On answering the call to serve.

During his campaign for president, Barack Obama asked the American people to give of themselves to help steer us out of this national funk we're in. Service, he said, helps us help our fellow citizens, lifts our spirits, benefits the economy, and fosters a sense of responsibility in America's destiny.

I didn't need to be told that by President Obama. The benefits of service and altruism, to me, are self-evident. But that's not the case with a lot of Americans. Many are complacent enough to let others do the serving, while they reap the benefits of a prosperous country.

What happens, then, when your country isn't so prosperous? Is it then time to get off your duff and do something worthwhile?

It's a shame it's come to this, but if an economic downturn, and a "sapping of confidence across our land," are what's needed to get Americans mobilized, then so be it. Let them take a share in country's future - as they should have all along.

Obama used Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a call to arms for all Americans: do something above and beyond yourself. Use Dr. King's legacy to serve the underserved. A lot of Americans answered the call.

But I imagine more didn't. And no matter how many times the president asks us to serve, there will be those who seek excuses for not serving. I'll bet some won't even be shy about it.

During the last administration, the most Bush asked us to do was to grab our credit cards, start shopping, and shut the damn up about Constitutional abuses. We were asked to give nothing up in response to the Afghanistan and Iraq War, except the lives of our young people and our standing in the world. We sacrificed little. Maybe that's why the cries for the war to end have been relatively quiet. Why cry when you have little to cry about?

Now a lot of people are hurting, and perhaps Obama's message - that we're in this together, that it will take a collective effort to get us out of this mess - will be respected. There's plenty of blame to go around, but a heart attack patient doesn't weep long over the pizza and beer of a previous life. Instead, he gets busy shaping up. That's what America needs.

One of my online/Mac/humor heroes, Merlin Mann, said it well:

Maybe what we really need is somebody to tell us it’s time to grow up, to think about how the rest of the world operates, and to accept that being a country of adults means doing a ton of insanely hard work and making sacrifices where not everybody wins.

So what to do? How can each of us assist in beating the "general malaise," as President Carter once understood it, and fight the "crisis in confidence?"

The options are endless, really, and it depends on where your heart find the most joy. Marketer Seth Godin has a few ideas, and some ideas are very difficult at all. You could do as the Coudal Partners suggest and simply put your hard-earned money where your mouth is. Do you seek confidence in the strength of the American market? Fine. Pay up or shut up.

Chances are, however, that your efforts can do the most good not too far from where you're sitting right now. Time and time again, I talk to local non-profits and businesses and hear the need in their voices: shop here, give here, help us out.

My advice? Go where your talents can do the most good. Or, go and do something that you've never done before. Just do something. Not all of us can be Ben Franklin, who gave so much of his time, talent, and attention that we put him - a guy who never became president - on our currency. But you don't need to be Ben Franklin to make a different somewhere. Try this: one night a week, for an hour or two, give your time to a cause you care about. Just one night a week, turn off the TV, set your video game down, get out of your living room, and put yourself to work - for free - on a project.

If you do this already, great. Your country thanks you. Keep doing it, and do a bit more if you can afford to.

But if you don't usually do this kind of thing, and even if you didn't vote for or support President Obama, answer his call to service. If you don't, nothing will happen. No one will hate you. America will carry on as before.

And that's exactly what I'm afraid of.

Standing at the waterline.

"Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top." - Hunter S. Thompson, 1986


* * * * *

As General Motors and Chrysler crumble and teeter like a top-heavy Jenga game, I can't help but feel apathetic. These are the people who inspire the need for a new car. In fact, their whole business (or lack of) depends on Americans buying vehicles that lose their value the minute they leave the dealership lot.

How strange, I think. But maybe not. Our whole economic system, after all, depends on the new, the shiny, the weird. Maybe it plays to the Grand Ego of our country - the one that says we're the best, so we need the best.

I'll probably never buy a new car, so my economic decisions won't ever help to save an ailing auto company. GM will survive or die without me. There's comfort in that thought; I have no individual responsibility for saving a company that was once the symbol and thermometer of American progress. I've checked out of the system. No fault of mine.

Used vehicles are the lifeblood of my place of employment, and there's dignity in that thought. When all the banks are dying or being bought up like on-sale antiques, credit unions stand apart thanks to their not-for-profit status, their democratic decision-making, and their responsbility to serve the underserved. I didn't know a lot of this when I got the job, but as the years have gone on, I take pride in my industry's philosophy - probably because it matches my own.

Used cars. Used Macs. Used CDs on eBay. Even used clothing, when it smells decent. Perhaps I should have been born in the Depression. Lord knows I'm still lucky enough to have a job in the current one.

Our generation may have a wake-up call coming. America's ego has been made flesh in every generation since the Baby Boomers, and while our generation is politically active and commercially cynical, it still thinks a lot of itself.

Republicans, and a lot of Democrats, see nothing wrong with this. They've been selling the idea of America as a Place That Does No Wrong for a long, long time. It's only lately that our giant national id has been laid low. Being humble is not an American trait that comes naturally, but lately we've had no choice.

I know this personally. 2008 was a stupid, stressful, bumble-headed year for me. It taught me a lot about my limits and faults, and I've thought a lot about them this winter. It's been good for me.

Which is why I can only wish the same for all of us, as a country and a people. The world is too nasty and too chaotic to keep our national credit card on an over-the-limit status. We're now at the waterline, as Dr. Thompson mentioned, and the sharks are circling nearby.

That adrenaline rush we feel in our gut is evolution at its most basic: fight or flight. Which way do we go? Do we strive for a more meaningful and fulfilling life? Or do we seek meaning in a life looking for a bailout?

We've been at the top of the food chain for a long time now. But the sharks have been around a lot longer, and they have no ego to keep in check.

Operation: Oooh, Sarracuda

Maybe this is a news flash, but Barack Obama is a Muslim. He also hates America, isn't a patriot, and wants to kill us all in our sleep.

If you didn't know all this, it's okay. Just open up your e-mail inbox and it's all right there.

I say that in jest, of course, but the fact remains: the right-wing uses e-mail like a pro. They've used it against the Clintons and against John Kerry, and now it's being used against Obama. Probably because it only involves hitting the "Forward" button, and it doesn't involve much creativity. Why pay for ads when you can just type up some bullshit and hit "send" to your family members?

The left-wing has its own form of propaganda, but it involves a little more work. Liberals get off their asses and does some on-the-street reporting, in blogs and in commenting forums and in Twitter feeds, like journalists used to do (and should be doing today).

The Twitter feeds I read are alive with protests and linking. John Gruber, who authors my favorite blog Daring Fireball, has made it his goal to uncover everything evil about Sarah Palin. And Andrew Sullivan, over at The Atlantic, has hit the governor everyday. But who actually reads this stuff? Do average Americans really jump on The Atlantic's site for their political news? How much influence do they have?

There's a great new blog that has surfaced since the Palin VP announcement, called Mudflats, and its written by a guy up in Alaska that reports as an Alaskan on the whole ordeal. It's great stuff, like when he attends an anti-Palin rally that's actually larger than her "welcome home" rally.

But then I watch the Sunday morning political shows, like "This Week," and all of them were gushing over Sarah Palin and her "dramatic invigoration" of the Republican base. No truth-telling, no in-depth questioning - just idol worship. How can blogs compete with ABC? My good friend Andrea has had some great posts about the awfulness of the Governor, but even her and me combined don't get the audience that major media outlets do. Not even close.

So we need an e-mail campaign of our own.

We need to take what these go-getters, these guardians of the public interest (most of which are underpaid or not paid at all - just passionate investigators of the truth) are finding and spread them like a virus. We can finally test whether the truth will set America free, and whether lies fall under the weight of their own hypocrisy (though are are some exceptions).

Take what you find, copy the link or the text, and send them to your relatives. You know the ones: the same aunts and uncles who send you those "send this or die in five days" kinds of e-mails. Send them all the shit that's been dug up about Palin. If that's the only way we can reach people about this lady, then so be it. Because I'll tell you, McCain's cronies are working hard to assault Obama through e-mail (by calling him a Muslim, anti-American, a socialist, and so on). We can fight back.

The key will be not to send them to people who think the same way you do. That's preaching to the choir. Instead, send it to people who you know are either undecided or are so pro-Palin they're going to get their Sarah beehave hairdo. Set your sights on folks who don't pay attention, in any sort of detail, to news from the political front. The fact is, these folks aren't going to find out the truth unless it's shoved in front of their face. So let's do the shoving.

To get things started, however, spread the good word amongst your friends. They can then take what we've found and spread it to their non-believers. It has to start somewhere.

Is this back-handed? Is it the cheap way of doing things? Is it even right? Yes, maybe, and probably not - but listen, we're on the losing side of a fight that's been raging for years. We can hope that people will suddenly care about what goes on in the world, and we can hope that people will read blogs and watch the news and do some research. But hope only goes so far, and eventually we need to do the work ourselves. Part of it is the good people who are researching the candidates and putting the information out there. But that's only half the battle. The other half is making sure people see the stuff. And friends, that's where you and I come in.

You know what the great part is? Most of the stuff being spread about Barack Obama are lies. Shit-storm, muddy, dirty lies. But the information about Sarah Palin? That's all true. The difficult part is already done, because we don't have to make anything up. Her husband really did want Alaska to secede from the Union. She really did say the Iraq war was "God's will." She look into banning books at her town's library. All this makes the entire job easier.

This begins "Operation: Oooh, Sarracuda." But what should our hub be? Should we have a blog? A website? Some kind of resource people can go and find all the ammunition they need? Let me know, and we can build a hot-and-heavy coalition of people who really care about who is going to govern their country. Nothing is out of bounds, but there is one limitation: we're only going to spread stuff that's true. No lies. Nothing that might be true. Just truth, fair and square.

The moral high ground is a good place to start, and as the Jedi say - the truth hurts. Let's make it hurt really bad. While we may feel a bit dirty and slimy at the end - anything that deals with spreading e-mail propaganda is always a bit messy - our hard work will be worth it. A side benefit? Maybe your neighbor, the one who sends you all those lottery offers and racist jokes, will leave you the hell alone.

The war will not be televised. It will be forwarded and spread and will catch fire in the inboxes of the unbelievers. We have nothing to lose but our dignity - we have a country to gain.

Why I wish 'SarahPalinSucks.com' wasn't taken.

Joe Klein from Time.com, on John McCain's new war on the media:

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Nice to meet you, Mr. Vice President.

We all learned that Joe Biden is Obama's choice for VP running mate.

But just who the hell is this guy?

I have to admit: my recollection is his "clean and articulate" description of Obama during the primaries, but more that he was the anti-Edwards. Shoot-from-the-hip, wise, seen it all before, really knows his stuff kind of guy - that's Biden. And here I would've loved to vote for Edwards more than anyone, and found out what a disaster that would have become, Biden become the next best possible VP choice. If his mouth doesn't get him in trouble again.

Anyway, to learn who this guy is, I recommend a big GQ profile on him, written during the primaries, that handles everything in a nutshell.

Other than McCain, this is the guy that has a handle on the way the world works. Obama having him on the team is a boon for both of them, I think, because - like McCain - there's a certain sense of having earned where they are today. I dig meritocracy, and there's enough merit in this race now to banish any thoughts of none-of-the-above voting (as I've mentioned before).

It all makes sense. We finally have a couple of guys who know what the hell they're doing when it comes to intelligence and industry and hard work - everything that Bush lacks. We also have a VP nominee who would whip Mitt Romney's fake fucking ass in a debate, and I can't wait to see it happen.

Helping out via the Intertubes.

This morning I donated $5 to a guy running for Kansas state representative, Sean Tevis, because he's a funny guy.

When you get right down to it, people come up with far lamer excuses for voting for politicians. I think there's something to be said for humor in politics - especially from someone who gets Internet memes, cultural references, and the absurdity of it all. Tevis's comic was pure fun, and in it he asks for a few thousand people to donate $8 to his campaign to beat some Intelligent-Design-spouting yahoo. Hey, sign me up.

Why donate to some guy I don't even know out in Kansas?

I donated for the same reason I'd give some mixed-race Hawaiian I've never met $5 to run for president: he speaks my language. And he could use the help.

All politics may be local, but Tevis strikes me as a guy I could have a beer with. Or sit down and talk Macs with. He seems like a guy who represents - finally! - a break from guys who think the Internet is actually a series of tubes.

Tevis won't be the last. Every week, I plan to give $5 to some politician, either local or otherwise, who Speaks My Language. There's a state senator here in Michigan who wants to take on Tim Walberg, our state rep in Congress. He's a good guy, a hard worker, and he's pretty smart. So he gets $5.

And on it will go, for the rest of the political season. And if I can't find someone worthy one week, well, some cash-strapped charity or organization will get it. Groups are hurting out there, after all, and while $5 does seem like a lot, (a) I can afford $5 a week, (b) it can buy some stamps for a mailing, (c) it beats the hell out of getting nothing at all.

What's nice about the Intertubes is I can send my money where it's needed most instantly. I gave Tevis his $5 via PayPal, which made it really convenient.

This will also force me to do some research and get to know the issues this year. Before I give anyone their $5, they'll have to reach me. And to reach me, I need to do some reading first.

So $5 a week. No big deal, right? Well for guys like Tevis, a few thousand $5 donations can make the difference between kicking the old-school bums out and suffering from more cranky men who Don't Give A Shit.

The end of "none of the above"

It was back in February that a thought first occurred to me: I wouldn't be upset if either Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or John McCain won the presidency.

Now that Sen. Clinton is out, I feel the same way.

And here's why: at least two of those candidates have high cross-over potential. We in Michigan preferred McCain over Bush in 2000 because of the help of state Democrats, and there are reports of tons of Republicans crossing the red/blue state divide to support Obama.

Now that's cool. Take, on the other hand, the 2004 (or 2000, or 1996) campaigns, where partisan divisions ran deeper than the Hatfields versus the McCoys.

Are we reaching a point in this country where we're attracted to people who aren't so divisive? Are we ready to really bring the country together, instead of appealing to some primary-colored base? Are we ready to get some shit done? Or is this what politicians need to do to survive in our age of hyper-cynicism?

It could be that the folks still running are respectable enough that considerations could go either way. I know I feel it. If McCain were elected, I wouldn't be looking forward to the 2012 election as a solution - not like I would if, say, Romney had slicked his way into the nomination.

On the other side, how can a Democrat not be proud of what Obama's done? My grandma was in near tears at the prospect of electing a black man to president during her lifetime. "And I remember riding on the bus on the way to Florida in the 1950s, when they had to sit in the back," she told me. Part of me feels prouder of our country because we can talk less about a politician's race and more about his "experience" or "substance."

Things may change and November creeps closer. Who knows? The ugliness could come roaring back. But until then, I think there's a real loss of the "none of the above" feelings we've had since 2000. Think about it. Was anyone that excited about Bush vs. Gore? Not until after the election night, when all hell broke loose. Then people got passionate.

In 2004, it was the same story: people picked the person they disliked the least. Is that any way to vote for president?

This time. something has changed. Yes, the candidates offer starkly different ideas about how to govern and run our country. But if Obama suddenly turnes into a salivating, baby-eating hunchback, I'd be just fine with voting for McCain. And if McCain starts ordering e-mails containing launch codes, Obama will be my man with pride.

These men offer vastly different ideas about governing our country, and there's no doubt which way my vote will go. It wasn't always this way, but recent events - like McCain reversing his stance against offshore drilling - have made the difference even clearer.

But he's still a cool guy.

"There is a time to campaign, and a time to govern," McCain said the Tuesday night Obama clinched the nomination. "If I'm elected president, the era of the permanent campaign of the last sixteen years will end. The era of reform and problem solving will begin."

We've heard words like that before, but coming from Sen. McCain, my first instinct is not to break out into hysterical laughter. The guy is different, and he's speaking to something we've all felt: politics is one big PR effort. Maybe this time, though, things are just what they seem. It's hard to imagine either Obama or McCain with some hidden ax to grind - some secret agenda that would mean more money for oil buddies and political offices for golf buddies.

And frankly, I'd trust McCain or Obama's golf buddies over Bush's any day.

Each of the candidates came from an America I can relate to. George Bush didn't; he came from privelege. He's never known want or suffering or struggle. Obama and McCain have, all too well.

There are a lot of people who feel the same way I do. That speaks of good things for our country, and the election. So let's call this the end of the "none of the above" voting philosophy. What do you say?

The world has gone Tom Cruise.

Like some batshit crazy scene out of one of Tim LaHaye's far-out novels, along comes Tom Cruise.

Again.

I've come to realize that there are a lot of ape shit crazy people in this world. For instance, I read today that some yahoo in Iowa, right before the causes, preached on about how churches should control the states, not vice versa. "Read your history," he said.

Or how some other yahoo running for office would just as well write his own Constitution, given the chance, because - you know - elect holy men are the ones that should be running our country.

Thank goodness most states in the nation would have to agree in order to write looney laws like the "protection of marriage" into our country's most sacred document_ But lately, I'm starting to wonder.

You see, what I've been missing is this whole side of the country that's whacked out of their minds. I tend to surround myself with reasonably sane people (exceptions exist, as with anything), and I'm afraid if I conversed with one of these fine folks, my nose would start gushing blood.

Come to think of it, I have encountered these folks. One was outside the library trying to "protect" marriage by banning gays from civil unions. He had a clipboard, which lent him undue authority.

Or, recently, Jackson's own group of yahoos pulled the plug on a teen pregnency program because - gasp! - Planned Parenthood was helping to fund the thing. According to Jackson Right to Life, Planned Parenthood would hand out abortions like they were candy. Nevermind that abstinence-only programs, besides being laughed at by 16 year olds everywhere, don't work.

You see, what Tommy preaches on about up there is merely a symptom. Tom says, "I wish the world was a different place," and what's dangerous is that Tom and people only half as nutty as he is are trying to wish that into reality.

The end of the video claims that Tommy's message has reached "more than 1 billion humans." What they video doesn't say is that those billion suckers committed suicide immediately after walking out of the Holiday Inn the Scientology group rented for the come-together. The human brain is capable of only so much Punch and Judi before it explodes in an orgy of get-me-the-hell-out-of-here.

It's true. And what's worse is that there are people out there who might nod their heads in approval at platitudes if it was, say, Joel Osteen or Alex Jones. This country has a fine tradition of shit-talking bullshitters, and American eat them up. What makes Tom sound crazy to you and I is the same trite B.S. that makes Huckabee's constitutional suggestion sound like a nutjob.

Here's a tip: if someone ever tells you that theirs is the one-true way, grab a bamboo stick and hospitalize them. Don't even let them get up.

Tom's message is no more crazy than a lot of mainstream religious folks' message. It's just that his religion was invented last century. This happens all the time, and usually when a new one pops up everyone else thinks their crazy (lions + den = maybe they'll shut the hell up). But really they're no more crazy than the folks that are guarding the Coliseum.

You'd think that the Englighnment never happened. And here some are so freaked out about Muslims being the "greatest threat ever" (maybe they've never heard of a the Civil War?), yet they think abandoning the Founding Father's idea of the "consent of the governed" in favor of Bible-based laws. If that's the case, then they can trade Pokemon cards with the Taliban, and blow up some more Buddhas.

But this is America, and we need to let the crazies roam like buffalo on the high prairie. The hope is that, over time, people get smarter and society gets better. Some events have challenged this notion, and again we find ourselves threatened by the barbarians, who are knocking at the gates.

Hope springs eternal.

Michigan Primary: giving politics the underhand.

I may end up voting in the Michigan's Republican primary come January 15, but only because the party I usually support has taken any choice away from me. But I don't blame the party. I blame Michigan.

Perhaps you know that the modest states of New Hampshire and Iowa (who's combined population only equals half of Michigan's) always get first dibs on selecting presidential candidates. It's been that way since early last century, starting with Oregon in 1910, and now candidates face off in the coldest months in blustery states each presidential election season.

The problem some people have is the states chosen to go first. What's so special about New Hampshire and Iowa? Why do their primary and caucas hold so much weight?

Part of it is history. Since Truman got his butt kicked in New Hampshire's 1952 primary, that state has held the title of potential president-maker. Granite State primaries used to be held in March (featuring a lot more sane timetable, if you ask me), but they move it back each year to be first. Now it's held in January.

But Montana and New Jersey are last, and by then everything is pretty much decided. So now Nevada, South Carolina, and our own Great Lakes State has challenged Iowa and New Hampshire for primacy - tackling the same issue that Super Tuesday voters wrestled with as of 1988. Why leave it to mostly rural, mostly white states to pick a party's contender?

Michigan voted to have its primary moved up to January 15, thereby sprinting past Iowa and New Hampshire to be the first in the nation. And because of that, most of the Democratic nominees dropped out of the race. Their names won't even appear on the ballots - and only Hillary Clinton is offering her name for the primary. The Republicans? They're hanging with us. Mitt Romney is heavily canvassing his home state just to try the whole thing out.

So, as a registered Democrat, my own state's move into first on the calendar punishes me. And now it's not even first in nation; New Hampshire moved theirs to January 8. We could be voting on candidates in December next time around, which is madness.

I'm in favor of tradition when it comes to politics, and I had no problems with Iowa and New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation status. It's been that way since I was a kid, and yes there are problems with it (as well as alternatives), but it's something to look forward to each election season.

The Electoral College? NOw THAT'S an issue to tackle. But for now, the primary system works for me.

Which is why I plan on voting in the Republican Primary this time around. Much like our primary two years ago for Representative, the Republican side is just more interesting. And if offers me more choices than my own party. My vote could help swing a Republican victory for a candidate I can stomach.

That means Rudy and Mitt won't be getting my vote. But McCain or Paul? Count on it.

This is actually how John McCain beat Bush in 2000: more Democrats switched sides for a candidate they felt comfortable with. Because I don't feel comfortable with Guiliani, I plan on voting for someone else. It's my own state's fault. Blame not the voter.

And besides, the national Democrats might strip Michigan of its electoral votes, leaving our state worthless in country-wide politics. Michigan's bold move ended up solidifying New Hampshire and Iowa's supremacy.

Meanwhile, I'll wait for Mitt and John and Mike to campaign for my vote - because me and others like me may end up swinging the entire GOP race on a cold day in January.

Random thought for 11.21.07

So, what would Pat Robertson - you know, the guy who said Hurricane Katrina was fit punishment for the U.S. - say about the drought in Georgia?

Me, version 1920.

So I was a political essayist for my favorite magazine, Harper's, in 1920.

And wouldn't you know it - talking about the same ol' stuff.

Some things never change.

News, hobo road trip edition.

Thomas Jefferson would disagree with Fred Ziegler's letter to the editor: the "bottom line" of education isn't to prepare students for the working world, but to prepare them for a participatory democracy. An uneducated populace isn't fit to vote or debate national issues, said Jefferson, so a public school system would give kids the basic knowledge to function as American citizens.

Training students on "thank you" ettiquette should fall to the parents, not overworked teachers. It just so happens that Ziegler's "job readiness skills" come along with a good education.

I've heard too often about schools switching to a curriculum that focuses on teaching trades and job skills, but if the best we can do is teach kids how to punch a clock, it's no wonder we need rigid, cookie-cutter standardized tests to keep kids in line.

Many kids in school think learning about Shakespeare or government or economics is boring with a capital "B." But then I think about how current generations are dropping out of activities like reading books and newspapers, voting, and falling for financial scams like sub-prime mortgages, and I wonder how all that "job training" is going to help Americans be good Americans.

---

I've long advocated for a new dieting craze called the Hobo Diet. So far I've developed basic meal plan guidelines: anything in a can (sardines, pork 'n' beans, Vienna sausages), anything high in salt and sodium (crackers, chips, boloney), speadable meats like braunschweiger, drinks enjoyed out of a paper bag, and lots of fried eggs - with little to no fruits or veggies (unless they're out of a can and high in corn syrup - like fruit coctail).

(Come to think of it, my Hobo Diet is a lot like what my grandpa and I ate when I visited him as a kid...)

Now someone has come up with a step-by-step process to become a REAL hobo. How exciting.

Turns out there's an entire hobo language:

"Learn the hobo code. Historically hobos relied on a shared system of symbols that let fellow travelers know more about their current environment. The symbols can vary from place to place and may no longer be used in many areas."

So pack your sardines, learn the handshake, and catch the next train to Sacramento.

Who's with me?

---

Why Dennis Kucinich will never become president: ""Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the universe. Matter transcends, to return to spirit. The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: one with the universe; whole and holy; from one source, endless creative energy, bursting forth, kinetic, elemental; we -- the earth, air, water and fire-source of nearly fifteen billion years of cosmic spiraling."

From his book, A Prayer for America.

---

This weekend will be the first time my dad and I have taken a road trip together in years. Me, him, and my iPod to break the silence.

We're heading to Pennyslvania to visit my youngest sister, who moved down there with her boyfriend while he attends a trade school. They got an apartment, and she snagged a job with Olive Garden. What's cool is my dad's helping them out along the way - care packages, money, whatever - as my sister gets her first start out in life away from home.

I've been through Pennsylvania, but never stopped for any kind of visit. From what I understand, the town is a bit east of Pittsburgh, which I've always wanted to see. So we won't be in the heart of PA, but still: a new place to say I've been.

My dad doesn't talk a lot. My grandma likes to say I'm the happy medium between the two families: sometimes quiet (dad), but never a non-stop talker (grandma).

"I don't know how he hooked up with our family," grandma said. She said a lot more before and after that, but I drift in and out.

Dad was never a helicopter parent - most of the time he was pretty absent from any of my school activities - and he told me the only way I would ever get in trouble with him is if I got caught. Well, I got caught plenty of times, but I've never caught real hell with dad. I think he knew to trust me - to trust my decisions, to trust that I could make my own way in life, and to trust me to just be around, in some fashion. He's independent, so I'm independent.

My dad just likes us kids to be there, no strings attached. I think that's a pretty good deal, and so I suggested we take this trip together. Even if it means a total lack of in-depth conversation; just being together is enough.

We leave Friday night. Back on Sunday. Wish me - and the guy that named me - lots of luck.

Run, Al, run.

If you've ever seen the opening scene in Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11," where Moore imagines Gore winning the 2000 election, you might have one of two reactions: disgust or gee-whiz sentimentality.

For me, the scene Moore painted was excruciatingly visceral: sentimentality is my middle name, and that scene stuck with me for a long time after I saw it. Some of us have never moved past the whole 2000 election mess (and for good reason), and I can't help but always wonder "what if."

So at the risk of putting salt into healed wounds, I'll jump on the "Gore should run again" bandwagon that's been popping up in anticipation of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement.

The last time Gore ran, I wan't that enthused about him. Sure, he was better than Bush, and I knew better than to vote for Nader. Since then, however, something has happened. For some of us, Gore has achieved this martyr status in the Democratic Party. He has this really cool story to tell, about how he almost became president, and with all that's happened in the world since 2000, you can't help but think that we wouldn't be having some of the arguments and problems we are today. Maybe they'd be different. But it all plays into this giant national story, about red and blue and the "something" that's wrong with Kansas and the whirring sound that's resonating from the graves of the Founding Fathers.

The imagination flies, and even though the Democrats have a good crop of candidates this time around, none of them - with minor exceptions - have this tragic tapestry behind them.

Edwards has poverty. Richardson has foreign policy. Dobbs has national service. Clinton has her husband. Obama has community. They've all got stories that are worth telling.

But Gore has a bigger story to tell, one that needs to be told and needs someone at the helm to actually get it accomplished.

I've avoided a lot of discussions about the 2008 election so far because, frankly, it's a helluva long way until 2008. Candidates forming policy papers this early is madness to me, and I've struggled to maintain a healthy distance from any political discussions so far (which I'm pretty proud of, thankyouverymuch). Dipping into the pool in October of '07 makes me want to vomit blood.

My read on it this early, however, has been an obsession with electability (kind of like the last election) and the horse-race mentality. There are three top candidates, and the rest can go to hell, and why even consider the lesser-knowns - even though some of them have been stirring the pot in fun ways. This mania about electability, though, takes the country down some muddied paths. I don't care as much about a candidate that can "beat someone" as much as I do about a candidate who has a story to tell, and some items on their to-do list that really need to get accomplished, and the respect for government to actually manage the government.

Would Gore have the support? Could he fundraise? Does he even want to run?

In my heart, I feel like there's no way it will happen. Gore seems to be having way too much fun outside of politics. And who would want to crush his spirit with the soul-blackening concessions made during national campaigns?

Luckily Dems are not in the same situation that the GOP is in: there aren't a bunch of middle-age white guys engaged in a pissing contest over who would torture which minority more, or who would leave a bigger, steamier pile of shit on our Bill of Rights.

I like Richardson's experience and foreign policy shutzpah, and that he knows how to run a government. I admire Edwards' passion about poverty and health care.

But there's something about the idea of Gore running again that could restore my political thirst. Score Hillary as a running mate, and the dream team is back. Hit up Obama as a VP, and you've got the makings of a good 12-16 years of Democratic control of the White House.

Run, Al, run.

American bridges are falling down, falling down...

After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, our local paper ran an in-depth investigative piece about local bridges that were in need of repair. Most of the bridges in Jackson County, in fact, were found in crumbling condition.

A few days later, some yahoo wrote in condemning the paper, saying the information provided gave aid to terrorists. Supposedly, bin Laden is reading the Jackson Citizen Patriot for ideas on where to strike next.

"Gosh," I thought, "why fear terrorists when government negligence is doing a fine job of killing Americans?"

So I did what any proud, patriotic American would do: I wrote the above thoughts in a letter to the editor.

But locally it would fall on deaf ears. Here in Jackson County, founding place of Mr. Bush's party, public ownership and maintenance of infrastructure is an afterthought - especially where budgets are concerned.

You see, there are some in this country that feel businesses would do a better job of running and maintaining our roads, subways, and bridges. The government is doing a terrible job of keeping up repairs, so why not let the free market try things for a while?

When you have people running the government who harbor disdain for government in the first place, however, it's no wonder bridges are falling down. The order of the day is "privatize everything," (you know, like those honest folks at Enron did in California) because we all know greed makes the world go round. If you don't trust the government, and you're in government, you can really do some damage.

I almost think it's a sinister plan by free market capitalists and some Republican lawmakers: let the country fall apart, and offer business as the solution.

But really, the whole thing could be fixed by (a) a person who knows how to manage a government, (b) a proper budget not made anorexic by tax cuts, or (c) an FDR-style "new New Deal" plan to fix things up.

Think about it. The country's infrastructure went throught the greatest period of growth after the Roosevelts had a vision of parks, highways (Eisenhower helped with that one), bridges, and dams built by Americans to help Americans. The public paid for it because it benefitted everyone. And what a beautiful country we had.

Infrastructure like our radio waves and subway tunnels actually belong to the people, and the government leases the right to use them to companies. Some want companies to own them outright, however, because there's tons of money to be made in fees and tolls.

I can see the idea: competition spurs the best ideas and healthy competition, and everything ends up improving.

But that's not always the case.

I like the idea of the people owning the things we use better. All that's required is a healthy dose of patriotism and some concern for your fellow citizens to take care of the parks, roads, and rails. Put people in government who actually know how to run the government, and not fools who want to dismantle the public infrastructure.

In my book, if you let these systems go to waste, you're a traitor to the country.

My friends Josh and PJ have a pretty conservative uncle, Uncle Robert, who used to tell me that government should be responsible for a few things: delivering the mail, maintaining the roads, and keeping the country safe from harm.

So what happens when the only get one out of those three?

What was that "Q" word?

Fucking. Amazing.

Killing mountains for profit.

While we're in the political sphere, check this shit out.

I remember reading the original article in Harper's, and what a teeth-grinder.

Jesus said it was possible to move mountains on faith alone, and George W. Bush was listening. Except this isn't faith; it's pure profit and greed and carelessness.

Goodbye Appalachia. Nice having you around.

>>>READ: "Death of a Mountain"

What would Karl do?

If Marx were alive today, what would he say of China?

Watching this report on the news last night, I couldn't help but think back to my political philosophy memories.

Wasn't Marx's manifesto based on the shitty treatment of labor during the Industrial Revolution? Wasn't he worried that the worker wasn't being treated fairly? Didn't he devise an economic system that would raise the worker from meek to inheritor of the Earth?

Not in China. A supposedly communist country, China instead uses its workers to churn out faulty, deadly, cheap products while treating the proletariat like garbage.

It would make any 19th-century capitalist proud.

China, it turns out, is the garbage - and the country makes a mockery of the Marxist ideal.

On Divine Discontent

It's SuperBowl 2006 - a bit late this year, but with all the networks copying Fox's Terry, Howie, and the gang-style coverage (Chris Matthews as Jim Brown, the pundits as cocky, witty sportscasters) it's hard to avoid the comparison.

After all, we're voting for teams here. Blue, red, mascots in donkey and elephant form, balloons and confetti, 3,000 soldiers dying by halftime.

The replay comes in every ten minutes or so, with the Dems picking up more and more points as the night goes on. You think your hometeam's quarterback getting booed is bad, imagine facing an electorate that's suspicious instead of cynical.

It's, perhaps, a statement against a Head Coach that governs to only 49% of his team, offense and defense - kind of like being on the wrong side of an oncoming blitz. When your pre-game speech ignites "Uniter, not Divider" statements, and the team finds out you lied through your silver-spoon teeth, well, don't be surprised when the nation finds blood - not Gatorade - on your Starter jacket.

Balance is a good goal to have. The Framers knew this - in fact, most of the source of the tea-party rage was England's all-encompassing power. Rubber stamps are bad, protection of rights against a government that's bound to fail you is good, and we've got a big boot ready if you don't agree. One governing party is like Bill Parcels running the front office, marketing, concessions in the stadium, and still getting off his old, fat, angry ass to coach a team. It's too much of a bad thing.

But not the ball is in the Democrats court, and the game plan doesn't look promising. A dispatch just reported that they've officially taken the House, and with Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (good bye, asshole Santorum), and Rhode Island falling into the Blue Column, the American people have placed an immense amount of maybe-misplaced trust in a party who hasn't had a great idea since LBJ. Good ideas, sure, but not planet-shaking.

We're still waiting for our Immaculate Concession.

Locally, our own Dems Stabenow in the senate and our Governor Granholm keep their seats (Granholm got lucky on that one, mostly because DeVos couldn't outline a plan of any detail or nuance) - and the states around us, those Big Ten burrowing-mammal states, head farther left.

Republicans tried an experiment with more African American candidates, but it's kind of like Terry Bradshaw calling a soccer game - it just doesn't look (or sound) right. The experiment has failed.

The idea of total control has failed too, but I wonder if anyone is listening. The swing back and forth - liberal and conservative, Dem and GOP - wears thin if all you can do is "get out the base," a bunch of loonies I don't trust at all. Call them out of their holes with issues like gay marriage and flag burning, and then hide them away while you give away the treasury to your corporate backers. It's bullshit, and I wish someone had the guts to actually Get Something Done around here. My grandma still doesn't have a job, my city's manufacturing base is crumbling, the media is joining forces into Alliances of Evil (I'll copywrite that one), but some out West still feel like keeping gays from suffering from a lifetime of each other is still issue number one.

Everything is moving Right, it would seem, with candidates like Harold Ford, Jr. in Tennessee appearing as a conservative dressed as a Democrat. Lieberman holds on, Republicans go Neo as it leaves its historical supporters, and no one is looking back at liberals, fearing they'll turn into a pillar of unelectable salt. Christians are all of the sudden caring about the poor and environment, Democrats are touting state's rights, and everyone is trying to bash NAFTA and CAFTA harder than everyone else. Nixon would have loved it, had he not been so fucked up in his paranoid skull, but Bush only has two more years to reap a movement he isn't smart enough to study and understand.

Who knows who to vote for anymore? And who knows who Montana will offer?

I just hope good, responsible governing - not revenge - is in store for the next two years, until we start this whole Hairspray-and-Handshakes Hairball rolling again, but for bigger stakes.

Will we have the gall to fill in the bubble in another presidential election? Jesus, I'm losing sleep over this one - what will I do two years from tonight?

Lose more sleep, and a bit more of my soul, and this gridiron doozie drools on.

Fear and voting in Jackson County.

It's crunch time: a week and a half until election day.

And what a weird one it's going to be.

Suzanne invited me to a political shin-dig, put on by the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce, at Bella Notte last night. I felt nervous about going - all the big-wigs would be there - but then I remembered I have at least three fellow Rotarians who are running for county commissioner spots (including one running for the spot I thought about). I would definitely have folks to talk about.

When we showed up, it had the air of a convention. There were poles with plastic signs on top, each with a candidates name, and under the pole and sign stood the candidate, shaking hands, wearing buttons, pressing the flesh.

Tons of people there, most buying booze, more snacking on meatballs and cheese with crackers. "Jesus," I thought, "what a metaphor." These pols were getting soused, and it was the least I could do to talk to them while they're at their most vulnerable.

You could tell who were the popular candidates in the room, judging from the crowd surrounding them, and they were all Republicans. Lots of white people, but I smiled when I saw one of my Rotarians say he was voting "yes" on Proposal 2 (the anti-affirmative action one) to the African American lady he was shaking hands with. To say he was embarrassed is an understatement. But he was brave.

The news all over town (and the country) is that the Democrats are going to sweep the House and Senate in an orgy of voter dissatisfaction and scandal, even though they don't have a unifying plan to get the country Back on Track.

Locally, however, there were no such feelings - at least at this event. These folks knew who they were voting for, and it wasn't for anyone with a "D" next to their name. This was Jackson, the birthplace of the Republican party, friend to Ronald Reagan, and example of white-bread America.

The rookies in the process were easy to spot. They stood alone, maybe with their wife, just waiting for someone to come up, shake their hand, and start a superficial conversation. The pros were ready, beer in-hand, working over the crowd like a Naval tattoo parlor on a Saturday night.

Me? I was there for the free grub, for the Rotary support, and to see some of these yahoos up close and personal. Dick DeVos, candidate for governor, showed up for a spell, but I wasn't interested in him. It was his daughter I was on the lookout for. I figured if Dicky-boy wanted my vote, he's set me up on a date with his blonde, gorgeous progeny (who maybe looks a little too much like her dad for comfort - but think of the cathartic glee of dating some Nazi's daughter out of spite).

I've really been in a sour mood, ever since the 2004 election, and I've been waiting to pounce on any politician who's idea of running the country is to idolize the Current Occupant.

But in this room, on this night, the numbers were against me. Except for the poor bastard representing Governor Granholm, and maybe the white farmer from Oregon who benefitted from affirmative action, I was the only one in a "kick the bums out" mood. Everyone else smelled like status quo.

Ah, but what can I do? I'm only one vote.

I just hope there are more people out there who are as angry as I am.

Size is the enemy of freedom

Two important anniversaries are coming up - as if you haven't heard about them, right?

Every news outlet has begun the "One year later" trip down Katrina-memory lane, while the media "celebrate" the fifth year since September 11. Both ask important questions: what have we learned? How has our government's response changed? Are we safer?

The answers to most of those questions, however, are not optimistic.

Both anniversaries have had me thinking about the ineptitude and impotence of our government. It reminds me now of a giant corporation - pick one, anyone with a call center and an option menu. Bloated, sloth-slow, unable to grasp the changes in the world around it, the government is forever keeping us on hold, reminding the people that a vote "is important to us," meanwhile the whole world goes to shit outside our window.

Size can be a burden, even by those who say they wish to jump on that diet plan and, in this case, shrink the size of the federal government. Less taxes (if you're rich), less government-funded programs (unless you're the military), more compassion in the conservative cookie mix (unless you're poor, out of work, or a foreign citizen).

But like most diet plans, a rebound is inevitable. You'll get fat again. Programs are added, each one promising to correct the mistakes of the one before, and nothing in the way of progress is ever seen. Do you think we're safer five years after 9/11? Do you think the Gulf Coast is any more ready to face a category five storm one year later?

Do you trust your government?

With size comes comfort. Just look at our domestic automakers. Swelled and spoon-fed by the "buy American" public, the Big Three sought to change only when the hunger for bigger SUVs surfaced. When gas prices hit, or foreign automakers made better their offerings, or employees required larger health care and pension budgets (as they deserved), GM and Ford and Chrysler were paralyzed by their girth, and now suffer. Same with the airlines. Everyone looks for a hand-out, and usually get it - unless your single and pregnant.

And so our government thought that having all the bases covered would make for good governance. Dip your hands into every facet of American life. Proclaim a slimmer and efficient government, even when you grit your teeth to supress the smirk when you say it. Cut taxes to improve the economy. Run the deficit higher and higher. Advocate personal responsibility except when the people call your bluff.

Ben Franklin, when Alexander Hamilton (pre-duel, of course) worried that presidents shouldn't return to regular public life because it would degrade the former-president, said "In free governments the rulers are the servants and people their superiors and sovereigns."

Franklin, in all his Forefather Wisdow, seems almost naive now. How can a citizen govern that which he or she cannot understand?

And who would want to rule this power-crazy bunch? The same folks that use our military are mercenaries for their oil cronies, help their friends and themselves get fat at the table of suffering, and use the American Government as a tool to preach the Gospel of Free Enterprise and No Gays In Our Backyard. Who wants anything to do with them?

When the American people can be flim-flammed by PR men, touting economic recovery where none exist, educational reform as an unfunded mandate, and turn-the-corner war mongering into freedom throughout the Mideast, Ben Franklin's words lose their value and poetry. We are no longer the rulers. The servants have taken back what they've always seen as theirs.

War is Peace. Freedom, Slavery. You get the idea.

I've tried to take heart in the words of Thomas Jefferson, who preferred the morning paper to any government. At least a newspaper a common man can make sense of. Today's government requires the mind of Einstein and the heart of Rocky Balboa to slog through. And even they didn't have the guts, or the mindlessness, to take That Trip.

But now that the paper is merely a tool in the Fat-Man's utility belt - "Send that press release, Bob, and call anyone who disagrees a liberal, terrorist, or Tom Cruise!" - well, Mr. Jefferson, there's always MySpace.