Silly season

Yes folks, it’s Silly Season as every DC area media type would say. Presidential Election year. Primary races. Such fun if you are into these shenanigans (as I am!).

Now, I have no decisions to make this time around. Unlike a few of my more disheartened liberal friends or always on the fence Independent buds, I am 100% behind the President and so my vote can already be counted. Therefore I am purely watching the GOP primary process with an eye to seeing who ends up going up against Obama and what sorts of issues the Republican party will be focusing on.

Oh boy oh boy……has it been INTERESTING so far!

I have a friend who posts after every GOP debate (are we on #19 tonight?!)…”So, who won this debate? Obama.”

And I would have a hard not arguing with that!

Now, this shouldn’t be so hard – you’ve got Mitt Romney! In typical GOP fashion, he is Next In Line. He was the anointed (self? media?) front runner a year ago and has been campaigning as such. The White House sure thinks he will be the nominee because they have also focused all their attacks on all media platforms on Romney.

The GOP Establishment though has been luke warm at best and downright desperate at worse and clearly do not want to throw their weight yet behind the flip flopping, moderate at best, Mormon candidate. They have thrown out all sorts of names over the preceding months – Mitch Daniels! Jeb Bush! Chris Christie! Chris Christie! Oh please oh please Chris Christie?! All to no avail.

Meanwhile some real clown shows have threatened to run or even HAVE run at least for part of the time meaning we were blessed with their less than stellar debate performances and subjected to enough media exposure to give us laughs a’plenty – Donald Trump (wtf?!), Sarah Palin (magical mystery bus tour – why?), Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann.

But as the dust settles now that three primaries are done meaning we have ACTUAL VOTES counted vs just hype & speculation we are left with….

A different winner in all three. And the sounds of the GOP weeping.

They were right of course, the really staunch religiously driven conservatives can’t wrap their support around Romney. In Iowa that translated to a Rick Santorum victory and in South Carolina the roulette wheel landed on Newt Gingrich.

As unlikely as ANY victory by Rick Santorum may have seemed last year, he makes much more sense to me as the ultra right wing conservative choice than Newt does.

GOP voters are so desperate NOT to choose Romney that they would seriously consider Newt? I’m floored. One uber-Christian SC voter wrote on her Facebook wall that it was about redemption and forgiveness. Really?! You do realize it is not MERELY that he has been married three times, or that he cheated on each wife, right?  (I suppose these COULD be forgiveable as long as you apply the same level of generosity to everyone else as well)

To ME – and to many of the not forgiving GOP voters who I know, the BIG issue is that he was schtupping his third wife will leading the charge against Clinton for the VERY SAME OFFENSE! AND…AND…that he cheated on both wives AND filed for divorce from them WHEN THEY WERE SICK! That’s just a few too many marriage vows to be breaking repeatedly there buddy.

Some folks have a 7 year itch – Gingrich has an 18 year itch. Calista is good for another 6, tops.

So anyway, back to poor old Mitt. A very very decent candidate on paper. Tons of money at his disposal. He’s won some, he’s lost some, but he’s cool under pressure and handles himself well in debates (when he isn’t touching opponents or offering them $10,000 bets). His flip flopping to me is par for any politician’s course  – yeah I can argue that his is pretty damn extensive, but…eh. I do prefer someone who reads the tea leaves and knows when it’s time to change vs being resolute in their wrong headed stances (cough *Bush* cough). And I know if he GOT elected he most likely would tack to the center because he pretty much does move with the wind.

IOW – while he would never get my support, and there is much he does claim he would do that scares me – he is the least offensive of the bunch. Which is why he WOULD be formidable opponent. He can appeal to the middle. The trouble is, the Republican party has very little middle right now.

So this primary season that everyone predicted would be wrapped up with 3 straight victories by Romney after South Carolina will drag on . And? Polling which had Romney way ahead in Florida is tightening up. Newt is closing in there.

Never thought I would say this but, PLEASE, Florida conservatives, choose the one who REALLY supports and LIVES your values – Rick Santorum. Or, if what you are looking for is electability, then vote Romney. PLEASE.

OTOH….if you vote for Ron Paul, then it would be 4 winners in 4 primaries and the season would just get even sillier.

And all that much more fun!

I need more popcorn.

The Secret Decoder Ring That Reveals All!

Where can I get one these?

Clearly I am missing out on many Obvious Things because I don’t have one.

You know, things like the utter and complete certainty that Obama

 “is a Marxist, and he wants to make more and more people dependent on the government. He wants to redistribute America’s wealth to those who will vote for him.” 

I wish that quote that I lifted from a Facebook comment today unique or even rare, but it is not. I’ve seen very similar sentiments expressed not just by random folks on social media sites, but also from political commentators and political candidates and office holders.

So I wanna know – what decoder ring are these people using that allows them to look past anything Obama has written, or said, or done in his entire political and personal life and peer into his soul and know the Real Truth?

Is it the same ring that Newt Gingrich uses that compels him to say that it makes liberals unhappy he believes every American of every background has been endowed by their Creator with the right to pursue happiness? Because, as a liberal, I must say that Newt’s belief in that does not make ME unhappy. But, maybe I am wrong. Maybe I don’t really KNOW me?

According to Newt, I am either a) not a liberal or b) denying my obviously deeply buried unhappiness at this statement.

My god! If only I had the Secret Decoder Ring that would let me look in the mirror and see which it is!!

Oh, and if I had the Secret Decoder Ring, I would be able to see with 100% clarity that

“Government handouts like welfare, food stamps, WIC and unemployment make people lazy”

So says yet another Facebook comment attached to the Newt quote.

That means that normally hard working, self sufficient people who find themselves without a job during this recession and therefore need to apply for aid in order to eat or stay in their houses, are suddenly hit with the Lazy Dust and are quite content to sit on their asses eating their food stamp subsidized bon bons as long as the government money rolls in. Because the second they touch a government check, they lose ALL their prior personality and character traits and just become LAZY.

It’s not that already lazy people take advantage – it’s that government money MAKES YOU LAZY!

You didn’t know that did you? I sure didn’t! I used WIC to feed my first son when money was barely there. I know it sure made me completely unwilling to work or take night classes to get my degree to get a better job and get off WIC.

Obviously, right? This life I am living is all an illusion, right? If I only had the Secret Decoder Ring I would see that!

Other people and members of my family who have used other forms of government assistance were also ruined for life too? The ones who I thought were only on it temporarily like I was?

At the very least the Secret Decoder Ring would allow me to clearly see that it is much more important to prevent people who DO take advantage (and yes, the sure do exist, even I see that!) of these systems from being able to do so. We must reduce/slash/eliminate all such access to funds! Even if it means stranding the vast majority of those using it (temporarily) who are in dire need especially during this down economy. No no, it’s MUCH better that we let them float away into homelessness and desperation than to allow ANY freeloader to keep gaming the system.

Wait…I get it now…the Secret Decoder Ring not only let’s you SEE the Real Truth – it also allows you to turn a blind eye to the poor and unemployed and underemployed!

You get extra special soul seeking vision AND selective blind spots!

I really need that ring!

Sigh…this is going to be a LONG election year, isn’t it? 

Horse Slaughter For Human Consumption Legalized – true! All Obama’s fault – false!

While scanning Facebook updates this morning, I came across this post from a friend who owns and shows horses:

Wow – that sounds awful, right? Look at that headline! What are the odds that the people who commented clicked into the link and read the whole article? Lord knows if I did not and just took that headline as 100% true I would be so mad! After all, it makes it sound like there was a single, standalone bill making it patently obvious to the President that he was legalizing horse slaughter for human consumption! That’s appalling! (Let’s just ignore the fact that ANY legislation has to be passed by both the House and Senate before it reaches the President’s desk, right?) This is ALL on OBAMA!

So that is Level 1, let’s say, of presenting getting attention. Grab people with a headline presented as a factual statement about a bill, sensationalizing it, and then laying blame at one person’s feet.

Now, let’s click into the article and see if it, in any way, gets into the details of this horrible piece of legislation.

OK, good, the author at least clarifies that this was part of a much larger bill authorizing funding for the Dept of Agriculture. My finely tuned budget battle radar thinks “Hmmm…more than just the DoA, wasn’t this really the basic Appropriations Bill for funding of the ENTIRE Govt for the next fiscal year?” Of course, I understand that readers or voters who are not as tuned in to the machinations of Govt won’t know that. But, I think they SHOULD, right? If I am writing a  post about this topic, it’s a pretty Big Thing to know EXACTLY what this bill encompassed, right?  And really, other than stating that the bill was indeed passed by both houses, the author continues to tug at the emotional heart strings of her audience, again laying blame straight at Obama for allowing Americans to kill and eat horses.

To her credit, she does go on to state the horse slaughter was basically outlawed not as a matter of course, but as a side effect of funding being cut for mandatory FDA inspections of any facility that processes meat for consumption. Those inspections (which had existed 5 years previous), had been eliminated from the last few year’s appropriations’ bills. So it was never that any politician or group of politicians was taking a stance FOR or AGAINST processing horse meat for consumption. It was purely about money.

Does she go on to explain how/why the funding was re-instated? Sort of:

Again, if you have some knowledge about how DC works, you know that it is usually a lobbying effort of some kind that either gets politicians to put in money, or take it out of these bills. The author does refer to a Wyoming State representative and her “Pro Slaughter Group” in the article which leads me to put 2 +2 together and realize that there was obviously a coordinated effort to re-instate funding for the FDA inspections of these facilities. If so, where was the opposing effort? There is no mention of ANY group that organized to stop the funding.

There is also another glaring omission from the entire post – not one statement of the actual vote counts on the bill. I was curious since, notwithstanding that this was obviously something much larger than just a “Horse Slaughter” bill, I wondered IF Obama (who did promise NOT to reinstate this funding) had even been made aware it was in there, then why didn’t he veto it? I mean, if a Veto would have been reasonable given even the larger implications of what else may have been in the bill?

Before I started my own research, I broke one of my cardinal rules and I read the comment section of this online article. In addition to the usual bottom feeders from the internet (lordy, someone was posting horse meat recipes!) there were also quite a few intelligent responses, including from a rancher who does slaughter and process all her livestock. But then I struck gold – someone else had already researched the ENTIRE bill as the AUTHOR should have done!

AHH – the REAL STORY!

A VETO PROOF, full scale bill funding all segments of the Government over the next year. In other words, the FDA inspections that were re-instated were but 1 small line item amongst 1000s including funding for multiple departments within the government that impact thousands of jobs every day. Realistically, no one was going to hold this up for the horses. It sucks, but that’s the reality of how Congress works. Again, where were the anti-slaughter groups? Why weren’t they making sure the measure that was adopted was the one without this provision?

You know what would have been a much more accurate headline to discuss this?

HORSE SUPPORTERS SLEEPY FROM TOO MUCH TURKEY – LET CONGRESS FUND HORSE SLAUGHTER AGAIN!

OK, that’s in bad taste – but you get the drift, right?

It’s a much more complete statement of truth than “Obama legalized Horse Slaughter!”

But the impact here is real. This heavily slanted post that omitted all of those critical facts has been shared on Facebook 206,000 times. It’s been tweeted out 4,154 times. It has 69 Google +1′s (which my recent studies in SEO marketing have taught me are each worth at least 100 Facebook shares thanks to the power of The Google).

This is why I lay so much blame at the feet of the media. This may be a bit of a niche topic but look how it is skewering the opinion of people who read it. It’s a small scale example of what frequently happens even at the more “credible” media outlets. If they don’t like a politician or a political party, they spin spin spin, omit details and context and tug at your emotions and fear to sway YOUR opinion of the issues. Meanwhile, YOU are busy. Your life is spinning off in dozens of directions and you don’t have TIME to do what I just did and click through multiple sources to get the whole story. And you shouldn’t have to. That headline and that simplified 4 paragraph article should  BE 100% true – you TRUST it to be that way.

Well voters – stop trusting. Start questioning and clicking – otherwise – stop sharing posts like these. Because then you unwittingly become a pawn in the of the web of misconceptions and lies weaving through the internet.

UPDATE – Apparently some animal rights groups have put together something in response (while still foisting the blame unfairly at Obama) – there is reference in this article on the Barbi Twins & their tweets about all this to an H.R. 2966 – a House Resolution that is apparently out there that specifically addresses this funding issue. Good – they need to get the word out in a coordinated manner to get that passed.

It turns out that I AM the 99%

Ok, so by definition I knew I was in the 99% economically. That’s pretty obvious. But, I didn’t necessarily identify with the recent Occupy Wall Street movements which have spread out across the country. Yes, I was aware there WERE Occupations and I knew there was one that started up this weekend in San Diego. Heck, I even gave directions to two young demonstrators on Saturday afternoon while I was downtown with my mom’s group for a lovely reunion weekend. But – since I was on a bit of a local vacation – I wasn’t really paying close attention. I knew they were trying desperately to GET media attention. I knew that with their own determination and staying power that cameras were finally being shined on them. I knew that folks on the left and right were sort of scoffing at them for not really being FOR anything. For just seeming to be gathering because they could, with no real plan or purpose. But then a certain theme started to come out about being in the “99%”. In other words, NOT being in the top 1% of the wealthy who control so much of our economy. The feeling being that those top 1% have all the power. They control Wall Street (obviously), they control the Government through lobbying and contributions, and they are not the ones who truly suffer and pay when they screw up. Those bank CEO’s who caused the financial collapse? Either all still working, or, stepped down but with ridiculously huge payouts. No one went to jail for all of that fraud and corruption. When the government has tried to step in and do anything OTHER than completely bailing them out – they resist and support politicians who advocate rolling regulations BACK – not adding more or even (heaven forbid) actually enforcing the existing ones.

Anyhow – in all that – while I got it as far as what they were doing, it hadn’t grabbed me. I couldn’t identify with it entirely. On a basic level I got it. But, in my mind, if you were not pushing for people to register to vote and TO vote then I didn’t quite get the point.

Then, this week, I started to see some push back against the “We are the 99%” mantra. The one I saw the most was this one:

This one went all around Facebook with the “Heck yeah! Go Personal Responsibility!” cheer bubbling up around it. Oh, the condescension. Oh, the self righteousness. Oh, the complete and utter lack of empathy.

There was another one from a former soldier working multiple jobs and 60-70 hours a week with a similar sentiment of personal responsibility and being disdainful of anyone relying on assistance and making bad decisions. He calls himself the 53% guy (from the notion that 53% of people actually end up paying income taxes)

Is there truth there? Sure. At it’s root there is. I absorbed what one friend said about ignoring the condescension and apparent cold hearted tones and just focusing on the words.

And they are still enormously flawed, short sighted and absolutely NOT how I would want to be.

I am a HUGE supporter of Personal Responsibility. I parent my kids mostly trying to use the Logical Consequences method of discipline. I believe all individuals, corporations/businesses and government officials should practice Personal Responsibility.

I happen to think that it is ONLY us, the individuals, who are being held to that standard.

I also happen to KNOW, from my own life, that having a bootstrap is beneficial to all. This blog post gives the perfect of example of how a government support system providing that temporary bootstrap paid off long term:

Brother, Can you Spare a Bootstrap?

I know that I certainly appreciated the bootstrap that was the WIC program when my first son was born and I was barely making minimum wage at my job.

And beyond that I kept thinking “wait, we are supposed to work multiple jobs and 70-80 hours a week with no vacations to JUST SCRAPE BY?” Are you nuts? Those types of hard core workers were supposed to be the ones who became CEO’s and started making the big money. They are supposed to have medical insurance and crazy huge retirement funds. What happened to the American Dream? Why is it completely OK for most of us to just be happy to have a job? Why is it OK that our wages have essentially been frozen? Why is it OK that those stagnant wages are having to be stretched further and further as the prices of basic necessities sky rocket?

Why is it OK to just yell at a protester “Get a damn job!” when I think just about everyone on the planet knows that jobs are scarce? Because I know that every single individual who I know who has lost their job in the last 2 years would damn well LOVE to have a job. Or two. Or three. Really. They would LOVE IT.

And what about people like this woman:

Seems like she has worked hard and done all the “right” things. After all, there is a real human being performing the duties of the necessary jobs that don’t pay enough no matter how hard you work to get you up into that 1%. People who still love what they do, do it with a smile and, I would guess in this woman’s case, probably served as a surrogate therapist while you sat in her chair getting your hair done. Why is it OK that she couldn’t afford medical insurance? Why is it OK in this country whether we are economically up or down, for so many people to go bankrupt and lose their homes and assets in order to pay medical bills when the unexpected happens? Why is healthcare – the REAL preservation of life – NOT a basic human RIGHT? Why is the right to live, not really a right but something reserved only for those who can afford it?

Yeah, as you can see, the reactions AGAINST the 99% has kind of got me on a bit of a rant and roll. I am always incensed when I see those “Get a damn job!” and “Get off your ass and work!” and “My taxpayer dollars shouldn’t help a lazy ass like you!” comments. Charming.

But I must say that I am feeling rather inspired by the push back that the 99% is giving to the nay sayers. I often feel like my own rantings about Personal Responsibility applying to everyone and wishing that I lived in a country that truly CARED about each other vs being so judgmental and dismissive are dust in the wind.

Not right now though. Now, there are people out there, Occupying places. Getting the message out about being the 99% and what that really MEANS. Saying the things I’ve been saying as push back against Republicans for the past 10 years. So yes, here I am. I have a good job. A pretty secure one. With great benefits. Decent pay. I own my car out right. I own a house with a mortgage that is probably a bit more than I should have, but I no longer have a cut rate loan and the house isn’t under water in value. I’ve got a small retirement fund started. I’m LUCKY. But….I have very little savings. I’ve never been able to start a college fund for the boys. I had to walk away from some large credit card balances and I am learning to live on cash alone as I slowly pay those off. My plan is to be debt free by the time I am 50 but every time something happens with my kids, or my car, or my house…well…there you go. LUCKILY nothing major has happened. So far, I’ve got this precarious situation under my control. Have I made some poor decisions in the adult portion of my 46 years? Sure. Should those decisions have set me back? Probably. But how far, and for how long? For instance, if I didn’t have to pay so much out of pocket for medical insurance for me and the boys would I have a college fund? Little things. Some you can control, some you cannot. But they have all served to put me where I am today.

Right smack in the middle of the 99%.

IS there an adult in the room?

So I’m having fun watching my DC Media Twitter list today. In the last hour or so it’s blown up with the news that President Obama wants to speak in front of a joint session of Congress next week. My interpretation of those events is as follows:

POTUS sends a text message to Speaker Boehner: “Hey John, can I come over and play at your house next week?”

Boehner: “Sure Barack, no problem. I’ll be back home from vacation on Tuesday. When do you want to come over?”

POTUS: “Wednesday at 8 ok?”

Boehner: “Sure! See ya then!”

POTUS to his buddies in the room “Heh, he fell for it. We can head on over at the same time that his Gang is having a meeting to initiate their next Leader who will challenge me! How’s that for a way to distract the media?!”

The letter from POTUS requesting the Joint Session invitation is sent to the media for dissemination. Media begins freaking over the conflict. Specifically the couple of outlets who were running the Gang Initiation event. Of course, this is going to be one of DOZENS that will be held in the next 18 months, but still…FREAK OUT!

Boehner’s buddies whisper in his ear that he kinda sorta got played.

Boehner to the freaking out media: “MOM!! Wait, no, I never said Barack could come over on Wednesday night!! No way! That wasn’t MEEEEE!”

Boehner sends letter to POTUS making an excuse that they will be too busy on Wednesday night to clean up in time for him to come over, and hey, how about Thursday night instead?

That letter is released to the media.

Media checks Thursday night schedule…..NFL OPENING NIGHT!!! No WAY! POTUS can’t conflict with the NFL opener!!

Commence new round of freak outs.

And all of this creates jobs, how?

Developing…………………………

How is this good for the country?

 

Read the full TPM article here.

I’m NOT an economist and I DON’T play one on TV, but I am truly at a loss to figure out the strategy here.

Practically speaking it makes no sense. Politicians have been saying ad nauseum during this down turn that they need to run DC like people run their household budgets. Of course, they interpret that to mean slash all spending. Particularly spending on programs THEY don’t like. Sure, with my income not rising as fast as expenses, I have made some cuts. But not to any ESSENTIAL items. And heck, some things I cannot control (my mortgage is what it is as are property taxes…I cannot do anything to lower those payments). And no matter how much I fuss about it, we do have to eat! But I also look for ways to ADD income – do people’s taxes, look for cash back deals when I do have to shop, explore ways to have my writing earn money, etc etc.

So, fine, obviously I disagree with the GOP mantra of CUT CUT CUT and “We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem!” and their complete unwillingness to compromise on that point.

But this? This is taking it a truly cold hearted step further isn’t it?

So what Cantor is saying is that, should I have an emergency, I can’t deal with it without first figuring out what further cost cuts I can make to pay for it? I thought credit cards were supposed to be FOR emergencies? So that you can get through the problem as it happens and then slowly pay it off over time if needed, but the important thing is, you get back to good health, or your car gets repaired or your water heater gets replaced or…etc etc, right? Isn’t that how most households have to live since savings are most likely depleted already?

The thing is, it’s not like the Federal Government doesn’t HAVE money. They do. Do they need to tighten their belts over the long haul to reduce the National Debt? Of course! But the point OF debt is that it typically needed to finance emergencies. Did DC misuse money over the last decade? YES! Cantor needs to look in the mirror on that one and own up to voting for many things (wars, prescription drug plans, tax cuts during war) which increased our debt. He needs to pledge not to support THOSE kind of  debt increasing initiatives.

But providing help to clean up and rebuild areas damaged by the hurricane? You are going to hold THAT hostage to more spending cuts first? Ludicrous.

I may be absurdly naive about the mindset of the economically conservative voter, but does that kind of talk REALLY appeal to them? Do they not see how uncaring and NOT compassionate that is?

An honest question for the disillusioned Democrats

In Democratic voter circles – somewhere between folks like me who have no qualms about supporting Obama again and the Emoprogs who want to primary Obama (read that link, it’s a great round up of the anti-Obama voices from the left) – exists voters who are not quite AS mad at Obama as the Emoprogs, but also cannot truly embrace supporting him again. I’ve seen a couple of tweets already about hanging up on callers from the OFA trying  to recruit volunteers & get donations for Obama ’12. Even though these folks did knock on doors in 08, they just cannot do it again in ’12 because they feel Obama has not been looking out for them. While I don’t agree completely, I do GET why they feel that way. But then, here’s my truly honest question. – so what WILL you do?

While you wont spend the energy pounding the pavement for him or spend your $ donating – will you still vote for him?

I’m genuinely curious because I get your conundrum. You are all smart enough and your memories are long enough to know that a 3rd party challenge such as what happened in 2000 will potentially hand the White House to the GOP and I know you don’t WANT that. You are Democrats after all and you do believe in Democratic values and many of you have spent a lot of time & energy trying to get Democrats elected. So I am sure you are feeling extremely conflicted.

What will you do?

Compromise – it’s a simple concept. Really!

The idea of compromise is actually quite simple. In its purest form it means that you take two steps towards me, I take two steps towards you and we have now met in the middle. We each give up a bit from our initial stance, but now we have found an area of agreement and we can move forward. For instance – the problem is that we are both hungry. It’s lunch time. Neither of us brought lunch to work so we need to go out to get food. You want to sit down to eat and want to be served your food. I want something fast since I have a deadline and I really want something hot – preferably a burger. You are a vegetarian. So we look at all our options within a certain driving distance and end up compromising on Souplantation. You get to sit (though you are not being served) and you get your vegetarian choices (though somewhat more limited than on a restaurant menu). I get my food fast enough than I am willing to sit to eat (though not as fast as a drive through when I could return straight back to work and eat at my desk). They have a really good chili so I am willing to give up on my burger craving. We both give up a couple earlier requirements and happily head out for lunch. If either of us refused to bend, we end up frustrated & angry and perhaps even still hungry due to our lack of ability to compromise.

The same holds true in politics. This debt ceiling debate is all about compromise. But one side is not bending and if nothing is done, then Americans will go hungry. I’m really getting tired of listening to any member of the sitting GOP politicians continue to insist that there can be NO tax code changes. Not minimal – NONE. In one sentence they say the President needs to negotiate with them and then the very next they follow up with “NO revenue adjustments!” If I hear “We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem!” one more time I swear I will throw a shoe at my TV. Which won’t do anything but make me feel better for a brief moment. Sort of like the GOP declaring that every time. Makes them feel good I suppose. Principled in some odd way. Appealing to their Tea Party infused base. But long term? It just results in a broken TV..err..a broken American economy.

I’m not a policy wonk, or an economic expert in any shape or form. I will not even try to drop an opinion on exactly what needs to be done here. I just know what I sense and hear from the people around me who are NOT deeply engaged in every nuance of the political game. My friends who are voters, but not political geeks. They aren’t on twitter for politics. They rarely watch cable news chatter shows. They might catch the local news or a headline online somewhere. And those folks? Well, it’s seeping in to them that the President is compromising. No matter the details and whether they like them or not, they are getting the message about who is doing what in the process. Most of them know even on a practical level and there needs to be an increase in revenue to go along with the decreasing in expenses. It’s certainly what WE are all doing. Politicians LOVE to keep pointing to “It’s what the American people want” and “It’s what families have had to do!” to justify the deep expense cuts to programs that are still sorely needed. Yet they seem to forget the part where we also look for MORE REVENUE in our lives too. Yes, we’ve had to tighten our belts, but guess what? I know I am looking for ways to MAKE more money too. Sell off some old stuff hanging around gathering dust. Maybe go ahead and put some ads up on my blogs to see what I can generate. Work a booth at a blog conference for some $ & entry fee. The point is – if politicians are so in touch with what *I* – an American person – wants them to do then they would be following the rules of compromise a lot closer. Quite insisting on McDonalds! Go to Souplantation! We’re hungry!

NN11 was what you made of it

Heading out to Minneapolis a not insignificant number of my progressive twitter pals started scoffing at the whole notion of the conference. They painted NN11 with the broad brush of Angry Professional Lefties determined to whine & moan about Obama and discuss potential primary opponents. I got just a smidge of some scolding from some of them for going.

Now, to be fair, I have, like them, largely left the Big Liberal Blog sites (yes, even Daily Kos) due to just what they were describing. For me though, the Daily Kos front page (or editorial writers..ie paid writers many of them) still occupy my RSS feed and I scan the posts every day and read maybe 3-5 per week, Not counting Cheers & Jeers of course which I almost think of separately from DK. That’s Bill who is my dear friend and I will always read his posts. But it’s also comedic political commentary sprinkled with fart jokes so who can resist? Anyhow, given that Netroots Nation was born out of Yearly KOS, the Big Orange is certainly still the main influence. I’ve long since tired of the drama and angst that goes on in comment sections and side bar (community) diaries and abandoned them completely. Frankly, the only blog I read these days is The Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen. So yes, I understood my friend’s categorizations of the conference.

However, those who talked quite a bit about the uselessness of the conference and chided me for attending have also never been to one. Their judgements were passed based on what they saw reported in the media year after year and..well….while they of all people should know better than to rely on the MEDIA as a true reflection of an event (ahem)..it really was all they had to go on. Again, I understand that.

But I am a veteran of every one of these gatherings and no matter what I leave each one trying to figure out a way to financially make it to the next one.

Why?

Well, of course the biggest reason is the people. I highlighted that on my other site. Blog friends who became real life friends who are now as close to me as family. But if it were just friends then I would simply go to attend the parties in the evening and never drop into a session or listen to a speaker. So, it is not JUST that.

The thing is – as someone is decidedly NOT angry at Obama and is 100% supportive of his re-election, it was plenty easy for me to be around like minded people and/or to avoid the Angry Left. Now, I know my earlier post on NN11 was about just the opposite. But I purposely went into that lions den of a session to see just what the worst of the angry left might say. As I already mentioned, they were pretty mellow as far as anti-Obama attacks. Sure, there was some drama with Lt Choi ripping up that flyer handed to him symbolizing his distaste for the Obama ’12 campaign, but..other than within any media covering the conference & what I saw on twitter that afternoon, it was pretty much a non-event within the conference itself.

The next morning was the highly charged Q&A session with WH Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer and that cause much more of an in conference buzz (and Andrew Breitbart arrived that is). Discussion of the Q&A usually started off with praise for Kaili Joy Gray’s bulldog style of using sharp, short follow up questions (the kind we scream at the mainstream media for NEVER using), but then just about everyone conceded that she pushed that style too far and eventually her own body language (some eye rolls & heavy sighs in response to heavily spun non answers) got to be obviously disrespectful. I know at one point I clapped for Pfieffer because Gray was pushing for a yes or no answer that was simply not there to be given and he managed a decent enough response that I felt he needed SOME encouragement. Now, he was, yes, absolutely not ready for this and often not IN a position to make any news on a topic and on his own he certainly could have handled things better, BUT, the interviewer also bears some responsibility for how things go and she did NOTHING to help him out. Contrast that with last year’s Q&A between Joan McCarter & Senator Harry Reid when Reid turned a truly hostile crowd who so desperately wanted to boo him into a pretty big fans. He’s a pro at handling tough questions, and Joan knew when to ease up and smile and nod before moving on to the next topic. Was I in the minority in my overall take of the Q&A this year? Probably.

However, I went on from that to a full day of sessions that had nothing at all to do with Presidential politics and was much more focused on state & local government issues as I followed the parenting and education tract. Honestly it was almost a truly apolitical day. Sure there was quite a bit of demonizing of the current crop of governors attempting to weaken Teacher’s Unions (heck, ALL unions) and slash funding to public schools, but there was much more overall discussion on public school budgets across the country and how the formulas have changed so drastically over the years. We talked testing & achievement and per student spending & school board makeup. One session on bullying was completely void of political party identification and just a lesson on how projects like It Gets Better can spring up organically to help support minority youth. I came away from that day feeling energized and knowing that this year I really want to focus on learning more about groups like Moms Rising & the K-12 News Network and to hear more from Lily Eskelsen who has the passion and energy & communication skills of well, of a damn good teacher!

There was also the parties. Oh, the parties! The Pub Quiz is technically not a party of course, but it was THE highlight of the weekend for me and for everyone in the room that night from what I can tell. Now, I knew full well that there were many in that room who ARE part of the Angry Professional Left but that night it didn’t matter one hoot. All that mattered was that you could rattle off the names of all the living former Senators from Minnesota. Or write a limerick using a Minnesota sports figure as the topic (we chose Brett Favre, just about every other team went with Kirby Puckett…you may be able to figure out why..!) We laughed, we argued, we protested – oh did we PROTEST! You see there was a team from Wisconsin…specifically folks who had BEEN in Madison during the protests there…and they led the chants which will be engraved in my brain forever “Tell me what Democracy looks like…THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!” By the end of the Quiz many were sore from laughing and voices were raw from chanting & screaming. The Daily Kos hosted party on Saturday night which is essentially the final Grand Hoorah of the weekend was also a complete blast. I’m pretty sure I was on the dance floor for 2-3 hours straight and at one point I was on stage dancing with Congresswoman Donna Edwards. I got a kick out of that

Like last year I also participated in the Netroots For the Troops project helping to put together boxes for our soldiers serving abroad. I’ll put up a separate picture post on that later, but naturally that is a total community effort that completely fills you with compassion even if you are adamantly against any of the wars/overseas operations.

I finished up my weekend by staying an extra day to participate in the Day of Service event which this year took place in a Bird & Flower Sanctuary. Um, can you say heaven to me? It was so damn unbelievable green there and we spent an hour exploring the trails, then we had a picnic lunch and then we donned gloves & spent another hour pulling out invasive weeds. It was quiet & peaceful and fulfilling and just the perfect end toNN11.

My overall point is – Netroots Nation is what you make of it. They offer SO MUCH that anyone within the progressive movement can find something & plenty of someone’s within your area of interest & focus. I am sure that the Angry Pro Left also had a great time and that they had plenty of like minded folks there and sessions that could feed into their angst. I know the media, those bastions of relaying as much drama and angst as they can possibly dig up were more than happy to cover that faction resulting again in most of my Doubting Thomas twitter friends to scoff away and claim “I told you so!” A couple of times I intentionally put myself in a place where those types of folks would BE out of curiosity and because I really did want to ask one of them just who they WOULD support (never got the chance other than a quick conversation with John Aravosis sitting on the sofa in the Daily Kos booth one evening by himself and he kind of stumbled a bit and then said he’d probably end up voting Obama begrudgingly) But other than that I was able to completely avoid them and certainly I didn’t let any of my encounters with them dampen my own opinions and enthusiasm. Mostly I came away more determined than ever to make sure, not only that Obama is re-elected, but also that we DO continue to recruit & support more and BETTER Democrats. That starts at the local level and hey now, coincidentally a friend of mine from the local football league board just stepped up to run our community Democratic Club & he immediately called me for help. I’m in!

NN11 panel with Lt Dan Choi & my conflicting opinions of him.

Lt Dan Choi & I debating his often too over the top activism

I went into this panel with equal parts disgust and eager anticipation. My friend’s had dubbed this the “Poutrage Caucus” since it featured mightily vocal, supposedly left leaning Obama critics Jane Hamsher, John Aravosis & Lt Dan Choi. Rounding out the panel were Felipe Matos someone who I had learned was also quite angry at Obama during a morning session and Joan McCarter, front page editor for Daily Kos and the only reasonable voice on the panel. She was acting as the moderator and I am convinced that her sane, logical presence influenced the rest of the panel to tone things down. The title was “What to do if Obama is just not that into you.”

I’m not going to go into all the ins and outs of each panelist and why they are angry. If you are reading this, you probably already have some outside knowledge of them. My focus is going to be on Lt Dan Choi. He befuddles me so! Up until a few months ago I cheered his every move. He came out as gay on air, and in uniform on Rachel Maddow’s show and of course discharge proceedings began that week. DADT was still the law of the land and was being actively enforced. He, along with a few recently discharged military personnel became the face of the movement to repeal the discriminatory law. Candidate and President Obama had promised to see through repeal of it. Again, you probably all know the story of how that unfolded. It was slow, painful, and messy and required the support of more than a few Republicans in the Senate to get it done and an aggressive lame duck session after mid-term elections, BUT, it was signed. The military was given 6 months to put the proper process in place to stop discharges. Technically though, discharges can still happen. It takes more effort. More senior officers have to approve it and they have slowed it down tremendously. When a soldier was discharged recently under the law it was under-reported, but still a FACT, that said soldier outed himself and REQUESTED discharge under DADT. Think Corporal Klinger wearing a dress on M*A*S*H J Like I said though – under-reported and never emphasized. Lt Choi chose to send out a tweet to an article about the dismissal with the spin “OBAMA still discharging soldiers!!” This is a new tactic of his that is souring me to his activism. He has made it personal. It’s “OBAMA is prosecuting me for illegal demonstration!” (When he chained himself to the White House fence last summer). Or “Hillary Clinton is refusing to help!” (When he chose to go to Moscow to illegally march in a gay pride parade knowing full well he and his Russian activist friends would be arrested.) It’s one thing to demonstrate and even get arrested to draw attention to a cause, but it is quite another to somewhat hysterically call out political officials who don’t stop everything they are doing to help out.

Then there are my personal encounters with Dan. I met him last year in Las Vegas at NN10. It was a quiet moment on the first morning and we both were walking down to get our credentials for the weekend. He was in shorts and a t-shirt (from a gay bar in Vegas no less!) and was on the phone. I had stopped to wait for someone and charge my own phone. I didn’t even realize who I sat next to on the hallway sofa until I heard him speaking. When he got off the phone he looked at me wide eyed and said “Well, that’s interesting. The Army sent my formal discharge papers this week. To my parents.  I’m officially a civilian now.” He seemed truly shell shocked & really irritated that the letter was sent to his parent’s house. We chatted for a second, I introduced myself showing him my badge with my name on it and he said “Hey, I know you from twitter, right?” Knock me over with a feather!! Anyhow, given the news he had just received and the kind of inappropriate attire he was wearing, we agreed to meet up another time that weekend so he could take a photo with me. He was warm and gracious. Of course, later that weekend we had the famously symbolic event when he rose to salute Senator Harry Reid during a question and answer session and then turned over his West Point ring to the Senator stating that he didn’t need it anymore since the Army didn’t consider him fit to serve. Reid agreed to hold the ring and to hold to his own personal promise to Lt Choi to see through the repeal of DADT. Which he did. Part of the publicity after it was signed was Lt Choi returning to DC to receive the ring back. I went to NN11 with the intention of getting that photo with Dan and specifically to have it with his ring back on his finger. I did get that picture and a couple more as well which reinforced my one on one, I like him personally opinion.

Showing off the West Point ring.

BUT….(there’s always a but eh?) Something odd happened at the end of the panel. Their speeches had all been pretty tame considering how shrill they have all been in hurling insults & anger at Obama in recent months. They even largely gave in to the fact that yes, you should vote, and yes, you probably need to re-elect him. Their main point seemed to be though, that Obama needs to work to regain their full financial and activist support. They wont donate, they wont knock on doors or get out the vote in 2012. OK…. So the floor is opened to questions and the first thing that happens is a young kid (maybe 20?) jumps up and approaches the stage. You knew something was up right there since everyone just asks their questions from their seats typically. He runs up stating that he is “from OFA” (Obama for America, the 2012 reelection campaign). At this point most of don’t believe that for a second. Then he says he has flyers to give to Choi & Aravosis and as he gets up there and they take the literature he mumbles something about believing that “you don’t NEED marriage rights because civil unions are OK and…..” Choi then stood up and said “What did you say? You don’t believe in MY equality?!” quite loudly of course and then he dramatically ripped up the flyers. The kid then turned around and walked back towards his seat grinning the whole time and then fist bumped with his seat mate when he returned. It was SO WEIRD! He was clearly a plant of some kind, but WHY? Just to make Dan react? Well, that worked, but again…the point? Make Dan look bad, or good? Make him look volatile or passionate? I just don’t know. When I spoke with Dan after I did ask. He seemed sincere in saying it was weird to him too and a few who were up closer to the panel said they all looked pretty shocked at the whole thing. If he was in on it, then sure, it was yet another publicity stunt that I know he does pull. If he wasn’t, then what was the kid’s point?

Thanks to Stormy, I finally get it now. Dan staged this so that he could make the loud, visual point that the OFA – as stand in for Obama – does NOT support full marriage equality and therefore does NOT get his support. The kid was doing something Dan asked him to do. Yet another NN planned stunt, but this one not nearly as effective as last year’s ring exchange. SIGH.

When I stopped Dan to talk to him and get my picture, I told him that he needed to understand why many of us are not as personally angry as him and might cringe a bit at what he does. I equated it with long distance racing – some are sprinters like him and some of us pace ourselves. Often, it is the slow and steady tactic that wins. However, we need sprinters like him to pull us along and keep us moving – just be careful not to burn out. It’s teamwork and he should be mindful of alienating the distance runners from his sprint team. He responded positively and agreed with me at that moment, but then I heard he went on The Last Word and got pretty damn personal with Obama again. Sigh…….conflicted. I remain..conflicted. Personally he scored some points with me. Publicly he burned bridges.