...And It Still Is...

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a tradition in my home.  It is the only time of the year that I will sit through three hours of marketing.  When the kids were small, there was no (very loud) heckling.  Now that they are grown, we do our own little version of MST3K.

The Macy's Day Parade really does highlight the worst of the worst of Americana.  This year, for example they even isolated their diversity segment -- no Native Americans or Hispanics scattered throughout the parade; they were all collected about 3/4 of the way through.

But every year, they have one awesome event.
 
This year there was Arlo Guthrie singing This Land Is Your Land. Arlo is a Thanksgiving tradition, and if your family doesn't listen to Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving, then you might as well not have turkey.  And his father Woody Guthrie wrote the freedom songs of the 20th century.

And this year, when the Supreme Court has declared corporations to be individuals, and Congress refused to increase the national debt by funding medical care for 9/11 first responders, there was Arlo reminding us that this land, indeed, was our land.

He even sang a verse that I believe was a new one, and spoke to us in 2010.  But I could not provide it here; Macy's blocked out the you-tube videos, due to copyright infringement.

Irony abounds, and while this land still does belong to you and me, we need to continue to fight for it, and I am thankful that Arlo was there to sing it to us.

Democrats Reframe!

I don't get why the voters don't get that the rich need to pay more taxes.  And that the wealthy shouldn't get to pass on their wealth to kids that haven't earned it.

I believe it really must speak to our indoctrination of what we believe America should be.  The land of the free means we get to keep what we got, which is why the charge of "socialism" is so heinous.

We can't seem to fight back by pointing out that people are dying from lack of or inadequate health care, or that people have lost their homes because they lost their jobs because corporations are buying cheap labor in third world countries.

Morality doesn't seem to have anything to do with this fight.

Whenever the republic party senses that they are losing a battle, they immediately sic their promotional/advertising powerhouses on the problem.  They have lots of them, and they are highly motivated to solve this problem, because the problem has everything to do with power and money, and this is what they do, and, as Mike Steele would say, how they roll.

We are always, always caught running behind in these fights.  Take the abortion battle.  We had to come up with pro-choice after the anti-abortionists framed the battle as being "pro-life" (which made us "anti-life").  Pro-choice just doesn't compare dynamically with pro-life.

And then there was the estate tax, which brought to mind, well, estates.  So it became the "death tax", which brings to mind images of the grim reaper taking your life savings along with your last breath.  And we haven't come up with a better way to advertise the estate tax.  If you talk to plain old ordinary people, i.e. voters, about this tax, they will probably refer to it as the "death tax", because it's just simpler than the phrase "estate tax".  We are all familiar with death, less so with estates.

So we have voters who are terrified of the national debt, and more terrified of taxation.  At this point, I don't think the republic party has come up with a catchy phrase for their side.  They are just repeating ad nauseum the threat that if taxed, the wealthy won't be able to give us jobs.  It is lame, and it doesn't have a catchy ring to it.

Now is the time to get our best and our brightest to work on this problem.  Ex republicans like David Brock and Arianna Huffington would be able to grasp the problem in an instant.  We need some private meetings in some smoke-free rooms.  And then we need to spread the word, the word being the bright new liberal catch-phrase for taxing the wealthy.  We need to make sure that everyone from Harry Reid to Keith Olbermann to Stephen Colbert to Ben Bernanke to Oprah has that phrase on their lips.  We need to make it a household word.

Because what we should have learned by now, is that it is not about the issue, it is about the packaging.

So You Say You Want a Revolution...

I have been getting emails from the South Carolina Democratic Party asking for my input via questionnaire, sending me the message that they want to change.  We can do it!

Well, I know they are sincere, and yes the words sound right, but I am skeptical.  Looking back on this last embarrassment of an election season, I would like to put forth a few ideas of my own.

First of all, we need to do something about the rotten primary system in this state.  The rot gets worse every election season.  The worms are in the voting system, and we can argue from here to tomorrow whether or not Alvin Greene really was nominated legitimately or not.  Fact is, we repeatedly allow people to get nominated who do not at all represent the ideals of the democratic party.

I believe that the easiest way to avoid the process called raiding is to have closed primaries.  Yes, democrats choose democratic nominees and republicans choose republican nominees.  Is that really a bad thing?  It is, after all a primary election, which purpose is to choose the best party affiliated nominees.  No, it does not give a person the freedom to go into a voting booth and choose the candidate most likely to be a laughingstock of the opposing party, which I have actually heard people admit to doing.  If you want the most honest primary possible, this is the way to do it.

Next most important move is going to be for the South Carolina Democratic Party to post, publish, advertise, disseminate, information regarding all democratic primary candidates.  It would not have taken volumes of information on candidates Vic Rawl and Alvin Greene to change the results of that primary, that is, if the primary itself was not corrupted.  If, as some say, the voters just gave it their best shot, which apparently was ABC order, we need to make their best shot a lot more informed.

Finally, after the primary is all said and done, the South Carolina Democratic Party needs to espouse democratic ideals.  We need to stop putting forth candidates that are afraid to say that businesses and the wealthy need to pay a reasonable share of taxes, and to have the data that proves that massive tax cuts for businesses neither considerably increase the number of jobs nor the quality of employment opportunities.  We need to be willing to prove that taxes do good stuff, that government jobs improve the standard of living of South Carolinians.  That good schools and libraries are a better idea than more jails.  That privatizing has cost the taxpayer more for less service.  That businesses need to act with responsibility, and their primary responsibility is to be a member of the community, and not merely to their bottom line.

And our good candidates need to unite; they need to pool resources and get in front of the people of South Carolina, with a united message, and they need to support each other.

In this last shameful election, we had good people who ran because the primary system didn't work, and they were good democrats who were abandoned by the South Carolina Democratic Party.  This is why we lost.  Because we were unable to think our way around this problem.  We could not come forward and support someone like, say, Tom Clements because he was running as a Green Party candidate.  And we couldn't have, say, Vincent Sheheen, another good candidate, form an alliance with this other good candidate.

So here we are, with Nikki Haley and Jim Demint.  Who are not afraid to do whatever it takes to convince voters that they are where the power lies.

Real Tears

Steven Loeb's headline is "Weeper of the House".  I wish I had thought of that.   Rachel Maddow's article on John Boehner's propensity to burst into tears was interesting and welcome.  Yes, there is nothing wrong with crying.  Yes, we do have to listen to the words as well.  In some cases, though, we need to also pay attention to the tears.

Boehner continues to speak emotionally of his rough childhood, his hard work climbing up the ladder to success.  The getting choked up business, though, means that he has lots of issues surrounding this fact of his life.

Many of us have to fight our way up.  Many of us fight hard and don't make it.  Many of us make it and lose it, often through no fault of our own.

John Boehner has never gotten past the narcissistic narrative of his having fought and won.  In fact, he treats each battle as another that he has to win in order to succeed.  The battles are not about the middle class, or those who have suffered through a bad economy through no fault of their own.  The battles are about fighting for those who have fought and won.  In other words, the battles are for John Boehner.

This is why Boehner is passionate about the government not taxing the wealthy.  It is HIS money, and he worked hard for it.

John Boehner is incapable of empathy, although he does tend to use the word without shedding a single tear, as he did in July when he stated that three of his eleven brothers were unemployed, although he did not know for sure whether they had found jobs yet.

Okay, folks, read that last part again.  Millionaire John Boehner throws out the word "empathy" as in, "See, I empathize with you unemployed because I  have three brothers who are unemployed."  Period.  End of concept of what John Boehner thinks is empathy.  Because he follows that bit about three unemployed brothers with the totally unironic statement that he has no idea if they are currently employed.

What is at the bottom of all those tears, then?  Could it be rage, that there are others out there who have not worked as hard, or succeeded as well, yet want the government to help them out?  I'm totally imagining a family in which you either made it, or you had hell to pay.  No handouts in the Boehner household.

And now the House is the Boehner household.  So don't expect any handouts.  Or sympathy.  Or especially empathy.

And for pete's sake, stop crying.

Who Wants to Be a Superpower?

A few days ago, after passionately writing herein about President Obama's caving to the republic party regarding tax breaks for the wealthy, I attempted to email Keith Olbermann.  Time after time, the email came back as unreceivable, and when I investigated further, I found that the address I was sending, countdown@msnbc.com, was being read as something different.  I tried to alert MSNBC, but apparently being too big to care, I never heard back from them, but at least that email wasn't returned.  And then I stopped trying to send the original email because, to be honest, I was a little spooked.

And then the threats from WikiLeaks, that they would attack any institution that attempted to mess with them.  And then word that they had, apparently attacked.  DOS, denial of service, attacks were reported to have occurred at PayPal, VISA and MasterCard, seemingly in retaliation for those companies refusal to accept donations to WikiLeaks.

Let me urge you to read Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It by Richard A. Clarke.

The threats that Clarke describes are not around the corner; they are here.  While we argue about whether the wealthy and the country's largest corporations should be allowed to die with their wealth intact, China, Russia, North Korea, and independent hackers are studying vulnerabilities in US cyber networks.  And we have a lot of vulnerabilities.

Caught in the debate around privacy issues versus the right of the government to access our access, we do nothing.  Yet we surely know that hackers are in and out of our systems constantly.

Big banks and other private industry resist developing cyber security measures because, in the style of Scrooge McDuck, they prefer to deny the threat in order to have more pennies to pinch.

The utilities that represent the half-dozen or so major internet service providers also provide the gateway to internet access, and internet hacking, yet refuse to come together to find a system to protect the country from cyber attack.

And of course, all of the above want the government to stay out of their business,  a policy which our presidents, democrat and republican, honor.

So, what it comes down to is that this huge superpower is very vulnerable, and unwilling to face that vulnerability.  The psycho-state of North Korea, by virtue of not having any internet, also lacks vulnerability.  Ironically, that gives North Korean government-sponsored hackers control that a nuclear weapon could never wield.

So what are our options?  I could get really crazy paranoid, I guess, and that would do no good.  I could continue to live in the state of denial, where I would have lots of company.  The middle ground is to continue to try to be heard, writing and calling legislators, sending letters to the editor, blogging.

With a Congress that is more concerned with tax breaks for the wealthy and keeping gay men and women out of the military, I don't hold out a great deal of hope for intelligent legislation on cyber security.

Perhaps our president will stand up and demand regulated, monitored and safe cyber security.

And if that doesn't happen, Italy and England seem to have done okay since their demotion from being superpowers.  How bad can it be?

Reality Check

President Obama prepares to

face 112th Congress

I thought I had heard it all.  Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell haranguing members of Congress for wanting to fight Obama's conciliation on tax cuts for the wealthy.  When I heard that Bernie Sanders, independent Senator from Vermont and my hero, and Jim Demint were fighting on the same side on this issue, and in fact received emails encouraging me to write Demint supporting his position, I thought my head would explode.

Time to step back.  It was not that long ago that we had a republic congress, a congress that would not even approve an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour, not even when gas prices went to $3.00 and over.  The party of no was in power, and why were we surprised when they lost power that they only yelled louder.

The problem back in 2009 was that the most powerful Democratic Congress in my lifetime refused to use that power to its advantage.  Instead, each individual considered its own little piece of power, and assisted the republic party in blocking important legislation, in order to demand ridiculous concessions.  The health care bill was the epitome of self-defeating behavior.  Bart Stupak insisting on anti-abortion legislation, while allowing people to continue to die without coverage.  Ben Nelson's "cornhusker kickback" which was more egregious for not including Medicaid funds for all states than for the insistence on funds for Nebraska in return for his support of the bill.  Blanche Lincoln, blue dog to the end, which came for her on November 2, when she lost to a real republican, insisted on gutting the public option from the bill.

These narcissists did not just vote against the bill, they voted to prevent the bill from being brought up to the floor for debate.

Makes a person proud to be a Democrat, yes?

And at the helm was a new young president who truly believed that if you treated Congress like adults they would act like adults.

So who is to blame for this current mess of a deal?  The republic party appears to be the only group that is showing consistency.  They may be in the pockets of the corporations, but they can be relied on.

Which is what the voters seemed to have wanted all along. 

The Conciliator

I have been so confused about the President I thought I had voted for, and the President we apparently got.  So I have thrown myself into reading about candidate Obama, and have learned that we actually got the guy who ran.

Barack Obama believes in reconciliation.  The "not a blue America or a red America thing" -- he really believes that.  Just as we all heard ad nauseum about Lincoln's "team of rivals", initially through the admirable research and writing of Doris Kearns Goodwin, and then after Obama's election, as we liberals were dealt one shocking Obama choice after another.  The first shock I recall was the Rev. Rick Warren, who represented none of the social ideals that Obama claimed he would defend.

Then there were the bizarre appointments and attempts at appointments:  Timothy Geitner, Judd Gregg, Lawrence Summers, please stop me.

Obama, I believe, was in his element during the Beer Summit, bringing together a police officer who had definitely overstepped his authority and the African American victim of that act for what must have been an extraordinarily awkward command performance.

When I hear Barack Obama attempting to find common ground with people who have clearly and repeatedly not just disagreed on all points but called for his demise, I think of his two incredible daughters, for whom reason and compromise has no doubt worked much better than it ever could with his political adversaries.

What it comes down to is priorities.  For Barack Obama, reconciliation is more important than winning.  However, it is apparently also more important than doing what is right.

In the remaining two or six years of Barack Obama's administration, I believe we will not see the following:

We will not see the United States become a wholehearted participant in restoration of the environment.  Nations with as many hopes as I had have been just as confused by Obama's unwillingness to take matters in hand and fight for measures to reverse the effects of global climate change.  Those of us who believed Obama could lead our economy to the forefront of environmental technology will be greatly disappointed.

We will not see a lessening of the chasm that separates the rich from the poor.  That our President sees us as hostages, and bargains away our future because he is afraid we are in danger, gives me chills.  There are reasons why we do not negotiate with hostage takers.  The fallout from this sellout will be huge.  President Clinton figured out that sometimes it takes calling their bluff, and not beling too afraid of the consequences to stand up to bullies.

We will neither see great gains in regulation of industry, nor certainly an era of corporate responsibility.  The most important result of the Wall Street bailout was not that we got our money back; it was that our government allowed itself to be used by corporate bankers, who used us happily without condition, without a promise to change, without shame.

We, the American people, Congress, corporate America, the nations of the world, heard the rhetoric and believed we were not only getting a President with strong ideals, but with the strength to stand up and fight for those ideals.  Instead, he left us stranded, from Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders, to the small business owners looking for real relief, to those of us who will not have affordable health insurance, or a living wage, or hope that our children will live better than us. 

Okay, Then, Let's Make a Deal

I am discouraged that we are allowing corporations and Wall Street bankers to dictate the debate on tax cuts.  But as long as our elected representatives are going sing a song of tax cuts for the wealthy, and pretend that they even believe our civilization would crash without them, it is time to put some conditions on the tax cuts.

We have been hearing about how tax cuts for the wealthy are what is needed to create jobs; I have heard some brave souls asking, "If that is true, why have we not had job growth over the past ten years?"  And then I hear the echo of nobody answering.  And the media ignoring the question.  And worst of all, I don't hear our President taking up this important question.

I believe jobs have been held hostage pretty much since the 2006 Democratic Congress; the trend had been going on over the years since Reaganomics and downsizing, when profit became more important than quality, jobs, and even the survival of the company.  And the country allowed capitalism to become a beast where profit was the only motive, and ethics were irrelevant.  The government sold out to those who claimed deregulation was the key to the economy.  And tax cuts were the only thing that would create growth.  And when the Democrats came into power, and the beast felt threatened, it brought our economy to a standstill, hoarding its gold and intimidating our elected leaders with its power.

Aren't we all gullible?  We Democrats, from the President on down, have all been cowing under the Republican flag of tax cuts, when it has been proven, dramatically, that continuing to feed the beast just makes it hungrier.

The voters, terrified of losing jobs and savings, have been afraid to see the obvious.  Major media outlets representing large corporations make certain that their reporting does not wander into confrontational or controversial territory.  Our Congress mostly does what it's told; they aren't the bad guys, they are the puppets of the bad guys.  And our Supreme Court has also sold out, allowing corporations even greater control with absolutely no responsibility.

So I believe that this deal that is going down should have some contingencies, just as did the auto bailout.  Jobs need to be proof, in two years, that the tax cuts are working, and under no condition will they be renewed in two years (another election cycle) unless there are jobs and economic improvement to show for them.  It is time that the wealthy were given something other than free reign and ownership of our government.  It is time that we all start expecting something back for the wealth they owe to this country, the people and the government.

Model Senators

I've been listening to the Don't Ask Don't Tell hearings on C-SPAN.  I was impressed with the spirit of honor and pride shown by all the military officials giving testimony.  Basically, the consensus of our military is that implementing the repeal of DADT can and will be done, with little disruption of the military.

John McCain, who appears to grow crazier by the day, was the one holdout of the committee members, grabbing onto the few statements indicating support of not repealing the policy at this time, even though there was agreement that it would be repealed with little fanfare at some future time.

McCain is an angry man, the more impotent he becomes, the angrier he gets, and I'm not talking about his sex life, because he has excellent, government provided health care.  It amazes me that he continues to get reelected, although he is from Arizona, and I believe he ran on the same ticket as Jan Brewer, the Crazy Hate Ticket.  It was an ideal match:  paranoid delusions of headless Mexicans crossing the border with drugs hidden in unmentionable places, which must have excited McCain's homophobic fantasies.

I wonder what it must feel like to be John McCain, hearing your old words played back to back with your new words every day.  I imagine the need for rigid denial must be great, so that it has become ever easier to ignore reality in order to appease his crazy voices.

I could go on forever, but that would be mean and pointless.  The point is, however, that a crazy and mean person, with fragile psychological defenses, has the power to prevent our government from functioning.  He has the power to make our legislators waste valuable time and resources on debating whether we should maintain a ban on gays in the military that other civilized countries have long abandoned.

In short, he has caused our military to suffer through painful ambiguity that could easily and professionally be resolved, with a stronger military as a result.

So, as I listened to each member of the military brass, in turn, state that they are positive that they could effect the transformation to including gays in the military with little negative effect, and in fact that our servicemen and women would act honorably and professionally, I had two reactions.

I was filled with pride, and

I wished it were possible to allow these men to serve as adjunct members of the Senate, where they could model grown-up behavior to our current legislators.

That's the Spirit

Joseph Shamie, CEO of Delta Children's Products, was quoted on Friday's NBC Nightly News:  "In order for Delta to start hiring, we need to know where our taxes are going, where health care is going."

As he owns a relatively small family business, I would have liked to ask him in which direction he was hoping to see taxes and health care going.  Sadly, this was left out.  Until I did a little research at Reference USA I assumed this was some big businessman rooting for tax cuts and the death of the health care legislation.  Now I am thinking that either he is misguided and assume he doesn't know that tax cuts would apply to him as a small business owner, and that health care legislation would benefit him, or he is in fact rooting for Democratic tax cut legislation to pass as well as preservation of the health care legislation.

Again, what is doing in the Democrats appears to be misinformation, inadequate information and  poor reporting.

I have no doubt that big corporate interests are refusing to hire because, a) it increases profit, and b) it holds the U.S. Government hostage by so doing.

The more I hear Boehner and McConnell and the members of their chorus in Congress, the more rote and unconvincing sound the words.  Tax cuts for the wealthy make no sense.  While most in Congress would gain considerably from an extension of these cuts, I believe they are more controlled by threats from Big Business than by the dollars they themselves will enjoy from the extension.

Business controls us in ways we can't even imagine, although it would be to our best interest to try to understand the behind-the-scenes manuevers.  For wealth, Ken Lay knowingly ran Enron into the ground, the Wall Street bankers gambled on the US economy, and big food conglomerates are willing to risk the safety of the American people.  And every day our Congressmen and women are meeting and greeting the leaders of industry and their lobbyists, and being told in no uncertain terms that it will bode ill for them and our country if they do not tow the line on tax cuts, as well as relief for the middle class.


We need to recognize that the welfare of this country is being decided in board rooms and by lobbyists, and that for the past four years they have determined the "Just Say No" strategy of our Congressional republic leaders.  Because we need to know not just who is mouthing the words, but who the puppet masters are.

Only that Simple

During a moment of frustration at work today, actually, as the frustration built up, as I learned more and more dicta and policy changes that were coming down from on high, I imagined a day when I wasn't dependent on my job.  I imagined walking up to the director and saying, simply, "You know, you're really kind of creepy."

I got just enough pleasure from that thought to make it through the day.

And as I was catching up on news a little while ago, as Rachel Maddow was talking about the DADT perpetual state of idiocy, I imagined having the opportunity to walk up to John McCain, and just as he was about to shake my hand (thinking I was a voter of course), looking him in the eye and saying, "You know, you really are a jerk."

Then I thought about John Boehner, who has apparently in solidarity to those of us who are not millionaires given up the tanning beds, and what I would say to him:  "You know, you really are a whiny spoiled brat."

Jim Demint:  "You know, you really are dumber than dirt."

I know, that last one wasn't as constructive a criticism as the others, but why toss your pearls before swine, if you know what I mean.

Well, I feel a lot better now, even though we still have all those self-absorbed idiots in high places.

Public Property

At a time when our bodies are no longer private, but subject to x-ray, our emails are "read" for advertisement content, national id is just around the corner and RFID is a marketing tool, isn't it time for corporations, who are after all individuals, to share as well?

I understand that Comcast is claiming it has the right to charge NetFlix for using their cable, and a pharmaceutical company can own the rights to a person's genes.  Car manufacturers can buy the rights to the great oldies and sell their metal pollutants to songs that remind us of our youth.  Amazon has records of every book I've ever bought, and lets me know it with a smiley face that says, we'll take care of you, we'll tell you what you want to buy next.

So how is it that corporations get to own stuff and keep it secret, but we don't?  Why is every single thing I do available to corporations and the government, but pharmaceutical companies get to hoard their research findings, prohibiting further research and competition?  Why does a cable company get to lay down cable through my neighborhood, and then own the rights to it forever?

And why is a corporation allowed to benefit from government research, investment, subsidies, with absolutely no obligation to us, the American people?

Why do we continue this fantasy that a corporation does so much good that it owes nothing?  That in and of itself, a corporation has the right to merely serve itself?  Capitalism for its own benefit spawns greed and stagnation.  Capitalism is at its best with solid government regulation, because the theory corporatism espouses is not just amoral, it is immoral.  Capitalism which injures innocent people for profit (health insurance), which prohibits research and growth (pharmaceutical), which inhibits or prohibits access to information (internet neutrality, free wireless access), these are all immoral.  When our government has to provide airports as well as airport security, while the airlines are charging for everything but use of the restroom (wait, it's coming), we need to rethink what capitalism is, and what a democracy should be in relation to it.

I don't need to hear one more time about how we need to be giving corporations tax breaks for the privilege of making profit from our communities.  I believe it's time our government rethought to whom it was responsible:  the citizen or the corporation.

Put Up or Pay Up

In this neverending debate about extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, I never hear what I think is the big question, although there is quite a bit of tap dancing around it.  I hear Democrats say that the tax cuts haven't worked in the ten years they have been in existence.  The representatives of the corporations in the republic party claim that without the extension of the tax cuts, businesses would not have the money necessary to create jobs.  I even hear some brave souls ask why, if this were the case, jobs were lost and not created during the tax cut years.

The big question is:

When is business going to step up and take responsibility for themselves?

Look around.  What corporate giant doesn't get bailouts and handouts from the government on a steady basis?

The federal government sinks money into airports so that airlines can make huge profits.  As a result of these huge profits, not possible without the American traveler or the federal government, the airlines neither pass on savings, nor do they increase jobs, job security, or job benefits.

In fact, as the government has stepped up to take on the full responsibility for airport and flight security, the airlines have stepped back by further automating check-in, and cutting staff positions on the front lines, where people should be interacting and observing passengers as a very natural and common sense function of improving anti-terrorism security.

The federal government pours money into health care, by subsidizing private hospitals and insurance companies, who make enormous profits.  Again, pass on the savings?  Not their responsibility.  Likewise for the pharmaceutical industry, who benefits from government money for research and development, and then is allowed to own the findings (including individual genes), thereby maximizing profit and prohibiting further scientific development and growth.

The Supreme Court decision granting personhood to corporations allowed them to exert control over the election process, without taking any of the responsibilities of personhood.  We have carried the philosophy of capitalism to the extreme in which they are expected to be immoral in the interest of greater profit.  That's right, immoral, not amoral.  Because there are people making corporate decisions, and when they make decisions that injure others, it IS immoral.

We need to reframe this argument.  The wealthy should not give up their wealth to take care of the rest of us.  They have the responsibility to use their wealth to further the society which allowed them to be wealthy.  They have the responsibility to create jobs, jobs that pay a living wage.  They have the responsiblity to invest in infrastructure, and research.  They have the responsibility to pay taxes, to allow the government from which they benefit to continue to function.

Beginning in the Reagan era, the philosophy of wealth regressed to the mentality of the robber barons.  Capitalism meant gathering wealth for its own sake.  Capitalism meant using the federal goverment to further power and profit.  Capitalism meant never having to say you're sorry.

The eighties were the years of "He who dies with the most toys wins."  Why on earth haven't we realized that not only does that not work, it is neither true nor funny?  As the middle class has stagnated, as our rating in health care, education, longevity have sunk in comparison to other developed countries, why on earth don't we understand what is happening?  Why are we so afraid to see that capitalism is not only NOT democracy, capitalism seeks to  curtail democracy.  Capitalism is a tyranny that feeds on democracy.  It lives off the people's government and starves the people while bloating with its own useless wealth.

Jobs were not created during the Bush years initially because tax cuts and government handouts allowed for more corporate profit without any annoying increase in the cost of labor.  But as the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006, and especially since the 2008 landslide presidential election, corporate America has been holding us all hostage.  The past two years, the argument has been that corporations need more financial freedom and less regulation, otherwise the American people will suffer.  The proof is the stagnating jobless rate.

But the reality is that the failure to create jobs has been the boon of the republic party, which represents the corporation.  Had businesses acted responsibly, as they have long stopped doing, they would have used their fortunes to invest in research and development and to create jobs.  But that would have most likely resulted in an electorate that would have voted from reason and confidence and not out of fear, giving the Democratic party continued control of Congress.

The Democrats drop the ball when they fail to challenge business to prove it deserves its power and capital, as President Obama challeneged the auto industry.  The banking industry, the insurance industry, the airline industry, all need to be challenged.  If they want to profit from doing  business in America, they need to act responsibly.  THEY need to stop expecting the federal government to keep paying for their greed and negligence.  And as long as they are not stepping up, the federal government needs to take more control, only give funding under specific conditions, and collect taxes adequate to maintain the wellbeing of the hard-working Americans to which the corporation is really, truly beholding.

Still a Few Things to Be Thankful For

Yes, I know, sometimes it's better to curse the darkness than light a stinking candle.  But this evening before Thanksgiving, I want to take a few minutes to list some things that I am thankful for.

I am thankful that Jan Brewer is not the governor of South Carolina.  Even Nikki Haley looks good next to her.

I am thankful that my son got through airport security and he's on his way home.  I don't know how much security he had to go through, but I will give him an extra long hug when I see him, because I can't be there to yell at people for him and try to protect him anymore.

I am thankful that the democrats still hold the Senate, although heaven help us, it's Harry Reid.

I am thankful for every day that John Boehner is at the tanning salon instead of the floor of the House.

I am thankful that George W. Bush is signing books instead of legislation.

I am thankful to all the people who stood up to protest full body scanners by giving over their bodies for a grope.  We Americans need to fight more and whine less.  We (including me) need to be willing to stand up for others, and stand up for our liberties, even though it may be inconvenient, and sometimes even painful.  I don't know if I have the courage to fight for my rights, but I need to try, because they are after all, my children and grandchildren's rights that I will be protecting as well.

I am thankful for President Barack Obama, rather than President John McCain.  And for Vice President Joe Biden rather than Vice President Sarah Palin.  And it gives me the creeps to even type the words.

I am thankful that, in the year 2010, I still have the freedom as an American to refrain from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, which, after all, a great many people who do not even feel strongly enough about their country to get out and vote, will unhesitatingly recite the Pledge.  It is, after all, just words, and meaningless without thought and action.

I am thankful that I have health insurance, crappy as it is, and I am ever hopeful that the Tea Party will someday wake up and realize that they are not fighting for liberty, but fighting for wealthy corporate interests.  I hope that someday we all will think more about what other people don't have than what we are afraid we might lose.

I am thankful I no longer have children in the public schools.  And isn't that a sad thing???

I am thankful for citizens like Tom Clements and Rob Groce, who stood up against great odds to try to pull South Carolina out of the mess we are in.

I am thankful that Mark Sandford will soon have the time to hike anyone's Appalacian Trail for which he feels the desire.  I wish he would take Nikki hiking with him.

I am very thankful that, for a few days, I will have my family with me.  Lots of laughs at the "Macy's Day Parade", some Monty Python's Not the Messiah -- (He's a Very Naughty Boy), Christmas cookies because you have your holiday when you have your people with you, and of course, a huge turkey, etc.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Miss Me Yet?"

Hey, wait - it's only been two years!  One of the most decent things W. had done was disappear after President Obama's inauguration.  One of the happiest sights I'd ever seen was this former president's backside.  I know, it meant I couldn't wear my "Somewhere in Texas a village is missing its idiot" t-shirt anymore, because hallelujah! it wasn't true anymore.  He may still be lost, but now he's found.

And then the inevitable bad news.  The smaller Bush had moved up from reading The Pet Goat to "authoring" a book.  I say "authoring" because, as he admitted :

"I have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn't think I could read, much less write."

Sarah Palin at least admitted to having a ghost writer.  But if you believed in weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, I guess you might buy a book written by W., himself.  But be forewarned, if you do buy the book, every penny of the profits will go to Bush.

Not even a penny to stock his presidential library.  That's right, our tax dollars will continue to pay for this guy's infamy.  So, instead of actual cash, which, thanks to eight years of the Bush presidency, I am quite short of, thank you very much, I would like to donate my very own books.  These are documents of the eight years that were painstakingly, even lovingly, collected by me, and I will be sending the "former president" a photo so that he can find a suitable location.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

I live on an island with one main road that after two miles, forks and becomes two main roads.  Until some ten miles later, when it ends.  No public water, gas stations, grocery stores.  Most of the traffic, too much for me, but relatively little compared to the rest of the world, is just us chickens.  We travel the same lovely miles every day, back and forth.

So I was surprised, a couple of years ago, to suddenly see, in my ten mile commute, that someone had snuck in overnight and placed a number, i.e. more than one, of signs on the road that said:

First off I thought, what an eyesore.  Certainly gets in the way of a very pretty drive.  And then I wondered who on earth would be driving down this particular stretch of road and need to be told that this is a "Local Byway".  NOT ONLY THAT, but it appears to be a "Local Byway" after the road branches, because if you are traveling back to the mainland (in this case another island) there is another sign that says "Scenic Byway".  As opposed to "Local Byway".  Which I'm sure doesn't mean that my route isn't scenic; I think it's probably more scenic than the two miles before it divides.

Anyway, this led me to believe that a bit of thought had gone into this, which surprised me, because, to be honest, I can't imagine who would have nothing better to do than plan to put up "Byway" signs, scenic or otherwise, on a fairly deserted, rural stretch of road that in fact is a byway to nowhere.

I was disgruntled, but there are so many other things to complain about that I'm ashamed to say I just let the stupid signs blend into the beautiful scenery along with the all the other annoying signs, necessary and un-.

Until three days ago when some sinister road crew snuck in and put up HUGE traffic signs, pretty much anywhere on the road when a person needed to do something other than keep going.  Not only were these huge, horrifically ugly signs up everywhere, but also, a few feet before you got to the point where you needed to do something, there were HUGE SIGNS warning you that the signs telling you to DO SOMETHING were coming up.  AND THEY WERE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE STREET.

I took it quite personally.  Not just because they were an eyesore.  Not because they are totally unnecessary.  Although those are both totally large factors in my anger.


Could we have spent that money elsewhere?  How about the one percent additional sales tax that we struggling Charlestonians have agreed to pay in order to fix schools that our government claims not to have money to repair?  Or how about the furloughed teachers who get paid so much less anyway than educators in neighboring states?  Our struggling libraries?  Our parks?  Our police and fire fighters?

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING OF???

And this, my friends, is why people hate the government. 

Not Just for Rapists Anymore

How about the way the TSA tells you they are hearing your discomfort, and then goes on to explain why it's important that they continue to do exactly what they are doing?  Okay, so they don't get the debasement and defilement and let's be honest the rape that you feel when you have the options of holding your arms up for seven seconds so they can get your naked body in view, or be felt up by an airport security madam (I'm talking women, but you men assuredly have a male version of a madam available to feel you up if desired.).

So you try reason.  If intelligence works the way it should it will be a far more effective alternative to the airline debasement process.  In fact, the airline debasement process was not even relevant during the last security threat; maybe the security folks need to formulate a plan for all those packages coming in from not-so-friendly places.  And, I understand that the scanners (and the pat down) don't work if the explosive is ingested.  Is this a case of let's look for the lost car keys where the light is better rather than where you lost them?  Let's invade American citizens, as they are so much easier than shipments from foreign countries.

And they say they understand that as well but they are sure this will work, and they need to continue to do it this way.  After all, the government has paid off so many corporate interests to get these gadgets, and now they are in place and all.

So you know that this is not going to work.  It is just going to be more expense and more inconvenience and more humiliation.  What do you do about it?

Apparently, we all grumble, and then we raise our arms up high.  Maybe, if we think we're really reasonable people, and we don't want to be seen as unpleasant, we make awkward jokes to the woman that's patting us down, or to our families when we're done showing our figure off to the airport screener.

I wonder, if I had a child of twelve, how I would explain this to her (or him).  You know, they trust us so if we want to lie that would be fine.  In fact, they trust us so much that we could tell them they are x-raying our bodies to make sure we are not terrorists, and they would accept that too.

That makes me want to cry.

Damn it, this is America, people.  Stop making excuses, about how it's not a big deal, you'd rather be safe, nobody's going to know it's you.  THEY ARE LOOKING AT OUR BODIES.

Why???  Because they are going to find terrorists?????

Well, I am nearly 60.  Nobody has patted me down in some twelve years.  The thought of this invasion brings tears to my eyes whenever I think of it.  The thought of all the smaller indignities, the shoes, the liquids, the opening up of computers, that we have put up with, not to be safer, but because we Americans don't feel we can stop this process.  This is just the way it's done.

With all my family living in distant parts of the country, and the piss-poor transportation we have in this country, I have been feeling a bit trapped for some time now.  Airports, once such pleasant places where happy things happened at least half the time, are now places of annoyance and intrusion, where every two minutes the loudspeaker requests that you immediately report unattended bags or suspicious looking people.  Where they take down your license plate as you leave, as though that is going to prevent an act of terrorism.

Right at this time, I can't see myself putting myself through this.  I have, since 9/11, had my bag pawed through. But the gun lobby is protecting the rights of Americans to carry guns.   I have had to dump a bottle of water to get to the airport boarding area.  But I can then purchase, for $2 or more, a bottle of water before boarding.  I have taken my shoes off, bagged my tiny bottle of hand lotion, and don't even think about carrying a computer onto a plane.  And yet, because the airlines are charging exhorbitant amounts for luggage, all manor of bizzarre objects are squeezed into planes and overhead compartments, sometimes to fall onto a passenger, and often preventing people from getting to connecting flights, while they wait for people ahead of them to wrestle those big bags to the floor.

I show my drivers license two or three times before I board.  I have for a time had to tolerate standing in line while people opened my luggage, sprinkled powder on and around it (looking for explosive).  Yet we no longer have humans handling ticketing.  We self-ticket, soon we will self-check our bags, and all those points where humans might detect suspicious behavior are gone.

I just heard a TSA representative claim that if people had a choice of taking a flight that had no precautions or a flight that had all these screening measures, people would choose the latter.  First of all, adequate precautions are essential.  Secondly, the current screening measures are nothing like adequate measures.  They have replaced people with machines, and with more machines comes less personal and professional judgment and responsibility.  The airlines are allowing the government to take on the full responsibility for the next terrorist act.  Airline policies and personnel have become more lax and inadequate as the government has instituted ever more  invasive procedures.  The government relies on machines and not personal contact and judgment.  No, I guess I would opt for neither.  What I would choose, given the option, is personnel -- people -- being involved in the process, from check-in to boarding, and all of us being observant.  That  would make me feel safer.

But since that is not going to happen, I have chosen not to fly.  And I wonder when Americans are going to stand up to the government and the corporate interests that have allowed the government to take the easy, less effective way out of pretending to protect us from the terrorists.  Right now, it is the government doing the terrorizing.  Which is probably quite fine by Al Qaeda, who has raped our bodies and our spirits without having to board a plane.

Earmark This!

I've been reading about earmarks.  Now my head hurts.  The term needs to be gotten rid of.  Any politician that talks about earmarks should be "defunded", and I'd like to volunteer our own Senator Jim Demint.

Not that I don't trust him, except I don't, but I do believe that he sincerely WILL NOT use earmarks to favor his own state.  You cannot accuse Jim Demint of putting his constituents ahead of his own deluded ego.  The concept that by not allowing Congress to use earmarks to assign federal funds would just force the Executive branch to assign the funds just appears to totally escape Mr. Small Federal Government Demint.  It seems to make sense that it would be more appropriate for Congress to direct federal funds to specific projects, as, when done right, Senators and Representatives would have more awareness as to what would benefit their particular state.

Which leads to the big conundrum:  What on earth is  an earmark?  Are there good earmarks and bad earmarks (as in, Bridge to Nowhere)?  Why can't we get a definition of this concept that delineates and differentiates a good earmark from a Bridge-to-Nowhere earmark?

Why this isn't going to happen is because politicians like Mitch McConnell and Jim Demint can't even get their own special interests and egos out of the way long enough to agree on this.  I can't say about McConnell other than he's scary,  but I do know that Demint is not the sharpest tool in the shed.  And yet, here he is, the biggest mouth in the Senate.  Which is why no one is eager to have rules changed and concepts defined by this particular Congress.  Senator Demint can't find his way out of an argument, so he is fortunate that as the premier Senate bully no one is taking him on.

I'm not a gambler, but there are some things I would bet on, here in South Carolina:

We will not use federal funds to improve education.

We will not have high speed rail in South Carolina, and maybe not even have public transit to and from Charleston and Columbia in my lifetime.

Unemployment, underemployment, and working poor will continue to thrive.

Our elected representatives will continue to fight to their last breath for the right of the wealthy and powerful to hoard their wealth, and then complain that the economy is failing.

The voters will continue to blame the Democrats for all the ills in a state run by, and run into the ground by, the Republican party.

Earmarks?  I would  be more concerned with the tax dollars that are getting wasted so that these blowhards can argue about where the money should be spent, than whether money is getting wasted on actual funded projects.  I'd rather spend money on the "Bridge to Nowhere" than on a podium for Jim Demint.
  

Simpler than You Might Think

Here in South Carolina, even in Charleston, even in a library in Charleston, you can hardly swing a dead cat without hitting a whole mess of republicans.  And to my surprise, I have had conversations with a couple of them in which they indicated frustration with this government for refusing to stand firm on raising taxes on the wealthy among us.

Polls are idiotic.  I personally hang up on pollsters; they should never have been exempted from the Do-Not-Call Registry law.  Questions are poorly worded and/or incomplete and/or leading.  I am compelled to yell at whatever news person is reporting polling results, and this election season, there was a lot of yelling.  So a lot of us are unhappy with Obama?  Gee, that helps.

It seems to me that smart Democrats would be down here, yes, in the South, talking to all us poor slobs about why we are ticked off.  Is it because you want "less government"???  What the hell does that mean?  As far as I can tell from talking to actual people, we all want as much government as we use, and some of us understand that you can't only pay taxes on what you use, or nobody would get anything.

I believe those who are informed by Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin voted for Nikki Haley.  Those who were uninformed stayed home.  A lot of us had no clue that allowing Haley to win would mean funding being slashed for government services WE USE.  Really.

I've heard some very odd rationales for why a voter has chosen a certain candidate (as opposed to just voting party line).  Misinformed? You bet.  But how hard were the Democrats working to inform us?

We need specifics.  And we need specifics that address stuff we think is important.  And we want you to think our stuff is important too.  Sadly, most voters don't care about democratic ideals.  But they will be tickled if they think you're listening to them.

That's what the folks in the republic party have figured out.

Blood from a Stone

Above:  Erskine Bowles having a good 

laugh over Alan Simpson's fake budget

cutting proposal.

So you thought you'd tightened the belt about as much as you could?  Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles beg to differ.

They are proposing cuts in Social Security and Medicare as well as Defense spending; while we're at it, let's "level the playing field" on taxation, so that even those who are holding on to their mortgage by a thread can forego the interest deduction that they count on.

In the middle of the craziness wherein the republic party is insisting we cut spending while not cutting taxes on their corporate cronies, these guys have tossed in the kitchen sink.  And they did it pretty much by sneaking in in the middle of the night and slipping it in the President's in-basket when he wasn't looking.

I am looking forward to the day that the Tea Baggers who gave the House back to their republic friends realize that the government is now seriously considering taking away their Medicare.

It should be an interesting time, if we are able to live through it.  There are people out there who have no idea what it is like to not be able to afford to send your children to the doctor, much less to college.  They don't get that without public transportation, some of us can't get to work, because we don't make enough to be able to afford a car with it's expensive accoutrements, like taxes, insurance, repairs, and don't forget, gas.  People that believe in Reagan's trickle down theory, because they are the tricklers, not the tricklees.  And we just put them in charge of our government, again.


If Reaganomics worked, we wouldn't have record foreclosures and more than 50 million Americans without health care.  If the Bush tax cuts worked, we would all have jobs and be earning a living wage.


The thing is, if you take away the safety net, as thin as it is, it is going to cost the government more to clean up the mess.


But the thing is, really, that this is about people.  People trying to work, trying to pay bills, trying to take care of their families, trying to make it to retirement age.


We aren't going to be ready to move forward until those who have the means contribute their fair share.  All those other cuts Alan Simpson, the tea baggers, and the republic party are proposing are trying to get blood from a stone.  It doesn't work.

Boehner Brings Me to Tears, Too

 

John Boehner, like Dick Nixon and myself, was born to humble beginnings.  Like Dick and myself, Boehner worked hard to pull himself up, and the fact that he has "made it" to Speaker of the House, brings him to tears.  The thought that I might run out of savings before my social security kicks in, if John Boehner and his cronies don't get to it first, is what brings me to tears.

I was taking a little peek at Boehner's expenditures.  I was impressed.  The man spent $25,000 in one year at the Bighorn Golf Club in Yucca Valley, California.  If you don't have a map handy let me just say that that is nowhere near Washington, D.C.  And I had only gotten to the B's.  Even though the small print was making my eyes blurry and I had had to cancel my opthalmologist appointment because I couldn't make the co-pay ($20 plus whatever else Blue Cross can figure out how to not pay for, $60 last appointment), I decided I really needed to know how much the man spent for golf.  So I went back to OpenSecrets.org and went throught the whole list, and came up with $15,562 to Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohion, and a whopping $34,646 to Wetherington Golf and Country Club in Westchester, Ohio.  Also, when someone takes his golf that seriously, you would expect that he would spend at least $803 at Par Golf Supply.

Now I'm really not a rube.  I learned that these events were not for the hard-working John Boehner's pleasure.  Each one of them was for a fund-raising event of some sort.  Which I guess makes it tax deductible, at the very least.  But Boehner has worked hard all his life and deserves not to pay taxes whenever he gets the opportunity.

And if they happen to let him on the golf course for a few holes, or whatever they are called, at no charge, that is just business.  Because John Boehner knows how hard it is for small businesses to survive in this dog-eat-dog country.

I'm not saying that John Boehner has done anything wrong.  What I'm saying is, 1) the amounts of money the man spends to be a congressman blows my mind, and 2) if the republic party is going to be going over every penny President Obama spends, I'm sure they won't mind if we take a look at their expenditures, and 3) I got my information on the internet, so I know it's true.

And I want to conclude by saying that anyone who spends $1,660 on valet parking at Sharp's Valet Parking cannot possibly be in touch with what people like me have to do to get by.  You may have started out like I did, Mr. Boehner, but you sure lost touch along the way. 

The Ironic Cherry on the Icky Political Sundae

Yesterday at the blog that keeps me from going postal at my day job I described the suspension of Keith Olbermann as "the ironic cherry on the icky campaign sundae" that was the 2010 election season.

I liked that.  My first thought was, "ironic cherry" -- Dave Barry would think that was a cool name for a band.  On the other hand, I had been thinking for months about what I would name my new blog.  I planned on retiring my 2010 election season blog when Alvin Greene retired his political career and went back home to Manning with whatever golden parachute he had been promised when he agreed to "run".

So after the band idea, it occurred to me that "The Ironic Cherry" would be a great name for a blog.

Too much irony in politics goes unnoticed and unanswered.  So maybe I'll spend some time ruminating on the odd lies and contradictions that we breathe in every time a politician or a CEO exhales.

Can't hurt.