What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

[mallorys_camera]

Finally I passed the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) exam. Either I’m really stupid or the exam isn’t trivial. Missed seven questions – one short of passing – the first time, missed none the second.

Rather late in the tax season, but this gives me one solid month of doing returns before the end of the tax season, and at the busiest time. So I should get lots of practice in. I start today.

What I Would Like To Do When I Grow Up: Run a VITA program at a progressive credit union and help underserved people build wealth and take advantage of economic opportunities. Why not? I have that master's in public policy which I've actually never used.

I don’t really fall into any convenient political category. I’m a social liberal but a fiscal conservative – I know, I know, kind of a joke given my own unmanageable financial situation at present. The blatant hypocrisy, orthodoxy and chest beating on both sides of the political spectrum is quite unbearable. What substantiative difference is there between Bill Maher calling Sarah Palin a cunt and Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a slut?

None.

Meanwhile I know I'd like to do something hands-on and practical, informed neither by the Left (I loathe Obama) nor the Right (I loathe Rick Santorum.)

Lots of other stuff to write about but I can't seem to organize my thoughts.

Comments

[nodressrehersal.livejournal.com]

Congrats on passing the tax exam - certainly a marketable skill to have wherever life takes you - and good luck with that solid month of hands-on practice. Plus there are all those after-tax-season returns with extensions filed.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

VITA doesn't do extensions. But I'm going to get certified by HR Block as well so we'll see.

[sulphuroxide.livejournal.com]

nearly everyone i know is a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. are we really that rare or do we suck in terms of organization? why isnt there some kind of representation for this position?

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

On paper, I think we're Libertarians.

And my, you are up early!

[katestine.livejournal.com]

Glenn Reynolds calls us orthogonal moderates.

[sulphuroxide.livejournal.com]

i dont identify with libertarians. most of them say such crazy things. i am told by a british friend that british libertarians are more reasonable.

i guess part of the reason has to do with how legitimacy has to do with the constitution -- that pretty much only constitution grounded policies are american and therefore acceptable... it's unacceptable to propose suggestions not founded on this 200 year old document. so argumentation gets twisted to try and adopt to it. ugh.

[katestine.livejournal.com]

I think the real issue is where you put your emphasis. Nearly all the fiscally conservative, socially liberal people I know choose their parties based on gender: the women are most interested in reproductive rights so they hold their nose and vote for Democrats; the men are most interested in fiscal policy so they hold their noses and vote for Republicans. Meanwhile, I'd argue both parties are pretty shitty on their respective appeals, so what we get is politics as usual.

I will say though, for me, blue state Republicans or flyover state Libertarians come closest to representing my political views.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Blue state Reublicans, yup. Which is why I'll probably vote for Romney in the upcoming presidential election. I think once he's got the Anyone-But-Obama vote locked up, he'll revert back to Rockefeller Republicanism.

[sulphuroxide.livejournal.com]

its odd, but democracy really isnt an agent for change. any system which allows people to stick with what they want is pretty much going to be a lowest common denominator-conservative system.

[chezsci.livejournal.com]

I think your hitting tax season just about right. HR Block pissed me off last year so this time around I did my own which turned out alright. Its not that I have a complicated tax life - its just that I hate paperwork in all forms (ha!). What HR Block charges for simple preparation is highway robbery.

Politically I'm not sure what I am - I know I'm not wholly conservatively inclined. Sort of a bleeding heart liberal socially who feels you have to spend money to make it. And taxes don't scare me. I've pretty much checked out of this election cycle,though. I am wrestling with whether to participate at all. Being from Michigan I give props to Obama for not pulling the plug on GM and the like, but I'm uber pissed that the financial sector has been allowed to continue their behavior without consequences. I also like Obama/Clinton's inclination to down size our military presence world-wide and rely more upon diplomacy and covert operations. I think we've learned (for the moment) that large scale intervention/nation building only serves to hurt us economically without any sort of upside except possibly for weapons tech development and other military strategic innovation. As far as making the world a better place for everyone. . .nada. This election cycle's Obama's to lose at this point. Romney's a failing cyborg and Santorum's a half-crazed, dim-witted demagogue without finesse or skill.
Now 2016? THERE'S where the serious shit's gonna happen. Chris Christie will be the Republican standard bearer in that campaign - that is if his heart doesn't explode before then. No idea who the Dems will put forward. Clinton's probably going to retire to the UN - she's got her fiefdom with the measure of power she always wanted - why on earth would she want to be president? Power's a funny thing though - there's never enough for some people.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I also like Obama/Clinton's inclination to down size our military presence world-wide

But Obama didn't. He started another unnecessary war with a country that no power -- not Britain, not Russia -- has ever been successful against.

My own prediction for the Repub convention this year is that if no one has the nomination locked up going in, on the third ballot the delegates will rise as one and annoint Sarah Palin. Marco Rubio is everyone's obvious running mate. Brings much more to the table than Chris Christie.

Andrew Cuomo, the current Democratic governor of NY, is great. Not sure he'll be ready to make the jump in ough-sixteen, but I'd vote for him in a heartbeat.

[platofish.livejournal.com]

I can't argue that there is a substantive difference between the sentiments coming from the mouth of Maher or Limbuagh......but in my mind there is some difference.

Palin is a public figure, by her own volition. Whether she likes it or not, she is no different to George Clooney, Kim Kardashian, the crew of Jersey Shore in her craving of media attention. Its her/their chosen job in life. As such I think it is perfectly acceptable for critics, commentators, satirists and talk show hosts to abuse public figures as they like. They themselves are media whores, its all 'in the family' like a public fight between rappers.

People giving testimony to the Government, private individuals, and basically anyone that doesn't have their own media relations person.......they are not 'in the family' and as such need to be given more respect.

Of course the above argument is, like most of my arguments, simplistic!

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I take your point but I'm not sure that Sandra Fluke falls under the category of private persona. Here's why:

She had a career before she decided to go to law school at the age of 30. She was a community organizer for reproductive rights! To me, that puts her in the public domain.

One has to assume, too,that she had other options for law school besides Georgetown. That, in fact, she deliberately picked Georgetown so she could play agente provacateuse with their policy. I'm personally strongly in favor of reproductive rights, but I think Georgetown's stand here is kind of analogous to conscientious objection in a time of war. I think they have the right to limit access to something that goes against their moral stand. I don't agree with them, but I think they have that right. And as I said in another universe far, far away, it's not as though you can't buy your own birth control pills at Walmart for four bucks a month.

[platofish.livejournal.com]

I think Obama is probably as good as it gets when it comes to POTUS. There may be more principled, stronger-willed, more decisive people out there. But, when it requires $1B of other people's money to get the position, unless they are willing to bend on their principles, and be prepared to bend their decisions they ain't raising that magnitude of PAC money.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Have to disagree with you about Obama being as good as it gets POTUS-wise.

True, he inherited a financial mess as big as any the U.S. has seen in 80 years. Why did he use George W. Bush's fiscal team to deal with it?

Why did he start an unnecessary war in Afghanistan after running on what was an essentially an anti-Iraq war platform?

Why is his Justice Department lobbying strongly to have marijuana reclassified as a Class IV narcotic?

I think he'd be fun to have dinner with. As a leader, he doesn't have a clue.

[cwmackowski.livejournal.com]

Congrats. That accounting stuff is ugly business! :-)

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :-)

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

The last election, my dream team was Romney/Edwards. Needless to say, neither the far right nor the far left would put that pair on the ticket.
I am a social libertarian and a fiscal conservative.
Libertarian rather than liberal -- my theory is do whatever you durn well please, but do NOT expect others to pay for your choices.