As I write this I'm reminded that as I approach age 70, I'm much closer to the end of my life here, than to the beginning.
Most people dread the certainty of dying. Not me. I'm looking forward to the next life which I have every reason to believe and expect, will be far superior to this one - not even close!
Besides waiting anxiously to see and be re-united with my parents and the many family and friends who have already gone on before, I'm anxious to get the answers about this life that were either deliberately withheld or obscured, or were beyond my ability to comprehend and understand. Most of all I look forward to living eternally under a righteous King who is all just, all powerful, all knowing - no more compromised justice, no more compromised rights and wrongs, no more abuses by the rich and powerful, no more racism, no more war and dying, no more tyranny of the majority, and finally, those who escaped being brought to justice in this life, will get the justice that should have been meted out to them, but wasn't.
The worse part about this life, was and is, the inequity and inequality that is accepted as the norm and considered as fair and just. It's particularly bad in this country because there is so much available - enough for everyone to have a satisfactory life with plenty to eat and all needs taken care of. But the greedy powerful and rich 2% have stolen the lion's share for themselves, and left the crumbs for the remaining 98% of us who are here.
Jesus said it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven - so there will be few, if any of them, in Heaven - Oh Happy Day!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Trump and Birthers
When a blowhard, egotist and probably white supremacist, red-necked racist, like Donald Trump, starts questioning the birth, citizenship, and fitness of our President, I immediately spring into action investigating why doth this "lady protesteth so much."
And lo and behold, I found this little gem which I have not thoroughly researched yet, but may hold some answers to my question http://trumpbirthers.blogspot.com/
....I don't know how true it is that Trump was born in So. Africa, but if true, then Trump's questioning of President Obama's birth certificate and asserting his unfitness to be president, is disingenuous in the least, and bold-face, white supremacist hubris at best....
This arrogant ass has also filed for bankruptcy 3 or 4 times already, and apparently can't profitably run 'can't-miss' cash-cows like casinos successfully, thinks he has what it takes to be a successful president. And on top of these business failures, he has a string of about 5 failed marriages in his wake! He also claims to be a billionaire - what billionaire have you ever heard of, who is employed by someone else? - in this case, the NBC network is his employer.
Oh well, another one joins the sordid sludge inhabited by the likes of Sarah Palin, John McCain and others of their pitiful and ignorant ilk.
And lo and behold, I found this little gem which I have not thoroughly researched yet, but may hold some answers to my question http://trumpbirthers.blogspot.com/
....I don't know how true it is that Trump was born in So. Africa, but if true, then Trump's questioning of President Obama's birth certificate and asserting his unfitness to be president, is disingenuous in the least, and bold-face, white supremacist hubris at best....
This arrogant ass has also filed for bankruptcy 3 or 4 times already, and apparently can't profitably run 'can't-miss' cash-cows like casinos successfully, thinks he has what it takes to be a successful president. And on top of these business failures, he has a string of about 5 failed marriages in his wake! He also claims to be a billionaire - what billionaire have you ever heard of, who is employed by someone else? - in this case, the NBC network is his employer.
Oh well, another one joins the sordid sludge inhabited by the likes of Sarah Palin, John McCain and others of their pitiful and ignorant ilk.
Thursday, December 09, 2010
..How Little We've Changed...
..A brilliant commentary on the legacy of American racism....
"Make no mistake about it. This will serve to remind us of how little we've changed. Southerners are particularly to blame. They are so proud of their heritage that they cling to the behaviors, beliefs, and the language of slavery. The consequences are direct and unambiguous. Every Confederate flag displayed, every tourist backdrop celebrating the "plantation", every last name of almost every Afro-American citizen serve as a reminder of the ugly past still celebrated by the white culture in the south.
Let's put the dots closer together and see what picture is made clear. The history of the southern states is not merely one of the ownership of human beings. It is also a history that drags a sordid reminder along the years. The southern "charm" is tainted with the ugly stain of rape. Millions of cases of rape. Tens of thousands of children born as a result of rape. The rapists of the slavery era are the great-grandparents of today's southern elite. Yet the children born of those rapes did not benefit from the fact that their owner was also their father.
Count the years. From the early 1600's until well past the Civil War, over 250 years of a culture that secretly endorsed rape as a weapon to secure obedience from women at their disposal; controlling too the male slaves that were allowed to live if they did not revolt against the rape of their women.
The bitterness of the southerner who proudly protects this history lives with the guilt of the era and the knowledge, ultimately, that the people they discriminate against are their own relatives. They are the living DNA connecting today's culture to an unmistakable history of rape.
Even more current examples exist. Strom Thurmond eventually admitted fathering a child with his families maid in the 1930s. In the mean-time, he kept the sordid history secret with bribery. Make no mistake about it. It was rape.
The history of rape in the South continues to be the stain they cannot wash out"
Steven Kale - Eugene, Oregon
"Make no mistake about it. This will serve to remind us of how little we've changed. Southerners are particularly to blame. They are so proud of their heritage that they cling to the behaviors, beliefs, and the language of slavery. The consequences are direct and unambiguous. Every Confederate flag displayed, every tourist backdrop celebrating the "plantation", every last name of almost every Afro-American citizen serve as a reminder of the ugly past still celebrated by the white culture in the south.
Let's put the dots closer together and see what picture is made clear. The history of the southern states is not merely one of the ownership of human beings. It is also a history that drags a sordid reminder along the years. The southern "charm" is tainted with the ugly stain of rape. Millions of cases of rape. Tens of thousands of children born as a result of rape. The rapists of the slavery era are the great-grandparents of today's southern elite. Yet the children born of those rapes did not benefit from the fact that their owner was also their father.
Count the years. From the early 1600's until well past the Civil War, over 250 years of a culture that secretly endorsed rape as a weapon to secure obedience from women at their disposal; controlling too the male slaves that were allowed to live if they did not revolt against the rape of their women.
The bitterness of the southerner who proudly protects this history lives with the guilt of the era and the knowledge, ultimately, that the people they discriminate against are their own relatives. They are the living DNA connecting today's culture to an unmistakable history of rape.
Even more current examples exist. Strom Thurmond eventually admitted fathering a child with his families maid in the 1930s. In the mean-time, he kept the sordid history secret with bribery. Make no mistake about it. It was rape.
The history of rape in the South continues to be the stain they cannot wash out"
Steven Kale - Eugene, Oregon
Saturday, December 04, 2010
"..Thanks For Giving Me a Chance..."
...these were the prescient words of Cam Newton, black QB of the Auburn Tigers football team, in his post game interview. His team had just soundly beaten So. Carolina U. for the SEC championship by 56-17, where he passed for 4 td, ran for 2 td and scrambled almost 100 yds - a remarkable feat considering that just 38 years ago, there had never been a black quarterback allowed to play in the SEC.
For this season, Cam is the first player in SEC history to pass for over 2000 yds. and rush for over 1000 yds. He also owns the Auburn single-season scoring record of over 114 points. He now also holds the best record in college football history of 28 td passing, and 20 td rushing in a single season.
On his way to this historic achievement, Cam has been the victim of a series of vicious, racist attacks by those in his conference and beyond, who never wanted to see a black playing for a previously all-white southern university, much less a black player leading it at quarterback. At issue are allegations that his father solicited payoff money from Mississippi State U. before his son would consider playing there. Clearly his son did not play there, but instead went to Auburn. So it must be asked, if these allegations are true, then what did Auburn agree to give him to play there??? Significantly Auburn is denying this ever happened - for good reason. If they did admit to paying him, they would be ineligible for conference play, and the conference championship they just won would be invalidated. As well, they would be ineligible for the year-end prestigious BCS championship bowl, worth about $40 million in income to the school. There are some that are hoping that just these allegations will be enough to deny him the Heisman Trophy award for the best player in college football. If he doesn't get it, it will prove that this award is worth very little, and not even worth the metal alloy it is made of.
Being given this chance that Newton spoke of, is the heart of the black experience in America since slavery - the denial of an equal chance for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for blacks in all aspects of American life. Some would argue that it has gotten much better, and it has, but there is still has a significant way to go, as the racist signs of the ignorant teabaggers prove.
What Cam did today, is the worst nightmare of red-necked supremacists, who correctly feared that giving blacks a chance, would result in historic performances like this. And would far surpass those of whites, thus exposing and denying the false premise of white superiority and black inferiority.
In Cam's final interview after winning the game's MVP award, he was asked what would he say to all the fans as well as the TV audience, he said, "a wise man told me, if God be for me, who can be against me?"
That wise man was probably his father who is also a minister. But, even if it wasn't, it was still the wisest thing anyone could have said to him and I'm glad he shared it with his fans and the nation.
For this season, Cam is the first player in SEC history to pass for over 2000 yds. and rush for over 1000 yds. He also owns the Auburn single-season scoring record of over 114 points. He now also holds the best record in college football history of 28 td passing, and 20 td rushing in a single season.
On his way to this historic achievement, Cam has been the victim of a series of vicious, racist attacks by those in his conference and beyond, who never wanted to see a black playing for a previously all-white southern university, much less a black player leading it at quarterback. At issue are allegations that his father solicited payoff money from Mississippi State U. before his son would consider playing there. Clearly his son did not play there, but instead went to Auburn. So it must be asked, if these allegations are true, then what did Auburn agree to give him to play there??? Significantly Auburn is denying this ever happened - for good reason. If they did admit to paying him, they would be ineligible for conference play, and the conference championship they just won would be invalidated. As well, they would be ineligible for the year-end prestigious BCS championship bowl, worth about $40 million in income to the school. There are some that are hoping that just these allegations will be enough to deny him the Heisman Trophy award for the best player in college football. If he doesn't get it, it will prove that this award is worth very little, and not even worth the metal alloy it is made of.
Being given this chance that Newton spoke of, is the heart of the black experience in America since slavery - the denial of an equal chance for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for blacks in all aspects of American life. Some would argue that it has gotten much better, and it has, but there is still has a significant way to go, as the racist signs of the ignorant teabaggers prove.
What Cam did today, is the worst nightmare of red-necked supremacists, who correctly feared that giving blacks a chance, would result in historic performances like this. And would far surpass those of whites, thus exposing and denying the false premise of white superiority and black inferiority.
In Cam's final interview after winning the game's MVP award, he was asked what would he say to all the fans as well as the TV audience, he said, "a wise man told me, if God be for me, who can be against me?"
That wise man was probably his father who is also a minister. But, even if it wasn't, it was still the wisest thing anyone could have said to him and I'm glad he shared it with his fans and the nation.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The Bible and 'Free Markets'
http://www.terryreport.com/
"One of the great American myths is that we live in a “free market system” and, as a result, the Republicans, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party fringe need to protect it, while the Dems want to choke it to death. We are up to our eyeballs in talking about free markets, so much so that even President Obama last week said that the big bonuses of Wall Street Bankers are part of the free market, just like baseball players getting multi-million dollar contacts.
The idea that free markets needed protection started way back in the 1920s and ‘30s. At that time, a campaign was produced by some of the first public relations companies, supported by big business, to sell the idea to the American public. The big PR firms, law firms and the US Chamber of Commerce have been carrying the torch ever since. Problem is, the idea is actually more false than real.
We have markets that are freer, less constrained, than some places in the world, such a Europe, but we don’t have wide open, free markets. We have regulated markets, we will always have regulated markets no matter if the Republicans take Congress and the White House for the next hundred years. Those regulations would be lessened, but they would not go away. Even the Republicans, after the banking disaster, would be talking more regulation today if they had won the White House in 2008. The need for some degree of regulation has been made apparent again and again, from the stock market crash of 1929, through the tech/dot com bubble in 2000 and the housing bubble that began to end in 2005 and crashed in ‘08.
The degree to which we have “free” markets is a discussion for another day. It is too involved to lay out in detail right now and, no matter, someone will always come up with an argument on the finer points and then say the larger point is wrong, too. So be it.
HERE IS MY QUESTION OF THE DAY: Where is the “free market system” in the Bible? Where do we find God or Jesus endorsing free markets? Yeah, I know, Jesus chased the money lenders out of the Temple. What else is there in the Bible? Now instead of driving banks out, we give money lenders tax breaks, bonuses and bailouts, because they took us so deep into trouble we would have to dig out with dynamite if they had gone under. The belief that the Bible somehow or another supports free enterprise is spreading, but there is no clear evidence behind that belief.
Despite this, support of free markets has been made into a test of fundamentalist conservatism. Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia requires its students to exhibit loyalty to free markets as part of its basic principles listed as “aims” of the school. Officials at Liberty have stated in public many times that students who don’t believe in those aims don’t belong at Liberty. Period. They used that argument in support of excluding certain student led groups. If you want to believe in highly regulated markets and try to organize a student group, they will shut it down.
The idea of the holiness of free markets is also creeping from religion into text books, too. Recently, the NY Times quoted a member of the Texas State Board of Education as saying that the roots of free market ideals can be found in the Bible. Yeah, where? If so, does that represent an endorsement? This same school board member , a dentist by trade, works with other Christian fundamentalists to bend text books in the direction of his narrow views of religion, government and history, to the exclusion of counter views.
It is fairly astounding to me that free markets are being turned into religious orthodoxy, a vital part of fundamentalist religious ideas. Who started this? Where is it going to stop? Why should anyone who doesn’t believe that free market capitalism is not the most wonderful thing on earth want to be part of such a religion? What if you are living out of your car, sleeping in a store parking lot because you’ve lost your home and job to free markets, do you want to worship capitalism and Jesus on Sundays? Come on down.
All of this can be seen as the antipode to what communism did in Russia: first there was communism, then there could be nothing else, no free thought, no religious practices, very little family, no enterprise. The religious zealots in America now want us to believe it is their way or the highway, that everything they believe is backed up by the ultimate authority, the Bible. They would leave us, in the end, as stripped of the ability to think for ourselves as communism once did around the world. If you question their business practices, you are also questioning their religion. What a deal.
I say to them, where is the free market system in the Bible? Prove it, Charlie. Show me how the Bible endorses the brutalities of take no prisoners capitalism. Where does the Bible say that no matter how an employer treats the employees, if there is profit, that is good? Where does the Bible say that, as cable and satellite companies do, they have a responsibility to their share holders to show pornography if that results in maximizing profits? Where does the Bible say that cheating and charging every last fee you can imagine from the poorest banking customers is, overall, a wonderful thing? Does the Bible endorse running your competition out of business in the most direct, efficient way possible so you can make more money, faster? Does the Bible praise operating commercial aircraft that are unsafe, just so long as the stock holders get their money?
The people who are pushing the belief that free markets are part of the Bible and, thus, “god’s plan” for the world are in the process of turning their religious beliefs into a joke. They are working backward from their political views and trying to turn them into canons of religious duty. This is not just nonsense, it is dangerous nonsense. In reaction to changes brought about by the modern world, they want to take us back a hundred or two hundred years.
It is a way of stunting the brains of their followers into believing that what can often be evil (rampant, unchecked power of corporations) is somehow good for them. In effect, they are endorsing everything that capitalism does and calling on their believers not to oppose any of those actions, but rather to lie down, willingly and happily, and submit in the name of the greater good. Otherwise, they would be interfering, interfering I tell you!, with the holy free market system.
Free markets are nowhere to be found in the Christian Bible. Nor is it any way factual to suggest the principles of free markets were inspired by the Bible. That is little more than fantasy enlarged to fit the evident need for belief. The closest analog to the teachings of Christ, to many who have studied the New Testament closely, can be found in the ideals (not the practices) under which communism raised its ugly flag: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. In a sense, it would be grand if we could look to one book written a thousand and more years ago and know the answer to the complex questions of our times, but we can’t."
"One of the great American myths is that we live in a “free market system” and, as a result, the Republicans, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party fringe need to protect it, while the Dems want to choke it to death. We are up to our eyeballs in talking about free markets, so much so that even President Obama last week said that the big bonuses of Wall Street Bankers are part of the free market, just like baseball players getting multi-million dollar contacts.
The idea that free markets needed protection started way back in the 1920s and ‘30s. At that time, a campaign was produced by some of the first public relations companies, supported by big business, to sell the idea to the American public. The big PR firms, law firms and the US Chamber of Commerce have been carrying the torch ever since. Problem is, the idea is actually more false than real.
We have markets that are freer, less constrained, than some places in the world, such a Europe, but we don’t have wide open, free markets. We have regulated markets, we will always have regulated markets no matter if the Republicans take Congress and the White House for the next hundred years. Those regulations would be lessened, but they would not go away. Even the Republicans, after the banking disaster, would be talking more regulation today if they had won the White House in 2008. The need for some degree of regulation has been made apparent again and again, from the stock market crash of 1929, through the tech/dot com bubble in 2000 and the housing bubble that began to end in 2005 and crashed in ‘08.
The degree to which we have “free” markets is a discussion for another day. It is too involved to lay out in detail right now and, no matter, someone will always come up with an argument on the finer points and then say the larger point is wrong, too. So be it.
HERE IS MY QUESTION OF THE DAY: Where is the “free market system” in the Bible? Where do we find God or Jesus endorsing free markets? Yeah, I know, Jesus chased the money lenders out of the Temple. What else is there in the Bible? Now instead of driving banks out, we give money lenders tax breaks, bonuses and bailouts, because they took us so deep into trouble we would have to dig out with dynamite if they had gone under. The belief that the Bible somehow or another supports free enterprise is spreading, but there is no clear evidence behind that belief.
Despite this, support of free markets has been made into a test of fundamentalist conservatism. Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia requires its students to exhibit loyalty to free markets as part of its basic principles listed as “aims” of the school. Officials at Liberty have stated in public many times that students who don’t believe in those aims don’t belong at Liberty. Period. They used that argument in support of excluding certain student led groups. If you want to believe in highly regulated markets and try to organize a student group, they will shut it down.
The idea of the holiness of free markets is also creeping from religion into text books, too. Recently, the NY Times quoted a member of the Texas State Board of Education as saying that the roots of free market ideals can be found in the Bible. Yeah, where? If so, does that represent an endorsement? This same school board member , a dentist by trade, works with other Christian fundamentalists to bend text books in the direction of his narrow views of religion, government and history, to the exclusion of counter views.
It is fairly astounding to me that free markets are being turned into religious orthodoxy, a vital part of fundamentalist religious ideas. Who started this? Where is it going to stop? Why should anyone who doesn’t believe that free market capitalism is not the most wonderful thing on earth want to be part of such a religion? What if you are living out of your car, sleeping in a store parking lot because you’ve lost your home and job to free markets, do you want to worship capitalism and Jesus on Sundays? Come on down.
All of this can be seen as the antipode to what communism did in Russia: first there was communism, then there could be nothing else, no free thought, no religious practices, very little family, no enterprise. The religious zealots in America now want us to believe it is their way or the highway, that everything they believe is backed up by the ultimate authority, the Bible. They would leave us, in the end, as stripped of the ability to think for ourselves as communism once did around the world. If you question their business practices, you are also questioning their religion. What a deal.
I say to them, where is the free market system in the Bible? Prove it, Charlie. Show me how the Bible endorses the brutalities of take no prisoners capitalism. Where does the Bible say that no matter how an employer treats the employees, if there is profit, that is good? Where does the Bible say that, as cable and satellite companies do, they have a responsibility to their share holders to show pornography if that results in maximizing profits? Where does the Bible say that cheating and charging every last fee you can imagine from the poorest banking customers is, overall, a wonderful thing? Does the Bible endorse running your competition out of business in the most direct, efficient way possible so you can make more money, faster? Does the Bible praise operating commercial aircraft that are unsafe, just so long as the stock holders get their money?
The people who are pushing the belief that free markets are part of the Bible and, thus, “god’s plan” for the world are in the process of turning their religious beliefs into a joke. They are working backward from their political views and trying to turn them into canons of religious duty. This is not just nonsense, it is dangerous nonsense. In reaction to changes brought about by the modern world, they want to take us back a hundred or two hundred years.
It is a way of stunting the brains of their followers into believing that what can often be evil (rampant, unchecked power of corporations) is somehow good for them. In effect, they are endorsing everything that capitalism does and calling on their believers not to oppose any of those actions, but rather to lie down, willingly and happily, and submit in the name of the greater good. Otherwise, they would be interfering, interfering I tell you!, with the holy free market system.
Free markets are nowhere to be found in the Christian Bible. Nor is it any way factual to suggest the principles of free markets were inspired by the Bible. That is little more than fantasy enlarged to fit the evident need for belief. The closest analog to the teachings of Christ, to many who have studied the New Testament closely, can be found in the ideals (not the practices) under which communism raised its ugly flag: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. In a sense, it would be grand if we could look to one book written a thousand and more years ago and know the answer to the complex questions of our times, but we can’t."
What President Obama Needs To Do - Now!
http://www.terryreport.com/
"Obama and his troops came into Washington, DC, drunk with their own success and his "magical" abilities. It was as if they commanded a massive battleship when any opposition would likely be floating around in row boats. All they had to do, it seemed, was move forward; the waves alone would knock them away.
But, let's not go overboard, mates. The single decision to turn the development of the health care legislation over to Congress was the most self destructive act of the first two years. It was just one mistake. Wrapped securely in their White House cocoon, they had little idea of the disaster they had set in motion. Even I was repulsed by the resulting partisan carnage, and I am a former Capitol Hill reporter able to sit through seven or eight congressional hearings in a week without my head exploding. For the public, it was too much. The sausage making had invaded their living rooms and was stinkin' up the whole house.
We must remember this...a kiss is still as kiss...(sorry, wrong comment). Most of the public, as revealed in a recent poll, have turned against this president and the Democrats based on FALSE information about what he has done. Most think he raised taxes, instead of lowing them by 240 billion on the middle class. Most think the money loaned the banks and car companies will never be recovered (profits are ahead). And, most people think the stimulus didn't work when, in fact, the economy has grown slightly for the last four quarters. While these impressions have soaked in, Obama has been Mr. Cool, willing to push back on almost nothing and appearing on every television program besides Sesame Street (they are trying to book him there next week).
Almost any Democrat would have won in 2008, with the economy headed far south and two inclusive wars simmering in billions of American dollars and hundreds of lives. When the housing market fell to pieces, the fate of the Republicans was sealed, but the Obama tribe took everything that happened to heart, as if they, and they alone, possessed a special formula. Sadly, they, and we, have learned they did not.
To be fair (is that called for these days?), Obama came into office with some of the biggest problems in American history hanging over his head. Perhaps he shouldn't have bothered adding to those problems by pushing health care? He has done rather well, except in convincing the public to go along for the ride.
These were, and are, extraordinary times. They called for something more than business as usual, something more than mere government/Washington solutions. There was a deep need to engage the public in the effort to pull us through and out of recession and everything that was proposed were drawn from the official government playbook.
For example, there has been very little presidential "jaw boning" of business and corporations to get them to start hiring and spend the massive cash reserves on which their over paid backsides rest so comfortably. Business has left the building (backdoor exit). They do not care and are no longer engaged with the fate of this nation. They have slipped the surly bonds of earth and are touching faces in India, China and Ireland. Being president means you occasionally are required to spit in the face of those who sent you (just not always, ala Jimmy Carter).
Where is the threat, where is the power of this presidency? Like Clinton in the '90s (those grand years of ol), Obama has yet to demonstrate that he is strong enough, by virtue of a willingness to show and use the power of his office. We know where that got Clinton: impeachment by a bunch of political mice on Capitol Hill who believed he would roll over a play dead as soon as the House voted.
What can be done? Obama needs to widen his circle of advisers. He needs to spend less time on television and more time figuring out what to do. He needs to look for that hidden, enticing "presidential moment" when he can leave American citizens, and official Washington, thunderstruck with his daring and determination. He needs to prove that he deserves the office that the nation gratefully gave him.
He needs to try some new things. Obama needs to look to the extra-official aspects of the presidency, of leadership that does not involve getting legislation passed. Until now, bills in Congress have been his focus. It hasn’t worked, at least not in bringing support to him and his presidency.
He needs to find ways to make the nation feel and believe, in substance and by impression, that he and we can tackle our problems and get moving again. He needs to use the bully pulpit as none have ever before. He needs to pick some good fights and show the public he is not afraid to get dirt on his collar. He needs to give people new reasons to believe in him."
(excerpted from the Terry report)
"Obama and his troops came into Washington, DC, drunk with their own success and his "magical" abilities. It was as if they commanded a massive battleship when any opposition would likely be floating around in row boats. All they had to do, it seemed, was move forward; the waves alone would knock them away.
But, let's not go overboard, mates. The single decision to turn the development of the health care legislation over to Congress was the most self destructive act of the first two years. It was just one mistake. Wrapped securely in their White House cocoon, they had little idea of the disaster they had set in motion. Even I was repulsed by the resulting partisan carnage, and I am a former Capitol Hill reporter able to sit through seven or eight congressional hearings in a week without my head exploding. For the public, it was too much. The sausage making had invaded their living rooms and was stinkin' up the whole house.
We must remember this...a kiss is still as kiss...(sorry, wrong comment). Most of the public, as revealed in a recent poll, have turned against this president and the Democrats based on FALSE information about what he has done. Most think he raised taxes, instead of lowing them by 240 billion on the middle class. Most think the money loaned the banks and car companies will never be recovered (profits are ahead). And, most people think the stimulus didn't work when, in fact, the economy has grown slightly for the last four quarters. While these impressions have soaked in, Obama has been Mr. Cool, willing to push back on almost nothing and appearing on every television program besides Sesame Street (they are trying to book him there next week).
Almost any Democrat would have won in 2008, with the economy headed far south and two inclusive wars simmering in billions of American dollars and hundreds of lives. When the housing market fell to pieces, the fate of the Republicans was sealed, but the Obama tribe took everything that happened to heart, as if they, and they alone, possessed a special formula. Sadly, they, and we, have learned they did not.
To be fair (is that called for these days?), Obama came into office with some of the biggest problems in American history hanging over his head. Perhaps he shouldn't have bothered adding to those problems by pushing health care? He has done rather well, except in convincing the public to go along for the ride.
These were, and are, extraordinary times. They called for something more than business as usual, something more than mere government/Washington solutions. There was a deep need to engage the public in the effort to pull us through and out of recession and everything that was proposed were drawn from the official government playbook.
For example, there has been very little presidential "jaw boning" of business and corporations to get them to start hiring and spend the massive cash reserves on which their over paid backsides rest so comfortably. Business has left the building (backdoor exit). They do not care and are no longer engaged with the fate of this nation. They have slipped the surly bonds of earth and are touching faces in India, China and Ireland. Being president means you occasionally are required to spit in the face of those who sent you (just not always, ala Jimmy Carter).
Where is the threat, where is the power of this presidency? Like Clinton in the '90s (those grand years of ol), Obama has yet to demonstrate that he is strong enough, by virtue of a willingness to show and use the power of his office. We know where that got Clinton: impeachment by a bunch of political mice on Capitol Hill who believed he would roll over a play dead as soon as the House voted.
What can be done? Obama needs to widen his circle of advisers. He needs to spend less time on television and more time figuring out what to do. He needs to look for that hidden, enticing "presidential moment" when he can leave American citizens, and official Washington, thunderstruck with his daring and determination. He needs to prove that he deserves the office that the nation gratefully gave him.
He needs to try some new things. Obama needs to look to the extra-official aspects of the presidency, of leadership that does not involve getting legislation passed. Until now, bills in Congress have been his focus. It hasn’t worked, at least not in bringing support to him and his presidency.
He needs to find ways to make the nation feel and believe, in substance and by impression, that he and we can tackle our problems and get moving again. He needs to use the bully pulpit as none have ever before. He needs to pick some good fights and show the public he is not afraid to get dirt on his collar. He needs to give people new reasons to believe in him."
(excerpted from the Terry report)
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Karma is a B***h
The middle classes (liberals and conservatives) are now being savaged by the wealthy corporate class, because they (middle classes) either cheered or ignored the subjugation and degradation of the lower classes by wealthy corporatist and landowners, starting with slavery, jim crow-ism, sharecropping, through present-day entrenched toxic discriminations.
In modern times, even liberal Californians voted to overturn the Rumford Act of 1963, which prohibited discrimination in the sale, lease and rental of real property on the basis of race, religion, sex, marital status, physical handicap or familial status. An overwhelming 65% voted against extending basic human rights to blacks who were the chief beneficiaries of the Rumford Act.
So to see them now on the receiving end of the same malevolent mind-set, including being hit with high unemployment, outsourced jobs, foreclosed homes, obscene profits on Wall Street, and voting against their best interests through racist fears etc., is a reminder that karma often comes slowly, but it always arrives.
They have been so savaged that many of them are now embracing the Tea-bagging/Tea-Party fraudsters, and just elected a significant number of genocidal tea-thugs to further oppress them and take what little is left of their middle class.
I should be charitable and welcome them to the lower classes of which I am a part, and which they always despised. In this class are poor, middle income, and highly educated wealthy blacks, including President Obama, all deemed by the US Constitution and many whites, to be less-than, by virtue of being black.
But I won't, because they probably don't appreciate being lumped in with this class after multiple decades of being on top. I think I'll just let them stew and steadily decline under the onslaught of their masters of predatory capitalism, that are oppressing them while claiming to 'feel their pain'.
And to complete the 'Karma' circle, the ex-President whom they elected twice and who did so much to turn their dreams to ashes with his war-mongering, reckless deficit spending, crony capitalism with his bankster pals, and sociopathic sanctioning of torturous water-boarding and other outrages, began hawking his revisionist memoirs today, while desperately hoping none will remember his 8-year reign of lying, error and terror.
Sorry Prez, I am remembering, even if they won't...
In modern times, even liberal Californians voted to overturn the Rumford Act of 1963, which prohibited discrimination in the sale, lease and rental of real property on the basis of race, religion, sex, marital status, physical handicap or familial status. An overwhelming 65% voted against extending basic human rights to blacks who were the chief beneficiaries of the Rumford Act.
So to see them now on the receiving end of the same malevolent mind-set, including being hit with high unemployment, outsourced jobs, foreclosed homes, obscene profits on Wall Street, and voting against their best interests through racist fears etc., is a reminder that karma often comes slowly, but it always arrives.
They have been so savaged that many of them are now embracing the Tea-bagging/Tea-Party fraudsters, and just elected a significant number of genocidal tea-thugs to further oppress them and take what little is left of their middle class.
I should be charitable and welcome them to the lower classes of which I am a part, and which they always despised. In this class are poor, middle income, and highly educated wealthy blacks, including President Obama, all deemed by the US Constitution and many whites, to be less-than, by virtue of being black.
But I won't, because they probably don't appreciate being lumped in with this class after multiple decades of being on top. I think I'll just let them stew and steadily decline under the onslaught of their masters of predatory capitalism, that are oppressing them while claiming to 'feel their pain'.
And to complete the 'Karma' circle, the ex-President whom they elected twice and who did so much to turn their dreams to ashes with his war-mongering, reckless deficit spending, crony capitalism with his bankster pals, and sociopathic sanctioning of torturous water-boarding and other outrages, began hawking his revisionist memoirs today, while desperately hoping none will remember his 8-year reign of lying, error and terror.
Sorry Prez, I am remembering, even if they won't...
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