SUNSET OF THE AGE OF AQUARIUS

The era of Woodstock is a distant memory and the Haight Ashbury scene has basically been replaced by Hate Kill & Bury.
In honor of this sad turn of events I've updated a Golden Oldie and dreamed up an imaginary group to sing it.
Sadly I believe it fits the current political atmosphere of America.
I give you The 6th Dimension!
(So as not to infringe on any copyrights I suggest you decide to what tune you would like to sing the following.)

SUNSET OF THE AGE OF AQUARIUS

When we’ve mourned our 7^th massacre

And GOP aligns with NRA

Then terror will rule the country

And hate will steer the polls

This is the sunset of the Age of Aquarius

The Age of Aquarius

Aquarius

Aquarius

Discord and misunderstanding

Compassion and all trust are gone

Only falsehoods and derision

Golden years are just a vision

Mistakes rule our education

Science loses to creation-ism

Aquarius

Aquarius

Aquarius

Aquarius

Aquarius

Aquarius

Sophie Had a Similar Choice

Here's a simple question, "Would you like to live or die?"
For nearly every one of us I think the answer would also be simple.
But now suppose the question added the following codicil, "And if you live your entire family dies."
Suddenly it's pretty harsh and the answer most likely switches, again for most of us.
Nothing in life is ever as cut and dried as we would like.
And that is the main problem with polls these days.
When you are asked to fill out a questionnaire or answer a few 'simple' questions over the phone you generally have only two or three choices namely, Yes; No; or Not sure.
Believe it or not the most popular answer should be the last choice since there is always a catch.
Pollsters are not simple people.  They know exactly what they are doing when they pose a question a certain way.  How the question is asked tends to elicit favorable answers for their clients to use.
For example, "Would you vote for Mr. A knowing that he stole candy from a baby?"
Mr. A never did such a thing and the pollster knows that.  So does his opponent, the unscrupulous Mr. B but the question will undoubtedly return the negative response and put the thought in the voters' minds as to the integrity of Mr. A!  Mr. B has spent his money well.
And how about the classic question for married men, "When did you stop beating your wife?"
Another easy tactic a pollster might use to form a favorable outcome for his paying client is to keep track of who answers how.  In other words databases easily lump like minded people together so if a poll being run by say a Fox News affiliate wants to show that America is turning against Obama they will be sure to call and cull results from their hardest core right wingers.  Then they will point to the results from this skewed poll and in turn get others who might be 'on the fence' about what's good and bad in America to join their side.
So polls can become self fulfilling fantasies.
And right now the big guns are coming out because we are nearing an election. (Doesn't it seem like we are always nearing an election? Blame that on the right or left leaning media.)
Some polls are showing that almost half of all (?) Americans want to allow the top 2% wealthiest people in the country to continue getting the Bush tax gift.
But again the answer is deceptive as it is being phrased to put forth the agenda of the minority!  "Almost half oppose..." MEANS MORE THAN HALF ARE IN FAVOR!!!
But still they claim that even the minority which is made up of poor and middle class people actually voted in favor of allowing the deficit to soar into the stratosphere thus creating an untenable future for our children and a country where only wealthy people can afford to buy anything and the poor or indigent workers toil 40 to 60 hour work weeks so as to afford a loaf of bread.
REALLY?
Of course the pollsters didn't pose the question that way.
More likely they asked something like this: "Considering the fact that the wealthy business owners are the only ones who can hire workers and thus get the country moving and out of this Obama caused recession are you willing to allow the fair and balanced tax cuts to continue for all red blooded Americans in this the greatest country in the world?"
An argument made by the shills of the wealthy that does not hold water is that they will spend more money and hire more workers if they get a tax break.  Are these phonies saying that the wealthy people would rather close their businesses and not try to make profits if their taxes rise a bit?
GIVE ME A BREAK!
Another way of looking at things is: If you owned a store what customer would you rather have, a multi-millionaire who came in once and bought something for ten thousand dollars or ten thousand customers who each bought a one dollar item?
If you are smart, and I guess that leaves out many of those who recently voted in that stupid poll noted above you would not choose the one guy.  A successful business caters to the good of the many over the needs of the few, or the one (sorry for that Mr. Spock.)
The bookkeeping (one of few words in our language with 3 sets of double letters back to back to back, but I digress) might be hard at first but the chances of increasing your sales with that quantity of customers is far greater than hoping the rich guy comes back. (Odds are he won't)
No matter how you slice it America is in for a fight and the closer we get to the November elections this year and every year for some time to come the mis-information machines will continue to spew their lies.
Esquire Magazine uncovered what it considered a blatant lie in an article but wanted to give the author a chance to confirm his facts.  The author could not so he went into hiding, along with his bullshit.
As a free and great country we must continue to allow all sides to speak freely.  But we must also listen and understand what is being said.  And having done that decide for ourselves what is in our best interest and what is not.  Do not let pollsters steer your thoughts merely by posing a question.  And if you don't like the allowable answers DON'T ANSWER!
Remember, they're getting paid,  you are not!
As for the Bush tax gift for the wealthy that is already set to expire at the end of this year as per Bush and his cronies the real question all of us must ask ourselves is, can we afford to continue the Conservative Republican path of economics which has created the largest gap between CEOs and their employees the world has ever seen?
Given the choice between watching the top wealthiest 2% of America keep more and more of their easy earned low taxed money while the middle class' hard earned money disappears into dust or asking that 2% group to pay their fair share in this United States of America as they had been doing before the Bush tax mistake gift when the economy was doing quite well thank you I believe most of us, in fact almost 98% of us would choose the latter.
What do you think? Yes, No, or Not sure?

My Opinion is Better Than Yours!

This year we have a so-called off year election. That's one in which we are not electing people to fill important positions in government, or so they say.

If this were not an important election then why are such self important people like Rogue Palin and Dick 'Dawn of the Dead' Cheney campaigning so hard for their respective non-important candidates?

Because every election is important - You betcha!

The reason for all the hype about the Governor's elections in New Jersey and Virginia and the upstate New York election for a representative in what has been a Republican stronghold forever is that it is no longer about the public. It's only about winning. The citizens of this country do not matter except in the way they can be manipulated.

And once a party is in power they immediately putout polls showing they deserve to be there and start new polls to see how they can increase their numbers and secure power for a longer period of time. But nothing that matters to us humans gets done!

I despise polls and what they have done to our country but they must have escaped from a box once owned by a lady named Pandora because there is no way we are stopping them anymore. T he majority of people in this country have no idea what is going on in their local or state government let alone Washington DC. And since they have no idea and, it seems no opinion of their own they rely on polls to tell them what to do.

There is safety in numbers and if the numbers show that most people are doing a certain thing well then that must be the way for me to go, right? It is safer to be in the mob than the object of that mob. This is true even when the mob is out to get you as was so brilliantly shown in Thomas Frank's book, "What's the Matter with Kansas." The polls turned around the electorate so much that they voted against everything they needed and effectively kept themselves in the dark ages while giving Conservatives control of their lives.

Most Americans have been trained to be insecure about their knowledge and are ashamed to admit that they haven't a clue about many important issues. Lance Armstrong did an interview during which he said that Health Care Reform was important and that the poorest man in a state should get the same health care as the richest man but he then said he was against a public option. But then went on to again say that something must be done! LIKE WHAT? Without options that rich man will get all the health care he needs and read about the death of that poor man while he has his morning coffee served by his maid.

It's clear that Mr. Armstrong got off his bike in time to catch a Fox News poll telling him what to think.

And that brings us to one more important point, POLLS CAN LIE!

Four out of five doctors recommend - SO? Suppose the first four were on drugs and the fifth was THE authority on the subject?

Fox News and their puppets on the Right are always throwing out polls to prove their point or further their agenda. Check and see how many polls have been published by the famous Lewin Group. These polls show how health insurance reform is bad for America. Then read and find out that the Lewin Group is totally owned by the Insurance Lobby.

Bad for America? Yup, the Lewin Group sure is bad for America!!!

My opinion is mine.

I am certain I know what I would like to happen when it comes to many of today's issues.

I do not need a poll to tell me what I need.

And I am also confident that if everything I would like to happen did happen most of the people in this country would be better off. Let me repeat that, MOST of the people.

Many of the wealthiest Americans might not be able to continue raping, I mean raking in the tremendously obscene amounts they do without consequence or at least without a fair tax.

And by fair I mean it in the same way Warren Buffet did when he said his secretary pays more in taxes then he does!

Is that fair?

Why not take a poll?

Politics 2008 Style - Why Bother?

It is a long known fact that all politics is local. This means that you can take all the polls, and pollsters as far as I am concerned and place them where the sun don't shine. People will vote the way they feel in a manner that concerns them, their family, and their community and in that order of importance. And they will do so behind that curtain that hides the lever they pull that is the only true poll that matters.
But unfortunately there are some who are influenced by others. They don't seem to have their own opinions or at least are not sure of them if they do. These people will change their minds based on what they believe to be the right thing to do merely because many others are doing so. This is quite unfortunate and has become increasingly dangerous as technology and the belief that the media is all knowledgeable continues to grow in the minds of the masses.
For example in a presidential election the media has agreed to hold off their "projected winners" of races in states until the polls in those states have closed. But they broadcast those winners nationally even if the percentage of votes counted is ridiculously small. You may a have a "winner" announced with less than 1% of the precincts reporting.
With huge states and electoral votes still undecided (and that is a whole other issue) Texans and Californian who may not have voted yet can turn on the television and find out that they candidate they wanted is very far behind. That could alter their vote especially if they want to join the crowd. The citizens of Hawaii must truly feel left out as they are 6 hours behind the Eastern Time Zone and 3 hours in back of California. By the time some Hawaiians vote the outcome is almost always moot.
Sometimes polls are so wrong as to be laughable. Just ask Truman, Dewey and the people of New Hampshire.
This should stop. Winners should not be projected until after ALL the nation's polls have closed. This way 'local politics' can stay that way and our nation, which is made up of 50 different States with tremendous numbers of districts within them and covers 6 time zones can be a little more fair to all the people.
Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about the primary situation. By the time some states hold their primaries many of the candidates that could have garnered support have long since dropped out of the race. They are victims of the opinions of people in states that had early primaries!
Why should Iowans decide for the rest of us who even gets a chance to run for the top job in America? The Iowa electorate makes up around .5% of the voters in the country. No offense Iowa but who the hell are you to filter out my candidate?
Just like the polls and pollsters telling those of us who were not polled how we think and who we should vote for so too are the early primary state results attempting to alter our opinions.
Perhaps it is time to just get rid of primaries. If a candidate wants to run then he or she should be able to. After all isn't this the land of opportunity? Isn't America the place where all dreams can come true if you work hard and stay focused?
New rules:
No more primaries!
No more electoral college.
No more polls. (If you are polled continue to give dumb answers. "I am supporting Alfred E. Neuman.")
And finally, New Rule: No more "projected Winners" until all polling places are closed.