Saturday, December 20, 2008

Where Do Judges Come From?

To me the most important protection of our democracy
should be the insulation of our judicial system from corrupt
influences. If justice comes down to who has the most money,
society as we know it would disintegrate. For a society to
survive the people within it must, after all, believe in their elite.
And they must have trust in the fairness of their judicial
systems. The only other way to hold society together is
with a large internal "security" force.

In a national bestseller, "Personal Injuries", Scott Turow
vividly describes what can go wrong when "The Judge" is on
the take. The story involves favorable rulings in personal
injury cases where insurance companies are on the hook
for huge settlements. Common wisdom holds that insurance
companies use the pretext of those monstrous settlements
to charge their customers outrageous fees for what are in
actuality rare cases. The lawyers get rich, the judges
(in these cases) get a nice bonus of some sort and the
insurance companies get to raise their rates. The plaintiffs
get hugely rewarded for their pain and suffering and as a final
tribute to a system gone horribly wrong, the evildoer is severely
punished. Everyone involved is the winner, the insurance company
pays off, and if there is a loser in there somewhere, no one cares.

WE, the majority of people in USA, have a firm belief in our
democracy (with a few detractors), and a strong backbone
of religious and moral convictions. And WE overwhelmingly
support our judicial system. I believe as a society WE feel shame
when the bad guy goes free (take OJ for example) or when the
good guy gets wrongly convicted (take the hundreds of inmates
recently freed from years of confinement by new DNA evidence).

So what in the world are WE thinking when WE allow the most
politically motivated, and by extension the most heavily influenced,
people in our society to --APPOINT-- the judges who sit on the
highest benches in the land. Every honest person needs to believe
that the person presiding over a court of law, and possibly
sitting in judgment of him, will be impartial, which is inherently
an oxymoronic concept under these circumstances. Shouldn't
WE the people be voting on these guys?

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Teflon Ron

Incredible as it may seem, it appears the Illinois governor might be found innocent in a court of law for attempting to sell Obama's vacated senate seat and expect (extort) numerous other favors for family and friends.

I think in the court of public opinion, however, he is as guilty as they come. But if they brought the case too soon there is every possibility that, because he hadn't overtly (yet) committed any crime, he may not be found guilty of anything.

IMO whether or not he gets convicted he should not be permitted to appoint the next senator.

That PRIVILEDGE, the power to change political history for better or worse, for
both Illinois and the Nation, should go to an honest man.

One thing is clear; Blagojevich’s pick will be bought and paid for.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Feels good to be a cat.

We love them for their fur.... and their purr.

Think about it.

There is something incredibly tactile about a purr rumbling through thick fur. If you are lucky enough to be close enough, you can get a therapeutic benefit akin to a heat pad and a vibrator combined.

And then, there is their fur.

To run your fingers through the silky fur of a long-haired cat is like sliding velvet covered fingers on glass. The feeling is hard to describe, but so comforting it almost seems illegal.

And then, cats are so clean. Check out their tongues. The perfect scrubbing tool. The first company to replicate the scrubbing/cleansing action of a cat's tongue wins my housekeeping seal of approval.

Sure, they are imperious. You're darned right they have their own agenda. On occasion, they defer to their "master" and allow a few behind the ear or belly scratches. Consider yourself lucky are if you are deemed acceptable to a award
these perks.

Feels good to be a cat. They are so cool.

So be cool.

Purr.

Be like a kitten.

You'll get all the attention you want -- probably way more than you are looking for.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Banking Morals

mIn old world banking circles personal conduct was regulated by a moral code whereby honor and self-interest were joined at the hip. To put client capital at risk was a cardinal sin punishable by dishonor and disgrace and therefore unthinkable.

That was a century ago. Where Wall Street erred in judgment was when the giants hired physicists and mathematicians to construct financial instruments. These new guys were not steeped in the 100's year old "Bankers Codes of Conduct", nor was their family honor at stake. The financial instruments they designed were so complicated analysts were unable to evaluate them properly or assess their risk. Or, possibly, they didn‘t care

But when people are making money, and bankers are no exception, they don’t ask why. They just smile and bank the checks. Effectively the morals clause implicit in traditional banking constructs no longer applied to these side bets. Since the banks, their shareholders, traders and brokerage houses were all making “bank” everybody was winning and the future was blindingly bright. That was only 2 years ago.

So we have all learned a valuable lesson again (for the third time). The notion that anything to do with money, actually gigantic money, could be self-regulating and the people involved trusted to do the “right thing” is a concept which has outlived its usefulness. Money corrupts — big Money corrupts completely. And forgetting the lessons of the past is suicidal.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Banking Morals Update

In old world banking circles personal conduct was regulated by a moral code whereby honor and self-interest were joined at the hip. To put client capital at risk was a cardinal sin punishable by dishonor and disgrace and therefore unthinkable.

That was a century ago. Where Greenspan erred was when Wall Street hired physicists and mathematicians to construct financial instruments. These new guys were not steeped in the 100's year old "Bankers Codes of Conduct", nor was their family honor at stake. The financial instruments they designed were so complicated analysts were unable to evaluate them properly or assess their risk.

But when people are making money, and bankers are no exception, they don’t ask why. They just smile and bank the checks. Effectively the morals clause implicit in traditional banking constructs no longer applied to these side bets. Since the banks, their shareholders, traders and brokerage houses were all making “bank” everybody was winning and the future was blindingly bright. That was only 2 years ago.

So we have all learned a valuable lesson again (for the third time). The notion that anything to do with money, actually gigantic money, could be self-regulating and the people involved trusted to do the “right thing” is a concept which has outlived its usefulness. Money corrupts — big Money corrupts completely.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Sarah Palin Chronicles

Out of Alaska comes an avenging angel, Sarah Palin, to save the Republican Party from annihilation. Can she save the day? The election? The party? The country's first reaction to her was one of amazement at her choice. Then came the huge post primary bump. When the media finally got face to face with the candidate the gaffs began. After the first several gaffs the country turned dubious. A few more and fellow Republicans up for re-election begin putting some distance between themselves and Sarah Palin's pronouncements. It started beginning to look like choosing her could backfire on the Maverick. Lately she has decided to ride sidesaddle in her own direction to the consternation of the McCain campaign.

When this election is over and Barack Obama is President-elect will Governor Palin fade to white in a flurry of flakes, er snowflakes, back in Alaska? Or is the public in store for more countrified contributions from this most unlikely of places?

P.S. This blog is not meant to criticize the vice presidential candidate in any way. She was thrown into the national spotlight with, let's face it, practically no notice or time to prepare. Under the circumstances, she has risen to the occasion in spectacular fashion. I would expect the next two years to knock the rough edges off candidate Palin and to see a butterfly (floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee) born from this most interesting pupa.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Selective Exposure

The best explanation I can find for a reason why people can hold such vastly different opinions after analyzing the same "facts" is provided by Farhad Manjoo in his book "True enough: Learning to live in a post-fact society". In his book Manjoo cites research which proves people tend to seek out information and interpret it in a way which confirms their beliefs, while avoiding information they find unpleasant or contrary. By looking for information which conforms to our beliefs we automatically bias our own opinions. This tendency of everyone to screen their own input is called selective exposure by today's psychologists.

What selective exposure has led to in the internet age is a splintering of society. Since anyone can now seek out others online who hold similar opinions to their own, it is easy to dismiss all opinions contrary to those we prefer. "Facts" can always be found to support any theory, no matter how far off the beaten path or ridiculous. Smoking is a perfect example. Everybody should be able to agree on the fact that smoking either is or is not bad for our health. However, people still hold opinions and facts which support both sides of this argument.

So far society has been able to find its way between the "proven" positions of its extremists. We all just need to remember that "facts" are in the mind of the holder as beauty is in the eye of the beholder and as such are subject to our own personal bias. In the absence of conclusive proof to support any particular point of view, we must consider all points of view to have some validity. Therefore, we all need to increase our tolerance to ideas contrary to our own. An exercise I use frequently is to watch or read opinions in opposition to those I hold to look for points in common.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

TODAY'S CARPETBAGGERS

About 140 years ago, following the Civil War, Northern businessmen flocked to the South with carpetbags, prepared (so Southerners thought) to loot and plunder the defeated South -- to the victor belongs the spoils. These carpetbaggers bought up the land at huge discounts to the land's former value, and then expected to reap huge profits in cotton with the help of the former slaves, now free men. Most of these "businessmen" never developed a love for the land, like its previous owners had from birth, and subsequently hung on to the land just long enough to turn a nice profit. They took their quickly gotten gains and headed elsewhere, changing little, but upping the cost of business for everyone else who followed them.

Is this starting to sound familiar?

Today's carpetbaggers have not been trading in land. Today's "land" is now virtual real estate in the sense that what is being traded is not the physical property but the mortgage attached to the property - the financial instrument. Today's carpetbaggers went to Wall Street with bags full of mortgages all bundled together, and generated huge commissions based upon the cash flow assumed to be forthcoming from these mortgages. Where the banking community erred was in assuming that there would be an endless supply of able buyers supplying these cash flows. After all, during the period when all this creative financing was making lots of people millions of dollars, if a buyer had trouble meeting his payments he simply turned the property over to another buyer and more paper was created. This paper took the form of second and third mortgages and balloon payments, and a plethora of new and esoteric financial instruments, all based on a forever upward price spiral in real estate. After each "turnover" everyone involved helped themselves to profits and commissions, and even cash back to the purchaser on closing.

Where this ends up is where we are now. The carpetbaggers have sold their bundles of mortgages and moved on with their millions (billions), and the rest of us get left with their empty bag. It is too bad that the money these financial geniuses and masterminds made isn't as virtual as the financial house of cards they built and are selling to the taxpayer. What sickens me is the fact that all the phony profit these people made is being turned into real money as we speak, by the government. Private profits turned into public losses. For shame, for shame.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Republican Political Savvy At Work

American Political Savvy?


Out from the Alaskan wilderness comes a former beauty queen (runner-up) to the second highest office in the land. Are you kidding me? This stroke of brilliance from the Republican masterminds is a sleight-of-hand worthy of David Copperfield. A party which has recently failed this country in every measure of merit common to industrial nations, and done so in opposition to the wishes of the public it governs, has successfully diverted public attention from the major issues facing our country. This speaks volumes about the public’s political savvy. I am in awe of the fact that a Republican candidate who has voted for the reckless policies of the Bush administration 90% of the time can manage to distance himself from the results of those policies.

While the middle class has seen a drastic erosion of their real incomes, their standard of living, and their net worth and security (most middle-class American wealth is tied to the value of their home) the top 2% of the nation’s wealthiest people and corporations are still receiving bailouts and tax breaks. It further astounds me that the people most negatively affected by the costs of unending wars and unconscionable price manipulations on the part of the oil barons would even consider electing someone closely associated with these disasters.

It is beginning to look like the democrats’ decision to overlook Hillary Clinton for Obama’s running mate might be a fatal one. Americans seem to be more interested in a pretty face at the podium than in the war, the economy, education or health care. So be it. We get the government we deserve.

But wait! Breaking news! The Bush policy of laissez-faire with regard to corporate financial responsibility is actually making news again. As a few more of our oldest, largest, and most respected institutions crumble, Wall Street takes the worst beating since 9/11/01. This, unlike oil prices, won’t have as much impact on the middle class. It is America’s wealthiest who suffer most from collapsing stock market prices. If the current administration’s fiscal policies carry forward to the next administration, more government bailouts of private institutions will undoubtedly be necessary.

Maybe this latest example of the disastrous Bush years will refocus the public on how we got here. In a few short months we will have our answer. Hopefully sanity will prevail and the middle class will have looked past lipstick and rhetoric. Our national focus will move away from the acquisition of obsolete and environmentally harmful energy sources by any means possible, including more war. With a responsible and forward thinking administration we can develop those resources we have an abundance of here in the good old USA; like sunshine, propane, and clean nuclear and coal power.


One final note. It is a real possibility that McCain could have health issues. In spite of the fact that he is in the tightest race in his political career, he has managed to take ample time off and uses weekends to recoup. He is likely to be the last person in politics to accept a 3 a.m. phone call. His age must be considered. If, God forbid, he should succumb to the pressures he inherits from his predecessor, Sarah Palin will step up to the plate. The fate of the free world would then, theoretically, rest in the hands of a prolific soccer mom.



PS: Anyone who thinks a hawk like McCain will back off our military spending to save the economy needs a reality check.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Surprise -- Surprise

Currently C-SPAN is covering a hearing in the House of Representatives on the resolution by Dennis Kucinich to impeach the president. As everyone should be aware of by now, the president has been using the highest office in the land to sanction illegal activities such as torture and phone taps. He has subverted the Constitution and allowed (encouraged perhaps) subordinates in his administration to break the law. He has then provided shelter to the perpetrators through the use of presidential privilege. (Take Karl Rove for example.) He has done this without fear of prosecution since, by law, a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for anything while in office. The only remedy available to the citizens of this country to address malfeasance by our leaders is to impeach them after the fact. It is extremely unlikely we will see anything of this nature take place within the limited time left to George Bush.



Here is the surprise. After listening to the proceedings, I learned that the minute the President is no longer president he can be prosecuted for any crimes committed during his administration. On several occasions in the past (Nixon and Agnew come to mind) officials have been threatened or were prosecuted only to be pardoned by the next administration. The thinking behind the pardons, I guess, is that the satisfaction the public would receive by seeing the crooks convicted is overshadowed by the disgrace to the nation and the blow to our national pride. Can you imagine Bush defending himself on a charge of murder, as some in Congress are suggesting, for the torture deaths of several alleged terrorists while in US custody?



This time might be different. Of course, if McCain were to be elected, any course of action against people in the Bush administration will be squashed. Or if Congress insisted on prosecution, the perps would undoubtedly be pardoned. However, Obama might be inclined to stand back and allow events to take their course. Congress is royally teed off at Bush for his outright lies and policies of secrecy, and seems inclined to blame the executive branch for much of the public's loss of confidence in the legislature. Obama, I believe, would be sensitive to their position and would not be inclined to thwart their effort to restore the public trust. After all, he needs their support if he hopes to accomplish anything during his administration.



It is ironic that the president, while attempting to subvert many of our constitutional safeguards, hides behind them. We need to send a clear and strong message forward that Congress and the public will not tolerate abuses of law by our elected officials. If I were Bush I would be quaking in my boots.



What say you, fellow citizens, to these amazing developments?

Monday, June 2, 2008

Who is the “Root of all Evil”?

Corrupt politicians or corrupt billionaires?

Four decades ago we experienced a huge run up in the price of precious metals, and in particular, the price of silver. Silver futures reached into an unheard of and totally unwarranted $80 price range from a normal $4 price. Based upon normal market factors, like supply and demand, the value of the dollar, and world stability this run up made no sense. What turned out to be behind the extraordinary run up was a pair of oil billionaires, the Hunt brothers. They determined that the float in silver futures was small enough for them to gain a monopoly. They gave it the old “college try”, and nearly succeeded. But the US government stepped in at the last minute to save the day. The treasury released enough stockpiled silver bullion to pop the Hunt’s balloon. Since the Hunts were borrowing money to finance their diabolical plot they nearly caused a major bank failure in the process.

Next we saw a real estate boom financed by greedy bankers and real estate speculators. This has also required a government bail out. Could these scenarios possibly be precursors to today’s commodities manipulations? According to the Saudis they are producing enough oil to satisfy current world demand. Russia has moved into second place among the world’s oil producers and is providing for the large increase in demand in Southeast Asia, by way of a pipeline project similar to the Alaskan pipeline. The decline in the dollar is miniscule, when related to the increase in oil prices. All is quiet on the world stage with the exception of our unwanted intrusion into the Middle East. So absent any fundamental factors which could be responsible for the current price of oil, we are left with market manipulation by commodities billionaires. (The names may change but the irresponsible nature of the greedy remains the same). It appears that without our government stepping in and dumping huge reserves of oil on the market from its strategic stockpiles, manipulators will enrich themselves yet again at the expense of people who can least afford it.

As to corrupt politicians, consider this. Do you suppose this unprecedented run-up in oil prices could have occurred if we didn’t have an “oil ticket” benefiting directly from and facilitating the manipulators? First they stirred up the world’s major oil suppliers like Venezuela and the Middle East. Secondly, they have done nothing from a legislative point of view such as eliminating tax breaks to profiteers and spreading that wealth around, or dumping oil on the markets to depress prices.

For me the answer seems obvious. Big government, together with big business, is acting without a conscience to conspire to hold the world hostage to their will and egos. Corrupt politicians, together with corrupt billionaires, are the root of all evil. And the world’s poor and starving can’t afford to put rice in their bowls or purchase a loaf of bread for their table. For shame, for shame.

Bob Parmelee www.parmsplace.com

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Can We Be Bribed?

After enjoying the lowest approval rating in the nation's history, can both the Congress and the president buy their way back into the public’s favor? The proposed one-time tax refund of 600 dollars per person or 1200 dollars per household is designed to accomplish exactly that. Are we really that gullible? Can we really be expected to forgive all the lying, favoritism, and corruption perpetrated by this administration? After leading us into war and driving the nation into a recession, they propose to give the taxpayers some of their money back. Let us not forget that in order to give money back to us, they have to take it from us in the first place. And let us not forget, if it weren’t for this administration wasting trillions of dollars on an illegal, immoral, and unpopular war in the first place, we wouldn’t be on the brink of a financial meltdown.

$160 billion. It sounds like a lot of money. However, if we look at the Bush/Cheney welfare to Halliburton program it is a drop in the bucket. According to a recent Bill Moyers exposé, 200 billion dollars of the 400 billion dollars billed by Halliburton to the American taxpayer has disappeared. By disappeared I don’t mean failed to show up in Halliburton’s account. I mean disappeared as in the services billed to and paid for by the government were never performed. Buildings billed and paid for were never built. Outrageous double or triple billing for products and services were never reimbursed, or credits issued. In a recent investigation by a Senate panel concerning financial irregularities Condoleezza Rice attributed these disappearing funds to "accounting" errors. It is incredible to imagine waging a war on a cost-plus basis. Earmarks to other favored capital gangsters are rising to outrageous levels. Theft, by any other name, is still theft. Isn’t it?

Most economists agree that this proposed "stimulus package” won’t stimulate anything. Because businessmen realize the bubble is of short duration, they won't be adding payroll or capacity to plants. It is fair to say a portion will go to paying down personal debt, which won’t stimulate anything either. All this measure really does is drive up the nation's debt. According to Bloomberg analysts, this president has the nation on cruise control straight over a cliff. If anyone in the private sector proposed such a reckless policy, they would be on their way to an institution and fitted for a strait jacket.

We used to be able to tell the bandits from the good guys because the bandits had the decency to wear masks. Now the bandits are leading our nation and stealing us blind with the tacit approval of congress. Since the modern-day Bonnie and Clyde's are above the law they plunder and pillage at will. Unfortunately the scope of the nation's greedy plunderers extends around the globe. Because the country gets no benefit from the exploitation of our treasury, the value of the dollar is in steep decline around planet. Because our dollar is still the Globe's primary currency we are taking the rest of the world down with us. And consider the irony of needing Chinese AND Arab money to bail us out!

Now the administration is proposing the largest federal budget of all time, at a time when we can least afford it. A large portion of this budget will go to increasing this war effort and increasing military spending. While the world should be at peace, this pugnacious administration is creating an ever larger war machine and using it to invade sovereign nations without proven provocation. At the same time they propose cutting popular programs like Medicare and Social Security and other social programs like health care and education cost relief for the nations’ poorest children. The third Reich mentality couldn't possibly have arisen again, could it?

More articles of this nature can be seen at Black Belt Politics by going to
http://www.parmsplace.com

Friday, May 23, 2008

How should we spell relief?

I, for one, spell relief as the end of the Bush/Cheney "oil ticket" reign of terror. If the rumors, founded on "leaks" in the White House to Andrew Cockburn of "Counterpunch", are correct, the gruesome twosome have signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against Iran, among others, unprecedented in scope. Bush's secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area stretching from Lebanon to Afghanistan and includes strategic assassinations of targeted officials. The source for these assertions comes from a former official on the National Security Council.



According to CBS sources, the State Department is at work drafting an ultimatum to Iran demanding they cease all current activities in Iraq. The fact that allegations of Iran's involvement in Iraq have never been proven seems of no concern to a man whose policies are based more on faith than fact. A curious side benefit to the most ridiculous foreign policy in this nation's history is a near bankruptcy of Citigroup, the world's largest financial services company. This company avoided immediate ruin by selling an 11% interest to, are you ready for this, the Arabs. The fact that a direct result of the war in the Middle East has driven oil prices to the point where major industries, airlines and trucking to mention just two, are on the verge of collapse, hasn't dawned on the war hawks yet. As higher oil prices put ever larger chunks of American capital in Arab hands, the Arab countries turn around and buy ever larger chunks of America.



Could we possibly be doing anything stupider or more damaging to our country than continuing, let alone increasing, our involvement in the middle east?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Who is telling the truth?

marshall mcluhanWho is telling the truth?

Except for the liars, everyone is.

Unfortunately, we all view history through the lens of our own upbringing. An ever-changing kaleidoscope of world events refracts the “truth” into a thousand prisms. We each eventually pick a point of view of the world which is most pleasing, or least terrifying, to ourselves. That view is focused and shaped by what we see and read daily.

Saul Bellow once said about the media, “nobody will be heard, who doesn’t speak in short bursts of truth”. Bill Moyers recently reflected that news people need to speak in “bumper sticker” snippets to hold our attention. Media mavens have seven seconds to grab us and make an impression before we are “gone” and on to something else mentally.

It would be simple arithmetic to hold the media responsible for our loss of depth perception. But that would be wrong. We are conditioned to accept specially crafted sound bytes. Marshall McLuhan, back in the 70’s, wrote a blockbuster book exposing the medium as the message. People have always had a tendency to view what they read as “truth, so help me God”. Today people view what they see as the “truth”. But as the written word is just a sound byte, the video is just an action byte, and only as real as we perceive it to be.

Here is a case in point. The Bush administration focused our attention on terrorism after 9/11 and in true Barnum and Bailey sleight of hand switched our focus to Iraq. Although one had nothing to do with the other, we followed the sound bytes and believed the video clips, and “agreed” Iraq needed to be punished. Most recently, a concerted military effort has been made to link the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq to Iran. Over 20,000 weapons were assembled from various armed engagements, and military experts were tasked to find a link back to the source -- Iran. Of course, no tangible link exists. But many will follow this “sleight-of-hand” maneuver and accept the inevitability of a war with Iran.

We would do well to remember a former writer named Len de Caux, who said in “Armies Of The Poor”: “Sometimes I’d hear a Communist speaker say something so bitter and extreme I’d feel embarrassed. Then I’d look around at the unemployed audience -- shabby clothes, expressions worried and sour. Faces would start to glow, heads to nod, and hands to clap.” So here we are again, and to the thousands who protested before the war began and the hundreds of thousands since, the Bush administration says, more or less, “So?” Well, my face is glowing, my head is nodding, and I’m clapping my hands! And I am no communist.

Governments of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy are never sustainable; such empires always fall from within. The wealthy have been leading this charge over the cliff with their golden parachutes and laser guided bombs. Hopefully we will learn that arrogance and greed have no place in a democracy. And we will reorganize ourselves accordingly.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The Hornet's Nest

Imagine walking through the forest one day and discovering an apparently unguarded or abandoned bee’s nest hanging within easy reach. Thinking a snack of rich honey can be had for little or no effort, you approach the nest. Suddenly your plan is interrupted by an angry buzzing. You look around you and discover a hornet buzzing about your feet. Following your first instinct you attempt to stomp on the hornet, and after several misses you successfully squash the pesky bugger. However, without you noticing, your stomping has shaken the ground and you now have several angry hornets buzzing about your feet. You immediately launch into an Indian war dance, hooting and stomping around, until you feel the sharp pain of a sting. This angers you further so you increase your efforts to exact revenge upon the culprit and his cohorts by flailing madly in all directions. You attempt to obliterate the source of these angry hornets by closing the hole from which they came. However, by now you are not fighting just one or several angry hornets, but the entire nest has erupted around you and you are getting stung repeatedly. Too late you realize that although you easily stomped the first soldier who attempted to defend his nest, and the several that followed, they are striking back. Further, you realize they are coming from more than one hole in the ground, and they appear to be everywhere.

The moral of the story is simple. Although our daydreamer was infinitely superior in size and weaponry, and although he was able to inflict serious damage to the pesky tribe, er nest, his victory was never accomplished, and in the meantime, he incurred some serious damage. The longer he stays the more damage he suffers until he leaves with his tail between his legs.

Mission accomplished.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Collateral Damage

Jesus Christ or Genghis Kahn....Who's footsteps are we really following?

Collateral damage.

Sounds reasonable, acceptable, and even unavoidable to the military minded among us. But what is it exactly? It is the cost in nonmilitary casualties to innocently involved people during military confrontations. It is the cost in lives of unsuspecting women and children blown to bits in shopping malls or on subway trains and in markets when extremists seek to make a political statement. It is the cost in families dislocated to relief centers because their homes have been commandeered by military personnel in war zones, or to those whose homes have disappeared altogether from bomb strikes. It is the economic cost to countries whose infrastructure has been destroyed; manufacturing centers, roads and bridges, power facilities and grids, and commerce centers all disabled or destroyed by combatants during military campaigns. This destruction is a result of goals which are completely irrelevant to the people whose lives are being destroyed by the “ruling” elite who supposedly speak for the people they govern.

Does this still sound reasonable? Millions of people dislocated, hundreds of thousands of people dead, trillions of dollars of money wasted on the megalomaniac dreams and ambitions of a few deranged individuals? And I do mean a few. Less than a hundred powerful sheiks (similar to Mafia families) in Iraq are being propped up by a few hundreds of legislators in this country, in support of a few thousand businessmen. These “elite” are costing the rest of the world hundreds of thousands of lives, trillions of current and future dollars, and generations of grief.

And for what? I personally have nothing against a single Iraqi or Muslim. In fact, I don’t even know one. I feel certain that the poor civilian, who has lost a family member to this war (every family in Iraq has lost, on average, at least one) has nothing against me. Where is the sanity?

Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to turn a biblical eye to the damage caused to us during the 9/11 disaster? Instead of recovering from the disaster, haven’t we, in fact, more than doubled it -- just in lives lost? If we add the cost of the physically maimed and mentally diminished, and the cost in taxpayer dollars of a devastated economy, haven’t we caused ourselves infinitely more damage than the “enemy” could have ever managed? With no end to the damage in sight! Where is the sanity in a policy like this?

And to think my fellow Americans are considering voting for more of the same, for shame. And to think this is being done in the name of one of the foremost pacifists to ever place his saintly foot upon this planet…none other than Jesus Christ himself. It seems to me we do Genghis Kahn honor in the name of our savior.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Clinton for Governor?

Since the New York governor's mansion has self imploded with Eliot Spitzer's and David Patterson's admissions of sexual excess, discussion has turned toward the possibility Hillary Clinton might consider moving from the U.S. Senate to the New York governor's mansion.



Recent polls clearly place Barack Obama a front runner in the national campaign. Perhaps it's time for Hillary to consider an exit strategy. Barack Obama has weathered the Reverend Wright earthquake and seems to be on firmer ground than ever. His ties to organized crime in Chicago have evaporated. His wife has slipped into the background after her gaffs about "finally feeling good about the country "she lives in and has benefited greatly from.



The worst that has been said about Hillary Clinton is she had ties to a company which got caught sideways in some very fragrant real estate deals. Nothing was ever proven regarding her involvement in the Whitewater scandal. On occasion, she is charged with orchestrating a few "cover-ups" regarding Bill's philandering. No one I know can blame a woman for protecting her home and family, even if it requires using Capitol police to run the "pass" interference.



So are the trial balloons about her moving into a position to become the new New York governor just hot air? Or is this just an attempt to thwart her national campaign hopes by the evil red herring genius? Or maybe this is some serious possibility we have to consider.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Needed: Spin Doctors

Spin doctors are a new breed of language techs. We seem to have an ever increasing need for this specialty by the country's public speakers and politicians. With an ever larger national scandal sheet to consume the news media it is no wonder. I don't have any statistics that directly refer to this subject. However, I have been watching the news for over half a century and can not recall ever seeing so many public figures, like celebrities and politicans, getting their noses rubbed in dirt of their own making.

I rather doubt that morals in general or personal integrity, in particular, are much different today than they were in the days of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The fact that those gentlemen had mistresses (in fact, quite a few and many "of color") is common knowledge today. Children which resulted from those relationships were no cause for concern to the politicians, and certainly no public outcry was ever raised in the media of the time. Cocaine was legal, pot unheard of, and drinking the national pastime, so again no whisper of scandal ever appeared to blemish the saintly reputations of the leaders of our country back then.

Our European neighbors are apparently either more sophisticated, less immature, more worldly, or more personally engaged in affairs of the kind that titillate the viewers in this country. At any rate, conduct of the kind dominating the news here scarcely rates a mention in the tabloids abroad. The President of France is currently receiving congratulations by his fellow countrymen because his wife is appearing in public in the nude! Now there is an idea whose time has come. But on with our story.


I don't know if this is true, but it's funny, typical "Washington speak", and proves that a good PR machine is priceless.

Judy Wallman, a professional genealogical researcher, discovered that Hillary Clinton's great-great uncle, Remus Rodham, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows. On the back of the picture is this inscription: "Remus Rodham; horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889." Judy e-mailed Hillary Clinton for comments. Hillary's staff of professional spin doctors sent back the following biographical sketch:

"Remus Rodham was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to service at a government facility, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed."

And THAT is how it's done.

Monday, March 24, 2008

WIN? WIN WHAT?

I guess if you can call 4000 American deaths and $1 trillion invested in the worst catastrophe in American history, with the exception of the Vietnam conflict, progress, I guess we are winning.

I guess if you consider sacrificing the American economy and postponing all social programs, like education, Social Security reform, and healthcare progress, you could say we are winning.

I guess if you consider a tripling of the gas and oil prices over the past seven years by waging a war over oil in the Middle East progress, we are gaining on it.

And I guess if you consider doubling the national debt and causing the steepest decline in the dollar against other major currencies in the world a victory, we have cause for celebration.

Have we completely lost our minds?

Sunday, March 23, 2008

What Is It with red ties?

I never used to notice what color tie the people who were speaking to me wore. One thing I do remember is that speakers never wore red ties. I grew up in a generation when subdued was the order of the day and was synonymous with moderation and sanity.

One day, King George, the president, wore a red tie. Red was never to be used in the fraternity I joined. It was related to the red capes used to taunt bulls during the ritual slaughter of the bulls in Mexico. Waving a red color was used to incite the rage of the bull and to raise the temperature of the audience to a feverish degree.

Red was never worn by politicians, whose last ambition was to raise the temperature of the voting public. But all of a sudden, everyone is wearing red ties. It doesn’t seem to matter what side of the fence they are on. They are now even popular with members of the press.

I guess the only difference is what breed of sheep they are.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Call For Change

The Call For Change

Americans are discouraged. Polls show an overwhelming disapproval rating for our elected officials and the reason is obvious. They consistently ignore the will of the people who elect them. 80% of those polled want a quick end to the wars which bleed our treasury dry and result in the slaughter and maiming of thousands of our young. After all, we aren't that gullible or stupid, are we? I mean, with all the power of the CIA, the NSA, and the Pentagon, with all the surveillance satellites and the billions in the budget, does anyone seriously believe we can’t find and eliminate a cave dwelling ferret like Osama bin Laden? It is an insult to everyone in this country to expect us to believe a small task force of the best trained military elite, with the best technology in the world, can't find and eliminate a few hundred terrorists.

So the result is to be expected. People who line up for days for the opportunity to buy the latest Harry Potter novel won't cross the street to shake the hand of a politician. Some might suggest a reason is our people no longer respond to words or ideas, but only to movies or books or music. I think the reason is because, after several decades of having our noses rubbed in one scandal after another, by the nation's leaders, we are afraid the corruption might rub off on us; or the stupidity. After all, anyone with half a brain would realize we can't insult the 1000 year old traditions of a seriously religious region and expect them to appreciate us; or that after slaughtering hundreds of thousands of their friends and family they will eventually embrace us and our ways.

And so while there is a claim for change, can we really expect any? We certainly won't if a Bush clone gets elected. A close reading of the web pages of the Democratic primary leaders doesn't really promise any sudden moves either. About the best we can hope for is only four more years of war and only another trillion dollars wasted. It is unfortunately too much to expect a politician to say what he means and to do what he says.

Someone said it earlier. Yuck, just yuck.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Nobody's Perfect

Not since the day of Christ, has anyone had the hubris to claim a perfect record on anything. After all, to error is to be human. Where we have a problem is where a President, who relies on advisers, claims to be making the best decisions for the nation. No one, after seven years of examples, can suggest that President Bush has had the mental dexterity to fathom the more complicated issues. He can't even manage the complexities of his own language. Where we have a problem is when unseen agendas and hidden motives of behind the scenes manipulators affect the direction of American politics. (Whew) The President's closest adviser, presumably Vice President Dick Cheney, clearly has his own agenda on foreign-policy. Dick has a huge stake in Halliburton and Halliburton has a huge stake in Iraq. So where do we find ourselves? We find ourselves lead by a completely corrupt company with no regard for the truth, or American troop welfare, or honest accounting. This company dictates American foreign-policy through the office of the Vice President of the United States of America.

I hate being a sucker. I hate falling victim to the fast card shuffle. Therefore, I try to pay close attention. I read between the lines. I read everything I can get my hands on. From Playboy to Scientific American, from National Geographic to Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, I try to ascertain the truth. And the truth I have discovered stinks. I have no hidden agenda. I am living well (not that well is comfortable mind you) below the poverty level. The poverty level is so far above my income I could live on a year of poverty for three years. But I refuse to call a crook a hero, or a thief a public servant. I call a spade a spade.

I see no solution to our problems offered in the coming election. We need to find a solution within ourselves. This country has one of the proudest traditions of any on this planet. We have built a country free from persecution. We have built a nation of equal rights. We have built the land of opportunity like no other. But we are being lied to and misled by slick tongued orators. Our hopes are exploited; our good nature and willingness to cooperate and contribute are taken advantage of. As a result, we are falling behind. Other nations of vastly greater numbers are graduating college-level students annually in numbers greater than our entire population. Our better paying jobs are either leaving this country for cheaper labor elsewhere (which generally means everywhere), or are being supplied by foreign nationals granted work visas to fill the education gap between our graduates and the job requirements they fail to fulfill.

So, someone asks, what do you suggest? Since I am no liar, I'll tell you there is no one answer. But I have decided there is a window of opportunity. The window, for baby boomers at least, was suggested by one of my favorite bands of the 1970s. The Moody Blues. The window lies in recognizing that fear is just a lack of understanding. Fear can't kill you. Fear is irrational, overrated, and as an instrument of foreign-policy hopelessly abused. The people in these far-off lands we say are our enemies have the same hopes and aspirations for their children as we have. They have the same sense of justice and honor. Perhaps they have different customs. So what. Perhaps they even worship different gods. So what. They are people with lives and hopes and dreams like people everywhere. We are all the same under our skin. We need to get over ourselves.

Amen

Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Ten Trillion Dollar Crisis

In one of the great movies of the last century, Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise gave us a glimpse of the state of mind of the military in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The tour de force is called "A Few Good Men". I mention this movie only to repeat one of the greatest lines in the movie, shouted by Jack Nicholson's character as he was backed into a corner on the witness stand. He shouted, and I quote, "You can't handle the truth!", referring to the American public. And in another award winner, Bart Simpsons' writers noted, "It takes two to lie. One to do the lying and the other to do the listening". Unfortunately, these two statements are spelling doom for the economic state of our nation. The American public is doing the listening, and the leaders of our nation are doing the misleading. If we don't know the truth, we certainly can't be expected to handle it.

American's government debt has crossed the 9 trillion dollar mark this year. This roughly equates to 30,000 dollars for every man, woman, and child in this country. If you are a family of 5, your family's share of this debt is 150,000 dollars. Are you feeling a little poorer? Neither is anyone else, and that is a huge portion of our problem. In 31 of the last 35 years the government has operated in the red. For some reason, we all feel that the government's lack of financial responsibility has nothing to do with us individually. Just wait until our social security and medicare programs are cut back drastically and I guarantee you will feel the effects of ridiculous financial policies.

This year GW Bush proposes pushing the deficit up by an additional 400 billion dollars. The budget he proposes is over 3 trillion dollars and the deficit he proposes does not include the cost of the of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. Nor does it accurately reflect the loss of revenue which is certainly forthcoming from a rapidly faltering economy. These items alone could easily add another 200 billion dollars to the deficit. Before we see another balanced budget we will go over the 10 trillion dollar mark. If GW has his way, we will cross the 10 trillion dollar deficit level in another two years. Further, we get these figures from the office of underestimators. We have taken a flight from reason in this country. When our president can propose adding 400 billion to a 9 trillion dollar deficit, and in the same sentence call this a "good" budget, he has joined Alice in Wonderland. The Mad Hatter is at the helm! The public must be held partly responsible for the cataclysmic state of the nation's economic affairs. The president can only propose a budget; the Congress must approve it, and between these two branches of government it is hard to say who wears the bigger dunce cap. But we elect them all.

Remember the crisis the government faced as we approached the end of the last century. Some predicted the end of the world as we know it, because the computers which run everything didn't have the year 2000 available to them. Well guess what? We are there again. Government computers don't have enough room for 10 trillion dollars of red ink. That requires room for 14 digits. No one ever expected us to need more than 13 digits of room in the dollar column to run the government. The plus side to the equation is that the thousands of pages of line items will be compressed to just a few pages. That's right. The entire projected revenue of the United States government will barely cover just three line items; social security, medicare, and interest on the national debt. By 2040 there will be no money for any other government programs or expenses.

As the largest group of voters this nation has ever seen, the baby boomers must accept a large portion of responsibility for this travesty. If we continue to elect, through ignorance (by this I don't mean stupid...we are not stupid, just uninformed) or apathy, a group of people who put their own agendas above those of the nation, we will have in the not-too-distant future a dollar worth less than a peso.

Here is an example of what I mean by an ignorant electorate. On Bill Moyer's Journal, a brilliant author, Susan Jacoby, astounded me, and I hope everyone in this country, with the following results from a recent Roper poll about geography. Young people between the ages of 18 and 25 were shown a map of the world and asked to locate four countries; Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. This map, by the way, had the initials of every country printed within each country. Only 23% of college graduates and 6% of high school graduates were able to correctly identify these countries. This area of the world is one of the most explosive on the planet, and is consuming a tremendous amount of our nation's resources. The real shameful part of this poll is that these graduates didn't even know where the Middle East is in the world, or presumably they would have been able to identify the countries by their initials.

It is hard to suggest a course of action to correct these crippling problems. While YouTube, Facebook, Myspace and the latest video games consume our youths' time and attention, a monster of biblical proportions is building strength just outside the monitor screen. Our country is only a small portion of the world population. Even as we protect our shores from a military invasion, the financial invasion of our country continues unabated. The economic overthrow of our way of life is just around the corner. Hopefully our children and voters will see this threat in time and elect officials up to the challenge. "The good people in this country are at their best when things are at their worst" is another great movie line by Jeff Bridges in the movie Starman. I hope the writers were correct.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Disgruntled Campers Unite!

Back in the good old days, the campgrounds of America were very nearly free for all Americans. For a dollar a month, or one-time annual fee of 12 dollars, the government issued any American a Golden Eagle Pass. This pass was truly golden for it offered its bearer the right to enter, and stay for up to two weeks, any of the nation's hundreds of national parks. No overnight charge, no daily use fee. Occasionally some parks had a coin-op machine on a hot shower stall. Otherwise, once the annual fee was paid our national parks were truly a free gateway to beautiful vistas and incredible natural phenomena, to be shared by all citizens equally.

These services were afforded because every tax paying American paid a small stipend to the government which went toward the upkeep of one of the nation's most treasured resources, the national park system. Hiking trails were built, campgrounds leveled, and tables and fire pits provided so anyone, regardless financial means, could afford to commune with nature. Living in tents and sleeping on the ground, breathing clean air and swimming in crystal-clear lakes and rivers, hearing the night sounds of insects and rumbling brooks and, above all, leaving the sirens and lights of the city behind was, and still is, psychic balm for the soul.

What happened? As far as I know a portion of our tax dollars still goes to fund those same parks. It can't possibly cost as much to maintain these parks as it cost to develop them in the first place. And remember, inflation raises the price of everything, but nothing inflates faster than the tax bite on our earnings. Now a night stay in a national park is a long way from being free. People with motor homes can expect to pay as much as nights stay in a motel room to park their camper and hook up to the electric and water. People staying in tents are paying about half the cost of a night in Motel 6 to sleep on the ground. With the nation's parks filled to overflowing, the parks system must certainly be self-supporting by now, but we still contribute hundreds of millions of dollars annually in taxes to "support" the system.

Camping in national parks (state parks are following suit) is no longer within the reach of everyone in this nation. To be able to stay in a park during the "season" a substantial deposit is required months in advance. Just to enjoy a parks vistas or lakes while driving through can cost a pretty penny. At the rate the government is usurping the prerogatives of the people I would not be surprised to find one of our legislative revenue agents proposing a "free air tax" sometime in the near future.

Unexpected Consequences

There have been some unexpected consequences to an administration gone bad or mad or both. The first of these is an unusual vocal disrespect for the President, as witnessed by popular TV shows like Bill Maher, Keith Obermann, and Bill Moyer. A few of these men have come out calling the gruesome twosome, Bush and Cheney, outright fascists. While it has always been popular for late-night hosts to poke fun at the president, especially Bill Clinton, never before has there been such a torrent of rage and disgust. Our nation's leaders are held in outright contempt. This must signal a new low for the country. The next president will have a great deal more than just the economy to fix.

How about the invasion of our privacy? Whether or not, we have anything to hide most people feel uncomfortable knowing someone is (in effect) opening their mail and listening in on their phone conversations. Again, the benefit to our security is hard to estimate but tangible results don't seem to be forthcoming. Tapping our phones and e-mails is as offensive to most people as requiring public disrobing would be.

How about the tailspin our dollar is experiencing against the world's major currencies? In the not so distant past, we had the strongest currency on the planet. Now an economy as small as Canada's has a currency stronger than the dollar. Our stock market, real estate market, and financial markets seem to be in lockstep with the decline of the dollar. America's assets are selling at a huge discount; the equivalent of buying Tiffany jewelry at Kmart prices.

Another phenomenon, according to Chris Matthews's popular Hardball TV series, is the conferencing going on around the nation's water coolers. Office worker gossip has been replaced with earnest discussions about the candidates and their positions over wide variety of national issues. Issues like the expansion or contraction of the war can be expected to be hot topics. But not around the water cooler. National health care and the stumbling economy likewise are hot topics usually reserved for the cocktail hour.

And still another consequence to this administration is the early start to the presidential campaign. Whether or not the early stumping is a result of a reaction to the war in Iraq is hard to determine. One thing is clear. Candidates of both parties began their countrywide sweep for delegates nearly a year ahead of schedule. Perhaps the Democrats saw an opportunity to capitalize on a 75% disapproval rating for a Republican president. How they will turn this in their favor is hard to imagine, since the democratically controlled Congress enjoys an even lower rating than the president.

Anyone who has traveled lately has experienced the incredible inconvenience thrust upon our air traveling public. The debate is about whether any of these additional disruptions to our routine are accomplishing anything at all. On every occasion the Homeland Security's additional measures were tested they failed miserably. Agents posing as terrorists were able to smuggle components for all kinds of explosive devices through customs and onboard airplanes. On a cost to benefit ratio the cost is astronomical, and the benefit is near zero.

Lastly, how about the nations fear factor? Homegrown terrorists like those from Montana or Waco Texas have done extraordinary damage in the past, but never before have our leaders felt it was necessary to remind us on a daily basis to tremble in our boots. Nor have they used such occasions to strip us of our rights and dignity. We have plowed billions into a Gestapo like bureaucracy, Homeland security, which was supposed to have made us more secure. In my opinion, and that of almost every national commentator I listen to, it has had the opposite effect. Once these bureaucracies are built is next to impossible to dismantle them. Putting all of our security forces under one umbrella answerable only to the president is a fascist move if there ever was one. I felt more secure when all of our nations spy agencies were running their own shows. At least then there were checks and balances.

In the final analysis I believe the goodness and common sense of the American public will come to the aid of the republic in time to stave off disaster. The damage done to the nation's prestige and self-respect won't be restored overnight. But a talking American public is a healthy sign that we are taking stock of our perilous position and intend to do something about it. In the upcoming election there is a promise of change. One change which cannot be overestimated is the introduction of the internet into the equation. I believe the incredible amount of support and money raised by the grassroots/internet campaign waged by Ron Paul has not gone unnoticed, although he apparently has. When candidates feel the need to distance themselves from special interest groups and refuse their money, as has been done by Barack Obama, and can successfully run their campaigns without that fragrant grease, we are headed in the right direction.

Hoorah!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Split Personality

Whether we choose to believe it or not, the facts are in. America has a split personality. For the most part, the good people of this country are in denial. While we deserve to be congratulated for the good deeds we do as free citizens, we refuse to acknowledge the evil done by our government in our name. Our hearts and our money pour out to the less fortunate, and to the victims of atrocities like genocide perpetrated by misguided regimes in Third World countries. Meanwhile these lawless regimes are more often than not supported by our own state department. We then invade sovereign nations whose religious convictions run contrary to ours under false pretenses. After blowing up our "alleged" enemies, at a cost in the billions, we then follow up by spending even larger amounts to rebuild and repair the damage we did.
Private institutions and individuals provide massive assistance to the malaria and HIV victims in Africa. We are in the process of providing laptop computers to the most remote villages on the planet to speed their arrival into the 21st century. We give aid to disaster victims everywhere; no disaster worldwide goes without our support and assistance. These are great acts of kindness done by private people and institutions in our country’s name.
Our alter ego, on the other hand, invades countries (Iraq is not the first and more than likely not the last) in an attempt to steal their natural resources. Our rich corporations export pollution and take advantage of cheap foreign labor. We export our jobs solely to take advantage of the poor and starving in less developed countries. Our continual military campaigns cause death, destruction, and dislocation to millions of innocent civilians. For our trouble we get a gross and bloated military budget. We give lip service to a war on terror in spite of the fact that we haven't had a terrorist attack in over six years in our own country. We commit crimes in the name of national security; crimes which were deemed so heinous they were banned from use by the Geneva Convention during World War II. We send our children to die in countries which were our allies and imprison and spy on our own citizens.
While the good people in this country strive to do the best we can for all people everywhere, a few disgrace our country and give us a black eye the world over. Their sole ambition is to increase their own wealth and power at everyone else's expense. They manipulate our government and our media and seek to undo the very principles which made our country the envy of all the world a few short decades ago.
We need to regain control of our evil twin, before all is lost. We need to dismantle an ever larger war machine. A machine which is being used as an instrument of destruction and mayhem. A machine which is sucking up so many resources we are bankrupting ourselves and putting the entire world's economy at risk. We need to put our resources into projects like clean air and renewable energy resources. Projects which will provide a secure and constructive future for our next generations. If we learn nothing else from history, we must learn the consequences of a government with an irresponsible military agenda and which is controlled by big business interests. This could be the first generation of a lasting peace throughout the world. But first, we must put Mr. hide behind bars where he belongs, and throw away the key.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Plus/Minus of an early campaign

On the surface it sounds like a big win for the country. Voters have nearly a year’s head start learning about the candidates’ backgrounds and politics. As Jay Leno's jaywalk series plainly shows, most people of voting age don't even recognize the faces of the candidates, let alone have knowledge of any particular candidate's position on major issues.
When thousands of lives and billions (trillions) of dollars are being sacrificed to a war which may extend over several generations, we owe our undivided attention to the policies and promises of a future president.

From the perspective of the baby boomers, I relish the switch to politics from the mind numbing and never ending exposés about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Since we are putting the nation's future in hock past their eyeballs, we at least owe those future generations the courtesy of knowing why. However, it may only be wishful thinking to suppose the public will stay tuned to these most important of concerns. In all likelihood they will simply change the channel. As Jay Leno again says, “We get the government we deserve.".

One huge minus to an early campaign involves the early elimination of candidates whose campaigns couldn't raise enough money to gain parity in the Caucasus. Well-financed candidates were able to gain early momentum while late bloomers like Ron Paul got sacrificed on the altar of grassroots. It looks as though special-interest groups will trump the mamas and papas every time. Five dollars here and ten dollars there don’t amount to much when parking fees alone can amount to $500,000 in the year before the primary. The fact that Hillary Clinton had to "lend her campaign" $5 million at this stage in the process just to "hang in there” with Senator Obama shows how big a role early money plays in today's political climate.

Only time will tell whether the nation's affairs will hold sway over our celebrities’ affairs. We can't, after all, expect a nation whose rocket scientists aren't smarter than a fifth grader to pay serious attention to a two-year discussion of election politics. One thing that should be clear after such lengthy debate, however, is that we should have forced the candidates to have clearly expressed their opinions and positions. Their party’s platform should also be abundantly clear.

Whether we can keep a President accountable for his promises is another issue entirely. We have seen the powers of the presidency expanded to the point where it is fair to say Congress is now irrelevant. The fact that a democratically controlled Congress is now merely a rubber stamp to a Republican president is unprecedented. The fact that war crimes and blatant civil rights violations occur without redress by the President and his men doesn't bode well for our country's future. In a recent commentary by Keith Obermann he notes that our vice president needs to be careful what countries he visits after office, lest he be hanged for war crimes. It sickens me to witness our country's leaders compared to Hitler's henchmen. However, if we citizens allow our leaders to invade sovereign nations without provocation, we deserve the comparison. Lord help us if we continue to allow our leaders to help themselves to the nation’s wealth from positions above the law.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Can We Be Bribed?

Can We Be Bribed?

After enjoying the lowest approval rating in the nation's history, can both the Congress and the president buy their way back into the public’s favor? The proposed one-time tax refund of $600 per person or $1200 per household is designed to accomplish exactly that. Are we really that gullible? Can we really be expected to forgive all the lying, favoritism, and corruption perpetrated by this administration? After leading us into war and driving the nation into a recession, they propose to give the taxpayers some of their money back. Let us not forget that in order to give money back to us, they have to take it from us in the first place. And let us not forget if it weren’t for this administration wasting trillions of dollars on an illegal, immoral, and unpopular war in the first place, we wouldn’t be on the brink of a financial meltdown.

$162 billion. It sounds like a lot of money. However, if we look at the Bush/Cheney welfare to Halliburton program it is a drop in the bucket. According to the latest Bill Moyer exposé 200 billion dollars of the 400 billion dollars billed by Halliburton to the American taxpayer recently has disappeared. By disappeared I don’t mean failed to show up in Halliburton’s account. I mean disappeared as in the services billed to and paid for by the government were never performed. Buildings billed and paid for were never built. Outrageous double or triple billing for products and services were never reimbursed, or credits issued. In a recent investigation by the Senate, Condoleezza Rice attributed these disappearing funds to "accounting" errors. Theft, by any other name, is still theft. Isn’t it?

Most economists agree that this proposed "stimulus package” won’t stimulate anything. Because businessmen realize the bubble is of short duration, they won't be adding payroll or capacity to plants. It is fair to say a portion will go to paying down personal debt, which won’t stimulate anything either. All this measure really does is drive up the nation's debt. According to Bloomberg analysts, this president has the nation on cruise control straight over a cliff. If anyone in the private sector proposed such a reckless policy, they would be on their way to an institution and fitted for a strait jacket.

We used to be able to tell the bandits from the good guys because the bandits had the decency to wear masks. Now the bandits are leading our nation and stealing us blind with the tacit approval of congress. Since the modern-day Bonnie and Clyde's are above the law they plunder and pillage at will. Unfortunately the scope of the nation's greedy plunderers extends around the globe. Because the country gets no benefit from the exploitation of our treasury, the value of the dollar is in steep decline around planet. Because our dollar is still the Globe's primary currency we are taking the rest of the world down with us.

Now the administration is proposing the largest federal budget of all time, at a time when we can least afford it. A large portion of this budget will go to increasing this war effort and increasing military spending. While the world should be at peace, this pugnacious administration is creating an ever larger war machine and using it to invade sovereign nations without proven provocation.. At the same time, they propose cutting popular programs like Medicare and Social Security and other social programs like health care for the nations’ poorest children. The Third Reich mentality couldn't possibly have arisen again, could it?

Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Sellout

In true Barnum and Bailey fashion, the Bush administration has used the hucksters' credo, you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, to great advantage.
According to Bill Moyer’s Journal, the Bush foreign-policy camp was investigated by two independent groups, The Senate For Public Integrity and The Fund For Independence In Journalism, to determine how many false statements were made prior to the invasion of Iraq. They concluded that the top seven officials, including the President, the Vice President and the Secretary of State, gave false or misleading statements at least 935 times. On at least 532 separate occasions, Saddam Hussein was said to have links to Al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction; statements later proven to be false. In his words, Bill Moyer states “the war in Iraq was a public relations propaganda campaign based on one big lie". Nevertheless, we are still in Iraq for an indeterminate length of time and at a continuing cost in the billions.
We the taxpayers are spending millions of dollars annually for junkets to the Middle East to keep our lawmakers informed, but we should wonder what they do there. Congressmen and senators are the most highly paid and pampered public servants in our nation. However, only a few voices seem willing to speak out against "the lie" and to vote against funding a clearly illegal and immoral war. It would seem to be clear that laws need to be passed providing penalties for those lying to the American public while in the publics' employ. How this can be done is hard to imagine. After all, this group has been responsible for approving massive pay raises and perks for themselves while working Americans' paychecks have remained flat over the past seven years. For a group which considers themselves above taxation (that's right folks, congressional and senatorial salaries are not subject to federal taxes) it would be completely unrealistic to expect self-censure. Although they make a huge deal out of consensual oral sex, oral obfuscation and outright lying are under their radar.
Somewhere along the line the reason to become a public servant and to put the public interest first has become an ideal whose time has passed. With big government in bed with big business, the resulting bastard child is the sellout of America. The poor boy from the backwoods of Illinois has no chance of moving up the political ladder while keeping integrity and honor intact.
People who keep score have determined a winning presidential candidate needs a war chest of upwards of $100 million to win an election. If you think anyone stands a chance of raising that kind of money on principles, think again. Every politician begins his career (one would hope) as an idealist. After a few backroom compromises are made to get the support of special interest groups, idealism is replaced with pragmatism. The reasoning is simple. With ideals, I don't get elected; with compromises I do. By the time anyone reaches a high public office, he (she) has compromised their soul. To recall an old phrase, once you have them by their purse strings, their principles and politics will follow.

Bob Parmelee Parmsplace

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Actors As Politicians

When Shirley Temple Black, child actress, was appointed Ambassador to Ghana I figured, strange, but why not. After all, supporters of political parties had been rewarded with special appointments since time began. Besides, she was loved both here and abroad. She did such a great job she was given a much more sensitive appointment many years later as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
My jaw hit the floor when Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California, and then, of course, president. It didn’t seem to me that a movie idol turned Screen Actors Guild president had the background to lead a state government, let alone the country. But as history is my witness, he is credited with doing a great job and is considered one of the nation’s best and most popular leaders.
Others like Sonny Bono and Jesse Ventura and Clint Eastwood have further proven that show business is as good a background as political science to be a spokesperson for the people. And, obviously, being a household name before running for public office doesn’t hurt one’s chances at getting elected. In fact, a previous career in front of a camera may be one of the better foundations for public speaking. It sure wouldn’t have hurt the king of gaffs, George Bush, to have gotten some practice before stepping in front of an audience.
It is unfortunate, in my opinion, that our constitution prevents another great actor from becoming president. I am speaking of Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course. He is proving to be a very capable governor, following in Ronald Reagan’s footsteps somewhat. The fact that he was not born in this country would seem to have little to do with his leadership ability. As we can certainly see, being born in this country has little to do with a person’s ability to lead this nation either.

Bob Parmelee