Adventures in Bat Country

I had a really good idea for a story to submit for the upcoming the Shine Anthology. You can read more about the anthology at http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/

The basic concept of the anthology is optimistic science fiction set in the next fifty years.

My idea involved the internet and something like twitter being used to resolve problems between nations by the people resolving the problems and deciding not to fight a war. And then the Iranian elections started going south and I felt weird writing about it.

Twitter changed how the world viewed those events. The deadline is coming up and so I decided to look at the idea again. At first I thought that it might cheapen the struggle of the recent events, but they didn't want their voices to be silence, so I am going to give it a try.

The worse that can happen is that it is tacky and I waste my own time.

I remember the 80s when the Republicans were the hip party that drank a lot and snorted coke off hooker's asses and were proud of it.

I remember wearing my ROTC uniform in high school listening to two Republicans discuss a party they had the night before.

They are just returning to their roots....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_koreas_nuclear

Seriously?

This guy is fucking crazy.

And he has nukes.

Pat Robertson is in favor of Duck Sex.

I've been fairly impressed with Obama as president in his first six months or so.

This country has a mountain of issues and I know that some of his supporters are unhappy in the order in which he is tackling them.

I used to think that his greatest strength was being able to inspire hope.

Instead, I think his greatest asset is his slow methodology. After eight years of Bush and eight years of Clinton, I think that the American Public is unused to a President that is slow respond until there is a plan in place.

Bush never seemed to understand the difference between action and consequence. Or he didn’t care as many have suggested.

Clinton was an emotional president. He allowed himself to make mistakes by making rash decisions.

Obama is coldly logical and methodical. I think many that were energized by the message of hope is confusion passion and ideals with tone and methods.

From a distance, it looks like he runs policy at the White House like a national debate. The first tricks any skilled debater is to learn the data and then establish precedent.

Obama is quickly establishing a lot of precedents.

Perhaps the most overlooked and yet most important is the Open Government project. There is a Chief Information Officer now in the White House. His job is to ensure that the Public can access information.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/innovations/Data/

To quote the site:

Data.gov is a citizen-friendly platform that provides access to Federal datasets. With a searchable data catalog, Data.gov helps the public find, access, and download non-sensitive Government data and tools in a variety of formats.

What does this mean?

All of the information that used to be hidden from us is accessible. This is important because now we can check facts.

When a politician says something, we can look it up.

We’re no longer held hostage to reporters or specialists with special access with an agenda.
Want to know how many single mothers are below the poverty line? Look it up.

Want to know what products have peanut extract? Look it up.

Want a quick way to know how a Senator voted?

You get the idea.

The last eight years, Carl Rove used stories and generated mythology to win elections for Republicans.

The Democrats took it like that poor guy from Deliverance.

Obama is changing how politics will be played. He is changing the nature of the debate.

You want to work towards legalization of pot? You have crime, medical, and economic statistics available directly to you.

Just as the internet has started the rise of the Citizen Reporter via blogs, I believe this is the start of the Citizen Politician.

"Barack Obama makes a short visit to the manger in Bethlehem where he was born."

See: http://www.thedailyshow.com/

I'm glad there's a bit of teasing going on. I like the guy and want to vote for him, but every one could use a bit of poking fun at.

If nothing else, the clip of him shooting baskets in front of a stadium of serviceman and them cheering was just funny.



Granted, I'd be cheering too if I was in the army right now and I wanted to go home.

I think the weirdest moment for me on this trip was during the fireworks.

We were sitting in Eastern Washington/Idaho listening to the country music station talk about the fireworks and play sound bites celebrating America. This is appearantly the BIG station in those parts.

The celebration started with Obama's speech.

I was shocked.

And then, the next day we went to Wallmart. They were selling posters of the Rolling Stone cover with Obama on it.

Shocked and surprised. Lewiston/Clarkston is yeehaw hick country.

We passed by gun yard sales. Yes, you read that right. There was a yard sale selling firearms.

I counted more mullets and men without shirts than I thought possible.

http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=061008uspp4.jpg

Politics and Doctor Who. Brilliant!!!!

I emailed my congressman late last night. This morning I had a reply.
Granted, I'm sure that this is a canned email, but it sounds like my rep was a co-sponsor of the impeachment process. That makes me very happy.

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