A Holiday Medley of Maladies

‘Twas the Friday before Christmas, and I fear that my Grinch status is in peril if I do not act quickly and slide down this chimney. Here are a few of my favorite things (at least this morning):

For openers, I received two emails yesterday, one each from congressional members Wexler and Boxer. Both were announcing their respective year-end efforts to push for good and beneficial humanitarian causes and to thwart those that were not (like last-minute Presidential pardons). While I applaud these efforts and their enthusiasm (their holiday spirit?), they have their heads up their yuletide asses. I only say this because, beneath the verbiage and grandiose claims of “good will towards men”, they were both asking for money. Donations. Cash. Moolah. Green stuff. Dough. As congressional leaders and keepers of the faith, I would have thought they both might have some sensitivity to and recognition of the fact that both the country and the economy being in the dumper. Talk about bad timing. Every other news story, every TV special report of the un-joys of Christmas, remind us that I (we, us) DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY BECAUSE WE DON’T HAVE ANY JOBS. I would have also thought that this reality might just enter a little bit into their thinking before they went out onto the street corner with their tin cups. But no, this did not happen. Instead, they demonstrated Grinch-like gall and asked those who have nothing to give more. This is very odd, since I believe that those who are doing the asking have plenty, already. ‘Tis a malady, for sure.

Then, in drawing my next breath, after the firestorm of indignation and hellfire that erupted about Obama asking Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation, I read this morning (Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/114018/) that conservatives are unhappy about this situation as well. I proceeded to write this to my friend, Ron:

In what I am viewing as a confirmation of my continuing theory that radical polarization will rip this country to shreds:
Did you see the story in Alternet this morning, about conservatives being pissed off, about Warren and the invocation prayer invitation, BECAUSE HE ACCEPTED THE INVITATION?

Shit fire, man. Obama hands them a golden goose and they run over it with a freaking truck. I am dumbstruck (almost).

To which, Ron responded, thusly:

“Neither side in the culture war wants peace; each wants total destruction of the other”.

“T’was the eve before inauguration, and apparently not a virtue nor good will towards men was stirring here, either. The Grinchification of spirituality. Can someone arise, to “see what the hell is the matter?”

Moving right along, the President decided, at the very last moment, to become the (almost) compassionate conservative he promised to be eight years ago: he has offered a package of candy canes to the US auto industry. $17.4B is earmarked, the bulk of it to be given to GM and Chrysler now (Ford is still boycotting Santa Claus), in order to keep them alive until early next year, and the rest to be doled out in the very early spring, if the economic environment for dinosaurs has not improved by then. This action pretends to override and ameliorate the rancor and rebellious nature of the congress. That elfin bunch recently told Detroit to take a hike (not a plane), despite almost overwhelming public opinion, to the contrary. The congress gave Detroit several lumps of coal; W decided to play Old Saint Nick and brought some fruit cake and eggnog. Detroit, at least for the next few weeks, will gain some weight and get drunk (like Wall St),.

My guess is this:

Despite the conditions, purse strings, regulations, compliances and complicated governances that the bridge loans promise to entail, Detroit will be very sick again by March. Congress said (wisely or unwisely), “You cannot have this phunny money because you were bad”, and King George has shaken his big belly and said ,”Yes you can!”. It is a gesture of fond farewell to a huge segment of American industry which is eating mostly ginger-bread crumbs for Christmas this year. For eight long years W has de-regulated and diversified and privatized and turned a blind eye to the ever-growing woes of the nations’ economy, and now he has placed a small package beneath the Charlie Brown spindly holiday tree, in the hopes that his legacy soon will be there. Kris Kringle has tried, in the last fleeting moments, to iron out a krinkle, but, in the end, as he drives out of sight, this may well be just a blip in the auto drama of plight.

A note here: on 12/18, the DOW closed DOWN over 200 points. 30 minutes after the bail-out announcement on 12/19, the DOW rallied and went up almost 100 and is holding for now. Somebody liked what they found under the tree this morning. Maybe, between the bailout cash and the coal given out by the congress, Detroit can belch some smoke in the next few weeks. Oh wait: Chrysler is already closed down. I think we just closed the barn door after the reindeer got out.

But this just in: Just to remind us that compassionate conservatism has a very limited purview, W just signed last minute regulation (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cecile-richards/bushs-parting-shot-underm_b_152336.html) that says “health care workers can deny patients vital health care information and services” if it is against their religious beliefs. Apparently this reg applies all the way down to the guy or gal who mops the hospital floor. So much for that “save the world” legacy stuff. Some awful stuff dances in W’s head, while we are so snug, in our safe, little beds.

As for who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, nobody seems to have this one figured out, especially when it comes to the remaining $350B TARP and what will happen to it. Never mind, for a second, that no one is really sure what happened to the first $350B (bankers and their coffers got stocking-stuffed, brokers got their bonuses, Madoff ran away with the dish and the spoon, hedge funds got re-hedged and AIG partied real good…twice), Paulson has now said that the feds are ready to think about spending the next pile of loot (phunny money). Once again, no one seems to be able to account for who gets this money, where it goes or who gets to spend it. A federal official confessed just yesterday that the complete lack of controls, oversight and accountability for the wad of cash already evaporated was deplorable and that the resultant effect on the mortgage and forclosure crisis was negligible and “a bust”.

There are many who say that before we all dance around the Christmas tree or have visions of sugar plums or wait to hear the sound of reindeer on the roof, we should realize that Greenspan, Paulson, et.al., have let the roof fall in around us by playing with the phunny money as if it were monopoly money. Greedy credit/fault/swap/buy-back/loan guarantees that were hedged on our bets that tomorrow would be fine have left a large deposit of soot at the base of the fireplace and the stockings are all soiled with care.

We have put away the picket signs that say, “The End is Near” until perhaps Jan.2, but they should be right back out again, shortly. It is a good thing that our money says, “In God We Trust”, because we sure as hell can’t trust anyone else. What’s in YOUR wallet?

The big “ish-shoe”: Several news sources report that the Olympic Iraqi shoe-thrower has been jailed and beaten and may have a broken arm. He has made an appeal to Maliki for a pardon and to be exempted from a multi-year jail sentence for behaving badly in the presence of a world leader. Disregarding the fact, for a moment, that there were no world leaders present for this escapade, the brouhaha seems a bit extreme. And it certainly does not warrant a jail term. People throw their weight around all the time and don’t go to jail, so what is the big deal with a couple of size 10 loafers? I know people who throw their shoes around all the time, leave them in great piles and don’t even line them up nicely, but I don’t see them being hauled off in paddy wagons, beat up or incarcerated: we should get our priorities in order, here. And how come Santa gets to wear those shiny, patent leather boots, anyway?

However, there is a contingent of (admittedly conspiracy-minded) individuals who have suggested that this entire event was staged. They have conjectured that it was a publicity stunt. They ask questions like, “How did this guy get into such a secure venue with bogus credentials?”; “How did he get in with such loose-fitting shoes?”; ”Why was the President so well-prepared to duck and cover?”; “How did this perpetrator manage to get off TWO well thrown projectiles before being stopped?”. Many believe he was not the “sole” participant in this melodrama. You might think that this is stretching the truth, but both “world leaders” needed all the press they could get, and after the cover-ups surrounding events like 9/11 and Katrina reactions, I would not put this past the Bush administration for a minute. And I think it is safe to say that the thrower is being thrown to the wolves, and certainly not in the spirit of Christmas. “And out from his cell, there arose such a clatter”: he is banging his tin cup up against the cell bars.

Speaking of Katrina, and I really hate to bring this up at the holidays, but there comes this story:

“After Katrina, it was literally open season on Black folks”

A new report in The Nation documents what many have claimed for years -- for some Black New Orleanians the threat of being killed by White vigilantes in Katrina's aftermath became a bigger threat than the storm itself.
After the storm, White vigilantes roamed Algiers Point shooting and, according to their own accounts, killing Black men at will-- with no threat of a police response. For the last three years, the shootings and the police force's role in them have been an open secret to many New Orleanians. To date, no one has been charged with a crime and law enforcement officials have refused to investigate.
The facts are finally seeing the light of day. Now we must demand action. Given Louisiana's horrible record when it comes to criminal justice and Black folks, it's the only path to justice.
You can help. Join us in calling on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, and the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a full investigation of these crimes and any police cover-up. It takes only a moment to add your voice and to invite your friends and family to do the same:
http://www.colorofchange.org/nation/?id=1683-466342
In the two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the media created a climate of fear with trumped-up stories of Black lawlessness. Meanwhile, an armed group of White vigilantes took over the Algiers Point neighborhood in New Orleans and mercilessly hunted down Black people. "It was great!" said one vigilante. "It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it."
The Nation's article tells the story of Donnell Herrington, Marcel Alexander, and Chris Collins -- a group of friends who were attacked by shotgun-wielding White men as they entered Algiers Point on September 1, 2005. As they tried to escape, Herrington recalls, their attackers shouted, "Get him! Get that nigger!" He managed to get away. Alexander and Collins were told that they would be allowed to live on the condition that they told other Black folks not to come to Algiers Point. Herrington, shot in the neck, barely survived.
And there's the story of Henry Glover, who didn't survive after being shot by an unknown assailant. 2 Glover's brother flagged down a stranger for help, and the two men brought Glover to a police station. But instead of receiving aid, they were beaten by officers while Henry Glover bled to death in the back seat of the stranger's car. A police officer drove off in the car soon afterward. Both Glover's body and the car were found burnt to cinders a week later. It took DNA analysis to identify the body.
Then there's the story of White militiamen who tried to drive their Black neighbors from their homes. Reggie Bell, who lived just two blocks down the street from the vigilantes' ringleader, was told at gunpoint, "We don't want you around here. You loot, we shoot." Later, another group of armed White men confronted him at his home, asking, "Whatcha still doing around here? We don't want you around here. You gotta go."
These are only a few of the stories of Black folks who were accosted in Algiers Point, and you can read more in The Nation. But unless you speak out, we may never learn the full extent of the violence. Journalists have encountered a wall of silence on the part of the authorities. The coroner had to be sued to turn over autopsy records. When he finally complied, the records were incomplete, with files on several suspicious deaths suddenly empty. The New Orleans police and the District Attorney repeatedly refused to talk to journalists about Algiers Point. And according to journalist A.C. Thompson, "the city has in nearly every case refused to investigate or prosecute people for assaults and murders committed in the wake of the storm."
The Nation's article is important, but it's just a start. For more than three years now, these racist criminals have by their own admission gotten away with murder, while officials in New Orleans have systematically evaded any kind of accountability. We have to demand it.
Please join us in calling on state and federal officials to investigate these brutal attacks and the conduct of Orleans Parish law enforcement agencies, and please ask your friends and family to do the same.
1. "Katrina's Hidden Race War," The Nation, 12-18-2008
http://www.colorofchange.org/link/?id=1683-466342&cat=nation&link=1
2. "Body of Evidence," The Nation, 12-18-2008
http://www.colorofchange.org/link/?id=1683-466342&cat=nation&link=2

Now, if you can read your way through these stories, without becoming ill, your stomach is stronger than mine. My guess is that a large majority of white Americans have no clue that, in the aftermath of Katrina, instead of putting out the welcome mat or milk and cookies (like we do for Santa), southern whites laid out shotguns and went after blacks, thinking they were shooting fish in a barrel and no one would care. I know we just elected a black President, but anyone who believes for a moment that racism is dead and/or dying in America had better wake up and smell the cocoa by his Christmas greenery and mistletoe.

My friend Ron has said (and I mostly agree) that the “wheels are coming off the wagon” of the American economy and culture. A few days ago I was wandering through a holiday bazaar, full of the wares of craftspeople and home-based manufacturers, trying to appreciate the beauty and grandeur of what I was seeing. In truth, most of what was for sale was nothing that anybody really needed, and also probably true was the fact that people were spending money they didn’t have. It may have been a microcosm of Hank Paulson spending the fed money on Wall St., without a care for tomorrow. Who knows?

And I think someone pulled the plug on the Detroit Christmas tree lights and the tinsel fell off: The DOW just closed for the day, DOWN, 26, at 8579. I hope our white Christmas is not a white-wash.

And to all a good night.

Life goes on in Texas.

Public Prayer , Public Outcry

Since I am somewhat of an expert, when it comes to knee jerk reactions, I felt the need to have one of a reciprocal nature,when I read this article by Sarah Posner.

A Bigot, Anti-Choice Pastor Picked for Obama's Inauguration

By Sarah Posner, TheNation.com. Posted December 18, 2008.

http://www.alternet.org/election08/113772/?cID=1085622#c1085622

I have been watching coverage of this morning's press conference with the Pres-elect. Predictably, the press questions and the MSM follow-up punditry have placed the Warren story over and above any other noteworthy announcements about appointments and nominations for high government posts. What dolts we are.

First of all, I am vehement in my beliefs (as are many others here) about the separation of church and state. I don't know why(logically speaking) we need either an invocation or a benediction at a highly secular ceremony. Just performing those at all, by anyone, is cow-towing to the Christian masses who maintain the misguided (and emotional) sense of religion that pervades America. This was never supposed to be a "Christian nation" in the first place, and we have managed to contort that vision horrifically.

Be that as it may (too little, too late, too bad), Obama said that he had previously been asked to speak at Warren's church, despite his beliefs that are quite contrary to Warrens', and he was, in the spirit of "bringing America together", offering Warren a similiar oportunity. Personally, I think Warren has all the exposure anyone should have and do not relish him getting any more free PR.

However, I applaud Obama for exhibiting tolerance and showing some degree of deference to the religious right in sharing the platform in this manner. The really good news is that about an hour after it is all over, we will have forgotten what Warren said, anyway, and we can move on. As strongly as I object to injecting prayer into this event in any fashion, I really don't see that it is worth getting our liberal and progressive panties in a bunch over. Jesus Christ! (pardon the expression) The economy is in the tank and Bush is almost gone! Pray about those!

OOPS! Celebrity Status!

Is America's political 'nobility' undemocratic?
Kennedys, Bushes, Rockefellers demonstrate genetic popularity and power


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28257519/

If you will read this article, you might get a sense of the frustration I hear from others about how our “democratic” government is growing increasingly “un-democratic”. Like Robin Leach’s show, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, our government is becoming a celebrity haven and a “good ole’ boys (and girl's) club”. Our politicians have long since stopped asking what they might do for their country, but what the country might do for them. They worry more about spotlights and footlights than they do about fixing stoplights and closing tax loopholes. They would rather be television stars and headline grabbers than work as soldiers in the trenches of everyday life and spend any energy combating the woes of poverty and inequality. Busting a union for ideological sensationalism is more important than busting a drug cartel. Getting face time on Meet the Press and receiving a celebrity endorsement is more important than face time on the street with Joe the Real Plumber or taking a stand against wanton government waste that takes funds away from entitlement programs for the poor and/or unemployed.

If you consider only the fact that the RNC spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothing, hair stylings and make-up for Sarah Palin, it tells us about how easily Americans are distracted by the glamorousness, flash and pizzazz of runway status. Politicos are learning what India’s Bollywood learned years ago: get something on the silver screen with name-brand recognition and nice clothes and it will sell…and turn a profit.

We have come to elect “leaders” for their spectacular smiles and familial ties rather than for talent, insight, and leadership abilities, or for any sense for philanthropy. Bush wants to manufacture a legacy for Jeb, Nancy Reagan wanted to be the Queen of the United States (until we just said no to both her and her drug slogans), we have an entire cadre of “Clintonistas” and now we have Caroline Kennedy, about to be named (crowned?) the Princess of New York, the belle of the Ball and perhaps next contender for Female Ruler of the Universe. We have gone from, “Here I am. I’m qualified to represent you, elect me, please”, to “Hi there! I am a famous son, daughter, nephew or cousin of a noble member of an aristocratic American clan that comes from old money (and I’d like to be a movie star), so vote for me and you will get goosebumps when I speak to Fox News”. Sick. Disturbing. Disheartening. Disgusting.

The humorist Andy Borowitz gave it this spin, this morning:

Caroline Kennedy Asks to be Time’s Person of the Year, Places Phone Call to Magazine’s Editor

Caroline Kennedy would like to be considered Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2009 and has let the magazine's editor know of her interest in the honor, aides to Ms. Kennedy confirmed today.While some observers considered Ms. Kennedy's bid to be premature, especially since 2009 has not officially begun, aides to the New York senatorial aspirant said that it reflected her view that 2009 will be a very big year for her."I think Caroline's calling Time magazine and asking to be put on the cover shows just what a tireless worker she is," said cousin Kerry Kennedy. "When she really wants something, she's not afraid to roll up her sleeves and make a phone call."Her cousin said that having witnessed Caroline's work ethic, she has no doubt that she is deserving of Time's highest honor: "I can't tell you how many times she's gotten the wrong number, been put on hold, or had calls dropped altogether."In addition to the Person of the Year honors, Kerry Kennedy said that Caroline had also expressed an interest in next year's Nobel Peace Prize."That's a call she hasn't made yet," Ms. Kennedy said. "She has to figure out the time difference in Oslo."

Silly of course, and nonsensical, but frighteningly too close to the reality of American politics.

I suggest that our next election cycle feature on the names of people we have never heard of before: No Bushes, no shrubs, No Clintons or “istas”, no Reagans or Rockefellers, no Goldmans and no Sachs. No Wall Streeters or Fleet Streeters, and no first cousins twice removed of Billy Bob whoever he is. Not even any Washingtons or Jeffersons, or any Hillary William Jeffersons. Enough.

We need to elect some people who speak FOR us and not in spite of us. We need to elect people who will be eager to serve instead of be served. We need to elect people that are in for the duration and not the adoration. Let’s skip the Edward’s haircuts and the Biden suits and the Charlton Heston bravado and elect John Jones Smith. Let’s elect Maggie Elizabeth Everyman or Elmer Foxworthy instead of Nigel Newsworthy. Let’s elect someone like me, with bad teeth and a crooked smile (no, not that Cheney smirk).

It is time to elect the guy next door, the guy nobody has ever heard of, but the guy (or gal) who is pissed off about potholes and poobahs, doesn’t have a secret stash of oil money in an account off-shore, only has one old car that needs new tires and does not own three houses on a synthetic beachfront in Arizona, funded by beer money.

Old money does not automatically impart new wisdom. Leadership is not genetic. Genealogies do not guarantee insight. Nomenclature does not ensure noble behavior. Those who governed once before does not mean that this one can govern now. Photogenic affability does not promise pervasive ingenuity. Being smartly dressed does not necessarily portend making smart decisions. The current normal business has become abnormal showbusiness and the forecasted new normal aristocracy is most likely old hat. We need some new hats.

The President Gets It Right

Somewhere, over the Atlantic Ocean, aboard Air Force One, sometime on December 14 or 15, President Bush was asked about the status of negotiations, relative to funding a bail out and/or bridge loans for the US auto industry. The President stated that he wouldn’t give a precise timetable, and that, “This will not be a long process

Because of the economic fragility of the autos”.

Precision, the King’s English and eloquence all struck like proverbial lightning, at the same place and time and all at once, together, simultaneously. You betcha.

The news is this: The President of the United States has finally figured out what the crux ,central core, and hugely responsible issues are at the center of the country’s current economic crisis: freaking autos are economically fragile. Whew. Finally. What a goddam relief. I was afraid we would go another few weeks (five, to be exact) before someone figured out just exactly what the sam-hill was wrong with America. It must be Christmas. We have been given a gift.

But as with all “gifts” that come from the government, I suspected something else was in play, and I chose not to be entirely euphoric.

While I was reading the report of this presidential revelation/proclamation, I was also reading about and watching videos telling about and showing the shoes of an Iraqi reporter, being hurled through the air at Bush’s head, during a press conference in Baghdad. Suddenly I had an epiphany, and I am guessing that W had epiphanied, as well. I realized the great likelihood that, for perhaps the first time in his life, without alcohol or drugs, George W. Bush had been faced with real trauma.

We need to keep this incident in its’ proper perspective if we are to fully appreciate the devastating implications of what really happened here. W was on foreign soil, in a newly liberated country (Cheney says so, anyway), standing behind an unfamiliar lectern, next to a world leader (?), amid a sea of doubt and potential hostility (only because he has been lying about this country, liberation, democracy and war for years), and suddenly, unexpectedly, without warning, two pieces of footwear came flying through the conference room, aimed more or less directly at his head. The shock and awe must have been terrifying. Unfathomable fear and previously undreamt-of terror must have grasped the President by his very being and shaken him to his ephemeral core. This manner of precarious and fright-laden situation is what many would call trauma inducing ,and it is highly likely that it indeed descended on the mind (?) of George W. Bush, as he stood, there, chock full of hubris and assumed self-righteousness.

Such an assault, coming as it were, from out of a crowd of reporters, previously assumed to be filled with adoration, must have been the penultimate shock. I know it would have rattled my underpinnings, and I don’t even lie that much (and if I did, or you did, I, or we, would not get caught so often).

Sometime later, during an interview, the President attempted to brush off the severity of the event, saying that it was no different that when “people wave at you, using less than five fingers”, and claiming to fail to see what “his beef” was ,when it came to the Iraqi version of a shoe-bomber. However, I suspect that the incident had a lot more to do with the remarks about “auto fragility”, quoted above.

Trauma can be truly revelatory. It can be a real eye-opener, after the fact. Trauma, neurologically speaking, induces autonomic reactions of fight or flight. Since the president stood his ground, ducking the missiles very effectively, as he has ducked morality, vision, common decency , logic and good grammar for eight years, indicated that he did not choose flight: he stood his Texas cowboy ground and remained steadfast, clutching the lectern with both hands. To reinforce the impression that he was not shaken or unduly moved by what had happened during the attempted sole-ful attack, he conjectured that this little skirmish did not “reflect the broad attitude” of the Iraqi people (I though it would have been a broad “spectrum”, but that word is much too big for him). Clearly the depth of the traumatization caused him to lose sight of the symbolism involved when, many years earlier, as the statute of Saddam was pulled down in the Baghdad square, the Iraqi citizenry pounded it with their shoes. This public behavior is generally believed to be a display of contempt and hatred in the Arab world. . But when you have been traumatized to the extent that W obviously was, some of the details get a little blurry, in hindsight. Like, ya know, lookin’ over yer shoulder?

Nevertheless, I am led to believe that this very event is what caused the president to proclaim, just a short time later, that our economic woes could be laid squarely at the feet (tires) of fragile auto economics. I am grateful that, in his somewhat unstable state, he did not refer to either “auto erotics” or any form of frigidity rather than fragility ( either mispsokeness, while probably not being any big surprise, would have been a dead give-away about his condition). My guess is that Hank Paulson might have come to a similarly grand economic revelation if he had been hit on the head by a falling brick from the Lehman Bros. building on Wall Street. But we have not been so lucky as to have that “befall” us, so to speak. .

As it stands now, we are vey fortunate to know that our President has “got it right”, as Monty Python might perchance observe. Surely, now that we (and W) are armed with such valuable insight as to why we have no money to spend on Christmas gifts, while the financial and banking CEO’s of New York are in Dubais, on holiday, and why Detroit products cost so much, break down so often and consume so much gasoline, time and energy, that our national quality of life will improve, shortly. Or at least as soon as W forms a Presidential commission to investigate the auto economic fragility problem. Perhaps Mitt Romney can head that up, as the (sic) Car economic fragility czar.

The alleged assailant, by the way, is being held in jail, apparently for attempting to induce harm, or creating an environment of danger, or something like that, in the presence of a world leader. Of the two men behind the lectern, the authorities in Iraq have chosen to say that it was the Iranian President they were referring to. I think we all know how and why they made their distinction.

However, we should consider one other nasty eventuality that might have come about: had either one (or both ) of the shoes hit their intended target, there would have been the recorded sound of the non-resonating thud of the shoe(s) hitting an empty vessel. Had that occurred, the main stream media would have given us much more coverage to wade through, the pundits and analysts would be almost as busy as they were covering the gaffs of Sarah Palin, and Christmas would not have something like the “economic fragility of the autos” to blame for our aggregate misery. It could have been worse.