My father was employed at a small airplane manufacturing facility. It went under  and left behind a questionable environmental legacy. It is now a prison boot camp. ( good jobs!)  My father then went on to work an average of 80 hour weeks for the next 30+ years to provide for me and my brother. My mother has always had to maintain 2 jobs.  Due to there being no future for me other than alcoholism and prison, I left for SF and now make more than both of my parents. Do you detect any bitterness here?

A startlingly large number of people I knew are now dead due to DUI's and overdoses. The county jail in my home town, is usually populated with DUI offenders and those who defaulted on their child support. I know people who have to hunt to provide for their families. Throughout most of central PA there is a Heroin/Oxycontin epidemic. My best friend, at 30 is exhibiting signs of liver cirrhosis and pancreatitis, I have seen him hallucinate from DT's, and he works hard and doesn't have access to healthcare. Do you detect any bitterness here?

My family is culturally conservative, and religious, all members own guns, including me. That is all that the powers that be have let us keep, and we vote for who has and will at least protect that. 

We elected a Democratic governor (after having to put up with banana alert, shit your pants scary Tom Ridge), and he immediately attacked the already weak worker protections in the state. We get left behind and lied to by every single politician since the 70's. People do rally around what little we have left, and for good reason. It is a desperate, dying culture and what Obama said was correct, plain and simple. If you want to speculate that it will hurt him fair enough, time will tell. But please,please,please refrain from the insane parsing of words, the faux outrage.

César Estrada Chávez 
March 31, 1927 - April 23, 1993


It helps me to stay humble.
All eyes on Nov. Remember our principles

     * this is not about candidate bashing*

I have commented of a few posts regarding Obama's "arrogance", pointing out that in almost every context I have seen it used it is the incorrect word. I did this in a quite condescending manner admittedly, however in seriousness, without the proper word usage I am unable to understand the thought that is attempted to be conveyed.

Some may be stating arrogance as a way as to build a frame of viewing a candidate, however I don't believe that to be the case most of the time, as there is an emotional irrationality to most such posts. I have a suspicion that quite a bit of the time a person is not completely aware of the thought, merely expressing emotions that have not been reduced to fully coherent thought.

I am certainly no English master, far from it, grammar, spelling, and proper word usage, etc, are pretty elusive to me. In my work framing issues and choices is largely verbal and much easier to pull off as you can rely on tone, body language, etc to construct your frame.

Print is not so simple. Think "surge", correct word for a certain point of view, but it should have been escalation or along those lines. We lost public perception for a while partly because it.

The next problem is not an easy one:  received perception vs actual definition. How to use the correct word and elicit the correct response. I'll be damned if I can handle this one in print.

So keeping in mind that this is how to better understand each other and one of the ways to help destroy McCain age 847. 

My question is what do you feel about a candidate? 

Then,what is it that you find to cause that? (as in what specific description elicits this reaction?)

or If that is a bore.

What  are some wording to amplify and to best gain acceptance to the public at large of  McCain's glaring negatives?  

Aside from the fact that he rode dinosaurs with Jesus in the beginning of time 6000 years ago.

I might be inviting trouble with this, opening up nastiness, if anyone bothers to read it.

The word hero is one that lends itself to a very loose interpretation in our times. It is something that very emotionally charged quite often. One would very likely describe as hero someone who has died in 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq to their parents as a way consolation. It is because of this kind of usage that it mostly rings hollow in my ears, if it ever did ring with the singularity of a bell.

When I have heard at a eulogy that "He was a good man", something hits inside of me. It is as if hearing it plainly spoken, that there is simply no more fitting adjectives, and it resonates deeply.

Not to denigrate the man, but I do not believe that John McCain is a hero, due to his POW experience or otherwise. I do not believe that military service is inherently noble either, and that is not to say that it must be considered the polar opposite either.

Those who fight and die are not fighting for our freedom either, nor have they in any wars in my lifetime. Those fights are in our streets, and in our courts. Admitting this in no way cheapens the sacrifices on the part of military personnel.

I think that we need to carefully analyze these things that have been the root from which much political debate in this country has been centered. By doing so I believe we can construct new frames that not just counter the current ones, but change the debate at an intellectual level and appeal just as strong emotionally to the electorate at large.

We need to quickly clear the fog from the myth of John McCain so everyone can see the man John McCain. I for one do not believe that he is a good man.

So for the record I am not a Democrat, I really never cared for the party, I'll spare the reasons.  I am fortunate because I live in Oakland, so I can vote third party most of the time and it'll be fine. (also because you can talk politics with most folks and disagree AND fundamentally agree, I guess there is a lot of mutual respect, except for Michael Savage living within walking distance F**K!)

Why do I tell you this? No reason no relevance, I just live in a better place than you.

Anyhow. 

The squabbling of this primary is just, well, stupid. Neither candidate is ideal and no candidate ever is at the national level. Neither candidate is going to be that bad as long as we have a working majority in congress either.

I would most definitely prefer Obama, however he is not the messiah, and he does play spin, target group message, character assassination politics. If you haven't noticed, then you are Cult-like (or you may have missed it because he is really good at it)

And Clinton is disingenuous, and she does play win at all stakes politics, she learned through survival. If you haven't noticed, then you are Hilbot like ( and you really have to have noticed that, right? Maybe not?)

Ferraro wasn't racist she was stupid and did say some truth, trivial,stupid but true. Wright, a few factual errors aside, his message was correct from what I have seen.

Both sides have used things such as this and manipulated it to score points, that is politics, gotta break eggs to make omlettes, yada yada. If we run with it they will run with it, blogs are quite often ahead of and shaping the MSM narratives.

A Democratic president with a Democratic congress are tools not leaders( that is not meant to be a pun) What I mean is, Democratic politicians are more likely to hear the will of the people and if not bent to the will of the people. The other cats not so much. We need smart advocates not leaders, and it is on us to organize not just cast ballots. If you are looking for leadership, good luck with that.

So please change the narrative, I read here because it has posts of some great analysis, and some witty ass snark. This has rapidly changed. Views from formerly well reasoned posters are morphing into petty, inaccurate worse than FOX vitriol. Please start with the brains again, so I can read and not post quasi -kumbaya come together critique.

Lastly, the McCain stuff. Real simple, he is not morally and ethically upstanding, he is not genuine, he is not a straight shooter, he is not a military expert, he is not a populist. Please don't post anything to the contrary, research for yourself. If you are going to vote for him in protest you are an, I don't really know how say in a civil way, idiot.

Pontifically yours