Zeitgeist Zephyr

It’s not too surprising that a newly released Pew poll nearly half of all Americans would rather live somewhere else in the country.  I should know, I’m one of them.  

Attending school in Wichita, Kansas isn’t exactly the most glorious location to spend my first years as an adult, and is certainly a location I’d rather not stay in for the remainder of my career, even though it is loaded with opportunities.  I’d choose the dry, desert towns of Mojave, California or even Truth or Consequences, New Mexico over Wichita, Kansas almost any day (primarily for their nearby spaceports, but at least there are mountains nearby.)

I was surprised though, that when Americans were asked where they would most like to live, Denver ranked at the top of the list, at 43%.  Fourth from the bottom is Kansas City with a rating of 15%, even ranking below Pittsburgh at 17%.  Now I can understand the general appeal to Denver, mountains off to the west with some of the best skiing conditions in the lower 48.  Although driving through Denver (mind you, that’s all I’ve ever done), I’ve never found the city to be too attractive or appealing.  I’d choose a smaller town that’s actually in the mountains before I’d choose Denver.  

Perhaps it’s hometown preference here, but Kansas City with its wide boulevards, fountains, good local food (barbeque), lush climate (compared to Denver) and the fact that there are four distinct seasons would seem to make it more appealing.  I think that it’s time Kansas City step it up and work on that desirability rating, it has the potential to become more desirable on a national level if it does just a few things:

1. Implement a metro-wide form of mass transit (light rail, improved busses, whatever it is, just do it)
2. Continue revitalizing downtown, make it more livable for those who desire the city lifestyle
3. Fix up the city’s politics a bit; all the fiasco’s surrounding Mayor Funkhouser’s tenure is becoming reminiscent of Chicago-style politics

That’s just a start of course, and I’m sure more Kansas Citians would have more to add to that list.  

First of all, today is probably one of the finest moments in American history in the last eight years, the only one topping it is patriotism exhibited by every red and blue blooded American after September 11, 2001.  Today with the swearing in of Barack Obama as President of the United States, I believe one of America’s finest eras of reform and revitalization is ahead of us.  My conservative readers may disagree, but I can assure you that as a former professor of Constitutional Law, Barack Obama has perhaps one of the best understandings of the law of the land of any president inaugurated in quite some time (so you shouldn’t worry too much about him trying to take away your Constitutional right to own a gun.)  But that’s for another post, and I have four more years to do so.

Bush in his rightful place in history, between two other criminal leaders of the Twentieth Century, of which one he led a crusade against.   

Today, more importantly, was President George “Dubya” Bush’s last day in office; what I and many other Al Gore supporters from the 2000 election like to call “the end of an error”.  In reviewing former President George W. Bush’s term (I just get all tickled inside being able to say “former” in his title now!), one will see that the injustices of this presidency are as wide ranging as the decisions he’s made as The Decider-in-chief.  Here’s a brief list of the four that have annoyed me the most the last eight years, and trust me, I can come up with more accusations against him, though they are far more ambiguous.

1. It started even before he set foot in the Oval Office, when it was determined by the Supreme Court that the controversial ballots from the Florida Recount would go to Dubya, despite gore getting the popular vote.  I’ll acknowledge, neither candidate was particularly inspiring in that election, but the fact remains that the man most Americans wanted in the office, didn’t make it there because of the outdated Electoral College.  I’ve taken note of this in every election since, and if you look at the results from this election at various points as it was being reported by the media, Barack Obama had more electoral votes but John McCain retained the popular vote (this obviously was not the case in the finally tally, but still proof of its general unfairness.)
2. The Bush presidency continued into its first year, experiencing a recession inherited from the decline of the Dot Com Boom from the 1990’s.  It was an uneventful first 9 months until 9/11.  Bush, responding swiftly to the attacks, started what I can only interpret as an early effort to drum up support for an invasion of Iraq to finish the job his daddy couldn’t.  It’s called word association, and if you look at the context of speeches following 9/11, you’ll notice he uses Al Qaeda/Osama Bin Laden and Iraq/Saddam Hussein interchangeably and often synonymously with one another.  By the time 2003 rolled around, enough people believed that even if Saddam didn’t have WMD’s, he sure had something to do with helping Osama plan the 9/11 terror attacks.  We now know, obviously, this is not true.  The war in Iraq was based on three pseudo-facts: Saddam had WMD’s, he was harboring and supporting terrorists (including helping to plot 9/11), and he was just a really evil man who killed his own citizens.  The only one that was true was the latter of the three and didn’t pose a threat to the United States as Bush implied leading up to the war.  The simple truth is, intentionally or not, Bush lied.  Clinton lied too (over a BJ), but no one died when he did.
3. In further response to the 9/11 attacks, Bush implemented a series of laws to increase our security.  That’s fine, as long as it’s done legally within the confines of the law.  The PATRIOT ACT is probably the least patriotic passed in recent history.  It strips those accused of terrorism of any other rights granted to common criminals by the constitution, it established the conditions that allowed for warrant-less wiretapping under Bush’s authorization, and in further response to 9/11, Bush advocated the use of modified interrogation techniques including waterboarding, a form of torture banned under the Geneva Convention.  To boot, these “interrogations” were exported to countries where the CIA could get away with torture.  The use of Gitmo as a prison camp has done nothing but breed more hostility towards the US, inside and outside its walls by countries and individuals who oppose its continued operation, again questionable under internationally accepted forms of criminal treatment and justice.  Does this sound like something the President of the Free World would do or something like what a crazed dictator in an isolated country might do?
4. During his presidency, Bush really didn’t live up to his “compassionate conservatism”, especially given number 3, and he didn’t live up to the fiscally sound practices of fiscal conservatism either.  When Bubba handed over the reins in 2001, there was a surplus of Social Security funds.  The large numbers of Baby Boomers retiring over the next few decades were on track to having their Social Security provided for.  Bush’s presidency saw not only that Social Security surplus gobbled up, but the reversal of a decline in the national debt that had been started in the 1990’s.  The national debt now stands around $10.6 trillion, compared to around $5.6 trillion in 2000 according to a Wikipedia table.  

Numbers 2 and 3 I find to be impeachable, and I’m sure there are plenty of more issues and decisions made by Bush administration officials, including the former President himself, which are impeachable offenses.  Now that he not longer holds a position of power, I whole-heartedly recommend the establishment of a Congressional panel to look into the actions made by the Bush administration from 2001-2009 and determine the legality of those questionable offenses.  Anyone who is involved in a questionable offense(s) should be brought to justice so that future leaders (including Obama) will know that Americans will not stand for presidential administrations conducting in an illegal and at the very least an immoral manner.  (Did Republicans cut Bill Clinton any slack for lying under oath about an affair that was of no national interest to begin with?)

Here’s a link to a recent post on Daily Kos regarding why President Bush and his cronies shouldn’t be allowed to get off the hook this easily.  Now is the time to bring about criminal prosecutions… for the sake of the country. 

With this post, pending any criminal investigations by Congress against any Bush administration officials, including the former President himself, I hereby close a chapter in my blog of the angry-liberal rhetoric against George Dubya Bush.  Thank God.

Today, President-elect Barack Obama is expected to call for a new era of responsibility.  

My social values are Christian and liberal.  

My environmental values are liberal.

My financial values are conservative.

I’m progressive and a pragmatist.

I believe in a globalized society based on peace, prosperity, and mutual cooperation between nations.

I therefore believe in responsible progress.

I’m a Responsible Progressive.