Politics That I Understand For the First Time

I work with a very witty Brit who is a master of lampooning all things American. That's alright -- we give it right back to him. As often happens though, in his jokes I learn something.

Question Time in Parliament

I've always viewed the parliamentary system in Britain as entertaining (question time, for example), but likely to create situations where the whole country gets beholden to some extreme party that won a tiny percentage of the vote, yet gets to play kingmaker in cabinet creation because their tiny numbers create a governing majority. Israeli's Knesset comes to mind too.

America's present system, with just two parties, creates an overall moderation that is considered by most to be stabilizing (it also makes America slow to change which makes a lot of us impatient too).

Third parties often spring up. But having voted for alternate candidates once as my first choice, I realized I'm just enabling my third choice to get elected. I think many other Americans realize this too because the third party candidate never surpasses 10% of the vote.

My British friend said, "In my country, we don't have this phenomenon of everyone waiting around for the president to leave. When a prime minister gets THAT unpopular, his own party asks him to step down and they put up somebody new. That way the party doesn't get voted out, just the guy at the top."

Imagine how hard it would be to "cowboy up" and invade another country if you knew at anytime your party could yank you off your post. I think you would have to reach a consensus of more than five guys at the top before invading another country and starting a war, no?

It would force you to move as a swarm. If you don't feel accountable to public opinion, necessarily, you would at least be forced to sell your party on your actions.

I was explaining that I finally understood this to another Brit, and he said, "well it's not just George Bush and his unpopularity where that would have been useful. Think about Bill Clinton when he got into his troubles. Al Gore could have taken over and the Democrats would probably still be in charge. America might not have felt a wholesale 'need' to change the whole party in charge. The guy at the top isn't as important as which party. John Major, for example, was the third choice of his party when they put him up."

Aaaahh, I get it now. That is useful.

We Can Solve It

Hey, we can do this.

Al Gore is asking every American who cares about global warming to join together in a group called wecansolveit.org so that by the time a new president is elected in the fall of 2008 there are several million Americans assembled who can pressure our government for immediate action on this issue.

I can do that. Join a group with my countrymen to actively pursue policies that keep our planet healthy. There's no cost. I just receive their email mailings. Will you join us? It'd be a lot easier than trying to do this on our own.

The issue of climate change has been very confusing in America because there has been no federal governmental leadership. I actually know more about what energy policy oilman T. Boone Pickens wants us to pursue because he tells me several times a day in commercials that we are engaged in the largest transfer of wealth from one country to another with our addiction to foreign oil (four times the annual cost of the Iraq war).

Even Exxon is busy telling me what needs to be done and they constantly extol their new technologically-advanced battery in the works.

NBC had an entire week where every single show on the network discussed green living and they sent their Today show crew to the four corners of the earth to show what global warming is doing to the environment. But on this subject of climate change my president has been pretty silent.

Two things I do know about my administration's view:

1) It has finally gone from denying global warming to admitting it exists.

2) The president wants to open drilling in the Artic Wildlife Refuge and off the coast of California to "reverse the psychology" of the markets so gas prices go down. That's it. That's his whole energy policy, I think.

3) Oh yes, I forgot, the occupation of Iraq to set up no-bid contracts for global oil companies. How could I forget that?

I've never seen an international issue that business leads on rather than the government. I honestly can't think of another one that's happened in my lifetime. Frankly, it's confusing and more than a little, ahem, whussy/alarming/depressing to see my government standing around rubbernecking on this. America is supposed to be the knight on the white horse leading the charge.




The first action that Al Gore has asked from us individually is to know what sort of power we consume. My utility company actually gets more power from nuclear power than most American towns: 47%. It buys 42% of it's energy from other companies that use coal.

I like that they don't own the coal-fire plants so that when I and others ask them to switch to another source, they can! That's Al Gore's second request. Call your utility company and demand clean technologies for your power. I can do that. Can you?

Third is to contact every single one of our elected representatives and demand clean power. I can do that. Actually I love doing that. It's shocking what you learn when you call and write your reps. They often tell you stuff that doesn't hit the mainstream media.

Both of my parents were elected representatives. They used the rule of thumb that if one person contacts the office concerning a particular issue, 100 other people are thinking that way.

Al Gore's fourth request is to recruit 25 people to join the cause. Link on my title to reach the website put together to organize all of us to demand action from our government. Let me know if you sign up. I'll count you as one of my 25!

Let's saddle up that white horse!

Revising my Goal

I need to revise my arrival date for Prague. I had originally planned to leave seven days from today and that is not going to happen because my house hasn't sold yet. It will though. I have faith.

The good side of that is that I will get to spend time with my children one last time before they go back to college. They arrive Friday.

Do you think it's time to add world geography to the American curriculum?

Quick, somebody ask John McCain what's the name of the country that used to be called Burma. See if he gets it right. Here is a highly entertaining story in the Huffington Post about McCain getting razzed by NONE OTHER than George Bush for his ignorance in continuing to call the Czech Republic Czechoslovakia. Even George knew that Czecho was no more.



The other item in the campaign today that is ALL the talk is the satirical cover of the New Yorker magazine portraying the Obamas as Osama acolytes. The New Yorker says it's satire of right-wing fearmongering, the Obamas say it's tasteless. Gee, they're both right. Ain't freedom grand?



On a non-satirical note, the good people of Denver are really, really excited preparing for Obama's acceptance speech which will take place in late August at Democratic convention in Denver. The convention is being held at the Pepsico Center, a basketball venue. It holds 20,000+ people. The Democratic National Committee is moving the speech to Invesco Field (lovingly known by locals as Mile High Stadium, home of the Denver Broncos football team).

Invesco Field holds 77,000+ people, plus they'll be able to put more seats on the actual field so as many people as possible will be able to witness this historic moment.

The part that truly makes me pause, pause with both reverence and appreciation for the flexibility of our democracy, is Senator Obama's acceptance speech will take place 45 years to the day that Martin Luther King uttered "I Have a Dream Today" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

The wonderful world of Miroslav Sasek

Yesterday I came across a delightful set of children's books created in the late 1950s/early 1960s that could awaken wonder and resolve in any child to see the world. They were done by a Czech illustrator, a native of Prague, named Miroslav Sasek. The books are being reissued.

Besides the whimsical illustrations, the text introduces children to great figures from history such as Christopher Wren or Napoleon. The books celebrates people, architecture, and things as everyday as lamp posts or transport tickets. I appreciated how he communicated through his text that a child would want to know who all these people were and also, would want to observe and celebrate differences in cultures. These books talk "up" intellectually to a child in a way I'm not sure today's books always do.

I could not find a "This is Prague." Does anyone know if one exists?

What's the missile treaty fallout?

Two Czech stories in two days in the New York Times: the paper reports that the Czechs suspect the Russian oil valve has been shut off in retaliation since the missile treaty was signed. Link to the article via the title.

Czech Rock Jumping

In today's New York Times is an article that begs for a soundtrack such as Tarzan-like yodeling or "Wipeout." It's about the nascent extreme sport of rock jumping in Adrspach, Czech Republic. Click on the title to read the whole story and access the video. Is there fun and crazy Czech music that would be perfect for this?