Campaign overload. Too many TV commercials predicting the end of civilization if so-and-so is elected or if this or that ballot proposition passes. Here in the Golden State, the Mormon Church and other culturally atavistic groups have poured millions into Prop 8, an initiative that would eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. This is essentially a civil rights issue that has morphed into a Category 1 Fear Issue, with overblown ads asserting that school children will be indoctrinated to accept same-sex marriage.
It’s hogwash, but that’s modern politics. Big money and bigger lies endlessly repeated, and the more citizens watch and hear the less they know. With all the problems facing California – dysfunctional budget process, inadequate funding for public education, rotting infrastructure, a prison-system about to burst its seams, millions of citizens unable to access decent medical care – what do we get worked up about? Same-sex marriage.
On the national level, I’m still digesting Alan Greenspan’s recent admission that his infallible Market God ideology is, after all, very, very fallible. Lo and behold, Wall Street firms cannot regulate themselves and even more shocking to Mr. Greenspan – who achieved Saint-like status during his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve – market forces do not automatically solve all ills. Wow! This is kind of like the Apostle Paul saying he harbors doubts about Jesus.
What’s the world coming to? Sarah Palin promises to rid America of autism; Karl Rove blames the downward spiral of global markets on Barack Obama; John McCain warns that America will topple into the toilet if the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of those profligate Democrats achieve a congressional majority. (Question for the erratic senator from Arizona: could a Democratic majority foul the nation up any more than the Republicans managed during their six-year reign of terror?)
There’s more, of course, much more, from e-mail barrages to the four-color campaign flyers that clog the mailbox and go immediately into the recycle can. While it’s a relief to finally see the finish line on the reign of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it would be naive to think that we can quickly – or painlessly -- climb out of the ditch Bush and Cheney (and their Republican lapdogs – and some Democrats, too) have driven us into. Barack Obama should win this election, and in itself that will be refreshing, but let’s keep our expectations reasonable – we’re in deep shit on multiple fronts – and before things get better they will almost certainly get worse.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Fraud & War
It’s entirely possible that massive voter fraud and voter suppression will mar the Election of 2008. What should be a landslide for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party may become a squeaker, ala the Election of 2000. Lawyers from both campaigns are already converging on battleground states, making charges, filing briefs, preparing the soil for the legal wrangling that might begin on November 5.
As long as there have been elections in America there has been fraud – ballot stuffing, ballot stealing, crude or sophisticated efforts aimed at getting some voters to the polls (the same voter more than once in some cases) while keeping others away (often by violence, more commonly by intimidation). In recent years the GOP machine has become adept at the mechanics of stealing elections.
It’s always amusing to hear our political leaders demand “free and fair” elections in countries where Democracy is trying to take root, when our own elections are so prone to manipulation. The hypocrisy never seems to register with American politicians.
Considering the mess the country is in, and the clear path that can be traced from the policies of George W. Bush and the Republican Party to that mess, the ineptitude of the McCain campaign and the jittery way McCain has veered to and fro on the issues, first a die-hard free-marketeer then a neo-regulator, and McCain’s cynical and disastrous choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, Barack Obama should ride an electoral tidal wave to the steps of the White House.
And yet because of the potential for voter fraud, the outcome seems far less secure than it should.
We know fraud is going to happen in battleground states, we know who’s behind it; we just don’t know if there will be enough fraud to change the outcome.
Meanwhile, real families are still losing their homes, going broke, suffering from inadequate medical care, and driving on roads and bridges that have been neglected for decades.
If the Reagan Era was Morning in America, these anxious times, at the tail end of the Bush Reign of Error, might be called Twilight in America. The colossal failures of the past eight years are something to behold. Bush and his cronies failed on every front, in every arena, foreign and domestic, and when they slink from Washington, discredited, disgraced and despised, they will have left the country weaker than they found it.
Sometime during this long, strange campaign season the U.S. media made what appears like a collective decision not to report on the failed Iraq Occupation. To find out what is happening in U.S.-occupied Iraq, Americans must look to foreign media, like the BBC, which has not abrogated its responsibility to report on the Iraq conflict.
In the final presidential debate, John McCain made a sunny assertion that the Iraqi people are coming together and putting the chaos and mayhem of the past five years behind them. McCain’s blindness can be written off to the fact that he resides in an alternative universe where whatever gibberish he spews is accepted as irrefutable truth.
This is how BBC reporting went just last week: “There is much less violence now, but Baghdad is nowhere near returning to normal: the streets are full of potholes and the traffic is clogged and backed up by check-points.” Blast walls erected by U.S. forces (or perhaps this was done by Halliburton?) are another reason for the reduction in violence. The BBC: “Concrete anti-blast walls still surround almost every significant building here, and stretch along streets where there are markets, bringing relative safety, but turning the pavements - where the vendors' stalls are - into narrow, claustrophobic canyons.”
This sounds to me like a people being kept apart by physical obstacles rather than a people coming together in peace, harmony and a spirit of reconciliation. Call me crazy, un-American even, but I don’t think the “Surge” is working well anywhere expect in the minds of U.S. politicians, who in turn feed tales of “success” to a complacent news media.
For further proof of this consider the thousands of Iraqis who turned out to protest their government’s ongoing negotiations with the United States over a Status of Forces Agreement that would legitimize the stationing of U.S. troops in Iraq for years to come. One point the Americans want in the agreement is immunity from prosecution; in other words, the Americans want to be able to act freely, move freely, and if a GI happens to kill an innocent civilian, the Iraqis must have no recourse.
If this situation were reversed and Iraqi troops occupied New York City, would New Yorkers vote to give their occupiers unlimited powers? Why we expect others to act in ways we never would is a by-product of our arrogance.
As long as there have been elections in America there has been fraud – ballot stuffing, ballot stealing, crude or sophisticated efforts aimed at getting some voters to the polls (the same voter more than once in some cases) while keeping others away (often by violence, more commonly by intimidation). In recent years the GOP machine has become adept at the mechanics of stealing elections.
It’s always amusing to hear our political leaders demand “free and fair” elections in countries where Democracy is trying to take root, when our own elections are so prone to manipulation. The hypocrisy never seems to register with American politicians.
Considering the mess the country is in, and the clear path that can be traced from the policies of George W. Bush and the Republican Party to that mess, the ineptitude of the McCain campaign and the jittery way McCain has veered to and fro on the issues, first a die-hard free-marketeer then a neo-regulator, and McCain’s cynical and disastrous choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, Barack Obama should ride an electoral tidal wave to the steps of the White House.
And yet because of the potential for voter fraud, the outcome seems far less secure than it should.
We know fraud is going to happen in battleground states, we know who’s behind it; we just don’t know if there will be enough fraud to change the outcome.
Meanwhile, real families are still losing their homes, going broke, suffering from inadequate medical care, and driving on roads and bridges that have been neglected for decades.
If the Reagan Era was Morning in America, these anxious times, at the tail end of the Bush Reign of Error, might be called Twilight in America. The colossal failures of the past eight years are something to behold. Bush and his cronies failed on every front, in every arena, foreign and domestic, and when they slink from Washington, discredited, disgraced and despised, they will have left the country weaker than they found it.
Sometime during this long, strange campaign season the U.S. media made what appears like a collective decision not to report on the failed Iraq Occupation. To find out what is happening in U.S.-occupied Iraq, Americans must look to foreign media, like the BBC, which has not abrogated its responsibility to report on the Iraq conflict.
In the final presidential debate, John McCain made a sunny assertion that the Iraqi people are coming together and putting the chaos and mayhem of the past five years behind them. McCain’s blindness can be written off to the fact that he resides in an alternative universe where whatever gibberish he spews is accepted as irrefutable truth.
This is how BBC reporting went just last week: “There is much less violence now, but Baghdad is nowhere near returning to normal: the streets are full of potholes and the traffic is clogged and backed up by check-points.” Blast walls erected by U.S. forces (or perhaps this was done by Halliburton?) are another reason for the reduction in violence. The BBC: “Concrete anti-blast walls still surround almost every significant building here, and stretch along streets where there are markets, bringing relative safety, but turning the pavements - where the vendors' stalls are - into narrow, claustrophobic canyons.”
This sounds to me like a people being kept apart by physical obstacles rather than a people coming together in peace, harmony and a spirit of reconciliation. Call me crazy, un-American even, but I don’t think the “Surge” is working well anywhere expect in the minds of U.S. politicians, who in turn feed tales of “success” to a complacent news media.
For further proof of this consider the thousands of Iraqis who turned out to protest their government’s ongoing negotiations with the United States over a Status of Forces Agreement that would legitimize the stationing of U.S. troops in Iraq for years to come. One point the Americans want in the agreement is immunity from prosecution; in other words, the Americans want to be able to act freely, move freely, and if a GI happens to kill an innocent civilian, the Iraqis must have no recourse.
If this situation were reversed and Iraqi troops occupied New York City, would New Yorkers vote to give their occupiers unlimited powers? Why we expect others to act in ways we never would is a by-product of our arrogance.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Thank God That's Over
“Our tax policies need to be changed. There is something deeply peculiar about having rich individuals who make their money speculating on real estate or stocks paying lower taxes than middle-class Americans, whose income is derived from wages and salaries.” Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Winning Economist
Final Presidential debate. Which McCain will show up tonight? The old McCain who never met a government regulation he didn’t want to kill, or the new populist McCain, who says he loves the average working American?
If you believe the polls, McCain’s only hope to close the gap with Obama is a knock out punch – or a huge gaffe on Obama’s part. The talking heads tell us that older Americans and white Americans may not vote for Obama, presumably because he’s black and different, which is incredible given the total cluster fuck that the Republicans – and John McCain – have presided over the past eight years.
Are those American voters actually silly enough to vote for McCain (or some minor party candidate) because of race? If so, this country is in worse shape than I thought.
At this dismal point in our history, I'd vote for an African-American lesbian if I thought she had some decent ideas and a dose of political savvy.
McCain is talking about class warfare now, as if he doesn’t grasp the stark fact that a class war has raged for the past thirty years – against working Americans who live by wages and salaries. Wealthy individuals and corporations have kicked the asses of working people for three decades, Senator McCain, and you and your pals Phil Gramm and Charles Keating helped them in the mugging.
“Well, thank you, Bob,” says McCain, sounding like an old man in a rest home. McCain says he knows how to cut billions in defense spending, but he’s thin on the specifics. “Earmarks,” says McCain, “that’s the answer. Cut those wasteful earmarks and we’ll be home free!”
Sweet Jesus, when will this agony be over?
“Senator Obama, I’m not President Bush! I can do it…we…I…we can…sure.” This is McCain’s Hail Mary pass, the last gasp of a dying campaign that is devoid of intellect, soul, heart, substance, content, and truth. The only idea McCain has in his quiver is tax cuts. Will someone please explain to John that we’ve tried that trickle down notion and it doesn’t work? And while your schooling the old fool, explain to him that most American corporations pay next to nothing in taxes, thanks to generous loopholes written into the tax code and voted upon in the Senate by John McCain and his fellow Republicans.
“The answer is Town Hall meetings,” McCain asserts. “If only Senator Obama had agreed to sit down with me in a town hall meeting, things in this campaign would have been so much different.”
The man is old and decrepit but he’s still got balls, I give him that.
Obama is acting Presidential and McCain is acting petulant.
McCain is a crybaby.
Obama’s right about one point: the American people are cynical about the entire political process, the inane back and forth, the wild claims, false accusations, outright lies and total Fox News bullshit spin, and the incredible amounts of money spent by these candidates to buy public offices.
McCain says that all the money the Obama camp is spending is “Destroying the fabric of Democracy.” As if Florida didn’t happen in 2000! As if massive voter fraud didn’t happen in Ohio in 2004! The truth is that the GOP has destroyed the integrity of our elections. Hey, John, it wasn’t Democrats who politicized the hiring process in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division!
McCain: “My campaign is about getting this economy back on track. But let’s talk about Bill Ayers and ACORN! That will put a lamb chop in every skillet and a Ford in every garage!”
This is too excruciating. I can’t stand another second of this travesty. McCain is a jabbering old fool. “Nuclear power is no problem! I have the answers, just trust me, people. I’m John McCain, straight-talking maverick!”
I’ve had enough of politics. I’m switching to the Dodgers game to see if the boys in blue can extend their season.
Final Presidential debate. Which McCain will show up tonight? The old McCain who never met a government regulation he didn’t want to kill, or the new populist McCain, who says he loves the average working American?
If you believe the polls, McCain’s only hope to close the gap with Obama is a knock out punch – or a huge gaffe on Obama’s part. The talking heads tell us that older Americans and white Americans may not vote for Obama, presumably because he’s black and different, which is incredible given the total cluster fuck that the Republicans – and John McCain – have presided over the past eight years.
Are those American voters actually silly enough to vote for McCain (or some minor party candidate) because of race? If so, this country is in worse shape than I thought.
At this dismal point in our history, I'd vote for an African-American lesbian if I thought she had some decent ideas and a dose of political savvy.
McCain is talking about class warfare now, as if he doesn’t grasp the stark fact that a class war has raged for the past thirty years – against working Americans who live by wages and salaries. Wealthy individuals and corporations have kicked the asses of working people for three decades, Senator McCain, and you and your pals Phil Gramm and Charles Keating helped them in the mugging.
“Well, thank you, Bob,” says McCain, sounding like an old man in a rest home. McCain says he knows how to cut billions in defense spending, but he’s thin on the specifics. “Earmarks,” says McCain, “that’s the answer. Cut those wasteful earmarks and we’ll be home free!”
Sweet Jesus, when will this agony be over?
“Senator Obama, I’m not President Bush! I can do it…we…I…we can…sure.” This is McCain’s Hail Mary pass, the last gasp of a dying campaign that is devoid of intellect, soul, heart, substance, content, and truth. The only idea McCain has in his quiver is tax cuts. Will someone please explain to John that we’ve tried that trickle down notion and it doesn’t work? And while your schooling the old fool, explain to him that most American corporations pay next to nothing in taxes, thanks to generous loopholes written into the tax code and voted upon in the Senate by John McCain and his fellow Republicans.
“The answer is Town Hall meetings,” McCain asserts. “If only Senator Obama had agreed to sit down with me in a town hall meeting, things in this campaign would have been so much different.”
The man is old and decrepit but he’s still got balls, I give him that.
Obama is acting Presidential and McCain is acting petulant.
McCain is a crybaby.
Obama’s right about one point: the American people are cynical about the entire political process, the inane back and forth, the wild claims, false accusations, outright lies and total Fox News bullshit spin, and the incredible amounts of money spent by these candidates to buy public offices.
McCain says that all the money the Obama camp is spending is “Destroying the fabric of Democracy.” As if Florida didn’t happen in 2000! As if massive voter fraud didn’t happen in Ohio in 2004! The truth is that the GOP has destroyed the integrity of our elections. Hey, John, it wasn’t Democrats who politicized the hiring process in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division!
McCain: “My campaign is about getting this economy back on track. But let’s talk about Bill Ayers and ACORN! That will put a lamb chop in every skillet and a Ford in every garage!”
This is too excruciating. I can’t stand another second of this travesty. McCain is a jabbering old fool. “Nuclear power is no problem! I have the answers, just trust me, people. I’m John McCain, straight-talking maverick!”
I’ve had enough of politics. I’m switching to the Dodgers game to see if the boys in blue can extend their season.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
The American Casino is Closed for Renovation
Some of the writers whose views on the economy I enjoy reading have taken to calling the American financial system of the past two and a half decades a “casino” economy, meaning, of course, that by design it bred a few stupendous winners and an inordinate number of losers.
Think for a moment about the confluence of trends and notions that led to the collapse on Wall Street: Indian gaming started to find a niche in American life about twenty years ago, give or take a few years, and before we knew it every state boasted some form of casino gambling; Las Vegas shed its “Sin City” reputation and took on a respectability that its founders never dreamed possible; states from Maine to California used Lotteries to shore up tax-depleted budgets, only to find that state-sanctioned gambling never generated enough cash to go around.
Reality TV arrived soon after, with its contrived competitions that pitted people against one another with big rewards (money, celebrity) for the last contestant standing. Whether it was ballroom dancing, peddling overpriced real estate, losing weight or seeing who could create a ball gown out of saran wrap, we ate it up, as if a scripted and edited TV program was reality.
It’s no surprise that pop culture mirrored our economy. When corporate CEO’s raked in $50 or $60 million bonuses for creating paper wealth instead of real wealth, the public -- conditioned by years of Conservative propaganda to believe that CEO’s deserved huge rewards for feats of alchemy -- hardly blinked. Who cared? Times were booming and the money was green, and sooner or later riches would trickle down to the masses like Republicans always promised.
Working stiffs, folks of average means, saw the glitz and glitter and bling on TV and wanted their fair share. The only problem was that thousands of middle-class manufacturing jobs had been shipped to China, India, Pakistan and other places where people were willing to work for pennies; and thanks to an assist from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, nations near our borders saw their economies “restructured,” forcing destitute and desperate people to stream into our country in search of work, no matter how dangerous, demeaning or low-paying.
And let’s not forget how the Titans of Finance and their buddies in Congress used every tactic at their disposal to smash unions, slash pension obligations and make people responsible for their own medical care – at a time when the cost of care was streaking toward the stratosphere.
Taken together, these factors created wage stagnation for the majority of American workers.
But of course, workers and their kin were still expected to do their duty and continue consuming as if there was no tomorrow. Consumers tapped credit cards until the cards maxed out. Home equity came next and for a few golden years, as home values soared and money remained cheap, mistaking one’s home for an ATM worked fine.
Sensible people predicted that these schemes would collapse, but voices of reason were drowned out by the likes of Alan Greenspan, John McCain and George W. Bush. To these men, the “financialization” of the American economy was a tremendous success, a triumph of free market ideology.
Until it wasn’t. Until the music died and valueless pieces of paper choked the gutters of Wall Street and the Titans, panicked by the swift collapse of their sand castles, ran to the Government with hands outstretched and a tale of doom on their lips. The gambler’s mentality was still alive when Hank Paulson, himself a decorated Wall Street alum, demanded that Congress loan him $700 billion of taxpayer money – with nary a string attached. Say what you will, but Henry Paulson has enormous balls.
On the tube behind me, John McCain is insisting that he and no one else knows how to deal with the financial wreckage. McCain is stiff and phony and ridiculous.
Nobody knows if the Great Bailout of 2008 will restore stability and health to the world economy. The only certain thing is that taxpayers have been swindled once again.
Think for a moment about the confluence of trends and notions that led to the collapse on Wall Street: Indian gaming started to find a niche in American life about twenty years ago, give or take a few years, and before we knew it every state boasted some form of casino gambling; Las Vegas shed its “Sin City” reputation and took on a respectability that its founders never dreamed possible; states from Maine to California used Lotteries to shore up tax-depleted budgets, only to find that state-sanctioned gambling never generated enough cash to go around.
Reality TV arrived soon after, with its contrived competitions that pitted people against one another with big rewards (money, celebrity) for the last contestant standing. Whether it was ballroom dancing, peddling overpriced real estate, losing weight or seeing who could create a ball gown out of saran wrap, we ate it up, as if a scripted and edited TV program was reality.
It’s no surprise that pop culture mirrored our economy. When corporate CEO’s raked in $50 or $60 million bonuses for creating paper wealth instead of real wealth, the public -- conditioned by years of Conservative propaganda to believe that CEO’s deserved huge rewards for feats of alchemy -- hardly blinked. Who cared? Times were booming and the money was green, and sooner or later riches would trickle down to the masses like Republicans always promised.
Working stiffs, folks of average means, saw the glitz and glitter and bling on TV and wanted their fair share. The only problem was that thousands of middle-class manufacturing jobs had been shipped to China, India, Pakistan and other places where people were willing to work for pennies; and thanks to an assist from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, nations near our borders saw their economies “restructured,” forcing destitute and desperate people to stream into our country in search of work, no matter how dangerous, demeaning or low-paying.
And let’s not forget how the Titans of Finance and their buddies in Congress used every tactic at their disposal to smash unions, slash pension obligations and make people responsible for their own medical care – at a time when the cost of care was streaking toward the stratosphere.
Taken together, these factors created wage stagnation for the majority of American workers.
But of course, workers and their kin were still expected to do their duty and continue consuming as if there was no tomorrow. Consumers tapped credit cards until the cards maxed out. Home equity came next and for a few golden years, as home values soared and money remained cheap, mistaking one’s home for an ATM worked fine.
Sensible people predicted that these schemes would collapse, but voices of reason were drowned out by the likes of Alan Greenspan, John McCain and George W. Bush. To these men, the “financialization” of the American economy was a tremendous success, a triumph of free market ideology.
Until it wasn’t. Until the music died and valueless pieces of paper choked the gutters of Wall Street and the Titans, panicked by the swift collapse of their sand castles, ran to the Government with hands outstretched and a tale of doom on their lips. The gambler’s mentality was still alive when Hank Paulson, himself a decorated Wall Street alum, demanded that Congress loan him $700 billion of taxpayer money – with nary a string attached. Say what you will, but Henry Paulson has enormous balls.
On the tube behind me, John McCain is insisting that he and no one else knows how to deal with the financial wreckage. McCain is stiff and phony and ridiculous.
Nobody knows if the Great Bailout of 2008 will restore stability and health to the world economy. The only certain thing is that taxpayers have been swindled once again.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Fembot from Alaska
What was that?
I hope to never see the likes of it again in my lifetime, but in this age of diminished expectations I’m certain I will.
We will.
No thinking person could have watched last night’s debate between the Vice Presidential candidates and come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin acquitted herself with distinction. She was like an outclassed prizefighter, ducking and dodging, throwing ineffectual jabs, backing up, and clinching at every opportunity in order to survive to the final bell of the last round.
But that’s really all anyone expected. The bar for Palin wasn’t merely lowered by the McCain campaign and the pundits – it was dropped on the floor.
Mired in two wars and an economic collapse, Palin spouted shopworn clichés, folksy “darn right’s, heckuva’s and Joe Six-Packs,” and for good measure (though in bad taste) even winked in the camera. I lost track of how many times she said “maverick” when referring to her running mate. Trying to sound a populist theme, a near impossibility after the policies her party slavishly followed the past eight years, the policies that dug the trench we find ourselves wallowing in, Palin ended up espousing the exact opposite.
Incredible. Handlers drilled talking points into Palin and she dutifully repeated them, whether appropriate to the question at hand or not. In some cases it seemed that Palin has spent the past eight years living in total isolation, without access to television, newspapers or the Internet. She promised greater oversight of the financial system and in the next breath urged government to get out of the way of the people; she repeated the shibboleth that tax cuts equal job creation, when the fact is that the Bush junta tried that trickle down idea and it failed, miserably.
What did Governor Palin mean when she said we had to “grow” our military? Does she not know that the United States spends more of its annual budget on defense than the rest of the planet, combined?
Even after five weeks on a national ticket and numerous cram sessions, Governor Palin doesn’t grasp the essential constitutional functions of the office of Vice President.
Quick study she is not.
And it was painful to watch Palin compare what she has done in Alaska to what she might do in Washington D.C., because there is no comparison; Alaska is a unique state, isolated, sparsely populated, energy rich. Oil and natural gas revenue fill Alaska’s coffers at a time when most states are drowning in red ink and making very difficult decisions about essential human services. Of course Alaska’s state taxes are low, but not because of Sarah Palin.
I learned last night that John McCain “knows what evil is.” George W. Bush also claims to have a deep understanding of evil, an understanding that prompted his Administration to invade and occupy a country that posed no threat to the United States. We will pay penalties for that decision for the next fifty years.
Sarah Palin is an unfortunate pawn in a cynical, deceitful Republican electoral strategy that rests on two pillars: endless repetition of half-truths, fabrications and outright lies, and the gullibility of American voters.
What was that? A disgrace.
I hope to never see the likes of it again in my lifetime, but in this age of diminished expectations I’m certain I will.
We will.
No thinking person could have watched last night’s debate between the Vice Presidential candidates and come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin acquitted herself with distinction. She was like an outclassed prizefighter, ducking and dodging, throwing ineffectual jabs, backing up, and clinching at every opportunity in order to survive to the final bell of the last round.
But that’s really all anyone expected. The bar for Palin wasn’t merely lowered by the McCain campaign and the pundits – it was dropped on the floor.
Mired in two wars and an economic collapse, Palin spouted shopworn clichés, folksy “darn right’s, heckuva’s and Joe Six-Packs,” and for good measure (though in bad taste) even winked in the camera. I lost track of how many times she said “maverick” when referring to her running mate. Trying to sound a populist theme, a near impossibility after the policies her party slavishly followed the past eight years, the policies that dug the trench we find ourselves wallowing in, Palin ended up espousing the exact opposite.
Incredible. Handlers drilled talking points into Palin and she dutifully repeated them, whether appropriate to the question at hand or not. In some cases it seemed that Palin has spent the past eight years living in total isolation, without access to television, newspapers or the Internet. She promised greater oversight of the financial system and in the next breath urged government to get out of the way of the people; she repeated the shibboleth that tax cuts equal job creation, when the fact is that the Bush junta tried that trickle down idea and it failed, miserably.
What did Governor Palin mean when she said we had to “grow” our military? Does she not know that the United States spends more of its annual budget on defense than the rest of the planet, combined?
Even after five weeks on a national ticket and numerous cram sessions, Governor Palin doesn’t grasp the essential constitutional functions of the office of Vice President.
Quick study she is not.
And it was painful to watch Palin compare what she has done in Alaska to what she might do in Washington D.C., because there is no comparison; Alaska is a unique state, isolated, sparsely populated, energy rich. Oil and natural gas revenue fill Alaska’s coffers at a time when most states are drowning in red ink and making very difficult decisions about essential human services. Of course Alaska’s state taxes are low, but not because of Sarah Palin.
I learned last night that John McCain “knows what evil is.” George W. Bush also claims to have a deep understanding of evil, an understanding that prompted his Administration to invade and occupy a country that posed no threat to the United States. We will pay penalties for that decision for the next fifty years.
Sarah Palin is an unfortunate pawn in a cynical, deceitful Republican electoral strategy that rests on two pillars: endless repetition of half-truths, fabrications and outright lies, and the gullibility of American voters.
What was that? A disgrace.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Queen of the Tiger Cage
John McCain’s Ranch, Arizona
It’s 105 degrees at 9:00 a.m. when GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin comes down for breakfast. After two straight days of intense preparation for her debate against Democrat Joe Biden, Palin looks as haggard as a hospital intern after a 12-hour shift in a big-city ER on a night when rival gang-bangers launch a killing spree.
McCain’s people are nervous about the debate, even though they’ve been working the media non-stop for days, pushing the story that Palin is much better in a debate format than she is in a one-on-one interview and will hold her own against the unpredictable and loquacious Biden. McCain’s people know the claim is a stretch, but they don’t have much choice; the campaign is in disarray, sliding in the polls, and the clock is ticking.
Even after two days of history lessons, review of talking points, mock interviews, and long conference calls with Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove, Palin still seems unsure of herself and displays a potentially disastrous tendency to wander off topic or make unsupportable claims.
With less than twenty-four hours to go before the big showdown, it’s time to pull out all the stops, so this morning, even before Palin can pour a cup of coffee and help herself to a doughnut, aides hustle her outside into the harsh sunlight. The Governor shields her eyes as she is marched to a replica of a North Vietnamese POW camp erected on McCain’s lawn. The camp is authentic down to the last detail, including guards dressed like NVA soldiers, and armed with Chinese-made rifles.
“What’s this?” Palin asks.
“Never mind,” the aide says impatiently. “Get in that bamboo cage.”
“I’m not getting in there! Are you crazy?”
“Senator McCain wants you to get a taste of what he went through in Vietnam. He thinks it will help you in the debate. Get in.”
“There’s a dead fish in there! And it smells like dog poop! Gross!”
Two aides shove the Governor inside the cage and secure the door. The Governor is too tall to stand comfortably and too concerned about soiling her skirt to sit down. She feels disoriented, the heat is unbearable, and she wishes she were back home, shooting wolves from a helicopter with a high-powered assault rifle. Since the GOP Convention, party types from all over the country have been whispering to her that John McCain is unhinged -- and she’s beginning to believe them.
“What is our mantra?” a voice booms over a loudspeaker. “Who are our enemies? Which nation is more of a threat to the United States of America, Russia or Canada?”
Again the voice booms, “What is our mantra? Answer!”
“Country first,” Palin offers, tentatively.
“Louder, with conviction!”
“COUNTRY FIRST!”
“And our enemies?”
“The Liberal media and the Washington elite?”
“Yes, yes, among others. Are we winning the war in Iraq? Is Barack Obama a traitor for not supporting the Surge? Should the United States invade and occupy Pakistan? Answer!”
“Yes, yes, yes! We should invade everybody and drill for oil in their backyards! It’s our Manifest Destiny and part of the Bush Doctrine. Can I please have a drink of water?”
“No! Do you think this is a game? We’re in a war for the American Way of Life, locked in a struggle with an implacable enemy. Imagine how Senator McCain felt when he was in captivity!"
“OK, OK,” Palin says. “I get it! I demand to be let out of this stinky cage.”
“You’re too young to have been a POW but now you at least know how it feels. Joe Biden cannot make the same claim. This gives you an enormous advantage. Tonight you must go for the jugular of that Muslim-sympathizer, Obama. Show no mercy and ask no quarter. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t hear you!”
“YES! Now let me out of here, I’m ruining a fabulous pair of pumps.”
“Our fate rests in your hands, Governor. The stakes are high but the bar is so low that you cannot fail.”
It’s 105 degrees at 9:00 a.m. when GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin comes down for breakfast. After two straight days of intense preparation for her debate against Democrat Joe Biden, Palin looks as haggard as a hospital intern after a 12-hour shift in a big-city ER on a night when rival gang-bangers launch a killing spree.
McCain’s people are nervous about the debate, even though they’ve been working the media non-stop for days, pushing the story that Palin is much better in a debate format than she is in a one-on-one interview and will hold her own against the unpredictable and loquacious Biden. McCain’s people know the claim is a stretch, but they don’t have much choice; the campaign is in disarray, sliding in the polls, and the clock is ticking.
Even after two days of history lessons, review of talking points, mock interviews, and long conference calls with Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove, Palin still seems unsure of herself and displays a potentially disastrous tendency to wander off topic or make unsupportable claims.
With less than twenty-four hours to go before the big showdown, it’s time to pull out all the stops, so this morning, even before Palin can pour a cup of coffee and help herself to a doughnut, aides hustle her outside into the harsh sunlight. The Governor shields her eyes as she is marched to a replica of a North Vietnamese POW camp erected on McCain’s lawn. The camp is authentic down to the last detail, including guards dressed like NVA soldiers, and armed with Chinese-made rifles.
“What’s this?” Palin asks.
“Never mind,” the aide says impatiently. “Get in that bamboo cage.”
“I’m not getting in there! Are you crazy?”
“Senator McCain wants you to get a taste of what he went through in Vietnam. He thinks it will help you in the debate. Get in.”
“There’s a dead fish in there! And it smells like dog poop! Gross!”
Two aides shove the Governor inside the cage and secure the door. The Governor is too tall to stand comfortably and too concerned about soiling her skirt to sit down. She feels disoriented, the heat is unbearable, and she wishes she were back home, shooting wolves from a helicopter with a high-powered assault rifle. Since the GOP Convention, party types from all over the country have been whispering to her that John McCain is unhinged -- and she’s beginning to believe them.
“What is our mantra?” a voice booms over a loudspeaker. “Who are our enemies? Which nation is more of a threat to the United States of America, Russia or Canada?”
Again the voice booms, “What is our mantra? Answer!”
“Country first,” Palin offers, tentatively.
“Louder, with conviction!”
“COUNTRY FIRST!”
“And our enemies?”
“The Liberal media and the Washington elite?”
“Yes, yes, among others. Are we winning the war in Iraq? Is Barack Obama a traitor for not supporting the Surge? Should the United States invade and occupy Pakistan? Answer!”
“Yes, yes, yes! We should invade everybody and drill for oil in their backyards! It’s our Manifest Destiny and part of the Bush Doctrine. Can I please have a drink of water?”
“No! Do you think this is a game? We’re in a war for the American Way of Life, locked in a struggle with an implacable enemy. Imagine how Senator McCain felt when he was in captivity!"
“OK, OK,” Palin says. “I get it! I demand to be let out of this stinky cage.”
“You’re too young to have been a POW but now you at least know how it feels. Joe Biden cannot make the same claim. This gives you an enormous advantage. Tonight you must go for the jugular of that Muslim-sympathizer, Obama. Show no mercy and ask no quarter. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t hear you!”
“YES! Now let me out of here, I’m ruining a fabulous pair of pumps.”
“Our fate rests in your hands, Governor. The stakes are high but the bar is so low that you cannot fail.”
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