Doug Berger – Page 157

September 23, 2005April 18, 2020

How I lost my virginity in the College Republicans

I friend of mine posted a link to an article about College Republicans:

Swimming with Sharks: In the College Republicans, young GOPers learn to fight hard against Democrats–by practicing on one another.

The article describes the tactics CRs learn and use for the campaigns of the Chairman of the group and how it seems real familiar to those who follow real elections.

It reminded me of my short stint with CR back in the mid 1980’s and I thought I would share my story:

I grew up in a white bread conservative town where most of the city and county leaders were Republicans. Most of my friends in school were sons and daughters of Republicans. Even though the GOP didn’t really do anything for me as someone who was poor, lived in a trailer, and was on welfare from time to time, this was the Reagan Era and everyone was in love with the old coot.

I went to Ohio State in the fall of 1986 and when I made the move I wanted to be more political. Naturally I joined the College Republicans. It included the sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews of the big wigs of the Ohio GOP. The vice president of the group was the son or grandson of a former congressman.

I attended my first meeting and found someone else from Findlay there. In fact Jim was in my class at Findlay High. Not much about the meetings really stick with me other than at the time there was a governor’s race. Jim Rhodes, one of the most famous modern Ohio governors was trying again to be governor. Ohio had term limits and so he had to sit out for 4 years while his Lt. Governor – Democrat Richard Celeste ran the state.

Celeste was the last Lt. Governor from an opposite party as the constitution had changed to allow the Governor to pick their own Lt. Governor rather than the previous lesser vote getter getting the job.

Rhodes picked a youngster (compared to him) named Bob Taft to be his Lt. Governor. Yes, THAT Taft family – President, US Supreme Court Judge, two US Senators.

The OSU College Republicans invited Taft to speak at a meeting.

The day came and people filed into the classroom being used for the meeting and just before the event started a guy wearing an Army jacket and sandals sat in the back of the room. The CR suits were buzzing about this “hippy” in their mists but for the moment they left the guy alone. The meeting was public after all. They didn’t want any bad PR.

So Taft was introduced and began to speak about what he and Jim Rhodes would do to the state if elected. It was the usual “create jobs by cutting taxes.” A couple of minutes into the talk the “hippy” pulls out a sign from under his coat and holds it up. He doesn’t say anything. He just holds the sign up in protest. (I forget what the sign said but it was opposite what the GOP stood for of course.)

CR goons swarmed the guy looking like they were going to beat the crap out of him but Bob Taft told the guys to back off and let him protest – that he wasn’t afraid.

During the rest of the talk there were 3 goons standing near the guy staring at him waiting for him to do anything more than hold the sign. Taft finished with some Q & As then the meeting broke up into small talk. That’s when the “hippy” left.

Most of the chit chat was about the protester. “How dare he disrupt our meeting.” “We need to keep the riff raff out.” “Can you believe it, sandals AFTER labor day.”

It was on that day that I started not to have good vibes about CR or Republicans. I didn’t want to be part of a group that tried to control speech or who had shallow ideas about people. I was a poor person from a trailer – just image what they would say about me if they found out.

The other incident that finally caused me to quit CR was the OSU group sponsored a Reagan Birthday Party event as a fundraiser for CR and way for GOP members to mingle with the CRs. It seemed too much to me like when the Nazis use to celebrate Hitler’s birthday. They would sing songs about the fatherland and have a big cake.

Also being exposed to different viewpoints at Ohio State, I learned how closed minded and insular my hometown had been as I was growing up. It had been that way all along but I really didn’t see until I contrasted it with living in Columbus and meeting so many different people with so many different backgrounds. For example: I was shocked to learn that in other areas of the state there was subsidized housing. We were stuck living in a trailer for years because Hancock county had one apartment complex that was subsidized and the wait list stretched into years.

I didn’t go and join the College Democrats though because of my bad experiences with Political Correctness. That is another story.

My friend Jim stayed in CR and last I heard, after college, he was legal counsel for a state agency under former Governor George Voinovich (now our US Senator). Me, I worked as a security guard for a property management firm.

September 22, 2005April 18, 2020

The Democratic Party died today

I am announcing my official break with the national Democratic party.

I was never a party member. I have never declared my party at election time and I refused to vote for party candidates during the primaries, but in recent years I have voted Democratic and given them money – especially during the 2004 elections. But even that level of support has ended for me as of today.

The party died for me on Wednesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, announced his endorsement of Judge John Roberts, shortly after leaving the White House where the 2nd vacancy in the Supreme Court was discussed with President Bush.

Leahy said:

[Judge John] Roberts “is a man of integrity,” said Leahy, who told Roberts over the telephone about his decision. “I can only take him at his word that he does not have an ideological agenda.”
John Roberts Picks Up Democratic Support

The problem is that Roberts refused to answer truthfully many of the questions during his confirmation hearing. For example:

“At least two other matters enjoy sacramental status. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Roberts — who had promised the committee to tell the truth, “so help me God” — whether he accepted the “absolute” separation of church and state and whether he would support giving special treatment to racial minorities.
Again, Roberts promised to follow the Constitution, which is why Feinstein undoubtedly will vote against his confirmation.”
The problem with Roberts

Basically Roberts is Scalia light. Someone who plans on ruling based on the 200 year old text of the Constitution rather than on the interpretation of those words as the court has done since judicial review – which by the way also isn’t in the Constitution – was invented.

Abortion isn’t in the text so women have no right to it. Separation of church and state isn’t in the text so it doesn’t exist either and so on.

Scalia’s Dissenting Rhetoric

The truthful answer he should have told Senator Feinstein was – No, but instead he side stepped the question with a vague answer.

So much for Roberts being a man of integrity with no agenda .

The only thing that could save my support for the Democrats would be that maybe Leahy worked out a deal – he gives up on Roberts and Bush nominates a less conservative woman for O’Connor’s spot.

Some how I doubt it.

Some would argue that the Democrats realized that the Roberts nomination was a done deal what with the GOP majority. It would seem that Leahy wanted to preserve what political capital the Dems have and hold off a fight until it really matters.

Bullcrap!

How important is the appointment of the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court? Political and religious conservatives are frothing at the mouth to get Roberts on the court since they seem to think he will start putting the court back to where they think it should be – like “separate but equal” is ok and women *ARE* property of their husbands.

Face it, the Democrats got outplayed again by Rove and company and were handed their balls.

If principles don’t mean enough to them, to fight to the bitter end, then why should I vote for them or give them money?

I still don’t plan to declare a party but I do plan on supporting my local and state Democrats where it makes sense but my days of supporting the National party are over.

September 2, 2005April 18, 2020

The God Game: Who’s side is God on?

During times of national stress the prayer birds come out of the wood work. Not only religious leaders, but political leaders, and media talking heads ask people to pray or offer prayers.

On Tuesday I read where Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana, called on people to pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina that slammed into the states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi on Monday August 29th. President Bush said he and First Lady Laura Bush were praying for them as well.

By Thursday all hell had broke loose in New Orleans as victims snapped under the strain of going 4 days without much food and drinking water. But hey, we are praying for you.

I kept thinking “Get off your asses and get help into the city. Stop wasting time praying!”

Some religious right nut jobs even suggest that the hurricane was God’s way of punishing “us” for “our” sins.

Pat Robertson, one of the nut jobs, said once back in 1998:

“I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you.”

He said it in response to Orlando hosting a Gay Pride Festival and Disney World having a Gay Day.

But attributing a natural storm to the will of a “God” is not a rational way to explain coincidences. In Robertson’s case, no hurricanes went through or near Orlando. So does that mean God was ok with the Gay Pride Festival?

If you want to play the “God” game one could also draw a conclusion that God hates Republicans.

Katrina slammed into Alabama, home to Judge Roy Moore who ignored a federal court ruling forcing him to remove a 10 Commandments monument from the Alabama Supreme Court building.

The storm leveled coastal towns in Mississippi, whose Governor is Haley Barbour, formerly the national chairman of the Republican Party. The state is also home to Senator Trent Lott who use to be Senate Majority Leader before his mouth forced him to step down from that job.

Katrina previously had hit Florida, whose Governor is President Bush’s brother Jeb and is thought to have helped his brother “steal” the 2000 election for the President. In fact God must really hate Jeb because Katrina is the 5th hurricane to hit Florida in two years.

A religious conservative writer pointed out that Katrina hit New Orleans just before it was due to host the Southern Decadence festival which was described as “a six-day public homosexual orgy.” But Katrina didn’t hit New Orleans. The rule of the God game is that it has to hit the object God hates and Katrina turned to the right before making land fall, missing the city with a direct hit. It turned to the right and hit Mississippi directly.

Why doesn’t God send hurricanes to hit bigger places of sin like Las Vegas, New York, or Hollywood?

I guess he thinks those places and people are ok, but he must really hate the Bible belt and Republicans.

I think I like the God game.

Correction:

In my last post I mentioned how FEMA was changed after the mess of the Hurricane Andrew relief effort in 1992. Like everyone else I expected to see massive efforts on the ground to help those who were vicitms of Hurricane Katrina.

I guess I spoke to soon and assumed too much. It is Friday, 4 days since the hurricane blew through and FEMA and the Federal Govt. is JUST NOW getting the machine going. I am shocked and disgusted with the foot dragging. The effort so far is a disgrace for the US.

August 31, 2005April 18, 2020

What one thing can make President Bush break his month long vacation?

No, it isn’t to give yet another speech in support of his failed Iraq policy – although he has done that a couple of times this month.

What forced Bush to go back to DC before Labor Day was Hurricane Katrina that devastated Louisiana and Mississippi with a brutal punch of wind and water.

One way people judge our political leaders is how they respond to natural disasters. A perceived slip up can hurt you at the next ballot box if it is close enough. Some pointed to the mess that was the response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 for President Bush Sr. losing to President Clinton in the Florida region.

The problems with that response led to changes in how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) operated and interacted with local authorities and agencies. Before Andrew, FEMA had to wait for a disaster declaration before they could even gather their crew together. The wait back in 1992 was more than a week. Tensions flared and several riots broke out over what supplies were available.

In contrast, for Katrina, FEMA gathered their crew and supplies together in the days leading up to the storm’s land fall on Monday so they could get right to work. Also, unlike after Andrew, the Federal Government didn’t have to wait for an invite before they sent in military supplies and assets like food and tents.

So if any political leader is seen as not working to help people, they will get bad marks from the people. Bush Jr.’s already low poll numbers don’t need more negative feedback.

I watched the wall to wall coverage of the storm on Sunday night and Monday morning and one political leader put her foot firmly in her mouth as the hurricane was moving past New Orleans.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, was asked her thoughts, on CNN, on the report that part of the roof of the Superdome had ripped off in the wind. Thousands of residents and stranded tourists were using the dome as their “refuge of last resort”. She talked about all the people who “ignored the evacuation order” and stayed in the city and that “Authorities cannot fix the problem in the middle of the storm.”

Setting aside the fact that a US Senator is not a storm expert and was just used because CNN had time to fill and she was there, but the tone of her comments came across as if the people in Superdome had planned to be there.

What was ignored was than a majority were there because they had no means to leave even if they wanted to. They didn’t ignore the evacuation order, they couldn’t comply.

In times of natural disasters those with the least to lose, lose the most. During the coverage tonight on CNN it appears that news is getting out as the disaster is finally being seen for the monster that it is. Even Landrieu has changed her tune.

“What I saw today is equivalent to what I saw flying over the tsunami in Indonesia. There are places that are no longer there,” she said.

August 26, 2005April 18, 2020

Disappointment for The Corrs fans in the US

In an earlier entry I gushed about the new album coming out from my favorite band The Corrs. It is going to be called “Home” and will have interpretations of several traditional Irish songs including a couple in Gaelic.

Many of us long time fans have loved the band’s nuggets of traditional Irish music on their earlier albums and we are excited to have a whole album worth of them.

The album is scheduled to be released on September 26th in Ireland and the UK and September 27th in Europe and Canada.

However, fans in the United States may have to wait until 2006 or never for the US release.

It isn’t the first time the band has limited a release to certain areas. In 2002, “Live in Dublin” was only released in the US to go along with the VH1 special of the same name. But “LID” wasn’t a regular studio album. It had most of their hits plus a few new cover songs. The biggest hit off that album was “When Stars Go Blue” that they did with Bono from U2.

The record company has also released different versions of the same album in the different markets. Albums released in Japan and Australia typically have had bonus tracks and other goodies included that aren’t available even in a UK release.

But what has a lot of us worried is that it seems Atlantic Records in the US are no longer supporting the band which could explain why there doesn’t seem to be a US release date for “Home” after release dates in Europe and Canada were announced.

A couple of fans called Atlantic in New York and were told the band isn’t on Atlantic (US) – that they are now with their international division, Warner Music International. That division distributes artists outside the US so the band has been with them the whole time.

There is a logical explanation to all of this. The music business is complex. Even though a label may distribute an artist all over the world, the individual divisions decide what artists to carry and sell in their own markets. Some groups are popular internationally so you will find their albums everywhere but some other band or singer unknown outside their country may only be distributed in their home country – like Daniel and Gilberto Gil of Brazil or Alejandro Sanz from Spain. Someone here in the US would have trouble just going down to the local record shop and getting an album from them.

Most of these decisions are based on money. It costs money to make, promote, and distribute albums and the record companies make their decisions based on if they are likely to recover their costs. Basically they decide if the market is large enough to justify the expense.

Although a logical explanation – it does seem illogical. A band won’t be distributed unless the market is large enough for the costs, but the market won’t be large enough unless the band is distributed and promoted.

Bands and singers help the process by touring and getting radio play. Those two actions are the greatest driver of record sales and if sales are up then a record company is more likely to spend more money and then bring out more albums.

Frankly, The Corrs are far more popular in Europe and Asia than they are in the US but they still do pretty good here with little to no radio play and occasional touring and TV appearances. “Home” is a traditional Irish music album and that kind of music is a niche market here. They won’t sell as many as they did for their last pop album 2004’s “Borrowed Heaven”, but there are a large number of fans who will buy the album just because it is The Corrs.

With the Internet, it is easier to buy the album as an import but we would much rather contribute to US sales than the sales of Canada or Europe.

I’m one fan who hopes this is just a bump and the next pop album is released here when it comes out and the band tours North America again like they did in 2004. Of course until the release comes along this is all speculation and Atlantic Records could surprise us. Who knows?

The Corrs Return Home To Their Irish Roots
The Corrboard – US based fan forum
Corrs Official Website

Update

The album was finally released in the US on February 7th 2006 by Rhino Records.

Rhino: The Corrs – Home