Closure

“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

A blog friend of my from Australia opened his blog with that quote. The citizens of the United States took a lot of flack yesterday for what the rest of the world sees and vengeance. This blog is a response to that.

The news media (and not just ours here in the states) has blown the "celebration" of Bin Laden's death all out of proportion. From what I can determine it was the drunken young emptying the bars and dancing into the streets in New York City. It was their city which was forever scarred. And 9/11 was the first bump in charmed lives of that generation. He was their boogie man and he was dead. Still his body was not hung from the portico of a hotel for days like Mussolini's at the end of WWII.That done by his own people.


Most American citizens behaved quite quietly upon hearing that Bin Laden was dead. For us the report of his death was closure. Not unlike hearing the pronouncement of Ted Bundy's successful execution whether you believe in capital punishment or not. And for many of us it was a subtle proof that former President GW Bush didn't try to get him. In the frontier days of the United States it was believed if you killed the chief of the tribe the fighting stopped. Perhaps on some level we still believe that. We don't want the wars we are currently fighting. We don't want wars. And we would like to hope that killing the chief of this war on terror would bring peace.


And I certainly do not believe (even though I do go along with some conspiracy theories) we faked this. I understand the burial at sea was in keeping with the Muslim tradition of burial within 24 hours and that at sea his body would not risk being dug up and mutilated. No doubt our Navy Seals got the proof the wicked witch is dead.


As for the eye for an eye bit that seems to pervade several major religions in the world, Bin Laden argued that 9/11 was an atonement for sins of the American people. GW called our invasion of Iraq a holy war. But that we could have put both on a gallows and hung both at the same time. The leaders that create war, and not the innocent among their populations should be the ones that wage it and pay the ultimate price for it.

They Just Don't Get It!

I was having coffee with a friend yesterday and managed to catch a few minutes of President Obama's bashing of the banks. He singled out financial institutions for causing much of the economic tailspin and criticized their opposition to tighter federal oversight of their industry.

"It was, as some have put it, risk management without the management," he said.

The president also told CBS' "60 Minutes" that "the people on Wall Street still don't get it. ... They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks. Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down $10, $20 million bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ... in decades and you guys caused the problem," Obama said in an excerpt released in advance of Sunday night's broadcast of his interview.

Upon returning home I received an e-mail from the New York Times saying that Wells Fargo was selling 10.4 billion dollars in new stock to repay the $25 billion TARP loan. Citigroup had just repaid $20 billion but still owes us more. Surely this was not just to get the president off their butts? And it isn't. They are still the Scrooges in this story. By repaying these loans from the American taxpayer the restrictions on the practice of obscene end of the year bonus is lifted. Be prepared to hear about how much their CEO's will be getting as Christmas Presidents. 

Everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. Bank of America paid back $45 billion on December 9th. And they sidestep the President's stated objective of forcing borrowing banks to make more loans to small businesses and homeowners bottom up in their mortgages.


But my question is where did Wells Fargo get the $10.4 billion in stock? And where were they hiding the other $35 billion. Weren't they about to go belly up when we bailed them out? It is possible it was hidden the same place G.W. Bush's 22 million missing e-mails were. But we found those. During his eight years in office lots of controversial electronic mail on iffy decisions went missing. Key here is to know merely pressing the delete button obviously does not work. Consider that bank CEO's. Your real financial balance sheets can be found.

As a side issue I was Googling an image for this blog on banking and Monopoly seemed appropriate. Parker Bros still has that smiley and lovable banker despite current polls that put people of that ilk up in the most hated list. And I found this image for the electronic version of the time honored game we all loved to fight over. No more paper money to dole out. You can do it all with plastic. And you can begin training your  children to just swipe that credit card as the tender age of eight. Merry Christmas.

Isn't this a large part of how we got into this mess in the first place? Everyone was not playing with real money. And obviously still aren't. But the good news is Christmas spending is down 50% from last year, which was not a banner one, plastic or no plastic.

What I Heard?

I watched President Obama's address to the joint session of congress last night on health care reform. Today all the talking heads and bloggers are taking apart his speech line by line. I read a few before tackling this blog. Yahoo News has one: What he said, what he meant. As if they know what he meant.

I am not going to discuss the pros and cons of his speech here. Nor am I again going to address the various health care plans. Been there and done that.

I have also attended more than one joint session of congress. As a spectator in the gallery when I lived in Washington, DC and worked for a US Senator. And quite frankly I was abhorred when Rep. Wilson (Republican of South Carolina) yelled out, "You Lie" in the middle of the President's speech. Bad manners. Democrats sat through eight years of GW Bush without once doing that. Admittedly his speaking style was so boring the opposition may have fallen asleep but nobody snored let alone heckled. For Shame!

I had fully intended to watch the Republican response but that little episode and the scowling faces of a handful of Republicans put quit to my interest to be bipartisan. Ram it through, Obama, I don't give a damn if they like it.

And would everyone please just grow up. Sarah Palin, GW Bush, and Cheney lowered the level in politics and nobody among the Republicans has been able to rise above it since. But please can't we at least have good manners?

Weighing the Arguments

An interesting thing happens when you are away from the news for a while. And over three heavy news days with a lot of fast breaking stories it can be a bit overwhelming when you filling tune back in. Most of the talking heads don't spend a lot of time on what happened yesterday. You are suppose to be watching religiously.

My father, who was one of the 90 day wonder Air Force cadets during WWII said if you dropped a pencil you were 6 days behind by the time you picked it up. I felt a bit like that today.

Obama was out of the country and upsetting Kenya because he went to Ghana instead. North Korea's Kim is believed to be dying of cancer. The media obviously finally said goodbye to Michael Jackson but not to exploring his drug usage/abuse. And Congress wants a thorough investigation of former V-P Cheney and his secret ops with the CIA (doesn't that sound like a new dance step?). Thankfully the Internet offers many opportunities to delve into the back story. I frankly did not care about Kenya being miffed. I thought it was going to be a plus that Kim was soon not going to be an issue in N. Korea but some seem to think his son could be worse. Who cares how many drugs MJ took of if his dad is making an ass out of himself as per usual.

So that left me with the Cheney/CIA issue. I frankly was not surprised except that everyone seemed to be rather upset over something most of us theorized about on blogs eight years ago. What I found interesting was that the Republicans seem to think us Democrats make this stuff up to take the focus off of Obama's falling poll numbers (down a couple points) and failing agenda(nobody has rammed through health care yet). I think I asked this question during the campaign but it begs asking again: Does the GOP send out an e-mail every morning with the buzz phrases for the day? If they do they need some new writers.

You notice that the political pundits are all using the exact same words in the same cadence and inflection when you go through successive days of streaming video on a subject in a close timeframe. It has a sort of deju vu feel about it. They should have been investigating this when all the principals were still in office. So indict or drop it. This is boring.

Going through three or four days of back news you also realize what is missing: Nobody has figured out why Palin resigned. Does this mean nobody cares? I think so. And McCain has not rushed to the defense of his former running mate because nobody was attacking her. And GW has not rushed to the defense of his good bud, Dick. In fact has anyone seen the ex-president anywhere - even Kenya? Maybe he is there with Elvis and Michael.

Tripping Through the News Lightly

I did not think I would ever say it but I miss G.W. There was never a question about what to write about in this blog when he was around. And Cheney, currently making the rounds of talking heads, with his revisionist history just irritates me so much that I would not be able to write reasonably.

So this morning I was scanning articles of interest on several on line news outlets and being horridly bored. More Saturday night quarterbacking of President Obama's economic stimulus plan. Boring. Ever notice that nobody knows how to solve something until someone steps in and presents a plan? Hey, we have never been here before and it does not do to cry, "He's wrong." How do you know?

And I am bored with failing auto companies. Though it looks like ten banks are asking permission to pay back the tarp funds. Isn't that what they were suppose to do? They keep finding more Air France bodies but nobody has explained where from came the wreckage first discovered in the supposed crash site but later proved to not be from flight 447. Anyone missing another plane or ship?

I soon found myself on the BBC - Earth News site. Seems they have discovered that chimpanzees remember the exact location of their favorite fruit trees. Their spatial memory is so precise that they can find a single tree among more than 12,000 others within a patch of forest, and also recall how productive each tree is, and decide to travel further to eat from those they know will yield the most fruit. If researchers discover which gene in our DNA determines this ability I think it ought to be implanted into the human male brain.

Researchers now think that our growing dependence on GPS devices is handicapping our own ability to know where we are or even follow directions. The program them with female voices because more men rely on them than women. BTW the GPS devices installed in all new automobiles just off the lot these days are not just for the drivers. They also help the repossession crews locate and take back the car if you fall behind on payments

Another Brave New World sort of thing is that they have developed a microwave device that can scan people for guns from a distance. I assume it will replace those metal detectors we have to walk through or will they use it on the streets to just routinely microwave us? What, pray tell, will be the long term effects of repeated exposure to microwaves on the human body?

When I was a kid every shoe store or department had one of those xray machines to see if your toes were being cramped by the shoes. We loved them and abused them whileour siblings were getting fitted for their new shoes. One day the machines vanished. Seems they were melting kids foot bones or so the rumor had it. That was before CNN and inquiring minds must know.

Anyway I emerged from today's news with a new respect for Chimps and further doubts about the human race. If we kill ourselves off do you suppose evolution will begin anew? If it does lets not lose that mapping gene.

Changing Horses

United States Senator Arlen Specter The Republican Senator from Pennsylvania has served since 1980 and has always been a bit of a counter voice among his party changed parties yesterday.

To show you where my flu addled brain wasn't yesterday when I first got the NY Times e-mail alert I wondered why this was important enough to waste ether space. But a friend called and reminded of just who Arlen Specter is. He has left his mark:

Arlen Specter’s five terms have made him the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Pennsylvania’s history. A voice of reason, his independence and balance have won endorsements from the AFL-CIO and high marks from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (100% in 2006), the National Association of Manufacturers (86% in 2006), and the Americans for Tax Reform (90% in 2006).

Time Magazine listed him among the ten best Senators in 2006. Knowlegis rated him the second most powerful Senator in 2006 behind only Majority Leader Bill Frist. A November 11, 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer editorial stated: “Senator Arlen Specter has more clout than some sovereign nations.”

The Republicans want us to believe he has left their party because polls showed he would lose in the primary in his state and this is all about staying in the senate at any costs. Senator Specter says it is the Republican party that has left him. During the last Bush presidency he counseled compromise and conciliation in a Congress which established new records for partisan discord. In foreign affairs, he advocated dialogue and accommodation as an antidote to belligerency and saber rattling. There definitely seemed to be a parting of ways. And his decision to change party affiliation is just the official divorce as it were.

It also highlights an interesting turn in politics these days. The Obama win showed a breakdown in the Red State/Blue State political Mason-Dixon line and now there seems to be less division between Republicans and Democrats - at last real division. The extreme ends of both parties are no longer the leaders as to direction, especially in the Republican party which is in shambles scrambling for a new leader.

Every year more and more voters define themselves as independents or class themselves as centralist on issues. And in these trying global times we want leadership and not party rhetoric. And a lot of us are very, very angry at the belligerency and saber rattling and witch hunting of GW's terms in office. We would like to heal this nation and work together. If that means a few party leaders crossing the lines then I am all for it. Way to go Senator Specter.

Most of the People only Some of the Time

My father was fond of saying that you can please a few people all the time, and some people some of the time and none of the people all of the time. This week has certainly brought home that to President Obama and the American People.

I have been following as best I can the criticisms of the Economic Stimulus package as it makes its way through the shark infested pools that are the United States Senate. Clearly everyone has a different idea as to what stimulus is and how to create it.

An economist friend of mine once said you could put three economists in a room and come up with no fewer than five opinions on anyone economic issue. I really see that now.

I am not an economist by any means but I am a broke American trying to hold on in stormy seas and the best solution I heard to this whole mess was to not put it all in one package but divide it into three or four parts. Still I can see that with the direness of the consequences in the world economy that the desire to do it all at once seemed imperative.

With the Senate moving toward a workable compromise our new President may get what he has asked for. He seems more than willing to work with everyone but I was pleased when he told the Republicans, "you caused this mess why can't you help fix it" or words to that effect. I doubt we will know really what works and what does not for a decade. We have not been here before. When the Great Depression happened the world was more separate; not so globally linked. I am sure that historians and economists will be debating this for the better part of the century. Let's hope that we at least learn something this time.

I've learned we should not have let GW Bush have his TARP funds. They have been misspent with no limitations and in some cases drastic over-payment resulting in no stimulus to the economy. I am sure we will be debating that for several decades too. GW was obviously trying to please just a few people all the time - like already rich CEO's and business owners.

I have my fingers crossed that this will work. That pleasing most of the people some of the time is all we need to do to get the ball rolling again. I do know it is democracy as it is suppose to work. GW, I think history will find, ran a dictatorship.

He Said Things Would Change

I have been off-roading and spending quality time with my sister and my best friend here in Cedar Crest and not even watching the political news. But I get these alerts in my e-mail from New York Times and they said Obama was again heading to the hill to confer with Congressional leaders and Republicans on his economic stimulus bill!

Wait this is a sitting president. Not a president elect or a presidential wannabe. GW Bush spent eight years enshrined in the Oval office! He never even invited a single Democrat to the White House until his final two months in office. And President Obama has not only had everyone up for lunch and conference but is going once again to the Capital to confer with the opposing party!

For those of you looking for signs that he is fulfilling his promise for change look no further. This is a huge change. And not only is he talking to them but asking questions like, "Do you have a better suggestion?" Boy is this a far cry from the belligerent, "I am the decider" we have all become so used to in almost a decade of disastrous leadership.

But it takes more than just one side to make for bipartisanship. Come on Republicans get into the spirit of this new cooperation. Let's all pull as a team to get us out of this quagmire into which we have sunk.

We are not Republicans and Democrats or liberals and conservatives or Red States and Blue States. We are Americans all in the same state of economic collapse with an eroding infrastructure and an over-dependence on foreign imports be they oil or Parker Toys with lead paint from China. If you cannot cozy up to the opposition at least give President Obama an honest hearing when he comes to your house to extend the hand of cooperation.

ByeBye Bush

I was chatting with a friend recently and we had to admit that seldom have we been so thrilled to see a President of the United States leave office. And I think that would be true even if we were not looking forward to the 44th holder of the office.

GW flying off to obscurity (he does not get to take Air Force One like in this picture) brings joy to my heart equal to the time that Nixon was wisked away by Marine heliocopter after resigning. He was immediately pardoned by the first Bush to the hold office of President. That soured the whole joyful celebration sadly. Nixon should have had to stand trial for his high crimes as should GW. I hold no illusions that he will. But listening to his goodbye press conference and exit interviews I just could not face his farewell address.

If nothing else Georgie is guilty of revisionist history. (Historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations and decision-making processes surrounding an historical event. The assumption of the revisionist (GW in this case) is that the interpretation of a historical event or period as it is accepted by the majority of scholars needs a significant change.)

I reached my tolerance level when he said even in the worst moments he had fun being president. Does this man listen to what he says? Rather like Palin, huh? But probably the worst thing about this prolonged farewell of GW's is that he has fiddled while Rome burned or in this case he has preened before the cameras while our economy has crashed around our feet. And not just in the United States but around the world.

Still Fox had the audacity to post a poll they took (I will assume among their viewers) that Bush now had a 34% approval rating which combined with his highs and lows gave him an overall aproval rating of 51%. If nothing else this is a condemnation of polls, Fox News (bought an paid for by its advertisers), and the Republican party.

I approve only of his going. He essentially left the day after the election. We have had nobody at the helm, not even the village idiot. Soon we will have a real president.

Word Salad

I chanced upon this little illustration on a BBC News item: Words that Sum up the Bush Presidency.

They, or a computer, took the words he used in the state of the Union addresses over the term of his presidency and left out little words like of and that and the. The more frequently a word is used the bigger it is. So we could say that for Bush people of America must.

It is not really clear what the American people must do but it clearly has very little to do with rights, lives, building, or liberties. Women, Medicare, relief, funding, or opportunity also scores really low.

But the thing which hit me is he gave eight speeches of about an hour in length each and there are maybe a 100 to 150 words is this image? My dog training book tells me that my oodles (a standard poodle and a labradoodle) should be able to master the meanings of 125 to 150 words. That makes them smarter than the 43rd president of the United States.

Another article of a related nature I read said that GW's speeches were generally on a 3rd to 4th grade level of understanding (because of how many kids no child left behind left behind?) while President-elect Barack Obama's speeches are generally on a 9th grade level (must be dumbing it down for a wider audience from his college lecture days) while most newspapers are written on a 6th grade reading level in part because people can understand orally (not unlike my ooodles) more than they can read or write.

Some interesting points to ponder I think.

Shadow President

Recently on an interview Former President Bush (Daddy not son) was asked about Jeb Bush running for President in 2012 and he replied that it might be too early for another Bush in the White House. At least George (Daddy not son) is still firing on all thrusters as they say on StarTrek.

Son does not have a clue to this day. Polls say that 79% of the American people will be HAPPY to see him gone (no one has bothered to poll the rest of the world on this issue) and yet he has said he hopes to not overshadow Obama after he leaves office.

Frankly I don't see a chance of that. Most people are not aware he is still president. He has gone from being a lame duck to being a shadow president. While Obama visits Capital Hill drumming up support for his economic stimulus package GW is giving "exit interviews." Iraq burned, New Orleans flooded, and the economy crashed and he has remained oblivious to each and every pratfall while he has been in office. What little mistakes he will admit to he blames on others. His spin on his legacy is often laughable if it were not so sad.

He claims to have kept America safe (if his presidency began September 12, 2001); gave us record economic growth( if it ended December 2007); vanquished leading Qaeda terrorists (if you don't count bin Laden and al-Zawahri). He claims to have lead the world in providing food aid and natural disaster relief (if you don't count our own country and Katrina). Only 1/3 of his devout followers even entertain a post-presidency presence for this failed leader of the free world. The rest wish it had ended with the "Mission Accomplished" banner. GW is sure from the perspective of history all his decisions in office will be seen as memorable.

They are now. Horridly memorable. Laughable even if we were not going to have to live with the consequences into the next century if not beyond. We want him and his presidency to go away. If there were time machines we would go back to those hanging chads and riot in the streets for a recount NOW. And while GW has 13 more days in office he really is not president of the United States. Obama is in all but name. He is our hope for a better tomorrow.

Oh, if the previous eight years were only a bad dream.

That Made My Day

I know we as Americans are all suppose to be insulted that such disrespect was shown to our President. But not me. Had the threat of Gitmo not hung over my head I might have tried it myself but I only wear a size 6. I am only sorry the old man still has some cowboy reflexes left and he ducked.

I suppose this blog could get me sent to Gitmo - giving aid and comfort to the enemy - the shoe thrower. I understand Cheney is still in favor of keeping Gitmo open and recommends waterboarding as a useful tool. Threaten me with drowning and I will tell you anything - even where the reporter buys his shoes to throw. I recommend steel toed and with taps. Among other things they are nicely weighted for accuracy when thrown.

I think the most disturbing part of this whole incident was the followup interview with Bush. One, he definitely needed his hair combed. And, Two, he did not get it at all. We have got to stop electing delusional people to office. You can included Illinois governors in that statement.

I dug myself out in the middle of the snow storm yesterday to run and get some things from the market. Snowy weather makes me crave clam chowder. Don't ask. And while standing in the check out line with all the other people craving their own snow storm comfort food I perused the titles of articles in the magazines. There was a sad deficit in space aliens and "she is having my baby" articles so I wound up reading the cover of Time Magazine. Almost bought it but it seemed so much more fun to wonder what was covered under the following article titles (heavily paraphrased): Why Obama is looked to as President, and Why Nobody is Looking at Bush as President. Don't they just beg lists?

Sorry Time if I did not get the titles exactly right. My mind was too busy already forming lists. I am still making lists only now I have gotten to paper. Maybe I will buy the magazine when I can dig myself out and see how close I have come to their reporter's concept. Number one on both lists: Nobody has thrown a shoe at Obama, and They threw a shoe at Bush.

Icons

In December us humans, since the dawn of recorded history we assume, like to look back at the year and pick those people that have defined it. Time and Newsweek both have their persons of the year (not always for the good we should note). The Sunday News programs will have their icons featured.

None probably have yet to replace Nero, who it is said, fiddled while Rome burned. See he wanted to build this perfect city center as honor to himself and there were all these other buildings in the way. So in an era when people were tied to stakes and set afire to light the streets it seemed his solution was easy.

GW Bush, who used every paid for ploy he could to avoid service in Vietnam, wanted to go to war with Iraq and best his dad at something. And in a day of terrorist attacks the solution to that problem seemed easy too. History does not completely record how many died in Rome in Nero's slum clearing project. We know how many died on 9/11, and how many continue to die in Iraq. And we know that neither leader shows any remorse. Nero had his new city center, and Bush has his exit interviews discussing his "grand legacy" as the 43rd President of the once great United States.

Now we have Governor Blagojevich of Illinois. He has to be included in there with GW and Nero because he too shows no remorse. Seems that every possible benefit he can bestow is up for sale. Sort of reminds me of the Midevil Catholic Church and the selling of indulgences. Bush has pardons for sale and Blagojevich a senate seat. Neither seems concerned about their immortal soul just the press coverage of it.

Both are icons of how low United States politics has gone. Maybe Nero had the right idea. We should just burn it all down (or watch it self-distruct) and start over.

Things are Going to Get Worse

Obama, sound more presidential than our president, said in his weekly address to the nation that things are going to get worse before they get better. I got that. I don't like the news but I am glad we are not being lied too. I was getting really tired of that, "the underpinnings of our economy are strong" shit. I'm not economist and I knew GW was wrong more than a year ago.

He is against the auto bailout. I am frankly against all the bailouts starting with Lehman's and moving on to AIG and then to Citibank. But I own a GM car and I would like to be able to get parts for it. But bailout or no most economists believe none of the big three auto makers will be around in 5 years. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could say that about the tobacco manufacturers? Or the porno industry? Notice how they have not asked for a bailout. Nor has Jack Daniels.

But as I was digesting all this news and commenting on a friend's blog it suddenly occurred to me that one of the reasons 9/11 targeted the World Trade Center buildings is that Bin Laden wanted to bring the United States to financial ruin. He could have kept his terrorists home. GW Bush has done it for him. That, as they say, is the bad news.

The good news is as goes the US so goes the World so probably nobody can afford to invade us and take over our country - like who would want it now?

But what really worries me is the vast amount of time till Obama really is president. It is over a month! And we do not seem to have anyone reliable at the helm of the sinking ship of state. How much harm can Paulson and Cheney and Bush do in 42 days?

A program I was watching on the Internet about stress reduction during these trying economic times says don't think about it. Obviously that is what the current White House is doing!

What does sit take to swear in Obama and his team tomorow!

Remembering the WPA

My family camped for vacations. Dad wanted to get away from his high pressure job and the telephone (no cell phones in those days) and so we took to the highways and byways of the mountain west and camped.

He often would point out that this trail or that camp ground had been built by labor during the depression when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt developed the WPA to put people standing in bread lines back to work.

The Blue Ridge Parkway that runs along the Appalachians in the eastern part of the United States is a great example of what the WPA accomplished. Not only did it put people living in that area to work but to this day the parkway allows an economic flow that has preserved the native crafts and culture of that area. The art trail we are setting up her in New Mexico is modeled after one set up by benefit of this parkway built over 70 years ago. Its stone bridges and retaining walls and restored mills and waterways are beautiful and lasting.

Here in the mountain west the WPA worked on many parks creating trails and overlooks that made their beauties more accessable to the public. The closest example to me is the Wild Rivers Park at the junction of the Red River and the Rio Grande. A system of trails allows visitors to hike down switchbacks to the bottom of the Rio Grande gorge some 600 feet below the scenic overlooks at the top. Remote campsites at the bottom allow hikers to over-night away from the maddening crowds. A group of volunteers goes out every spring to do trail maintenance but the original WPA work has lasted.

Today because of Bush cutbacks the National Park Service originally created by the giving of land by Rockefeller and other railroad magnants is suffering. Facilities are in need of repair to the point that on my recent roadtrips with my sister we have chosen to stay at state parks which are better funded.

The Bush administration has chosen to focus on foreign countries and exporting of jobs and resourses away from the United States. Our national parks are crumbling, our infrastructure is deteriorating, and the economy was built on a tissue of lies that is now going up in flames. President elect Obama proposes to rescue our economy by returning the US governments focus back to our own shores.

“We’ll be working out the details in the weeks ahead,” Mr. Obama said about his economic stimulus package, “but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.”

It looks to be the modern version of Roosevelt's WPA. I certainly hope the effects of it last as long as the Blue Ridge Parkway. And that generations to come look back and point at the accomplishments yet to be achieved by this new era.

We Can Think Again

A funny thing happened on the way to the presidential election. I rediscovered my love for reading essays and editorials.

When I lived in Washington, DC and worked for a US Senator I read the Washington Post and New York Times editorials every morning. It was part of the job description. Morning coffee generally included lively discussions about one or more op-ed pieces.

Since those heady days within the workings of power there has been a dumbing down of America. Even President Bill Clinton hid his brains behind Arkansas folksy talk and stories about hogs. GW Bush and his current White House cabinet openly scorns expertise and avoids words with multiple syllables (not that GW can pronounce them).

But there is a new age as Nicholas D. Kristof writes in his New York Times op-ed piece: Obama and the War on Brains. Seems our new President-elect is an "...open, out of the closet intellectual" complete with favorite philosophers and poets. John F. Kennedy was our last president to be openly intellectual. President Bush, adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, and supported No Child Left Behind which merely tests memorized knowledge not your use of it. NO THINKING. Studies show that fully 1/5th of our school children believe the sun orbits the earth. And Sarah Palin thought Africa was a country and not a continent.

Our new President to be thinks. Which all leads me to wonder what Bush and Obama talked about in the White House Oval office for an hour yesterday. Obama talks in paragraphs rather than sound bytes as Kristoff points out in his op-ed piece. Bush frequently does not finish sentences, and is inclined to give you a three word sentence rather than any serious analysis of the situation.

Kristof mentions several White House intellectuals of the past and that it does not necessarily make them good presidents. But thinking people are happier in the company of knowledge and expertise and we are going to need a lot of both to think us out of the mess GW got us into. President Kennedy surrounded himself with the best and brightest and was open to new thought. As Obama puts together his staff, advisors, and cabinet it looks as if he intends to do the same. With the best and brightest in touch with out new leader we have a chance of solving our problems.

During his transition to power I am thrilled that I can come out of the closet about my intellectualism. To quote Kristof again, "An intellectual is a person interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity. Intellectuals read the classics, even when no one is looking, because they appreciate the lessons of Sophocles and Shakespeare that the world abounds in uncertainties and contradictions."

My favorite philosopher is Jean-Paul Sartre. My favorite poets are a rather long list with John Keats and Walt Whitman and e. e. cummings toward the top. Oh, and I now daily read op-ed pieces from the NYT's on the internet every morning. And a growing list of blogs by bloggers who think. I don't even have to get out of the house and go to the news stand which is good since I live a long way from one.

My Word for Today - Validation

Now that I have stopped dancing about the election Tuesday, and gotten another day to sleep off the fatigue of working at the polls during this very critical contest for America and the world, and read all the blogs about what it meant for so many on a very personal level let me just I believe Obama's victory was validation for all I have believed since my idealistic youth.

Yes, we can change the direction the world is going. Mom, would have said it was going to Hell in a handbasket. I frankly at times felt more like I was in one of those mining cars in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

So my word for today is validation. Complicated word. It seems to be used by engineers and computer scientists and a whole host of other technical trades. For the complete list of what validation can mean I refer you to Wikipedia. Enjoy. After a quick scan and then more in depth spot reading that was totally off point I found what I wanted:

In psychology and human communication, validation is the reciprocated communication of respect which communicates that the other's opinions are acknowledged, respected, heard, and (regardless whether or not the listener actually agrees with the content), they are being treated with genuine respect as a legitimate expression of their feelings, rather than marginalized or dismissed.

In case you missed it that was what President Elect Obama and Senator McCain did in their respective speeches on Tuesday night. It is what we need to continue to do in the years ahead. GW Bush and his administration contantly marginalized or dismissed the opinions of others. It made us angry then it made us fearful.

I am reminded of the time riding in the passenger seat of my brother's sports car and telling him he was in the wrong lane. The first time I thought he had not heard. But thinking it was important because the lane in question was the parking and unloading lane on a very busy street and their were vehicles parked in it up ahead I said it again.

He told me he was driving and I should shut up. Well, as soon as we slipped the MG under the semi truck trailer ahead I thought that would be a foregone conclusion. Decapitated you cannot talk. So I screamed at him that he needed to get to the left lane or slam on the brakes. He finally saw what I was so excited about and we narrowly avoided an accident. But he had to dis me afterwards by reminding me he was driving. I asked him to stop the car and I got out. I was five miles from home from my house and had to call a cab to pick me up but I never rode as a passenger in his car again.

This is frankly exactly how I have felt the last eight years in the United States. I would have called a cab if I had known just exactly where I wanted it to take me beyond away from here. And I live about as away from here as you can live and still be within the boundries of the United States. This campaign process was my last attempt to get anyone's attention about where we were heading. And I felt so validated when from the podium those running for office acknowledged where we were heading.

I was scared to death of McCain winning because as we neared the back of the economic truck parked before us he did what GW has done for years and said, "The underpinnings of this economy are sound." I am not an economist but I knew that was wrong two years ago.

I think as we move forward (having changed lanes) it is important to not invalidate anyone's opinion. We need to concentrate on " reciprocated communication of respect which communicates that the other's opinions are acknowledged, heard and respected. . . ". We are going to have to work together if we are going to avoid a train wreck the like of which they world has never seen.

Heart and Soul

I have voted already but as the old redneck saying goes I still have a dog in this hunt. I am still very carefully watching the process of this race for the White House.

Barack Obama is in Hawaii this morning with his gravely ill grandmother, and McCain is on the campaign trail running one of the most misleading and dirty campaigns in history.

Barack Obama has heart and McCain (like GW Bush) has none. Obama took time off of the most important race of his life to give Toot a hug and kiss because he doesn't think she will make it to election day.

McCain came back from Vietnam to rejoin his wife that had been in a near fatal automobile accident and was still undergoing serious reconstructive surgery and began a year long, and not very secret, affair with Cindy. He later divorced the first Mrs. McCain because sbe was no longer the tall willowly model he had married.

Why do we call him a hero? He that abandoned his captain in a burning plane and then went AWOL from the Forrestal while it was still in flames. Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned but McCain sat in the ready room watching his ship burn on closed circuit television.

Obama said on Good Morning America: "One of the things I want to make sure of is that I had a chance to sit down with her and talk to her," Obama told Roberts. "She's still alert and she's still got all her faculties. And I want to make sure that I don't miss that opportunity right now."

This man has heart and soul. And McCain has none. He is all naked ambition and has already proved he will sell his soul and his honor to become President of the United States. He is willing to betray everyone including his own ethics (frankly, after reading the Forrestal incident, I doubt he had any) to become President of the United States.

This sounds a great deal like GW Bush, who was willing to lie to the nations of the world in order to invade Iraq. Something he wanted to do since his daddy left Saddam alive when he pulled out of Dessert Storm.

We are entering (the economists now admit) a world wide recession. Who do we need at the helm of the ship of state? Someone with heart and sould that will feel what we are all going through and try to remedy it? Or someone with his own comforts and goals at heart that will be worrying only about his record as president? Sound familiar. McCain is more like Bush than he will ever admit. Vote NO to four more years of the same thing.

Note: Opening photo is of the Heart and Soul Nebulae

Sticks and Stones

I grew up in an era where kids in my neighborhood were not so much bullied physically as verbally abused. We called it teased in those days. For reasons I have never fully understood I was teased mercilessly. I can remember any number of after school chats with one or both parents after coming home in tears. They tried to assure me that kids only teased me because they liked me. Yah!?

But it was a friend that taught me the rhyme, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," that helped the most. But words can hurt and do hurt as G.W. Bush proved in his last presidential election with the Swift boating ads, and his constantly calling Kerry a Flip-flopper. It certainly left a very bad taste in my mouth and put me back in those school yards with the verbal bullies. I am firmly convinced they did not like me.

Senator John McCain, perhaps to set himself apart from the Republican administration promised a civil campaign on the issues and then, sorry about this, Flip-flopped. He called in the big guns (Palin has killed moose and advocates killing wolves from airplanes) and went the route of schoolyard bullies everywhere. Even worse is that his nasty and underhanded rhetoric was inciting violence among his followers. He and Sarah were stirring up racial hatreds we all thought long buried. And was a lesson for me. Today if I had used that sticks and stones rhyme I would say it silently so people would not consider it a mandate to check it out.

To McCain's credit he did on at least once occasion try to nullify the hatred he was stirring up. Too little? Too late? Where will these stirred up radicals go or do if McCain loses? And it is beginning to look like he just might. Seems I am not the only independent thinker that was teased as a child. Polls show that the electorate is responding quite negatively to the nasty campaigning of Sarah Palin and John McCain. And they are in increasing numbers disparaged by McCain's choice of Sarah as attack dog.

These are serious times it seems. And the voters, especially those still sitting on the fence, want to hear some serious answers from the presidential candidates. They are abhorred by McCain's about face regarding his campaign, and no other single decision has more aligned him with the president we all love to hate, GW Bush. We don't want more of the same as we have endured the last eight years. And that goes for policies, campaign style, and lack of looking presidential. God, but I am sick of him leaning drunkenly on the podium!

So it seems that John McCain has seen the handwriting on the wall (national polls) and is trying to clean up his act. Tonight he has the opportunity to act like an adult in the debate unlike the little finger pointing brat of the last debate (boy, but it reminded me of my brother and that isn't good). The question is whether it is too little, too late. I hope so.

But I am most concerned about the damage his rhetoric has already done to race issues here in the United States. Once you set the dogs loose it is not that easy to call them back. Will we see a rise in hate crimes here in the US because of those things a schoolyard bully with national coverage said? I certainly hope not. Shame on you John McCain.

Bankruptcy is the American Way

Dr. Phil on his television show about four years back said that bankruptcy should be considered the one time only "Get out of jail free" card.

At the time I was recovering from an extreme on job injury and despite what everyone tells you worker's compensation did not pay the bills. I had great credit and lots of credit cards and was sure I could catch up until I encountered the bank games of raising rates if you are late (with a head injury being on time is a challenge), etc. Hey, at the same time they are raising your credit limit they are charging more and more for the privilege. So after much soul searching (and thankful both parents were dead and would not know) I filed Chapter 13. I am still paying into that trustee account and will for another year.

G. W. Bush almost immediately toughened up the bankruptcy laws to protect his credit card issuing friends, but the truth of the matter is few people enter into bankruptcy lightly and in the majority of cases it is because of medical problems and debts.

Nobody bailed me out. Nobody is bailing out those in foreclosure or those in bankruptcy. But GW wants to bail out the investment banks that created these foreclosures and bankruptcies. We will end up paying more to rescue these banks and investment firms than they are worth. They need to go bankrupt. In a reorganization bankruptcy they can get out of the golden parachute contracts. And their bad investments can be sold for what they are really worth and not some inflated figure they are cobbling up for the bailout.

Bankruptcy does not mean these firms will cease to exist. It means they will be revalued to what they are really worth and others will probably buy them up. They are currently reluctant to take offers on the table because they see a golden parachute for the whole company in this bailout pig with the lipstick calling it a rescue plan for the economy. And they are even refusing to lend money they do have to force us into urging this bailout as opposed to bankruptcy.

Yes, there will be a readjustment period but we need that. Home prices are artificially inflated. And congress needs to work on putting regulations back in place over investment and lending institutions. And the $700 billion (the ultimate price tag will probably be a great deal higher after all the blackmailing going on) can be spent to invest in our infrastructure putting people back to work at good paying jobs here in the United States building bridges and railroads and developing green energy sources.

Write your representatives and tell them to point the way to the bankruptcy courts. Do not pass go and do not collect $700 billion of taxpayers' money.