Giving thanks where due

I have always been content with buying into the spirit of Thanksgiving. Driven by the argument about the origin of the story and holiday, I looked it up today and saw that the American interpretation and tradition do, in fact, come from the Plymouth settlers learning the proper ways to harvest, store, and prep for the winters of the unfamiliar land from Squanto and his peeps. And they got together and ate a hella-ton of food and sat around watching the New England Patriots play the Redskins or something like that. Maybe that came later.

All joking aside though. I think that this is one holiday about which we should not to be so cynical. It was the spirit of a time in which the relationship between these two small groups of people, newcomers and residents, had such great potential. People with such utterly different understandings of the world sat down to break bread. It is especially poignant after this weeks spectacle at the airport. Such great levels of distrust, especially for people who believe in the same God... crazy... And the Imams were here on a conference about inter-faith dialogue. I think that the conversation has ended before it had a chance to begin.

But moving on...

In our daily lives, how often do we take the time to reflect (if you actually do that on this day) on the things that deserve our thanks? Unless you still hold hands around the table before eating, likely never. So please take time today to express your appreciation for what you have got and find a way to give others something new for which to give thanks. Speak them to the sky if you must, they will find their way home.









Oh, yeah... the links:

The Music links are Amos Lee (whom we saw in concert in Saturday.), Corrine Bailey Rae (an R&B singer from the UK with hints of Badu), and the Bad Plus (who I saw perform a month or so ago).

The websites are Pitchfork, an on-line music magazine with download-able tracks and album reviews which I have only browsed as of yet, and Vita.mn, a twin cities culture publication put out somewhat discretely by the Star Tribune. It is supposed to be user driven, though, so it may become worth more than the Today section of the newspaper.

And finally, the picture is of Emily and I on Halloween night. Next year, I think I am going to go for something creepy... well, creepier than Bob Ross, at least.

Good news for people who are me

Two things that I have found and want to share.

Number 1:
Blind Melon has a new singer, is recording, and will be touring next summer. Listening to the song, I am a little uncertain as to the outcome. After all, their other projects werea little so-so, but damn if I won't see them live anyway. I will lay updates here like eggs.

Number 2:
There is a new (to me. It has been there since August 05) little wine/beer shop in St. Paul called the Wine Thief. They s[pecialize in low-cost, but good wines from small wineries, Belgian and wanna-belgian ales, craft beers and sake. This will help me out with my quality instead of quantity attitude towards alchohol these days. Once a week is probably more than enough. And it allows me to spend more wisely... nothing like budgeting for beer.

Bye-bye now.

...and breathe out...

Well, I guess I can't complain too much about the results of the election. Other than the 6th district wanting to let "crazy" be their representative trait and the re-election of our states #1 con-man weasel, we did pretty well for ourselves. My concern about the Democrats overstepping with newfound power is to some degree quelched by Pawlenty's presence. Hopefully any nonsense legislation will be veto'd and the sensible ones will not allow the 2/3 majority in order to override it.

At the national level, I am truly shocked at the Democrats' rise in strength. Hopefully these two parties will take note of how sick people are of power imbalance. Something else to note is that outside of Virginia and Connecticuts' Democrat-turned-independant candidate, third parties are still not in the political vision of America. It really is a shame and I would be truly surprised to see that change on anything greater than a local level. The only way I see it happening is for some big names from one of the other parties to create a new one. Good luck with that.

But all in all, I think I got what I had hoped for. Gingrich's dream for the right was pushed back, and we have returned to what seems a proper balance. We need conservatives out there to counter the program-happy-democrats and the liberals to hold against the tide of selfish-old-white-men conservatives. The remaining balance of the both of those parties are tolerable on their own.

Oh, yeah...

and Rumsfeld...













good riddance, ya piece-o-shit.

You better vote!

Some might think that a news site or TV station is the best place for election results.
I suggest that maybe twocrows.blogspot.com is the best place.

I have redone the sidebar to show you up-to-the-minute results from the Secretary of States office courtesy of MPR.org.

Hopefully it works.

Enjoy and listen to a special election day musical presentation of the Black Keys (coming this November to the Cities)and the Black Angels in hopes that we don't have another Black Tuesday.

Cheers, you votin' machines.

Gub-ment

So here it is...
two days from the midterm elections which could very well bring "balance" back into congress.

By projections, it has a possibility of giving Democrats control of both the House and Senate at the Federal level.
And I am worried about that.

I share the view of a small group of Republicans right now, but with a different focus. There is a feeling out there that limiting the Republicans power will make them stronger — that the reason that there is so much wrong within their party is because they are liberally (heh heh) applying their power to get whatever they want. And often not necessary, nor within the true Republican's scope of the role of government. I agree.

By the same token, I am worried about no agenda or bad agenda Democrats running and winning because people are tired, frustrated, and disgusted with the Republicans as a whole. Having these particular people in office will be a mistake, not only because there should be a balance of power in the government, but also because they are not good representatives of the people. I can imagine some of them using the same sort of "political capital" line of bullshit that Bush did when he was elected. Saying that because I was elected by this 45% of the population, that I should only listen to people from that group is bad governance. I don't want this to happen to Democrats.

Now granted, I don't view myself as a Democrat anymore. But because I share the most with this of the two federally-declared major parties, I don't want to see them fall to the same level of corruption, negligence, and personal vendettahood that the Republicans have been crippled by. So I ask you, please, everyone out there. Dont vote for or against a party, vote for the individual who will make a better representative of the population.

That is why I support Jim Ramstad, yes, a Republican, over Wendy Wilde in district 3. He seems like a true Republican, being fiscally conservative, but understands Minnesota's desire to be a steward for the environment, education, and the humanities. Wendy Wilde is simply riding out the Democrat wave and trying for an in. I have listened to her radio show and the debates and she seems to be a pretty big hack. Don't worry much, she won't succeed against Ramstad, but in another district, she may have.

But for governor, I support Mike Hatch, now and not Peter Hutchinson.

For one thing, I told myself that if Hutchinson wasn't polling in the 30%s by the last weeks, I would back down and vote for Hatch. But more importantly, though I think Hutchinson's ideas are good, but unrealistic in the current political atmosphere. Baby steps are required as of right now and Hatch's, I believe, give just about the right amount of stretch to the status quo.

Though I was about 80% sure before, two things in the last week made me respect him more.
One thing is that when asked about the gas tax increase, he said that though he didn't support it, he would likely not veto it if it came to his desk because he thought it was arrogant to use impose his beliefs over those of the states representatives. Now I understand that the governor is there to be one aspect of the checks and balances system we have in place and I am sure he would do it come abuse of power. He has demonstrated this attitude in his punishment of the Medica appointees when they started writing themselves giant checks and I trust he would do the same with the House and Senate.

The other thing that made me respect him more is his barking bulldog show towards the press. I loved that when it was Venutra and I love it in Hatch. It is real and not undesired in my type of leader. We come from a state of passive aggression and it has materialized in Pawlenty. Little Timmy dodges issues, talks about things from the corner of his mouth, and passes the buck to make himself look better when he isn't publicly ridiculing people for having a different belief system. I have no respect for this weasel of a man.

Additionally, of course, I respect Hatch's style of politics. I remember a couple of years ago, his office sent me a book on the state of health care in Minnesota for me to review and comment upon. Well, frankly, I lost it and never looked over more than the first few pages, but knowing that he wanted the public to discuss it was impressive to me. Call me crazy, but I think representative government comes from interaction with those whom you represent.

But those are the only endorsements I will give here. Other races aren't that terribly close and I haven't studied the other districts enough to champion any of their causes. I will say that my Minneaps friends should consider Tammy Lee if they are hesitant about Ellison. Though she may not have as good a relationship with some sectors of the districts, she may be more effective overall. And that I am happy to see the other weasel-y politician Mark Kennedy is as far behind in the polls as he is. He is a grade-A chump.

Additionally, take a serious look at the "Vote Yes" transportation amendment. Myself, I am more than a little concerned that we are thinking about putting another budget issue into the Constitution and my mind echos Peter Hutchinson's point about this amendments presence being representative of our government's failure to get their job done right. Let me break it down to what I believe are the basics (it really is this simple).

• Transit will get from 40% - 100% of the sales tax from new and used vehicles and the remaining amount (from 0% to 60%) will go to other aspects of transportation. This will phase in over five years in order for the legislature to try to adjust to the change.

I really think transit is important and as far as I know, I am the only one of my close friends who has used the bus as a primary form of transportation fro any period of time, but I won't vote for it. Transit needs to be fully funded... but not in this way. This is a Hutchinsonian belief, but if we could just start a campaign to show people the value of transit, more people would support more money going to it without writing it into the constitution. Additionally, the potential is there to ignore outstate Minnesota's roads in favor of light rail for the Urbanites. I am not sure how this balance happens well, but I am pretty sure this isn't it. And then there is the issue of finding the money to pay for the other programs whose funding is being lifted. We are a society of debt and it is really beginning to show in our policy decisions.

Anyway, enough of my soap-boxing. Here are some links so you can (you should) check out your own ballots and where to vote (same link) and get informed before you go out and vote on Tuesday...
because you need to go vote on Tuesday!


MPR:
They really do have pretty good coverage of all levels of the elections.

Vote Yes
campaign for the transportation amendment

Project Vote Smart
A theoretically non-partisan site for helping you choose.

On the Issues
A compilation of peoples quotations and positions on the issues... aptly named, eh?

Ah... I am sure there are some more, but I am tired of typing. Someone else can post them as comments if any others are good.