporation pays the government is part of the selling price of the product they produce. It is included in the cost of manufacture. Guess who pays that? The consumer! We are the consumer! So the next time some slick politican tries to tell you they are only going to increase taxes on the rich and greedy corporations, watch your back. In the end YOU will be the one paying the tax increase. It may be hidden in the price of the products you suddenly can no longer afford so you may not end up paying it after all but it will still effect your lifestyle in a negative way.

I have finally become convinced that what you hear, read, see on any media source could very well be misleading, in error, or complete nonsense.  This is especially true if the tale is full of emotion eliciting details and/or lacking those details.

Some of these attempts at deception indict themselves.  For instance, any story that begins with ‘what would Jesus do’ immediately tells us it has been crafted by an unholy blasphemer on a slide to hell who is searching for company on the way down.

Others may not be so easily recognized.

This morning I listened to a story regarding a man flying the american flag on a newly installed flagpole.  He was being fined 1200 dollars a day for not complying with the local statutes regarding flag flying.

His claim was that he was being persecuted for being a patriot flying a flag.

The rest of the story is that he is actually a moronic lawbreaker flying a flag from an 80 foot flagpole when the safety ordinance only allows flagpoles of 40 foot maximum height.

There appear to be lots of reports of this type throughout the media.  Half truths were only one aspect of the story is revealed.  In otherwords, propaganda.

So, beware.  Just because you hear something outrageous on your favorite talk show does not mean the outrage is warranted. Could be the only thing outrageous is the talk show host himself.

Many decades ago a British subject took an interest in muslim tribes of Arabia. He was Lawrence of Arabia. His quest was to unify the many Arab tribes into a nation. He failed.

Today we have Bush of Iraq trying to do the same thing and it looks like he is having even less success than Lawrence did many decades ago. I guess lack of success is failure and failure is failure regardless of degree or circumstance.

Several months ago we discovered that feeling passionately about something or trying very, very, very, very, very, very hard is no substitute for success. If you don’t succeed then you fail and no amount of spin is going to change that.

Sometimes even students of history repeat past mistakes because recorded history is usually written by politicians and may not resemble the reality of what happened and why.

So we have a very appreciative leader showing a very unappreciative appreciation for histories past mistakes.

I can appreciate that.

What I can’t appreciate could fill a volume and is better submitted as a list.

1. I don’t appreciate Republicans parading as conservatives only to be found out to be liberals.

2. I don’t appreciate RINOs growing government.

3. I don’t appreciate RINOs claiming not to be interested in ‘Nation Building’ before election only to invade a nation after election to try their hand at nation building.

4. I don’t appreciated growing government by creating homeland security to pick up where the defense department failed. One or the other but not both. Fist we need to know why the Defense Department failed to defend us and fix that. Now we have two government agencies to abuse the purpose of their existence. When they fail we have twice the problem and more than twice the expense and taxpayer burden.

5. I don’t appreciate government spending with no sign of responsibility.

6. I don’t appreciate bi-partisanship. I think it is giving in to the opposition.

7. I don’t appreciate pardoning 12 million criminals and accepting them as citizens.

8. I don’t appreciate welcoming invaders as ‘Guest Workers’.

9. I don’t appreciate open borders.

10. I don’t appreciate bestowing rights of citizenship on our enemies.

11. I don’t appreciate claims that something we are doing is preventing something that did not happen. That kind of reasoning is the height of absurdity. It is right up there with claims of ‘I did not inhale’.

12. I don’t appreciate political correctness. Mainly because it allows the people who are ALWAYS wrong to decide what is right.

13. I don’t appreciate affirmative action unless it works to my advantage.

14. I don’t appreciate people who benefit from the misery of others.

15. I don’t appreciate not being able to vote for candidates whos names never make it to the ballot.

16. I don’t appreciate people who accuse others of the evil they, themselves do.

17. I don’t appreciate people who are so obsessed with a show of compassion that they are willing to become immoral and corrupt to make the evil doers feel better about themselves.

18. I don’t appreciate people who claim to have an appreciation when it is perfectly obvious that they have no idea, knowledge, or understanding of the topic being discussed.

19. I don’t appreciate office holders who take oaths to uphold the constitution and our laws only to see them ignore their responsibility to do so.

20. I don’t appreciate people who are obviously immoral lecturing others on morality.

21. I don’t appreciate the subtlety of spin. A lie is a lie is a lie.

22. I don’t appreciate people claiming ‘all men are created equal’. If that were true there would be much less conflict and competition. All men should have equal rights. Only fools worship the sanctity of a falsehood by calling it faith.

23. I don’t appreciate evil doers hiding behind priestly robes.

24. I don’t appreciate government stealing property and calling it eminent domain. Such action needs to be met by eminent revolution.

25. I don’t appreciate the worst of the crooked politicians claiming that by taking the money out of politics they attain higher moral performance. If you don’t have a moral compass before becoming politically involved, you are not going to find it as a politician regardless of how much money you take out of campaigning.

26. I don’t appreciate politicians telling me to ‘do as I say, don’t do as I do.’

When you look at that long list, you really have to ask how we got to this point.

Some of the more religious wonder if the end times are upon us. With things this bad, surely the second coming is not far off.

I suspect that the second coming occurred centuries ago. That we are the ones who descended from those who were left behind.

Not long ago we had an election. In addition to the ‘public servants’ seeking election and re-election we also had a proposition to allow sale of ‘adult’ beverages in our local area.

Deciding it was about time our burg joined the 21st century, I voted in favor of the proposition. In truth I really did not care about the advantages and disadvantages of such a proposition. It just seemed that it was about time to repeal prohibition on a local scale.

Now it seems that was not enough. Apparently our burg is divided into sections and all sections are not covered by the approval of the original proposition so now those in the sections which were not covered have to collect 60k signatures to appeal to the governing body to hold an additional election. I may have some of the details wrong but I do know that there is additional effort required to approve this proposition for all of the burg we live in. A classic situation of the tail wagging the dog. (I am in favor of a petition to get rid of the idiots that set this up. This so called ‘governing body’ needs its ashed hauled, right now and before it has a chance to screw us again. )

That alone is enough to rub me the wrong way, because I know for a fact that all this complexity is caused by some undeserving clod rigging things to make it work for him regardless of how it effects the citizens. This is a common practice of politicians. Especially those who claim they are in there to make a difference. Only they don’t come completely clean in revealing that the difference they are striving for is the embellishment of their riches.

My phone rings. I am not expecting any calls so I let the machine answer. Imagine my surprise to discover that it is a call from a machine appraising me of the dry versus wet conflict resulting from the recent election. Furthermore they promise to waste more of my resources by sending around someone with paperwork for me to sign. A petition.

I just voted in favor of selling ‘adult’ beverages locally not a week ago. Why are you bothering me again with this waste of time!!?? At least that was the question in my mind.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Then I came to the realization that these miscreants had just used my private telephone and my private answering machine to ruin my afternoon. I have heard it said that it is better to pissed off than to be pissed on. I think I am suffering both.

Campaigning via private telephone using the private resources of the people you are seeking as voters on your behalf should be OUTLAWED !!! Why? Because it pisses people off! It is like spam in email. Do you really think that the offers submitted through spam are going to be acted on by people receiving this unwanted material?

I pity the fool they are going to send around to get my signature on the the petition. He might leave with a bill for unauthorized use of private property but there will be no signature on the petition from this house.

There is no way I can support the issues of people who do not respect personal rights and property. Even if I am in agreement with those issues. First impressions are all important. A bad first impression deserves an equally poor response regardless of the content.

Besides, I don’t consume enough ‘adult’ beverages to really care about the issue. I do support a 24-7 telephone system that I would prefer not be abused.

We always vote early. We partake on the last day of early voting. I guess that is more early late than early early. In any case it avoids the traffic and long lines that can form for those who vote at the last minute.

As usual we were met outside the entrance of the court house by someone we had never heard of stumping for our votes. I don’t understand why people do that. Don’t they know that is as bad as spam in email? Don’t they understand it makes them look as desperate as they act? I don’t need to find out how they claim to stand on the issues. Anyone that desperate to be elected has got to be up to no good.

When I am less than 200 feet from the voting booth, I don’t need some unknown nobody getting in my face, eager to win my vote. My mind is usually made up long before that and its going to take more than a ‘please read this and vote for me’ to change my mind.

I give more than just a passing look at a candidates qualifications. I am not talking about his qualifications to do the job. I am talking about his qualifications to do the job I want done. That has more to do with the job he has already taken credit for than any recent promises he has made.

It is no fun at all to have to later admit that you ended up voting for the guy who had the biggest horns and longest tail. Even if you only have to admit that to yourself.

In fact, if the guy in my face is someone I was going to vote for anyway, I may even split the ticket if I have to, just to be able to vote against him.

Someone who is unhinged to the point of desperate campaigning in front of a voting place is automatically disqualified from serving in public office as far as I am concerned. A vote for such a misfit would risk infecting the voter with the candidates lack of discretion and class.

Look at it this way, if a guy is a real pig for votes and attention before election, he probably will not get better after he is elected and I don’t want to have to find out how bad he could get.

So I was not entirely cordial to what I considered an unnecessary and unwanted interruption in my walk to the voting booth. That did not bother the miscreant at all. He just ignored me and focused his attention on the next person. Marks of a true politician.

Chuckling under my breath I continued to the voting booths. I was there to throw some of the old bums out, not to let new bums in.

With a major election only weeks away I thought it might be good to review some before and after scenarios of past elections.

Before:I promise no new taxes.
After:So they increased the rate on the old taxes as high as possible.

Before:I will fix all the potholes.
After:Now we need a bond issue to raise the money to fix the potholes.

Before:Vote for me, I promise a change.
After: Yeah, we got change all right. Taxes went up, the economy tanked, stock market came close to crashing and we were repeatedly attacked by terrorists.

Before:No tax breaks for the rich.
After:No tax breaks for anyone. Rich was defined as anyone who has any money at all.

Before:I promise a bipartisan ownership of power.
After:We discovered that the definition of bipartisan was:’What is mine is mine, and what is yours is mine too, and I am going to keep it all.”

Before:I am a moderate.
After:No, he turned out to be crooked through and through. No moderation at all.

Some years ago that expression was made famous by a little old lady asking ‘where is the beef’ as she inspected her recently purchased hamburger. The ad was very popular and parodied relentlessly.

For some time now our Texas governor has promised Texas property owners relief from unrealistically high property taxes. He actually estimated the relief to be an average of 2000 dollars per year per property owner.

I recently got my letter from the tax people and discovered that my property tax had increased!

Where is the BEEF?!

This Perry fellow must think we are all stupid! I bet ‘Perry’ is an old indian name meaning ‘fellow who thinks people are stupid’.

His answer to this abusive behavior is to justify it by claiming that the increase would have been much higher had he not had a hand in it.

I say it is time to remove the hands of government from our pocketbooks.

Matters not who is or is not in office. They all live off taxes and can live better the more taxes they collect. They all make promises they don’t keep, to steal votes they don’t deserve, to grow rich on tax money wasted on programs and services that are close to worthless.

No, we don’t politicians. We need a grass roots proposition like they had in California some years ago. Something that really will deliver the beef. Or at least let us keep our share of it.

When I hear that phrase I turn my mind off. Put it in neutral until the danger is past. Can you believe the lies of a liar when he is lying? I used to think one party was more likely to stretch the truth than the other. Now I am not so sure. I think it is a thing politicians use to win favor. I am not sure how lying wins favor. I am not a politician. Evidently politicians must believe in the power of lies or they would not all be so quick to use these tools of deception.

Lately they refer to it as spin. Putting a favorable spin on an unfavorable event. HA! That is just a lie smothered in the gravy of self delusion and ultimate denial. Had I tried that kind of ’spin’ on my parents when I was young they would have spun my ripe young butt into a corner and kept it there for a week.

I think that is what should be done to these self indulgent politicians. Of both parties.

Used to be you could tell what a candidate would do by his party affiliation. Now days you have liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. What does that mean?

I guess that is better than those claiming to be moderates. Moderate my behind! They pander to all until they get elected, then, off comes the sheeps clothing and you find out that they are extremists of the most unpleasent kind.

Stuff like that makes it difficult to vote with any sort of conviction. I have often thought there should be a third option in every election. A vote for no. If it is a vote for Governor, there should be a no vote indicating a desire to do without a Governor until the next election. Works for presidents, congressmen, and senators too. Vote no and force them to get real jobs.

You could say this writer is undecided. Hell, I am damn well confused and frustrated too. This election I am going to do a write-in vote. Where ever I can I am going to write in my name because I seem to be the only one I care to trust.

Not all that long ago you had to be a conservative to lay claim to being a republican. Not so any more. Oh, they still have conservatives in their party but now there is an ever growing number of liberals and folk devoted to progressive and inventive new lifestyles joining the ranks of republicans.

It seems that the republican party is being invaded by liberals nearly to the same extent that the U.S. is being invaded by Mexicans.

While that may be disturbing for some, you can take solace in the fact that democrats have not changed all that much. They still accept any and everyone as long as they can vote and vote democrat.

I am not sure who started it but lots of polticians have started talking about the elephant in the room. More specifically they are refering to the elephant that their opponents apparently do not see. If the trend continues every politician will either have or be accused of having an elephant in his room. Even the Democritters wont be immune. No matter that their pet is a mule. Or is that a donkey?
All this elephant humor reminds me of a joke. How can you tell if there is an elephant in the shower with you? Answer: You can smell the peanuts on his breath.

Yeah, I know, pretty bad. I would catagorize that zinger about half a point above what I call ‘pull my finger jokes’. They are funny but only if its your finger that is being pulled.

On the other hand, the elephant in the room syndrome is funny from multiple perspectives. First, I doubt a politician would recognise it as an elephant. Second, they are so hard at work for us they probably would not notice unless it blocked their way to happy hour. Third, elephants only become visible when they occupy the other guys room.

Lately there have been a number of radio and tv advertisements where the advertiser takes great pride in making promises.

Just so we are not entirely mislead, I would like to point out that children make promises, adults make commitments.

For example; it is not uncommon for a youngster to promise to be good. This usually occurs moments after the youngster is caught being bad.

Keep this in mind when dealing with individuals or companies or politicians making promises as they try to sell a service or product or image.

I have always considered debates to be an interesting and worthwhile activity. However, when you consider that a debate consists of two parties trying to prove a premise based on a fresh and honest presentation of fact, you have to wonder if the term ‘Political Debate’ is an oxymoron.

First off, there is no room for honesty when it comes to things political. Politicians seldom deal in fact. Even when the facts support their positions, they can’t resist adding spin to maximize a political advantage.

A couple of egocentric adults, acting as unrully children, accusing each other of being politicians, is not my idea of debate