Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Art Challenge 12
This week's challenge was to draw my Characters as playing cards. Too keep myself from getting too carried away I just drew Flynn's Jack. One day it would be cool to create all 52 cards.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
How Obama will outsmart himself
Yes Obama is in over his head because the mess left was above anyone's head. Bush really messed everything up. That is exactly why Obama should do what is right even if it doesn't seem like it's smart for trying to become re-elected. Obama has been too cautious in my mind.
That alone should not mean he should not be elected. There is a difference between what we should expect and what we should never accept. And unfortunately even if we never accept some of the things he's done doesn't mean he isn't the lesser of evils. But in not criticizing him openly we forever doom ourselves to choose evil.
It's a disservice to Obama. I believe he is a good man but he is governing by what he sees as left of his challengers.
Andrew Sullivan recently put up an article about what a genius Obama is for running this way. Here are some foot notes of mine:
*Sullivan criticizes the 'radical left' of being disappointed that Obama didn't revolutionize everything. Most people don't actually hear from the 'radical left'. They never supported Obama. There is nothing radical about expecting Obama to live up to his own hype. If it was radical Sullivan would be a radical for supporting him when he said it or a shitty journalist for not telling the rest of us that Obama really meant something more mediocre.
*It is true that Republican candidates are making up how Marxist Obama is. They have chosen to run against an Obama that doesn't exist. Obama is a centrist (nothing wrong with that) and no matter how far he bends to prove he is not a radical leftist they continue to campaign against him as if he is.
*It is true that Obama doesn't get enough credit for actions like buying GM. It seems to have worked. But Obama has also done too much waiting to see what Congress will send him. I blame the fact that he has surrounded himself with the same kind of aspiring lobbyist and yes men that previous administrations have. During the election we were given the impression that this would be an administration of academics. It isn't that I am saying that academics would necessarily have better solutions. But they'd be offering different solutions.
*Though it's nice that Obama will be able to call the GOP nominee a liar about raising taxes. Wouldn't it have been better to raise taxes on the top 1% and say "If I raised your taxes don't vote for me"? It's fine not to raise taxes if you don't believe it will help but Obama keeps saying one thing and doing another.
*Sullivan: "But where Bush talked tough and acted counterproductively, Obama has simply, quietly, relentlessly decimated our real enemies, while winning the broader propaganda war." true enough. Though Obama also continues a show of force while proving over and over that is not the way to win modern warfare and 'winning the hearts and minds'
*Sullivan is also right to say that " From the start, liberals projected onto Obama absurd notions of what a president can actually do in a polarized country, " But Obama hasn't been very good about finding common ground. Instead of passing a huge medical bill he could have broke it up and passed the components that would be foolish for congress to vote against. Yeah he got health care through but he could have gotten through more things like hiring more patent clerks if he didn't call in so many favors on healthcare.
The other thing is that Obama has started all his negotiations from the center instead of starting from where he says he believes and forcing the other side to work to the center with him.
* "Liberals have derided him as a captive of Wall Street," That is because of the way Obama has done business. Monsanto is going to be able to save money on lobbyist now that Obama has hired one of their guys to run the EPA. Yes business people are smart and knowledgable. But you can't let them both advise you and lobby to you on how to regulate them.
*Personally I don't expect Obama to grandstand. I expect reasonable results from him. I expect a lot out of him because we pay him a lot of money and pay for him to have a very big staff. I'll give him that he is probably one of our best presidents of my lifetime but that is a very low bar considering the resources available to him.
*Ending torture does not give Obama a free pass on indefinite detention. Because guess what the next president can bring torture back and doesn't have to worry about the prisoner telling anyone because they are never getting out of solitary confinement.
It may seem easy for me to sit here and criticize the president and his defenders. But I am running for office as a dare to see if I can do better. And I can guarantee that even if I do accomplish more than what we've come to expect, I will be still riddled with guilt over what more I could have done.
We should never be complacent with our elected officials because that is when they begin to slide backwards.
That alone should not mean he should not be elected. There is a difference between what we should expect and what we should never accept. And unfortunately even if we never accept some of the things he's done doesn't mean he isn't the lesser of evils. But in not criticizing him openly we forever doom ourselves to choose evil.
It's a disservice to Obama. I believe he is a good man but he is governing by what he sees as left of his challengers.
Andrew Sullivan recently put up an article about what a genius Obama is for running this way. Here are some foot notes of mine:
*Sullivan criticizes the 'radical left' of being disappointed that Obama didn't revolutionize everything. Most people don't actually hear from the 'radical left'. They never supported Obama. There is nothing radical about expecting Obama to live up to his own hype. If it was radical Sullivan would be a radical for supporting him when he said it or a shitty journalist for not telling the rest of us that Obama really meant something more mediocre.
*It is true that Republican candidates are making up how Marxist Obama is. They have chosen to run against an Obama that doesn't exist. Obama is a centrist (nothing wrong with that) and no matter how far he bends to prove he is not a radical leftist they continue to campaign against him as if he is.
*It is true that Obama doesn't get enough credit for actions like buying GM. It seems to have worked. But Obama has also done too much waiting to see what Congress will send him. I blame the fact that he has surrounded himself with the same kind of aspiring lobbyist and yes men that previous administrations have. During the election we were given the impression that this would be an administration of academics. It isn't that I am saying that academics would necessarily have better solutions. But they'd be offering different solutions.
*Though it's nice that Obama will be able to call the GOP nominee a liar about raising taxes. Wouldn't it have been better to raise taxes on the top 1% and say "If I raised your taxes don't vote for me"? It's fine not to raise taxes if you don't believe it will help but Obama keeps saying one thing and doing another.
*Sullivan: "But where Bush talked tough and acted counterproductively, Obama has simply, quietly, relentlessly decimated our real enemies, while winning the broader propaganda war." true enough. Though Obama also continues a show of force while proving over and over that is not the way to win modern warfare and 'winning the hearts and minds'
*Sullivan is also right to say that " From the start, liberals projected onto Obama absurd notions of what a president can actually do in a polarized country, " But Obama hasn't been very good about finding common ground. Instead of passing a huge medical bill he could have broke it up and passed the components that would be foolish for congress to vote against. Yeah he got health care through but he could have gotten through more things like hiring more patent clerks if he didn't call in so many favors on healthcare.
The other thing is that Obama has started all his negotiations from the center instead of starting from where he says he believes and forcing the other side to work to the center with him.
* "Liberals have derided him as a captive of Wall Street," That is because of the way Obama has done business. Monsanto is going to be able to save money on lobbyist now that Obama has hired one of their guys to run the EPA. Yes business people are smart and knowledgable. But you can't let them both advise you and lobby to you on how to regulate them.
*Personally I don't expect Obama to grandstand. I expect reasonable results from him. I expect a lot out of him because we pay him a lot of money and pay for him to have a very big staff. I'll give him that he is probably one of our best presidents of my lifetime but that is a very low bar considering the resources available to him.
*Ending torture does not give Obama a free pass on indefinite detention. Because guess what the next president can bring torture back and doesn't have to worry about the prisoner telling anyone because they are never getting out of solitary confinement.
It may seem easy for me to sit here and criticize the president and his defenders. But I am running for office as a dare to see if I can do better. And I can guarantee that even if I do accomplish more than what we've come to expect, I will be still riddled with guilt over what more I could have done.
We should never be complacent with our elected officials because that is when they begin to slide backwards.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Springfield E-Verify
I attended the League of Women Voters forum on the E-verify ordinance we'll be voting on next Tuesday. The evening began with the City Council explaining the petition process and then the City Legal Adviser who explained that the ordinance will probably be overturned in Missouri courts.
The debate was mostly over what degree of pointless the bill will be since it is unenforceable and as far as anyone can tell illegal immigration is not really a problem in Springfield.
The event was pretty information light. But I did walk away with a with some new thoughts on the subject of this ordinance:
*The bill seems to try to try and bypass due process- issuing a 20 day suspension of business licence on the first offence. My understanding is that is automatic not upon being found guilty.
*As I said above the Missouri Supreme court is likely to favor challenges. This may result in the city being sued for 20 days of lost earnings...
*In opening statements the supporters said that the ordinance wouldn't cost anything to tax payers, but later admitted giving the financial department more responsibility does have a cost. To me this is the crux of the argument because it will cost the city money with little possibility of having results.
*The representative from the minutemen repeatedly described illegal immigration as insidious. But what seems more insidious to me is forcing business owners sign oaths to participate with a program that doesn't work (e-verify has a history of false positives). Maybe I was reading a little too much between the lines but some of what was said reminded me of The Red Scare.
*The real winners of this bill would be neighboring cities. The biggest employers in Springfield are call centers. Call centers have a high turnover rate. Forcing them to do more paperwork can be very expensive in the long run.
*At one point it was brought up that E-verify could take several weeks to process someone. Waiting a few weeks to start a job is annoying and when you're scraping by it's frightening.
*The problem would be better addressed by cracking down on identity theft not illegal immigrants.
*Both sides agree that the proposed ordinance needs to be fixed, but the supporters would rather have a bad law passed than start over. Remember both sides agree that this isn't an urgent problem in Springfield, though supporters insist it's worst than anyone thinks.
The debate was mostly over what degree of pointless the bill will be since it is unenforceable and as far as anyone can tell illegal immigration is not really a problem in Springfield.
The event was pretty information light. But I did walk away with a with some new thoughts on the subject of this ordinance:
*The bill seems to try to try and bypass due process- issuing a 20 day suspension of business licence on the first offence. My understanding is that is automatic not upon being found guilty.
*As I said above the Missouri Supreme court is likely to favor challenges. This may result in the city being sued for 20 days of lost earnings...
*In opening statements the supporters said that the ordinance wouldn't cost anything to tax payers, but later admitted giving the financial department more responsibility does have a cost. To me this is the crux of the argument because it will cost the city money with little possibility of having results.
*The representative from the minutemen repeatedly described illegal immigration as insidious. But what seems more insidious to me is forcing business owners sign oaths to participate with a program that doesn't work (e-verify has a history of false positives). Maybe I was reading a little too much between the lines but some of what was said reminded me of The Red Scare.
*The real winners of this bill would be neighboring cities. The biggest employers in Springfield are call centers. Call centers have a high turnover rate. Forcing them to do more paperwork can be very expensive in the long run.
*At one point it was brought up that E-verify could take several weeks to process someone. Waiting a few weeks to start a job is annoying and when you're scraping by it's frightening.
*The problem would be better addressed by cracking down on identity theft not illegal immigrants.
*Both sides agree that the proposed ordinance needs to be fixed, but the supporters would rather have a bad law passed than start over. Remember both sides agree that this isn't an urgent problem in Springfield, though supporters insist it's worst than anyone thinks.
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