Gary Johnson 2012

So I just finished up watching Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, speak with Dylan Ratigan about his candidacy. Whats most thrilling about this is not the idea that he could win - if he does I promise to shit rainbows - but that issues will have to be discussed because of his presence in the primary.

Think back to 2008 when Ron Paul, then a seemingly crazy old man to the non-political, dominated the political discussion because he not only took the outlying position on the war and monetary policy that, and this is the important part, he could back up with factual arguments. Go back and watch how Ron Paul verbally dope-slapped the likes of McCain, Romney, and more importantly Giuliani.

But the war is no longer a Republican issue (unless they win) and this year, with debt being the major issue on the table I'd love to hear about a few of the largest, undiscussed financial burdens in America: The War on Drugs, and the State Prison System.

The two issues are intertwined, and with Johnson having been an elected official with a platform plank of legalizing marijuana, some incarnation of the issue is going to have to be discussed. Now if I'm being practical, he's going to be dismissed as a lunatic and routinely booed, but provided he comes back with the math and the facts like Paul did, and survives the Iowa caucuses (where I hope he doesn't make a play), then these issue may be forced to be addressed.

The problem with addressing them for most candidates is that for too long this was an issue no one had to deal with because it wasn't ever talked about. The other issue is, 4 of the suspected GOP candidates were governors who are going to have stats from the past they might have to address from the position of spending issues. According to CommonDreams.org "Americans spend $60 billion a year to imprison 2.2 million people — exceeding any other nation...with a 60% recidivism rate." Given the flatness of that last figure, I'm guessing its been rounded.

CD also cites from a report filed in 2006 about the safety and abuse in American prisons. The reports website says the following:

On any given day, 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and over the course of a year, many millions spend time in prison or jail. 750,000 men and women work in correctional facilities. The annual cost: more than 60 billion dollars. Yet within three years, 67 percent of former prisoners will be rearrested and 52 percent will be re-incarcerated. At this moment, the effectiveness of America's approach to corrections has the attention of policy makers at all levels of government and in both political parties. The Commission and its report, Confronting Confinement, make a unique contribution to this timely national discussion by connecting the most serious problems and abuses inside jails and prisons with the health and safety of our communities.

The bottom line is cost. And while many will cite the 10th Amendment as a shield, or say this is a states-rights issue, the hard reality is that the laws that put these individuals, in many cases, into prison in the first place are federal laws. If these candidates become targets of the Johnson onslaught, the only defense will be to say "that's a states rights issue, so I'm going to strike down the Federal Laws and let the states handle things."

The gamble there is 2-fold: The Tea Party will be listening, and they won't let the issue die. These same folks have been after the Fed since Ross Perot tipped them off in 1992 or Pat Buchanan in 1988. The other problem is the general election and the nullification forces, armed with the financial ammunition are going to actually demand these arguments stay in play, and the opposition forces waiting at the gates in 2016 will be waiting there in 2014, prodding the electorate with those reminders.

Remembering Reagan*

*Transferred from the general blog. Originally posted on Feruary 2nd of this year.




I've curbed much of my political ranting for a shorter, more frequent Twitter posting (@lowbrowpolitics) but if this blog is going to be what I'm thinking, I can't quit politicing for good. This month, Time Magazine is remembering Reagan. The cover would have you believe its a big comparison between He and President Obama, but its only one article. The rest is in reference to the centennial.

While most of the writing is political, his Daughters piece is deeply personal, and whatever you think of the man, its worth a read...

Several years into my father's journey down the narrowing road of Alzheimer's, when he was still going out for walks, I looped my arm through his one afternoon and walked with him along a leafy street near my parents' home. A few people recognized him, waved and called out, "Hello, Mr. President" and "God bless you." He smiled and waved back. Then he looked at me, confused, and asked, "Do I know them?"

No, Dad, I said. "They recognized you and wanted to say hello." He looked even more perplexed. "But how do they know me?"

I already knew his memory of being President had been extinguished. He remembered ice skating as a boy and swimming in the Rock River in summer but not his impact on the country and the world. I didn't want to add to his confusion. "They've seen you walking here," I told him. He smiled, and his eyes lit up. "That's very sweet of them," he said. "They're nice people."

Moments like that revealed what was most essential about my father — his graciousness, his kindness toward others, his gratitude and his humility. Even at the end, Alzheimer's didn't kill those qualities, although it killed a lot.

I often imagine what it would be like if my father were still here to mark his 100th birthday, if Alzheimer's hadn't clawed away years, possibilities, hopes. What would he think of all the commemorations and celebrations?

Basically a humble man, he'd be embarrassed, I suspect, although certainly flattered. He would cover his emotions with a joke — probably something about George Burns' living to 100 and how he just couldn't let George get all the glory for making it that far. I'm sure he'd be disappointed in the meanness of politics these days yet amused by all the politicians trying to adhere themselves to his legacy, even aiming to be "the next Ronald Reagan." He'd probably suggest, with a twinkle in his eye, that they should figure out who they are as individuals and be the best at that.

But most of all, I imagine spending time with him as a daughter — and his allowing the residue of my rebellious years and the hurt I caused him to blow away like dust, maybe with a bit of humor, since I did manage to snag his attention by being the bad girl. I'd like to ask him if he was ever really fooled by me.

I'd also like to ask him about the nearsighted boy he once was, whose father frequently disappeared on drinking binges so severe he'd pass out, often miles from home. Maybe my father would finally open up to me about the uncertainty and the waiting ... and the fear.

Yet he had no fear, and I wish more than anything I could sit with him by a window in the dying light of day and ask him about that. How did you come from where you came from and learn to be so confident? How did you learn to trust so completely in your faith that fear didn't stand a chance? I want to tell him I remember the nights when I was a child and he traced the constellations for me, showing me Pegasus and Orion. I want to tell him that even though light-years came between us later on, I never stopped believing he hung the moon.

My father's body lies in a stone tomb high on a hill. People walk by, pause, think their own thoughts about him and move on, back to their own lives. I can never move on. He is everywhere. I know you think I mean publicly, especially now that he would have been 100 years old. And in part, I do mean that. But what I really mean is, he lives in me on the edge of dreams. He lives in the regrets that burden me and the sweet memories that keep me afloat. There was a moment, midway through the Alzheimer's years, when I was leaving my parents' house and I said to him, "Bye. I love you." His eyes opened wide in surprise and he said, "Well, thank you. Thank you so much." He had no idea who I was. He was startled and typically gracious about another human being's telling him she loved him. I don't know if I will ever reach that level of grace, but I'm grateful for having been born to a man who did.

Until the last three years of his life, when he became bedridden, he carried in his pocket a coin that says "Let go and let God." I keep it now in a box on my dresser. I don't know where he got it, but I'm guessing someone handed it to him when he was out walking and he looked at the message on it and thought of how lovely it was and how he related to it. Every day after that, he put it in his pocket — as a talisman, perhaps, but also to remind him of a stranger's kindness.

He was not a perfect man. He was not a perfect father. But he tried to reach higher, to understand what God wanted of him. He was a unique person who carved out a unique place in history. I sat beside him as he died. And now he sits inside my heart as I live my life, without him but with him.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2044468,00.html#ixzz1CosN8T5Z

A father is an interesting thing in America. You often hear that people weren't close to their father, and the relationship was never close. But they have a way of loving after they're gone, as if their echo in history lingers, holding us best through a post mortem example, as if their presence is an heirloom which is handed down and carried on until we pass on ourselves, and pass along our small spin on an otherwise enduring legacy.

Immigrant Waves*

*Transferring this one from the general blog. Originally posted on August 13th of last year.



Is history repeating itself on the other side of the country?

In 1845, about 15 years prior to the Civil War, a potato famine hit Ireland so badly that anyone who had the ability left for greener shores. In many, many cases that meant New York and Boston.

The civil war had yet to be fought, so there were no immigration laws, the radical republicans had not yet taken the Congress, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments weren’t proposed yet. For all intents and purposes they’d become Americans by showing up here, but the WASP Ascendancy barely recognized them. They were not considered white; their Infant Mortality Rate was astronomical leading one Census worker to comment, “The Irish were literally born to die.” Signs reading “No Irish Need Apply” were regularly hung, and they lived, in most cases, in tenement housing; cramped, poorly built, structurally dangerous, and lacked maintenance.

But that was 165 years ago. Today we don’t question any man of Irish decendency as to whether or not he’s white. This may or may not have to do with an influx of other, darker races, but probably has more to do with how wide spread they’ve become. Today, give or take a few thousand, roughly 36 million Americans can trace their heritage back to Ireland.

And while they clung to their own cultural identity, they embraced with open arms (politically if not literally) the other immigrants waves of Italians and Eastern Europeans to form a permanent political majority for their political party. I am purposely not saying “Democrats” there because history shows their choice was less platform and more reaction. The Protestant Establishment in the former colonies was fierce, ruthless, and apathetic to the plight of the new immigrant classes. They forged themselves with a then dormant party and used it like a shield to take up the problems and struggles of the class. They did so then because the Republican Party then gave them no options to join their ranks.

In a seemingly “bizarre-o” world turn of events, Phoenix is the new Boston.

Ignore the conditions listed before. I don’t know that its wise to try and compare how the Irish lived then (two centuries ago) and how Latino’s live today. The Country is different, the regulations on housing, medical care, the social programs are, well first of all they exist. There was no such philosophy let alone law in the 1840’s that dictated how anything really had to be done. But politics isn’t figures on a spreadsheet, its perception.

The growing perception is, through talk of walls, mandated English, “anchor babies”, and SB1070 – as well as Amending the 14th Amendment – that the Republican Party are the WASPs to the Latino’s Irish.

If you’re following this furor, then I’m sure you’ve heard about the numbers. Fastest growing demographic, a birthrate that’s set to dislodge white people as being larger than all other minorities combined. (Note: Whites will still be a majority, they just won’t beat, as a group, all other races combined). But those are logic-tactics. You can almost hear, in a very avuncular tone, the father figure saying, “you’d better be careful now.”

The problem is not votes; the problem is dignity. And it isn’t American, its global and historical. Nations and peoples can be defeated, but if they are humiliated, they will tell their children of the vicious opression that faced them as they came to America, passed down like camp-fire horror stories that become a cemented reality unified with cultural identity.

Ask any eastern Frenchmen about the Nazi’s. As any Jewish Immigrant for that matter. Ask Southerners how they feel about General Sherman, or Iranians how they felt about the Shah. Civility and Diplomacy cannot be measured in the safety it provides the future.

Last night I watched Charlie Wilson’s War. If you haven’t seen it, you should do yourself the favor. But in it, the Afghani’s make a point to tell the Western World that they do not want food, or medicine. They want weapons. They want to defeat the Imperial Soviets and they want their land back. Its hard to imagine a better illustration of what dignity is than to mention a people who have almost nothing, living in rocks, and tribal villages and showing how all they want is to be left to their own devices. It’s saddening on a level one can’t imagine to have so little and be deprived of it still.

The Latino Community, prior to the dust up over SB1070, had two major concerns when it came to politics; Jobs and Education. Say what you will but those could go to either party, and it suggests that they came here not for themselves but for their children. Marco Rubio was on television two days ago echoing that sentiment when he responded to the recent moronic comments by Sen. Harry Reid.

The Latino community wants to be here, and they want to be American. The Irish still have their parades, the Italians, Polish, and the Portuguese their festivals. They still hand their language down to children. Mexican’s, Guatemalans, Cubans, et. al are doing nothing no less different than what the immigrant classes of the past have done, and unfortunately for them, that means engaging in the same struggles and legislative battles of every class before them.