Business, Baseball and Politics 10/5/04

It's been a difficult week. Stunned from the sudden and complete loss of the opportunity with the Great Big Company ("GBC") last Friday afternoon, we've been adrift without clear direction regarding what to do next. The local newspaper has yielded only one opportunity that looks to be a good fit for me, and they've had my resume for ten days without responding. The job had been posted for a week before I found it, so I'm assuming it's taken. Monster.com has become a pimp service for employment firms, and rarely includes a job posting (at least in my fields) other than those vague positions at unnamed companies offered by professional search firms, although I continue to scour it. I've done my work on the little freelance trademark project and sent the proposal mid-day Monday, but have not yet heard back from the business owner who requested it. Last night went well. My baseball boys beat a very good team 9-1, bringing our record to 3-3, in what was their best game of this fall season. We got great pitching, good hitting, and really fine defensive play. We were also fortunate enough to have the early game, which got us home just in time to watch the VP debate. I thought both men performed fairly well. At least Cheney didn't have the appearance of having lost a grip on reality the way the President did (I happen to be expert at identifying this particular "look" since I sport it myself, often, these days). I felt like Cheney and Edwards, whose styles are so very different, were fairly evenly matched, and that all of the handlers must have been pleased with their lack of gaffes. I remain appalled, though, at the Repulicans' continued and pervasive hypocrisy, and am convinced that they are certain that the American electorate is too stupid to see the difference in what they say and what they do. I learned a long time ago in marriage counseling, that when there is a difference in someone's words and their actions, believe what they do. They call themselves "fiscal conservatives" but they are anything but, having been the most free-spending administration in the history of our nation. They say they stand for less government interference in the lives of citizens, yet by seeking an amendment to the Constitution banning same-sex marriages, they are calling for what would be the first constitutional amendment that restricts rights as opposed to granting them. Cheney said, of terrorists, "We need to battle them overseas so we don't battle them here at home," but I believe, as do many experts, that our actions overseas have simply poured fuel on the fire that endangers us here at home, while simultaneously diluting our first responder force all over the country by using our reserves and National Guard, a disproportionate number of whom are deputies and police officers and EMTs, to fight a foreign war. In his closing comments, Cheney said, "We have put this economy on an upward path." I don't know about that at all. My experience may be anecdotal, and perhaps not representative of the nation as a whole, but it is my story and I must act and vote and write in accordance with it. The eight years of the Clinton administration were the best financial years of our lives and our small business thrived during those eight years. Within one year of Bush taking office, we had lost our business, and since his inauguration we've also lost our health insurance and been forced to sell our home. Our income is a small fraction of what it was during the Clinton administration, and maintaining any kind of decent life-style (paying our bills) has become impossible over the last four years. I am personally insulted that this administration doesn't think we're smart enough to know when our leaders are lying to us. Cheney is smug and self-serving, lining his pockets and the pockets of his friends with gigantic tax breaks for the wealthy, in what was nothing less than a raiding of the US Treasury by our richest citizens. Bush, the reckless buckaroo, appears to be struggling with mental illness (some have suggested substance abuse), and even the appearance of this renders him unfit to lead. We need a change.