It may be an arbitrary celebration of a simple calendar date, but it’s fun to say, “Happy New Year!”
Oh and it makes for reflective little posts about the old year and hopeful dreams for the new year.
This is not one of those posts.
Instead I’m going to talk about politics from my head-strong idealist perspective.
The Iowa caucuses are almost upon us and I’ve almost figured out what I want from my candidate, whomever that may be. (This is not to imply I’m caucusing in Iowa, just that with all the news coverage I’ve been thinking about what I want from a President.)
I want honesty.
Get real dudes and dudette - you can’t please all the people all the time so stop telling us what you think we (where “we” equals whatever demographic you’re speaking to at the moment) want to hear. Most of you are lawyers anyway so we’re already doubting anything you say that doesn’t sound absolutely genuine.
This will cut into your elect-ability but will certainly up your credibility: Pledge to protect all our freedoms and rights, even the ones not everyone agrees with. Promise me that you will reverse some of the erosion of our civil liberties. Acknowledge that the right of the individual states to make specific laws and regulations is key to the success of the Union. Embrace that we have different values in different parts of the nation and those differences (and tolerance for those differences) make us stronger as a country.
Now I admit that I’m not the average voter… but I would consider voting for a candidate who blatantly disagreed with me on an issue I feel strongly about if he stated he’d be representing the law and Constitution not his personal beliefs in office. Why? Because that’s what participating in government should be about: making the right decisions based on the law of the land and what will be best for the people rather than personal biases and limiting freedoms. Oh and don’t break the laws yourselves… it makes the whole government look bad.
Politics has become a career for too many… but really government should be a calling, a responsibility, a duty, a passion.
Another thing that annoys me of late:
California is somewhere between the 7th or 10th largest economy in the world. If California wants to put into effect stricter environmental standards for automobiles, let them lead the charge! Either the auto industry will yield to their demands and comply or California will end up with no new cars for a while. I bought my Subaru in Massachusetts but it’s a “California emissions” vehicle. I’m happy about that. What in the world is the EPA thinking with that lame “oh, no you can’t do that. We’re working on something, really”? Oh wait, they’ve been hobbled and corrupted by the current administration just like the rest of the government. Never mind.
And completely randomly, over on Facebook I got the following alert:
[The Fop] approved your relationship request.
Thank you, darling, for approving. (I figured out that you can indicate a specific person as the target of your relationship status in your profile, you see…)
tags: california, epa, facebook, freedom, government, honesty, iowa caucuses, new year, old year, politics, primaries, random, silly
An entertaining accident of Google Ads “working as intended”: a John McCain campaign ad appears on the page for a YouTube video criticizing crude commentary McCain made about his wife (and the media’s complete lack of coverage of that comment). My assumption is McCain’s ad campaign with Google Ads is targeting pages that mention John McCain, which would make sense except that every once in a while ads will end up on pages that mention John McCain in a negative light. 
