Congratulations Mr Obama

I wish President-elect Obama all the luck in the world. Now that he has won the election, his optimism will likely be replaced by pragmatism. His idealism replaced by reality. Mr. Obama will have to work through a congress that is more conservative and more jaded. While he may actually not be a part of the establishment, he WILL have to work through the establishment.

I think that the ones who will be most disappointed are those who make less than $10,000 per family member. This includes the working poor and the perpetually unemployed. There is hope for an expansion of welfare and social spending. Perhaps there will be, but history tells us that the victims of regressive welfare programs just get worse not better. All the education spending in the world is not going to help adults who have little education and little aptitude to get more. While adult education does help emplace basic literacy, executive level education and opportunities are at least a generation away for these families. This is nearly as big a problem for middle class whites as for minorities. While there is a greater opportunity for middle class kids to achieve, their educational ceiling is rarely above the bachelorate level.

A groundswell of change?

Are any of the third party candidates viable beyond the standard confines of the political parties? While the election is but three weeks away, Obama is the almost sure winner. I have struggled to support senator McCain anyway.

I guess the question is there a way to create a groundswell toward one of the third party candidates (such as Bob Barr?) While three weeks seems like such a short time, if everybody who is underwhelmed by both of the candidates would jump ship on the status quo and look toward REAL change?

As exciting as a slow drizzle

John McCain needed a slam dunk in tonight's debate. Instead he seemed nearly as exciting as a slow summer drizzle. McCain scored no points and just as before the debate, those who agreed with McCain agreed with McCain and those who agreed with Obama still agree with him.

What Joe Biden meant when he talked about the dining table.

Governor Palin held her own to the much more experienced orator Senator Joe Biden. Senator Biden’s line was much as everyone predicted, he would attack John McCain and paint him as that overused third GWB term. While I found plenty to disagree with him on, the one thing that really rankled me…

Senator Biden said

“He's not been a maverick on the war. He's not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table. Can we send -- can we get Mom's MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can't -- we can't make it. How are we going to heat the -- heat the house this winter?

He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.

So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.”

The bottom line is that Joe Biden (and by Biden’s account Barack Obama) believe the federal government should be the answer to those dining room questions. I (and most of those of us who support John McCain) believe that we have to figure out how to solve individual problems ourselves. Government’s role is not to answer those questions. Government’s role is not to protect us from ourselves or to assign a right answer to every question. Government’s role is to provide order and to enforce laws. Laws are supposed to be protections from other’s unfair encroachments, NOT tools to benefit one person, group of people, or class of people. It would seem that Biden is incensed that John McCain doesn’t support government programs that benefit people or groups of people.

The whole point of this was that John McCain is not a liberal. Liberals WANT to send dollars from Washington to the people. Liberals WANT to increase regulation and government. Biden wants Socialized Medicine. Biden wants to enlarge the welfare programs. Even when welfare programs are warranted, this is a function better suited for lower levels of government or charitable organizations.

As to college financing, the income ceilings for financial aid may be too low, but at the same time this statement was designed to appeal to those whose income most likely is well within the range where good financial aid is available.

While virtually everyone wants some changes from the current situation, what we do not want is a bigger government that chews an ever increasing portion of our income. We MUST educate people as to what LIBERALS really are; what LIBERALS really believe. Even if you believe the statement Biden makes over and over again that “we cannot endure four more years of George W. Bush”, can we stomach Barack Obama and Joe Biden at all? If one simply assumes the difference between Obama and McCain is their stands on Roe v Wade it misses the most important aspects of this race what role does government hold in social policy? Do we desire a welfare state where those who choose to do little get the same rewards as those of us who work from our youth to our old age? Do we desire a government that dictates everything we should or should not do and when and how we do it? Or do we desire a government that supports the ideology that everyone should have equal opportunity to achieve? Obama and Biden are liberals in the worst sense of the term. We cannot stand four years of Barack Obama and Joe Biden at all!

The Bush legacy versus Obama

You want to talk about President Bush's popularity (or lack thereof) you try to make it an indictment on John McCain and the Republican party in general. The problem is that the entire congress is viewed similarly and the Democrats control both houses. While the President's aproval is between 1/4th and 1/3rd, congress, according to most polls, is even lower(in the teens). All three senators in this race (Obama, McCain, & Biden) are parts of it. So the stench of Congress is larger than the stench of the President.

The real point here is that running away from the Bush administration toward congress is not setting up change. The real point is to follow who more closely follows your political beliefs. While it is largely a popular election based on whose rhetoric makes them more popular for those who either sit on the fence on political issues or just vote purely on who is the more likable (or less unlikeable) among those running. Even if one has ideas that appeal to you (such as a quick end to the war), you have to consider how realistic those goals really are.

Will Barack Obama actually get us out of Iraq more quickly than John McCain? Can Obama furnish us with a workeable universal healthcare coverage that doesn't bankrupt employers that provide jobs or create a large bureacracy that taxes and spends with regards to either efficiency, access, or quality of healthcare?

All of these issues are open for debate. Then there are the values issues. Do you support Gay marriage, abortion without restriction, freedom from religion as opposed to freedom of religion. Clearly McCain and Obama stand differently on these issues. Even if you wanted to vote for a Democrat (for change), do you still want to vote for Barack Obama?

Who is rich (Obama vs McCain)

Who is rich? I can assure you that to those of us from Talco Texas, someone who made $4.2 Million last year would definitely be perceived as rich. Clearly, the McCains are richer. I think Senator McCain was trying to say some weeks ago that Mr. Obama shouldn't try to label himself as not rich and the McCains as rich. He missed the mark. The bottom line is both of them are pretty comfortable.

If you divide the $4.2 Million the Obamas made last year by a 45 year work life you get something over $93,000 per year. So in one year he made slightly less than double the median the average US family income for a 45 year work life. This $93,000 figure would put him in the upper quintile (20%) of wage earners in the US period. He made 84 times the average US family income. 1/46th of his income would still leave him in the upper 20% of us incomes.

I do not begrudge the money he has made. I am proud for him, the problem is his trying to differentiate between himself and Senator McCain economically fails the test. His background may be humble. In the here and now, he is NOT just a humble Joe.

The Web and the political process

Eight years ago, the web was still somewhat in its infancy. It was a hodge-podge of pages with pictures and virtually no video. New news was still broken primarily on television and radio. In-depth reporting was still primarily the realm of print journalism such as newspapers and magazines. 2000 was the year my company moved from dial-up access to DSL. Most of the world was still using dial-up and marvelled at its ability to bring information into our homes and businesses.

In the political process it was more of a town meeting instead of a medium for prepared advertising. On the GeorgeWBush.com site, there was a bulletin board (sort of like the comment boxes seen today on many sites [this one included].) I put in my ten cents worth and it actually was read by someone significant in the campain. I am sure of that because my ten-cent quip was practically verbatim in a speech that put a dent into Vice-President Gore's definition of middle class. Governor Bush used two sentences of mine nearly directly.

A major part of Mr. Gore's platform was a tax credit to help the middle class to pay for college. My point as that a family of five had to make over $40,000 per year to see the first penny. Nearly a decade later, it boils down to more a question of who the middle class are as opposed to were the middle class going to get a tax credit. The bottom line is a family of five who makes $40,000 per year pays little or no federal income tax in the first place. A credit for tax liability when there is none results in no change in tax liability.

The point here is that eight years ago, there actually was access to the inner workings of campains by those of us on the internet. Today the sheer volume of people online makes it prohibitive. The internet has just become another media stream for the campains to use to spread their message. It serves them well, but the two way forum of the past is seemingly dead. Today (for me) just getting this blog read by ANYONE is a stretch.

Obama and Senator Biden

For weeks people have speculated about who Senator Obama would choose as a running mate. The possibilities ran from the obscure (Texas Congressman Chet Edwards) to safe (Senator Biden). He chose safe; someone who shared his liberal views on a majority of items. When most pundits line up the list of the most liberal Senators, Obama is usually first and Senator Biden is usually third or forth. This means that he chose so that his Obama's) liberalism IS the issue.

How liberal are these guys? They make Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edward Kennedy look like scrooge when it comes to hand outs. They make Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) and Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) look like simply Pro-Choice Republicans. To put it in even better perspective (not one I am sure the examples would enjoy, ) Obama is so far left that Ted Kennedy is closer to Arlen Specter than he is to Obama. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is close to the same distance from Kennedy that Kennedy is from Obama (on domestic issues.) Simply, Mr. Obama is twice as liberal as Senator Kennedy and I believe Mr. Kennedy would chafe at the label of moderate. I don't think Obama can run away from the liberal label. I am not even sure he intends to.

Even moderate democrats need to look beyond party labels to the issues. SImply the issues are Obama is a tax and spend liberal. He plans on a massive redistribution of the wealth of Americans and that will simply dry up venture capital or put the government into the business development business even bigger than it already is.

This guy is not Bill Clinton. He is not Hillary Clinton. He certainly isn't Abraham Lincoln (but if he can get extra votes based on Lincoln's legacy against slavery he certainly is willing to grab them.) Barack Obama is not an AMERICAN NEGRO (see previous postings to see why I use this term.) Barack Obama is the progeny of a white LIBERAL and a foreigner who happened to have dark skin.

Some would tell you, I am sure, that regardless of his herritage, electing Obama will surely help the legitimacy of African-American candidates across the board in the future. I don't dispute this. The problem is the here and now. We cannot afford Mr. Obama now. Are the long term benefits worth the costs today?

Oboma and the black underclass

Barack Obama is being criticized by the black underclass as not being responsive to their needs. The "What about the black community, Obama?" poster drives home a point: even Obama knows that the woes of the poor are not solved immediately. While obsessively liberal, he is not nor will he ever be a descendant of slavery or uncle Tom. Obama is just the child of a very liberal white mother and a man who happened to have black skin. His father WAS NOT an African American. He was African. Everyone seems to miss (or dismiss) the social significance of this. . We understand Jesse Jackson and his goals (while I disagree with much of what Reverend Jackson espouses, I believe he believes that he is right. He actually has the background to have experience.) Obama is a child of textbook liberalism. Anthropology as a social science tends to lean liberal, often to the point of socialism.

The point here is to define Obama by his race is a mistake. Since Mr. Obama is technically African-American there is a need for a different term to define traditional Black Americans. I will use the term American Negroes. I realize it is a somewhat archaic term and has a negative connotation in some quarters, I will still use it for African Americans whose African ancestors arrived in America prior to the twentieth century. The bottom line is Obama is NOT an American Negro. While he wants them to embrace him as one of their own, he is not. He is the same as a white liberal.

The problem is he is liberal far beyond the Clintons. Beyond that of Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. Bill Clinton's life experience actually closer to that of the black underclass than that of Obama. The bottom line is that Obama's brand of social activism is being lost in the race issue. If you equate American Negroes with liberalism and equate Obama as an American Negro you would totally miss the point of his liberalism.

While his skin is black, he is still M&M or worse Vanilla Ice. He wants you to think he has the cred, but regardless, he doesn't.

McCain and the Running mate debate

John McCain is playing the running mate game much like every candidate in the past 100 years or so. In some cycles the running mate is chosen for what he brings to the table, in other cases they are chosen to just not be disruptive.

I think we need to balance a non-traditional candidate (Barack Obama) with a non-traditional running mate. I really think Senator McCain's chances are pretty slim unless he has a woman as his running mate.

A quick look at the field:

Rudy Giuliani: Giuliani would likely beat anyone except Hillary Rodham-Clinton in New York if he were the candidate. McCain's level of conservatism will stand independent of Giuliani's stances and Giuliani would deliver a nominal number of votes in New York and elsewhere.

Mitt Romney: While the religious right and ultra conservatives are not fired up about John McCain, Romney sends it from tepid support to outright apathy bordering on a mass exodus to any viable alternative such as Libertarian Bob Barr. He is viewed as being pro-choice despite his recent cries otherwise. Many Evangelicals even view his Mormon faith as a cult as opposed to just another Christian Denomination. Romney shatters the conservative base.

Mike Huckabee: One of two on the list I have actually met. Huckabee is a safe choice in the realm of Al Gore for Bill Clinton, Fritz Mondale for Jimmy Carter He may help invigorate the religious right, but it does little to draw moderates and independent voters into the fold. His relative youth would help bring in a few younger voters who seem to all be on the Obama parade. If safe is the ticket, Huckabee is the choice.

Charlie Crist: Governor Crist's main draw is to deliver Florida and we all can remember from 2000, Florida is important. This said, I am pretty political savvy and about the volume of my knowledge of Crist is that he is on a list someone is putting out and is Jeb Bush's replacement.

Michael Steele: His biggest plus is also his biggest minus. His race. Lt Governor Steele draws few voters away from Obama and sends some voters toward alternative candidates such as Bob Barr.

Kay Bailey Hutchison: A female who will draw some of the Clinton voters assuming there is not a female on the Democratic ticket. For McCain to choose a sitting senator, he needs a Republican governor to appoint their replacement. Governor Perry would likely resign in a heartbeat if he could broker a deal with Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst to get himself appointed if Hutchison were to become VP. She brings women back to the GOP table AND doesn't have any huge negatives. Being from Texas, I know her pretty well. I am not sure what kind of national profile she has.

Condaleeza Rice: Dr Rice is an excellent candidate. She has both the allure of being female and being black. She would likely draw even more moderate women away from the Democrats She also has never run for office which has more positive than negative. Simply she has not had to shift her views to match those of a particular race or particular time. The real question is Dr. Rice comfortable as the GOP nominee for VP. Is she ready for the scrutiny?

Colin Powell: As good a vice president as Powell would make, he gives little to the ticket as VP> His Age (71) is no improvement over McCain. His moderate stances seem to echo McCain, and establishing his birthplace might just be the kind of distraction that could derail the entire ticket. I could easily support him as the candidate, but as the running mate. Powell makes little sense.

So the no's are Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Michael Steele, Colin Powell and any sitting Senator with a democratic governor or seriously contested governor's election.

The rest are maybes. There are names on the lists that I didn't cover. Frankly, I believe that McCain needs a female running mate unless Obama has one too (then that point is moot.) Time will tell. I have said, that McCain cannot win without a female running mate, but that is based on neither campaign making positive inroads or having tremendous gaffes. In ten years this will be history and we can see where the mistakes were made and the opportunites were exploited.

TTC - The Trans-Texas Corridor

DO I oppose the TTC? Boy what a question. DO I oppose what some people seem to believe it is ( an international roadway patrolled by foreign or international police agencies (the Federales or Interpol.) You better believe it. Do I think we should allow a foreign conglomerate to hold Texans hostage with a toll road? Again no. Do I think that Texas farmers and ranchers should have to lose their ancestral properties to this behemoth? Again not really.

Do I think we need improved infrastructure especially in the IH-35 corridor. YES. Do I think we need north- south rail lines that can run a full 65 miles per hour in express service? Again yes. I even believe there should be dedicated lines in EACH direction. On the argument that we would be subsidizing "private companies" (the railroad companies). I would say it isn't that simple. Why is IH-35 so congested? Is it the cars and pickups on pleasure and personal business? Nope, outside the cities, it is commercial trucks: Vehicles owned by "private companies". Even a majority of the light trucks and cars are traveling for business of one sort or another. SO even the free interstate highways are used for the betterment of business. So the rail component of the TTC is no more egregious than any other part of the TTC to me.

I do not believe we can finance these improvements either to the highways or the rail lines any other way except for a HUGE increase in taxes of some sort. So a public-private toll consortium seems like the best model to get it done. While there was some discord over property loss when the Eisenhower Interstate system was initially in the planning stages, it seems the bigger problem was the speculators buying up the property in its path and holding out for windfalls!

The real question is not whether we need the transportation capacity, it whether we believe that the goods it carries are desirable. I will talk more later about the goods carried on these lines and their impact; the alternatives to loss of huge amounts of farm and ranch lands; toll roads generically; and maybe with some questions, something different and perhaps worthwhile.

Slinging epitaths makes me sick!

I went to the Republican Party of Texas State Convention. What I saw was a party that was diverse and held limitless opportunities for women, racial, and ethnic minorities, and others. What the people on the outside saw was some idiot who had rented space selling at least one button with a terrible racial message. I am appalled that something like this had to taint a convention that has the Vice President of the state party as well as at least two members of the state supreme court who are both African-American and active in the state party. While the small group of Black Republicans may see trite, it is at least as many as the Democrats have to offer. The Texas Republicans ARE inclusive, we just don't believe in huge amounts of social programs that seemingly have solved little if anything and cost the taxpayers tremendous amounts.

My views on race are simple. Treat everyone the same as you hope to be treated yourself. In practice I was reared by my parents and grandparents. My grandmother who lived on the farm with us, was the child of a Civil War veteran (that in itself is yet another colorful saga. ) It took me a while to realize that some adjectives were as hurtful as opposed to simply (and not entirely accurately) descriptive. This said, my track record rearing my kids is pretty cut and dried. Our middle son was about eight-years-old. We were at the local ballpark waiting for one of the other kids' game to start. Our middle child and a black peer got into a minor tussle. That was fine UNTIL my kid called the other one a common racial epitaph.

When the other little boy came and told me , I whisked my son into my truck went home and screamed, hollered, and spanked him. I told him, you can tell him you dislike him 'cause he's stupid, you may hate him 'cause his hygiene is poor, you can just not like him because your personalities clash, but you are to NEVER EVER allow him to think you hold his race or anything else he has no control over against him. He got the message, as far as that goes, so did his brothers and they were not even there.

While some (perhaps even many) may stereotype people based on RACE, the real issue is class economics, cycles of poverty, and the education system's inability to bridge the education gap between the poor and the more affluent. I have already discussed the education gap in relation to international students capturing opportunities that US students should have. I will discuss the education gap more at length later on.

Your friendly neighborhood college graduate.

Have you noticed that there is an increasing number of immigrant physicians and scientists? While we are complaining about poor immigrants or aliens coming in and taking jobs that we believe that the perpetually unemployed would take, aliens and immigrants come in and take highly coveted , well paid positions. People tell us there is a shortage of highly trained US workers to fill these positions. Why?

Part of it is that we make it difficult for middle income Americans to get a good graduate education. If you have been in many of the Universities around the country of late you have seen innumerable international students filling graduate assistant and research assistant positions. Why? Are they just that much better qualified than US citizen students? No. It often boils down to one thing. If they have a job in the university they pay resident tuition or even no tuition at all. The same goes for scholarships. Many colleges give students with as little as $500.00 per semester in scholarships resident status. I have even heard that if students live in on-campus residences they may also get resident tuition. Why can't these positions go to deserving US Students?

There is, in part an idea that an international student going home to help modernize his third-world country makes the whole world a better place. The problem is that many of them will never leave the US (see need for highly trained workers above). Even those that leave mostly go to countries that are far behind the US, but at the same time not poor countries nearing starvation (China and India particularly.) The bottom line is we subsidize international students education as much as we do those of US students and either they remain here and take US jobs or they return to economies that are competing against ours.

What happened to international students being a huge revenue stream? Even in private universities there is enough public financing to make it an issue of import to quit allowing this drain on our resources.

The bottom line is that IF we educated more Americans that we wouldn't need to allow untold migrant workers to take on significantly profitable jobs that native born Americans could and should be doing.

My first controversy (of many I hope)

I do not agree with many conservatives on immigration. I think we have to come up with a good way to protect our borders from those that actually intend harm to our domestic tranquility while allowing a good flow of ready; willing labor to fill jobs otherwise difficult to fill. Perhaps at some point in the future, terrorists will try to sneak in across our open borders with our neighbors, but at this point, the terrorists all have come in legally and usually overstayed their visas. Most of the ones sneaking across the border are poor Latin Americans seeking to better themselves through work.

With these poor immigrant laborers tend to come demands on our social programs. The solution here is not to keep out the potential liabilities from immigrant families, but instead to make the immigrants or their employers pay for the costs on society of this labor. Whether it is in the form of enforced insurance for immigrants or special excises on immigrant labor paid into the Medicare and Medicaid programs; this will erase some of the more egregious problems with this group of immigrants. First it will raise the cost of immigrant labor to more in line (if not above) that of citizens who seek or hold similar positions and it will pay for the

I will spend more time speaking about many of the problems I have personally with permitted immigrants in a separate posting. In yet another one I will discuss unemployed US Citizens, employed foreign nationals, and our domestic policy over both. Yes we have a migrant population. Many among us have not a clue.

My first post (who am I?)

Who am I ? I am a husband, a father, a grandfather (man am I too young for that one.) I was born at the end of the baby boom and frankly more closely resemble the next generation. I am moderate to conservative on almost everything. I have opinions on education, race, religion, immigration (and emigration too, but we aren't seeing a whole lot of that,) the economy, and the quest for full employment and practically anything else you bait me with.

I live an hour from Dallas and ten miles from the county seat (I still wonder how Andy Taylor was the sheriff when Mount Pilot was the county seat.) My parents live roughly an hour further from Dallas on the place my dad was born. Mother was born just a couple of miles away. My parents and both of their sets of parents were married for over 50 years. One of my great-grandfathers fought in the (un)Civil War. I have been married for over 30 years myself.