Time For a MashUp

This is what ThinkProgess.org calls it when they glom together several relevant pieces of info and/or video about one subject, and put it into a coherent feature. It is usually about an event or happening that they think should be given special notice by people like me, who read that stuff. In no particular order, here, then, is my mashed up “Week In Review” (with apologies to the NYT):

I found an article by Yglesius, I think, (ThinkProgress) this week about the tens of tens of BILLIONS of dollars the US spends every year on sophisticated aircraft for warmaking. Grumman, Boeing, GE, IBM and Northrup, to name a few, receive so much money to build, outfit, maintain and re-supply fighter jets and bombers, that it constitutes a disproportionally huge share of the national budget. I am wondering why? As “Fred on Everything” pointed out this week, these hot-shot, missile carrying, infra-red equipped weapons of mass destruction cannot hit much of anything, in particular. Despite multi-million dollar guidance systems, they mostly blow up innocent Iraqi, Turkish and Pakistani civilians. If they are lucky, their Top Guns only destroy two or three jubilant wedding parties as they vainly attempt to assassinate a miscellaneous belt-bomb carrying insurgent hiding in a mud flat, somewhere in the hills of Afghanistan. The spending of these billions goes almost completely unnoticed when we have no reasonable plan of action for health care in this country (more on that in a minute), mortgage foreclosures are rampant, AIG execs are playing in hot tubs and we are debating whether or not to allocate (what now appears to be) a paltry $25B to slow down the inevitable demise of another industrial behemoth, the Detroit Big Three. (I think a Hummer is a Grumman product, but I am not sure. I am certain it has gasoline-seeking radar capabilities).

The USSR (remember those guys?)used to spend far more on its’ military buildup than it did anything else, and we all railed against that as a “false economy” and hideous communism. Now we appear to be doing the same thing and no one notices. Worse, by our oversight and ignorance, we are condoning it. And we wonder why the economy is in such bad shape? We spend nothing (to speak of) on infrastructure and the basic well being of our citizens. We spend pittances on education and millions on salaries and fringe benefits for members of congress who work part-time and do mostly nothing. And then there is the auto industry and that dust-up: it is another example of an artificial economy and another one of our dinosaurs which is rumored to be “too big to fail”. Why not try this approach: Give those guys the $25B already allocated by the Dept. Of Energy to go green, but do it with lots of strings attached ( and don’t BS me about requiring the sell-off of two of five corporate jets.) Cut out those ridiculous exec salaries and stipends for board members, hire some bright, innovative and productive contributors and get on with what should have been done 30 years ago. (Jimmy Carter, are you out there?) Then LOAN the Big Dolts another $25B out of that pot we already have approved (Only 8% of the total?) with therepayments to begin back to the treasury in 18 months, with interest, when the immediate crunch is over. Or sell the whole mess to Toyota and take your lumps.

I keep sending out columns by Nobel winner Krugman ( a voice in the wilderness) and everyone should add http://robertreich.blogspot.com to their favorites. I think these two guys are the only ones (maybe) who know what is going on (maybe), why it is the way it is and what the hell to do about it, in order to keep the sky from falling. Hank Paulson is Chicken Little and we have heard enough if his chicken shit. I would laugh hysterically at his antics if I were not sobbing so uncontrollably.

Health care: It is very curious that the Obama team has announced cabinet positions in many areas (I’m getting to all that) EXCEPT HHS, which would include health care. During one of the presidential debates, Brokaw asked Obama and McCain about health care. He said that for some in the US, it was seen as a priviledge, some people thought it should be a right, and whose responsibility was it, anyway? Both of the candidates punted. They both had the chance to drive right through that huge opening, and the both drove around the mountain. More chicken shit. They both had the chance to say this: Health care in the US should NOT BE a priviledge. health care in the US SHOULD BE a right of every citizen ,and, as the richest and most creative country in the world (or should be), Health Care in the US, for every citizen, should be our complete responsibility. Neither one said that, it would have answered the question emphatically and clearly and we could be having those discussions right now. So far, however, health care is still the big bad wolf, just outside the kitchen door and nobody wants to open it. The longer we a wait, the worse the situation will become. But we chat endlessly with the know-nothing CEO’s who flog the auto industry and we build more F-18 fighter jets. Brilliant. Defamatory. Incriminating. Embarrassing.Our priorities are not, well, priorities

At an election night party, standing around in someone else’s kitchen, Keith Bell (a friend of a friend and a world champion swimmer and senior citizen) said to me: “Health Care should not be a commodity”. Think about THAT ONE, for a minute.

Senate seats in Congress: The Dems are both livid and wild ( and laviciously greedy)about having 60 of them so they can bullet-proof any legislation they want and ride rough-shod over and through the decisions of the past like a bulldozer over a bunch of Tonka toys in the sandbox. The post-election brouhaha over the seats in MN, GA, and AK (and the continued pleas for money to ensure democratic wins) is nauseating. Two more seats will not spoil or ruin the party’s party. Without them there will be no tension and probably no creativity in the legislative process. Things could be worse: you could (for stupid and molly-coddle reasons) welcome Lieberman back into the fold after he stabbed you in the back. You could give Ted Stevens a standing ovation as he leaves the floor after becoming a convicted felon. And you could largely ignore the fact that Ted Kennedy came back to work with a brain tumor. At least none of the nitwits brought a bill up to the vote about what sort of new dog might be allowed in the White House. At least not yet.

And right now the Congress is flagrantly displaying its’ back side: This past week, when the economy was shredding itself, the holidays are here and no one has money to spend (or knows whether they will have a job next week) and Sarah Palin is hosting a telecast of the beheading of a turkey, the Congress voted not to take any significant action on anything of any importance until after they come back into session after this break. HOWEVER, they did manage to hold elections for leadership posts for the next congress, before the next congress even convenes. Would someone please tell me why the old congress is selecting the leadership for the new congress????? As usual, our gallant elected officials are making grandiose plans for time off, plans for what they will do later to plan for doing later, and spending no time doing anything right now, when everything needs most to be done, YESTERDAY. Turd Blossom may have moved on to Fox Noise, but he has apparently left behind plenty of seeds of malfeasance, sloth, self-aggrandizement and the pomposity of the infatuation of power. And having failed at everything political, Fred Thompson is returning to acting.Wait a minute: returning?

MEANWHILE, ThinkProgess also reports that the Bush administration is in a “sprint toward the finish line”, moving rapidly backard, to dismantle, cripple or undo legislation vital to the environment. Then, in order to add insult to injury, the administration has been busy “burrowing” politically appointed officials(Dana "The Twit" Perino has said that the new administration should be glad to have these "experienced" people?) into permanent government jobs they cannot be ousted from later, further polluting the waters and progress for years and months to come. (Remember when the Clinton administration glued down the keys on White House west wing keyboards before Bushies took office? We are not dealing with adults, here. ) And there is a terrible irony and sadness which pervades the entire notion that the one man who was elected to provide dignified leadership and vision for our country has turned out to be the ultimate saboteur. And let the pardons begin.

Richardson for Secretary of Commerce. A good choice and an apt reward for someone who stood up the Clinton’s and had Obama’s back from day one. He is a good man and I am much more comfortable knowing that he can read the clauses and terms of the NAFTA and proposed Columbian trade deals in their native languages.

Napolitano for DHS. She has street cred and a rep for getting things done. She (like Richardson) has a good grasp on the border immigration issues. Although there are many who wonder about how she will handle terrorist problems, I will sleep better at night, knowing that she will, in all likelihood, prevent insurgent Italian immigrants from blowing up the NYC subway system. If we are really lucky, she will flush away most of FEMA and resist the urge to rehire anyone who has done a “heckuva job”.

Geithner for the Treasury: OMG! He is white, of teutonic ancestry, intellectual, educated, unbiased and not from Wall Street. If you place his photo next to Paulson’s, you immediately see the clear contrast between what you get when you position the age of the 21rst century next to the Jurrasic one. Kind of like Einstein next to T-Rex.

Hillary for Secretary of State. Duh. Like we didn’t see that one coming. She has managed NOT to scratch out anyone’s eyes lately, can most likely keep Sarkozy’s wife at bay, can probably dance with the Iranians better than Condi Nasty, keep Berlusconi’s hands off her ass and bring some grace., elegance, determinedness and required female bitchiness back to the office. She will be sort of the anti-Kissenger. But if Obama pays off her campaign bills, I will be really pissed. What the catter might play at while the cat is away is anyone’s guess, but it is worth the risk.


Rachel Maddow: Her show just gets better every day, and I have been very curious to watch her navigate the recently troubled waters of gay rights, Prop 8 and so on. This week, this happened:

Update: When contacted by ThinkProgress, Rachel Maddow explained her reasons for avoiding the subject of gay rights with Huckabee:
I weighed whether or not to ask him about his anti-gay views, but I really don't care about them very much. Huckabee is a doctrinaire anti-gay theocratic social conservative whose views are well-known and heartfelt. I also probably wouldn't bother asking Sarah Palin about her anti-gay views if I had the opportunity to interview her -- it's just not the most interesting or newsworthy (or ridiculous) thing about either of them.

AlterNet reported this after ThinkProgess snared it. As usual, Rachel took the most logical action at the most opportune time and chose not to play in the in mud, but rather to stick with what really mattered and was not so “ridiculous”, so as not to waste our time. Then on the program on 11/21, she featured a story about the sale of stuffed “patriotic” RNC elephants as Christmas presents. The accompanying press release said that all proceeds from the sales would go to fight “left-wing Democratic legislative attempts in Congress”. She demurred that this was certainly in the spirit of Christmas. Bravo Rachel.

Lefties in blogosphere, dismayed progressives and label/name calling: There appear to be a ton of hot-under-the-collar far left wing bloggers who are yelling about being betrayed by Obama for even looking at former officials and dignitaries for posts in the new administration. Shut up! You are like Congressional democrats, crying over a seat or two when there are better things to worry about. You cannot have your cake and eat it, too. You have a new President whose presence portends a better world. There is also a debate about either dissolving the notion of progressives altogether, post election, or merely changing their names to “liberal”. Y’all worry far too much about names and labels. Just sign the (right) damn (left)petitions, make your voices heard where it counts, vote out slime balls and stop worrying about what you called yourself. Just act with integrity, honor and dignity and stop writing meaningless rants to OpEdNews: nobody reads that anymore anyway, and if you have something we all need to hear, there are better forums.

Life goes on in Texas.