What Happened to My Country?

Cain: GOP's Latest Showman

2011-10-27T08:13:00.005-05:00

This opinion piece, appearing in this morning's Des Moines Register, rips the veneer off of the GOP's public face. A must read.....

Written by HARRY BROD

HARRY BROD is professor of philosophy and humanities at the University of Northern Iowa. Contact: harry.brod@uni.edu

With the most recent poll showing Herman Cain leading in Iowa by a margin of 10 points over his closest rival, it's time to take a longer look at the Cain candidacy, a longer view that looks back to the former candidate whose mantle all Republican contenders now claim, Ronald Reagan.

There's a direct line from Reagan to Cain, but it's not in terms of values or issues, where Reagan was much too moderate for the current crowd. I mean the line from Reagan the actor to Cain the motivational speaker, the line that underscores the increasing victory of style over substance.

Sincerity is everything in politics. If you can fake that you've got it made, goes the old saying. Renowned physician Oliver Sacks (the basis for Robin Williams' character in the movie "Awakenings") tells of patients with a condition that turns them into sort of human lie detectors - they spot insincerity, and find it hilarious. Sacks once walked by a room in which a group of such patients were laughing hysterically. Peeking in to see what was going on, he found them glued to the TV, watching a Reagan speech.

Reagan understood the importance of stagecraft. He was controversially the first president to return a military salute, a violation of military protocol. Not even five-star General Eisenhower did that as president. He respected that the privilege of saluting comes with the uniform, not from the title of commander-in-chief.

Cain's got a commanding stage presence, too, but he takes too much command. He reacts to interview questions thrown at him like a batter at home plate, swinging hard at pitches he likes but ignoring others, even those in the strike zone. One wonders if the swagger Republicans like will continue to be popular. Americans tend to want their chief as well as pizza executives to answer the questions they're asked.

Today the way to convince people you're doing or would do a good job as president is by appearing rather than being presidential. When he tried to actually function as head of our executive branch President Bill Clinton was criticized as a "policy wonk," and President Barack Obama tries hard to avoid that label. As far as I can tell, wonkiness is a charge that they're trying to do their job.

Or at least that they're trying to do the job the Constitution envisions for them. But the line from Reagan to Cain traces a different job description, emptying the job of real content and leaving it as a figurehead position, not so much chief executive as national spokes model.

There is indeed a policy agenda behind the Republican emptying out of the presidency, but it's not spoken out loud. The policy is privatization, meaning increasing corporatization of our lives, with the essential functions of once public institutions like schools, prisons and the military increasingly outsourced to private contractors, putting them outside the democratic process by which they could be controlled.

That's why the Republican Party is out to prevent government from functioning. Convince people that government is inherently dysfunctional, and corporations are there to fill in the gap. The less government does, the more unregulated and excess profit there is to be made.

For those puzzled by Cain's new ad featuring his campaign manager blowing his cigarette smoke into the camera while the song sings "I am America," it's Cain repaying his corporate sponsor. He got his political start as a Washington lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association and made his mark by turning it into a front organization for the tobacco industry by opposing regulations on smoking in restaurants, a move opposed by many restaurant owners who thought his actions were bad for small businesses.

The lines spoken by candidates in the Reagan-Cain line are written by someone else. These candidates are a mouthpiece for the corporate interests behind them, and their seemingly presidential style is just skillful corporate ventriloquism. I'll let you figure out what that makes them.

GOP's Spooky Candidates

2011-10-18T10:26:00.009-05:00

As Halloween draws near, ones thoughts turn to things scary, even bizarro.

Like demons.

But for some evangelical Christians, demons stalk us year-round. They believe demons have taken hold of parts of our country, especially Washington, D.C.

O.K… I can live with the D.C. part.

As the recent AP release “Election-year goals of fringe Christian group questioned” points out, some Christian religious leaders, like Lou Engle the leader of The Call prayer marathons, has warned that the tornado that decimated Joplin, Missouri this year was evidence of God’s judgment on the country over…. wait for it…. abortion. Demons are punishing women over choice, so they leveled Joplin.

Say what?

And, Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer, views the acceptance of same-sex marriage as a sign of the end times. The end times, the favorite theme of the follow-my-nutty-ideas-or-you’ll-burn-in-hell pulpit thumpers (pass the plate).

But here is the creepiest part, these apocalyptic doomsayers were the organizers of GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry’s Houston prayer rally in August, a week before he announced his candidacy. The end of the world is an intense focus of many of the religious leaders involved in the rally.

Now that’s scary.

Actually, Perry should be holding prayer meetings about God’s judgment on Texas, as large parts of that parched state burn like the portal to hell-fires.

But, it isn’t just Perry, as Karl Giberson and Randall Stephens reveal in today’s New York Times editorial, “The Evangelical Rejection of Reason… The Republican presidential field has become a showcase of evangelical anti-intellectualism. Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann deny that climate change is real and caused by humans.” Perry and Bachmann also dismiss evolution as an unproven theory.

Giberson and Stephens expose the anti-intellectual fundamentalist evangelicals who promote (and profit from) the idea that “their country has been overrun by a vast secular conspiracy.”

They point us to the earth-is-10,000-years-old leader, Ken Ham; the-founders-intended-America-to-be-a-Christian-nation, David Barton; and the really scary, gay-people-are-unnatural (and SpongeBob SquarePants promotes gayness), James C. Dobson. They left out the Rev. James Farwell who warned that Teletubby Tinky Winky might be gay. All of this would be funny…. if it wasn’t so relentlessly promoted.

These anti-intellectual scare-mongers want to take over our government…the Tea Party (useful dupes) is wrestling for control of the GOP, and intend to place the evangelical boogie-men’s hand-maiden, or man, in the White House.

Egads!

By the way, no Mormons, i.e., candidates Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, need apply for evangelical political blessings... they're not real Christians.

“…when the faith of so many Americans becomes an occasion to embrace discredited, ridiculous and even dangerous ideas, we must not be afraid to speak out, even it it means criticizing fellow Christians.” Amen to that!!!

GOP's Anti-Patriotism

2011-10-17T11:39:00.006-05:00

Sullivan Ballou was a major in the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers during the Civil War. He wrote this letter to his wife in Smithfield, 14 July 1861 from Washington, D.C.:

Dear Sarah, The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. And lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.

I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American civilization now leans on the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay that debt.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly, with all these chains, to the battlefield.

Sullivan’s letter continues for many paragraphs as he expresses his undying love for his “dear Sarah," his hopes to see “our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us,” and how when his last breath escapes him, "it will whisper your name."

So how do our politicians today uphold this honorable, courageous recognition of the vital role our government plays in the lives of all of us. The recognition that civilization leans on the triumph of the government. The reverence for the great debt we owe to those who went before us? The burning inspiration that together our country can do great things, for and with each other?

Under this noble lens, it's hard to watch the current crop of GOP candidates elbow each other aside in their eagerness to curry favor with the anti-government, pro-corporate me-first Tea Party.

Presidential wanna-be Michelle Bachmann at a Tea Party rally called the current administration a "gangster government,” to great applause, and even claimed in a recent debate that citizens should pay no taxes at all.

The current GOP-majority House blocks job-creating measures intended to lift us out of the financial morass they are largely responsible for under the Bush/Cheney administration. Their constant drum beat is for tax breaks for corporations…. corporations they and the Supreme Court have labeled as “people” with the right to spend unlimited sums of money to buy elections. As GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said this year at the Iowa State Fair, “Corporations are people, my friend.”

GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry calls the upcoming election a religious crusade to put God in charge of government. God is the cloak scroundels use to mask their raw lusting for the power of the presidency, however unqualified and self-serving. Bible-thumping rheotric designed to obscure their lack of patriotism.

Where are the GOP presidential candidates who will uphold Sullivan Ballou’s honorable, unselfish recognition of the vital role government plays in the lives of all of us?... and the great debt we owe to those who fought and died for this government? Their sacrifice wasn't for corporations.

Sullivan Ballou was mortally wounded at the first Battle of Bull Run a week after he wrote this letter. He was a true patriot… by definition a person who loves, supports, and defends his country and its interests with devotion. It says nothing about slash and burn devisive ideology against his government.

Grand Old Party, where are your Sullivan Ballous?

Obama and Charles I

2011-03-23T15:54:00.001-05:00

By a disappointed Obama supporter.

President Barack Obama is on the path to becoming an unfortunate example of what results when a person lacks the personal strengths and special qualities needed for national leadership.

Though an undisputed gentleman and far more moral than most politicians, it appears he simply may not be presidential material. While his experience and inclinations are toward consensus-building, an admirable esoteric approach, he seems unable to abandon this when encountering the proverbial “brick wall”….known as the GOP…. and just lead.

This suggests personal weakness and a lack of will as he compromises his way down the blind alleys of false promises by those willing him to fail. This too often leads to ineffective half-measures or worse.

Obama not only has this blind political eye, but he has the uncanny ability to pick the wrong fights, at the wrong times, and sometimes it seems, for the wrong reasons.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t suspect this of himself. Placed in tumultuous times, Obama seems confidently headed toward disaster. His personality is becoming his, and our, fate…. "Character is destiny."

There is an eerie similarity between Obama’s personality and that of King Charles I of England, also a fine gentleman thrust into the turmoil of his times, but not up to the task…. his reign ushered in the English Civil War as religious extremists gained the upper hand and overthrew the monarchy.

The causes of the English Civil War had its roots in the struggles of the religious reformation and the neglect of the middle classes. It tested the prerogative of the king and challenged the theory of divine right. War raged between Parliamentarians, Royalists, and every religious sect in England.

Today we see the middle class beset and floundering, their fears being stoked by fear-mongering media charlatans and power-hungry politicians claiming the moral and political high ground. Many government officials and legislators at all levels dance to the tune of corporatists who are uninterested in our national health, beholden only to their personal wealth and the “bottom line.”

Add to this the Christian fundamentalists who are relentlessly working to make their religious beliefs law, and to disenfranchise non-believers. Our form of government and very way of life is at a crossroads. It's a Charles I moment.

And Obama is responding like Charles I. The latest ... after Obama exercised what he obviously considers his prerogative to thrust us into yet another Middle-East war, and a tribal civil war at that however monstrous its leader, he jetted off with his wife and children on a “job-creating” trip to South America, thus giving it the appearance of a family vacation while the Tomahawks were launched on Libya. Charles I would approve.

A clear-sighted leader would certainly have re-scheduled the trip, or at the very least, left the wife and daughters (and mother-in-law) at the White House. This is just his latest error in judgment as an economically floundering and priority-challenged nation seeks other leaders, in all the wrong places, and makes him an easy target for his detractors.

Not long after Obama was inaugurated, this blog implored him to drop the canned presentations, scrap the prompters, and speak from his heart. Perhaps that was asking too much…. his heart just doesn’t seem to be in it.

Obama has expressed his admiration for the pivotal administrations of Lincoln and Reagan. Yet, he seems instead to be obliviously channeling Charles I as his supporters and detractors alike grab his slack reins and head off in perhaps disastrous directions.

D.C. Under the Far-Right Heel

2011-02-12T11:56:00.000-06:00

What would the country look like if the increasingly far-right Republican party had total sway over our government? They campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs. How about a reality check.

Take for example Washington, D. C. Although the GOP-controlled U. S. House has been in power just a little over a month, they are busy negating the will of the D.C. taxpayers.

Today's article in the New York Times, "Even Less Representation", gives us a glimpse of what Republican control looks like:

"The district’s hard-won home rule came under assault from day one with a House rule scrapping the already pathetic power of its elected representative..... This overreach was rationalized by cynically redefining the city as just another part of the federal government.... now piling on with a proposal to overturn the district’s legalization of gay marriage duly enacted last year under home rule.

"Then came the Republicans’ broad assault on federal financing of abortions in the states, tailored to include a particularly insidious clause, barring the Washington district government from using even local taxes for legal abortions"

While we have watched transfixed in the last weeks as the Egyptians dramatically moved their country toward democracy, the far-right in our bastion of freedom are relentlessly trying to dismantle ours. To insert their religious beliefs into laws that mandate government intrusion into, and control over, our most basic freedoms.

If these rights come under the heel of federal and state control.... what other of our rights could be next? This is what is happening in our country. You can change this.... 2012. Vote.

What's the GOP Tea Party Brewing?

2011-02-10T11:35:00.002-06:00

Our country is being battered by a take-over attempt, the battle-plan drawn up by the religious right and corporations. Sure, they call themselves "patriots." But, that's just to keep the unwary faithful from catching on. Winning would result in a corporate-theocracy, based on their narrow interpretation, not just of the Constitution, but of the Bible. The vehicles are the tattered remnants of the GOP and the flamboyant Tea Party led by the looniest of tunes, no need to name them.

The once-Grand Old Party is being dragged behind the stampeding Tea-herd, yoked to them as a result of their obstructionist, personal-attack history. Hopefully, these false patriots have set themselves up to become history. It's just a matter of time until voters realize the "shining city on a hill" is Dubai.

The GOP/Tea Bag consortium proclaims they want smaller government, more liberty, but almost every action they take moves the country in the opposite direction.

It was the Republican administration who misled us into the moral and fiscal swamp of the Iraq war and nation building. It was the Republican administration who put into place the unfunded budget-busting drug program for senior citizens.... a giant boondoggle for the drug and insurance companies. It was the Republican administration that assembled the Homeland Security Administration behemoth, the biggest single expansion of government, ever.

It was the Republican administration who put us on the path to unsustainable debt.... and a good argument can be made that it was done deliberately in order to later say we can no longer afford Social Security and Medicare. For them, corporate welfare is fine, individual help is unpalatable.

Smaller government, fiscal restraint. Read the tea leaves, that's not in the brew.

As for freedom and liberty, GOP liberty is only for some. All are equal except women, gays, and non-believers, next up to receive the GOP backhand. Corporations have been awarded personhood by the ability to pour money into our electoral process thanks to our no longer Supreme-judgment court. Sad to say, the highest court in our land has become just another tool in the GOP/Tea Bag toolbox. Left unfettered, is the United Corporate States of America far off?

As for the promise to create jobs, forget that. What the GOP/Tea Baggers crave is social reform, made in their religious-moral-code image. In their perfect world, women would be forced into burkahood as control over their reproductive rights fall under government control. Gays would be denied civil rights while corporations would be granted more rights... to pollute, to manipulate financial markets, and to further deregulate our food products. And clean energy, less dependence on oil. Forget it.

But there will be a reckoning..... 2012 is coming. We can reject this toxic brew. What happens to our country is up to us.

RNC Fundraising Underbelly

2010-03-05T10:00:00.002-06:00

The D.C. lobbyists have been taking all the blame for the distorted campaigns against the Obama administration... especially health care reforms that would start to bring the insurance industry to heel and benefit millions of U.S. citizens.

But it's not only the lobbyists.... they're just the employed messengers.

The lobbyists are, after all, openly, blatantly, in the pay of big insurance, big pharma, big oil. They don't work for the little guy, the working middle-class.

But, our elected representatives aren't supposed to be paid lobbyists, aren't supposed to act like a big legislative wood-mulcher, taking in principled reform and spitting out dirty chips.

But they are. And we now can see how the GOP is fueling that chipper.... the RNC's marching orders linked to Kevin Huffman's "Tweaking the GOP's fundraising strategy," in today's Washington Post.

The Republican National Committee in its zeal to keep its fund-raising troops in perfect goose-step, gave this presentation at its February RNC Finance Meeting. Here is a page from their 72-page blueprint for fundraising success for the upcoming elections. At it's heart, literally, are the motivating factors to be used to raise money from evidently clueless donors:

The image of a heart usually brings to mind thoughts of love, caring.... warm and fuzzies. But this is a rock-hard heart that divides GOP donors into two classes, the average knee-jerk Joes, and the heavy-hitter big shots, or wanna-be big shots, the major ego-driven donors.

What are the RNC's recommended fund-raising strategies? The number one tactic is "FEAR!!!" Number two? "Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration." And there is the tried and true... SOCIALISM charge. This is so important a tactic, it got a page all to itself:

The red-alert type trumpets a Chicken-Little-sky-is-falling approach .... "Save the country from trending toward Socialism." Woooooo.... the "S" word. And it works too, haven't you noticed?

But perhaps the saddest statement of the GOP fund-raising mindset is the attack mentality of reducing your opponent to an agent of the Evil Empire.... wonder what Ronald Reagan would think of the misuse of that phrase. The GOP is into Evil BIG TIME! You know like the "Axis of Evil." Here are the RNC's evil suggestions:

Obama in white-face as the Joker is something we've seen before... oh yes, as a big placard at the "grass-roots," "spontaneous," Tea Parties. It's a PARTEEEE... but the GOP isn't a party to be proud of.

End Senate Minority Rule!!

2010-01-22T15:00:00.000-06:00

If it is true.... and it was at the least a major deciding factor.... that it was the proposed health care legislation that bloodied the tide in blue Massachusetts in last Tuesday's election.

That put an ex-nude-model conservative who vowed to defeat that legislation into the Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy, whose lifelong crusade was affordable health care for all... then there is only one place to point the finger for that defeat.

Harry Reid. The let's-make-a-deal Democratic Senate Leader and the 60th vote rule.

Oh, there were many other factors in play. The all-out court press of the insurance company lobbyists who spread the green around to sway legislators and confuse the issue for voters, for one. And, the health care legislation was complicated and confusing.... until Reid and the Senate extortionists gave it a focus.

A deciding factor.

Thanks to the blackmailing, underhanded and downright unethical behavior of two Senators, and the complicity of desperation by Reid, the voters saw a mugging of the taxpayers, and they revolted.

Who could miss Independent Senator Joe Lieberman's holdup of this legislation. He had loudly proclaimed just months earlier that parts of the health care bill should be an extension of the already functioning Medicare program. But, when this was introduced into the bill, he withheld his needed 60th vote until it was stricken. With Joe, what you hear is not what he means. Don't forget, he's a Senator from Connecticut, the insurance-capitol-of-the-world Connecticut.

That was bad enough. And voters surely took notice, but then perhaps dismissed it as Joe being Joe.... which isn't a compliment.

The brazen holdup that finally soured the Massachusetts voters came from the heartland, from Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson. His 60th vote holdout started as a right-to-life roadblock that quickly morphed into Nebraska being granted certain Medicare benefits free, forever.

Nelson actually stopped the health care legislation train and told the conductor if he didn't give everyone on the train from Nebraska a free Medicare ride FOREVER he would derail it. And, conductor Reid punched Nelson's ticket. There was a national gasp.

The country, even Nebraska, was up in arms over this, disgusted is perhaps a better word. And this desperation on the part of the Democratic leadership in Congress to make any concession to pass the legislation, and President Obama's reluctance to wade into the issue and actually take charge, showed the voters of Massachusetts all too clearly that no one knew where this train was going. They wanted off.

Tuesday, Massachusetts Democrats and Independents sent the message loud and clear.... they didn't like the direction the Obama-Reid train was taking them. Free rides for some while keeping others hostage was a no-go. They cancelled the Democrats 60th vote.

So now the Democrats no longer have the filibuster-breaking 60th vote they need to pass almost anything. Not that they ever did, having to depend on the likes of Lieberman and Nelson, but the appearance at least was there. But that wasn't even the worst thing that happened to the Democrats, and more importantly the nation, this week.

While the nation's attention was diverted by the Massachusetts train wreck, the Supreme Court struck down the concept of one-man-one-vote democracy.

The Supremes reached into the bedrock of our republic and tore apart its foundation as violently, and uncaringly, as the mind-numbing Haiti earthquake disaster. The shock waves will crumble our voting booths into a rubble of irrelevance.

The Supreme Court decided Thursday that soul-less, vote-less, non-citizen, steel and paper corporations are people, protected by the Constitution's freedom-of-speech guarantee. So, Wall Street, banks, insurance companies, oil companies... all those wonderful folks who brought you our budget-busting recession and more, now have the right to spend all they want on elections.

As David D. Kirkpatrick said today in The New York Times, "Lobbyists Get Potent Weapon in Campaign Finance Ruling" ....... "The Supreme Court has handed lobbyists a new weapon. A lobbyist can now tell any elected official that if you vote wrong, my company, labor union or interest group will spend unlimited sums explicitly advertising against your re-election."

All legislators will be the lackeys of special interests. The monied carriage-class will rule, and the rest of us.... the poor, sick and plain ignored.... will just pay for their ride.

Obama did show some outrage, stating after the decision that it's “a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics,” while Democrats vowed to push legislation to install new spending limits in time for the fall campaign. Predictably, Republicans disputed the partisan impact of the Supreme's decision.

So.... will it take 60 Senate votes to put the brakes on the political spending of the newest class of citizen.... corporations? If so, forget it. Nothing will get done for flesh-and-blood citizens until the Senate reinstates the "majority rule" conduct of business, and derails the current "minority can stop anything" obstructionism.

Obama: Nix Prompter Pacifier

2010-01-13T16:44:00.001-06:00

Where is the passionate Barack Obama, the "hope" of our young century, and troubled country?

As Michael Gerson points out in The Washington Post today in "Where has Obama's inspiring oratory gone?"....."In the most unexpected development of his presidency, what was once universally recognized as Obama's greatest political strength -- his oratory -- now seems a serious weakness."

And how! For all of his formidable brainpower, high ideals and polished speech-craft, he seems as flat as the national pocketbook, or the prompters he robotically ping-pongs like an idea-famished pol.

I'm sorry, but today I listened to him "deliver" the White House remarks on Haiti's horrific earthquake, a disaster that may claim hundreds of thousands of lives.... right at our backdoor! His demeanor was proper and bloodless. Space Odyssey 2001's Hal had more emotional range.

Please.... will someone tell him his prompter-pacifier is unseemly.... especially when talking about the loss of countless lives, what amounts to the demise of Port-au-Prince, a city of over 2 million suffering souls. I wonder if he would have stood in the rubble of 9/11 flanked by his prompters, his head swinging to and fro before his begrimed audience, delivering a canned white paper.

It's seeming more likely every day that what Obama really lacks is confidence. The confidence to say what he thinks, to even.... gasp.... make a rhetorical mistake. Obama...unless you aspire to be a one-termer, it's time to take off the training wheels. When all hell breaks loose, answer swiftly, boldly and prompterlessly!

Speech Madness

2009-09-09T09:16:00.003-05:00

How about a Presidential talk like this to students.....

"And to the C students I say you too can be president of the United States.

"A Yale degree is worth a lot, as I often remind Dick Cheney who studied here, but left a little early.

"So now we know, if you graduate from Yale, you become president. If you drop out, you get to be vice president.

"This is my first time back here in quite a while, I'm sure that each of you will make your own journey back at least a few times in your life. If you're like me, you won't remember everything you did here... [Dick Broadhead and I] both put a lot of time in at the Sterling Library, in the reading room where they have those big leather couches. We had a mutual understanding - Dick wouldn't read aloud, and I wouldn't snore......" Sis boom!

Yes, that was "W" talking to students at the 300th commencement of Yale University in 2001.

George W. Bush took pride in his smart aleck approach to education, and governing. He wore his lack of intellectual curiosity as a badge of honor.... and our country is still paying the price in Iraq and Afghanistan, in our trashed economy, in the failed government-mandated "No Child Left Behind" fiasco, in the gutting of standards from food safety to Wall Street regulatory oversight.

Yesterday another President talked to students. He told them how his mother made him study hard, and talked to them about their education....

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world -- and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. That's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education."

Just how did the far-right, family values, moral "decider" conservatives react to Barack Obama's talk over C-Span to students?... why they threw a hissy-fit and tried to stop such a speech. They boycotted, pressured their school administrators to not show the speech, kept their children out of school so they wouldn't be exposed to.... to what?

What was the reception in places say... like Texas, where recently conservative stumpers have been exhorting Texas to secede from the Union.... not the AFL-CIO union, but the United States of America. That Union. As the New York Times observed...

"The uproar over the speech erupted most vigorously, perhaps, in Texas, and some districts there reversed the opt-out procedure: the only students they allowed to watch the president were those whose parents called or e-mailed with explicit permission.

"J. W. Williams Middle School in Rockwall, Tex., used that system. The result was that 100 of the school’s 900 students filed into a library to see the speech projected on a big screen...."

Cooler heads in the GOP made belated attempts to support Obama's pep-talk to students, but it's hard to escape the obvious.... what the tea party-birther-secessionists on the right are protesting isn't the speech, but the man. The black man.

What is astounding is how the GOP leadership seems cowed by such over-the-top behavior. Perhaps they have just lost sight of their humanity... for if everyone around you is mad, then that becomes the new sanity.

Behind Iran's Election Results

2009-06-15T09:29:00.002-05:00

On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, Vice President Joe Biden hinted that Iran's election results last week didn't seem quite right... politicos shake their heads over the odor of corruption and huffing news outlets question their validity.

Of course, our own elections have been rife with questionable results.... think of the Supremes deciding the 2000 presidential contest.... while our hackable electronic ballot systems are nothing to brag about.

What we have here seems to be very wishful thinking, and an attitude of "do as I say, not as I do."

Americans want Middle East peace, they want President Ahmadinejad and his scary rhetoric shown the door.... just like we did to Bush/Cheney in 2004.... oh yes, we didn't do that to The Decider and Darth Dick. Instead, while the world held it's breath, we elected them to a second term, after they lied us into the worst foreign policy blunder in our nation's history, the war in Iraq.... the Middle-East-destabilizing war in Iraq.

Well, now we know how the world felt. According to the Washington Post, the rumors of Ahmadinejad's political demise were very premature. As reported by Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty in "The Iranian People Speak," it appears the "election results in Iran may reflect the will of the people."

On what do they base such an outlandish statement.... on a scientific national poll conducted in Iran three weeks before the election. Ahmadinejad was the preferred candidate two to one, and those results reflect the election's results. The poll was "conducted by telephone from a neighboring country, field work was carried out in Farsi by a polling company whose work in the region for ABC News and the BBC has received an Emmy award." Oh.

That's not what we want to believe. Our instant-gratification conditioning hasn't the patience. But, closing our minds and living in a blame-game la-la land won't change the reality.... nor a system where all Iranian candidates are chosen by a non-elected supreme leader. Here is where the poll's results are very interesting, and encouraging. And, far from the expected safe answers one might expect in a country with an oppressive regime in power.

While preferring Ahmadinejad, for now, four out of five indicated in answer to the poll's questions that they wanted to elect the supreme leader, chose free elections and a free press as priorities, and 77 percent "favored normal relations and trade with the United States." Those weren't safe answers.

So, while choosing Ahmadinejad.... change is in the air. Isn't that what we should be talking about, and encouraging?

In Iran, there are now major protests by supporters of the opposing candidate. One thing all the ballyhoo has done is to evidently unsettle the supreme leader. He's now calling for an investigation into the election. But then, why not. He can't lose. He picked all the candidates.

The GOP is Icing Up

2009-06-12T09:28:00.000-05:00

This great illustration appeared with "The Ice Age Cometh" by right-leaning columnist, Mike Murphy in TIME this week. His op-ed is chock-full of good advice that the pooh-bahs in the GOP will likely ignore.

Murphy is facing facts, "Saving the GOP is not about diluting conservatism but about modernizing it to reflect the country it inhabits instead of an America that no longer exists."

Murphy is referring to demographics, the surge of Latino and under 30 voters who are turned off, and away, by pitchfork-waving mobs chasing gays through the GOP countryside. Ditto-heads... tribal GOPers whose "radio dials are stuck on AM"... who viciously scrabble at the constitutional bastion between their church and the state. The "all men are created equal" state.

We are a two-party nation. We need a strong GOP with sound values. To survive, they must tune-out the hairy mammoth's clarion-trumpet.... and yes, even the musty Reagan yesteryear's moldy oldies. Or, as Murphy warns.... "A GOP ice age is on the way."

Friday is Iran's Defining Moment

2009-06-08T07:18:00.008-05:00

There is an event this week that could spell the difference between a peaceful settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict, reduced tensions in the Middle East, and a halt to the threat of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists; or.....

Escalating the current dangerous Israel/Palestine conflict, increasing tensions in the Middle East, while enabling the unstable ambitions of a nuclear-capable terrorist-funding regime. A regime headed by a holocaust-denying puppet of radical religious leaders.

There is an election scheduled for this Friday in Iran, and much of President Barack Obama's aspirations for Middle East peace, and curbing the bloody mayhem of jihad-inspired terrorism, rest on the outcome.

As reported in the Washington Post, "In Iran, Harsh Talk as Election Nears," by Robert F. Worth, this final week of Iran's presidential campaign, "has reached a level of passion and acrimony almost unheard-of in Iran."

As Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hurls fantastic accusations at his opponents, he is also ducking incoming fire, impassioned fire, and not from just his rivals, but also from long-suffering Iranians who are mad and not going to take it anymore.

For years Ahmadinejad has resorted to inciteful and false rhetoric.... from a constant refrain of threats against Israel, "to wipe them off of the face of the earth"..... and against any Western power that stands by Israel who "from now on will not see any result but the hatred of the people. You should not claim that we did not give a warning," he saber-rattles, to his oft repeated denial of the horrific WWII Jewish holocaust.

But, he also misled and terrorized his own people. In his last presidential campaign he promised the Iranians relief from poverty and a focus on domestic issues, what they got was a "police state" as one Iranian openly charged, and a foreign policy his leading opponent, reformist Mir Husein Moussavi, calls "adventurism, illusionism, exhibitionism, extremism and superficiality.”

This time, Ahmadinejad's hateful-rhetoric is backfiring.... unofficial polls suggest 54 percent of Iranian voters would support Moussavi, while Ahmadinejad lags at 39 percent.

So much rests on the result of Friday's election, and not just for the Iranian people. By showing Ahmandinejad the door, they can lop off the festering head of a regime bent on taking the people back to the zealous, social-freedom-eviscerating, hard-line piety of the 1979 revolution, and stop the plunge toward a nuclear abyss.

As one Moussavi supporter said, “...at the beginning of the Islamic revolution we were all like Ahmadinejad, but we changed our path and our way. ” Another Iranian added that she was speaking on behalf of her friends, "We love our religion, but they have used it as a tool to take people’s rights.”

The good Iranian people can send a message to a hopeful world.... we're taking our lives and our country back. We chose peace over conflict, hope over fear. We're looking forward.

We wish them Allah's speed.....

No "Bi" in GOP Partisanship

2009-02-10T11:18:00.001-06:00

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

The Obama administration is failing to fully communicate to a panicky nation facing economic meltdown the fact that an obstinate GOP is crying wolf over a lack of legislative bipartisanship while refusing to conduct themselves in a bipartisan manner.

By Senate procedural rules, the minority party can hold up.... or frustrate.... any legislation by invoking a "filibuster" debate which means the measure under consideration has to get sixty percent, sixty votes, to end the filibuster and put the bill to a vote.

President Obama and Democrats have been watering down their economic stimulus legislation in the name of bipartisanship.... looking for bipartisanship participation, for those sixty votes, paring down job-creating spending programs and increasing tax cuts, the GOP's snake oil cure for all ills.

It's time to realize that for an all-politics-all-of-the-time GOP, there is no "bi" in partisanship. It's still their way or the highway. When time was of the essence as increasing unemployment hurtled unchecked toward depression levels, the Republican party looked to score points with their radical base.... good of the nation be damned!

Eugene Robinson's advice...."Roll Over Republicans" (WaPo) As he points out today, "Bipartisanship is safe and effective when used as directed. In the present circumstance, however -- dire economic crisis, hardheaded Republicans, time running out -- bipartisanship is doing more harm than good. President Obama and the Democratic majorities in Congress can no longer afford to let comity defeat common sense."

Robinson shares our anger over the end result of this begging-for-votes hijacking by a GOP bent on frustrating the process.... "One of the most effective items in the House bill was $79 billion to be transferred to state governments, which are hurting; in California, our most populous state, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is ordering furloughs of state workers. Any dollar given to the states will fly out the door by sundown. That $79 billion would have instant impact.

"But in the Senate, the ad hoc "gang" of moderate Republicans (all three of them) and conservative Democrats cut those state funds to $39 billion. It's wrong to see this as the normal give-and-take of legislative sausage-making, the usual trek down a well-worn path toward the golden compromise that everyone can live with. This is not, repeat not, a time for compromise. Meeting in the middle, which the Senate sees as its role in our democracy, renders the whole exercise potentially useless. If we don't get enough money into the economy, and if we don't do it soon, we risk wasting a king's ransom on a stimulus that's too puny to stimulate."

Robinson is onto something. Bipartisanship isn't working. The conundrum is how to get past or around the GOP grandstanding obstructionists.

Harry Reid, take note..... the next time the GOP Senators want to "filibuster," do it the old-fashioned way. Don't agree to a filibustering set-time debate .... make the naysayers stand up and talk all night, or however many days and nights they choose, so their filibustering impediment is seen by Americans for what it is. A cynical roadblock to progress.

Make the Republicans own their delaying tactics. Make them literally stand up and be counted as they impede and obstruct. Otherwise, these blackmailers will continue to impose their bullying tactics, in the guise of "debate" with cries of non-partisanship, on a nation desperate for government action.... now.

Robinson advises.... "Obama and the Democrats have public opinion on their side and the wolf at the door. Republicans need to get out of the way -- or get run over."

Hear! Hear!

"My Kingdom for a Horse....."

2009-02-09T08:35:00.002-06:00

The current stimulus package making it's torturous way through both houses of Congress is like the saying..... what do you get when you ask a committee to put together a horse? A camel.

Nothing wrong with a camel, but the country needs a horse to start pulling us out of the economic ditch.

Paul Krugman's asks today in "The Destructive Center" (NY Times) .... "What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses?

"A proud centrist. For that is what the senators who ended up calling the tune on the stimulus bill just accomplished."

The centrists in the Senate just created a camel, and President Obama seems unable, or unwilling, to fix it.

Krugman opines, "One of the best features of the original plan was aid to cash-strapped state governments, which would have provided a quick boost to the economy while preserving essential services. But the centrists insisted on a $40 billion cut in that spending.

"The original plan also included badly needed spending on school construction; $16 billion of that spending was cut. It included aid to the unemployed, especially help in maintaining health care — cut. Food stamps — cut. All in all, more than $80 billion was cut from the plan, with the great bulk of those cuts falling on precisely the measures that would do the most to reduce the depth and pain of this slump.

"On the other hand, the centrists were apparently just fine with one of the worst provisions in the Senate bill, a tax credit for home buyers. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research calls this the 'flip your house to your brother' provision: it will cost a lot of money while doing nothing to help the economy.

"All in all, the centrists’ insistence on comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted will, if reflected in the final bill, lead to substantially lower employment and substantially more suffering."

It was Obama who lifted the flap so the "lower taxes" camel could poke it's nose into his change-we-can-believe-in tent. We are in this economic mess because the GOP rich-get-richer trickle-up policies cost trillions and didn't work.... and according Pulitzer-winning economist Krugman and many others, this camel of a bill isn't the economic horse we need now.

MSNBC's Chuck Todd puts a fine point on this today in his "First Read" posting.... many ask just "how the Obama White House and the Democratic committees allowed themselves to get worked over by the Republicans.... how did a Republican Party that had turned a budget surplus into a projected trillion-dollar deficit get away with becoming paragons of fiscal responsibility? "

Krugman points out, "After all, many people expected Mr. Obama to come out with a really strong stimulus plan, reflecting both the economy’s dire straits and his own electoral mandate.
Instead, however, he offered a plan that was clearly both too small and too heavily reliant on tax cuts.

"Why? Because he wanted the plan to have broad bipartisan support, and believed that it would. Not long ago administration strategists were talking about getting 80 or more votes in the Senate."

There's a lesson for Obama here. His high-minded attempt to build a bipartisanship tent ran into the "loyal" opposition's ideological take-no-prisoners stone wall.

Has Obama learned this lesson?

Evidently not. This weekend he was busy trying to saddle this unwieldy stimulus camel.... "Democrats and Republicans came together in the Senate and responded appropriately to the urgency this moment demands, the scale and scope of this plan is right,” he declared on Saturday.

As Krugman laments.... "No, they didn’t, and no, it isn’t."

Finally.... It's Over!

2009-01-16T10:25:00.003-06:00

Last night Bush The Decider wistfully bade farewell (WaPo).... trying to paint a good face on the stinking corpse of his administration with self-serving "I was willing to make tough decisions" legacy-speak.

Excuse me, but isn't the job of the president making tough decisions?

As Georgie piled on the lipstick, we were reminded that he never could color within the lines.... so now we're left to clean up the smeary mess of his eight years of misapplied ideology.

Which brings us to what he did right.

As Robert Creamer so pithily points out (Huffington) .... "History will record that George W. Bush made one critically important contribution to our country -- and to the entire world. He and his administration provided unquestionable proof of the bankruptcy of radical-conservative ideology, and set the stage for a qualitatively different progressive era in American politics.

"By assuring that all of the fruits of the growth of productivity in our economy went to the wealthiest 2% of our population, the Bush administration set the stage for the current economic collapse.

"By actually putting into practice the Neo-Conservative theories of pre-emptive war and unilateralism, George W. Bush demonstrated their failure more persuasively than could the most articulate progressive critic.

"By abandoning our historic commitment to due process and sinking into the dark world of torture, George W. Bush and his partner Dick Cheney isolated themselves from the growing worldwide commitment to human rights."

The last few weeks we have watched Bush and his Rovian enablers relentlessly apply his legacy lipstick. But a suffering nation knows the truth beneath the rosy facade..... "he will be remembered as the man who set the stage. He has played the Hoover to Obama's Roosevelt, the James Buchanan to Obama's Lincoln."

The omens are good.

Yesterday while Bush was trying to prop up the toxic remains of his poor judgment, lousy execution and disastrous outcomes, a skilled pilot guided (WaPo) his crippled passenger jet to a hard, but safe, landing on the Hudson River in New York.

Rescuers rushed in and with "level-headed teamwork" saved all the passengers.... "the weak and infirm, including an infant and an elderly woman in a wheelchair."

It's a good sign as next Tuesday Barack Obama takes over the piloting of our distressed nation that a reckless Bush administration put on course for a crash landing. With Obama's thoughtful leadership and a spirit of teamwork we can all come through.

A "Can Do" 2009

2009-01-01T09:30:00.001-06:00

The Washington Post looks at 2009 today in "The New Year - There is good reason for trepidation, but also for hope."

Most of us know about the trepidation, so let's focus on the hope.

"A new presidential administration is on the way, full of ideas and vigor."

Ideas, vigor.... YES!

And just to put a fine point on president-elect Obama's resolve to move ahead, another WaPo headline tells us that on Monday "Obama, Pelosi to Discuss Scope of Economic Package."

"Sources said Obama and Pelosi will discuss the scope and timing of the economic recovery package, which Obama has said will be his first priority upon being sworn into office. Pelosi has said her goal is to have the legislation on the new president's desk and ready to be signed on Jan. 20."

Obama's thirst to get things moving with solid policies is more than the empty Texas boast we've come to expect. As WaPo editorializes.... "Policy will matter, and in this regard it is good to know that the president-elect is not given to following the tired formulations of the left, the right and the various shills and operators who dominate so much of what passes for public discussion. He is pragmatic, open-minded and thoughtful. But, as he knows, he will also have to take on some powerful forces, those aligned with his party and those in opposition, and that will take courage.

"And in the end, of course, it will be not just policy that saves us but, as always, the energy, imagination and desire of the people -- people who see opportunity where others do not and who have the freedom to pursue it.

"Some well-known words from Abraham Lincoln, delivered to Congress in December 1862, have been cited often in the past few months. They are worth citing once more on this day: 'The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.' "

Out with dogma, in with pragmatism... out with division, in with cooperation... out with pandering, in with courage.

Yes we can!

January 2009... End of an Error

2008-12-31T10:37:00.003-06:00

This is the last day of the year 2008. A year when the effects from the missteps, failures and duplicities of the tumultuous eight years of the Bush administration came home to roost. Or, should we say, were flung at him.

As Bob Herbert laments today in "Add Up the Damage" (NYTimes).... "This is the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantánamo and torture and rendition; who turned the Clinton economy and the budget surplus into fool’s gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let Dick Cheney run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job."

The invasion of Iraq is a good example of the wrecking ball the White House mafia took to our country. Herbert reflects on the devastation.... "The Bush administration specialized in deceit. How else could you get the public (and a feckless Congress) to go along with an invasion of Iraq as an absolutely essential response to the Sept. 11 attacks, when Iraq had had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

"Exploiting the public’s understandable fears, Mr. Bush made it sound as if Iraq was about to nuke us: 'We cannot wait,' he said, 'for the final proof — the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.'

"He then set the blaze that has continued to rage for nearly six years, consuming more than 4,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.... The financial cost to the U.S. will eventually reach $3 trillion or more, according to the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz."

So just how does The Decider view this sorry Iraq-war chapter in his catalog of horrors?

"A year into the war Mr. Bush was cracking jokes about it at the annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association. He displayed a series of photos that showed him searching the Oval Office, peering behind curtains and looking under the furniture. A mock caption had Mr. Bush saying: 'Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.' ”

Couldn't you just die laughing.

Now The Decider is trying to tidy up the record of his apocalyptic reign by rewriting history. But, we were given a more accurate image to remember him by in the form of a size 10. No, not the measurements of his ego-inflated all-hat-and-no-cattle Stetson, but the shoes of an irate reporter flung at his head during his recent legacy-burnishing trip to Iraq.

For a Bush legacy summation after eight years of pent-up frustrations, for a you-deserve-no-breaks-today job evaluation.... on the your-place-in-history scale of 1 to 10, this shoe-fly moment was a ten plus.

On January 22 Barack Obama will right the national course and restore the forward momentum our nation enjoyed before we were so rudely interrupted.

That most of all is why we celebrate the arrival of 2009, a Happy New Year!

In Some the Superficial Runs Very Deep....

2008-12-30T13:16:00.001-06:00

Sometimes when you're least expecting it you are gifted with a "wow" moment.

Today's "wow" moment erupted on MSNBC's early show "Morning Joe" hosted by Joe Scarborough with sidekick Mika Brzezinski.

From time to time Mika is able to lure her father Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski onto the show to share his foreign policy wisdom. Today, as all too often happens, arrogant Joe thinks he knows it all and uses his best "final word" pushy attitude to talk down views differing from his own and started down that path with Dr. Z.

But..... today, Dr. Z turned the tables and delivered a jolt to Jivin' Joe. He interrupted Joe in mid-spout after Joe flatly stated about the current dangerous Israel-Hamas escalation of the Palestine conflict.... "you cannot blame what's going on in Israel on the Bush administration."

Unable to bear Joe's sound-bite-analysis any longer, an exasperated Dr. Z stopped Joe in his tracks and face-to-face charged him of having "such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on, it is almost embarrassing to listen to you."

Wow!!!

Mika, as evidently is her assigned task, did her squirming best to restrain Joe's typical slash and burn response.... even throwing her father under the bus by explaining to the obviously ego-bruised Joe that her father's "stunning" comments would pass for affection in their family. For shame Mika. What price honor?

The Morning Joe show has great guests, but Joe needs to drop the rude "Imus wanna-be" routine. He can't pull it off and despite Mika's best efforts, too many times he boringly makes himself and his talking-point world view the story, taking time away from the truly interesting and knowledgeable opinions being offered by real experts.

Here is the video of this "wow" encounter.

Thanks for the upper, Dr. Z.... we needed that! Happy New Year!

GOP Senators: Put USA First

2008-12-11T10:04:00.000-06:00

What are the GOP Senators thinking? "Auto Bailout Clears House but Faces Hurdles in Senate." (WaPo)

"The House last night approved an emergency plan to prevent the collapse of the nation's domestic automobile industry, but the measure faces serious opposition in the Senate, where Republicans are revolting against a White House-brokered deal to speed $14 billion to cash-starved General Motors and Chrysler."

After giving white-collar financial types over a trillion dollars.... with barely a string attached.... to bail them out of the fix we're in largely because of their reckless lending and "bundling" practices, Republican senators.... especially southern senators who are protecting their foreign-owned local auto manufacturers.... are threatening to risk all to "stand on principle" and reject a comparatively paltry $14 billion bridge-loan to the blue-collar Big Three.

Risking all means.... bankruptcies that would throw up to 3 million out of work and possibly turn a deep recession into a 1930s depression!

Already rocketing unemployment makes such a denial of financial help an even more death-defying act.... "New Unemployment Claims Surge Unexpectedly." (Huffington)

"The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial applications for jobless benefits in the week ending Dec. 6 rose to a seasonally adjusted 573,000 from an upwardly revised figure of 515,000 in the previous week.

"New jobless claims last week reached their highest level since November 1982...."

And the GOP wants to play Russian Roulette with millions of jobs. It's time to forget mindless ideology and narrow lobbying interests.... it's time to vote for America. Pass the auto financial aid bill!

Blag the Extorter

2008-12-10T10:33:00.001-06:00

Just follow your nose. It's not like Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich didn't already exude the stink of corruption.

In April of this year, a Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that at least three of every four $25,000 donors to Boss Blag got something from the administration.... including jobs, contracts or favorable regulatory rulings.

A month later Illinois lawmakers passed an ethics reform bill targeted directly at Blagojevich and his record-setting efforts to collect campaign contributions from state contractors.

The effect of this legislation .... it kicked Boss Blag's arm-twisting into high gear.... "with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target," according to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. The end of July The Tribune reported that in the month since lawmakers passed the ethics bill, the governor ramped up his efforts by collecting more than a quarter of a million dollars from those with business before the state.

Besides using his office in an effort to trample the Tribune's editorial voices of criticism, Boss Blag thumbed his nose at the state's attempts to reign him in .... toward the end of August he vetoed the ethics bill saying he wants it to be tougher and to include lawmakers as well as himself.

Undoubtedly Boss Blag knew he was being bugged and taped.... but he must have thought he was the windy city's Tony Soprano..... too smart for the Feds, using his "organization" to make crime pay, big time.

His big take would be the selling of the U.S. Senate seat vacated by president-elect Barack Obama. By Illinois law, as governor, Boss Blag is the only person who can name Obama's replacement.

Note to Illinois lawmakers: You couldn't see this situation developing? You were happy to just let this extortionist name your one of two U.S. Senators for Illinois?

Yesterday.... federal prosecutor Fitzgerald of Scooter Libby investigation fame made Boss Blag and his chief of graft, John Harris, do the perp walk, arresting them on corruption charges.

Yet......

Despite Fitzgerald saying that "the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering," hours after his arrest Boss Blag was out of jail on his own recognizance.... on a $4,500 bond.... chump change to Boss Blag. (ABC)

Today he's back in the governor's office and as of this writing still has the sole power to appoint Obama's replacement.

Even though according to the Tribune timeline, the "federal criminal investigation" of Boss Blag began in June of 2004, an investigation of what has been labeled as a political crime spree, he was, and still is, allowed to continue to abuse the considerable power of his office.

We need to hear much more.....

The Crawford Crawl

2008-12-09T08:24:00.000-06:00

Here's a little ditty to set your foot to tappin', and your spirits soaring. Listen here to.... "Crawl Back to Crawford" (YouTube) by Matt Farmer, performed by the Blue State Cowboys:

CRAWL BACK TO CRAWFORD

VERSE
Well, for eight long years
We've been payin' your rent
But now your lease done run
And all our money's been spent
So pack up your bags and take a last look around
At how you drove a great nation straight into the ground

CHORUS
And don't let the door
Hit you in the ass on the way out
Don't bother with the goodbyes
Just make sure that you stay out
There ain't no need to call
No need to write
We don't even need you to turn out the light
Just crawl back to Crawford, brother
Promise that you'll leave us alone

VERSE
Every step of the way, your story's been the same
Just cruisin' through the world
On your daddy's name
You had the oilmen friends
You had the Skull and Bones
But it never would have happened if your name was Jones

BRIDGE
Slam dunk, privatize, deregulate
Tax cuts, trickle down
The politics of hate
Flag pin, waterboard
Intelligent design
You were handed your throne by just five of the nine.

Thanks, Matt and the Blue State Cowboys, we needed that!

Matt and the Cowboys are from Chicago and, as Matt said, they wanted to "offer our musical tribute to W's 'legacy.' "

Many of us will admit to suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome... and while this musical gem offers some respite, we'll only find lasting relief when The Decider crawls back to Crawford!

After eight long years.... just 41 more agonizing Bush-days to get through.

Unveiling Bush's Legacy

2008-12-08T10:14:00.005-06:00

"Welcome to my hanging."

So said popularity bottom-feeder President George W. Bush at the unveiling of his Union League of Philadelphia's portrait.

Continuing to entertain his receptive audience, he complimented the artist, Mark Carder, for his fine job and observed, "I was taken aback by how much gray paint you had to use."

He later remarked, "I'm especially proud to be co-recipient with a guy I call '41'... we owe our achievements to the same savvy political counselor and firm disciplinarian: Barbara."

After these witty and self-deprecating remarks The Decider made an unabashed grab for Abraham Lincoln's distinguished coattails.

The Union League presidential gallery displays portraits of every Republican president since Lincoln. Bush seized on "Abe's" controversial leadership legacy saying.... "the principles on which he stood have stood the test of time: All men are created equal under God, he said, unflinchingly throughout his presidency. Liberty was given to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. He has taught Presidents that you must act on your principles and make tough decisions, regardless of the political consequences.

"I have been a..... I have drawn strength from his example. I have learned lessons by reading about Abraham Lincoln"

Oh, pleeeeeze.

Too bad The Decider didn't live up to his own rhetoric or Abe's example.

An editorial in today's The New York Times, "Tortured Justice," paints a far different portrait than the one Bush wants us to see.... "The nation’s courts continue to grapple with the abuses committed by President Bush’s administration in the name of fighting terrorism. The extent of the damage to American liberties, and how lasting it will be, will be told in part by the outcome of two cases that are to be heard by the federal courts."

"On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that turns on Mr. Bush’s claim that he can order people living in the United States to be detained by the military indefinitely without charges. The case involves Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar who was in the United States legally. He was declared an enemy combatant in mid-2003 and has been held in a Navy brig since then..... This intolerable reading of the law would leave a president free to suspend the rights of anyone, including American citizens."

The second case involves "a Syrian-born Canadian with no ties to terrorism who became a victim of the Bush team’s lawless policy of 'extraordinary rendition' — the outsourcing of interrogations to foreign governments known to torture prisoners.

"Mr. Arar’s ordeal began in 2002, when he was seized by federal agents as he tried to change planes on his way home to Canada from a family vacation. After being held incommunicado in solitary confinement and subjected to harsh interrogation without proper access to a lawyer, he was 'rendered' to Syria, where he was tortured. He was locked up for almost a year in a dank underground cell the size of a grave before he was finally let go."

The Union League Bush portrait depicts a benignly smiling man.... not the ruthless, law-breaking, Constitution-rending, outlaw president who destroyed the American ideal of equal justice for all. Hopefully when hanging The Decider, the Union League doesn't place his portrait anywhere near honest Abe's.

Sixty-seven Years After Infamy....

2008-12-07T10:10:00.004-06:00

"December 7, 1941.... a date which will live in infamy.... the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. "

So said President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he asked Congress for a Declaration of War sixty-seven years ago.

On that day Japan also attacked Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, Wake Island and Midway Island.

In response to this all-out attack, Roosevelt clearly and forcefully declared.... "As commander in chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us...."

Today it is much different. Seemingly nationless enemies strike civilian populations.... cloaked suicidal terrorism is the new norm, not declarations of war between nations.

As Richard A. Clarke who was the White House counterterrorism coordinator under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush explains today in his op-ed "Plans of Attack" (WaPo) .... "Ten young men land a small boat at a quay in a city of 18 million people. Within minutes of setting ashore, they are throwing grenades and raking crowds with automatic weapons fire. Days later, almost 200 people are dead, more are wounded, the financial capital of a nation of a billion people has ground to a halt, and the world is riveted.

"To most of the world, the Mumbai massacre seems inexplicable and random, like the periodic devastation caused by typhoons or tornadoes, or simply pointless, just killing for killing's sake. But the attack was neither random nor pointless. The carnage in Mumbai was goal-oriented, an attempt to advance an overall strategy that is being ruthlessly pursued by the Islamist radical network."

That is the face of conflict today.

Even Osama bin Laden's dastardly 9/11 attack on the twin towers wasn't a Pearl Harbor.... it wasn't backed by a nation declaring war. The very nationless nature of the attack allowed the Bush presidency to name its own target for retaliation.... Iraq.... leading America down the shadowy path of their selective-intelligence "war on terrorism."

Clarke maps out the terrorism minefield facing the Obama administration.... "Seven years after 9/11, the United States has neither eliminated the threat from al-Qaeda nor secured Afghanistan, where bin Laden's terrorists were once headquartered.

"To accomplish these two tasks, we must now eliminate the new terrorist safe haven in Pakistan. But that will require effective action from a weak and riven Pakistani government. It might also depend upon dealing with the long-standing India-Pakistan rivalry."

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt galvanized the nation through his leadership and call for shared sacrifice as he declared war on Japan. It now falls to Barack Obama to rally the nation, and the world, to a common goal.... the defeat of the hydra-headed terrorist monster.

Life Without Duffy.... Stuffy

2008-12-05T08:04:00.007-06:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words.... what is the cost of losing that picture?

Iowa is about to find out.

The once-Pulitzer Prize winning Des Moines Register just showed the door to the last of their what-makes-us-any-different-than-getting-the-news-online-or-from-TV-networks feature.... it chopped Brian Duffy from its staff, thus ending his quarter of a century tenure as the Register's front page political cartoonist and the unique standing of the Register as the only newspaper in the country that carried a front-page cartoon commentary.

It's like taking away our morning coffee.... or the jam on our toast, the raisins in our bran flakes, the frosting on our cinnamon bun!

Let's hope the Register doesn't Bush-up their mistake by refusing to listen to disappointed, even outraged, readers who not only looked forward to Duffy every morning, but counted on him for the wry smile that helped them face another day.... especially during these unsettled times.

Register, reconsider.... please.... give us back our Duffy!

Here is Duffy's final (it doesn't have to be) cartoon.... it says it all without a thousand words!

Big Three: Bush, Hoover, Buchanan

2008-12-03T08:06:00.001-06:00

Harold Meyerson looks George W. Bush in the eye and calls him what he is.... Herbert Hoover.

In "Bush's Final Fiasco" Meyerson compares the Bush administration's handling of our downward-spiraling economy to the actions of the 1930's Great Depression president .... "Herbert Hoover, we should recall, had a program for dealing with the Depression. It consisted of lending to banks but opposing fiscal stimulus or direct aid to individuals. Which is why Hank Paulson's frenzied endeavors to prop up the banking sector and Bush's dogged resistance to assisting anybody else amount to pure neo-Hooverism.

"As the 1930s began, Hoover believed that the coordinated actions of the private sector could save the beleaguered economy. It soon became apparent that the only action that private-sector businesses could agree upon was closing down factories and offices and throwing people out of work. Under immense pressure to do something, in late 1931 Hoover asked Congress to establish the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, to provide funds to banks it deemed creditworthy.

"Having done his bit to bail out the banks, however, Hoover rested. He opposed provisions that would have enabled homeowners to hang on to their homes."

Sound familiar?

As Meyerson points out, "The Bush administration's approach to today's meltdown is to direct all its energies and largess to lending institutions. There is, as yet, no program to help floundering homeowners renegotiate the terms of their mortgages. The president is opposed to further stimulus programs, even though private-sector investment in the United States has all but ceased."

Meyerson asks, where's the outrage? He suspects that the answer "is that you can only irreversibly give up on a president once. Further catastrophic failures on the president's part elicit only diminishing returns. Buchanan did nothing while the South seceded: That was it for him. Hoover did nothing as farmers, workers and middle-class America got wiped out: With that, he was beyond rehabilitation. Nixon had Watergate: Enough said. One mega-strike and you're out."

And when it comes to mega-strike outs, Bush has swung and missed over and over. Meyerson counts three biggies.... "He misled us into a nearly endless war of choice to disarm a threat that never really existed. He let a great American city drown. And now he stands by while the economic security of tens of millions of Americans is vanishing.

"Yet in the hearts of his countrymen, Bush's place is already fixed. Even before the financial collapse, he was in the ninth circle of presidential hell, with Buchanan and Hoover. At his own party's national convention this summer, his was the name that no one dared speak.

"And so, though his mishandling of the economy is criminally inept, he is being spared one more outbreak of public rage by two countervailing public sentiments: Americans' relief that he soon will be gone and their kind reluctance to kick a corpse."

Bush justifies his record by saying he kept us safe for eight years (he myopically doesn't count 9/11 or the myriad of victims of his ill-conceived policies).

That's kind of like saying that despite his rampaging through our domestic and foreign landscape like a bull in a china shop one tea cup survived..... but President Decider, that tea cup was made in China.

Thanks to the Giving....

2008-11-26T08:54:00.002-06:00

Thanksgiving blessings!

A Nation of Dolts....

2008-11-26T08:45:00.002-06:00

After eight years as the poster boy for gut-decision uninformed leadership by a man who called the Constitution "just a piece of paper,".... the incurious Decider's sorry legacy will be legions of like-minded dummies.

Proof of the decline of an educated U.S. populace was highlighted by Kathleen Parker in "Voters Fail the Test." (WaPo)

As Parker says, "So much for the wisdom of The People.

"A new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) on the nation's civic literacy finds that most Americans are too ignorant to vote.

"Out of 2,500 American quiz-takers, including college students, elected officials and other randomly selected citizens, nearly 1,800 flunked a 33-question test on basic civics."

Here's the scary part.... "In fact, elected officials scored slightly lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent compared to 49 percent.

"Most bracing: Only 27 percent of elected officeholders in the survey could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment."

That's right, our leaders. You know, the ones deciding all things that affect our daily lives.

Really not surprising since we watched incredulously as John McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin.... the governor of a state.... didn't know the duties of the next office she sought, the vice presidency of our country. She thought the Vice President "ran" the Senate.

Of those taking the test, "Forty-three percent didn't know what the Electoral College does. And 46 percent didn't know that the Constitution gives Congress power to declare war."

What's behind this dumbing down of America?

"The ISI found that passive activities, such as watching television (including TV news) and talking on the phone, diminish civic literacy."

What increases civic literacy?

"Actively pursuing information through print media and participating in high-level conversations -- even, potentially, blogging -- makes one smarter. "

That's right.... blogging! Bloggers personify the First Amendment.... you know, freedom of speech, freedom of the press.

Only a sorry 0.8 percent of all test-takers scored an 'A.'

Parker points out, "America's report card may come as little surprise to fans of Jay Leno's man-on-the-street interviews, which reveal that most people don't know diddly about doohickey. Still, it's disheartening in the wake of a populist-driven election celebrating joes-of-all-trades to be reminded that the voting public is dumber than ever."

Let's face it.... most of the economic trouble we are in has come about because people didn't understand the loan agreements they were signing, financial institutions didn't understand the far-reaching ramifications of their actions, and our government was unable to anticipate the severity of.... and appropriately regulate.... this financial house of cards.

It's hopeful that an intellectual Barack Obama prevailed over the McCain-Palin hillbilly-pandering roadshow. As The Decider would put it.... "Our children is learning!"

It's Fear Itself....

2008-11-25T10:11:00.000-06:00

From Bear Stearns to Citi Group our deer-caught-in-the-headlights Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been the Bush administration's frantic bailout fireman.... hosing down failing financial institutions before they burst into flames.... they hope.

Fireman Paulson answered the four-alarm only after Wall Street and financial institutions had partied during the Bush administration's unregulated anything-goes trickle-down orgy like Shriners at a Vegas convention.... and the whole country is suffering the hangover.

OK... that's the problem. So far, throwing money at the problem hasn't helped in any noticeable way. People are still losing their homes and jobs, the markets are still on life support and credit lines are still constipated.

What to do? Robert Samuelson opines today in "A 'Wealth Effect' In Reverse." (WaPo) "The 'wealth effect' refers to the tendency of people to adjust their spending as their wealth... concentrated heavily in housing and stocks... changes."

Samuelson points out, "... now the wealth effect is reversing. As stock and home values drop, Americans are scrambling to increase savings and curb spending. The plausible math is daunting. Since September 2007, Americans' personal wealth has dropped about $9 trillion, says economist Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight."

The reversal in fortunes has fostered more than long-overdue consumer prudence, it has fueled fear.... and fear is the sand in the cogs of the battered economy as it grinds to a near halt.

Overcoming fear is vital if we are to reverse this self-perpetuating plummet.... fear keeps consumers and investors immobilized in the meltdown headlights, unable.... or unwilling.... to take the steps necessary to avoid the collision.

As Samuelson says, "Americans are less upset by hardships they've experienced than by those they imagine."

It'll take more than bailout money to re-energize the economy.... in the coming months it will take nerves of steel and leaders who can instill confidence faster than a speeding bullet.

Vilsack Wrong Tom

2008-11-24T10:12:00.003-06:00

We were so sure. Who better than a former governor from not just any state, but ag Iowa whose caucus-goers planted Barack Obama's feet squarely on the path toward his field of dreams.

Everyone said so, even the Washington Post reported that former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack was a "near shoo-in" for Obama's cabinet position as Secretary of Agriculture.

Everyone said so that is, except Obama and now "Vilsack ends ag secretary speculation." (DMRegister) It isn't going to happen.

"Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack on Sunday said that he won't be the next agriculture secretary, ending speculation that an Iowan would snag the post important to a large swath of the state's economy. In an e-mail, Vilsack said he had never been contacted by aides to President-elect Barack Obama about that position or any other."

You can hear the air going out of the Iowan-in-the-Obama-cabinet balloon. Why not Vilsack? We may be able to answer that question only when we know who Obama settles on. But he's given us big clues.

Obama's 13-page policy position "Rural Leadership for Rural America" shows that Obama supports ensuring that "farm programs are strong and are targeted to support family farm farmers."

Part of that support is spelled out succinctly on his rural issues site. Obama will "implement a $250,000 payment limitation so that we help family farmers - not large corporate agribusiness," something Congress has not had the political will to accomplish on several tries.

So really, in light of Obama's policy positions on agriculture, Vilsack never had a chance. Vilsack never saw an agribusiness he didn't like, in fact he "has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto." (Grassroots) Vilsack had big ideas for agriculture tied to big agribusiness, not the family farmer.

Ag secretary is a key position in the cabinet with a portfolio ranging from overseeing food safety, the food stamp program, food distribution during disaster relief efforts, the U. S. Forestry Service and the food that is fed to our children in school to setting farm policy, national nutritional standards and food labeling.

Who is most likely to fill that bill and support the family farmer?

Perhaps Tom Buis who is currently the president of the National Farmers Union and has advocated for family farmers.

Prior to joining NFU Buis served for nearly five years as senior ag policy advisor to.... guess who.... Obama's close advisor and an early power-behind-the-movement strategist, South Dakota's former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle who will serve in Obama's cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Buis was also special assistant for ag to U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN), and before moving to Washington was a full-time grain and livestock farmer in Indiana. Buis currently also serves as a member of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers executive committee, an organization that represents more than 600 million international farm families.

Buis sounds like a much better fit for a family-farm friendly administration.

But one thing that seems certain.... this Thanksgiving insofar as ag secretary goes, Vilsack isn't the Tom on the short-list menu.

Jindal"s "Fix" Is In

2008-11-23T09:59:00.003-06:00

When it comes to Louisiana's GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal's attitude toward making the GOP relevant after their November drubbing, one is reminded of Peggy Lee's "Is that all there is, my friends?..... then let's keep dancing."

Jindal told an audience of 800 yesterday in West Des Moines at a fundraiser for the socially conservative Iowa Family Policy Center, " 'There are things we can do as private citizens working together to strengthen our society. Our focus does not need to be on fixing the (Republican) party,' he said. 'Our focus needs to be on how to fix America.' " (DM Register)

Oh noooooooo! The Republican party has been trying to "fix" America for eight years, and look where we are.... nowhere!

Worse than nowhere.... our creditors can still find us!

Jindal, please focus on fixing the GOP.... the country needs two viable parties.... haven't you noticed that the Republican party is stuck in reverse, mired in social crusades against gays, choice, privacy, and science.

The "focus" of the Iowa Family Policy Center is even narrower.... it is working for a marriage amendment to the Constitution aimed at gay marriage. They evidently think they can "fix" America and their own marriages by denying those rights to others.... promoting a "Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman."

With this kickoff tour, it's obvious to which base Jindal is going to pander in his 2012 presidential bid.

Will the GOP Evolve?

2008-11-22T11:30:00.007-06:00

There is a battle being waged in Texas and within the GOP party.

The outcome of that battle will determine if they go forward toward the liberating cultural complexities and scientific advances of the 21st century. Or, if they will continue their backwards fall into the embrace of the suffocating superstitions of religious fundamentalism.

Case in point.

"State education panel hears evolution debate." (Dallas Morning News) "Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution grabbed center stage Wednesday as State Board of Education members heard from dozens of Texans trying to influence the panel on how evolution should be covered in science classes of the future.

"College professors, science teachers and pro-evolution groups urged the board to drop a rule that requires the strengths and weaknesses of Darwin's theory to be taught in science courses, while conservative groups aligned with a sizable bloc of board members said the rule has worked well and hasn't forced religion into those classes as critics charge.

Of course, conservatives aren't fooling anyone. Their religious wolf under the cloak of "educational freedom" is trying to ambush impressionable hearts and minds.

The first vote on the issue by the state education board will be in January. At stake are the science guidelines for elementary and secondary schools and the materials used for state tests and textbooks. The guidelines would remain in place for a decade after their approval by the state board.

The state's most famous Texan, George "Is Our Children Learning?" Bush, has already weighed in on the debate. In 2005 he famously told reporters that he believes that intelligent design.... creationism repackaged.... should be taught alongside evolution as competing theories. (WaPo)

The report on Bush's remarks explains that "Much of the scientific establishment says that intelligent design is not a tested scientific theory but a cleverly marketed effort to introduce religious -- especially Christian -- thinking to students.

".... Bush's remarks heartened conservatives who have been asking school boards and legislatures to teach students that there are gaps in evolutionary theory and explain that life's complexity is evidence of a guiding hand."

It isn't just the Texas education system at the crossroads, an increasingly marginalized GOP is trying to read the what-went-wrong tea leaves after their defeat in the last election.

As Kathleen Parker said in her recent editorial, "Giving Up on God," (WaPo)..... "the evangelical, right-wing, oogedly-boogedly branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue" to do so unless the GOP faces "the gorilla".... perhaps that should be monkey.... "in the room."

Parker diagnosis is, "Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party."

Texas, don't let it kill your educational excellence too.

Obama Taking the Wheel

2008-11-21T10:36:00.001-06:00

"The first step is half the longest journey."

In this case, the longest journey is back from the rusting gates at the junkyard of our economy if the U.S. automobile industry collapses.

The first small, but significant, step is "Rep. Dingell Loses Energy Post - Waxman to Head Key Panel; Change Is Blow to Automakers." (WaPo)

Why, you may ask, is this change a blow to automakers. Because in Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) they are losing from the House Energy and Commerce Committee chair their premier gas-gussler enabler to no-nonsense Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) fresh from the chairmanship of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"Waxman's victory signaled the rise of a younger, more environmentally conscious party eager to support the policies of President-elect Barack Obama. Waxman's supporters said his win probably would mean a smoother ride through Congress for Obama's energy agenda, which focuses on spending $150 billion on research for producing renewable fuels and 1 million new plug-in hybrid cars.

"Dingell, 82, who was first elected to represent his Dearborn-based district in 1954... has been chairman or ranking Democrat of the energy committee since 1981, at times feuding with fellow Democrats, including Waxman, over efforts to impose fuel-efficiency standards on cars."

Dingell kept the better-gas-mileage-brakes on for the the resistant, short-sighted Detroit manufacturers.

For the automakers who jetted into D.C., the hearings before Congress were a car wreck.

Eugene Robinson points out today in "Detroit: Get a Clue".... (WaPo) The Detroit CEOs "could have hitchhiked to Washington to beg for alms and they still would have been raked over the coals. But the fact that they came in their corporate jets was a bit much."

So the CEOs were sent home with a roadmap for reaching their $25 billion bridge.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) demanded of the jetsetters, "Until we can see a plan where the auto industry is held accountable and a plan for viability on how they go into the future... we cannot show them the money." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid echoed: "We can only help if they (the automakers) are willing to help themselves." (WaPo) The plan is to be submitted to Congress on December 2.

Robinson suggested that "Richard Wagoner of General Motors, Robert Nardelli of Chrysler and Alan Mulally of Ford should begin the inevitable cost-cutting by firing their public relations consultants.

"They left Capitol Hill empty-handed, but they're bound to get some kind of federal help, however grudging. In the end, I don't think either George W. Bush or Barack Obama wants to be remembered as the president who lost the auto industry."

Or needlessly lost millions of jobs in an unforgiving economy.

(It was just announced that GM is selling two of its private jets.)

All of these course corrections are just baby-steps tottering toward an uncertain future for the U.S. auto industry, an industry that is a critical keystone underpinning the rescue of the American economy.

The longest journey can be successful if it travels.... at last.... in the right direction.

No Bailout for Blue Collars?

2008-11-20T09:10:00.002-06:00

It's discouraging all the way around.

Discouraging that "Auto Execs Fly Corporate Jets to D.C., Tin Cups in Hand," (WaPo) thus confirming the impression that Detroit just doesn't get it.

Discouraging that lawmakers were taking gotcha shots at the auto executives because they flew in separate corporate jets to the hearings this week.... admittedly an ill-timed display of corporate excess for a trio of executives begging for an additional $25 billion from the public trough.... instead of focusing on the million jobs that would be lost if the companies were allowed to fail.

Discouraging that the news outlets then gleefully looped the committee's stick-it-to-them sound bites.... like Rep. Gary Ackerman's (D-NY) who needled, "There's a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hands.... It's almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high-hat and tuxedo. . "

Sis boom! Very clever. Lots of time taken up with precious cleverness. Time that would have been better spent trying salvage the situation. Pink slips can fly later.

Did we, the many imminent jobless, hear anything about the engineering already under way for more efficient "green" cars, or the renegotiated union contracts that will greatly reduce overhead costs to make the Detroit cars more competitive? No.... the media is more interested in the entertainment value of zingers delivered by camera-savvy legislators.

Let's admit up front that it appears that the Big Three CEOs are all probably a bunch of arrogant, over-paid and pampered executives.

So.... evidently the reasoning for many on The Hill goes.... let's throw a million people out of work, suffer hundreds of billions in lost wages (you know, the green stuff that buys things) and more billions in lost tax revenues because we don't like the cut of the jib of three pouty corporate peacocks.

Not to mention delivering a shock to our economy that will rip the Dutch boy's finger away from the already over-stressed economic dike.

Lawmakers, let's keep our eyes on the ball. Are you going to tell us that you whipped out the taxpayer checkbook for the white-collar crowd.... a blank $700-billion-plus check at that, with more goodies yet for "perky" AIG.... but will balk at using $25 billion of those bailout funds for the blue collars?

We're not looking for retribution here, or cutesy-pie finger pointing. Work with the auto execs, holding your nose if you must.... but save those jobs. In the big picture, it'll be the best bailout money spent so far in this whole sordid mess.

Hillary: A Doppelganger or a Cuckoo?

2008-11-19T10:23:00.006-06:00

Doppelganger: A ghostly counterpart of a living person. Cuckoo bird: Lays egg in another bird's nest, and when the cuckoo hatches it takes over the nest.

Thomas Friedman is pondering today in "Madam Secretary?" (NYTimes)

"My question: Is Obama considering Mrs. Clinton for this job in order to get her off his back or as a prelude to protecting her back?"

"That backing is the most important requirement for a secretary of state to be effective. Frankly, Obama could appoint his dear mother-in-law as secretary of state, and if he let the world know she was his envoy, she would be more effective than any ex-ambassador who had no relationship with the president.

"Our current president never cared about this, so neither of his secretaries of state were particularly effective. Rather than having Colin Powell’s back, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld delighted in stabbing Powell in the back, particularly when he was on the road.

"But being close to the president is not enough. Condoleezza Rice had a close relationship with Bush, but Bush had no coherent worldview to animate her diplomacy, so all her travels added up to less than the sum of their miles...

"Foreign leaders can spot daylight between a president and a secretary of state from 1,000 miles away. They know when they’re talking to the secretary of state alone and when they are talking through the secretary of state to the president.....

"My question is whether a President Obama and a Secretary of State Clinton, given all that has gone down between them and their staffs, can have that kind of relationship, particularly with Mrs. Clinton always thinking four to eight years ahead, and the possibility that she may run again for the presidency. I just don’t know."

And don't forget just vain Bill. Bill Clinton famously said during his 1992 presidential campaign that with him you get "two for the price of one." But it's 2008, and Maureen Dowd opines that getting Hillary for Secretary of State means getting "Two for the Price of Two." (NY Times)

Dowd thinks the grumpy hubby will come around if Hillary becomes the Mistress of Foggy Bottom. "At least Bill has the satisfaction of seeing that he has roiled the previously serene and joyous Obamaland. It may be Obama’s very willingness to take the albatross of Bill from around Hillary’s neck and sling it around his own that impresses Bill.

"Obama is overlooking all his cherished dictums against drama and leaking and his lofty vetting standards to try and create a situation where the country can benefit from the talent of the Clintons while curbing their cheesy excesses, like their endless cash flow from foreigners."

But, there is a deep unease with many counting on real change, unconvinced that regardless of their current public posture of support for the Obama White House, the Billary will do only what is best for Billary.

And shadowing about the world as Obama's Doppelganger may not fit into Billary's long-term ambitions.

As Chuck Todd points out today in "First Read".... "HillaryLand seems to be making a concerted effort to start tamping down speculation about the secretary of state job. Reports from the New York Times and Politico are sparking the debate about whether she's 100% ready to make the leap from the Senate and 100% ready to give up politics for a while (at least while at State)...

"Today's Wall Street Journal and the AP confirm that the Obama folks are letting it be known that Bill Clinton is fully cooperating with the vet. So while the Hillary folks use the Times/Politico to signal reluctance, others are using the WSJ/AP to suggest that the momentum is still building for the Clinton appointment to happen."

And that is pure chaotic Clinton conundrum-making style.... fogging the question of a closet-cuckoo Hillary in Obama's cabinet nest in Shakespearean "to be, or not to be" fashion.

Hopefully, not.

Des Moines Holds Steady

2008-11-19T08:49:00.000-06:00

Des Moines has high-fived lots of atta-boys lately. Earlier this year Forbes rated Des Moines metro 4th in the nation in their "Best Places for Business and Careers."

In May, Kiplinger issued a list of "Best Cities to Live, Work and Play" and Des Moines came in 9th on the list. Why? Here's what Kiplinger sees.... "Des Moines’s friendly, hometown atmosphere, top public schooling and affordable cost of living make it an ideal place to raise a family. But it also has big city amenities, including a growing arts scene with galleries, a symphony orchestra, a ballet and opera, trendy shops and an expanding skyscraper cityscape.

"The local economy is gaining momentum as well. Jobs will increase mainly in finance, insurance, government and manufacturing. About 60 insurance companies here make the city the third largest insurance center in the world.

"Housing is still affordable. The median price for a single-family home is just under $150,000. In the northwest suburbs, for example, a 2,100-square foot three-bedroom home will go for $165,000. For those seeking trendier accommodations, a one-bedroom condo in the downtown’s newly redeveloped Western Gateway neighborhood can fetch a price of under $130,000, while a 2,700-square foot, newly renovated Victorian home in the western suburbs can go for just under $330,000."

And the Des Moines housing market is still healthy, yet affordable, six months later even though the nation is experiencing a decline in housing prices. As The Des Moines Register reports this morning, "Des Moines bucks trend, sees increase in home prices."

"The Des Moines metropolitan area was one of 28 areas nationwide to see its median home sale prices climb in the third quarter, squeaking 1 percent higher to $155,400, a National Association of Realtors report showed on Tuesday."

Des Moines.... steady as she goes.

Iraq Corruption By "Western Standards"

2008-11-18T08:16:00.002-06:00

Oh, this is rich.... "Premier of Iraq Is Quietly Firing Fraud Monitors" (NYTlimes)

"BAGHDAD — The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing Iraqi oversight officials, who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here."

Western standards! Western standards! You mean like Wall Street robber barons who Ponzi-schemed trash loans, driving the world into a financial abyss? You mean like lobby-ridden D.C. with legislators on the take and worse.... like Alaska's Senator Ted Stevens convicted of 7 counts of fraud but still in office (for now). Those Western standards?

The Iraq crimes.... "One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials."

This sounds like business as usual, Western standards.

After all, we gave our Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson $700 billion plus dollars to "rescue" our economy. It's estimated he has probably spent half of if, or about $350 billion. Why "estimated?" Because Paulson won't tell anyone how the money was allocated! Even Congress! Western standards.

"...Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who leads an independent oversight office in Washington, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, and who is currently working in Iraq, said he knew of six of the dismissals. He said the inspectors general were vulnerable because once their offices were created, the United States provided little support and training for what was a startling concept for the bureaucracy, which was shaped by the secrecy and corruption of the Saddam Hussein era."

Look, why is anyone surprised that the Bush administration provided little support and training, they can't govern here. After legislating strict oversight for the $700+ billion bailout, that oversight was never made operational.

Secrecy?... you mean like the way Undisclosed Location Cheney and Executive Privilege Bush operate?

Really, what can we expect unless we set the example? Let's just quit throwing good money after bad in Iraq.... let's no longer "occupy" ourselves with their corruption of our billions and concentrate on cleaning up our own act.

No more U.S.-made Baghdad billionaires! Bring our troops home.

A $25 Billion Bridge to Somewhere

2008-11-17T09:05:00.003-06:00

While "let's party" AIG and trash-loan banks wallow in a promised $700 billion of bailout taxbucks, there is a big debate in D.C. on whether or not to use $25 billion of that bailout to rescue the manufacturing backbone of our country, the auto industry's Big 3.

As Jeffrey D. Sachs explains in "A Bridge for the Carmakers - The Future Is in Sight. They Just Need Help Getting There" (WaPo) "We face an unprecedented financial calamity, energy crisis and environmental threat. A vibrant, growing U.S. automobile industry should play an essential role in solving all three. The technologies that will win the day are in sight; industry has already made important advances. A partnership with government is vital and should begin this week."

And not only that.... if Washington doesn't take action, the second big "D" could be the legacy of George W. Hoover. Sachs warns "...the sudden closure of an automaker would be catastrophic, possibly pushing our economy from recession to depression. Because of the impact on parts suppliers, the shutdown of one company would imperil domestic production across the board, and the jobs at risk include not only the 1 million in vehicle assembly and parts but millions more that would be caught in the resulting cascade of failures. The industrial Midwest -- especially Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Tennessee -- would be devastated, and the shock waves would reverberate across the world."

This isn't the time for faux-conservative ideology or petulant pay-back for the auto industry's past myopic performance.... this is the time for bold action. This week could be the start.... or the end.... of the rest of our financial lives.

"Bar" Boyle and His Ilk

2008-11-16T10:42:00.001-06:00

This is a massive failure of competence, oversight and just plain humanity.... "Gangrene, death follow stay at facility." (DMRegister)

Ruth Louden is a victim of the "system."

"A year ago, Louden was in good spirits and good health. Twice widowed, she lived alone in an immaculately maintained Grinnell apartment where she liked to crochet. She had recently renewed her driver's license and had just returned from a trip to California, where she traveled by herself to visit her daughter. A lifelong Iowan and a graduate of the Music Conservatory at the University of Dubuque, Louden played the piano on a regular basis - and usually from memory

"While at her apartment on Feb. 16, Louden fell, fracturing a bone in her left ankle. Her doctors didn't think a cast was necessary, but they put her leg in a brace and a medical stocking and sent her to Grinnell's Friendship Manor nursing home for short-term therapy."

And then.... "Louden's doctors allegedly gave Friendship Manor written orders to monitor the circulation in her leg and to check her skin every shift for any signs of swelling or redness.

"Over the next four weeks, Louden complained to the staff of 'horrible' and 'excruciating' pain, state inspectors later alleged. During that time, inspectors say, Friendship Manor staff gave Louden pain medication but never evaluated the cause of her pain or pulled back the stocking to examine her leg.

"On March 20, a physical therapy aide at Friendship Manor noticed Louden's leg smelled like 'rotting meat.' She also noticed blood seeping through the stocking.

"Louden was rushed to a local hospital where an emergency room physician noted the smell of 'rotting flesh.' A wound dressing that had been applied at the hospital four weeks earlier appeared untouched, as if it never had been changed at Friendship Manor, inspectors said.

"Louden was diagnosed with gangrene."

It need never have happened at all.... "One of her doctors later told state inspectors the situation was 'very upsetting' because the bone fracture that had resulted in Louden going to Friendship Manor was almost 'nonexistent.' The amputation, he said, was avoidable.

"According to the inspectors, workers at Friendship Manor acknowledged that during Ruth's 25-day stay, they never removed the stocking to check the condition of her leg. She was never examined by a physician while at the home."

The action taken.... "At the recommendation of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, federal officials fined Friendship Manor's owners $4,050 for each of the 25 days Louden was at the home. They also imposed a $150 per day fine for the 76 days the home needed to correct other alleged problems. Those fines totaled $112,650."

Who is responsible? "Friendship Manor is owned and managed by two for-profit companies based in South Dakota. The president of both companies is Tim Boyle, a real estate developer.

"Boyle did not respond to several requests for an interview. State records indicate he is appealing the fine.

"Boyle has complained to his congresswoman, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., arguing that Friendship Manor was under doctors' orders to keep the stocking on Louden's leg. The doctors told state inspectors they expected the facility's staff to understand that temporarily removing the stocking would be necessary to conduct the physician-ordered skin checks."

Lots of finger pointing. But on the most basic level, why did no one try to get to the root of Louden's suffering?... tell her doctors of her "horrible, excruciating pain."

The negligent, absentee for-profit nursing home owners are bringing out the big guns.... lobbyists.

"Around the same time Boyle was complaining to Congress, the industry lobbying organization he heads began scheduling meetings with Iowa state lawmakers.

"The Iowa Healthcare Association, with Boyle as board president, is now telling legislators that the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals is too aggressive in its enforcement of health and safety regulations.

"In one of the written presentations for legislators, the association says the inspections department is 'flogging' nursing homes and blocking seniors' access to health care, in part by imposing huge fines against the owners and prohibiting new admissions until care problems are addressed."

Listen up lawmakers.... maybe Boyle is right. Maybe large fines aren't the answer. How about a little prison time for these negligent elder-abusers?

Lame Duck Dines on Quail

2008-11-15T09:39:00.000-06:00

The world economy is in meltdown mode. People are losing jobs, homes, life savings, pensions and more. The backbone of the U.S. economy, the automobile manufacturer's Big 3, are tottering on the brink of bankruptcy, bankruptcies whose shock waves would ripple out to millions of households.

So, last night visiting heads of state of 20 countries met at the White House for a dinner held on the eve of a financial summit prompted by global economic distress. There was a "Full Plate at White House for G20: Economic Talk and Quail." (WaPo)

And quail? Is this a meeting of AIG bailout-billionaires?

No, it's a meeting of twenty world leaders, representing 90% of the world economy, meeting to discuss "global economic distress," who at their "working dinner" are dining on, among other delicacies: "... fruitwood-smoked quail, thyme-roasted rack of lamb and baked Vermont brie with walnut crostini, along with three wines."

The theme of the meeting is "Let Them Eat Cake."

These heads of state who allowed or fostered the deregulated "globalization" of the world economy have no shame. Especially the host, The Decider, who will happily dine on lame-duck until he dumps his eight years of garbage on Barack Obama on January 20.

Facing Down GOP's Devils

2008-11-14T09:48:00.000-06:00

The GOP is at a crossroads. Will they take the social conservative route to please the religious right and Paliniacs, or a more moderate road with a bigger tent than social policy and anti-intellectualism.

Christine Todd Whitman, who headed Bush's EPA from 2001 to 2003 and is currently co-chair of the Republican Leadership Council, wades into the debate in "Free the GOP - The Party Won't Win Back the Middle as Long As It's Hostage to Social Fundamentalists" (WaPo)

It's not the first time Whitman has been the canary in the coal mine. After the 2004 election Whitman published, "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America," which she co-authored with this article's co-author, Robert Bostock.

Whitman says of that 2004 book...."Our central thesis was simple: The Republican Party had been taken hostage by 'social fundamentalists,' the people who base their votes on such social issues as abortion, gay rights and stem cell research. Unless the GOP freed itself from their grip, we argued, it would so alienate itself from the broad center of the American electorate that it would become increasingly marginalized and find itself out of power."

It's 2008, and the GOP is out of power.

The GOP ignored Whitman's fading canary call as John McCain allowed himself to become co-opted by Bush/Rove social fundamentalists and upstaged by their Vacuous Valkyrie, Sarah Palin.

The new sell-out McCain.... as opposed to the mythical 2000 maverick.... didn't attract moderates, and so he lost even though his percentage of "value voters" increased. As Whitman explains, "McCain actually won more votes from self-identified white evangelical/born-again voters than Bush did four years ago -- 1.8 million more. But that was not enough to offset the loss of so many moderates."

As for Palin's value to the ticket, Whitman calls it as she see it, "Palin has many attractive qualities as a candidate. Being prepared to become president at a moment's notice was not obviously among them this year. Her selection cost the ticket support among those moderate voters who saw it as a cynical sop to social fundamentalists, reinforcing the impression that they control the party, with the party's consent."

Whitman accuses the GOP of suffering from a political Stockholm syndrome, "In the wake of the Democrats' landslide victory, and despite all evidence to the contrary, many in the GOP are arguing that John McCain was defeated because the social fundamentalists wouldn't support him.

"They seem to be suffering from a political strain of Stockholm syndrome. They are identifying with the interests of their political captors and ignoring the views of the larger electorate. This has cost the Republican Party the votes of millions of people who don't find a willingness to acquiesce to hostage-takers a positive trait in potential leaders
.
"Unless the Republican Party ends its self-imposed captivity to social fundamentalists, it will spend a long time in the political wilderness. On Nov. 4, the American people very clearly rejected the politics of demonization and division. It's long past time for the GOP to do the same."

There may be a glimmer of hope for those who identify with Whitman's clarion call for the Republican party to flee their social conservative captors. It comes from GOP governors who are holding a summit in Miami.... though McCain's Trophy Vice must have thought she was still in Alaska.... "Sarah Palin gets cold reception in Sunshine State GOP gathering" (NYDailyNews)

It was clear that the state governors thought it was grown-up time, a time to address substantive issues. As once-considered-for-VP Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota pointedly said, " 'Drill, baby, drill!' by itself is not an energy policy" referring to the chant that became a staple of Palin's rallies - the target of his tweak was clear."

Social fundamentalists take no prisoners, give no ground. The question remains... can the GOP be deprogrammed? Possibly, with a soul-searching intervention by determined moderate voices in the GOP. But it will be an ugly exorcism.

Bailing Out the Bailout

2008-11-13T08:44:00.004-06:00

Congress gave the Bush administration the power to go to war in Iraq if all else failed.... with a misleading MWD scare. The Bush neocons snatched up that power and ran with it, right into a mismanaged wall.

That was the first "big time" Bush White House policy disaster.

Fast forward to September 2008 and the second "big time" disaster.... the collapse of the U.S. financial and housing markets.

Congress once again trusted the Bush administration with $700 billion plus to "manage" the collapse. The Bush Treasury snatched up that money and ran with it, right into a mismanaged wall.

The headline says it all... "Bailout Lacks Oversight Despite Billions Pledged - Watchdog Panel Is Empty; Report Is Unfinished" (WaPo)

The alarming news is that "In the six weeks since lawmakers approved the Treasury's massive bailout of financial firms, the government has poured money into the country's largest banks, recruited smaller banks into the program and repeatedly widened its scope to cover yet other types of businesses, from insurers to consumer lenders.

"Along the way, the Bush administration has committed $290 billion of the $700 billion rescue package.

"Yet for all this activity, no formal action has been taken to fill the independent oversight posts established by Congress when it approved the bailout to prevent corruption and government waste. Nor has the first monitoring report required by lawmakers been completed, though the initial deadline has passed."

What happened? "In approving the rescue package, lawmakers trumpeted provisions in the legislation that established layers of independent scrutiny, including a special inspector general to be nominated by the White House and a congressional oversight panel to be named by lawmakers themselves."

This rudderless bailout of taxpayer gold is drifting toward the shoals without a captain, or a crew.

Will it help that the bailout legislation provided for a Financial Stability Oversight Board "whose five members include Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke?" Hardly, "it has no staff of its own, and few expect that policymakers can conduct oversight of themselves. 'It's sort of a joke in terms of oversight,' a congressional aide said.

So, where are we? Yesterday a panicky Treasury Secretary Paulson addressed the nation.... "Treasury Redefines Its Rescue Program - Plan to Buy Distressed Assets Is Abandoned In Favor of Aid to Loosen Consumer Credit" (WaPo)

Paulson announced a series of moves that redefine the federal government's $700 billion rescue plan for the financial industry "in order to tackle what he called a dire situation in the consumer credit markets.

"In recasting the program, the Treasury no longer plans to buy troubled assets from financial firms, the idea initially presented to the country, but instead will offer aid to banks and other firms that issue student, auto and credit card loans in part by jump-starting the market that provides financing for these companies."

This latest reversal of Congressional intent evidently took The Hill by surprise.... it's stunning that they still trust, that they can still be surprised by The Decider's maladministration. It's clear that Bush has already mentally moved on to his Texas rocking chair, Paulson is the poster boy for the Peter Principle, and the Obama calvary is charging ahead but they're still in transition limbo-land.

The tourniquet needed to stop the financial hemorrhaging is public confidence in government and jobs. The administration's entire unaccountable bungling approach has made the situation worse.... consumer confidence is in the dumper.

Now it's a race to see if the economy can be kept on life support until it reaches the Obama emergency room on January 20.

Jindal Jumps the 2012 Gun

2008-11-12T10:43:00.003-06:00

A very troubling news brief this morning.... "Louisiana: Killing at K.K.K. Initiation." (NYTimes) An Oklahoma woman was killed at a Ku Klux Klan camp site after she tried to leave the initiation ritual. Her body was found about 60 miles north of New Orleans.

Also troubling is The Progress Report's update on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina issued August 29... "Three Years Later." It found that in Louisiana massive problems resulting from the hurricane remain, including "significant debris management issues," and "a cleanup fraught with environmental issues." New Orleans still has a far greater proportion of vacant homes than any other city in the country, with "more than one in three residential addresses vacant or unoccupied."

As of March, "only 13% of the $1.6 billion in the state's emergency community development block grant funds had benefited lower-income victims." And, the levees still aren't up to snuff.... threatening to "make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood."

All of this in the light of.... "Here we go again: Huckabee, Jindal visit." (DM Register) "...two high-profile Republicans will visit Iowa amid speculation that they will seek the GOP 2012 presidential nomination.... On Nov. 22, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will visit Cedar Rapids and West Des Moines to speak at several events."

Perhaps Jindal needs to spend more time in his own back yard.

Solid First Steps....

2008-11-12T09:06:00.000-06:00

This is change we can believe in.... "Obama Transition Announces Rules for Lobbyists in Transition" (change.com)

On Tuesday Barack Obama Transition Co-Chair John Podesta announced the strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history.

The rules include the policy that if someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.

Even after the transition.... if someone becomes a lobbyist they are prohibited from lobbying the administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.

And, a gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.

Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution said of Obama's lobbyist rules, "The ethical guidelines released today for the Obama transition are tough and unequivocal. They will prevent some honorable people with rich experience from serving in the transition. That is a real cost but it is more than balanced by the strong signal sent by the President-elect. He aspires to attract to government able individuals whose highest priority is to serve the public interest. This is a very constructive step in that direction."

As part of the transition, "Agency Reviews Start Monday." (WaPo) Monday Obama transition team members will start arriving at offices to start reviewing over 100 departments, agencies and commissions of the United States according to Podesta.

The former White House chief of staff said the agency review teams "will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete their confirmation process, lead their departments and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they're sworn in.”

In a demonstration of unprecedented transition transparency, Podesta said his team will publicly release the names of every person on the agency review teams and those that will enter the agencies for review.

This, fellow Americans, is what it means to "hit the ground running" next January 20. Aren't you feeling better by the moment....

Let the Wandering Begin....

2008-11-10T10:00:00.006-06:00

Rep. Roy Blunt has stepped down as House Minority Whip after a mixed decade in GOP leadership. Summing up his move, Blunt wearily noted that "Ten years of asking people to do things they don't want to do is a long time." (WaPo)

Of course that is the job of a whip, to whip the troops into line. But what if that line is hard to find, let alone defend? In a what-happened-to-my-party statement, a chagrined Blunt charged, "Republicans need to stand on their principles in the years ahead."

Too bad he didn't take that stand.

Blunt cut his House leadership teeth under the Velvet Hammer, Tom Delay, in the heydays of GOP power. In January 1999 powerful House Majority Whip Delay elected Missouri representative Blunt as his chief deputy. Then in 2005, after rising to the position of House Majority Leader, a corrupt Delay was forced to step down as Leader after being indicted by a Texas grand jury.

The handwriting should have been on the wall for an overreaching GOP House whose members had only a nodding acquaintance with their touted conservative principles of less spending and smaller government.... both of which they abandoned in a power-grabbing spending spree that turned the voters off, and them out in 2006.

So today, after the party's second decimating election, Blunt announced that he would step down from the position of Minority Whip, allowing his own chief deputy, Rep Eric Cantor (R-Va.), to ascend to the Whip post.

Blunt's departure from Republican leadership severs one of the last remaining connections between the GOP's pinnacle of power in the House and its current predicament. Listen up Democratic Congress.... there is a powerful lesson here!

Out: Bluster In: Brains

2008-11-09T09:26:00.001-06:00

Among the most pressing unresolved issues facing president-elect Barack Obama are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he, and the nation, can celebrate the GOP-fostered conflict in which he emerged victorious.... "Obama and the War on Brains."

As Nicholas Kristof exults, "Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual."

For eight years the country suffered through an incurious George, who as Kristof explains, "adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, repeatedly rejecting expertise (from Middle East experts, climate scientists and reproductive health specialists). Mr. Bush is smart in the sense of remembering facts and faces, yet I can’t think of anybody I’ve ever interviewed who appeared so uninterested in ideas."

We can all name a "is our children learning" Bushism. George relished his lackadaisical education, bragged that he didn't read newspapers and squirmed if his briefings exceeded five minutes.

The antithesis of an intellectual, Bush stubbornly held to his narrow ideology.... perhaps afraid that if challenged his intellect would be unable to assimilate new facts, ideas or complexity.... his was "my way or the highway."

As the country labored under The Decider's "stay the course" governance they increasingly rejected his intellectual superficiality. As Kristof says, "leaders self-destruct when they become too rigid and too intoxicated with the fumes of moral clarity."

Happily, with the election of Obama, intellectualism is in, and dopey unlettered mediocrity is out. Are you paying attention, Sarah?

It's Not the Impossible Dream!

2008-11-08T10:07:00.001-06:00

The people of the United States have spoken, and with their election of Barack Obama as their next president have renewed the world's faith in the American ideal.

What is it that the world is hoping will be the first things that Barack Obama does?.... close Guantanamo Bay prison, fix the domestic economy (a tall order), and "approach the world with respect." (WaPo)

"Orphan Annie" Palin

2008-11-06T09:56:00.001-06:00

Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.

But in this case, Sarah Palin may have earned the role of the failed McCain campaign's Orphan Annie.

Not to pile on, but the nation needs to know how close it came to electing this cartoon-of-a-candidate as the president-in-waiting.

Thanks to Newsweek's release of the highlights of their Special Election Report, we now know that Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent, couldn't name the U.S., Canada and Mexico as the countries in NAFTA... in short there was great concern within the McCain campaign that Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency." (HuffingtonPost)

Of course, we must halt right here. Just why didn't the campaign know she was borderline ignorant about matters of national import? But that is another story. This one is about orphan Sarah.

The $150,000 spending spree on clothes?.... it was Sarah who spent the money, and it was much more than reported. One campaign aide characterized it as , "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast."

Newsweek learned that "...Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent 'tens of thousands' more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband."

The embarrassing interview with Katie Couric?.... her staff wanted to prep her but she refused, and then when she bombed she turned on them. She read all her press clippings, throwing "tantrums" over the more critical ones.

"Palin was apparently a nightmare for her campaign staff to deal with. She refused preparation help for her interview with Katie Couric and then blamed her staff, specifically Nicole Wallace, when the interview was panned as a disaster. After the Couric interview, Fox News reported, Palin turned nasty with her staff and began to accuse them of mishandling her. Palin would view press clippings of herself in the morning and throw 'tantrums' over the negative coverage. There were times when she would be so nasty and angry that her staff was reduced to tears." (HuffingtonPost)

It was reported that "McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign." So he was evidently worse than surprised when "Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting." (HuffingtonPost)

So, is this just campaign-insider sour grapes from the losing McCain camp? Anyone who watched Palin's pathetic Couric interview knows better. Palin, perhaps deservedly, is the perfect orphan of McCain's failure.

But unlike Orphan Annie, Palin seems to be permanently separated from Daddy Warbucks McCain. As for the country.... leapin' lizards, that was a close one!

A New Spirit.....

2008-11-05T09:35:00.002-06:00

"This is a defining moment.... change has come to America." President-elect Barack Obama, November 4, 2008.

A change away from a divisive, oppressive trickle-down government to inclusive leadership that will strive to fulfill Lincoln's promise.... "of the people, by the people and for the people."

And the walls came tumbling down.... the dismantling of that wall started in Iowa.

It's possible that without Iowa, where Obama won the first-in-the-nation caucus last January, the moment might have been missed, and the country would have continued down the "bring it on" path instead of leading the way to "Yes We Can."

The election of Obama shows that, in his own words.... "the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope."

Yesterday "we the people" chose Obama, a uniquely gifted man of vision, intellect, will and judgment, to lead us out of our national nightmare, newborn into a world of possibilities where we'll no longer need to bemoan..... "What happened to my country?"

The Last Dance.... Vote!

2008-11-04T08:56:00.001-06:00

"It began in Iowa.... Now, U.S. decides." (DMRegister)

It was a whirlwind of anticipation, excitement and finally exhaustion for Iowans.... their 2008 first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.

John McCain treated the Iowa caucuses like the wallflower at the nominating prom, and saved his dances for the flashier primaries.

More than a year ago, McCain slashed his Iowa caucus campaign staff and blew off the Ames Republican straw poll in August. He finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses this January.... but cornered the GOP nomination.

When he returned to Iowa, McCain bragged about voting against the farm bill, and he never warmed to ethanol.

But now McCain is courting his Iowa wallflower.... he needs Iowa's electoral college delegates.

"I'm going to give you a little straight talk today and one of them is, as you know, we need to win Iowa," McCain said in Cedar Falls last week.

But McCain's wooing seems too little too late. Iowa voters know that it was Barack Obama who courted Iowa, built a strong organization, inspired first-time voters, reached across lines of division and won the caucuses.... eclipsing the preordained prom Queen, Hillary Clinton.

And Obama returned to Iowa to thank the voters when he secured the nomination.

Obama's win in Iowa not only put him on the road to the Democratic nomination, but as he told Iowans at a rally in Des Moines this week, "it vindicated my faith in the American people".... a faith that looked past the color of his skin to measure the content of his character.

Eugene Robinson, a black columnist for the Washington Post, said it best today in "A New Kind of Pride" .... "an amazing thing happened. In the Iowa caucuses, white Americans voted for the black guy. That's the moment Obama was referring to when he said his faith in the American people was vindicated....

"Even if John McCain somehow prevails, that won't change the fact that Obama won all those primaries, or that he won the Democratic Party nomination, or that he raised more money than any candidate in history, or that he rewrote the book on how to run a presidential campaign. Nothing can change the fact that so many white Americans entrusted a black American with their hopes and dreams.

"We can all have a new kind of pride in our country."

Amen.

Vote.

Iowa's Turning Blue!

2008-11-03T07:06:00.001-06:00

The headline: "New Iowa Poll: Obama widens lead over McCain." (DMRegister)

The gap: Obama 54% - McCain 37%

The deal breaker: "Best able to fix U.S. economy:" Obama 51% - McCain 39%. And, 58% of likely voters saw this as the most important trait in the candidates.

McCain's strong suit is national security, the question was who "can best keep America secure:" Obama 47% - McCain 45%.

Fair play? Who "has run the least negative campaign:" Obama 57% - McCain 21%.

Looking toward the future, who "will be the most successful in unifying the country:" Obama 59% - McCain 33%.

So.... will McCain's desperate ads drudging up Rev. Wright, or accusing Obama of being a socialist, or the scare-tactic robo calls turn the tide against Obama. Seems like they are having the opposite effect, although the Rovian dirty tricks worked in 2000 and 2004.

But this time, in 2008, looking at the shambles the Bush White House has made of the country's economy and foreign policy.... Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, ouch! Fool us three times, no way!!

Don't let the polls lull you into complacency.... you still must VOTE. It really matters!

We Thought We Knew Him

2008-11-02T11:25:00.001-06:00

Just who is Sen. John McCain?

As Maureen Down asks today in "Who's the Question Mark?" (NYTimes).... "In the final moments of the most gripping campaign in modern history, John McCain is still trying to costume Barack Obama as a dangerous enigma.

"But, in an odd and remarkable reversal, it is McCain who is the enigma, even though he entered the race with one of the best brands in American politics."

Dowd notes that "The McCain campaign specializes in erratica, while the Obama campaign continues to avoid any dramatica."

So just how was it that the man who was one of the most knowable politicians in America..... the Straight-Talking maverick Senator who made the press swoon.... morphed into a political alien? A crooked-talking Bushie insider spouting inanities such as "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."?

Dowd says it was when McCain hired replacement campaign manager Steve Schmidt last summer. Schmidt shackled McCain, "turning the vibrant and respected McCain into a shell of his former self.

"Schmidt abruptly cut off the oxygen supply to McCain's brain" and he became the question mark of the campaign, Dowd opines. The social McCain become "whiny, angry, vengeful and bitter."

Campaign tactics became a see-what-sticks-to-the-wall game of murky constantly-shifting policies and Obama character assassination-by-association.

McCain, like W, likes to depend on his gut for decisions, the most rumbling of which was the selection of Palin the Unpalatable.

For Dowd the "ultimate riddle is this: Why doesn't McCain question why he has become a question mark?"

Like much of the press, Dowd may have a McCain blind spot. She may not want to see that McCain allowed himself to be shackled. That he bought into the Rovian spinmeisters schemes.

And that the relentless spotlight of a fiercely-contested long campaign season exposed the very empty character-vessel beneath McCain's well-crafted public facade.

Vote. It really matters!

The Days Dwindle Down....

2008-11-01T11:25:00.003-05:00

Imagine Sinatra crooning.... "and the days dwindle down to a precious few.... September, November.... "

Take comfort, it's almost over.

Next Tuesday will end the phony "My friends," the brassy "You betchas" .... and Webster can quit spinning as word-bludgeons such as "elite" and "maverick" recede back to their actual meaning, not gimmicky soundbites.

The Decider governed by soundbites.

He justified his Iraq crusade because of Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" under the banner of "freedom on the march," and then "Mission Accomplished."

Then, when it wasn't accomplished, those who wanted to end the war wouldn't "stay the course," wanted to "cut and run," wanted to "lose" in Iraq, were unpatriotic, didn't support the troops.... and on and on.

It should have been abundantly clear by 2004 that we were a duped nation being led by a sloganeering unfit dunce of a president. We winced when he fractured the English language.... "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?."

But this Freudian slip should have sent cold chills when The Decider uttered during his re-election campaign.... "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

You can't say we weren't warned.

The "new way" was the trickle-down-enabled mushrooming debt and financial meltdown that has brought the country to the brink.

And, now the 72-year-old-Senator McSame, who voted with The Decider over 90 percent of the time, and bragged that he supported Bush on all his major initiatives, is trying his best to extend the Bush years by feeding misinformation and downright lies to the electorate.

Not able to defeat him on the field of ideas, McSame has waged a by-association smear and distortion campaign against Barack Obama.... not stopping at character innuendos implying Obama is unAmerican, a pal of terrorists, a socialist, and not-like-us in "real America."

McCain named a journalism-media major, fast-talking Annie Oakley wanna-be as his sidekick. Why? Because Silly Sarah was qualified? Not even close. Because she could deliver the far-right base and the lines fed to her by McSame's hired Rovian guns.

We can shed this shallow, Bush/McCain propagandizing cabal. So, as the days dwindle down to a precious few....

Vote. It really matters!

Bush the Deregulator

2008-10-31T08:31:00.001-05:00

In a "Last Push to Deregulate" to accommodate their corporate buddies, "The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January." (WaPo)

That's right, not satisfied with deregulating banking and Wall Street into a financial free-for-all Armageddon, "The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.

"Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining."

We must ask once again.... don't the conservative Bushies, their lobbyist enablers and corporate oligarchs breathe the air, drink the water, want to protect their children and grandchildren so they can continue to live on this earth?

Or has relentlessly narrow ideology so warped their world view that they would gamble with precious lives to add even one more piece of silver to their obscene stockpile.

"As many as 90 new regulations are in the works....the burst of activity has made this a busy period for lobbyists who fear that industry views will hold less sway after the elections."

Take for example "one rule, being pursued over some opposition within the Environmental Protection Agency would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by that plant, overturning a rule that more strictly limits such emission increases.

"According to the EPA's estimate, it would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, worsening global warming.

Another "rule would allow increased emissions from oil refineries, chemical factories and other industrial plants with complex manufacturing operations.

"These rules will force Americans to choke on dirtier air for years to come, unless Congress or the new administration reverses these eleventh-hour abuses," said lawyer John Walke of the Natural Resources Defense Council."

The new administration to reverse these outrages isn't John McSame's.... he never saw a lobbyist he didn't like.... or employ.

Vote. It really matters!

George Will Skewers McCain

2008-10-30T11:24:00.002-05:00

John McCain incessantly attacks Barack Obama over not taking matching campaign funds from the government (taxpayers) as he did. Obama out-raised him many times over through small public donations..... not PAC money, not registered lobbyists.

McCain tries to make a sinister case.... Obama broke his word, where is his money really coming from. Defense of Obama's campaign fund-raising comes from an unlikely source, conservative columnist George Will in "Call Him John the Careless."

Will points out, "McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: 'So, who is the villain?'

"McCain revived a familiar villain -- 'huge amounts' of political money -- when Barack Obama announced that he had received contributions of $150 million in September. 'The dam is broken,' said McCain, whose constitutional carelessness involves wanting to multiply impediments to people who want to participate in politics by contributing to candidates -- people such as the 632,000 first-time givers to Obama in September.

"Why is it virtuous to erect a dam of laws to impede the flow of contributions by which citizens exercise their First Amendment right to political expression? 'We're now going to see,' McCain warned, 'huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal.'

"The supposedly inevitable scandal, which supposedly justifies preemptive government restrictions on Americans' freedom to fund the dissemination of political ideas they favor, presumably is that Obama will be pressured to give favors to his September givers. The contributions by the new givers that month averaged $86."

Will dismisses McCain's tempest-in-a-teapot campaign funding scolds, reasoning that "by Election Day, $2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began in January 2007, and an additional $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests. This $5.3 billion is a billion less than Americans will spend this year on potato chips."

And silly Sarah Palin didn't escape Will's pen either. He writes, "From the invasion of Iraq to the selection of Sarah Palin, carelessness has characterized recent episodes of faux conservatism."

Will continues, "Some polls show that Palin has become an even heavier weight in John McCain's saddle than his association with George W. Bush. Did McCain, who seems to think that Palin's never having attended a 'Georgetown cocktail party' is sufficient qualification for the vice presidency, lift an eyebrow when she said that vice presidents 'are in charge of the United States Senate' "?

George Will doesn't suffer fools gladly.

And while he has not endorsed anyone for president, his comments on how McCain handled the financial meltdown almost seemed to, as he wrote in "McCain Loses His Head" (WaPo).... "Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama."

Vote. It really matters!

Broder's McCain

2008-10-30T10:30:00.001-05:00

Today David Broder wrote a thoughtful op-ed entitled "What We've Learned About McCain." (WaPo)

He reviewed what we already know about John McCain.... his military service and Senate history.... and then he zeroed in on his current performance as wanna-be president.

Broder opines, "We suspected, and soon had confirmed, that he had limited interest in, and capacity for, the organization and management of large enterprises. His first effort at building a structure for the 2008 presidential race collapsed in near-bankruptcy, costing him the service of many longtime aides. From beginning to end, the campaign that followed has been plagued by internal feuds and McCain's inability to resolve them.

"The shortcoming was intellectual as well as bureaucratic. Like Jimmy Carter, the only Naval Academy graduate to reach the Oval Office, McCain had an engineer's approach to policymaking. He had no large principles that he could apply to specific problems; each fresh question set off a search for a 'practical' solution. He instinctively looked back to Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive era, with its high-mindedness and disdain for the politics of doling out favors to interest groups. But those instincts coexisted uneasily with his adherence to traditional, Reagan-era conservatism -- a muscular foreign policy, a penchant for tax-cutting and a fondness for business."

Considering Broder's long friendship and support of both George W. Bush and his political guru Karl Rove, this is quite a startling analysis. In fact, it reads like The Decider's approach to governing.... McCain has "limited interest in, and capacity for, the organization and management of large enterprises".... McCain's "shortcoming was intellectual as well as bureaucratic." Wow!

And, he truthfully notes, that while McCain's instincts are high-minded, his actions support Reagan-era conservatism including "a fondness for business."

While giving McCain credit for being engaging and a survivor, Broder still worries that with a McCain presidency, "the country will have to hope this campaign has honed his leadership skills."

The country doesn't have to "hope"..... with Barack Obama in the White House we'll have a president with demonstrated intellectual acuity, and the management and leadership skills necessary for this critical time in the country's history.

Vote. It really matters!

Our Amazing Shrinking Economy

2008-10-30T09:45:00.001-05:00

It defies common sense.... as our "Economy Shrinks in Third Quarter," (WaPo) John McCain is still campaigning on a tax platform of tax cuts for the wealthy.

The theory is that giving tax breaks to the top 5% of taxpayers (corporations) will create jobs and benefits that "trickle down" to strengthen the "fundamentals of our economy."

We all know how that turned out... not just once, but time and again.

Ronald Reagan ran the country into deep debt with his "credit card" economy; Bush 41 dug the hole deeper (Clinton got it back on track); and Bush 43's dismal failure of trickle-down, tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy Reaganomics has resulted in bringing the country's economy to its knees.

The news today... the "U.S. economy shrank from July through September, confirming an economic slowdown that was already showing itself through steady job losses and declining consumer sales.

"Gross Domestic Product fell 0.3 percent on an annualized basis for the third quarter of the year, as consumers and businesses both curbed spending."

But it could have been much worse.... if government hadn't "increased their spending by 1.15 percent to GDP."

Yet in the face of this colossal failure, McCain is still pushing voo-doo Reaganomics, calling Barack Obama's tax plan to give tax breaks to the middle class socialism and worse.

McCain the magician wants you to keep your eyes on the pretty lady while presenting his slight-of-hand amazing shrinking economy.

Voters have seen this trick before. Vote. It really matters!

It's Obama Time!

2008-10-29T11:42:00.000-05:00

Obama's Friday rally: " The Illinois senator will headline a public rally at 11:30 a.m. in Des Moines' Western Gateway Park between 12th and 13th streets and Grand Avenue and Locust Street." (DMRegister)

Iowans invested their hope in Obama, and Obama invested in Iowa.... "Obama's campaign has expressed confidence in its Iowa organization, largely the product of an intense battle for the leadoff nominating caucuses in January. Obama has 50 offices in the state and roughly 120 paid campaign staff, compared with 16 offices for McCain and about a quarter of the paid staff."

And, Obama's campaign has recruited 6,000 volunteers in Iowa, part of the network of first-time caucusgoers that helped him earn his first-in-the-nation caucus victory early in the year.

Rallly, Iowa.... "Yes We Can!"

Religious Right.... They're Baaack!

2008-10-29T10:56:00.001-05:00

It's downright spooky.

As journalist Christine Wicker exposes today in "Evangelical Leaders Using God Like a Hired Gun" (HuffingtonPost) when the branding of Barack Obama as the anti-Christ, palling around with terrorists, and a secret Muslim didn't work, they started "using God like a hired gun to terrorize the town's people, the evangelical Christian mullahs are declaring that Obamageddon is at hand....

"...using that very word and asking as the Religious Right/Republican Townhall magazine did in a September headline, 'Could We Survive a Barack Presidency?'

"Evangelical publisher James Strang answers the survival question by warning his readers that people who hate Christianity will take over the country once Obama is elected.

"In fact, 'life as we know it will end,' Strang writes."

You can hear the wind howling, sense the ghouls skulking in wait, the Four Horsemen bearing down.....

Wicker continues, "Last week Focus on the Family's James Dobson added his own doomsday predictions with a 16-page rant about evils that will befall the United States by 2012 if Obama is elected."

But young evangelical leaders are resisting using God as their hired gun. Dobson blames misguided young evangelicals for elevating Obama. Wicker points out, "It's them he's hoping to scare most. But they and emergent church leaders such as Brian McLaren, who endorsed Obama, have broken ranks and won't be coming back.

"A great mass of other evangelicals, who never followed the evangelical mullahs and never will, are also going for Obama. Maybe Dobson thinks they'll listen to him."

But that's not likely, they're already off pursuing their own causes, and "won't be convinced by Dobson's scare tactics. They're more likely to agree with a new bumper sticker popular in Colorado, where Focus on the Family is based.

"It reads, 'Focus on your own damn family.' "

Dobson, sure that he could shoo Republican primary voters away from the Senator, said in a Focus on the Family press release that McCain "is being touted by the media as a man of principle, yet he was involved with other women while married to his first wife, and was implicated in the so-called Keating scandal with four other senators.

"He was eventually reprimanded by the Congress for the 'appearance of impropriety.' The Senator reportedly has a violent temper and can be extremely confrontational and profane when angry. These red flags about Senator McCain's character are reminiscent of the man who now occupies the White House."

"The man who now occupies the White House".... oh yes, the last guy the Religious Right elected.

And Dobson didn't leave out of that release McCain's love of alcohol and gambling.

Wicker, shining light in dark places, explains "When Dobson saw that threats to take his toys and go home didn't keep McCain from winning the nomination, he forgot his previous scruples. Now Dobson sees McCain as God's man. It's Obama who's the devil. And under God's direction, as he always is, Dobson is speaking out again...."

In his current sixteen-page delusional tirade against Obama, Dobson channels the things that could happen if Christians don't unite behind McCain.... the same McCain he branded as an adulterous, profane, violent, scandal-tainted, drinker and gambler who he is now anointing to preside over the most powerful elective office in the world.

It almost the bewitching hour. Hopefully the Religious Right's false soothsayers will be defanged and return to being merely pompous pumpkins. God must be so proud....

Vote! It matters.

Obama Returns to Iowa

2008-10-28T16:07:00.000-05:00

Iowa's favorite caucus-son will touch base.... "Obama will campaign in Des Moines on Friday." (DMRegister) Stay tuned for where and what time......

McSame: Too Many "Right" Turns

2008-10-28T09:31:00.002-05:00

The steady pace of Republicans and right-leaning Independents endorsing Barack Obama is turning into a raging torrent. Emphasis on raging. The angst seems to be.... what happened to McCain.... what happened to the GOP?

Case in point is Anne Applebaum's op-ed today in the Washington Post, "Why McCain Lost Me." As an Independent who lived in England in the 1980s and1990s and was "truly comfortable" when Conservative Margaret Thatcher ran things, she wanted to support the McCain-Palin ticket.

But, as Applebaum explains, "I'm not voting for McCain -- and, after a long struggle, I've realized that I can't -- maybe it's worth explaining why, for I suspect there are other independent voters who feel the same. Particularly because it's not his campaign, disjointed though that has been, that finally repulses me: It's his rapidly deteriorating, increasingly anti-intellectual, no longer even recognizably conservative Republican Party. His problems are not technical; they do not have to do with ads, fundraising or tactics, as some have suggested. They are institutional; they have to do with his colleagues, advisers and supporters."

Applebaum sees.... "Fiscal conservatism, balanced budgets, sober spending -- all of these principles have been brushed away as so much nonsense for the past eight years by Republicans more interested in grandstanding about how much they hate Washington."

Then there is Charles McC Mathias Jr..... a Republican who represented Maryland in the U.S. House from 1961 to 1968 and in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1986.... writes today in "My Choice: Obama" (WaPo)

He explains: "Sens. Obama and McCain have vastly different backgrounds and strikingly different visions of how America should navigate these tumultuous times. For me, the decision on who should be the next president transcends private friendship or political affiliation.

"My decision is based on the long-range needs of our country and which of these two candidates I feel is better suited to recharge America's economic health, restore its prestige abroad and inspire anew all people who cherish freedom and equality. For me, that person is Barack Obama."

A puzzled Eugene Robinson reflects on McCain and his campaign in "Campaign on Empty." (WaPo) ".... when it could hardly be more obvious that Americans desperately want to change direction -- more than 80 percent tell pollsters the country is on the wrong track -- the Republicans offer nothing new."

Yet, McCain chose to walk in lockstep with the Bush-GOP thugocracy off the right-face of the political cliff.

Robinson continues, "McCain's repeated references to 'maverick' have drained all meaning from the word, but it's true that he's an iconoclast with little reverence for Republican orthodoxy. Why he chose, in an election that was always going to be decided by independents and Reagan Democrats, to campaign on a platform of slavish devotion to Republican orthodoxy is beyond me."

It seems the obvious answer is that he sold his "maverick" political persona to the Karl Rove, corporations-first, religious-right wing of the Republican party because he though they could deliver the presidency. In so doing he became inauthentic, and in all probability, unelectable.

As Obama asks, "The question in this election is not 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' We know the answer to that. The real question is, 'Will this country be better off four years from now?' "

The growing resounding answer.... certainly not with McSame in the White House.

Vote! It matters.

Grinnell's Adelman for Obama

2008-10-27T15:27:00.003-05:00

Another conservative endorsement for Barack Obama. This time from Ken Adelman, who was President Reagan's Ambassador to the U.N. and then Director of the U. S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and accompanied Reagan on his superpower summits with Mikhail Gorbachev.

And, Adelman has an Iowa connection.... he was a philosophy major at Grinnell College before attending Georgetown University, where he received a Masters in Foreign Service Studies and Doctorate in Political Theory.

Last Friday in a Huffington Post op-ed, "Why a Staunch Conservative Like Me Endorsed Obama," Adelman explains why he decided for the first time in his life to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate.

This paragraph about sums it up, "McCain's temperament -- leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke -- and his judgment -- leading him to Wasilla -- depressed me into thinking that "our guy" would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that."

Adelman rejects the Bush-McCain brand of conservatism... he labels himself as a "staunch conservative" but not a "neo con."

Adelman explains: "I was never liberal along the way (having campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964, when at that hotbed of lefty politics, Grinnell College). I'm really a con-con.

"And not a staunch Republican, as I've never been to a Republican rally or convention. So I've considered myself less of a partisan than an ideologue. I cared about conservative principles, and still do, instead of caring about the GOP....

"Granted, McCain's views are closer to mine than Obama's. But I've learned over this Bush era to value competence along with ideology. Otherwise, our ideology gets discredited, as it has so disastrously over the past eight years."

So... as we've seen time and time again these past few months, conservatives of character and conscience disavow the Bush-McCain failed faux-conservative ideology.

Adelman's final thought, "...I concluded that McCain would not -- could not -- be a good president. Obama just might be."

McSame Needs More Than Iowa!

2008-10-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

"McCain Calls Iowa Crucial to Victory" (DMRegister) exhorting Iowans.... "to defy polls showing the Republican presidential nominee trailing in the state, and warned that Democrat Barack Obama had become overconfident. 'Now, he’s measuring the drapes. He’s planned his first address to the nation, before the election,' McCain said at a rally in Cedar Falls. 'I guess I’m kind of old-fashioned about these things. I prefer to let the voters weigh in before presuming the outcome.' ”

Where does he get this stuff?

It's hard to believe that this type of shallow campaign rhetoric ever worked in Iowa. But of course it did. In 2000 and 2004.

But not this time.

Anyone paying even half-attention knows that this time around it's different. Obama is constantly warning about not getting overconfident. Obama's rallying cry is.... "Remember New Hampshire".... where Hillary, who was down in the polls whooped Obama in the primaries.

He's taking nothing for granted in Iowa.... Obama has out-organized McCain and actively getting-out-the-vote.

Maybe McSame forgot that it was Iowa's "Yes we can" voters looking for change who launched Obama's winning nomination bid. They're proud of their cruical role in his success and looking ahead.

Yes Iowa can, did and will again.

RNC: Man the Lifeboats!

2008-10-27T10:56:00.002-05:00

With falling McCain poll numbers and 9 days until election day, the Republican National Committee is caught in the swells of a dilemma.... should they don their Navy whites and pour more wardrobe-money into McCain's leaking national campaign, or abandon the Straight Talk Depress and focus on Senate and House races that might yet be salvaged.

David Frum, former "axis of evil" Bush speechwriter, advises in his Sunday op-ed, "Sorry Senator, Let's Salvage What We Can." (WaPo)

McCain has captained what must be one of the worst-managed campaigns in recent memory.

He gave policy control to lobbyist campaign managers who crafted a ditto-Bush far-right corporatist message, picked a Moose-hunting creationist as his "anti-elite" partner (you really thought Hillary supporters would take to You Betcha' Palin?) and hired Rovian thugs to Swiftboat Obama as a pal of terrorists who is "not like us," not a part of "real America" where the campaign burrowed for votes.

And presto! McCain energized the most radical element of the GOP base and chased off the great moderate center of the electorate.

So.... well, duh.... McCain's losing.

"There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him" Frum moans.

Frum offers this save-what-you-can advice.... "In these last days before the vote, Republicans need to face some strategic realities. Our resources are limited, and our message is failing. We cannot fight on all fronts. We are cannibalizing races that we must win and probably can win in order to help a national campaign that is almost certainly lost. In these final 10 days, our goal should be: senators first."

In self-preservation, the GOP should pull-anchor on their McCain-campaign life-support. To accomplish this successfully the flagship commander should sublimate his ambition for a cause greater than himself. But it seems McCain's ambitions are greater than his grasp of such a cause.

Besides his erratic campaign efforts, a crippling blow was dealt to McCain's hopes at the meltdown of Wall Street and the Bush-Paulson-declared economic emergency... just hours after McCain had serenaded "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."

Still, the RNC and McCain stubbornly clung to his backward-leaning campaign even though he was listing badly. He resorted to easily-seen-through staged responses like "suspending my campaign" and "Joe the Plumber" who isn't a licensed plumber and doesn't pay his taxes.

And, it's not working.

The pivotal moment for the GOP is now.... will they man the lifeboats or go down with McCain's unseaworthy ship?

McCain's Waterloo

2008-10-26T14:02:00.001-05:00

Just how mentally fit is John McCain?

This week Christopher Hitchens, no-holds-barred writer and unapologetic supporter of the invasion of Iraq, endorsed Barack Obama. As his headline blares in Slate, "McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president. And Palin is just a disgrace."

Referring to the town hall debate, he observed that McCain seemed to be "someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses...

Hitchens continues, "McCain occasionally remembers to stress matters like honor and to disown innuendos and slanders, but this only makes him look both more senile and more cynical, since it cannot (can it?) be other than his wish and design that he has engaged a deputy who does the innuendos and slanders for him."

In this same town hall debate, McCain called Obama "that one" and today in Waterloo, Iowa on "Meet the Press" with Tom Brokaw he was unable to remember the name of his endorser George Schultz who he finally had to refer to as "one other."

It was a jumpy, forced-jovial, even rude McCain facing Brokaw as he dismissed the endorsement of Obama on last week's "Meet the Press" by GOP Secretary of State Colin Powell.

McCain countered by listing his own five former secretaries of state who endorsed him.... "Jim Baker, Henry Kissinger, Larry Eagleburger, and Al Haig".... and then, ".....uh," and he started listing them over again. When he couldn't come up with the name of the 5th, the said "and one other."

Then, as Brokaw started to move on to another subject, McCain burst out "George Schultz!"

McCain "dismissed the sour poll numbers that show him trailing in his White House race against Democrat Barack Obama and said his campaign is 'doing fine.' " (WaPo)

He rejected the widespread consensus.... even among a host of influential conservatives.... that Sarah Palin is not qualified for the job and is hurting his campaign.... " 'I don't defend her. I praise her. She is exactly what Washington needs,' he said, and was equally dismissive of criticism about the Republican Party spending $150,000 on her wardrobe at high-end retailers.

But, as Judith Warner points out today about Palin and the status of women in politics in "No Ordinary Woman," (NYTimes) "...women will truly have arrived when the most mediocre among us will be able to do just as well as the most mediocre of men."

Based on that sad observation, it seems McCain-Palin are a matched set.

Vote! It matters!

McSame's Tax Cut and Palin Pipeline Myths

2008-10-26T09:51:00.014-05:00

The Washington Post published a chart that was widely circulated showing the difference in the tax cuts or increases between the Obama and McCain Tax Proposals.

On it's face, it shows how McCain's plan gives huge breaks to the wealthy, while Obama's gives bigger breaks to the up-to-$111,645 income taxpayers. But this chart doesn't really tell the true story because the bottom two-thirds of the population are given only a third of the space on the graph, while the top 0.1% of the population - one in a thousand people - gets almost 10%.

Thanks to the blog site chartjunk, here is the weighted chart giving a truer picture of the tax plans:

This weighted chart factors population distribution which depicts even more clearly that Obama's tax plan is the most beneficial to two-thirds of the population.... lower and middle class taxpayers.

**************

And, while we're on the subject of clearing up the record, let's address the outsiders-against-greed-and-corruption campaign blather about "maverick" Palin's touted Alaska pipeline.

As spelled out in "Palin pipeline terms curbed bids" (AP-USA Today) "Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.

"Despite Palin's boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp.

"And contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles."

And, just what kind lobbying influence was at play?...."The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team.

"Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million."

Does this sound like a reformer?.... an outsider who will come down hard on lobbyists and insiders, a maverick who will cut costs? And, Palin's fellow "maverick" McCain has a campaign, Senate office staff and policy advisers rife with lobbyists or former lobbyists.

The "maverick" campaign lingo is just more Rovian McSame-Bush say anything truth-be-damned tactics.

They're aimed at trying to convince the majority of Americans who think the country is going in the wrong direction that the McSame ticket is the agent of change.... to once again lure them with empty words to vote against their own best interests when in fact the McCain-Palin ticket is intent on continuing The Decider's power-grabbing corporatist ways.

Vote! It matters!

Greenspan... My Bad

2008-10-25T09:43:00.001-05:00

During his run for the presidency in 2000, John McCain was drilled by a reporter about what he would do as president if something happened to then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

McCain, a self-described don't-know-much-about-the-economy, grinned and said.... "Well, I'd put sunglasses on him and prop him up like that guy in Weekend at Bernies."

Well "Bernie," who retired in 2006, was back on the Hill this Thursday where he told a Congressional committee that the economic crisis had shaken his very understanding of how markets work, and agreed that certain financial derivatives should be regulated... this from the anointed financial Maestro who heretofore vigorously resisted the "r" word.... "Greenspan Says He Was Wrong on Regulation." the Washington Post headline blares.

Greenspan's admission stuck at the very core of "trickle-down" Reaganomics as he lamented.... "I made a mistake, in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms."

Bernie thought unfettered, unregulated investment bankers and Wall Street would stifle their greed. Would let the obscene profits in their sticky palms trickle down to the middle class. Excuse me.... hah, hoo, hoo, hah, hah, hah.....!

Greed is the fairy-dust of Reaganomics. Greenspan's apparent successes in managing the economy from 1987 to 2006 were in fact illusory.... they came at the cost of building the biggest credit bubble in world history.... and the bubble has now burst.

Bernie actually saw it coming. Greenspan warned in his 2007 memoir that Washington was now "harboring a dysfunctional government.... Governance has become dangerously dysfunctional."

Now we're living with the shambles the Decider has wrought with his dysfunctional government.... a dysfunctional, deregulated, deficit-mushrooming disaster.

A stubborn McCain is now no longer interested in putting sunglasses on Bernie and propping him up since Thursday the genuinely perplexed Greenspan was hard-pressed to explain how formerly fundamental truths about how markets work could have proved so wrong.

McCain doesn't want to hear it. He's taking back the sunglasses and deserting Bernie.... he wants to ignore the demise of Bernie-Reaganomics and party on with Bush's economic agenda of tax-break-for-corporations and trickle-down lots-a-luck for the middle class.

November 4. Vote. It matters!

McSame Blasts Bush

2008-10-24T10:40:00.004-05:00

At this point in the arm-wrestle for the White House where brute exaggeration is too often employed, it is prudent to take only the words of the candidates themselves.

That is why John McCain's long litany aboard his Straight Talk Air last Wednesday is so revealing as "McCain Lambastes Bush Years.... "We Just Let Things Get Completely Out of Hand.' " (Washington Times)

And, this isn't just the slant of McCain's scorned "liberal media." As they say, "thanks to the miracle of technology" McCain's frustrated outburst was caught on tape by the Washington Times reporter.

Here's what McCain.... trying to distance himself from the eight-year reign of his party's President Bush.... had to say:

"Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously.

"Those are just some of them.... We just let things get completely out of hand."

McCain also noted how the Bush administration is failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers. In short, McCain lashed out at The Decider for dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat while leaving the country in a shambles.

So Bush did this all by himself? Where was Senator McSame during those eight disastrous years?

According to boasts by McCain during the 2008 campaign.... when he needed the GOP base and parroted the GOP "trickle down" mantra that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" .... McCain opined that President Bush did "a great job in leading the country," and that he had "voted with the president 90 percent of the time." McCain strongly affirmed that on "transcendent" issues, "the most important issues of our day," that he was "totally in agreement and support of President Bush." (YouTube)

But now, with the country teetering on the edge of financial collapse, McSame is trying to distance himself from The Decider's deeds.

His attempts to avoid blame are being trampled by the stampede of GOP faithfuls distancing themselves from McCain with endorsement of Barack Obama for president.... Christopher Buckley, son of conservative-movement icon WFB, and a now former-columnist for the National Review; Colin Powell, GOP Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Bush's first Secretary of State; and the latest Bush insider to do a mea culpa for his role in the administration, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

Now it's the electorate's turn to speak. For an angry, misled and lied-to country, an accounting is coming.

November 4. Vote. It matters!

Dorian McGray's 2008 Portrait

2008-10-23T11:52:00.001-05:00

If.... when, unless an unimaginable "October Surprise" surfaces.... John McCain loses the election, it appears he'll have no one to blame but the new McSame. The McCain of 2000 would have had a good shot at overcoming the toxic Bush years by the force of his Straight Talk persona.

But then, most noticeably in the 2004 race where he literally embraced Bush and then started his pandering courtship of the religious right, McCain started trimming his Straight Talk sails in favor of what he perceived to be the prevailing voter-base wind....the Karl Rove base.... culminating a month ago with his naming of the unfitted vacuous but well-packaged Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Now in angry desperation, as he sees his chances slipping away, "McCain Tries To Push Past Palin Backlash." (WaPo)

Even after it was discovered that the RNC spent $150,000 on Silly Sarah's clothes, hair and makeup, "his campaign dismissed the latest controversy over his running mate as coming from elitists and not representing the opinions of average Americans."

What is more elitist than cloaking your VP in Saks runway-knockoffs while pretending she's "just like us."

No matter how McCain tries to spin it, he started losing his bi-partisan broad-base following when he caved to the GOP hard right that he had campaigned against and repudiated in 2000. And with his choice of Palin "a majority of voters now say McCain's vice presidential pick reflects poorly on the decisions he would make as president, according to the Post-ABC News poll. Overall, 52 percent of likely voters said they are less confident in McCain's judgment because of his surprise selection of Palin..."

At a rally today longtime friend of McCain and Barack Obama's choice for VP, Joe Biden, said after stumbling over the name of McCain that he did so "because I don't recognize him anymore. I used to know him well."

McSame has become the political portrait of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray bargained to retain his beautiful persona by having his ageing reflected only in his portrait. Untouched personally as his debauchery steals his soul, Gray's portrait turns into the disfigured, aging reflection of his true self.

The country has watched a similar ugly transformation in the portrait of McCain's campaign. Palin is but the latest cynical calculation of a candidate who traded his for-a-cause-larger-than-yourself instincts for political gain. Not a pretty picture.

November 4. Vote. It matters!

McCain Bashes Bloggers

2008-10-22T10:55:00.001-05:00

Not smart, Senator McNasty. You just don't get it, do you. Thanks to John Deeth's Blog for posting on this McCain Straight Talk about bloggers. (YouTube)