Kaulapi World

Sticking with almost an annual tradition for me, MLK day has been a day of personal reflection generally, kind of a like a new year of sorts.  For the most of the past several years it has come at the start of a new spring semester, still in the new calendar year, it seems fitting to take a look back and forward.  Looking back I still reflect on the significance of MLK Jr. in general to me in terms of a historical figure and human rights activist.  This year around there are constant reminders of the historic inauguration of the first black president one day after the holiday that has been designated to honor the MLK.

The talking heads have been at it all day making comparisons between MLK and Obama 24/7.  I still think that many of the comparisons are being disregarded, while others are being played up too much.  Unsurprisingly they are so obsessed by the racial backgrounds of both men, careful to mention every other word that we are witnessing history in the making as the first black president takes the oath of office.   Looking forward I’d like to see more realistic take on what BO can and cannot do for the nation and the world. I think it does the American people a disservice to draw simplistic comparisons between historical figures and current leaders, it sets up an expectation gap which inevitably leads people astray and down the wrong path.

The thing is that as inspirational and unifying as the memory of MLK was, I don’t think it would’ve been a good idea for him to be elected president, or being in charge of any political office.  I think his role in history was to get people thinking about what was possible in American society, what could be, if we broke out of the box and started judging each other by the content of our character instead of the color of our skin.  The similarities between Obama and MLK are really two fold, first is the color of his skin, and the style of his oratory, which is very preacher-like.  Neither of which by themselves qualify him for being the president.

I say like any other elected official, Obama should be given the opportunity to really change the country and take charge, but when he screws up he should be scrutinized and judged and resisted just as much as Bush.  The real danger of making premature comparisons to historic figures is that it stifles legitimate discussion about policies and overall dissent, as dead men can’t respond, and instead are given the benefit of history to tell their stories.  Obama should not be compared to MLK, FDR, or Lincoln, and other dead leaders, all this amounts to is noise and static to difficult road ahead.

Looking back to the last four years, I have to say that I am not in the same mind set that I had visioned, I was thinking that this time of year in 2009, I would be finishing up law school, getting ready for the next step, optimistic about the change of the guard from 8 years of Republican rule.  I remember being hopeful for how much more knowledge about the system and the world I would have gathered, and again, positioning myself and my family for the next step, whatever that might be.  This time around I feel a lot more uncertainty than ever before about the future of the nation and the world in general.  I am seeing and reading a lot of signs that cause reason for worry in the near and distant future.

After a busy but tough 2008, the new year is already in full swing.  This year brings a lot of things to look forward to, a new assignment at work, a new division chief,  new semester of law school, and of course the ever present buzz around the district these days, a new administration taking on white house.

One of the good things about my work is that it allows for some flexibility on job assignments, so that if one assignment doesn’t work out for the better, either because of the subject matter, the workload, or the personalities on the team, it’s really just temporary.  Not uncommon in staff management at my agency, I’ve been going through the grueling transition period between assignments, which means that I have multiple sets of bosses and work styles to adjust to.  In the 5 years I’ve been at the agency I’ve never experienced a clean transition from one job to the next.  It really puts you at a tough spot, you want to get some closure on the old assignment, but you want to get off to a good start on the new one.  I’ve also noticed that I prefer to do short-term and periodic projects as opposed to being bogged down on one long-term project, even if it means that I have to multi-task.

My courses this semester started last week and are looking pretty good so far, and they are shaping up to be a good final set to close out at least the classroom portion of my legal education.  I have Professional Responsibility and Practice, which is basically a course on the rules of professional conduct and ethics that all lawyers are supposed to be versed in before entering practice.  My Bar prep course for the semester is Sales & Leases, basically a continuation on commercial transactions law and contracts law, looking into the application of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).  On the elective front I’ve got Debtor and Creditor Rights, a course that I think is pretty contemporaneous to the meltdown on wall street and the consumer credit markets.  My last elective course is White Collar & Business Crime, something that I think might come in handy again, given the times we are living in.

The entire DC metro is in an inauguration frenzy mode, it seems like daily we get new announcements or updates on the developing security plans, road closures, metro service outages.  I’ve gotten a kick at the uptick on the Obama merchandising and lyrical symbolism and imagry around town.  The street vendors that usually sell bottled water and FBI shirts are all decked out in Obama gear, the metro fare cards now have his smiling face printed on the card stock.  And there are the obvious corporate bandwagoners like IKEA and Pepsi. There is talk around town about who has gotten tickets to the ceremony and the balls, and whether the tickets are to THE ball that Obama and Biden are making an actual appearance at.  All in all I hope that most of the 2M+ estimated people coming to the district for the inauguration are coming with an open mind, its going to be a logistical mess out here with the crowds.

Meanwhile for the policy wonks and politicos, there is the talk about how the new administration will be replacing the old, what changes will be made, and I mean real structural change to the federal bureaucracy, not the campaign slogan, which so far is appearing more and more to me to be just that, a catchy phrase to run an election on, nothing more.  I happen to be in that category of people skeptically optimistic, but really waiting to see how if he can effective transition his administration from one that ran an effective campaign to one that can run the federal government.

One indication that this might not be the case is the decision to open this office of the president-elect, supposedly to assist with the transition period between the election and the inauguration, and to respond to the historically unprecedented challenges the nation is facing.  The fact is that the president-elect does not have any of the executive powers until he is sworn in on Jan 20, it really is dishonest to putting himself out to the American people as if he can do anything in the interim.  Presidents are human beings, they are not super humans that we make them out to be, they rely heavily on their cabinet and staff in the executive branch agencies to get their job done, that is, run the federal government.  As of November 5, 2008 when the office of the president-elect was established, there were no cabinet members confirmed by the senate, and therefore no means to do anything at all but plan for the transition.  Maybe there’s a reason why the Constitution doesn’t provide for an office of the president-elect?

The other point to consider is more of a tactical, and that is that really one of the risks of establishing the first office of the president-elect is that you automatically open yourself up to criticisms with how you and your staff conducts themselves in the interim period, perhaps even before you’ve established your system of spin doctors and public relations.  I think the whole mess with Ill. Gov and the Treasury Secretary nominee not paying taxes might not have been as prominent had the office of the president-elect been pumped up.  Almost like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t, it may have been a better idea to keep a low profile, do things behind the scenes and then take the White House by storm on Jan 20.

As I had in my gut, Obama wins by a landslide, almost 2:1 on the electoral college votes. With the Dems picking up additional seats in the Senate and House, it ended up being a sweep on almost all fronts. With a few senate races still being decided, it looks like the Dems are also close to a 60 member cloture AKA filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Even if they come short, I’m pretty sure that at least a handful of Republican senators would be willing to go along with a very popular president Obama and cross the aisle in the spirit of bipartisanship.

That last one would be the ultimate test, could and would a man elected to a position of great power be willing to give up some of that power that was unjustly given to him by his predecessor, or will he want more? The racial identity and symbolism that he has assumed, combined with an utter disgust for the republican party and the outgoing president has given Obama potential dictatorial powers over America. Time will tell which path he will choose.

Eve of the election, thought I’d comment on who I decided to vote for this time around. I’ve decided to cast a vote for Ralph Nader in 2008. I go back to my key points that I had coming into this election cycle. I could only support a candidate that would get us out of the middle east, would restore our civil liberties lost over the past decade, and would offer a realistic spending plan on entitlements and federal expenditure. For the most part Nader’s positions on the issues is the closest to these points than any other candidate currently on the ballot. As a lifelong consumer advocate and unabashed critic of political corruption, he seems like the best candidate for the job of president of the United States.

This time around I can say that I was intrigued by Obama and kept it open until the very end. For now I can say that I’ll consider voting him for re-election in 2012. I was very impressed with him when he gave the keynote speech at the DNC in 2004 I had hoped that he would run one day, after he had gotten at least one Senate term under his belt. My concern, especially with the current state of the economy is that he’ll be a one term president. The cult of personality that he has run on and created for himself will backfire when the American people realize that he isn’t able to deliver on half as many of his promises, either because of his inexperience, or because simply that America is going broke. I think this country is ready for a change of course, the question is which candidate would offer a genuine change of course. This time around I think its Ralph Nader.

Been a few crazy weeks in the financial world and the markets what not. Discussing the bailout has been a nervously recurring conversation topic around the office ever since the news first broke that the America is well, headed towards bankruptcy? Yet somehow we continue to think that borrowing or printing another $850 Billion dollars to bail out the troubled financial corporations on wall street is the best solution. Depending on who you talk to, it seems like the conventional wisdom is that the bailout or “rescue” bill although it sucks, is a necessary evil. The scary thing is that nobody in support of the bailout has any clue on how this is all going to play out, let alone where we are headed. I can’t help but wonder if people had the benefit of additional information and stopped to digest the recent turn of events and really question them that maybe they wouldn’t be too quick to capitulate to what might be a historic change in the structure of our constitutional republic. That is, whatever is left of it.

And now with the bailout signed into law, the American taxpayers and middle-class are left holding the bag.

Several years ago I had become a regular viewer of C-Span’s Washington Journal broadcast early in the morning. I enjoyed the objective and scaled down format, introducing a few guests on a few particular issues, with the host offering minimal commentary and leaving most of the time to fielding phone calls from the public which the guest would have a chance to respond. Every once in a while a sitting member of congress would appear as a guest on the show, and engage in a dialogue with the viewing audience, so to speak. I would usually take note of the members that I found were on point with my own personal views, and made a mental note to look out for later mention of them on particular issues, news, or legislation. One of the members whose name I jotted down was Representative Ron Paul of Texas.

For a while now I’ve been following the Ron Paul movement or “revolution”, that was initially sparked by his once improbable presidential campaign. Over the past year there have been several strong showings in the primary debates and record breaking internet money bombs. Despite not winning any primaries or caucuses outright, he placed strong 2nd in a few states and always managed to sneak in the discussion, although it was mostly online, on blogs and on youtube postings. The mainstream media really seemed to want to keep their distance. On so many different levels he seemed to be speaking the unpopular, non-conventional points of view, which if you took the time to think about them, and then actually do some independent research, you would probably come to the realization that he was consistently speaking the truth, or at least raising very important issues and just asking questions that go to the heart of our nation’s future.

The appeal of this new political movement, or whatever exactly is taking form now, really points to the principle of liberty that throughout history has resonated in the American persona and collective strength of the nation. In part this includes the right to self-determination and ability to live your life the way you want to, with the only limit on when your actions infringe on the liberties of another. This is a message that is seen across all segments of the political spectrum, liberal, conservative, right, left, moderate, radical, and across all political parties. But maybe most importantly, this message of liberty is what Ron Paul pushed to the forefront of the debate is so universal that it has the potential to carry on well after he is gone out of the political landscape. The liberty message is something that resonates quite a deal in me, it always has, just this past year has been a sort of awakening of sorts to how much of a role this very old concept plays out, perhaps more importantly today than every before in the country’s history. In considering the concept of liberty, it is important to consider that in recent years talking about liberty has been branded “out of touch” with the mainstream political parties, almost like how “liberal” became a bad word.

The other messages that I hear resonating from the campaign trail now that the nominees have been determined has been “Change” and “Yes we Can” “Security” and more recently, “Country First” – both of which may sound on the surface, or on a big banner being waived at a convention hall, but when dig deeper they end up being empty. Change is a good thing, but only if what is coming along is an improvement from the status quo. Optimism and self-confidence is also a positive message, but only if it is rooted in reality that we posses the ability and to actually evoke real change. Security of a nation is a good thing, but it should be rooted in on objective intelligence on real, credible threats, and should never be pursued at the expense of liberty.

The campaign itself came to an end with a counter rally in Minneapolis, across the river from the RNC was being held last week. The stated purpose of the rally was to first to celebrate all of the support from his 2008 presidential campaign, and to officially kick off his new Campaign for Liberty. Despite fielding a pretty impressive audience both in person (18,000 in person) and online (84,000 via the internet worldwide), both him and his supporters continue to be ridiculed in the mainstream media being out of touch, or holding radical ideas, despite the fact that just about every one of his ideas and issues that he raised during the debates which were labeled as extreme have been vindicated more or less by the current events around us. The ongoing conflicts in the middle east, continued attacks to civil liberties, personal privacy and private property, ballooning federal budgets and deficits, inflationary monetary policy, and the ongoing turmoil on the financial and housing markets coinciding with unprecedented corporate bailouts by the government – all of these should raise the possibility that he was sounding the alarm bell for a long time, and the American people were distracted by fancy slogans and party affiliations to notice.

There is supposed to be an announcement this morning to be made, apparently with some of the minor party candidates appearing as well. Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Bob Barr, all with a lot of speculation to what exactly it is, or means.

June again and I’m already knee deep in another summer session, I seem to have reverted to the almost back to back semester schedule that dominated the first 2 years of my adventures as an evening student. Took a little while, but I’m starting to feel my second wind to get back to studying this stuff. I’m taking a course in Commercial Transactions this summer, and once again I’m finding myself surprisingly interested in a course that I never really thought I’d be interested in before getting into the material. Never fully appreciated all of the federal statutes and anti-fraud provisions that are built into the simple action of writing a check, or swiping a credit card.

Taking some sick leave tomorrow and later this week for some appointments and checkups. Kind of a reminder that it’s a good idea to slow down and take a break once in a while from the busy life and get more sleep. I’ve been in constant work mode for day and night for so long now that it has become second nature, but has started to take a toll on my health. Nothing too serious, but definitely a reminder that I’m not as young as I used to be. By now I’ve accumulated a ton of sick leave I might as well use some of it.

June has been kind of an annual month of reflection for me in more ways than one, first off I started this journal many years ago this month, mostly because it marked the end of the academic school year. Looking back, June is also the month that I completed grad school and relocated to the district. Things to reflect on at this point might be that in my life there is always something around the corner to look forward to – for the longest time I thought it was because I was still young and sometimes overly idealistic, but lately I’ve been realizing that it may be because by nature I refuse, occasionally to my detriment, to be complacent in either mind or spirit. I’m never quite willing to settle for the problematic status quo if it can be improved.

After paying close attention to the races in 2000 and 2004 I’ve been I’ve been watching from the wings at both party’s primary process with a guarded level of optimism balanced with a healthy dose of cynicism. I come from what is considered a Democratic state, so every Presidential election has less meaning in the sense that I know where my electoral college votes are headed. Adding to the layer of pointlessness is that two party system hasn’t been effective at putting forward a candidate from either party that I can stand behind without too much reservations. Every election cycle its more often the lesser of two evils, with some cycles better than others.

For 2008 it is unfortunately more of the same, although I have to admit that it is a neat idea to share a home state and high school with someone who might very well be the next president of the US. At the very least this time around there is a big contrast in campaign styles, and overall charisma between the two nominees that might make things more interesting. If enthusiasm of supporters and the ability of a candidate to get people to pack auditoriums and get off their asses and do something is any gauge of success, I can’t see how the Democrats can lose this November.

For what its worth, I thought I’d make it a point to make more regular posts at least for my crazy finals prep week(s) It sort of allows a mental break from reading case law. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few days advanced leave from work due to my trip going over the weekend. I usually plan to take some leave around this time of year months in advance, but it seems like more often than any extra time to prepare is welcomed.

Looking back to my political compass and mindset from the last presidential election a couple things haven’t changed at all. I’m still looking for a truly anti-war candidate, pro-civil liberties, and pro-fiscal responsibility and pro-social responsibility. What has changed since 2004 is my opinion on the way to achieve populist goals, and to what extent the “noise” in the political discussion has confused us to which party or which ideology promotes the values that I believe in. Sometimes its better to keep a healthy level of skepticism whenever ideas are reduced to sound bites and one-liners. The party who speaks about limited government in actuality becomes the big government spenders, the party of civil liberties becomes the party of pro-war party, and the party of warrant-less domestic spying.

Survived another round of finals (3 this time), and with one more small paper or so, am just about wrapping up my 5th semester or so of night school (6th if you count summer school). As always I’m not sure how I did, but I think the difference with this semester and those past is that I’ve definitely gotten to a point that I can honestly say that regardless of the paper grade, I know that I’ve learned a bit more about the law. Also this time around, although just as hectic and stressful, I think I’m getting better and better at coping with the demands. I attribute it partly to a lot of B vitamins, taking a break here and there to watch a football game, and surprisingly, getting more sleep than usual. After parking myself at various coffee shops for hours on end, lugging heavy casebooks for almost 2 weeks non-stop, I could feel my physical health start to take a hit. I’m a little amazed that I didn’t come down with the flu or something after shocking my immune system.

In other news, there’s an internet tea party today, as in the 234th anniversary of the one thrown by a bunch of feisty free thinkers once upon a time. I caught a documentary on PBS the other night about the last day-long money drive, the one that broke all kinds of records for one-day fund raisers. I’ve been tracking the tally from early this morning, as of 8:41am its roughly at $1,350,000 and climbing at a rate of $180K per hour. It looks like regardless of the total, at the current rate Ron Paul should be sitting on another big chunk of change with Iowa coming up in 18 days.

6th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. I have to wonder how edgier do people still get on this day, for the symbolic meaning and do they change their daily schedule? or do they just go to work like any other day. I did happen to get on the train earlier than usual, not like it makes much of a difference, but one thought that has crossed my mind living out here is to be wary of big crowds of people. The metro has been getting more and more crowded lately, but it is usually during set periods around rush hour. Today it was relatively packed for being before rush hour, I wonder if the date had anything to do with getting people up earlier to work.

Watching one of these clips in particular I feel very torn, on the one hand I feel horrible for the people on the other line and can’t imagine what it would be like to see the world around you literally burning and crashing down.  On the other hand I am irritated again at more moments of anger directed at the emergency operator, accusingly as if he or she is doing anything but trying to sort out what has just happened and try to get first responders to the callers locations.  In the face of certain death blaming a complete stranger over the phone is an understandably human reaction, but it reeks of “how dare you” or “why did this happen to me?”  Then there is the image of the towers crashing down and you hear a gut-wrenching crack over the phone, with the voice screaming out to god in a reminder that all the people stuck in the tower were in fact doomed the entire time.

I’m also reminded that the tragedies were documented through American newsmedia and audio don’t t make it any less horrific to the loss of life and human suffering that followed in retaliation for 9-11.  No clips exist to show us about the people trapped in the burning buildings in the first weeks of the war, or the bombing victims in the years of occupation that followed.  6 years after the attacks of 9-11, and now after 5 years of war waged in its name I am still struggling with what the lessons learned are for Americans as a whole. If talk of an upcoming 3rd war in the middle east is credible and plans are being made, then it is only a matter of time before there might be another set of frantic final 9-11 calls made to an operator in an American city. While this time the lesson of 9-11 would give them a sense of who might’ve committed these attacks, they still would probably not understand why.

Linkes 9/11/2007
NORFED private currency
Austin Gold Company
Brazen home invasion attempted SA scary.
Diego Garcia South Indian base
DOD and Co. bling bling
Ron Paul Video on youtube