Another modest suggestion

The Occupy movement has done a lot to draw attention to the problems of income inequality and the flush of big money in politics. But in some ways they remind me of cardiac fibrillation; the effects are impressive on the surface, but little blood actually gets pumped and the patient eventually dies. 

So may I humbly suggest that my friends in the Occupy movements consider some alternatives or adjuncts. 

First of all, check out Occupy the Voting Booth. 

Get behind a candidate that shares your values, such as Elizabeth Warren.

Register as Republicans and get behind Buddy Roemer who is the only Republican presidential candidate to come out in support. Move the poll numbers and demand he be allowed join the follies otherwise known as Republican presidential debates.

One last thought: join the Republican Party and get active at the state, local and precinct level. Take the GOP back from the crazies and return it to the party of Nelson Rockefeller, Everett Dirksen, Dwight Eisenhower, William Scranton, John Love, Jerry Ford, even Goldwater and Reagan (who were both too far to the left for the current crop of "conservatives").

Street theater is lots of fun, but sooner or later someone will go to Washington and affect our lives for better or worse. Lets try to make it better in the voting booth.

What is all this about teleprompters??

One of the attack themes from President Obama's stronger critics (dare I call them haters?) is his use of teleprompters. It is a ready chestnut that they grab onto at the first opportunity. Given that every president, presidential candidate, and many other political figures and speakers in general use teleprompters, what is the big deal?

There are a lot of things that Obama can be criticized for, that are substantive. But honestly, from the unhinged I don't hear much substance, just snark-- and of course unmitigated hatred. But why teleprompters? Why a device that every other pol uses too? Heck, even the politicians that the Obama-haters say they like use teleprompters. 

So, I figure that it is because it is the only way that they can rationalize the fact that the man is a pretty good speaker much of the time. The assumption then, is that he is a good speaker when he has his teleprompters and an inarticulate boob when he doesn't. Of course that isn't true, as any observation of Obama at the podium will reveal. Some of his lamest speeches have been with teleprompters, and some of his better speeches have been without. 

Personally, I think  the damn things degrade the quality of speeches and rob them of spontaneity. Bill Clinton's best speeches were when he blew off the teleprompters or didn't use them at all. 

I think that Obama's haters -- and I draw a distinction between critics and haters -- lock in on the teleprompters because they are so invested in the idea that this particular man cannot successfully speak on his own, that they truly believe he can't give a speech unless someone else wrote it for him and feeds it to him on a spoon -- or teleprompter. It is that simple, and that hateful. 

This sort of criticism has never been leveled at another president. That it is leveled at this president says far more about the haters than the hated. 

Remembering Flight 93, Remembering Their Gift

Yesterday, 10 September, I watched the live broadcast of the ceremony dedicating the memorial at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after its passengers and crew tried to seize control of the airplane so that Al-Qaeda hijackers could not crash it into their likely target of the US Capitol Building.

The ceremony was simple and dignified. The audience consisted largely of people from Shanksville and surrounding Somerset County, families of Flight 93's passengers and crew, United Airlines employees, US Park Service personnel and people who were involved in raising funds and working to make the memorial a reality. The media kept a respectful distance and resisted the impulse to chatter during periods of silence; at least MSNBC's Chris Matthews resisted at any rate. I can't speak for other media outlets.

The day and the location demand thoughtful reflection. What happened in the skies over Shanksville saved hundreds of lives in Washington DC and may have avoided what was to be the coup de grace on that day 10 years ago, destruction of the symbol of American government and democracy.

Sarah McLachlan performed two songs, "I Will Remember You" and "In the Arms of an Angel" and the Navy Band performed "O Danny Boy" as a recessional. A solitary bagpiper seemed to have difficulty overcoming his emotions, giving his performance the poignancy of the bugle performance at President Kennedy's graveside.

Poet Robert Pinsky recited poems by Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade, "Souvenir of the Ancient World" and Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz,"Incantation" (see link here). The first poem imagines a quiet world, at peace, and on the cusp of cataclysm. The second poem celebrates human reason:

"It says that everything is new under the sun,

Opens the congealed fist of the past."

The speeches were exceptional.

Preside Bush's speech was solemn and simple and reflected the sensibilities of a man who remembered his entire world changing in a blink, and the awesome, crushing responsibilities he has undertaken coming sharply into focus. He recounted the events of the day in a somber narrative and then reflected on the spirit of national unity that immediately followed the attacks; and seemed wistful for that sense that we are one nation, calling on politicians to remember that we are Americans before we are red or blue.

President Clinton recalled his wife coming home red-eyed the night before. As Senator from New York she represented the firefighters and policemen who died in the towers, along with the employees of Cantor- Fitzgerald and so many more. He spoke of the importance in our common memory of people who bravely face certain death that others may live and thrive, mentioning the defenders of the Alamo and Thermopylae who bought precious time with their lives and allowed Texas liberty and Athenian democracy to survive.

President Clinton also noted a crucial difference with the passengers and crew of Flight 93. The defenders at the Alamo and Thermopylae were soldiers. They knew what was expected of them. The passengers and crew of Flight 93 simply boarded an airplane. They were getting on about their lives. Yet with only minutes to decide, they chose not to be victims in a mad act of terrorism, but to fight back and prevent the slaughter of other innocents. They fought, not as soldiers but as citizens, with carafes of hot water, their fists, and a drink cart. And they won.

Vice President Biden's speech may have been the most personal and powerful. He opened by noting that he too had received the telephone call that is a bolt out of the blue, that ends your old life and sends you stumbling forward, unsure of your own future. He commended the families for their courage in coming to the place where their loved ones had died, and risking reopening wounds. He also noted that Flight 93 was the beginning of our nation's counterattack against terror, quoting militia Captain John Parker at the Battle of Lexington, that if war is what they want, "let it begin here." Nothing, he went on to tell the audience, can replace loved ones; sons, daughters. wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, friends. But those who came to Shanksville should know that their loved ones' sacrifice mattered, and that the nation will always be grateful.

One of the most moving moments came when those who were present in the Capitol and White House (the other likely target) that day were asked to stand; Joe Biden, Laura Bush, John Boehner, and a number of other folks in the audience stood, and the gravity of what those 40 passengers and crew did sank in.

They are worthy of their memorial. May we be worthy of them.

A "must-read" column on today's Republican Party and toxic politics

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult | Truthout

This column is a bit long, but worth the reading. Should be required reading for every Democrat in the House and Senate, and for the one in the White House.

Good essay; the problem *is* us

Five Governance Problems That Contributed to the U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade

Good essay from Brookings. Bottom line for me is that voters don't participate in the electoral process until the general election, if then. The general election is not the time to bemoan the quality of candidates or the process that gave them to you.

Some modest suggestions

1. If you are an independent--by which I mean that you are not formally affiliated with either the Democratic or the Republican party--reconsider. I assume you are independent because you are fed-up with the candidates that the parties put forward, or the extremity of the positions they seem to take. If that is the case, then you are part of the problem. If your are not in a political party then you have surrendered to the very forces that create the polarization that grieves you.

So join one of the parties, vote in primaries for candidates that represent the moderate views of the 80 percent of party-members who tend to ignore primaries, instead of the 20 percent of "base" voters (read crazies on the right, or left) that do vote in primaries.

2. Next time some hack copies a party's talking points, calls it journalism, and hopes you won't challenge the underlying assumptions, disappoint the lazy SOB. Next time some talk show host's guest spouts crap about job-killing tax increases, or job-killing government health care takeover, demand of that network that the host do his or her job and challenge the statement. How will closing tax loopholes of oil companies kill jobs? How does it help the economy to incentivize--through the tax-code--U.S. based multi-nationals to move jobs overseas? And, how--in either case--do those qualify as tax increases. How does it hurt auto-manufacturers in Detroit to reduce the amount they have to pay out in health care premiums for employees by more intelligent and centralized management of health insurance programs? In an age where we worry about pandemic flu and biological agents in the hands of terrorists, does it make any sense to not have robust, well-funded, public health systems and primary care clinics available to all? If that is socialism, then what are police and fire departments?

More suggestions to follow

Saturday Morning Coming Down

So. The debt limit crisis rolls on. The House voted for a poison pill, which the Senate rejected. The President bemoaned the lack of bi-partisanship. The public is angrier.

I would like to take note of something that is kind of important to remember. Only one party is really culpable here. One party has made it a key principle that big business and the wealthiest Americans should not lose their tax breaks (tax breaks that are not enjoyed by all Americans) and has resolved to bring down the economy instead. The other party is trying to govern.

Paying taxes (and blogging) is hard!

Well folks, the blogging part is hard anyway. I work, I commute, I sleep and eat. Sometimes there just isn't the time or energy to log in, keep coherent thoughts in my head and get them written down. And then there are those times when I hear oil companies and other multi-nationals caterwauling about their tax "burden" -- and hear their amen corner (otherwise known as the Repub party) chime in with a load of pseudo economic BS about job-killing taxes, and, well, blogging gets easy.

Let's start with the oil companies, because they are on my hit parade of BS slingers this week. Oil company execs went in front of Congress the other day and talked about how asking them to pay their taxes would do everything from kill the economy to giving aid and shelter to terrorists. Mind you, I am not talking about hitting them with burdensome, higher taxes than everyone elses taxes; I am talking about asking them to pay the same taxes every other American corporation is supposed to pay. Of course the Repub chorus tripped all over themselves to find microphones from which to decry Democratic grand-standing, politics-playing and job-killing.

So lets back up a minute and recall why the oil companies have those tax breaks anyway.

Back in the distant past, the United States Government told the oil companies what they could charge Americans for a gallon of gasoline. That was why gas was so cheap for so long and why we never got serious about fuel economy until outside forces (OPEC) took a 2 x 4 to our back-sides. Even after the oil shocks of the 70s, it took us a while to turn loose of gasoline subsidies to Joe the Plumber and every other American that pulled up to a gas pump. The same thing was true about home-heating oil, by the way.

Our pay-off to the oil companies was that they got tax breaks to make it affordable for them to explore and develop new oil sources and build new refineries. We also let them write off taxes paid to other countries to explore for oil in those countries and then gave them a break on the cost of tankers to ship the oil back to our shores. It was a fair exchange because they were holding down the cost of what we paid for gas.

Well, times changed and the oil companies joined the chorus of deregulators, environmentalists, and free-marketeers who said that it was wrong to subsidize the cost of gasoline at the pump and that the U. S. Government shouldn't do that anymore. The process started under Jimmy Carter and completed under Ronald Reagan. A lot of folks didn't notice because, in 1986, the Saudis cut the price of oil to the bone and basically dumped it on our markets (and put a lot of domestic oil drillers out of business).

And there it was. Big Oil was free of price controls and they still had their tax breaks. In the mid-90s the Saudis and OPEC started to turn the screws, new competitors came on line demanding oil and gas for their cars, and the prices started up. And the oil companies profits went along for the ride; helped, of course, by some sweet corporate welfare paid by you and me.

Does it make you a little sick and a little mad, maybe? Keep that in mind next time you hear some Repub bleating about how asking Big Oil to pay its fair share will cost jobs. But there is another problem; the Repubs may be economic fantasists (or liars), but the Democrats too often are economic ignoramuses. In all the posturing, from either side of the aisle, I didn't hear a single voice point out the simple, shameful history of how we got here with Big Oil, and how they have ripped us off. Maybe its one thing to feign indignation and another thing to do something about it.

See, the blogging part can be easy, if you get mad enough.

She's Back (Christine, the Teenage Witch, that is)

See link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/08/christine-odonnell-christinepac-gop-george-soros_n_820381.html

She has set up ChristinePAC, to help her fight "establishment" Repubs, and George Soros too. Maybe also to help her pay her rent?

She who must not be named

So. Sarah Pain has trade-marked herself. While that might make sense for Bristol Palin, it is un-democratic and possibly (hopefully) self-defeating for Sarah Palin.

It is un-democratic because she will try to restrict who, when, and how people talk and write about her. Imagine Tina Fey getting sued for damaging the Palin "brand."

It is self-defeating because, well, why would any pol want to generate questions about when it is appropriate to use her name?

Here is a modest suggestion: stop using her name, period. If she wants to restrict how her "trade mark" is used in a free society that she aspires to lead, let's go her one better and stop using the name all together.

SWMNBN (She Who Must Not Be Named) is a good handle. We could even pronounce it "swim nubbin." That has a folksy feel to it.

What a Speech Evokes

In last night's State of the Union Speech, President Obama evoked the American spirit with the words "We do big things." It was poignant because it was true -- and it may be true again.

The President hit the nail on the head last night. We do big things. It is our legacy, our birthright. But, we have had a national case of the grumps that seems as much the result of constipated imaginations as any financial or spiritual failings.

I'd ask you to think big again, dream big and do big if you can. And remember and honor those whose big things are today known as the United States of America.

In 1943, Stephen Vincent Benet published the first volume of what he meant to be an epic poem of the nation's founding and settling, Western Star. Benet died before he could finish the work. He was warded a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for the first volume.

From the Invocation to Western Star, he offers these lines, an elegy for those who came here--and were here.

You shall remember them. You shall not see

Water or wheat or axe-mark on the tree

And not remember them.

You shall not win without remembering them,

For they won every shadow of the moon,

All the vast shadows, and you shall not lose

Without a dark remembrance of their loss

For they lost all and none remembered them.

Hear the wind

Blow through the buffalo-grass,

Blow over the wild-grape and brier.

This was frontier, and this,

And this, your house, was frontier.

There were footprints on the hill

And men lie buried under,

Tamers of earth and river.

They died at the end of labor,

Forgotten is the name.

Now, in full summer, by the Eastern shore,

Between the seamark and the roads going west,

I call two oceans to remember them.

I fill the hollow darkness with their names.

There is much, much more. The poem is well worth a trip to the library. And, as we are called back to our destinies, it is worth remembering those who answered their calls long -- and not so long -- ago.