Art From the Heart Giveaway

Catherine Mathews-Scanlon is giving away two copies of her book Art From the Heart.  You can read all about the book here at Amazon.com.  You can also find out how you might be able to win a copy of the book by going to Catherine’s blog.

The Timetable Debate

The one thing I left out of my lengthy diatribe about the GOP debate from January 30th is the timetable debate or name calling.

Again, this was a discussion (again, I hope irony or sarcasm in blog terms comes from italics) between John McCain and Mitt Romney.  Who else would it have been between since I think Ron Paul was allowed to speak for approximately five minutes and Mike Huckabee for maybe ten minutes?

McCain asserted that Romney supported a timetable for pullout.  Romney asserted that the comment was taken out of context.  McCain kept repeating over and over that the buzz word at the time was timetables.  This may well be true but unless you can listen to an entire interview and an entire statement, maybe you are not qualified to be president.

Romney says - and when I heard the entire statement, I didn’t think pullout timetables - he was discussing benchmarks and timetables to meet such benchmarks.  These timetables did not involve US pullout from Iraq.  These timetables involved benchmarks set for Iraq from number of Iraqi military to governing benchmarks.  Romney asserts that after this question he was point blank asked if he supported a timetable for pulling out and he answered no.  Seems no one from Anderson Cooper to John McCain wanted to listen to that part of the interview.

CNN’s Republican Debate

Probably the only thing I liked about last night’s GOP debate was the setting.  No one could have picked a beautiful and more significant location than the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.  Setting the four potential nominees in front of Air Force One from the Reagan era and having Nancy Regan in the front row was both powerful and reminiscent.

That being said, maybe the memories of the good ole days were too much for the public.  Will this hurt the GOP in the long run as people remember how good things were under Reagan and contrast it to the current GOP president.

My second big observation about this particular debate - and similar to observations I have had about other recent debates - is why invite people you don’t want to let have a chance to express themselves?  I realize that the GOP deserves to hear all those still in the hunt for the party’s nomination.  I am not sure that Anderson Cooper or CNN realizes this.  Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee had very little air time.  Paul even asked and, without permission or blessing of Cooper, started to answer a question on conservatism that all three other participants answered.  He was cut off with the guarantee that in a couple of minutes, no a couple of questions more and he would be given the chance.  This chance never came.  He should have kept going while he had the change, regardless of Cooper talking over him.

While I am by no means a Ron Paul supporter, I was drawn to his opening comments on a question that I will paraphrase as are we better or worse off now than eight years ago.  He took the question into our monetary system.  He quickly discussed that a country and economy that lets its monetary system become devalued allows itself to wipe out its own middle class.  Being an economist, I am sure he has studies of cultures other than ours to support this but look at the truth here.  Who is being squeezed by our current economic problems?  The middle class.  Who is having trouble paying their mortgages?  The middle class.  Who is taking the brunt of gas increases and thereby, paying double and triple for the increase in food and other necessity increases also?  The middle class.

I also want to know why - this is really rhetorical as I know why - no one dares admit that the mortgage crisis, the subprime problem should not be baled out.  What person with any intelligence - and this may be where the problem lies - who makes $100,000 a year truly believes a banker or mortgage broker when they say that person can afford a $1million dollar mortgage?  The federal government cannot bale out stupidity.  They can attempt to prosecute those in the mortgage industry who lied to people but the people themselves are not the government’s problem.

John McCain tried to address the subprime mortgage crisis.  He didn’t answer the actual question asked about it but danced around it.  He said the current plans were laudable.  My guess is someone briefed him on these plans as he has not been in Washington in weeks - fodder for a different blog on sitting politicians running for higher/different office.  He invoked names from the Reagan era - Kemp, Graham, Rudman - who were fiscal conservatives.  He, still in answering a question regarding the economy, said that the loss of the GOP congress in the 2006 elections was due to the economy and over spending being out of control, not over the Iraq war.  Maybe he doesn’t see the connection between the two.

There was a spat between Mitt Romney and McCain on Iraq and the surge.  McCain made it clear he had put his career on the line supporting a surge and complained that Romney wouldn’t comment on it in December of 2006.  To be honest, I don’t know why anyone would care what the outgoing governor of a state the size of Massachusetts thought about a federal policy like the military surge in Iraq.  I am not even sure why anyone asked Romney about it at that point in time.  He would not have had enough information to make a coherent statement on it.  As a governor - even one who was already contemplating an announcement of a run for his party’s presidential nomination, he would not have gotten briefings on matters of national security unless these matter directly affected his state.  I think McCain made a mistake making this an issue.  Evidently, Ron Paul thought so too as he wanted to know why the debate was fighting over these trivial details instead of actually discussing what foreign policy the potential presidents would have.

The end of the debate was blurry.  I was getting sick of the banter back and forth between McCain and Romney who both evidently thought they were on the dias alone.  All four did discuss pullout of troops from Iraq.  They did so in response to a quote from McCain regarding having troops there for a hundred years.  Of course, McCain said this was false and that it was all about casualties.  I didn’t understand this tact on his part.  Huckabee was upfront in saying we would live with victory and honor and he hoped it didn’t take 100 years.  He also realizes, though, that what happens here is going to effect an entire region - the Middle East.  This is a region that is volatile and needs to be handled with care.  Romney went off on there being four pieces of a puzzle called the world.  I also did not follow his tact on this.

I don’t know that anyone won the debate.  I think it did turn a lot of people off to politics.

Wax Resist

In our (a group of artists online) neverending way to work our way through Mary Todd Beam’s Celebrate Your Creative Self, we have been working on some white space in paintings. I understand the need for white space but I have trouble keeping it in creations.

One method discussed in the books is wax resist. This time I took a piece of cold pressed watercolor paper. I lit a candle and dripped wax on it. If you don’t think my two teenage boys looked at me like I was nuts, think again. After this, I mixed a combination of a pearlizing tint and red and gold acrylic paints to get an orangy paint color. This was still way too thick so I added water to get the consistency I want.

After I painted the entire page with this color combination, I let everything dry. After drying, I took clean newsprint and ironed the wax off the paper. I had tried to direct the wax so as to make shapes but the finished product does not look as if I did.

Just what is a debate?

Okay, I went to the dictionary. The synonyms for the word debate in the noun format are argument, controversy, disputation, contention. I guess I am way off, then, in saying that the recent “no rules” debates held on CNN are not what they should be.

I delved further looking to see why I always thought debates needed rules. My thoughts did not come just from the feelings that I thought the “debates” I had seen lately were disasters. I can watch adults argue at work or kids argue in my kitchen. I don’t need to watch television for that and I definitely don’t need to watch a political debate for that.

Seems competitive debates are for high schools and colleges. These involve rules and judges. This does not necessarily mean that political debates need rules. It would be nice, though.

The Difference Between Day and Night

Or, in this case, the difference between democrat and republican.

Today, I listened to two different candidates for their party’s presidential nominations withdraw from the races. The differences in the speeches these two men gave were vast.

John Edwards spoke of his vision, his life’s purpose, the issues that had been the pinnacle of his campaign. He mentioned, briefly, both his major advisaries but did not endorse either. His speech, much lengthier and from my point of view more heartfelt, was in New Orleans where he had started his campaign. He showed, that true to his word, he was not going to forget the people the US government has forgotten and went to work on housing for those displaced by Katrina after the speech. He was flanked by his wife and three children and volunteers from his campaign who showed emotion freely as he spoke.

Rudy Giuliani spoke of his former adversary, John McCain. Giuliani spoke in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California - significant only because the republican party is always trying to get back to the days of Ronald Reagan. The remarks, and this could just be the way Giuliani delivers words but I don’t think I have seen it prior to last night, sounded rehearsed and well-written but not heartfelt. I do not doubt that Giuliani will now throw all his support to McCain but the withdrawal words did not mention his vision, just how great McCain will be. He did not have his wife on the podium with him, just McCain.

Day and night. Republican and democrat. Is there not a midday or mid-philosophy area that will be best for our country?

Just Another Winter Day

Or so I thought when I awoke this morning. Believe it or not, here where the jokes are that we can count the days with sunshine on our fingers and toes the sun is shining brightly. That having been said, weather is a huge part of this wonderful (Does italics donate sarcasm in writing? I hope so!) day.

It was 38F when I woke up. It is now 28F. Still, the sun is shining brightly.

My 21 year old was awakened by the winds today. Granted she is on the eighth floor of her dorm room but the winds were healthy - somewhere between 50 and 80 mph in her part of the state for most of the morning.

Her twin brother has had notices from his university to stay inside unless you have to venture out. Of course, classes weren’t canceled. The irony in college life amazes me. I think I missed it when I was in college.

The worst part of this day was and is soon to be the announcement by John Edwards that he is pulling out of the campaign for the democratic presidential nomination. I realize he has not been pulling in the numbers he has wanted since Iowa where he was second. I realize that he is not pulling in the money that is needed to continue a campaign like his rivals are. I just really had hope with him in the race. His campaign to eleviate poverty in the US is unbelievable. His ability to know the issues from his upbringing makes it easier to somehow believe he will follow through on his promises.

Off to watch the announcement from New Orleans and see if there is someone else out there that I want to vote for next Tuesday.

How do you feel if you are a democrat in Michigan or Florida?

I am not a believer in litagious behaviour. I do think that our country would be in better shape if the answer to every alleged wrong was not a law suit. That having been said, if I were a registered democrat in either Michigan or Florida, I would be clamoring for a lawyer or the ACLU to take up my case.

The DNC has decided that it will punish states that don’t abide by its abitrary rules. This particular election cycle, the rule in question is when you can have a primary. Both Michigan and Florida said too bad, we want to be in front of the conglomerage that is now a mega Tuesday, instead of just a super one. Unfortunately, you had better be a registered republican in either of those states or your voice has been taken away from you in the primary process.

The Democratic National Committee decided that those states, because of not falling in line and following big brother’s rules, would not have any delegates seated at the national convention in late summer in Denver.

The state party in Michigan chose to advise all to vote anyway. Unfortunately, not all the candidates’ names appeared on the ballot. There was confusion as to who people should vote for. Write-ins were not counted. Uncommiteds were. This has to be against the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

While democrats will vote in Florida today, the state has been stripped of almost half of its delegates as a punishment. Any democratic candidate that dared to campaign in Florida would be stripped of the few delegates available. It is a disaster and needs to be corrected.
No committee - national or otherwise - has the right to strip a voter of their right to vote.

State of the Union

I did not expect any lame duck president to give a State of the Union address that lasted over an hour.  It seems that George W Bush is finally going to lay down the law to the Democratic Congress as the imperative that elected them is diminishing.

A few little things that annoyed me to no end about last night’s address - The president seemed to think that opening with some joking remarks was good.  I think it was less than presidential.  The television camera shots of senators and congressmen and women and other invited guest reading the remarks is annoying also.  Hand out the printed copy as people  leave the hall, not as they come in.  Any good speaker knows that if you had out the hard copy before the presentation people will not listen.  Your deliver will not matter.  People will read.  And lastly, the Speaker of the House of Representatives needs to look engaged in the process.  Nancy Pelosi looked bored last night and she needs to pick it up.  She is the sitting face of a united democratic party and is directly behind the president during these joint sessions.  As much as I dislike Dick Cheney, he looked like he was at least paying attention.

As expected, Bush talked about the economy.  The folksy attitude of discussing what is being discussed around kitchen tables seemed hypocritical.  My guess is the president couldn’t tell you what a gallon of milk costs (another West Wing reference for those of you who never watched the NBC show).  I am not sure he could possibly know what is being discussed around kitchen tables across the country.  In some kitchens, the question is most likely how are we going to afford to continue to put food on this table.   In some kitchens, the question is most likely how long do we keep our retirement invested in a market that is so violatile.  In some kitchens, the question is how do we tell our child that we can’t afford a private university.

The one thing Bush did get right about the economy was that the stimulus package needs to be acted on immediately.  I am not sure that this package will ultimately work but it is definitely not going to work if it doesn’t get out of the Senate.  Also, the Senate needs to - pardon the colloquilism - suck it up.  Stop trying to add to the package.  Just take the compromises and work done and use it!

While I applaud President Bush’s attitude towards earmarks, I question why he is suddenly veto happy.  He could have easily said the same thing last year, which is basically a do what I say or I will veto bills.  He chose to not take this stand.  Now, with a year left in office, he chooses to say these things.  I don’t know that his hard stand - should he actually follow through on it - will help the country or his party in trying to keep the White House in November.

The emphasis on education floored me as he started speaking.  No Child Left Behind has not been the success the Bush administration plays it as.  First, the president spoke of decreasing drop out rates.  This could be done by looking at what the definition of a drop out is under NCLB.  Any student who does not graduate from high school in four years is considered a drop out, even those who may need an extra summer or extra year and is still enrolled in school.  I know that locally the graduation percentages increase dramatically if the definition of a drop out is changed from that used under NCLB.

The next failure under NCLB is funding.  Mandates are made but no funding is included.  Prove yourself/your school/your teaching ability and then we will fund.  That is a wonderful thought but not very intelligent as the money needs to be given with the mandates.  When the money is not given to states and districts with the mandates, taxes end up increasing to pay for the mandates.  It has also been proven in school districts like the one in the greater Houston area that when you pay teachers based on standardized results, the teachers teach to the testing implement.  Students don’t learn.

The $300 million “earmark” for “Pell Grants for Kids” is a glorified voucher program.  I applaud the thoughtfulness to try and sneak it by without using the word voucher which is a lightning rod but if it quacks like a duck.  There are, I am sure, areas that need this type of money.  Unfortunately, I do not think it is the federal government’s place to pay for private education.

All in all, George W Bush gave a lively speech.  It seemed like he did not know he is a lame duck president but will he follow through on all the items he detailed?

The Other Kennedy Endorsement

If any endorsement has made me think I should further investigate Barrack Obama, it was the Kennedy endorsement in the NY Times that did it.  No, I am not referring to Senator Ted Kennedy.  I already told you that I laughed so hard at his endorsement and the irony involved in it, my stomach hurt.  I could care less what he says.  I am referring to his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg has spent her life as an attorney, a writer, an editor.  She has shied away from the more public eye of the political life.  She has not invoked her family name to influence others. 

Her thoughtful written prose on why she feels Barrack Obama should be the next President of the United States did more to move me to look at Obama’s positions on the issues than anything her uncle could have said.