The Legacy of Reagan

The Legacy of Ronald Reagan

It is hard to imagine looking at this year's Republican Primary and wondering where in the hell have all the conservatives gone. There exists in the annals of the GOP, many giants. Nelson Rockefeller comes to mind though to be honest he was more Democratic in his leaning than ever Republican. There was also Javits a senator from New York, Brooke of Massachusetts. Let's not forget Ike who warned the nation about the Military Industrial Complex. Add to this list, Drisken and many others. These men were all politicians but somehow they contributed to the great experiment. They had ideas, they promoted programs, they advocated policies. In short, they helped to steer the great ship of state through the troubled waters of time. Where have men of this caliber gone?
I think the fall of the Republican party began with the ascent of its recent icon, The Gipper. Ronald Reagan stands at the juncture between meaningful dialogue and manufactured bullshit, better known as “spin.” Reagan made stupid an art form. He could disarm and counterpoint the most salient of points with a down home, “There you go again.” Reagan was the senile grandfather whose greatest gift was his ability to make stupid seem common sense.
History shows that during the campaign for the presidency he won that he was dimwitted, not unlike a recent soccer mom with a pit bull ego. When asked serious questions, he showed nothing but confusion about history and geography. In fact, some analysis of his behavior suggest that he may have already been suffering from Alzheimer's. In the early going of that campaign, it was clear by his operatives and his wife that he was not up to the give and take of the campaign. What happened was that all of his contact thereafter was staged. The great modern conservative icon was scripted.
What is significant about this turning point in politics is that dumb became the new common sense. People related to Reagan, in large measure, because he was one of them. His smile and demeanor always at the ready played to the American sense that you didn't need to be smart. In fact, there was once a popular bumper sticker, that proclaimed, “if you so damn smart, why ain't you rich.” It was at this time “trickle down” economics became popular. The idea was if the rich had enough money, they would create opportunity. There was also something called the Lafer Curve used to prove supply side economics, and was about as sound as using a sieve to hold water. This popular leader played the tune of cliches and non statements that got the populace dancing. A program at the time, The Lives of the Rich and Famous extolled the virtue of excess and the masses sat in their homes and lived vicariously. Another push at the time was the assault on government. Regulations became the bane of the Republic. And of course, the ghouls who pushed this once B actor onto the main stage waited with baited breaths as the checks to their greedy nature were stripped away giving them full reign to do whatever they wish to do. What followed was the Savings and Loan Debacle.
The south plays into this revolution. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act and their inability to control the Democratic Conventions with their arcane penchant for segregation in all its ugly expressions, they flocked to the Republican Party and began with the slow sure progression of a malevolent force to seize control. Against this backdrop, enter the Elmer Gantries who with the help of hired guns like Reed and Atwater shaped public discourse with hate and fear.
It is a sad commentary that one party out of two is so far removed from the century we are living and the issues we are facing. Intolerance seems to be an underlying theme. Santorum can actually call out a president for being for education. It is absurd, when education has been the corner stone of all progress. I know the Senator is a Roman Catholic, and I would like him to point to one progressive act the church has taken in last one thousands years. I would dare say that the Rome of today would probably censor the Jesus of Biblical times for his positions expressed in the Sermon on the Mount. The irony of this current primary is that candidates can proclaim outright foolishness and prove their point by saying it is what I believe. It is like Reagan standing there on the platform and rather than answering the question come out with his “Aw shucks, there you go again.” The only thing more scary than that is me learning that after the primary season, the Republican candidate takes up the violin.
A great nation does not fall because of its lofty goals but its belief in things that have long outlived their usefulness.

Mitt the Shit

Mitt the Shit

OK, the pundits will sit around their tables all with sagacious interpretations to describe the recent embarrassment of Romney. It seems this guy can't get over 51% of any primary race. He is whipped by crazies like Newt and Rick. The only fools not able to capitalize on their “Not Romney” tactic are the three idiots who possessed a severe case of hoof and mouth disease. It seems Mitt who had sold his soul to the neanderthals who now control the Republican party is finding himself the chameleon splayed on the table with a scalpel hanging over him like the sword of Damocles. “What Shall It Profit A Man To Gain The Whole World And Lose His Soul.” Well, it seems we need to dig into both myth and the bible to understand what is happening to this caricature of himself.
The Republican party is a haven for scoundrels and crooks. It wasn't too long ago Haley Barber was being portrayed as presidential timber. Well, he is an example of the outrageous crap parading as conservatism. Here is a man who was a leader of the party selling pardons like some street corner dealer who doesn't give a wit for the consequences of his criminal acts. Fact is the Republican Party has been taken control of by a group of thugs and criminals with a throng of no nothings filling the ranks. Karl Rove, a spokesperson for conservatives, was directly involved in breaking the law. Sure a president can pardon a criminal but that doesn't undue the crime. And the slick vermin of the party having reduced politics to single silly issues, like gay marriage or patriotism or deficits (without owning up to their part in it) are now reaping the fruits of their labor.
Santorum and Gingrich can spout the craziest shit imaginable. Like Newt talking about the sanctity of religion while violating every commandment. Santorum can talk of Christian values while ignoring the key tenets of Jesus, Charity and Forgiveness. Against this backdrop of craziness, Mitt, not being a dullard, realized that he had to move a 180 degrees from his previous positions to attract enough nuts to support him in his presidential bid. Unfortunately, trying to please a nut can only be accomplished by those who understand the crazed machinations of the insane. One can say one needs to be an accomplished nut with no moral underpinnings.
The Republicans beginning with Atwater gave up its ethics and morals and reduced American politics to a sham attracting in the process the conservatives of the south who longed for the days of Jim Crow laws. One mustn't forget that harvesting this segment of the American electorate one needed to stand in the foot prints of George Wallace and other of his ilk. It seems to me that the chickens have indeed come home to roost and the Republicans and their allusions to the golden era of Reagan (which wasn't so golden)have painted their candidates into the corner of intolerance and bigotry and ignorance. The candidates must appeal to the lowest of low. They must seek to preach separation while alluding to sheer poppycock, like solving the debt by attacking the liberal agenda, which most can't even explain what it is they believe save with trite cliches pumped into them by men who have not an iota of conscious. Poor Romney once a man of principle must now appear as a no nothing, with simplistic solutions to complex problems set forward by men who sought only to gain the throne so they can pilfer the treasury. Indeed, what does it gain a man . . . .”

Not so united states

I blog; therefore I am. Or to put it another way, I need an outlet so I can't cope with the crap that parades as government. I think the Tea Party folks are right: the federal government is broken, and they have only themselves and their sycophants in the House of Representatives to thank for lashing out with the final blows that stymies any chance of it ever being repaired. The presidency of George W. Bush with its tax cuts, unwarranted wars, and drug program that profited drug companies contributed to our national crisis. It was nothing short of a rape and plunder of our National Treasury and drove this country into debt that the fools on the right think should be paid for with the funds from the “people's programs.” Obama missed the boat when he didn't charge that idiot and his criminal cohort (Dark Vader himself) with the crimes that they committed as well as the crooks on Wall Street. He had his chance and he blew it. He obviously didn't the learn the lesson in Aesop's fable of the frog and the spider.
But the past is the past and as it reads in the Rubaiyat, Piety nor wit nor all your tears wash out a word of it. So let's not pretend that this is a united country. For in order for us to even use the word united in reference to America we would need to redefine what united means, like a neologism, hmm something like the idiots on the right did when they came up with “job creator” for a billionaire.
To see Speaker Bonehead and his side kick Cantman is to witness a spectacle that could only exist in the Hoover years or perhaps Caligula time. These so called leaders are so steeped into their defense of the rich they literally will destroy this country to prove that they have the power to do it. Not only did these ill informed Republicans gave us the Katrina aftermath; now they want to double down on the ravages that swept across the northeast and simply ignore the pain and suffering of many communities. All of this, of course, is but proof that they don't give a tinker's damn about anything but bloated fat cat bankers and corporate thieves. So lets divvy up what left of this country and split it up – let's have a blue country and a red country. Let's let Bonehead and Cantman lead a bunch of Tea Party states into a new land. Quite frankly, it would be nice just not to have to listen to these idiots talk about our nation. Let them talk about their own red nation, let them create a pollution world where “job creators” can do whatever they want – let them have states where there is no safety net and the old folks can go on dog food or better let them have Paul's plan for medical care. Medicare and Social Security are often called the third rail, but with the new Republican plan, hell they can throw all the folks they want on that rail and let them fry. Also, they can have a land where every embryo is sacred, hell let them mandate that every egg and every spermatozoa is sacred. That would be good cause then they can pass a law that capital punishment can be applied to anyone who doesn't swear allegiance to Creationism. Of course, Rick “god is my pilot” Perry can team up with Michele Bachman and create a tent revival and pray with all the Sunday TV preachers who feel they can beat the crap out of all the kids that don't allow them to diddle.
Best of all, we would have to dismantle the Armed Forces, I would be happy to give the Red States the Pentagon, though I don't think the new found country could support it. Oh, by the way, with out a United States of America there would be no bombs to drop, no armies to fight, no navy, no nothing. I can even imagine the relief that would be freeing ourselves from fighting everyone and everybody. And to stop those assholes in the red states from encroaching on our land and our ideas, we would need only give them the money to build a wall around their land. I got a feeling they may resort to a time when the constitution was being drafted. They would probably want to go back to outhouses because the constitution didn't really mention sewage plants and of course some type of government entity is needed to run them and we know what they think about government.
They can have all the old shit and the blue states can have the modern stuff. President Perry can have all the minimum wage jobs though I see him being impeached given his penchant for going beyond his closed minded racist stance and leaning toward Mexican labor. Sure all this is complicated and would require a great deal of effort but it has to be easier than listening to these leaders of the red states who are just plain ass stupid. That is why the Presidency of Rick Perry is a good cause he believes in secession. One thing though, we got to keep an eye on him because he maybe dumb but he isn't stupid and the worse thing in the world is to hear a Texan tell you he has got a good deal for you.

Obama Resign

I don't even know the details. The headlines were enough to spirit this diatribe. Obama backs down and changes the date for his grand attempt to get the nation back to work. All I know is that supposedly there was a scheduling conflict between the jobs speech and a debate of the Republicans running for president. Let's see, on one hand you have the president promoting jobs and on the other, Republicans prancing before a tv audience spouting bs and fabrications all wrapped up in spin. Jobs, or bs, oh, well, why not go with bs, after all, this country has been awash in crap for so long we never find the time for substantive governance and it is more than likely that whatever the president proposed will fall on deaf and dumb ears. The great orator of hope compromises principle after principle and defers to a smoking hack who is two puffs short of being a billboard in Times Square promoting corrupt government. Oh, by the way, Leader Bonehead is a wimp to the tea party wackos who think revolutionary hats and an asinine stand against taxes will rescue this country from all that is wrong.
The misguided people who support these clowns are so blinded by the bs served up daily by right wing idiots who serve the masters of Industry and Commerce that they can't appreciate they are lemmings heading for the abyss. The pied pipers of the right, bleach blond bimbos who spew venom and a bulging cigar chomping Viagra and Oxycontin popping draft dodging pompous loudmouth, charm the unknowing with slogans and cliches that do little but produce a segment of the electorate who haven't a clue as to the actual reasons for the decline of this nation and the ever growing national debt.
Whereas the top 10 per cent continue to amass wealth, the bottom half loses more and more ground – this hurricane like attack on the lower and the middle class erodes the foundation of what made this country great. Which leads me to the conclusion that Obama must resign.
He is ill equipped to deal with what he is facing. He doesn't understand the power of the presidency. He shrinks from his role at each and every turn. Hell, he can't even get them fools in Congress to talk about jobs. The Republican debate, give me a break. There hasn't been a decent and serious debate at the national level in this country in at least fifty years. We have sound bites and spin – bs.
We sure enough have a deficit. And if the president was a fighting spirit he would do something about it without those tea party fools lead by the likes of Cantor and Bonehead. He should up the ante and get busy doing the people's business and let those fools squander their term counting pennies and seeing how they can continue to subsidize billionaires and corporations that just don't need any more wealth. You ask how to act without the squabbling fools in the house? Well let see how:
Stop the wars. Bring the troops home. To hell with this idea that we can bring democracy to a world where people are still living like cave men. Stop the military industrial conflict from sucking billions out of the national treasury. Go after the war criminal Cheney and his thieves at Halliburton who have been profiting and stealing with cost overruns and in the process sacrificing the lives of servicemen. Stop paying the whores on Wall Street. Enforce regulatory action where it protects the consumer and levy stiff fines. Send bills up to the hill that are simple: like a highways and bridges improvement act. Let those silly idiots tell their constituents that their safety isn't as important compared as the tax breaks given the corporate fools who sit atop of companies that don't give a tinker damn about this nation. Replace all those outdated hot water heaters with on demand systems. Get a public option on health care that stops all the insurance companies from gumming up the health care system. Do something positive besides yapping about this or that and riding around in a stupid bus like Sarah “the no nothing” Palin.
The unfortunate truth is that Obama might just not be ready for prime time politics. He is an image of what we want as president, but he isn't the man. We need someone tough. We need a leader not someone who caves at the slightest confrontation. We need someone who wants to lead not someone who wants to play the role. Unfortunately, in this age of spectacle, the country was charmed by a pretender who possessed the superficial qualities that we so desperately wanted especially after the buffoon and criminals we had for eight years. What we got was someone who could act like a leader but unfortunately just can't lead. Funny, he grabbed ol' Bubba's playbook and thought he could follow it to a reelection. His inner circle is good at campaigning and spinning but don't have a clue as to what it means to govern. They are too much with the superficial and not enough with the substance. They should make movies, pleasant two hour things and get the hell out of government. Obama resign! Hand over the reigns to Joe and let see if the democrats can up with someone who will lead the country to a better government, a healthier economy and a party that is concerned with its citizens not corporations. You had your shot and you just didn't get it done. Resign Obama, resign.

A Break Up Letter to Obama

Dear Barry

Well, it is really hard for me to write this letter. You know, when the going got tough, I was there for you. Reverend Wright couldn't scare me away, nor could that thing Hilary said when she said you were really too inexperienced to be president. I stood by you when the aspersions about you nationality were thrown at you. I was there Barry. You see, I believed in the audacity of hope. I believed that there was a better way to conduct our foreign policy then relying on a volunteer army to wage fool hardy wars to prevent the world from blowing up with weapons of mass destruction. Barry, I really did believe in you and what you had to offer. But surely, you can appreciate that even the most die hard awe struck follower grows weary when you constantly grovel for the attention of those who don't even like you. Barry come on you have got to see that those folks really want you to fail.
You ask why they don't like you.
First, let me say that they are never going to like you because you are way too uppity. You are too cool for those tea baggers, cranky old white men and shrill white women with bleach hair who prefer to hang around rich fat old white men. You can't do anything right even when you are playing a rich white man's game like golf. Barry, I know you are only half black but you are smart enough to remember that old miscegenation laws that classified those with only a tenth part in the blood. You really don't think those recent strolls down memory lane in the south praising that antebellum period was just a dress up party. Barry, a lot of white folks just don't like black folks and a lot of them can be found in the disloyal opposition. Fact is fact.
Second, you don't appreciate how much you have hurt me when you turn your back to me or even worse offer me only a plate at the kid's table and not in the formal dinning room. What? You don't understand! Did you forget when you were campaigning you talked about our national shame about health coverage? Didn't you realize that what I thought I was buying was a broad and sweeping change which included a public option so we could finally corralled those claim-denying insurance companies and make it possible for folks to live free of that fear of a catastrophic illness? Funny, if that legislation that was passed had a public option, all those court cases would have not been possible. Do you think that insurance lobby knew that when the bill was being drafted? They are really sharp when it comes to escape clauses.
But Barry, it is those damn wars that have gotten the best of me. You seem to be doing what John McCain wanted to do but that doesn't help you at all with him, does it? And now there is Libya – another step on a slippery slope to who knows what. Don't you get it Barry that when you do what someone who doesn't like you wants you to do and they are still angry and disappointed it is you and now what you do.
I guess whoever is advising you is telling you how you can get re-elected if you follow some basic plan about moving to the center. I guess there is no one talking to you about integrity and keeping your word. I guess you thought your smile and quick wit would win the hearts and minds of those who just don't like you. But Barry you were so wrong. I am afraid you are going to find yourself in no man's land. A disappointment to those who cared and a failure to those who you tried to win. Governing, Barry, is sometimes about compromise but mostly it is about leadership and integrity. It is one thing to do something because you have to, but when you do it side up to those who don't like you; then, Barry it time for the jilted to move on.

The End of Reality That We Never Knew

I feel detached these days. Election day is approaching and the absurdity of our political system is never more apparent then at the time of an election. We live in a fantasy world where nothing is real. We are bombarded with news twenty-four hours of every day. The news is recycled from the tabloids known for their indiscretion and questionable bending of the truth. Political operatives spend hour after hour twisting and bending the facts to give us a less than honest appraisal of their candidates and the oppositions. Issues are made up based on the electorate's predilections.

The new twist is the old twist. The so called mavericks have come upon the scene with their mouths open wide spewing anti government slogans and attesting to their “common man” leanings. Their rise can be attributed to the fact that government is in shambles. After eight years of dishonest thuggery, we have a president who tried to be all things to all people. He attempted to be the great compromiser while the other side declared on his election day victory that they were not going to do anything to help. Right wing blabber mouths with unlimited air time questioned his very status as a citizen. The irony of all this patriotic opposition was that the country had fallen into a hole of debt and not one of these so called intellectuals was concerned with helping to right the ship of state. All the right did with the help of their minions of revisionists was to launch broadside after broadside making it nearly impossible to give any sense of accomplishment to the new president. The smug blonds and the overweight loud mouths came forth with their witty asides twisting facts and history to serve their rhetoric of hate.

In all this fight for the “common man” we must be honest and state unequivocally that it is a fight for the “common white man.” Racism is alive and well. These tea party folks are the “no nothings” of this age. They are against government for all the people though they will defend with all their might the government that they receive. They are characters out of Twain's Huckleberry Finn who detest educated black men. They are lead around by their noses by folks with dishonorable intentions. They listen to the shrill call of the wild. They are bound by the illusion that they are the real voice of America. The sad fact is the real voice of America is somewhat tainted by a history steeped in racism and jingoistic fervor that serve the top one percent who hold a disproportionate share of the wealth of the nation.

The nation watches reality shows that are concocted in the minds of simpletons who want us to believe they are real. People are paraded before us as celebrities when their only claim to such status is their appearance on a medium that has evolved into a P T Barnum side show. They are freaks of a medium that is too adept at changing reality and whose main intent is to get the unsuspecting buyer to purchase a pill that will do whatever age and diet has robbed them off.

Our elections are a reflection of our society. Bombast is the language of these times; dishonesty the underlying principle. The common man is swayed by the tides of their fears. All too many await deliverance from those who will twist words to serve their ends. Carnival barkers abound ushering us to a side show that will never meet the build up. We will learn again that, in the end, it is all about power. And the sad reality was first observed by a Lord Acton in the 1800's, Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The Illusion of Change

With the election of Brown to replace Ted Kennedy, a liberal such as myself needs to take stock of the current state of national politics. The once promising ascendancy of Barrack Obama has been reduced to but another melodrama. The dreams and aspirations of those of us who once were smitten with the hope of change must now endure but another example of American politics at its worse. The high ideas of service and placing the American people first were thrown out the proverbial window by a minority whose only interest was their own contributors. The super majority was little more than an illusion. Liberman, a loser of the first order and a turncoat to boot, was exercising the rule of one, and Nelson outdid him by sheer greed guiding his unprincipled compromise. Thus the super majority was only a number with no actual significance.
The democrats were all too comfortable with themselves. The president boldly walked into the same financial den of thieves with the same reckless and thieving scoundrels who had ramped up but another attack on the national treasury. Funny, the money interests need to be saved by all means while the suffering unemployed must wait in the welfare lines till the economy turns better. The lag in jobs is a function of the need for capitalists to amass even greater wealth before they are about to dole any out. And the difference between governing and campaigning is simple. In the later, all you need to do is talk you way out while the former takes some serious action.
The health care bill failed because it was left to the sausage makers to produce a product. It stunk from the outset by all of the special interests that needed their safety net. The politicians will cite the development of legislation is complicated. Why? Because lawyers love to use language that only they can understand. Lawyers, especially devious, unprincipled, or stupid ones, tend to confuse things so they can do what they want. They can commit crimes with impunity because they twist words to make their actions legal. They also prevent any action against them with the same slight of hand. Of course the really stupid and arrogant ones tend to get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Where was the president while congress was drafting legislation? Well of course, he and his crack team of spinners were out there spouting campaign rhetoric. He had time to prance about the world selling everything from his home town to accepting a Nobel Peace prize. Irony of all ironies given the state of our military adventures. When at home, he cavorted with known scoundrels like the drug companies chieftains. Meanwhile our dubious representatives were out collecting their graft from those who needed a special paragraph or two to protect their interests. In the end, the country was left waiting in the wings. When the product was delivered it was both incomprehensible and needed a reconciliation. Change like mist on a summer day vanished.
And the irony of all this madness is that this country continues to slide ever closer to the abyss of ruin. In a song by Jackson Browne, he makes the observation, they sell us our president like they sell us our soap. We shouldn't be surprised at how much our president is like the winner of American Idol as opposed to a leader. After all, he was elected on his wit and charm. We believed him because he was believable and more so because we needed to believe. We needed to have someone with high ideas. We needed a knight in shinning armor to rescue us from the dogs of war, from the robber barons of Wall Street. We needed to have hope again that we could will our way out of the morass of greed and war mongering. Yet, we still are plagued by that we had hope to rid ourselves. We are left, again, sitting on our couch looking at the spectacle of our political system exercising the only tool at our disposal the negative vote. Unfortunately, all that ever gets us is that which we already have – a hopeless journey along the road of political absurdity where the “new boss is the same as the old boss.”

Obama and the Lottery

Has an extremely large lottery jackpot enticed you to purchase a ticket?
The slogan, a dollar and a dream, is hard to ignore. The dreaming starts when the clerk at the gas station hands you the newly minted ticket. At that moment, the mind can systematically spin out of control while one systematically spends every dime of the winnings. At night, one goes to bed secure in the knowledge that come the dawn, like a lowly crawling caterpillar, one will blossom with gossamer wings of wealth and forever fly above the trials and tribulations of those who have to work for a living. The rude awakening comes when the numbers are checked and then you realize that you got to be in it, to win it can be reduced to the actual two chances you had to cash in on the prize, 1) slim and 2) none. The lottery, as one observer noted, is for the statistically challenged.
So, it was with my belief in the campaign slogan, Change you can believe. To have actually believed in a campaign slogan is to suspend all one's accumulated knowledge. With the young, it is easy. Life's experiences with this population are few. But for one, like me, who has been voting since the election Lydon P. Johnson, to suspend my first hand experiences and to actually believe that the tide of foolishness and corruption in politics that I have witnessed in my lifetime was coming to an end was an act that could be clinically diagnosed as insane.
To think that a politician, any politician, is different is oxymornic. To think that a politician from an established party can usher in change in a system that has been honed by the elite to serve the elite is an act of sheer fantasy. Barack was a lottery ticket for the masses. He was a product, a brand that was skillfully crafted to play upon our most cherished beliefs and hopes. Like the next amazing slimming product, or the soap that will wash out every stain, he was sold to us. And it was easy given the choice, a doddering bitter trigger happy old man and his wacky goofy sexpot. I like millions of others watched as the new candidate Obama went about talking of change. After eight years of the most corrupt and cynical administration in history, the sell wasn't that hard. After all, one need only make a small contribution and dream.
Perhaps Obama is more than a new product. Perhaps he is a man of substance. But the way he has caved in to the likes of Liberman and Nelson indicates a desire for something anything; yet the compromise is a poor substitute for something real. The way he has drawn upon the experiences of the foxes of the new financial order for his economics indicates that he has exposed us chickens to the rapacious predators who have savaged our economy and out currency. The way he has taken the counsel of the Doctors Strangeloves whose only plan is to drop more bombs and sacrifice more young men is an indication that peace is the last option, so much for the peace prize and references to King and Ghandi. And just like the pitchman on an “infomercial” he and his operatives can spin and spin till we buy the product. But the product is only what it is, not what we make it in our mind's eye. We are left with packaging and stained clothes or a ticket whose worth is equal to less than the flimsy paper that held the numbers that we invested so much hope and dreams upon.
To see, the smiling faces of Nelson and Liberman, the two who dashed any hope for meaningful medical reform, is to look into the farcical nature of our political system. To see McCrystal hint that the struggle is not going to be easy, or to hear Gates and then see him kowtow to Karzi is to know that new order is the old order. Insurance executives along with the bankers along with the industrial defense chieftains rubbed their distended bellies preparing for another gluttonous feast at the expense of the masses who placed their lives on hope for it is only hope that we have to spend. In the meantime, our dreams disappear in the light of the reality that is our lot. Like every lottery holder, we must examine the numbers and realize all we bought was but a few moments of revelry for our fate stays in the hands of those who have brought on the miseries we live with.

Bad Logic -- Mud Slinging -- How American

The grand tradition in American Politics to denigrate one's opposition is alive and well. Thank god we no longer have to endure half-truths and spin. Now, we can have good old fashion American mud-slinging. In fact, this tradition dates back to 1800 and the Jefferson/Adams election. When you think of it, it is what makes this country what it is. We revel in slime as a nation and as individuals. How else to describe our irrational desire to read the Enquirer or our morbid curiosity at the site of a horrific car accident or the popularity of inane horror flicks.

Now, Sarah Palin, the linguistically challenged Alaskan Governor, took off the gloves and threw the first bare fisted punch. How appropriate! The rifle totting, wolf slaughtering, god fearing, heavenly directed savior of conservative democracy steps up to the plate to call a spade a spade. No, racial slur intended and Obama people better not bring that up or McCain and his surrogates will call it playing the race card. It is “la-la” land to be sure.

One learns in logic class that ad hominem arguments are “ always invalid in syllogistic logic, since the truth value of premises is taken as given, and the validity of a logical inference is independent of the person making the inference.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem). I am sure that Governor Palin probably missed that lecture while attending college. One can hear the wheels spinning in her head: “Heck, the mean spirited 'gotcha' press will probably ask a question like that. Heck, Joe six-pack and hockey moms don't care about logic. That's for those high-fluttin liberals who went to elite college and learned all that stuff. In small towns, we know what we know and know how to say it.” Wink, wink.

As a young boy my mom cautioned me that “people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.” Well, now that the gloves are off I guess it's okay to talk about McCain's involvement in the Savings and Loan Scandal. While one has to employ the notion of six degrees of separation to tie Obama to anything negative, we have a senate panel chastising McCain for his association with Keating. It is ironic that McCain is directly tied to a felonious larceny charge while the other connection, the Ayers thing, relates to a person who has made some honorable contribution to society. Of course, to a small minded person a university professor might not be as creditable as say a gun dealer. And Jesus may forgive but I won't.

But, what the heck, this is America and why not slam the other guy. Who wants to talk of things that matter when we can create lies and bake half truths into a terrorist soufflé? It is American to go into matters not related to anything to make the point that you shouldn't vote the other guy into office. But there is an underlying element to this campaign and that is Americans are really that dumb that they can look at the crisis facing the country on so many fronts and ignore all that and believe that “the barracuda” will save us from those things that she can't even articulate. For the second time in this blog the quote attributed to Lincoln is in order, “You can't fool all the people all the time.”

This election is a pivotal one for many reasons. First, there is a minority of color running for president. This is pivotal because it at once takes the promise of our constitution into the next millennium. The actual elimination of the color barrier at the highest elected office of the land fulfills the promise of a free society. Second, this election also reverses the creed popularize by conservatives that government is bad. The people of a land only has its government to protect them from the savagery of unscrupulous and immoral and unethical thugs who steal and murder and degrade the laws of humanity. This notion that government is bad is paradoxical. Because only with a government can a free society exist. Without government, you have the law of the jungle.

Government in the hands of small minded people is a government that is a danger to all. We need only look at the current administration to know that the time for no nothing, do nothing politicians is over. Responsible government is important. But government is necessary without it no one would take the bad and the dumb to task.

No Mas for the Operatives

Well, there I was trying to get some information on a Saturday morning. I subscribe to XM and tuned to “potus” dial 130. Usually, there is some discussion of politics which is an area that interest me. Who is on the air? None other than Karl Rove. Of all the people given air time he is the last to offer anything objective. On another station, I caught the ending of a discussion with Marvin Kalb. His point was the media and the politicians and their minions are too close, and it is not serving the First Amendment.

These two incidents caused me to think. Has any operative or candidate ever said anything off message? The handlers have mastered the art of the interview. How many times have you heard a question posed to one of these politicians and the answer has nothing to do with the question? Many times a compliant interviewer will move on. Even if pushed the candidate or operative will go on and on till they win the tete a tete. Enough already.

Let us separate the press from the politician. It is not getting at the truth if all we are going to get is the same old baloney. I know that the press will have to work harder, but heck isn't there an inherent responsibility to get at truth.

Getting back to Rove and his ilk, they continue to propagandize at every opportunity. Their insights are designed for a specific purpose and that is to promote their agenda. Their blatant attempts at manipulating public opinion defy description. The sad thing is to see the media kowtow to their pronouncements as if they were actually insights or legitimate observations. How many times at both conventions was blather presented as insight?

The darker more nefarious and certainly troublesome phenomenon is the movement of press folks from the dark corner of governments to the studios. There are any number of current personalities who owe their start to politicians. The press folks for politicians are not objective observers. Their job is to manipulate and manage news. One wonders about the ease of the flow from one role to the other. The late Tony Snow moved from the rankest of conservative bastions to the press room of the White House. I recall the talking heads all commenting this would be a boost for the presidency. Curious, that the other poor fellow Scott McClennan was lambasted by those who graduated from propagandists to political commentators. The lesson is simple. Outsiders need not breach the current movement between the so called legitimate press and the offices of public affairs.

What does that mean? There is no room for anyone who tells the truth about an administration who were all about managing the news to act on their devious, if not criminal, plans? Loyalty is one thing; exposing lies and their damn lairs is an act that should be lauded. More ludicrous is to allow propaganda to be aired as if it is information.

Stop Election BS

Well, the conventions are over. Now the serious bs begins. Jackson Browne observed in one of his songs that we elect our president like we buy our soap. I think, however, the soap manufacturers might be subject to truth in advertising while the political operatives conjure up tv and radio spots based on the latest polling data. Truth has nothing to do with the crafting of the message. Falsehood seems to be standard.

What is most disturbing about this American election is that we are asked if we want to contribute to this travesty of democracy on out tax forms. John McCain is getting 84 million in public funding. Obama declined figuring he could get more through contributions. And now the game gets serious. And tv and radio and print salesmen can't help but salivate at the prospects. Overseeing this circus of circumvention is a host of regulatory bodies.

Let's stop for a moment and ask some simple questions. Who grants licensing to tv and radio stations? Aren't stations ask to demonstrate and provide time for the public good? Public service announcement and the like are required. How come stations can make millions and millions of dollars and yet the most important and certainly central event in a democracy is the elections is not considered in this category.

I offer a simple solution. First, no political advertising. Is this a curtailment of the First Amendment? Well, I remember that argument that the First Amendment gives no one the right to shout out “fire” in a theater. Certainly, the bs that parades as information can be questioned. But how about if we skirt this touchy issue.

Let's give all candidates a set amount of time. I don't care what it is. It certainly can be substantial, say fifty hours a piece. Also, let's use one of the public, non-partisan watch dog group to review the candidates' message. Any statement that fails a veracity test will be so noted. Now I would prefer a simple “BS” in red flashed across the screen anytime an outright fabrication is utter by a candidate. There could be various other warnings, like “fudging the statistics.” What I am suggesting is that outright deceptive statements need to be called for what they are. Isn't it more important we protect our freedom by exposing any all bs from the information receive upon which we vote for a candidate than to allow some group or candidate to lie.

I find it interesting that the press for the most part talks of the aura of a candidate statements. “Oh she was striking in her presentation.” The time for serious politics is at hand. We can't rely on the media for they are engaged in deceptive dance with the politicians. They talk to each other so much that they start to believe the bs of each other and further promote their own welfare.

The public needs to be saved from this display of political bs. We need to have intelligent presentations of issues not sixty seconds of bs designed to dupe us into believing what we are inclined to believe.
And oh by the way. Let's get the media out of the debates. Pontificating personalities have no place in our public debate. If the media had pursued a course of the public good, perhaps. But each and every news outlet promotes itself. My recommendation is to have a reputable college polemics department hold the debate and make sure the participants stick to the format. No more one liners that stay on message.

We need a serious election based on issues and positions.

Sorry State of TV News

So it begins. Another blog. Just what the world needs. Another raving lunatic with ideas on what is right and wrong in this world. I asked myself why would anyone want to join the ranks of the bloviators. Yet with the continuing nonsense that parades itself as news and commentary, one needs to yell, well in this case, write, “I am sick as hell and can't take it anymore.”

Let's just start with the recent hurricane, Gustav. Yeah, yeah, yeah, hurricanes are dangerous weather systems. No doubt. They should be covered but to send so many news people don't there is just about as foolish as national coverage of Brittany Spears. Let the weather channel cover it. Let a meteorologist give a straight forward account, but please get the pretty faces and empty heads off the tube. I know this is harsh, but once I would like to see a gust of wind sweep one of those non reporters into the deep. God standing out there – getting the “shot” is nothing short of drama. I guess that is why they give us drama queens.

There is no more news! We have only personalities who demonstrate their inability to comprehend the situations in which they are thrust. Tragedies are followed like vultures seeking carrion. The media prides itself on its sets. It is interesting that they spend as much time promoting their staff as they do the news. Each of these theatrical readers is attired in fine clothes, their hair immaculate, the smiles fixed as if they had just consumed a vial of some happy drug. And then, and this applies mostly to local broadcasts, commentary that demonstrates no insight whatsoever to history. At best, it is blather. At worst, it is idiotic. At its extreme is simply childish.

Then, we have the experts. The so called authorities who invariably are pushing an agenda. They parade before eyes one as empty as the next. Let us not forget the loudmouths like Chris Matthews who believe their shallow insights are profound so much so that they can interrupt their guests with louder and louder questions of no import and believe they are getting at the hard truth. And why is it these news personalities think it is ok to shift from fictional portrayals of themselves in the movies or television made fiction to actual authorities on the news? Shouldn't there be some commitment to their profession? But that is it in a nutshell. They have no profession. They are, well I would say whores, but that would denigrate a noble profession. They are merely there to self-promote their banal positions. The news departments are awash in corporate suits who simply keep on eye on ratings as opposed to fulfill their role in a democratic society. Freedom of the press is a corner stone of a representative democracy. It seems the network bosses have found the supermarkets tabloids marketing strategies to be the way to garner ratings. After all if they can increase their share, they can charge more. More revenues mean they can hire bigger personalities to blather on about the inconsequential. I find it ironic that many of these contemporary news personalities make comments about earlier icons, like Morrow and Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. Unfortunately, they are more akin to Buffalo Bill and Howdy Doody.