Month: October 2004

Education

Bush says:

Mr. President, what do you say to someone in this country who has lost his job to someone overseas who’s being paid a fraction of what that job paid here in the United States?

BUSH: I’d say, Bob, I’ve got policies to continue to grow our economy and create the jobs of the 21st century. And here’s some help for you to go get an education. Here’s some help for you to go to a community college.

Bush then goes on about education and standards and testing and other nonsense…

And then Kerry says:

KERRY: I want you to notice how the president switched away from jobs and started talking about education principally.

OK. So Kerry nails Bush on switching the topic. But earlier, Kerry had said:

Every plan that I have laid out — my health-care plan, my plan for education, my plan for kids to be able to get better college loans — I’ve shown exactly how I’m going to pay for those.

Look at the system they have set up together: if you are unemployed, Bush wants you to go back to school. However, Kerry wants you to go into debt to do it. Tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Plus, you get credit cards, and rack them all up, making only minimum payments, if any at all. You’re a poor student, after all. Maybe you get lucky and manage minimum, ontime payments every month. But even then, you’re accumulating debt faster than you’re eliminating it.

The point is, you become entrenched in The System. You are in need of a job, and the need for a job is intensified by the debt from your education.

Not a good sign. I don’t like where Bush and Kerry want to take us with education.

this article by David Jagernauth, comes from a college newspaper in Oregon. It’s a very well-put perspective similar to my own. My favorite passage:

If the Democrats aren’t willing to fight for what is right when it could weaken them politically, then what good are they? Who cares what they say or think when they aren’t willing to act on those beliefs or take responsibility for their horrendous votes?

Now the Greens for Kerry — yellow Greens as I call them — have conspired with the Democrats to destroy the progressive movement from within. I’ve watched the man who best represents my beliefs and values, Ralph Nader, kicked off the ballot in Oregon and unfairly attacked from the left.

When honkey-donkeys blame Nader for what happened in 2000, it is a slap in the face to the black community. Your outrage, progressive America, is misplaced, as usual. Part of President George W. Bush’s legacy, win or lose, will be that he set back the progressive movement at least a decade. And what has the progressive movement gained by falling on its sword?

Very well said. Kerry in the Whitehouse is but a very small first step. More like a nudge, not even a step.

Speaking of debates, it hasn’t made much news that 2 Presidential candidates, David Cobb of the Green Party and Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party were both arrested on Friday night in St. Louis, when they protested their exclusion from the Presidential debates.

Now, this strikes me as significant on two counts. First, what have we come to when we require fully armored cops to patrol the grounds of the debate? Those cops are there for one reason only: to repress dissent. What kind of “democracy” (yes I know that technically and on paper America is actually a Republic) ignores valid viewpoints and then represses those who express those views with violence?

This is yet another example of the problem I have with American politics: the two corporate parties are different in some small ways, but they are so similar to one another that every other viewpoint is marginalized, officially in this case. Have a view that’s different from the official Republicrat or Demican viewpoint? Step outside, and we’ll have our thugs beat you up.

What to do, what to do… 4 more years of Bush would be horrid, no question. But this system, as I have repeatedly said, is utterly broken.

OK, I’ve read the transcripts from the Rep v Dem debates so far. I have a few thoughts about them:

• I remain convinced that neither Bush nor Kerry will give me anything close to what I desire as a political thinker. Both are committed to “winning” in Iraq and “killing” The Terrorists™. I see both as problematic. In addition, both are committed to expanding neoliberal economic policies, which obviously is not what I think is helpful.
• I’ve noticed that, in general, the Democratic candidates tend to oversimplify less than the Republican candidates. Indeed, the Republicans seem to think that taking the time to consider an issue and form a nuanced opinion is “waffling.” What concerns me, however, is how many of the American sheeple will agree with the idiotic “you can run but you can’t hide” rhetoric. That notion seems somehow to be quintessentially American, at least in the popular culture sense. I’m thinking of the Hollywood tough guys.
• I’m still conflicted as to who to vote for. Obviously, Bush will not get my vote. But I can’t decide between voting for Kerry, voting for a 3rd party, or not voting at all.
• What I’m currently leaning toward is this: no candidate will give me exactly what I want. So I have to be utilitarian; in what sense will my vote do the most good? So the question is, do I vote for Kerry, which will undoubtedly provide some relief to thousands or even millions of people worldwide, or do I vote for the candidate closest to my beliefs, empowering a third party to have more influence?

I’ll have to keep thinking about this.

my ‘net connection is working, 2 days early. Yay! I feel reconnected to the world again!

I just spoke with the RoadRunner people and my service is not going to be turned on until Friday. So, don’t look for me online until then. More later.

I figure that as long as I’ll be living on the coast of Maine, this page will be useful to me.

Well, we’re in. I unpacked our last box yesterday, and took the last box to put into storage. It was a suprisingly effortless move. It’s quite nice to be able to run down to the beach for a quick sniff of ocean air before driving into work.

I’ve been virtually incommunicado since the move, because RoadRunner isn’t hooked up yet. I called weeks ago to try to get it so that the service was ready to go when I moved in, and was told it wouldn’t be a problem at all, and to call back the week of the move. I called back on Monday, and they “set it up for me.” I got there, of course, and nothing works. They are supposed to call me to set up an installation, which is where we stand. I have to wait around. Hopefully they’ll call on Monday.

So I’ve missed everyone. If you have emailed me recently and not gotten a response, this is why. Call me at home if you want to reach me.

I’ve also missed events. I have no idea what happened with the debate the other night. I’m almost glad.

On another note, I saw Yo again last night. Looks like he’s ready to settle back in to the Freakwitch reality — we’ll have a bass player again! Yeah!

More anon.