State of the Union

I listened to the State of the Union Address this evening was very disappointed by what I heard. I heard a lame duck president give a lame duck speech. He hit a few high spots but for the most part just recycled his older speeches. He is right about illegal immigration, until we put in place a mechanism for people to come here and work at those jobs we don't want to do we will never solve the illegal problem. He is also right about the earmark spending projects that find their way into every bill. Either the president gets a line item veto power or he has to start vetoing whole bills. I'd rather he have the line item veto. 

We heard the same old talk about tax cuts. His threat about passing his stimulus plan was, for him, just politics as usual. Reviewing and rebuilding Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac are good on the surface but don't really address the problem. 2 years ago I couldn't afford the new house now I can't get the loan. The problem is the cost of the new house and what is being passed off as the American dream home. What we need is affordable housing not cheap loans to get the 3000-4000 square foot monsters that are being built. 

The most disturbing part of the speech was his talk about the military role in Iraq moving to one of staying in place to assure the Iraqi government's ability to remain in power. What he is doing is placing us in a endless war of attrition for god knows how many years. We need a clear path out of Iraq and diplomacy that insures the Iraqi government can do what it was elected to do. The Iraqi's need to make peace with themselves and their past and try to work together for the future and we need to help them do that with diplomacy not with guns propping up an unpopular dictatorship. 

All the pundits are saying that he didn't ask anything of the American people. How can you ask when you have no plan or idea of what the country is about. That's right Bush  and the people around him don't understand this country at all. All they have done is gather power about themselves and then used it to further their own ends. The Constitution is not upheld by these people but rather it is worked around or totally ignored. They only understand power not the power of ideas and ideals. I doubt that Bush understands what John Kennedy was asking when he said "Ask not what your country can do for you but rather what you can do for your country". All Bush can do is make a lame joke about people who don't mind paying taxes by saying "the IRS accepts both checks and money orders". No George Bush will never ask anything of the American people because he is totally without a clue about the strength, vision and desire of the American people. 

A Little Politics

As we work our way to Super Tuesday I can only hope that people will wake up and see that the last thing this country needs is 4 more years of yet another Clinton. I have nothing against Mrs. Clinton but if she wins it means that we go Bush, Clinton, Bush, Mrs. Clinton. Does that mean that the Republicans will roll out Jeb Bush in 2012 or 2016 if we are unlucky enough to have 8 years of Mrs. Clinton. Dynastic politics is not what this country needs or I fervently hope wants. Especially two dynasties that are so polarizing and devoid of new ideas. 

I was heartened to see Obama win this weekend and by such a large amount. Now only if this momentum helps come Super Tuesday. Do I think that Obama is the best candidate. No, not really but at least he is new and maybe he could help send a different message to the rest of the world by his being black. We like to think that we are beyond race but we all know that is not really true. But if he is elected it would send a message that we can change and look beyond ourselves. 

Now if only the Republicans could find a new candidate this election would be about change. I know that all candidates talk change but very few are ever able to effect change. I'm not sure John McCain works as an outsider and rebel after having served for 30 years in the Congress. Rudy is just a one issue guy and Mitt has no credibility since he is just another white millionaire. Huckabee is interesting but he is to closely tied to the religious right and I think many people aren't ready for another former Arkansas governor. 

Getting Old

I must be getting old. This morning it was cold and just dreary outside. My back hurt and for some reason my knee is hurting. I haven't done anything that would have hurt it so I just must be getting old. There is nothing in the growing older handbook that prepares you any of this. The gray hair, the bifocal - trifocals glasses, the aches and pains and how about the first real hangover. Yes, this growing old is not for the faint of heart.
I was going to go see the eagles at Bald Eagle Days but as you can guess from the above I didn't. We spent the day with our grandson and I worked on pictures that I took at last year's Bald Eagle event. I'm still pretty new to PhotoShop and it is not an easy to learn program without help. It seems many of the books and built in help file is written in a language I like to call "Intuitively Vague". I try not to let that stop me and will post several of the pictures that I took last year of the raptors. Maybe I will see if there is another event later in the year that would promise better weather, not just for pictures but for me too.

Not a Great Blogger

I spent some time this evening just looking at other peoples' blogs. The biggest thing that I noticed is that most people manage to post something everyday. How do they do that? It's not like I have nothing to say but I do try to have something relevant to say. But then maybe what I put down is only relevant to me. So with this thought in mind I will try to be more active in the blog.
My oldest son is in the Middle East again. This is the third time he has gone since September 11th. He is in the Idaho Air Guard and is a air freight load planner and loading person. Luckily he has never had to go into Iraq but what he has done has been in support of Iraq and Afghanistan. This time he will be gone for 4 months. At least the Guard tries to not burn out their people with overly long deployments. We are helping with caring for our grandson. He is spending this weekend with us then back to his mom.
This weekend is Bald Eagle Days and there will be displays of live raptors including a Golden Eagle and a Bald Eagle. If the weather is not too bad I will try and go see if I can get some pictures of the Bald Eagle. I already have some very nice pictures of a Barn Owl and the Golden Eagle. If I get a good one I will post it here.

The Old Excuse

Boise police today rolled out the same old excuse after being accused of unnecessary roughness during an arrest. The excuse? The officer feared for his/her safety. We hear this reason after every beating or shooting. When are we going to stand up and say enough is enough. We deserve better from the people that we entrust with upholding safety and protecting society. We have given up many freedoms and rights for this protection and the best we get is frightened people who have to beat or kill the persons they are confronted with. If these people are so afraid perhaps they should seek safer employment.  

If I beat up someone and then tried to say I feared for my life I would still be arrested and have to prove I was in danger. If a policeman does this he is investigated by other police officers who stop investigating the minute the officer says I feared for my life. They will then close ranks and start talking about doing what they are trained to do, having to protect the public and tell any number of lies about what happened and how they were justified in beating an unarmed person. This only gets even more outrageous if gun play was involved. 

How many times do we have to read " Officer cleared in death of unarmed man. Officer followed policy and feared for his life from actions of  crazed unarmed man." It is about time that we demand an end to this old excuse. We should demand that all violent encounters be investigated by an outside citizens group. We should demand that officers be trained continuously on disarming violent or out of control persons verbally rather than physically. They should have to do this quarterly just as they do now with their guns, night sticks, tazers and hand to hand take downs. How about just having the officers spend more time with the public they are supposed to protect rather than just training to take us out.

Work and Change

Things at work are in an uproar. We have been working short staffed for about three years and have been doing mandatory overtime for the same three years. When the administration put out the last employee satisfaction surveys many people in the dispatch center voiced their discontent in those forms. Now they are surprised that the administration is trying to do something about the problems. There is a schedule that has been proposed that is causing most of the uproar. The center has been on a 10 hour 4 day week schedule for just about forever but the proposal has the day and swing shifts on a 8 hour 5 day schedule and the grave shift remaining on the 10 hour 4 day schedule.  This is supposed to remove a big portion of the overtime. Most of us don't think that it will but what most of us don't want to understand is that this is a proposal only at this time and was meant to start a discussion about shifts and hours. Well, it has certainly done that.

What most surprises me is that so many people have taken the proposal as a personal affront. Part of the problem is that the proposed schedule was done by a manger from another department. There has always been bad feelings between the two different departments and I believe that many people view this as a take over attempt by our rival. I'm not sure what I think about that but right now I don't believe that it is, though it sure has people on edge. The other thing is that we did do an 8 hour 5 day schedule about 12 years ago and it was a disaster of sorts. Almost to a person we refused to do overtime on our 2 days off, go figure. We also know that since we are under staffed right now there will be overtime with the proposed schedule. You can see where this is heading. Since most of us will not voluntarily work on our days off they will have to make the overtime mandatory which will defeat the reason for going to it in the first place. 

Since most of this is because we are under staffed why don't we just hire and train more people. We have been doing that constantly for the last 4 years but we just can't seem to get ahead. This is a hard job to do and the training and the nature of the job scares lots of people off. We have also lost many good people to other divisions and departments through transfers. It seems that every time we get people out of training and plugged in other people move on. Our real problem is retention. It is hard to retain people in a 24/7 high stress job with seemingly endless mandatory overtime and also no real chance for advancement. 

The day of our meeting with the management team I stopped for coffee at one of the numerous stands in town. As I got my 20 ounce white chocolate mocha I said "well maybe I can now face this meeting". The young lady who made the drink looked at me and said "Don't face it. Embrace it." At first I thought how trite. But as I drove on in to work I started thinking why not. For 24 years we have done nothing but talk about our problems but rarely have we done anything to address them. Well, here is our chance. I want change. I am sick to death of the same old same old. I don't care what we do but we need to do something. Bring it on, I for one am ready for change. Lets try to make this place better.   

Idaho's Marriage Covenant

The Idaho Legislature seems to think that we need a Marriage Covenant. The question begs to be asked just why we need this. I know that 50% of marriages end in divorce but this is hardly the State's fault. Marriage is a civil contract whether the various churches want to believe so or not. And yes, this does have a decidedly religious morals bent to it. Civil contracts are made and entered into all the time. They are modified and changed and yes, even dissolved. The courts are full of litigation having to do with civil contracts. Marriage is just one more of those.
Over the years the state legislature has wasted untold hours and money holding hearings and trying to defend a variety of religious morals legislation. How many hours over the years have been spent on abortion and marriage between same sex couples. They try to make us believe that they are only protecting the unborn, our families and the sanctity of marriage. While they are doing this they have under funded our schools, health care for the mentally challenged and children in need. The family values argument is just a red herring that they use so they don't have to take the time to address the really tough issues. If there is to be consequences for divorce in the society let the churches take care of that and let the legislature take care of matters of state.
That's right, let the churches handle the consequences of divorce. The churches are the ones that preach about the sanctity of marriage. Let the churches be more active in requiring marriage counseling both before marriage and for marriages in trouble. Let the churches be the ones to withhold sacraments and membership or fellowship in their congregation. But don't make the state be the one to require these things. Lets leave to Caesar those things that are Caesar's and to God those things that are God's. Remember marriage is a civil contract. Just try and claim any of the benefits that the state offers to married couples without that certificate of marriage that you can only get from the state.
So lets tell the legislature that we want them to take care of the matters of state and leave the morals to the churches. We don't need a Christian Taliban in our state government.