Two Outta Three Ain't Bad!

Winston Churchill once said, "Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." I am feeling pretty darn successful these days.

First, as some of you know, I just found out that a position I was hoping for didn't come through; someone else was hired. The offering closed on August 29th. It was today, November 8th, that I was notified. The job was for a writer/editor. I thought it and I were a great match, but it really doesn't matter what I think; if it were up to me, I would have been hired, but it wasn't, so I wasn't. I am slightly disappointed, but I am not crushed. If it was meant to be, it would have been.

(Maybe I should have applied to help with Human Resources. I mean, 72 days to make a decision and get back to someone? I betcha I could interview people and decide on a candidate in a fraction of that time. The letter did encourage me to apply for other positions that I am qualified for. Let's see, the way I figure it, I could apply for five jobs, and a potentially productive year would be gone.... I don't think so. Thanks, but no thanks).

Combining that latest rejection with my recent loss in the political arena, that's two in a row, but that's okay. There are plenty of jobs out there... aren't there? I mean, aren't we riding the crest of prosperity? I mean, based on Congressional accounting rules, at the end of his presidency Clinton reported a surplus of $559 billion. The past eight years and the Republicans' penchant for fiscal conservatism and smaller government must have kept the surplus and added to it, so I am looking at the world through Rose-Garden-colored glasses. Something will come along... soon, I am sure. I will keep you posted.

So, those are my two out of three! What's number three? I don't know yet, but I will let you know when it happens; I feel good about it, whatever it will be.

Later.

Election Results

The people have spoken. Although I don't have official results yet, my campaign as a write-in candidate for U.S. Senator from New Hampshire wasn't as successful as I had hoped. I do know there are at least three-hundred thousand disappointed voters (actually they are the ones who voted for John Sununu and Ken Blevins).

My goal was to see if through emails and press releases I could even make a blip on the radar. The Secretary of State's office hasn't listed write-ins, and I don't know if it will. I do know I did receive at least one vote - any more than that I consider a success. In theory, if I am to believe those I spoke with, I should have a few more.

All of that said, I am excited by the overall national election results. Although I was too young to vote back then, I suspect I still had the same feeling after JFK's election. There was hope in the air; there was enthusiasm. These days, there is the same feeling, but as the old saying goes, no matter who is elected, the Government still gets in.

Lots more to say, but I have to go now. This election was true history in the making. Time will tell what will happen, but this was one election I was glad to have lived through and participate in. I do hope and pray for the best.

Later.

Vote!

Notice the button above is in the center; that's so people won't think I am subliminally suggesting one side or the other. Also, I chose a plain font for the same reason. Unfortunately, 'plain' rhymes with McCain, so I may have a problem there. Also, perhaps you have received the email in which all the words are jumbled (first and last letters must be the same). Most people are able to read the entire message with little effort. Therefore, a second problem is that the letters in 'plain' also can easily be seen as a plug for Palin. I'll take my chances.

Humorist Kin Hubbard once wrote: "We'd all like t' vote fer th' best man, but he's never a candidate." That seems to have been the case for several elections now. In the last election, for example, Kerry got my vote, but I didn't vote for him. I voted against Bush. Looking at the economy, etc., I wish more people had, but I am not sure it matters. I would give almost anything to see what the country (and world) would look like today if Kerry had won. His victory may have a huge difference but maybe not. An anonymous quote says, "No matter who you vote for, the Government always gets in." That is quite telling.

Anyhow, this election is one more in which neither candidate "flips my switch" as again the Government will get in. Anyhow, I am writing this for any undecided readers. The last survey I saw indicated some 94 percent of voters have made up their minds. If you ask how anyone can still be undecided, I suspect those people are still wondering if they should even vote or if they should vote for a Libertarian or Green or Socialist candidate. There are six major party candidates and many, many others. I started to count all candidates and got up to 47 just getting through the B's. When one votes for anyone other than a mainstream, major party candidate, either s/he is voting strongly-held conviction, making a comment on what the two major parties is offering us, or perhaps "wasting a vote."

All of that said, I am going to stay mainstream and take a chance on Obama. There are two words that make him the only choice in my mind: President Palin. Being objective, I believe any thinking person would understand that a Jane Six-Pack doesn't belong in the highest office of the land and that she is not ready in any way, shape, or form. I believe John McCain is a good man, but I also believe his judgment lapsed when he picked Palin! There is a posted one in seven chance that John McCain will not make it through his first term. That would place her in the Presidency. You betcha it would, and that's absolutely unacceptable to me. I don't want a folksy, cutesy empty suit as the leader of the free world. She is not ready. Period.

From emails I receive, there are too many people out there who feel (1) If the candidate's a Republican, that's good enough for me, or (2) He's black - that's all I need to know. My problem has been that neither candidate represents fully what I believe is important. Two cases in point: (1) I do support the Second Amendment (Republican), but I also believe that while abortion as birth control is absolutely unconscionable, I do ultimately believe it should be a woman's choice (Democrat). What's a voter to do. Looking at more issues, I see I will save $1,000 under Obama's plan and zero under McCain's. The ads all lie! One needs to look at the facts (e.g. www.factcheck.org). I did, which is why I will give Obama a chance.

Under our last few "Conservative" presidents (Reagan [$155 Billion deficit], Bush 1 [$290 Billion deficit], and Bush 2 [$500 Billion-ish] ), our deficit blossomed! Tax-and-spend Liberal Democrat Clinton left office with a $236 Billion surplus, which Bush 2 has squandered away. The facts are there, so that's another plus on Obama's side.

I have gone on long enough. While not a hearty endorsement, I encourage you to give Obama a chance. I will.

Probitas

It all comes down to one saying. From George Bernard Shaw: "Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." I would love to consider myself a Libertarian and push for a Libertarian philosophy, but in reality, I can't see most people being responsible enough to make the ideas work.

Back when I started teaching, the principal's philosophy was Freedom with Responsibility. It sounds so easy, but as we have seen through they years, it ain't gonna happen. People want their freedom, but they aren't responsible enough to handle it.

I am bothered by the news of late whether crime or economics or politics, our society is on the edge of out-of-control - we're living in a Lord of the Flies world. For our society to work, all people need to do is be responsible - whether a "high-powered" CEO or a kid in the inner city. People are promoting and living their own agendas and the rest of 'em be damned. Whether power, fun, freedom, survival, or belonging (from Wm. Glasser), chances are good one or more of the aforementioned concepts motivate most people to be who they are and do what they do.

JFK had it right: "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

An Incomplete Victory

To the right is a photo of "Winged Victory of Samothrace." The sculpture is 11 feet tall and, coincidentally, was found on the island of Samothrace; sculpted around 190 BC, it was discovered in 1863. It is currently on display in the Louvre in Paris and represents the Greek goddess Nike, but I suspect the real goddess had a head and arms.
Anyhow, perhaps the sculpture is a good symbol for my senatorial campaign. While the election is still a few weeks off, I already feel a small but incomplete sense of victory. At a local diner and at the local supermarket, someone has stopped me and said, "I hear you're running for office." That suggests to me that some word of my candidacy has gotten out.
I doubt any papers have run the press releases I sent out; why should they? Think about it - The System has given us two opposing mainstream candidates who represent, well, The System. They have raised and will spend millions of dollars for a job that pays $169,300! I, meanwhile, am spending nothing but some time. Just suppose for a moment that the papers did run my press releases, and suppose the papers' reporters and radio and TV personalities picked up on them and called me and asked questions that I answered "right" enough. And suppose as a Washington outsider and independent thinker I appealed to enough people who ended up electing me, and I, as one of the ordinary people, ended up making a real difference. As a person who owes nothing to anyone, I can do that; real "politicians" can't.
As we get closer to the election, I will send out another press release or two; I am doing my part. If I can just get the papers to do theirs....

p.s. To see my press releases and some positions, go to www.bermansbits.com and click on Politics.

Press Release

The image to the left is of the first known politician; I found it online and used it without permission (if you are the owner, may I use it?). Anyhow, it speaks for itself.

That said, I have decided that because I am so upset over today's passage of the sell out, oops, I mean bailout, I am declaring my candidacy for United States Senator from New Hampshire. I know I have less of a chance than Pat Paulson (at least people knew him from TV). Consider the following from www.paulson.com:

"JAN-22-DETROIT, MI - Even deceased, presidential candidate Pat Paulsen managed to garner more votes than Democratic candidate Kucinich in several precincts of Michigan’s January 15th primary.

Paulsen’s two-week Michigan effort to get out the vote on a Democratic ballot that featured Hillary Clinton, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Christopher Dodd and the ultimate second-place finisher, UNCOMMITED, turned out to be a treasure trove of votes for Pat Paulsen.

In spite of the warnings posted by bureaucratic clerks that write-in votes would not be counted in the early Michigan Primary, hundreds of voters, both Democratic and Republican, exercised their conscience and their constitutional right to choose the next president of the United States by writing in Pat Paulsen on Tuesday, January 15, 2008."

He got "hundreds of votes." I'll be happy with dozens.

Here is the Press Release I will be sending out this coming week:

Rumney Man is None of the Above

(RUMNEY) “This is what happens when my wife leaves me home alone,” winks Dave Berman, a retired high school English teacher who lives in Rumney, NH. “I followed the progress of The Bailout from its original three pages up to the 451-page version that was finally approved, and I was outraged! I knew I had to do something! We average citizens have been shafted enough!”

With that, Berman has tossed his cap into the political arena as a last-minute, None-of-the-Above write-in candidate for New Hampshire’s United States Senator opening (either party). “This is my campaign,” he says about this interview. “I owe nothing to anyone, and that’s the way it should be. If one person gave me $100 to help my efforts, I would owe that person. That’s what Washington is all about.”

He is hoping a grass-roots, neighbor-telling-neighbor movement will get his name out and result in at least several votes which will say nothing other than that people are fed up with Washington’s fat-cat business-as-usual attitude. Berman says that politics is a rich person’s world. “I just read a report that showed the wealthiest Congress people have worth in the tens of millions of dollars. It’s time we have someone who really understands what the average person is going through these days. As of July, Senator Sununu was sitting on over six million dollars of campaign funds; former Governor Jeanne Shaheen had just under four million dollars. Berman has his computer, his desk, and his website (for more details and to view his main positions, visit www.bermansbits.com – click on Politics), all of which cost considerably less than $6 million. “If newspapers will publish this release, it’s a start. The people who are as disgusted with the Washington insiders as I am will do the rest.”

The self-described Liberal-Conservative, Conservative -Liberal candidate has no experience with politics but feels he has to do something. “I want to give the average person another choice. In some ways, I am the Sarah Palin of New Hampshire, but she knows more about politics than I do (and is better looking).” When word came that the bailout (“Sell out,” says Berman) passed the House, he was furious. He says a newspaper editorial lead paragraph sums it up: “The American people responded to the gigantic "trust us" bailout plan by screaming, "Hell, no!" The people demanded more accountability and less risk for their tax money. But instead, we got "sweeteners" to make the same plan more palatable to hold-out House and Senate members. This is exactly why the people distrust Washington” (Union Leader 10/3/08).

Berman adds, “If you send me to Washington, I won’t forget you. The only connection I have to big oil is through the hose that fills my car. Seriously, remember my name, and write me in. Your vote for me will say nothing more than ‘I agree – enough is enough! Throw ‘em out!’”

-30-

If you live in New Hampshire, I ask for your write-in vote Can I really be worse than the other choices? Contact me at: senatorberman@gmail.com for details or go to www.bermansbits.com and click Politics for more information.

If elected, I will, um, well, I don't really know what I'd do except the best I can for the hard-working, decent people of New Hampshire. Thank you.

Politics - FEH!

Americans as consumers need to wean ourselves off our voracious appetite... for credit. Read on.

There are still those people who don't understand why many "politicians" (meant in the most extreme pejorative sense) are loathed by so many. The past several weeks are a particularly good example.

I have tried to follow the "bailout" (even though the media have recently stopped using the word), and while I have only heard one person describe it in possibly acceptable terms (Senator Judd Gregg), I really don't understand it other than many did wrong and will be rewarded, while the public who is hurt will be hurt more by the costs. Yeah, it's complicated, but I don't feel I can accept the government's word that this expensive (talk about understatement) "fix" is all for the best - time will tell. Instead of throwing more money at a problem (the American way), I'd be looking at what happened, who did what and why, and how can we prevent this from ever happening again!

Anyhow, the original bailout was three pages long. Then the House politicians discussed and "negotiated," and the draft was suddenly 42 pages long. Not yet satisfied, nearly a week of ongoing talks between Treasury Secretary Paulson and key lawmakers followed, and the new working version was now up to 102 pages. It was voted down, because the people spoke... wrote letters, emailed, and called.

Then the Senate decided to get in on the action (here's the good part): Once the Senate was done adding "sweeteners" today to "entice" reluctant House Republicans to change their minds and vote for the bailout, the bill heading for discussion and probably passage tonight (I am guessing) had grown to 451 pages (a most appropriate number if you are into allusions [think Bradbury]) ! I would love to know what else ended up in it! Government pork is not my meat of choice. I believe it was Ronald Reagan who described the government as being like an infant with an insatiable appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. That about sums it up as we see how eagerly some are trying their darnedest to spend us into bankruptcy! I predict the bailout will pass, and I only hope for the best but expect the worst.

I need to do more than call and email my representatives, which I have done. I have decided to offer voters a choice of someone else (a sort of None of the Above); someone who is of the people and for the people! I am not ready to write our country off. So, I will soon be promoting myself as a write-in candidate for the position of United States Senator from New Hampshire. If you are reading this, you are among the first to know as I am still in the planning stages. There will be more soon, but I figure why not? I have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. Putney Swope did it, so can I. I would enjoy Being There. If Chauncey Gardiner can do it, so can I! In the movie Chauncey noted, "In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again." I fully agree!