campaign finance reform in CA

I was recently reading in Mother Jones about a ballot initiative that would apply to just one elective office in California. The candidate for this office, Secretary of State, who agrees to only accept money in $5 donations from 7,500 registered voters would receive funding from a special fund from a fee from lobbyists (they would be charged $350). It is called the California Fair Elections Act. Of course, to get the whole story, be sure to read Mother Jones.

The ballot initiative process tends to result in a crazy quilt, or web, of untangle-able, unfunded mandates that drain the public coffer, and make little sense from a public policy perspective. But this one doesn't.

http://www.truthout.org/the-senate%E2%80%99s-reconcilable-differences57038

It has been 10 years of 0 net job creation in this country (U.S.A.). Our economic system has been bad for the middle class, whats left of it, for a long time. Politicians like Sarah Palin know how to tap into frustration from the ill-informed.

This is why Obama won; A lot of voters had just lost their jobs, and, business-as-usual would be deadly. Read the above TruthOut article.

-Jim

Provincetown, MA

(July, 2009)
We were recently in Provincetown, MA, a.k.a. p-town. This delightful getaway from the Houston weather is a sand spit which gets more exciting the closer you get to the tip. It is an impossibly fun town built on a location formed by sand bars, waves and grass. And there is plenty to do, on land or in the water.

The in-beach is Herring Cove Beach. This is the strip of sand I recommend for losing yourself in, finding someone else in, or gazing at the sparkling ocean lapping at the pebbles.

Provincetown began as an artist colony. And it still is. See Miss Richfield (1981) in the Art House. He/she is a sputtering and dependable volcano of hilarious off-hand remarks. 214 Commercial Street, Provincetown.

Stay in the most GLBT friendly bed and breakfast that is so close to the ocean it is almost under-water: The Prince Albert Guest House.

Provincetown, MA is filled with friendly tourists and a party atmosphere 'till Labor Day. When you are worn out from too much sun and refreshing salty waves at the beach, take in a gallery, or two, or many. See the Julie Heller East and Julie Heller Gallery.

Bring plenty of sun-block. SPF: Sandy Provincetown Fun! And prepare to replace the hectic exhaustion with sparkling rejuvenation!

Miami, Fl

My partner and I are planning a trip to Miamia, Fl. We have already been to Oahu, HI this year. The beaches there were wonderful, of course. I bought a wonderful Frommer's guide for the Oahu trip and I have purchased one for the Miami. I have acquired an appreciation for excellent maps and these guides have them. I buy the guides new, although, I enjoy shopping for used books, Insight guides, to give me a perspective about where I am going. I remember when I first moved to San Francisco, and I didn't know where anything was. I asked someone on the street in what direction the Golden Gate Bridge was and he looked at me like I was out of my mind. I was from New Hampshire, and very naive.

It is a good thing we have a large home, otherwise there would be no place to put all the books. They are like treasures.

I am searching for the perfect place to sit and watch the ocean. The Pacific is my favorite ocean so far. I remember sitting in a cafe in San Francisco on Polk street, a cafe long gone due to the turbulence of the economy. I asked someone sitting nearby who was knitting, why the oceans were salty and he said, The oceans were fresh water eons ago, but, salt is common everywhere in the universe, and, once the salt gets into the water, there is nothing in nature to get it out again. He also explained that, for political reasons, desalination was not an option to increase the drinkable water supply in California for its growing population.

I hope the latest plan, hatched by governor Schwartzenegger, to dig massive culverts all around California to redirect the precious little that falls as rain and snow never gets off the ground. It would be an environmental disaster.

Drinking While Brown

Drinking While Brown is a Mother Jones' article that explains how police in some areas of the country, such as Irving, a suburb of Dallas, have carte blanche by way of liquor laws that are overly broad in how they can be interpreted. The case of the Rainbow Lounge raid (on the anniversary of the Stonewall Inn police raid of forty years ago) is an example of this law being applied to harass certain groups; in this case gays, but it also works for people with black or brown skin.

Yet another example of how someone's rights can be scuttled, so long as they are not your own. Welcome to the banana republic, I mean, err, Texas. (George W. was governor not too long ago.)

The Palin Factor

Years ago when I was in college, and that was quite some time ago, I saw an outdoor sculpture on campus that I am sure must be completely disintegrated by now. It was meant to depict the industrial revolution. I was told by a friend that its decomposing showed the neglect and the intentional destruction of what was being built in the earlier part of the age that now seems to be closing in the U.S. There are many problems that are inescapable in a once-modern society that abandons the means of producing the technology that it so relies on; such as the widespread disappearance of the well-paying jobs that once made a strong middle-class something to be taken for granted.


Enter Sarah Palin. Her popularity is fueled by discontent and insecurity; the lashing out; she uses this. And she is very smart.

The problems that people are just now noticing have been in development for decades.

An analogy that I would like to think of is the argument between a married couple. They have overspent, with $9,000 going to buy bullets, and $500 for food. So they decide to buy less food. With less resources, and less to spend, driving a tank over every part of planet Earth may not be affordable. Lets take that analogy of the family struggling financially that Sarah Palin uses so often to its logical conclusion.

If we can't afford it, we shouldn't do it. The military budget has been over-bloated since forever. The domestic problems have been festering for just as long.

Don't elect someone who writes crib notes on her own hand to deliver a speech to the highest office in the land.

My Philosphy

Yesterday, I did some yard-work/gardening. I have never been much of a gardener. I cleared the dead leaves, and cut-away the dead branches of the plants and even the rose bush. The rose bush has sent up another shoot.

The weather grew more pleasant with my appearance into the out-doors. I noticed, to my surprise, although it should not have been surprising, the beautiful plants that were making much headway. I removed the dead leaves from the ground, and, cut away the dead fern leaves. I am confident that the garden's will be beautiful. Indeed, it is impossible for them not to be at this point.

Visitations:

Many beautiful birds make our patio their place to gather for some reason. I do not know why, but they are very beautiful. They may even be cardinals, but I do not care. Many plants have died due to the frost, but, many are as beautiful as ever and I accept natures wisdom in removing the plants that could not have survived beyond a few months or years anyway. They had no business being there.

Nature has her own wisdom. There are many gods and none at all. The stars smile at us as they wink at infinity.

Also, I played beautiful music, on the piano, which is newly tuned. But that was merely the culmination of years of investment that teachers have made along the way. And that is all we are, the culmination of society's and individual's investment; in my opinion. And learning is the purpose of life. That and seeing the beauty of the universe, one cosmos at a time. And then rejoin her...

Jim