If President Bush has his way, you will soon be getting a check in the mail. For the average family it could be $1800, maybe even more. What will the people of this great nation do with this money? Surprisingly, there is already a consensus. Everybody I've talked to says the same thing.
"Flat screen TV, baby, biggest one I can get."
Where do they make these? China. Where will your economic stimulus money go? China.
George W. Bush. What a fuckin' genius.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Ben "Gutenberg" Bernanke
Ben has been hard at work lowering interest rates. He has been adding liquidity to the financial system in huge amounts now for months. What he has been doing, in fact, is printing money, in huge amounts and putting it into circulation. This has the effect of making every dollar you make, spend or save worth less. It has the effect of destroying the World market confidence in the dollar. The first prerequisite for a stable national economy is a sound currency. He is systematically destroying any hope we have, in this country, to achieve this. He has accelerated an inflationary cycle that was already in danger of spiraling out of control.
What can the average person do in a situation like this? With all that new money floating around, someone is likely to be willing to lend you some. Borrow as much as you can. Spend it, as soon as possible, before it loses any more value, preferably on sex and intoxicants. It will make you feel better, at least for a little while.
What can the average person do in a situation like this? With all that new money floating around, someone is likely to be willing to lend you some. Borrow as much as you can. Spend it, as soon as possible, before it loses any more value, preferably on sex and intoxicants. It will make you feel better, at least for a little while.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Douche Pipe Dreams
If the problems of the World and the nation could be addressed and solved by simply saying so, George Bush would be our greatest President. During the State of the Union Address, this evening, he claimed the country and it's citizens to be in the best shape ever. The economy is sound, the dollar strong. No child has been left behind. Great health care is available to all. Democracy is blooming and tyranny in retreat around the World. We have prevailed in the Middle Eastern War, peace is at hand. Genocide bad, liberation of the oppressed good. God is on our side, so we get to decide which is which. Taxes will be lowered. Spending will be cut. The check is in the mail. We will not allow weapons of mass destruction to grease the axle of evil.
Unfortunately, nothing he said was true. Very little of it had any relationship with reality. He could have mailed the fucker in. There's no point in doing an assignment on time and presenting it in class if you know you're going to get an F anyway. George, take the day off. Go to the beach. Catch some rays and waves. Smoke a doob. You're not going to disappoint anyone. Nobody.
I loved the speech. Afterward, I felt so fresh and the painful itching was gone!
Unfortunately, nothing he said was true. Very little of it had any relationship with reality. He could have mailed the fucker in. There's no point in doing an assignment on time and presenting it in class if you know you're going to get an F anyway. George, take the day off. Go to the beach. Catch some rays and waves. Smoke a doob. You're not going to disappoint anyone. Nobody.
I loved the speech. Afterward, I felt so fresh and the painful itching was gone!
The Season of Falling Trees
It's been raining here in SoCal. Sometimes we go years without real precipitation. It's a nice change. There's an interesting thing that happens here, a few weeks after the rain. The Devil Winds from the Eastern Desert kick up and blow out to sea. It makes the trees commit suicide. You drive out in the morning and see huge branches broken off from the trunks. Whole trees will be blown over, sometimes rows of them down across thoroughfares or crushing someones garage, roots now pointing to the sky, big hole where they used to be. Most people agree that this is caused by the rains softening the ground, allowing the wind to loosen and detach the root systems and no doubt this is a factor.
The primary reason this happens is something else, something people don't think about. When the rains come, the trees greedily suck up the water and nutrients. They pump these up to the top of the tree where all the foliage is and photosynthesis is going on. Water weighs a lot. The trees become top heavy. When the wind hits these poor unbalanced trees, there is no question what is going to happen.
Sometimes our lives can be like the trees in Southern California. Better ask yourself. Do you need to prune your life back a little, before the Devil Winds start to blow? The season of falling trees is coming, baby!
The primary reason this happens is something else, something people don't think about. When the rains come, the trees greedily suck up the water and nutrients. They pump these up to the top of the tree where all the foliage is and photosynthesis is going on. Water weighs a lot. The trees become top heavy. When the wind hits these poor unbalanced trees, there is no question what is going to happen.
Sometimes our lives can be like the trees in Southern California. Better ask yourself. Do you need to prune your life back a little, before the Devil Winds start to blow? The season of falling trees is coming, baby!
We Need More Mexicans!
Southern California has a lot more people than it did when I was a boy and even then most people here came from somewhere else. Then, most of the newcomers came from other States. Now it seems like more of them come from other countries. We have been getting people from the Middle East ever since the partition of Palestine in 1947. We got a lot more after the Shah was kicked out of Iran. They're not all Islamic. There's a lot of Iranian Jews, Baha'i and Zoroastrians. There are Armenian Orthodox, Maronites from Lebanon, Coptics from Egypt and East Africa. We get quite a few Orthodox Jews who like to come here from Israel. After the Iron Curtain came down, we got a lot of Eastern Europeans. After Yugoslavia fell apart, we got a lot of people from the Adriatic. After Saigon fell in '75, we got a shitload of South East Asians and they're still coming. We got a lot of Koreans. We have Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Mainland. We have a lot of Indians and Pakistanis, they may be enemies at home but they don't mind living together here. We have whites forced out of Southern Africa and blacks forced out of West Africa. We have Cubans by way of Miami and Russians by way of Coney Island. You ask them, they'll tell you they're legal. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren't. The truth is that when most of them left their old homes there wasn't time to do the paperwork, there was only time to get out. I don't doubt that for a minute.
It's hard adapting to a new culture, learning a new language, a new way of life. It's easier here, where so many others have also recently come but it's still hard. People tend to stay clannish. They like to live in the same neighborhoods. They like to go to markets that have the foods from home. They like to talk their own language and hear it spoken. Can you really blame'em. In the end, it all works out. Their kids all end up going to UC, become doctors, lawyers and engineers, fall in love and marry each other. Good for them, good for us. Summertime picnics with the family end up having chapatis, kimchee and babaganuch, all on the same table, YUM!
So why is everybody always whining about Hispanics. Mexicans and Central Americans have been coming North for centuries. They want a little house. Plant a garden and a few fruit trees. Drink a little beer. Raise their families. They're willing to work about eighteen hours a day for the privilege, are you? They work in restaurants and stores. They do landscaping and gardening. They work on farms and ranches. They work in hospitals and nursing homes. They do masonry, electrical and plumbing. They do things that people need done at a price they can afford. That's not something you can say about all of our other new arrivals. Seems to me, what we need in this country today is more Mexicans and fewer people sitting around on their fat asses whining about them.
Tommy Tancredo, Bite Me!
It's hard adapting to a new culture, learning a new language, a new way of life. It's easier here, where so many others have also recently come but it's still hard. People tend to stay clannish. They like to live in the same neighborhoods. They like to go to markets that have the foods from home. They like to talk their own language and hear it spoken. Can you really blame'em. In the end, it all works out. Their kids all end up going to UC, become doctors, lawyers and engineers, fall in love and marry each other. Good for them, good for us. Summertime picnics with the family end up having chapatis, kimchee and babaganuch, all on the same table, YUM!
So why is everybody always whining about Hispanics. Mexicans and Central Americans have been coming North for centuries. They want a little house. Plant a garden and a few fruit trees. Drink a little beer. Raise their families. They're willing to work about eighteen hours a day for the privilege, are you? They work in restaurants and stores. They do landscaping and gardening. They work on farms and ranches. They work in hospitals and nursing homes. They do masonry, electrical and plumbing. They do things that people need done at a price they can afford. That's not something you can say about all of our other new arrivals. Seems to me, what we need in this country today is more Mexicans and fewer people sitting around on their fat asses whining about them.
Tommy Tancredo, Bite Me!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Let the Games Begin!
You read around how this is the first election in a long time that we haven't had an incumbent or Vice President to choose from for President. That's true but also not true.
Incumbents campaign as name brands. People then have the advantage of choosing a known quantity. They like that. Trying new things is uncomfortable. Many people fear it. Hillary is running pretty much as an incumbent this time around. She isn't asking people to support her, so much, as a re-continuation of the Clinton administration, after a hiatus of eight years. This is much more true today than in 2000, when Al Gore separated himself from the President, in a spate of moral superiority. As we know, that didn't work. Mitt Romney has positioned himself in the incumbent category on the Republican side, kind of like a Mark II George Bush, this time with a normal IQ and the ability to speak. Probably the less said about that the better.
Will Hillary's bid for the Presidency succeed? Maybe not. The first time around, the Clintons were seen as young, pragmatic and willing to do what was necessary to make things work and indeed they were. When big health care proved unworkable, they were able to move on seamlessly, to other issues that were. They got as much mileage out of that as if it had been a success. Now Hillary is back pushing the very same packages that proved unworkable in the last Clinton administration, rather than emphasizing the flexibility that made them so successful. She and Bill aren't young anymore. They aren't hip. They are entrenched and condescending, exactly the opposite of what they were sixteen years ago. It isn't really working out for them.
I think people are going to go for the change candidate. McCain has been a maverick all his political life, willing to work across the aisle to get the things he feels are important done. He has gotten things done but they aren't often things the Republican hierarchy likes. Huckabee is a pure populist values voter play, with all the neocon and fiscal conservative platform planks stripped out. Obama is the handsome prince with a fairy story background, seemingly springing from nowhere to champion the cause of the young and disillusioned.
Incumbents campaign as name brands. People then have the advantage of choosing a known quantity. They like that. Trying new things is uncomfortable. Many people fear it. Hillary is running pretty much as an incumbent this time around. She isn't asking people to support her, so much, as a re-continuation of the Clinton administration, after a hiatus of eight years. This is much more true today than in 2000, when Al Gore separated himself from the President, in a spate of moral superiority. As we know, that didn't work. Mitt Romney has positioned himself in the incumbent category on the Republican side, kind of like a Mark II George Bush, this time with a normal IQ and the ability to speak. Probably the less said about that the better.
Will Hillary's bid for the Presidency succeed? Maybe not. The first time around, the Clintons were seen as young, pragmatic and willing to do what was necessary to make things work and indeed they were. When big health care proved unworkable, they were able to move on seamlessly, to other issues that were. They got as much mileage out of that as if it had been a success. Now Hillary is back pushing the very same packages that proved unworkable in the last Clinton administration, rather than emphasizing the flexibility that made them so successful. She and Bill aren't young anymore. They aren't hip. They are entrenched and condescending, exactly the opposite of what they were sixteen years ago. It isn't really working out for them.
I think people are going to go for the change candidate. McCain has been a maverick all his political life, willing to work across the aisle to get the things he feels are important done. He has gotten things done but they aren't often things the Republican hierarchy likes. Huckabee is a pure populist values voter play, with all the neocon and fiscal conservative platform planks stripped out. Obama is the handsome prince with a fairy story background, seemingly springing from nowhere to champion the cause of the young and disillusioned.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Dodging a Bullet?
The Federal Reserve Bank, in a surprise move, lowered interest on loans to it's most trusted borrowers, to an annual rate of 3.5%. This is even lower than the claimed inflation rate of 4%, touted by the lying sacks of shit running the current administration. So what we have, is "Free" money. These same scumfucks continue to tell us that the economy is expanding, that the stock market is under priced and that corporate profits are on the rise. Whistling past the graveyard, every one of them.
Here's the bottom line. Free money is no good if it's not worth anything. If you can't lend it to someone who has some possibility of paying it back, it's still a bad deal, no matter what the point spread is. The truth is, the Fed has been flooding the economy with cheap money for years. Making it cheaper will not change the equation. It only delays the final reckoning and digs the hole we are in deeper.
The markets are not near a bottom.
This is not a good buying opportunity.
Whatever money you have saved is nearly worthless and getting worthlesser.
The economy is not expanding, even slowly.
The government cannot help you. If they give you money, it's because they just printed up a fresh batch.
Here's the bottom line. Free money is no good if it's not worth anything. If you can't lend it to someone who has some possibility of paying it back, it's still a bad deal, no matter what the point spread is. The truth is, the Fed has been flooding the economy with cheap money for years. Making it cheaper will not change the equation. It only delays the final reckoning and digs the hole we are in deeper.
The markets are not near a bottom.
This is not a good buying opportunity.
Whatever money you have saved is nearly worthless and getting worthlesser.
The economy is not expanding, even slowly.
The government cannot help you. If they give you money, it's because they just printed up a fresh batch.
Monday, January 21, 2008
What Can He Possibly Have To Say For Himself?
With less than a week to go before George W. Bush gives his final State of the Union Address, what can he say to justify his many failures to the American people?
The economy is heading into what, at the very least, is the most serious recession in modern times. We are awash in a sea of bad debt. The Stock Market is falling. Unemployment is rising. The Real Estate Market is in free fall. His answer is to lower interest rates and lie about the resulting inflation of our monetary system. When he took over the Presidency, the government was running surpluses, the national debt was actually shrinking. His administration has run up more debt than was incurred in the entire previous history of the republic.
The state of our society verges on tyranny. Bush has suspended the right to be charged, confront your accuser and be tried by a jury. The US now maintains secret prisons in foreign countries. Agents of our government can torture detainees and hold them indefinitely with impunity. Anyone's communications, of any sort, may be monitored, without a warrant, at any time. He invalidates the law of the land by simply adding a note to the legislation as it is passed, stating he is not bound by it.
He has led us into a unilateral war of aggression against Iraq. It has drained us of trillions of dollars and maimed and killed a generation of our young. It has earned us nothing but the enduring enmity of the Islamic World and the disdain of most of the rest. Our foreign policy is a shambles. Our military is irreparably damaged, with no money to rebuild it.
He has forged deep divisions in our society along racial, religious and class lines. These are kinds of injuries which heal slowly and scar deeply. There is no rational reason to promote this kind of discord except to encourage the kind of fear, hatred and distrust necessary to hold his evil coalition together a little longer.
This is a man with no love or even sympathy for the American people. When he leaves office, he will walk away, into a life of wealth and privilege the like of which most of us can't even imagine. He will have so little contact with the common man that he will never see or understand the damage he has done.
The economy is heading into what, at the very least, is the most serious recession in modern times. We are awash in a sea of bad debt. The Stock Market is falling. Unemployment is rising. The Real Estate Market is in free fall. His answer is to lower interest rates and lie about the resulting inflation of our monetary system. When he took over the Presidency, the government was running surpluses, the national debt was actually shrinking. His administration has run up more debt than was incurred in the entire previous history of the republic.
The state of our society verges on tyranny. Bush has suspended the right to be charged, confront your accuser and be tried by a jury. The US now maintains secret prisons in foreign countries. Agents of our government can torture detainees and hold them indefinitely with impunity. Anyone's communications, of any sort, may be monitored, without a warrant, at any time. He invalidates the law of the land by simply adding a note to the legislation as it is passed, stating he is not bound by it.
He has led us into a unilateral war of aggression against Iraq. It has drained us of trillions of dollars and maimed and killed a generation of our young. It has earned us nothing but the enduring enmity of the Islamic World and the disdain of most of the rest. Our foreign policy is a shambles. Our military is irreparably damaged, with no money to rebuild it.
He has forged deep divisions in our society along racial, religious and class lines. These are kinds of injuries which heal slowly and scar deeply. There is no rational reason to promote this kind of discord except to encourage the kind of fear, hatred and distrust necessary to hold his evil coalition together a little longer.
This is a man with no love or even sympathy for the American people. When he leaves office, he will walk away, into a life of wealth and privilege the like of which most of us can't even imagine. He will have so little contact with the common man that he will never see or understand the damage he has done.
Rig For Dive!
At the beginning of the Great Depression, the US stock market lost 80 percent of it's value. George Bush aims to ward off a repeat of this by giving the average American $800 in folding green and cutting the taxes of the rich.
Yup, that should do it.
Excuse me a moment, while I dog down this hatch.
Yup, that should do it.
Excuse me a moment, while I dog down this hatch.
Go-Down Mo-Town, Let My People Go!
At the Detroit Auto Show this year, American auto makers have shown us that they are morally, intellectually and technologically bankrupt. They offer us vehicles that are low quality, high MPG, at a cost not competitive on the World market.
Fuck 'em.
In ten years, there won't be a single American Auto company building cars in this country. In the mean time, Ta Ta motors, of India, is introducing a $2500 car that gets 60 MPG. In Japan, for the last 20 years, they have been selling cars with 600cc engines, keep the oil clean, they'll go half a million miles, pop in a rebuilt one piece engine/trans axle, they'll do it again.
Fuck 'em.
In ten years, there won't be a single American Auto company building cars in this country. In the mean time, Ta Ta motors, of India, is introducing a $2500 car that gets 60 MPG. In Japan, for the last 20 years, they have been selling cars with 600cc engines, keep the oil clean, they'll go half a million miles, pop in a rebuilt one piece engine/trans axle, they'll do it again.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Mamoud! Granny's strapping on her dynamite underware again !
Today, President Bush put on his little beanie and shawl and laid a wreath at the Israeli memorial to the Holocaust, even managing a comely quiver of voice and a tiny crockytear.
In doing so he reminded the Palestinian community that nobody cares about their 60 year exile and the entire Arab World, that nobody respects their rights or the sovereignty of their nations, as if they needed reminding.
Makin' Friends, Chimpy Style!
In doing so he reminded the Palestinian community that nobody cares about their 60 year exile and the entire Arab World, that nobody respects their rights or the sovereignty of their nations, as if they needed reminding.
Makin' Friends, Chimpy Style!
This Will Teach Them
The Culture of Life calls for the condemnation of Vogue Magazine and a boycott of its advertisers. Vogue ran a nonjudgmental story about a New York City woman who chose to have a late term abortion.
WHOO-EE! You know how much Vogue counts on the patronage of the inbred, six-toed Grand Dames of the Taggin' Wagon Aristocracy to maintain it's position as the arbiter of style and the avant-garde lifestyle.
They'll probably run a special issue to print a retraction. It will also be a good opportunity to run some spreads on open toed pumps and designer drool scarves.
WHOO-EE! You know how much Vogue counts on the patronage of the inbred, six-toed Grand Dames of the Taggin' Wagon Aristocracy to maintain it's position as the arbiter of style and the avant-garde lifestyle.
They'll probably run a special issue to print a retraction. It will also be a good opportunity to run some spreads on open toed pumps and designer drool scarves.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Hillary is Baa-ack!
Barak knows all about having to pound the stake through her heart but she's just so fucking bea-u-ti-ful!
Buffalo Gal won't you come out tonight
Come out tonight, come out tonight
Buffalo Gal won't you come out tonight
And dance by the light of the Moon
Buffalo Gal won't you come out tonight
Come out tonight, come out tonight
Buffalo Gal won't you come out tonight
And dance by the light of the Moon
John McCain Has Won the New Hampshire Primary
He has defeated Mitt Romney, a man whose wealth is only exceeded by the vacuousness of his intellect and the elasticity of his resolve.
John is not young. He is not smart. He is not strong. He is not well.
For all of that, he is a man. The only one in this race. He tells the truth, as he sees it. He never gives a inch. It's why the Republican hierarchy hates him.
You do yourself proud, New Hampshire. America salutes you!
John is not young. He is not smart. He is not strong. He is not well.
For all of that, he is a man. The only one in this race. He tells the truth, as he sees it. He never gives a inch. It's why the Republican hierarchy hates him.
You do yourself proud, New Hampshire. America salutes you!
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
They're All Dogs
The field of Republican Presidential candidates is like a pack of currs circling a dead rat in a dark alley in the middle of the night. Nobody is really making a grab for the dubious prise. They each know that what's available isn't worth much but it's the only action going. They also know that once the fighting starts, more meat will be available.
The Democratic Presidential candidates are like a big litter suckling a bitch with only enough milk for one.
They're all dogs.
The dynamic is different.
The end result will be the same.
The Democratic Presidential candidates are like a big litter suckling a bitch with only enough milk for one.
They're all dogs.
The dynamic is different.
The end result will be the same.
Americans Want Affordable Healthcare.
It isn't going to happen.
Before World War II, healthcare was a lot less high tech. Hospitals were mostly public or charitable facilities. Doctors lived well, but usually in the same neighborhoods a their patients. Every druggist knew the real money was in the lunch and cosmetic counters.
Hospitals are all run by corporations now. Doctors live in mansions, out by the country club and do their banking in the Caymans. For many, prescription drugs are their single highest monthly expense.
The population of America is aging. Everybody would like to have affordable healthcare. Politicians like to offer it in return for votes.
There isn't enough money.
It isn't going to happen.
Ever.
Before World War II, healthcare was a lot less high tech. Hospitals were mostly public or charitable facilities. Doctors lived well, but usually in the same neighborhoods a their patients. Every druggist knew the real money was in the lunch and cosmetic counters.
Hospitals are all run by corporations now. Doctors live in mansions, out by the country club and do their banking in the Caymans. For many, prescription drugs are their single highest monthly expense.
The population of America is aging. Everybody would like to have affordable healthcare. Politicians like to offer it in return for votes.
There isn't enough money.
It isn't going to happen.
Ever.
After Many a Summer Dies the Swan
What happens when an empire succeeds beyond it's own wildest dreams?
America spends 10 times more on it's military than the rest of the World combined. We won the Cold War, which was, perhaps, the greatest geopolitical struggle in modern times, virtually unaided. Today, we cannot pacify a forthrate rate power in an Islamic backwater.
We are such a magnanimous society, that the biggest problem among our poor, is chronic obesity but after two generations of "Great Society" social welfare programs, we can't pull the poor into the mainstream, even as millions of illegal immigrants stream into the country and assimilate into a prosperous life, against all the barriers erected against just that prospect. We made jobs and people went to work but they didn't accumulate wealth, they overspent and now we are the greatest debtor nation the World has ever seen.
The magnificent infrastructure that we built up over the last century continues to serve us well but is outdated and wearing out. There are no plans to expand and renovate it. When one of our greatest cities was destroyed by storm and flood, the best our leaders can come up with, is abandon it, and move to higher ground.
Our water is filthy, you can't drink from the most pristine mountain stream with out boiling or filtering it. Our forests are cut down. Landfills full of toxic sludge and plastic fester the landscape. We pump green house gases into the atmosphere at ever increasing rates, knowing the damage it does. There is so much CO2 in the air that it has acidified the oceans. We make no efforts to clean up after ourselves because it might alter our standard of living.
Our streets are pretty safe in America. Many areas, including some of our largest cities, have lower levels of violent crime than ever before but we warehouse a larger percentage of our population, for most of their adult lives, in prison, than any other country. Still, after 50 years as the highest law enforcement priority, the traffic in and use of, illicit narcotics, is unchecked. For all of our efforts to create a safe society, our women and children fall victim to sexual predation and assault as never before.
We have been the strongest, richest, most developed, most free society in the World for a century. We influenced world culture, politics and trade as surely as did the Greeks and Romans in their time. The 20th century was truly, the American century. Fueled by an endless stream of aspiring immigrants and a land of incomparable riches, we came to power swiftly. Will our fall be also as swift?
Like a prizefighter that dominates the ring for a period of time and defeats all challengers, there is no graceful way to step down. The fighter takes for granted the respect, riches and adulation as his due, even when age and dissipation take their toll and the victories become fewer and harder won. Do we, as a nation, choose to step down, into a respectable, if less exalted, position in the family of nations or do we stay in the ring, until we succumb to the endless punishment? Bleeding. Broken. Insensate.
Larry Holmes or Cassius Clay? We know who was the better fighter but who is better off today?
America spends 10 times more on it's military than the rest of the World combined. We won the Cold War, which was, perhaps, the greatest geopolitical struggle in modern times, virtually unaided. Today, we cannot pacify a forthrate rate power in an Islamic backwater.
We are such a magnanimous society, that the biggest problem among our poor, is chronic obesity but after two generations of "Great Society" social welfare programs, we can't pull the poor into the mainstream, even as millions of illegal immigrants stream into the country and assimilate into a prosperous life, against all the barriers erected against just that prospect. We made jobs and people went to work but they didn't accumulate wealth, they overspent and now we are the greatest debtor nation the World has ever seen.
The magnificent infrastructure that we built up over the last century continues to serve us well but is outdated and wearing out. There are no plans to expand and renovate it. When one of our greatest cities was destroyed by storm and flood, the best our leaders can come up with, is abandon it, and move to higher ground.
Our water is filthy, you can't drink from the most pristine mountain stream with out boiling or filtering it. Our forests are cut down. Landfills full of toxic sludge and plastic fester the landscape. We pump green house gases into the atmosphere at ever increasing rates, knowing the damage it does. There is so much CO2 in the air that it has acidified the oceans. We make no efforts to clean up after ourselves because it might alter our standard of living.
Our streets are pretty safe in America. Many areas, including some of our largest cities, have lower levels of violent crime than ever before but we warehouse a larger percentage of our population, for most of their adult lives, in prison, than any other country. Still, after 50 years as the highest law enforcement priority, the traffic in and use of, illicit narcotics, is unchecked. For all of our efforts to create a safe society, our women and children fall victim to sexual predation and assault as never before.
We have been the strongest, richest, most developed, most free society in the World for a century. We influenced world culture, politics and trade as surely as did the Greeks and Romans in their time. The 20th century was truly, the American century. Fueled by an endless stream of aspiring immigrants and a land of incomparable riches, we came to power swiftly. Will our fall be also as swift?
Like a prizefighter that dominates the ring for a period of time and defeats all challengers, there is no graceful way to step down. The fighter takes for granted the respect, riches and adulation as his due, even when age and dissipation take their toll and the victories become fewer and harder won. Do we, as a nation, choose to step down, into a respectable, if less exalted, position in the family of nations or do we stay in the ring, until we succumb to the endless punishment? Bleeding. Broken. Insensate.
Larry Holmes or Cassius Clay? We know who was the better fighter but who is better off today?
Friday, January 04, 2008
Iowa Has Spoken
The primary season is begun. The stragglers are dropping away, many more will follow. Besides the fact that the next American President is going to be an even bigger loser than George W. Bush, what do we know?
We know that Americans are too embarrassed to vote for the candidate they really like. If the Republicans were voting true, they would go with someone like Tom Tancredo. That would say things about them they aren't ready to admit, maybe not even to themselves. Dems should be wild about Dennis Kucinich, samo-samo.
So what do the two clear winners in Iowa, Huckybuck and Obama, indicate. Are these two men really the embodiment of the skills, traits and intelligence we are seeking in the leader of the free World? Surprisingly enough, maybe.
Let's get the easy part out of the way first. These guys are both smart. The pre-primary debates have shown us they are poised public speakers. They are interactive with an audience and capable of thinking fast, on their feet. They watch what they say and say as little as possible in the most engaging way possible. In this respect, both are completely different than George W. Bush, who cannot speak or think at all well and is only comfortable on his feet with the hind legs of a sheep tucked into his boots. Huckybuck seems smarter and more charismatic. This could be because he is defending the traditional values high ground, always an easier thing to do.
Obama is better looking. So is his wife. So are his children. His message is vibrant, dynamic and appealing. He is The "New" man, multi-culti, inter-racial and intellectual. He offers a revision of the American dream. This entails change on our part. Americans like to think of themselves and their culture as dynamic but they distrust change. Their first concern is what have I got to lose, not what have I got to gain. Still, being the "New" man is better than being the "Black" man. Normally, someone like Obama wouldn't have a chance but the American people's disgust with the present situation is pronounced. It will be hard but he could win. The key for him, will be to play up the attractiveness of what it says about America, that we would elect a man like Obama, while promising not to change anything much at all. So far, so good
Huckybuck is a "kinder, gentler" redneck. He has lived all his life with integrated schools and the EEOC. He's not going to burn any crosses or string anybody up, or tolerate those who do. While the churches he goes to and the social organizations to which he belongs are racially and socially homogeneous, everybody agrees that this is by choice and everybody is more comfortable that way. He is not comfortable with homosexuals but accepts them grudgingly because it's the law and he believes in law and order. Similarly, he is anti-abortion. He doesn't approve of bombing abortion clinics or shooting the doctors who work in them but would address the issue from a legal standpoint. He walks a fine line between the views of the progressive and regressive segments of society hoping to get at least some support from one faction, while keeping most of the latter. Has he evolved far enough to be a successful candidate for President in today's America? Nothing makes me think otherwise. So far, so good.
Next week, the contest in New Hampshire looms. After that, South Carolina. We're going to know a lot more in the next few weeks. For the last year the smart money has been on a Hillary/Rudy race. It may happen, after all is said and done. I don't think so. I'm not sure either of them will make the cut. I'm not that sad about it.
We know that Americans are too embarrassed to vote for the candidate they really like. If the Republicans were voting true, they would go with someone like Tom Tancredo. That would say things about them they aren't ready to admit, maybe not even to themselves. Dems should be wild about Dennis Kucinich, samo-samo.
So what do the two clear winners in Iowa, Huckybuck and Obama, indicate. Are these two men really the embodiment of the skills, traits and intelligence we are seeking in the leader of the free World? Surprisingly enough, maybe.
Let's get the easy part out of the way first. These guys are both smart. The pre-primary debates have shown us they are poised public speakers. They are interactive with an audience and capable of thinking fast, on their feet. They watch what they say and say as little as possible in the most engaging way possible. In this respect, both are completely different than George W. Bush, who cannot speak or think at all well and is only comfortable on his feet with the hind legs of a sheep tucked into his boots. Huckybuck seems smarter and more charismatic. This could be because he is defending the traditional values high ground, always an easier thing to do.
Obama is better looking. So is his wife. So are his children. His message is vibrant, dynamic and appealing. He is The "New" man, multi-culti, inter-racial and intellectual. He offers a revision of the American dream. This entails change on our part. Americans like to think of themselves and their culture as dynamic but they distrust change. Their first concern is what have I got to lose, not what have I got to gain. Still, being the "New" man is better than being the "Black" man. Normally, someone like Obama wouldn't have a chance but the American people's disgust with the present situation is pronounced. It will be hard but he could win. The key for him, will be to play up the attractiveness of what it says about America, that we would elect a man like Obama, while promising not to change anything much at all. So far, so good
Huckybuck is a "kinder, gentler" redneck. He has lived all his life with integrated schools and the EEOC. He's not going to burn any crosses or string anybody up, or tolerate those who do. While the churches he goes to and the social organizations to which he belongs are racially and socially homogeneous, everybody agrees that this is by choice and everybody is more comfortable that way. He is not comfortable with homosexuals but accepts them grudgingly because it's the law and he believes in law and order. Similarly, he is anti-abortion. He doesn't approve of bombing abortion clinics or shooting the doctors who work in them but would address the issue from a legal standpoint. He walks a fine line between the views of the progressive and regressive segments of society hoping to get at least some support from one faction, while keeping most of the latter. Has he evolved far enough to be a successful candidate for President in today's America? Nothing makes me think otherwise. So far, so good.
Next week, the contest in New Hampshire looms. After that, South Carolina. We're going to know a lot more in the next few weeks. For the last year the smart money has been on a Hillary/Rudy race. It may happen, after all is said and done. I don't think so. I'm not sure either of them will make the cut. I'm not that sad about it.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Boxed In
A Republican coalition has allowed a plurality of wildly divergent individuals to control the government of the United States for much of the last forty years, ever since Nixon put together his "Silent Majority". During these last four decades, the population itself has undergone vast changes. Immigrants from all over the World, including huge numbers of Latinos and Asians have made the population a third again larger. Society has become immensely more tolerant of alternate lifestyles, non-traditional religious observance, the open use of illicit drugs and the public expression of civil dissent. Even as society became more loosey goosey, American government has continued on, controlled, for the most part, by leaders that speak and act as if the Nelsons, the Cleevers, the Andersons, and Gillis' are the constituency they represent, with no one more aberrant out there to contend with than Desi and Lucy. It's been a numbers game they play. As the numbers have gotten tighter, they learned to play better and lacking unified opposition, the American Right has reigned supreme.
With the election of George W. Bush in 2000, the hegemony of the Right took a new direction. Instead of merely trying to manage American society, they set out to control it. With the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government firmly in their grasp, there was no one to stop them. They have been able to make great strides in their endeavors. No real opposition has arisen against them but support that they previously had, has become disenchanted. The numbers game in the 2008 election will be more difficult than ever for them to win.
Many traditional Christians aren't comfortable revisiting the Scopes "Monkey" trial. Not every die hard Capitalist is comfortable with a totally "Free" market. Not every supporter of a strong national defense is comfortable with a blanket declaration of war against a religion of 1.25 billion people, world wide.
As we enter a watershed national election year, the American distrust of politicians has never been greater. There can be no greater proof of this than in the quality of those of us who have stepped forward to present ourselves for election to public office. Listing their deficiencies would be a Herculean task. As far as Presidential candidates are concerned, there is not a single one of them, that I am convinced, is going to be able to do a substantially better job than George W. Bush and he is a malignant, drunken retard.
Americans will have to realize that the function of government needs to first concentrate on dealing with things as they are and not as we wish they were. The goals we set for ourselves need to be achievable and not the wet dreams of some coke head retard. That time is not now. Maybe we need another four or eight or sixteen years of national decline to open our eyes.
With the election of George W. Bush in 2000, the hegemony of the Right took a new direction. Instead of merely trying to manage American society, they set out to control it. With the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government firmly in their grasp, there was no one to stop them. They have been able to make great strides in their endeavors. No real opposition has arisen against them but support that they previously had, has become disenchanted. The numbers game in the 2008 election will be more difficult than ever for them to win.
Many traditional Christians aren't comfortable revisiting the Scopes "Monkey" trial. Not every die hard Capitalist is comfortable with a totally "Free" market. Not every supporter of a strong national defense is comfortable with a blanket declaration of war against a religion of 1.25 billion people, world wide.
As we enter a watershed national election year, the American distrust of politicians has never been greater. There can be no greater proof of this than in the quality of those of us who have stepped forward to present ourselves for election to public office. Listing their deficiencies would be a Herculean task. As far as Presidential candidates are concerned, there is not a single one of them, that I am convinced, is going to be able to do a substantially better job than George W. Bush and he is a malignant, drunken retard.
Americans will have to realize that the function of government needs to first concentrate on dealing with things as they are and not as we wish they were. The goals we set for ourselves need to be achievable and not the wet dreams of some coke head retard. That time is not now. Maybe we need another four or eight or sixteen years of national decline to open our eyes.
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