Anagram: Psychological Hegemony/Employ Cagily Chosen Hog

  Psychological:  of, pertaining to, dealing with, or affecting the mind, esp. as a function of awareness, feeling, or motivation.

Hegemony: the dominance or leadership of one social group or nation over others.

      In the world of Politics, it is often the case that subtle maneuvering of words and Concepts can, and often does, create a view of the world that is far and away different from what actually exists.  There is reality, and then there is the world of Stark contrasts and Backbiting that is the world of Negative Politics. In all cases, regardless of who puts out the negativity, it is nothing more than an attempt at control over what people think about the subject they speak on.  All Politicians do it.  Mr. Obama seems to me tho, to do it badly, and frankly less than professionally.  Let’s look at him, and his supporters, and their attempts at Negativity to control the ebb and flow of talk in this Presidential Campaign.   

     The Obama Campaign, in an attempt to smear The Clinton Campaign, has stated that the Clinton’s Not putting there tax returns on Public display means she must be hiding something.  I was listening to her speak on Wednesday morning, and she said she will release her returns Next month.  Even tho she had put out the statement on Wednesday, he made this statement on thursday, in an attempt to paint a Picture in the Minds of Voters that she has something to hide, On her Tax returns.  He may have been harping on the subject for awhile, but Why do you try to paint that Picture in the face of the statement? It would have been a Good time to stop once the statement was out, but he seemed unable to hit the brakes after the losses in Ohio and Texas.  It seems a somewhat stupid and pointless act.  Perhaps he is unhappy with the speed of things here.  Not fast enough for you, Sen. Obama? Maybe you should have sent over your Accountants over to the Clintons headquarters and offered to help if you are in such a damned hurry.

     In Another Instance of attempts to use smear tactics, Members of the Obama Camp Cried “RACISM!!!” over an attack ad placed By the Clinton Campaign in Texas.  The Ad itself was one that simply said That Sen. Obama has been too busy trying to get elected president to do his Job In The Senate and hold oversight hearings about Afghanistan.  A charge in the Ad he Admitted to. But that’s not the bit that The Obama Backers are Furious about.  They are Unhappy over supposed Darkening of his features to make him Look Darker.  All available evidence on this matter shows that There was a Universal Dark Hue to the entire commercial, Including Mrs. Clinton.  Why would this be an issue? Is there any question about Mr. Obama’s Skin color? Does the Tint make a Difference? Not to My Mind.  To read about the Entire thing, Follow the link: 
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/did_clinton_darken_obamas_skin.html

      The Obama Campaign, and It’s backers are trying, with very limited success, to go Negative On Sen. Clinton.  The Negativity in these cases are just a way of trying to get people to question not only whether she will make a Good President, But whether or not she Is a good person.  I Believe that She is a good person.  I also believe That she is a Capable leader, and will make a Good President.  I believe the same about Mr. Obama, but as Time goes On, I am believing it less and less.  He has to be responsible for his part of the negativity On some level, he would have to give an ok to his speechwriters to talk about her running away on showing her taxes even tho she says she’ll give the Information needed Prior to Pennsylvania.  I cannot picture him not having a level of control over everyday events in his campaign.  I am not sure he had anything to do with the “Race” thing, but i’m sure it has his tacit approval, seeing how it attacks Clinton.  I saw a question on CNN, on The Jack Cafferty Blog, about whether it was time for Obama to go negative or not.  He beat you to the Punch, Jack. He’s already there.

     He’s the Change candidate, right?  or is he? How is Negative campaigning a Change? Admit that you are not about change, Mr. Obama.  You lied to Us about your meetings with the Canadians.  You Mislead the Public in mailings about senator clinton’s stance On Nafta. You have for Months used Misleading quotes from Newspapers, and taken those quotes and used them out of Context in your Commercials.    This is the Change we are going to get? How is This Change?  You attempts to Rally the Nation around the concept of Change can only work, Senator Obama, If there is actual Change Involved.  Or if you repeat it endlessly In an attempt to control the debate by being the Only voice heard.  I listen to both sides of this debate Mr. Obama, That is why I am such a Harsh critic of yours.  I have heard you speak as if you are some Knight In Shining Armour, come to save America with Change, But when Push comes to shove, you offer us the same thing everyone else is peddling.  Just admit you Aren’t the change agent you claim to be.  I can see through you, Senator.  You’re just like the rest. Admit it and we can get down to the Business of seeing what it is your really about. 

     There is more than this out there, but I chose these two because these are the latest to pop up on my radar.  As more pops up, I will air it here.

     I have nothing else to add here, I did My Guitar and Run stuff in my previous post this afternoon.  I am done here.  Go Jam!

Today’s Nuggets,By Noam Chomsky, Via Wikiquote:  “The Bush Administration do have moral values. Their moral values are very explicit: shine the boots of the rich and the powerful, kick everybody else in the face, and let your grandchildren pay for it. That simple principle predicts almost everything that’s happening.”  

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.

Latest(and somewhat extensive) Edit:  4:18 am ET 3/7/08

Anagram: Americana/Maniac Era

     I was just watching CNN, and they were talking about Florida and Michigan, from several different Perspectives.  First was Florida Governor Charlie Crist.  Florida’s Republican Governor wants all the votes counted, because it is the right of the Floridians, as well as the residents of Michigan to have their vote count.  It is for him, Not just a Democratic Matter, but a matter for the Republicans too. He feels that the Republicans ought to seat ALL of the delegates that Florida and Michigan voted to put in, not just half.  And he stated that he would be open to new primaries, If the Parties In question footed the bill, because he doesn’t think that the taxpayers ought to foot the bill. 

      Howard Dean was On directly after that, a Videotaped interview shown earlier in the day and rebroadcast at 12:30pm, and said the Following. Florida and Michigan cannot Have their delegates seated because they Broke the Party rules. That simple.  You break the rules, you pay the price. It is a matter of protocol, and If he were to seat the delegates after saying he would not, this would cause a Division in the party that the party cannot afford to have.  One Party would say that they have been cheated, he didn’t name the name, but He meant Barack Obama, and implied that a fracture in the party could open the door to a Republican Victory in November.  He also said that He would not spend Party money to Fund a New Primary or caucus.  It is just too late in the day to do that and he has to concentrate the party’s effort on November, and can’t spend the tens of Millions of dollars it would take to re-Primary. 

     Bill Schneider, a CNN pundit, basically went over options that each candidate would like or dislike.  The Obama camp would, Obviously like to have a new vote via caucus, because he generally does well in caucuses. He would probably have a problem with a Primary there, because he has already lost there that way.  Hillary would like it to stand as it was, but would be Open to a Primary, because she won there before, and might be less than willing to caucus because of generally poor showings there.  Nothing earth shattering in any assessments there.   The only thing of note that he said was that It would make these two states key players in this Democratic Drama, just like they wanted in the first place, if they were to Re-Vote last, after Puerto Rico, it would give the vote there an extra importance due to the amount of delegates to be played at the very end of the campaign.  He also made the point that these two states are 2 of only 4 where republicans showed up in greater numbers than their democratic counterparts.  The Implication being that they didn’t get the full compliment of Democratic voters out due to the lack of delegates in play.

     Now I can’t seem to find the numbers out there anywhere that would suggest how many registered republicans or democrats are out there in these two states, but it looks to me like Mr. Schneider has a valid point about the democratic turnout.  It would definitely increase turnout if there were a new primary in these states, but by how much? And with Hillary already winning there,  a new Primary would create the Possibility that SHE would then complain about Unfairness due to the re-vote.  Mr. Dean’s point about not counting Delegates  Vs. Mr Schneiders point about a Re-vote cancel each other out, in my view. To my mind there is no Truly equitable way to go about the delegate selection process in these two states, but it has to be done.  To Not count these states would be telling MILLIONS of Democrats in LARGE KEY states that they don’t count.  It counters Mr. Deans Point about Counting these delegates creating a Fracture in the Party.  The Party will have a fracture no matter what.  The question now is, how do we make it so the fracture is as small and fixable as possible, while alienating as few voters as Possible.   I think i may have been premature in yesterday’s assessment of this issue, Giving the delegates exactly as they were initially meant to be given WILL fix the issue, but there will still be millions of alienated voters if that happens.  I think there may be only one way to do this. 

 In Court. 

      Either Mr. Obama, or Mrs. Clinton need to take this matter to an impartial arbiter and ask that a) all parties, Obama, Clinton and the DNC, Abide by the judgement, no matter how it goes, and b) ask, Prior to the Handing down of said Judgement, that all parties tell their respective constituents to abide by said ruling.  Can’t keep the millions who have voted already from being angry if their side loses, but what you can do is mollify them and try to smooth things out as quickly as easily as possible.  It may not work, but something has to be done.  If you think you have a better Idea, pass it along.  I’ll listen, think about it, and tell ya what I think.

That’s It for the Politics, Time for Personal stuff.

     Running:  3.45 Miles today.  Nonstop.  Good run today in chilly conditions.  I was surprised at my speed, I wasn’t trying to run all that fast, definitely not trying for a sub 7:30 mile.  Run Time:  25:51.61  M/M Pace 7:29.74  I am still coming back from Injury, I don’t want to run too far or too fast, too soon.  But I stretched my stride length, and it felt good, so i went for it.  I didn’t actually realize I was doing that until I hit the first mile marker a good 20 seconds faster that i thought i’d hit it.  Could I have been faster? Sure! I have run this distance sub 7 and I know I still can, but I didn’t want to increase my stride rate too high so soon after coming off an injury that has kept me from running regularly, kept me on and off , since November.  Next Month, If I’m fully healed and feeling good, in warmer weather, I’ll go for it.  Not yet tho.  Not yet.

      Guitar:  Hit the exercises.  Single string Alternate picking chromatic exercises, 2 octave major and Minor scales, in all keys.  No Pentatonic scales tho.  Hit some major and minor arpeggios, 7ths all, in all keys.  Played around with some songs, D7 sus4 to G Maj, C add9, G add 9….Simple but happy stuff, lotta open strings and the sound is nice.  Always fun to do that kinda thing.  Did something that I rarely do.  Played around with the Half Whole diminished scale, and riffed on it for a bit.  E, F#,G,A Bb,C, C# D#.  Very dissonant sounding stuff.  Lots of fun to play with.  There is some VERY Powerful metal in there, if you can flesh it out.  Jazz as well, which is where I’ve heard it used primarily.  Play with it, see where it takes you.  It’s really exquisitely beautiful.

      That’s it for me.  I have to get ready for work.  I can hear that second cup of coffee calling me.  I must answer the call!!!  Go Jam!

Today’s Nuggets, Via Wikiquote:  A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it the superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable cry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.   Thomas Paine

Take the so-called politics of fear — the constant reference to risks, from hoodies on the street corner to international terrorism. Whatever the truth of these risks and the best ways of dealing with them, the politics of fear plays on an assumption that people cannot bear the uncertainties associated with them. Politics then becomes a question of who can better deliver an illusion of control.   Mark Vernon

Final Edit:  5:15 pm EDT 3/6/08