http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/24/change_is_coming_to_fema.html
This article showed up in the Washington Post Politics Daily section of this morning’s emails. Those of you who know anything about me know that:
When W rolled FEMA into DHS, I went ballistic. I said then that it was a terrific way to neuter a needed agency, and I was proven right.Everything that came from it afterwards, was stillborn.
When Katrina hit, and New Orleans was lost, then the government denied there was problem and CNN was broadcasting pictures of refugees at the stadium in the rain, I knew that affairs had gone completely sour.
When it was reported that “Brownie” was out looking for new shirts, at a department store many miles form the scene of the disaster, my stomach churned.
When some days later, W told “Brownie” he was doing “a heckuva job”, I vomited.
When Brownie got shit-canned, I stood up and cheered and told everyone that I just wanted a shot at that job for a month or so. (I probably would have shot by a Bushie Brown Shirt brigade, but I really didn’t care; my sensibilities were enraged).
Now the word on the Obama street (see the article) is that change is on the way for FEMA. Hip Hip Hooray! Hope! Change! Change! Hope!
But then one reads on. The rumor is that James Witt, another Clintonista and Arkansas crony, will be brought in to reprise his clean-up act. And he will bring along Mark Merrit to help and then succeed him. If anything in the report about Witt’s activities after he left FEMA is true, then we should be wary. He obviously learned enough about the slovenly government relief processes during his tenure to profit enormously from them, afterward. And he has a skillful and learned protégé’. Again, if at all true, he has been ably aided and abetted by the likes of state governors and their successors (Would trust Bobbie Jindal with YOUR wife?). Let’s just hold the cheering and applause for a bit, shall we?
Alongside this disclosure came the announcement, by the Fed (and broadcast widely in the Mostly Silly Media), that several billion more dollars were suddenly being released into the consumer marketplace to promote consumer spending (Christmas gifts?), finance new automobiles (which are largely over-priced and fuel-inefficient) and (finally) to do something about the gazillion dollars a risk in current home mortgage foreclsures around the country (which should have been done long ago).
Hank Paulson, appearing gaunt, haggard and frightened as ever, held a another press conference, looking like a cornered dog who has been caught stealing the Thanksgiving turkey off of the dining room table, and blurted, stumbled and gasped his way through a series of nearly incoherent explanations..and now we wait to see if Wall Street will jump for joy or jump off the ledge of the highest building.
The first pundit and media reactions were that this economic move did not ever require the draconian predictions laid out two months ago, about those predicted massive defaults and martial law, and it would seem that the Fed, W, Paulson and the rest are merely grandstanding for the holidays. But it seems to me to be a sack of large coal lumps being left at the front door of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
There is certainly hope for change in the air, but these announcements make me wonder if we should change our hopes, just a little bit, until we know exactly what the future portends. I would really like to get into the holiday spirit, instead of just being dispirited.
Life goes on in Texas.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, November 14, 2008
How things look today
I regularly have some fun, these days, doing work for the SW Chapter of the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. They have an office and studio here in Austin. Last week, they held a recognition dinner for their volunteers and about 160 people attended. I learned later that that was only about half of us! Lots of volunteers and lots of donated hours. Organizations like this one, where there is so much valuable “product”, as opposed to those groups who spend most of the publicly raised and donated funds supporting a top heavy administration, should get more attention and recognition. If you have one like it you can get to and help out, do it: you will feel better later.
I am discouraged about CA and Prop 8. That seems a step rearward (but then there is CT?). There is much talk about the role of blacks and Hispanics in that vote, and especially the role of churches and religion. Churches and their religious “leaders”, and I think especially in minority settings, hold entirely too much sway over how people think and act when it comes to socio-political decisions. Go see Bill Maher’s film, “Religulous”, then decide for yourself. We have our priorities all screwed up. Have you gone to the local park and visited your Ten Commandments monument, lately? You can still do that In Utah, at least this week. And would someone please tell me why the Mormon organization is tax exempt?
Hank “The Wall Street Airhead” Paulson got up and spoke two days ago (can’t ANYONE stop that man? Chickens, henhouses, foxes and all that) and the stock market sank (again) like the Titanic, two hours later. The next day the DOW came back some, then it was announced that even Wal-Mart was bracing for bad sales, that Best Buy had forecasted a cataclysmic sales fall off, and that the Republicans would probably block any attempt to “bail out” the Big Three in Detroit. The market dropped back another 400 points by noon on Friday, 11/14. It will be a long weekend, which will be made worse by W hosting the economic summit of the G-20. Here is a group of the world’s most unfit and untrained economists, gathered together to debate (politically) and decide (selfishly)about the most important, delicate and precipitous fate of the economic welfare of millions, and who will eat too much, make pompous pronouncements and accomplish mostly nothing. But the meeting will leave a gorgeous carbon footprint.
But first, before that showplace takes place, Paulson should be made to sit down, shut up and then leave the room as soon as possible, taking Bernanke with him( Bernanke is rumored to be about to slice an incredible small piece of interest pie into an even smaller slice. How do you do that? I did not know that interest has a half-life, like uranium). These men are both useless and moronic.
Second, George W. Bush has proven to be absolutely incapable of providing any presidential leadership, especially as a lame duck, either for this country or for the meeting of the G-20. Or 19, or 23 or whatever. Third, the Big Three (Wal-Mart will find its’ own way; it always does) should be left to find or lose themselves in the marketplace they created. The made this bed, let them sleep in it. And although I have resisted the urge to say this until now, the notion being put forth by some of our Congressional idiots, that the government should buy up the US auto industry and put a public overseer in charge, is about as close to being socialist/Communistic/Marxist economics as anything I have ever heard of. Real capitalistic measures would bring in the best business managers and efficiency experts and long range planners and market researchers that might be found, and either make the automotive behemoth ultimately work or kill it quickly… or maybe sell it to someone who knows how to build the right cars for the right market for the right price.Let’s see: you can take two from column A (that would be Toyota and Honda) and two from Column B (that would be BMW and VW) and then wait to see what dinner tastes like. Chrysler is already on life support, GM has been asleep at the switch for 20 years and Ford has finally realized that Henry has actually died. Old and inappropriate stuff dies all the time. It is called survival of the fittest, not prolongation of the useless. Being put into some taxpayer funded suspended animation won’t bring Detroit back to life. We have been holding a mirror up the mouth of the US auto industry for years, looking for the fog of breath, and all we get are SUV’s and carbon dioxide emissions.
And I still think Lindsey Graham is an illiterate buffoon, who has no business holding any public office and even less business being the chief advisor to John McCain. And T. Boone Pickens is the smoothest talker on the planet (did you see him on the Daily Show? Wow.) and after I am finished being all flushed in the face, I realize that there is no way in hell I’d let him date my daughter. Or yours. There is some kind of poker card up his Texas sleeve, and it has something to do with owning huge water rights in the continental US. And the only thing I know for sure about natural gas is that it can blow up in your face.
The RGA just met in (where the hell else?) FL, and chose not to elect Sarah Palin to any leadership position. Maybe they are smarter than I gave them credit for, earlier. The GOP does NOT need a re-birth, a rejuvenation or a re-creation: it needs a total re-invention, in order to join the new century. As long as they:
-continue to sing the praises of Ronald Reagan (the man is DEAD, for chrissakes);
-cower before Kissenger;
-listen to Lindsey Graham;
-dream about Goofy Gingrich (he is not, can not and will not be any Lazarus);
-drool over Mitt Moneybags;
-long for Looney Jindahl;
- stupidly support Ted Stevens;
-support sloppy vote counting in MN;
they will remain so far behind the curve of reality that they will never see political daylight again. Collectively, they seem to have no shame, no wisdom, not much honor (even among thieves) and no integrity (as in “holding things together”). All of this makes them only slightly worse than myopic, doddering older Democrats who still have FDR confused with Jesus.
I have seen the author and NYT columnist Thomas Friedman on television three times in the last 72 hours. And he has been quoted all over the web and in the Mostly Silly Media repeatedly, since then. I am angry that I have still not even finished reading his first book, The World is Flat, and now he already has another in the bookstores, Hot,Flat and Crowded. I am not angry, however, that despite his dismal and depressing observations, his frighteningly accurate estimations of how many cultural upheavals have and will take place, how rapidly the population is outgrowing the planet and its’ resources, and what a bunch of dunderheads and dolts we have all been about dealing with it, he still holds out HOPE that we will harness both technology and common sense and save ourselves, the planet and the future. There. Now I don’t have to read the second book.
Life goes on in Texas.
I am discouraged about CA and Prop 8. That seems a step rearward (but then there is CT?). There is much talk about the role of blacks and Hispanics in that vote, and especially the role of churches and religion. Churches and their religious “leaders”, and I think especially in minority settings, hold entirely too much sway over how people think and act when it comes to socio-political decisions. Go see Bill Maher’s film, “Religulous”, then decide for yourself. We have our priorities all screwed up. Have you gone to the local park and visited your Ten Commandments monument, lately? You can still do that In Utah, at least this week. And would someone please tell me why the Mormon organization is tax exempt?
Hank “The Wall Street Airhead” Paulson got up and spoke two days ago (can’t ANYONE stop that man? Chickens, henhouses, foxes and all that) and the stock market sank (again) like the Titanic, two hours later. The next day the DOW came back some, then it was announced that even Wal-Mart was bracing for bad sales, that Best Buy had forecasted a cataclysmic sales fall off, and that the Republicans would probably block any attempt to “bail out” the Big Three in Detroit. The market dropped back another 400 points by noon on Friday, 11/14. It will be a long weekend, which will be made worse by W hosting the economic summit of the G-20. Here is a group of the world’s most unfit and untrained economists, gathered together to debate (politically) and decide (selfishly)about the most important, delicate and precipitous fate of the economic welfare of millions, and who will eat too much, make pompous pronouncements and accomplish mostly nothing. But the meeting will leave a gorgeous carbon footprint.
But first, before that showplace takes place, Paulson should be made to sit down, shut up and then leave the room as soon as possible, taking Bernanke with him( Bernanke is rumored to be about to slice an incredible small piece of interest pie into an even smaller slice. How do you do that? I did not know that interest has a half-life, like uranium). These men are both useless and moronic.
Second, George W. Bush has proven to be absolutely incapable of providing any presidential leadership, especially as a lame duck, either for this country or for the meeting of the G-20. Or 19, or 23 or whatever. Third, the Big Three (Wal-Mart will find its’ own way; it always does) should be left to find or lose themselves in the marketplace they created. The made this bed, let them sleep in it. And although I have resisted the urge to say this until now, the notion being put forth by some of our Congressional idiots, that the government should buy up the US auto industry and put a public overseer in charge, is about as close to being socialist/Communistic/Marxist economics as anything I have ever heard of. Real capitalistic measures would bring in the best business managers and efficiency experts and long range planners and market researchers that might be found, and either make the automotive behemoth ultimately work or kill it quickly… or maybe sell it to someone who knows how to build the right cars for the right market for the right price.Let’s see: you can take two from column A (that would be Toyota and Honda) and two from Column B (that would be BMW and VW) and then wait to see what dinner tastes like. Chrysler is already on life support, GM has been asleep at the switch for 20 years and Ford has finally realized that Henry has actually died. Old and inappropriate stuff dies all the time. It is called survival of the fittest, not prolongation of the useless. Being put into some taxpayer funded suspended animation won’t bring Detroit back to life. We have been holding a mirror up the mouth of the US auto industry for years, looking for the fog of breath, and all we get are SUV’s and carbon dioxide emissions.
And I still think Lindsey Graham is an illiterate buffoon, who has no business holding any public office and even less business being the chief advisor to John McCain. And T. Boone Pickens is the smoothest talker on the planet (did you see him on the Daily Show? Wow.) and after I am finished being all flushed in the face, I realize that there is no way in hell I’d let him date my daughter. Or yours. There is some kind of poker card up his Texas sleeve, and it has something to do with owning huge water rights in the continental US. And the only thing I know for sure about natural gas is that it can blow up in your face.
The RGA just met in (where the hell else?) FL, and chose not to elect Sarah Palin to any leadership position. Maybe they are smarter than I gave them credit for, earlier. The GOP does NOT need a re-birth, a rejuvenation or a re-creation: it needs a total re-invention, in order to join the new century. As long as they:
-continue to sing the praises of Ronald Reagan (the man is DEAD, for chrissakes);
-cower before Kissenger;
-listen to Lindsey Graham;
-dream about Goofy Gingrich (he is not, can not and will not be any Lazarus);
-drool over Mitt Moneybags;
-long for Looney Jindahl;
- stupidly support Ted Stevens;
-support sloppy vote counting in MN;
they will remain so far behind the curve of reality that they will never see political daylight again. Collectively, they seem to have no shame, no wisdom, not much honor (even among thieves) and no integrity (as in “holding things together”). All of this makes them only slightly worse than myopic, doddering older Democrats who still have FDR confused with Jesus.
I have seen the author and NYT columnist Thomas Friedman on television three times in the last 72 hours. And he has been quoted all over the web and in the Mostly Silly Media repeatedly, since then. I am angry that I have still not even finished reading his first book, The World is Flat, and now he already has another in the bookstores, Hot,Flat and Crowded. I am not angry, however, that despite his dismal and depressing observations, his frighteningly accurate estimations of how many cultural upheavals have and will take place, how rapidly the population is outgrowing the planet and its’ resources, and what a bunch of dunderheads and dolts we have all been about dealing with it, he still holds out HOPE that we will harness both technology and common sense and save ourselves, the planet and the future. There. Now I don’t have to read the second book.
Life goes on in Texas.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Just Kicking It Around.
I got this from my friend, Tracey, tonight:
Intellectuals solve problems; Geniuses prevent them.
Intellectuals solve problems; Geniuses prevent them.
Albert Einstein.
On The Einstein Quote:
Intellectuals do frequently solve problems. Just as frequently they make them worse. Thinking can be over-done, like a good piece of meat on the fire too long, and turned to cinders in one's mouth. Just look at the profession of law. On the other hand you have Bill Maher.
Geniuses, while indeed having the ability to see far ahead and prevent problems, also would sometimes do well to look behind themselves first, to understand better what has preceded them, before they become a problem, themselves. This happens most often, when radical mental errancy is mistaken for genius and followed down a dangerous path. That would be the Marx Brothers as opposed to Karl Marx?
And then you have George W. Bush. Sort of spoils the whole discussion, doesn't it
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Happy Veterans Day
Let’s just start with this news item (it‘s non-partisan), and then we can move on:
“Raped in the military? You’ll have to pay for your own forensic exam”. www.alternet.org/waronairag/106307/. If this horror story doesn’t make you wonder where all of our collective brains and compassion have gone, nothing will. If you are still with me after this, then please read on to what I woke up thinking about in the middle of the night:
I had (once again) mistakenly assumed that since the elections were over, some aspects of American life would return to normal and some primarily political topics would fall by the wayside or be sidelined. Other than the obvious fact that the innumerable and daily requests for more and more money for Democrats have stopped filling my email box every day, not much has changed. There is ongoing discussion of Red State vs. Blue State, and now the introduction and discussion of the “purple” state. New in the past many months, and as vocal and demanding as ever, are the “progressives”, and there is newly energized talk about the survival of the neo-cons and the re-structuring of the Republican Party. Lots of the old dogs from before the elections are still nipping at our heels and barking, and the round of warnings and admonitions to President-elect Obama about who and whom NOT to forget or overlook gets louder every day. Even many Republicans and red-staters, who just days ago were calling Barack a terrorist, a Muslim Christian hater and unpatriotic, are heaping praises and recommendations upon him. I think they are all just looking for work.
By now, we all know where the red states are, who lives there and how they voted. These (mostly southern)states (and Wyoming?)and their residents are the ones who put up the boldest fight to elect the McCain /Palin camp and got run over like a stray dog trying to cross the San Diego freeway. Or perhaps more appropriately, while trying maybe to cross the Dan Ryan Expressway, in south Chicago? Representing them at the highest level (and still very vocal) were the main stream Republicans, their affiliate and constituent neo-cons and bankers and business leaders from the US military industrial complex we have all come to call “home”. One conservative friend of mine asked me, just this morning, to stop picking on the Republicans, saying they had suffered enough and needed time to lick their wounds. For a time, I almost considered that reprieve, but after re-thinking, I suppose some tongue-lashing is still in order. But I have a few choice words for everyone else, as well.
The Republicans have continually held up a collection of values and symbols that are exactly the opposite of what America needs right now. We need relief for the middle class, they want to lower taxes on the rich. We want to elevate common values and decent standards of living for the many, they want to raise executive pay. We now know that trickle down doesn’t trickle down, so stop the crap and get real.
Outwardly, you can begin seeing this attitude in Sarah Palin, in her flamboyant and inflammatory remarks on the campaign trail and her “wardrobe” escapades. (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27657223#27657223) She is an outright insult to the intelligence of the American people. Her very persona of ignorance and arrogance embodied that backward stance. Then there was the Straight Talk Express (which never was), being repeatedly told we were “My Friends” (which we were not), and the fear tactics (Muslims, terrorism, racism) used just prior to the election, which were intended to, among other things, disguise and cover over the true nature of the economic collapse and what it might mean to Americans (did you ever have trouble getting cash from your ATM? I didn’t). By all published accounts, the Bush administration, the treasury Department’ the FDIC, et.al. could have stopped the foreclosure disaster almost before it began, and they all did nothing until Wall Street went up in flames. When Henry Paulson’s’ buddies began to fry, he began to cry and the right wing wasted no time, energy or media coverage to get $700+B out for rescue purposes, ASAP. We had to save the banks the brokers and their yachts and summer homes, but the middle class could “go fish”. The MSM (the Mostly Silly Media) sang all the right songs, trumpeted the clarion call and the Congress caved in like a pile of popsicle sticks in a windstorm. The mere fact that Paulson had the unmitigated gall to offer up a bail-out (rescue)scenario that was only two pages long, should tell us all something about the contempt that this administration has for the general public.
There is nothing “new” about the neo-cons I mentioned, except perhaps their clothes ( Hi, Sarah…someone asked if in fact a private donor paid for those "duds", and if it was in fact more than the $2300.00 limit on political contributions allowed by law, then was the donation to the RNC illegal? Oops), and their new hairdos (see Ms. Pfotenauer; boy will I be glad not to see or hear her again: she was and is the epitome of inauthenticity. I thought she would never go away. This is not to forget, however, John Edward’s $200.00 haircuts. And both Sarah and John have a new baby. How cute). And then there is both the clothing AND the hair when it comes to Candy McCain (where’s my free beer?), and McCain’s expensive shoes and all of the makeup artists. McCain himself was held up as righteous man of deep convictions, who then took borderline stances on most anything moral throughout the campaign, lied about suspending his unsuspended campaign, stiffed David Letterman with a rouse and has been variously described as a rambunctious, temper-tantrum throwing, plane-crashing, cynical bigot who used to whore around and treats his wife and family badly, in all of his seven homes… when most Americans were having trouble staying in just one. But no, I am not forgetting the electric bill at Al Gore’s mansion or the bill for jet fuel to carry Obama and Biden to undisclosed locations (to meet with Dick Cheney?). Both campaigns have left behind one helluva carbon footprint.
The Dems are faring better in some of these areas: aside from the nauseating fact that the men have almost all pioneered the now nearly exclusive use of “periwinkle” colored ties (Rachel Maddow coined that one; they look stupid), their clothing has been much more subdued and the hair styles much less flamboyant. In fact, until the acceptance speech night, Barack’s suits looked almost shabby and too dark to inspire hope and change. But his newest spokesperson, Stephanie Cutter, has a no-nonsense hairdo that speaks volumes about simplicity and elegance. And when Tom Brokaw took her on, she used only simple, two-dollar words and BS’d about nothing. I hope Pfotenauer and Fiorina were listening.
But Dems are gloating and shedding entirely too many crocodile tears of joy. Democrats seem to have made a profession out of bad-mouthing themselves and their accomplishments and personifying misery and self-inflicted bad luck. ”Poor me. I’m so miserable. I am a Democrat.” I am much more impressed with the Rev. Wright’s expressions of indignity than I am with photos of Jesse Jackson crying in Grant Park. If anyone should be yelling God Damn”, it ought to be Jesse: “God damn, man, It’s about freakin’ time!” And now, every left-handed pundit, Democratic “advisor” and commentator cannot wait to advise Barack Obama on “what he ought to do” to fulfill his promises and obligations to the grateful and sobbing Democratic electorate. There may be more blue states now, and more blue pockets in red environs, but many dems still lack the backbone to stand up and take charge instead of whimpering. You have the bandstand now, boys, let’s make some music!
But the group of Democratic cousins that perplex me the most are the “progressives”. They claim they are aggressive Democrats, and if you want to know how they think, how they talk and what they believe in and hope for, just go read OpEdNews.com. They may be “progressive”, but they are Libertarian wannabes, nihilistic, pessimistic and unknowing pseudo Nietzsche devotees. They believe, as do many of their red counterparts, that they are more correct than you are, and advocate measures that will “hurt you more than it hurts me”, but that’s OK because “I know better”. They are America’s new cynics: they “understand the cost of everything and the value of nothing” (Oscar Wilde?)They have an identity crisis and maybe have a thing about their mothers. I think they are the group that turns red and blue states purple (the color of rage?) because they flat out make everybody mad, as we say here in Texas. Their strength lies in their ability to thoroughly cloud an issue with effusive rhetoric, all of which attempts to persuade you that their position is the only real alternative. Their side on an issue is usually just as incendiary as that of a white, racist fundamentalist preacher in Appalachia, but no one wants to condemn them, because they are “men sent from God”. The difference is that progressives just think they are. If you think religious proselytizers are tough, try arguing with a progressive.
Now, having said all of that, as the song lyrics go, “Here are a few of my favorite things”…at least for today:
AIG: On top of the first mammoth bail-out package they received, and on top of the scandal that erupted right afterwards, about their big executive party that cost almost a million dollars, and on top of an additional $40B the Fed gave them a day or two ago, MSNCBC-TV reported this morning that AIG threw another executive party at a resort hotel in AZ, ordering the hotel not to display any signage or evidence that AIG and its staff were even there. Your tax dollars at work. Another close friend has suggested it is time to have some of these execs walk the plank. I cannot disagree. I just want the waters infested with sharks when they jump. Note: This story never made it to the msbnmc.com web site and was mysteriously pulled from msnbc-tv by mid-morning. However, Keith Olberman brought it back to life on "Countdown" that same evening. Olberman suggested that the additional $40B went to pay for the hors d'oerves for this party. Somebody get the plank.
The Fed will not disclose the recipients of $2T in bailout funds. Read it yourself: www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/106443. Yes, the “T” stands for “trillion”. That’s YOUR trillion, by the way.
The Big Three (or at least two of them) are anxiously awaiting $25-30B in bailout finds to save them from oblivion. In the first place, the US auto industry has had a century to learn how to become a successful and profitable venture. They have failed repeatedly and chosen short-term gains and quick profits from the sale of sub-standard (by modern world comparisions) automotive products. Rescuing this ship may be throwing good money after bad. There are several other corporations (at least 12, I read today) that employ just as many people as GM and they are not asking for handouts (It will be truly ironic if the one corporation that emerges unscathed is Wal-Mart, China’s single largest trading partner)... Let Toyota buy GM, it will not sink entirely then and Toyota knows how to do this stuff and do it right. There are fear tactics at work here, as well, and if we fall for it all, we will get what we deserve and waste another trillion dollars. The UAW should change its name to “Unless we All Work” and stop living off of profits from Chevrolets that break down on the way to work.
China just anounced a national bail-out plan, working from the bottom up, building bridges, roads, dams and other infrastucture and creating jobs and cash flow (msnbc.com). If the Chinese are so smart, what is our problem? (Sorry, I forgot: part of the problem is that the Chinese have most of our money.) Late note:It was suggested in a comment on OpEdNews today that someone ask the Chinese delegates coming to the upcoming world economic summit just how they figured out how to do this. The Bush administration is rejecting the idea.
Bush and Obama discussed bailing out the Big Three yesterday. But Bush wants to tie the action to a NAFTA-style trade agreement with Columbia. Jeezuss, Mary and Josephus, can’t we just do one damn thing at a time? Does everything that even hints of something positive have to be some sort of covoluted, self-aggrandizing nightmare? And what kind of position of strength does Bush think he is negotiating from? He is crazier, more stupid and more oblivious to real life than I thought he was. But Dana Perino says there is “no quid pro quo"? Please send her away. Let her hook up with Pfotenauer.
MSNBC.com: “Banks being urged to step up lending, curb exec pay”. I guess I forgot that we gave 24 banks $124B so they could sit on it, collect interest and make sure their honchos managed to pay their mortgages. Silly me. This is a holiday: are you happier, yet?
Fannie and Freddie have announced that they will begin efforts to halt foreclosures.(MSNBS.COM) Excuse me, but this is Nov 10. Where the hell have you guys been? Partying with AIG?
“Sparring starts as Repubs ponder future”. msnbc.msn.com/id/27654019/. I think they should have started thinking about that well before the election, and one story floating around is that Newt Gingrich will play the role of Lazarus in this new movie, rising from the dead of the New England winter and then on to save the party. I think I mentioned inappropriate symbols up above, somewhere?
OpEdNews.com is today publishing a poll, asking people about discussions they may have had or overheard about any possible attempted assassination of Barack Obama. This is the group/web site that proclaims itself as the progressive voice of America? They should just advertise for henchmen and provide the weapons. They could write speeches for Palin. Note: as of late afternoon on the day I posted this, enough people (including myself) had called in to protest this disgusting stunt, that the article disppeared from the web site.
Despite the level-headed commentaries and observations on the economy by the likes of Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Noam Chomsky and others, the bloody neo-cons, The Fed, Henry “Hank” Paulson, AIG and a few greed oriented Democrats (they want to welcome Lieberman back into the fold? Are they kidding?) are still, even after an election that promised hope, change and salvation for the middle class, not only want to rape America, but force it have the baby (probably sextuplets)and do it with no pre-natal care, no post-natal care nor health care coverage for the mother or the babies.
As I write this, at around 3:00 EST, the DOW is down about 175, after closing yesterday down a bit less than 100. The headline says this is because of consumer spending worries and anxiety about the pending bail-out of Detroit. Understandable: consumers have
nothing to spend and Detroit is bankrupt of vision, ideas, strategies and cash. And George W. Bush just said, on the deck of an aging aircraft carrier, in the waters off the isle of Manhattan, that “Veterans inspired me”. Well, whoop-tee-do for you (and Cheney), who never served a day.
You are leaving soon, right George? Don’t let the door hit you in the ass, on the way out.
And Happy Veterans Day.
“Raped in the military? You’ll have to pay for your own forensic exam”. www.alternet.org/waronairag/106307/. If this horror story doesn’t make you wonder where all of our collective brains and compassion have gone, nothing will. If you are still with me after this, then please read on to what I woke up thinking about in the middle of the night:
I had (once again) mistakenly assumed that since the elections were over, some aspects of American life would return to normal and some primarily political topics would fall by the wayside or be sidelined. Other than the obvious fact that the innumerable and daily requests for more and more money for Democrats have stopped filling my email box every day, not much has changed. There is ongoing discussion of Red State vs. Blue State, and now the introduction and discussion of the “purple” state. New in the past many months, and as vocal and demanding as ever, are the “progressives”, and there is newly energized talk about the survival of the neo-cons and the re-structuring of the Republican Party. Lots of the old dogs from before the elections are still nipping at our heels and barking, and the round of warnings and admonitions to President-elect Obama about who and whom NOT to forget or overlook gets louder every day. Even many Republicans and red-staters, who just days ago were calling Barack a terrorist, a Muslim Christian hater and unpatriotic, are heaping praises and recommendations upon him. I think they are all just looking for work.
By now, we all know where the red states are, who lives there and how they voted. These (mostly southern)states (and Wyoming?)and their residents are the ones who put up the boldest fight to elect the McCain /Palin camp and got run over like a stray dog trying to cross the San Diego freeway. Or perhaps more appropriately, while trying maybe to cross the Dan Ryan Expressway, in south Chicago? Representing them at the highest level (and still very vocal) were the main stream Republicans, their affiliate and constituent neo-cons and bankers and business leaders from the US military industrial complex we have all come to call “home”. One conservative friend of mine asked me, just this morning, to stop picking on the Republicans, saying they had suffered enough and needed time to lick their wounds. For a time, I almost considered that reprieve, but after re-thinking, I suppose some tongue-lashing is still in order. But I have a few choice words for everyone else, as well.
The Republicans have continually held up a collection of values and symbols that are exactly the opposite of what America needs right now. We need relief for the middle class, they want to lower taxes on the rich. We want to elevate common values and decent standards of living for the many, they want to raise executive pay. We now know that trickle down doesn’t trickle down, so stop the crap and get real.
Outwardly, you can begin seeing this attitude in Sarah Palin, in her flamboyant and inflammatory remarks on the campaign trail and her “wardrobe” escapades. (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27657223#27657223) She is an outright insult to the intelligence of the American people. Her very persona of ignorance and arrogance embodied that backward stance. Then there was the Straight Talk Express (which never was), being repeatedly told we were “My Friends” (which we were not), and the fear tactics (Muslims, terrorism, racism) used just prior to the election, which were intended to, among other things, disguise and cover over the true nature of the economic collapse and what it might mean to Americans (did you ever have trouble getting cash from your ATM? I didn’t). By all published accounts, the Bush administration, the treasury Department’ the FDIC, et.al. could have stopped the foreclosure disaster almost before it began, and they all did nothing until Wall Street went up in flames. When Henry Paulson’s’ buddies began to fry, he began to cry and the right wing wasted no time, energy or media coverage to get $700+B out for rescue purposes, ASAP. We had to save the banks the brokers and their yachts and summer homes, but the middle class could “go fish”. The MSM (the Mostly Silly Media) sang all the right songs, trumpeted the clarion call and the Congress caved in like a pile of popsicle sticks in a windstorm. The mere fact that Paulson had the unmitigated gall to offer up a bail-out (rescue)scenario that was only two pages long, should tell us all something about the contempt that this administration has for the general public.
There is nothing “new” about the neo-cons I mentioned, except perhaps their clothes ( Hi, Sarah…someone asked if in fact a private donor paid for those "duds", and if it was in fact more than the $2300.00 limit on political contributions allowed by law, then was the donation to the RNC illegal? Oops), and their new hairdos (see Ms. Pfotenauer; boy will I be glad not to see or hear her again: she was and is the epitome of inauthenticity. I thought she would never go away. This is not to forget, however, John Edward’s $200.00 haircuts. And both Sarah and John have a new baby. How cute). And then there is both the clothing AND the hair when it comes to Candy McCain (where’s my free beer?), and McCain’s expensive shoes and all of the makeup artists. McCain himself was held up as righteous man of deep convictions, who then took borderline stances on most anything moral throughout the campaign, lied about suspending his unsuspended campaign, stiffed David Letterman with a rouse and has been variously described as a rambunctious, temper-tantrum throwing, plane-crashing, cynical bigot who used to whore around and treats his wife and family badly, in all of his seven homes… when most Americans were having trouble staying in just one. But no, I am not forgetting the electric bill at Al Gore’s mansion or the bill for jet fuel to carry Obama and Biden to undisclosed locations (to meet with Dick Cheney?). Both campaigns have left behind one helluva carbon footprint.
The Dems are faring better in some of these areas: aside from the nauseating fact that the men have almost all pioneered the now nearly exclusive use of “periwinkle” colored ties (Rachel Maddow coined that one; they look stupid), their clothing has been much more subdued and the hair styles much less flamboyant. In fact, until the acceptance speech night, Barack’s suits looked almost shabby and too dark to inspire hope and change. But his newest spokesperson, Stephanie Cutter, has a no-nonsense hairdo that speaks volumes about simplicity and elegance. And when Tom Brokaw took her on, she used only simple, two-dollar words and BS’d about nothing. I hope Pfotenauer and Fiorina were listening.
But Dems are gloating and shedding entirely too many crocodile tears of joy. Democrats seem to have made a profession out of bad-mouthing themselves and their accomplishments and personifying misery and self-inflicted bad luck. ”Poor me. I’m so miserable. I am a Democrat.” I am much more impressed with the Rev. Wright’s expressions of indignity than I am with photos of Jesse Jackson crying in Grant Park. If anyone should be yelling God Damn”, it ought to be Jesse: “God damn, man, It’s about freakin’ time!” And now, every left-handed pundit, Democratic “advisor” and commentator cannot wait to advise Barack Obama on “what he ought to do” to fulfill his promises and obligations to the grateful and sobbing Democratic electorate. There may be more blue states now, and more blue pockets in red environs, but many dems still lack the backbone to stand up and take charge instead of whimpering. You have the bandstand now, boys, let’s make some music!
But the group of Democratic cousins that perplex me the most are the “progressives”. They claim they are aggressive Democrats, and if you want to know how they think, how they talk and what they believe in and hope for, just go read OpEdNews.com. They may be “progressive”, but they are Libertarian wannabes, nihilistic, pessimistic and unknowing pseudo Nietzsche devotees. They believe, as do many of their red counterparts, that they are more correct than you are, and advocate measures that will “hurt you more than it hurts me”, but that’s OK because “I know better”. They are America’s new cynics: they “understand the cost of everything and the value of nothing” (Oscar Wilde?)They have an identity crisis and maybe have a thing about their mothers. I think they are the group that turns red and blue states purple (the color of rage?) because they flat out make everybody mad, as we say here in Texas. Their strength lies in their ability to thoroughly cloud an issue with effusive rhetoric, all of which attempts to persuade you that their position is the only real alternative. Their side on an issue is usually just as incendiary as that of a white, racist fundamentalist preacher in Appalachia, but no one wants to condemn them, because they are “men sent from God”. The difference is that progressives just think they are. If you think religious proselytizers are tough, try arguing with a progressive.
Now, having said all of that, as the song lyrics go, “Here are a few of my favorite things”…at least for today:
AIG: On top of the first mammoth bail-out package they received, and on top of the scandal that erupted right afterwards, about their big executive party that cost almost a million dollars, and on top of an additional $40B the Fed gave them a day or two ago, MSNCBC-TV reported this morning that AIG threw another executive party at a resort hotel in AZ, ordering the hotel not to display any signage or evidence that AIG and its staff were even there. Your tax dollars at work. Another close friend has suggested it is time to have some of these execs walk the plank. I cannot disagree. I just want the waters infested with sharks when they jump. Note: This story never made it to the msbnmc.com web site and was mysteriously pulled from msnbc-tv by mid-morning. However, Keith Olberman brought it back to life on "Countdown" that same evening. Olberman suggested that the additional $40B went to pay for the hors d'oerves for this party. Somebody get the plank.
The Fed will not disclose the recipients of $2T in bailout funds. Read it yourself: www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/106443. Yes, the “T” stands for “trillion”. That’s YOUR trillion, by the way.
The Big Three (or at least two of them) are anxiously awaiting $25-30B in bailout finds to save them from oblivion. In the first place, the US auto industry has had a century to learn how to become a successful and profitable venture. They have failed repeatedly and chosen short-term gains and quick profits from the sale of sub-standard (by modern world comparisions) automotive products. Rescuing this ship may be throwing good money after bad. There are several other corporations (at least 12, I read today) that employ just as many people as GM and they are not asking for handouts (It will be truly ironic if the one corporation that emerges unscathed is Wal-Mart, China’s single largest trading partner)... Let Toyota buy GM, it will not sink entirely then and Toyota knows how to do this stuff and do it right. There are fear tactics at work here, as well, and if we fall for it all, we will get what we deserve and waste another trillion dollars. The UAW should change its name to “Unless we All Work” and stop living off of profits from Chevrolets that break down on the way to work.
China just anounced a national bail-out plan, working from the bottom up, building bridges, roads, dams and other infrastucture and creating jobs and cash flow (msnbc.com). If the Chinese are so smart, what is our problem? (Sorry, I forgot: part of the problem is that the Chinese have most of our money.) Late note:It was suggested in a comment on OpEdNews today that someone ask the Chinese delegates coming to the upcoming world economic summit just how they figured out how to do this. The Bush administration is rejecting the idea.
Bush and Obama discussed bailing out the Big Three yesterday. But Bush wants to tie the action to a NAFTA-style trade agreement with Columbia. Jeezuss, Mary and Josephus, can’t we just do one damn thing at a time? Does everything that even hints of something positive have to be some sort of covoluted, self-aggrandizing nightmare? And what kind of position of strength does Bush think he is negotiating from? He is crazier, more stupid and more oblivious to real life than I thought he was. But Dana Perino says there is “no quid pro quo"? Please send her away. Let her hook up with Pfotenauer.
MSNBC.com: “Banks being urged to step up lending, curb exec pay”. I guess I forgot that we gave 24 banks $124B so they could sit on it, collect interest and make sure their honchos managed to pay their mortgages. Silly me. This is a holiday: are you happier, yet?
Fannie and Freddie have announced that they will begin efforts to halt foreclosures.(MSNBS.COM) Excuse me, but this is Nov 10. Where the hell have you guys been? Partying with AIG?
“Sparring starts as Repubs ponder future”. msnbc.msn.com/id/27654019/. I think they should have started thinking about that well before the election, and one story floating around is that Newt Gingrich will play the role of Lazarus in this new movie, rising from the dead of the New England winter and then on to save the party. I think I mentioned inappropriate symbols up above, somewhere?
OpEdNews.com is today publishing a poll, asking people about discussions they may have had or overheard about any possible attempted assassination of Barack Obama. This is the group/web site that proclaims itself as the progressive voice of America? They should just advertise for henchmen and provide the weapons. They could write speeches for Palin. Note: as of late afternoon on the day I posted this, enough people (including myself) had called in to protest this disgusting stunt, that the article disppeared from the web site.
Despite the level-headed commentaries and observations on the economy by the likes of Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Noam Chomsky and others, the bloody neo-cons, The Fed, Henry “Hank” Paulson, AIG and a few greed oriented Democrats (they want to welcome Lieberman back into the fold? Are they kidding?) are still, even after an election that promised hope, change and salvation for the middle class, not only want to rape America, but force it have the baby (probably sextuplets)and do it with no pre-natal care, no post-natal care nor health care coverage for the mother or the babies.
As I write this, at around 3:00 EST, the DOW is down about 175, after closing yesterday down a bit less than 100. The headline says this is because of consumer spending worries and anxiety about the pending bail-out of Detroit. Understandable: consumers have
nothing to spend and Detroit is bankrupt of vision, ideas, strategies and cash. And George W. Bush just said, on the deck of an aging aircraft carrier, in the waters off the isle of Manhattan, that “Veterans inspired me”. Well, whoop-tee-do for you (and Cheney), who never served a day.
You are leaving soon, right George? Don’t let the door hit you in the ass, on the way out.
And Happy Veterans Day.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Try This
If you think you may be bored, and that you have absolutely nothing to do, or if you believe you may be doing or thinking something that might be important, I suggest you go to:
http://quotes4all.net and read awhile.
Either your boredom will cease and you will sense a restlessness to become smarter and wiser. or you will realize how completely meaningless whatever you were doing beforehand actually was.
http://quotes4all.net and read awhile.
Either your boredom will cease and you will sense a restlessness to become smarter and wiser. or you will realize how completely meaningless whatever you were doing beforehand actually was.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
OK. We voted.
5 November 2008
OK. This is the un-fast, the de-fast, the post-fast or maybe the ex-post fasto? Who cares? But the election is complete, there are tears of joy and tears of sorrow, rejoicing and lamenting, praises being sung and curses being muttered. Jesse Jackson is crying on TV in Chicago and Dick Cheney probably wants to shoot someone, anyone, in the face. A strong voice and message have gone out and has been heard, and the American electorate has answered. Good faith efforts have been made (mostly) all around, some scoundrels have been up to no good and there have been endorsements and recriminations. Lies have been told, along with lies about lies, and claimed truths have been revealed not to be. Outrageous charges have been made, disclaimers uttered, statements colored and false colors washed away by revelation, research and FactCheck.org. And ACORN…well, ACORN screwed up a little. At least they aren’t Muslims. Thank God. Oops, sorry. And Diebold. Anybody seen Diebold? Oh. He’s hanging out with chad in Florida.
I think I have heard every outlandish remark and claim and counter-claim I can imagine, from both sides, and I have been prompted, prodded and cajoled to either praise or condemn one side or the other, and I know as many poor souls who are delirious this morning as I do who are miserable and believe hell has frozen over and that Armageddon is just around the corner. Some of my friends fully expect me to yell “Victory!” and “Hosanna!” from the nearest available rooftop, and to roundly condemn those “evil people” who have just been soundly trounced (at least George is almost gone; that’s good for something). Still others might expect to be chastised and are perhaps awaiting some condemnation, waiting for me to say , “Ha! I told you so!” Well, I’m not here to tell anyone anything. But…
As a licensed practitioner of knee-jerk reactions, I find myself in the odd position of being able to whole-heartedly not act with complete discrimination in favor of or against anyone. I am forced right at this moment to say, “Stop it. Cool your heels. Let’s take stock before we go off wildly with any uncontrolled bursts of steam, either to the left or to the right.” Let’s take a look at what just happened, look at the risks in the front of us and the pitfalls that loom ahead if we lurch too far, too fast, without looking at whence we came and where we might be able to go…preventing our taking large knives to our noses in spiteful acts of unbridled jubilance or unrestrained hatred. Didn’t know that knives were connected to your knees, did you?
There rests little doubt that a vast contingent of US voters decided that they had had enough of what has been going on ever since Ron Reagan let “trickle down” become the national political watchword. We all caught a big break during the Clinton years, but the last eight have been killers. Put simply, the voters spoke up on 11/4/08 and decided that they were done letting “compassionate conservatism” ( it was neither) drive the nation into a broad, ugly, muddy ditch on the side of the road of humanity. Anybody remember the word “quagmire”? Or Rummy’s infamous “slog”? We have been there. We have done that. We are in that. And it stinks. The hope for many is that we have found a tractor called Obama. The hope is that we have found an exit strategy from the ditch. That would be a nice change.
Over the past many months, “enough” became more than enough and the words “change” and hope” seemed to be the words people most wanted to hear. Barbara said to me last night, “He had the message”. And “He” did. And although “He” is not “the one” (sorry Oprah), he also had the delivery methodology, the delivery machinery and the composure to make that message heard above the din and the roar of the plaintive (but sometimes vicious) yelps for more of the same. I was stunned and amazed by the steady drum beat from the right, that got even louder, as the economy crumbled, the poor became poorer and the war debt became larger. It was as if a wolf’s leg was caught in a steel trap and it was pleading, “Please don’t free me from this. After I bleed to death, I won’t remember it anymore.” (Of course what they were really saying was that if you let a black man take the helm, the white race is doomed. But you can’t say that in the New York Times.) Except for Joe Biden and Ted Stevens and few others, it seemed like the time had come to end the rule of old, white-haired men paired up with snarmy Texas swamp-rats like W and Tom Delay.
At any rate, on the day after, I have these observations:
By 8:00 AM this morning, after months and months of endlessly relentless pleas for political donations, my email box had no less than 11 requests from non-profits and lobbying groups, asking for more donations. I think I smell opportunism. Nothing has yet changed. Business as not unusual but very quick on the uptake.
Obama’s acceptance speech was well written and of course delivered in his usual, flawless manner. But he forgot to mention welfare, the need for extended unemployment benefits, the collapsing industrial base, or health care. And for what they spent on the set-up in Grant Park, we could have made damn sure no child got left behind in Chicago or maybe even all of Illinois and Indiana. Got any change left over after that blow-out? I saw Oprah there. Maybe somebody should have asked her to pay for it. That would have been a nice change. Or am I hoping for too much? Should I be surprised that he dodged some issues while basking in the limelight?
Three people have told me already today that if McCain had sounded more like his concession speech when he was on the campaign trail, he might have gotten elected. Thank goodness he didn’t: we might have elected the “real” McCain who would have been the spokesperson for the “real” America of Sarah Palin. No change there, either. Hopeless.
This election cycle cost way too much and took way too long. What took us 21 months, the Brits do in six weeks for a lot less money. The fact that Obama had $100M in the bank, going into the last week of the campaign, and that the RNC spent $150,000. on Sarah Palin’s wardrobe is both obscene and embarrassing. The carbon footprint left behind by the jets, criss-crossing the country should make Al Gore violently ill, but he said nothing. That ain’t change. Nor is it small change.
And they flew Sarah home to Wasilla to vote?
Throughout the election cycle there has been non-top talk of God, godlessness and prayer and infidels. No less than four people have asked me, just within the last week, about the Founding Fathers and their stance on the separation of Church and state: I found that curious, in the midst of all of this, but nonetheless, the Fathers fought vehemently for separation. Despite the fact that a majority of the American population believes to the contrary (and that Jonah was really swallowed by a whale and all that), this was never supposed to be a Christian nation, and “God” got inserted into the national dialogue and the Pledge of Allegiance only because it became politically expedient in order to raise money and make people feel guilty. And despite the fact that “god” and “prayer” have been invoked by every politician in front of a camera or a newspaper reporter for the past many months and years, I was extremely grateful that Obama’s acceptance speech did not mention God even once…at least that I remember. Of course, let’s not forget again that he didn’t mention health care, either. And let us also not forget that Elizabeth Dole, down in red ole’ something Carolina, managed to call her opponent, a Sunday school teacher and Presbyterian church elder, “godless”. Liz lost, incidentally. But I don’t see or smell change there, either. Same old, same old and I don’t see any hope in it.
However, Sarah Palin is gone. Poof. Good riddance and shame on us for all going gaga over goofiness. And Joe Biden had better live up to his rep. First I have to get over his being a lawyer. Like Dan Quayle. Change? Can he spell potato(E)?
I have heard the words “landslide”, “overwhelming” and “dramatic” to describe the Democratic victory. The Nobel prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, in the NYT this morning, had a short column which ended simply by saying, “Now the work begins”. The only “change” we will see, or can “hope” to see is only going to come after some damned hard work. This big ole’ truck is axle deep in that muddy ditch and it will take a lot more than Barack’s smiling face, soothing words and a shiny new tractor to pull it out. And the ditch is lined with greedy congressmen, all future prey for the next generation of lobbyists. “Oh, look! There’s Trent Lott!” (Anyone who does not believe that Obama has a battle royal to fight, just there, is not being realistic.) There is an old saying that, “Good luck and success usually come only after lots of blood, sweat and tears”. We should all caution ourselves not to be too naïve as to believe anything big will happen. otherwise.
FactCheck.org has been publishing disclosures and revelations about the claims being made by both candidates for weeks. A great deal of what has been promised is either not possible or unlikely, mostly because the economy is in the tank (Hank Paulson is with Diebold and Chad in Florida, by the way). For anyone to expect too much too soon or too fast would be a tragic mistake. Obama said on Tuesday night that he would always “tell us the truth” about what is going on. We should hold his feet to the fire. If he doesn’t stick to that promise, there will be no change. The Straight Talk Express wasn’t and we still have unanswered questions about gargantuan issues facing the nation and the world.
I am ecstatic that we have turned a corner when it comes to race relations and color barriers. But when I look at the map and see large blotches of red (as in blood) extending across vast areas of the country, or see small patches of blue surrounded by large patches of red in places like Texas (crap, that’s where I live),I realize that there is hatred and indifference there and that there are bigoted attitudes, as well. I cannot count the times I have heard people speak privately to me in recent days about their fears for Obama’s safety. And when McCain gave an almost acceptable concession speech, even within the confines of his “invite only” post-election party (just who is being elitist, now?), there came boos and the ugly sounds of sore losers and closet-racists. (Of course, he and Ms. Palin spent weeks stirring up that hostility and no one should have been surprised by its’ presence at the Biltmore.). I may be delighted and pleased and hopeful and rejuvenated, but I’m not stupid, either. And neither should you be. I may be ecstatic about some aspects of what has transpired, but I am chagrined that McCain could not have been more forthright and more true to his background. But then, he was another old, white-haired man. I guess nobody figured that into the equation. And of course it was the stupid economy. Oops.
The esteemed scholar and cultural observer/philosopher Noam Chomsky has been quoted recently as saying (roughly) that America has one political party, but with two faces, one Democratic, and one Republican. But the one party is the party of big business. We have not been mindful of the warnings of Dwight Eisenhower, who said we should be on the lookout for the onset and control of the military industrial complex. Remember POGO? “We have met the enemy and he is us”? Welcome to the Halliburton.Exxon/Mobil/ Northrup Grumman United States of America. Our offices are on Wall Street and in the Green Zone . We will take your money, now, please.
Never mind, for a moment, at least, what our politicians and elected officials tell us about justice, equality and fairness: we are a country run mostly by greed, the accumulation of wealth by the few and selfishness. We have indeed turned a corner, but unless we embrace real change, and attempt to truly understand compromise and openness, we will hit a brick wall as we round that corner. And at the moment, we don’t have either enough seat belts or air bags to survive the crash. That is why the American people voted to put Obama in the driver’s seat and “hoped” to say good-bye to business as usual. .
It is time to put our money where our mouths are instead of in a Wall Street banker’s yacht, gird up our loins for some sacrifice and struggle, put our religious prejudices aside, along with our guns, our bigotry and our “bitterness” (boy, did we get suckered by that one) and face the fact that we all have work to do. And if it does not get done by all of us together, it will not get done at all. This is the second time we have had to throw out King George. We should make the most of it.
Please be optimistic. Just don’t be cavalier about it. There is too much at risk.
OK. This is the un-fast, the de-fast, the post-fast or maybe the ex-post fasto? Who cares? But the election is complete, there are tears of joy and tears of sorrow, rejoicing and lamenting, praises being sung and curses being muttered. Jesse Jackson is crying on TV in Chicago and Dick Cheney probably wants to shoot someone, anyone, in the face. A strong voice and message have gone out and has been heard, and the American electorate has answered. Good faith efforts have been made (mostly) all around, some scoundrels have been up to no good and there have been endorsements and recriminations. Lies have been told, along with lies about lies, and claimed truths have been revealed not to be. Outrageous charges have been made, disclaimers uttered, statements colored and false colors washed away by revelation, research and FactCheck.org. And ACORN…well, ACORN screwed up a little. At least they aren’t Muslims. Thank God. Oops, sorry. And Diebold. Anybody seen Diebold? Oh. He’s hanging out with chad in Florida.
I think I have heard every outlandish remark and claim and counter-claim I can imagine, from both sides, and I have been prompted, prodded and cajoled to either praise or condemn one side or the other, and I know as many poor souls who are delirious this morning as I do who are miserable and believe hell has frozen over and that Armageddon is just around the corner. Some of my friends fully expect me to yell “Victory!” and “Hosanna!” from the nearest available rooftop, and to roundly condemn those “evil people” who have just been soundly trounced (at least George is almost gone; that’s good for something). Still others might expect to be chastised and are perhaps awaiting some condemnation, waiting for me to say , “Ha! I told you so!” Well, I’m not here to tell anyone anything. But…
As a licensed practitioner of knee-jerk reactions, I find myself in the odd position of being able to whole-heartedly not act with complete discrimination in favor of or against anyone. I am forced right at this moment to say, “Stop it. Cool your heels. Let’s take stock before we go off wildly with any uncontrolled bursts of steam, either to the left or to the right.” Let’s take a look at what just happened, look at the risks in the front of us and the pitfalls that loom ahead if we lurch too far, too fast, without looking at whence we came and where we might be able to go…preventing our taking large knives to our noses in spiteful acts of unbridled jubilance or unrestrained hatred. Didn’t know that knives were connected to your knees, did you?
There rests little doubt that a vast contingent of US voters decided that they had had enough of what has been going on ever since Ron Reagan let “trickle down” become the national political watchword. We all caught a big break during the Clinton years, but the last eight have been killers. Put simply, the voters spoke up on 11/4/08 and decided that they were done letting “compassionate conservatism” ( it was neither) drive the nation into a broad, ugly, muddy ditch on the side of the road of humanity. Anybody remember the word “quagmire”? Or Rummy’s infamous “slog”? We have been there. We have done that. We are in that. And it stinks. The hope for many is that we have found a tractor called Obama. The hope is that we have found an exit strategy from the ditch. That would be a nice change.
Over the past many months, “enough” became more than enough and the words “change” and hope” seemed to be the words people most wanted to hear. Barbara said to me last night, “He had the message”. And “He” did. And although “He” is not “the one” (sorry Oprah), he also had the delivery methodology, the delivery machinery and the composure to make that message heard above the din and the roar of the plaintive (but sometimes vicious) yelps for more of the same. I was stunned and amazed by the steady drum beat from the right, that got even louder, as the economy crumbled, the poor became poorer and the war debt became larger. It was as if a wolf’s leg was caught in a steel trap and it was pleading, “Please don’t free me from this. After I bleed to death, I won’t remember it anymore.” (Of course what they were really saying was that if you let a black man take the helm, the white race is doomed. But you can’t say that in the New York Times.) Except for Joe Biden and Ted Stevens and few others, it seemed like the time had come to end the rule of old, white-haired men paired up with snarmy Texas swamp-rats like W and Tom Delay.
At any rate, on the day after, I have these observations:
By 8:00 AM this morning, after months and months of endlessly relentless pleas for political donations, my email box had no less than 11 requests from non-profits and lobbying groups, asking for more donations. I think I smell opportunism. Nothing has yet changed. Business as not unusual but very quick on the uptake.
Obama’s acceptance speech was well written and of course delivered in his usual, flawless manner. But he forgot to mention welfare, the need for extended unemployment benefits, the collapsing industrial base, or health care. And for what they spent on the set-up in Grant Park, we could have made damn sure no child got left behind in Chicago or maybe even all of Illinois and Indiana. Got any change left over after that blow-out? I saw Oprah there. Maybe somebody should have asked her to pay for it. That would have been a nice change. Or am I hoping for too much? Should I be surprised that he dodged some issues while basking in the limelight?
Three people have told me already today that if McCain had sounded more like his concession speech when he was on the campaign trail, he might have gotten elected. Thank goodness he didn’t: we might have elected the “real” McCain who would have been the spokesperson for the “real” America of Sarah Palin. No change there, either. Hopeless.
This election cycle cost way too much and took way too long. What took us 21 months, the Brits do in six weeks for a lot less money. The fact that Obama had $100M in the bank, going into the last week of the campaign, and that the RNC spent $150,000. on Sarah Palin’s wardrobe is both obscene and embarrassing. The carbon footprint left behind by the jets, criss-crossing the country should make Al Gore violently ill, but he said nothing. That ain’t change. Nor is it small change.
And they flew Sarah home to Wasilla to vote?
Throughout the election cycle there has been non-top talk of God, godlessness and prayer and infidels. No less than four people have asked me, just within the last week, about the Founding Fathers and their stance on the separation of Church and state: I found that curious, in the midst of all of this, but nonetheless, the Fathers fought vehemently for separation. Despite the fact that a majority of the American population believes to the contrary (and that Jonah was really swallowed by a whale and all that), this was never supposed to be a Christian nation, and “God” got inserted into the national dialogue and the Pledge of Allegiance only because it became politically expedient in order to raise money and make people feel guilty. And despite the fact that “god” and “prayer” have been invoked by every politician in front of a camera or a newspaper reporter for the past many months and years, I was extremely grateful that Obama’s acceptance speech did not mention God even once…at least that I remember. Of course, let’s not forget again that he didn’t mention health care, either. And let us also not forget that Elizabeth Dole, down in red ole’ something Carolina, managed to call her opponent, a Sunday school teacher and Presbyterian church elder, “godless”. Liz lost, incidentally. But I don’t see or smell change there, either. Same old, same old and I don’t see any hope in it.
However, Sarah Palin is gone. Poof. Good riddance and shame on us for all going gaga over goofiness. And Joe Biden had better live up to his rep. First I have to get over his being a lawyer. Like Dan Quayle. Change? Can he spell potato(E)?
I have heard the words “landslide”, “overwhelming” and “dramatic” to describe the Democratic victory. The Nobel prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, in the NYT this morning, had a short column which ended simply by saying, “Now the work begins”. The only “change” we will see, or can “hope” to see is only going to come after some damned hard work. This big ole’ truck is axle deep in that muddy ditch and it will take a lot more than Barack’s smiling face, soothing words and a shiny new tractor to pull it out. And the ditch is lined with greedy congressmen, all future prey for the next generation of lobbyists. “Oh, look! There’s Trent Lott!” (Anyone who does not believe that Obama has a battle royal to fight, just there, is not being realistic.) There is an old saying that, “Good luck and success usually come only after lots of blood, sweat and tears”. We should all caution ourselves not to be too naïve as to believe anything big will happen. otherwise.
FactCheck.org has been publishing disclosures and revelations about the claims being made by both candidates for weeks. A great deal of what has been promised is either not possible or unlikely, mostly because the economy is in the tank (Hank Paulson is with Diebold and Chad in Florida, by the way). For anyone to expect too much too soon or too fast would be a tragic mistake. Obama said on Tuesday night that he would always “tell us the truth” about what is going on. We should hold his feet to the fire. If he doesn’t stick to that promise, there will be no change. The Straight Talk Express wasn’t and we still have unanswered questions about gargantuan issues facing the nation and the world.
I am ecstatic that we have turned a corner when it comes to race relations and color barriers. But when I look at the map and see large blotches of red (as in blood) extending across vast areas of the country, or see small patches of blue surrounded by large patches of red in places like Texas (crap, that’s where I live),I realize that there is hatred and indifference there and that there are bigoted attitudes, as well. I cannot count the times I have heard people speak privately to me in recent days about their fears for Obama’s safety. And when McCain gave an almost acceptable concession speech, even within the confines of his “invite only” post-election party (just who is being elitist, now?), there came boos and the ugly sounds of sore losers and closet-racists. (Of course, he and Ms. Palin spent weeks stirring up that hostility and no one should have been surprised by its’ presence at the Biltmore.). I may be delighted and pleased and hopeful and rejuvenated, but I’m not stupid, either. And neither should you be. I may be ecstatic about some aspects of what has transpired, but I am chagrined that McCain could not have been more forthright and more true to his background. But then, he was another old, white-haired man. I guess nobody figured that into the equation. And of course it was the stupid economy. Oops.
The esteemed scholar and cultural observer/philosopher Noam Chomsky has been quoted recently as saying (roughly) that America has one political party, but with two faces, one Democratic, and one Republican. But the one party is the party of big business. We have not been mindful of the warnings of Dwight Eisenhower, who said we should be on the lookout for the onset and control of the military industrial complex. Remember POGO? “We have met the enemy and he is us”? Welcome to the Halliburton.Exxon/Mobil/ Northrup Grumman United States of America. Our offices are on Wall Street and in the Green Zone . We will take your money, now, please.
Never mind, for a moment, at least, what our politicians and elected officials tell us about justice, equality and fairness: we are a country run mostly by greed, the accumulation of wealth by the few and selfishness. We have indeed turned a corner, but unless we embrace real change, and attempt to truly understand compromise and openness, we will hit a brick wall as we round that corner. And at the moment, we don’t have either enough seat belts or air bags to survive the crash. That is why the American people voted to put Obama in the driver’s seat and “hoped” to say good-bye to business as usual. .
It is time to put our money where our mouths are instead of in a Wall Street banker’s yacht, gird up our loins for some sacrifice and struggle, put our religious prejudices aside, along with our guns, our bigotry and our “bitterness” (boy, did we get suckered by that one) and face the fact that we all have work to do. And if it does not get done by all of us together, it will not get done at all. This is the second time we have had to throw out King George. We should make the most of it.
Please be optimistic. Just don’t be cavalier about it. There is too much at risk.
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