A Promise To Keep

Here is one promise we should all keep with regard to our newly-elected president, as valuable lesson learned from the last 8 years of the administration of G W Bush. A promise for both those who are grossly disappointed with the results and even for those who adored and voted for Barack Obama.

That we will not hate our president enough, regardless of what he will have done as perceived by us, as to wish that he fails as a president. Because it would be no different from cutting our collective noses to spite our faces.

We have clearly seen how hate poisons the entire lake. How it gnaws at people’s hearts and minds to make them only see evil in what even a good-meaning president does. We have seen how the eight years of Bush exemplifies the very vile and negative ramifications of this kind of attitude not only within the country but spilling well across the entire globe.

Let’s leave to history how the presidency of G W Bush will be viewed and judged, but at the onset he can’t possibly be half as bad as many had projected him during his incumbency. After the end of the year, he will have been past history and hopefully the self-fueling hate that many people in many sectors of society engender and harbor for him will have been dimmed.

Maybe we should take the example of very partisan Chris Matthews vowing this early on that in the discharge of his duties as an opinion-maker/host in an adjudged liberally-biased cable station like MSNBC, he will do his best to make sure this president succeeds. Now this is coming from a pundit who spent a good part of his TV career wasting no opportunity castigating the opposition – both in media and in politics.

Was this coming out a good thing? You be the judge. At least, Matthews has become quite open and upfront about his politics, while a number of his colleagues have continued to front their agenda stealthily and vehemently denying any slant at any and all occasions that arise.

Because it is the good and proper thing to do.

Let the loyal opposition take the lead and show the nation their graciousness, their ability to transcend petty politics, and to show truly their greater love for the nation over partisan politics to the detriment of the greater good.

And to GW, happy voyage and blessings, because you did not have to, but you did. Give up eight years of your life in service to your country. You have earned your sleep.

Post-election Hopes

Amidst the massive wake of euphoric celebration after a very historic presidential election result, uncared for temporarily are the compelling realities in the workaday economic life of the US.

But we know that very soon we will all be rudely wakened to the continuing unfolding challenges that today bedevil our lives – who knows until when. Everyone is agreed that we were in a fulsome quandary of our times, collectively shiftless and unsure what to do and when resolution will come.

We are heartened that some of our campaign fears have been allayed by early reassurances by Obama operatives that he will govern as a centrist, moderate, or any similarly-packaged label, and definitely not as a classic liberal with its expected or assumed political agenda and goals, certainly not in these scary times of uncertainty. That he will be true to the glowing campaign rhetoric that propelled him to this exalted position.

Our hope and the changes we expect are anchored on these reassurances. And I would not be mistaken to assume that the general electorate expects the same, especially in this country which has traditionally been noted as shying away from too liberal politicians.

At the very least, we desire reassurances in our following personal circumstances. What will be done to plug the continued downward trends of our home prices which definitely affect every one of us maintaining a house? What about the countless millions of us who have hitched our pension nest-eggs to the suddenly uncertain markets? What will be done to stop the hemorrhaging and start the upward recovery, hopefully soon enough for many of us to enjoy our hard-earned retirement.

And the many more economic concerns occasioned by the economic crises brought about by a host of interdependent factors, chief among them, the avaricious greed of some of our entrepreneurs unleashed by lax oversight, or worse, the pandering or regulation laxity by critical government officials in exchange for personal financial considerations or jockeyed political leverage.

Some of us have temporarily fled the once easy comforts of our sainted country, to seek both solace and possible financial recovery in other places and from other possible sources. I count myself as one, and I am particularly grateful that I have precious options others do not enjoy, who will now temporarily focus on economic activities in the old homeland if only to attempt at recovering losses and assuaging difficult financial situations occasioned by the downed markets in our adopted country. Hopefully, by sheer grit and without need of government assistance, we can recover enough to be able to get back on track and continue with our lives in our adopted country.

It is good to note that after two weeks of stay here, one can discern with some certifiable degree that the crippling ripple effects of our homegrown economic crises have not yet had their full impact in these faraway islands. Consumer prices have held steady, or are rising in expected tranches, and even real estate prices have been so far shielded from the disastrous effects of those in the US mainland.

We hold on to our lives with bated breaths, expecting and hoping for some self-driven deliverance.

Because this too will pass.

The Nation Has Spoken

Obama wins the presidency very convincingly.

Our heartfelt congratulations.

God Bless America!

Learning Of Ourselves

VDH has written a rather profoundly introspective piece on ourselves as revealingly gleaned from the rather abrupt and unexpected Sarah Palin candidacy, which essentially demonstrated how skewed our values and worldly perception have become.

It is not a pretty assessment, verbally castigating us for our rank deviation from righteousness and for how deeply we have strayed from what would be considered iron-clad standards maybe a generation prior, when we still had our heads screwed on right.

It appears from his assessment that we, or maybe more appropriately many of those belonging to the enlightened class of political pundits and media in general, have collectively taken leave of our good senses, thrown away and shunted aside the wealth of accumulated wisdom of our ages, and cast our lot with the ragged divestiture of traditional values and disgusting amorality that now appear to have taken hold of our social ruling class.

Warped values and callous cynicism to traditional values endeared and zealously guarded by generations past.

All in the hallowed name of political expediency, or maybe crass ideology. And maybe for the self-anointed intellectual media class as sneering putdown or arrogance against somebody so differently cast from the template that they have molded for themselves – an unwelcome outlier with very plebian origins and clothed with the humble accoutrements of upbringing outside the gilded environments of privileged families, renowned affinities and connections, and educational haughtiness in revered ivy-league schools.

Such snickering and dismissive gesture reserved for somebody so far below their perceived hallowed cognitive abilities, and privileged backgrounds.

Sarah Palin has been dressed up and played for a fool, like a court jester to be ridiculed and shooed back to oblivion. Or so they believe.

But the true winner and the one who has opted to take the higher moral ground, in all this is without a doubt Sarah Palin herself. Because she has unmindfully dismissed them all with the same nonchalant vigor and passion that they have denigrated her. Unobtrusively attending to her business and pursuing and espousing her believed causes before the huddled masses of the electorate, without mind and rancor to the many that have chosen to ridicule her.

Shame on them! And the day of reckoning hopefully will find them stripped of their base thoughts and shorn of their flagrant arrogance. And then hopefully, they can begin to feel self-dread and real shame.

Race to the Finish

We have barely 7 days to go before election time. Some SEO keywords to remember in trying to learn about the Obama-Biden ticket:

Unrepentant terrorist William Ayers - Obama’s favorite neighbor

Convicted Chicago landlord Tony Rezko

Rev. Jeremiah Wright - Damns America; and hateful Rev. Phleger

Community Organizer ACORN - Obama’s anointed

Massive voter registration fraud in Ohio and in at least a dozen other states, either under indictment or being investigated by FBI – credit all to ACORN

Annenberg Challenge papers and Stanley Kurtz – how to muzzle free speech and freedom of information

Thuggish methods in shutting down dissent – now includes a TV station

Unvetted past of Obama – undergraduate studies, school records, etc.

Unguarded “spreading the wealth around” comment. Bring me the good old socialism

Campaign contributions fraud – fictitious donor names and unauthorized charges to credit card accounts.

Obama – post-racial race-card player

When the rhetoric appears too good to be true, it usually is.

Guard your vote, vote with an opened mind.