From Iowa

Sorry I have been derelict writing this blog, but I have been packing posters, making phone calls and--today--canvassing in the snow, ducking icicles--it is COLD--getting people to comit to caucus locally for John Edwards on the 3rd of January.

(A caucus is like a town meeting in big open space--gymnasium or elementary school, etc.--where the voters of a precinct--a voting neighborhood, so to speak...about 1500 precincts in Iowa, by the way...gather and literally stand in a corner for their favorite candidate, be counted, so that delegates to a county convention can be apportioned according to the number of supporters standing for their candidate. You want democracy in action, SEE Iowa.)

Speaking of 'seeing', I went to Independence, Iowa, yesterday, in a snowstorm--80 miles away from my present location in Cedar Rapids, Iowa--to see and hear John Edwards speak in person. (Actually, I went to to arrange chairs and hand out lapel stickers before he spoke; and then sit immediately and to the side behind him, four feet away, as he spoke to the crowd. 200 people showed up; he was electric.)

I fulfilled a long held desire to watch his eyes, in person, to see if there was 'truth' there. There was. He cares. And I don't mean just about winning an election. He cares about people, making their lives better. I believe it. He can unite this very non-united America, I believe that also...and fulfill the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John and Bobby Kennedy.

The press is a bit too bi-polar in their concentration about Obama and Clinton. Read up on Edwards. He is by far the best option on the Democratic side. And the best option in general. He just may be the surprise coming out of Iowa...and after that...in the White House.

A Short But Critical List

From an article in Dec. 22nd LA Times, "Embrace China", underscoring America's long-term need to co-operate and positively deal with the competition from China, the authors stated:

"China's growth will cause some Americans to lose their jobs or get paid less. But it is America's job to ensure that our working class is equipped to deal with those disruptions--not China. And it s America's job to address the problems that hamper our nation's ability to thrive in a world with multiple [China, Russia, India, Europe and the US] strong powers: our broken educational system, expensive and inadequate health care, budget deficit, crumbling infrastructure and an addiction to oil [Italics mine]. All these are problems we have to solve ourselves."

Let me repeat the list of italicized problems; because their solution is critical to our future as happy, prosperous American-working-class (which I assume includes all of us who work):

BROKEN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM!
EXPENSIVE AND INADEQUATE HEALTH CARE!
BUDGET DEFICIT!
CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE!
ADDICTION TO OIL!

Take that list to the voting booth.

Men and Hockey

Late at night, in a bar, four young men, alone, at a back table, are watching a pretty girl walk by. She totally ignores them. Their gaze follows her dismissal as she heads to the front door. A gust of cold wind blows in as the door opens. The homeliest of the four growls out loud: "Just because there's a goalie doesn't mean you can't score." The door slams. 0-0.

More on Edwards

Okay, in the category of 'putting my money where my mouth is': I have volunteered to travel back east on Christmas Day to go to Iowa to work for the John Edwards presidential primary campaign through the Iowa caucuses, Jan. 3rd. I have offered to lick stamps, man the phones...whatever. They have taken me up on the offer.

Plane trip is all set; hotel reservations are made, warm clothes have been sent ahead to the hotel.

Whoever is reading this: do me a favor; if you are already a backer of John Edwards, hold fast. If you are not a backer of his, consider switching your allegiance. I truly believe John Edwards is the best Presidential hope for all Americans at this time in our history. "...one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

John Edwards...more...

Read about him in an article, "Defining Moment", in the December 24th issue of "Time", and pick up the latest issue of "Newsweek" with him on the cover, with the prophetic title: 'SLEEPER': meaning, watch out America, John Edwards is awakening in Iowa.

Full disclosure (in case you didn't already get it): I'm for Edwards. Surprise!

'Love Among the Ruins'

"You know you're old when someone offers you a 'blow job' and you hold out your fingers."

The Art of Lying

If you are going to lie to me, lie to me well.

More on Edwards

As I stated in an earlier blog posting, I am for John Edwards for President; I support him for three reasons: (1) Resume. More importantly than just the fact he just served in the Senate, I like that he is a trial lawyer. Why? Because I believe the greatest threat to America is unrestrained corporations, and John Edwards has made his living...and a very good one...taking on the corporations. In court case after court case he has exhibited the backbone and the ability to challenge and to reform corporate greed. (On the other hand, I believe his rival Hillary Clinton is a long-time insider in the corporate class structure; she sold out for power--and campaign $$$--a long time ago. (2) Programs. John Edward's list of policies about healthcare, the working class and collective action against corporate greed reflects my own. (3) Persona. I trust him. Silly as it sounds, I like the look in his eye. Ambitious? Yes. All politicians are. But I believe John Edwards, having been sorely tested by a child's death and his wife's cancer, is fueled by a political fire beyond power.

There is a special circle in hell for financial sins.

From Levine Breaking News, December 15, 2007

"REPORT SAYS THAT THE RICH ARE GETTING RICHER FASTER, MUCH FASTER: The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows. The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher. The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003. The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the bottom 166 million Americans, analysis of the report showed. The report is the latest to document the growing concentration of income at the top, a trend that President Bush said last January had been under way for more than 25 years."

Out of the Closet

Full Disclosure: I have committed body and soul, heart and intellect, to John Edwards, as the next, best President of the United States. More to follow!

Black on White

I sat in front of the television one recent late night in SF, and witnessed on C-Span a miracle: a staggering moment of shocking self-discovery: Barack Obama and Ophrey Winfrey, touring through South Carolina, casting for Democratic primary votes, suddenly discovered they were black.

"The Horror..the Horror." (a la Joseph Conrad and "The Heart of Darkness")

There are those sudden glimpses of the truth, staggering...blinding; insightful revelations mingling attraction and revulsion, beauty and fear...like Saul on the road to Tarsus...until finally, mercifully, we are able to pull away, re-assert our life affirming illusions and self-deceptions, the primary of which is: human life is meaningful.

On Keeping the Church and State Separate...and Free from Hypocrisy

I pass this on (with approval) from Levine Breaking News:

BY MAUREEN DOWD: When I was a kid, we used to drive on the Beltway past the big Mormon temple outside Washington. The spires rose up like a white Oz, and some wag had spray-painted the message on a bridge beneath: "Surrender Dorothy!" It did seem like an alien world, an impression that was enhanced when we took a tour of the temple and saw all the women wearing white outfits and light pink lipstick. Of course, it was no more scary than scowling nuns with long rulers preaching about the virgin birth, the Holy Ghost and the hideous fates that would befall girls who wore too much makeup or French-kissed. You'd think Catholics, who watched with trepidation as J.F.K. battled prejudice, would be sympathetic to Mitt Romney. But even for those of us in religions that were once considered cults by other religions -- my mom and another Catholic girlfriend actually had Southern Protestants ask them to lift up their hair so they could see the mark of the devil or the horns -- Mormonism is opaque. Now in addition to asking candidates about boxers or briefs, we have reporters asking Mitt Romney if he wears The Garment, the sacred one-piece, knee-length underwear with Mormon markings and strict disposal rules.

Of Gender and Differences

In an obituary in the L.A. Times noting the death of Elizabeth Hardwick, co-founder of the New York Review of Books as well as an accomplished author in her own regard, the article quoted Joan Didion (circa 1979) RE Ms. Hardwick:

"In certain ways the mysterious and somnambulistic 'difference' of being a woman has been, over thirty-five years, Elizabeth Hardwick's great subject," Didion wrote. She is drawn to "women adrift," who "indulge a fatal preference for men of bad character," Didion observed. "Perhaps no one has written more poignantly about the ways in which women compensate for their relative physiological inferiority."

The article did not mention, however, if Ms. Didion or Ms. Hardwick ever mentioned--any men writers of that thirty-five year period who wrote poignantly about the ways in which men compensate (perhaps fatally) for their relative emotional inferiority.

A good leader must govern from the center, because that's where the truth lies.