Another weird week or two on the political front. John McCain is apparently fit as a fiddle and physically up to the challenge of a run for the White House. McCain has also cleaned his campaign house, repudiating endorsements from a couple of whack-job evangelical types; he’s still surrounded by a posse of ethically challenged advisors, fine gentlemen who lobbied for the dictators of Myanmar, among others. McCain insists that he’s clean as a hounds tooth despite being surrounded by slime balls.
Hillary Clinton refuses to believe that her campaign is toast. It’s inconceivable to Hillary that voters actually prefer Barack Obama over her. Hillary gamely soldiers on, putting a resolute face on her non-existent chances, playing up her recent primary victories, and insisting, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, that she is the Democrat who can win in November.
Bill Clinton recently made a bizarre statement out on the campaign trial, asserting that the real divide in America is not class or race, but the arrogance of people like Barack Obama. Statements like that from the Clinton camp underscore their desperation. Bill might find it helpful to conduct a quick unscientific poll of average, working-class Americans to see if they are really worried about smart people or about the high cost of gasoline, food, medical care, education, housing, cable TV, and the insane Occupation we refuse to abandon in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the airwaves are full of right-wing nutcases who thunder about the dangers of illegal immigration and how poor Mexicans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans are swarming the border and undermining the American Way of Life, stealing babies from suburban homes, spreading diseases, taking jobs from Americans, and overwhelming hospital emergency rooms. It’s nothing more than shameful fear-mongering, but you can bet it will sway a fair number of voters in November. Because he has nothing to run on except Fear, McCain will pander to this extreme notion and promise to lynch any brown-skinned person with the temerity to cross the border without proper papers.
According to the nut-job Right, Muslims want to do us in from without and Mexicans want to do us in from within. Our task is not to understand these people – our task is to stomp them beneath our iron heel. Crazy times breed crazy notions. Truth, reason and verifiable facts take a beating in a climate of fear. Nobody on the far Right ever asks why Mexicans are compelled to leave their homes and risk everything they have, including their lives, to come north and do the low-wage, dangerous shitwork that Americans are unwilling to do. You can’t expect Bill O’Reilly or Lou Dobbs to examine the nexus between NAFTA and illegal immigration. No, no, these fellows have more important things to do than exercise their intellect. It’s so much easier to spout wild generalizations about savage illegal immigrants.
On the bright side, the Reign of Bush is winding down and the man hasn’t started a war with Iran yet.
It’s the little things we need to be thankful for.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Thursday, May 08, 2008
The Big Disconnect
The New York Times is considered our “paper of record,” an authoritative source for news, information and opinion on life in these United States at this point in history. A few days ago in its on-line edition the Times ran this headline: WALL ST. STARTS TO SEE SIGNS OF A TURNAROUND.
With thousands of citizens in danger of losing their homes, individuals and small business owners suffering from sky-high fuel costs, health care a luxury millions of Americans cannot afford, our paper of record leads with a story about how Wall Street is faring, as if what happens on Wall Street is in any way connected to the reality of hard times in Portland, Oregon, Durango, Colorado or Chicago, Illinois.
Below the headline was this tidbit: “For ExxonMobil, $10.9 billion profit disappoints.” While average Americans struggle to make ends meet with rising costs and flat wages, ExxonMobil is unhappy about its $10.9 billion profit.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton argue about which of them has shadier friends or who is more patriotic; not to be outdone, John McCain is trying to sell Americans the idea that a tax break to buy a health insurance policy is the same thing as health care. John McCain’s blind faith in the “free market” is a subject for another day, though if McCain’s faith doesn’t sound eerily familiar and absolutely chilling, you haven’t been paying attention.
Wall Street may see golden light at the end of the tunnel, but directly below the headline in the Times was another: “Consumer Spending Stagnates as Prices Rise.” Consumers are in the deep end, up to their ears in debt, unable to buy stuff, which is a problem since our economy is based on ever-rising consumption of goods and services. But here’s the conundrum the cheerleaders for current economic arrangements seldom mention: how are consumers supposed to continue consuming if their wages remain flat?
Hard times coming. Hard times already here. If you work for wages, you don’t need to be reminded that it’s getting harder and harder to make ends meet.
What does it say about America’s economy when the Investor Class sees daylight and working people see darkness? Do you get the feeling that there’s a Big Disconnect in our society, a decoupling of public and corporate interest, of individual freedom and social responsibility, of individual good and common good?
Turn off your TV, put your computer to sleep, take off the iPod, power down your phone, and listen. Do you hear the sound of paper being torn, ripped, shredded? That’s the last page or two of the social contract being destroyed. The brainchild of FDR, who believed that no American should struggle for the necessities of bare survival, the social contract came into being after World War II. The contract was Business and Labor agreeing that when workers produced they should share in the profits; the contract implied that there was dignity in work and that working people deserved a fair shot at dignity; the contract was a shared belief that the next generation would do better and have even more opportunity than the current generation.
Gone. That in the midst of these worrisome economic times the New York Times chooses to report on Wall Street illustrates how difficult it is to have a real conversation about our economy – not only who it works for, but who it doesn’t, and why. In real, inflation-adjusted terms, the wages of working Americans have been flat for thirty years, but when was the last time you saw a news story about that? American families are working full tilt – not to get ahead, but just to hold their place. Seen any stories in the major media about that? The political buying power of corporations and their lobbyists is so pervasive that they have driven wages down, exported manufacturing jobs to countries where workers are more easily exploited, eliminated health insurance, dumped pension obligations and gutted regulatory bodies, all of which is great for investors, price per share, and lavish executive compensation, but a death sentence for workers.
Think about it. Big Business controls the media and therefore has the power to shape, frame, spotlight and filter the information we see and hear. In the middle of presidential primaries in a watershed election year, we get endless takes on the words and deeds of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright; not that America doesn’t need to hold a national conversation about race relations, we do, desperately, but that’s not what’s happening in news coverage of Reverend Wright. Big Media sets the story line, and no deviation from the script is allowed.
I don’t know if Americans can ever return to a shared social contract that takes into account the idea that human beings have needs other than economic needs. The conservative, free-market, ownership society, you’re-on-your-own ideology that has prevailed for the past three decades has turned us into anxious economic animals, constantly running to hold our place, working two jobs to earn the wage that one job once provided; constantly worried about whether we can afford health care or if we can afford to educate our kids or retire with enough financial wherewithal to live with dignity and give something back to our families and communities. The power arrayed against that happening is daunting.
But for the millions of us who believe that human life is about more than chasing a dollar or a euro, we have an obligation to stand against the prevailing power structure – to question it, to demand answers from it, to use moral persuasion to make it listen to our legitimate concerns. That’s Democracy. Dissent is a patriotic, creative act. As Dr. King said, “There is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we’re wrong when we protest. We reserve that right.”
It’s past time for America to reconnect with its basic values, just as it’s past time for working Americans to say, loud and often, enough is enough.
With thousands of citizens in danger of losing their homes, individuals and small business owners suffering from sky-high fuel costs, health care a luxury millions of Americans cannot afford, our paper of record leads with a story about how Wall Street is faring, as if what happens on Wall Street is in any way connected to the reality of hard times in Portland, Oregon, Durango, Colorado or Chicago, Illinois.
Below the headline was this tidbit: “For ExxonMobil, $10.9 billion profit disappoints.” While average Americans struggle to make ends meet with rising costs and flat wages, ExxonMobil is unhappy about its $10.9 billion profit.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton argue about which of them has shadier friends or who is more patriotic; not to be outdone, John McCain is trying to sell Americans the idea that a tax break to buy a health insurance policy is the same thing as health care. John McCain’s blind faith in the “free market” is a subject for another day, though if McCain’s faith doesn’t sound eerily familiar and absolutely chilling, you haven’t been paying attention.
Wall Street may see golden light at the end of the tunnel, but directly below the headline in the Times was another: “Consumer Spending Stagnates as Prices Rise.” Consumers are in the deep end, up to their ears in debt, unable to buy stuff, which is a problem since our economy is based on ever-rising consumption of goods and services. But here’s the conundrum the cheerleaders for current economic arrangements seldom mention: how are consumers supposed to continue consuming if their wages remain flat?
Hard times coming. Hard times already here. If you work for wages, you don’t need to be reminded that it’s getting harder and harder to make ends meet.
What does it say about America’s economy when the Investor Class sees daylight and working people see darkness? Do you get the feeling that there’s a Big Disconnect in our society, a decoupling of public and corporate interest, of individual freedom and social responsibility, of individual good and common good?
Turn off your TV, put your computer to sleep, take off the iPod, power down your phone, and listen. Do you hear the sound of paper being torn, ripped, shredded? That’s the last page or two of the social contract being destroyed. The brainchild of FDR, who believed that no American should struggle for the necessities of bare survival, the social contract came into being after World War II. The contract was Business and Labor agreeing that when workers produced they should share in the profits; the contract implied that there was dignity in work and that working people deserved a fair shot at dignity; the contract was a shared belief that the next generation would do better and have even more opportunity than the current generation.
Gone. That in the midst of these worrisome economic times the New York Times chooses to report on Wall Street illustrates how difficult it is to have a real conversation about our economy – not only who it works for, but who it doesn’t, and why. In real, inflation-adjusted terms, the wages of working Americans have been flat for thirty years, but when was the last time you saw a news story about that? American families are working full tilt – not to get ahead, but just to hold their place. Seen any stories in the major media about that? The political buying power of corporations and their lobbyists is so pervasive that they have driven wages down, exported manufacturing jobs to countries where workers are more easily exploited, eliminated health insurance, dumped pension obligations and gutted regulatory bodies, all of which is great for investors, price per share, and lavish executive compensation, but a death sentence for workers.
Think about it. Big Business controls the media and therefore has the power to shape, frame, spotlight and filter the information we see and hear. In the middle of presidential primaries in a watershed election year, we get endless takes on the words and deeds of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright; not that America doesn’t need to hold a national conversation about race relations, we do, desperately, but that’s not what’s happening in news coverage of Reverend Wright. Big Media sets the story line, and no deviation from the script is allowed.
I don’t know if Americans can ever return to a shared social contract that takes into account the idea that human beings have needs other than economic needs. The conservative, free-market, ownership society, you’re-on-your-own ideology that has prevailed for the past three decades has turned us into anxious economic animals, constantly running to hold our place, working two jobs to earn the wage that one job once provided; constantly worried about whether we can afford health care or if we can afford to educate our kids or retire with enough financial wherewithal to live with dignity and give something back to our families and communities. The power arrayed against that happening is daunting.
But for the millions of us who believe that human life is about more than chasing a dollar or a euro, we have an obligation to stand against the prevailing power structure – to question it, to demand answers from it, to use moral persuasion to make it listen to our legitimate concerns. That’s Democracy. Dissent is a patriotic, creative act. As Dr. King said, “There is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we’re wrong when we protest. We reserve that right.”
It’s past time for America to reconnect with its basic values, just as it’s past time for working Americans to say, loud and often, enough is enough.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Hillary, the Chameleon
We’ve fallen behind the news cycle here on the Balcony. Hillary won the Pennsylvania primary by, what, ten percentage points, but from the media hype the day after you’d have thought she won by ninety. ABC News reported breathlessly about Hillary’s “double-digit” victory, and how she had successfully appealed to gun owners, bowlers, and beer drinkers.
Sweet Jesus, the day-after stupidity was nearly too much for a sane, thinking person to accept. Bowlers? Beer drinkers? The absurdity of Hillary Rodham Clinton trying to pass herself off as a “Regular Jane!”
The mainstream media is full of nitwits who rarely ask questions that matter, and even when they remember what it is a real journalist is supposed to do and ask a direct question, they too easily let the candidates get off the hook with bland answers. Hillary Clinton has been running for President for a long time now and I still don’t know what bedrock values she wouldn’t -- under any but the direst circumstances -- compromise away. (In fairness, I can’t answer that question about Barack Obama, either.)
Hillary Clinton is a successful politician, but she’s not a leader. Hillary commissions polls and then adjusts her positions accordingly. Leaders present their followers with positions and policies based on values. This doesn’t mean that leaders are infallible; after all, George W. Bush has steadfastly and slavishly pursued policies based on Conservative values that have inflicted tremendous damage on our republic.
I’m ready for a woman – white, African-American, Asian or other – to be President of the United States, as long as she has a vision for the nation, respect for the rule of law, and a willingness to honestly confront our most pressing issues, such as, and not necessarily in order of priority, economic inequality, the environment, foreign relations and health care.
Hillary’s campaign people are in Indiana now, polling likely voters. I expect it won’t be long before Hillary rolls out a homily about her long lost Uncle George or Samuel or Randolph or Clay, a salt-of-the-Earth farmer who settled in Indiana and tilled the land, worshipped God, and was the proud and responsible owner of a .30-.30 rifle, a 12-gauge over & under shotgun, and a Civil War vintage revolver.
I can hear Hillary’s stump speech now: “I remember my Uncle George, who loved this great state and its people. Uncle George believed in the old-time values of hard-work, faith and self-reliance. When I think of my uncle, I know that I too am a Hoosier in my heart, one of you. When I’m elected, I promise you I’ll find a place in my administration for Bobby Knight or Larry Bird.”
Or some such shameless pandering.
I may be ready for a female president, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready for Hillary. Her hubby duped me once, but I never trusted him again, and I don’t remember the Clinton years with fondness; Hillary’s cut from the same duplicitous, smarmy Ivy League cloth. Power’s her trip, and she’ll say or do anything to obtain it and keep it.
Sweet Jesus, the day-after stupidity was nearly too much for a sane, thinking person to accept. Bowlers? Beer drinkers? The absurdity of Hillary Rodham Clinton trying to pass herself off as a “Regular Jane!”
The mainstream media is full of nitwits who rarely ask questions that matter, and even when they remember what it is a real journalist is supposed to do and ask a direct question, they too easily let the candidates get off the hook with bland answers. Hillary Clinton has been running for President for a long time now and I still don’t know what bedrock values she wouldn’t -- under any but the direst circumstances -- compromise away. (In fairness, I can’t answer that question about Barack Obama, either.)
Hillary Clinton is a successful politician, but she’s not a leader. Hillary commissions polls and then adjusts her positions accordingly. Leaders present their followers with positions and policies based on values. This doesn’t mean that leaders are infallible; after all, George W. Bush has steadfastly and slavishly pursued policies based on Conservative values that have inflicted tremendous damage on our republic.
I’m ready for a woman – white, African-American, Asian or other – to be President of the United States, as long as she has a vision for the nation, respect for the rule of law, and a willingness to honestly confront our most pressing issues, such as, and not necessarily in order of priority, economic inequality, the environment, foreign relations and health care.
Hillary’s campaign people are in Indiana now, polling likely voters. I expect it won’t be long before Hillary rolls out a homily about her long lost Uncle George or Samuel or Randolph or Clay, a salt-of-the-Earth farmer who settled in Indiana and tilled the land, worshipped God, and was the proud and responsible owner of a .30-.30 rifle, a 12-gauge over & under shotgun, and a Civil War vintage revolver.
I can hear Hillary’s stump speech now: “I remember my Uncle George, who loved this great state and its people. Uncle George believed in the old-time values of hard-work, faith and self-reliance. When I think of my uncle, I know that I too am a Hoosier in my heart, one of you. When I’m elected, I promise you I’ll find a place in my administration for Bobby Knight or Larry Bird.”
Or some such shameless pandering.
I may be ready for a female president, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready for Hillary. Her hubby duped me once, but I never trusted him again, and I don’t remember the Clinton years with fondness; Hillary’s cut from the same duplicitous, smarmy Ivy League cloth. Power’s her trip, and she’ll say or do anything to obtain it and keep it.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Jack Kemp - Football Hero, Political Hack
Jack Kemp played ten years in the old AFL. During his career Kemp tossed 114 touchdown passes and 183 interceptions. His average pass covered 6.9 yards, not great by the standards set years later by Dan Marino, John Elway, and Brett Favre.
Kemp made out better in politics. He served in the House of Representatives for many years and ran for the White House with Bob Dole in 1996. Dole & Kemp went down in defeat to Clinton & Gore, though when Clinton got caught up in the Lewinsky mess Kemp got the last laugh. At least he didn’t have to answer embarrassing questions about cigars and semen-stained dresses under oath and surrounded by high-priced DC lawyers.
Like most arch-Conservatives, Jack Kemp is horrified that John McCain will be the GOP’s standard bearer in November. In the end, Kemp will hold his nose and support McCain – as will other staunch Conservatives, like that fat toad, Rush Limbaugh -- but that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it. In fact, Kemp is as depressed as a Buffalo winter.
I came across the following Kemp quote in a recent edition of the Nation: “…those who would weaken our nation’s defense, wave a white flag to al-Qaida, socialize our healthcare system, and promote income redistribution and class warfare instead of economic growth and equality of opportunity.”
I happened to be on an airplane flying to San Jose when I came across this twaddle, and when I burst out laughing the flight attendant immediately came over to see if I needed anything. Apparently, it’s no longer acceptable to laugh out loud aboard an airplane.
“Jack Kemp is an idiot,” I said, pointing to the quote. The flight attendant raised her eyebrows, concerned now that I might be dangerous. “Does he really think things could get worse if the country doesn’t elect another right-wing pinhead? My God, how’d this fool ever get elected to Congress? ‘Socialize our healthcare system.’ Does this pecker-head have any idea of the disgrace that our for-profit health insurance system has become? We don’t provide care, we specialize in denying care. That’s what for-profit health care does best. The more care the big insurance companies deny, the more dough they make.”
I was warming to my subject now, building a head of outrage and the flight attendant was clearly worried. A routine morning flight from Santa Barbara to San Jose was turning into something ugly.
“And how about this ‘class warfare’ horseshit?” I asked the flight attendant. “What does Kemp think has been going on in this country for the past twenty-five years? It’s class warfare alright, an all out pitched battle against the middle-class and the working-class by free market ideologues. Redistribution of wealth my ass. We’ve redistributed – to the wealthiest citizens. Tax cuts for the rich, subsidies to corporations, no-bid contracts for cronies! Is this what Kemp means by ‘equality of opportunity?’”
“Sir,” the flight attendant said, glancing nervously toward the cockpit door. “Please take your seat and fasten your seat belt.”
Whoa, I didn’t realize I’d risen from my seat, or that I was shouting or that my fellow passengers were staring at me. This wasn’t good, not in fascist, reactive, Gulag-loving America. I had a quick vision of Dick Cheney coming at me with a cattle prod.
I smiled at the flight attendant, spread my arms wide, just your average, un-armed American. “It’s OK,” I said. “I’m fine. My medications will kick in any second now. I suffer from Terminal Outrage, a result of seven years of Bush-Cheney and all the pig-headed, reactionary, and un-American policies they have shoved down the throats of good people. They’ve shrunk the great America heart to the size of a raisin! I love my country and I want it to live up to its ideals. I revere Thomas Jefferson, Lincoln and FDR. I’m fine, really, go back to your laptops and Blackberries. I’ll keep it together for the remainder of the flight. Don’t forget to vote this November. Vote as if your life depends on it. Vote your pocketbook. Vote for your children and their children. Thank you for listening.”
I sat down, buckled my seat belt and pulled the Sky Mall magazine out of the seat pocket. The Nation would have to wait until I was locked safely in my hotel room. I began flipping the glossy pages, through electronic mole zappers and $1500 BBQ grills. Yes, a little consumerism to calm the nerves. I’ll see you in Hell, Jack Kemp, you and the rest of the architects of American inequality.
Kemp made out better in politics. He served in the House of Representatives for many years and ran for the White House with Bob Dole in 1996. Dole & Kemp went down in defeat to Clinton & Gore, though when Clinton got caught up in the Lewinsky mess Kemp got the last laugh. At least he didn’t have to answer embarrassing questions about cigars and semen-stained dresses under oath and surrounded by high-priced DC lawyers.
Like most arch-Conservatives, Jack Kemp is horrified that John McCain will be the GOP’s standard bearer in November. In the end, Kemp will hold his nose and support McCain – as will other staunch Conservatives, like that fat toad, Rush Limbaugh -- but that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it. In fact, Kemp is as depressed as a Buffalo winter.
I came across the following Kemp quote in a recent edition of the Nation: “…those who would weaken our nation’s defense, wave a white flag to al-Qaida, socialize our healthcare system, and promote income redistribution and class warfare instead of economic growth and equality of opportunity.”
I happened to be on an airplane flying to San Jose when I came across this twaddle, and when I burst out laughing the flight attendant immediately came over to see if I needed anything. Apparently, it’s no longer acceptable to laugh out loud aboard an airplane.
“Jack Kemp is an idiot,” I said, pointing to the quote. The flight attendant raised her eyebrows, concerned now that I might be dangerous. “Does he really think things could get worse if the country doesn’t elect another right-wing pinhead? My God, how’d this fool ever get elected to Congress? ‘Socialize our healthcare system.’ Does this pecker-head have any idea of the disgrace that our for-profit health insurance system has become? We don’t provide care, we specialize in denying care. That’s what for-profit health care does best. The more care the big insurance companies deny, the more dough they make.”
I was warming to my subject now, building a head of outrage and the flight attendant was clearly worried. A routine morning flight from Santa Barbara to San Jose was turning into something ugly.
“And how about this ‘class warfare’ horseshit?” I asked the flight attendant. “What does Kemp think has been going on in this country for the past twenty-five years? It’s class warfare alright, an all out pitched battle against the middle-class and the working-class by free market ideologues. Redistribution of wealth my ass. We’ve redistributed – to the wealthiest citizens. Tax cuts for the rich, subsidies to corporations, no-bid contracts for cronies! Is this what Kemp means by ‘equality of opportunity?’”
“Sir,” the flight attendant said, glancing nervously toward the cockpit door. “Please take your seat and fasten your seat belt.”
Whoa, I didn’t realize I’d risen from my seat, or that I was shouting or that my fellow passengers were staring at me. This wasn’t good, not in fascist, reactive, Gulag-loving America. I had a quick vision of Dick Cheney coming at me with a cattle prod.
I smiled at the flight attendant, spread my arms wide, just your average, un-armed American. “It’s OK,” I said. “I’m fine. My medications will kick in any second now. I suffer from Terminal Outrage, a result of seven years of Bush-Cheney and all the pig-headed, reactionary, and un-American policies they have shoved down the throats of good people. They’ve shrunk the great America heart to the size of a raisin! I love my country and I want it to live up to its ideals. I revere Thomas Jefferson, Lincoln and FDR. I’m fine, really, go back to your laptops and Blackberries. I’ll keep it together for the remainder of the flight. Don’t forget to vote this November. Vote as if your life depends on it. Vote your pocketbook. Vote for your children and their children. Thank you for listening.”
I sat down, buckled my seat belt and pulled the Sky Mall magazine out of the seat pocket. The Nation would have to wait until I was locked safely in my hotel room. I began flipping the glossy pages, through electronic mole zappers and $1500 BBQ grills. Yes, a little consumerism to calm the nerves. I’ll see you in Hell, Jack Kemp, you and the rest of the architects of American inequality.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
WE AIN'T LEAVING
“Trapped, trapped like rats.” Cowardly Lion, the Wizard of Oz
And that sums up the U.S. position in Iraq. If we continue our Occupation, violence will continue; if we pack up our camp, give up our desire for permanent military installations and access to Iraqi oil, violence will continue, at least until a group or individual seizes power and squashes all opposition.
As I listened to part of the Petreus-Crocker dog & pony show earlier this week, the language they used struck me. Unabashedly imperialist, they might as well have been speaking of Hoboken, New Jersey, or Delano, California, as of Iraq. It was all about American interests and next to nothing about what the Iraqi people may desire for their nation; it was as if Petreus and Crocker were dealing with children who cannot be trusted to make their own decisions.
Clearly, American policy makers don’t care what the Iraqis want. Why should they? We invaded and occupied Iraq to serve American interests, not to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein or establish Democracy in the Middle East. The only rational that makes any sense for this grand example in imperial overreach is securing access to the sea of oil buried beneath the sand. The U.S. constitutes around 4% of the world market for goods and services, but consumes in the neighborhood of 25% of the world’s resources. And guess what? Most of the resources that turn our economic engine are located in other countries.
Throughout human history, powerful nations have invaded, subdued and occupied weaker nations. Different guises were employed to justify these exercises of raw might: God, civilizing the natives, vanquishing Communism or toppling dictators who became rambunctious or began to speak of nationalizing industries. Once invested in an Occupation, imperial powers have been reluctant to let go; they are usually driven out by unceasing guerilla warfare or because the cost of the Occupation – in coin or blood -- becomes too great for the imperial power to sustain.
My son is eleven. I have no doubt that the U.S. will be militarily involved in Iraq when my son turns eighteen. Now that we’ve made an investment in coin and blood, we must justify it. The same cowardly arguments making the rounds today will make the rounds in the future. We’re in deep, heavily invested, and only an extraordinary political leader with true courage can extricate us from this debacle.
Given the current crop of presidential contenders, I’m not holding my breath.
And that sums up the U.S. position in Iraq. If we continue our Occupation, violence will continue; if we pack up our camp, give up our desire for permanent military installations and access to Iraqi oil, violence will continue, at least until a group or individual seizes power and squashes all opposition.
As I listened to part of the Petreus-Crocker dog & pony show earlier this week, the language they used struck me. Unabashedly imperialist, they might as well have been speaking of Hoboken, New Jersey, or Delano, California, as of Iraq. It was all about American interests and next to nothing about what the Iraqi people may desire for their nation; it was as if Petreus and Crocker were dealing with children who cannot be trusted to make their own decisions.
Clearly, American policy makers don’t care what the Iraqis want. Why should they? We invaded and occupied Iraq to serve American interests, not to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein or establish Democracy in the Middle East. The only rational that makes any sense for this grand example in imperial overreach is securing access to the sea of oil buried beneath the sand. The U.S. constitutes around 4% of the world market for goods and services, but consumes in the neighborhood of 25% of the world’s resources. And guess what? Most of the resources that turn our economic engine are located in other countries.
Throughout human history, powerful nations have invaded, subdued and occupied weaker nations. Different guises were employed to justify these exercises of raw might: God, civilizing the natives, vanquishing Communism or toppling dictators who became rambunctious or began to speak of nationalizing industries. Once invested in an Occupation, imperial powers have been reluctant to let go; they are usually driven out by unceasing guerilla warfare or because the cost of the Occupation – in coin or blood -- becomes too great for the imperial power to sustain.
My son is eleven. I have no doubt that the U.S. will be militarily involved in Iraq when my son turns eighteen. Now that we’ve made an investment in coin and blood, we must justify it. The same cowardly arguments making the rounds today will make the rounds in the future. We’re in deep, heavily invested, and only an extraordinary political leader with true courage can extricate us from this debacle.
Given the current crop of presidential contenders, I’m not holding my breath.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The New Grapes of Wrath
“And it came about that owners no longer worked on their land. They farmed on paper; and they forgot the land, the smell, the feel of it, and remembered only that they owned it, remembered only what they gained and lost by it.” John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Doesn’t it feel that America is about to reap the grapes of wrath? Do you get the feeling that we’re trapped in train car decoupled from the locomotive, hurtling backwards toward a sheer cliff and a two-thousand foot free fall?
Not to hear our morally, intellectually, and curiosity-challenged President; according to George W. Bush, everything is moving along the tracks just fine, according to plan. For purposes of sheer survival, you’d think GOP bosses would do everything in their power to keep Bush away from microphones, press conferences and speaking engagements, because every time Bush opens his mouth the Republicans drive another nail into their coffin. The same goes for Dick Cheney. While young Americans die in a pointless war of which Cheney was chief architect and head cheerleader, Cheney goes fishing with Middle Eastern potentates every bit as corrupt as he is.
I haven’t felt such acute loathing since Richard Nixon occupied the White House. I can’t even watch George W. Bush throw out the first pitch at a baseball game – and I consider myself a baseball nut. This pinhead is our President! This embarrassment to every good impulse our country ever stood for? Does the Supreme Court still think installing this joker in the White House was a sound idea?
It’s simply astonishing to listen to George W. Bush speak on the state of the economy or the Occupation of Iraq. The disconnect from reality! The giddy denial of facts! The total disregard for experience! Why angry Americans haven’t stormed the White House gates demanding Bush’s removal from office is beyond me. A populace with a normal level of outrage and a functioning sense of indignation would have exhausted all patience and tolerance long ago, taken to the streets of the nation’s capitol to overturn cars and set them on fire, battle the Blackwater riot squad with sticks and stones, bricks and bottles; nothing less than outright mayhem seems to get the attention of the American ruling class.
Bush and his GOP cronies have sodomized America on a mind-blowing scale. Even now, near the end of his disastrous reign, Bush’s phallus is buried deep, his hands are locked on our hips and his trousers are down around his ankles and he’s banging away with a smirk on his face, this twisted, perverse product of the ruling elite, a man for whom utter failure is a way of life.
Regardless of political orientation, Americans should be outraged. The Bush junta has no plan for the Iraq follies except more deaths, more waste, more shame; they have no plan to deal with gasoline prices that will soon soar north of $4 a gallon; they have no plan for the economy except a stupid tax rebate scheme that will send Americans down to Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target and Circuit City, there to gorge themselves on products – made in China. And in the long run this helps us – and by us I mean people who work for wages -- how? Public investment in school construction, teacher training, highway and bridge repair, energy conservation, job training, mass transit projects that put money into America and make that money multiply – that would be a true stimulus program. But the Bush Junta’s “free market, private is always better than public” ideology prevents them from taking that sensible course; the best idea they can come up with is to give people money so they can buy imported goods made by exploited workers.
The Grapes of Wrath, then, and now. Maybe it’s true that everything that dies one day comes back, maybe we are once again heading into an era when government is seen as an entity that counterbalances corporate power and provides for the common good, rather than an evil that stifles, strangles and steals.
Remember your Steinbeck: “We all got to figure. There’s some way to stop this. It’s not like lightning or earthquakes. We’ve got a bad thing made by men, and by God that’s something we can change.”
Doesn’t it feel that America is about to reap the grapes of wrath? Do you get the feeling that we’re trapped in train car decoupled from the locomotive, hurtling backwards toward a sheer cliff and a two-thousand foot free fall?
Not to hear our morally, intellectually, and curiosity-challenged President; according to George W. Bush, everything is moving along the tracks just fine, according to plan. For purposes of sheer survival, you’d think GOP bosses would do everything in their power to keep Bush away from microphones, press conferences and speaking engagements, because every time Bush opens his mouth the Republicans drive another nail into their coffin. The same goes for Dick Cheney. While young Americans die in a pointless war of which Cheney was chief architect and head cheerleader, Cheney goes fishing with Middle Eastern potentates every bit as corrupt as he is.
I haven’t felt such acute loathing since Richard Nixon occupied the White House. I can’t even watch George W. Bush throw out the first pitch at a baseball game – and I consider myself a baseball nut. This pinhead is our President! This embarrassment to every good impulse our country ever stood for? Does the Supreme Court still think installing this joker in the White House was a sound idea?
It’s simply astonishing to listen to George W. Bush speak on the state of the economy or the Occupation of Iraq. The disconnect from reality! The giddy denial of facts! The total disregard for experience! Why angry Americans haven’t stormed the White House gates demanding Bush’s removal from office is beyond me. A populace with a normal level of outrage and a functioning sense of indignation would have exhausted all patience and tolerance long ago, taken to the streets of the nation’s capitol to overturn cars and set them on fire, battle the Blackwater riot squad with sticks and stones, bricks and bottles; nothing less than outright mayhem seems to get the attention of the American ruling class.
Bush and his GOP cronies have sodomized America on a mind-blowing scale. Even now, near the end of his disastrous reign, Bush’s phallus is buried deep, his hands are locked on our hips and his trousers are down around his ankles and he’s banging away with a smirk on his face, this twisted, perverse product of the ruling elite, a man for whom utter failure is a way of life.
Regardless of political orientation, Americans should be outraged. The Bush junta has no plan for the Iraq follies except more deaths, more waste, more shame; they have no plan to deal with gasoline prices that will soon soar north of $4 a gallon; they have no plan for the economy except a stupid tax rebate scheme that will send Americans down to Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target and Circuit City, there to gorge themselves on products – made in China. And in the long run this helps us – and by us I mean people who work for wages -- how? Public investment in school construction, teacher training, highway and bridge repair, energy conservation, job training, mass transit projects that put money into America and make that money multiply – that would be a true stimulus program. But the Bush Junta’s “free market, private is always better than public” ideology prevents them from taking that sensible course; the best idea they can come up with is to give people money so they can buy imported goods made by exploited workers.
The Grapes of Wrath, then, and now. Maybe it’s true that everything that dies one day comes back, maybe we are once again heading into an era when government is seen as an entity that counterbalances corporate power and provides for the common good, rather than an evil that stifles, strangles and steals.
Remember your Steinbeck: “We all got to figure. There’s some way to stop this. It’s not like lightning or earthquakes. We’ve got a bad thing made by men, and by God that’s something we can change.”
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
4,000, and Counting
George W. Bush sounded as dim-witted as ever when he said, upon hearing of the 4,000th American killed in Iraq, that our dead had laid a “foundation for peace.”
Remind me -- was there War in Iraq prior to the American invasion?
Was there chaos, violence, car-bombings, suicide bombings, sectarian death squads, ethnic cleansing, and a mass internal exodus?
Prior to the U.S. Invasion and Occupation, did the electric grid work, did clean water flow through the pipes, did raw sewage get treated and could Iraqis move about the country in relative freedom and safety?
The people who brought us the Invasion and Occupation told us – told the entire world – that the armed action would be brief, relatively bloodless, and monetarily cheap; they told us that everyday Iraqis would rise up and establish a glorious Democracy in the Middle East; they told us that the Americans would be welcomed as deliriously as the French welcomed Americans in Paris in 1944.
Intelligent people the world over knew that invading Iraq for its purported role in the 9/11 terror attacks was an insane foray into a vipers nest; intelligent people knew that there was no logical nexus between 9/11 and Iraq; and those same intelligent people were quite certain that no Weapons of Mass Destruction would turn up in Iraq. When Bush changed the rationale from rooting out WMD to “liberating” the long-suffering Iraqi people, intelligent people knew the President was full of shit.
If the sole point of the Iraq Invasion and Occupation was freeing people living under tyranny, when is the U.S. going to invade Cuba, North Korea, Pakistan or one of several suffering African nations? Aren’t the people in those places worthy of a gift of freedom from the U.S.?
No matter how we mourn 4,000 American dead – and all of us should examine our complicity in this mess, though none more than George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and a number of lesser arrogant assholes -- ordinary, innocent Iraqis have suffered many times more. Every Iraqi killed or injured is like the proverbial pebble in a pond, emanating outwards, touching dozens of lives – mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends.
The failed Occupation of Iraq may have vanished from American TV screens, but the consequence of our stupidity, hubris, and foolishness goes on, and on. We may bestow medals on the survivors of this grim exercise in imperial overreach, call them heroes, name streets and federal buildings in their honor, but none of that hoopla will erase the fact that this Invasion and Occupation was based on lies and propaganda and had nothing to do with keeping the U.S. secure.
Remind me -- was there War in Iraq prior to the American invasion?
Was there chaos, violence, car-bombings, suicide bombings, sectarian death squads, ethnic cleansing, and a mass internal exodus?
Prior to the U.S. Invasion and Occupation, did the electric grid work, did clean water flow through the pipes, did raw sewage get treated and could Iraqis move about the country in relative freedom and safety?
The people who brought us the Invasion and Occupation told us – told the entire world – that the armed action would be brief, relatively bloodless, and monetarily cheap; they told us that everyday Iraqis would rise up and establish a glorious Democracy in the Middle East; they told us that the Americans would be welcomed as deliriously as the French welcomed Americans in Paris in 1944.
Intelligent people the world over knew that invading Iraq for its purported role in the 9/11 terror attacks was an insane foray into a vipers nest; intelligent people knew that there was no logical nexus between 9/11 and Iraq; and those same intelligent people were quite certain that no Weapons of Mass Destruction would turn up in Iraq. When Bush changed the rationale from rooting out WMD to “liberating” the long-suffering Iraqi people, intelligent people knew the President was full of shit.
If the sole point of the Iraq Invasion and Occupation was freeing people living under tyranny, when is the U.S. going to invade Cuba, North Korea, Pakistan or one of several suffering African nations? Aren’t the people in those places worthy of a gift of freedom from the U.S.?
No matter how we mourn 4,000 American dead – and all of us should examine our complicity in this mess, though none more than George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and a number of lesser arrogant assholes -- ordinary, innocent Iraqis have suffered many times more. Every Iraqi killed or injured is like the proverbial pebble in a pond, emanating outwards, touching dozens of lives – mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends.
The failed Occupation of Iraq may have vanished from American TV screens, but the consequence of our stupidity, hubris, and foolishness goes on, and on. We may bestow medals on the survivors of this grim exercise in imperial overreach, call them heroes, name streets and federal buildings in their honor, but none of that hoopla will erase the fact that this Invasion and Occupation was based on lies and propaganda and had nothing to do with keeping the U.S. secure.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Tear Off the Scab, Expose the Wound
I don’t understand the big media flap over statements made by Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., Barack Obama’s former pastor. Why is Obama being held accountable for statements made by someone else, statements taken out of context, statements that probably resonated with the largely African-American audience to which they were aimed? Dr. Wright has no doubt seen his share of poverty, despair and hopelessness. Dr. Wright’s job is to give hope to people who have none. In the short video clip that has become so familiar to TV news viewers, I didn’t hear Dr. Wright calling for African-Americans to rise up and smite their white oppressors; I heard him describing a reality that African-Americans know all too well.
White Americans – and particularly Conservative white Americans – become nervous when an African-American person brings up the race issue. Whites would much rather believe that institutionalized racism is long behind us and that we are now color-blind, with no need for corrective measures like Affirmative Action; whites want desperately to believe that only merit matters; and I think whites desperately wish to believe that the incarceration rate for African-American males is disproportionate because of some inbred lack of ambition, responsibility or morality within African-American males rather than the predictable result of a society where racism is still prevalent. Overt signs of racism may be less obvious today than they were in 1940 or 1950 or 1960, but the underlying assumptions about black people in the minds of white people are still alive and well.
White Americans would do well to read James Baldwin who wrote in an essay called “The Fire Next Time” that, “The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed the collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace…” In other words, African-Americans could see America for what it is, warts and all, rather than an idealized picture that bears no resemblance to reality.
Sounds somewhat familiar, doesn’t it? Sounds like the myths and distortions bandied around every day by white right-wing radio commentators like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, who tell their largely white audiences that racism is all in the heads of black people, an excuse blacks use to account for their failure to lift themselves out of poverty, drug addiction, and violence.
Perhaps the white media is upset about Dr. Wright’s sermon because it rips the scab off the American scar and exposes the wound that no amount of myth-making by white people can heal.
White Americans – and particularly Conservative white Americans – become nervous when an African-American person brings up the race issue. Whites would much rather believe that institutionalized racism is long behind us and that we are now color-blind, with no need for corrective measures like Affirmative Action; whites want desperately to believe that only merit matters; and I think whites desperately wish to believe that the incarceration rate for African-American males is disproportionate because of some inbred lack of ambition, responsibility or morality within African-American males rather than the predictable result of a society where racism is still prevalent. Overt signs of racism may be less obvious today than they were in 1940 or 1950 or 1960, but the underlying assumptions about black people in the minds of white people are still alive and well.
White Americans would do well to read James Baldwin who wrote in an essay called “The Fire Next Time” that, “The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed the collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace…” In other words, African-Americans could see America for what it is, warts and all, rather than an idealized picture that bears no resemblance to reality.
Sounds somewhat familiar, doesn’t it? Sounds like the myths and distortions bandied around every day by white right-wing radio commentators like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, who tell their largely white audiences that racism is all in the heads of black people, an excuse blacks use to account for their failure to lift themselves out of poverty, drug addiction, and violence.
Perhaps the white media is upset about Dr. Wright’s sermon because it rips the scab off the American scar and exposes the wound that no amount of myth-making by white people can heal.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Icing On Bush's Cake
Do you still believe in the Ownership Society, in the sanctity of the Free Market, in endless tax cuts, and that Government, at every level, is an evil that must be rooted out?
Last Friday, President Bush attempted to reassure financial titans that the American economy is still rosy. Bush tried to make light of the crisis engulfing the banking industry, but nobody in the audience believed him; today the DOW opened 143 points lower. Bush’s fantasies are shop-worn. It’s certain he will leave office in disgrace, with the United States stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy in disarray, and average citizens far worse off than they were when the Supreme Court installed Bush & Cheney in the White House.
Where is Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, Alan Greenspan, Tom DeLay, fat Rush Limbaugh and all the rest of the cheerleaders for the “permanent Republican majority?” Bush & Cheney tried their best to implement every absurd neo-con idea and look what happened?
Bush will make more jokes and gaffes today when he tries to assure Americans that the economy is fine, just suffering from a temporary setback, but he won’t be any more believable today than he was last week.
Of course, the mainstream American media is crying for the poor employees of Bear Stearns, but where was the media when those employees and Bear executives were raking in cash from sub-prime mortgages and other shady investment instruments? In the salad days, when the good money was flowing, the media had nothing but positive things to say about the American economy and the marvelous “creativity” of the Titans of Finance.
Five years in Iraq, billions poured into that mess, no end in sight. Are you still worried about “family values” and the “personal morality” of the President? How did Bill Clinton’s personal indiscretion in 1998 harm you? According to Gingrich and the other hypocrites who called for Clinton’s head, that piss-ant scandal was the worst event to befall America since Pearl Harbor, a sure sign of our moral decay and imminent collapse. Compared to the wholesale mess we’re in today, Clinton-Lewinsky was a Saturday afternoon picnic.
Last Friday, President Bush attempted to reassure financial titans that the American economy is still rosy. Bush tried to make light of the crisis engulfing the banking industry, but nobody in the audience believed him; today the DOW opened 143 points lower. Bush’s fantasies are shop-worn. It’s certain he will leave office in disgrace, with the United States stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy in disarray, and average citizens far worse off than they were when the Supreme Court installed Bush & Cheney in the White House.
Where is Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, Alan Greenspan, Tom DeLay, fat Rush Limbaugh and all the rest of the cheerleaders for the “permanent Republican majority?” Bush & Cheney tried their best to implement every absurd neo-con idea and look what happened?
Bush will make more jokes and gaffes today when he tries to assure Americans that the economy is fine, just suffering from a temporary setback, but he won’t be any more believable today than he was last week.
Of course, the mainstream American media is crying for the poor employees of Bear Stearns, but where was the media when those employees and Bear executives were raking in cash from sub-prime mortgages and other shady investment instruments? In the salad days, when the good money was flowing, the media had nothing but positive things to say about the American economy and the marvelous “creativity” of the Titans of Finance.
Five years in Iraq, billions poured into that mess, no end in sight. Are you still worried about “family values” and the “personal morality” of the President? How did Bill Clinton’s personal indiscretion in 1998 harm you? According to Gingrich and the other hypocrites who called for Clinton’s head, that piss-ant scandal was the worst event to befall America since Pearl Harbor, a sure sign of our moral decay and imminent collapse. Compared to the wholesale mess we’re in today, Clinton-Lewinsky was a Saturday afternoon picnic.
Friday, March 14, 2008
PENIS DEFEATS BRAIN -- AGAIN
OK, Eliot Spitzer, here’s the first question I want to ask you: was that young hooker worth it? Second question: did it ever occur to you that cash money is untraceable?
Jesus, Eliot Spitzer’s a brilliant guy with a first-rate pedigree and a reputation as a kick-ass anti-corporate warrior, but it goes to show that when a man leads with his dick instead of his brain, terrible things usually happen.
The moral side of the Spitzer mess doesn’t trouble me too much – powerful men have sought solace with prostitutes for millennia. Flagging a hooker down on a Manhattan street or making arrangements through an agency is a personal decision that, for most men, carries personal consequences, such as, being rolled by a pimp, contracting an STD, or having one’s spouse find out. For a high-profile elected official, it’s all of those risks and more. Spitzer’s political career is finished, for now anyway, at least until he emerges from Rehab cleansed of his sexual addiction. That’s probably a year or three down the trail, and until then Spitzer has a family to feed and clothe. Even in the sleazy world of big-time corporate law, it’s unlikely a reputable firm would take a chance and hire Spitzer.
Until the dust settles and public memory fades – and if you don’t believe that it will, remember that Bill Clinton is today stomping the campaign trail for his wife, despite that fact that he played hide-the-cigar-in-your-pussy with an intern in the Oval Office – Spitzer might try becoming a lobbyist for a condom manufacturer or perhaps the sex toy industry. Experts generally advise job seekers to stick with what they know, and Eliot obviously knows a thing or two about the tawdry world of sex.
At least Spitzer wasn’t nailed with child pornography on his computer or the names of underage boys on his cell phone; he didn’t, as far as I know, bugger interns in his office or stage an orgy in Central Park. His “crime” was pedestrian, stupid, pathetic; the former NY governor is obviously hauling some heavy baggage around, unsatisfied in his own bedroom, and under a lot of stress; although his wife stood at his side while he informed the planet of his fuck-up, she struck me as a unforgiving lady, and I hope the Spitzer’s have a spare bedroom for Eliot.
Another politician goes down in disgrace. Ho-hum. The Republicans will crow about moral decay, spout illogical claptrap about Christian values, renew calls for the abolishment of public education (a hotbed of immorality and vice) and generally have a field day making the Spitzer story a black mark against all Democrats. NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, and all the crass infotainment programs will continue to trot out current and former madams and hookers, pop psychologists, sex experts and reformed perverts of every persuasion, and analyze poor Eliot to death.
Was she that good, Eliot? Could she could suck a golf ball through twenty feet of plastic tubing or shoot a ping-pong ball from her vagina? Did she do tricks, swing from the ceiling, suck you off in the shower?
I was under the impression that Ivy League schools do a better job teaching their politically ambitious students to break the law with panache; guess Eliot skipped those lessons.
Jesus, Eliot Spitzer’s a brilliant guy with a first-rate pedigree and a reputation as a kick-ass anti-corporate warrior, but it goes to show that when a man leads with his dick instead of his brain, terrible things usually happen.
The moral side of the Spitzer mess doesn’t trouble me too much – powerful men have sought solace with prostitutes for millennia. Flagging a hooker down on a Manhattan street or making arrangements through an agency is a personal decision that, for most men, carries personal consequences, such as, being rolled by a pimp, contracting an STD, or having one’s spouse find out. For a high-profile elected official, it’s all of those risks and more. Spitzer’s political career is finished, for now anyway, at least until he emerges from Rehab cleansed of his sexual addiction. That’s probably a year or three down the trail, and until then Spitzer has a family to feed and clothe. Even in the sleazy world of big-time corporate law, it’s unlikely a reputable firm would take a chance and hire Spitzer.
Until the dust settles and public memory fades – and if you don’t believe that it will, remember that Bill Clinton is today stomping the campaign trail for his wife, despite that fact that he played hide-the-cigar-in-your-pussy with an intern in the Oval Office – Spitzer might try becoming a lobbyist for a condom manufacturer or perhaps the sex toy industry. Experts generally advise job seekers to stick with what they know, and Eliot obviously knows a thing or two about the tawdry world of sex.
At least Spitzer wasn’t nailed with child pornography on his computer or the names of underage boys on his cell phone; he didn’t, as far as I know, bugger interns in his office or stage an orgy in Central Park. His “crime” was pedestrian, stupid, pathetic; the former NY governor is obviously hauling some heavy baggage around, unsatisfied in his own bedroom, and under a lot of stress; although his wife stood at his side while he informed the planet of his fuck-up, she struck me as a unforgiving lady, and I hope the Spitzer’s have a spare bedroom for Eliot.
Another politician goes down in disgrace. Ho-hum. The Republicans will crow about moral decay, spout illogical claptrap about Christian values, renew calls for the abolishment of public education (a hotbed of immorality and vice) and generally have a field day making the Spitzer story a black mark against all Democrats. NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, and all the crass infotainment programs will continue to trot out current and former madams and hookers, pop psychologists, sex experts and reformed perverts of every persuasion, and analyze poor Eliot to death.
Was she that good, Eliot? Could she could suck a golf ball through twenty feet of plastic tubing or shoot a ping-pong ball from her vagina? Did she do tricks, swing from the ceiling, suck you off in the shower?
I was under the impression that Ivy League schools do a better job teaching their politically ambitious students to break the law with panache; guess Eliot skipped those lessons.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
The Scarlet Endorsement
What does it feel like to win the endorsement of the worst president in American history? Is it like being anointed king of a leper colony? Like being handed the keys to a Potemkin Village? Like entering a best-ball golf tournament and being informed on the first tee that your partner is Charlie Manson?
You’d think John McCain would have spent the day after clinching the GOP nomination any place except the White House. He’d have told George W. that he was sorry, but he had a previous engagement with his manicurist or his auto mechanic or his proctologist. Instead McCain stood there and accepted Bush’s endorsement, as if Bush is a serious statesman and not the greatest fuck-up since Herbert Hoover.
Memo to McCain: through pig-headed policies and slavish devotion to an empty ideology, Bush hung a rotting albatross around the GOP’s collective neck. It’s called the US Economy and it’s steaming toward a big-time crack-up the likes of which Americans haven’t seen in years.
Sure, the Democrats will pound on one another for another month or so, while McCain takes it easy, has Botox treatments, studies yoga to control his temper and continues sucking up to the Religious Right. Hillary and Barack are egomaniacs who won’t quit until they are splattered with one another’s blood. Fine, American politics is pure blood-sport, and nobody grasps that primal fact better than Hillary Clinton. Like her hubby, she’d strangle a puppy with her bare hands if it helped her win.
Huge amounts of money, time and energy will be spent by Democrats between now and the primary in Pennsylvania.
The Democrats have one glaring problem -- they are still searching for the soul they misplaced when Jimmy Carter lived in the White House. In this regard, McCain and the Republicans clearly have an advantage; Republicans have no soul whatsoever and are proud of it.
But when it comes down to it, McCain is saddled with the Republican record of the past eight years: a failed occupation in Iraq and an economy in tatters, gas prices sky high, the federal deficit ballooning by the day and Wall Street jittery. Even a tree stump like John Kerry could take McCain out under these circumstances. What’s McCain going to do, run on the Bush record!
I hope he does, just as I hope he can get used to the smell of rotting albatross.
You’d think John McCain would have spent the day after clinching the GOP nomination any place except the White House. He’d have told George W. that he was sorry, but he had a previous engagement with his manicurist or his auto mechanic or his proctologist. Instead McCain stood there and accepted Bush’s endorsement, as if Bush is a serious statesman and not the greatest fuck-up since Herbert Hoover.
Memo to McCain: through pig-headed policies and slavish devotion to an empty ideology, Bush hung a rotting albatross around the GOP’s collective neck. It’s called the US Economy and it’s steaming toward a big-time crack-up the likes of which Americans haven’t seen in years.
Sure, the Democrats will pound on one another for another month or so, while McCain takes it easy, has Botox treatments, studies yoga to control his temper and continues sucking up to the Religious Right. Hillary and Barack are egomaniacs who won’t quit until they are splattered with one another’s blood. Fine, American politics is pure blood-sport, and nobody grasps that primal fact better than Hillary Clinton. Like her hubby, she’d strangle a puppy with her bare hands if it helped her win.
Huge amounts of money, time and energy will be spent by Democrats between now and the primary in Pennsylvania.
The Democrats have one glaring problem -- they are still searching for the soul they misplaced when Jimmy Carter lived in the White House. In this regard, McCain and the Republicans clearly have an advantage; Republicans have no soul whatsoever and are proud of it.
But when it comes down to it, McCain is saddled with the Republican record of the past eight years: a failed occupation in Iraq and an economy in tatters, gas prices sky high, the federal deficit ballooning by the day and Wall Street jittery. Even a tree stump like John Kerry could take McCain out under these circumstances. What’s McCain going to do, run on the Bush record!
I hope he does, just as I hope he can get used to the smell of rotting albatross.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Another Tuesday
The political handicappers and pundits are busy this morning, crunching numbers on their laptops and Blackberries, checking in with ground troops in the Obama and Clinton campaigns, and readying the story that will be the Story in the news cycle for the next 48 hours or so.
Obama Triumphant or Hillary Down but Not Out!
Can Hillary come back from the brink? If she makes semi-decent showings in Ohio and Texas, will she remain in the race? If she tanks again, will she bow out gracefully and make the party "unity" speech?
Either way, it will be tough for Hillary. Until the Obama phenomenon exploded, Hillary was the presumptive Democratic nominee, the woman who was making history; all she had to do was avoid a major gaffe and make sure her husband kept his hands off female campaign volunteers. Hillary had big name campaign advisors and consultants, the political pedigree, and a wad of cash. What could possibly go wrong?
Obama-mania. Oprah.
On the stump, Hillary speaks of her experience, her judgment, and her intimate knowledge of the way the White House works; she knows how to get a club sandwich from the kitchen staff at 2:30 a.m., the best places to hide Easter eggs and where the Christmas decorations are stored. She’s ready to move in, clean out every last vestige of Bush and Cheney, and begin another chapter in the history books.
Hillary wants the public to like her, but many of us can’t because we remember the Clinton years differently than she does. Too much NAFTA, too much cozying up to corporate interests, too many hints of scandal from all the people the Clintons fucked over and abandoned on their way to power.
At this point in the campaign, I couldn’t tell you what Barack Obama stands for, whether he’s more of the same or if he has my – and people like me – economic interests at heart. Barack is all gauzy poetry right now, juxtaposed against Hillary’s wonkishness; Barack comes alive on the stump while Hillary turns wooden; Barack dances, jabs and ducks, Hillary stands toe-to-toe, prepared for a slugfest.
But when is Barack going to start identifying the ideology that underlies the failed policies Conservatives have foisted on the country since Reagan? When is he going to offer a different narrative of the way things can be? “Change We Can Believe In” is a catchy slogan, but what the fuck does it mean for citizens who are terrorized and shell-shocked – not by religious nutjobs from Iran or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia – but from domestic economic policies – American policies -- that have denuded the middle-class and created a devastating gulf between the rich and everyone else? When is Barack going to speak out on the corporate fantasy-land that America has become? When is he going to tie the futility of the Iraq Occupation to our economic woes?
Maybe never, who knows? If Barack winds up as the Democratic nominee, he’ll have to find a message that resonates with Independents and even moderate Republicans, which means he’ll move away from fundamental questions and toward the soft, compromising middle.
Over in the GOP camp, McCain’s handlers are honing their man’s message, which at this point comes down to a few key phrases: no new taxes, ever; al Qaeda operatives are hiding under every rock and they hate America; God must be mentioned frequently; and for good measure, just so McCain doesn’t forget under pressure, the handlers repeat these magic words: tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts.
This circus will be over, eventually.
Obama Triumphant or Hillary Down but Not Out!
Can Hillary come back from the brink? If she makes semi-decent showings in Ohio and Texas, will she remain in the race? If she tanks again, will she bow out gracefully and make the party "unity" speech?
Either way, it will be tough for Hillary. Until the Obama phenomenon exploded, Hillary was the presumptive Democratic nominee, the woman who was making history; all she had to do was avoid a major gaffe and make sure her husband kept his hands off female campaign volunteers. Hillary had big name campaign advisors and consultants, the political pedigree, and a wad of cash. What could possibly go wrong?
Obama-mania. Oprah.
On the stump, Hillary speaks of her experience, her judgment, and her intimate knowledge of the way the White House works; she knows how to get a club sandwich from the kitchen staff at 2:30 a.m., the best places to hide Easter eggs and where the Christmas decorations are stored. She’s ready to move in, clean out every last vestige of Bush and Cheney, and begin another chapter in the history books.
Hillary wants the public to like her, but many of us can’t because we remember the Clinton years differently than she does. Too much NAFTA, too much cozying up to corporate interests, too many hints of scandal from all the people the Clintons fucked over and abandoned on their way to power.
At this point in the campaign, I couldn’t tell you what Barack Obama stands for, whether he’s more of the same or if he has my – and people like me – economic interests at heart. Barack is all gauzy poetry right now, juxtaposed against Hillary’s wonkishness; Barack comes alive on the stump while Hillary turns wooden; Barack dances, jabs and ducks, Hillary stands toe-to-toe, prepared for a slugfest.
But when is Barack going to start identifying the ideology that underlies the failed policies Conservatives have foisted on the country since Reagan? When is he going to offer a different narrative of the way things can be? “Change We Can Believe In” is a catchy slogan, but what the fuck does it mean for citizens who are terrorized and shell-shocked – not by religious nutjobs from Iran or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia – but from domestic economic policies – American policies -- that have denuded the middle-class and created a devastating gulf between the rich and everyone else? When is Barack going to speak out on the corporate fantasy-land that America has become? When is he going to tie the futility of the Iraq Occupation to our economic woes?
Maybe never, who knows? If Barack winds up as the Democratic nominee, he’ll have to find a message that resonates with Independents and even moderate Republicans, which means he’ll move away from fundamental questions and toward the soft, compromising middle.
Over in the GOP camp, McCain’s handlers are honing their man’s message, which at this point comes down to a few key phrases: no new taxes, ever; al Qaeda operatives are hiding under every rock and they hate America; God must be mentioned frequently; and for good measure, just so McCain doesn’t forget under pressure, the handlers repeat these magic words: tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts.
This circus will be over, eventually.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
The Audacity of Despair
After seven years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, their infantile and ruinous response to 9/11, disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law, shameless pandering to corporate America and the wealthy, official disdain for science and reason, signing statements, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath – which is still an ongoing humanitarian tragedy even if the mainstream media chooses to ignore it – after all this misery, shame and outright stupidity, it’s hard to muster much hope for the future, regardless of who captures the White House this November.
Barack Obama tells people it’s all about Change, this political season’s magic word, but Mr. Obama is thin on the specifics of what that means. Obama reminds me of an old-fashioned snake oil salesman, selling bottles of hair restorer from the back of a wagon. “I know you’ve dreamed of having a lustrous head of hair, a flowing mane, and here at last is the product that can make your dreams a reality…”
Hillary Clinton touts her “Day One” experience, though it seems to me that this experience is predominantly grounded in failed policies, particularly those of her hubby, William Jefferson Clinton, a master political manipulator, accomplished liar, and renowned skirt chaser. People seem to have forgotten that Democrats got creamed in the ’94 mid-term elections and lost the U.S. House, Senate and a number of governorships. That shellacking gave rise to Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay and a host of corrupt hard right GOP nitwits. Although Bill Clinton won re-election in ’96, he spent the rest of his Administration fighting a holding action, including nearly two years of White Water and Monica Lewinsky accusations, denials, admissions and apologies. Some legacy.
John McCain, war hero and aging war horse, bases his candidacy in Safety & Security. McCain has an undeserved reputation as a maverick, and is now furiously trying to distance himself from past statements and policy decisions in order to court the GOP’s wing-nut religious right faction. “I never said that ethics in government were more important than God. I promise you that I will consult the Almighty before making even the smallest decision. I believe that God is Great, and that He is on our side.”
It wouldn’t bother McCain at all if American military forces maintained a presence in Iraq for the next hundred years. Never mind the cost, never mind the wishes of ordinary Iraqi citizens for hegemony over their own country, in McCain’s mind Americans have a right to plant military installations on foreign soil, and to buttress this argument, McCain cites Germany, Japan and Korea, where the United States has maintained military bases for nearly half a century. McCain doesn’t spend much mental energy wondering why, with the Cold War a speck in our rearview mirror, we “need” military bases in Japan or Germany; he’s obviously comfortable with American Imperialism as it’s currently constituted.
The thought of Cindy McCain as First Lady scares me. Cindy looks a tad uptight to me, a woman prone to hysterical fits; I can easily imagine her chewing out the gardener or her personal assistant or any other lackey who helps her get through the day. I heard her say that she’s proud of her country, but the statement only makes me wonder if she knows what’s really going down in America – anyone who claims to be proud of the United States today hasn’t been paying attention during the past seven years.
In case you’re wondering, I don’t hate America and hope for its demise; I served in the armed forces, vote in every election, write letters to elected officials and participate actively in our Democracy. My issue with America is that instead of coming closer to realizing its historic promise, it has drifted further away. Once we believed – and acted upon that belief – in equality of opportunity, basic fairness, and the welfare of common people and communities. Although far from perfect, we at least lurched in the right direction, albeit often fitfully and painfully.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the Lincoln Memorial in August of 1963, he said that the signers of the Declaration of Independence had made a promissory note with the citizens of our new country – a note the country defaulted on where citizens of color were concerned. Today I think an argument can be made that America has defaulted on its promise in many other ways.
Barack Obama tells people it’s all about Change, this political season’s magic word, but Mr. Obama is thin on the specifics of what that means. Obama reminds me of an old-fashioned snake oil salesman, selling bottles of hair restorer from the back of a wagon. “I know you’ve dreamed of having a lustrous head of hair, a flowing mane, and here at last is the product that can make your dreams a reality…”
Hillary Clinton touts her “Day One” experience, though it seems to me that this experience is predominantly grounded in failed policies, particularly those of her hubby, William Jefferson Clinton, a master political manipulator, accomplished liar, and renowned skirt chaser. People seem to have forgotten that Democrats got creamed in the ’94 mid-term elections and lost the U.S. House, Senate and a number of governorships. That shellacking gave rise to Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay and a host of corrupt hard right GOP nitwits. Although Bill Clinton won re-election in ’96, he spent the rest of his Administration fighting a holding action, including nearly two years of White Water and Monica Lewinsky accusations, denials, admissions and apologies. Some legacy.
John McCain, war hero and aging war horse, bases his candidacy in Safety & Security. McCain has an undeserved reputation as a maverick, and is now furiously trying to distance himself from past statements and policy decisions in order to court the GOP’s wing-nut religious right faction. “I never said that ethics in government were more important than God. I promise you that I will consult the Almighty before making even the smallest decision. I believe that God is Great, and that He is on our side.”
It wouldn’t bother McCain at all if American military forces maintained a presence in Iraq for the next hundred years. Never mind the cost, never mind the wishes of ordinary Iraqi citizens for hegemony over their own country, in McCain’s mind Americans have a right to plant military installations on foreign soil, and to buttress this argument, McCain cites Germany, Japan and Korea, where the United States has maintained military bases for nearly half a century. McCain doesn’t spend much mental energy wondering why, with the Cold War a speck in our rearview mirror, we “need” military bases in Japan or Germany; he’s obviously comfortable with American Imperialism as it’s currently constituted.
The thought of Cindy McCain as First Lady scares me. Cindy looks a tad uptight to me, a woman prone to hysterical fits; I can easily imagine her chewing out the gardener or her personal assistant or any other lackey who helps her get through the day. I heard her say that she’s proud of her country, but the statement only makes me wonder if she knows what’s really going down in America – anyone who claims to be proud of the United States today hasn’t been paying attention during the past seven years.
In case you’re wondering, I don’t hate America and hope for its demise; I served in the armed forces, vote in every election, write letters to elected officials and participate actively in our Democracy. My issue with America is that instead of coming closer to realizing its historic promise, it has drifted further away. Once we believed – and acted upon that belief – in equality of opportunity, basic fairness, and the welfare of common people and communities. Although far from perfect, we at least lurched in the right direction, albeit often fitfully and painfully.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the Lincoln Memorial in August of 1963, he said that the signers of the Declaration of Independence had made a promissory note with the citizens of our new country – a note the country defaulted on where citizens of color were concerned. Today I think an argument can be made that America has defaulted on its promise in many other ways.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Titans of Cowardice
I get a kick out of the Wall Street Journal, Bible of the Capitalist class. Here’s a Page Two headline that ran a couple of days ago: “Worried Bankers Seek to Shift Risk to Uncle Sam.”
I’ve been waiting for the Titans of Finance to run to the government for help. Let’s review: banks either made unsound loans to under-qualified borrowers or invested in Collateralized Debt Obligations that included sub-prime mortgages. The loans and CDO’s were pure crap to begin with, but the banks, sniffing easy profit, put aside sound lending practices and jumped in with both feet.
Now that the sub-prime mortgage scandal has infected the wider credit market, the banks are lining up at Washington’s door with their hands out, like Skid Row panhandlers. Understand that these are the very same folks who once criticized so-called “welfare queens” for lack of personal responsibility; the same folks who criticize government programs of any kind (except, of course, those that benefit corporate interests), and the same folks who at every turn extol the virtues and integrity of the American CEO. The Capitalists have thrived during the Bush regime, an age highlighted by weak or non-existent regulation, cronyism, ethical myopia, low corporate and personal tax rates, and a cowboy mentality in the Finance industry.
Bankers despise all things “publicly financed” until their banks fuck up so spectacularly that they have no place to turn except to the public treasury. That’s when they run to Washington babbling about the need to shore up the banking system, the credit system and the monetary system – for the benefit of ordinary Americans on Main Street, of course. How quickly capitalists recover their civic consciousness when the shit hits the fan and puts their stock price at risk. It’s a hypocritical spectacle that puts the lie to the myth that the American economy is fair and equitable and open to anyone with the drive and gumption to succeed.
If it smells like horseshit, and sticks to your boots like horseshit, it most likely is horseshit.
Isn’t it ironic that American bankers and their ilk are opposed to a social safety net for average citizens, but are only too willing to leap into a safety net themselves; ironic that they resist paying a fair share in taxes, but love taking advantage of taxpayer assistance!
And you can bet, when the dust settles and the banks have shifted their risk to the taxpayers, that the Titans of Finance will earn huge bonuses for their “bold” leadership.
Only in America.
I’ve been waiting for the Titans of Finance to run to the government for help. Let’s review: banks either made unsound loans to under-qualified borrowers or invested in Collateralized Debt Obligations that included sub-prime mortgages. The loans and CDO’s were pure crap to begin with, but the banks, sniffing easy profit, put aside sound lending practices and jumped in with both feet.
Now that the sub-prime mortgage scandal has infected the wider credit market, the banks are lining up at Washington’s door with their hands out, like Skid Row panhandlers. Understand that these are the very same folks who once criticized so-called “welfare queens” for lack of personal responsibility; the same folks who criticize government programs of any kind (except, of course, those that benefit corporate interests), and the same folks who at every turn extol the virtues and integrity of the American CEO. The Capitalists have thrived during the Bush regime, an age highlighted by weak or non-existent regulation, cronyism, ethical myopia, low corporate and personal tax rates, and a cowboy mentality in the Finance industry.
Bankers despise all things “publicly financed” until their banks fuck up so spectacularly that they have no place to turn except to the public treasury. That’s when they run to Washington babbling about the need to shore up the banking system, the credit system and the monetary system – for the benefit of ordinary Americans on Main Street, of course. How quickly capitalists recover their civic consciousness when the shit hits the fan and puts their stock price at risk. It’s a hypocritical spectacle that puts the lie to the myth that the American economy is fair and equitable and open to anyone with the drive and gumption to succeed.
If it smells like horseshit, and sticks to your boots like horseshit, it most likely is horseshit.
Isn’t it ironic that American bankers and their ilk are opposed to a social safety net for average citizens, but are only too willing to leap into a safety net themselves; ironic that they resist paying a fair share in taxes, but love taking advantage of taxpayer assistance!
And you can bet, when the dust settles and the banks have shifted their risk to the taxpayers, that the Titans of Finance will earn huge bonuses for their “bold” leadership.
Only in America.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Visions of George
There’s a vision stuck in my cranium: George W. Bush is standing on the White House lawn, alone, speaking into a wireless microphone that doesn’t work. Behind him, the White House is engulfed in flames and thick smoke is pouring from the windows; sirens wail and frantic staff members carry portraits, china, chairs, busts and documents out of the building; police, fire and Blackwater helicopters hover overhead. It’s a scene of chaos and panic, like Saigon in 1975.
But Bush is serene, as always, with his trademark monkey smirk in place. As if addressing the nation he says, “My fellow Americans, ignore the mayhem going on behind me. I can assure you that everything is under control. In fact, we’re doing a heckuva job. I’ve just presented my budget proposal to Congress, and I want to tell you that it’s a sound, fiscally responsible document. Now, a lot of so-called experts say that our economy is heading south. I call such people cowards. I’m the President and I say the economy is fundamentally sound, which is why my proposal calls for more of the same. We’re going to stay the course and make my tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent. Why? Because American millionaires and billionaires deserve tax relief so that they can buy more homes, cars, private jets and jewelry. Our millionaires and billionaires may not need tax relief, but I think we should give it to them anyway. We’re going to increase funding for the wars we started in Afghanistan and Iraq because to do anything less would be a disservice to our patriotic defense contractors. We’ll pump more money into useless homeland security projects in Montana and Idaho. We’re going to continue corporate welfare programs because it’s a competitive world out there and American companies need all the help we can give them. The American people may not deserve taxpayer-supported assistance, but American corporations do. We’ll continue privatization of essential public services, maintain blind faith in the free market, and strip away even more of the regulatory framework that protects ordinary Americans but gets in the way of big business.
“Now my fellow Americans, some of you are mildly concerned about the wild swings in the stock market or the minor downturn in the housing market. Let me assure you that if we stay the course and continue doing what we’ve done the past seven years, we will achieve spectacular results. Skeptics, cynics and Liberals think this is crazy talk, but my belief in voodoo economics is as strong today as it was the day the Supreme Court put me in the White House. Coincidentally, I also believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and the lost city of Atlantis. And like my father before me, I believe fervently in staying the course, in a thousand points of light, and in the joy of wielding a well-oiled chain saw. So, my fellow Americans, I bid you good day, God speed, and may the force be with you.”
Thankfully, this is only a twisted vision brought on by an overdose of Presidential primaries and reading the Wall Street Journal. On the other hand, in service of a corrupt ideology Bush and his cronies have so thoroughly pig-fucked the United States of America that we are sure to suffer for many years to come.
But Bush is serene, as always, with his trademark monkey smirk in place. As if addressing the nation he says, “My fellow Americans, ignore the mayhem going on behind me. I can assure you that everything is under control. In fact, we’re doing a heckuva job. I’ve just presented my budget proposal to Congress, and I want to tell you that it’s a sound, fiscally responsible document. Now, a lot of so-called experts say that our economy is heading south. I call such people cowards. I’m the President and I say the economy is fundamentally sound, which is why my proposal calls for more of the same. We’re going to stay the course and make my tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent. Why? Because American millionaires and billionaires deserve tax relief so that they can buy more homes, cars, private jets and jewelry. Our millionaires and billionaires may not need tax relief, but I think we should give it to them anyway. We’re going to increase funding for the wars we started in Afghanistan and Iraq because to do anything less would be a disservice to our patriotic defense contractors. We’ll pump more money into useless homeland security projects in Montana and Idaho. We’re going to continue corporate welfare programs because it’s a competitive world out there and American companies need all the help we can give them. The American people may not deserve taxpayer-supported assistance, but American corporations do. We’ll continue privatization of essential public services, maintain blind faith in the free market, and strip away even more of the regulatory framework that protects ordinary Americans but gets in the way of big business.
“Now my fellow Americans, some of you are mildly concerned about the wild swings in the stock market or the minor downturn in the housing market. Let me assure you that if we stay the course and continue doing what we’ve done the past seven years, we will achieve spectacular results. Skeptics, cynics and Liberals think this is crazy talk, but my belief in voodoo economics is as strong today as it was the day the Supreme Court put me in the White House. Coincidentally, I also believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and the lost city of Atlantis. And like my father before me, I believe fervently in staying the course, in a thousand points of light, and in the joy of wielding a well-oiled chain saw. So, my fellow Americans, I bid you good day, God speed, and may the force be with you.”
Thankfully, this is only a twisted vision brought on by an overdose of Presidential primaries and reading the Wall Street Journal. On the other hand, in service of a corrupt ideology Bush and his cronies have so thoroughly pig-fucked the United States of America that we are sure to suffer for many years to come.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Last Scream of the Spider Monkey
Even though it was hopefully the last State of the Union speech George W. Bush will deliver, I couldn’t bring myself to watch it. The only way I can watch Bush speak is to clear the living room of heavy objects, pad the walls, and place a protective metal grill over the TV screen. The instant words begin tumbling out of Bush’s mouth I feel a primal rage rising in my chest.
So, I didn’t catch the speech but from reports in the LA and NY Times I gather that Bush was his usual unapologetic and myopic self, confident that the tide has turned in Iraq, that the American economy is fundamentally sound, and that his tax cuts for the wealthy must be made permanent. This man, who with his sidekick Dick Cheney and a host of appointed sycophants, boot-lickers, cronies, and flacks, has done more to undermine the trust of the American public than U.S. Grant, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon combined, had the balls to talk about Trust.
But that’s Bush. The man’s narrative is fixed in what remains of his brain, and nothing on earth can change it. Bush is known to believe in the justice and judgment of History, that time will prove that he was not an incompetent fool, but a president of strength and character. Sure, why not? Ronald Reagan believed that trees cause air pollution and that ketchup qualified as a vegetable. Though time doesn’t necessarily heal all wounds, it does tend to dim memories and push context out of shape. I can imagine a gathering, fifteen years or so from now, when W has built his Presidential library with millions in right-wing evangelical money, of Alberto Gonzalez, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill Kristol, John Bolton, Fred Barnes and Dick Cheney – the latter wheelchair bound, with drool dripping from a mouth fixed in a permanent snarl – all jabbering about the “good old days” and what a great leader Bush was. If Richard Nixon can be re-made into an “elder” statesman, it’s not unfathomable that George W. Bush can be made to appear like the American version of Winston Churchill.
The pre-9/11 Bush was easier to tolerate. Back then he was like a dumb frat boy with a new car, only mildly hazardous to himself and others. After 9/11, when Bush donned his Christian crusader armor and gleefully sent other people’s children off to fight and die, the horror of George Senior and Barbara’s reproductive mistake became clear. W’s hands are stained with the blood and suffering of thousands, and even Father Time can’t change that brutal fact.
The Spider Monkey has screamed for the last time. Americans can sleep tonight secure in the knowledge that the sands of time are finally running out on the worst president in U.S. history.
So, I didn’t catch the speech but from reports in the LA and NY Times I gather that Bush was his usual unapologetic and myopic self, confident that the tide has turned in Iraq, that the American economy is fundamentally sound, and that his tax cuts for the wealthy must be made permanent. This man, who with his sidekick Dick Cheney and a host of appointed sycophants, boot-lickers, cronies, and flacks, has done more to undermine the trust of the American public than U.S. Grant, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon combined, had the balls to talk about Trust.
But that’s Bush. The man’s narrative is fixed in what remains of his brain, and nothing on earth can change it. Bush is known to believe in the justice and judgment of History, that time will prove that he was not an incompetent fool, but a president of strength and character. Sure, why not? Ronald Reagan believed that trees cause air pollution and that ketchup qualified as a vegetable. Though time doesn’t necessarily heal all wounds, it does tend to dim memories and push context out of shape. I can imagine a gathering, fifteen years or so from now, when W has built his Presidential library with millions in right-wing evangelical money, of Alberto Gonzalez, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill Kristol, John Bolton, Fred Barnes and Dick Cheney – the latter wheelchair bound, with drool dripping from a mouth fixed in a permanent snarl – all jabbering about the “good old days” and what a great leader Bush was. If Richard Nixon can be re-made into an “elder” statesman, it’s not unfathomable that George W. Bush can be made to appear like the American version of Winston Churchill.
The pre-9/11 Bush was easier to tolerate. Back then he was like a dumb frat boy with a new car, only mildly hazardous to himself and others. After 9/11, when Bush donned his Christian crusader armor and gleefully sent other people’s children off to fight and die, the horror of George Senior and Barbara’s reproductive mistake became clear. W’s hands are stained with the blood and suffering of thousands, and even Father Time can’t change that brutal fact.
The Spider Monkey has screamed for the last time. Americans can sleep tonight secure in the knowledge that the sands of time are finally running out on the worst president in U.S. history.
Monday, January 28, 2008
WHAT PASSES FOR DEBATE
Covered with slime
They boast of their purity
Lay waste to the Truth
Slime puddles at their feet
Eddies and runs off
Contaminates everything and everyone it touches
Truth is easier found in a traveling circus
Among the lion tamers and fire-eaters
The toothless ex-con who minds the elephants
The bearded lady and the midget with two heads
They want us to believe that a savior can rise
From the swamp
But though pots of gold are spent to create and sustain the illusion
The guise falls away on close inspection
And every four years the people must choose
Between the lesser of two evils
They boast of their purity
Lay waste to the Truth
Slime puddles at their feet
Eddies and runs off
Contaminates everything and everyone it touches
Truth is easier found in a traveling circus
Among the lion tamers and fire-eaters
The toothless ex-con who minds the elephants
The bearded lady and the midget with two heads
They want us to believe that a savior can rise
From the swamp
But though pots of gold are spent to create and sustain the illusion
The guise falls away on close inspection
And every four years the people must choose
Between the lesser of two evils
Sunday, January 20, 2008
BORROWED MONEY, BLEEDING FINGERS
Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.
-Bob Dylan
When the clouds won’t rain and the sun won’t shine, Bob Dylan is as good a source of truth and light as a man can find.
Indeed. It’s a dim, cold day in America when the only way to get an accurate sense of your own country is by reading the foreign press. The Brits, French, Aussies and Japanese are a helluva lot more insightful and accurate about the shithole that America is wallowing in than any of our homegrown “journalists.” Sweet Jesus, three minutes of Diane Sawyer on any given morning is enough to make me wish I was the registered owner of a .357.
When was the last time the country was in a funk this deep? In the late 1970’s maybe, particularly after angry Iranians took fifty-odd Americans hostage in the US Embassy in Teheran, and refused to release them despite saber-rattling from Jimmy Carter and threats from the international community. The Japanese were whipping our asses in the economic arena; we couldn’t deter the Soviet Union from invading Afghanistan.
The world pushed back against American power and dominance, and America buckled, like a boxer caught with a straight right to the solar plexus.
That was then. Plenty of raw sewage has flowed over the dam since. Ronald Reagan rode in on his white stallion and declared that it was still morning in America, and that we had nothing to fear but faint-hearted liberals, feminists, queers, pot-smokers, atheists and Communists. For Ronald Reagan, America’s official uncle, the sun was always shining and glory lay just over the horizon.
It’s all different now. At the start of the Reagan era it was the world pushing back, this time we bleed from self-inflicted wounds, seven years of Bush-Cheney and the collective attention span of a three-year-old. Some examples:
Coinciding curiously with the Presidential election season, the failed Occupation of Iraq appears to have fallen off the media radar, as if life in Iraq has returned to normal along with millions of refugees, as if Sunnis and Shiites are holding hands and singing the Iraqi equivalent of Kumbaya, as if American soldiers are patrolling the streets and avenues without weapons and body armor.
As our economy heads south, the major Presidential candidates have begun to take notice, though when they talk about what can be done to steer the economy away from the cliff edge, they don’t talk about Iraq and the effect the massive cost of the Occupation has on the US economy. Dear Guys and Gals, in case you didn’t know, we’re paying for our wars with money borrowed from foreigners. That debt must be serviced year after year after year, meaning there will be fewer dollars available to do important things here at home.
Dennis Kucinich gets the linkage between guns and butter and the difficulty Empires have always had providing both. Kucinich is the only candidate who unequivocally calls for an immediate end to the Occupation, for scrapping the Patriot Act and impeaching Bush & Cheney for crimes against the Constitution. These ideas are too radical for NBC, which unilaterally decided recently that Kucinich didn’t meet its “criteria” to be invited to a Democratic debate. Excuse me, but is this a democracy or not, and who the fuck is NBC to decide which candidates should or should not be allowed to debate? Whether NBC approves or not, Kucinich is in the race; he may be a “fringe” candidate without a prayer of winning the Democratic nomination, but he has a point of view that voters should be allowed to hear. Frankly, I’d rather listen to Kucinich than status quo candidates like Clinton or Obama who think change will happen if they just keep repeating the word.
Americans are finally coming to grasp what the rest of the world has known for years: human behavior is altering the global climate in ways that carry frightening implications for the future of life on this planet. Of course, in our typical infantile way, we think we can “consume” our way out of trouble by buying “green” products and recycling more beer cans. We’re all for saving the environment – as long as we don’t have to give up our SUV’s or McMansions – and heaven forbid that American corporations forfeit a dime in profit.
More media attention is given to Brittney Spears’s mental confusion and child custody battles than to serious, thoughtful, logical and informed discussion of the Iraq Occupation, the plight of American workers, energy policy, and the role the Federal government must play in slowing down the real dangers of climate change.
Dylan was right, as usual: “It’s alright, Ma (I’m only bleeding)”
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.
-Bob Dylan
When the clouds won’t rain and the sun won’t shine, Bob Dylan is as good a source of truth and light as a man can find.
Indeed. It’s a dim, cold day in America when the only way to get an accurate sense of your own country is by reading the foreign press. The Brits, French, Aussies and Japanese are a helluva lot more insightful and accurate about the shithole that America is wallowing in than any of our homegrown “journalists.” Sweet Jesus, three minutes of Diane Sawyer on any given morning is enough to make me wish I was the registered owner of a .357.
When was the last time the country was in a funk this deep? In the late 1970’s maybe, particularly after angry Iranians took fifty-odd Americans hostage in the US Embassy in Teheran, and refused to release them despite saber-rattling from Jimmy Carter and threats from the international community. The Japanese were whipping our asses in the economic arena; we couldn’t deter the Soviet Union from invading Afghanistan.
The world pushed back against American power and dominance, and America buckled, like a boxer caught with a straight right to the solar plexus.
That was then. Plenty of raw sewage has flowed over the dam since. Ronald Reagan rode in on his white stallion and declared that it was still morning in America, and that we had nothing to fear but faint-hearted liberals, feminists, queers, pot-smokers, atheists and Communists. For Ronald Reagan, America’s official uncle, the sun was always shining and glory lay just over the horizon.
It’s all different now. At the start of the Reagan era it was the world pushing back, this time we bleed from self-inflicted wounds, seven years of Bush-Cheney and the collective attention span of a three-year-old. Some examples:
Coinciding curiously with the Presidential election season, the failed Occupation of Iraq appears to have fallen off the media radar, as if life in Iraq has returned to normal along with millions of refugees, as if Sunnis and Shiites are holding hands and singing the Iraqi equivalent of Kumbaya, as if American soldiers are patrolling the streets and avenues without weapons and body armor.
As our economy heads south, the major Presidential candidates have begun to take notice, though when they talk about what can be done to steer the economy away from the cliff edge, they don’t talk about Iraq and the effect the massive cost of the Occupation has on the US economy. Dear Guys and Gals, in case you didn’t know, we’re paying for our wars with money borrowed from foreigners. That debt must be serviced year after year after year, meaning there will be fewer dollars available to do important things here at home.
Dennis Kucinich gets the linkage between guns and butter and the difficulty Empires have always had providing both. Kucinich is the only candidate who unequivocally calls for an immediate end to the Occupation, for scrapping the Patriot Act and impeaching Bush & Cheney for crimes against the Constitution. These ideas are too radical for NBC, which unilaterally decided recently that Kucinich didn’t meet its “criteria” to be invited to a Democratic debate. Excuse me, but is this a democracy or not, and who the fuck is NBC to decide which candidates should or should not be allowed to debate? Whether NBC approves or not, Kucinich is in the race; he may be a “fringe” candidate without a prayer of winning the Democratic nomination, but he has a point of view that voters should be allowed to hear. Frankly, I’d rather listen to Kucinich than status quo candidates like Clinton or Obama who think change will happen if they just keep repeating the word.
Americans are finally coming to grasp what the rest of the world has known for years: human behavior is altering the global climate in ways that carry frightening implications for the future of life on this planet. Of course, in our typical infantile way, we think we can “consume” our way out of trouble by buying “green” products and recycling more beer cans. We’re all for saving the environment – as long as we don’t have to give up our SUV’s or McMansions – and heaven forbid that American corporations forfeit a dime in profit.
More media attention is given to Brittney Spears’s mental confusion and child custody battles than to serious, thoughtful, logical and informed discussion of the Iraq Occupation, the plight of American workers, energy policy, and the role the Federal government must play in slowing down the real dangers of climate change.
Dylan was right, as usual: “It’s alright, Ma (I’m only bleeding)”
Monday, January 14, 2008
HANG IT ON DUTCH
Governor Schwarzenegger made it official earlier this week: the Golden State is going bust, with a gaping budget hole in the lofty neighborhood of $14 billion. That’s not chump change. About the only place you can find that kind of dough is in the casino safe of your local Indian reservation. There’s historical justice to that, but it’s a story for another day.
The sub-prime mortgage scandal is partly to blame for dragging the Golden State down like a 20-ton anchor. The mainstream press doesn’t describe it in those terms, but in my mind, the real estate bubble that was stimulated by Federal monetary policy, and exploited by creative, greedy and under-regulated lenders, along with buyers eager to get in on the boom, even if they couldn’t afford it, amounts to a first-rate scandal and as the effects sweep across the state, bleed into practically every economic sector, scandal seems the only appropriate word to describe it.
When the pain becomes widespread enough, maybe drags down some of the New Rich who up to now have tapped their sudden paper wealth to spend lavishly on luxury vehicles, jewelry, designer clothing, $100 hamburgers, and first-class hotel suites in Fiji, Las Vegas, Athens and Monte Carlo, people will look for someone or something to blame.
I’ve already found my target: the seed of the mortgage meltdown was planted when Dutch Reagan occupied the White House.
Remember your history? It was Reagan who declared that “Big Government” was our problem, the root of all evil -- an impediment to entrepreneurial zeal, an obstacle to innovation, freedom, clear skin and lustrous hair. Shove Big Government out of the way, Reagan crooned, and the genius of America would be released for the benefit of every man, woman and child, black, brown or white, urban or rural.
Under Dutch Reagan, the regulatory framework that was designed to balance the interests of business and the public began to tilt decidedly in favor of the former. Trust the wisdom of the free market, the Reagan line went, and government oversight is unnecessary. If we just believed, markets would regulate themselves with wisdom as true as Solomon’s.
And moss would grow in the Sahara, armadillos would sprout wings and soar over the Texas Panhandle, the Chicago Cubs would capture five World Series titles in a row, and, of course, social ills such as racism, sexism, ageism, poverty, child abuse, and illiteracy would vanish from the American landscape forever. The Market Myth as related by Dutch Reagan in his dulcet voice elevated business tycoons and Wall Street gamblers to sainthood. Greed bowled over fairness and became our prevailing ethos. All we had to do was make it rain for the rich, the daring, and the strong, and the water would flow for everyone.
Right. In fact, the good, clear water flowed overwhelmingly to those who were not thirsty, creating a huge disparity of wealth in a country that once prided itself on the width and depth of its middle-class. Dutch and Co. let the mad dogs of Capital and Finance off the leash and the rest is history: unions neutered, wages for working folks flat or regressing, jobs shipped to China, employee benefits slashed or eliminated altogether, simultaneous foreign wars and tax cuts, and mortgage lending practices that abandoned every sound business principle known to the civilized world.
Ideology did us in. Reagan’s cheery patter and easy platitudes became religion, and any politician who spoke against the Reagan line was branded a heretic. Big Corporate money flowed to the Republicans who used it to buy the media, fund think tanks, keep the Democrats cowed and, more importantly, out of power. The political class learned to toe that Reagan line, even when it became clear that “trickle-down” economics really was nothing more than voodoo.
Don’t believe it? It’s the reason you hear the Republican GOP candidates trying to ignore reality and wrap themselves in Reagan’s cloak; it’s the reason Democrats cut deals with health insurance companies instead of proposing true universal health care for all Americans.
And it’s the reason Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger swears he can balance the California budget without a tax increase. If that sounds like something you might hear Hillary Clinton say, well, there you have it.
The sub-prime mortgage scandal is partly to blame for dragging the Golden State down like a 20-ton anchor. The mainstream press doesn’t describe it in those terms, but in my mind, the real estate bubble that was stimulated by Federal monetary policy, and exploited by creative, greedy and under-regulated lenders, along with buyers eager to get in on the boom, even if they couldn’t afford it, amounts to a first-rate scandal and as the effects sweep across the state, bleed into practically every economic sector, scandal seems the only appropriate word to describe it.
When the pain becomes widespread enough, maybe drags down some of the New Rich who up to now have tapped their sudden paper wealth to spend lavishly on luxury vehicles, jewelry, designer clothing, $100 hamburgers, and first-class hotel suites in Fiji, Las Vegas, Athens and Monte Carlo, people will look for someone or something to blame.
I’ve already found my target: the seed of the mortgage meltdown was planted when Dutch Reagan occupied the White House.
Remember your history? It was Reagan who declared that “Big Government” was our problem, the root of all evil -- an impediment to entrepreneurial zeal, an obstacle to innovation, freedom, clear skin and lustrous hair. Shove Big Government out of the way, Reagan crooned, and the genius of America would be released for the benefit of every man, woman and child, black, brown or white, urban or rural.
Under Dutch Reagan, the regulatory framework that was designed to balance the interests of business and the public began to tilt decidedly in favor of the former. Trust the wisdom of the free market, the Reagan line went, and government oversight is unnecessary. If we just believed, markets would regulate themselves with wisdom as true as Solomon’s.
And moss would grow in the Sahara, armadillos would sprout wings and soar over the Texas Panhandle, the Chicago Cubs would capture five World Series titles in a row, and, of course, social ills such as racism, sexism, ageism, poverty, child abuse, and illiteracy would vanish from the American landscape forever. The Market Myth as related by Dutch Reagan in his dulcet voice elevated business tycoons and Wall Street gamblers to sainthood. Greed bowled over fairness and became our prevailing ethos. All we had to do was make it rain for the rich, the daring, and the strong, and the water would flow for everyone.
Right. In fact, the good, clear water flowed overwhelmingly to those who were not thirsty, creating a huge disparity of wealth in a country that once prided itself on the width and depth of its middle-class. Dutch and Co. let the mad dogs of Capital and Finance off the leash and the rest is history: unions neutered, wages for working folks flat or regressing, jobs shipped to China, employee benefits slashed or eliminated altogether, simultaneous foreign wars and tax cuts, and mortgage lending practices that abandoned every sound business principle known to the civilized world.
Ideology did us in. Reagan’s cheery patter and easy platitudes became religion, and any politician who spoke against the Reagan line was branded a heretic. Big Corporate money flowed to the Republicans who used it to buy the media, fund think tanks, keep the Democrats cowed and, more importantly, out of power. The political class learned to toe that Reagan line, even when it became clear that “trickle-down” economics really was nothing more than voodoo.
Don’t believe it? It’s the reason you hear the Republican GOP candidates trying to ignore reality and wrap themselves in Reagan’s cloak; it’s the reason Democrats cut deals with health insurance companies instead of proposing true universal health care for all Americans.
And it’s the reason Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger swears he can balance the California budget without a tax increase. If that sounds like something you might hear Hillary Clinton say, well, there you have it.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Sound of Glass Shattering
School board member Robert Noel was up to his old tricks in last Sunday’s Santa Barbara News-Press, cataloging the many failures of the Santa Barbara School District – from faulty budgeting to lagging test scores, and practically everything in between.
Who is Dr. Bob referring to when he maligns the “District?” Is he talking about Superintendent Sarvis, one of the Assistant Superintendents, the Director of Special Education, the receptionist or the night custodian?
Dr. Bob made one or two references to moral leadership, but if Noel is so big on the concept, why doesn’t he exercise one of the most conspicuous traits of exceptional leaders – honesty – and come right out and name names?
Because here’s the thing, I work at the District office and have a vested interest in knowing who’s responsible for our woes and shortcomings. (I have a few notions of my own, but if Dr. Noel has the definitive answer I wish he’d share, because I for one do not enjoy working my tail off for a losing team.) Like many of my colleagues, I take my role as a public school employee seriously, and remind myself every day that taxpayers pay my salary and that fact confers on me a special responsibility. I may not always succeed, but giving the taxpayers value for their money is my lodestar.
But according to Dr. Bob, the “District,” and I guess that includes me, is a seething hive of incompetents, liars, spin-meisters and failures. To put it more colloquially, we suck.
Ironically, I happen to like Dr. Bob and think his contrarian views serve an important purpose on the school board. Dissent is as American as the Federalist papers Dr. Bob frequently quotes and -- more often than not -- Dr. Bob’s is the lone dissenting voice in an otherwise unanimous chorus. I enjoy informed debate and believe that the sound of ideas bouncing and ricocheting off one another stirs the blood, energizes the mind and makes progress possible.
Much of Dr. Bob’s editorial is, unfortunately, true: last year’s budget process was a joke and an embarrassment. For months we were dirt poor, scraping for pennies; then we were inexplicably awash in money; then the money started bleeding away; now it appears that the District is again headed for lean days, with a rising tide of crimson ink. Dr. Bob is right to be contemptuous – the public deserves better from us, but let’s not forget that it was Dr. Bob and his fellow board members who signed off on hiring decisions that put a couple of fiscal knuckleheads in key positions. It was also Dr. Bob and his board colleagues who extended Superintendent Sarvis’s contract before it was due to expire, giving the man lifetime medical benefits and a pay hike at a time when the District was imploding and the aforementioned test scores were plummeting.
Which begs the question: if the District is so fouled up, why isn’t the Superintendent’s job on the line?
What say ye about that, Dr. Bob? You can’t sit on the dais and cast votes for policies and programs and personnel, and then act like you had nothing to do with it when the decisions you green-lighted go south. That’s hypocrisy, and moral leaders don’t become moral leaders by acting hypocritically.
One problem with Institutions in general -- and the school District in particular -- is a lack of accountability and a perverse tolerance for mediocrity. When flies get in the ointment and gum up the works, nobody is called to task; nobody gets their asshole reamed in a way that sends a distinct message that allowing flies to get in the ointment again will not be tolerated. Instead of dragging the culprit out to the courtyard for a very public flogging, excuses are made, fingers are pointed, shoulders are shrugged. Consequently, the idea that mediocrity is acceptable gets reinforced.
And that’s no way to run a railroad -- or a school district.
On the other hand, when Dr. Bob gets an urge to load up his slingshot and fire stones at our glass house, I wish he’d take aim at specific windows rather than scattershot the entire building.
Who is Dr. Bob referring to when he maligns the “District?” Is he talking about Superintendent Sarvis, one of the Assistant Superintendents, the Director of Special Education, the receptionist or the night custodian?
Dr. Bob made one or two references to moral leadership, but if Noel is so big on the concept, why doesn’t he exercise one of the most conspicuous traits of exceptional leaders – honesty – and come right out and name names?
Because here’s the thing, I work at the District office and have a vested interest in knowing who’s responsible for our woes and shortcomings. (I have a few notions of my own, but if Dr. Noel has the definitive answer I wish he’d share, because I for one do not enjoy working my tail off for a losing team.) Like many of my colleagues, I take my role as a public school employee seriously, and remind myself every day that taxpayers pay my salary and that fact confers on me a special responsibility. I may not always succeed, but giving the taxpayers value for their money is my lodestar.
But according to Dr. Bob, the “District,” and I guess that includes me, is a seething hive of incompetents, liars, spin-meisters and failures. To put it more colloquially, we suck.
Ironically, I happen to like Dr. Bob and think his contrarian views serve an important purpose on the school board. Dissent is as American as the Federalist papers Dr. Bob frequently quotes and -- more often than not -- Dr. Bob’s is the lone dissenting voice in an otherwise unanimous chorus. I enjoy informed debate and believe that the sound of ideas bouncing and ricocheting off one another stirs the blood, energizes the mind and makes progress possible.
Much of Dr. Bob’s editorial is, unfortunately, true: last year’s budget process was a joke and an embarrassment. For months we were dirt poor, scraping for pennies; then we were inexplicably awash in money; then the money started bleeding away; now it appears that the District is again headed for lean days, with a rising tide of crimson ink. Dr. Bob is right to be contemptuous – the public deserves better from us, but let’s not forget that it was Dr. Bob and his fellow board members who signed off on hiring decisions that put a couple of fiscal knuckleheads in key positions. It was also Dr. Bob and his board colleagues who extended Superintendent Sarvis’s contract before it was due to expire, giving the man lifetime medical benefits and a pay hike at a time when the District was imploding and the aforementioned test scores were plummeting.
Which begs the question: if the District is so fouled up, why isn’t the Superintendent’s job on the line?
What say ye about that, Dr. Bob? You can’t sit on the dais and cast votes for policies and programs and personnel, and then act like you had nothing to do with it when the decisions you green-lighted go south. That’s hypocrisy, and moral leaders don’t become moral leaders by acting hypocritically.
One problem with Institutions in general -- and the school District in particular -- is a lack of accountability and a perverse tolerance for mediocrity. When flies get in the ointment and gum up the works, nobody is called to task; nobody gets their asshole reamed in a way that sends a distinct message that allowing flies to get in the ointment again will not be tolerated. Instead of dragging the culprit out to the courtyard for a very public flogging, excuses are made, fingers are pointed, shoulders are shrugged. Consequently, the idea that mediocrity is acceptable gets reinforced.
And that’s no way to run a railroad -- or a school district.
On the other hand, when Dr. Bob gets an urge to load up his slingshot and fire stones at our glass house, I wish he’d take aim at specific windows rather than scattershot the entire building.
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