Oh Obama is This Really the End, Stuck in Washington with Capitol Blues Again

Leading vs Campaigning

The recent changes in the White House staff indicates just how far the Obama Administration is drifting. As in any delusional self aggrandizing display of ego, the administration and indeed the president is resorting to a strategy that served them well in the past. The problem is campaigning and leading are entirely different. The former is little more than a shell game. You can talk your way in and out of a problem. The latter requires action, and decisive action at that.
Obama was elected on a wave of hope and change. Hope that the foolish ways of the previous administration would be replaced with thoughtful action. Implicit in this hope was the desire that certain actions would be reversed. Most notable, that the foolish and unjustified war in Iraq would end and that a more intelligent and militarily sound approach in Afghanistan would be adopted. There was a mandate for change, a congress was elected as evidence of this deep desire for change and hope. What the electorate got was nothing short of pompous speeches and stupefying inaction. In short, more of the same.
Both on election night and inaugural day, there was ample evidence of a new spirit among Americans. Then, the status quo seeped in every corner and when the high of election ran its course, the country had little more than what it had. The gays got shafted though a simple act might have come in a day or two. Sure the curmudgeons would have argued that the military would soon disintegrate into chaos, but surely their warning would have proved as false as their position in short order. The health coverage could have had a single payer if the White House had fashioned a bill with some sense and sent it to the hill, rather than let the sausage makers have their opportunity to fashion something that no one could understand. Also, the Palinites, the no-nothings of our generation, would not have been able to develop arguments with no basis in reality. On the financial side, Obama instead of bringing in those who created the mess should have turned to others who had a keen eye on the scams being perpetuated on our economy – Volker comes to mind. And lastly the most fool hardy of all missteps, the let me forget what I said on the campaign trial blunders, was listening to the generals on Afghanistan, one who was both irreverent and a outed liar. The only thing that top that fool hardy move was appointing Petraus to the zone. All these acts are a sign that the little geniuses who ran the campaign had no idea what they were doing and the president was presiding over a monolith that he wanted to co-opt instead of lead.
And what does the president do now to correct the past, he brings in his campaign manager. Good show there, huh? More words and less decisive actions.
Change can only occur when decisive and dramatic action is taken. It is also apparent that change causes tension and some need to be dragged into the future. The electorate expressed its dismay and disappointment with the past two years. Starting the campaign two years before the election is a sign that the White House just doesn't get it. It is not the message that is wrong; it is the messenger who just doesn't get it. Compromise is only effective when two parties are ready to deal honestly with one another. Chaos Theory dictates that the most unreasonable person wins in the end. Bringing intelligence to the table with a bunch of no-nothings whose avowed purpose is to defeat you is just plain stupid. They have no respect for the man or the office. The sad irony is that the opportunity the president was given was squandered, and like a character in a Greek Tragedy he had only his hubris to blame.

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.

Two New Poems

These Foolish Things

These foolish things I concern myself with,
These foolish things I hold to be true,
These things that pass in and out of my fancy,
These things that keep me stuck in my fate,
These things are of no value,
Save that which I invest in them,
Puddles of misunderstandings,
Rivulets of uncertainty,
Streams of broken dreams,
They dribble from me like drops from a worn faucet.


6/2010



Unfinished

These tired eyes focus on some lost time and place,
I sketch a memory from fragments of your face,
Searching through forgotten moments I trace,
Hoping to piece it all together in an embrace.

A poem

A Rainy May Day in Kijijoji

The wretched scurry from their hovels --
They scoop up their possessions --
Trash to most all in this profligate world --
The weather is relentless and without compassion,
Like the minds of those who pass by without a single concern save their mania --
Torn and tattered fashions not chic -- essential,
Time and worry crushed their frames,
Rain splattered spirits crouching in dingy niches.
Rain spirits growth on this earth
While the wretched seek shelter before they are washed away.

How Wrong is Wrong

Dylan once sang you don't need a weather man to tell you which way the wind blows, but you do need a barometer to tell you the pressure. My disillusionment with Obama arose out of his continuation of the Bush's policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, his appointment of the jackals of finance to run the economy and his endless and futile attempts to negotiate with the disloyal and recalcitrant opposition. On top of that, he has made deals with the devils of health care, drug companies and single minded senators. The litany is one who wanted change not a continuation of the status quo. But ironies of all ironies, Dick Cheney endorsed the president's policy on the two wars and the appointments of generals. Does Obama need any other evidence that his polices need a complete overhaul?
When he first took office, Obama stated he wanted to look forward not backward. With that statement, whatever wrongdoing the previous folks did they were given a "get out of jail free card." The consequence of this fool hardly policy is that the likes of the former vice president can't pollute the air waves with his constant self-serving observations. It isn't enough we have him but also his daughter who constantly spin along with the sirens of the Fox News about the benefits of war mongering.
When you get an endorsement of the former vice president than you need to review your policy. Frank Rich observed that rather being cute about the Palin issue they need to focus on what is wrong and what needs fixing. The first thing that should be done is to draw a line in the sand with the Republicans and detail what “hope” and “change” represent in terms of legislation. Rather than a sausage makers' delight health care bill, a simple plan with simple but profound meaningful change needs to be offered. He rattled those fundamentals enough time and with the plethora of lawyers running around the White House perhaps they a bill can be drafted and sent to congress. He needs to line up Pelosi and Reed and the rest of the Democrats and forbid them to add on to the bill. Next he needs to present it to the people and insure every provision of the new bill relates to people and not private interests. He also needs to fire his finance team and re-hire people who are muckrakers and who will attack the jackals of finance – first rule should be banks are banks and investments banks are casinos for the risk takers. Insurance companies need to follow a plan where their assets are available for the things they insure. Last of all, the president has got to stop talking and forbid his flacks from rationalizing the non activity. The president has listened for over a year, now he needs to act.
Admittedly, these observations are naive at best. But to take a Jacksonian position as oppose to some corrupted Lincolnesque one is a move in the direction of change. We are country divided and unfortunately we will always be divided. Fox News and its legion of pundits along with Palin can capture the hearts and minds of those who fill the ranks of the no nothing segment of our electorate. It is an American tradition as old as the republic itself. Nothing can change the mind of those who have made up theirs and refuse to listen to logic and reason. The fact is that in any noble endeavor where right has triumphed over prejudice, strong and persistent action is needed. Non-violent, yes. But mainly, tough dogged politics is a necessity. Compromise is good, when you can compromise. But when you can't it is a waste of time. If Democrats want to be the party of the people, then it has to go back to doing the people's business. Like a junkie who needs to kick a habit, they need to stop taking corporate money and get down to the people's business. And remember if Dick Cheney agrees with you, you must be doing something wrong. After all, he is not a clock that is broken, hence he is never right not even twice a day.

Now For Something Entirely Different

So we are told to stop and smell the roses. I guess that means to take stock of one's surrounding and revel in the gift of life. Well, that action doesn't necessarily bring one to some Pollyanna conclusion of the living experience. At times, stopping and smelling brings one to the awareness of passing time and its effect on life.

On Aging

As the days dwindle down to a few,
As the page gets further from the eyes,
And the hair grows straw like, wispy,
As clothes becomes fashion-less,
And others wait impatiently while we dawdle – purposefully,
While we linger with the next act – methodically,
And others have since sped to their appointments,
When the hours blend and purpose remains elusive,
When talks turn to things long gone --
The eyes, crow feet-ed blink looking for tears,
When the music is unknown,
When the cold is colder and the hot unbearable, death like,
What once was known is forgotten,
When what was once certain is uncertain,
When the sunsets and sunrises collide,
And simple things amuse – rapport with a child,
When the mind grows vacuous,
And the wind scatters the soul piecemeal,
When the lonely days and lonely hours diminish
To a precious few, while the breath fades,
And the body relents and we exhale but for the last time
And, then silence and cold conjoin,
And our soul burns out like an ember.

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.”