tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39999248381130711442024-02-07T05:50:53.297-07:00Today's MorrowMy cheerfully partisan view of politics and the rest of the world.Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-75400016708370463882013-09-22T14:56:00.000-06:002013-09-22T14:56:50.695-06:00What a Foul Way to Govern For eight long years we had to live with Junior Bush's
confused-but-belligerent-cowboy style of governing, watching the
Republican-controlled Congress go along with his excesses as if he
could do no wrong. With their collusion, two wars, a new Medicare
benefit, and tax cuts were “put on the credit card.” Vice
President Cheney proclaimed that deficits didn't matter.<br />
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We can blame Bush for that, but not for dismantling all the
safeguards on investment practices put in place after the Great
Depression. Some of that was done under Bill Clinton's watch.<br />
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As the pop of the bubble loomed, Sen. Barack Obama ran for
president on a progressive program to end the two Bush wars, finally
pass health care, and reduce the gridlock in Congress by working with
the Republicans. The bubble popped, and he won.<br />
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Despite the distraction of the worst recession in two
generations, he made good progress on the first two goals, but
getting along with the GOP eluded every effort he made. I think it
was because of his African heritage, but whatever the reason, he
could do absolutely nothing right from the Republican point of view.
They simply hated him from the first.<br />
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The Senate and the House started work on health care. I watched
it go on for months on C-SPAN. The Republicans fought every inch of
the way. They did not want health care.
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As the battle dragged on, the GOP health plan became clear: 1.
Establish health savings accounts that would be offered by, and
provide easy profits for, their friends the bankers. 2. Allow people
to purchase health care nationally, thus reducing regulation to the
weakest insurance commission in the 50 states. 3. Reform malpractice
laws, thus hurting their enemies, trial lawyers. In addition to those
three demands, they spent many hours telling their colleagues how
illegal aliens were going to get health care and abortions would be
provided under the Democratic plan, thus scaring their base with its
two greatest bugaboos, with no regard to the actual contents of the
proposed legislation.<br />
<br />
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which they
quickly labeled “Obamacare,” passed without any GOP help at all.
Then the Tea Party showed up to bemoan fiscal irresponsibility, only
eight years too late. Regressive Republicans gained seats in the
mid-term election, and they started trying to reverse the
legislation. They filed suit claiming it was unconstitutional.
<br />
<br />
Americans soon got their fill of teabags, despite whose best
hopes and efforts the Supreme Court ruled the act constitutional and
President Obama was re-elected on a platform of full implementation
of what he, too, was now calling Obamacare.
<br />
<br />
The teabags lost seats in the 2012 election, but not enough
seats. They have managed to install a boot on the tire of Congress
that has been effective despite their waning popularity. There is
still a strong core of Fox News bubbleheads to encourage their
efforts, although that cohort's median age continues to rise. The
brief Republican anti-Obama surge hit before the last election, and
gave them a leg up on redistricting, but their popularity is sinking
so quickly that even many of the seats they thought safe for a decade
are now in play.
<br />
<br />
Apparently, that means it's time for last-ditch efforts. The
House majority has demonstrated its unrelenting contempt for health
care, and last week voted for all practical purposes to shut the
government down if it's not stopped.
<br />
<br />
Luckily, that bill has to go to the Senate, where cooler heads
allegedly reside. The Senate will pass its own version, which will
put Obamacare back in, but it may take some time. Freshmen GOP and
Tea Party senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Hill of Utah, with
erratic support from Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, plan to do what they
can to block health care.<br />
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Then it will go back to the House, where God knows what will
happen. If it passes, the president will sign it right away; if it
doesn't, we face another shutdown.<br />
<br />
Any legislation to avoid the shutdown must be enacted before
October 1st. And even if it is avoided, thus setting up Congress for
another showdown in just a few weeks, government agencies will have
spent much time and money preparing for it. What a foul way to
govern!<br />
<br />
The Republicans ran in 2012 with the motto “Repeal and
Replace,” and they have been criticized since then for not having a
plan to replace Obamacare. Well, finally there was a breath of fresh
air from the House GOP, which released a plan created by a special
committee. Guess what's in it.<br />
<br />
That's right: establish health savings accounts, allow people to
purchase health insurance nationally, and reform malpractice laws.<br />
<br />
Nancy Pelosi called the “shut-'er-down” policy of the teabags
“legislative arson.” It's more likely to become self-immolation
if those cooler heads don't prevail.<br />
<br />
Whatever happens, it will be followed in short order by yet
another crisis manufactured by the Republicans: Does the United
States of America run out on its debt?<br />
<br />
What a foul way to govern!Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-84534227548397840562012-10-30T14:28:00.000-06:002012-10-30T14:28:48.562-06:00<h2>
My New Book</h2>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NNHKR6/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NNHKR6/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Y-XvxDrQxbmpNaokFPS-nDPkVts-INt9Xgg1GFBMx-pmPKp3rWjJY1uDORulkYkQca4lKQTyW7N0ORD-ph27AvaPBMA0AGY2zSXX_ygD3D97FPbFCJMk3Y6qB0K9rd8ZRY5-VGQktdUU/s1600/Book+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Y-XvxDrQxbmpNaokFPS-nDPkVts-INt9Xgg1GFBMx-pmPKp3rWjJY1uDORulkYkQca4lKQTyW7N0ORD-ph27AvaPBMA0AGY2zSXX_ygD3D97FPbFCJMk3Y6qB0K9rd8ZRY5-VGQktdUU/s400/Book+Cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Please check it out!</div>
Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-20877144215473898742012-07-14T08:55:00.000-06:002012-07-14T09:07:36.049-06:00The High Cost of Birthing<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Why Health Care Reform Is So Important</div>
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In order to allay any fears that I might have been born in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Kenya</place></country-region> or somewhere like that, I am today releasing, not my birth certificate, but the bill for my delivery.</div>
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This little piece of paper, which I found among my late father’s effects, tells an astonishing story. It’s not only evidence of how health care costs have grown during my lifetime, it reveals some of the major changes that have been made in medical procedures.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTnBfNXd6HZQB3VcsokKG67_NZCvqSEyYy_vm9SS2ixdb4pP7_cWDVTOR-C1lW3vaQV82b0A3sPSsmoFUBQWR2JQH8AeQY6Qbhwgs_weISi3ccpN627gJ4d4-cWdCn9MmyRPiYcRHJo26L/s1600/Hospital+Bill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTnBfNXd6HZQB3VcsokKG67_NZCvqSEyYy_vm9SS2ixdb4pP7_cWDVTOR-C1lW3vaQV82b0A3sPSsmoFUBQWR2JQH8AeQY6Qbhwgs_weISi3ccpN627gJ4d4-cWdCn9MmyRPiYcRHJo26L/s640/Hospital+Bill.jpg" width="402" /></a></div>
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As you can see, I was born on December 20, 1947, and my mother and I remained in the hospital for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ten whole days!</i> No, it wasn’t a caesarean delivery, and my mother didn’t have complications. It was just standard procedure that women who had given birth stayed in the hospital for a long time. </div>
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But, to us, what is most astonishing is the cost of that stay. It only cost $5.50 to deliver me and $8.50 a day for my mother to recuperate. (She must have just about gone mad lying in bed that long, I’d think.) Anesthetic for childbirth was standard, and that cost $3.00, as did circumcision. (I know: way too much information.) The total was $119.25.</div>
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In 1947, all the dimes, quarters, and halves in your pocket were made of 90% silver, and that continued to be the case through 1964. Now, a bag of those silver coins with $1,000 face value and no numismatic value will set you back almost $20,000. But even at 20 times the cost, $2,385, you can’t get born today for anything close, and your mother will probably be discharged from the hospital by dinner time.</div>
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That’s why reforming health care is so important. Here’s another graphic, from Wikipedia, showing the cost of health care in this country as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product. Back in 1947, people spent less than 5% of their income on health care. I might add that doctors made house calls back then. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYJx-ytb9eT9D4XWFxwVIKihYa_26zbBG3wMZWpiVImykGhgv66_x_2sBc_NyFT2BozZ3u_2Lbik4noJEqXNLuJK1JJt0ri9QLaaG02nsHvX1fnF6-Pz0xqXTSM2KA6_m2tKDuSDs0uZ3A/s1600/Health+Care+Cost+History.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYJx-ytb9eT9D4XWFxwVIKihYa_26zbBG3wMZWpiVImykGhgv66_x_2sBc_NyFT2BozZ3u_2Lbik4noJEqXNLuJK1JJt0ri9QLaaG02nsHvX1fnF6-Pz0xqXTSM2KA6_m2tKDuSDs0uZ3A/s400/Health+Care+Cost+History.gif" width="252" /></a></div>
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I realize that there have been incredible changes in medicine during my lifetime. There were no hugely expensive CAT scan or MRI machines back then, and a whole panoply of wonder drugs has been developed in the meantime. Lots of people who survive major illnesses and traumas today would have died from them in 1947.</div>
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But there are other factors. <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">St. Joseph</place></city>’s Hospital was a Catholic institution and wasn’t in the business for the money. Blue Cross-Blue Shield, when it started, was a non-profit organization. There were no for-profit HMOs adding another layer of cost. There were few drugs available, but those there were relatively cheap.</div>
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Whatever the causes, and there are many, we have been paying an increasing portion of our income on medical care. As you can see from the graph, it reached 16% in 2007, and there has been no reduction in the rate of increase since then.</div>
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This increase was the impetus for Barack Obama to make health care reform a major plank in his platform when he ran for president in 2008. It was also the impetus for many voters who supported him.</div>
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He was true to his word. When the Affordable Care Act finally made it to his desk, it was probably a lot less than he had hoped, but it was a good start. It didn’t promise to reverse the trend, but the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported that it would reduce the rate of increase by a substantial amount over time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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We need to give this new program a chance. The best way to do that is to vote for President Obama and the Democrats running for Congress and local offices. </div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-2729499411697645622012-07-12T17:05:00.000-06:002012-07-14T11:39:46.586-06:00A Well-Beaten Dead HorseRepeal and Replace – With What?<br />
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On Wednesday, after hours of debate, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for the thirty-somethingth time to repeal all or part of “Obamacare.” It was a belligerent but futile gesture to exhibit once again their contempt for that <em>Black man</em> that sits in the White House, whom they feel can do absolutely nothing right or praiseworthy.<br />
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Many Republicans really believed the assurances from “the bubble” of Faux News and the Limboids that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional, and they were really surprised when the chief justice appointed by George Bush, Jr. himself was the swing vote.<br />
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(When I was a kid, there were billboards around for years demanding, “Impeach Earl Warren,” the former Republican governor of California appointed chief justice by President Eisenhower. I wonder if we’ll soon see “Impeach John Roberts” versions.)<br />
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“Repeal and Replace” has been the recent mantra of the GOP. One wonders what they hope to replace the ACA with.<br />
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I’m a C-SPAN junkie. More precisely, I have C-SPAN2, which covers the Senate, droning on in the background much of the time. The grammar, rhetoric, and logic of the Senate are of a higher quality than those found in the House, although sometimes not by much. Nonetheless, I can only take so much of Louie Gohmert and Michelle Bachmann.<br />
<br />
Anyway, for almost a year I watched and listened as many congressional committee sessions and interminable floor debates led up to the moment when the Democrats “sneaked” the ACA through Congress. I well remember the Republican talking points, because there were so few of them and they repeated them endlessly.<br />
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One of the only substantial proposals that I can recall was to permit interstate sales of health insurance. This was a “lowest common denominator” approach, which would allow a person in one state to buy an approved health insurance policy from any other state. No federal regulation was included, just the chance to find the state with the least restrictive insurance commissioner.<br />
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As I recall, there was also a proposal to allow corporations to join with each other to create more stable pools, and, of course, a call for some sort of individual medical savings accounts. The latter would certainly be appreciated by the banking industry, which contributes substantially to candidates and incumbents. But, I have to admit, there was some substance there.<br />
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Everything else was what used to be called a “red herring.” If the hounds are after you, drag a dead fish across your trail and throw it in the bushes, and maybe they’ll get sidetracked. That was the GOP strategy.<br />
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They spoke at great length about abortion and illegal immigration, two of their favorite topics that are always a hit with their base. The ACA didn’t give new rights to undocumented residents or expand abortion rights, but they endlessly warned that it would.<br />
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And then there was their spirited defense of the Medicare Part C program. This was a big giveaway to the insurance companies to entice them to offer policies that “wrapped around” Medicare and covered co-pays and provided extra health services. Under the ACA, this program would be cut by about half a billion dollars. That it was a bloated and inefficient program that they had all probably voted against was not mentioned.<br />
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I don’t recall them calling the “individual mandate” unconstitutional at the time, but of course that became the new mantra as soon as the measure was passed. It wasn’t mentioned that the concept had originated at the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing “think tank.” (Boy, there’s an oxymoron.)<br />
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And then there was the “death panel” issue, which had no basis in fact, and the dire warning that “the government will come between you and your doctor.” And that was it. If I’ve missed something substantive, please let me know.<br />
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There was nothing that dealt directly with the real problems of health care in our for-profit system. It wasn’t mentioned that the insurance companies routinely came between patients and their doctors and made decisions without any regulation. There was no mention of pre-existing conditions and lifetime limits and all the other excesses of the industry. It wasn’t brought up that the federal government runs its Medicare and Medicaid programs for one or two percent of the cost while insurance companies were raking in ten and even twenty percent. There was no solution proposed for the rampant use of emergency room services, at public expense, by the millions of people who couldn’t afford health insurance. There was nothing to stop the health care industry from gobbling a bigger and bigger proportion of our resources. And they didn’t have a fix for the “doughnut hole” in Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit, that they had created during Bush-Jr. and didn’t pay for.<br />
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So now they want to “repeal and replace” the ACA. From what the Republicans say, I take that to mean a return to the <em>status quo ante</em>. That would be a disaster.<br />
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Let’s face it, the Republicans don’t want a federal health insurance program. They didn’t want Medicaid either, or Medicare, or Social Security, for that matter. They really hated <em>Brown vs. Board of Education</em>, which is why they wanted to impeach Earl Warren, and, of course, <em>Roe vs. Wade</em>. If given their way, they would dismantle them all and replace them, if at all, with programs that benefit the banks and corporations, and the bigots and xenophobes, that they represent.<br />
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But, unless they can keep their majority in the House, get a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate, and replace the president in November, we will have this new program, long overdue, to deal with one of the major problems in our society. Is it perfect? No. Is it a step in the right direction? Yes. Is it the right thing to do? It is.<br />
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So, my suggestion is: Don’t repeal and replace the ACA. Reject and replace the Republicans.Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-44786549418039983552012-01-11T15:23:00.002-07:002012-01-11T15:23:33.733-07:00Two Down, Forty-eight to Go<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Who Won the GOP Primary in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New Hampshire</place></state>?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With almost 40% of the vote, Mitt Romney was the obvious winner in Tuesday’s <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New Hampshire</place></state> primary. Ron Paul was a strong second, with about 23%. John Huntsman, who worked longest and hardest in the state, was in third place, with almost 17%.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were the losers, despite the spin they’ve tried to give their numbers. Each received less than ten percent.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Gingrich has been dead in the water for months, but nobody has had the guts to tell him, and he wouldn’t listen anyway. He can be counted on, however, to continue throwing monkey wrenches into Mitt’s machinery while making outrageous statements that remind the electorate why he was sent off in disgrace not so many years ago.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Santorum, the second-place winner in <place w:st="on"><state w:st="on">Iowa</state></place>, demonstrated that his evangelical Christian, Islamophobic message doesn’t play well outside the Bible Belt. Thank God. He’ll probably do better in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">South Carolina</place></state>, but he’s dead meat in the majority of states.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So, the big winner? Once again, the Democrats. Mitt Romney is a caricature of a Republican superhero in mufti. Mild-mannered Mitt Romney, who changes into Conservativeman at night, if he can find a phone booth. All would be well in Smallville if it weren’t for that evil villain, Ron Paul, who keeps spreading deadly Libertarianite around the country and siphoning off about a quarter of Republican voters.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Romney is the ideal GOP candidate this year, at least from the Democratic point of view. He’s boring and superficial and unprincipled. He not only repeats the mantras of corporate excess, he was intimately involved in some of its ugliest episodes. You can find sound bites of Romney espousing just about any side of any issue, sometimes in the same speech. He is anathema to the Bachmann-Santorum evangelistic faction because of some of his previous stands on issues and because he is a Mormon. It appears that faction will not have a viable candidate this year, and its members could stay home in droves.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And Paul is the ideal spoiler for Romney’s campaign. The Republican Party is going to have to bend over backwards to keep its growing libertarian faction in the fold. Paul is not likely to beat Romney, but he and his supporters are going to want some major concessions. The rest of the party isn’t going to want to move toward personal liberty and military isolationism, but if it doesn’t, those libertarians are going to look elsewhere.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t think Ron Paul will abandon the GOP this time. Don’t forget that his son, Rand, is now a Republican senator. He probably won’t seek the Libertarian Party nomination, but whoever gets it is likely to attract Republican votes if it is felt that the GOP has let down its libertarian cohort.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And what about Huntsman? I don’t think he’s in danger of winning the nomination, but his healthy showing puts him higher up the potential running-mate ladder. The only problem is that he, too, is a Mormon White guy (of course they’re all White guys now), and if Romney were the nominee, Huntsman wouldn’t add much to his constituency. I do think Huntsman is smarter and more consistent, but his chances are mighty slim.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Romney’s slim margin of victory in <state w:st="on">Iowa</state>, bolstered by this healthy win in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New Hampshire</place></state>, will ensure that he has lots of money as he moves to the other primaries. It will also reduce the amount of money the other candidates can hope to raise. He hasn’t gotten the nomination sewed up, but it’s going to be harder and harder for the others to catch up with him.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As part of its coverage of the <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New Hampshire</place></state> primary, C-SPAN aired some of the post-New Hampshire-primary speeches of the past, including Barack Obama’s from four years ago. It was that speech that convinced me to support him then, and I have gladly done so since. I put an “Obama 2012” bumper sticker on my car this week and I look forward to helping the president win a second term. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I will also work to elect Democrats to Congress. I am particularly hopeful that many of the Tea Party extremists will be one-term wonders. I have expected this to be a very difficult political year, but as it unfolds I am delighted how far the Republicans are willing to go to ensure a Democratic victory. The new majority in the House has incurred the disgust of all but the hardest-core Republicans. The endless filibusters of Senate Republicans are as welcome as a string of pointless practical jokes. The electorate is tired of hearing that GOP senators have once again short-sheeted their colleagues or given them hot-feet or wedgies.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Every time that President Obama speaks I feel pride that I helped elect him. He has great personal integrity, a quality sorely lacking in the other party. Off the top of my head, I can think of one Republican, just one, who has been consistent with his own values. That’s Ron Paul. I don’t agree with him on many issues, but I salute him for being true to his own convictions.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I hope you and the rest of the electorate are sick and tired, as I am, of the hypocrisy and fear-mongering and barely-concealed racism that have characterized the GOP since that night four years ago when it became apparent that yes, we could. And we did. And we need to do it again.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is a place for a rational Republican Party. We used to have one and I really miss it. The wingnuts and religious zealots who have taken it over may lose it again if they keep fighting among themselves. I sincerely hope they do.</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-82984277994115903862012-01-04T15:56:00.000-07:002012-01-04T15:56:10.180-07:00Who Won the Iowa GOP Caucus<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">It's Not Who You Think It Is</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mitt Romney got 24.6%, Rick Santorum got 24.5% (just eight fewer votes), and Ron Paul got 21.4%. Who won in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Iowa</place></state>?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Barack Obama, that’s who, by several lengths, and the Republican Party suffered the greatest loss. Here’s why:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The three top candidates represent three distinct segments of the GOP. St. Ronald Reagan was able to form a coalition of all three that continued through the Bush, Jr. tenure, but it appears that the center can no longer hold. Each candidate has avid supporters who would find one or both of the other candidates utterly unacceptable as the party’s nominee, and that plays to the advantage of the Democratic Party and President Obama.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You might think the division is between the Tea Party and old guard Republicans, but both of them are rent asunder by this three-way split.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Gov. Romney represents the true core of the Republican Party, the same bunch of tycoons and magnates and power brokers who have controlled it since the 1890s: the people who have wealth and want to protect it. Romney is the corporate candidate and represents the One Percenters who have inspired so many people to camp out and play drums.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Those who make up this wing of the party want less government intervention in the activities of business. They work to maintain high military spending and push to privatize governmental functions. These are bottom-line people and they measure their success in dollars. They brought us the current recession and they’re quite prepared to do it again.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>These people are most likely to classify other people on the basis of their net worth, so they aren’t necessarily intolerant of those with different cultures, religions, and life-styles. But there aren’t that many tycoons and magnates and power brokers around, so to win national elections they have to associate with people who do care about those things.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><place w:st="on">St.</place> Reagan put that coalition together, and since then the rich and the “cultural conservatives” have enjoyed a rewarding confederation.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Former Sen. Santorum represents that other group, the “cultural conservatives.” These people care most about abortion, homosexuality, immigration, marijuana, ethnic distinctions, home schooling, prayer in school, and, obscurely, the threat of “Sharia Law.” Among them are xenophobes who long for some antebellum utopia that never existed. The parts of their lives they thought were most stable have been skewed and stretched by technology and rapidly-changing social mores. They see people who look strange and can’t speak English very well in their stores and on their sidewalks. Many worry that the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region> is no longer the “Christian country” they thought it was, and there are some who are deeply offended that their country elected a Negro as its president.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And there are a lot of them. For decades they have helped the corporate wing of the party steer its way to increasing wealth. All the wealthy had to do was vote with the cultural conservatives on abortion and the definition of marriage and all those other issues. The favor was returned with support for lower taxes, less regulation, and a big military. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But what does a “Cultural” with a moderate income really care about the tax rate on estates over $5 million? And does the “Corporate” really care if his local county clerk issues a marriage license to John Doe and Joe Blow?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A lot of money has been spent to keep these two groups together. The Koch Brothers spent millions to embed the phrase “death tax” in every discussion of the estate tax. The Heritage Foundation and its fellows craft the party line, which includes both the Cultural and Corporate wish lists. Subsidized publishers produce an astonishing number of conservative books each year. The Faux News-AM radio echo chamber keeps everyone in line, castigating those who stray.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The coalition has persisted for years, but this is a three-way split, and the third faction’s wish list conflicts with the other two.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rep. Ron Paul is from that third group, and he didn’t come out of nowhere. He’s been saying exactly the same things for many years. Nobody can accuse him of waffling.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There has always been a strong libertarian presence in our country: “Don’t Tread on Me.” “<city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Liberty</place></city> or Death.” Or, the motto on the state flag of <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Iowa</place></state>: “Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain.” Or, a sign that was ubiquitous when I was young: “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ron Paul and his Libertarian supporters want smaller government, just as the Corporates and Culturals say they do, but they mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> small. They not only want to end the war in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Afghanistan</place></country-region>, they want to dismantle most of our military installations around the world. Not only does this infuriate the Corporates, it’s consistent with the views of many on the Democratic side. Faux News, the Corporate mouthpiece, has done its level best to ignore Rep. Paul or, failing, to denigrate him.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But that’s not all. The Libertarians infuriate the Culturals, too. They don’t care if someone is smoking pot or sleeping with the “wrong” person. They are for liberty, and by that they mean do what you want but don’t expect the government to support you if your action results in injury or destitution. Once again, there are many on the Democratic side who agree.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I think it took the recession to make the Libertarian message resonate as it has. Our citizens bump up against the government every day, in the form of parking meters and MVD lines and seat belt laws and zoning ordinances and airport security. If they start businesses they are appalled by the volume of regulations and licenses and reporting requirements. They don’t understand why the bailout of the banks was allowed to occur. And they feel they pay too much in taxes.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Paul’s campaign is within the Republican arena. He almost certainly won’t win, but he commands enough of a presence to jam the machinery. His participation has revealed the underlying inconsistencies of the Corporate-Cultural union.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If he wins the nomination, there will be a significant number of Democrats who vote for him. But there will be a huge number of Republicans who will vote against him (perhaps even a few for Obama), or not vote.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If he loses, many of his supporters will drift to the Democrats or not vote at all. And this is true of the other two factions, as well. It might not be Romney-Santorum-Paul, but the three factions will still be in play, and the losers are not going to be happy. The Corporates chose Romney over Gingrich, but they’d prefer Newt to any of the others. It’s the same with Santorum and Bachmann on the Cultural side.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The eventual winner of the GOP nomination will be bloodied and winded, and those who voted for the other two will be disappointed and apathetic.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At least I hope so.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“<span class="body1"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” </span></span></i><span class="body1"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">–Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="body1"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mike Lee is the new Republican senator from <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Utah</place></state>. He replaced John Ensign, also a Republican, who left amidst allegations of ethics violations.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="body1"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sen. Lee is about the most coherent Republican I’ve heard speak in a long time. He certainly beats out the current clutch of GOP presidential hopefuls, whose attempts to communicate usually amount to repeating the latest mantras of Faux-Limbaugh. Lee is different. His arguments are cogent and he seems to believe what he’s saying. He is intellectually consistent. He scares the hell out of me.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here’s what he had to say about taxation at a town hall meeting in <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Fairview</city>, <state w:st="on">UT</state></place>, on August 30th. (You can hear the whole thing at <a href="http://www.c-span.org/Events/Senator-Mike-Lee-R-UT-Town-Hall-Meeting/10737423846/"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.c-span.org/Events/Senator-Mike-Lee-R-UT-Town-Hall-Meeting/10737423846/</span></a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“At the 50,000-foot level, the purpose of government is to protect life, liberty, and property. Government can’t do – government shouldn’t try to do – for me that which would be immoral for me to do by myself. The government shouldn’t, just because I know that it’s wrong for me to rob from my neighbor and take my neighbor’s money for myself, I shouldn’t enlist the government and outsource it as an agent to do that for me.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“When we pay taxes, we pay, as it were, at the point of a gun – not literally, it’s really at the point of a pencil or a pen. But we know that if we don’t pay them, eventually some guys with guns will come to our house and then we’ll have to pay them. So we just pay them. So we need to be careful about what we use government for, and I think we have to use government for only those things that no one else can do, that we really can’t do for ourselves, and that usually involves protection of life, liberty, and property.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So, Lee believes, such government activities as welfare payments, disaster relief, medical assistance, research and development, educational support, and the like are immoral. The government takes money from some and gives it to others, and that’s just simple theft. I don’t know if he includes special tax breaks for corporations, agricultural price supports, and bail-outs for banks and brokerages. And isn’t taking a smaller percentage of the money earned by trading stocks than that taken from money earned through employment sort of immoral, as well?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Anyway, Sen. Lee gave the following interpretation about what the U.S. Constitution allows the federal government to do:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Now, you won’t find in (the Constitution) any power that says Congress has the power to make everything fair. You won’t find anything in here that says Congress has the power to relieve suffering wherever it may exist, or to make things more just or equitable in society generally. You won’t find any power in there that says Congress can tell you where to go to the doctor and how to pay for it. You won’t find anything in here that says Congress can tell you that you have to buy health insurance, not just any health insurance but that kind of health insurance that Congress in its infinite wisdom deems necessary for you to buy.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What you will find in here is the power for Congress to take care of a few basic things: national defense, regulating trade between the states and with foreign nations, regulating trademarks, copyrights, and patents, a uniform system of weights and measures, the federal court system, a federal bankruptcy system, declaring war, taking care of federally-owned property, and my personal favorite power of Congress, the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal. That’s a hall pass that allows you to be a pirate in the name of the <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">United States</country-region></place>. I’m going to get one some day. So, that’s the power of the government in a nutshell. That’s the purpose of the federal government, as I understand it, in the Constitution. There are a few other powers, but that’s it in a nutshell.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Under those limitations, one wonders what the Founders thought Congress would do, or why they took so much time to create two diverse bodies within it. Were they expected to meet for just a couple days every two years to approve a new official definition of the ounce, approve a trade agreement with <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Zanzibar</place></city>, and go home? Apparently Lee thinks so.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am always bemused by way Republicans ignore the very start of our Constitution, where are set out its reasons for being: “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Article One, Section 7, says: “Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region>.” It then goes through the procedures required in case of a presidential veto, and concludes, “it shall become a law.” I cannot conceive that the Founders put together this complicated structure just to allow Congress to redefine the ounce and the handful of other powers enumerated. But that’s what Sen. Lee thinks.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Under his standard, the <place w:st="on">Erie Canal</place> should have been solely a project of the states it crossed. The land-grant colleges are just legalized theft from the citizens – and, for that matter, so were the various homestead acts. Private enterprise should have gone to the moon, not the federal government. The Soil Bank, the interstate highway system, Amtrak, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, federal assistance to education, all of our efforts to insure civil rights and equality, and so many other projects and programs that have helped this country grow and prosper were all illegal, unconstitutional, and morally wrong.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is a bizarre and dangerous conception of the Constitution, but Mike Lee presents it clearly and convincingly. We’ll hear more from him.</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-755984236086378632011-08-20T12:56:00.000-06:002011-08-20T12:56:52.064-06:00Half of Us Pay No Income Tax<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Give Them Jobs and They Will Be Happy to Pay</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A recent talking point of the Republican Party is that something like half of our citizens are not paying income taxes. Gov. Rick Perry, R-TX, a recent addition to the GOP presidential candidate loony bin, said he was “dismayed by the injustice” of this fact. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is a fact, and it is a dismaying fact, but not for the reason Perry gives – that it’s an injustice. What is dismaying is that half of our people make so little money that they don’t have to pay income tax.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You know from filling out your own tax forms how much you have to make to pay income tax: more than the standard deduction. That’s $11,600 per adult and $3,700 (actually an exemption and not a deduction) per child. That allows a typical family of four to make $30,600 that’s not subject to income tax.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>These numbers are scarcely larger than the federal government’s poverty guidelines, published annually by the Department of Health and Human Services. The corresponding figures in the 2011 chart are $10,890 for an adult and $22,350 for a family of four. (The figures are higher in <state w:st="on">Alaska</state> and <place w:st="on"><state w:st="on">Hawaii</state></place>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What these numbers tell us is that about half of our people are in poverty or damned close to it, and that is truly dismaying.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is not to say that these people pay no taxes. There are no deductions for Social Security and Medicare contributions, and those in poverty pay a high percentage of their income in sales taxes because they essentially spend all of their money. They don’t have money to invest, so they can’t take advantage of reduced capital gains taxes. They don’t have money to hire tax attorneys, so they often don’t know about ways to reduce their tax expenses.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>These are the people Perry and others are disparaging for not paying their fair share of the cost of government. Income inequality is greater now than it has been since the Great Depression, and this is the result. Capital is lording over Labor, and setting the agenda in Congress and state governments. Don’t you dare increase taxes on the wealthy, they say – go get what you need from all those freeloaders who aren’t paying their share.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What we should be doing is providing these people with jobs, good jobs, so they can begin to pay taxes and, more importantly, participate in the “American Dream.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The increase in the number of those in poverty did not come from those who have more than they need. It came from the middle class. Until <place w:st="on">St.</place> Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, our middle class was growing. He set about to dismantle it, his followers have continued the process, and they have just about succeeded.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are things we can do to reverse this trend. We can stop giving corporations tax breaks for moving jobs out of the country. We can increase tariffs on goods produced by workers without the basic benefits we require for our own workers. We can give tax breaks to companies that increase domestic jobs. We can adjust the tax rates on the very wealthy and on corporations.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You will notice that every one of these actions is opposed by the Republican Party and the Tea Party, but I think the electorate is beginning to realize that their positions on these issues are really hurting the United States.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I think the basic definition of a Third World country is that it has a tiny but strong wealthy class and a huge but weak working class. The Republican Party has worked for years to create just that – a Third World country – in the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States of America</place></country-region>. It will succeed if we let it. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-30090201973137469572011-07-23T11:20:00.000-06:002011-07-23T11:20:55.874-06:00Chutzpah<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.” </i>–Jean Cocteau, 1889-1963.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Michelle Bachmann can’t pronounce it, but Mitch McConnell’s got it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chutzpah</i> is a Yiddish word that means gall, audacity, nerve, impertinence, insolence, hubris, guts, etc. You can probably think of at least one plural spherical synonym that’s very close to its meaning. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-MN, said the other day that President Obama had chutzpah, annoying Jewish voters because she pronounced it “choots-pah” (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9_mWlXvKnq8"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9_mWlXvKnq8</span></a>). The pronunciation is closer to “khuts-pah,” and is hard to write in English because we don’t use that sound much.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Rep. Bachmann has often demonstrated her own chutzpah in the past, but Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, takes the Chutzpah Award for the week. That’s quite a feat in this Congress.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">McConnell realized that the Teabags in the House of Representatives were not going to let a compromise happen in the current debt ceiling negotiation, so he came up with a face-saving proposal that, as I write this, may actually be what ends this ridiculous but gravely dangerous charade. The minority leader suggested giving Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling, subject to congressional approval. The House would surely vote against any such increase, but the Senate wouldn’t have the 60 votes necessary to bring it to a vote, so it would go into effect.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Is that clear? Right. As mud.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">What’s the point? If Obama raises the debt ceiling, as he must do, all the Republicans can vote against it and blame him for doing it. The only problem is that they have to pass the bill that sets it up.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">This is about as clear as the procedure whereby a senator asks for unanimous consent to give a bill a second reading, then objects to his own request. No kidding, that happens. It’s procedural. So is McConnell’s concoction. But if it allows us to move forward without defaulting on our debt payments, I’m all for it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The chutzpah came in when McConnell was interviewed by talk-show host Laura Ingraham and discussed his plan. He said if Republicans were to force default, President Obama would probably win in 2012. (He said earlier this year that his top priority was to make Obama a one-term president, so he wouldn’t want that.) Voters, he said, might think Republicans were making the economy worse.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(And here comes the chutzpah.) “You know,” he said, “it’s an argument he has a good chance of winning, and all of a sudden we have co-ownership of a bad economy.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I don’t know whether to respond to that statement with extreme umbrage, outraged astonishment, or bottomless sarcasm, so I think I’ll try all three.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">During the Bush Jr. administration, two major wars were begun, one of them under false pretenses, and taxes were cut, twice, because every Republican knows that the only way to improve the economy is to cut taxes. Moreover, for years Republicans had been chipping away at the safeguards on banks and stockbrokers that had been put in place after the Great Depression, and finally, just before Mr. Obama was to take the oath of office, the whole damned thing collapsed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">You own that, Mitch! We’re not about to accept joint tenancy of that fiasco.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Under those watered-down restrictions, those who have and play with money managed to reduce the value of our entire country by about forty percent just weeks before Bush returned to cutting brush in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Texas</place></state>. People were mad, and mad they should have been. But a year and a half later, President Obama hadn’t put everyone back to work, so they voted for the Republicans again.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">What McConnell is really saying is that the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">U.S.</place></country-region> electorate has the attention span of a mosquito, and his party has done a pretty good job of blaming Obama for all the ills of the past decade, but if the GOP sticks to its hard-line stand now, voters might just remember that in November of next year. He’s betting that voters won’t remember the vote to give Obama the power to raise the debt ceiling if every Republican in Congress votes against it a few days later when he exercises that power.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The man’s got… uh, chutzpah.</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-74996053773786275632011-07-15T11:08:00.000-06:002011-07-15T11:08:11.754-06:00Chorizos!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(That’s New Mexican for Hot Links)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in.”</span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: black;"> </span>– <span class="bodybold1"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Ray Bradbury.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">My “Favorites” list has gotten out of hand again, so it’s time to make the sausages. I thought I’d start with some technological advances that are in the works or at least are claimed to be. New technology is how we’re going to have to get out of the fiscal slump we’re in and start moving forward again.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytyhU6q7EUpGrivfuc9lfO0rkKNDQd6DE7S_9lVz0IFDC2ov8chhkkJLrVFtz4IidZqOFYpxJEl65vecW6whsUDwWYxs6DjKbkfQY8A_UgfhOGKe9uyYR31Fp0K7Enu1KGBf9KpV9WDkc/s1600/chorizo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytyhU6q7EUpGrivfuc9lfO0rkKNDQd6DE7S_9lVz0IFDC2ov8chhkkJLrVFtz4IidZqOFYpxJEl65vecW6whsUDwWYxs6DjKbkfQY8A_UgfhOGKe9uyYR31Fp0K7Enu1KGBf9KpV9WDkc/s200/chorizo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Cyanobacteria: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Here’s the concept: build solar panels filled with water and blue-green algae (yes, the stuff they were touting as a nutritional supplement a few years ago), more formally known as cyanobacteria, that have been bio-engineered to excrete something that can be used as diesel fuel. Pump in carbon dioxide – an unwanted byproduct from a nearby factory – as food for the algae, and pump out fuel from the other end. It sounds promising: <a href="http://www.jouleunlimited.com/"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.jouleunlimited.com/</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Megawindmills: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">If you’ve seen semi trucks carrying individual blades for windmills that generate electricity, you know these things have gotten huge. Just how big can they get? A 23-million-Euro project in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Denmark</place></country-region> called “UpWind” aims to find out. The biggest windmills today produce five to six megawatts; UpWind is working to see if a 20 MW monster could be mechanically and economically feasible: <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110415083320.htm"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110415083320.htm</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Infrastricture: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Sometimes we can’t move forward until we figure out where we’ve gone wrong in the past. Here’s a website that calls into question our post-war reliance on suburbs as the appropriate mechanism of growth. The problem is that single-family houses are built on lots that are too big to allow utilities to be maintained. The roads, sidewalks, and water and sewer lines have too far to travel between connections, and there isn’t critical mass to support transit facilities. Dense developments surrounded by open space may be the solution: <a href="http://www.grist.org/sprawl/2011-06-22-the-american-suburbs-are-a-giant-ponzi-scheme"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.grist.org/sprawl/2011-06-22-the-american-suburbs-are-a-giant-ponzi-scheme</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Got fungi? </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">They’ll eat up an oil spill, decontaminate water, kill the termites under your house, even break down nerve gas. If you’re only familiar with fungi in the form of button mushrooms or athlete’s foot, you’ve got a lot to learn. You could find worse ways to spend 18 minutes than by watching Paul Stamets’s video about fungi and how they can save the world: <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Got magic? </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This one is a little bit on the far side, but it still has to do with mushrooms saving the world. Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researchers found that psilocybin, found in “magic mushrooms” or “shrooms,” as some call them, not only improves your life, it has long-lasting positive effects. Seems like someone told me that 40 years ago; they were illegal back then, too: <a href="http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/06/magic-mushrooms-safe-still-illegal"><span style="color: purple;">http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/06/magic-mushrooms-safe-still-illegal</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Floating cannon ball: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This one’s really out there, but it’s fun. Canadian scientist John Hutchinson bombarded a 75-pound cannon ball “with high-frequency waves produced by Tesla coils, radio waves, and Van de Graaf waves” and made it float. Is this what allows UFOs to change course instantaneously while traveling at high speeds? See for yourself: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK-BziiId_0&feature=share"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK-BziiId_0&feature=share</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Déjà vu all over again: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Well, back to politics. Political scientist Laurence Britt studied fascist regimes, including Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain, Suharto’s Indonesia, and Pinochet’s Chile, and came up with fourteen common traits. The list is eerily familiar: <a href="http://www.ellensplace.net/fascism.html"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.ellensplace.net/fascism.html</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Another Fave Fourteen: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Here’s another list of 14 things that is strangely similar to the previous one: <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/14-propaganda-techniques-fox-news-uses-brainwash-americans/1309612678"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.truth-out.org/14-propaganda-techniques-fox-news-uses-brainwash-americans/1309612678</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Trickle up: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Profits are way up at the Fortune 500 companies. How’s that working out for us? <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/05/05/163747/fortune-500-corporations-81/"><span style="color: purple;">http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/05/05/163747/fortune-500-corporations-81/</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Meanwhile, back at the board room: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">CEOs of the Standard & Poor’s 500 companies (probably about the same as the Fortune 500) made more in 2010 than they did in 2007, before the excrement contacted the oscillator: <a href="http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110506/D9N1UMKO1.html"><span style="color: purple;">http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110506/D9N1UMKO1.html</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Perspective: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">House Republicans have proposed cutting </span></span><span style="color: black;">the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) by over $830 million. Pat Garofalo points out that this is roughly equivalent to one week of the revenues we would have collected from millionaires if Congress had not extended the Bush tax cuts last December: <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/02/234878/gop-nutrition-cuts-one-week/"><span style="color: purple;">http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/02/234878/gop-nutrition-cuts-one-week/</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Is our military too big? </span></b><span style="color: black;">We have 5% of the world’s population but account for almost half of worldwide military spending. This is one of 13 facts that may surprise you: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-defense-spending-2010-11"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-defense-spending-2010-11#</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Pipelineistan: </span></b><span style="color: black;">Why are we in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Afghanistan</place></country-region>? Is it to crush the </span></span><span style="color: black;">“50-75 ‘al-Qaeda types’ in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Afghanistan</place></country-region>” (supposedly a CIA quote) now that bin Laden is gone? Here’s an interesting perspective, from what Wikipedia describes as the ”</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">independent broadcaster owned by the state of <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar" title="Qatar"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Qatar</span></a>”</span></span><span style="color: black;">: <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/2011711121720939655.html"><span style="color: purple;">http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/2011711121720939655.html</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Something completely different: </span></b><span style="color: black;">Even I get tired of politics. Here’s a collection of recipes for one of the most astonishing substances on earth: dandelion wine. Enjoy! <a href="http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelion.asp"><span style="color: purple;">http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelion.asp</span></a></span></span></div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-37889503865358318962011-07-11T17:21:00.000-06:002011-07-11T17:21:49.941-06:00The Debt Limit Must Be Raised<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Everything Is Compromise</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“In war, the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich make slaves of the poor</i><span class="messagebody2"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">.”</span></i></span><span class="messagebody2"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> – Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900.</span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Congress will raise the debt limit. If Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit in the next few days – before August 2nd at the very latest – the world will face economic collapse. Yes, there are Teabags who hope that will happen, but there will be enough “cool heads” to avoid default and its dire consequences. Congress will raise the debt limit.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">What is despicable is how long this whole process is taking. It is not something new, something out of the blue.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">In June, 2002, Congress raised the debt ceiling to $6.400 trillion; in May, 2003, to $7.384 trillion; in November, 2004, to $8.184 trillion; in March, 2006, to $8.965 trillion; in September, 2007, to $9.815 trillion; in July, 2008, to $10.615 trillion; in October, 2008, to $11.315 trillion; in February, 2009, to $12.104 trillion; in December, 2009, to $12.394 trillion; and in February, 2010, to the current limit of $14.294 trillion. (See <a href="http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/hist07z3.xls"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/hist07z3.xls</span></a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The only question left is how the compromise will look. We are involved in the age-old conflict over what government should do and how it should be paid for. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The Republican Party discovered a few decades ago that the best way to influence the electorate was to select only a few very simple messages and repeat them until people start believing them to be true, ignoring all facts and complications and nuances. The utter and obvious inanity of St. Ronald Reagan’s assertion that government can’t solve our problems because government is our problem didn’t stop him, or his many disciples in the intervening years, from making it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The current message is equally simple and equally inane: “We don’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem.” The only basis for this assertion is repetition, and they all repeat it. It falls apart if you give it the most casual inspection, but they still repeat it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">You can certainly find fraud, waste, abuse, duplication, redundancy, tautology, inefficiency, obsolescence, obstinacy, inequality, cronyism, paternalism, elitism, and all sorts of well-beaten-but-still-well-funded dead horses in the federal budget, and there is a lot of money that can be saved by weeding these things out, but doing so is not going to solve our fiscal problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">You can cut the throats of those already hurting the most by cutting unemployment compensation, nutrition assistance for pregnant women, Food Stamps, literacy programs, home care, and Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Health Care Act, but doing so is not going to solve our fiscal problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">You can curtail the space program and let our highways and railroads and water lines and sewer lines and electric lines all go unmended, but doing so is not going to solve our fiscal problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">You can get the government out of the business of regulating business, but in doing so you will allow a return to the excesses of the banks and stock brokers, and the poisoning of our food, air, and water; you will permit child labor, illegal immigrant labor, and labor under unfair and hazardous conditions – and doing so is not going to solve our fiscal problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Yes, we have a spending problem – but we have a much greater revenue problem. In order to put a cap on our federal debt, we’re going to have to stop operating at a deficit, and that means we need to bring in a lot of money.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Unfortunately, you can’t just raise the taxes on the obscenely rich, or the filthy rich, or the extremely rich, or the very rich, or the rich, or even on everybody and everything that moves, and solve our fiscal problems.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">What we must do is get our engine running again, running well and leaving everybody else in its dust. This is something we have done many times in our history, and there is absolutely no reason why we can’t do it again.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">To do this again we need to support education and research and development. We haven’t been doing those things very well recently. The cumulative knowledge and awareness of the average <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">U.S.</place></country-region> citizen is woefully inadequate to the needs of the present era. We have to fix that.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We used to expect our high school graduates to know how to read, write a legible sentence, make change, know the basics of government and geography, and have a measure of common sense. These days we can’t even expect that of our college graduates! Our children won’t be able to invent the new technologies we need with that kind of preparation. Children in other countries will have that ability.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We need to use our technological prowess to guarantee we will keep that prowess. We have the tools to reform our educational system, and we need to use them. Our present school is modeled after Henry Ford’s assembly line, and it doesn’t work.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We need to use our technological prowess to reform our medical system from top to bottom. We used to spend about five percent of our money for medicine, but today we’re getting close to spending a quarter of all our income to stay healthy or tend to our illnesses. We can’t keep doing that.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We need to re-evaluate our military position in the world. After World War II, when Europe was in shambles and the <place w:st="on">Soviet Union</place> was spending every extra ruble on war toys, it was appropriate for us to take the lead. Things have changed. Other countries need to start spending more to help protect the world, and we need to spend much less. We need to use our technological prowess to create a smaller but more efficient military machine, and use it very sparingly.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We need to re-evaluate how our government and our nation interact with corporations. We need to reward those that provide good jobs at home and penalize those that move their jobs elsewhere. We need to restrict corporate donations to elected officials, even if that means we have to amend the Constitution. We need to restrict financial institutions and watch them carefully. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We need to develop new sources of energy and recognize the influence of the petroleum industry over our elected officials. This industry is as outdated as our schools are.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">And those are just the first things that come to mind. We have to start collecting more than we spend so we can start paying down our debt. To do that we must energize the economy and ensure that it will continue to be viable. We can cut spending and we can increase revenue through new taxes or tax reform, but we must rev up our economic engine to get out of the hole we’re in. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">But first, we have to raise our debt limit again. If we don’t we’re doomed to experience a depression of huge scope and duration, and we’ll bring the rest of the world down with us. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Congress will raise the debt limit. The sooner the better.</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-78428312123493254842011-06-16T16:10:00.000-06:002011-06-16T16:10:35.902-06:00McCain Makes a Stand Again<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;">Opposing the Right-Wing Media Takes Courage</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“These are questions that every member of Congress needs to think about long and hard, but especially my Republican colleagues.”</i> –Sen. John McCain.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">In what has been a stifling atmosphere since the present Congress convened in January, I appreciate any breath of fresh air that stirs the lockstep Republican miasma. Once again, Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, has provided a bit of a breeze.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">He made the above comment this morning in reference to participation of the United States in NATO‘s military operation in Libya. Our role in the action has been limited to missile and drone strikes and the like, and we have put no troops on the ground there. Yesterday the Obama Administration made the assertion that because our involvement was limited in this way, it doesn’t require congressional approval under the War Powers Act of 1973.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">That act requires the president to inform Congress within 48 hours after committing forces, and limits military actions to 60 days, with a 30-day withdrawal period, unless war is declared or Congress authorizes more time.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Sen. McCain was not supporting the White House in its assertion that what we are doing in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Libya</place></country-region> is exempt from this restriction, but he did make a strong case in favor of the action itself.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Lots of GOP members of Congress have criticized President Obama for supporting the NATO mission, and there is Democratic opposition as well. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, has announced that he is suing the president for violating the War Powers Act.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">But many of the Republicans who are now chastising Obama for his decision were among the most vocal, before he acted, in calling on him to do something for the poor, oppressed people in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Libya</place></country-region>. Such legislators make it clear that it is the president himself they really oppose, and they appear to be quite oblivious to the hypocrisy of their reversed positions.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Personally, I have mixed feelings about our participation in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Libya</place></country-region>; I think most of us do. I see a valid point in the argument that Congress needs to authorize further action. I am not going to imitate the lockstep Republicans and defend the administration at all costs. I think Kucinich’s lawsuit is an appropriate way to determine the scope of the War Powers Act and its restraint on executive power. In this case, especially, the law is not clear.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">What I found refreshing in McCain’s speech this morning was his exhortation to fellow lawmakers to consider involvement in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Libya</place></country-region> itself, not just the fact that it was ordered by a president from the opposing party.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">“Many of us remember well the way that some of our friends on the other side of the aisle savaged President Bush over the <country-region w:st="on">Iraq</country-region> war, how they sought to do everything in their power to tie his hands and pull <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">America</place></country-region> out of that conflict…” he said. “We were right to condemn this behavior then, and we would be wrong to practice it now ourselves simply because a leader of the opposite party occupies the White House.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Wow! And there’s more:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">“Republicans need to ask themselves whether they want to be part of a group who are earning the grateful thanks of a murderous tyrant or trying to limit an American president’s ability to force that tyrant to leave power.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">For the second time in less than a month, McCain has spoken out against the politically correct GOP dogma. The first time was his condemnation of the assertion that torture of <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">U.S.</place></country-region> prisoners had helped track down Osama bin Laden. This time he stood in opposition to the most basic Republican tenet: anything President Obama does is wrong.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">In between those two events we saw what happened to Newt Gingrich when he called the Ryan plan to dismantle Medicare “right wing social engineering.” The Faux-Limbaugh echo chamber almost blew a 50-amp fuse on that one, and Newt couldn’t backtrack, recant, apologize, or temporize quickly enough. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">McCain escaped unscathed the first time; it’s hard to second-guess a man who was in captivity for years when he gives his opinion about torture. Will he get by with it this time?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I think so. He’s not running for president this time around, so his candidacy can’t be shot down, and he still commands a lot of respect from rank-and-file Republicans and independents who supported him in 2008. He was re-elected to his Senate seat just last year, so he can afford to speak out.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">And usually McCain can be counted on to toe the party line. He’s careful about choosing the issues on which he differs from it. But that gives even more weight to his words when does decide to play the “maverick.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I think both of his stances are courageous in the face of the bulldozer tactics of the right-wing media. I am reminded of the excesses of Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Everyone was so frightened of communists, or of being accused of being one, that McCarthy was able to trample the rights of many innocent people and pervert the protections of the Bill of Rights as he crusaded against them. Finally, some courageous Republicans stood up to him and he quickly crumbled. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Faux News and the Limbaugh clones are just as vicious, and just as wrong, as Joseph McCarthy was. It is heartening to see at least some resistance to their excesses.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Keep it up, Sen. McCain!</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-5453210055138884422011-06-08T18:20:00.001-06:002011-06-09T13:35:52.877-06:00My Fellow Boomers:<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">An Open Letter</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning!"</i> – Abbie Hoffman, 1936-1989.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I remember walking through a parking lot with my mother when I was quite young.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">“Look, Morrie,” she said, pointing, “a two-toned car!” She explained that this was a new fad in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Detroit</place></city>, where they made cars. I thought about it a moment and then asked why cars didn’t come in lots of colors.</div> <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpQj3I8OF_wkmay4BwZ1f8tbMxgkJ3uGpPtV_43NNid6p9fiPC6FiDU1EbSdIj9e5AGy8QCJwD6aJ2uWtFe0w0LzuPmonkHOx0PX8Jb1LSoSieMi0FbZwKBZo88Gsi_rTKn3bVwuoCyB0/s1600/Two-toned+car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpQj3I8OF_wkmay4BwZ1f8tbMxgkJ3uGpPtV_43NNid6p9fiPC6FiDU1EbSdIj9e5AGy8QCJwD6aJ2uWtFe0w0LzuPmonkHOx0PX8Jb1LSoSieMi0FbZwKBZo88Gsi_rTKn3bVwuoCyB0/s320/Two-toned+car.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two-toned 1955 Packard</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">“Well!” she responded, “I think two colors are quite enough!” She made it clear from her tone that this was something dangerously close to cultural excess, a disturbing distortion of the envelope of propriety.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">This was in the 1950s, just after many thousands of young men had come home from World War II, where they had all worn uniforms and functioned in a strict hierarchal system. They exchanged their old uniforms for new ones: the gray flannel suit, the wide tie, the fedora. Their wives wore gloves and hats with veils and only wore white shoes in months without “r”s, or whatever that rule was. Any deviation from the norm was unsettling and subjected the “deviant” to possible censure.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Making up for lost opportunity, they had lots of kids – so many that the press started talking about a “baby boom.” That’s where we came in.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Most everyone agreed that we were “spoiled,” that our generation was better off than any before it, but that didn’t mean we were happier. We had lots of toys and unprecedented opportunities, but we saw flaws in the culture that had provided them.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We didn’t want to wear gloves or fedoras and we saw nothing wrong with two-toned or even fifty-toned cars. We would have been satisfied with fewer toys if that had reduced the stress caused by our parents’ pursuit of material advancement and superficial appearances. The pundits of the day called it “keeping up with the Joneses,” and we didn’t buy into it. We had to live behind the façades. We were the Jones kids.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Eventually we went to college, or we went to war, or we went to the streets – or all three. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I entered college in the fall of 1965. In June there had been about 23,000 <country-region w:st="on">U.S.</country-region> “advisors” in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vietnam</place></country-region> or on the way. Before the year ended there were 184,000, and the charade that they weren’t simply soldiers evaporated. Ever more thousands were added, and before I graduated the total exceeded half a million. The draft was reinstituted and student deferments were cancelled.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY8kE2AjmQ-WUUK3thV_mzxVHmOAA9IhuLgcaiyudtH8t71V-FtwQzT6KLpLBEi8z4jvYFenDrT1rtniJ_dXX6Hh2RqyYE_UTDcQAj3G4WCKuH4OxrF5cvEcrlYXEAMR5vIuDRSMUqgGI4/s1600/lavalamp.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY8kE2AjmQ-WUUK3thV_mzxVHmOAA9IhuLgcaiyudtH8t71V-FtwQzT6KLpLBEi8z4jvYFenDrT1rtniJ_dXX6Hh2RqyYE_UTDcQAj3G4WCKuH4OxrF5cvEcrlYXEAMR5vIuDRSMUqgGI4/s1600/lavalamp.gif" t8="true" /></a></div>Most of us smoked pot and a lot of us dropped acid, and so did the musicians we listened to. We turned on, dropped out, went back to nature, burned our bras (or stood by watching and enjoying it), let our hair grow, made love not war, invented ecology, took our shoes off, gave peace a chance, didn’t trust anyone over 30, ate brown rice, went to concerts with light shows, and participated in sit-ins, love-ins, and lots of other “-ins.” At least a quarter of our vocabulary was comprised of the words “wow,” “groovy,” “man,” “cool,” “like,” and “really,” usually in combinations like “Wow, man, like really groovy, man!”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(If you’ve forgotten what it was like, go back and read your Zap Comix and watch a few Cheech and Chong movies.)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We really thought we were changing the world, and for a while we really were. We ended a pointless war. We helped to break down centuries of prejudice against women and minorities and we ignored economic class distinctions. We respected not only fellow humans but all of Earth’s denizens. We crippled the power structure in the music industry and wreaked havoc on institutions of higher learning. We were open to new things. It was beautiful, man, really beautiful!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">But of course it wasn’t. Not all of it. There were nightmares, too. The worst was the way many of us who weren’t soldiers treated those who were when they came home. Our “free love” was often used as an excuse to brush aside those who loved us. Our experiments with marijuana left some of us dazed and useless on some couch as the years went by, or even led us into the darker holes of harsher substances. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Perhaps the most disappointing shortcoming was our political evolution. We saw the excesses and injustices of the generations that came before us, and we all sang with Mr. Dylan as he wondered how many years it could continue. We took to the streets to protest these wrongs and make them right, but when Richard Nixon started replacing soldiers with bombers we sort of forgot about it. We had railed against our parents’ ridiculous social conventions, but we simply replaced them with new ones. It wasn’t the same line, but we all toed it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">And then it was gone. Money managers replaced flower children; cocaine and eventually double lattes replaced pot; sexting replaced free love; “drill down” replaced “groovy;” Beemers and then SUVs replaced hippie vans; and The Tea Party replaced the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. It isn’t the same line, but lots of us are toeing it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Economic class snobbery and prejudice and pointless wars have made big comebacks, trashing the planet is in vogue again, and some of us have adopted yet another ridiculous set of social conventions. It’s “<city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Alice</place></city> in Wonderland” all over again, but this time with diamonds instead of hearts. The caterpillar still makes no sense. The Dormouse still ends up in the tea kettle.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">After all these years, now that we’re all hitting thirty-something for the second time, can’t we sit back and look at where that “long, strange trip” has led us? We were always prone to take to the streets and yell and shake our fists, and less likely to listen and ponder and check things for accuracy. We think of ourselves as lone wolves, but we’re often just sheep in wolves’ clothing. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">There are lots of problems left, and while we helped solve some of them, we also made some of them worse. Maybe we should look at ourselves through the same critical eyes that once stripped our parents of their pretensions. Maybe this time we can get beyond simplistic slogans and unquestioned assumptions.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">There was a time when our generation woke up, realized that everything and everyone in the world was interconnected, and found the awareness that love was the most important thing we could give or receive. For that brief time, we knew that our fellow humans were infinitely more important than money or cars or a new dining room set or the guns and bullets with which they could be so easily killed. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">It’s time to wake up again.</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-21054987997695606502011-06-04T12:16:00.000-06:002011-06-04T12:16:08.749-06:00Lose This Word!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">AMERICAN<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the 2007 Miss Teen USA contest, the finalist from <state w:st="on">South Carolina</state> was asked why she thought it was that a fifth of Americans couldn’t find the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region> on a world map. Her answer was mind-bogglingly incoherent and thus hilarious, and the YouTube video of it has racked up 50 million hits (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww</span></a>). I must add that her smile was quite winning.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What seemed to bother most people about her answer was her use of the term “U.S. Americans,” as if this were a stupid tautology. Nobody seemed to mind that she called the country where we’ve been fighting for a decade “The Eye-rack.” Twice.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I don’t think she was all that wrong in specifying which Americans she meant.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are (according to Wikipedia) fifteen countries or territories in <place w:st="on">South America</place>, with a combined population of almost 400 million people. In North America, there are 43 countries and territories (including Central America and the <place w:st="on">Caribbean</place>), with a total population of about 542 million.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">United States of America</country-region></place> (heavy on the “of”) is just one country with about a third of all those people.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yes, I am saying Canadians are Americans, too – as are Mexicans, Falkland Islanders, Brazilians, and even (gasp) Cubans.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And yes, I realize that if you say you’re an American almost anywhere in the world, the hearer will assume you mean you’re from the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region>. Katharine Lee Bates probably didn’t have Tierra del Fuego in mind when she wrote “<country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">America</place></country-region> the Beautiful,” although the shining seas she speaks of meet down there.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s just that I appreciate accuracy, and I resent those who seem to think everyone on the other side of an imaginary line is somehow inferior.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lyndon Johnson was famous for beginning his presidential addresses with “My fellow Americans,” and many of his successors have done the same, but I appreciate Barak Obama for ending his addresses with “…and may God bless the United States of America.” Perhaps he is sensitive to our usurpation of the word from our neighbors. </div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><em>If you enjoy speaking English precisely, please check out my other blog: </em><a href="http://losethisword.blogspot.com/">http://losethisword.blogspot.com/</a>.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-86888894039400225702011-06-03T12:50:00.001-06:002011-06-03T12:50:33.995-06:00Lose This Word!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">CONGRESSMAN</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is very little need for this word. It is imprecise, gender-specific, and confusing.</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Article 1, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution begins as follows: “<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region>, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” The proper terms for members of Congress are, therefore, “senator” and “representative.” A “congressman,” if such a word had any utility, would be a male senator or representative.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Congress” includes both houses, but the ubiquitous use of the word “congressman” as synonymous with “representative” confuses many people, who think there are two legislative bodies, the Senate and the Congress.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As for the gender-specific problem, it results in such unnecessary constructions as “congresswoman” and “congressperson” to specify, respectively, a female representative or a non-gender-specific representative.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, refers to herself in her official correspondence as “Congressman Blackburn.” I can see doing that with a word such as “chairman,” which is a title for a presiding officer, or “airman,” which is a military rank, but in this case it is simply unnecessary.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Representative” has two more syllables than does “congressman,” and as such might take a bit more energy to utter, but it is far preferable. If a catch-all term is needed to describe someone elected to Congress, try “federal legislator” or “member of Congress.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-61827818935718933482011-05-25T15:21:00.001-06:002011-05-26T10:52:38.583-06:00McCain Takes the High Road<span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;">Gingrich Wallows in the Mire</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence but often produces bad intelligence because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear.” </i>– Sen. John McCain.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Frequent readers of this blog know that I’m a Democrat and seldom have good things to say about Republicans. There are exceptions, though, and today’s posting is one of them.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The back-story, of course, is that the whackadoodle fringe of the Republican Party received a double blow earlier this month. Not only did President Obama produce a copy of his original birth certificate, with signatures and all, just a few days later he announced that Osama bin Laden had been found in <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">Pakistan</country-region></place> and killed.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Desperate for some way to spin at least some of this to their advantage, several rabid right spokesdorks suggested that bin Laden would never have been found without George Bush, Jr.’s “enhanced interrogation” measures early in the war. That sterile phrase translates into water-boarding and other forms of torture and elicits the dreadful images of Abu Ghraib. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Michael Mukasey, who was one of Bush’s egregious attorneys general, said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information – including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">McCain knows a lot about torture. He was shot down in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Vietnam</place></country-region> in 1967 and was a prisoner of war there until 1973. He was repeatedly tortured and deals with the physical effects to this day.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Mukasey’s suggestion that <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">U.S.</country-region></place> torture led to bin Laden’s capture appeared in the Washington Post, and that’s where McCain rebutted him in an op-ed piece on May 11th. He responded to Mukasey’s claim quoted above by saying, “That is false.” </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">He also said, “Individuals might forfeit their life as punishment for breaking laws, but even then, as recognized in our Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, they are still entitled to respect for their basic human dignity, even if they have denied that right to others.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">And that’s the point, isn’t it? We cannot preserve and extol our treasured rights and freedoms by denying them to others. We cannot legitimize torture in some foreign land or in some maximum-security prison without staining the very principles we are supposedly defending.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">There was more from the apologists – search Rick Santorum and Dick Cheney if you want to know more – I don’t – but they were careful not to slander McCain himself, which is something new. It is refreshing to see a Republican draw a line that he won’t cross without having all the other elephants dump on him.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Before he ran for president, Sen. McCain was known as a statesman and someone who worked for bipartisan progress. His fellow Republicans called him a “maverick” because he didn’t always toe the party line – and it wasn’t always a term of endearment. He seemed to relinquish that title, even while he wrapped himself in it, in his campaign against Barak Obama. Perhaps now he can claim it again. (See McCain’s full text at <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bin-ladens-death-and-the-debate-over-torture/2011/05/11/AFd1mdsG_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bin-ladens-death-and-the-debate-over-torture/2011/05/11/AFd1mdsG_story.html</a>.)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Of all the issues that call out for righteous rejection by Republicans who still claim some vestige of honor, the defense of torture is perhaps the most important, and the most obvious. McCain’s principled refusal to condone “enhanced interrogation” shows courage and conviction that have been scarce among GOP legislators. Maybe it will encourage others in the party to speak out against their colleagues who go too far.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Unfortunately, it didn’t inspire Newt Gingrich, who stepped out of line by calling Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan “right wing social engineering” on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Despite the accuracy of his statement, he was castigated and pilloried and left for dead by the right wing echo chamber, and instead of defending his remark, he proceeded to apologize and make the bizarre excuse that he had been tricked into saying it.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Then, on Faux News, he came up with the ultimate denial, saying, “</span></span><span style="color: black;">any ad which quotes what I said Sunday is a falsehood.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;">No statesman Newt. Needless to say, his fledgling presidential campaign sank before it hit the water. Thank goodness.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;">May isn’t over, but so far it’s been a bad month for Republicans and their presidential hopefuls. The birth certificate did in Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich self-destructed, and Mike Huckabee decided he didn’t have enough fire in his belly. Osama bin Laden’s death gave President Obama a bump in the polls. Paul Ryan’s attempt to dismantle Medicare isn’t playing in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Peoria</place></city>, or anywhere else. Just yesterday, the Democratic candidate in a “safe” Republican district in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New York</place></state> won a House seat. Glenn Beck was apparently fired and Rush Limbaugh’s ratings are in the toilet. And what’s left of the GOP presidential bullpen seems to be populated by klutzes fresh off the farm-team.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;">But in the long run, Republicans can be proud of their former standard-bearer and once-and-perhaps-future maverick and statesman, John McCain. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-47335096978615164042011-05-13T12:56:00.001-06:002011-05-13T13:01:35.305-06:00Some Want Our Schools to Fail<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">A Successful Society Honors Its Teachers</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“If a seed of lettuce will not grow, we do not blame the lettuce. Instead, the fault lies with us for not having nourished the seed properly.” </i>– Buddhist proverb.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The subject of education is difficult to approach. We know there is much that is wrong with our present educational system, but there is no consensus about what the problems are. To make matters worse, there are people out there who really do not want to improve education.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnTrJKtJCy2LUlP7y6Pm8p2Z2MmW4egX4PFtpc7v31dYaF1aB6IC5cTXCpekaX23D3EFcHtNpV2WYB0Yv2yk-tntIIdzgHVJjROpD3Mh4XCbwMLxhc9CHSPrsRTbNPeL5v9NmUT3QOJX8/s1600/Those+Who+Can+Teach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnTrJKtJCy2LUlP7y6Pm8p2Z2MmW4egX4PFtpc7v31dYaF1aB6IC5cTXCpekaX23D3EFcHtNpV2WYB0Yv2yk-tntIIdzgHVJjROpD3Mh4XCbwMLxhc9CHSPrsRTbNPeL5v9NmUT3QOJX8/s1600/Those+Who+Can+Teach.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Some of those people are parents. Among them are those who cannot find the time to care about their children, for whatever reason, but many are people who didn’t get much out of school themselves. Our educational system failed them, and they expect it to fail their children.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">As I see it, they send their children to school wearing the dunce caps they once wore.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">It has been shown many times that lack of education leads to lack of income. Lack of income forces people to live in substandard housing, which is usually clustered with other substandard housing. Schools in such areas do not perform well compared with schools in more affluent areas.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">And that is the primary problem (there are many others) with the concept of “No Child Left Behind.” This act of Congress, signed by President George Bush, Jr. less than four months after the 9-11 tragedy, penalizes poorly-performing schools without regard to the obvious connection between lack of education and lack of income and parental support.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">NCLB makes the assumption that teachers are at fault. We’ve all had poor ones, and it would be nice to be able to weed them out, but teachers cannot be evaluated only by how well their students perform. Other factors must be considered.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Some parents are a problem, mostly because of their lack of support, but there are forces out there with a more diabolical agenda.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Teachers have been assailed on another front recently. Republican Governor Scott Walker of <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Wisconsin</place></state> pushed through a measure to strip his state’s teachers of their collective bargaining rights, and several other Republican-controlled state houses are trying to do the same. Teachers, they say, get paid too much and work too little. They are to blame for our economic difficulties.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">That isn’t true. If we truly valued our children’s education we would pay teachers a lot more. As it is, we place a higher value, in dollars at least, on celebrity blowhards like Donald Trump and Charlie Sheen; on stockbrokers and basketball players and fashion designers and corporate raiders and all those who accumulate wealth, even if they do so by impoverishing others.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">A society that doesn’t value its teachers is not likely to have very well-educated children. An educated person doesn’t just know facts, or where to find them. He or she knows how the world works, questions authority, is tolerant of those who are different, and is skeptical of simple answers to complex problems.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Such a person is not easily misled, and is considered dangerous by those who seek to mislead. That is another group that wants our educational system – at least our public educational system – to fail.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Yes, I am saying that there are people committed to “dumbing down” our citizens, and they are succeeding wildly. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Teachers and their bloated salaries caused the recession. We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Barak Obama is a Kenyan Muslim communist. The universe is only 7,000 years old. Tax cuts for the rich will trickle down to the rest of us. We have the best health care in the world. Global warming is a hoax. We wouldn’t have found bin Laden without torture. Drill, baby, drill. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Government isn’t the solution; government is the problem. </span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Well-educated people don’t accept such statements without question. They’re not likely to keep the dial turned to Faux News. They’re dangerous.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Well, I say be dangerous! Encourage your children, and your friends’ children, to learn, and explore, and doubt! Question authority! Speak truth to power! Value those who teach!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">And never stop learning. If we all keep learning, those who seek to mislead will lose this perilous game. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Let’s not be stupid enough to accept being dumb.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-36571019357942288542011-05-09T16:59:00.000-06:002011-05-09T16:59:40.667-06:00Mexico's Future Is Intertwined with Ours<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is a piece I wrote in June, 2007, which was published on another site. After four years, I don’t see the need to change a single word.</i>)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">When I was in high school I was hired off and on to help a local land surveyor. I went with him on surveys all over our home state of <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">New Mexico</place></state>. One large tract was located south of Columbus, the town Pancho Villa raided in 1916. Its south boundary was the international border with <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mexico</place></country-region>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The border at this place was marked by a barbed-wire fence that looked just like all the other barbed-wire fences that crisscross the West. I suppose there were marker stones here and there, but there was nothing immediately visible to indicate that this fence separated two widely diverse countries.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">This was grazing land, on both sides. All that could be seen in either direction along the fence was grass, rolling hills, an occasional cow.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I think of that lonesome stretch of land when I hear people suggest that all we need to solve our immigration problems with <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mexico</place></country-region> is a secure fence.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">About half of our common border looks just like this. The other half runs along the centerline of the <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Río Grande</place></city>, a river famously described as “too thin to plow, too thick to drink.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The distance is 1,951 miles.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Could a “secure fence” be built across such a long distance?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Sure. It would be about 70 times as long as the Berlin Wall, which was 28 miles, but less than half the length of the <place w:st="on">Great Wall of China</place>, which stretched for 3,948 miles. There’s plenty of historical precedence for such barriers; they often outlive the regimes that build them.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The cost would be astonishing, even if our “great wall” was just an electrified fence. It wouldn’t just be the cost of construction, of course. Any kind of barrier would require maintenance, energy, and human oversight.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Meanwhile, some 350 million people a year cross that border through legal points of entry. They include busloads of tourists, semi loads of all sorts, hordes of pedestrians. They all expect to make the crossing with minimal delay. The commerce they conduct is economically beneficial to both countries. Obviously, maintaining security while allowing that commerce is a difficult job. Any increase in security measures that slows down the flow causes an immediate outcry from the people who depend upon the border, many of whom are quite influential.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">All borders are artificial. Even if they are maintained with rigid military zeal, such as in East Germany before the wall came down or in North Korea to this day, there are people on both sides who have relatives, interests, histories, and memories on the other side. Those people will do what they can to return.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Perhaps a better approach than building a great wall would be to help <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mexico</place></country-region> come closer to its potential. It is a country rich with natural resources, and it has a huge workforce. It has many natural wonders. Its people and their culture are delightful. The population is well educated: 98% of children attend primary school, 64% go to secondary school, and 23% go on to college.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mexico</place></country-region> also has many problems. It is ruled more by money than by law; corruption is endemic. A <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mordida,</i> or “bite,” of the proper amount – you might call it an institutionalized bribe – will remove obstacles faster than a cadre of lawyers can do in this country. There is an oppressive class structure composed of a few who are very rich and the many who are very poor. Environmental controls are lax.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Despite its shortcomings, <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mexico</place></country-region> is attractive in many ways. It has lots of petroleum and many kinds of minerals. It has cheap beer and cheap but wonderful food. It has beautiful scenery and many miles of beaches.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Its main asset is its large, underutilized labor pool. If we could help <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mexico</place></country-region> create jobs for some of these people, they would be less likely to brave the dangers entailed in an illegal border crossing.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">As it is, the <country-region w:st="on">United States</country-region> is getting the most courageous and resourceful of <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mexico</place></country-region>’s citizens. Many of them come here to work but continue to support those less able back home. Many of them would like to return but cannot because there are no economic opportunities there.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">That’s a real waste. It seems probable that the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States</place></country-region> will rely on Mexican imports more and more in the future. Our destinies are intertwined. We need to open doors to <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Mexico</place></country-region>, not seal them up. We need to encourage trade and promote the ideals that have improved the lives of our own citizens.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">We don’t need to build a fence.</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-16670702404325865322011-05-04T15:42:00.000-06:002011-05-04T15:42:38.555-06:00Ding, Dong, the Wicked Which Is Dead?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The Head of the Snake or Just a Big Snake?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span><span class="huge1"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We’ve cut off the head of the snake.</span></span></i><span class="body1"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">”</span></span></i></span><span style="color: black;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i>– <span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><city w:st="on"><span class="bodybold1"><span style="color: black; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">James Warlick</span></span></city><span class="bodybold1"><span style="color: black; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, <country-region w:st="on">U.S.</country-region> Ambassador to <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Bulgaria</place></country-region></span></span>.<span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In “War and Peace,” Tolstoy suggests that if Napoleon had never lived, <country-region w:st="on">France</country-region> would have invaded <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Russia</place></country-region> anyhow in 1812. It’s as if all kinds of forces had come together to that end, and Napoleon somehow found himself on a horse in a funny hat in front of the French army.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The surgical assassination of Osama bin Laden was celebrated raucously Sunday night in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Washington</place></state> and many other cities across the country with shouts and signs and spirits, both high and distilled. There were expressions of great relief on all sides along with congratulatory handshakes and shoulder-pounding.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Indeed, the ferreting-out and killing of this despicable person after almost ten years of searching was good for our national psyche. It was like a sore tooth finally pulled.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">But Osama bin Laden was not the sole source of the enmity that resulted in the 9-11 tragedies. He was charismatic, I’m told, and a source of inspiration to his followers, but he was not their only inspiration. His death doesn’t change their minds.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">There are many in the Islamic world – and elsewhere about the planet – who think of the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States of America</place></country-region> as the “Great Satan.” We returned the favor by giving that title to bin Laden.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Both are wrong.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Had Osama bin Laden never lived, the <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Twin</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Towers</placetype></place> might not have fallen, but the hatred that is borne against our country would have found some expression, some outlet. And it still exists.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">There are many causes of that hatred, some going back to the time of the Bible, some from the era of the Crusades, some from the heavy-handed imperialism of <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">Great Britain</country-region></place>. But the biggest problem today is Israel/Palestine.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“This land is mine. God gave this land to me.” Those are the opening words of the theme song of the 1960 movie, “Exodus,” which chronicled the establishment of <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Israel</place></country-region> and was a big event at the time. “Next year in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Jerusalem</place></city>” is the way Jews conclude both their Yom Kippur and Passover Seder celebrations. The “return to <city w:st="on">Zion</city>” was eagerly anticipated for centuries, and after the Second World War, newly-freed Jews from all over Europe and elsewhere flocked to what was then called <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Palestine</place></city> to make that dream a reality.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The United Nations voted to accept the partition of <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Palestine</place></city> in 1947, the year I was born. The enmity toward <country-region w:st="on">Israel</country-region>, and to a great extent toward the <country-region w:st="on">United States</country-region>, which has supported <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Israel</place></country-region> from the beginning, is just as gray-haired as I am. During those decades, many Arab countries have become fantastically wealthy supporting the worldwide demand for petroleum, but that hasn’t reduced the hatred. It has just made it possible for the haters to buy lots of weapons.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">We can kill all the bin Ladens we can find, but the hatred will continue – and the danger to our homeland will continue – until the problem of <country-region w:st="on">Israel</country-region> and <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Palestine</place></city> is finally solved. God may have given <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Israel</place></country-region> to the Israelis, but the people who lived there before that happened see it differently: “This land is mine. The Israelis stole it from me.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">A day will dawn when it no longer matters. That day is far in the future, and <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Israel</place></country-region> and the Arab factions that vie for control of the land around it are doing little to bring it closer.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 258.0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The best thing our country could do to secure its homeland is to work with <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Israel</place></country-region> and its neighbors to establish the pre-1964 borders as permanent, create a Palestinian state with some real measure of economic stability, and demand every nation in the area accept the result. We and our allies have a lot of economic and diplomatic power we can wield to that end, and wield it we should.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 258.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 258.0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Some would say that now is not the time, given the current disruptions in <country-region w:st="on">Tunisia</country-region>, <country-region w:st="on">Egypt</country-region>, <country-region w:st="on">Libya</country-region>, <country-region w:st="on">Somalia</country-region>, <country-region w:st="on">Yemen</country-region>, <country-region w:st="on">Bahrain</country-region>, <country-region w:st="on">Syria</country-region>, and even <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Saudi Arabia</place></country-region>. I would argue that this is the perfect time. Osama bin Laden is dead. We’re moving troops out of <country-region w:st="on">Iraq</country-region> and we really want to move troops out of <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Afghanistan</place></country-region>.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 258.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 258.0pt;"><country-region w:st="on"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Israel</span></span></country-region><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> must be pressured to give up its extraterritorial building projects and accept the pre-1964 boundaries, but it will not do so until the factions in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Palestine</place></city> stop shooting missiles into its territory. The reverse is true as well. It’s time for everyone in the region to lean on the two sides and promise to support and defend the result.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 258.0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 258.0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Until that happens, we can look for more terrorism here and across the world. I really think now is the time to do something about it besides making everyone take off his shoes at our airports.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-4606008671375709992011-04-28T11:51:00.000-06:002011-04-28T11:51:14.327-06:00Birth Certificate Fuss Is Simply Bigotry<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The Birther of a Nation</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span><span class="huge1"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth.</span></span></i><span class="body1"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">”</span></span></i></span><span style="color: black;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i>– <span class="bodybold1"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Edwin Hubbel Chapin,</span></span></span> 1814-1880.<span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">If John McCain had won the 2008 election, some television reporter might have mentioned, in passing, during a lull in the inauguration ceremony, the trivial fact that he had been born in the <place w:st="on">Canal Zone</place> but was still a “natural born Citizen” as required by the U.S. Constitution.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">But Barak Obama won the 2008 election. He was born in <state w:st="on">Hawaii</state> on August 4, 1961, a little less than three years after <state w:st="on">Hawaii</state> became the fiftieth state, and a little more than 63 years after the <country-region w:st="on">United States</country-region> unilaterally “annexed” the former <place w:st="on"><placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</placetype> of <placename w:st="on">Hawai’i</placename></place>. That might have been a brief filler for a slow moment during his inauguration coverage. It warranted nothing more.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">But not long after that, I heard the despicable Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-MN, tell a crowd of supporters that Barak Obama was “the first non-American president.” I could only assume that by that she meant that his father was from <place w:st="on">Africa</place> – the only difference between him and the 42 other men (Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms) who had served before he became the 44th president. I found it truly offensive and said so.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Oh, no, her supporters told me. She’s referring to the “fact” that he was born in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Kenya</place></country-region>. His birth certificate is a fake. He has never produced the “long form” birth certificate to disprove it. There must be a conspiracy.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Well bullshit. We all know this is all about the fact that Barak Obama is the first Black president. The “birthers” know this better than anyone.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">President Obama has proven himself to be a centrist, but he has been called everything from a communist to a fascist to the Antichrist. The real problem is that he is Black, and a surprising number of people in this country just can’t handle that.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">On April 12, 1861 – a hundred years before Barak Obama was born and 150 years ago this month – Confederate forces started shooting at the Union’s <placetype w:st="on">Fort</placetype> <placename w:st="on">Sumter</placename> in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">South Carolina</place></state>, starting the War Between the States. Four very bloody years later that war ended, on paper at least, but it still rages on in the minds of far too many of our people.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The Civil War ended, but we had to live through the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the excesses of Reconstruction and its backlash Ku Klux Klan, the migration of Black citizens to the North and their consequent rejection and subjugation there as well, the imposition of poll taxes and literacy requirements, the contemptible standard of “separate but equal” that was upheld by the Supreme Court for shameful decades, the civil disobedience of people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King that led to King’s murder, the burning of churches, and lynchings, the disgusting recalcitrance of George Wallace and Orval Faubus, and gross economic inequality and geographical isolation which malinger to this day.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I voted for Barak Obama because his intelligence impressed me, his compassion warmed me, and his words inspired me. I did not vote for him because of his African heritage, but I was glad that the candidate of my choice was Black. I knew that this represented yet another big step forward away from the single greatest stain on our history and our conscience as a people. When I saw the camera at the inauguration focus on Jesse Jackson, who stood silently watching as tears streamed down his face, my face was already sodden. One more barrier had fallen. Someday we would finally escape this loathsome heritage.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I was not alone, but there were some – far too many – who saw Obama’s election as a terrible calamity. This can’t be happening, they felt. He’s Black!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The “birther” claptrap gave them something to grasp, some socially acceptable complaint they could use to express their socially unacceptable dismay. Provide the birth certificate, they demanded. Not the printed form from the State of <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Hawaii</place></state> that is acceptable in every other situation to establish citizenship and identity, but the “long form,” the copy of the original itself, with signatures and everything.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Well, President Obama did that yesterday. “</span></span><span style="color: black;">We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We've got better stuff to do. I've got better stuff to do,” he said, but there it was, produced as demanded, telling us what we already knew.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;">Thank goodness. This nonsense is finally over. That should shut them up, right?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;">Well, just do a search on “Obama birth certificate.” They’re still yapping. It’s a fake, they say. It doesn’t prove anything. There are irregularities. Anyone can make something that looks like a real birth certificate.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black;">What they are really saying is “He’s Black!” And they know it.</span><span class="bodycopy"><span style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> <span lang="EN"></span></span></span></div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-85966570441633441912011-04-21T10:39:00.000-06:002011-04-21T10:39:48.865-06:00Chorizos!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(That’s New Mexican for Hot Links)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The only way <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">America</place></country-region> can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich.”</span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: black;"> </span>– <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="bodybold1"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="bodybold1"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Robert Reich</span></span></span>.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">This is my way of reducing the size of my “Favorites” list. When I see a page on a subject I might want to write about I add it to the list, and I don’t have time to write about all the ones I’ve added. I figure that if I pass these on as links, I won’t feel guilty about deleting them.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-GApXbCKDmMadYRJkXAuxMdY0w-6duak3EkOlPFGWfKd7UvuuCZ5Dzgash6aaWGg58gxe0ulfG0vdHCRF1s2WVxlDUI5oYXteSdcjTj36PJwbEzYIoWcVFHPemn7AS3-bJC70dX9v4bB/s1600/chorizo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-GApXbCKDmMadYRJkXAuxMdY0w-6duak3EkOlPFGWfKd7UvuuCZ5Dzgash6aaWGg58gxe0ulfG0vdHCRF1s2WVxlDUI5oYXteSdcjTj36PJwbEzYIoWcVFHPemn7AS3-bJC70dX9v4bB/s200/chorizo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“The Body” speaks: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Jesse Ventura, the flashy wrestler who served as governor of <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Minnesota</place></state> from 1999 to 2003, has penned a “Letter to the Ruling Class” that really says it all about the class warfare we’re enduring: <a href="http://weaintgottimetobleed.com/"><span style="color: purple;">http://weaintgottimetobleed.com/</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Income inequality: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Blogger Brit at the Daily Kos praises President Obama for finally mentioning the widening gap between the extremely rich and everyone else in a speech at <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">George</placename> <placename w:st="on">Washington</placename> <placetype w:st="on">University</placetype></place> on April 13th: <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/13/966615/-He-Went-There!-Obama-Attacks-the-1"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/13/966615/-He-Went-There!-Obama-Attacks-the-1</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span class="bodycopy"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Health care is diseased: </span></b></span><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span></span><span style="color: black;">One trained medical billing advocate says that over 90 percent of the medical bills that she has audited contain ‘<a href="http://www.thirdage.com/general-money/how-to-avoid-outrageous-hospital-overcharges" target="_blank" title="gross overcharges"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">gross overcharges</span></a>.’” That’s number 23 in a list of “<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">25 Shocking Facts That Prove That The Entire U.S. Health Care Industry Has Become One Giant Money Making Scam” on the website The American Dream: <a href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/25-shocking-facts-that-prove-that-the-entire-u-s-health-care-industry-has-become-one-giant-money-making-scam"><span style="color: purple;">http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/25-shocking-facts-that-prove-that-the-entire-u-s-health-care-industry-has-become-one-giant-money-making-scam</span></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">What’s the real poverty level? </span></b><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The New York Times reports that “</span><span style="color: black;">a single worker needs an income of $30,012 a year — or just above $14 an hour — to cover basic expenses and save for retirement and emergencies. That is close to three times the 2010 national poverty level of $10,830 for a single person, and nearly twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">”</span><span style="color: black;"> See: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/business/economy/01jobs.html?_r=2"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/business/economy/01jobs.html?_r=2</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Outsmarted and outsourced:</span></b><span style="color: black;"> While politicians across the spectrum are promising more jobs, “US” corporations continue to move jobs out of the country. Read and weep here: <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/top-us-corporations-outsourced-more-24-million-american-jobs-over-last-decade/1303196400"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.truth-out.org/top-us-corporations-outsourced-more-24-million-american-jobs-over-last-decade/1303196400</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Tax the rich: </span></b><span style="color: black;">Robert Reich, who was Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, explains why in a well-written essay: <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/04-9"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/04-9</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Why isn’t Wall Street in jail? </span></b><span style="color: black;">Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi presents the prosecution’s case: <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Has the GOP gone too far? </span></b><span style="color: black;">David Corn of Mother Jones says the budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the House Budget Committee chairman, and passed with only four Republicans (and all of the Democrats) voting no, will harm the party. “</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">With this vote, the GOP is embracing the caricature of itself: telling the poor they'll have to do with less, throwing granny out of the hospital bed, and easing life for gazillionaires,” he writes: <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/ryan-2012-budget-passes"><span style="color: purple;">http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/ryan-2012-budget-passes</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 110%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">We’ll really miss you, Glenn: </span></b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Faux News’s incomparable whackadoodle Glenn Beck will be leaving that network at the end of the year. As a tribute to the Beckaroo, Mediamatters has collected “</span><span style="color: black; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The 50 Worst Things Glenn Beck Said On Fox News.” If you’re not a regular viewer, or if, like me, you only see Glenn Beck on The Daily Show, you can find some gems you missed here: <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/201104060047"><span style="color: purple;">http://mediamatters.org/research/201104060047</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 110%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 110%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><span style="color: black; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">If you find this an interesting collection of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chorizos</i>, let me know and I’ll do it again.</span></div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-87775427991006442192011-04-15T15:48:00.001-06:002011-04-15T15:50:38.072-06:00Say It Over and Over and Over<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Oft-repeated Lies are Still Lies</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span><span class="huge1"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.</span></span></i><span class="body1"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">”</span></span></i></span><span style="color: black;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i>– <span class="bodybold1"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/johann_wolfgang_von_goeth.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</span></a></span></span>, 1749-1832.<span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I seriously doubt that you could find a single Republican representative or senator who hasn’t repeated the following statement at least three times, in public, in the last year: “We don’t have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">That statement is not true. It is a lie. Saying it over and over again does not make it anything less than a lie, but say it over and over again they do.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Our real financial problem was caused by a long-term campaign by Republicans to dismantle the safeguards enacted after the stock market crash that started the Great Depression. It took them almost seventy years, but they got it done. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">As a direct result, unrestrained financial speculation and downright fraud caused our economy to come perilously close to another crash. Only extreme measures to prop up banks and brokerages and insurance companies in the final days of the Bush Administration kept a total collapse from occurring.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">And even though such devastation was prevented, the <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">United States of America</place></country-region> lost almost half of its wealth in a few hectic weeks. Houses lost value, companies laid off workers, people defaulted on their mortgages and stopped buying non-essential items, retirement savings were devastated, more companies laid off workers or went broke, more mortgages went into foreclosure, and our economy spiraled down toward the abyss.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the midst of this furor, Barack Obama replaced George Bush, Jr. In order to stop the spiral, he convinced Congress to pass a huge stimulus program.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">It worked. The economy gradually quit falling and started on a slow upward slope, but almost half of what we thought we were worth was simply gone, as if it never existed. Actually, it never did exist. It was simply hot air. It was the emperor’s new clothes. It was smoke and mirrors. It was the inevitable result of unregulated speculation. Instead of letting the extra air out of the system a little at a time, we allowed it to blow out like a tire. Our economy was stuck on the side of the road.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">If the bailout of the banks, et al, and the stimulus program had not been approved by Congress, we would have had a second Great Depression. That’s what happened after the 1929 crash. Republicans were in power and they didn’t do anything to stop the downward spiral, so it went all the way down. The bankers and stockbrokers and insurance agents would have borne the brunt of it this time, too, and we would have seen a repeat performance of such people jumping out of windows.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">But everyone else would have suffered, as well. We wouldn’t have lost 45% of our economy; we would have lost close to 90%. Everyone would have suffered greatly, and strict new regulations on speculation would have been passed unanimously, or close to it.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">As it was, such regulations barely squeaked through Congress. The margin in the Senate was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one vote.</i> And Republicans are already doing their best to dismantle those safeguards.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">People with good jobs lost them and started collecting unemployment. Those people used to pay income tax; now the government was paying them, but not much. Those people stopped buying IPods and Cadillac SUVs and movie tickets and filet mignon and even potato chips. Their money was gone by the time they paid their mortgages and bought basic food. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">It should be no surprise that income tax revenues tanked as income tanked. All of a sudden, the <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">United States</country-region></place> government had a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">revenue problem.</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">President Obama’s response to this situation was to create jobs, restore financial regulation, and reform the health care industry, which used to take about 5% of our gross domestic product but was gobbling up almost 20% while treating its consumers with heartless indifference. He succeeded in these measures but failed to get Congress to end a Bush-era tax cut for those who made over $250,000 a year. That would have produced more revenue than Republicans have tried to cut.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Let’s look at who was hurt by Obama’s actions: the entire financial speculation industry, the health care industry, and the very rich, to name a few.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Let’s look at who contributes to Republican candidates: the entire financial speculation industry, the health care industry, and the very rich, to name a few.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Congress was forced to continue deficit spending in order to maintain approved government programs. This continued to add to the national debt, which had already exploded during the Bush years because his two wars were “off-budget.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Two years after Obama was elected, the people of the United States asked themselves if they were better off than they had been, determined that they were definitely worse off, and, with characteristic ignorance of what had caused their distress, gave the House of Representatives to the Republicans in a landslide.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The Republicans hammered at the deficit and the debt in that campaign and promised an agenda to reduce unnecessary government spending and to bring the country more jobs. How are they doing with that?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Well, they haven’t created any jobs. Period. As far as cutting spending, they’ve spent lots of time trying to shut down programs they detest, like family planning, infant nutrition, Food Stamps, Medicaid, public broadcasting, and the like, while ignoring the waste within the military behemoth. House Republicans even voted to overturn the health care act, which would take us back to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">status quo ante</i> of spiraling costs and patient abuse.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">We’re spending too much! they groan. Our children and grandchildren will have to pay our bills! Don’t raise taxes! We don’t have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Since Saint Ronald Reagan laid out the talking points thirty years ago the richest of the rich in this country have made obscene gains at the expense of a majority of our people. Many of the latter are people who used to be comfortably middle-class, who paid their taxes and didn’t need Food Stamps or LIHEAP or unemployment. Things aren’t working out very well for them.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Unfortunately, many of those in this situation have little historical awareness. They have chosen to blame Obama and the Democrats for their distress and have run to the welcoming arms of the Republicans, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who caused all of this to happen.</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Abraham Lincoln said that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but I would add that you can sure fool a lot of them most of the time. I want to scream at these people and tell them that the very people they are voting for are the ones who cut their net worth in half, made them lose their jobs, and are now tilting at windmills in the House.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">But I refrain from screaming. I still have faith that they will figure this out for themselves.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">You can’t fool all the people all of the time. You can’t fool all the people all of the time. Maybe if I keep repeating it…</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-14032506696839534372011-04-11T15:21:00.004-06:002011-04-11T15:27:24.692-06:00You've Heard of Right and Left Brains<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This Is About Right-wing and Left-wing Brains</div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span><span class="body1"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Brain: an apparatus with which we think we thin</span></span></i><span class="body1"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">k.”</span></span></i></span><span style="color: black;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i>– Ambrose Bierce, 1842-1914.<span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In the first half of the 19th Century “phrenology” was all the rage. Its premise was that all the activities of human behavior have their origin in the brain, and in specific parts of the brain. Phrenology, as it was defined then, has been debunked for over a century now, but there is a modern version of this theory, based on a much clearer understanding of the various parts of the brain and how they interact.</span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj243tP3snpqK_zqfNGGtEhHkVrrC_1mQHY7A-D5g_dTIGbMGEeLdVY9VZDyiG0anKFqpKkbs-A0KdYdsgMajtUhlf5y8KI_EkVrJq_Tc6pqQkJizDu6glYISPc-F6ICp9PEylcCqg6ytbH/s1600/Phrenology.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj243tP3snpqK_zqfNGGtEhHkVrrC_1mQHY7A-D5g_dTIGbMGEeLdVY9VZDyiG0anKFqpKkbs-A0KdYdsgMajtUhlf5y8KI_EkVrJq_Tc6pqQkJizDu6glYISPc-F6ICp9PEylcCqg6ytbH/s320/Phrenology.jpg" width="256" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration courtesy of Wikipedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table> We now know that the human brain has evolved, and that certain structures are older – that is, they’ve been with us longer on our trip up the evolutionary ladder – than others. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The oldest brain is the brain stem, which sits atop the spinal cord like the thick top of a tapering cane. It is the mechanism that keeps the heart beating and the lungs breathing. Atop that is the limbic system, which acts as a sort of gateway for sensation, performs basic memory functions, and is the seat of emotions. Next is the cerebellum, which helps regulate the way our bodies move. All these are “old” brain parts. Even some very rudimentary animals have something comparable to a spinal cord and a brain stem; more complex ones have developed something like the limbic system; yet more advanced ones have a cerebellum.</span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">But the most recent part of the brain, evolutionarily speaking, is the cerebrum. Only the most advanced animals have it, and only in human beings is it so extremely large. This is the brain structure that allows us to reason and speak and have self-awareness. This is what makes us human.</span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">A new study by <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city> neuroscientists indicates that conservatives and liberals have different portions of their brains enlarged that correspond with their political attitudes. You might call this “neophrenology.” I find this discovery disturbing, but enlightening. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The testing that was done included 90 “healthy young adults” in <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city>. They were asked to describe their political preferences on a five-point scale from very conservative to very liberal. The parts of their brains were then measured through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Remember, this is in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">England</place></country-region>, where there are both Conservative and Liberal parties, which do not precisely correspond to our Republican and Democratic parties, but presumably the two basic concepts are similar in both places.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The study found that conservatives tend to have larger amygdalas and liberals larger anterior cingulate cortexes. The amygdala is in the limbic system and is apparently where the decision is made to fight or flee when danger is perceived. The anterior cingulate cortex is part of the cerebrum, and is thought to “monitor uncertainty and conflicts.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">There are a couple of cautions that should be made at this point. First, we don’t know if people think and act as they do because certain parts of their brains are enlarged, or if those parts are enlarged because they think and act as they do. Secondly, the science of brain function is far from complete, and even though we can identify, to some extent, what kinds of thoughts are processed by various structures in the brain, we don’t have full knowledge of how all those structures work together.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I have to restrain myself further, as well. I am tempted to accept this one study as proof of a sort of theory of everything political. I will try to avoid doing so.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">But oh, this really seems to explain a lot! Conservatives have an emotional connection to politics and liberals a rational one. That would explain why some people don’t respond well to logical dialogue, why “intellectual” is a pejorative term in some circles, why Faux News’s appeal to fear and hate has so much traction, and a lot of other things that have perplexed me over the years.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">I’m tempted to wonder whether conservatism can be “cured,” but I’m sure there are others out there wondering if there’s a “cure” for liberalism. But if nothing else, political operatives from both sides will be looking for ways to phrase their arguments to convince those with the other kind of brains.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Horses, for example, depend greatly on their amygdalas. They are quick to flee in the face of frightening or uncommon or confusing situations. Horse trainers know this and adjust their methods to avoid those situations. Perhaps we liberals could try to sway conservative opinion by similar methods. Perhaps conservatives would have more luck with us using rational discourse instead of fear- and hate-mongering.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">What I can say for sure is that future discoveries in the area of “neuropolitics” will be fascinating. It’s hard to say how far this could go. It could be in the future that a person is informed that he didn’t get a job because his anterior cingulate cortex is too small or his amygdala is too large.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">We often hear the proposition that there are two kinds of people. What if it’s really true?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-21835786946365650512011-04-08T11:54:00.000-06:002011-04-08T11:54:04.817-06:00It's Deja Vu All Over Again<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Government Shut-down Dangerous for Republicans</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“</span>Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i>– George Santayana, 1863-1952.<span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The mantra that smaller government is better government resonates among a certain percentage of the population, and it has been repeated as gospel since Saint Ronald Reagan’s successful campaign for the presidency. (The people who do so ignore the fact that Reagan did nothing to reduce the size of the federal government.)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Support for reducing the size of the government evaporates when that government is shut down. We saw that happen in 1995, when an impasse between the two political parties in Congress resulted in such a shut-down. It wasn’t that long ago, but many seem to have forgotten it. Republicans forget it at their peril, and I’m delighted.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Bill Clinton had been elected president in 1992 by a healthy margin over incumbent President George H.W. Bush and independent spoiler Ross Perot. The Democratic Senate majority was increased by one to 57; the Democratic majority in the House was reduced by nine members, but was still a healthy 258 to 176.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The pendulum swung the other way in the 1994 mid-term elections. The Democrats lost a net nine seats in the Senate and the Republicans took over with a slim 52 to 48 majority. The House did even better, with the GOP getting a 230 to 204 majority.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who became the new speaker of the House, and several of his colleagues had captured the votes of a significant portion of the electorate by offering a “Contract with <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">America</place></country-region>” in which they promised to make several changes in the way Congress conducted its business. (If you’ve forgotten what those changes were, see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America"><span style="color: purple;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America</span></a>.) </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Despite their fragile majorities, the Republicans arrived in <state w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Washington</place></state> in January, 1995, ready to “kick butt and take names.” Does this sound familiar? It should. They were still full of vim and vinegar in November, when a continuing resolution to increase the federal deficit was about to expire, demanding that President Clinton agree to certain budget cuts or face a shut-down in non-essential government operations. It was widely described as a game of “Chicken.” </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Neither side blinked, the government went into shut-down, and most voters blamed the Republicans. They didn’t like the results, temporary as they were. Their neighbors who worked for the government were furloughed without pay. It was always hard to reach the Social Security Administration, but now it was impossible. National parks were locked up. Passport and visa applications weren’t processed. Veterans’ health services were stopped. Even when the impasse ended, there were long-term residual effects. The economy suffered, and lots of people were mad. And they weren’t mad at the Democrats.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">As I have been writing this I have been listening to the last day of debate about the current budget in the U.S. Senate. There seems to be agreement about numbers, but the big issue remaining is whether to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. Republican senators keep saying it’s about spending, but apparently it’s more about the usual partisan social issues. We’ll have to see whether the majority of voters will appreciate this recalcitrance. Remember that this is only about spending for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30th. The real fight is about next year’s budget, and that has yet to commence.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The founders of this country put together a remarkable combination of institutions to share political power. We tend to think of those founders as wise and detached, but the Constitution they created was the result of knock-down, drag-out battles with strong emotions on all sides. The document they drafted insured that such infighting would continue forever.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The House of Representatives is the institution that most closely reflects the whims of the electorate. It’s where the newest fashions are tried on, and we all know how permanent fashions tend to be. House members may all be sporting top hats or kaftans or bola ties or bare midriffs, but Senators stick with their dark suits and wide ties. Only if the new fashion displays some permanence will they gradually follow suit. (No apologies for the pun.)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Will bare midriffs still be fashionable in 2012? We will soon know. Will voters fondly remember the federal shut-down of April, 2011? We’ll know that, too.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="bodycopy"><span lang="EN" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN;">As I write this, only a few hours remain before this shut-down occurs or is prevented. I don’t think the Republican Party will gain in either case. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999924838113071144.post-29339164903819447262011-04-07T10:30:00.000-06:002011-04-07T10:30:18.592-06:00Tea Party Leaves More Republicans BehindExtremists Losing Conscientious Conservatives<br />
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<em>“This is an impressive crowd: the Haves and Have-mores. Some people call you the elites. I call you my base.”</em> – George W. Bush.<br />
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One of the nice things about dealing with extremists is that the more extreme they get, the fewer people go along with them.<br />
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I was delighted to read in my local paper on April 6th that at least one conservative, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, had found a line in the sand that even he wouldn’t cross. Here’s how he started his column:<br />
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“During the 2008 presidential campaign, when candidate Barack Obama told ‘Joe the Plumber’ that he wanted to ‘spread the wealth around,’ it sounded to a lot of conservatives like socialism: ‘From each according to his ability to each according to his need,’ in the words of Karl Marx.<br />
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“There is a kind of wealth spreading, however, that ought to meet the political litmus test of conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats and radical Independents.”<br />
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Mr. Thomas went on to say that when there is so much unemployment and so few new jobs, “it is disheartening to see so many CEOs having recovered enough from their personal recession to pay themselves salaries and benefits that would have shamed the super-rich in America’s Gilded Age.”<br />
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Wow! When Cal Thomas starts sounding like Bernie Sanders, things must be getting bad!<br />
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He went on to quote USA Today as reporting that median CEO pay increased 27 percent last year and that the average CEO received compensation of $9 million. He cited as an example a report last year in the Baltimore Sun that the tool company Stanley-Black and Decker, in Towson, MD, planned to lay off 4,000 of its 38,000 employees. A year later, apparently as a reward for saving the company so much in salary expenses, we find the company’s CEO, John Lundgren, got 253.1% more salary in 2010 – he took home over $32 million.<br />
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Even Thomas thinks this is obscene, but not enough to demand government action. His solution? Read these three jaw-dropping paragraphs:<br />
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“If I were a CEO being paid such astronomical amounts and people were being laid off, or struggling in a recession, at least in part due to the lack of pay increases, I would feel morally obligated to take less money.<br />
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“I would ask the chief financial officer of my company to share some of my wealth with loyal employees so that they could continue caring for their families.<br />
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“One doesn’t have to be a liberal who believes in income redistribution to see the unfairness in disproportionate pay.”<br />
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So Thomas calls on CEOs to do the honorable thing, and let their pay scales sag a bit for the greater good. He also suggests that President Obama should be “shaming those companies that lay off workers while paying their top management such exorbitant salaries and benefits.”<br />
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I’m glad Mr. Thomas finds the situation distressing, but his response is laughably ineffective. If there is one thing we have learned in the last four years it is that there is no shame on the top floors of the big U.S. corporations.<br />
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I’m not for redistribution of wealth (and that is not what candidate Obama meant, either). I believe we can continue to have a capitalistic economic system as long as it is kept under control by reasonable regulation. What I am for is a total overhaul of the U.S. tax code. I think we should leave everyone whose income is at or below the poverty rate alone, and I think that anyone who makes $32 million a year ought to pay a hefty percentage of it to support the government.<br />
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The extremists on the right, who have taken over the House of Representatives and think they now run the entire country, want to cut back all the programs that help those with lower incomes eke out a living, but they’re unanimous in opposing any tax increase whatever for the fat cats who make millions. Most of them, of course, are indebted to those very same fat cats for their political existence.<br />
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So it’s nice to see a crack in the dam. Cal Thomas is a hard-shelled conservative, and it’s encouraging to see that even his sensibilities are offended by the current economic inequality. Here’s how he ends his column:<br />
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“Making money is a noble American objective; making a living is a nobler one.<br />
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“Corporations ought to have enough decency and compassion to make sure no worker is let go solely to increase the bottom line or pad the boss’s pockets with more money than he (or she) can ever hope to spend in a lifetime.”<br />
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I couldn’t have said it better, but we can’t depend on the decency or compassion or even shame of our big corporations for anything. If the problem is to be fixed, the government will have to do it. I mean the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, not the one of the corporations, by the profiteers, for the money.Morrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12733330525403352733noreply@blogger.com1