Football

Thoughts while watching the Secret Service hearings...

The security breaches at the White House are breathtakingly frightening, no doubt about it. The situation most certainly warrants investigation and resolution. That said, we’ve had years of blatant and relentless depredation toward Obama. We’ve watched, amazed, as Republicans have carried out their pre-planned and announced obstructions of this particular President, with blithe disregard for the negative consequences for the nation. We have observed as Republicans, en masse, have failed to exercise commensurate efforts toward any discouragement of the undeniable hate, overt and otherwise, that has informed and impelled the unprecedented numbers of threats, against him and his family, that have overwhelmed security resources since before this particular President’s first inaugural.

Given all that, it absolutely strains credulity to watch as Republicans now voice their sudden and newly found ‘concern’ for the safety and well-being of this particular President. Call me cynical, but I don’t believe a damned one of them. In fact, it would be less surprising if they came right out and admitted disappointment in the failure of the attempts against him.

beep beep "You have mail."

I get it. Really. I do understand why they keep sending those annoying, begging emails. We all know that it costs money, a lot of money, to run for office or re-election. And it costs even more these days, thanks to the parade of Citizens United Goliaths facing our scattered Davids. We have nothing comparable, and for my thinking, that’s a good thing. We don’t want to be like them. Our victories are the result less of dollars than of people working together. The battles we do win are won with principle and brains against the brawn dripping with cash; it’s not “winning” if all you do is write a check for it.

Personally, I’m thankful for those on the Dem side who can and do write checks. I’m also thankful that they don’t stop there. In my neighborhood they get down in the nitty gritty with the rest of us. My income is so severely limited that donating cash is absolutely out of the question. But time can be donated, and I’ve been blessed with so many friends met across a table where several of us were folding letters and stuffing them in envelopes, or getting together to write letters to newspapers, or learning how to canvass or make phone calls, or work in the office answering phones and scheduling yard-sign deliveries, or doing data entry at one campaign then going a few blocks away to do the same for another campaign, or doing voter registration (one of my favorites!), or making sure our canvassers have enough water to drink and maybe some snacks to energize their walking, or coordinating a team to make sure there’s a meal for those who’ve been canvassing for hours, or helping voters find the nearest voting location…

When I sign up for these organizations I make sure they know that I can NOT give money. But I ask them to keep me on their mailing list, anyway, because there’s always a bit of new information in every communiqué. And maybe I can pass that information on to someone who finds it sufficiently compelling to sign up and donate. I do what I can, and no campaign has ever said, “Naw, we just want money, so go away.” In spite of limitations of age and health there is always something I can do.

So, as annoying as those emails are, I know that they really are necessary. I also know that this is what it’s going to look like from now on with every election season, at least until we undo the damage done by Citizens United. And we’ll get a bit of a break after the midterms. Then there’s next year and 2016.

The telephone rings all day, the emails arrive from early morning until late at night. All that begging pales in comparison to the barrage of nastiness that passes for campaign commercials. The upside is that my television screen is the cleanest spot in the house; I keep a basket of rolled up socks handy and pitch them at the ads. The screen gets continuously cleaned, and I get exercise picking up the ricocheted socks.

My ballot will arrive in the mail in a few days, and in filling it out I will smile and claim my portion in this thing we call democracy, money be damned.

Was that the doorbell?

The Buck stops here.

In 2006 DA Ken Buck (now running for Congress) helped to orchestrate the December raid on a meatpacking plant, a raid that resulted in numerous families being torn apart just in time for Christmas. Two years later Buck joined with Sheriff John Cooke in raiding "Amalia's Tax Service", which caters primarily to Spanish-speaking taxpayers, wherein they rifled through hundreds of confidential files in an effort to troll for illegal activity; for that raid, Buck and Cooke had their ears pinned back by the state Supreme Court.

Fast forward to today, and this facebook post from Vic Meyers, the Democratic candidate for the 4th CD seat being vacated by Cory Gardner:




Some moments are sweet.

CD4 debate

There was a debate last night. Four candidates for the seat being vacated by Cory Gardner: Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian.

Democrat Vic Meyers brought erudition and a command of facts and figures; he pointed out where Ken Buck contradicted his own statements from only a few days ago. He gave detailed responses to the questions, as detailed as two minutes would allow. Ken Buck literally recited tea party talking points, and got almost entertainingly huffy while defending Citizens United (which has endorsed him).

Sadly, and no doubt to Ken Buck's great relief, the local newspaper (Greeley Tribune) barely managed to cover a debate where even some Republicans in the audience were heard to express positive commentary about Meyers.

But there was a spectacularly sweet moment afterwards. In the lobby, where candidates were meeting and greeting, a young woman approached Ken Buck. She was wearing a Vic Meyers campaign button, but Buck gladly clasped her extended hand. She gifted him with a beautiful smile and told him, "Mr. Buck, you truly inspired me tonight. Thank you for confirming that I made the right choice in supporting Vic Meyers!" She withdrew her hand and walked away, as he stood there with his hand in empty air and a stunned look on his face. Damn I wish I'd had a video camera for that.

Travel WTF

A friend just posted her present situation on facebook. I'll paraphrase it here:

She's mid-20s, rather striking in appearance, some would say she's statuesque. Her father is Saudi, her mother is from New England. Born in the Middle East, she's lived here ever since she was a toddler; we became acquainted while working on a congressional campaign a couple years back. She presently lives on the west coast, works weeks-long stints in Alaska. In her off-time she loves to travel, her favorite travel attire being a slacks and a light sweater. She and her boyfriend are in the process of returning from a trip to Europe, and spent a day visiting friends in Chicago before heading home.

At O'Hare they were in line preparing to board when she was pulled out of line and subjected to a full "inspection" in front of everyone in the boarding area; since this was a last-minute thing and the airline did not want to inconvenience the other travellers, their seats were made available to stand-by passengers. As she put it, she stood there getting publicly groped while their plane left the gate. When she asked why this was happening, she was told only that it was "at the discretion of the airline"; no other explanation. She and her boyfriend were given stand-by tickets for the next flight that had seating available; adding insult to injury, the step-down to stand-by status took away the upscale airport lounge access that had come with the original tickets.

She's boiling, and I don't blame her. I had no idea this sort of thing happened, much less to anyone who had already passed through security.

Has anyone here ever witnessed this kind of thing?

Civics and public education

Mine was in 1962, ninth grade, and Civics was a required course.

When was your last public education Civics class?

How do we...?

How do we...?

Why is it different?